Did you know there is a Qaddafi Prize for Human Rights? Our peeps at Powerline Blog are on the trail. This has to rank right up next to a book once spotted at the U.N.: “The Quotable Kofi Annan.” What, you didn’t know he was the U.N.’s answer to Yogi Berra? Who can resist such memorable phrasings as this:
The September Summit must strengthen the UN’s own peacekeeping capacity. And it must address the peacebuilding gap, in which too many countries emerging from conflict are left to lapse back into violence, for lack of international support for disarmament and other steps toward recovery and reconstruction. I am pleased that my proposal for a new Peacebuilding Commission has elicited support from many of you, and I hope you will do your part in bringing this new machinery into being without delay.
And just where did Annan deliver these remarks? In Libya, naturally, back in 2005. No word on whether he received the Qaddafi Prize while he was there.
I’m reminded of one of Pat Moynihan’s great quips: Anyone who wins the Lenin Prize, deserves it. I’m sure the same is true for the Qaddafi Prize for Human Rights.