The BBC reveals the UN ban on feasts during famine:
Senior United Nations managers have been warned not to engage in lavish entertaining during the forthcoming environment summit in Johannesburg.The foie gras, lobster, and goose stuffed with olives at the "Food Summit" were a hoot. Once burned, twice shy, eh Iqbal?
UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan's chief of staff S. Iqbal Riza urged his senior staff to remember that the conference was being held as famine threatened southern Africa.
...
Some 20 UN bodies will be attending, each with their own delegation, and the UN is clearly keen to pre-empt any criticism that might come their way from any of the 6,000 journalists expected to cover the event.
In the memo, a copy of which was secured by BBC News Online, there was also a warning to managers not to allow an unecessarily large number of UN staff to attend the summit "which could be perceived as an obvious waste of personnel and financial resources".
"We must keep in mind that this conference is taking place in the midst of a major food crisis in southern Africa, affecting 13 million people," Mr Iqbal Riza said further down the memo.
"It would be wise to refrain from excessive levels of hospitality, and any event sponsored by the United Nations should be of modest, even frugal, dimensions," he said.
The recent UN World Food Summit held in Rome was criticised for the lavish food and hospitality available at the event.
Well there goes a primo expense account event right down the hydroflush. Being a UN bureaucrat isn't all it's cracked up to be, I guess.
