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caniff
Joined: 03 Feb 2004
Location: All over the map
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 Posted: Tue Sep 22, 2009 1:40 pm Post subject: Newsweek: Ban Ki Moon fails to wow |
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http://www.newsweek.com/id/215951
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| There are certain things Ban Ki-moon will never be, and a great secretary-general is one of them. U.N. insiders and observers seem to agree: He is honest, deeply committed, modest, and straightforward. He does his homework. He works well with others. But while he keeps insisting he has the charismatic personality to lead, most observers also agree that that's nonsense. Advisers complain his speeches generate so little press that they are often asked shortly afterward why Ban has declined to speak out on the very same issues he just addressed. As a leader, he simply lacks that certain je ne sais quoi. |
Kofi Annan was all over the news (it seems in retrospect like he was, anyway). Ban? Not so much.
Is this a "meh" state of affairs? He 's ramping up his global climate change push, although I don't know if that will energize the member states/masses given how screwed up just about everything else is right now. |
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bassexpander
Joined: 13 Sep 2007
Location: Someplace you'd rather be.
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| Posted: Tue Sep 22, 2009 5:35 pm Post subject: |
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I'd rather have an honest person in the position than someone like Kofi, who was pointing fingers, loving to watch himself in the news, while he cheated on everyone behind his back.
Kofi was a crook. |
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caniff
Joined: 03 Feb 2004
Location: All over the map
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| Posted: Tue Sep 22, 2009 5:43 pm Post subject: |
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| bassexpander wrote: |
Kofi was a crook. |
I wouldn't argue with you there, but at least he put a face on the UN. Ban seems like an afterthought, at best.
Maybe he should start a little finger-pointing of his own so that people might at least sit up and take notice. |
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RufusW
Joined: 14 Jun 2008
Location: Busan
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| Posted: Tue Sep 22, 2009 5:44 pm Post subject: |
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| Wasn't Annan 'interesting' because he was from Africa and heading a global organisation. A Korean is simply less interesting because Korea's part of the OECD, seen as similar to Japan etc.... |
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Reggie
Joined: 21 Sep 2009
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| Posted: Tue Sep 29, 2009 9:54 pm Post subject: |
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| caniff wrote: |
| I wouldn't argue with you there, but at least he put a face on the UN. Ban seems like an afterthought, at best. |
I heard a few minutes of the Rush Limbaugh show today and Limbaugh called him, "Ban Ki Moon, from one of the Koreas." So even political commentators know very little about him or whether he's from North or South Korea. |
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DWAEJIMORIGUKBAP
Joined: 28 May 2009
Location: Electron cloud
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| Posted: Wed Sep 30, 2009 9:47 pm Post subject: |
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| Reggie wrote: |
| caniff wrote: |
| I wouldn't argue with you there, but at least he put a face on the UN. Ban seems like an afterthought, at best. |
I heard a few minutes of the Rush Limbaugh show today and Limbaugh called him, "Ban Ki Moon, from one of the Koreas." So even political commentators know very little about him or whether he's from North or South Korea. |
This is the point. No one really knows anything about Korea. They are so internationally low-key so he doesn't have superstar satus, added together with a low-key persona by nature and, well. It would be the same if he were some non charismatic polititain from say, Canada. Noone knows much about Canada and they keep their head low and hands clean internationally. |
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Reggie
Joined: 21 Sep 2009
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| Posted: Fri Oct 02, 2009 12:20 am Post subject: |
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| Wouldn't Kofi Annan's country, Ghana, be much more low-key than either of the Koreas or Canada? North Korea consistently makes front page news, while we get to read about Canada's and South Korea's international accomplishments on page two or three or the obituaries. |
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The Great Wall of Whiner
Joined: 24 Jan 2003
Location: Middle Land
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| Posted: Fri Oct 02, 2009 4:24 am Post subject: |
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| I just don't think Mr. Ban cares about stardom and focuses more on getting the job done and doing it well. |
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Sergio Stefanuto
Joined: 14 May 2009
Location: UK
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| Posted: Fri Oct 02, 2009 6:51 am Post subject: |
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| As a leader, he simply lacks that certain je ne sais quoi. |
In other words, he has too much substance and not enough style.
It always really got on my nerves how popular Kofi Anan was. Like Obama, all he did was churn out platitudes and cliches that were broadcast almost daily. They've got a Morgan Freeman complex and everyone fails to see how incredibly patronizing it is. The mindless masses sit watching and drooling into their Fair Trade organic coffee when Kofi or Obama says a classic such as "let us move forward together in sustainable growth". The sun shines out of your arse if you're African, you see. Since Ban Ki Mun is a plain-speaking, capitalist, wealthy male from a country that's not a dirt-poor human hell, he's failed to wow. Replace Ban with a gay, black, Muslim, African woman - that'll do the trick. |
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