UNICEF

While most of us were eating cold noodles and watching Project Runway, another major Hollywood actor joined the industry’s growing brigade of charitable stars.

Orlando Bloom recently took a four-day tour of Nepal on a UNICEF-supported visit, which took the 30-year-old actor to the impoverished western districts of Kaski and Chitwan.

“Another Hollywood movie star might feel strange in a remote and impoverished area of Nepal, but [he] seemed perfectly at ease,” the humanitarian organization reports. Indeed, Mr. Bloom apparently took to certain Nepalese customs swimmingly. In one village, Mr. Bloom, who seemingly has no confirmed projects currently underway, had his forehead smeared with red “tika” by local women, who also offered him garlands of flowers to wear.

Later, when he visited another village, Pokhara, Mr. Bloom played a small role in a “mini-drama” that some three-dozen area children were recording for a radio program. The play was reportedly about “the plight faced by young girls in a hostel without a female warden.” Mr. Bloom played a helpful fellow guest with advice to share. “Talk about your problems,” he read from the script. “There’s no need to feel shy. It’s always good to talk about issues that concern you.”

Orlando Bloom visits UNICEF programmes for children in Nepal [UNICEF via HuffPo]

 

The MTA board meet at their headquarters.

HUD recognizes agencies for their outstanding performance at the New York Hall of Science in Queens. Sarah Jessica Parker, now a UNICEF Ambassador, hosts a Halloween Party at the UNICEF House. The Public Service Commission holds a public hearing on the Long Island City power outages at the Hellenic Center in Astoria.

The Stonewall Democrats hold their monthly meeting at the LGBT Center featuring Alan Van Capelle and Hank Sheinkopf.

DL21C and NYU Law School Democrats host "Blogs and Politics: A Critical Look at New York's Political New Media Landscape."

Public housing tenants protest vacancies and mismanaged elevator repairs in Fort Greene, Brooklyn.

A forum on new voting technology will be held at the New York Society for Ethical Culture.

Russell Simmons and Rabbi Marc Schneier lead a panel discussion on black and Jewish race relations at Columbia University.

Nita Lowey addresses a summit on hunger and homelessness at the Generoso Pope Foundation in Tuckahoe.

Nick Spano and Vincent Leibell discuss Internet safety laws at the offices of Westchester District Attorney Jane DiFiore.

—Nicole Brydson

Ten days ago I praised Richard Engel's beautiful and amazing story on NBC Nightly News about a Baghdad orphanage for girls whose parents had died because of the war we started. I was hardly alone. Last night Brian Williams said that the network had been overwhelmed by emails and calls about the story. The network then did something great: it reaired the story.

You will see that it has top billing on the NBC website. Here the headline is "How to Help Iraq's Orphans." NBC then suggests that viewers give money to Unicef, No More Victims, and two other nonprofit groups.

I don't think that's enough. By twice doing this story, for the edification and diversion of Americans in their kitchens, NBC has established a special connection that it should honor—a connection not to a generic group of Iraq orphans, but to these 56 girls. On last night's report, Engel said that masked men had lately come to the door of the orphanage. He showed the girls cowering in a back room. Will these girls now be a special focus of terrorism? The thought is almost too horrible to consider, but it should be on NBC's mind. What threat has this tearjerker exposed these girls to? What threat does life in Baghdad—a life far outside NBC's bunkered bureau and flakjackets—expose them to?

Last night, Williams said that adoption by Americans was impossible. But there is an obvious answer. These girls should be evacuated. NBC should take steps to achieve that, even if that means getting them into the NBC bunker. My best guess is that evacuation means Syria, where in January I saw some of the hundreds of thousands of former neighbors who were now living peaceful lives. And my wife's cousin, who teaches in Damascus, told of teaching Iraqi refugees, some the victims of kidnaping.