Worse, they can leave a secretary general looking weak, indecisive and hamstrung because of fear of offending member states.
Reports from Moscow have suggested that the Soviet leadership decided not to pass the liberalized emigration law because of concern of offending Arab states opposed to the already relatively free emigration of Soviet Jews to Israel.
You might routinely pass up opportunities to haggle in situations where financial negotiations are not the norm because you're afraid of offending the seller or because you feel inexperienced or uncomfortable.
The government was accused of banning the Dalai Lama last year because of a fear of offending China.
In all, at least 15 articles directly claim that Christmas was renamed Winterval because of a fear of offending "other faiths".
"I've never heard of a cop or an intelligence person saying, 'We're not going to look at something because we're afraid of offending people,'" he said.
At the same time, the RAI board blocked a talk show on a left-leaning channel from airing the final minutes of Nanni Moretti's 2006 film "Il Caimano," about a director unable to make a movie about a Berlusconi-like figure because everyone is afraid of offending him.
She said local authorities failed to intervene because they were afraid of offending people or being branded racist.
Do Aussies feel oppressed and mute because they're scared of offending someone?
But it begs the question: Was it omitted because they were afraid of offending the minute percentage of Americans who are anti-religious?
