Den här bloggposten innehåller nötkräm

”Det pågår en tyst katastrof. En katastrof som varje dag dödar 21 000 barn under fem års ålder. De flesta barnen dör av näringsbrist, diarré eller andra sjukdomar. De dör av orsaker som med enkla medel skulle kunna förebyggas. Det som saknas är vaccin, medicin, rent vatten och näringsriktig mat. Saker som UNICEF kan leverera. Saker som vi tillsammans kan leverera.

Den här bloggposten är mitt sätt bidra. För i och med att jag publicerar den här bloggposten blir inte bara fler uppmärksammade på den tysta katastrofen utan dessutom innebär det att re:member skänker sex påsar av den nötkräm som UNICEF använder vid behandling av undernärda barn. Tre påsar nötkräm om dagen är allt som krävs för att ett barn som lider av undernäring ska kunna överleva.

Har du också en blogg och vill göra något viktigt i jul? Hämta bloggmaterial här! Tillsammans räddar vi barns liv.

Ps. Vill du köpa fältprodukterna som räddar barns liv, besök UNICEFs gåvoshop. Du kan välja ett snyggt gåvobevis designat av bland annat Tove Styrke eller Elsa Billgren att ge bort i julklapp.

And here's an explanation in English:

Every year, 21.000 children under the age of five die, mainly because of malnutrition, diarrhea or other diseases. The Swedish division of UNICEF has launched a blog campaign aiming at raising awareness about this silent disaster and providing help to those who really need it.

If you have a blog and would like to support this cause, UNICEF asks you to publish a post about it, including some text snippets, photos and videos that they provide here (this campaign is targeted at bloggers writing in Swedish).

It’s the most important blog post you could write this year. And in addition to that you help raising awareness about this misery, re:member has partnered up with UNICEF and agreed to donate 6 bags Nutriset per published blog post. Nutriset is an oil-based paste of peanuts which is used to treat children with severe acute malnutrition (you can read more about it here).

After you have published your blog posts and included the text and media provided on this site, it is important that you ping Twingly about your blog posts (here is an explanation how to do that). By doing so, your post will appear in the blog feed on UNICEF’s campaign blog and become part of the campaign.

Let’s make sure that as many people as possible join the campaign and help the children around the world!

Give, give, give!

What is the most fun part of celebrating Christmas? Well, I guess for a Christian, it is the birth of Jesus, but more generally in this modern world, it is the spirit of giving that signifies the coming holidays.

Today has been all about giving. I had a fruitful meeting with some inspirational people and discussions on how we could collaborate for a good cause. Then I took the family through town, passing Musikhjälpens Christmas tent which is raising money for girls' right to education all over the world.

I love giving at Christmas, or any time of year for that matter. In Sweden, one can offer money to Musikhjälpen, or donate to the Swedish Church in its mission to combat World Hunger. ActionAid has various options of giving to those less fortunate, or why not help Medicins sans Frontières work against malaria and other diseases.

In Ghana one could choose to support a charitable organisation, like Give Ghana, or even better, head to your local orphanage with some food, clothes or toys. You cannot imagine how overjoyed the children are over clothes that you may consider out of date and old.

In the spirit of giving, what better song than this fundraising giant:

Pakistan needs our help

I feel a bit uneasy when I hear reports of the recent Pakistan floods. Something is missing. At first I couldn’t pinpoint what it was then, as I heard the CNN reporter for the third time mention that Ban Ki-moon calls this the worst disaster he has seen, it hit me: there is no sympathy. It is being reported in the same sensationalist way you’d report a concert with a record number of viewers.

Whilst the reporter sent to China is crying (which cold-hearted Virgo and I both found very unprofessional), the reporter in Pakistan is speaking with an excitement that makes me uncomfortable. It seems I am not the only one who has noticed the unsympathetic reactions to this massive disaster, last night I briefly heard another report that was trying to investigate why we global citizens are not really reacting to these floods. One of the reasons mentioned was that the death toll is reasonably low (if I had stayed, it seemed they were to tell us this isn’t even true). Meanwhile in an article urging us to make donations to Pakistan’s flood victims, the following is stated:

"The U.N. wants to spotlight the enormity of the disaster, which is bigger than the 2004 Asian tsunami, the 2005 Pakistan earthquake, and this year's Haiti earthquake, yet has attracted far less in donations."

I think you, like me, might be surprised by this statement, especially considering the amount of support, attention, physical and financial donations and empathy that was given during the tsunami and the Haiti earthquake. It is shocking how little is being done to help this time around. From what I hear, 20% of Pakistan is under water. In a cruel twist of fate, the country being flooded has left many in desperate need of clean drinking water (don’t the powers that be have a twisted sense of humour?).

It’s time to push aside all prejudice about Pakistan as a country of terrorists, suicide bombers, or thoughts like ’they’re so used to suffering anyway’, ‘no whites/blacks/Christians are injured’, whatever it is that is blocking the outpouring of sympathy that would usually flow after a natural disaster. If you can, give, possibly to Save the Children here, or if in Sweden, follow these instructions:
"Barn i Pakistan behöver vatten, medicin och skydd nu! Många dör varje dag. Du kan vara med och rädda liv för en liten slant. Smsa BARN till 72950 och ge 200 kr. Sänd gärna vidare! Mvh Rädda Barnen"


And of course, if cash no dey, a little prayer doesn't cost a thing!

Ghana Loves Haiti concert.

I did promise to update you on how to help the Haiti victims from Ghana. A concert was held about ten days ago at Alliance Francaise with a fantastic lineup. Unfortunately I missed it because someone decided 21:00 was a more fun bedtime than 19:30, but read about Kajsa's rather exciting experience here.

