Weekly Digest for 18 to 25 September 2022

Welcome to a brief overview of articles that appeared last week on our website. Please don't stop here - be sure to browse the full list of articles that appeared this week. xunicefnewsandviews.blogspot.com

Our Feature of the Week

Wales and Borders Photo Tour by David Bull

David Bull takes us on a tour to Wales, a region  he likes and where he goes often. His breathtaking photographs, taken in all seasons, make you want to visit Wales. David  has many little stories to tell, and he gives us a lot of background information to many of his pictures. You may also marvel at some of the spellings of the names of the characters he is talking about, and try to pronounce Gruffydd ap Gwenwynwyn. Click here

Our Columnists This Week

 Fouad Kronfol: Soliloquy 70: The International Women's Year, 1975 

 Gianni Murzi: Speeding Up Your Daily Walk Could Have Big Benefits

 Ken Gibbs: Arranging the Furniture

 Nuzhat Shahzadi: Something New, Something Old, Something whatever

 Ramesh Shrestha: Domesticating the Nature

Sree's Quiz of the Week - This week Sree challenges you to recognize as many participants as you can, from a recent mini-reunion that took place this September

International news during the past week were dominated by the continuing war in the Ukraine and the statements by heads of state at the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) on their respective positions. The UN Meeting was clearly a platform on which to say something important, and while the global views of the UN remain largely positive, your editors were missing a more deliberate attempt by the UNGA to find a way to end the war. We also ran an article by Politico sharing similar sentiments. At least, as Horst Cerni observed, the UN lit up.   

One of the more important side-events was the Transforming Education Summit, where UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador for Climate, Vanessa Nakate, spoke. (Last week we reported on the appointment of Vanessa Nakate as the UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador). Next to all other crises the world has still to overcome, good quality education seems to become rare, with only a third of the 10-year-olds are able to read and understand a simple story. More of this also on UNICEF's own website (click here). 

You may also want to have an occasional look at the UNICEF Transparency Portal, which among other things lists past and current expenditure. As of this week, there were at least 11 countries - most of them dealing with civil unrest and war - where UNICEF has spent 100 million USD or more in 2022 alone. Of course, money alone is not going to resolve conflicts or prevent disasters, and we hope that the UN and especially UNICEF will continue to work towards global consensus and peaceful conflict resolution.  

Paula Claycomb recalls her time working for UNICEF in Sudan, including some of the staff members she was working with.

At the UNGA, Amanda Gorman read her another of her poems: An Ode We Owe

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