Washington Post Profiles U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan

The Washington Post today profiles U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan, who said that while the fight against AIDS is "depressing" and "difficult," it is not "hopeless" and that people will act if they are made to see the world as a "small global village." According to Annan, the United Nations often has to "beg" its members -- especially wealthy members -- to fund humanitarian efforts to ease the "looming famine" in Africa and said that funding for HIV/AIDS medications only "trickle in," the Post reports. Annan, who met last week with President Bush to discuss the HIV/AIDS pandemic, said that the United Nations needs to "encourage governments to think in broader terms and to have a broader view of what their national interest means," to "mov[e] away from the narrow, selfish definition of national interests" and see how issues such as AIDS "affect all of us" (Duke, Washington Post, 1/30). The complete article is available online.