From the Editors - Week of 1 to 8 December 2024

Our Feature - Franziska von Vietinghoff's feature takes us through the impressive graduation ceremony of the World Maritime University, located in Malmo, Sweden,which is associated with the International Maritime Organization (IMO) one of the UN Specialized Agencies. Her article provides information of which many among us may not be aware.

Carol Bellamy - Another item under the rubrique of "education" is the keynote address of Carol Bellamy, ex-ED of UNICEF, at the Founders' Day event at the American University of Beirut of which she has been a Trustee Emerita. As an alumnus from AUB and an XUNICEF member I was proud and pleased to find that I now have two connections with Carol. It is indeed the Time to Rethink, Re-boot and Re-energize Education.

Speaking of our previous ED, we are pleased to note that there was a Closing Ceremony of the Carol Bellamy Leadership Award (2023-24) on 5 December with a virtual discussion on Women's Empowerment and Preventing Violent Extremism.

Catherine Russell -  A third but less happy article under education is the statement by ED Catherine Russell about the Taliban restrictions on Afghan women's education in the medical field.

UNICEF History - With UNICEF@80 in our near future sights, read a letter signed by 8 former UNICEF Deputy Executive Directors to ED Russell encouraging her and the senior management to give special attention to the revival of UNICEF history and institutional memory in order to document the Organization's achievements in all spheres and in all countries where it is working .A very worthwhile project which we XUNICEF have supported for some time.

Our Columnists

Ramesh Shrestha continues with his articles on broad societal issues with a discussion of the uneasy Alliance between Nationalism and Globalism in today's world.

Ken Gibbs amuses us with a second instalment of his "What's in a Name? article, this time with a different twist.

Our poet laureate Richard Morgan is back with a poem entitled "Nation of Compassion". As a rhymer myself I was very happy to see that Richard excels in rhymes as well as in poetry.

Lighter Stuff

Shamsul Farooq shares a delightful piece by Shashi Tharoor, "Tribute to the Letter T".   My retort follows: "So simply said such standard symmetrical sentences still sensitize society & should strictly subsume so-called structural systematic synonyms."

News
 Our weekly roundup of "Articles You May Have Missed"  is back with news of  important matters posted but not commented upon by our readers. This is a good time to remind our members to not only send in articles but to add a few words as commentary, or to include your comments on posted articles.

The Weekly Headline: "A report by Amnesty International concludes that Israel is committing genocide". Or, as the well-known Israeli historian Gideon Levy stated, " If it looks like genocide, feels like genocide, smells like genocide, then it MUST BE genocide".

Film - On a more positive note we share an article about the Palestinian-Israeli film, "No Other Land" which won Best Documentary at the Gotham Awards. 

Music - And in the same vein, don't miss a music video by UNICEF Deutschland , Voices for UNICEF, which was shared by Sree Gururaja titled "What is War For?".

Missing You -  Rima Salah sends a thank you note to all those friends and colleagues who sent condolences on the passing of Rima's sister Doris Salah.

Mark Your Calendars - We remind our readers that World Genocide Day is on 9 December, Human Rights Day is on 10 December, and UNICEF Anniversary is on 11 December....

The Holidays - As in past years, the Editors plan to take a break over the coming holidays. Our last edition for this year will go out on Saturday 21 December and our first for 2025 should appear on 11 January. During this period we will not post articles except for urgent announcements.

Fouad Kronfol

Editor of the Week.