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December 19, 2006

Kofi Annan - kleptocrat,

enabler of rape, hypocritical public scold and now you can add rent-control cheat to his list of dubious accomplishments,

As Secretary-General Annan prepares to leave his post at the United Nations, a mystery is surfacing surrounding his apartment on Roosevelt Island, subsidized by New York taxpayers, which is still in use by the family of his brother, Kobina Annan.

The apartment was where Mr. Annan and his wife lived before 1997, when he became secretary-general. The Roosevelt Island home is part of an estate of low-rent state-regulated housing. For years, the Annans saved considerable sums by occupying an apartment meant to help financially strapped low- to moderate-income New York families.

One question Mr. Annan has never addressed is why he and his wife felt comfortable availing themselves of this generous arrangement. Another is how it is that, since Mr. Annan and his wife left that Roosevelt Island apartment 10 years ago to move into the rent-free residence on Sutton Place supplied to the secretary-general, their former low-rent apartment was handed over to be occupied by the family of Mr. Annan's brother.

The UN is dominated by all manner of non-democratic entities ... is it really surprising that it has developed such a culture of unearned, almost monarchal, privileges?

Way, way past time to replace it.

(h/t Capt. Ed)

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Posted by Darleen at December 19, 2006 06:41 AM

Comments

Way, way past time to replace it.

With what?

Posted by: Josh at December 19, 2006 08:05 AM

A United Nations consisting ONLY of constitutional democratic republics.

Posted by: Darleen at December 19, 2006 06:59 PM

So no China? What about Russia?

Posted by: Josh at December 20, 2006 07:52 AM

THE UN's an imperfect organization, but it's all the world has.

Reminds me of that anti-UN stuff I used to hear in the 1950s. THe wing-nuts of the time had those billboards that used to say 'get the US out of the UN and the UN out of the US.'

John Birch society used to put those things up.

Kofi Annan isn't perfect either, but he's done a pretty good job towards reform I'd say.

I don't know what you mean by enabler of rape. How so? Seems to me he's a concerned law-abiding citizen.

Posted by: Carl W. Goss at December 20, 2006 07:30 PM

All I know is, as a New York taxpayer, I have a lot less of a problem paying for Kofi's apartment than I do paying $1 billion a week for Iraq Bush's occupation. At least Kofi isn't fueling an insurgency.

Posted by: Brad at December 20, 2006 07:33 PM