From the Editors - Week of 31 March to 6 April, 2025

  

Our Feature:


This week we present Part 2 of "30 Years Later" by Myra Rudin. This collection of photographs of contemporary New York City is no less fascinating than the Part 1 and Myra once again takes us through an extraordinary journey in the second part of her feature tracing the changing cityscape of New York..

Our Columnists:

Read of the adventures of Ken Gibbs' moving home from Kent to Cornwall with the new home overlooking a tidal sanctuary. To make the most of this lovely part of the United Kingdom, it was inevitable that he had to find a boat/dinghy to sail the sanctuary. The adventures followed in quick succession, beginning with two broken ribs and on another occasion tipping down into the water between dinghy and tender, which turned out to be "a spectator sport." Ken has captioned his contribution "Sailing can be risky" which is an understatement as you will discover.

News Articles shared by members:

The week under review begins with the sad news of the tragic death of fifteen Palestinian paramedics and rescue workers, including one UN employee, killed by Israeli forces and buried in a mass grave eight days ago in southern Gaza. The OCHA Palestine Report carried in The Guardian and shared with a summary by Tom McDermott laments that the deceased were there to save lives, but they ended up in a mass grave.

Tom McDermott has also posted an article by Friedman and Kilani on WPR, which argues that The US War Against the Houthis, is the real 'Signalgate' scandal. The "real scandal" was not the sloppy use of an insecure channel for communications, but rather the decision to undertake these attacks in the first place.

Tom has also shared a link to an article by Richard Gowan entitled Guterres' Successor Will Take Over a UN in Crisis as carried on WPR. The article draws attention to the two enormous tasks that await the Secretary-General, namely, managing a severely underfunded multilateral system and restoring the UN's role in conflict resolution. The article in turn observes: "The race to replace Guterres could be a useful opportunity for a global debate over how to get the UN back on track."

Kul Gautam shares an article on Oscar Arias, Nobel laureate and Ex-Leader of Costa Rica with a brief summary, which reads: "The U.S. has revoked the visa of former Costa Rican President and Nobel Peace Prize winner Óscar Arias Sánchez. The move comes after Arias criticized President Trump, comparing him to a "Roman emperor." The visa revocation is seen as part of a broader U.S. pattern of penalizing foreign figures critical of its policies, raising concerns about free expression and diplomatic norms." It also provides a link to the full article, which appeared in NY Times.

Niloufar Pourzand shares an article on Edith Ballantyne, who passed away recently at the age of 102. A lifelong advocate for peace, justice and equality, she remains An Inspiration for Turbulent Times. Niloufar concludes with a quote: "Edith’s life’s work and vision are an inspiration to everyone concerned about this era of growing inhumanity and its ramifications for peace and justice everywhere."

To read more on current developments, we have provided for you our weekly News Links covering the period 29 March to 3 April.

Lighter Stuff:

In a lighter vein, we provide you here our Video for the Week shared by Sree Gururaja on Taxes by Shashi Tharoor, former USG for Communication and Public Information, with a UN career spanning three decades (1978-2007). Shashi charms us with his poetic flair while commenting on the Modi government's taxation policies.

Elon Musk's reported move to ship unwanted Tesla cars to Africa, where they will be sold for about a tenth of the current US price, comes with a rider from Detlef Palm. He says Musk acknowledged that he took the clues to overcome logistics difficulties from the UNICEF supported GIGA project. "We now know where there is a need for cars, " Musk is reported to have said. "And the GIGA roadmaps will guide every Tesla customer to find a charging station." Here's the link to the report as shared by Detlef Palm - but wait a minute, check the date. Could this be an April Fool spoof? Enjoy it in a lighter mood!

And mark the date for the UNJSPF Virtual Annual Global Townhall on 9 April

Comments from our Readers.


Gautam Banerji
Editor for the Week