Thursday, November 22, 2007

UN Greenhouse Confab To Overload Bali Airport With Private Jets

Instapundit has the details. Why am I not surprised? Here's the source article. Nice graphic too.

On the other hand, look at how "climate criminals" travel on the vacations or trips they have to save for. Look familiar?



3 Comments:

Blogger NahnCee said...

The best part is Instapundit's summary comment:

I'll believe it's a crisis when the people who tell me it's a crisis start acting like it's a crisis. That clearly hasn't happened yet.

Are we as American and Australian taxpayers paying for this Bali vacation for UN bureaucrats and their camp followers?

11/22/2007 05:47:00 PM  
Blogger wretchardthecat said...

In many parts of the world people still accept the existence of kings. This is especially true in societies where a vast gap exists between the rich and poor; or between classes or social groups.

One of my best friends rose to become a senior government official in the Philippines. While en route to address a conference (where he was the keynote speaker) his car broke down a couple of miles short of the venue. Nothing daunted and not having any airs about him, he flagged down a motorcycle-rickshaw, something called a "trisikol" and went the rest of the way.

The guard at the door refused to admit him. The security personnel were convinced that no bona fide VIP would ever come by public transportation, and of the cheap kind too. Fortunately, some of the conference organizers came out, worried that the keynote speaker hadn't come and recognizing him, ushered him past security. Had he arrived in a limo, even if he was imposter, they would probably have let him in.

Thus, many publics will find it perfectly natural for the Great and Good to arrive at the Bali Greenhouse meeting in their private jets and whisked to the city in a motorcade of limousines upon arrival. The sense of it's hypocrisy would still be lost on them.

Nowhere is the idea of egalitarianism more alien than in the NGO set. The gap between "international staff" and "local staff" among NGOs is as vast as that which separates princes and paupers. The dream of every "local staff" member is to become part of the "international staff" set, with its travel, meetings in exotic locales, audiences with diplomats and statesmen; easy access to celebrity.

People who have to pay for airplane tickets and hotel rooms from their pockets may be outraged at this junket; but to the impoverished publics whose only glimpse of international travel or luxury accomodation has been through the gaps in security fences, nothing is amiss. Everything is as they have been accustomed to seeing it. The UN is only being its natural self. From their point of view it our outrage which is perverse. It our objection to their spending our money that is amiss. It is we that have forgotten our place.

11/22/2007 06:46:00 PM  
Blogger NahnCee said...

Wretchard, weren't you the one lecturing us a day or two ago to be careful about our attitudes and mores because they might affect the rest of the world in unforeseen ways?

Well, one foreseen way I'd REALLY like to see American attitudes affect the rest of the world is you gets what you pays for ... or not. If you're not getting up in the morning and going to work, then you do *not* get a free private jet billed to the American taxpayer, you do *not* get to buy a Mercedes for your son in Nigeria billed to the American taxpayer, and you do *not* get to hire all your family and relatives to come be diplomatic scofflaws at the United Nations and thumb your nose at the American taxpayer.

Sounds like both American parties have finally got the message on how important a topic immigration is to American voters. I think if anyone was smart enough to start beating the drum to officially throw the UN out of New York that would almost certainly glean that party quite a number of votes in the next election(s).

11/22/2007 10:21:00 PM  

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