I have a reason to smile...

I have a reason to smile more today. The Sector Head just announced promotions for the group. All the four people I recommended for my Division got promoted. That's more than the 5% alloted for the whole group of over 60 people in the plantilla.

No one from the other two divisions got promoted though they had recommendations. I'm aware of course that with the promotion of my people, there were others from the whole Sector that were taken off the list to meet the maximum quota. And of course not all of my people can be satisfied. There were others who expected to be promoted and I had to deal with that too. But all in all, things are good.

I thanked the Sector Head for his support and he replied, "they deserve it!" I forwarded that to the four who got promoted. My people are happy and that's good enough for me... :)

A Week's Meal...

Ironic that just the other day I posted a restaurant that serves very big servings of food. Today, I received an e-mail of how much different families spend in a week for food. It makes me think of how many blessings I should really be thankful for, especially that my family can enjoy a full meal three times a day, and even a bit more this Christmas...

SLIDE 1: Italy: The Manzo family of Sicily - Food expenditure for one week: 214.36 Euros or $260.11

SLIDE 2: Germany: The Melander family of Bargteheide - Food expenditure for one week: 375.39 Euros or $500.07

SLIDE 3: United States: The Revis family of North Carolina -Food expenditure for one week $341.98

SLIDE 4: Mexico: The Casales family of Cuernavaca - Food expenditure for one week: 1,862.78 Mexican Pesos or $189.09

SLIDE 5: Poland: The Sobczynscy family of Konstancin-Jeziorna - Food expenditure for one week: 582.48 Zlotys or $151.27

SLIDE 6: Egypt: The Ahmed family of Cairo - Food expenditure for one week: 387.85 Egyptian Pounds or $68.53

SLIDE 7: Ecuador: The Ayme family of Tingo - Food expenditure for one week: $31.55

SLIDE 8: Bhutan: The Namgay family of Shingkhey Village - Food expenditure for one week: 224.93 ngultrum or $5.03

SLIDE 9: Chad: The Aboubakar family of Breidjing Camp - Food expenditure for one week: 685 CFA Francs or $1.23

People Really Eat Here???

This is a restaurant called Waldgeist in Hofheim. They will serve you the biggest Schnitzel you will ever see. The plates in the following pictures are huge! This all for very affordable prices. Every table has rolls of alu-foil, ready to be used. Those that have to use the alu-foil are considered cowards. Drinks are, unless otherwise ordered, served in 2-litre glasses and their bestseller is “Der Bembel des Todes” a 5-litre glass filled with Bacardi and Coke for only 35 Euros.

Hmmm, I can take the challenge on that coke...as long as it's Diet Coke

Unusual Food Serving

Our Stories’ project: Children around the world share and connect online

On December 7 in New York, UNICEF, One Laptop per Child (OLPC) and Google announced the launch of ‘Our Stories’ website – an initiative that will collect, preserve and share stories from young people around the world.

Leading figures have already lent their voices to the project: Ban Ki-moon, Secretary-General of the United Nations, Her Majesty Queen Rania Al Abdullah, Queen of Jordan and UNICEF Eminent Advocate for Children, and Ishmael Beah, UNICEF Advocate for Children Affected by War and best-selling author of A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier, have all recorded messages welcoming users to the site and encouraging them to share their stories.

The website was launched with stories from Brazil, Ghana, Pakistan, Tanzania, Uganda, Argentina, Ethiopia and Nigeria. And to widen the area of coverage and reach out to more youths, translations of the site into eight languages are underway and coming out soon.

Quite soon, ‘Our Stories’ website will also have the functionality for recording stories on mobile phones and land lines. This is indeed good news...more youth will be able to participate and get connected with other young voices worldwide.

As former child soldier Ishmael Beah put it, "One of the most significant changes in my life has been the ability to tell my story for the benefit of others.”

” Our Stories" website is a great avenue for sharing the youth's life experiences.

What???

I never thought I'd lose my temper and get quite loud at the office last Thursday. But knowing that such a report reaches the Sector Head and after reading the status report that I had one of my unit heads handle and monitor, I just couldn't help it. I was far from smiling when I got to read the details. More so when I asked if he'd send that to the Sector Head and he gave a confident yes answer.

The report is supposed to indicate the issues, action taken and target completion date. It was simple. What I read in the Issues and Action Taken columns were excerpts from e-mail exchanges and the report appeared like people were talking to each other...just like in the e-mail. He said that was how he tracked the status. That really threw me off. It was far from what I expected from a Senior Manager's work output. I expected him to summarize the action taken and not copy paste the e-mail exchanges to the status report.

I'm letting off steam here but maybe portions from the "status report" will explain why:

Action Taken:

* "Email of xxxxx: May we refer to you attached screenshots....Per SOA the bal. of account is not OD but during printing the balance printed is OD.Pls. check."

* next line: " Email of xxxxxx to xxxxxx: The issue was fixed on july 18. We have corrected the bal for the ff: accnts.(listed in the email.)"

