Take Me to Your Leader—U.N. May Appoint an Ambassador to Extraterrestrials
The Telegraph is reporting that the United Nations may appoint Malayasian astrophyisicist Mazlan Othman as the Earth's ambassador to any space aliens who choose to make themselves officially known (as opposed to those aliens who randomly abduct people for creepy sexual experiments or mutilate cattle for fun). Othman is the head of the U.N.'s Office for Outer Space Affairs.
According to the Telegraph:
Aliens who landed on earth and asked: "Take me to your leader" would be directed to Mrs Othman.
She will set out the details of her proposed new role at a Royal Society conference in Buckinghamshire next week.
The 58-year-old is expected to tell delegates that the proposal has been prompted by the recent discovery of hundreds of planets orbiting other starts, which is thought to make the discovery of extraterrestrial life more probable than ever before. …
Opinion is divided about how future extraterrestrial visitors should be greeted. Under the Outer Space Treaty on 1967, which Unoosa oversees, UN members agreed to protect Earth against contamination by alien species by "sterilising" them.
Mrs Othman is understood to support a more tolerant approach.
So I guess this means no concentration camps for indigent Prawns then. In any case, the world's oldest bureaucracy is way ahead of the U.N. on the extraterrestrial issue.