as you (should) know, kofi annan is ending his term as the secretary general of the UN at the end of the year, to be replaced by south korean ban ki moon.

 

as kofi started his career in geneva (went to HEI actually, and subsequently worked for the WHO) he came to say farewell to the UN staff in geneva (UNOG) on monday.  he's quite the speaker.. has a very soothing tone.  had only heard sound bytes from him on TV, so listening to him for close to an hour in the big UN assembly hall was pretty cool.  he's a lot shorter than i'd pictured tho..

 

pasting below what was posted on the UN intranet, and some of my pix.  also taped a few videos, but the sound quality's really bad so u can't hear anything.  u/d'ed one to my youtube site tho (of him walking down the aisle to leave the assembly hall shaking ppl's hands along the way.. my friends shook his hand, but i was _really_ close!)

 

 

 

 

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

Posted: Monday, 20 November, 2006, New York/Geneva

 

On Monday, 20 November, at 12:30 pm, a large crowd, made up of the international staff of UNOG and other international institutions, awaited the Secretary-General for his last meeting with Geneva staff.  Accompanied by the Director-General, and their respective wives, he was greeted by a standing ovation.

 

In a cordial atmosphere, and after introductory remarks by the Director-General, the Secretary-General addressed the audience in the room.  He recalled his experiences, his ideals, and his battles (fighting poverty, reducing AIDS, responding to humanitarian needs after the tsunami disaster, reducing armed conflicts, etc.).  The Secretary-General underlined the importance of continuing to fight for the ideas of the United Nations, human rights, and the Millennium Development Goals, and shared his confidence in his successor continuing the pursuit of this path.

 

On behalf of all UN staff in Geneva, Oleg Kiiamov, Executive Secretary of the UNOG Staff Coordinating Council, and Daniel Prémont, President of the Council, thanked the Secretary-General warmly and presented him with two gifts, a book and a trophy.

 

After much applause, attendees were given the floor.  In response to a question on his successes and his worst failures and memories, the Secretary-General cited the issue of sustainable development, which he succeeded in placing at the heart of the Organization's concerns and activities, but also recalled the attack in Baghdad during the Iraq war and the loss of his closest colleagues, including Sergio Vieira de Mello, as having affected him more than anything else.

 

A young staff member concluded the exchange underlining the charisma of the Secretary-General, asking him what advice he would give his successor.  The Secretary-General, obviously touched by this unexpected homage, thanked her and answered simply that he wished the next Secretary-General to remain himself and continue the work of the United Nations in his own way.

 

In leaving the room filled with applause, the Secretary-General greeted his staff and shook the hands of many staff members.
 

 

 

destionation: rome
duration of trip: 1 day (34 hrs from taking off from geneva to landing in geneva)
hrs of sleep: enuf, for once
unesco sites visited: 2
items i forgot to pack: mp3 player
items lost: water bottle (confiscated at the airport on the way back even tho it was empty and so was ok to take on board, and i have already taken 3 flights after the new rules kicked in with the same empty water bottle.. reason: 'too size'.  'oh you mean it's too big?' rolled my eyes and walked away without waiting for response.. hate security guards on power trips.  and oh yeah, also lost my wallet.  

 

yup, got pickpocketed.  second time in my life.. and both times it was cuz i was too complacent.  first time was in manila, after a few months of living there so i was getting very non-chalant about the daily commute in a cramped jeepney.. but at least that time i was using my chained-to-belt wallet, so i just had some cash stolen.  this time, it was, luckily, towards the end of the day so i'd gotten good use out of the bus/metro ticket, and i 'only' had €50 in cash.  plus the return bus ticket to the airport (€5, but €6 if using replacement cost accounting).  that's what happens when i take these short-hop trips like as if i were going to another part of the city, except that i'm going to some place new where i'm not familiar with at all.

 

good thing at least that it's become second nature for me to have at least 2 wallets with me, with my canadian bank card and swiss credit card in one, swiss bank card and canadian credit card in the other.  i lost the latter wallet.  all was fine until i got off the very crowded metro.  i had my second wallet and my passport in my bag, so i kept a tight hold on my bag, but realized my wallet was gone as soon as i stepped off the train.  i'm pretty sure i know who it was too, a girl working with (presumably) her elderly father.

aside from the cash and bus tix, i also had 2 pieces of swiss ID - my swiss drivers license (50chf to replace) and my 'carte de legitimation', kinda like a residency permit (i have two of these, lost the one from berne, still have the one from geneva since i don't travel with it, tho that one's about to expire..)  this should be free to replace.

