Dear Fellow Memosphericists,
In our effort to assign meaningful, real-life iconic associations to the numbers 71-80, we have distilled the following salient facts from UN historical files and labeled those facts with icons that evoke a memory of this history.
HISTORICAL SYNOPSIS and ICONS:
71 = Panda, an iconic acronym for "People's-Republic AND Assembly." In 1971, the General Assembly votes to seat representatives of the People's Republic of China. China had previously been represented by the government of Taiwan, which was part of the controversy over the Korean War in the 1950s.
72 = Hammock, an icon for "A NAP" with sounds like the acronym UNEP, the UN Environmental Programme is established and headquartered in Nairobi, Nigeria in 1971. Media Ham's Mock the work of environmentalism all the time unfortunately, so not as much has been accomplished as could have been.
73 = Graduate Hat & Tassel, an Icon for the founding of the UNU, the United Nations University. It's mostly served to disseminate free information, but as of discussions in 2009 in might start doing more. It has the power to grant Master and Doctorate Degrees, but it hasn't done so yet.
74 = PLOW (like a snow plow attached to the front of a truck, not a plowshare). The General Assembly recognizes the Palestine Liberation Organization (the PLO) as "the sole legitimate representative of the Palestinian people". Unfortunately, they seem to have gotten plowed under in many ways in 1974.
75 = Bell Tower 1975 is The Year of Women, which is marked by a UN conference in Mexico. This evokes the image of Queen Isabel of Spanish who established Spanish Civilization in Mexico hundreds of years earlier by sending Columbus on his voyages. That is why our icon IS A BELL.
76 = Scroll (Like the US Declaration of Independence) During this bicentennial anniversary year of the founding of the United States through the declaration of Independence, the U.N. passes a resolution reaffirming the inalienable right of the peoples of Namibia, Zimbabwe, and Palestine to self-determination--emphasizing the principle of majority rule for all people.
77 = A Manatee with Bark armor protecting his Arms. Manatee is a word that sounds close to the word "Mandatory," and by putting bark (for embargo) on his arms, we are evoking our earlier image of bark armor on the thighs of a Zebra. Indeed, in 1963, the arms embargo passed by the UN was voluntary. Now in 1977, 14 years later, the UN passes a MANDATORY arms embargo against South Africa's apartheid regime which has been acting militarily in neighboring countries (Namibia and Zimbabwe) to prop up white minority dictatorships.
78 = Hanging Chad (imagine the voter cards from Florida in the 2000 US election) The original Chad--the country of Chad--didn't get much successful help either from it's complaint filed with the UN against Qaddafi's regime in Libya taking clandestine military action against Chad in the Northern part of their country on the Libyan border in 1978.
79 = Blind Fold (what hostages often have to wear) In 1979, the U.N. urgently called upon Iran to release immediately the United States Embassy personnel being held in Tehran, to provide them protection and to allow them to leave the country This was the year Iran became an Islamic theocracy and took US embassy personnel hostage.
80 = Syringe (for immunizations) Three years after the last case was reported, the World Health Organization (WHO) officially declares smallpox eradicated.
LAYING THE MEMORY RAILROAD TRACKS:
This is the story of EL the Green mother Elephant who's looking for the Green Dumbo to make him get his immunization shot. So pegging to icons 21-30 here we go:
50+21: Breaking her way through the Bamboo forest, EL comes to a Panda shuffling a deck of cards. Have you seen Baby Dumbo she asks? Yes, he say, he played a game of blackjack with me and won a free tick to go see the sleeping sloths ballet.
55+22: When EL comes to the tree of the sloths she finds a bizarre sight. The sloths are wearing pink tutu, dancing on their tippy-tail-points along the limbs of the tree branches and then diving into Hammocks wear they fall fast asleep for a few minutes and start over again. "Hey!" shouts EL up to the sloths, "have you Hams seen Dumbo?" "Yes, we told him that his tricks we're too much better than ours and that he should go to the sheep in the field for his graduate garments as a professional acrobat."
