More from the UN

Things have certainly started to move at the UN, with a lot of committees now finalizing some of their work programmes.
I felt very priviledged to observe a full morning round table with high profile delegates from Russia, China,India Pakistan and the USA. Henry Kissinger was the guest speaker and MC. Must admit it is a bit scary when you hear them speak about the issue of consensus on eliminating WMD and disarmament. As always the Question is who goes first...

This week will see the vote take place at the UN for candidates for the 14 places on the International Committee for the Disabled for the UN.
There are 22 candidates and Austalia is one of them. With the lobbying done to date with the some 44 member countries I do believe that our Prof. McCallum has a good 50/50 chance. Listening to some of the speakers last week, I thought the phrase "Nothing about us.. Without us"
was very apt. Must say it was somewhat disapointing to see that with all the people with disabilities present on the day, that there was really only one room that could take them.

The news in the papers over here has certainly been the number of job losses not just in the financial sector but now also hitting the restaurant, catering and hospitality sections, in fact this news has somewhat overshadowed the coming election for President.

On personal note I took my first train ride last week... and my last, as one who does not like small confined spaces , it totally freaked me out, as people were literally being pushed into the train to make use of every bit of the standing space. Back to the buses and walking for me.

Have been invited to go to the Fireman,s bakeoff at Ground Zero this week ... so it is not only the Milton Ulladulla Show that has bakeoffs. Will try to compare them

Have just arrived home from another Sunday at the soup kitchen, was able to speak to some of the regulars there, as they are starting to know me now. Some of them have some very interesting and sad backgrounds.