Well, not quite, since all of the current headlines seem to be about Danny Dyer's involvement in the militarisation of London, or something. Nevertheless, Syria continues to occupy a major position in the media, particularly BBC online, which has won some kind of award for its coverage of the Arab Spring and seems to want to milk that for ALL IT'S WORTH, BABY. Every day more articles pop up detailing the newest massacre of a villageful of innocent adults and children gunned down by DEFINITELY THE REBELS GUYS, WE PROMISE EVIDENCE WHAT EVIDENCE. Although it would be naive to pretend that there have been no atrocities on the rebel side - or sides - the Syrian government's resources mean that it has been able, and continues to be able to perpetrate considerable unpleasantnesses on those who defy their authority. This kind of situation, even for those who do not believe in foreign intervention, clearly requires careful and able handling by the international community. So what great figure of well-known competence, what titan of diplomacy, have the relevant political bodies chosen to be their representative and plenipotentiary in Syria?
Why, Kofi 'Rwandan Genocide What Rwandan Genocide' Annan, of course!
Mr Annan counts among his illustrious list of achievements two years working as Director of Tourism in Ghana and a considerable period as Assistant Secretary-General for Human Resources at the United Nations. By 1994 he was Assistant Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Operations; this year saw the Rwandan Genocide and a UN response that was so embarrassingly poor that the organisation itself has deemed it a 'failure'. Annan himself has been accused by the head of the peacekeeping force in Rwanda of having held back resources and having been 'passive' in his response to the ongoing genocide. In spite of this he went on to be head of the UN from 1996 onwards, presumably to get him out of a position where he could do any real damage and into one where he could use his Dalai Lama-esque capacity for producing facile inspirationisms.
I am not suggesting that there is a genocide going on in Syria, or that there was any kind of deliberate Evil Master Plan to appoint such an ill-qualified incompetent to be mediator in Syria. Perhaps - a chilling thought - everyone in the UN is about as useful as an umbrella in monsoon season. I'm not entirely sure what Ban Ki-Moon does other than occasionally come out with a slightly more eloquent equivalent of 'oh dear bad things are happening again' (or on one occasion furiously demand a UN response to what as far as I can tell was purely a South Korean issue). In fact, it's probably unfair to expect the UN to do anything at all, given its general impotence. Nonetheless, you can't help but feel that this is happening JUST LIKE LAST TIME
There probably weren't enough references to sticky keyboards or err corporate evil in this post so here is a rare picture of some tennis player smiling:
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