XUNICEF News and Views

Article shared by Tom McDermott

Interview shared by John Gilmartin

Recently I was asked if I'd like to be interviewed on The Authors Show regarding my latest book, My University of the World. Neill

Twitter posts shared by Tom McDermott

We are still celebrating our sixth anniversary  March 20, 2018 to March 20, 2024

Article shared by Fouad Kronfol A nice article about paper, as an antidote for the digital revolution, from a friend. For those of us who are not comfortable with the increased intrusion of "virtuallity" in our world it is an engaging read. As a stamp collector as well as a bibliophile, I am very much more at home with paper than with screens.

Article shared by Fouad Kronfol

Article shared by Andre Roberfroid

For the full results of the survey, see below Editor's Note: Updated - an earlier version of this post dropped two pages of the report, including the conclusions.  These have now been added.  Our apologies for any confusion caused.

Article shared by John Gilmartin

Faith plays a strong role in creating resilience, combating despair––it forks out hopes in the face of hopelessness. As I reflect back, I remember numerous stories of victims and survivors, wronged and wounded––recounted their labored journeys through the black-holes of life, grasped at their faith for healing, plodding ahead.

News shared by Niloufar Pourzand

From the photo editor: Myra Rudin is a regular contributor to News & Views and her travel photo essays successfully  featured in past issues of our Blog.  This time she shares her frames under a different theme as she moves from travel to documentary photography capturing people demonstrating and showing their dissent on various subjects. She does this with great panache as she reiterates the power of photography to capture the moment and immortalise it. 

GOSH ! Cant believe it is six years, Of blood, sweat and, yes, tears, Going backwards in arrears Our senior moments each of us clears.

Article shared by Tom McDermott

Report shared by Janet Nelson

Date 25 March 2024 Meeting no. 9,520 Code S/RES/2728(2024) ( Document ) Subject Israel–Hamas war ,  Gaza humanitarian crisis Voting summary 14 voted for None voted against 1 abstained Result Adopted The Security Council,

"It’s not just funding that’s waning — moral backing is eroding too. We hear it argued that the U.N. should be scrapped, that it makes no difference; is broken, bureaucratic and corrupt."

After three years in the top humanitarina post, Martin Griffiths is stepping down for health reasons.

Prepared from a computer draft started in December, 1999, in Tirana, Albania. The advantage is that computer files don’t gather dust and take up less space; but does this make them any more readable ? Judge for yourself. ***** If I were good at crossword puzzles I’d have far less trouble with Albanian wine lists and menus than I do.

While I do not exactly remember the date when I joined the four (?) editors of XUNICEF News and Views, I ‘ve been with them at least five years. Living in a different time zone from the others had its advantages. You could always work at night and catch up fulfilling the deadlines . At the same time, be the first one to respond pronto to messages and drafts drinking my morning coffee. However, this  did become a problem when we held our Friday meetings , as 12 noon New York time which in winters is late, 10.30 pm in Bangalore but we managed.

I never expected to live so long In those shell-shocked years when the cancer came In the proliferate shadow of the nuclear bomb With wars fanning out like toxic flowers It was hard to believe and grow up tall Without a shield or a place to fall.

He who fails to plan is planning to fail – Winston Churchill Since its first publication in 1972, authors of an epic publication ‘Limits to Growth’ is being updated every five years in collaboration with specialists with backgrounds in geology, ecology, agriculture, physics, economics, geography, environmental science, etc. The essence of the findings of this study was that the world could see ecological and economic collapse risking the collapse of human civilisation by the mid 21st century. The findings of this study have been presented in various international forums regularly including in the European Parliament yet, the actions by the politicians, policy makers and business conglomerates remained sluggish at best. Even the actions taken in controlling global warming started late and remained inadequate despite being warned since early 1960s. Still, this publication the authors received scathing comments by many accusing them as ‘prophesies of doom’ and wanting to install ‘world di

  Instagram post shared by Niloufar Pourzand / Statement text from UN Human Rights Council

  Article shared by Niloufar Pourzand

Article shared by Robert Cohen

Editor's Note: To mark the sixth anniversary of News & Views, we asked several authors who contributed to our early editions to revisit their articles and both 'look back' over the intervening years, and 'look forward to what lies ahead.

Photo shared by Fouad Kronfol

Palestinian Ambassador addresses the Council  Article shared by Tom McDermott

Music shared by Sree Gururaja

Article shared by Tom McDermott

Quotations shared by Baquer Namazi and Andre Roberfroid From Baquer “It doesn't make a damned bit of difference who wins the war to someone who's dead.” - Joseph Heller

Article shared by Tom McDermott

Book review shared by John Skoda

Article shared by Baquer Namazi

Article shared by John Skoda

Article shared by Niloufar Pourzand

I would like to share with our readers my impressions of the TV coverage of the late Prime Minister's official national funeral ceremony.

