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 Artist of the Week - Gautam Banerji
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| A Lonely Walk |
This week Gautam introduces us to several of his recent works. He tells us that in his exploration of abstract painting he is deeply influenced by Gerhard Richter and Jackson Pollock. He also gives us a sample of his 'alternative photography'. Click here to read "Cyanotype, Lithography and more". Gautam is a frequent contributor to News & Views and his work has appeared previously as our Artist of the Week in January 2021 with a gallery of his colorful geometric pencil drawings and as our Photographer of the Week in July 2021.
Our Columnists This Week
Fouad Kronfol - Soliloquy #75 - United Nations Day Commemorations 1951 - 1960
Gianni Murzi - Falling at the Final Hurdle
Nuzhat Shahzadi - Every Night is a Pointless Prayer for Change.jpg)
Iran - violent confrontations between security forces and demonstrators continued through the week, resulting in many arrests, injuries and deaths, including among children. A shocking report by the Guardian told of a schoolgirl beaten to death for refusing to sing a pro-regime anthem.
The Executive Director issued a statement on October 10th, reiterating the SG's call for Iranian authorities to refrain from using unnecessary force. The CRC Committee then issued a statement on October 17th pointing to deaths of at least 23 children and injuries to hundreds more, along with reports of torture and transfer of children detained to centers for "psychological correction". We are aware of severe criticism by many who claim that the UN and UNICEF have taken a relatively silent voice and passive response to the crisis. We hope UNICEF in particular will soon find a way to speak out again clearly on the situation of children's rights and the rights of women in Iran. At the same time we fully recognize the difficulty in doing so, while at the same time maintaining an office and country programme in Iran.
Ethiopia Tigray - Peace talks convened by the African Union finally got off to a (quite shaky) start this week in South Africa. So far there are few signs of progress and some observers fear that military advances may quickly overtake any negotiations. Despite reports of widespread hunger, virtually no humanitarian aid has been able to reach people in Tigray since August.
The SG issued a statement on October 15th noting the escalation of fighting after a the collapse of a fragile 5 month humanitarian truce fell apart ended aid shipments to the region. UNICEF spoke out in response to an air raid on a kindergarten in Mekele in late August, but since then has remained rather silent. At this point it seems that there is little that the UN or UNICEF can do beyond hope for some success of the peace talks.
Syria / Lebanon - We were concerned to read MENA's report that an epidemic of cholera has resulted in over 20,000 cases in Syria and at least 75 deaths. In Lebanon there have been 10 deaths and 448 cases in recent weeks. Conditions in both countries are ripe for further spread of the epidemic.
Climate Change - COP 27 will begin on November 6th in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt. In the run-up to this critical conference on Climate Change, several organizations have begun reporting on the impacts of a rapidly changing climate. We were impressed by the International Crisis Group's report 'Floods, Displacement and Violence in South Sudan' which gives a striking visual picture of how climate issues have become issues of ethnic violence. For its part, UNICEF has been reporting on how recent floods in Pakistan may be a precursor of future catastrophes and how rising frequency of heatwaves may impact some 2.02 billion children by 2050
India - the one 'good news' story we report this week is on a decision taken by India's Supreme Court at the end of September making clear the rights of women in India to reproductive rights, including abortion. We were pleased to see the decision and the implications it may have on similar issues in other countries.
We appreciated the introduction Sree Gururaja added to the Al Jazeera article explaining how the previous MTP act on abortion ended up having a negative impact on women and children. This turnabout happened when husbands and mothers-in-law used medical tools to identify the gender of a fetus and then forced women carrying female fetuses to abort their pregnancies. In short, like any step forward, establishing a 'right' requires more than a legal decision; it requires careful follow up and evaluation of its impacts, especially when women may have a limited knowledge of their rights.
Senior Staff - The ED has announced an unusually long list of appointments this week ! Our congratulations to all. We wish you all the best in your new assignments.
Off days - Amid rising numbers of people affected by COVID and flu, we noted with concern this week a decrease in the normal flow of articles we receive from our readers. This included the absence of contributions to '10 Questions' and 'A Quick Chat'. Several of our editorial team have also been 'under the weather' this week. We hope that all our readers (and our editors) are well and will soon be back to writing, photographing, painting, and contributing to our publication.
Halloween - This coming Monday many children (and some adults) will celebrate Halloween. Once again UNICEF natcoms in the US, Canada, Mexico, and Ireland will be sponsoring 'Trick or Treat' fundraising by children. In case you missed the article on the history of the UNICEF Halloween campaigns, 'A Cow Leads the way to Halloween' that we published in May 2021 as part of Tom McDermott's 'A Little History' series.
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