13th November (2021): World Kindness Day

World Kindness Day is an international observance on 13 November. It was introduced in 1998 by the World Kindness Movement, a coalition of nations’ kindness NGOs. It is observed in many countries, including Canada, Australia, Nigeria and the United Arab Emirates. Singapore observed the day for the first time in 2009. Italy and India also observed the day. In the UK, it is fronted by David Jamilly, who co-founded Kindness Day UK with Louise Burfitt-Dons.

In 2010, at the request of Michael Lloyd-White, the NSW Federation Parents and Citizens Association wrote to the Minister of The NSW Department of Education to place World Kindness Day on the NSW School Calendar.

In 2012, at the request of the Chairman of World Kindness Australia, World Kindness Day was placed on the Federal School Calendar and the then Minister of School Education, Early Childhood, and Youth. The Hon Peter Garrett provided a Declaration of Support for World Kindness Australia and placed World Kindness Day on the National School Calendar for over 9000 schools.

Schools across the globe are now celebrating World Kindness Day and work with local NGOs such as the Be Kind People Project and Life Vest Inside In the USA. In 2012 in Australia, Marie Bashir, Governor of New South Wales, hosted an event for the first time at Government House to celebrate World Kindness Day and accepted a Cool To Be Kind Award from year 3 & 4 students. Australian Councils representing over 1.3 million residents have also signed Declarations of Support for World Kindness Australia placing World Kindness Day on the Council Calendar of Events.

Events include THE BIG HUG, handing out Kindness Cards, Global Flashmob, which was coordinated by Orly Wahba from the US and was held in 15 countries and 33 cities with its images of the event making the big screens in New York City. Canada celebrates with The Kindness Concert and in Singapore in 2009, 45,000 yellow flowers were given away. In 2017 World Kindness day was also celebrated in Slovenia, organised by volunteering organisation Humanitarček as part of their project Randomised Kindness.

World Kindness Day is to highlight good deeds in the community focusing on the positive power and the common thread of kindness for good which binds us. Kindness is a fundamental part of the human condition which bridges the divides of race, religion, politics, gender and location. Kindness Cards are also an ongoing activity which can either be passed on to recognize an act of kindness and or ask that an act of kindness be done. Approaches are being made to the United Nations by the peak global body, the World Kindness Movement, to have World Kindness Day officially recognized and its members unanimously sign a Declaration of Support for World Kindness.

According to Gulf News, “it is a day that encourages individuals to overlook boundaries, race and religion.”

12th November (2021): World Pneumonia Day

World Pneumonia Day (12 November) provides an annual forum for the world to stand together and demand action in the fight against pneumonia. More than 100 organizations representing the interests of children joined forces as the Global Coalition against Child Pneumonia to hold the first World Pneumonia Day on 2 November 2009. Save The Children artist ambassadors Gwyneth Paltrow and Hugh Laurie, Charles MacCormack of Save The Children, Orin Levine of PneumoADIP, Lance Laifer of Hedge Funds vs. Malaria & Pneumonia, the Global Health Council, the GAVI Alliance, and the Sabin Vaccine Institute joined together in a call to action asking people to participate in World Pneumonia Day on 2 November. In 2010, World Pneumonia Day falls on 12 November.

Pneumonia is a preventable and treatable disease that sickens 155 million children under 5 and kills 1.6 million each year. This makes pneumonia the number 1 killer of children under 5, claiming more lives in this age group than AIDS, malaria, and measles combined. Yet most people are unaware of pneumonia’s overwhelming death toll. Because of this, pneumonia has been overshadowed as a priority on the global health agenda, and rarely receives coverage in the news media. World Pneumonia Day helps to bring this health crisis to the public’s attention and encourages policy makers and grassroots organizers alike to combat the disease.

In spite of the massive death toll of this disease, affordable treatment and prevention options exist. There are effective vaccines against the two most common bacterial causes of deadly pneumonia, Haemophilus influenzae type B and Streptococcus pneumoniae, and most common viral cause of pneumonia, Orthomyxoviridae. A course of antibiotics which costs less than $1(US) is capable of curing the disease if it is started early enough. The Global Action Plan for the Prevention and Control of Pneumonia (GAPP) released by the WHO and UNICEF on World Pneumonia Day, 2009, finds that 1 million children’s lives could be saved every year if prevention and treatment interventions for pneumonia were widely introduced in the world’s poorest countries.

