XUNICEF News and Views

I retired at the end of last year, as the massive budget cuts at UNICEF ultimately hastened my decision to exit. Rather than complain, I gladly accepted the offer and happily hung up my hat after 32 wonderful years of service.  Afterwards we decided to travel, taking our time to figure out exactly where we wanted to land next.

Dear XUNICEF Colleagues: This week XUNICEF reached the 1.1 MILLION for number of hits.  We continue to average around 1000 hits per day.

This is Part 2 of my four-part blog series on wildlife photography in Japan. In Part 1, I described how the COVID years turned me into a bird photographer in Tokyo, following pond and shorebirds through parks, rivers, and Tokyo Bay. In this post, I head north and south in search of Japan’s great winter bird spectacles. Click here for Part 1 Steller’s sea eagle with its catch on the drift ice

It is with deep sorrow that we inform you of the passing of Dr. R.K. Rath, who departed peacefully on 3 June 2026 at his home in Bhubaneswar after a prolonged illness, at the age of 84.

We regret to inform you that Mr. Shriram Agarwal, popularly known as Shriramji, worked in UNICEF Lucknow office expired on 30 May 2026 after prolonged illness.  

Right in front of our house is the view of the Caribbean Sea and of a small Island, the Protestant Cay. It’s our favorite escape to relax on its beautiful beach.

With development funding rapidly shrinking, the future looks bleak, especially for the development strategist. On the bright side, public discourse has finally reached the point where we can openly discuss why so much development aid failed, or why its results always seemed so elusive whenever annual reports came due. We were  amateur actors  in a theatre production called development. I have said this  before and attracted the ire of esteemed colleagues and readers alike, because everyone understandably wants to believe they were hired for their expertise.

Daniel Kahneman gave us the language of System 1 and System 2—thinking fast and thinking slow. System 1 is automatic, intuitive, and effortless. System 2 is deliberate, analytical, and costly. Both matter. Both are trained by experience and sharpened by use. Increasingly, studies now refer to a third mode, artificial. Sadly, that might not be the end of our cognitive decline.

Recent Reader Comments Continously updated

Venus and Jupiter This will be a spectacular June,

An undetected Ebola outbreak of the rare Bundibugyo strain is sweeping through the eastern DRC, with suspected cases already over 600 after slipping under the radar for two months. 

UNICEF Canada’s AGM was held recently and I was invited to attend as a Volunteer Member. I was there in person.

Salmon by Lucinda Gibbs Readers of this blog may just remember an article on a particular painting by my mother which was stolen and found some considerable period later; was submitted to the Royal Academy’s Summer Exhibition in 1978

Dear Friends, We warmly invite you to take part in our next Open Consultation Monday discussion event:

We were looking forward to a few days in Rome to renew with a city we both like and where we have spent great times before. Despite the wonderful film that Gianni Murzi directed (see photo) our one pleasant period was a lovely lunch with Gianni in a trattoria not far from his house. There we exchanged news about UNICEF, other colleagues and friends etc in a very congenial atmosphere.  After that we both felt rather run down by the flu we had caught earlier in Geneva and I was having problems with my swollen left leg and so we spent the rest of our time around our hotel in the Parioli area which is one of the most upscale in Rome. The best we could do was a walk in the lovely park of the Villa Borghese which was close to our hotel. Even there we were not lucky because the Borghese museum was closed on that day.The very impressive buildings in the neighbourhood as well as some great restaurants became the focus of our short visit to the Eternal City. PS We had both thrown coins...

Ken's article on coffee and Burundi brought back a strange memory I have never shaken off. During my time with EMOPS I was in and out of Burundi often during the mid/late 1990s,  supporting the country team through volatile cycles of crisis and lull.

It was on account of the rebels at Bujumbura Airport that I was made to buy a packet of coffee which I didn’t want.

With a new team of editors being formed, we would like to streamline how members can submit their own articles for posting. It is easier than you think. Here is what you need to do.

  In case you missed out - here are the top ten most read posts from the Blog this week.

Having returned to Sweden after fifty years abroad—thirty of them with UNICEF—following the passing of my wife, I received my first pension payment into my Swedish bank account today. It amounted to almost SEK 100,000 for the month. That figure made me reflect.

What to do la is an occasional musing on what one former staff member has and hasn’t done since leaving UNICEF. This week – Cleaning.

For any photographer, trying to capture the Aurora Borealis feels like stepping toward a moment of truth.

