XUNICEF News and Views

  We have not reported on new members who have joined XUNICEF since the end of January.  So here is a long overdue update, and a belated, but very hearty Welcome to XUNICEF !!!

In Europe, or rather, in the Northern hemisphere, it is now summer. This means good or hot weather, depending on how far North or South you happen to be. Of course, the weather also depends on how sea currents are this year (El Niño, …), or freak heat waves, hurricanes and typhoons, summer storms, not to mention man-made disasters, highway, road and pavement works, elections, big concerts, and other unpredictable disturbing factors (earthquakes, tornados, floods, wars, …). But no, let’s start again.

It is with deep sadness that we inform you of the passing of Malcolm, Honorine Nachia's husband on 27 July 2024 morning. After a long and courageous battle with a serious illness, Malcolm has finally found peace.

Good news in dementia prevention  From yesterday's Washington Post, Shingrix vaccine for prevention of shingles disease appears to also have a genuine reduction effect on dementia development. Shingrix is a two dose vaccine made by GSK (Glaxo Smith Kline).  Some of you may already have received the Zostavax made by Merck up until 2020.  Zostavax does not appear to have an effect on dementia reduction, and is no longer marketed.  Shingrix is covered by Medicare part d so should cost you nothing.

' We can't build a future for our grandchildren with a system built for our grandparents.' Antonio Guterres, United Nations Secretary General History repeating?

Editor's Note: William Calley died on April 28, 2024. In March 1968 in the midst of the US war in Vietnam, US Lt. William Calley led American soldiers who killed 504 unresisting civilians, mostly women, children and elderly men, in My Lai and a neighboring community. The news reports and photos of the massacre later became a major factor in turning the American public against the war.

 The Federation of Associations of Former International Civil Servants (FAFICS) held its 54th Council meeting at the United Nations Conference Centre, ESCAP Bangkok during 22-25 July 2024. A total of 65 member associations 35 participated. This was a hybrid meeting with both virtual and physical attendance.

Background I was privileged to serve the world’s children and women as a Unicef staff member. I was posted in three continents and worked in all regions of the world where Unicef served to improve children’s life opportunities and the empowerment of girls and women. My unicef career helped me realize my commitment to make a difference in the lives of other people and communities I had the opportunity to serve.

“Hole-in-one”! There were cries of excitement everywhere – the golfers, the caddies and the people around. Someone had scored a hole-in-one – a near impossible feat in golfing – (statistics say it’s a 0.01% chance for amateurs) - and that someone was ME. no one could believe it, least of all myself. We rushed to the green, peeped into the hole, and there it was – my yellow golf ball. The starter came, gave the score-card to be filled up and signed and said I would get a certificate and a trophy! To tell you the truth, it was my first trophy in sports and probably the last one too! Whew! 14th of July 2024 will remain etched in my memory.

Article shared by Richard Bridle Here's an interesting article. Nagi Shafik, who is quoted here, was a UNICEF Health Specialist in DPRK in the early 00s.  All the best! Richard https://www.brownhatstories.com “I’ve got a feeling they’re going to open again to UN agencies and NGOs,” said Nagi Shafik, who previously consulted for the UN on public health in North Korea, a country he described as “fussy about their security”.

There has been an enthusiastic response to our survey of XUNICEF members either planning to attend the Manila reunion or thinking of attending.   Whether you are planning or still thinking about attending, please let the organizers know as soon as possible.  Yes, we know that many people tend to drop out closer to the time of a reunion, but knowing who will or might attend helps in planning. As of 26 July here are the lists.   

  This Week's Feature - Luis Oliveros takes us on a journey inside the Frozen Wonderland . A mysterious and intriguing journey. Our members and columnists write Bernt Aasen in Watching the River Flow offers us a meditation on life after a career of fighting so many battles for human rights.  Perhaps learning to live with defeats is one of life's most important lessons. In What Happens When You Keep Driving with an Expired License? Nuzhat Shahzadi tells us what happened in Kiribati when a friendly cop pulled her over and she discovered that her license had expired. Then, in this week's Point of View Nuzhat tells of meeting a young man with intellectual disabilities who was working in Whole Foods. The meeting led her to recall similar young people in past duty stations. In Profiles of Kings and Queens Ramesh Shrestha offers us a typology of the kings and queens who rule UN offices. Recognize anyone you know or knew? Yourself, perhaps? In Grandparenthood Ken Gibbs ...

 

"What`s the matter with me, I don’t have much to say" Bob Dylan I used to try to change the world. Make it better. Make governments and societies adhere to Human Rights, Women`s Rights, Child Rights. That was at a time, I still thought these Rights were natural laws. It was before Yuval Noah Harari taught me that these rights are just stories very clever human beings have made up and are trying to make everybody believe in. They are like all religions, invented by people with very strong convictions and beliefs. They are not a scientific finding like; - the planet is round or - the law of gravity.

