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| Egypt looses UNESCOs top job to Bulgaria | ||
| 2009-09-23 | ||
| [Al Arabiya Latest] Egyptian Culture Minister Farouk Hosni, who said last year he would burn Israeli books, failed in his bid on Tuesday to head the United Nations agency for culture and education, losing to a Bulgarian outsider. This is known in some circles as being a bit over-assertive in the marketplace of ideas. A UNESCO official told reporters he was beaten to the post by Bulgaria's former foreign minister, Irina Gueorguieva Bokova, following a fifth and final round of voting that exposed deep divisions within the Paris-based U.N. body. Y'see, on the one hand y'got the book burners, and on the other hand y'got the Bulgarians and a few others. Not that many others, either... Hosni and Bokova faced each other Tuesday in a final round of voting for UNESCO's top job in a race clouded by an anti-Semitism row. A fourth round of voting on Monday by the U.N. culture body's executive council ended in a draw, a UNESCO spokeswoman said, with neither Hosni nor Bokova, picking up enough votes. Good and evil always seem to be pretty closely matched, don't they? Maybe Zoroaster was right... UNESCO's executive council started voting last Thursday for a successor to Matsuura as director general. On Monday, Ecuador withdrew its candidate after European Commissioner for External Relations Benita Ferrero-Waldner pulled out on Sunday, narrowing the field from an original nine to two. So the commie pulled out, along with the turtleneck-and-Gaulloisier... Egypt's culture minister for 22 years, Hosni had long been front-runner in the race for the job but the charges of anti-Semitism clouded his candidacy.
Lotsa people globally understand a nice, warm book fire. The appointment is to be endorsed in October by the 193-member assembly of UNESCO.
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| Posted by:Fred |