High Commissioner for Refugees issued a statement Thursday calling on all governments to receive refugees from Haiti and to respond humanely.

CNN: Haitians flee to U.S. in boats

This will give him the right to block nominees with no evident talents for a commissioner's job, and to demote lousy ones once in office. (Next year's constitutional conference might give him the power to sack them outright.) But governments could respond bitterly all the same if the commissioner involved is theirs.

ECONOMIST: The challenge awaiting Romano Prodi

Between 1998 and 2000, this enabled the governments of Botswana, Swaziland and South Africa to detect all epidemics within two weeks, and to respond within two weeks of detection.

ECONOMIST: Malaria: Four horsemen of the Apocalypse? | The