Article shared by Ellen Tolmie - 25 July 2024 The below article, by Ryan Grim in Drop Site and datelined 24 July 2024, reports on a leaked confidential U.N. document. It advises that, in addition to the 195 U.N. staff killed in Gaza since 7 October last year, at least 172 dependents of U.N. staff (including 158 UNRWA dependents and four Unicef dependents) have also been killed. These harrowing figures are in line with the almost daily accounts of Israel's targeting of residential buildings (now including UNRWA schools), including in zones Israel has designated as "safe". They justify such brazen attacks on civilians, in clear violation of international law, as required to pursue Hamas fighters.

 It all started with, what I thought, was the forgotten “vehicle” of a child. There was nobody on the street, nor any visible entrance, so I turned the corner and saw a woman looking in an odd way at the window of an establishment.

I have fond (but fading) memories of JPG, Richard Jolly, Kul Gautam, Peter Adamson and Jan Vandemoortele working with Innocenti and Human Development Report colleagues to develop better ways of measuring development and targeting international aid. Let's hope that innovative and robust measurements are debated and adopted at the upcoming Summit of the Future -- although I'm frankly not holding my breath.

The latest State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World (SOFI) report warns that the world is falling significantly short of achieving Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 2, Zero Hunger, by 2030. The world has been set back 15 years, with levels of undernourishment comparable to those in 2008-2009. Despite some progress in specific areas such as stunting and exclusive breastfeeding, an alarming number of people continue to face food insecurity and malnutrition as global hunger levels have plateaued for three consecutive years.

A screen grab of the homepage of the Israeli Fund for Unicef, apparently last updated on 17 October 2023. Today I visited the Israeli Fund for Unicef web site to see how they are presenting the war in Gaza: https://www.unicef.org.il/en/en-main/ . (The English language HP has the same lead photo montage as the main Hebrew HP; I cannot confirm if the text is the same.)  There is not a single mention of the Gaza war, or the now estimated (by Unicef) +14,000 deaths of children there, or the thousands more who have been wounded or starving or traumatized or otherwise suffering under constant bombardment.

“While driving, be alert when you come to a roundabout . . . ,” my son kept advising me on the rules of the road as I was packing for Kiribati. I had accepted the offer (he possibly forgot that I was streetwise after having worked for 4 years in Afghanistan . . . managed to drive in Sri Lanka during crazy times . . . ). I understood what the ground situation was by spending a week in Tarawa on my reconnaissance visit prior to accepting the offer. After the highly stressful, tumultuous years in Herat, I tried to seek solace in the isolation of the island-country dancing on the foaming waves of the Pacific Ocean.

Statement shared by Margherita Amodeo “With each passing week, families face new horrors in the Gaza Strip. The devastating attacks on schools and internally displaced sites continue, reportedly killing hundreds more Palestinians, many of them women and children, and leaving already overwhelmed hospitals buckling under the strain.

Saed Hassunah with his five surviving children The Regional Director in MENA, Adele Khodr, reported yesterday on Twitter about two UNICEF vehicles which were hit with live fire while waiting at the Wadi Gaza checkpoint.

Statement shared by Niloufar Pourzand The Elders call on global leaders to enforce the ICJ's ruling that Israel's occupation of Palestinian territories is illegal. They emphasise the need for a ceasefire in Gaza, the provision of humanitarian aid and a commitment to justice and the rule of law.

The United Nations (UN) has many programmes such as UNDP, funds such as UNICEF and specialised organisations such as WHO, FAO, ILO, UNESCO, etc. They have offices largely in mid- and low-income countries delivering financial assistance, technical support, and promoting peace and security as visioned by the United Nations. All these offices are headed by a Representative appointed by these branches of the UN system. There are also Resident Coordinators, Humanitarian Coordinators and Special Representatives of the UN Secretary General (SG) who are appointed by the Secretary General. All these Representatives employed in various branches of the UN system are selected from its 193 UN member countries. These representatives are the eyes, ears and feet of the UN system in the field.

A mother and her 2-year-old son at a clinic in San Pedro, Côte d’Ivoire, after collecting their antiretroviral medications. We’ve made significant strides in combating HIV, with 84 per cent of pregnant women living with HIV now receiving antiretroviral treatment, protecting both their health and their babies. Since 2010, new infections have dropped by 62 per cent among children and 48 per cent among adolescents. 

Twitter post shared by Anis Salem Two clearly marked UNICEF vehicles were hit with live ammunition today while waiting at a designated holding point near the Wadi Gaza checkpoint. They were en route to reunite five children, including a baby, with their father.