The United Nations Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) are eight international development goals that 192 United Nations member states and at least 23 international organizations have agreed to achieve by the year 2015. The fourth of these goals is to reduce by two-thirds, between 1990 and 2015, the under-five mortality rate. Because pneumonia causes such a large number of under five deaths (almost 20%), in order to achieve MDG 4, the world must do something to reduce pneumonia deaths.

11th November (2021): VETERANS DAY [USA]

Veterans Day (originally known as Armistice Day) is a federal holiday in the United States observed annually on November 11, for honoring military veterans who served in the United States Armed Forces (who were discharged under conditions other than dishonorable). It coincides with other holidays including Armistice Day and Remembrance Day which are celebrated in other countries that mark the anniversary of the end of World War I. Major hostilities of World War I were formally ended at the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month of 1918 when the Armistice with Germany went into effect. At the urging of major U.S. veteran organizations, Armistice Day was renamed Veterans Day in 1954.

Veterans Day is distinct from Memorial Day, a U.S. public holiday in May. Veterans Day celebrates the service of all U.S. military veterans, while Memorial Day honors those who had died while in military service. Another military holiday that also occurs in May, Armed Forces Day, honors those currently serving in the U.S. military. Additionally, Women Veterans Day is recognized by a growing number of U.S. states that specifically honor women who have served in the U.S. military.

China beats the US in space launches in the third quarter of 2021, reaching 15

The space launch market is becoming increasingly important both in terms of numbers and in terms of revenues. Through the data released by BryceTech we can look at the data for the third quarter of 2021. According to what was reported, China through the CASC (Chinese Aerospace Science and Technology Company) carried out more space launches during the quarter, touching 15 launches against 3 of reality like SpaceX for the United States. But there is much more also thanks to the comparison with the second quarter of this year. China and the US dominate the space launch market Also according to the information released by BryceTech, between the 15 launches of CASC and the 3 of SpaceX Arianespace ranks with 5 while Roscosmos is in fourth position with 2 launches. In Q3 2021, companies such as ULA, Firefly, Astra, iSpace, Northrop Grumman, Rocket Lab and Expace made a single launch. This account, however, as recalled by those who defined the table, also includes failed launches as in the case of Firefly. By way of comparison, in the previous quarter (Q2 2021), there were 11 launches of SpaceX and CASC respectively. 3 instead were those of Roscosmos and Arianespace, 2 those of ULA and Northrop Grumman and 1 Virgin Orbit, Rocket Lab and the Iranian space agency. If we consider the number of spacecraft / satellites launched (regardless of operation), Arianespace dominates the ranking with 111 units, followed by SpaceX with 61, CASC with 30. The other companies are all further down in the rankings. Altogether 226 spacecraft / satellites were launched with 73% being for telecommunications. Only 12 were for data collection from space and 2% were manned or with cargo destined for space stations. Furthermore, 90% were smallsats which, however, concern only 24% of the mass. In the last quarter 577 spacecraft / satellites were launched with 83% related to telecommunications.

10th November (2021): World Science Day for Peace and Development

World Science Day for Peace and Development is an international day that highlights the important role that science has in society and is celebrated each year on November 10. It also highlights the need to engage the wider public in debates on emerging scientific issues. World Science Day was proclaimed by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) in 2001 and celebrated for the first time in 2002.

By linking science more closely with society, World Science Day aims to ensure that citizens are kept informed of developments in science. It also underscores the role scientists play in broadening our understanding of the planet we call home and in making our societies more sustainable.

The objectives of World Science Day for Peace and Development are to:

• Strengthen public awareness on the role of science for peaceful and sustainable societies;
• Promote national and international solidarity for shared science between countries;
• Renew national and international commitment for the use of science for the benefit of societies;
• Draw attention to the challenges faced by science and raising support for the scientific endeavour.

Individuals and institutions around the world are encouraged to organize an event or activity on World Science Day, including government officials, students, the media and school pupils. World Science Day for Peace and Development has generated many concrete projects, programmes and funding for science around the world. It has also helped foster cooperation between scientists living in regions marred by conflict, one example being the UNESCO-supported creation of the Israeli-Palestinian Science Organization (IPSO).

9th November: World Freedom Day (United States)

World Freedom Day is a United States federal observance declared by then-President George W. Bush to commemorate the fall of the Berlin Wall and the end of communist rule in Central and Eastern Europe. It started in 2001 and is celebrated on November 9.

