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PASTOR GENERAL'S REPORT, DECEMBER 21, 1984
PAGE 11
The 63-year-old ex-schoolteacher from the poor African nation of
Senegal portrays himself as a champion of the have-not nations of
the Southern Hemisphere--and a victim of racism and of plots
mounted by the industrial north•••• Most of UNESCO's 3000 employ
ees were in the field a decade ago, laboring to reduce illiteracy
and save ancient treasures. Now six employees work in the Paris
headquarters for every one in a developing nation, and three of
every four budget dollars go to staff operations. As one staff
member said of M'Bow: "He is inclined to give jobs to his family
and friends. That is normal in Africa."
Earlier this year, the U.S. Government Accounting Office asked UNESCO offi
cials for an accounting of expenditures in recent years. Shortly after the
request, six fires erupted in one day in the UNESCO archives in Paris.
The great power personally wielded by Mr. M'Bow (who can also show great
charm) reflects the shift in power in world bodies from the Western world
(the majority of the founding members) to the African-Asian-Arab Third
World bloc, heavily influenced, in turn, by the Soviet Union and its Com-
munist allies, who purport themselves as champions of the underdogs. Here
is an analysis from the May 9, 1984 INTERNATIONAL HERALD TRIBUNE:
The imposing figure of Amadou Mahtar M'Bow•••stands at the center
of the UNESCO storm •.•• Mr. M'Bow has the automatic majority of
the Africans and most other Third World powers behind him regard
less of what he does....
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You attack M'Bow and the African dele
gations will rise like one man against you," a delegate said •...
Even anti-M'Bow sources think it improbable that the African
Asian-Arab majority would permit him to be forced out by U.S.
pressure.
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They would see it as 'knuckling under to colonialism'
and they will never do it," a diplomat said, adding that the So
viet bloc would come down heavily on the Third World side. An
other diplomat pointed out that if Mr. M'Bow steps down at the
end of his second mandate in 1987, he will be replaced by another
African or Asian.
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It is unthinkable that a European will again
become director-general," he said, adding that because Mr. M'Bow
was the first African to become head of any UN agency, he is thus
a symbol of pride and international power for the region.
Mr. M'Bow, it should be noted, has not been accused of any personal wrong
doings. (For a more thorough analysis of this agency, interested readers
may want to read the excellent article
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Why UNESCO Spells Trouble" in the
October 1984 READER'S DIGEST, U.S. edition. It was written by Owen Har
ries, formerly Australia's ambassador to UNESCO.) It is believed that the
main reason that so few officials come forth from within UNESCO to expose
its shortcomings is that they fear they would lose their jobs. If you were
the ambassador from Mauritania, for example, earning $60,000 or more, en
joying expense-account dinners at Maxim's or Lazerre's--you wouldn't want
to go back to your famine-and-poverty-wracked homeland, would you?
Perhaps the most significant outcome of the UNESCO affair is that, by leav
ing the Paris-based agency, the United States could be laying a philosophi
cal foundation for one day leaving the United Nations--which would mean, of
course, that the UN would have to leave the United States. Columnist Will
has been in the forefront of conservative U.S. journalists urging consid-