UNIDIR - HAPPY BIRTHDAY !!!! Yes, it is 40 years since President Giscard d'Estaing created UNIDIR in Geneva.

 

UNIDIR is 40 years old.      HAPPY BIRTHDAY UNIDIR !

It is 40 years since President Valéry Giscard d'Estaing created UNIDIR.  

Giscard created the Institute inside the Palais de Nations in Geneva, because he did not want all the disarmament work to be kept in New York where the Secretary General lives. The French president was standing up for French values: and quite right too!

 

I work for peace, and I worked for one of my favourite peace organisations: UNIDIR in Geneva, United Nations Institute for Disarmament Research. 

 

Disarmament does not just happen!  It requires a great deal of hard work and patience as you persuade armed rebels or armed governments to give up their arms, to immobilize them or even destroy them.

 

During the 1990s, while my wife Michelle ran the European office of ChildFund and chaired the NGO Committee for UNICEF, I became a Research Fellow (and later a Senior Fellow) of UNIDIR working for micro-disarmament in West Africa and publishing books about how it is done.

 

UNIDIR studies different types of disarmament and offers new solutions. Nuclear, chemical and biological weapons are well-known weapons of mass-destruction regulated by international conventions; micro-disarmament concerns the small arms and light weapons that kill thousands of people every year, and which need a different type of regulation in each country; recently UNIDIR has been focused on new emerging issues like the Arms Trade, Swarm Robotic weapons, Ammunition, Cyber-Space and Weapons in Outer Space.

 

The whole range of UNIDIR’s work makes fascinating reading, and in the 40^th Anniversary Report you can discover the evolution of our research work over the decades. See:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Y1ZOenDv7Y

https://www.google.com/search?client=firefox-b-d&q=read+the+UNIDIR+40th+anniversary+report

 

If you would like to know more:  https://www.unidir.org   If you would like to read more:  https://www.unidir.org/publications

If you would like to meet the Director, @Dr Renata Dwan (from Ireland):

https://twitter.com/RenataDwan

 

 

One of my micro-disarmament successes in which UNIDIR was involved, was disarming the Khmer Rouge after thirty years of war in Cambodia. One day I might write the whole book, but meanwhile I wrote a short story:

 

  Peace is Possible: Exchanging Weapons for Development and how we disarmed the Khmer Rouge with wit, bluff and balloons

This amazing short story is fun to read. Robin Poulton takes you into rural pagodas along the Ho Chi Minh Trail, along tracks threaded between fields of landmines and rice paddies. Here you can read peace journalism at its best, and peace anthropology at its most creative: an uplifting and amusing story proving that even after a civil war, Peace is Possible.

On Amazon.com

 

 

 

Blog Post: Peace on U.N. Day

 

Professor Johan Galtung, the Norwegian ‘Father of Peace Studies’ celebrates his 90^th birthday on United Nations Day 24/10/2020, the 75^th anniversary of the United Nations. Two peace milestones. One of my first ‘outings’ with Michelle, my future wife, was to the UN's 25^th Anniversary celebration with Her Majesty the Queen in Westminster Hall on 24/10/1970. We were senior leaders of the United Nations Student Association in those days, with seats in the second row and full view of the 'Beefeaters' who provide Her Majesty's personal guard.

 

Happy Birthday to the U.N. and to Johan, with whom I had the pleasure to teach at the European Peace University in Austria. The Founder of the TRANSCEND network for peace journalism and Transcend University, Johan Galtung has been a mediator for conflicts in more than 150 countries; has written more than 1500 articles and book chapters and over 500 Editorials for the TRANSCEND Media Service; and 170 books on peace and related issues, of which more than 40 have been translated into other languages.  https://www.transcend.org/tms/2020/10/biography-prof-johan-galtung-born-24-oct-1930/

 

 

I read the Transcend Media Service weekly email in order to obtain a different view of world affairs, looking not at the bullets that have been fired, but at the reasons for conflict and possible solutions for peace.  Do you know anywhere else that has a section reserved for Nobel Peace Laureates to write? Sometimes I send my own comment to: tms-submissions@transcend.org

 

When we look around the world, it seems that peace is fragile. Yet if you visit the museum of the International Red Cross in Geneva, you quickly discover that our world is actually more peaceful today than at any time in the past 150 years. And fewer people are dying of hunger or disease. The 24-hour news cycle gives the wrong impression of reality. So The United Nations and Johan Galtung have made positive marks on our world, and we should give thanks.

 

Music for coming out of Confinement

This has been a remarkable time. I have been privileged because I have an income and a garden where I have done more weeding than ever before. But many people have lost incomes, have been stuck inside small apartments, have struggled to educate and entertain their children, and now they have to brave the new virus-threatened world of work and play. We think of them, and we share the sorrow of those who have lost dear ones to this terrible pandemic. Music is one of the greatest sources of solace. For calm, I recommend the Celtic Harp and the West African classical harp = the kora. But I think we need musical excitement. Mory Kanté was a great musician who just died (not from COVID-19). His world-famous hit YekeYeke will get your blood and spirits moving! Enjoy!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bJNiMNUSrw8

 Dancing has started again after the Summer break. Dancing with young people (even with very young people) is not only important, but lovely to do. My book (below) argues that dance teachers should commit to teaching children as well as adults, or they should not receive RSCDS certificates
because we are killing the dance culture that we love if we do not teach our kids. My children Edward and Catherine (shown on the book cover) dance very well. So should all our children.
This book is full of wisdom and dancing, stories and laughter: the perfect gift for your friends.

What is the most beautiful part of a woman's body?

If you are a dancer, it is the feet - obviously ... followed by the smiling eyes.  So look after your feet: wooden sprung floors, gentle stretching before and after dancing, and cool them off in cold water.

Beautiful dancing women

Argyle 2018: Maria and Ellen and Margaret are three of the best dancers on the East Coast of America and I was lucky enough to dance with all of them.

 NO I DID NOT say they are THE best dancers, all you other jealous women like Moira and Tina and Peg and Jana and Eva and Lou and Pam and Elisabeth and Stephanie and Melissa and Grace and Paola and Riejke and Natasha and Jean and Emma and so many other beautiful women and such wonderful dancers.... No, I am only saying that these three beautiful people are wonderful partners to dance with. And no, this is not a photo of their dancing feet. Nice feet in nice ghillies though.

Scotland is so beautiful: the perfect Skye sky!

Scotland is so beautiful.   Les beautés de l'Ecosse dépassent l'imagination.
Rainbow on Skye.           Arc-en-ciel sur l'Ile de Skye.
Thank you to my friend Pam Voss for this beautiful photo from Scotland.

Scotland's music and countryside are so beautiful - go there, or read the book!

 Pipers at my daughter's wedding with REP chatting on the corner in his Maclean kilt, and a portrait of Her Majesty Queen Elisabeth in the Highland of Scotland

This is a great book about dancing, very well-written and a fun read filled with stories about Scotland, about dances, and about life in general. You learn a lot about the author who has lived an interesting life, as well as doing a lot of dancing. This is the author and his famous wife Michelle whom you can meet in Chapter 5 of the book about Leadership: leaders as dancers and leaders of social change.

Now available on Amazon: I Dance Therefore I Am

I Dance Therefore I Am

A hilarious book about dancing with beautiful women in Scotland and America (and France and Africa, too), a book filled with wisdom and British humor about dancing and life in general. 

Robin Poulton tells his grandchildren why dancing is important for their mental, spiritual, and physical health. Music, dance, and laughter are his recipe for a fit and happy life. 

Now available on Amazon as paperback and ebook. Please write a review on short review on Amazon to tell everybody how much you enjoyed the book.