How to pronounce the Secretary General’s name

(via : New York magazine)

So all those “mooning” jokes at the UN finally reached the ears of the secretary general ?

Note:

Briefly, I worked as an auditor for a UN project. While auditing Value Added Tax redemptions (the UN is tax exempt because its a well-heeled humanitarian organization). I discovered they were filing VAT claims for individual purchases (5 reams of paper, a computer mouse, 50 rolls of toilet paper and so on). For most of these items, the cost of processing the VAT was higher than the VAT itself.  I was subsequently relieved of duty for suspected insanity. (Though at at point I was merely acting like a true vulgarian)

The new vs The old

China, India are Africa’s “new colonialists” – Soros
Hungry for oil and minerals, India and China have become Africa’s new colonialists, exploiting the world’s poorest continent in the same way as its old European masters, billionaire financier George Soros said on Tuesday.

Two fundamental flaws in that argument.

• Colonialism was a one-sided, uni-directional affair using brute-force and cultural imperialism.
• I notice a fundamental “assumption of intellect” problem here. While on the one hand, there is a claim that we the West have become more responsible and learned from mistakes over the years (“…old colonialists recognising their past mistakes and trying to correct them,….”), there is an unspoken sub-text that suggests African governments have not learnt anything and remained irresponsible. Many recurring examples exist to suggest the latter case, but very many examples also suggest the former.