* next line: "Pls. monitor the new updates and let us know immediately, if the problem recurs. Also, pls. confirm the formatting issue."

Oh this one beats them all:

* "Now you just told me right here in your e-mail that we can do it via GLM01. Thank you. Now I would just like to ask if this procedure can only be done because of our adjustments now, or we can always do this..."

Looking back now though, I can agree with my friend that it was funny and even quite comic when you read it...but certainly not at the time when I first got to read it.

The Convention on the Rights of the Child and the International Year of Sanitation 2008...

This last week, two UNICEF-sponsored events took place in several nations: the 18th anniversary of the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC), and the launching of the International Year of Sanitation 2008.

The Convention on the Rights of the Child was celebrated in several countries. InGermany, UNICEF representatives and children from the Berlin International School celebrated the 18th birthday of the CRC. A huge blue banner which read ‘A Call from Berlin: Children First – Kinder haben Rechte’ (Children have Rights) covered the Brandenburg Gate, Berlin's landmark to the end of the Cold War. The ‘Children First’ banner served as a reminder to Germany of its obligations 15 years after the country’s ratification of the Convention. To this day, Germany has yet to ratify the CRC treaty’s Optional Protocol on the sale of children, child prostitution and pornography.

In New York, the CRC was celebrated with UNICEF appointing its first Advocate for Children Affected by War, Ishmael Beah, a child soldier survivor from Sierra Leone. With his appoitment, Beah becomes a symbol of hope for children who have suffered violence and deprivation of their rights as children.

A website called CRC@18 was also launched by UNICEF to help protect the fundamental rights of every child, raise awareness and involve young people in advocating for their rights.

Also in the UN's headquarters in New York, the International Year of Sanitation 2008 was launched and spearheaded by His Royal Highness Prince Willem-Alexander of the Netherlands. The project promotes making water adequate and sanitation available to everyone. It aims to focus the world’s attention on cutting in half the proportion of people without access to safe water and basic sanitation by 2015.

In her speech, UNICEF Executive Director Ann M. Veneman said that “Children are the most vulnerable, and they are the ones who continue to pay the highest price in terms of lives and futures lost.” Worldwide, lack of access to proper sanitation is linked to the deaths of 1.5 million children each year.

It may take years to resolve all these problems on poverty and rights of children but the efforts have already started and hopefully they soon will bear fruit for the most needy and the world to benefit from.

Autistic Mind...Musical Genius

Months back, I wrote about Amanda,an autistic girl who learned to survive and deal with her autism. Her condition opened the eyes of many and made them understand that autism isn't a hopeless case and that these special people can communicate with others only in a different way. It was touching to read about her story. Now a similar story was featured in Yahoo News about a young boy who also has autism but with such great talent in the field of music.

Maybe these people touch my heart and make me quite emotional because I have a son who has learning difficulty. And though my son has always been diagnosed as mentally normal and goes to regular classes, I still always consider him somewhat special and needing more attention than his siblings. I know I shouldn't be doing this because it would only make him dependent on us and less able to take care of himself but I guess it's the protective mother in me that comes out first. I suppose I'll always be this way with him. And the fear of what can happen to his future should anything happen to me always scares me so much...

I'm sharing this story of Rex, an autistic child born blind....and a musical genius.

My Amateurish Pictures of London...

I had to work mostly, but the little time I could grab in my almost 8 days' stay still made me feel glad that I had this chance to visit London. The establishments have such early closing hours. We often left the office at 8pm and most stores were closed by then except for the restaurants and internet cafes.

Well I didn't miss tasting the famous fish'n chips :). I had it three times when I was there and the Sherlock Holmes Restaurant served the best, biggest and freshest from the three I've tasted...and ohhh...the cheapest cost and fastest service. It was just 3 pounds. The rest were at 6 or 7 pounds. It was an add-on you can order from the tour around the city.

I wish I had enough time to see the inside of the Tower of London and Madam Thessaud(?). Well, maybe next time....

LONDON

ONE's "ON THE RECORD" Drive

ONE is launching a petition asking all U.S. presidential candidates to go "On The Record," by submitting in writing to ONE, their plans on the following five issues:

* Eradicating malaria;
* Improving child and maternal health;
* Reversing the spread of HIV/AIDS and tuberculosis;
* Achieving universal primary education; and
* Providing access to food and clean water for all.

This will put on record, the candidates' presidential agenda on critical issues many organizations like ONE are advocating for. This hopefully helps put these issues among the candidates' priority list and serves as a reminder for them to address these global concerns.

GAP AND CHILD LABOR...AND POVERTY

When I saw the news on children in India being made to work long hours for the famous Gap company, it made me wonder if the main office overseas is even aware that children were being used to make their clothes. From the BBC news, it seems they don't. The important thing is, something is and should be done about it.




There are many forms of child abuse and child labor is just one of them. Unfortunately, as long as there are takers, child labor or any form of child abuse will never be eradicated.