Where was Kofi?

Our media have wanted to know why President Bush was allegedly too slow in publicly responding to the tidal wave disaster. But where was Kofi?

James Langton of the London Telegraph reports, "UN officials went to great lengths to conceal the whereabouts of Kofi Annan, the organisation's general secretary, who was on holiday when the tsunami struck and did not surface in New York until Thursday. In fact, it was revealed that, Mr Annan spent Christmas at the holiday home of James Wolfensohn, the president of the World Bank and a critic of the Bush administration, who owns a 160-acre ranch in the resort of Jackson Hole, Wyoming.Only a handful of Mr Annan's most trusted advisers were allowed to know his location. One official said: He did not want to be seen frolicking in the snow. It wouldn't look good.' So anxious were UN staff that his first interview, which was with the CNN cable news channel almost three days after the tsunami struck, was conducted by telephone, via the UN's headquarters, and producers of the show were not told where Mr Annan was speaking from."

No Tidal Waves Here

A Pakistan newspaper reports:

"UN Secretary General Kofi Annan is being criticised for having continued his vacation for three days after the giant tsunami devastated a dozen countries rather than return to his UN headquarters. Annan was vacationing at the ski resort of Jackson Hole, Wyoming."

Newsmax reported that Jonathan Hunt of Fox News questioned Annan:

"I think a lot of people are asking exactly why you waited three days on vacation in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, before you decided to fly back to New York in the face of this extraordinary crisis," Hunt asked during a Thursday press conference in New York.

"Could you give us a full explanation of your thinking on that?" Hunt continued. "Secondly, what kind of signal does that 72-hour delay send to the nations to which you are now appealing for greater help?"

Obviously irked by the inquiry, Annan replied:

"First of all, there was action. It wasn't inaction. We live in a world where you can operate from wherever you are. ... You don't have to be physically here to be dealing with the leaders and the governments I have been dealing with. You don't have to be physically here to be discussing with some of the agencies; that we have done."

The angry secretary-general then barked: "I don't have to be sitting in my office to take action. I think the same goes for you in your profession."

The World Bank headquarters, estimated to cost $160 million, is quite something.

Abid Aslam of IPS Reported: "Gold leaf adorns a curved wall in an executive dining room at
the Bank's gleaming new headquarters just west of the White House, in a neighbourhood known as Washington's Wall Street district. The dining room nestles deep in the bowels of the 314-million-
dollar building. Although officials deny it is Bank president James Wolfensohn's private domain, architectural and catering staff call it ''the president's dining room.''

At an estimated 25 dollars per sq. foot, the gold leaf on the wall cost some 3,600 dollars. This is ''not an extravagant amount'' and is similar to the cost of vinyl wall covering, a Bank spokesman says.

For this sum, however, the government-audited, non-profit Alameda County Community Food Bank in California could provide some 9,090 meals to the homeless and to poor people with AIDS,
according to Tom Gleeson, the group's development director."