Roll of Shame (2)

I saw a subsequent report that Colombia, the Philippines, Serbia and Ukraine later accepted their invitations. Good show, as all of them are democracies of a sort.

Against that, Algeria and the Palestinian Authority have to be added to the roll of shame as they declined their invitations.

For the record, the roll of shame is therefore: Afghanistan, Algeria, China, Cuba, Egypt, Iran, Iraq, Kazakhstan, Morocco, Pakistan, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Tunisia, Venezuela, Vietnam and the Palestinian Authority.

One judges a country by its friends.

Roll of Shame

The diplomatic envoys of the following countries have refused invitations to attend the award ceremony for the Nobel Peace Prize in Oslo on 10 December:

Afghanistan, Colombia, China, Cuba, Egypt, Iran, Iraq, Kazakhstan, Morocco, Pakistan, the Philippines, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Serbia, Sudan, Tunisia, Ukraine, Venezuela, Vietnam.

One judges a country by its friends.

I'm pleased to say that although two BRIC countries are on the above list, the other two - Brazil and India - are on the roll of honour of 44 nations that have accepted their invitations.

(Only those countries with diplomats in Oslo are invited, so most of the world's states have not had to declare their stance one way or the other.)