UNESCO: Not exactly "Greening the Blue" - an open letter

Open letter to Irina Bokova, Director General UNESCO, Paris.


Dear Ms Bokova,

I attended a scientific conference - on climate change, above all - at UNESCO in July. I was very surprised that UNESCO does not have an up to date recycling policy, nor any infrastructure to separate recyclable waste and have it processed/disposed of. I could not find any bins to separate plastics, metal waste or clearly marked paper-only bins.

And that in the midst of a "Greening the Blue" campaign within the UN (http://www.greeningtheblue.org/ ), and good common sense and practice for all citizens, leave along UN staff.

I also take note of your "Staff Guide to Greening UNESCO" http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0019/001914/191471e.pdf which urges your HQ staff to...:
"use your own bags to collect bottles, cans, wrappers, etc. Then carry them home for recycling in the designated yellow or white bins"

This might have been ok in the 60's, but, dear Ms Bokova, we are 2015, where any UN organization should show the lead in environmental protection, recycling and green-living awareness. Especially UNESCO.

I am very much looking forward to your answer on this, which will be published.

Kindly,

Peter Casier
Retired UN staff.


Officially, this is what Ms Bokova states on UNESCO's commitment to "Greening the UN":

"Limiting climate change requires a change of deep-rooted behaviours and a collective effort involving every individual. UNESCO promotes sustainability and is examining critically its greenhouse gas emissions so as to reduce the Organisation's carbon footprint."

As far as I am concerned: one needs to put his/her money where his/her mouth is. And UNESCO does not. Much bla-bla but no boum-boum, where UNESCO should lead by example.

Picture: A general waste bin at UNESCO headquarters in Paris (July 2015)... No recycling nor separating recycable wasts... In the year "2015-2015", as the song goes.

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#jenesuispluscharlie

As said in an earlier post, there is something to be said to define the border between press freedom, freedom of expression and just plain human decency.

In their recent post, Charlie Hebdo crossed the border, in my book.

Imagine it was one of your kids, and they would make fun of their death, their drowning...

As one person commented on my Facebook stream: "If death (of a child) is the subject of satire, what kind of humans are we?"

Sorry, Charlie Hebdo, but "#jenesuispluscharlie". Shame on you!

To put it more bluntly: Fuck you, Charlie Hebdo,.. May you rot in hell.

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Another view on our expedition to Heard Island

An excellent video by my friend James Brooks about our 1997 expedition to Heard Island in the Antarctic.

This video draws an excellent parallel between our expedition and the first scientific expedition in 1947, 50 years before ours. It features some unique historic perspective and old film footage.

The video was made in broadcast quality, geared for commercial TV stations.

Another video about this expedition, geared for the radio amateur public can be viewed here.
If you are interested in expeditions to really remote locations all over the world, check out James' other videos.

Enjoy!

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#jesuischarlie, or not?

Nothing justifies curtailing the freedom of expression, press freedom, nor the killing of journalists. Nothing justifies the slaughtering of the Charlie Hebdo cartoonists and journalists.

But there is something to be said about tolerance and acceptance of other cultures.

If I look through some of the previous Charlie Hebdo cartoons (and I purposely did not publish any here, but look here and here), I hesitate between freedom of expression and the right to insult purposely.

We have the right to a freedom of expression, but I think nothing justifies intentionally insulting other cultures nor religions.

That is my take on it.

Cartoon courtesy David Pope

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