The bitter and twisted peaceniks of Lund have been having another go at my employers, this time getting quite personal. In fact, they have a go at me personally:

The CVs of the staff list what Crisis Group members have done before joining, but conspicuously leaves untold educational background in quite a few cases. About Nicholas Whyte, PhD and director of Europe Program, it is written that he is Trifun Kostovski Research Fellow. You wonder who Trifun Kostovski is? He is an MP in Macedonia, founder of Kometal Trade Gmbh, supported as Mayor of Skopje by the opposition and – you guessed it – member of Crisis Group’s board. One looks forward with excitement to Whyte’s forthcoming independent research reports on Macedonia’s future.

Now, while of course it’s true that the reason the subject of my Ph D isn’t stated is that it’s not especially relevant to the work I do, the fact is that Trifun has been pretty good about our Macedonia work – especially last summer, when our report and our press statements basically ran completely counter to what he was advocating.

The whole tone of their piece is just resentment at the fact that the rest of the world doesn’t bow down before their glorious academic qualifications – hence repeated sneering at our lack of higher level degrees, and resentment at the fact that governments listen to us. In fact, if the main distinction he can draw in substantial terms between his organisation and ours is that people seem to listen to us more, then it’s a distinction I can live with.