55+23: When EL finally got out of the jungle and on top the field in the clearing on the mountainside, she found the sheep spinning wool to make Graduate Hats and Tassels. "What are you doing, sheep," EL asked, "and have you seen Dumbo." "I'm running my graduate business," said the sheep,
55+24 "...and yes," said the sheep, "I saw Dumbo, who wanted to graduate, but I told him he had to pay me something for the hat and Tassel, so he offered to fly up to the snowy part of the mountain by the Big Ben Clock Tower to get me another plow full of snow to refill my water supplies, and I agreed."
55+25 "You silly sheep!" said EL, "you can't make a baby work for you like that, I'm calling him down right this minute." And with that, EL marched over to a phone booth, put in a quarter and called up to Big Ben's Maintenance office. She told them to ring their giant bell and call Dumbo to the phone for her. He didn't come right away though before the phone booth cut the line when the credit on the quarter ran out.
55+26 "When Dumbo did finally come to the station with the Bell by Big Ben, the worker there gave him a warm bowl of alphabet soup to heat up with heat up with and a scroll with a not on it from his mother telling him to get down the mountain right now. Seeing that, he left the plow of snow behind and went down to the meadow to find his mother.
55+27 "When Dumbo found his mother, she boought the Hat and Tassel for him with a Euro Coin. Right away they sent a picture text message of the Hat down to Dumbo's friend the Manatee in the river, and then they went down to the river to try to find the Manatee and show him the Hat in person.
55+28 When they finally got down to the river, it was getting lat into the evening, and they saw two giant talking star fish looking at a laminated card with a hanging chad moaning and groaning. "What's the matter?" asked Dumbo. He lost the election for king of the tide pool they said because of this hanging chad! What bad luck we are having after living on this beach for 28 years. We knew it wasn't going to be a good year though because it's our "Return of Saturn." Look, they said, pointing to the giant ringed planet they could all now see rising in the sky as the sun set, he's returned!
55+29 Then as they watched, the moon suddenly shot up in front of Saturn in the sky but under it's ring so that Saturn's ring covered the eyes of the man in the moon like a blindfold. "Look!" shouted the stars, "what kind of Omen could this be?" "Are we going to have a plague now?"
55+30 "Nonsense," thundered El. "Now, everyone be sensible," she said, "I'm a registered Nurse, and I have a syringe here to give you all your chicken pox shot for small people, so snack on these pieces of mint chocolate, and you won't feel a thing." And with that she took out her syringe while they ate their mint chocolates, and then they all went to sleep on the beach.
EXTRA SOURCE NOTES for dedicated FACT FINDERS:
71 - Panda -- The People's Republic AND the Assembly
25 October 1971General Assembly votes to seat representatives of the People's Republic of China. |
72 - Hammock -- For taking A NAP -- UN Environmental Programme UNEP is established and headquartered in Nairobi, but it's a long time before any environmental treaties develop. The Acronym is unfortunately rather similar to the word inept or "a nap." Such has been the world's inept napping approach to future environmental consequences for our civilization. Am I being a Ham and mocking them? Perhaps they did good work, and they just had too many ham's mocking them.
June 1972The first UN Environment Conference is held in Stockholm, Sweden, leading to the establishment of the UN Environment Programme (UNEP), headquartered in Nairobi. |
73 - Graduate Hat & Tassel -- UNU, United Nations University Founded
In December 2009, the UN General Assembly amended the UNU Charter to make it possible for UNU to “grant and confer master’s degrees and doctorates, diplomas, certificates and other academic distinctions under conditions laid down for that purpose in the statutes by the Council.” The United Nations University (UNU) is an academic arm of the United Nations established in 1973 which serves purposes and principles of the Charter of the United Nations. The UNU undertakes research into the pressing global problems of human survival, development and welfare that are the concern of the United Nations and its member states. Despite its university status, it is not a comprehensive all-encompasing educational establishment. The UNU functions as a think tank for the United Nations system and provides a bridge between UN and the international academic and policy-making communities.
74 - Truck-PLOW -- that's the closed word to PLO -- and it's a pity they got plowed under in so many ways, not to mention the houses that were bulldozed.
