un-OO-sa

Did you know that the United Nations has an office dedicated to space affairs? Indeed, the United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs (UNOOSA) promotes international cooperation in the peaceful use of outer space. For the most part, they deal with benign issues - which of course is about all they can deal with, since they have no true authority over the matter. Or so you might think.

For now comes news that the United Nations has appointed a key individual - that virtually no one has ever heard of - to be the world's representative (I don't recall getting a vote) to any extraterrestrial first contact. Forget Captains Kirk and Picard, or even Zefram Cochrane. We have Mazlan Othman (emphasis mine):

Mazlan Othman, the head of the UN's little-known Office for Outer Space Affairs (Unoosa), is to describe her potential new role next week at a scientific conference at the Royal Society’s Kavli conference centre in Buckinghamshire.

She is scheduled to tell delegates that the recent discovery of hundreds of planets around other stars has made the detection of extraterrestrial life more likely than ever before - and that means the UN must be ready to coordinate humanity’s response to any “first contact”.

...

Professor Richard Crowther, an expert in space law and governance at the UK Space Agency and who leads British delegations to the UN on such matters, said: “Othman is absolutely the nearest thing we have to a ‘take me to your leader’ person.”

We should all feel tremendously safe knowing that 1) the UN has appointed itself the responsibility to coordinate with ET on the behalf of all humanity; 2) and that Ms. Othman - again, shout if you've ever heard of her - is the nearest thing to a "take me to your leader" person.

I hope she has Bruce Willis on speed dial.