 

in canada, that would be it.  having to get a new driver's license (which would only cost about $20, or less than half of the swiss's extortion price).  BUT, in switzerland, the banks are worse than the mafia.  instead of worrying about security and encouraging clients to cancel their bank cards when they lose them, they charge you 60chf (yes, 60) to cancel it, and another 20chf to get a new card, so that you can be priveleged enuf to continue banking with them.  wtf?!?!?!  just what i have to pay to UBS for losing one piece of plastic is worth more than what the thief took in cash from me.
 
in the end, not a huge loss.. i know to keep my passport pretty safe, it's just that a momentary lapse in judgement can lead to such hassle.  i felt a bit shocked and violated at first, and a bit bummed out the rest of the trip (and after), but surprisingly i wasn't really upset or angry with the situation.  getting used to cancelling credit cards now, three times in 2 years! lol  first was when i hid one of my wallets a bit too safely in my hotel room in dili and forgot about it until i got back to sydney.  second was when someone broke into the locker at the Y and stole my pants, with wallet inside.. and this time at least i get the added experience of filing a police report in italy.  ('giaponese?' 'no, canada.' long stunned pause, 'you-a speeka eeengaleesh?')

 

so no wild nite out.. had enuf to last til my flight back home the next day, but not enuf to go out without withdrawing more cash.. and was not in a spending mood, to say the least!

 

aside from that tho, quite enjoyed rome.  didn't quite have the 'wow' factor that everyone promised me, but it was definitely cool seeing all those ancient roman sites in the middle of a bustling city.  reminded me of athens (and other parts of greece and even turkey).  but it's not a very big city - smaller than i thot actually - and as my Rough Guide guidebook said, it feels rather provincial - and i agree.

 

certainly no shortage of sights, however, even if they were open at odd hours (open only in the morning for the vatican museums and the sistine chapel, so i didn't get to see those).  didn't go inside st. peter's, cuz i'm not christian and it wasn't worth the hassle of the security or the line-up; just being inside the square and seeing the swiss guards were enuf.

 

there was also a huge demonstration (not sure of what, think it was something about universities) that effectively shut down the centre of the city to traffic, so it was cool walking down the middle of what normally would be a traffic jam.  that forced me to walk from the train station to the vatican city, when i wanted to take the bus.. i was feeling lazy, and to my defense, at that time i still thot rome was humongous, so i overestimated the distance.

 

one note about the photos: i forgot to charge my camera battery before i left, so i was stingy on where to take pix, tho i did manage to take quite a few before it finally it was done done. then i had to resort to my camera phone.

 

3 down, 1 more wkend hopping trip to go.  man i'm so exhausted.. not doing this again, at least not when i'm holding down 2 jobs on top of school..  easyjet is having another sale, ending tonite, for travel out until march.  did not purchase anything.  very proud for being so disciplined. :)

 

 

no, not a rant on geneva.. true i'm not in love with this city, but don't hate it either.

 

got this fwd (below) a couple of days ago, absolutely hillarious!  thot i'd share.

 

and according to wikipedia's entry for 'fucking', and my german friend ulli, there are towns named 'kissing', 'petting' and 'bad kissing' (tho not 'bad petting' across the border in germany as well.

 

of course, i'v already looked into going there myself (not far from salzburg so kind of a shame that i didn't find out about it when i was there a year ago).  looks like it's an half an hour bus ride from salzburg to the nearest town, then it's a 2km walk.  yeah it's a tiny place apparently.  when i first looked for public transpo to go to 'fucking', the results came back showing a couple of towns that had the closest match, in another part of the country:  oberfucking and unterfucking.

 

not that i speak german, but i think i can guess what that means.. ;)

 

 

*****

 

Germans Not Amused

British tourists have left the residents of one charming Austrian village effing and blinding by constantly stealing the signs for their oddly named village.

 

While British visitors are finding it hilarious, the residents of Fucking are failing to see the funny side.

 

Only one kind of criminal stalks the sleepy 32-house village near Salzburg on the German border - cheeky British tourists armed with a sense of humor and a screwdriver.

 

But the local authorities are hitting back with the signs now set in concrete, police chief Kommandant Schmidtberger is on the lookout.

 

"We will not stand for the Fucking signs being removed," the officer said.

 

"It may be very amusing for you British, but Fucking is simply Fucking to us. What is this big Fucking joke? It is puerile."

 

Local tourist guide Andreas Behmueller said it was only the British that had a fixation with Fucking.

 

"The Germans all want to see the Mozart house in Salzburg," he explained. "Every American seems to care only about The Sound of Music (the 1955 film shot around Salzburg.) The occasional Japanese wants to see Hilter's birthplace in Braunay."

