25th March 2019 Geneva, Switzerland
Last autumn, Pixie – our much loved cat (and subject of a 2015 blog trilogy) – fell seriously ill. After a week in pet hospital, the vets advised that she needed an urgent blood transfusion to survive. Except they didn’t have any cat blood in stock, so they asked if I could round up some […]
6th December 2017 Tokyo, Japan
Chubu, the region centred on Nagoya, may be only Japan’s third conurbation. But if it was a country it would be a member of G20. And Greater Nagoya, an industrial powerhouse, produces 1% of the entire world’s GDP. So, not surprisingly, business was a big focus of my recent visit, together with Sarah Wooton, our […]
1st December 2017 Tokyo, Japan
This month Japan will take on the chair of the UN Security Council, at the end of a distinguished two year term on the Council, where we have worked very closely together. This will be an opportunity for Japan and partners in the UN system to continue to maintain the pressure on the DPRK to […]
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2nd November 2017 Tokyo, Japan
Science is a global enterprise. The best researchers in the UK want to work with the best researchers across the globe. Japan is a very strong research nation – it is a country of world leading researchers and technologies that invests over 3.5% of GDP in R&D and has had more Nobel Prize winners since […]
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7th March 2017 Tokyo
Dementia is not an inevitable consequence of ageing…. and yet it is one of the major causes of disability and dependency among older people worldwide. Japan as a society is wrestling with the effects of a rapidly ageing population, where the number of people with dementia is forecast to rise to more than 7 million by 2025. […]
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3rd March 2017 Tokyo
Due to its position at the end of the Pacific, Japan is a country that is prone to various natural disasters not only earthquakes and tsunami, but also volcanoes, typhoons, floods and mudslides. When I started work in Tokyo, my first meeting was with the security manager to make sure I was prepared and knew […]
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14th December 2015 Geneva, Switzerland
Occasionally you come across a fact that changes how you think. One such moment for me was when I discovered how the world had managed to meet the Millennium Development Goal of halving extreme poverty and hunger between 1990 and 2015. It turns out that we met it five years early, meaning that nearly 1 […]
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17th February 2015 Montreal, Canada
Again I am not taking credits for this blog. SIN Canada organised the 1st youth event on the 10th September (immediately before the Global Action Against Dementia Legacy Event- GAADLE) to discuss Dementia at the British High Commission. We facilitated the attendance of two Canadian young leaders (Laura Booi and Felicia White) to the Japanese […]
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11th March 2013 Geneva, Switzerland
Strange things happen to the passage of time at the Human Rights Council. The days go on forever, the weeks feels like months and don’t get me started on what the months feel like. I’d thought this was just the inverse of time flying when you’re having fun but to make matters more confusing time […]
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30th November 2012 London, UK
The Rolling Stones may not have been foremost in the minds of Ministers as they agreed to open trade talks between the EU and Japan yesterday, but if the negotiations are successful, they could be among those that benefit. The decision to open negotiations between two of the world’s largest economies was a major success […]