Click to view!

The United Nations is running out of money — and the United States is a big reason why.

I was strolling through the lovely streets of Amsterdam when I saw this poster for a movie involving Saddam Hussein: The President's Cake. Having worked and met my life partner in Iraq, I was immediately intrigued.

Some wisdom from Japan

Sending warm wishes this Eid al-Adha. May the core messages of faith, hope, and charity bring comfort during turbulent times, and may we see a path to peace and harmony soon.

On May 25, 1986, 40 years ago, almost 20 million people in 274 cities ran 10K at the exact same time to support famine relief in Africa.

 A funny one which I had not heard before…. As reported in Quora Digest:

ICRC president, Mirjana Spoljaric The rhetoric of dehumanization may make the unthinkable feel easier to commit, but humanity holds its ground.

We regret to inform you that Mr. Dev Chopra expired on 22 May 2026 at Gurgaon after brief illness.

You may or may not have heard the news that the 80th UN General Assembly, currently in session under the motto “Better Together” and under the presidency of Ms. A. Baerbock of Germany, has decided to admit a 16th member to the Security Council.

In case you missed it - here are the top 10 posts viewed the past week - Photography festival in Kyoto; USAID in the wood chipper; UN Reform; Strength of a refugee woman and much more. Enjoy!   Three Days at the Kyotographie Festival, by Joachim Theis Posted by XUNICEF News and Views 143  This Is What Happened After We Gutted U.S.A.I.D. by Nicholas Kristof (shared by Kul Gautam) Posted by XUNICEF News and Views 113  UN Reform: Missing the Point? By Jan Vandemoortele Posted by Detlef Palm 89  The Strength of a Refugee Woman - by Rob Carr Posted by Rob Carr 83  This week's top ten posts - Joachim Theis Posted by XUNICEF News and Views 73  DOORS (by Myra Rudin) Posted by XUNICEF News and Views 63  What to do la #3 Friends? Posted by Tim Sutton 59  Gaza - No Place is Safe for Children in Gaza : Steve Umemoto Posted by XUNICEF News and Views 56  Comments by our readers, 9-15 May 2026 Posted by XUNICEF News and Views 53  More boys and their toys : Ken Gibbs Posted ...

This coming Monday, 25 May, is Memorial Day in the United States. It is observed to honor and mourn military personnel who died while serving in the U.S. Armed Forces. Originally, the day commemorated soldiers who died in the Civil War, but over time it was expanded to honor all American military personnel who died in service. It is now a federal holiday observed nationwide.

In 2018 I sat down to write an autobiographical reflection that was also a cookbook. I thought I knew what the book was about. I was wrong.

I received this interesting article by Dr. Firas Abiad about working in the public sector. Since almost all of us have dealt with governmental officials during our UNICEF careers it is certain that we rarely thought about how and in what circumstances our “counterparts” worked.

The war in the Middle East has increased prices for critical elements like fuel. The article reports how the dismantling of the U.S. Agency for International Development and cuts in humanitarian funding have severely reduced aid to vulnerable countries like Somalia at the very moment global crises are intensifying.

Title: From My University in Lebanon, I See a Society Under Fire That Refuses to Quit Author: Fadlo R. Khuri Publication: The National Date: 17 April 2026 UNICEF/UNI356240/Baz/AFP Summary: Fadlo Khuri, President of the American University of Beirut, describes the impact of the widening regional war on Lebanon, where over one million people — including 300,000 children — have been displaced, and more than 2,100 killed. On 8 April, Israeli forces fired over 100 missiles across Lebanon within ten minutes; the AUB Medical Centre received 68 casualties within the hour, many of them children. Despite the devastation, AUB is mobilising volunteers to support displaced families, maintaining academic programmes, and pressing towards a June graduation. Click here for the article Quote: "Yet again, a people who have learnt to live with disaster and uncertainty look to the American University of Beirut for hope, for excellence and for certainty amid the uncertain. No matter the challenges, the...

Doors let you in, they let you out.  Some are inviting, others say “stay out”.  As a few  XUNICEF members have previously shown, doors can be elegant, artistic, majestic, stately or simple, rustic, even crumbling and dilapidated. 

In 2015, I was working in Tanzania when violence erupted in neighboring Burundi, triggering a massive wave of refugees. (this happens every few years - it was my 3rd refugee influx/outflux I had seen in 15 years at this border.)