Geneva Archives - Q4TKQ4TK

Traveling through a slice of Central Europe

Despite a French transportation strike, I managed to fly out of Paris this week for meetings in Berlin and Geneva, with a side trip to Lausanne. While some transport workers proclaimed opposition to further European integration, it felt to me as if they were actually promoting European dis-integration. Airline has cancelled all of my original flights. But, Lufthansa staff kindly worked with me to find alternatives that got me where I needed to go. In the end, I came away feeling pretty good about the world. I’m pretty sure that the arrival of warm and sunny weather also contributed to my positive disposition.

A dash through Berlin

I get to Berlin every couple of years and with each visit I feel a little more attached to the city. This sentiment is actually helped along by a personal connection. In the 1880s, my great grandfather emigrated to the US from Berlin. He had been an organist in a large church there. So, the city figures somewhere in my family lore.

Berlin is a city with bountiful green space, lakes and flowing water, cultural opportunities (reasonably-priced opera tickets!), history and world class museums, plus quality food and drink. Not to mention shopping for those so inclined. It maintains an excellent public transportation system.

Whenever I visit I am struck by the dynamism of the place. Following reunification of East and West Berlin in 1989, the city set to work transforming and integrating itself. Two decades later the community has accomplished substantial renewal. Areas that were formerly cut off or disrupted in the communist past have revived as cultural centers (e.g., around Potsdamer Platz), pedestrian zones (e.g., around Nikolai church), or tourist zones (e.g., around Brandenburger gate).

But, parts of the city remain large construction sites as the renewal continues. Cranes dot the skyline. A controversial project to rebuild the Berliner Schloss — a former royal palace in the city center (ruined in WWII) — has just gotten underway after several years of debate. The metro system is expanding. New commercial construction continues apace. Alas, leaving much still to explore, my schedule indicated it was time to depart for Geneva and Lausanne.

Recommendation: We had a nice meal outdoors at the Julchen Hoppe restaurant on the edge of the Nikolai Quarter of the city. Our meal included traditional foods and decent wine at a reasonable price. Very nice wild mushroom soup and fresh asparagus, fish and fowl main courses.

Swiss quality in Geneva and Lausanne

Geneva

I have written about Geneva in an earlier post, but there is more. This time I had business at several international organizations including the World Trade Organization (WTO).

I am always amazed at the wonderful headquarters of the WTO, the William Rappard Center, which was built in the 1920s to house the International Labour Organization (ILO). At a time when communist revolution was in the air, the ILO was developed to address labor concerns and demonstrate that market economies could deliver better quality of life for workers. The original building has some palatial features, without being too extravagant. Nonetheless, the fountains, sculpture and murals reflect a blend of expressionist and classical art that honors the value of labor in fueling economic growth and well-being.

During this visit, construction had blocked the main entrance and I wound up being channeled through the Chinese garden that is on the grounds. This was my first visit to the garden and it provided a pleasant and unexpected entry to the facility. That evening Geneva was radiant in the late-day sun and early summer weather. I took advantage of the fine evening to stroll along the Rhone and Lake Leman, before deciding to eat outdoors at a local Chinese restaurant in honor of the WTO garden.

Lausanne

During my stay, I made an afternoon visit for a meeting at IMD, a prestigious business school in the city of Lausanne. After all of the transportation disruption in France, the train ride over to Lausanne on the Swiss rail system provided a welcome contrast. The trains over and back departed in a timely fashion, traveling quickly and sailing along the rails with remarkably smooth suspension and quiet interiors. So nice!

Lausanne is a small city set in gorgeous countryside on Lake Leman. The Alps rise from the water on the opposite shore. Between Geneva and Lausanne, vineyards and farms dot the lake shore amidst various small towns. I took the metro from the Lausanne train station down to the lake. Due to the slope of the hill the metro is built on quite an angle, which was rather surprising to a flat-lander like me. I stopped for a soft drink at a local cafe on Lausanne harbor. Inertia nearly got the better of me and I had to strain against the warm, sunny, lazy afternoon feeling in order to get to my meeting on time.

Paris – Using Charm to Put Things Right

My return to Paris proved mercifully uneventful. The transport strikes had passed and the grey, cool dampness had moved on in favor of sunny weather. I pulled out the grill for a BBQ with friends and took a fresh look at Paris. As usual, after disrupting my life and travel once again, Paris turned on its charm and won back my affection.

No escaping Geneva

Geneva was meant to be a part of my life, apparently. It keeps inserting itself into my agenda. I find myself often pondering what I need to say or do there, when I can go next, how to fund the trip. It is not an unpleasant thing to contemplate. But when I am there, I know it will be intense. And, it happens a few times each year. There is no escaping Geneva.

A bit of history and geography

The geography of Geneva is wonderful, with the Alps to the South and the Jura Mountains to the North West, and Lake Léman (aka, Lake Geneva) to the East. The city is bisected by the Rhone River, which flows westward from the lake. Coming from Paris the high-speed train (TGV) runs up the winding Rhone Valley, revealing remote and wonderful mountain vistas. Lake Léman is one of the largest lakes in western Europe and accommodates a fleet of large steamships that transit the lake in the milder seasons.

