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Questions with no apparent answers. 1. If poison expires, is it more poisonous or is it no longer poisonous? 2. Which letter is silent in the word "Scent," the S or the C? 3. Do twins ever realize that one of them is unplanned? 4. Why is the letter W, in English, called double U? Shouldn't it be called double V? 5. Maybe oxygen is slowly killing you and It just takes 75-100 years to fully work. 6. Every time you clean something, you just make something else dirty. 7. The word "swims" upside-down is still "swims" 8. 100 years ago everyone owned a horse and only the rich had cars. Today everyone has cars and only the rich own horses. Six great confusions still unresolved. 1 At a movie theatre, which arm rest is yours? 2. If people evolve from monkeys, why are monkeys still around? 3. Why is there a 'D' in fridge, but not in refrigerator? 4. Who knew what time it was when the first clock was made? Vagaries of English Language! Ever

  Editor's Note: We are looking for photos of Einar.  If you have one, please share with us.   Dear Friends: Khun Tao, Einar's wife (formal name: Boontharika) called us early this morning to inform that Einar passed away yesterday (31 January) at 16:00 hours. The funeral (cremation) will be this Saturday, 6 February in Suphanburi, where they live.   He had started to deteriorate from both Alzheimer's disease and Parkinsonian dementia four years ago, complicated by brain and lung conditions.  Over the last few days he was unable to swallow or take any food or liquids.  She and her family have been taking care of him during this period.   I have written to some of you that they best way she could communicate with Einar at the end, was to tell him "Einar, the UNICEF car has come to pick you up."  Then he would become alert and she could bathe him and dress him.   Khun Tao mentioned that, since COVID 19 began, doctors have been coming to the house regularly and she ha

The unfortunate impact of Covid-19 on the majority of school age children Gloria

I hope this finds you well, An interesting Summit organized by our Colleague Djibril, Warm Wishes, Rima Media Advisory: Women of the Diaspora Summit: Economic Equity and COVID-19 Aviso a los Medios de Comunicación: Cumbre de Mujeres de la Diáspora: Equidad Económica y COVID-19 Communiqué de Presse: Sommet des Femmes de la Diaspora: Équité Économique et COVID-19 Women of the Diaspora Summit: Economic Equity and COVID-19 C. D. Glin, President of US African Development Foundation, Olympian Jackie Joyner-Kersee, Epsy Campbell Barr, First Vice-President of Costa Rica, Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka, Executive Director of UN Women, Diene Keita, Deputy Executive Director, UNFPA, Florizelle Liser, CEO of the Corporate Council on Africa, Hon. Olivia Grange, Minister of Culture, Gender, Entertainment and Sport, Jamaica, Hon. Filsan Abdullahi, Minister of Women, Children and the Youth, Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia and young entrepreneurs from Africa and the diaspora are among speakers at Febr

Editor's Note:  The original article includes a full interview with Ms. Snyder The UN’s First Feminist, ‘Peg’ Snyder, Is Dead at 91 By Laura E. Kirkpatrick passblue.com 11 min View Original Note: This is a short excerpt. Please read the full article by clicking the link above. Margaret C. Snyder, the founding director of Unifem, now folded into UN Women , died on Jan. 26, 2021, after a brief illness while staying in Syracuse, N.Y., near her relatives and the city where she was born. “Peg,” as she was known, was 91, days short of her birthday on Jan. 30.  "My UN career began at the UN’s Economic Commission for Africa in Addis Ababa 45 years ago. I was hired to design a five-year program to implement 1960s resolutions adopted by African women at five regional conferences sponsored by the UN and the commission, with support from the Swedish development agency. I was the first to be hired. I had worked with women in Kenya on two national women’s seminars and one East African w

The strategy produced by Kickbusch and her colleagues ends with an appendix listing myths that have come to distort public and political debate about how to manage this pandemic.  1. There is a trade-off between health and the economy.  No: the fate of our wellbeing and our wider lives go hand-in-hand.  2. We can protect vulnerable groups. Practically, given the vast numbers who are vulnerable, impossible.  3.  COVID-19 only concerns the elderly. Even among a younger population, COVID-19 is harmful, sometimes deadly.  4. Once infected, people are forever immune. We simply don't know, but unlikely.  5.  Only vaccination will save us. Over time, maybe, but not in the short term.  6.  Herd immunity can be achieved by infection. Neither a feasible nor a desirable strategy.  7.  Closing schools is more stressful for children and families than keeping them open. What may matter more is scaled up educational and economic support.  8.  Vaccinations will end the COVID-19 pandemic quickly

Children at Al Hol Camp ©ICRC UN urges countries to repatriate 27,000 children from Syria By EDITH M. LEDERER Go.com 3 min View Original UNITED NATIONS -- The U.N. counterterrorism chief is urging countries to repatriate the 27,000 children stranded in a massive camp in northeastern Syria , many of them sons and daughters of Islamic State extremists who once controlled large swathes of Iraq and Syria . Vladimir Voronkov told an informal meeting of the U.N. Security Council on Friday that “the horrific situation of the children in Al Hol (camp) is one of the most pressing issues in the world today.” The 27,000 children “remain stranded, abandoned to their fate,” vulnerable to be preyed on by Islamic State enforcers, “and at risk of radicalization within the camp,” he said. Al Hol, the largest camp for refugees and displaced Syrians in the country, is currently home to almost 62,000 residents, according to U.N. humanitarian officials. More than 80% are women and children, many who fled

