Chris Carter, on His Merits

The Opportunities are Breathtaking

At this blog, as our readers know, we are anti-UN.  It is a hopeless, thoroughly compromised institution--as any grand Babelesque edifice erected to the praise of Man will inevitably be--but every now and again we have to acknowledge, the UN shows some smarts, and gets things right.  Praise where it is due, and all that.

Former Labour MP (and government minister) Chris Carter is off to Kabul, Afghanistan to fight corruption.  This, from the NZ Herald:

Mr Carter is leaving New Zealand next Wednesday to take up a position as a director of the Governance Unit of the UN mission in Kabul will involve battling corruption.  "I will head a team based in the Ministry of the Interior, which advises President Karzai and his ministers on effective ways of improving local governance at the provincial level with the police and the judiciary," he said.

"The UN has a lot of pilot projects in Afghanistan and I will advise New York as to the effectiveness of those."

We know that corruption is endemic in Afghanistan and Mr Carter's services will be in great demand. He denies that his appointment has anything to do with his relationship with Helen Clark, former political ally, now Numero Tria  in the UN.  He got his job solely on his merits.

This denial has a ring of credibility.  We all know that Mr Carter has a lengthy resume when it comes to corruption--practising it, that is.  He has been a serial "trougher" exploiting his taxpayer funded credit card to the full, travelling all over the world at their expense, staying in the best hotels with his (male) lover, under the thin pretext of travelling for NZ government business--even long after he lost his ministerial warrants and was reduced to the ranks of the opposition benches. His trips to Britain usually co-incided with the UK equivalent of "Gay-pride" events.

We would argue that this is precisely why Mr Carter would have got the job on his merits.  For once the UN has been smart, and "set a thief to catch a thief."  We expect that Mr Carter will perform his UN duties with distinction. 

Asked this morning on Morning Report whether Ms Clark had played a part in his appointment, Mr Carter replied "none whatsoever".  He said he had three referees from the Labour caucus, who he declined to name but did confirm leader Phil Goff was not one of them.

He said he went to Afghanistan with a lot of experience to bring to the job.  "I guess they've judged I'm the most competent to do it."

While it is true that normally self-praise is no recommendation, in this case we believe he has got it right.  He will certainly bring a great deal of personal experience to the job; his nose for being on-the-take will be much more sensitive than the ordinary run-of-the-mill UN functionary--and that, dear friends, is saying something..  All that US and NATO money flooding into Afghanistan, all that idealistic "nation building"  naivete, all the drugs, all the bribery, that oh-so-thick lining-of-the-pockets, all the fortunes being made and cannily deposited offshore--Mr Carter's practised eye will see it all immediately with his experienced street-craft.

Mind you, he will have to keep his hand in, as it were, just for practice sake.  We presume he has already got his offshore accounts opened and ready for those invisible electronic transfers just waiting to be snared and sent on their way to a nice home.