Geneva is a fascinating place: a Protestant, French-speaking city that broke with the Roman Catholic church in 1536, a city that invited John Calvin (1509-64) to come and serve in leadership and that hosted other famous protestants including John Knox (1513-72), Théodore de Bèze (1513-1605) and Guillaume Farel (1489-1565). The city itself struggled for its autonomy from time to time, suffering an attack from Savoy (1603) and invasion by France (1798), for example. Finally, in 1815, Charles Pictet-de-Rochemont and colleagues succeeded in having the city definitively attached to Switzerland and the country’s neutrality established.

Geneva grew into a major center of diplomacy. In 1863, Henry Dunant and Gustave Moynier, founded the International Committee of the Red Cross (a private institution) in Geneva. In the first half of the 1900s, the city was designated to host the League of Nations and the International Labor Organisation (ILO), international organizations founded at government initiative in the wake of WWI in the hope of promoting peaceful means to resolve conflicts and advance the cause of social justice. Unfortunately, the US failed to join the League of Nations.

In the aftermath of WWII, world leaders made a new attempt at development of an international framework for peace, this time with full US engagement and eventual membership. The result was the establishment of the United Nations and the UN family of international organizations (including the ILO). Later, other international organizations established headquarters or branch offices in Geneva. A recent notable example is the World Trade Organization (WTO), which began operations in 1995.

Making the world a better place

The big multilateral organizations are far from perfect. As institutions intended to be global, many compromises were necessary to get buy-in from around the world. The global scale of their operations entails complexity and makes it difficult to operate efficiently and effectively. But, constitutions underpinning these institutions and the international agreements they have subsequently achieved, form a body of rules for the conduct of international affairs ranging from economics, to technical standards, to war, among other policy areas. Though there have been some tragic failures (e.g., in Bosnia), the multilateral system has delivered many successes big and small, ranging from trade liberalization to progress in satisfaction of development objectives (Millennium Development Goals), peace truces and humanitarian relief.

Mutual respect for the rules is important for the system to function. Member nations expend time and resources to meet their obligations and commitments; to justify these actions, they expect that other members will generally play by the rules or that there will be consequences for those Member nations that do not. Thus, for example, the Geneva Conventions of 1949 and subsequent amendments establish rights and protections for prisoners of war and non-combatants. There is to be reciprocity. This is why it was so dangerous, when in 2001-2002 the US administration decided to suspend the application of the Geneva Conventions in cases involving “enemy combatants“; this established a precedent that some individuals or governments might have interpreted as leaving some US citizens without reciprocal rights and protections. While the Geneva Conventions have not always functioned well (some nations, big and small, have violated these accords), they have helped to mitigate some of the misery of war for many.

In some areas of the multilateral system, there have been improvements in efficiency and effectiveness over the years. For example, the establishment of the WTO introduced a dispute settlement mechanism that has improved the possibility to enforce binding trade commitments. Further reforms are underway in other international organizations and there is continued pressure for progress in the functioning of the multilateral system.

Old Town and Tourism

Geneva is about more than a beautiful location and international organizations, of course. One highlight for tourists is the somewhat sleepy old town. The medieval part of the city is built on a hill that at one time afforded some defensive advantage. Now, it is a place of cafes and restaurants, historic sites and leafy parks. Many of the historical sites relate to the Protestant Reformation and the earlier Roman Catholic foundations. St. Pierre’s Cathedral offers splendid vistas from its two towers, a plain interior and a restored and ornate Chapel of the Maccabees. Inside the main cathedral one can see John Calvin’s fairly plain and minimalist chair, as well as wonderful, ornate carved choir stalls. Underneath the cathedral is an archeological site with layers going back 1600 years.

Along the base of the hill (facing the Rhone River) is a nice park with the Reformation Wall, with sculptures commemorating the Protestant reformation, including Geneva’s shift to Protestantism in 1536 and statues of key founding theologians of this movement. (A small monument to Ulrich Zwingli, a Swiss theologian and an intellectual father of the Anabaptist reform movement sits vandalised in the park across from the Reformation Wall, as if he were outcast.) Along the base of the hill facing the lake, there is a fancy shopping district. After a few hours of hiking around the old town, there are wonderful cafes and pubs where a traveler can relax. Fortunately, some of the austerity of the puritan forefathers has worn off and comfortable establishments abound.

Time for a visit to Geneva?

Certainly, there is luxury and even a measure of grandeur to be found in the international hotels and institutions of Geneva. The many watch shops and the Patek Phillippe museum are certainly upscale. But, on balance, the urbanism is somewhat understated, in contrast to what one finds in Paris with its grand spaces. For me, “comfortable” is indeed a good word for Geneva. The natural setting, the neighborhood cafes and bistros, the streetcars, the fairly compact city center, the fact that most things work most of the time, the calm on Sundays, all work together to create a comfortable environment. If this is your cup of tea, then it may be time for a visit to Geneva. You, too, may find it difficult to escape the charms of this city.

Photos from a recent visit to Geneva (October 2012)

(Use the arrows to scroll down to see additional photos)

Visit to the UN and surrounding area

[flagallery gid=16 name=Gallery]

Visit to Geneva Old Town

[flagallery gid=17 name=Gallery]

Q4TK

A quest for truth and knowledge

Tag Archives: Geneva

Disruption in Paris; Smooth Sailing in Berlin, Geneva and Lausanne