I am off

I will head to the railways station in a few hours. To go to Zurich Airport. And when you read this, I will be somewhere in the air between Switzerland and Sri Lanka. I will arrive there tomorrow. It seems, that with the prevailing situation there, my future colleagues are anxiously waiting for me to come.

I have no idea what kind of communication I will find there. And it will take some days to figure it out. But I have taken steps. For phone, no problem. I have two SIM cards that should enable me to call my wife. And for the worst case, I also have a satellite telephone.

As for the internet, I went to my provider (my famous, efficient Swisscom) and bought a mini notebook, an ACER One. And you simply put a SIM card in it and you can connect. Worldwide. With a flat rate of 100 dollars per month. So, let's hope that there is mobile communication available in the place I go to. Some 250 kilometers from Colombo.

It just might be that I am not around for a few days. And then, of course, there is an emergency situation and it will be a priority to tend to this and a lot of work will have to be done. But I will try my best to be around and say Hello to you.

By the way, I also bought (finally) a camera. In the future, bit by bit, you will see some of my "own" pictures on the blog.

I will miss you all.



See you soon!

My hobby

Actually I have a few hobbies. Music, an important one. Walking, along the lake and in the mountains (not high ones). And trains. I have made train trips in Switzerland (thousands of kilometers), in Ghana, in East Africa, in France, in South Africa, in Norway and in many other countries. I discovered my love for trains when I worked in 1979 as an internal auditor for a big Swiss department store chain with about 30 shops all over Switzerland. I had to travel extensively and had a general rail pass. Which I used also on weekends.

So, I really know about train travel. In 1992, I disovered a historic railways company, just above Montreux. The "Chemin de fer-musée Blonay-Chamby". It is a narrow gauge (1 meter) line of a few kilometers and was in service until 1968 when its operation was closed and replaced with bus service. A few train "freaks" decided to take over and to continue to operate with historic trains.

The journey is lovely, high above Lake Geneva, with spectacular sights.


There is even a viaduct where electric and steam trains are crossing. Late 1992, just before the season (the company operates on weekends from May to October) ended, I was chatting with one of the station masters. He saw my interest and invited me to join. But, I said, that I knew nothing (besides being a passenger) about trains. He said that they will teach me. And in 1993, I joined the "BC", as we call it, as an active member.

My first weeks of activity were rough. As I was an "apprentice", the main duty on saturdays and sundays was to shovel coal. To prepare buckets full for our steam locomotives to run all day long. But bit by bit, I was given other duties and gradually I became a conductor, a station master and eventually I was trained to drive electric engines.


Like this beautiful tramway of the city of Berne. From the early 20th century.

We are an association of about 800 members and 120 are active members. The active members have agreed to work (free of charge) at least 8 days during the season to operate the company. And in the winter, many of them work on the engines, carriages and equipments to put them back into shape for the next season.


I am also driving this "machine" from the Lausanne public transport system, dating from the 1940's.


Our historic line joins two regular, still operating, lines on each end of ours. Here you see "old age" meeting with modern trains.

We have one of the biggest collections of meter gauge equipment in Europe and our visitors not only come from Switzerland, but from all over the world. They are attracted by our steam engines. The oldest, still running, is from 1890. It will be, however, put out of service temporarely to undergo a major overhaul.


This steam engine is our master piece. She was built in 1910 and belonged to the "Furka Oberalp-Bahn". They had several of them. When they stopped using them, they were sent to Vietnam. Not ours. We could get hold of this beautiful machine, a real work horse. We pampered it all the time and recently, we made quite some work on it.

The BFD3 (that is her designation) has always attracted people. And one day some visitors approached us. They were from the "Chemin de fer de la Baie de Somme" in France.

They explained that in April 2009, they have a huge steam train festival and would it be possible to "borrow" the BFD3. Of course, with our engineers and firemen. We agreed. We organised a flatbed truck and the machine was sent to France, by road.


On the video you see two trains operating during the festival in France. That happened last weekend. With our "BFD3" being the shiny star.

In a few days, the machine will come back to Switzerland. And for me, things will be a little bit more peaceful again. A closed operation, a succesful one, and I will be able to file this folder in the archives. Because that is one of my duties now.

Swiss regulations have become tougher. Official permits and medical examinations are now needed. And as I am getting older, I decided not to drive anymore and let the younger ones take care of this.

I am now taking care of finance and administration.

A "MUST SEE"

When wolves (jurors) turn into docile pet dogs.

