The UN likes its secretary-generals to be dull and grey and who duller and greyer than Boutros-Ghali? It was said of Perez de Cuellar that he wouldn't make waves even if he fell off a boat. Kofi Annan, the current incumbent, is like a breath of fresh air. For the first time the UN has a celebrity secretary-general on its hands. Kofi likes to boogie, he attends New York's high society dinners and enjoys rubbing shoulders with movie stars. And, by all accounts, he is doing a great job. Except for a disastrous visit to Rwanda, he has not set a foot wrong in the year and half he has been in office. He has a great line on religious extremism: the problem is never with the faith but with the faithful. Kofi and I go back a long way. In '94 he wanted me to head the UN operations in northwest Somalia. I was game but Boutros packed me off to the Philippines to replace a fellow Egyptian who had been caught with his pants down.
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There is an apocryphal story of a visitor asking a UN staffer how many people worked in the UN building. "Sir, I cannot tell you how many people work here," he replied honestly, "but I can tell you how many people are employed here." Not entirely unfair.
