Dear Friends and Colleagues,
As 2021 comes to a close, I wanted to let you know how much we appreciate your engagement with this account as well as with the issues we cover both inside and outside the United Nations, issues which directly impact the health of our planet and the future of our children.
We very much appreciate your loyalty, your patience with our mistakes, and your many hopeful actions in the communities and contexts in which you work to help build a more just and equitable world.
As you may have noticed, we have started to scale back a bit, both in terms of daily coverage of UN events as well as our weekly reflections on global events, both of which have sought to reinforce how improvements in the world which are sustainable must be accompanied by improvements in ourselves.
And yet, despite prodding by us and many others, we continue to make too many weapons and lie about their consequences. We continue to increase emissions and reduce prospects for the biodiversity on which our very lives depend. We continue to discriminate and stereotype, to act upon beliefs that we cannot possibly prove to be true, to horde rather than share, and to forge ahead without asking ourselves “what can go wrong here” and then preparing to address those gaps and threats.
You all know this. We have tried to use this space to connect issues and people across culture and geography, but we aren’t ever telling you anything you haven’t already suspected. Indeed, one of our regrets so far is that we haven’t learned nearly enough from you. Not nearly enough.
We will take a bit of step back at year’s end, given financial and other circumstances. For a while at least, we will be covering the UN less, commenting less, sharing less. We’re not going away, more like going into a light hibernation. It has been a long and sometimes stressful haul for us – 20 years as an organization, 10 years on this platform. We need some time to reflect and reassess, to discern how we might add value going forward, how we might better enable and share, rather than impede, the invaluable contributions of others, including your own.
We have been honored to have shared our own opinions and energies over this time, and even more pleased to have been tethered to your own good work. If you need to leave us during this coming period of reduced coverage, all best to you as you go forward. If you have ideas for us as to how we can make more relevant contributions once we find our new bearings, we’re always happy to hear from you.
Thank you again for all you are doing to make this troubled period in our human journey less troubled. We need to get through this treacherous moment. We have little choice but to do so. We count on your energies and gifts to that end.
Warmest regards and blessings in this season from all of us,
Bob
Dr. Robert Zuber
gapwblog 