Lawks-a-mercy: UN’s Alfie Moon in identity crisis

POLITICO’S HUMDINGER

Ban Ki-moon, the eighth Secretary General of the UN, is facing an identity crisis. For the second time since he assumed office in 2007, the staff of Kofi Annan’s successor have been forced to send out a letter clarifying that he is not to be known as ‘Mr Moon’, or even ‘Mr Ki-moon’ (the phonetic equivalent of a type of tea), but ‘Mr Ban’. The problem has even spread to his good lady, often referred to in reports as ‘Mrs Moon’ – which sounds like Alfie’s other half in EastEnders, a dab hand with the pints and the banter behind the bar of the Queen Vic. It is a problem similar to that experienced by the actor Chow Yun-Fat, and one which may be similarly solved by exposure.

Marvel Comics has recently entered the movie business on its own buck, having previously licensed its film deals through Sony – and to offset any exploitative, multinational appearances (enlarge its moral footprint, one might say) the company developed a giveaway comic strip in which superheroes worked with the UN to solve real world problems – conflict, disease, bangs some heads together and get people talking. That sort of thing. Some readers may remember that Spider-Man did a similar thing with drugs in the 1970s, and that the characters from the Beano went off to fight the filthy Hun during World War II – there are unclear memories of GI Joe (or ‘Action Force’ as it was known in Britain) treading the same ground.

It is curious to speculate which body would benefit the most from this arrangement, but a starring role for a ‘Mr Ban’, complete with a frame focusing on a nameplate of some fashion, be it on his desk, door or lapel, would surely not go amiss in any future escapades. Perhaps he and Chow Yun-Fat could join forces to fight the evil of name-mangling?

Or, he could just wait a while – should the soft, cultural power of China match its economic rise, this may well be a short term problem.