 

"But for the British, it's all about Fucking."

 

Guesthouse manager Augustina Lindelbauer described the village's breathtaking lakes, forests and vistas. "Yet still there is this obsession with Fucking," she said. "Just this morning I had to tell an English lady that there were no Fucking postcards."

 

 

destionation: manchester, via liverpool
duration of trip: 2 days (48 hrs from taking off from geneva to landing in geneva)
hrs of sleep: 4 hrs on avg of the two nites
song stuck in my head during trip:
 - in manchester: scissor sisters' 'don't feel like dancing'' (have now gone from 'they hardly play this song!' in geneva to 'they play this song waaay too much' in the UK)
 - in liverpool: random medley of beatles songs
unesco sites visited: 1
items i forgot to pack: none (a rarity)
items i could not pack: hair stlying product (new flight security regulations: any liquid has to be in a container <100mL, all in a clear ziploc (ooops, 'zip top') bag, and none of my hair  gel/wax/gum/paste/glue/puddy/etc were in a small enuf container

items lost: umrella - not so much 'lost' as the wind blew it apart, and to prevent a stray umbrella from causing injuries/accidents, i chased after it rite onto a busy intersection.  light was red, luckily enuf.
weather: wet, windy, but not too cold
stupid tourist trick: bought more clothes there than i had brought with me, but still managed to fit them all into (or on) my little backpack, thanks to various pouches, pockets and straps so that i still only had 'one' piece of carry-on
surprisingly expensive: hostel room - £21!  tho the breakfast incl was very good
surprisingly cheap: transpo 'liverpool john lennon airport' <> manchester -  £6 return
best meal: curry on manchester's 'curry mile'
most disappointing meal: fish and chips in a pub

 

a nice but not too interesting trip.

 

arrrived with my new passport.. the border guard gave me a hard time for having a new passport ('why?') and for not carrying my swiss residence permit ('how will you go back?')  ech..  i'v never had a problem going back into switz (save one time on the train when the guy asked me a few more questions) without my permit (an extra thing to lose, why carry it?! i might be wrong but i thot a passport and any requisite visa are for entering the country, and the residency permit confers the right to stay beyond the normal period of stay granted) - everytime i fly back i just put the passport on the counter and they wave me thru without even opening it.  i hope that the UK isn't turning paranoid like the US, land of 'u are presumed to be an asylum seeker who will proceed to scheme plots to destroy and maim, until proven otherwise'.

 

anyhow, got thru the bitch, hopped on the bus to manchester, arrived after midnite, took a while to find the hostel (as u know i'm not a scaredy-cat type, but it wasn't fun getting lost around areas that looked very ghetto!  in daylight it wasn't so bad, tho the area around the train station was still a bit dodgy).  dropped my bags (woke up my roommates in the process), then headed out, came back, and woke up my roommates again.  they were v cool about it tho, two brothers from new zealand traveling around europe.

 

next day, saw all i wanted to see in manchester really.  nice town, learnt a lot about it.. even went to a couple of museums (they're all free!).  reminded me of edmonton.  well, it's way more lively and a bigger and better city than e-town, but can't help but draw parallels b/w the 2: formerly industrial city that's now thriving (or trying to for edmonton) on a reputation for fostering culture, esp alternative culture.  but like edmonton, it's a place where, i think, it'd be nice to live, but as a tourist there aren't a lot of sites to see!  and they both have sucky weather.

 

thing that revitalized manchester was the rebuilding after the IRA bombing 10 yrs ago.  seeing the vid footage and pix (in the museum) it's amazing no one died.  more amazing yet was that i had no recollection of the event!  i'v always been a news junkie, so i'm sure i saw it 10 yrs ago, but it didn't register.  goes to show how desensitized one can be (oh another IRA bombing over in the UK) when one is far-enuf removed.

 

sunday morning left for liverpool.  was raining most of the time so that sucked.  by accident, i ended up just across the harbour from liverpool, and wanted to hop on the 'ferry across the mersey' (title to a song, i'm sure u'v heard of it) back to liverpool, which turned out to be a 30 minute cruise.

 

didn't do anything too beatles'y, walked down matthews street, the bus back to the airport passed by penney lane apparently but i didn't see it.

 

lots of construction happening around liverpool, preparing itself for 2008 as europe's 'cultural capital', but otherwise it feels like a pretty small city, not much happening.  nice historic core but just outside of it it's pretty plain.  definitely wouldn't want to live there.

