India #1)-Gets it #2)-Shows some backbone
I
wrote earlier about how Indonesia asked the Western relief effort to leave after Kofi Annan visited their country. There is no published link at this time but the stench of the United Nations lingers strong over this turn of events.
The fine folks at
Bloggledygook have a much more encouraging story:
bq. However, if Britney Spears wants to visit, we would reconsider.
India has told Kofi Annan to stay away.
NEW DELHI, JANUARY 10: Reinforcing the message that it is fully capable of dealing with the domestic consequences of the tsunami on its own, India politely turned down a request last week from the U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan to visit Tamil Nadu.
After attending the tsunami summit in Jakarta last Thursday, Annan has been visiting the badly affected regions in Indonesia, Sri Lanka and Maldives. Annan’s office apparently expressed a desire on the part of the Secretary General to see relief work in India.
The Manmohan Singh government, which has been discouraging its own ministers from travelling to the tsunami-affected areas, was in no mood to have a high-profile international visitor like Kofi Annan adding to burden of the local administration.
It is also being pointed out that once the doors are opened to one foreign visitor, there will be no end to similar requests from other international personalities.
The closing comment at Bloggledygook is great:
bq. Now why can't Mayor Bloomberg do this? Just tell Kofi that he's not welcome and see what happens.
Heh...
Posted by DaveH at January 13, 2005 10:30 PM