News & Views March 2020

News and Views Quarterly Newsletter First Quarter - March 2020 The Travels and the Travelers of XUNICEF A Quarterly Newsletter Written By and For former UNICEF Staff and the wider UNICEF family

News & Views - March 2020 IN THIS ISSUE. Click on any heading below to go directly to that sectio FROM YOUR EDITORS THE TRAVELS AND THE TRAVELERS OF XUNICEF Ines & Juan Aguilar: Discovering the Silk Road Shahida Azfar - Lahore, Pakistan’s Cultural Capital Gautam Banerji - San Francesco Cloister Richard Bridle: My Imaginary Travels David Bull: A Late Autumn Trip to Iceland Chasing the Northern Lights Horst Cerni: A trip back in history Peter Delahaye: Travels through Colors of the Dawn Ute Deseniss-Gros: Surprising Bangkok! Robert Hanawalt: Nightmare in Kuang Si Bruce Kennedy: Impressions of Bangladesh Tom McDermott: The Streets of Porto Luzma Montano: Traveling With My Camera Nilanjana Mukherjee: Beyond Imagination Blanca San German: Reunión de XUNICEF De 2017 En México Y Cuba Miguel A. Ugalde: My Life As A Traveler Franziska von Vietinghoff: Icon painting in Bethlehem Kunio Waki: My fly fishing journeys READERS’ CORNER \"Journey Among Warriors\"​ by Eve Labouisse \"Lou Remembered; The Life Of H. Louis Shapiro\", “Fifty years of Public Health through my diaries” BITS & PIECES Longevity in UNICEF ​Careers Remember Them? Fouad Kronfol: Think Gasoline is Expensive? Whatever Gas Costs, It Sure Beats Walking. BEFORE YOU GO 1

News & Views - March 2020 FROM YOUR EDITORS - L​ ife in a Time of Corona A corona forms around the sun. Credit Horst Cerni, March 10, 2020 Our lives, our world have changed in a matter of weeks, days even. So many things we took for granted - among them travel !! From today’s vantage point, a newsletter edition dedicated to ‘XUNICEF Travels and Travelers’ may seem a cruel joke, or at best, an ironic twist on reality. Three months ago when we started planning this edition, ‘Travel’ seemed the perfect theme for a Spring edition. Today, perhaps not so much. On the other hand, perhaps no theme could be more appropriate for a period of lockdown. As several of our authors remind us in this edition, the best sort of travel is often not physical, but mental. It may be traveling as we leaf through our albums of past trips. It may be traveling through our books and films. It may only be travel through musing on our postponed plans, our daydreams, our memories. 2

News & Views - March 2020 Many thanks to those who contributed the articles and photos in this edition. Thanks for letting us travel along with you. We all can (still) travel - including through the stories and photos of others. We hope you will enjoy this edition of the newsletter. A Prayer for Travelers Freedom Irish Blessing By Olive Runner May the road rise up to meet you. Give me the long, straight road before me, May the wind always be at your back. A clear, cold day with a nipping air, May the sun shine warm upon your face, Tall, bare trees to run on beside me, and rains fall soft upon your fields. A heart that is light and free from care. And until we meet again, Then let me go! – I care not whither May God hold you in the palm of His hand. My feet may lead, for my spirit shall be May good luck be with you Wherever you go, Free as the brook that flows to the river, and your blessings outnumber the shamrocks Free as the river that flows to the sea. that grow. Innocents Abroad May your days be many and your troubles be By Mark Twain few, May all God’s blessings descend upon “Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and  you, May peace be within you, May your narrow-mindedness, and many of our  heart be strong, May you find what you’re people need it sorely on these accounts.  Broad, wholesome, charitable views of  seeking wherever you roam. men and things cannot be acquired by  May you have the hindsight to know where vegetating in one little corner of the earth  you’ve been all one's lifetime.”  the foresight to know where you’re going and the insight to know when you’re going too   far. Gustave Flaubert Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie   'Voyager rend modeste. On voit mieux la place You travel to search and you come back home to find yourself there.” minuscule que l'on occupe dans le monde.' Gustave Flaubert           3

News & Views - March 2020 Excerpts from Song of the Open Excerpts from Ulysses Road By Alfred, Lord Tennyson By Walt Whitman     Afoot and light-hearted I take to the open road, I cannot rest from travel: I will drink Life to the lees: All times I have enjoy'd Healthy, free, the world before me, Greatly, have suffer'd greatly, both with those The long brown path before me leading That loved me, and alone, on shore, wherever I choose. Henceforth I ask not good-fortune, I myself I am a part of all that I have met; am good-fortune, Yet all experience is an arch wherethro' Gleams that untravell'd world whose margin Strong and content I travel the open road. The earth, that is sufficient, fades For ever and forever when I move. Allons! the road is before us! How dull it is to pause, to make an end, It is safe—I have tried it—my own feet have To rust unburnish'd, not to shine in use! As tho' to breathe were life! Life piled on life  tried it well—be not detain’d! Camerado, I give you my hand! I give you my love more precious than money, I give you myself before preaching or law; Will you give me yourself? Will you come travel with me? Shall we stick by each other as long as we live? 4

