Kofi Annan, former UN chief, dies at 80
Kofi Annan, the only black African to become UN secretary-general, has died. The 80-year-old "passed away peacefully on Saturday after a short illness", the foundation named after him said.
His home country, Ghana, has declared a week of national mourning. Annan served two terms as UN chief from 1997 to 2006, and was awarded a Nobel Peace Prize for his humanitarian work. He later served as the UN special envoy for Syria, leading efforts to find a solution to the conflict.
In a statement announcing his death, the Kofi Annan Foundation described him as a "global statesman and deeply committed internationalist who fought throughout his life for a fairer and more peaceful world". "Wherever there was suffering or need, he reached out and touched many people with his deep compassion and empathy."
[...] Annan was not immune from criticism. His critics blamed him for the UN's failure to halt the genocide in Rwanda in the 1990s when he was head of the organisation's peacekeeping operations. Later, after the US-led invasion of Iraq, he and his son were accused of being involved in the "oil for food corruption scandal" that led some to call for his resignation, though he was later exonerated.
See also: Kofi Annan death: World leaders honour former UN chief
Kofi Annan: The developing world is an easy target for populists
What it's like to be a young African mentored by Barack Obama (the inaugural meeting of the Obama Foundation's Leaders: Africa fellowship was attended by Kofi Annan in July)
(Score: 0, Troll) by VLM on Sunday August 19 2018, @01:10PM (9 children)
See: Damning with Faint Praise
So on the "good" side he kissed up to the right people and didn't have white or asian skin, on the bad side he was a crook who accomplished literally nothing positive.
The discredited peace prize and link to an Obama story is likewise remarkable. Not much difference between the two.
(Score: 1, Troll) by Runaway1956 on Sunday August 19 2018, @01:17PM (1 child)
Yeah, kind of a non-person in the grand scheme of things. Some guy from somewhere manages to get an office, from which he rewards his friends and supporters, blah blah blah. Over the years, I saw his name attached to various news stories, but can't recall that he ever actually "did something". Like most UN people, he condemned some acts, he praised some acts, failed to supervise his UN forces, and steadily poured money into friendly hands. I can't like him, can't be bothered to be outraged by him.
(Score: 1, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday August 19 2018, @09:45PM
Yeah, but Kofi never screwed up as much as Runaway1956 did when he was Special Envoy to Texarkana. Talk about your diplomatic faux pas!!!
(Score: 5, Interesting) by c0lo on Sunday August 19 2018, @01:32PM (6 children)
In contrast with George W Bush, who started an illegal war in Iraq about the same time?
Believe me, better to have benign-do-nothing leaders to having moronic and aggressive ones.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 1, Flamebait) by VLM on Sunday August 19 2018, @01:38PM (4 children)
I wouldn't describe Bush's treatment by the press as fawning adoration like Kofi Annan's treatment by the press.
Thats kinda the point; damning with faint praise implies very faint praise, so the adoration boils down to "he was wonderful for non-specific reasons mostly skin color and BTW plz ignore he was a crook"
Honestly, if Bush were black skinned but otherwise identical to his historical story, he'd be worshipped by the legacy media. Can't trust racists like legacy media.
(Score: 5, Interesting) by c0lo on Sunday August 19 2018, @01:48PM (3 children)
If you really mean it and it wasn't just a derogatory word thrown only as a figure of style, [Citation needed]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 1, Redundant) by Runaway1956 on Sunday August 19 2018, @02:03PM (2 children)
A simple search using Kofi's name and the word "scandal" will give you many hits. You may believe or not believe, you might compromise and dismiss half of the stories. Makes little difference to me what you believe. But, let me help you just a little: https://duckduckgo.com/?q=kofi+anan+scandal&t=ffnt&atb=v128-2&ia=web [duckduckgo.com]
(Score: 5, Touché) by c0lo on Sunday August 19 2018, @02:29PM (1 child)
https://duckduckgo.com/?q=+Runaway1956+scandal&t=ffnt&atb=v128-2&ia=web [duckduckgo.com]
Makes little difference to me what you believe, I've shown I can throw in a websearch myself, regardless of the relevance of those links as citations.
(grin)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Sunday August 19 2018, @03:06PM
yaahhhhhnn
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday August 19 2018, @03:36PM
We now have a two-fer, both moronic and aggressive.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday August 19 2018, @09:25PM
"Let those darkies die in Rwanda" is not the sort of statement you want to hear from a UN Secretary General, no matter what the color of his skin. Millions of Hutus (or possibly Tutsis since its hard to tell them apart) dies because of this man. Shame.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 20 2018, @05:23PM
probably died from a hearth-attack after learning the truth about what was really going on in burma ...?