SYD KRONISH | Stamps U.N. issue offers freshwater theme

How vital is a continuing supply of fresh water to all countries of the world?
Freshwater resources worldwide are so important that the United Nations has proclaimed the year 2003 as the "International Year of Fresh Water." The decree encourages governments through the United Nations to increase the awareness of the importance of sustainable freshwater use, management and protection.
To help promote and publicize the freshwater program, the United Nations Postal Administration has issued a set of six new commemorative stamps with a freshwater theme. The UNPA in New York; Geneva, Switzerland; and Vienna, Austria each will release two stamps as part of this joint effort.
The designer of the stamps is surrealist artist Rick Garcia of Miami. According to Garcia, each design depicts surreal imagery of people, animals and insects. The locations are a swamp, a mountain scene during fall and a northern high country area in winter.
The pair of U.S. stamps portray a person in a canoe gliding through waters and vegetation toward receding water. The Swiss stamps illustrate a mountain scene with a waterfall during a bright and sunny day in which people are enjoying the outdoors. The Austrian stamps feature a high mountain scene with heavy snowfall borders. Horses and people are seen on the icy area.
The mint stamps are available in units of a full sheet of 20 stamps or a single unit of a horizontal se-tenant (attached) pair.
A souvenir card also has been issued with the same theme (International Year of Fresh Water). The card depicts the new stamps and carries a statement by United Nations Secretary-General Kofi A. Annan.
The UNPA says the card will be available only through October.
First-day covers and the new stamps will be available by calling (800) 234-UNPA from 9:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., Monday through Friday.
Bunche's birth
The United Nations Postal Administration also announced that it will issue in August a set of three stamps to commemorate the centennial of the birth of Ralph Bunche, who helped create the United Nations at San Francisco in 1945 and served as its Under Secretary-General. He was heralded for his peacekeeping efforts and renowned as a pioneer in race relations. He was a Nobel Prize winner in 1950.
Bunche was a U.N. mediator, bringing about the 1949 Rhodes Armistice between Israel and its Arab neighbors -- Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon and Syria.
Bunche attained great success as a student of Africa and race. His prize-winning dissertation on colonialism in Africa earned him a Ph.D. in government and international relations at Harvard University.
In 1955, Bunche was appointed a trustee of the Rockefeller Foundation, serving until his death on Dec. 9, 1971.
The three new stamps feature charcoal portraits reproduced by artist Leo Cherne of New York. The originals are on display at the Ralph Bunche Institute of International Studies at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York.