UN Job

So Helen Clark gets the third highest UN job. Richly deserved. I felt proud to be a Kiwi while she was representing us overseas, especially in her stance over Iraq. Not that the new job will be an easy ride. Getting and distributing aid in the present financial situation will be stressful. And then there is the task of ensuring that the aid goes to those who need it and not to the fat cats along the way. Good luck to her.

When some future historian writes up Helen’s regime her travels will loom large. When I read the biography of Peter Fraser I was struck by how much he had travelled as PM, especially during the war. I was reminded of this while reading the Alanbrooke diaries – he and Churchill seemed to be at sea or in the air much of the time. Considering the slowness of planes then the magnitude of their journeys is mind-boggling. Plus the dangers – being shot down or crashing. Brooke lost his ADC when the pilot ran out of fuel when seeking for Malta.