    Click on the link below to browse all articles xunicefnewsandviews.blogspot.com From Your Editors - UNICEF@75 Who taught you, who helped you, who inspired you, who led you when you came to UNICEF?   These are the questions we are posing to our readers for the March Quarterly.  You, yourself, perhaps did not work with UNICEF in those first 25 years, but you certainly met others who did.  We are looking for personal stories, funny stories, impressions, and even gossip (the good kind) about those people who gave us a hand up and taught us the ropes in UNICEF.   In short, we want this edition to tell the story of the people - the weird wonderful people - who pulled UNICEF together in those early years.  They need not be the 'big guns'.  UNICEF worked thanks to its people small and big, humble and great, unknown and famous.  Tell us about them please. We thank everyone who submitted suggestions for ways to celebrate this UNICEF@75 year.  Based partly on those suggestions we are

  Back to School Daze - Again! My daily walk often takes me past Pioneer Elementary (our local elementary school).  It was nice this Monday to see (and hear) the kids back in the playground after several months of closure.  By my informal count this is the fourth time this school year that the district has tried to open the school.  Each reopening has lasted for not more than 3 to 4 weeks.  Then someone - a teacher, staff, or student - tests positive and the school closes again.   Colorado Springs and most municipalities in Colorado make decisions on opening and closing of schools  at a district level, meaning that the city and county are a patchwork of open schools and closed schools, often located quite close to each other.   The Biden Administration has come into office committed to reopening schools.  The Trump team had similar aspirations.  So too state and local officials - each vowing to put kids back in their classrooms - 'soon'.  This seems one of the very rare issues

Regina Costillo Dear partners and friends, At this moment, when we share our deepest sympathies for all the lives lost and the destroyed livelihoods, allow me to share my concern especially for the children affected by the earthquake and their families and invite you to join our humanitarian efforts. The most devastating earthquake that has hit Croatia in 140 years, has left the citizens of Petrinja, Sisak, Glina, Sisak-Moslavina County, Zagreb and numerous smaller cities and villages without homes, properties and lives. The earthquake has directly affected as many as 70,000 people, including 13,000 children, devastating schools, kindergartens, social welfare institutions and the region’s largest hospital. MIlej/UNICEF We know that the needs of children will be long-term and as UNICEF, we plan to be there to help children overcome the trauma by the provision of psychosocial support, help them find joy in playing by facilitating child friendly spaces and other interventions and ma

UNICEF Providing Psychosocial Support in Earthquake-Hit Area ZAGREB, 29 January, 2021 - Mobile teams of selected experts in psychosocial support for children and families in the areas of Glina, Petrinja and Sisak, hit by a devastating earthquake on 29 December, have started working, their priority being foster families. The project was initiated by the Labour, Pension System, Family Affairs and Social Policy Ministry and the Society for Psychological Assistance with support from UNICEF, UNICEF said on Friday. Mobile teams will give priority to foster families, notably those whose homes have been damaged, and at-risk families included in social welfare programmes. There are 49 foster families in Sisak-Moslavina County and 32 of them live in the areas hit by the earthquake. Those families care for 125 foster children, and 82 live in Sisak, Petrinja and Glina. Marina Ajduković of the Society for Psychological Assistance said that in situations such as natural disasters it was important to

Children with vision for better world awarded with tablets from UNICEF By Stabroek News stabroeknews.com 1 min View Original UNICEF Representative Nicolas Pron yesterday presented three of the winners of UNICEF Guyana’s Reimagine Illustration Challenge with Samsung tablet computers. For World Children’s Day 2020, the local UNICEF office challenged Guyanese children between the ages of 8 and 18 years to draw and submit their vision of a better world for every child. A release yesterday from UNICEF said that over two dozen submissions were received, each expressing diverse themes, such as, a vision for a greener and more sustainable world, a future without discrimination, a safer world, a more inclusive world, a healthier world, a world of more opportunities, a happier world and the future of mental health and education, among other themes. According to UNICEF, twelve submissions were selected to be featured in UNICEF Guyana’s Annual Calendar.

