Currently (Missed calles / New SMS / New IM / New eMail) notifications don't appear on your desktop, you have to click on the Active Tasts button to see these notifications.

It would be great to have a widget that you can add to one or more of your desktops that aggregates your notifications in a compact way such that you can notice your notifications easily

you can vote for this idea and propose solutions here

http://maemo.org/community/brainstor...ations_widget/