UNhinged

There's not much I can add to this.

AS a case of lunatics taking over the asylum, it would be hard to beat the announcement that North Korea has assumed chairmanship of the UN Conference on Disarmament, the premier world body charged with the cessation of the nuclear arms race and prevention of nuclear war.

That's right: the wacky regime that constantly violates the UN's nuclear controls, is the target of UN sanctions, and is the leading proliferator of nuclear technology to Iran and Syria is now putatively in charge of the organisation responsible for negotiating multilateral arms control agreements such as the Biological and Chemical Weapons Conventions and the Fissile Material Cut-Off Treaty.

It's because of a Buggins's Turn arrangement under which each of the 65 member states serves a term. And it's only for four weeks. But the symbolism of having North Korea in charge of world disarmament for even four hours, let alone four weeks, is monstrous. Its weapons proliferation and human rights record is such that to find its officials running a match factory would be disturbing. That it is being allowed to serve as head of the UN Conference on Disarmament reflects badly on UN processes and the administration of UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon.

20 megatonnes of Fail, right there. Yes, it may be rotating and only for a few weeks, but such a system simply ensures that sooner or later the worst and most unsuitable people to put in charge will be put in charge, even if temporarily, and that before long it'll happen again. And again and again. And our lunatic Greens Senator Bob Brown thinks developing the UN further into a global parliament is a good idea? Jeeeez.....