Advertisement
Published: August 30th 2010
On our way out of Geneva, we had two separate visits to the WTO headquarters and the U.N. Both campuses are with 5 minutes of each other and the visits proved to be interesting. As an econ major, the WTO meeting proved to be especially interesting to me. Once getting through security, we met with a Lawyer for the WTO from Ghana in one of the negotiation rooms of which the headquarters is mostly comprised of. It is in these rooms that countries negotiate their different terms of trade and try to work out disputes. He spent a little over an hour with us discussing the purpose and goals of the WTO and the specifics of what went on the headquarters. We also spend a considerable amount of time learning about their strategies toward development and how they handle some of the consequences that occur as a result of opening many new nations to the world markets and liberalizing their trade. For me as well, it was nice to be able to better understand what was behind the riots that took place in Seattle.
Immediately following this, was a visit to the U.N. Geneva has the 2nd largest U.N. operations
outside of New York and the campus was very impressive. The largest meeting hall is the building that was originally build for The League of Nations that was established after WWI as a precursor to the U.N. During the tour we saw many other meeting rooms as well, including a really creative one inspired by the Sea that was donated by Spain. Geneva hosts over 8,000 meetings a year in these rooms, though it was fairly empty when we were there do to the August vacations.
By the time, these visits were over, we had worked up quite a appetite. Never to fear though, as we were headed to indulge in the "best chicken in the world"... or so we were told by our always enthusastic director. The place was called Chez Ma Cousine and the chicken was quite good (it was endless as well), but I am not sure if it lived up to its hype. I actually liked the potatoe wedge fries and apple tart a little better. I especially liked the tart because it was fun to order... it was pronounced "ta ta ta" or something like that.
We had a long bus ride ahead
of us on our way to Cannes, France, and the large meal helped put us all to sleep. I managed to stay awake though for the gorgeous and breathtaking drive through the winding Swiss Alps and a short trip through Northern Italy.
INTERESTING FACT: Geneva is full of refernces, streets, and statutues that pay tribute to Woodrow Wilson, one of the main organizers of the League of Nations. It can catch you off guard that so much is dedicated to an American president in Switzerland!
Advertisement
Tot: 0.153s; Tpl: 0.014s; cc: 13; qc: 48; dbt: 0.1159s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb
