Tuesday, September 22, 2009

Brazilians Looking Back in Sadness

Two Brazilians were interested in running for the position of Director General of UNESCO -- Marcio Barbosa, current Deputy Director General of UNESCO and former Director of the Brazilian Space Agency and Cristovam Buarque, member of the Brazilian Senate, ex-Minister of Education, former rector of the University of Brasilia, and former Governonr of Brasilia. There was a long period of controversy, and apparently the Brazilian Government nominated neither, making a deal with the Government of Egypt to support the Egyptian candidate, Farouk Hosny. When Hosny lost today to Bulgarian candidate Irina Bokova, some Brazilians appear to be questioning the decision made by the Government months ago. A priori it looks like either Brazilian would have been a very strong candidate, and might have brought the plum job of a UN Agency chief to the nation's portfolio.

The lesson? Perhaps countries with strong candidates should nominate them. If countries nominated very strong candidates rather than playing geopolitics, maybe the agencies could select even better leaders than they do not!

1 comment:

John Daly said...

"O Itamaraty deixou de apoiar o brasileiro Márcio Barbosa, favorito para assumir o cargo, e apoiou Hosny por causa do interesse de se aproximar dos países árabes."
http://www.destakjornal.com.br/readContent.aspx?id=10,45661