Linkedin post shared by Niloufar Pourzand As a board member of Education for Employment, I am thrilled to announce that we are hosting the very first MENA Youth Employment Summit (MENA YES!) in Casablanca on October 7-8, 2024. This solutions-focused summit will bring together over 200 stakeholders to co-create strategies for addressing youth employment challenges in the MENA region.

The recent 'advisory opinion' of the International Court of Justice is one of the most important of recent times. The ICJ's opinion arrived last Friday, 19 July, with barely a ripple in the international news.

Sevaun Palzetzian Dear Canadian members of XUNICEF, hope you are well. As some of you know, we had reached out to Sevaun Palvetzian, the new UNICEF Canada CEO, and suggested she meets us and had agreed such a meeting could happen at our place.

The weather has become quite pleasant. It rained sporadically, beating down the heat. I resumed my walks and, on the way, picked up fruits from Whole Foods––my favorite super market. The adjacent strip mall has many restaurants, pharmacies, banks and grocery stores. "You know, it's becoming difficult for everyone." I was startled––looked around for the owner of the voice. It was a store employee (wore a store vest). "What happened?" I asked. "It's covid 19. People are falling sick," he expressed concern. I looked at him, trying to understand . . . He was a white, young man. I understood he had (intellectual) disabilities. (UNICEF uses the term "children with disabilities," and US federal law uses "intellectual disability"). Many stores and agencies these days employ people, especially kids (legal age) with disabilities from their neighborhoods. It's so heartening. "Don't worry. Covid is less dangerous now. But wear...

Some of the 143 children killed in the West Bank this year “The true cost of the violence in the State of Palestine and Israel will be measured in children’s lives—those lost and those forever changed by it,” said Russell. “What the children desperately need is an end to violence and a lasting political solution to the crisis, so that they can reach their fullest potential in peace and safety.”

Report shared by Baquer Namazi All the outrage expressed world wide is not stopping the crimes against humanity by the current regime ruling Israel. However, public outrage must continue to be expressed, as pressure mounts among the justice minded jews in Israel and America, not to forget the whole world. Baquer

For those well used to this happy estate, and perhaps already employed frequently as unpaid baby-sitters, a new arrival being added to the menagerie may just cause a mental 'shrug-of-the-shoulders'.  Not so for those becoming Grandparents for the first time.

I attended this conference in my capacity as a member of the Inter-Generational Advisory Committee. The ICCRP was formed in 2015 to focus attention on the interconnections between children’s rights to participation and protection. It seeks to develop new, innovative and research directions to examine how intergenerational relationships between adults and children can transcend current barriers to implementing children’s rights through intergenerational partnerships in research, policy and practice. The ICCRP is supported in part from funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council and the Ontario Research Fund in Canada. The network brings together children and adolescents from Scotland, Brazil, South Africa, Bolivia and Canada, child rights academics, researchers and experts and over 30 partner organisations representing universities, NGOs, human rights institutions and governments in Canada and in multiple countries across the Americas, Europe, Asia, Africa and Oce...

Greetings from Bangkok. Pleased to share this and invite you to join if convenient on 31 July 2024. This is a first in a series that will be organized every month starting July till next year – in the build-up to the ASEAN SDG-SCE Summit we are organizing in Kuala Lumpur in May 2025 – when Malaysia will be Chair of ASEAN.   Please circulate as needed.   Best - Victor

  This week, we have a good number of interesting contributions from several members.

Article shared by Kul Gautam A refreshing proposal by @MoazzamTMalik to revamp the current outdated model of voluntary development aid and replace it with a new global compact of climate and development finance

On return from Kiritimati island, I met with the Hon. Minister of Health to discuss about my mission. The situation at the maternity ward in Nawerewere/Tungaru Central hospital in Tarawa was no better.

Anis Salem shared the statement of the MSF International President

A human body temperature of 36.5℃ (97.7F) to 37.5℃ (98.6F) is considered to be normal. Body temperature exceeding 38℃ (100.4F) is considered a fever. When it exceeds 40℃ (104F) people actually panic as it means the body is infected with some bacteria or virus or there are issues with internal organs in the body. It just increased by 2℃ but we really became sick. Now imagine a similar increase in atmospheric temperature. It makes every kind of life on earth exposed to such an increase in atmospheric temperature make them feel feverish and they all suffer. Unfortunately, they do not have a voice to scream. One hundred percent of the reason for the increase in atmospheric temperature is related to our daily activity - our lifestyle - on Earth. As we begin to industrialise, we started to increase the consumption of energy which produces CO2 and other greenhouse gases (GHGs) cumulatively which are deposited in the atmosphere.