News & Views - March 2020 THE TRAVELS AND THE TRAVELERS OF XUNICEF Ines & Juan Aguilar: Discovering the Silk Road Bukhara, Uzbekistan My wife Ines and I visited Bukhara at the end of my first official visit to Uzbekistan UNICEF Office, early February 2004. That year, UNICEF had called me back to work as Special Representative for Kazakhstan and the Central Asian Republics. Being and working in Central Asia was a tremendous opportunity and we decided not to miss it but to privately visit several cities along the Silk Road. Our UNICEF colleagues in the Tashkent Office facilitated the arrangements for a two days tour. We stayed at a local hotel, situated in front of the Citadel. This is dominated by an impressive and massive defensive wall. We learnt that over the centuries of construction and destruction, its height above ground was raised in some places more than eighteen meters. 5

News & Views - March 2020 The day we visited was a sunny but bitterly cold winter day and as we were shivering we urgently asked our guide where we would find a place where to drink a shot of vodka to warm our body and spirit. In Bukhara, one can easily find bars serving their customers at tables dressed right in the street in front of the watering place, often playing chess like the gentlemen we pictured. 6

News & Views - March 2020 Once warmed up, we started touring this magnificent place, and visited the Gaukush On Madrasa and minaret, the Miri-Arab Madrasa.. 7

News & Views - March 2020 We then went to the bazaar and we were dazzled by the colourful robes of local Uzbeks, particularly women, who were all warm and friendly, and selling all sorts of wares and goodies. With no hesitation a family allowed us to take a group photograph. 8

News & Views - March 2020 Most surprisingly, and against all our expectations, we had found a medieval XII century city teeming with life full of people living in the old quarters and happily enjoying the city daily life. This remains, even today, the most vivid memory of the trip. Shahida Azfar - Lahore, Pakistan’s Cultural Capital Travel has always been my passion so much so that my husband said I should have married Marco Polo, but I became Marco Polo with UNICEF! Sadly after UNICEF it has been a struggle to get visas. Fortunately one does not need a visa in one’s own country (still). My recent visit to Lahore, the city where I went to school, college and University was amazing!!!! Why so, when I know it so well??? In early March, Lahore hosted its eighth Literary Festival ( LLF) with national and international writers, poets, political commentators, journalists including Orhan Pamuk discussing his novel “I am Red”, launch of William Dalrymple book “The Anarchy: Post- Mughal Politics” , Vali Nasr discussing “Global Retreat from Multilateralism” with Kaya Genc and Maliha Lodhi; several poetry session, in one of which my young grandson read a poem tilted “ The fall of the Icons” and I too read one titled “In Retrospect” (very relevant at one’s stage in Life ) from the book of poems “The Dreamer Awakes” by Beo ZAFAR. Lahore continues to justify being declared the City of Learning by UNESCO in 2016. Another spectacular event which was simultaneously being held and that too in the Lahore Fort was the Lahore Binale bringing together artists of national and International fame, adding yet another incentive to visit Lahore. 9

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News & Views - March 2020 Added to these special attractions was the opportunity to spend time with friends and family from yester years but also recently visiting from overseas and my two handsome grandsons (and their beautiful parents ) and sampling the gourmet cuisine and lavish hospitality which Lahore is famous for. Lahore has always been famous and loved by the Mughal Kings especially Jehangir who is buried in Lahore with his beautiful wife Noor Jehan. He is said to have said ( in Persian of course) “ if there is paradise on earth, it is here, it is here, it is here”The world’s largest mosque( maybe prior to the one in Casablanca‘) “The Badshahi Mosque” built by Mughal Emperor Aurangzeb is also in Lahore along with numerous other monuments of historical significance. 11

News & Views - March 2020 Last but not least, Lahore was home to famous poets, writers, singers. Sir Allama Iqbal, our national philosopher poet who dreamt of Pakistan and coined its name, lived and is buried here. Another internationally known person AS Bokhari who at the UNGA after WW2 proposed UNICEF to continue as the agency for children of developing countries thus ensuring continued existence of UNICEF and its benefits to the world’s children. I could go on and on but hopefully you all are interested enough to visit Lahore someday when I will happily show you around!!! 12

