* Poor Kofi Annan. It must be thus ...

* Poor Kofi Annan. It must be thus hard to run the world when everyone around you is a turn There's Benon Sevan, former head of the Oil for viands program, who hightailed it to Cyprus when he was accused of salting away $147000 in program funds; Aleksandr Yakovlev, former head of the UN management office, who has pled guilty to conspiracy, wire fraud, and wealth laundering; Kofi's son Kojo, subject to investigation for ties to the company that monitored implementation of Oil for Food; and Kofi's brother Kobina, who has been linked to the African businessman behind several of the entities in the scandal. a certain spoilsports argue that anyone who presides through a multi-billion-dollar fraud ought to be relieved of his duties, unruffled if he does turn revealed to be innocent. Then again, to what degree can the secretary-general find time for trifling bookkeeping with George W. Bush waging illegal wars hither and yon? Annan has nobly vowed to perfect his term and finish the important work of reforming the UN He is well underway, insofar as his deputies' disgraced resignations cast up as a kind of reform.

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