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Hafez, this one is for you
2007-11-08 20:37:00
Joaquin Rodrigo composed the beautiful ?Concerto d?Aranjuez?. One of the most appreciated classical versions was recorded by Andrés Segovia, the famous Spanish guitar player. The concerto made it also into the jazz world with the lovely rendering of Miles Davis on his album ?Sketches of Spain?.You will ask yourself, Hafez, what this has to do with you. You will find out soon.Many months ago I was speaking about your blog. And today still I enjoy visiting it. Recently, you put photos of Ladies who show the way: The German Chancellor, Angela Merkel, and our President and Minister of Foreign Affairs, Micheline Calmy-Rey. They both are adorable and have guts. And are doing an excellent job. Let?s hope that their respective countries and their people will recognize this one day.You also post about the Middle East and often with pictures and photos. During the Ramadan, you showed us some very interesting ones from Turkey, Iran, the Balkans and other places. It is as if you were a link bet...

Breakdown (not a nervous one)
2007-11-05 03:18:00
I got in. One day late. Because our airplane had a breakdown and the trip to Nyala was reported to yesterday. When I arrived I had to stay a few hours at the airport. UN security had restricted movements because of a demonstration in town. Which is basically a good step as we never know how these demonstrations turn out in this region. Of course, one wonders about what is going on again. When I finally got into town I found out that the demonstration was because of "Zoe's Ark", this French NGO who wanted to organise the transfer of some 103 children to France for them to be adopted. These children were supposedly orphans and victims of the war in Darfur. And people in France paid money to this NGO to be able to adopt one of these children, some quite an important amount. The NGO is now in big trouble and some of the staff were arrested. They probably will be charged for human trafficking.The children were not orphans. ICRC made an inquiry and found that the children were from villa...

Stop Over
2007-11-02 06:47:00
Hello, I am almost back. I got into Khartoum last night coming from Uganda and have a quick access and a short moment to show that I am around.We had a very succesfull planning workshop in a lovely "Lake Victoria Hotel" on the shore of the lake with the same name. Unfortunately, one cannot swim in this lake because of billharzia, this terrible desease where some nasty microscopic bugs get into your body and even can kill you if it is not treated properly (and quickly). So, many of us took a swim in the pool of the hotel. Not me though, because I did not have any swimtrunks with me. And then I feel shy to expose my athletic body, specially the not so slim part around my waste. I could make people jalous :-)I am flying back to Nyala tomorrow, so more to come soon.
More About: Stop

Sorry, I complain (for the last time)
2007-10-25 08:43:00
A tip before I start: The post is long, so is the music. If you start the music first, you will have time to enjoy whilst you read the post. And here we go:I promise, I will stop complaining about Switzerland. Well, perhaps. My country is basically ok. And I am a proud citizen of it, most of the time. Though, in the past few years, I have not been so proud several times, even many times.We have an institution called ?Glückskette? which can be best translated with ?Chain of Hope? or ?Chain of Good Luck? or something like that. Whenever something happens in this world, be it a natural catastrophe or a war or just something bad making people suffer, they come on TV with an appeal to the Swiss population to donate money. And the Swiss people are very generous and donate a lot of money. I am always impressed by the response of the people.This institution then hands the money over to some organisations and finances them for their projects. They are very fussy and do not just ?dish? out th...
More About: Time , The Last , Sorry

Lifesinger, this one is for you
2007-10-23 05:50:00
I don't know your real name. And tried and tried to find it on your blog. No avail. But perhaps I was "blind" and just did not see it. Also, I might have a good excuse. Because looking in your profile, I found what you write:"Ask me what you want to know. I may tell you. I may not. But, I'm sure of one thing: We'll probably have a great conversation, a laugh or three, and you may just find yourself feeling a little better about things when we're done".So, this sentence does not give us your name. But it shows what you do: "Celebrating Life ~ Daily". We did not have big conversations but we exchanged comments frequently. And returning to your blog to visit is always a big pleasure. You are funny, you are "deep" and you make me chuckle many times. And above all, as you say, it makes me feel better about things after my visit to your blog. And I am "happy again". What more appropriate music could I find for you then "Singing in the rain"? Gene Kelly marvelled probably most of us wi...

