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Bolton's UN punctuality drive comes to early end
 I gotta get a job at the UN. It sounds better then Massport...UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - An unpopular punctuality drive launched in the U.N. Security Council last month by U.S. Ambassador John Bolton came to an abrupt end on Thursday when Argentina took over the council's rotating presidency. And champagne glasses were raised all over the world... Bolton had cracked the whip while presiding over the 15-nation U.N. body in February, starting meetings precisely on time, even with empty chairs in the room, as part of a plan to modernise council operations. He had also called in ambassadors almost every morning of the month for closed-door briefings by U.N. staff on overnight global political and peacekeeping developments. C'mon, John, dammit! You act as if this is a real job! But Argentine Ambassador Cesar Mayoral made clear it would be a different story in March. If ambassadors wanted to come on time, it would be up to them, he told reporters. As for the morning briefings, "this is impossible," he said. "We aren't having a daily briefing each day." Why we haven't even put our hookers in cabs by that time of the morning... If an ambassador asked for a briefing on a particular matter, he would try to accommodate the request. But absent that, the council work program was simply too heavy, he said. So many restaurants, so little time... Some ambassadors had grumbled in February that they already had too many commitments to attend the daily sessions. Yeah...ummmmmmmmmm...commitments! That's it! Bolton has described the U.S. campaign to reform the United Nations as an "irresistible force" pitted against an "immovable object." Bypassing the U.S. Senate, President George W. Bush sent Bolton to the United Nations last August with instructions to shake up the world body after findings of mismanagement and corruption in the $64 billion oil-for-food program for Iraq. Here's a suggetstion. Torch it for the insurance... Posted by: Sen. Edward M. Kennedy 2006-03-02 |
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