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| Margaret Chan: Fully occupied |
Margaret Chan, the Director-General of the World Health Organisation, delivered a speech about the Ebola pandemic today.
Except she wasn't able to deliver it personally so an underling did it for her. He explained...
WHO Director-General’s speech to the Regional Committee for the Western Pacific
Dr Margaret Chan
Director-General of the World Health Organization
(delivered in her absence by Ian Smith, Executive Director of the Director-General's Office)
Keynote address to the Regional Committee for the Western Pacific, Sixty-fifth session Manila, Philippines 13 October 2014
Mr Chairman, Excellencies, honourable ministers, distinguished delegates, Dr Shin, ladies and gentlemen,
The Director-General sends you her best wishes for a productive session. She is fully occupied with coordinating the international response to what is unquestionably the most severe acute public health emergency in modern times.
I am delivering her messages to you, in the words she wanted to use.
"Fully occupied"?! She was in Moscow talking to anti-smoking zealots, praising the Russian government and blowing her own trumpet. Here she is...
WHO DG lauds Russia's efforts in tobacco control pic.twitter.com/0az4cGGKbt
— WHO FCTC (@FCTCofficial) October 13, 2014
This is the kind of thing that's been fully occupying her mind today...
Dr. Chan of @WHO: proud to be Big #Tobacco's no. 1 enemy: "I regard this as a badge of honor" - powerful opening remarks! #COP6 #FCTC
— Ari Rubenstein (@AriRubenstein) October 13, 2014
Tobacco industry is increasing its dominance over the market of #ecigarettes, says WHO DG at #COP6 pic.twitter.com/vRUKH1ehY3
— WHO FCTC (@FCTCofficial) October 13, 2014
Incidentally, her Ebola speech is quite a piece of work; full of self-justification and her usual political rhetoric about 'inequalities' and' profit-driven industry'. She doesn't sound particularly interested in Ebola and she certainly doesn't sound like she has a strategy. The terrible thought crosses my mind that when she talks about 'the most severe acute public health emergency in modern times' she wants people to think she means Ebola but she is actually thinking about tobacco. That way, in her own mind she wouldn't be telling a lie about her whereabouts.
Surely not, though. The entire media have assumed that it's a reference to Ebola. What do readers think: outright lie or mere deceit?