13 November 1974General Assembly recognizes the Palestine Liberation Organization as "the sole legitimate representative of the Palestinian people". |
75 - Bell Tower -- The Year of Women marked by a UN conference in Mexico evokes the image of Queen Isabel of Spanish who established Spanish Civilization in Mexico hundreds of years earlier by sending Columbus on his voyages. That is why our icon IS A BELL.
June-July 1975International Women's Year is marked by the first UN conference on women, held in Mexico City. |
76 - Scroll -- During this Bicentennial anniversary year of the founding of the United States through the declaration of Independence, the U.N. passed a resolution reaffirming the inalienable right of the peoples of Namibia, Zimbabwe, and Palestine to self-determination--emphasizing the principle of majority rule.
UNIVERSAL REALIZATION OF THE RIGHT TO SELF-DETERMINATION
On 30 November 1976, the General Assembly adopted a resolution (31/34) relating to the importance of the universal realization of the right to self-determination by which, among other things, it reaffirmed the inalienable right of the peoples of Namibia and Zimbabwe, of the Palestinian people and of all peoples under alien and colonial domination to self- determination, independence and sovereignty without external interference.
IMPLEMENTATION OF DECLARATION ON THE GRANTING OF INDEPENDENCE
On 17 December 1976, the General Assembly adopted a resolution (31/143) relating to the implementation of the Declaration on the Granting of Independence to Colonial Countries and Peoples by which, among other things, it condemned the continued colonialist and racist repression of millions of Africans in Namibia by South Africa and in Zimbabwe by the illegal racist minority régime. It was conscious of the pressing need to eliminate the last vestiges of colonialism, particularly with respect to Namibia and Zimbabwe, and strongly deprecated the policies of States that continued to collaborate with South Africa and the illegal régime in Southern Rhodesia.
77 - A Manatee with Bark armor protecting his Arms.
4 November 1977
Security Council adopts mandatory arms embargo against South Africa.78 - Hanging Chad
Complaint by Chad Communications (6-17 February)
By a letter of 6 February 1978, the representative of Chad transmitted to the Security Council the text of a telegram dated 4 February from his country's Minister for Foreign Affairs and Cooperation regarding what the Minister termed the disturbing situation prevailing in his country. He charged the Libyan Arab Jamahiriya with aggression and military occupation of northern Chad; using Chad rebels of the Borkou-Ennedi-Tibesti (BET) region in its service, he said, it was participating in the fighting against the Chad national army. He further charged that the Libyan authorities were attempting to destabilize the Government of Chad and dismember the country, in complete disregard of the recommendations of the Assembly of Heads of State and Government of the Organization of African Unity (OAU), held at Libreville, Gabon, in July 1977, which had established an ad hoc commission for settlement of the Chad-Libyan frontier dispute. He requested that the President of the Security Council intervene to end the Libyan aggression and interference in Chad's internal affairs. By one of two letters of 8 February, the representative of Chad requested the Security Council President urgently to convene the Council, to consider the serious situation in northern Chad resulting from Libyan aggression and the Chad-Libyan frontier problem. By the other letter, he transmitted to the Council...
79 - Blind Fold
US Embassy Hostage Crisis in Iran
During consultations among members of the Council, a draft resolution was prepared and, on
4 December, the Council unanimously adopted it as resolution 457(1979). By the resolution, the Council expressed deep concern at the dangerous level of tension between Iran and the United States and reaffirmed the obligation of all States under existing conventions to respect ‘the inviolability of diplomatic personnel and premises. The Council urgently called upon Iran to release immediately the United States Embassy personnel being held in Teheran, to provide them protection and to allow them to leave the country. The Council also called on Iran and the United States to resolve peacefully the remaining issues between them in accordance with the Charter of the United Nations, urging both to exercise the utmost restraint. I n a d d i t i o n , t h e Council requested the Secretary-General to lend his good offices for the resolution’s immediate implementation, further requesting him to report urgently on developments regarding his efforts.
80 - Syringe
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