Saturday 24 September 2011

Closely guarded Ban Ki-moon in a hot place

                        Ban Ki-moon and his sauna partners in Finland

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon is a closely guarded person. In July he and his wife were vacationing in Finland as the guests of Finnish president Tarja Halonen (who seems eager to get a UN job after retiring as president early next year). In a speech to Mme Halonen in New York earlier this week, Ban Ki-moon revealed that he was not even allowed to take a bath in Halonen´s sauna without his bodyguards being present:

As you can imagine, President Halonen insisted I take at least one (sauna bath) during my stay at Kulturanta.

Here's the problem: I can never go anywhere alone. So ? into the sauna I went – with my security detail.

I insisted they not take their weapons – of course! Who needs second-degree burns?


Or maybe the Secretary General did not trust the native guards after this incident?:

Finnish regional daily Turun Sanomat reported Tuesday that a policeman had reported for duty to guard Ban Ki-moon, the UN secretary-general, while blind drunk.
According to the paper the incident happened at Kultaranta, the Finnish president's summer residence in Naantali, on 17 July.
Turun Sanomat reported further that the policeman had driven to the site.
"The policeman was clearly intoxicated when he arrived at Kultaranta, so his superior gave him a breath test," Kari Frilander, a prosecutor heading an investigation into the incident, was quoted as saying by the paper

No comments: