Geneva, Switzerland: A global, financial, and diplomatic city to say the least

The next short visit was to Geneva, Switzerland. The purpose of this travel was to visit the United Nations of Geneva, the second major largest office of the UN after New York. Here we had three meetings from three different people. The first person we met with was an economist from the Trade Division of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD). In this session we discussed what the UNCTAD would like to achieve. Some of these goals include: helping poor nations, open the markets, deal with debt, achieve sustainable development strategies, and have economic governance towards trade and financial reform. It was quite interesting, but not something I would hold a job in this particular sector.

The next speaker, Mr. Constantin Itruschka, I could feel I had better connection with him than the previous speaker. Mr Itruschka is currently a legal officer from the United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Refugees residing in Switzerland and Liechtenstein. Throughout his presentation he emphasized the big problem arising from humanitarian challenges: the money, food, and water are there, but the coordination is not there due to the local government’s poor communication structure (ex. Haiti earthquake and its hampered rescue and aid relief). Another fact I found worth sharing from his presentation is that most refugees come from the Middle East (especially Afghanistan) and Africa (especially Zimbabwe) and seek to go to United States, South Africa, or France. Overall, he was very engaging with us and I thought he did a great job.

Finally, the last presenter was Mr. Bernie Kuiten who was not from the United Nations but from the World Trade Organization and is the Head of External Relations. His presentation was short but sweet. He didn’t have a PowerPoint but kind of just rambled on about its function, which is to provide predictability, stability and transparency, and briefly talked about some of the issues they are facing. Some of these issues include the increasing prices in agriculture and what to do about liberalization. In short, he was enjoyable to listen to but since it was towards the end of the day we all just wanted to get out of there.

For the last few hours before our departure from Geneva, we had the opportunity to explore the city. We were able to visit the United Nations Museum, which wasn’t anything special…just a small little room about how it formed with some pictures. We also got to see some cool landmarks, but unfortunately buying anything was almost impossible. Everything was so expensive I could only afford a tall Chai Tea Latte from Starbucks that was almost five euros. Needless to say, I believe I do not need to go back to Geneva unless someone else was paying for me. Here is one picture I took while exploring:

The flower clock in Geneva is a symbol of the Geneva watch industry, and apparently has the largest second hand in the world (it is more than 2.5 meters long)