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Home. I am at home. OK, not for a long time, in 10 days I go back to Liberia.

I am busy with yearly tasks. Like filing the income tax return (and pay them, well, not right now), review the insurances: I have to see if I should extend them or change the coverage. And I will get rid of my car which is still in the parking lot. Accidented since 2 years. Also, my yearly medical check up is due. I am still feeling fine and expect to have the same results as I had last year. No diabetes, no high blood pressure, no prostata problems, no cholesterol, nothing. My doctor (who knows me since 20 years) told me the last time that he thinks that one day "we will have to shoot you". Perhaps he bought the gun now :-).

I, of course like everybody, took some New Year resolutions. No, not to stop smoking. But look better after my blogging friends by visiting their blogs and making comments. And I really want to do that.

The year will be an interesting one, as our activity will change with some new programs we want to put in place to assist the people in need. A lot of challenges ahead, but also a lot of pleasure, a lot of satisfaction and, above all, the feeling of having done something useful and good.

You will know about it.

HAPPY NEW YEAR

Happy New Year to All of you and your families and friends, with my best wishes for a prosperous year 2012.

And here, for the first week of the new year, some little stories:

MONDAY
The mother of a 17-year-old girl was concerned that her daughter was having sex...
Worried the girl might become pregnant and adversely impact the family's status, she consulted the family doctor.
The doctor told her that teenagers today were very willful and any attempt to stop the girl would probably result in rebellion. He then told her to arrange for her daughter to be put on birth control and until then, talk to her and give her a box of condoms.
Later that evening, as her daughter was preparing for a date, the mother told her about the situation and handed her a box of condoms.
The girl burst out laughing and reached over to hug her mother, saying:
'Oh Mom! You don't have to worry about that! I'm dating Susan!'

TUESDAY
A man went to church one day and afterward he stopped to shake the preacher's hand. He said, 'Preacher, I'll tell you, that was a damned fine sermon. Damned good!'
The preacher said, 'Thank you sir, but I'd rather you didn't use profanity.'
The man said, 'I was so damned impressed with that sermon I put five thousand dollars in the offering plate!'
The preacher said, 'No shit?'

WEDNESDAY
Brenda and Steve took their six-year-old son to the doctor.
With some hesitation, they explained that although their little angel appeared to be in good health, they were concerned about his rather small penis.
After examining the child, the doctor confidently declared, 'Just feed him pancakes. That should solve the problem.'
The next morning when the boy arrived at breakfast, there was a large stack of warm pancakes in the middle of the table.
'Gee, Mom,' he exclaimed. 'For me?'
'Just take two,' Brenda replied. 'The rest are for your father.'

THURSDAY
One night, an 87-year-old woman came home from Bingo to find her 92-year-old husband in bed with another woman.. She became violent and ended up pushing him off the balcony of their 20th floor apartment, killing him instantly. Brought before the court, on the charge of murder, she was asked if she had anything to say in her own defense.
'Your Honor,' she began coolly, 'I figured that at 92, if he could screw, he could fly.'

FRIDAY
A Doctor was addressing a large audience in Tampa . 'The material we put into our stomachs is enough to have killed most of us sitting here, years ago.. Red meat is awful. Soft drinks corrode your stomach lining. Chinese food is loaded with MSG. High fat diets can be disastrous, and none of us realizes the long-term harm caused by the germs in our drinking water. However, there is one thing that is the most dangerous of all and we all have eaten, or will eat it. Can anyone here tell me what food it is that causes the most grief and suffering for years after eating it?'
After several seconds of quiet, a 75-year-old man in the front row raised his hand, and softly said, 'Wedding Cake.'

SATURDAY
Bob, a 70-year-old, extremely wealthy widower, shows up at the Country Club with a breathtakingly beautiful and very sexy 25-year-old blonde-haired woman who knocks everyone's socks off with her youthful sex appeal and charm and who hangs over Bob's arm and listens intently to his every word. His buddies at the club are all aghast. At the very first chance, they corner him and ask, 'Bob, how'd you get the trophy girlfriend?' Bob replies, 'Girlfriend? She's my wife!' They are knocked over, but continue to ask. 'So, how'd you persuade her to marry you?' 'I lied about my age', Bob replies. 'What, did you tell her you were only 50?'
Bob smiles and says, 'No, I told her I was 90.'

SUNDAY
Groups of Americans were traveling by tour bus through Holland ... As they stopped at a cheese farm, a young guide led them through the process of cheese making, explaining that goat's milk was used. She showed the group a lovely hillside where many goats were grazing. 'These' she explained, 'Are the older goats put out to pasture when they no longer produce.' She then asked, 'What do you do in America with your old goats?'
A spry old gentleman answered, 'They send us on bus tours*.

Season Greetings

Amazing, how time runs fast. Another year is gone. More experiences. good ones and bad ones, and a lot of joy have been my year 2011. I came to Liberia in February for 6 month and I will stay until the end of 2012. The refugees start to move back to Côte d'Ivoire but there is still a lot to do.

I have been a poor "poster" during the year. And, more important, I have been an extremely poor "commenter" on your posts too. I promise that I will improve next year. The workload is a bit eased off and the internet connectivity is becoming better.

All my colleagues, having smaller kids, are now going on Year End Leave, I stay behind to hold the fort. But in January 2012, when they all come back, I will go home for 3 weeks and see my family.

I wish you all a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. May God bless you.

After all, I cannot get drunk every night, can I?

