Kan tells Cancun no can do - but plays go instead

[John Fairbairn]

As a former political journalist, I was amused by this line in a BBC report today: "As many as 20 world leaders [at the Cancun climate conference] are in line to phone [Japanese] Prime Minister Naoko Kan to ask for a change of stance [on the Kyoto Protocol]."

Scaled up from the ultra-refined world of diplomatic behaviour, this gang-bang by the world leaders may not be all that different in substance, except perhaps for a touch of hypocrisy, from the mass attack of Wikilieaks opponents by hactivists, but leave that be. What caught my attention was that Kan was refusing to take the calls and was just referring them back to the negotiating team in Cancun.

But it just so happens that this week's Shukan Post has an interview with Kan who reveals that lately he has been unable to sleep, and has been getting up in the middle of the night to play go on his computer. It is unclear whether he is playing a program (the favoured interpretation) or on a server, but clearly he has time, if not the inclination, to take calls from Cancun.

This snippet about Kan, who has already made public play and diplomatic use of his passion for go (high dan amateur level), could only have come out if Kan specifically wished it, so we are entitled to wonder whether this is a (probably popular) message to the Japanese public that he will not kowtow to foreigners or soften his opposition to an extension to the Kyoto Protocol. The rest of the world, however, may wonder whether playing go while Cancun fumes is a new version of fiddling while Rome burns.

[hyperpape]

Scaled up from the ultra-refined world of diplomatic behaviour, this gang-bang by the world leaders may not be all that different in substance, except perhaps for a touch of hypocrisy, from the mass attack of Wikilieaks opponents by hactivists, but leave that be.

We can't accuse you of not trying to give us some flair.