Kofi Annan

He's the Secretary-General of the United Nations and has choosen to revitalize the UN by bringing it back to it's center; he wants the UN to get back to its original agenda of providing peace throughout the world and get the politics out.

This ideology has put him in the Center of the Storm and he is now the center of controversy as he is suggesting that the UN create a new human rights commission to deal with the relatively modern aspects of violence that are happening in Darfur, Afghanistan and the war in Iraq (among many others). He states that politics have become too large a part of the UN original intentions, including the commissions that exist currently to represent current human rights interests.

I really admire this man and respect him. He is sticking his neck out telling the UN council what they should be doing and admonishing them for not doing it. I think that he has proven his dedication to the rights of all humans and acts accordingly.

When the speculations of scandal broke the news, I remember thinking, "Not him, too," and sighed. Then I wondered if he was being picked on because he has been so vocal in calling for change; one such example is his desire to hold UN members more accountable for their actions. We've seen this "picking" tactic happen more than once in the past5 years since a certain administration has become the Imperial Leader (Darth Vadar anyone?).

I will have to admit that I wasn't surprised that the Food-for-Oil Programme had a corrupt leader. Does it show how cynical I have become? Not sure but it does seem that whenever the US is involved in organization such as this one, we screw it up with our greed and ego. (Tonight on Discovery watch "Does Europe Hate us?")

But Kofi was cleared of any wrong-doing by the UN commission in charge of investigating him and his son, though he was admonished for not thinking critically enough to realize that this situation might have been a conflict of interest. We all make mistakes, including Secretary-Generals of the UN. It's just that some are bigger than others. Sometimes we choose not to use our crystal ball's and therefore can't tell what is coming at us in the future.

Also, TomPaine.com has a great article which supports my theory of Kofi getting charged with the scandal he did as a way to inform him that he is being watched. Closely.