The Red Cross and More Clocks! (5/9)

After my now-regular café au lait and croissant, I headed out to the Red Cross Museum, across the street from the United Nations Museum. This time, I opened the museum – and what a wonderful place! The broad exhibits were divided among three broad areas: 1) help during crises (they called it something else, but I don’t remember what it was); 2) natural disasters, and 3) separation of families. Each of these three areas had a separate entry into its own space, and developed the theme within the space.  I don’t think I’ve ever seen technology used so well in a museum! Wow! In one place, there were life-sized photographs of people. The visitor placed his/her hand over the palm of the person in the photograph, and she/he began speaking. Each visitor had an audio device so the person’s comments were translated into the visitor’s language. There were other places where the visitor stood in front of a photograph – if not life-sized, then close to it – and the person began talking. Several things impressed me. First, there were perhaps 30 or 40 objects made from you name it that had been made in prison and given to Red Cross workers who visited the detained person. One, for example, was a soap carving. One was made from flattened milk cartons. And so on. The imaginativeness and creativity were amazing!

In the natural disaster section, there was a “game” that was a big representation of an island. You were told that a hurricane was coming, and there were a variety of things that you could do while waiting for the hurricane.  Each of them involved resources and people.  Your job was to choose wisely and “do” as much as you could before the hurricane came.  Then, at one point, the hurricane pours through the island. Afterwards, you are told how many lives were saved – and how many were lost – because of your actions. The emphasis is on preparation.

The other thing that really stood out was the system developed by the Red Cross in WWI for finding missing persons and essentially reuniting family members.  Red Cross personnel made a notecard for each person reported missing, with various information about the person. When family made an inquiry about a missing person, the Red Cross made a second notecard, with specific information. Then the Red Cross cataloged them all by last name, and cross referenced them.  Obviously, this was all before computers. Their system successfully joined thousands of people. And the organization still has those notecards, although now, the system in use is primarily on computers.

Along the way, there was commentary. For example, in the natural disaster section, a scientist was talking about climate change and how that has affected not only natural disasters like floods and hurricanes, but also the ability of farmers to rely on the weather to produce crops.  And in the family reunification section, a psychologist talked about the relative health of a person who is connected to his or her family.

Something else that was interesting was the use of the Red Crescent, instead of the Red Cross, in countries in which the cross is not a welcome symbol. And recently, the organization has begun using a red diamond in lieu of either of the others (in Israel, for example).

Finally, there was a special exhibit called, “Exil,” that was totally amazing! It was a compilation of photographs from refugee situations probably as early as people leaving Spain to escape the Fascists during the Spanish Civil War in the 1930s. (I don’t remember seeing any photos earlier than that.) But from then on, including during WWII, and up to the current refugee situations in the Mediterranean, Syria, and Myanmar, there are photographs. The vast majority are black and white, but probably a third were in color. The photos were mounted on blocks of wood, with the identification of the location/refugee situation, the date, and the photographer on the back. People were invited to pick up and handle the photographs. There were probably 300 photos in this display. Robert Capa’s photos from WWII and Spain were particularly easy to identify. They have a style all their own. And there was a photographer who did a lot of work in Viet Nam. These photos were arranged on counters on 3 sides of a large room.  In the middle of the room, was a big statue/installation of a row boat packed with cloth bags – probably of clothing – that extended up about 10 feet from the boat. Clearly, it represented the boats now heading across the Mediterranean, although we can think of the Viet Namese boat people, and the Cuban children who arrived in Miami on boats.  On the 4^th wall was an entrance to a separate screening room, where videos of the Mediterranean crossings, taken on cell phones, were arranged together on multiple screens. The whole thing was very moving – especially the volume of photos of refugees.

When I exited the museum, I discovered it had rained while I was inside. And the sun was just coming out again. I decided to take the tram back into town to go to the Patek Philippe Museum. It’s another clock museum and I thought I’d give it a go (as the British say . . .). It was quite different from the one I was in in La Chaux de Fond. That one was really “hands on,” and the objective was teaching about clock and watch making, the history of the development of clocks, and the cottage industry of clock making in La Chaux de Fond. In contrast, Patek Philippe is an old (early 19^th century) company devoted to high-end watchmaking. They had a collection of watches – and I’m deliberately using the term, “watches,” rather than clocks. The collection was pretty amazing – lots of jewels and ornate decoration. Going to this museum was like going to an art museum, but without a lot of context for what was being exhibited.  Regardless, it was worth the visit.

Afterwards, I walked around to see some of the things I’ve missed.  One is the large chess set at one end of the Parc de Bastions. Actually, there are 3 or 4 chess sets and one checkers sets. People were out playing with them at around 5:30 PM, when I was there. Each chess piece is about 2 ft. high, and people move the pieces around an appropriately-sized board. From there, I walked to the islands in the middle of the Rhone River that leads into Lake Geneva. They’re really lovely – and walkable – as is the rest of the city. Finally, I decided to get another crêpe at the same place I had eaten yesterday. (I guess I was really smitten!) This time, I had a crêpe with goat cheese, eggplant and tomato. Another successful meal! By the time I left the crêpe place, it had started to rain again, so I hopped on a tram and went back to the hostel.

This is all bittersweet because I have so enjoyed Geneva, and I know I’m leaving tomorrow.