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December 06, 2003

Kofi comes home. As Geneva makes last minute preparations for this week's World Information Summit, being held under what's called the "High Patronage" of UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan, the great man reminded the world - in a CNN interview with Inside Africa - that it was in Geneva he first joined the United Nations family as a project officer in the World Health Organization in 1962. That was the year of the Cuban missile crisis.


The Secretary General, who jointly with the U.N. itself won the 2001 Nobel Peace Prize, credited his father and grandfather, tribal chiefs in Ghana, with teaching him some of the skills of conciliation. He made no apology for his non-combative style. "I do it my way", he said; "the U.N. has no army, it must win with the support of governments".

With so many WSIS issues unresolved, the Secretary-General and his team will need all his conciliation skills this week.

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