United Nations (5/7)

I got a late start on the day after not sleeping particularly well last night.  Bummer! Museums are closed on Mondays, so the logical place for me to visit today was the United Nations. Since I arrived either late or early for a tour, I wandered around the area for a while, taking pictures and getting a sense of the area. At the front of the entrance to the U.N. are flagpoles with flags from all of the member nations.  It’s really striking. In the plaza across from the entrance is a huge (maybe 50’ high) wooden chair, with one of the legs broken off.  The artist conceived this piece to reflect countries where terrorism is an issue. Down the street at the tourist entrance, there are a string of posters reflecting human rights, several of which are very moving.  The tourist entrance is across the street from the Museum of the Red Cross, a Swiss invention.  Since it was Monday, that museum was closed, too.  I hope to get back to it.

 A line of people was waiting to get into the tour, which was offered, separately, in English and French. We went through an airplane-style search, after showing IDs, before we were given badges and admitted inside. The attendants were very pleasant, but it was also clear they were serious about security. When it came time to pay for the tour, the attendant explained the fee structure, told me there was a reduced price for seniors but that I was probably not over 60. I replied that I was 67, and she sweetly sympathized, “Oh, that can't be helped,” and gave me the senior ticket.  What a great way to deal with ageist assumptions!
Once on the tour, the guide explained what missions of the U.N. are housed in Geneva as distinct from those housed in New York. She also said the building with the flags in front of it was originally built for the League of Nations.  The League had met in a building along the lake that had once been a hotel, but the League needed larger quarters.  They were given a piece of land by the city, and built the building. Then, as the guide said, the League failed; World War II happened. There was one more meeting of the League right after WWII, in which the organization voted to disband and to give the building to the United Nations. At that time, the UN already had decided to locate their headquarters in New York.  But various other functions, like the World Health Organization, are located here in Geneva.
Incidentally, the former hotel/headquarters of the League was kept by the two organizations, although it was renamed, “President Wilson.” (I saw it yesterday as I was walking by the lake, and assumed it was a hotel. What I didn’t notice was the U.N. flag flying overhead.) Now it is used as the headquarters for one of the sub-organizations of the U.N. in Geneva. The guide said the interior of the building is gorgeous!
We visited three large auditoria or meeting rooms; another was in use today. The one in the older (League) building had amazing murals on each wall and on the ceiling.  They reflected various hopes for people in the world. Money for the renovation of another auditorium had come from the United Arab Emirates, and the guide pointed out various aspects of Arab culture in its design.  The third room was plain, but clearly utilitarian in a good way.  It resembled the auditorium in which the meeting my student and I attended in New York was held. The guide pointed out the seats for the press, for visitors who had a stake in the agenda of the respective meeting, and for translators and AV operators. As we moved from building to building, we walked along long corridors where people were rushing around, trying to work. Most of the walls were covered with artwork, but unfortunately, we didn’t have time to look at it.  The UN folks wanted us in, and out. We did have a spectacular view of the lake, and a statue of a globe that you would recognize from pictures, as well as a couple of other art pieces on the large lawn going down to the lake.
I left satisfied with the visit, and thoughtful about the League and the U.N.. My fictional reading recently has taken me into WWI and the interim, so I’ve been thinking a lot about that period of time. It’s also good to put this all in context, given the SF beginning of the U.N. and my visit to New York in December. From the sublime to the mundane, I took the tram back to the hostel to do laundry, an un-exciting, but much needed task.






Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Ballenberg (6/10)

Off I went to Ballenberg this morning, after reluctantly checking out of my lovely little room with the great view. I caught a bus at the train station, which took me through a neighborhood – almost a “subdivision” – of chalets (I don’t think of chalets as being in subdivisions, but that’s what this looked like.) on its way to Ballenberg. This is billed as a “living history museum” – and that’s an accurate description.   It is a huge plot of land – I don’t have a way to describe how big it is, but it’s big – maybe Disneyland size. But don’t get the idea of neon and rides and selling things – not at all.   This is a natural environment where great care has been taken to maintain the trees and do farming and plant “typical” vegetables and fruits in gardens on the property. Houses and other buildings from all over Switzerland have been moved to Ballenberg and re-constructed. They are arranged in regions to represent the regions of Switzerland. A great effort...
Read more

Bern and Einstein (6/12)

I had coffee in my PJs and read the “paper” this morning – heaven! My host had a flight to Hamburg and back this morning, so I was alone in the apartment when I woke up. What a delight!   By the time I was showered and dressed, he was back from his flight. The weather looked crummy enough that I carried a raincoat, and went straight to Bern’s history museum, which also has a floor devoted to Albert Einstein, so I could be inside and away from the rain. I decided to start with the Einstein exhibit/museum, which was fascinating! A lot had been donated to the Bern exhibit by Israel – not clear whether it was the government or another museum. The exhibit detailed his life from his birth in Ulm, Germany, to his death in Princeton, New Jersey. The reason it’s in Bern is that Einstein came to Bern to live with another family when his parents moved to Milan after his father’s Munich business failed. He lived here, and did much of his “high school” and higher ed. here ...
Read more

Home (6/15)

I awoke before the alarm and got ready to go. After the standard hostel breakfast, I made my way to the airport. Things moved along in an orderly fashion, as is the case in Germany, and the plane left on time. It was a 3 ½ hour trip to Reykjavik. This time, we arrived in daylight, so I could see a bit of the terrain from the plane window. What I saw was flat and more brown than green – sort of like moonscape, with pools of water in various places. In the airport, there was very little time between planes for everyone on my flight. We had to go through passport control, and someone had arranged a crazy path of lines through the airport to contain the number of people all trying to get their passports stamped at the same time. One person tried to jump the line, and the “authorities” (who looked like teenage boys) set him straight. People were trying to catch flights to cities all over the U.S. and one or two other places, and WOW Air had delivered more than my plane...
Read more