By Joseph A. Harriss
Those self-appointed guardians of world culture, the international functionaries at the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization in Paris, surely know that popular folklore story, the Tar-Baby. It figures in over 200 tales in societies of all races, ancient and modern, from West Africa to South America and Asia. In America it was told most memorably by Joel Chandler Harris in his Uncle Remus yarn about Br'er Rabbit, the cottontail entrapped by Br'er Fox with a sticky doll made of tar and turpentine.
In all versions it is a cautionary tale about the danger of tacky situations that only get worse and entangling the more they are grappled with. As a bearer of universal, age-old wisdom, it is worthy of being included in UNESCO's famous list of the world's intangible heritage, right along with, say, Sbek Thom Khmer shadow theatre and the Mongol Biyelgee.
But whimsical folk tales are one thing, harsh reality is another. Now UNESCO is struggling to detach itself from a real-life Tar-Baby. It takes the form of the $3 million Obiang Nguema Mbasogo International Prize for Research in the Life Sciences, set up by UNESCO with his money in 2008. For those who may not have seen "The United Nations' Rogue Agency" in the February American Spectator, the story to date:
Read more: http://spectator.org/archives/2012/02/23/unescos-tar-baby
Those self-appointed guardians of world culture, the international functionaries at the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization in Paris, surely know that popular folklore story, the Tar-Baby. It figures in over 200 tales in societies of all races, ancient and modern, from West Africa to South America and Asia. In America it was told most memorably by Joel Chandler Harris in his Uncle Remus yarn about Br'er Rabbit, the cottontail entrapped by Br'er Fox with a sticky doll made of tar and turpentine.
In all versions it is a cautionary tale about the danger of tacky situations that only get worse and entangling the more they are grappled with. As a bearer of universal, age-old wisdom, it is worthy of being included in UNESCO's famous list of the world's intangible heritage, right along with, say, Sbek Thom Khmer shadow theatre and the Mongol Biyelgee.
But whimsical folk tales are one thing, harsh reality is another. Now UNESCO is struggling to detach itself from a real-life Tar-Baby. It takes the form of the $3 million Obiang Nguema Mbasogo International Prize for Research in the Life Sciences, set up by UNESCO with his money in 2008. For those who may not have seen "The United Nations' Rogue Agency" in the February American Spectator, the story to date:
Read more: http://spectator.org/archives/2012/02/23/unescos-tar-baby
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