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France Switzerland September 2010 Geneva Area international Switzerland travel

The W.H.O., The United Nations, & ICRC

Red Cross/Red Crescent
Today was intergovernmental/non-governmental organization day. We met with J at the W.H.O., checked out the terrace on top, then headed for lunch at Ariana.

Our next stop was the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Museum (ICRC). We knew pretty quickly we’d have to return after our afternoon United Nations Tour. Inside Photography was supposed to be verboten, so I did not capture a picture of one highlight — the statue of a nurse holding a fallen solder. The title of the work was “Humanitarian Gesture” with its description that “This work represents the humanitarian spirit, often crushed but always renewed.” It was surrounded by panels of somewhat transparent screen images of early 20th-century conflicts. You know I’m a sucker for that humanitarian spirit prevailing.

After our U.N. tour, we revisited the ICRC. I was really interested in seeing the latter-20th century exhibits and it was well worth the second stop to understand the most recent activity being done by the organization. I stood inside a POW jail cell whose dimensions held 17 men for 90 days. The footprints indicating each prisoner weren’t even two feet apart.

After our museum visit, we headed home with J. She cooked a marvelous German-Italian dinner of bratwurst & caprese. We ran an errand to the local Carrefour (I love foreign grocery stores) and witnessed a spectacular sunset.

The Carrefour at Sunset

All pictures of the day here:

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