The Haiti Earthquake Relief Fund Ghana informs me that there's a Ghana Loves Haiti relief concert being held this Saturday at the International Conference Centre from 19:30. For further information check their facebook page where there is also information on how to donate money by texting.

Of course after hearing how long it is taking to get help to the victims and after reading Holli's criticisms of the corruption that goes on where disaster strikes, some of my inital enthusiasm at giving money to those in need is now lost.

'Tis the season...

We're now firmly in December and you know what that means: Christmas! Last year, the election was the grinch that unexpectedly stole Christmas when instead of being over and done with on December 7th, we had to wait till early this year to have all the results in.

Well this year, nothing will stop me from preparing for the coming holiday. Em and I (poor child, whether she likes it or not, she'll be brainwashed with christmas delights) are getting in the mood by hook or by crook. We already got the necessary Swedsih treats from London. We started with minor decorations around the house on Monday, but soon realised it's going to take a lot more before we can ignore the heat and really get a feel of the holiday spirit.

So I realised the best way to do that is with music. First, with Swedish nostalgia courtesy of Pernilla Wahlgren (a musical artist from a well known entertainment family who's been around for about 25 years):

and Sissel Kyrkjebö (who's actually Norwegian), with the purest of voices for this song, O Holy Night.

Then, last year's favourite, Alexandra Burke singing Halleluja. Now if only I could get a clip of Six pence None the Richer singing It came upon a Midnight clear, I'd be very very happy.

All this serves as a perfect prelude to the Carols Nights I intend to go to. After all, there really is no better way to get into the mood of the season. I believe Alliance Francaise and Goethe Institute will be putting on some Christmas concerts, if I could be bothered with the drive, I'd aim to see Ghana School of Law's carols night, as it is the one place you'll hear a few Ghanaian carols (I suspect theirs is on next Thursday).

Last year I cut a lonely figure at Ridge Church's carols night (Virgo was of course politicking at the time), I didn't consider myself lonely, but my aunties who I bumped into thought it looked so sad seeing a pregnant woman all alone in the corner, lol! I hope this year I'll make it to Ridge Church again and maybe one of the others I've mentioned. Perhaps I'll see you there?

The best thing about Christmas? It is the season of giving. Do your bit by clicking the button below. For every click, Pampers will, through UNICEF, donate tetanus vaccin to a child or pregnant woman in a developing country.

WFP Productions: the Poor Ghana Child Show!

My mid-morning browsing today lands me on an article (Swedish) that has made me feel slightly sick. Apparently, at the G8 summit in July, held in Rome, Ghanaian children were flown in to be fed porridge by the wives of G8 leaders (English)!

To show the work the World Food Programme had been doing, they put on this spectacle which also included the children dancing and singing. The whole affair cost approximately (brace yourselves) $500,000! From what I have read so far, these claims are not confirmed by the UN but have been spread by the Swedish development agency, SIDA. Like their own representative says, I too can only hope that it is not completely true.

I don't even want to delve into a discussion on every human's right to dignity, the use of these school children as 'show dogs' for the WFP, etc. but I am now focusing on being annoyed at the fact that so much money was spent on a show of WFP's good work. Talk about defeating your own cause! Imagine the many homes, schools, books, clothes, shoes and food that could have been bought with that money!

Reading Sarah Brown's blog (that's Gordon's wife) gives a different angle of the story. Here the event is captured more as an opportunity for the Ghanaian children to sing and dance for the G8 leaders' wives and for the wives to see first-hand the work that is being done by the WFP. However, I still do not understand why an organisation that is dealing with poverty and how to help those in need would not see it more fit to simply set up a satellite link, Skype or in any other way communicate with a village where their work is being done and allow these wives to experience it live, rather than 'first hand' at such a cost.

(Picture borrowed from SIDA)
I would love to hear your thoughts on this. And whilst I hope your morning got off to a better start, I'm still fuming and wondering:

If so much was spent on flying these schoolchildren all the way to Rome, completely out of their natural scenery, why oh why are they still wearing those distinct yellow/brown uniforms?!

All that money

This morning I read about Anita Roddick, founder of the Body Shop, whose will revealed that she left nothing of her £51 million fortune to her two daughters.

Wow! I don't even know how to react. Naturally I respect her for sticking to her promise of not leaving anything to them and giving all the money to charity instead, but imagine the determination it would take to make such a decision.

E and i discussed it in the office. So many people who started out poor, or well, not rich, work their way up but are adamant that their children should work as hard to get to their level in life. I completely agree that it's good to make sure children don't grow up spoilt, but isn't the whole point of making it rich to be able to afford a certain lifestyle for yourself, your partner and children? I see a clear difference between teaching children the value of hard work and wanting them to suffer the same way one may have suffered to make it.

In Anita Roddick's case, of course that wasn't issue, she resented the idea of leaving huge sums of money to children and family and all the fuss that was made about money.

It is fantastic that she could give all that money away to charity and her daughters supported her in that decision, but somehow it also feels a little reckless. I can't help feeling she could have left just £1 million for them, say for a rainy day? To have worked all those years, building the Body Shop for thirty years only to give all the money away. It says so much about her character, what a strong personality and what a desire to denounce the value of money for other things. As much as i admire her, I am almost certain I could not have made the same decision.

Would you be able to give away all your money for a good cause?

Meanwhile, whilst writing this post, a fascinating weather drama has played out outside my window as a curtain of grey clouds closed on the pale blue sky and the beautiful Atlantic Ocean that I looked out over fifteen minutes ago has vanished into the midst of grey that tells no tale of where the sky ends and the sea begins.