Gideon Rachman at the Financial Times, July 8, 2008:
Some readers may wonder why I chose to write my column this week
about the International Criminal Court, rather than the obvious subject –
the G8 meeting in Japan.
The reason is that I had a thoroughly discouraging lunch with my colleague, Alan Beattie.
When I mentioned that I might write about the G8, he said – “Let me
guess, you will say…” and proceeded to reel off a string of cliches,
which had indeed been the basis of my putative column.
Alan then forwarded me a generic column on international institutions
that he has written. It really says it all – and I think I may simply
reproduce it, every year, round about G8 time.
It goes as follows:
By reporters everywhere
An ineffectual international organisation yesterday issued a
stark warning about a situation it has absolutely no power to change,
the latest in a series of self-serving interventions by
toothless intergovernmental bodies.
“We are seriously concerned about this most serious outbreak
of seriousness,” said the head of the institution, either a former
minister from a developing country or a mid-level European or American
bureaucrat. “This is a wake-up call to the world. They must take on
board the vital message that my organisation exists.”
The director of the body, based in one of New York, Washington or an
agreeable Western European city, was speaking at its annual conference,
at which ministers from around the world gather to wring their hands
impotently about the most fashionable issue of the day. The organisation
has sought to justify its almost completely fruitless existence by
joining its many fellow talking-shops in highlighting whatever crisis
has recently gained most coverage in the global media.
“Governments around the world must come together to combat
whatever this year’s worrying situation has turned out to be,” the
director said. “It is not yet time to panic, but if it goes on much
further without my institution gaining some credit for sounding off on
the issue, we will be justified in labelling it a crisis.”
The organisation, whose existence the White House barely
acknowledges and to which hardly any member government intends to give
more money or extra powers, has long been fighting a war of attrition
against its own irrelevance....MORE
In 2009 I
copied and posted the whole thing fearing the FT would somehow remove it from the web but it's still available at the same URL.
