From the Editors - 22 to 28 September 2025

  

Our feature for the week

Detlef Palm with his inimitable touch of humor takes us on a journey through his 'dream destinations' of Pirates, Penguins, Patagonia, the triple 'P',  which he calls the latest update on UNICEF manual for Program, Policy and Procedure. It's a breathtaking journey by sea, coast to coast, of Latin America, embarking at Valparaiso and ending in Buenos Aires, skirting Cape Horn and calling at Port Stanley in the Falkland  Islands. The photography is awesome. I am sure you will enjoy his narration as well. 

Our columnists

Tracing the origin of Overseas Development Assistance (ODA) from post-WWII era and decolonization to the present day, Ramesh Shrestha raises questions about its nature and motivation as he moves on to explore long-term consequences of "aid dependency". He concludes with examples of good practices and counterexamples, calling for a shift from dependency by building local capacity, improving accountability, and with governments taking more responsibility for long-term development. Read on to discover why he has captioned his article: "Thank you, Mr. President T".

Nuzhat Shahzadi takes us through her stroll as she steps into a CVS store, partly out of habit and partly "browsing", when she notices empty shelves and recalls how, before moving to the US, she was used to scarcity. By chance, she meets with a friendly store clerk, a young refugee from Afghanistan who has only recently arrived, and they bond together through empathy and connection across differences. You have to read through to the end as to why Nuzhat has chosen "Dancing Through the Fire" as her caption to the article.

Tony Lake writes on the war in Sudan and the human suffering it causes.  He shares an article by Nicholas Kristof on the heroic efforts of the young Sudanese who run the Emergency Response Rooms that offer food, medical care and safe spaces for children to play.  Lake reiterates his earlier calls for XUNICEF members to support these efforts through contributions via the the Mutual Aid Sudan organization.

The Grapevine

With UN80 approaching and the pressures for reforms, we provide you a forum where we place the anonymous and random murmurs we hear from inside the UNICEF bubble.  This week, we hear of apprehensions around post change and what it feels like being in a game of musical chairs. We also hear of "a simmering feud between MENARO and ECRO on an acceptable structure for merging." Here's your link to More UNICEF Chatter

UN80

The full video of President Trump's Address to UN General Assembly is included in an article in Politico.  Trump blasts the UN for "not even coming close to living up to (its) potentials." In turn he suggests that the organization was either ignoring or exacerbating problems around the world that were being left to him to fix. 

Heather Cox Richardson's scathing comments on Trump's UN speech published in "Letters from an American" and shared with further comments by John Gilmartin adds to the controversy around what the writer calls "a dark fantasy of narcissism and Christian nationalism that struck at the very heart of the United Nations."

In "Survival of the UN during temporary truancy of USA", Kul Gautam shared his comments and the article "The UN can survive without the US" which appeared recently in PassBlue. Kul also shared his own 2019 article, Wanted: Bold Leadership by António Guterres 

Lou Mendez has shared link to Trump-shaped wrecking ball swings toward a faltering United Nations authored by Ishaan Tharoor with Benjamin Soloway, which adds further to the raging debate around UN80 reforms.

Read also the MAGA Meltdown over Escalator and the speculations in circulation around the incident. While the White House Deputy Chief of Staff has called the UN's official explanation "bullshit",  Fox News seems to suggest: "They sabotaged them and they could have hurt the first lady, " and continues with, "This is an insurrection. We either need to leave the UN or we need to bomb it." Take it in good humor if you must.

Other contributions 

In Japan's Warning, Africa's Promise Thomas Ekvall proposes "a smarter way" for western countries to manage immigration by investing in the education of future migrants.  In a separate post Thomas shares an article in the Financial Times, which explores the question: Can the UN save itself from irrelevance?"  Drawing reference to President Trump's address at the General Assembly, the article argues the UN is under severe strain, with its founding ideals being tested by an increasingly fragmented, conflict-ridden world. 

Robert Cohen shared several articles on the work of the group "United Staff for Gaza" and the complaints of the US and Israel over two UN staff events last week - a vigil in Geneva for the 370 UN colleagues killed in Gaza and an internal staff meeting in New York.  The NY meeting included a discussion of  UN procurement policies in light of the report by Francesca Albanese accusing companies with which the UN works of complicity with genocide. In response the US wrote to the SG saying inter alia that "the UN is systematically anti-Israel and because of that anti-semitic".   

Adhiratha shared his report on the launch at UNICEF House of the new book, 'Peacemaker" by Thant Myint-U.

We have an important update on your UN Health Insurance (ASHI) contributions for all those who participate. You may click here to read it.

An Alternative Approach to the Rohingya Situation", is a report prepared by United Against Inhumanity (UAI) and UNA-UK, which critiques the current relief and rehabilitation strategy as inadequate, unsustainable and harmful and proposes a broader long-term approach through inclusive dialogue leading to safe and voluntary repatriation. 

At Our Age

"Risky Prescribing and the Epidemic of Deaths from Falls" is the third in the series of articles we are calling "At Our Age¨.  We hope these articles on elder health are helpful to our community.  Please let us know if you spot other articles we should include in future weeks. 

News Links

There is much to catch up on in the NewsLinks we assemble each day through the week. Gaza continues to make the news. We have an Al Jazeera report on Trump's "Gaza Plan" proposing regional troops to oversee Gaza after a possible Israeli withdrawal and transition to a Palestinian Authority role, excluding Hamas. There is more on Gaza and Afghanistan to read in the news links and much more.

Toons of the Week

To sum up all the raging debates of the week, and in a lighter mood, we have created (with the help of a.i.) a few Toons of the Week to enjoy.  See also "Got a Dad Bod?", a listing of new words added to dictionaries so far this year.

Concluding piece

We end this page with a contribution from Doreen Lobo titled Who Am I? author unknown. It's a soul searching reflection on how we live our lives. The ending strikes a poignant note with thoughts on values, family and love, which we tend to overlook in our younger days. They come with added meaning in our autumnal years.

Here are Comments from Readers.


Gautam Banerji
Editor for the Week