For this occasion, conservative youth groups such as Young America’s Foundation and the College Republicans urge students to commemorate this day (which they mark as the start of “Freedom Week,” thus including Veterans Day) by “celebrating victory over communism” through provocative flyer campaigns and activism projects. Many conservative political commentators and activists use World Freedom Day as an occasion in which to acclaim President Ronald Reagan, whom they regard as being responsible for the collapse of the Soviet Union and the end of the Cold War.

On November 9, 2005, President Bush proclaimed November 9 as World Freedom day. On November 8, 2016, President Barack Obama proclaimed World Freedom Day as November 9, 2016. On November 8, 2017, President Donald Trump proclaimed November 9, 2017, as World Freedom Day.

8th November (2021): World Urbanism Day

The international organisation for World Urbanism Day, also known as “World Town Planning Day”, was founded in 1949 by the late Professor Carlos Maria della Paolera of the University of Buenos Aires, a graduate at the Institut d’urbanisme in Paris, to advance public and professional interest in planning. It is celebrated in more than 30 countries on four continents each November 8th. It is a special day to recognise and promote the role of planning in creating livable communities. World Urbanism Day presents an excellent opportunity to look at planning from a global perspective, an event which appeals to the conscience of citizens and public authorities in order to draw attention to the environmental impact resulting from the development of cities and territories.

7th November (2021): International Inuit Day

The 2006 Utqiaġvik Declaration instructedICC to annually proclaim November 7th, the birth date of ICC visionary, Eben Hopson Sr., as “Inuit Day”.

Eben Hopson was one of the great historic political leaders of the Arctic and the founder of the Inuit Circumpolar Council.

In 1978, Eben Hopson also travelled to Europe to address the London Press Corps., stating “our entire North American Arctic homeland is a vast wildlife habitat nourishing a very fragile food chain in which we Inuit are but an important link. We Inuit are hunters. There aren’t many subsistence hunting societies left in the world, but our Inuit Circumpolar community is one of them.“

This was a time when Inuit needed the support of the world to face the challenges of large-scale oil exploration in the Arctic and the potential impacts on Arctic marine mammals.

International Inuit Day

5th november (2021): World Tsunami Awareness Day

U N I T E D N A T I O N S – N A T I O N S U N I E S

THE SECRETARY-GENERAL

WRITTEN MESSAGE ON WORLD TSUNAMI AWARENESS DAY

5 November 2021

On the occasion of World Tsunami Awareness Day, we call on countries, international organizations and society itself to become more aware of this threat and to share new approaches to reduce its risks. We can improve thanks to the results obtained, ranging from greater awareness of the communities exposed to this phenomenon, to the inclusion of the United Nations Tsunami program in the Decade of ocean sciences for sustainable development. Despite this, the risks remain immeasurable. The rise in sea levels caused by the climate emergency will aggravate the destructive power of tsunamis. In fact, we must limit warming to 1.5 degrees on pre-industrial averages by investing in the resilience of coastal communities. Scientific and international cooperation, as well as readiness and timely action, must be the basis for saving lives from tsunamis and other dangers. Increasing support for developing countries along with improving early detection is essential. In the face of complex global crises, we need to be better prepared. We work together to decrease the risk of tsunamis, drawing inspiration from the Sendai framework for risk reduction, creating together the capacity to resist these disasters.

27 October (2021): The World Day for Audiovisual Heritage

The World Day for Audiovisual Heritage takes place every 27 October. This commemorative day was chosen by UNESCO (the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization) in 2005 to raise awareness of the significance and preservation risks of recorded sound and audiovisual documents (films, sound and video recordings, radio and television programmes). Events are held in many countries, organised by national and regional sound and film archives, broadcasters, museums and libraries, and major audiovisual associations including the Association of Moving Image Archivists (AMIA), International Council on Archives (ICA), International Association of Sound and Audiovisual Archives (IASA), and the International Federation of Film Archives (FIAF)).

The main objectives of designating the date of 27 October were listed by UNESCO:

• raising public awareness of the need for preservation;
• providing opportunities to celebrate specific local, national or international aspects of the heritage;
• highlighting the accessibility of archives;
• attracting media attention to heritage issues;
• raising the cultural status of audiovisual heritage;
• highlighting audiovisual heritage in danger, especially in developing countries.

The 2012 and 2013 events were co-ordinated by the Coordinating Council of Audiovisual Archives Associations, through the SouthEast Asia & Pacific Audiovisual Archives Association (SEAPAVAA) and International Association of Sound and Audiovisual Archives (IASA).