Planet UN: The United Nations Confronting the Challenges
of the 21th Century
Serious food and energy shortages, climate change, terrorism, nuclear threats, the collapse of the international financial system... The modern afflictions of the planet threaten the very existence of future generations. Every nation in the world is affected, and even the superpowers have been shaken. Clearly, a concerted effort on an universal scale is called for.
What better forum than the United Nations to begin this essential dialogue? But is the UN capable of adapting and changing? It must be. Because yet another serious challenge is looming. That of the rich and emerging nation-states, which reinforce one another within the framework of G.20 and other economic forums, assuming the reins of the entire planet, leaving along the wayside the less-developed countries, and at the same time marginalizing the sole international arena where their voices can yet be heard: the United Nations.
Planet UN, which accompanies a documentary film directed by French film-maker Romuald Sciora, presents an in-depth analysis of the United Nations's involvement in the areas of peace, development and human rights. It offers a unique and uncompromising perspective on the international organization as it confronts the challenges of the twenty-first century.
Each chapter starts by an History of the United Nations, and brings together for the very first time in a single volume the testimonies of the last five Secretary-General of the United Nations: Ban Ki-moon, Kofi Annan, Boutros Boutros-Ghali, Javier Pérez de Cuélalr and Kurt Waldheim, as well as commentaries by Jacques Chirac, Jean-Marie Colombani, Jean Daniel, Abdou Diouf, Stéphane Hessel, Stanley Hoffmann, Bernard Kouchner, Lewis Lapham, Jean-David Lévitte, John McArthur, Samantha Power, Stephen C. Schlesinger, Joseph Stiglitz, Sashi Tharoor, James Traub, Ted Turner, Hubert Védrine, etc.
Foreword by David D. Roosevelt, postfaces by Noamh Chomsky and Ignacio Ramonet.
Written in French by Romuald Sciora and Annick Stevenson (title: Planète ONU), translated for the English version by Roger Stevenson.
Published with the cooperation of the United Nations.
Planet UN
Editions du Tricorne (Genève), and Le Monde diplomatique.
November 2009, 35 €
An account of the thirty-five-year relationship between Jean Giono and his unknown mistress
The artist/painter has dispersed the ashes of her mother, Blanche Meyer. All that remains of the unknown muse, totally ignored in all the biographies, are a few virtual silhouettes – nude, faceless female bodies – outlined in powdered white marble on huge canvasses. And an unpublished manuscript that Jolaine Meyer hands to me, calmly, carefully, with respect, without raising her voice, as though she were confiding a treasure. It's the moving account that her mother, Blanche Meyer, felt was necessary to write just prior to her death, the account of thirty-five years of secret love for the writer for whom she had inspired the best of his novels, those that are part of his literary second period, and of which the nearly thousand letters he wrote to her testify. Letters that she had the time to entrust before her death to the Beinecke Library at Yale University , where they are held in limited access.
One has to re-read all of Giono's works, those from 1940 until the end of his life. The circumstances, they are all her. That imprudent, passionate woman dissembled in the Adelina White in Pour saluer Melville and Noé , the young Pauline in Angelo and The Horseman on the Roof , the older Pauline in Mort d'un personnage , Julie in Moulin de Pologne , the character called Absent in L'iris de Suze . She is absent in all the critical works on Giono, omnipresent in all of the author's works from the very moment of their meeting, and through whom he achieved the sublime, it's always her. Or something taken from her, “pieces of her”, he frequently told her as he conceived his characters. And this colossal mystery of an entire life springs forth from the depths of oblivion, from novel to short story, from allegory to metaphor.
Blanche Meyer et Jean Giono
Editions Actes Sud, 2007
260 pages, 21.80€
To order: Blanche Meyer et Jean Giono
Sergio Vieira de Mello,
An Exceptional Man
The account of the life of a Humanist dedicated
to the principles of Human Rights and Peace,
killed in Bagdad in 1983
On August 19, 2003, an attack on the UN headquarter in Bagdad , which sent shock waves reverberating around the world, took the life of Sergio Vieira de Mello. The book recounts the life and career of a man who was truly exceptional. He was a devoted civil servant in a huge bureaucratic organization and at the same time a rebel spirit; this pragmatic philosopher was a brilliant orator but also a man of action who successfully fulfilled numerous difficult assignments in the field. He was a peacemaker and above all a humanist who, through his tenacity and his different and genuine way of considering others, brought a breath of renewal to the United Nations. He will remain an unsurpassed roll model for those who continue to believe in human rights, in justice and in peace.
In this hommage to Sergio, as he was called by all who knew him, George Gordon-Lennox and Annick Stevenson recall his career with the United Nations, his speeches and principal assignments, including the particularly difficult mission to Iraq that cost him his life. The text is interspersed with numerous testimonials from those who knew him well and had worked with him.
Sergio Vieira de Mello : An Exceptional Man
Editions du Tricorne, Geneva, 2004
144 pages 28€
To order : Sergio Vieira de Mello
Passions d'Ardèche
Why is it that the Ardèche inspires such passion among those who live there? The photographer Jean-Louis Gontierre uses his multiple lenses to enchant us with all the richness that the region has to offer: light, contrasts, portraits, architecture and nature. These superb photos are accompanied by the musings of several regional writers, long-standing Ardechois, of the heart or by adoption, who through their writing become willing accomplices of the photographer. Each of the dozen texts also appears in an English translation.
Passions d'Ardèche
Photos by Jean-Louis Gontierre
Texts by Annick Stevenson et other writers
A bi-lingual edition, with English translations by Roger Stevenson
Editions Stéphane Bachès & Septéditions, Lyon, 2005, 28 €
To order: Passions d'Ardèche
Génération Nothomb
Sam, a post-adolescent rebel with a poor self-image and who has never opened a book in his life, is inexplicably inspired to buy a novel by Amélie Nothomb. Reading the book opens up an entirely new vista for the young man, and to express his newly discovered pleasure in reading, he decides to share his feelings by writing directly to the novelist herself. That is the beginning of a long epistolary relationship which eventually leads Sam to formulate plans and undertake the kind of projects that he would never have dreamed of earlier. It also opens the door to other encounters that have a determining influence and that contribute to Sam becoming the person that he chooses to be, the person he had no idea lay hidden within him.
Based on a true story and illustrated with excerpts from actual internet blogs and forums, the novel depicts the unique, often bordering on intimate, relationship that Amélie Nothomb entertains with her readers, the energy and inspiration that she provides them and the way in which they infuse her writing into their own lives and dreams.
Génération Nothomb
Editions Luce Wilquin (Belgium)
August 2011, 19 € or 26.60 CHF.
To order:
Génération Nothomb
