From the Editors - Week of 8 to 15 December 2024

 

 

As our lead feature this week, we share another of Horst Cerni's travelogues entitled Ruins on a Caribbean Island, which is today no less a tourist attraction. These ruins are caused not only by fighting but are usually the result of natural disasters like volcanic eruptions or hurricanes. Many others were abandoned when sugar was no longer profitable. Horst's travelogues make amazing reading as they verge on recorded history of the region.

Sharif Alam shares CIGNA and United Health - Profits Over Care? written by a former CIGNA director and questioning how the insurance industry operates.

Kul Gautam shares with a note link to a UNICEF Thailand e-book and report tracing their history of 75 Years of Commitment for Children. Kul rightly believes that the documentation "serves as a bridge between the past and the future" and will in turn add much to the initiative he along with other other former UNICEF DEDs have taken to record and share achievements and challenges as we move towards UNICEF@80 celebrations. Kul also shares a report from UNICEF Iran entitled 70 Years for Every Child tracing in turn another excellent example of UNICEF's proud history.

Neil McKee shares with us The Story of an Inspiring Young Afghan Woman who fled the Taliban with the help of UNICEF colleagues, to use her art as an advocacy for women's rights and social change. Her resilience despite the challenges she faced, inspired as she was by UNICEF's Meena Initiative, is exemplary and should move anyone who reads her story.

Niloufar Pourzand shares an article on Fouzia Koofi's Journey from Conflict to Championing Women's Rights. Fouzia was a former Programme Assistant with UNICEF Badakshan in the 1990s when Taliban was first in power. Key quotes from the article include: "I have always believed that women are the backbone of any society," and "We need to empower women so that they can empower themselves." The article adds to the story of the inspiring young woman shared by Neil McKee.

Detlef Palm shares with his note a link to Mahesh Patel's new book: Relocate, Adjust, Repeat. A prolific writer and a former UNICEF colleague, Mahesh (to quote Detlef) "inspires us to look back on our own lives without pretense and deception."

Tom McDermott reminds us that while thousands of prisoners have been released in Syria this week, tens of thousands of others, mostly Syrian women and children, remain prisoners of the international coalition that defeated ISIS in 2019.  They are living in 'detention camps' under deplorable conditions with little hope of any future.  Will recent changes in Syria and the US now at last lead to international action for their reintegration?

Don't miss Our Weekly News Roundup of Articles You May Have Missed for the week.

Ken Gibbs as our regular columnist, always delights with his punch of humor and irony. Read Traveling with Children as his contribution for the week. 

Ramesh Shrestha explores Fading social contract through relationships based on moral principles and traces "reasons for failures." Is there a way out? Read through his conclusion.

Our bard Fouad Kronfol has An Ode to Children to share, which concludes on a poignant note: "And not simply ink them and fold/ For it is the Children that are worth more than gold!" 

Food for thought, indeed!

Gautam Banerji

Editor for the Week