XUNICEF News and Views

A new year and new hope for children With the new year fast approaching, I find myself thinking a lot about the concept of hope — both the power of having it and the despair that can consume us when it is gone.

 

Escalating conflicts, disasters, food insecurity, and disease outbreaks have combined to create unprecedented global humanitarian needs in 2024. From Haiti, to the State of Palestine and Sudan, grave violations , violence and devastated essential services are leaving millions of children at risk. Meanwhile, climate shocks, food insecurity, and disease outbreaks have left families from Afghanistan to Democratic Republic of the Congo to Myanmar reeling.

  This arrived today. What a coincidence to commemorate achievements, on New Year's Eve! It couldn't have made me happier as a part of the celebration of the year that has ended. Happy New Year to all!. Gautam Banerji  

his note and its photo-illustrated attachment, completed on Boxing Day 2023, we wish you blessings and good health in the coming year. Wendy & Tony

As we turn to 2024, we are grateful for our family and friends and hope you are all well.

PEACE !

An interesting review of the recent up-tick of stories about sexual violence that ,among others, targetted the UN Women agency and has produced much press world-wide, including two of our XUNICEF members who commented about the subject in the Digest, with both supporting the unfounded accusations. I believe we should publish it as it refers to one of our sister agencies and casts serious doubts on the utilization of this narrative to discredit and de-humanize the Palestinian side. Fouad

Every year at this time, Nick Kristoff writes an upbeat story on how humanity continues to make progress in child survival and poverty reduction despite horrific tales of natural and man-made disasters that rightly dominate the news headlines.

  On November 6th we published the announcement of Sheela Sheth's new book, "Journey Through Captivity" - click here for the announcement.

I generally find Tom Friedman's analysis perceptive, and his suggestions pragmatic.

Article shared by Sharif Alam

  Instagram post shared by Niloufar Pourzand

YouTube video shared by Niloufar Pourzand

Article shared by Viviane Sakkal

Deeply related to lack of universal health care; child poverty & inequality; high rates of gun violence; junk food, drug abuse, etc. 

Partly through personal interest and partly through coincidence, I spent all of 2023 focused on Afghanistan. Having served with the UNICEF Afghanistan Country Office in 1998 and 1999, under Louis-Georges Arsenault, the country is close to my heart. I remain in touch with several colleagues from those days, including Niloufar Pourzand, Ellen van Kalmthout, Anoja Wijeysekera,Hafiza Rasouli, Suraya Dalil and Rafi Mohammad.

According to Newton’s universal law of gravity what goes up must come down with a speed depending on its mass/weight. Democracy too, although does not have a physical weight/mass, is also coming down as it appears to have peaked in its utility and popularity.

MENA Statement shared by Mary Sidawi

Greetings. Just in case any of you former UN Officials are interested, please find below the invitation from FOGGS to support a letter of advocacy to the UN Secretary General about Gaza. See highlighted links below to read and then endorse.

Our readers will recall that in June UNICEF, ICRC and the Ministry of Social  Development carried out a n evacuation of orphaned infants from the Al-Mayguma orphanage in Khartoum.  This followed week of isolation during which the orphanage was cut off from food and electricity.  By the time access was again opened, at least 71 of the children had died.  A total of 257 orphans were then moved from the orphanage in Khartoum to Wad Medani which was at the time safe.  Over the past two weeks Wad Medani became the focus of new battles between the Army and the RSF and the city fell to the RSF.  

post shared by Niloufar Pourzand

Ms. Sigrid Kaag of the Netherlands - Senior Humanitarian and Reconstruction Coordinator for Gaza pursuant to Security Council Resolution 2720 (2023)

Instagram post shared by Niloufar Pourzand

I am deeply saddened to announce the death of our UNDP colleague and his family in Gaza today. Issam Al Mughrabi (56), his wife Lamya’a (53), and his children Mohammad (32), Suad (30), Lama (27), Luai (23), Obaideh (13), were killed by an Israeli air strike near Gaza City today. The airstrike also reportedly killed more than 70 members of his extended family.

Dear Friends All, This communication comes your way to wish you a Merry X'MAS and A Happy New Year--2024. The spirit of Christmas has spread worldwide {like the English language}, promoting PEACE even though there are some among them who keep selling or providing armaments that make for the current MINI-WARS ......

 From the Xunicefers Reunion Toronto forum on Whatsapp

The link we posted earlier was to the live concert. The link below has been corrected to lead to the recorded version.

I hadn't seen the W Post article on this posted to XUnicef before but did see the Democracy Now segment with Mitri Raheb, the Palestinian pastor of the Lutheran church in Bethlehem (West Bank) that Q Rania references.

