03/04/2013 00:00
TW
0

by Ray Fleming
THE United Nations Security Council met yesterday to discuss a proposal by its current president Libya for a new international event provisionally to be known as the Protest Olympics. The Libyan Ambassador to the UN explained that his President, Muammar Muhammed Gaddafi, believed that there were insufficient opportunities for people with serious complaints to make about the behaviour of others. He said that while many controversial matters came before the Security Council itself these were discussed only by diplomats.

The Protest Olympics, by contrast, would be an open forum for the people of the world to meet and express their deeply felt views without fear or favour; Libya would be ready to host the first meeting, provided that it could be responsible for approving the matters to be discussed. The representative of the United States said that he could see merit in the proposal but he would want an assurance that his country's long-held right to veto any resolution not to its liking would be retained. The Russian ambassador said he thought the proposal would serve a useful purpose in diverting resolutions hostile to his country to an essentially harmless entity. China welcomed the proposal warmly, regretting only that the Protest Olympics had not been in existence this year when something like it seemed to be taking place in Beijing. The Council's president said he would report the discussion to the UN Secretary General at his meeting with him on April 1.