BACK in the days of Boutros Boutros-Ghali and Javier Pérez de Cuéllar, a British comedian joked that the prime qualification for becoming UN secretary-general was to have a long and hard-to-pronounce name. Since custom dictates that the job rotates between regions and it is now the turn of Eastern Europe, a region with many splendidly difficult names, you might think that the rule would be fulfilled. Perhaps not.
Both of the leading candidates are women from Bulgaria. Both have names that are pronounced more or less as their English transliterations indicate. But the question of which one Bulgaria’s government will nominate is already causing political turbulence at home.
Secretaries-general of the United Nations cannot propose or veto binding legislation, order troops into battle or issue executive orders. But they can sometimes set the agenda or mediate between warring parties. So for small countries that crave a bit of global influence, placing one of their citizens in the UN’s top job is a coveted prize. Ban Ki-Moon’s second term as secretary-general ends in 2017, and the race to succeed him is already under way.
The...Continue reading
Souce: Europe http://ift.tt/1nng2DG
EmoticonEmoticon