Off the Record

Some folks never learn. A few issues ago we reported on UNESCO’s new push to get back into America’s good graces (not to mention its budget) by enlisting the First Lady to do a commercial for its literacy campaign. It was a good plan, but it went awry when comments by UNESCO workers that Barbara Bush was chosen because she was the only one in Washington “with the right combination of influence and fuzzy-mindedness” were reported back to the White House, and the Bushes were not amused—good news for taxpayers.

The U.S. withdrew from UNESCO back in 1984 because of fraud, scandal, and dubious politics in what was supposed to be an apolitical organization promoting education, science, and culture. UNESCO had always had a Third World slant, but under Amadou Mahtar M’Bow, who headed UNESCO from 1974 to 1987, the Paris-based organization developed into an internationally protected bureaucracy that devoted itself to the personal enrichment of M’Bow, while promoting policies that would guarantee the impoverishment of its putative clients. Among the pet obsessions that have survived the M’Bow years is support for the New World Information and Communication Order (NWICO)—a measure designed to deal with press freedom by making people like Comandante Ortega and Colonel Qaddafi managing editors in addition to their many other duties.

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Some folks never learn. A few issues ago we reported on UNESCO’s new push to get back into America’s good graces (not to mention its budget) by enlisting the First Lady to do a commercial for its literacy campaign. It was a good plan, but it went awry when comments by UNESCO workers that Barbara Bush was chosen because she was the only one in Washington “with the right combination of influence and fuzzy-mindedness” were reported back to the White House, and the Bushes were not amused—good news for taxpayers.

The U.S. withdrew from UNESCO back in 1984 because of fraud, scandal, and dubious politics in what was supposed to be an apolitical organization promoting education, science, and culture. UNESCO had always had a Third World slant, but under Amadou Mahtar M’Bow, who headed UNESCO from 1974 to 1987, the Paris-based organization developed into an internationally protected bureaucracy that devoted itself to the personal enrichment of M’Bow, while promoting policies that would guarantee the impoverishment of its putative clients. Among the pet obsessions that have survived the M’Bow years is support for the New World Information and Communication Order (NWICO)—a measure designed to deal with press freedom by making people like Comandante Ortega and Colonel Qaddafi managing editors in addition to their many other duties.