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Wednesday, September 18th, 2002 10:37 pm
Kofi Annan (1997 - )
Boutros Boutros-Ghali (1992-1996)
Javier Perez de Cuellar (1982-1991)
Kurt Waldheim (1972-1981)
U Thant (1961-1971)
Dag Hammarskjold (1953-1961)
Trygve Lie (1946-1952)

What do they all have in common? With the possible exception of Kurt Waldheim, they all have really cool names. Their names are so cool that they could be mistaken for mid-level supervillains. 'When I cut UNICEF's funding by pushing this fiendishly misnamed famine relief resolution through the security council, then the world will know the kind of power that I, Dag Hammarskjold, possess!' They'd at least pass as one of the really obscure Star Wars characters like the frog faced guy in the rebel fleet or the slug guy in the cantina.

I've been looking through the UN charter*, but I can't find an explicit requirement that the Secretary General have a cool name. Maybe it's some kind of Old Boys With Cool Name Club thing.Anyway, the evidence is pretty incontrovertible. I will never be Secretary General of the UN.

*This is a flagrant lie.