News & Views - March 2020 Gautam Banerji - San Francesco Cloister Sorrento, Italy The cloister is perhaps among the most ancient monuments of Sorrento. With its suggestive architecture, blending the style of the 14t​ h​ century with rests from pre-Christian temples and materials of other ancient settlements, it has a mystic, and in a way magical atmosphere. Renovated in the early 1900s, it serves today as a perfect place for wedding ceremonies. My younger daughter, Mandakini, chose the San Francesco Cloister as the venue for her civil marriage two years ago. The ceremony itself was awesome. Very silent and only brightened by the colours of a sober flora (as captured in the pictures by me) it evokes a magical charm, especially after sunset. The pictures I am sharing were mostly taken in the late evening after the wedding ceremony, when I sneaked in once more having just witnessed a magnificent sunset at the 13

News & Views - March 2020 seafront. I was alone on this visit to the Cloister with all the freedom to move around and capture my moods in solitude.. Placed behind the homonymous church and the Communal villa titled to ‘Salvo d’Esposito,’ the Cloister is situated in the historic centre of the city and is only a few meters away from the house where the famous poet, Torquato Tasso was born. The whole place exudes a sense of history all around. You will notice in the pictures the porches made of crossed tuff arches. There are also circular arches that lean onto octagonal columns surmounted by exquisite hand-crafted capitals. The whole atmosphere is inspiring, and I was awestruck by the solitude. 14

News & Views - March 2020 Encouraged by Manda, I, early last year and upon my return to Dilijan, Armenia, where I am presently based, tried to capture the ‘moment’ in one of my few ‘oil-on-canvas’ and I include a photo-reprint of it for comparison. It is somewhat amateurish but some of my more knowledgeable friends were of the opinion that it is a good specimen of impressionistic painting. ! I leave it to you to judge. 15

News & Views - March 2020 Richard Bridle: My Imaginary Travels This is a collage of photographs of the alleyways of Silbury. Except that, since Silbury is a fictional place, they are actually somewhere else in the English West Country. The pictures were all taken in 2018 during a visit to see family there. At the time, I was in the process of writing Silbury 1966, and I wanted to have a visual reference for many of the events I knew would enter the book, and which feature too in its sequel, Silbury 1969. Alleyways were always prominent places in my childhood and adolescence. I don't know if there is anything \"Freudian\" about it, but these were my favourite places whether just walking or bike riding. 16

News & Views - March 2020 David Bull: A Late Autumn Trip to Iceland Chasing the Northern Lights I have always been interested in astronomy and have always been fascinated by the aurora – the Northern Lights. Wherever one goes to look for the Lights, it is always touch and go. The questions a Northern Lights photographer asks are: Will the solar activity be strong enough? Will the clouds part at the right time? Can one find locations relatively free of light pollution? My wife and I decided on a self-organised visit to Iceland for a week in November, staying at three different locations. On our first night, we stayed at a remote hotel near the dramatic volcano Mount Hekla, which shone pink in the dawn light. 17

News & Views - March 2020 That evening the sky was clear, dotted with thousands of stars visible in the photo, and the Northern Lights made their appearance. After two nights near Mount Hekla, surrounded by dramatic scenery, we stayed by a lake on the edge of Reykjavik, where we saw dramatic lights. 18

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News & Views - March 2020 From the capital we headed north to the Snaefellsnes peninsula, near the small town of Grundarfjörður. Again the Lights made an appearance. Grundarfjörður is home to the renowned Kirkjufell mountain, with its nearby waterfall. At the end, we stayed for a week in Iceland and saw the Northern Lights on 4 nights – I think that we were extremely fortunate. 20

News & Views - March 2020 Horst Cerni: A trip back in history To me, travelling is no longer fun. In addition, old age brings medical restrictions and a desire to live simply. I, therefore, enjoy exploring my neighborhood and travelling back in history. It was about 1770 when a young man from the neighboring island of Nevis walked the streets of the Danish colonial town of Christiansted on the Caribbean island of St. Croix. His home, where his mother also had a little store, was at the very entrance of town – near the Moravian and the Anglican churches. Every morning he walked down Kongens Gade to his workplace at the merchants of Beekman & Cruger, just a few blocks from the harbor. He passed the Lutheran Church and Government Building, and enjoyed the colorful facades of the houses. He walked under the arches, which protected him from the bright sun or the occasional rain shower, and he enjoyed looking at the store fronts. Although barely a teenager, he held a responsible position at the import-export company, and spent a lot of time at the harbor, registering the incoming goods, clearing customs, arranging for transport, as well as handling all requirements for the export goods, mostly molasses, sugar, rum, cotton and Mahogany wood. 21

