Smoking, Viagra and Kofi Annan

A subject title you didn't think you'd see...

News: Scottish smokers ended up getting Viagra instead of an anti-smoking drug.
I love computer glitches. I should take up smoking...

I was reading Kofi Annan's comments on 'what the world needs now' - he hadn't titled it that, but hell, it makes for better reading. It seemed to me that essentially he was saying that by having rogue powerful states, the US being the example he was using (obliquely), the power of a democracy such as the UN is much reduced. That makes sense. Two other points he made struck me; firstly that States cannot confront global challenges alone. I'm thinking that the current global warming crisis is a good example of that. Interestingly on the previous page of the paper there was an article on the Artic icecap melting at a prodigious rate. Is it perhaps the place of the UN to sort out a global policy for global warming and carbon emissions. And then enforce that? I'm picking that at least one country (well ok, two since Aussie won't depart from the Bush love-in) won't be too keen on that. The other major point I got from his article was that the UN Security Council (oops nearly wrote sexual council) needs to be reformed with its membership reflecting the world as it is, not the world as it was in 1945.

Love, B