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23rd November 2015 Mumbai, India
A debate and exhibition at St. Xavier’s
Awareness about intellectual property rights is necessary to promote genuine products in the marketplace and seize fake goods. What better way to achieve this than starting off with high school students! Earlier this month, I was honoured to be a judge for a debate competition and exhibition, both on the theme of intellectual property rights, […]
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23rd November 2015
This post was published when the author was in a previous role
Hygienic sanitation would avoid unnecessary deaths
Poor sanitation threatens everyone’s health. It is sad to hear that an astonishing 2.4 billion people throughout the world do not have access to a toilet and have to practice open defecation. November is considered a very special month in Ethiopia regarding sanitation. I’m sure that visitors would have observed the sky over Addis full of […]
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22nd November 2015 Beirut, Lebanon
INDEPENDENCE DAY
Independence Day is an opportunity to commemorate the birth of Lebanon as a state. This occasion comes a few months after my arrival here as Ambassador, and this weekend I have been reflecting on the nature of the Lebanese nation. Lebanon, the land of the phoenix, the eternal Cedars and 6000 years of history came […]
20th November 2015 London, England
Digital training – one year on
It’s coming up to a year since we first updated you on our ambitious plans for digital training in the Foreign and Commonwealth Office. This time last year we were about to beta test our first set of digital training modules (11 in total) with volunteers from across the FCO. To recap – our curriculum […]
20th November 2015 Brasilia, Brasil
What a difference a year makes?
I cannot believe the year has gone so quickly and it is Dia da Consciência Negra (Black Awareness Day in Brazil) again. This got me thinking about what has changed in a year? Well since last year I have moved city, Brasilia to São Paulo, my son has moved schools and I have given up […]
20th November 2015 London, England
Our partnership with the DRC
The relationship between the UK and the Democratic Republic of Congo matters to us. We know how much the Congo wars cost the DRC with over 5 million lives lost. The UK supported and financed the creation of the largest UN peacekeeping operation globally so that it would never happen again. And we see the […]
20th November 2015 Canberra, Australia
Remembrance and reminiscences
Occasionally something happens which takes you back to an important stage of your life, which helped to set you on the path that that life has taken. Two such events have happened to me in the last few weeks. The first was when staff from British Embassies and High Commissions around the world were asked, […]
18th November 2015 London, UK
Reflections on my visit to Iraq
Looking back on my first visit to Iraq I am struck not only by the challenges the country faces, but also the dedication and energy of both the people of Iraq and those who are working tirelessly to secure the stable and prosperous future they so deserve. In the four days that I spent between […]
18th November 2015 London, UK
Legalisation: from alpha to beta
Throughout the alpha phase of our legalisation work we were measuring our work against the digital by default standard, and – inspired by the work of colleagues working onemergency travel documents – we set up a github wiki to document our work and evidence. By the end of the 7 weeks we were ready for […]
18th November 2015 Bucharest, Romania
Reflections Post A Marathon of Debates
Forty pairs of eyes watched us curiously in the library of the Josika Miklos High School. The teachers of the “Hungarian School”, as the high-school is known in this Transylvanian town still suffering the effects of de-industrialization and subsequent migration, invited me to talk to the students about trafficking in persons. Much to their praise, […]