News & Views - March 2020 But he was appalled to see that incoming sail ships brought in large amounts of black people, who were tied together like animals and auctioned off as slaves in a building across from the wharf. Despite the lack of formal education, this young man showed intelligence and reliability, to the extent that his boss put him in charge of the business for five months while he was travelling. In 1772, a strong hurricane devastated the island, and his account of it was published in the Royal Danish-American Gazette, and earned him a scholarship to study in New York. Eventually he became one of the Founding Fathers of the United States and its first Secretary of the Treasury. He is now featured on the ten Dollar bill. His name: Alexander Hamilton. Some 250 years later, Christiansted is considered one of the best preserved colonial cities in the Caribbean. I can feel the ambiance of those days with every step I take and especially in the Lutheran Church. Governor von Scholten, who liberated the slaves in 1848, worshipped there together with the owners and their families of the sugar estates, and they sat on the same Mahogany pews where even now visiting Danes and locals sit. 22

News & Views - March 2020 There are still Danish street names, like \"Dronningens TværGade (Queen Cross Street), and Kongens Gade, which is now King Street. There are no big Schooners bringing goods anymore, no horse-drawn carriages, and the Government House is bigger, but the colonial buildings from the Danish time are there, and the arched cobblestone walkways invite the visitors (and locals) to travel back in time. Peter Delahaye: Travels through Colors of the Dawn There are many ways to travel that do not necessarily involve leaving one's home. Here is my most recent series of eight multiple-panel paintings which attempts to capture the shades of colour at dawn. Encouraging more travelers to wake up to meet the dawn wherever they are is the purpose of this artwork. 23

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News & Views - March 2020 The best way to view these is as a video sequence. ​Click here to view​ the sequence. As you’ll note, each of the dawn frames has subtle colour variations highlighting blues, greens, or ochres, oranges and greys. Watch carefully and you can see the subtle colors blend from one to the next. These are panels of watercolour on paper, currently being framed for an exhibition in Florence, at Giacomo Pirozzi's Tobian Art Gallery. I hope you enjoy them. 25

News & Views - March 2020 Ute Deseniss-Gros: Surprising Bangkok! Out of the almost 28 years of service with the UN system, I spent 7 years with UNESCO in Africa and 14 out of 22 years with UNICEF in Africa. ​That is why now in my retirement, I like to travel to other continents. In November 2019, I visited Bangkok for 6 days and thereafter two weeks in Myanmar. In both countries I discovered places where they bake absolutely delicious waffles, like in Brussels or Vienna or at my home! In Myanmar, it is available in the market in Loikow, but that is too long to explain here. In Bangkok, it is easy to locate, we took however a little detour as you will see. Those who know Thailand’s capital will agree that the fastest and most enjoyable mode of transport is the boat, both on the river and /or in the canals. We had just arrived at the end of the boat trip from the center in town and were walking along the big street in which the UNICEF Regional Office was supposed to be. We were not in a hurry, but hungry. Thus we had lunch at a place with a direct view of the very busy and large Phra Atit Road. While eating we observed two people on the other side of the street, who were stopping people, speaking to them for a while and so on. However, there was so much traffic that we could not see clearly what they did. But suddenly it “clicked” when for a second I got a clear view of both persons, without any car hiding them. My guess was that they were from UNICEF, because suddenly the young man turned around and I saw his cap. Turquoise blue color!! The young woman next to him had something in her hands which could be flyers and she was wearing a white T-shirt with something written on it. I was really intrigued, I suggested to my friend that we go over to them after our lunch. Finally, I picked up my rucksack, also in turquoise blue, with the inscription of “UNICEF”, put it on my back, and we attempted to pass through the traffic jam to cross the street. “Hello, are you tourists?” With this question the young man welcomed us on the other side. 26

News & Views - March 2020 “Yes, you are right, and who are you?” asked my friend. “We are students” replied the young lady. “Are you here on behalf of UNICEF?” I inquired, as by then I had clearly seen the UNICEF inscription on the young man’s cap and the young woman was wearing a T-shirt with UNICEF’s logo. My question must have surprised them as they looked puzzled. Then they asked almost together: “Do you know UNICEF? “ Now we were laughing, and I turned around, picked up my bag so that they could read “UNICEF“ on it. Their surprise was real. We then explained who we were, etc. etc. Together we walked to UNICEF’s Regional office and entered the compound. My friend had worked in the Regional Office and was surprised to see the improvements from the outside, The two young people were volunteers involved in advocacy work and collecting funds for UNICEF Thailand. They had been very interested to hear how we joined UNICEF where we had worked, from which country we are etc., etc. For me it was a very nice encounter with these lovely young Thais who definitely were committed to support the work of UNICEF in Thailand. 27

