Weekly Digest for 17 to 24 July 2022

Welcome to the summary of selected articles that appeared last week on our website xunicefnewsandviews.blogspot.com

The Big Bang and Black Swams: Some Thoughts
by Luis Oliveros

This week Luis Oliveros is back with some deep thoughts about what we think of as 'facts' are only true until they are proven wrong.  He tells us that travel is an opportunity to move outside our comfort zone and challenge what we think we know.  Click here.

Mary Racelis and Jim Mayrides answer our 10 Questions this week.  Mary was visiting Jim and Elayne Mayrides last week and so Jim and Mary took the opportunity to do the 10 questions together.  We think that this is a very good innovation and we look forward to future mini-reunions providing responses.    

Click here to see the answers given by earlier contributors.  Consider sending us your own responses to these ten questions at xunicef.news.views@gmail.com 

Steve Woodhouse chatted with us this week from his home in Penang, Malaysia.  

Did you miss one of our earlier chats? You can find the full collection here. Would you like to chat with us - or record you own chat with an old colleague?  Let us know.

In the media - Let's go with the good news first: 

Ukraine - An agreement on export of Ukrainian grain - the deal is a great step forward for food prices in the many countries which desperately need grain, but now the hard work of implementing the agreement lies ahead.  (It became all the harder on the day following the signing of the agreement when Russia bombarded Ukraine's only open port, Odessa).   It was nice to see the SG at the table of those signing the agreement.  This was due recognition of the role the UN has played in the negotiations.  Yet, at the same time take a look also at The UN Hasn't Been Useless in Ukraine, a backhanded compliment of sorts to the role of the UN in armed conflicts, but also an indication of hard it is for UN agencies to tell the story of the good work they are doing.

Cross-border aid for Syria - after a long and contentious debate the Security Council finally agreed on 11 July to a six-month extension of cross-border aid for northeastern Syria.  This was far less that aid agencies had asked, but alas six months is better than none.  Keep in mind then that the next tough debate on aid to northern Syria will come in mid-winter.  

Al Hol - it is hard to class as 'good news' anything to do with the continued detention without trial of thousands of women and children in this enormous prison camp in northeast Syria. The good news is only that it finally has found front page attention in the NY Times. Will new attention bring about an acceleration of repatriations?  We hope so, but are not crossing our fingers.

On the 'bad news' side:

Kids missing shots - the alarm raised by WHO and UNICEF over the disruption in vaccinations for young children is in the news again this week with the warning that 25 million children missed their shots in 2021.  Add this to the fact that in developed countries, many parents are intentionally keeping their children unimunized either due to ideology or to misinformation.  Reports this week of the first case of polio appearing in the US in the past 10 years is just one warning sign of disaster ahead for the unimunized.

Children killed and wounded (again) in NE Syria - at least 5 children were killed and 9 injured in an attack. Add this to the growing threat of a Turkish incursion into northern Syria (see the story on Al Hol above), and it is clear that the Syrian War is not yet over.  

Now for XUNICEF news - which we hope is only 'good news'

Letter to President Biden - 111 American former staff of UNICEF and the UN signed a letter to Presdient Biden calling on the US Administration to give high priority to the freeing of Siamak Namazi from prison and freedom for both Siamak and his father, Baquer Namazi, to travel out of Iran.

Nepal Reunion - we were delighted to see the news that the Nepal retirees met for an overdue get-together after a long postponement due to the pandemic.  We hope more XUNICEF country and regional teams will take the cue and hold similar reunions.  We look forward to the global reunion, but let's not wait for then.  Smaller groups - local, national, and cross-country are also possible.  Groups could follow the lead shown a few years ago by GCO in holding a divisional multi-country reunion or that done some years ago by staff who worked in former Yugoslavia.

More mini-reunions - Gianni Murzi met Marco Vianello-Chiodo in the latest of several 'mini-reunions'.  Mary Racelis and Jim Mayrides used the opportunity of their own min-reunion to submit this week's joint response to our 10 Questions.  We will have photos of their meeting in next week's newsletter.  We hope that all our members are using their travels as opportunities to call in and meet old friends and colleagues.  Please keep up the good work and send us a little text and a few photos about those meetings.    

Chats - while we are on the subject of reunions, please keep in mind that you don't need to travel to meet old friends.  A phone call or even better a video call is another great way to catch up.  Pick up the phone or open up your computer and chat with those you haven't contacted recently.  If possible, click the record button and send us a copy.  That way we can share your chats more widely.

Mr. V. Radhakrishnan, RIP - don't miss his poem, God's Dailogue with Me, shown below.

Former UNICEF Staff in Nepal held a national reunion on 11 July

Mini-Reunion in Tuscany - Marco Vianello-Chiodo and Gianni Murzi

Ken Gibbs:                 Technical Cooperation with a Difference

Fouad Kronfol            Soliloquy of a Postage Stamp, #61 , the International Year of Human Rights

Gianni Murzi              Keep Exercising to Keep Your Microbiome Happy    

Ramesh Shrestha:       Can One Learn Happiness?

Nuzhat Shahzadi         There are Mountains to Climb

Mohindra Kumar shared a poem by the late V. Radhakrishnan - God's Dialogue with Me

Robert Cohen shared with us a poem by the late Turkish poet, Nazim Hikmet, - Things I Didn't Know I Loved.  

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