Tag: Sunday Smack
Happy Sunday, everybody! This is the first post ever that I am writing on a train, can you tell? Actually, I am pre-writing it on Saturday, and when you are reading it on Sunday, I am on a boat – a Danube cruise trip (still on my mission to catch-up on this rapidly passing summer). Hope your are all having a great time too! Take a look at what happened this past week, through the lense of my favorite bloggers. Russia’s convoy to East Ukraine and the International Committee of the Red Cross This convoy which turned out not to…
Hey Everybody! Hope all your weekends are going fine and you can take a few minutes to check out this week’s posts. With Maliki Gone, Can Iraq’s New Prime Minister Put His Country Back Together? That we’re going to have to wait and see. What You Need to Know about the UN Human Rights Council’s Gaza Investigation Sadly, it is probably true that the investigation will be no use in improving the situation. I have to insert one of my favorite quotes from Henry Kissinger’s Diplomacy here. He writes that fact-finding missions are “the standard device for diplomats signaling that…
Happy Sunday, everybody! This is a pre-scheduled post from Friday, so I hope nothing has happened during the weekend that could make it inappropriate. While you are reading I am probably somewhere out there trying to catch up with this summer I almost missed altogether. We are having an incredibly boring down time in my workplace recently (usual August in the public sector I guess), I am constantly joking that if I did not have all these writing and learning to do, I would probably have started looking for a new job already. But seriously. Summer is my favorite season,…
Happy August, everybody! I can’t help repeating myself, but how can it be August already? It means 2/3 of this summer went by almost unnoticed by me. I need to speed up on doing all my favorite summer things before it’s really over. By the way, may I now call your attention to an interesting quotation from Hillary Clinton’s Hard Choices? On one of the first pages she cites advices she received from former US Secretaries of State when she got appointed. One of those is from Warren Christopher: “Don’t plan vacations in August because something always seems to happen…
Happy last weekend of July, people! Can you believe it is almost August already? I sure can’t. It is still these two sad stories that set the agenda of world news. There were quite a few great blog posts about them this week. Hamas and Israel: why a paradigm shift is needed It indeed seems like the same script is being played out again and again. Something really does need to change if we want a different ending for once. This is Not the First Time an UNWRA School Has Been Attacked UNWRA is the number one NGO on the…
Happy Sunday, everybody! Many unfortunate, even sad events are going on in the world these days. Check out what my favorite bloggers had to say about them. Security Council Meets on MH13 Disaster. What’s Next? What’s next, indeed? Russia tries to blame it on Ukraine, while all the other members blame it on Russia. And we know there is no real decision making in the SC without consensus. This Iran Nuke Deal Might. Just. Work. This post is from the first half of the week, we now know that the talks are extended by four months. The post sums up…
Happy Sunday and happy World Cup Final everybody! Hope you all had a great weekend. My past week was exhausting once again, and the weekend was no exception. All I really need now is a proper amount of sleep. Fortunately I have a whole week to recharge with five days off of work, so hopefully by this time next week my old self will be back. This one must be the most rough-and-ready Sunday Smack ever, seriously, I am writing this half asleep. I really hope you’ll enjoy, though. A UN View of the Gaza Conflict The UN Secretary General…
How is it going for everybody? Crazy working hours continued this week for me, even had to bring stuff home for the weekend, and I am in such a need of a holiday right now, I can’t even tell. I’m dreaming of doing absolutely nothing for a day. Or even half a day would be fine. Just one more week of work until then. Hope you’ll like what I found especially interesting this week. Forced Migration as a Weapon of War in Iraq and Beyond The numbers are disturbing as to how many people are forced to leave their homes…
Happy weekend everybody! There could not possibly be anyone who needed this weekend more than me. I have worked 10-12 hours/day all week, substituting for two of my colleagues away on vacation. It left me really worn out and anxiously looking forward to my own vacation two weeks from now. Catching up on world news was kind of a relaxation after all that. How about you all? How is your summer going so far? A Call for Article 51 Letters There are rules in the UN Charter for the instances of using force. And then there is reality. Perhaps this…
Hello Everybody! I hope you all have spent the longest Saturday of the decade well! I keep being busy with important deadlines approaching both in my work and my studies, that’s the reason this blog seems to be neglected these days. Here’s what I recommend from my weekly reading anyway: UN Chief Warns Military Strikes in Iraq May Backfire The Secretary General actually suggests that keeping things unresolved once again and arming one side against the other would probably even worsen things in the region. World Refugee Day Draws Attention to Shortcomings of International Law World Refugee Day was Friday…
