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World’s Greatest Smile

News / Blog
Archive 2013

 

11/11/2013, 15:11, Meike, HRM, Nova Scotia, Canada


Imagine a world

where everybody with a weapon would refuse to show up for work. Now imagine a world where all farmers, fire fighters and doctors would do the same. Any doubt whom I honour more?

 

10/23/2013, 14:50, Meike, HRM, Nova Scotia, Canada


Harley died this morning

62-year-old Harley died in a fire in a Berwick bus shelter early this morning. He was a well-known figure in the town since his arrival and is described as being always friendly.

There are several possible explanations for this tragedy. First thing in everyone's mind is that someone might have intentionally hurt him, what would have been tragic indeed.

Another explanation would be that he was “just” freezing, tried to warm himself up to stay alive - and accidentally set himself on fire. Obviously he was homeless, and the reasons for that might reach from lack of help for mental stability to plain poverty.

Even thought most people think the foul play version is the bad one I think the accident version is the worse because it shows the severity of the challenges uncounted numbers of humans face every day and that are ignored by big parts of society.

It might even be a completely different explanation for Harley’s death. And whatever the explanation might be - his death was probably preventable by society. There are many freezing people left alone in the cold.
Wake up, society, take responsibility!

Read more about Harley’s death in the Chronicle Herald.
 

10/22/2013, 14:03, Meike, HRM, Nova Scotia, Canada


Visited the Maritime Museum of the Atlantic.

I wish every warship would be a museum-ship – wouldn't the world be a much more lovable place...?

 

10/12/2013, 12:11, Meike, HRM, Nova Scotia, Canada


The Nobel Peace Prize 2013

“The Nobel Peace Prize 2013 was awarded to Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons "for its extensive efforts to eliminate chemical weapons".” nobelprize.org

Read more at:
http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/peace/laureates/2013/press.html

 

08/24/2013, 16:13, Meike, HRM, Nova Scotia, Canada


Finally someone on our hero list again... Antoinette Tuff!

Guns kill – words can, too, in some ways. But words can heal as well, and guns can't. I'd love to see well minded and well educated people like Antoinette Tuff in each school! She definitely has my highest respect!

“If America’s National Rifle Association had its way, US schools would prepare for the terrible eventuality of a mass shooting by arming their own staff with guns. But when a young man with mental health problems entered the Ronald E McNair Discovery Learning Academy in Decatur, Georgia this week, brandishing an AK-47, the massacre he planned was prevented not by more firearms, but by the calming words of an unarmed school bookkeeper.” The Independent

Read more at The Independent: The day Antoinette Tuff lived up to her name: school clerk talked gunman into putting down weapon

 

07/23/2013, 14:09, Meike, HRM, Nova Scotia, Canada


Need some restoration of your faith in humanity? Me too.

This might help a bit:
“Dozens of Japanese train passengers pushed a 32-ton train carriage away from the platform to free a woman who had fallen into the 20-centimetre gap between the train and platform.”
thestar.com

It’s a wonderful example of what can happen if people just work together.

 

06/20/2013, 12:56, Meike, HRM, Nova Scotia, Canada


WHO: Global and regional estimates of violence against women

The WHO presents the first global systematic review of scientific data on the prevalence of two forms of violence against women: violence by an intimate partner and sexual violence by someone other than a partner.
Read full article.

 

06/12/2013, 00:21, Meike, HRM, Nova Scotia, Canada


Today is World Day Against Child Labour

“Hundreds of millions of girls and boys throughout the world are engaged in work that deprives them of adequate education, health, leisure and basic freedoms, violating their rights. Of these children, more than half are exposed to the worst forms of child labour such as work in hazardous environments, slavery, or other forms of forced labour, illicit activities such as drug trafficking and prostitution, as well as involvement in armed conflict.

The International Labour Organization (ILO) launched the first World Day Against Child Labour in 2002 as a way to highlight the plight of these children.”
International Labour Organization (ILO)

 

04/02/2013, 13:54, Meike, HRM, Nova Scotia, Canada


The UN General Assembly approved a global arms trade treaty today

“The United Nations General Assembly has approved a global arms trade treaty ... which garnered the support of a majority of Member States when put to a vote today.
...
Speaking ahead of the vote, the President of the General Assembly, Vuk Jeremic, called the text “groundbreaking” as well as “robust and  actionable”.
...
The text draws a link with the presence of weapons across the developing world, especially in conflict-affected areas, with the challenge of sustainable development and safeguarding human rights, added Mr. Jeremic.”
UN News Centre

 

02/15/2013, 13:31, Meike, HRM, Nova Scotia, Canada


World's combined solar power capacity reaches record 101 gigawatts!

30 GW was added to the world grid in 2012 alone. Now world's combined solar power generates as much electricity energy in a year as sixteen coal power plants or one nuclear reactor. Good start, world!
Read more about it at phys.org

 

02/14/2013, 13:50, Meike, HRM, Nova Scotia, Canada


“There is something I wanted to tell you”  by Meike Duch

 

02/10/2013, 12:21, Meike, HRM, Nova Scotia, Canada


We went for a 3 hour blizzard walk yesterday.

