Wednesday, May 27, 2009

German panel opposed to Egyptian minister as UNESCO head

Earth Times

Germany's main cultural organization expressed concern on Monday that Egypt's long-serving minister of culture could soon become the new head of UNESCO. "The election of Farouk Hosni as director-general of UNESCO would be a grave mistake," said Olaf Zimmermann, chief executive of the German Council of Culture.

Hosni, who has been culture minister since 1987, has banned Israeli films from international film festivals in Cairo and declared that he "would burn Israeli books in Egyptian libraries" if he could.

He is the main contender to succeed Japan's Koichiro Matsuura, who bows out as head of the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization later this year. The deadline for nominating candidates to succeed him expires at the end of May.

See the above page for the full story.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

The Germans are absolutely correct to object to this appointment. It would be a disgrace if this man is allowed to head up an important international organisation given his views on Israel.

Anonymous said...

Amen!

Timothy Reid said...

Hi Andie

Savages burn books because they are afraid those books will teach us.

If the statement presented in this article is true than Mr. Farouk Hosni is a dangerous and inappropriate choice as the new head of UNESCO, an organization of preservation of world heritage, that's all world history!

Anonymous said...

Would not surprise me at all if this man is a holocaust denier too

Anonymous said...

I am surprised that the British have not objected to this job application too. I suppose we rely on the Germans and French these days to stand up for whats right and fair as we are too afraid to offend any one these days. Dave

Anonymous said...

What a blunder it would be to appoint Farouk or god forbid his other colleague I think he thinks he is a pharaoh (Hawass).
We want an enlightened person and not some pseudo intellectual demagogues.