Settlement of Har Homa next to Bethlehem Article shared by Margherita Amodeo

The so-called Global North has domineered the world for the past several hundred years. The term developed world was changed to the West and the West was in turn changed to the Global North. How Australia and New Zealand fit into the Global North, both in the east and the south, is not clear, but semantics may not matter. The Global North's dominance is coming to an end.

Article shared by Niloufar Pourzand Summary: The article discusses efforts to discredit the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) amid the crisis in Gaza. It focuses on unsubstantiated claims made by groups like UN Watch and IMPACT-se that UNRWA schools promote anti-Semitism. These are just the latest efforts to malign UNRWA are part of a pattern of biased attacks aiming to undermine the agency as it fulfills its mandate to support Palestinian refugees amid an acute humanitarian crisis. - UN Watch and IMPACT-se have published false stories about UNRWA recently, like that a teacher held an Israeli captive and Germany halted funding. Both claims were firmly rebutted. - Such smear campaigns accompany every major Israeli-Palestinian clash, but the credibility of the claims requires scrutiny. UN Watch is known to "sensationalize" criticism of UNRWA. - IMPACT-se also has a history of mistranslations and misrepresentations regarding Palestinian Authority curric

am shared by Niloufar Pourzand View this post on Instagram A post shared by United Nations Geneva (@ungeneva)

Nasser Hospital - Following the airstrick on 13 December Article shared by Niloufar Pourzand  Summary: Gaza's health system faces collapse amid a humanitarian catastrophe, with overwhelmed, understaffed and undersupplied hospitals struggling valiantly to save lives despite a grim outlook.  Of 36 hospitals in Gaza only 27 are still operating. Nasser Hospital is the largest and is overwhelmed with patients.  The hospital is operating at 3 times capacity with critical supply and staff shortages.  80% of Nasser Hospital's doctors have been blocked from reaching the facility due to Israel's ground offensive.  - 310 health workers have been killed and 99 arrested by Israel so far. Attacks continue around Nasser Hospital. The maternity ward was hit, killing a child. - Staff fear an Israeli raid and shutdown of the hospital like what occurred at al-Shifa Hospital. If so, hundreds would die as services halt. But staff vow to stay.   -- Exhausted staff breakdown seeing the shocking c

Bethlehem church - Christ child born amid the rubble  Article shared by Mary Sidawi Sharing this link with regard to the above on Gaza on the occasion of Christmas. Hope you can include it in the newsletter. Mary Click here or https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2023/12/21/queen-rania-christmas-canceled-holy-land-gaza/

Each year, UNICEF Germany has awarded the “UNICEF Photo of the Year Award” to photos and photo series that best depict the personality and living conditions of children worldwide in an outstanding manner. Here are the winners 2023.

Shower with a touch of gel Shaving with the weather girl Felons and stock market news Coffee brew with cinnamon E-checking on the mails Numbers of the suffering The memories and darkness Questions of the mysteries My legs are weak and ache some days Most days my legs are strong For life’s burgeoning of loss The freight on every train Talk of shoes and real estate Disneyworld ways of escape Such torments don’t distract me I am writing for the cause For the justice and the love Sign-off from the 13th floor And maybe from the one above I climb this hillside every day Hopeful and anxious as I sing To reach first base, the very place Where work for children may begin. ***** Click here for  more poems by Richard Morgan

In our day-to-day living we converse with people with diverse personalities – introverts, extroverts, diplomats, storytellers, fakes, perjurers and even frauds. On many occasions people may have to read between the lines to understand what is being said or observe body language to get the tentative facts of what is not being said. We live in a society overloaded with verified and unverified information. As the saying goes, two people talking about politics can have three opinions. This overload of information complicates our conversations not knowing what is real and what is false. This is our world today. The United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) chamber is filled with well-educated and well mannered (so we think) diplomats representing 193-member countries. We may find maximum diversity in their personalities as they come from varied backgrounds in language, religion, cultural and social values. People express their feelings or react to a situation through verbal expression or throu

©NPR Hard reading. Timely safe affordable transport to hospital before birth remains a savage killer. In 25 years of UN work the only time I received a personal thank you from a head of state was after we bent some guidelines to supply a bunch of low cost low tech ambulances for maternity transport. Liberia, from their first woman head of state. John Gilmartin “What’s tragic is that now you could look back to the situation in April of 2021 and feel like it’s some kind of halcyon vision of the past, when, in fact, it was very, very grim,” said Heather Barr , the interim co-director of the Women’s Rights Division at Human Rights Watch. “It’s just that we didn’t realize then how much worse things could get.” Click here for the article in PassBlue

Article shared by Robert Cohen Click here for the full article on IPS - The political significance of US-Israeli differences is easily exaggerated.  There are tensions in the US-Israel relationship over Israel's actions in Gaza, but these have not resulted in any reduction of US support for Israel, which remains total and unconditional. The US is complicit in and a full partner in Israel's actions.