If I could choose between the everyday crazy traffic and yesterday's street conditions here with very few cars on the street, working public transportation, smiling people skiing and snowshoeing in the middle of main streets, people excitedly playing with their children in front yards - I would choose this blizzard any time!
Almost everyone we met seemed to be joyful, children learned to ice  skate on walkways, an ambitions snow shoveller greeted us after several hours of shovelling with an enthusiastic “Beautiful, eh...?!”€ť I can imagine that there were even less accidents than usual because so few  cars were driving around here.
I loved it! And for the next blizzard I definitely like some snow goggles and snow shoes like all the bright people we met.

 

01/25/2013, 10:09, Meike, HRM, Nova Scotia, Canada


We wish you all a

Happy 9th

World’s Greatest Smile - Day!

The goal of World’s Greatest Smile Day is to give people from all over the world the possibility to state together that there is willingness for an intelligent and peaceful international communication. As we say “World’s Greatest Smile - Start with a Smile!”. It’s a start - to move on from there!

We know that lots of you are having a great day celebrating World’s Greatest Smile Day events around the world today! Enjoy! And for those who like to have more inspiration what to do have a look here:

And last but not least we like to thank all of the wonderful supporters of the World’s Greatest Smile Peace Project for everything you do!

 

01/24/2013, 14:39, Meike, HRM, Nova Scotia, Canada


And a special lovely message with far-sightedness reached us today

Nobel Laureate Professor Dr. Brian P. Schmidt wrote:

“Dear Meike-

I am smiling as I write this letter and will smile on the 25th of January.

As I tell everyone. It is always better to smile than to frown. ...”

And as we tell everyone - he is so right!

Professor Dr. Brian P. Schmidt was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics for 2011 “for the discovery of the accelerating expansion of the Universe through observations of distant supernovae”.

 

01/24/2013, 12:34, Meike, HRM, Nova Scotia, Canada


Another Smile from the Senate of Canada for the World’s Greatest Smile Day

The Honourable Elaine McCoy, member of the Senate of Canada, announced  her participation in the World’s Greatest Smile Day: “Great initiative,  I'm happy to participate”.
We are very happy, too! A warm welcome, Senator McCoy!

And we were sent this picture from Senator Elaine McCoy and her brother.

 

01/23/2013, 14:08, Meike, HRM, Nova Scotia, Canada


 

01/22/2013, 11:34, Meike, HRM, Nova Scotia, Canada


And here is another special smile for the World’s Greatest Smile

Nobel Laureate Professor Dr. Edmond H. Fischer wrote us a wonderful message saying that he will support for the World’s Greatest Smile.

If you read some of the texts he wrote you’ll find that he has beautiful sense of humour.

Professor Fischer wrote us e-mails in two languages, and he speaks even more.
He was born in Shanghai, China. His mother was born in France and his father was born in Austria. At age 7 he and his two older brothers were sent to a Swiss boarding school and in 1950 he went to the United States for post-doctoral research.
If you know me a bit you might imagine that people who can say clever and even funny things in more than one language have a special place in my heart and if a Nobel Laureate Professor Dr. Edmond H. Fischer signs his e-mails to me with “Eddy” my heart has to melt even if it’s -13°C outside right now...
And I really love the picture Professor Fischer sent us! The smile is beautiful and the background reminds me very much of my very first own apartment in Hamburg - before we moved to Halifax, Toronto, Ottawa, Reykjavik, - and back to Halifax - it looked pretty much the same.

The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 1992 was awarded to Professor Dr. Edmond H. Fischer for his “discoveries concerning reversible protein phosphorylation as a biological regulatory mechanism”.

 

01/21/2013, 14:54, Meike, HRM, Nova Scotia, Canada


Two more beautiful smiles for the World’s Greatest Smile Day!

Over the weekend two more Noble Smiles were sent to us.

Nobel Laureate Professor Dr. Kurt Wüthrich and Nobel Laureate Professor Dr. Martin Chalfie will participate in our project again and both supported the World’s Greatest Smile before.

Prof. Dr.
Kurt Wüthrich
Nobel Prize
in Chemistry,
2002

Prof. Dr.
Martin Chalfie
Nobel Prize
in Chemistry,
2008

The World’s Greatest Smile Peace Project is very thankful for your continuous support!

 

01/17/2013, 12:32, Meike, HRM, Nova Scotia, Canada


Nobel Laureate Thomas A. Steitz will support the World’s Greatest Smile Day!

I just received a very kind mail from Nobel Laureate Professor Dr. Thomas A. Steitz! He announced his participation in the World’s Greatest Smile Day on January 25th!

Thomas A. Steitz was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2009 for studies of the structure and function of the ribosome.

We are very excited to welcome him!

 

01/14/2013, 12:23, Meike, HRM, Nova Scotia, Canada


Here is a new World’s Greates Smile game for you: Small chasing Tall!

It’s already January and high time to plan your World’s Greatest Smile Day 2013! If you plan to celebrate with a group of you might like to play some of our World’s Greatest Smile games. They are all about teamwork, friendly communication and lots of fun to play as well!

Here is the new one:
Small chasing Tall is another wonderful game we developed and I really love it because we got you a very strategic running crouching laying speedily thinking evaluating cleverly negotiating and happily giggling game. It’s a very strategic game, fun, useful to learn a lot of life lessons and all that with a lot of action.

You can play it with big groups or small ones. Even if it’s a game with a lot of action you can play it with participants in all kind of physical states together.

Now go play! Yay!

 

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