Dear All  Hope you are doing well. We retirees are also doing well here in Bangladesh. I want to use this opportunity to update everyone on recent interactions between our UNICEF Bangladesh retirees group and both the UNICEF Bangladesh Staff Association and the Global Staff Association.  - On 24 May 2024 I met Francoise Chandler, GSA Chair in NY and had a fruitful discussion on staff issues on how best Staff Association can help on staff welfare in the organisation. I emphasized how active retired staff can work together at the central, regional and country level for the welfare of all staff. I presented to her the memoir by our memoir of UNICEF Bangladesh retirees, "We Were There".  I also handed over a copy of the memoir of the Association of former UN Staff of Bangladesh (AFUNSOB) Memoir and 2 copies of AFUNSOB last newsletter".  Francoise then presented me a GSA Tee shirt and a memento. We ended our meeting with a lunch hosted by the GSA chair. - On 24 June the...

Neill McKee sent us his review of the book Persistence of Light  by John Hoyte, which also features Richard Jolly trekking across the Alps with an elephant.

A nephew of mine found that the only place where he and his wife could bring their two dogs, was to a National Trust property on the North Cornwall coast, not far from where we live. Their annual ‘staycation’ (taking a vacation without having to fly to the other side of the world) is usually to Cornwall. We were invited to visit them in their very up-market rented holiday house, so we could admire the view. We went and were twice blown away by the experience; first, we were blown away by the quality of the accommodation – but outside, being on a headland, the wind blows strongly. We drank coffee inside.

I just got a text message on my WhatsApp. It was from Gail. "Blessings and good wishes to you and family," she said. I had wished her on Thanks Giving (2023). She didn't respond. I was thinking of her . . . I knew she wasn't in good health.

I wrote the following article as a tribute to a wonderful female artist, Blanche Ellul Sullivan, my aunt. The article originally appeared in the Christmas 2023 edition of Treasures of Malta.

Sunday 14 July was an exceptional day for sports aficionados like myself. Thank Heavens there is TV which allowed us to enjoy three great tournament finals in two of my favorite sports.

I would like to share this article from the Intercept which is a good example of how hypocrisy has ingested diplomacy.

The word "Aama" means mother in Nepali. There are other words in Nepali for mother – "Maa", "Mumaa" and "Maamu". While "Aama", "Maa", "Mumaa" and "Maamu" are used to call one's own mother, "Aama" is also a term of respect for senior women.

The weather has been brutal lately. It rained only three times in the last 4-5 weeks. The rains broke the dry spell but added the load of humidity––hot days and nights became intolerable. I began my daily walking in the late evenings instead of mornings ––traffic was less, cyclists on my trail were scarce. . . less-buzzing bees . . . mosquitos? Invigorated!

Global childhood immunization coverage stalled in 2023, leaving 2.7 million additional children un- and under-vaccinated compared to pre-pandemic levels in 2019, according to data published today by the World Health Organization (WHO) and UNICEF.

It was so sad to learn about Andrea's passing. I sent a personal email to Jeannie and posted a brief note on our xunicef portal. 

Jowshan Ara Rahman embarked on her final journey on 11 July. We used to take the same UNICEF pick up microbus to office from 1992-1994. I was a young consultant, Jowshan apa was a senior advisor for gender and policy in UNICEF- Dhaka. She usually kept me waiting in the vehicle––5-6 minutes and apologized with a smile, always. I didn’t mind, really. After her we picked up 2 more colleagues on the way. She used to wear her diamond studs once inside the vehicle. Each day she wore a beautiful sharee. I loved her choice of colors, and patterns on the borders of her sharee.

"“The demographic landscape has evolved greatly in recent years,” Li Junhua, undersecretary-general for economic and social affairs at the United Nations, said in a news release. "The report forecasts that the world’s population will continue to swell over the next several decades — growing from 8.2 billion people in 2024 to a peak of nearly 10.3 billion people in 50 to 60 years. But it won’t grow forever: The global population is expected to return to 10.2 billion people by 2100, which is 6% lower than what the U.N.’s experts had projected a decade ago.

  Instagram post shared by Niloufar Pourzand

 

Many students came. Colleagues and friends from Siena, Maastricht, Budapest, Roma - unexpected places. I only took a picture of the tomb. Andrea’s tomb is the one with flowers. Jeannie Liu

Review shared by Niloufar Pourzand Hi, maybe readers will be interested as it is a child focused refugee story? N

Being in England for a week for my Cambridge college's 50th Anniversary reunion of my batch, I connected with Richard to go and see him in Lewes and pay my respects. Richard turned 90 on 30 June. He lives in a ground-floor flat in quaint Lewes with plenty of books surrounding him in his living room. He says he is very fortunate that one of his daughters lives in the flat next to his and another not far away. His last book "A Development Economist in the United Nations" published in 2023 is a memoir of his experiences over the 90 years with reflections on lessons learned.