I am staying with my friends Cecilia and Peter in the outskirts of Geneva, where they have a lovely home they share with their two young children and Peter’s parents upstairs. I arrived yesterday afternoon somewhat surprised to find the front door completely ajar. I cautiously peeked in the house and announced my presence. No…
London’s stiff upper lip
The terrorist attacks on London were a horrible way to start the day yesterday, with four seperate bombs killing around 40 people and injuring hundreds. Like many people, I sent off frantic emails to friends and colleagues in the area. The cell phone systems were quickly shut down for emergency service use only, which meant…
Bringing both emotions and proposals to the table
I wanted to recount what was for me the highlight of the GA Hearings with Civil Society that captured the value of having these kinds of gatherings. It was on the second day of the hearings, June 23, at the session on peace and security issues, when an activist from the Philippines began speaking on…
The GA hearings are over… were we heard?
This past Thursday and Friday were the much anticipated “informal interactive” hearings of the UN General Assembly with civil society. Many of us NGO reps in New York have been actively preparing for these hearings for the past year. I had an interesting perspective on the hearings as one of the rapporteurs of the sessions….
“Voices of the UN”: where UN bashers and whistleblowers meet
Someone has gone and stolen my idea. Some folks have created a website called “Voices of the UN” for workers at the United Nations to express themselves anonymously on how the organization is doing. While I am intrigued by the idea, I have to wonder if there are real dangers in creating a central repository…
Who knew feeding people would be so much fun?
I tried out the World Food Programme video game “Food Force” this weekend. I have to say, it’s a really fun game. And you do learn some interesting things about the challenges of delivering humanitarian aid, from dealing with rival factions in a rebel war to calculating the right quantities of rice, beans, oil, salt…
UN launches “feed-em-up” video game
In the “News of the Strange But True” category, the World Food Programme has come out with a videogame called “Food Force” where instead of shooting prostitutes to get a high score you have to feed hungry people. Interspersed throughout the game are videos where you learn about the plight of hungry people around the…
Personal Safety and Electronics in Public
I was on the subway the other evening and noticed a young man pull out of his messenger bag what looked like a small laptop. I watched him plug in a set of headphones, drop in a silver disc, and then settle in to his seat. I realized that it was a portable DVD player…
Lots of Copies Keeps Stuff Safe
David Bearman corrects me on my reference to the principle of “Lots of Copies Keeps Stuff Safe” (which I incorrectly called “Keep Lots of Copies of Stuff Everywhere”). The LOCKSS principle is more than 10 years old, credited to Sun Microsystems Laboratories’ David Rosenthal and Stanford University Library’s Vicky Reich. The technical details of the…
Pick me! Pick me! Who will speak at the GA hearings?
The process for nominations of participants to attend the first General Assembly hearings with civil society and the private sector have been announced, with an extremely short deadline for groups to nominate individuals to speak. It’s going to be a hairy process choosing who from among all of civil society and the private sector worldwide…