Twitter post shared by Dan Toole In case not seen. A strong Unicef voice for children : James Elder - he is excellent!! https://x.com/1james_elder/status/1737107611089272902?s=48&t=0jX7PsXxew0k2GkNqIXaVg In war, words matter too. And truth has been lethally absent. #Gaza pic.twitter.com/PdKxNB1QGy — James Elder (@1james_elder) December 19, 2023

  Nasser Hospital in Khan Yunis following attack Instagram post shared by Niloufar Pourzand View this post on Instagram A post shared by UNICEF (@unicef)

Shared by Douglas Higgins. From the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem https://www.lpj.org/posts/gaza-16th-december-2023.html?s_cat=1102 "Around noon today 16th December 2023, a sniper of the IDF murdered two Christian women inside the Holy Family Parish in Gaza, where the majority of Christian families have taken refuge since the start of the war. Nahida and her daughter Samar were shot and killed as they walked to the Sister's Convent. One was killed as she tried to carry the other to safety. Seven more people were shot and wounded as they tried to protect others inside the church compound. No warning was given, and no notification was provided. They were shot in cold blood inside the premises of the Parish, where there are no belligerents. Earlier in the morning, a rocket fired from an IDF tank targeted the Convent of the Sisters of Mother Theresa (Missionaries of Charity). The Convent is home to over 54 disabled persons and is part of the church compound, which was signalled

Victoria, on the southern tip of Vancouver Island in the Canadian province of British Colombia, has been listed among the highest quality-of-life cities in the world. With a population of only about 92,000 and a metropolitan population of just under 400,000, it is Canada’s seventh-largest city. That part of Vancouver Island was occupied by the Songhees, one of several of the Coast Salish peoples, probably for several centuries before the arrival of the first Spanish and English explorers in the 1770s. The first European settlement was a trading post of the Hudson Bay Company in 1843 – first named “Fort Albert” and shortly changed to “Fort Victoria”.

      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

 

Michael Rosen wrote this reflection on childhood in Gaza during the Israel / Gaza war of 2008 / 2009, known as Operation Cast Lead', the 22 day war in which over 1,400 Palestinians died, many of them children.  The poem first appeared in the journal of the Institute for Policy Studies on January 16, 2009.

 

The Swiss Federal Assembly recently debated ending its annual contribution of 20 million Swiss francs to the U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA). On Monday, the lower house, the National Council, voted 116-78 to cut the funding. However, on Thursday, the Council of States, the upper house, opted to continue the contribution, rejecting the proposed cut in a 23-21 vote.  

  Instagram post shared by Niloufar Pourzand

Article shared by Robert Cohen Click here for the original article Going back to the 1970s, thousands of UN staffers were given legal status opting for permanent residency in the US– after their retirement.

Thanks, Prof. Sachs, for articulating clearly what seems like the 1950s McCarthy-era witch hunts being conducted as part of some Congressional hearings in 2023. https://www.commondreams.org/opinion/student-free-speech-palestinian-rights

 A "safezone" in #Gaza will ONLY be SAFE when a ceasefire enables aid agencies to provide sufficient resources for the survival of children and families. ie: Water, Sanitation, Medical facilities, food. It's still not happening. https://t.co/YG5CXktcN7 — James Elder (@1james_elder) December 14, 2023

A fun fact!   For those of us who have used & enjoyed rickshaws in South Asia especially.

I have worked in two different periods of Somalia's recent history, the first period towards the end of the dictatorship of Siad Barre and the beginning of the civil war. My second period came 20 years later during one of the more violent periods of the country's long history of instability.

Each time the Fiji airlines Boeing jet tried to land on the narrow air strip of Tarawa, I held my breath . . . a few feet off the mark and we could “safely” slide into the roaring waves of the Pacific Ocean. As we descended, there was only water and water below. . . the smell of warmth invaded the cabin space. 

What a beautiful fusion of a much loved Christmas Carol and our Indian dance form! Mary’s’ Boy Child’ Do watch ! Merry Christmas ! Girija Devi

Note that Rima Salah is one of the speakers in this webinar Pete McDermott shares the following notice to all interested:

Our hearts are with our @SavetheChildren friends & colleagues following an airstrike in Gaza that killed a staff member and his family, including four young children. Humanitarian workers and civilians, especially children, are paying an unconscionable price for the violence. — Catherine Russell (@unicefchief) December 13, 2023

  shared by Niloufar Pourzand

What follows is a letter dated 25 – April – 1999, sent to the Swedish doctor who had been the MSF Coordinator in Tete Province when I was posted by MSF to work there. She was suffering a tightly wound biological clock in which her paramour ‘Christian’ a Frenchman, was willing to cooperate. They married not long after she left Tete.