Fair Finance: How can the global inequality gap be narrowed? By news.un.org 4 min View Original UN Special Envoy Hiro Mizuno. Hiro Mizuno Before his appointment as Special Envoy, on 30 December 2020, Mr. Mizuno, of Japan, served as Chief Investment Officer of the Japan Government Pension Investment Fund (GPIF). He serves on the board of the Principles for Responsible Investment Association (PRI, an UN-backed body that aims to create sustainable markets that contribute to a more prosperous world for all), and has taken part in UN discussions on promoting the Sustainable Development Goals . UN NEWS: How did you come to be involved with the UN and sustainable investment? Hiro Mizuno: My journey started with a charity dinner around seven years ago, when I found myself sat next to former UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan. I was a partner at a private equity firm at the time, and Mr. Annan asked me why Japanese investors were not interested in ESG (Environmental, Social and Governance investin

Plans for the March 2021 Quarterly are finally coming together.  Thanks to the many suggestions we received from our readers and our editors, we are able to lay out more concrete plans.  Our inbox for suggestions and comments, however, is still open and we welcome your thoughts. Our March edition will include three sections.      WE NEED YOUR HELP in all three areas: * moments in the history of those first 25 years - events, photos, videos * beneficiaries - what we know of the beneficiaries of UNICEF assistance;  some like Audrey Hepburn returned to help others, some went on to leadership roles, but what about others who stayed in touch.  Did you stay in touch with any of those beneficiaries of our programmes who you met during the years you worked for UNICEF? * UNICEF's people and characters we knew - the weird and wonderful characters who made UNICEF work in those early years. We need your recollections of the people who brought you to UNICEF, helped you get started, mentored

 

For our wordsmiths..... Clever anagrams Someone with too much time on their hands had fun unscrambling these! But yes, clever is the right word to describe them… Someone out there must be "deadly" atScrabble. Fouad PRESBYTERIAN: When you rearrange the letters: BEST IN PRAYER ASTRONOMER: When you rearrange the letters: MOON STARER DESPERATION: When you rearrange the letters: A ROPE ENDS IT THE EYES: When you rearrange the letters: THEY SEE GEORGE BUSH: When you rearrange the letters: HE BUGS GORE THE MORSE CODE: When you rearrange the letters: HERE COME DOTS DORMITORY: When you rearrange the letters: DIRTY ROOM SLOT MACHINES: When you rearrange the letters: CASH LOST IN ME ANIMOSITY: When you rearrange the letters: IS NO AMITY ELECTION RESULTS: When you rearrange the letters: LIES - LET'S RECOUNT SNOOZE ALARMS: When you rearrange the letters: ALAS! NO MORE Z 'S A DECIMAL POINT: When you rearrange the letters: I'M A DOT IN PLACE THE EARTHQUAKES: When you rearrange t

Gautam joined UNICEF in 1985 as APO for the ICDS Programme in Patna, India where both his daughters were born. To that extent they were both his “UNICEF Girl Child” babies. Of course they are highly empowered young women now. Gautam now enjoys being a grandparent to his grandchildren all still under the age of two. He affectionately calls them UNICEF Babies Mark II. You will get a glimpse of these treasured moments when you see his pencil art collection. From Patna, Gautam was posted to Calcutta (now Kolkata), and then to UNICEF Baghdad in 1991, as the focal point for the Iraq Emergency. He left Baghdad on sabbatical in1995 and due to unexpected family emergencies; he regrettably never made it back to UNICEF! Gautam embarked on a different path when he started his legal practice in London, where he continued till 2014. He had the privilege to serve again in Baghdad for a year between 2009-2010 as Judicial Advisor to the newly set up Judicial Development Institute under a US State Dep

Horst Max Cerni commented on "Insights from Ouside the Bubble #9: Imagine the Prize : Detlef Palm" 3 hours ago    Good observations. It would be good if you could get hired as a consultant to get things right. Sree Gururaja commented on "We Have Only One World : Britain Has Talent / Ramesh Shrestha" Jan 26, 2021    how uplifting and Ramesh, thanks for posting this beautifully rendered group song! the children were sincere and their message was clear! Now, the adults have to respond with action. mopara2015@gmail.com commented on "Weekly Update - 17 to 24 January 2021" Jan 25, 2021    Thanks for sharing and warm regards. jjmohan@hotmail.com commented on "Weekly Update - 17 to 24 January 2021" Jan 25, 2021    Thanks �� for another magnificent edition full of news, wonderful memories of Jim Grant and inspiration from Amanda Gorman. Jim Mohan Sree Gururaja commented on "Our Photographer of the Week - Bruce Kennedy" Jan 25, 2021

  Great video...Yes, the women are coming - and they are welcome. Fouad

On Iran, Biden should start by freeing the hostages Opinion by Elliott Abrams Elliott Abrams is a senior fellow for Middle Eastern studies at the Council on Foreign Relations in Washington. Many issues relating to Iran are complicated, but one is very simple: Iran keeps taking American hostages. The Biden administration must secure their releases. And it shouldn’t stop there: It should also take action to end hostage-taking by the regime in Tehran. Not one sanction on Iran should be lifted until this has been achieved. Iran’s practice of taking American hostages began in 1979 when the U.S. Embassy was overrun. It has never stopped but, now, the regime is focusing on those with dual citizenship. As the Biden administration came into office, it was greeted with the unjust conviction and jailing of a fourth American. As NBC reported on Jan. 17, Emad Shargi, 56, was told on Nov. 30 that he had been convicted of espionage without a trial and sentenced to 10 years. Shargi’s family has not