News & Views - March 2020 My friend and I continued our walk through the quarter of Banglampoo, and we did end up in the garden cafe of the waste and marvelous domain of the Monastery Wat Ratchanatdaram where the smell of waffles welcomed us. Among other tourists and several young monk students who enjoyed their break, we tasted those very delicious waffles. What a wonderful and relaxing Bangkok ! 28

News & Views - March 2020 Robert Hanawalt: Nightmare in Kuang Si It was in 1975, we were sitting in a café on a very narrow side street in Luang Phrabang and we had to move our feet when passersby walked in front of us. Chatting, we watched as a young man came out onto the sidewalk and collapsed on the street, leaning up against a telephone pole for stability. He seemed to be half asleep or groggy or drunk. We talked to him and he said he had just come out from an opium den but that he wanted to go to Kuang Si, a beautiful waterfall he said. We knew why he was ‘groggy’ but our interest piqued hearing about the waterfall. Intrigued, we looked up the waterfalls in the guide book and decided that we would go there without the young French guy, who probably could have made the trip anyway. The two of us, François and myself, found a bus and headed out to the falls, which, we were told, was not far away, about 15 kms outside of town. Sometime later after many stops, we got off the bus and walked through the forest, through several villages to get to the falls. The walk took about an hour or one and a half hours. When we reached the falls, we were amazed because they were spectacular. There were a series of pools at the bottom of several falls which meant that you could go from pool to pool while descending the wall of falls. The water was crystal clear and cool and rushed from pool to pool, down the falls to another pool. It was so delightful that we swam and soaked in the pools, being the only people there. As we descended the pools in turn, one to the other over a period of an hour, we came to the bottom pools and saw a man in military uniform at the edge of the bottom pool which was the biggest. We continued swimming and luxuriating in the water and noticed that more 29

News & Views - March 2020 more and soldiers came to the edge of the biggest pool. We assumed that they also wanted to swim in the falls and pools and we tried to talk to them as they smoked cigarettes and talked among themselves. The language barrier made communication difficult and slowly, we withdrew to discussion between the two of us. Eventually the soldiers made gestures that we should get out of the water. Playing dumb, we showed them that we didn’t understand what they were saying. After some time, they became a bit more forceful, especially for Laotians who are so gentle-natured, and picked up their guns which were on the ground out of our sight. They came and told us something in an abrupt tone of voice and when we saw the weapons, we knew the game had changed. We got out of the water, dried ourselves off, changed back into our street clothes and started to leave the falls to go back to the bus. Our leaving on our own didn’t seem to please the soldiers who followed us and eventually split into two groups with one at the front of the line and the others in the back. We knew then that we were under their control. Eventually we reached a village which seemed to be partially abandoned and the lead soldier told us to go into a bamboo cabin built on stilts. We walked up the ladder and sat in the cabin which was empty except for bamboo mats. 30

News & Views - March 2020 Trying to be friendly, we offered the soldiers who were holding us in custody cigarettes and they accepted them. What happens if the bamboo cabin catches on fire, I wondered aloud to François? We both agreed to be careful and thought we might have a bigger problem on our hands when we made the movements to go out of the cabin and down to the ground. We were told to stay there. We complied as they did seem both forceful and had the persuasion of weapons on their side. After a couple of hours in the cabin and many cigarettes later, the lead man came and made a gesture that we should follow him and the other men. He led us through several villages, each of which seemed different in terms of the kinds of housing, the clothing the people were wearing and the reactions of the villagers to the armed soldiers with two Western men in their custody. Eventually, we were taken to a very nice house at the edge of another village which, as it turns out, was the house of the school teacher who spoke some French. We were quite eager to talk to him, as we had no idea what was really going on except that we had been arrested by armed soldiers and were taken against our will to his house. The man, whose name, I have forgotten, told us in some semblance of French that the soldiers were the Pathet Lao and that they had recently infiltrated into this part of the Luang Phrabang Province and were trying to control the area. It became obvious to us that these soldiers were not the leaders of the movement but foot soldiers who were merely following orders. Our host told us that we would spend the night at his house and that we could leave in the morning. As it was already late in the afternoon, we really had no choice. He brought us beer and food and we all ate and drank on his front veranda and talked into the evening around candles. The teacher explained that the Pathet Lao were insecure because they were new to the area and did not trust the loyalty of the villagers. He explained that some villagers had accepted the Pathet Lao and other villagers did not. Generally, the acceptance was by entire villages and not individuals in each village which was why some villages appeared abandoned. Those who did not accept them fled to remove themselves from the soldiers’ control. Having foreigners in the same area was both suspicious and threatening to the soldiers and raised the stakes for them. He further explained that while we were arrested, we were free to go in the morning. He then made pallets on his front veranda for us to sleep on and we spent a comfortable night and for some reason we both slept extremely well, awakening in the morning refreshed and ready to face either freedom or continued detention. A small contingent of soldiers came to the teacher’s house and explained to him that it was time for us to go and they accompanied us down the road to a stop where traffic could give us a lift back to the town of Luang Phrabang. A bus did arrive and we got on, happy to be both free and determined to leave the area. 31