 

and as a departing thought for this entry, john lennon is probably rolling in his grave, because of the airport with his name.  before getting to security, the signs lead you thru a path that takes you over the length of the terminal building, and back again.  an odd u-shaped trajectory that would make no sense if not for the plethora of stores along the way.  other airports try to make it not so obvious, and one can be excused for not realizing the reasoning behind the layout. but you'd have to be really stupid to not know why 'oh wait, i walked all the way down here, and now i'm doing a u-turn to walk all the way back that way?'  then after security, u have to 'wait in lounge' with all the other shoppers, or 'travelers' if u must, surrounded by stores until they flash the 'run to gate now or you'll miss the flight' on the screen (something that i'v only observed in UK airports).  and then to top it off, the 'final approach' to the gate involved waiting (while sitting for those of us smart enuf to realize the line wasn't gonna be moving for quite a while) in a in a claustrophobic stairwell, then more waiting in a long narrow corridor, an announcement over the intercom 'passengers for geneva please make your way to gate number 6' to which there was a synchronous reply 'we're trying!' followed a frustrated laugh, and finally more waiting in the little room with the 'gate' (ie door to the outside where u have to walk a long way in the rain on the tarmac to reach ur plane. of course that's the budget airline treatment).  i'm sure the full-priced part of the terminal is nicer.  but then w/o budget airlines this airport wouldn't survive.  but c'mon, surely this (and london luton, same thing) airport's design couldn't have been an accident (amsterdam's schiphol budget terminal H is much much more humane for example).  it must have been rich snob architect's nefarious scheme to make budget traveller suffer.  i wonder if yoko ono has used it.. 

 

probably not going back.  not because of the airport, tho it didn't help.  it (manchester at least) was very nice to visit, but quite early on in the trip i realized that unless there's a reason to go back, i won't.  made the trip different from others i'v taken recently where i took for granted that i'll go back for a future visit.  nw england is a bit out of the way, and there's nothing else around there, so i doubt that i'll just happen to go there on business or something.  but then, never say never.  if i am ever crazy enuf to take up my friend's idea of touring micro states, isle of man is awfully close to liverpool.. :)

 

destination: nice
duration of trip: 1 day (27 hrs incl flying time)
hrs of sleep:
 - during trip: roughly 1, cumulative
 - nite before trip: roughly 3
 - upon return: not enuf, still!
song stuck in my head during trip: charlene's 'i've never been to me' (ooh, i've been to nice and the isle of greece..)
item i forgot to pack: my camera (!!)
item i didn't have to pack but did: swim trunks and flip-flops
weather: warmer than geneva, but not warm enuf to use aforementioned items
stupid tourist trick: 3 meals in one day in 3 different countries (breakfast in geneva, lunch in moncao, dinner in cannes)
french lesson learned: you can say 'magnifique' to describe everything from the view of the take-off, the view of geneva from the air, the view of alps from the air, the view of nice from the air, the view of the medit. sea, the sea itself, the weather, the lack of clouds in the sky, the sunshine, the way the sun shone on nice, the flight, the trajectory of the flight, the landing.. or maybe i have to be an old lady wearing (badly) a faux-fur coat to get away with that..

 

my 1st trip of 4 during my jet-set november month.  if u haven't been following, i decided, a little while back when easyjet had a sale, to go crazy and fly away each weekend in november, to make up for not having a holiday during the summer.

 

nite before, was gonna go to dj tiesto's intimate concert at a tiny posh club called platinum.  on their pathetic website, it said to register, which i did.  and so did everyone else waiting outside in the cold only to be told to wait.  shoulda knonw.. i was wondering how they were gonna fit everyone in.  guess they advertised and got everyone to register only to subject them to an even more rigorous screening than normal at the door.  so fucking retarded, never going to that place again.  after 40 min we decided to bail.

 

good thing cuz at least i got a few hrs of sleep, crashing at my friends ming and andy's place (much closer to the airport, allowing me to maximize my sleep!) early morning flight, 7am.  first time flying to france from geneva, and apparently u cross the border at the airport.  and of course, it was unmanned, so my new passport is still unstamped.

 

short flight, less than an hr, nodded off for a short little while.  landed, gorgeous weather, tho quite cold (too cold for my t-shirt + thin jacket ensemble). bussed to the train station, dropped off my backpack, headed to monaco.  walked around, was very interesting, and sorta impressive (especially the rows upon rows of ginormous yachts that were the size of passenger ferries) but couldn't help but think that if i were truly rich, i wouldn't want to go there.  it's not particularly beautiful scenary-wise, can't imagine that they would pamper you that much more than any other jet-set destination, and it's become a place where mere mortals (like my current incarnation) go to marvel, a bit zoo-like, at how rich folks live.