We are celebrating our sixth anniversary March 20, 2018 to March 20, 2024

Article shared by Anis Salem How to Combat the Revival of an Ancient Tactic Click here to read the article in Foreign Affairs Excerpts:   "Global food interdependence has amplified the risks of food weaponization beyond war’s immediate theaters. These new risks create new responsibilities. Unimpeded, the weaponization of food may precipitate a more hungry and violent world. While the memory of war is fresh, world leaders must take the food weapon off the table." "The Black Sea Grain Initiative—an agreement among Ukraine, Russia , and Turkey to temporarily lift the Russian blockade of Ukraine and resume grain exports through the international waters of the Black Sea—provides an instructive model for preventing military interference in the food trade. In July 2022, the initiative established a joint coordination center between the parties and the UN to administer the safe passage of food shipments in and out of the Black Sea; the center directly supervised shipments to mak

 Video and article shared by Baquer Namazi

Luis Oliveros is a frequent contributor of superb travel photography to this blog.  This week Luis shares these stunning photos of eagles he took some three weeks ago at Hortobágy Natural Park in Hungary.  The photos below include the little Great Tit (Parus Major), the fierce Sparrowhawk (the forest freezes when he comes flying at lightning speed), the Great spotted woodpecker and the ever beautiful Red squirrel (Sciurus vulgaris).

Article shared by Viviane Sakkal James Elder describes children on the brink of death and families desperate for clean water, food and shelter

Dr. Nick Maynard Article shared by Baquer Namazi

  Global child deaths reached a historic low in 2022 according to  the latest estimates  by the United Nations Inter-agency Group for Child Mortality Estimation (UN IGME). More children are surviving today than ever before, with the global under-five mortality rate declining by 51 per cent between 2000 and 2022. This remarkable progress underscores the vital role of quality health care in saving lives, backed by political commitment and adequate resources.

Mapping the 2024 World Happiness Report Click here  Article shared by John Gilmartin

Article shared by Tom McDermott

Article shared by Baquer Namazi

Instagram post shared by Niloufar Pourzand Click here

The U.S. Has Waged a Global Campaign Against Formula Regulation U.S. agencies have intervened in at least 17 jurisdictions over the last several decades on behalf of the formula industry, often to oppose measures that would restrict formula marketing or require additional safety precautions. Article shared by Robert Cohen

  Bruno Donat, head of UN Mine Action Service Office in Geneva  is fasting over child victims of war.  He claims assault by UN Guards at NYHQ when he refused to leave the grounds.

  Today, March 20th, 2024, XUNICEF News & Views marks its 6th anniversary. Come celebrate with us, the readers, writers, photographers, artists, editors, and members of XUNICEF.  

Our pharmacy is closing

Friends are often the family you wished you could have had. Now that 3 of my 4 brothers have unsportingly died before I was considering the possibility of it for myself, friends have become our surrogate family. They knew us better than the brothers; they managed to forgive us for unintended gaffes which the brothers would never have let go unremarked, and every time we sat down to talk about this, that and the other with Carla and Jeremy, we found that they were possessed of a rich seam of further treasures. Who needs brothers when one has friends like this ?

"I do not wish to seem overdramatic, but I can only conclude from the Information that is available to me as Secretary- General, that the Members of the United Nations have perhaps ten years left in which to subordinate their ancient quarrels and launch a global partnership to curb the arms race, to improve the human environment, to defuse the population explosion, and to supply the required momentum to development efforts. If such a global partnership is not forged within the next decade, then I very much fear that the problems I have mentioned will have reached such staggering proportions that they will be beyond our capacity to control. - U THANT, 1961-71, United Nations Secretary General

WHO and Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, are making a strong push to expand access to HPV vaccines this year, and countries are responding. "In 2022, there were an estimated 350,000 deaths worldwide due to cervical cancer. An overwhelming 90% of these deaths are in the low-and middle-income countries, according to estimates by the World Health Organization . India alone accounts for nearly a fourth of all global cervical cancer deaths." "Now a global push from WHO along with the global vaccine alliance Gavi is hoping to change that." Click here for the article on DEVEX

Famine in the northern part of Gaza is imminent. 1.1 million people in Gaza are facing catastrophic hunger - the highest number of people ever recorded –anywhere, anytime. This is an entirely manmade disaster. And it can - and must - be halted. pic.twitter.com/WrHlveqJtO — António Guterres (@antonioguterres) March 18, 2024 Famine in the northern part of Gaza is imminent. 1.1 million people in Gaza are facing catastrophic hunger - the highest number of people ever recorded –anywhere, anytime. This is an entirely manmade disaster. And it can - and must - be halted.

Instagram post shared by Niloufar Pourzand View this post on Instagram A post shared by James Elder (@james_unicef)   Just 12 of Gaza's 36 hospitals are partially operating. Nasser Hospital is not one of them.

 Few days ago, five of us, two medical doctors, two social workers, and a driver, went with the mobile clinic and a van to a senior people residence in Rome suburbs that was abandoned years ago and now is occupied by migrants. Most do not have access to the National Health Services.  It was a blustery and cold day.  At the end of a long half a day visiting some 15 patients, we drove back to the city. We were all a bit tired and we were silently reviewing the day in our mind. It had started raining hard. Then the voice of my colleague, a former university professor and now a volunteer medical doctor, rose from the back of the van and deliberately put into spoken words what we all felt: -Today, I am very very happy, she said.   Yes, the news of famine, destruction, death, war, climate change, and more are heart-wrenching, and leaving us paralyzed, but we can counteract the gloom and doom, the feeling of pessimism and despondency and live wisely, calmly, and at best, joyfully.  A study fr