News & Views - March 2020 We spent the night in Luang Phrabang and took a flight to the border the next day. The arrival in the border is yet another story but we were happy to be out of that tight spot and took a pirogue across the Mekong to Thailand and calmness. (​Robert Hanawalt was ​former Chief of Operations in the DR Congo, Uganda, Angola, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Haiti, Madagascar and Mali and Regional Chief of Human Resources in WCARO) Bruce Kennedy: Impressions of Bangladesh February 10 to 21, 2020 There is nothing touristy about Bangladesh. In fact there are virtually no international tourists at all. The people are universally friendly, especially to a foreign visitor. The downside is that everyone wanted to take a selfie with me. In any case what you see is the genuine culture as it is experienced by the locals however prosaic that might be. Bangladesh is not a very large country. Nonetheless I spent at least a third of my ten days traveling. That is because there are no direct roads to anywhere. In a riverine delta crisscrossed by rivers large and small, the route is determined by bridges and ferries. Fortunately we had an aggressive driver who jumped the queue by tailgating on to an official delegation. That saved many hours waiting at one ferry crossing. However there was no shortcutting for the train returning to Dhaka from the south. The bridge now under construction over the Padma (Ganges) River will someday reduce the ten hour trip to three but that future is still many years away. 32

News & Views - March 2020 There was only one other guy in my “tour group”. He was a 75 year-old, retired electrical contractor from Birmingham, UK. We had a guide and a team of seven sailors for our trip on a small boat into vast mangrove Sundarban forest which borders the Gulf of Bengal. We saw dolphins, lots of birds, crocodiles, wild boar, deer, monkeys and around the fresh water holes, traces of tigers: a fresh footprint and later the remains of its prey. Then paddling up a quiet stream, we really got lucky. We stumbled upon a tiger about to swim across the creek. It was as astonished to see us as we were to stumble upon it. Five seconds later it disappeared behind a bush leaving only a video to testify to our good fortune. The fauna of greatest interest was humanity and there is no better place to view that carnival than the narrow streets of Dhaka. Bicycle pulled rickshaws make up at least a fifth of the vehicular fleet carrying every manner of cargo. Each driver has his own creative idea of how to navigate the streets and the only thing which saves the lot.from serious mishap is the tortuously slow pace of movement. The river boasts a similar diversity of vessels. In the congestion my small craft hit a passing cargo ship but we just bounced off one another. Bangladesh is one of the most densely populated countries in the world. Virtually all the land is cultivable. The roads are lined with human habitations like one continuous village. One must go by train however to appreciate this pastoral paradise in multiple hues of green. 33

News & Views - March 2020 The Kella Lalbagh palace is a huge uncompleted fortress dating back to the Mughal period in the middle of old Dhaka. At the center is a grave of a ruler bordered by the graves of two “unknown” children. It occurred to me, wouldn’t that be the perfect centerpiece for the UNICEF headquarters: “The Grave of the Unknown Child!” My visit concluded with dinner with XUNICEF friends Masood, Mahera and her husband, Kamal. They talked about how Bangladesh had developed over the past few decades. I left hopeful for what the future may bring. 34

News & Views - March 2020 Tom McDermott: The Streets of Porto It was a cool yet sunny Saturday afternoon as we strolled down the crowded ‘Largo dos Loios’ shopping street in Porto. There amidst the crowd sat a busker and his young assistant, taking a break between their performances. Their birds seemed equally pleased to enjoy a moment of peace. 35

News & Views - March 2020 A few years ago my wife and I spent several weeks exploring Portugal. We loved it all, but we grew most enamored of Porto. The city quickly became our base from which to explore the north of the country. We came and went and came back again. In between visiting the fabulous restaurants, our days were filled with walking, riding the trolley, and endless people-watching. A snack that should be called a meal A chef shows how to wrap a Pastel de Bacalhau - a delicious cheese and cod combination. Add an ice-cold glass of Porto white wine. 36

News & Views - March 2020 Washed down with ice cream and a pecan pie Grilled fish at a pop-up restaurant along the riverside Porto was probably established by proto-Celtic peoples around 300 BC. It grew in importance through Roman times. It grew throughout Medieval times and by the early 1700`s became the main trading route to England. The city gave its name to its most important export, port wine. Tourists crowd L​ ivraria Lello,   the​ bookstore whose architecture inspired J.K. Rowlings in writing the Harry Potter series. 37

