U.S. Diplomat: Too Many Drunks At U.N. Budget Debates
An American diplomat stationed at the United Nations is upset with his colleagues’ level of inebriation:
The United States called on Monday for a ban on drunk diplomats at budget debates at the United Nations.
“We make the modest proposal that the negotiating rooms should in future be an inebriation-free zone,”Joseph Torsella, deputy U.S. ambassador to the United Nations for management and reform, told the General Assembly’s budget committee.
“While my government is truly grateful for the strategic opportunities presented by some recent past practices, let’s save the champagne for toasting the successful end of the session, and do some credit to the Fifth Committee’s reputation in the process,” he said.
An annual vote of the budget committee – known as theFifth Committee - on budgetary questions tends to come at Christmas time in late December. The debates often become heated marathon sessions that run into the early hours of the morning.
Diplomats who have participated sessions have told Reuters that it is not unusual to see delegates showing visible signs of having imbibed heavily.
Perhaps this explains what’s been going on in Washington, D.C. all these years.
H/T: Erika Johnson
I definitely look forward to Mr. Torsella’s upcoming DUI incident.
As Shaw wrote, alcohol “enables Parliament to do things at eleven at night that no sane person wouldv do at eleven in the morning.”