 

bit of history i learnt from reading a plaque: monaco was apparently (and proudly) founded by the great^x granddaddy of the current prince thru trickery.  how fitting, monte carlo exists thanks to deception.

 

hopped on the train to antibes.  very nice sea-side historical town.  had a little chat with the taiwanese souvenir shop owner about how her son also wanted to study economics but now wants to go into PR and study in florida.. love when random conversations like this happen in a language where u least expect to use it..

 

got to cannes, was already dark.  had a great (if a bit pricey) sushi dinner, walked around, enjoyed the sea breeze, then back to nice.  quite late at this point, was tired and didn't feel like doing too much sight-seeing.  but, seeing as how my flight was early the next day, i was determined to see thru my plan of staying up all night in a club.  which i did, til nearly 5.  then slowly made my way to the train station, waited for the luggage place to open at 7am, grabbed my backpack and hopped on the bus to the airport for my 9am flight.

so, didn't see much of nice, but it looked like a very nice city with a pretty cool old centre to wander around in.  and walking along the sea side was very nice.  i miss the ocean.

 

for those who know, i'v been in search for this mythical, non-existent place where there's a big cosmopolitan city with tropical white-sand beaches and high rugged snow-capped mountains nearby.  nice comes pretty close.  the nearby alps are certainly majestic enuf, even if the water's a bit cold and the beaches aren't that.. nice.  but the name of the region, 'alpes maritime', speaks for itself.

 

there are always cheap flights to nice from here it seems, so i'm sure i'll be back to see more of nice itself.  and next time, i'll remember my camera!

 

while my tax rrefund took forever to go thru, my passport renewal took way less time than i thot.  my old passport was about to expire end of jan 07.  originally i was gonna wait til i get back home to do it there.  but did a quick calculation and, with the public holidays and the increase in passport filings, it woulda been cutting it way too close to get my new passport in time to come back to switz.

 

so i decided to swallow the increased cost of an overseas application, sans guarantor, and get it done in geneva.  was told it'd take 15 biz days.  just over a week later i got a call back to say i can pick it up!  which i did, on friday.  in time to put it to use already the next day. (next entry)

 

it seems that the canadian mission here can issue passports.  i'd heard that they send the applications back to hull (sorry, gatineau!) to be processed there.  but i'm glad they do that here, cuz it took much less time, almost as if to make up for my experience with cra's handling of my tax refund.  and also from now, every time i need to fill out a disembarkment card, i now fill in as 'place of issue' 'geneva'.  cool! :)

 

ha! got ur attention.

 

ok, so it's classical music (for which there are no copyright for the music itself, just the recording) and only 3 mp3s, and they're performed by l'Orchestre de la Suisse Romande (who?  yeah, exactly).

 

but, they are free, and u can't complain for $0 (or €0 or 0fr or whatever).

 

downloading them now, not sure which pieces they are exactly, but they are all mozart.  no, this is not part of the general whoring of mozart this year for his 250th anniversary (which is happening not just in austria, tho it is particularly rampant in salzburg, where he so desperately wanted to get out of).  ostensibly, at least, the d/l's are in celebration of the swiss public radio launching its arts and culture channel.

 

enjoy.

 

remember when i was talking about doing my taxes and looking forward to my refund waaaaaay back in april, when i filed it?  FINALLY it's been processed.  when i first called CRA in june they said it was because of the overseas tuition thing that takes a while. 'call back in 6 weeks if u haven't received anything.'  oh, ok.  i guess that's possible.

 

then august came, called again.  this time, it was apparently a computer problem, my file got stuck in the system, but it should soon be flagged automatically and someone will process it.  'call back in 6 weeks if u haven't received anything.'  hmm

 

third guy i called, in october, was completely useless.  so i called again later, and the girl admitted that something's wrong, and sent a msg to the processing dept.

 

so finally, last week, got a letter from them saying they'll pay me interest.  did a quick back-of-the-envelope calculation and it was at an interest rate of about 5%, so that's cool.

 

then this week, they sent me the cheque.  denominated in cdn$.  to switzerland.  greeeaaat.  i guess they assumed that since i'v moved out of the country i don't have an account in canada anymore, and so my ticking the 'direct deposit' box must have been a mistake.  i'm guessing i could cash it in here, probably cost a mini fortune to do it.  but i'll probably take it back with me in december and cash it in person.. ech

 

can just picture it now tho.. it'll be some bimbo at the counter of td bank that i'll have to deal with and explain why the chq is made out to my name with a swiss address..