A number of influential bloggers suggest Vaclav Havel as a desirable replacement for the utterly corrupt and disgraced Kofi.

Hmmm.

Being a Czech citizen, such an idea moves me to tears and fills my chest with immense proud. Or whatnot.

Almost any candidate, including (but not limited to) Bill Clinton, would make a terrific SG compared to the one we're dealing with today. John Kerry would. Michail Gorbacov, too.

The question-of-the-day, however, is: do we want the UN to be a debate club, or an indisputed authority with a real mandate and power to make things happen?

Vaclav Havel used to be a great playwright. He was a decent president who provided some very useful PR for Czechia, especially in the early 90s when most Westeners thought our country was part of Great Mother Russia. Now, he's a pensioner with very fragile health.

And above all, he is an intellectual. He loves to talk, and he loves to write even more. He is a very independent thinker with great distrust for any kind of organized political process. He's chaotic.

In short, he's not the type of manager the UN now needs most, someone with enough willpower and stamina to clean every toilet, scrub all the floors, fire the corrupt staff and reform the rules so that Libya never gets to chair the Human Rights Commission again, ever.

Sorry, guys. You've got this one wrong.

UPDATE 11/25: during the process of writing a column for LN, I realized I was about to reverse my position. Then, towards the end, I've actually called it a good idea. The column will appear here tomorrow. And yes, you can call me a flip-flopper :)

UPDATE 11/28: welcome, readers of Chrenkoff! I understand I should clarify my flip-flop.

I still stand by what I wrote above. And, at the same time, I think Havel would make a great Secreatary General. A lame exercise in doublethink? Not necessarily. It all depends on what you want the UN to be. I realized I want the UN to dissolve, and who would be a more effective UN Terminator than a former dissident, a self-righteous intellectual whose writing about morality in politics is as poignant as it was in the 70s?

The UN has to be replaced by an Alliance of rich, liberal democracies seeking to end the Third World insurgency. The task at hand is war on islamofascism that can only be carried on by the determined. There's no place for Libya, Belarus, or Sudan in the club. The Alliance shall consist of only those who share a given set of values; let's call it the Judeo-Christian tradition, though I guess the atheists would be welcome, too, as long as they shared the underlying principles of liberty, freedom and capitalism.

I'd imagine the club's hard core would be the Anglosphere, plus those European nations who will have recognized the deadly threat looming over the continent and decided to jump on the bandwagon. But that is for another article.

Vaclav Havel would make a great SG because he could be the last one. Under his leadership, thugocracies would be giving their two-weeks notice in no time. Rather than listening to their own bad conscience speaking through Havel's words, they would flee in panic. The rest would regroup under the scenario I've described.

Wishful thinking? It might be. It's definitely worth finding out, though.

ANOTHER UPDATE: Arthur emails: Ah, it would be wonderful, indeed. Maybe we can have a rotating GS position among all the New Europe leaders so that they all enjoy being a part of closing down the shop!

Heh. The guy is brilliant, ain't he? I am not too wild about Kwasniewski whom he suggests instead of Havel, but then, this is about ABK (Anybody But Annan). Let's get the campaign rolling!