Beauty is unity in diversity
Just in case you thought diversity was a modern obsession, peddled by management consultants and politically correct Human Resources teams, here’s a quote from John Scotus Eriugena, Irish philosopher...
View ArticleWorking with the community matters!
Last week with the colleagues from the Embassy we spent our day with the children from the day care centre for children with special needs “Dzunica” in Prilep. What a fulfilling and wonderful day! Why...
View ArticleJourney into emotional territory – IHRA’s visit to Macedonia
Just occasionally a diplomat’s work takes us into deeply emotional territory. That happened here this week with the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s visit to Skopje. The IHRA...
View ArticleEducation: Macedonia 2035 – the view from Mavrovo
Since I arrived in Macedonia, many people have spoken to me (usually with enthusiasm, though sometimes rather wistfully) about the role of Wilton Park in 2008 in helping to establish parliamentary...
View ArticleThoughts for UK and Macedonia cooperation 2015
Just past the eight-month marker as the no-longer-quite-so-new Ambassador, and having come through my first western-Christmas-New-Year-Orthodox-Christmas holiday season, I have been talking with...
View Article‘We are all equal’– learn and play around the country
There are some conceptions for educating children that when they are born, they are ‘tabula rasa’. According to this, children are like sponges, they import whatever we teach them as they grow up....
View ArticleDydd Hapus Gŵyl Dewi! – Happy St David’s Day
On Sunday 1 March along with Welsh citizens around the World, I will celebrate St David’s Day. Tradition has it that St David, or Dewi Saint in the Welsh language, died on this day in 569AD and from...
View ArticleDiscover ‘Norn Iron’ – Shona Lá Fhéile Pádraig!
What’s the reason to mention the ‘Game of Thrones’ in a blog reflecting on Northern Ireland on St Patrick’s Day? Simple and glorious: this American fantasy drama television series is filmed in a...
View Article‘The Beginnings of that Freedome’
This is not a political slogan. It is the title of an exhibition that the UK Parliament is hosting in celebration of 800 years of Magna Carta. The exhibition commissioned nine artists to produce...
View ArticleEvents and memories – Farewell from Christine
I leave Macedonia today after a fascinating three years as Deputy Head of Mission at the British Embassy in Skopje. There have been many developments across the political and economic spectrum during...
View ArticleBritish Embassy Sofia Internship Scheme
“The Embassy has run an internship programme for the last few years. The interns bring to the Embassy a fresh perspective alongside gaining valuable work experience. They are usually tasked with one...
View ArticleBalancing the scales in the work place
A cross section of staff from the High Commission lighting the traditional oil lamp during New Year celebrations. The inaugural International ‘Parity at Work Day’ was celebrated on Wednesday in London....
View ArticleAlmost a year, almost 70 years
We now have the ability to surround ourselves with images that we record on our mobile phones. But the best images remain in your head. The monsoon rains have arrived in Kolkata. I was in my official...
View ArticleEveryone can be an ally for equality
Last week I hosted a meeting with nearly twenty people who work in various organisations in Macedonia on human rights issues and the support they provide to the people who are on the margins of the...
View ArticleRamadan in our Skopje Neighbourhood
What is Ramadan? Of all the months, Muslims love Ramadan the most mainly because of the greater rewards found in this month. Ramadan is also significantly known as the month where the Quran was sent...
View Article‘We are all equal’– learn and play around the country
There are some conceptions for educating children that when they are born, they are ‘tabula rasa’. According to this, children are like sponges, they import whatever we teach them as they grow up....
View ArticleDydd Hapus Gŵyl Dewi! – Happy St David’s Day
On Sunday 1 March along with Welsh citizens around the World, I will celebrate St David’s Day. Tradition has it that St David, or Dewi Saint in the Welsh language, died on this day in 569AD and from...
View ArticleDiscover ‘Norn Iron’ – Shona Lá Fhéile Pádraig!
What’s the reason to mention the ‘Game of Thrones’ in a blog reflecting on Northern Ireland on St Patrick’s Day? Simple and glorious: this American fantasy drama television series is filmed in a...
View Article‘The Beginnings of that Freedome’
This is not a political slogan. It is the title of an exhibition that the UK Parliament is hosting in celebration of 800 years of Magna Carta. The exhibition commissioned nine artists to produce...
View ArticleEvents and memories – Farewell from Christine
I leave Macedonia today after a fascinating three years as Deputy Head of Mission at the British Embassy in Skopje. There have been many developments across the political and economic spectrum during...
View Article
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