It happened on April 11. On the show "Britain's got talent 2009". It has been watched on YouTube more than 27 million times. It shows the beauty of life. It shows greatness. It made my heart feel warm. And I had tears in my eyes. I hope you will be touched too:
Susan Boyle

Again more about me

I victimized Dr. John again. Here is what I got from his blog. Perhaps it makes a (certain) sense. I doubt it:

1.Your rock star name (first pet, current car) – Mona Citroen

2.Your gangsta name (favorite ice cream flavor, favorite type of shoe) – Strataciella Slipper

3.Your Native American name (favorite color, favorite animal) – Green Whale

4.Your soap opera name (middle name, city where you were born) – Peter Berne

5.Your Star Wars name (the first 3 letters of your last name, first 2 of your first name) - Voepe

6.Superhero name (2nd favorite color, favorite drink) – Blue Wine



7.NASCAR name (the first names of your grandfathers) – Julius Gottfried

8.Dancer name (the name of your favorite perfume/cologne/scent, favorite candy) – Blue Water Smint

9.TV weather anchor name (your 5th grade teacher’s last name, a major city that starts with the same letter) Heim Hamburg

10.Spy name (your favorite season/holiday, flower) – Autumn Cactus

11.Cartoon name:(favorite fruit, article of clothing you’re wearing right now) – Pear Pant

12.Hippie name (what you ate for breakfast, your favorite tree) – Crispy Birch

13.Movie (or porn) star name (first pet, first street where you lived) – Mona Leman

This is useless, silly, no sense, but perhaps helps you to relax.

Motorisation

On many of my friends blogs motorcycles and cars are shown. This makes me somewhat jealous. So, here is my "motorisation" history.


1959: I was 16, my grandmother bought me a Mobylette. I went to visit my grandmother frequenty. She lived 120 kilometers from us. It took me 5 hours to reach her place.


1962: I had saved enough money (as an apprentice with a monthly salary of 90 dollars) to buy a DKW Hummel, second hand. Now, it took me 3 hours to go and see my grandmother.


1969: Coming back to Europe after many years, I bought this DKW 1000, also second hand. It was not in a beautiful condition as the one in this picture. But it was a faithful companion during some years.


1972: The first, real, brandnew car of my life. The Renault 16 made me fall in love with French cars. A love that still exists today. Since, I only bought French cars.


1975: The Citroen 2CV was the best simple car for the desert. When you got stuck in the sand, you just went out and lifted it by hand. It was so light. Of course, this only worked if you were three in the car.


1980: THE car for Africa. The Peugeot 504 was seen everywhere on the continent. The break (like mine) was used as "bush taxi" in East Africa and as "taxi brousse" in West Africa.


1986: Back to Europe I got "exposed" for the first time with automatic gear shift. The Citroën BX was a real neat car. Having no spring suspension, but the famous Citroën hydraulic suspension. Driving was like putting your hands through silk.


1996 to today: My beauty. The Citroën Xantia Break. The car was designed almost 20 years ago. And today it still looks very modern. Soft, perfect lines. When I bought it 15 years ago, it was one of the rare cars that had automatic air-conditioning. And it was the only car that had automatic gear shift with 5 gears. If the comfort of the BX was great, the Xantia's is out of this world.

And this will be, most probably, the end of my "motorisation". I will not be able to buy a new car when the Xantia is ready to "go". My finances would not permit. And then, I don't want have a car anymore. Recently, I had to travel 120 kilometers on a motorway. With one truck after the other. It was raining. It was awful. And the train track was next to the motorway. With our modern trains passing at high speed. And pasengers, sitting in comfort, looking at us struggling on the road.

I don't want to struggle on the road anymore, to many cars, to much traffic. Am I getting old? No, but our excellent public transport system will allow me to travel quickly and in comfort. And much cheaper.

To have my car costs me 1'800 dollars per year. That is for the insurance, the road tax and the parking lot. With this I have not driven it yet. So, there is fuel, maintenance and fines (for wrong parking) to add. The public transport pass costs 2'000 dollars per year. For this I get all the trains and busses and metros and ships and funiculaires, nationwide.

Alors, le calcul est vite fait.

The speech

Ladies and Gentlemen,

You have seen in the short movie how Mrs Fleischer, Darfur Coordinator of the UN World Food Programme WFP, explains some of the problems WFP is confronted with in its world’s biggest aid programme.

Darfur is located in the west of the Sudan, has three states and the size of France. This huge territory in the eastern Sahel zone is subject to a terrible civil war since more then 5 years.

The Darfur conflict started in 2003.

