Fergie's Tech Blog

IGF: Success, Great Success, or Useful Sideshow?

Kieren McCarthy writes on his blog:

When asked a month prior to the meeting in Geneva this week how it was likely to go, one diplomat closely involved in the talks was unequivocal: "It will be a success."

Really? "Of course," he said. "Every UN meeting is always either a success or a great success."

The United Nations truly does inhabit its own world. And it comes with its own language. If you assume a one-to-ten scale ranging from offensively rude at one end to utterly delightful at the other, every word at the United Nations comes with a +4 handicap.

You'd think this would make the organisation sound stupid when something really wonderful does happen. Theoretically yes, but then nothing undertaken in all its decades of world negotiation has ever registered above a six, so there's never been the opportunity to experience diplomatic nausea.

Meanwhile, the constant, pervasive level of outward glee has helped prevent us all from entering a Third World War, so if a bunch of people in New York and Geneva want to be disturbingly polite to one another, let's let them be.

posted by Fergie @ 2/19/2006 02:19:00 PM