News & Views - March 2020 When your feet grow tired, jump on a trolley. Dinner along the Douro River 38

News & Views - March 2020 Luzma Montano: Traveling With My Camera Cameras do take photos, but cameras sometimes do capture the beauty of a moment, that fleeting fraction of a second when emotions carry the heart of the photographer. Here two situations and photographs that fit into this description. In 2016 I took a road trip with my two children driving from Paris to Southern France. It was a fantastic trip filled with joy and with an insane amount of pictures taken. One of the first stops was in Bourges. As we had left Paris quite early to beat the traffic, we stopped there looking for a place to have breakfast and, at the same time, visit the Cathedral. We were walking along the empty street, which at that moment felt like our own private street, since no other soul was around. It started to rain lightly. My daughter opened an umbrella that she was carrying in her bag. I was shooting the buildings and the street leading to the cathedral, and the surrounding alleys, when suddenly my daughter started singing \"Singing in the Rain\" and dancing and jumping. I was walking behind her and just started shooting and shooting and shooting with my camera. To my surprise, the photos did not come that blurry, even though I was walking and she was in the air! 39

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News & Views - March 2020 The 2019 XUNICEF reunion in Armenia was filled with heartwarming moments particularly along the `Monastery Trail\". The visit to the Tatev Monastery, with its active churches and chapels spread around the magnificent complex, instilled serenity. As our group was exiting the church, the penumbra created at the church entrance by the outdoor light and the darker inside exquisitely painted Jim Mohan’s silhouette. I just couldn't resist taking those pics. I took them as I was watching Jim walking out of the church, his figure outlined against the daylight and contrasting with the dim indoor light. It was a moment that filled me with emotion, an emotion that said: this is the figure of a good, generous, sweet man… 41

News & Views - March 2020 Nilanjana Mukherjee: Beyond Imagination Voyage to Falklands – South Georgia – Antarctica , January 2019 We jump out of our Zodiac rafts into icy, knee-deep water and wade ashore onto a pebbled beach. Bright sunshine from intensely blue skies offers little warmth against the chilly winds descending from the glaciers not too far from the beach. King penguins standing around in small groups observe us – with distinct lack of interest. Fur seals bask in the sun or slither around in an ungainly manner. Curious seal cubs scamper up to some of us, barking, puppy-like. We have instructions to stay at least 15 feet away from all wildlife at all times – but no one has told ​them​ that, evidently! We follow a path flagged by our expedition crew from the beach towards the mountains, through the sandy plains. Verdant tussock grass and moss mark the courses of the many shallow streams flowing from the glaciers to the sea. They look like streams of penguins from a distance – because the birds like to station themselves in the water . Where the green of the grass ends, there is a wide ribbon of white, black, brown and yellow stretching in a 180 degrees panorama before us, right across the base of the snow-clad mountain range rising from the plains. As we get closer, the ribbon widens , becoming a speckled sheet over the land, shimmering and pulsating. The distant hum is turning into a deafening cacophony ….jaws drop and feet stop moving as realization hits people. 42

News & Views - March 2020 “ Yes, that is around 60,000 King penguins in one place “ says a grinning crew member who has obviously been through this many times ……. “ Salisbury Plains is the second biggest penguin rookery on Earth” ! This was our first exposure to the explosive renewal of life that unfolds annually in the Antarctic Peninsula and the sub-Antarctic islands over the Southern summer. Days start getting longer by September and the sun never fully sets during November to February. Increased daylight hours make phytoplankton (sea grass) bloom abundantly. It feeds and fosters gigantic swarms of krill, a tiny shrimp-like crustacean. Krill is at the bottom of the food chain of Antarctic life, on which depend penguins, seals, whales, other fish and sea birds. Abundance of krill in summer attracts them all to the Southern Ocean where it supports their annual cycle of mating, laying and incubating eggs and the breeding of chicks, calves and cubs to self-sufficient maturity before winter freezes the sea around Antarctica, doubling its size. Sub-Antarctic islands like South Georgia and The Falklands become hot-spots for wildlife breeding at unimaginably massive scales every summer, even more so than on the Antarctic Peninsula. 43

News & Views - March 2020 After many years of dreaming about visiting Antarctica, and two years of researching and planning for it, on New Year’s Day 2019 I finally set sail from Ushuaia at the southern tip of Argentina. Over the next 20 days our 4000+ kilometre voyage sailed a roughly 44

