Life Without Sovereignty

At the plenary sessions, UN delegates sit around broad semi-circular desks behind the iconic name plates to identify the country they represent. The countries are seated in alphabetical order, so, as an Yglesias, I naturally sympathize with poor Zambia and Zimbabwe in the back of the bus so I cast my eye in their direction only to discover that Palestine, not being a real country, needs to go even after lowly Zimbabwe.

UPDATE: Photo:

Comments

Where do the representatives from Taiwan and Tibet sit?

Posted by Juan | September 24, 2007 10:40 AM

Given that you also lack sovereignty, you'd go after Zimbabwe even if your name was Matthew Aardvark.

Posted by Petey | September 24, 2007 10:41 AM

So the mighty veto-empowered, nuclear-armed permanent members have to wait their turn after the Albanians? Awesome.

Posted by SDM | September 24, 2007 10:49 AM

I went to school with a kid named Zach Zieger. No lie.

Posted by Freddie | September 24, 2007 11:24 AM

I went to school with a kid named Zach Zieger.

But after school he changed into a mid-60s Marvel character and fought crime with radioactive superpowers.

Posted by Christmas | September 24, 2007 11:28 AM

Much less alphabetically challenged, where do the U.N. delegates of the Kurds and Basques get to sit? Or the Navajo?

Seriously, though, I think that in all the panoply of legitimate complaints of the Palestinian leadership and people - and there are a lot, to be sure - poor treatment by the U.N. general assembly (and various bodies like the UNRWA - set up specifically for them - and the various incarnations of the human rights council/commission - which have chiefly singled out Israel above all others human rights abusers) is not really one of them.

Posted by SoCalJustice | September 24, 2007 11:37 AM

Yes, a real heartbreaker all right. Definitely in the top ten list of global injustices. Given that, in your view, Israel "has no internationally recognized borders," it probably shouldn't appear at all.

Posted by Winston | September 24, 2007 12:11 PM

In the General Assembly, they handle this problem by randomly picking a country to get the head seat and then work alphabeticaly after that (circling around to the A's after the Z's get finished). I forget who is the lucky #1 this year -- Sao Tome, IIRC. I don't know where the Palestinian delegate goes in such a situation, though -- after Zimbabwe, or still at the back of the room, or on the side with the NGOs, etc.

Posted by Glenn | September 24, 2007 12:20 PM

Seeing what Mugabe has done to the former Rhodesia; it's probably too generous have it
in last place. Of course, since Carter & Callaghan
and co; allowed Mugabe to ignore the results of the election of ArchBishop Muzorewa; we'll never know how that might have turned out.

Posted by narciso | September 24, 2007 12:30 PM

Man, must suck to have to crane your neck over San Marino(!) to see the stage.

Posted by g | September 24, 2007 1:46 PM

I hear the Iran-Iraq War days were quite amusing to watch.

Posted by BruceR | September 24, 2007 3:52 PM

They should change the country's name to AAA-Zimbabwe.

Hey, it works in the Yellow Pages.

Posted by Dennis Doubleday | September 24, 2007 3:56 PM

Winston
"Yes, a real heartbreaker all right. Definitely in the top ten list of global injustices. Given that, in your view, Israel "has no internationally recognized borders," it probably shouldn't appear at all."

Israel does get bashed in the UN on a regular basis, which, for such a small country, I find kind of funny. Doesn't really matter though, because the US always vetoes on behalf of Israel. But maybe, just maybe there is a legitmate reason behind all that bashing...

Posted by Peter K. | September 24, 2007 4:36 PM

Thus costing Zimbabwe an aisle seat. Something else Peretz can rail at it for, once he's done tarring DKos today...

Posted by Anthony Damiani | September 24, 2007 4:50 PM

So who's using the empty spot with the blank plaque to the immediate right of Palestine?

Posted by David | September 25, 2007 12:53 AM