Decades of drought and the, therefore, advancing desert limited the living space of the people in Darfur, slowly but surely. Nomads had to move further south to find water for their animals. As this happened, they occupied more and more land used by the farmers. This led to fights between the nomads and the farmers.

On top of that, the Darfuri felt neglected by the central government in Khartoum. And so, in 2003, the first fights started between the rebel Sudanese Liberation Army, the Sudanese Armed Forces and militias, the so-called Janjaweed.

This was the beginning of an insupportable climax of violence. The population was chased from their villages, the villages were burnt and destroyed. Women were raped. Men, women and children were killed. UN estimates that, since the start of the conflict, 200'000 to 300'000 people died and 2.5 million were displaced.

The people lost everything, their houses, their animals, their land. They had no more access to water and medical care. They could not farm their lands anymore. Trade was limited and mortality rates of the population were rising. Even the Darfuri which had not been displaced had to fight for survival.

Around 240'000 people fled to neighbouring Chad. But most of them settled in Internally Displaced People (IDP) camps and depend since then on humanitarian aid.

The international community reacted swiftly and a big number of aid organisations started to relief the population of Darfur. This is also the case of WFP.

The main task of WFP can be expressed with 2 words: „Safe lives“. WFP is distributing food to the IDP and to the civil population, suffering from the conflict. In addition, it has specific programmes for malnurished children. In the very few areas where security permits, it also feeds school children with the School Feeding Porgramme.

The number of beneficiaries changes continously. The security situation and the harvest results are the main factors for this change. As an average, between 30'000 and 40'000 tons of food per month are distributed to 2.2 million people. Many trucks are needed to transport this food and if you would put them all together, it would make a convoy of about 40 kilometers.


To master this huge programme, WFP is working with partners, international and national non-governmental organsations (NGO). They receive the food from WFP – Cereals, pulses, corn soya blend CSB, cooking oil, salt and sugar – and distribute it to the beneficiaries. Around 18 kilos per person and per month.

The necessary means to cover the needs of the population in Darfur are huge. Not only money, but also people who on the spot are helping. To contribute to this still world’s biggest humanitarian crisis, the Swiss Government, through its agency SDC, has supported WFP, since the beginning of the Darfur crisis, with financial contributions and experts.

In this context, I was seconded in 2004 as an SDC expert to WFP. My mission, initially foreseen for 6 month, lasted 4 years. During 2 years I was, as head of a field office, responsible for the food security of more than 300'000 people.

Our office’s duty, among others, was to supervise the food distribution by our partners. At the beginning, this was relatively easy as we could move from camp to camp by road. But then, the security situation became worse and worse and finally, we only could travel by helicopter from locality to locality, which limited our movements tremendously.

In my daily work I started to notice possibilities of improving the operation and I reported this. So, after 2 years I was integrated in the Programme Unit of the Regional WFP office in Nyala, South Darfur, to develop the cooperation with our partners. Basically, it was to improve and strenghten the partnership between WFP and the NGO. I assisted them to analyse exactly the needs of the population and to adjust the food quantities.

Trainings had to be conducted where the camp population was instructed on how to distribute the food themselves, in the event of the partners inability to go to the camps because of security reasons.

It was quite a challenge. I had numerous discussions with our partners on cost saving and improvement potentials, with government agencies on the number of beneficiaries and with the camp populations about unjustified demands.

I learned that it was the highest priority to build, in a lenghty but mandatory process, a relation of mutual trust with all stakeholders.

Only like that it is possible to work efficiently, meaning to distribute food quickly, to the right people and to reduce the costs to a minimum.

Living conditions for expatriates are not always easy. For 4 years, I lived in a 20 foot container. Curfew from 8 pm to 6 am did not permit to go out. I spent long evenings having discussions with my colleagues. A very poor internet connection permitted to stay in contact with the outside world.

Is there any hope for Darfur? I don’t know.....

The developments of the last weeks make me doubt. At the beginning of this month, the Sudanese government ordered the closure and expulsion of 16 international and national NGO. Among them important partners of WFP.

Will the government of Sudan be able to fill the gap with local organisations? Or is this another set back for the people of Darfur, as in 2006 in Abuja?

In May 2006, the Darfur Peace Agreement was signed in the Nigerian capital city of Abuja. We had, at that time, high hopes that this would be the beginning of a durable peace in Darfur. These hopes did not materialise when it was clear that not all conflict parties had signed.

And so, our biggest wish remained unfulfilled. The wish for the people in Darfur to live and eat in peace.

Thank you for you attention.