From Darfur, where there was no beer, to Liberia, where is is plenty of beer, it was quite a way. Now, I am here in Liberia; the year is coming to an end and about 10 days ago I got the news that I will stay (if I like and yes, I like) till the end of next year.

As I am here since February, I have my life nicely organised. And have good moments when I am in Monrovia, almost a lush life. Of course, when I am in the bush, it is quite different. But then, I am used to bush and it does not give me great discomfort. And when I am back in Monrovia, I can profit from the various places where one can get excellent food. I will talk about (if I don't forget) in another post.

So, when I am in Monrovia, I go out from time to time and have beer with some colleagues. But not often. Also, the work is demanding and so I like to enjoy some quiet evenings in my little apartment. I told you before, there is not much of TV to watch (one channel and IT IS CNN). And then I am not big TV watcher anyway.

A few month ago, I found on the internet an interesting game. An airline simulation game. I played a little bit with and got completely hooked.

I created a virtual airline. The map shows my network. My airline flies from Geneva to Colombo in Sri Lanka, to the Gulf States and from there also to Sri Lanka. My aircraft (Baron, attention) are various Airbus planes. I have 24 of them. And that keeps my quite busy in the evenings. I spare you all the details, it is simply just a lot of fun. I spend hours on it almost every day and it helps a lot to "clean" the mind from the daily worries.

And it prevents me from getting drunk every night.

About Management

In May last year I made a post about "Multitasking" (read it here). I stated that, in my opinion, multitasking is not possible. Some did not agree with me.

Management is complex. If you don't want to multitask, you have to be well organised. And to be so, you need an organogramm. In my long carrier, I have seen many organograms. And none seemed to really work. They were, most of the time, too complicated. Recently, I have come across one that to me is THE perfect one. Nothing more to say.

50 Years

The United Nations World Food Programme WFP is living an important moment. Soon, it will start the celebrations of its 50 years of existence. During one year, this event will go on. And during this one year I will, from time to time, make a special post on WFP.

It is now since 8 years that I am involved with WFP. 8 fantastic years. With the knowledge that me, a simple link of this fabulous "chain" which WFP is, I have helped in a very little way to alleviate the suffering of people. And that fills me with pride. And also with humility.

Change

The picture above says: "Ahead". But change is already behind. As you see, the layout of my blog is a bit different. Not really the layout as such, but the color.

A few weeks ago, I decided that my "dark green" was a bit to dark. And then I tried the new dynamic look of Blogger. Which was actually not bad, except that all the sidebar info was missing. It had other shortcomings and I did come back to the classic layouts.

I hope you like the new color. I think it is pleasant on the eyes. And what I like most are the birds on top of the page. They fly, they are free. Just like me who, though being a law abiding human, always saw to it to remain as free as possible.

Swiss politics

I have explained to you before how certain things work in Swiss politics, like that the president is in "power" for one year or that the ministers get elected by the Parliament.

Well, the Parliament (both chambers) is having a legislative period of 4 years and then the members have to stand up for election again. Last month we had this election.

You also know that I have been complaining about the strongest party in Switzerland, the "Swiss People's Party SVP".

It is a right wing party, very far right and to me almost extreme right. They are narrowsighted. And there is a cleavage within this party. The Zurich branch are extremely hardliners, whilst the Berne branch are more concilliant.

Now, during this election, the SVP lost seats. They are though still the strongest party. The lost seats went mainly to

"The Citizen's Democratic Party BDP". This party was created in 2008 by members of the SVP who got sick and tired from the Zurich branch dictature. And they were able to bring in our actual Finance Minister. Who, most probably, will loose her seat in December when the new Parliament elects the ministers. Because the BDP is not one of the big parties (3 of them) who can claim two minister seats.

So, from January next year, the new legislative period of 4 years will start with a new parliament and a new government. Where SVP will be a member.

I do not have much sympathies for the SVP and I said that many times. They do, even though they are the strongest, not represent what Switzerland really is. A country that opens to the world inspite of SVP's effort to keep us locked in the Alps.

I don't like their leaders either. Except one.

Oskar Freysinger from the Valais branch of the party. He has only one problem: He is in the wrong party :-)

But he is honest and he stands to his word. He does not turn around according to which way the wind blows. In forum discussions he remains straight forward (though defending the wrong position of SVP), making his point, listens to his contrahents and accepts their arguments.

He is a decent man, the SVP does not have many of them.

A lifted face (bis)

You noticed. I have come back to the traditional (former) layout of the blog. I did though like the new modern version. But I have received complaints that there were page breaks and it could not be well read. And then, very important, all the information in the right column were not present in new version. And I consider them important. In particular all the ones refering to my appartenance to the Dudeist movement, something I am proud of and happy to be. I have added in that section "The Dude De Ching" which is the Dudeist version of "The Tao Te Ching", the Holy Book of Taoism. If you click on the picture, you can read our Holy Book online. I am sure that you will enjoy it. It will enlighten you, it will make you think and it will make you smile. And it will show you that, in life, not all the things are very serious. Or, perhaps, they are?

More struggling (almost wordless)

We hope the rains will stop soon. It is very difficult to bring the food to the people who need it dearly.

And more of it (s..t)

Well, luckily, the rainy saison is soon coming to an end. And our struggling on the roads too.

Shit happens

Liberia/Africa: Rainy Season. Bad roads, slippery roads. A lot of trucks in trouble, daily. And some have terrible mishaps. Like this tanker. And now people siphoning fuel into their platic containers. Are they employees from the fuel company or villagers from nearby? Who knows.