Silly Little Country

Farouk Hosni will NOT head UNESCO

I had seen passing references to the hopeless unsuitability of said Egyptian to head any UN agency but had not realized there was real dissent in the works (having, I guess, given up on the UN as any sensible organization).

Her election marks a victory for Jewish groups, French intellectuals and press-freedom advocates who campaigned hard against Mr Hosni, depicting him as a longstanding practitioner of censorship and an anti-Semite. His chief offence in their eyes was a promise in the Cairo parliament last year to burn Hebrew books if any were found in the Egyptian national library.

An interesting coalition indeed. Thank you, French intellectuals!
Less so, French politicians, though full credit to one diplomat.

Catherine Colonna, the French Ambassador to Unesco, was said by diplomats to have disobeyed President Sarkozy’s orders and voted for Ms Bokova.

h/t Norm

posted by Alan Adamson @ 9:35 AM