***

Speech held (in German) on 27.03.2009 at the annual convent of the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation SDC and Swiss Humanitarian Aid Unit SHA.

"La Traviata" and Happy Easter Holidays

I wish you all a nice long Easter Holiday Weekend.

For your enjoyment, I put a small video (if you like it, there is many more on YouTube) about a lovely event that took place last year at the Zurich main railway station. It is actually the biggest railway station in Switzerland, with some 1'500 trains departing everyday.



The Zurich Opera House with the Swiss national TV and the Swiss Federal Railways organised the performance of Verdi's opera "La Traviata" in the railway station, on a normal and busy day. Among the travellers, the employees, the cafés and restaurants and even using the trains.

A great event.

You see this because Chandira gave me the idea to put this on. On her blog "Diary of a Hope Fiend" she shows people dancing in the railway station of Antwerp, Belgium.

A great event too.

A dream fulfilled

I did not manage. And I tried hard. To fulfill a dream.

I wanted to be on the first ever passenger flight of the Airbus A380. Flight made by Singapore Airways. Thought I had sent an email to them and they had answered, it did not work. First, because when I was supposed to "persue the matter" I had no internet connection and missed the booking deadline. Second, I would not have had the means anyway.

But my dream to fly on an A380 was still there. And this dream will come true. In May, I was supposed go and visit my son in Dubai. Via London, on an A380 of Emirates. In and out.

Dreams are beautiful. Specially when they come true.

As I said, it was to happen in May. With my upcoming mission, it will now be slightly postponed, for about three month.

Jazz on the 5th, Number. 11

Welcome back, Woody. Here is another exquisite video of my favorite Woody Herman and his orchestra, playing "After you've gone".

I have to warn you. I have about 70 CD's from Woody. Covering his career from the beginning in the 30ties until the end in the 80ties. With great soloists like Stan Getz or, as seen in this video, Bill Hunt on trumpet and Sal Nistico on tenor sax. So, all these CD's will give me a lot of ideas to put Woody (many times, but not exlusively) on my blog.

A bit in the style of Woody, who during a life performance, at the end, said to the audience: "Thanks a lot for coming. I hope you enjoyed it. If so, you can hire us to play at weddings. And if you have neighbors you don't like, we can take care of that too".

A threat becomes true and I need an ice box

I need an ice box. To put my retirement in a fresh place. To be used later, in a few month, perhaps.


Because, soon, I will leave for Sri Lanka. For at least 3 month. To join the WFP team as Programme Advisor. And that is because I was threatened. Last year. My boss in Darfur got a new assignment as Deputy Country Director in Sri Lanka. And when she left, she told me: "Now, you don't worry, I will never leave you in peace. As soon I have troubles I will call you". And now, she made the threat come true.

Of course, I am looking very much forward to go and work with her. I am not going to talk much about her because reading my post "Farewell to a boss" of last July will tell you everything.

Now, the great thing is that, being retired, I can, in principle not work for my agency SDC anymore. Unless the boss approves it. And he did. Last friday, after I had made my speech (it will be on the blog in a few days), I was approached by the bosses and they asked me how I felt about a request from WFP to have me. I said that I felt good.


And so, soon, I will see lovely sceneries like this one. Of course, I will not have much time to do so. There is war and problems to be solved and there will be a lot of work to take care of the people in need.

And the nicest part of all this is the sweet smile of my wife when I told her that I got this request. She said: "Pappa, I knew that you will not stay put. And you are too young (hey, I am an old man of more than 65) to stay put".

This is real, real shitty

I found this on "Hafez of Arabia"'s blog. Here is what he writes:

In this photo an Israeli model poses with a T-shirt with Hebrew that reads 'Sniper platoon' in Tel Aviv. Israel's military on Monday condemned T-shirts worn by soldiers that depict scenes of violence against Palestinians as the army faces increasing domestic criticism over its conduct during the recent Gaza war. The T-shirts, ordered by troops to mark the end of basic training and other military courses, were worn by a number of enlisted men in different units, the daily Haaretz newspaper reported. They were not made or sanctioned by the military.

At least the positive thing is that these T-shirts were not approved by the military. Or, are they simply taking distance because the army is facing critisism?

The fact is that people ordered these T-shirts, wear them and, most important, one company accepted to produce them.

I have no problems with Buddhists, I have no problems with Christians, I have no problems with Muslims and I have no problem with Jews. But I have problems with Israel. And that is not just since a few days.

And things like this will certainly not strenghten my (non-existent) sympathy for Israel.