XUNICEF News and Views

Dear Friends, We warmly invite you to take part in our next Open Consultation Monday discussion event:

Artist's Dialogue with the Machine:  Selection of my entry for the Fifth International Print Biennale 2025 was itself a pleasant surprise. I had covered it as a preview for the Blog prior to inauguration early last month. Mine was one among hundreds of exhibits from over fifty countries this year. It gave a humbling feeling to be a small part of a major international event for the second time. I had made it for the earlier event in 2023 as well.

You might find this insightful and informative. The map indicates that large parts of the world are ‘developing’ and some could soon catch up. Least developed countries are largely confined to Africa.  A lot to think about, as Thomas Ekvall would argue. Aid by itself is not the answer. Can there be a ‘win-win’ here rather than a zero-sum game? Or, will the inter-dependence to make it happen lead in turn to a new type of dependency syndrome? To add to the debate, will the developed world continue to develop further, taking advantage of a knowledge-based technology-driven new economy, or have we reached a stage of stasis? And, can labour intensive manufacturing in turn be outsourced totally to the least developed countries? If so, at what long term cost?

 I woke up with the pleasant surprise that the cyanotype of mine of The Old Textile Mill has made it to the Fifth International Print Biennale 2025 to be held in Yerevan later this year. 

The long awaited XUNICEF Reunion, organised by Mary Racelis, Ces Adorno and other colleagues, was a grand success. Beautiful natural wonders, historic museums and interesting sight seeing kept the participants busy and engaged, eager to see and do more. The XUNICEF group of around sixty colleagues enjoyed the Philippines savouring the culinary delights and witnessing the cultural diversity from Metro Manila to Bohol. Gautam's brief report gives us the highlights and some pictures as we wait for longer reports and more from others. The photos are plenty and can be viewed in the photo gallery if you follow this (Manila) and this (Bohol) link to the two albums. We also invite you to add to the albums your contributions of memories from the Reunion. The Manila 2025 XUNICEF Reunion was a wonder of wonders! We learnt, both Madhu and I, that the waters of an archipelago do not divide but unite to bridge the gap. We learnt of the rich diversity the islands hold and yet remain bound tog...

We knew her as "Our Mother". She brings home many memories from the day I met her in person, on a task assigned to me in 1989 while I served as a National Officer with UNICEF Calcutta (now Kolkata).  It was task big enough for me. Subhashda (late Subhash Das Gupta) had the confidence that I would deliver.

“You must understand that you will please no one” Emile Zola (1866)

  This arrived today. What a coincidence to commemorate achievements, on New Year's Eve! It couldn't have made me happier as a part of the celebration of the year that has ended. Happy New Year to all!. Gautam Banerji  

I returned to a different Moscow in 2018 from what I had experienced in 1996. My earlier visit was a follow-up to an extended sabbatical from UNICEF at the LSE to cool off the heat from four years under a complex emergency in Iraq. The short visit to Moscow and St. Petersburg was close on the heels of Glasnost and Perestroika when Russia was still evolving out of the trauma from the collapse to shape a new destiny with a new identity. The 2018 fund-raising mission with YMCA International for a youth project in Moscow and in turn beyond, through a seven-day, six-night train journey across seven trans-Siberian time zones, terminating in Vladivostok was a different story, a lifetime experience.

  Where do I begin? It was just some random thoughts - of Madhu and I - that ignited this flame for yet another adventure. We found our two-months summer vacation far too long to stagger out in one place. And yet we had to be home in the UK to catch up with our two daughters and our three grandchildren on what has now become our annual pilgrimage from Armenia. Madhu loves 'adventure' and she does a great job with 'deals' as well. The four-star-plus package she worked out for the two of us, with a budget airline flight included, couldn't have been better. I shared the news in our weekly Google Meet of the XUNICEF editors and we concluded that a mini-reunion with Margherita Amodeo in Malta would be an added bonus. I last met her in person at the Armenia Reunion and much earlier when we were both assigned to UNICEF Baghdad under a complex emergency in the immediate aftermath of the first Gulf War.  We had also exchanged a few emails when I joined Madhu on her assignmen...