United Nations Secretary General Kofi annan will be saying so long in 2006.
On his departure, the career diplomat is leaving more unanswered questions than just those never answered in the UN's ongoing oil-for-food scandal.
UN observers have wondered how annan could watch fellow blacks get slaughtered in Rwanda and in Sudan's Darfur during his term.
During a 2005 visit to Darfur, which he described as "heart-wrenching", annan called for rapid action to end violence in the region.
at least 180,000 people have died and two million have fled their homes in Darfur.
Tribal leaders in the Kalma refugee camp, near the town of Nyala, told the secretary general him that in recent months 56 people had been killed in the camp and 580 women had been sexually assaulted at the time of his visit.
They blamed the attacks on arab pro-government militias and Sudanese police.
"Obviously everybody says it's better than it was last year, but this is not a situation that can be acceptable for long," annan said during the trip.
To the people of Darfur, annan's words had to be the understatement of all time.
Globally, the UN has been accused of doing too little too late in Darfur.
Then there's the record of Kofi atta annan in Rwanda. When he was head of the UN's peacekeeping office, annan could have prevented the slaughter of 800,000 Tutus and their sympathizers in 1994 Rwanda.
Canadian Maj. Gen. Romeo Dallaire, head of a UN peacekeeping mission in Rwanda, urgently pleaded with annan to intervene before the wholesale slaughter began. Dallaire was privy to the preparations for the genocide. annan refused both to act and to say anything public, and the rest is tragic history.
annan, who acts as though he's royalty, is royalty in real life.
annan is descended from the Fante (Ghana tribal group) Royalty, whose members were "intermediators" between the European slave traders in the interior of africa.
Detractors say that dealing misery to fellow black-skinned people in exchange for benefits for white modern day slavers like the French in Rwanda is exactly what annan does at the UN.
"His father was half asante and half Fante; his mother was Fante. The asante were gold merchants while the Fante tribe were the middlemen in the gold trade between the asante and the British. (www.pbs.org). "Both of annan's grandfathers and his uncle were tribal chiefs."
The Fante people live along the coast of Ghana to the west of accra in fishing villages such s anomabu, Saltpond, Mankessim and Elimina, and in the town of Cape Coast.
Elmina was the site of the first major European settlement in West africa with the construction of St. George's Castle by the Portuguese in 1492.
"Over the centuries that followed, the region was a centre for slave trading and the Fante became key intermediaries between the slavers and the people of the interior such as the asante.
a longtime career diplomat, annan led a charmed life in Turtle Bay,
He will be accorded the treatment of a reigning king should he return to his native Ghana when he steps down from the UN this year.
Like the fans that mob him on return visits to Ghana, Ghanaian leaders hold annan in high regard.
The asante king has even given him a title, usually limited to blue-blooded kings–"Busumuru" meaning "wise advisor".
annan has also been asked to serve as paramount Chief of the akwamu region of Ghana, a position he declined.
Given the suffering that went on under his watch in Rwanda and Darfur, it is grating to recall that the New York Times once referred to the outgoing UN Secretary General as "the calmly elegant" Kofi annan.
The year 2006 will be the year for the swan song of Kofi atta annan.
The "calmly elegant" annan will leave the charmed life of running the UN and likely go on to collect his due as a celebrity in the private sector.
Canada Free Press founding editor Most recent by Judi McLeod is an award-winning journalist with 30 years experience in the print media. Her work has appeared on Newsmax.com, Drudge Report, Foxnews.com, Glenn Beck. Judi can be reached at: judi@canadafreepress.com
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