March 27, 2005
ANYBODY KNOW ANY MATH?:
Depressed Annan close to quitting over UN scandals (Sarah Baxter, 3/27/05, Times of London)
KOFI ANNAN, the United Nations secretary-general, is said to be struggling with depression and considering his future. Colleagues have reported concerns about Annan ahead of an official report this week that will examine his son Kojo’s connection to the controversial Iraqi oil for food scheme.Depending on the findings of the report, by a team led by the former US Federal Reserve chairman Paul Volcker, Annan may have to choose between the secretary-generalship and loyalty to his son.
American congressional critics of the UN are already pressing him to resign over the mismanagement of the oil for food programme, and even his supporters have been dismayed by the scandals on his watch, including the sexual abuse of children by UN peacekeepers in Congo.
One close observer at the UN said Annan’s moods were like a “sine curve” and that he appeared near the bottom of the trough.
Do sine curves keep going down or do they turn back up? Posted by Orrin Judd at March 27, 2005 6:56 PM
Sine curve = periodic. Up & Down.
Posted by: Bruce Cleaver at March 27, 2005 7:01 PMSo are they saying he's down now but will be back up?
Posted by: oj at March 27, 2005 7:10 PMThat's the way I read it...
Posted by: Bruce Cleaver at March 27, 2005 7:32 PMlike the waves on a gentle ocean.
Posted by: Robert Schwartz at March 27, 2005 7:46 PMBruce:
Thanks. Hopefully their political sense is as bad as my math...
Posted by: oj at March 27, 2005 7:51 PMNo matter the flow of his moods, his future is probably asymptotic to the vertical, going down.
Posted by: jim hamlen at March 27, 2005 8:30 PMThe sine curve is a special case of the exponential function. When the argument is wholly imaginary, the function is a sine. When the argument is wholly real, it's an exponential. When the argument is real and negative, it goes down toward zero and never comes back.
"Real and negative" would seem to describe the news about Kofi's temure at the UN.
Asymptotism is a wonderfully useful concept, and not just mathematically.
Posted by: ghostcat at March 28, 2005 1:04 AMIf he was really depressed, he would have quit years ago.
Of course, it's Bush's fault for having upset the apple cart. Or maybe it's bin Laden's.
Without them, the UN would have continued to be the same old dysfunctional sacred cow; and all the corruption would have continued to enrich the already very, very rich.
So no wonder Annan's upset. It's as though he and his cronies got the single winning ticket at Powerball; but some chimpanzee went and ate the number.
It's Ashcrofts fault!
Posted by: Genecis at March 29, 2005 10:28 AM"Hell no!" he said.
Posted by: at March 30, 2005 2:27 PM