It may be time to think again Kevin Rudd’s UN ambitions

Buttering up Vladimir Putin could be one way for a faded prime minister to get ahead.

Website news.com.au quotes Inner City Press saying there is speculation in New York that Kevin Rudd has lined up another nation to back his candidacy for the UN secretary-­general position:

Even at this late stage there are dark horses and dreamers. Kevin Rudd doesn’t hide it, and Inner City Press hears he’s lined up a country other than Australia which could nominate him.

There’s no indication which country might back the former PM but on September 4, The Sydney Morning Herald reported Rudd rubbing shoulders with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Vladivostok:

The former Australian prime minister, who is president of the Asia ­Society Policy Institute, moderated speeches given by Russian President Vladimir Putin (and others).

Lowy Institute director for international security Euan Graham told the SMH:

Rudd is ambitious and feels he has a role for himself, and it’s one obvious way he has to show he’s active on the international stage. But how well ­advised is it to do something so choreographed by the host, who is clearly running the show?

Ordinary Cubans should have it as good as comedian Kitty Flanagan, The Sun-Herald yesterday:

A few years ago, I went to Cuba to do a Spanish language course ... I chose to go to Cuba. I was there of my own free will and could leave any time. But what if I’d been forced to live there permanently because Australia was no longer a viable place for me to live?

Good point. We still haven’t achieved the socialist objective in Australia. The Economist, May 18, 2015:

This month American businessmen won permission ... to start plush new ferry services to Cuba for the first time since the US trade embargo was ­imposed in 1960. Moving in the other direction are thousands of impoverished Cubans ... risking their lives to flee the communist island.

At least he did business of his own free will. Reuters, September 30:

US Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump might have violated US law, Democratic rival Hillary Clinton says, following a news report that one of his companies ­attempted to do business in Cuba.

More from Flanagan, for whom shampoo commercials are a metaphor for life:

For anyone truly concerned about Muslim immigrants not assimilating ... to quote the great philosopher ­Rachel Hunter, former ambassador for Pantene: “It won’t happen overnight but it will happen.”

US Cardinal Raymond Burke, Catholic News Service, September 8:

While our experience with individual Muslims may be one of people who are gentle and kind and so forth, we have to understand that in the end what they believe most deeply, that to which they ascribe in their hearts, ­demands that they govern the world.

Linda Connor and Nick Riemer in the SMH on why John Howard didn’t deserve a Sydney University doctorate, September 29:

Sydney’s ... decision makes a travesty of the ideals it claims to uphold. These include critical thinking and problem solving, cultural competence, and ethics.

Peter Baldwin in The Weekend Australian, April 2, 2015:

Riemer asserts a general “right to disrupt” any speaker. This cannot be squared with any reasonable understanding of the right to free speech.