News & Views - March 2020 triangular route covering Isla Malvinas or The Falklands, South Georgia island and the Antarctic Peninsula , before returning to Ushuaia through the infamous Drake Passage, which did live up to its stormy reputation. Happy to report that I survived, chewing on fresh ginger root procured from the ship’s kitchen. But nearly half the ship’s passengers were not seen in the dining room for the 36 hour crossing of ‘The Drake Shakes’! Our comfortable and beautifully appointed ship Hebridean Sky, categorized as a “small ship”, accommodated 103 guests and almost the same number of crew members – in separate teams for Hospitality, Ship operation and Expedition . We spent 8 days at sea between the various islands and Antarctica locations. The sea-days were filled with riveting presentations about each location and the region, whale and bird sightings, and hands-on learning about polar activities. Twice during these days, schools of nearly a hundred humpback whales surrounded the ship. The captain cut the engine and they kept the waters around the ship boiling with their blows and flukes for nearly an hour ! On other days we would bundle ourselves up in many layers, top it up with waterproof gear and life jackets, and go ashore in Zodiacs to hike along the beaches and cliffs, take thousands of photos and simply sit and stare at the wonder all around. 45

News & Views - March 2020 There are at least 18 different species of Penguins , of which we were able to see 7, each with its distinctive look, call and habitat preference. Huge colonies of Chinstrap and Gentoo penguins resembled well-organised cities with residential settlements on hilltops, protected creches for chicks in the middle of settlements, clearly marked compacted snow paths and even wide expressways winding downhill to the beach and the sea – where penguins must trek several times a day for food. Courting, nesting and flying Albatross made entire hillsides look like flying cloud-kissed rocks. 46

News & Views - March 2020 Sometimes we picked our way through beaches literally covered with massive and aggressive elephant seals - thankfully,they can hardly move on land ! At times we did not land on shore but paddled our kayaks or cruised close to shores in Zodiacs, to watch Adelie penguins playing on ice floes and Gentoo penguins lining up to jump off or onto ice banks all together. A leopard seal savagely killed and devoured a penguin in water a few metres away from us - and then climbed on to pack ice to rest, with a permanently smirking expression. 47

News & Views - March 2020 Zen-like experiences abounded …. walking in sub-zero temperatures through steam rising from a black volcanic sand beach. It is the collapsed caldera of a submerged volcano that last erupted in 1948. Another surreal place was a mirror-calm bay known as an ‘iceberg graveyard’ where we floated around nature’s artworks - icebergs sculpted by wind, water and time into spectacular shapes, ranging in sizes as big as cruise ships to household furniture. Antarctica is impossibly beautiful. Indescribably awe-inspiring. Beyond what words can describe. Beyond what photographs and films can capture. Beyond imagination!! The White Continent under its two kilometres- deep ice sheet sustains life on Earth in a multitude of ways. Our survival as a race depends on Antarctica remaining unchanged. But, sadly, our planet is under siege today. The myriad ways in which we and Antarctica are mutually connected are still too little understood, by too few, recognised by even fewer, and soon it may perhaps be too late, for ​both​ of us. GETTING THERE 48

News & Views - March 2020 The shortest route to Antarctica is by sailing or flying from Ushuaia (southernmost tip of Argentina). Flights to Ushuaia are available from Buenos Aires (Argentina) or Santiago (Chile). Ushuaia to Antarctica flights are few, more expensive than ships and often cancelled due to bad weather. More than 30 tour operators currently offer voyages of short or long duration depending on itinerary selected. All are members of IAATO (International Association of Antarctica Tour Operators) which requires them to follow stringent norms of operation to protect Antarctica’s pristine environment from human activities there. For a list of tour operators see the Membership Directory at​ h​ ttps://iaato.org WHEN TO GO The tourist travel season is during the Antarctic summer. Most tours operate from November to March. Early, peak and late season tours offer different stages of wildlife breeding cycles and landscape conditions. Access to the southernmost latitudes allowed for tourism may not open up early in the season due to sea ice. HOW TO CHOOSE YOUR TOUR Tours usually get booked 1-1.5 years in advance. You need to research what can be seen in different months and plan according to what interests you most. Then look for itineraries being offered during the year and months of intended travel, according to the level of travel class/comfort desired and cost. Then check the ships and their reviews. Generally small ships (around 100 guests capacity) are a popular choice because all Antarctica landing sites allow only a 100 tourists landing at a time. Large cruise ships of 300 or more guests may not be able to navigate to all sites, and guests may have to take turns to land, reducing shore time. HEALTH MATTERS Reasonable physical fitness is necessary to make the trip worthwhile. Mobility is important for getting into and out of Zodiacs safely. Shore landings require short hikes which can be over level, undulating and inclined terrain. Sometimes there are longer hiking/climbing options. Ships usually have a medical doctor and basic medical care facilities on board. All travellers need to have adequate health insurance cover, including cover for emergency evacuation costs which can be very high. 49