A cultured pearl
BOONDOGGLE alert: all eyes on Ottawa, where a new specimen is struggling to be born. Its midwife is Christine Copps, who is minister of the Canadian heritage and thinks that what the world needs is an inter- national cultural organisation. She has con- vened her opposite numbers from 21 coun- tries to help bring it into the world. It will be for culture, she says, what its opposite num- bers are for world trade and development. That is to say, it will provide tax-free employment in agreeable surroundings for ministers' friends and relations, who will form cultural study groups, promote inter- national cultural linkages, indent for lofty air tickets and arrange cultural experiences for their patrons at the annual meetings. The fair Copps is disappointed that the French have stayed away from Ottawa, mys- teriously pleading a conflict of schedules. They already house the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organi- sation, a boondoggle par excellence, but I can see why she may not have noticed.
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