Tag: world affairs

Sunday Smack

Hey everybody! How was you first workweek of 2016? I hope it was better than mine. This is now officially the longest time with no posts at all on the blog, except for all the Sunday Smacks. Which obviously is a must, missing a week would feel like breaking a circle or something – this is now the 143th Sunday Smack and this is really saying something. Even though I had lots of plans for 2016 (with the blog and a lot else), I am just not there right now. Actually, if there ever was a time when I would…

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Sunday Smack

Happy New Year, everybody! A photo posted by Katalin Tarjan (@katalintarjan) on Jan 1, 2016 at 9:55am PST I hope you are content with how you have spent your holidays and ready to get back in the saddle for a fresh new start. For me, it was more work and less rest than planned, but in all, I have spent a pleasant one and a half weeks “holidaying”.  I know I have promised a separate look-back post which never happened, so I incorporated the half done pieces of it to this post (after I finished them, of course), you will find…

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Sunday Smack

Happy last Sunday of the year, people! I hope all your holidays were merry and bright and you are ready for the year end festivities.  This one’s going to be the shortest round-up ever, since most of my favorite bloggers spent their well deserved days off this week and even the first half of the week was quite uneventful with not much to write about.  There will be the inevitable year-end round-ups, I will devote a separate post for them later next week. See you then! Christmas celebrations are banned in Somalia, Tajikistan and Brunei They say the reason for…

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Sunday Smack

Happy Sunday, all! The end of the year is quickly approaching, I honestly have no idea where did all those days and weeks go… I had a crazy week again, I fell behind with all the reading (note: this is a very last minute post!) and studies, and what is worse, I am literally nowhere with the Christmas preparations. I’ll have lots of catching up to do this coming week in more than one areas. BUT, we have a Climate Agreement, people!! This is surely the news of the week, see details below. Now, let’s all hope it can really…

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Sunday Smack

Happy first Sunday of Advent! How can it be Advent already, when I feel like I have just returned from summer vacation, is beyond me. But it is. There is only one month left for our 2015 goals, and time to think about new ones for the new year! The year in world affairs is far from being over yet, though. One of the most important diplomatic events of 2015 kicks off tomorrow in Paris. UN member states will gather in Paris in the next two weeks for the UN conference on climate change. Long negotiations are to be expected,…

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Everything will be all right, when people, just people, stop thinking of the United Nations as a weird Picasso abstraction and see it as a drawing they made themselves. Dag Hammarskjöld /The second Secretary General of the United Nations serving between 1953-1961./ Note: People still think of the United Nations as a weird Picasso abstraction in 2015, perhaps not so much as 70 years before, but there is still a lot of work to be done… Here’s to the next 70 years!

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todaysdocument: Charter of the United Nations  From the series:  Treaties, Agreements, and Other International Acts for Which the United States is the Depositary Government, 1943 – 1984 On June 26, 1945, in San Francisco, the United Nations Charter was established. It was created at the end of World War II in an attempt to maintain international peace and security and to achieve cooperation among nations on economic, social and humanitarian problem. The required number of nations ratified the charter on October 24, 1945, which is now celebrated as United Nations Day.  History of the United Nations Charter (via UN.org) (The united-nations…

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#UNGA70 General Debate digest Part I.

A promise, now overdue, but better late than never. I will post my review of the general debate in two parts and of miscellaneous events of the 70th session of the UN General Assembly so far in a third. This year I followed more speeches than in previous years, as the refugee crisis in Europe puts many countries in the spotlight that otherwise would not be of interest in terms of world affairs. The theme of the general debate of the 70th session was „The United Nations at 70 – a new commitment to action”, but besides the theme, the…

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Sunday Smack

Happy weekend, everybody! It was a busy week in world affairs, the general debate of the 70th session of the UNGA ended yesterday, and I know I still owe you a review of UN week, it is in the making. Until it’s done, let’s do some Sunday reading. At the UN, Obama Takes the Long View on ISIS World leaders are still optimistic about winning the war against ISIS and extremism. Nigeria Has Deteriorated into a Major Humanitarian Crisis Another African crisis that doesn’t show no end. Xi On the Global Stage: The Costs of Leadership Indeed, all signs show…

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Fanfare for all Peoples – 70th anniversary film for UN – premiered today at the opening of the general debate of the 70th session of the UN General Assembly. (Source: https://www.youtube.com/)

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