XUNICEF News and Views

Please read the posts below on increases in our health insurance premiums, share widely, and take the suggested action of sending emails to the heads of HLIS and FAFICS:

At the urging of Adrian (husband), I wrote my story, recently published in GoanConnection, a quarterly newsletter of the Goan Association of New Jersey, Inc. of which we are members.  My story, primarily for an audience of women (men can benefit too) – please do take care of your health. Do not be like the proverbial ostrich who buries its head in the sand! As I reflected on this journey, submerged in a flood of emotions, it was difficult putting pen to paper (or fingers to keyboard!).

Photo by Adrian Lobo Have you ever wondered about that expression, once in a blue moon or perhaps used it yourself ? According to Encyclopaedia Britannica, the term blue moon originated from the 16th-century expression “the Moon is blue,” meaning something that was impossible. For two years following the eruption of the Krakatoa volcano in Indonesia in 1883, people around the world reported seeing strangely coloured sunsets and a Moon that appeared blue. With this possible, but uncommon, occurrence, “once in a blue moon” came to mean rare rather than impossible. Doreen Lobo Super Blue Moon image captured on 20 August 2024 by Adrian Lobo outside our home in CT, USA. Click here for the NASA article, The Next Full Moon is a Super Blue Moon

  Birds & Squirrels enjoy a bumper crop from our Apricot Tree - dwarf variety  (Credit: Adrian Lobo)

We were not to be deterred. An overcast sky, intermittent torrential rain, some flooding but we all made it not by boat, but New Jersey Transit for those coming from NYC or a short car ride for me. It was not an all-women gathering! Our spouses joined us for a cozy and delightful afternoon at the home of Ivette Martinez. Her husband, Alex, prepared a sumptuous lunch which we thoroughly savored. Some of us had not met in several years so you can well imagine the laughter, banter and decibel level as we tried to catch up on our respective lives. What was remarkable is the busy lives retirees lead. Community service, volunteer work and one working on yet another Master's degree!! UNICEF certainly instilled in each of us the need to give back to those less fortunate than ourselves. Get-together in New Jersey on April 29, 2023 From left to right: Hannan Dahdah (still at UNICEF), Catherine Langvin-Falcon, Ivette Martinez-Riviera, Mary Ellen Santamaria, Froujke Bos and Doreen Lobo

Image source, Mirrorpix/Getty Images By Will Grant BBC News, La Tinta, Guatemala It is a fact that even many die-hard Abba fans do not know. Despite selling millions of copies over more than four decades, their massive 1979 hit, Chiquitita, doesn't earn the Swedish supergroup a penny. "We gave the copyright to Unicef," its composer and founding member of Abba, Bjorn Ulvaeus, told the BBC. "A lot of money has come in over the years because Chiquitita has been played and streamed a lot, and lots of records have been sold. So, I'm very happy about that." Written for Unicef's Year of the Child, Chiquitita - which means "Little Girl" in Spanish - was also the first song Abba recorded in Spanish, becoming a huge success across Latin America. From the start, Bjorn Ulvaeus says the band was clear about what they wanted the royalties to be used for. "I think that the most urgent thing that can be done on this globe is the empowerment of young women...

We originally planned this week's Quick Chat as our 'pilot' episode for the Quick Chat series. As we chatted with our co-editor, Doreen however, we were convinced that this was more than just a 'pilot' and that Doreen's  dynamic interview should be shared with our readers..  Doreen kicked off this chat by telling us how she went on working after retirement - until the moment when she asked herself, "why am I doing this and what else can I do?"  That moment set her off on voluntary work in her community where her experience and interests came together. On the fun side, Doreen told us how she moved to weekly Zumba sessions, a book club, (in her case, an all-women's book club), and, of course, her work as an editor at News & Views. We were inspired by Doreen's advice "To get there, just do it" and "There is no better time than now to take up both new interests and resume old hobbies. She sent us the quote on her po...

Singing "Whispering Hope" a composition by Septimus Winner in 1868 Check out whether this was meant to be shown: