Hypocrisy, thy name is Kofi

Why would Ghana's ambassador to Morocco require a taxpayer-subsidized apartment in New York City?

For the geography impaired - and we suspect that includes nearly everyone under 40 years of age - Ghana is located in western Africa between Togo and the Cote d'Ivoire (Ivory Coast). It's got a lot of southern sunny beaches, and at least a couple (if you will forgive the pun) serving in the Earth's diplomatic corps.

Morocco is also on the African continent, a bit further north. It's the jumping off point to the Straits of Gilbraltar and Spain. Even allowing for continental drift, it is nowhere close to New York City.

The ambassador in question is Kobina Annan, brother of Kofi Annan who, until recently, was the Secretary-General of the United Nations. When Kofi moved out of his rent-controlled digs on Roosevelt Island upon taking the Sec-Gen post in 1997, a promotion that entitled him to a rent-free mansion, his brother, Kobina, moved in, along with Kobina's Swedish-born wife, Ekua.
Ekua, a member of a very wealthy Swedish family, has for years lectured Americans on how rich, greedy and selfish they are in relationship to the world's poor, and that they have an obligation to help.

And all this time they've been keeping some low- to moderately-poor family out of their house.

According to the New York Sun, at market rates, the 3-bedroom apt would rent for about $4,500 a month. The Annans pay less than half that rate, the rest unknowingly paid by the taxpayers of the State of New York. Since Kofi first obtained the apartment in 1978, it is estimated the taxpayers have shelled out more than $100,000.

We don't pay taxes in New York state, and some would say that gives us no right to comment. However, those people are left-leaning dumb-asses who don't understand how freedom works, so we wish them a Holy Christmas and hope they get a life worth living soon, and comment anyway.

Kofi Annan, no longer a diplomat and presumedly no longer immune from prosecution for his misdeeds - and lo, they are many! - should be hauled into New York City's finest jail system and charged with defrauding the government. If his brother and wife should happen to show their faces, they should be jailed as well. Then the court system should give the Annans a lesson in how the justice system in a free society actually works.

He would be grateful, no doubt, that we do not have, as yet, courts that deal with Islamic justice.

We know that none of this will happen, but in a more nearly perfect world it would.