Argentina and election weekend in Switzerland
2007-10-22 05:27:00
As expected, the (almost extreme) right party did make a good result in the parliament election this weekend. Good for them, they are now by far the biggest with 61 seats out of 200. Which means that the Swiss continue to be blind. Of course, you can make a good result when you spend around 20 milion Swiss francs on your campaign. But if the other parties cry the blues by saying that they spent only 1 or 2 million, they did something wrong, in my opinion. Perhaps thinking that their party programs would incite the voters to cast their votes for them. Obviously, they were wrong. The problem is that they are wrong since years.Because even in the more open French part of Switzerland , this party has done well, very well even. Well, the election weekend is now over and the Swiss can now return to daily life and take care of more important matters, like complaining when a train runs 5 minutes late. I wonder what the Swiss would do if the same ordeal, like the French went through the last ...
More About: Argentina , Weekend , Election , Gent

Pumuckl, this one is for you
2007-10-20 06:56:00
We both belong to the Swiss Humanitarian Aid Unit. We both are working now with an UN agency. Both of us could have an easy life, if we wanted it. You have been working in Afghanistan, me I am working in Darfur. Both "rough" places.In your blog, you have shared with us the "tough" but also the nice moments of your daily life. Just as I do on my blog. And in many ways, you and I see things the same way. And that is why we had good times together when we had a "sortie" together. Like at the "Old Tram Depot" in Berne after a workshop and the bunch was together for dinner. And you and I were just talking about Kosovo.Or after a year end "field people" meeting, when, again, during dinner we were talking about many things and of course Kosovo.I always have admired your openess, your positive spirit and your engagement. And this is something one can feel when visiting your blog. Your blog is a "carbon copy" of you.When you will hear the music I have selected for you, you might smile or eve...

Home
2007-10-19 07:37:00
Here I am again. I made it back safely. And I beat my wife. Yes, I did. But not because I am a bad husband or a guy who makes domestic violence. I came home, all happy and started to relax. From my daily work, which, as you can imagine, does not only give me "good" things.So, I fell asleep, and made the "repos du guerrier". And made one of my rare nightmares. And a guy was troubling me. Very bad. And made me mad. Very mad. I (who never would even hurt a fly) started to beat him. And I actually made the "beating movements". And hit my wife. And woke up. She too. We looked at each other and broke out in a big laughter.I can assure you: She does not have any bruises.
More About: Home

Like a shop: Closed, will be back soon!
2007-10-14 05:15:00
It is time to go home. For 2 weeks. And this time I will travel in style. I have many frequent flyer miles and made an upgrade to Business Class, to use some of these miles.I will be online soon again. After having settled in. And taken care of many things. The first one being to take my wife in my arms, hug her strongly and be careful not to break her into two.By the way, if you like to visit me on 18th of October it is easy. After you have landed in Geneva airport, you take the train to my town. Then you take the trolleybus and get down at the stop close to me. You walk 200 metres and see a salmon color building. With the elevator you go to the forth floor and ring the doorbell with you elbow. Why the elbow? You cannot use your hands because they will be holding plenty of gifts for me. 18th of October is my birthday.See you soon.PS. There are some interesting communities. I joined and un-joined some of them because I found they do not match me. But this one, Stumbleupon, is a nice...
More About: Shop , Back , Closed

Music, Simply
2007-10-12 05:16:00
That?s it. We are through. Today the end of Ramadan is celebrated. Let?s just hope that it will be rather quiet and not too many troubles occur. We had some skirmishes in the region the last few days. But the people here are confident that everything will be ok for the next three days. By all means, I will make a tour of the city later today to see all the celebrations.Now I would like to extend a bit on music. As you know, I like music very much. Music accompanies me daily. If I would not do what I am doing now professionally and I could return in life (which of course I can?t and don?t want to) I would be either a Veterinarian Doctor or something in music. A conductor of a symphony orchestra. But more likely I would have a jazz big band.I am open to (almost) any kind of music but big bands are really what I like the most. A bit of history (I try to have a chronological order) and big names: Fletcher Henderson, Benny Goodman, Artie Shaw, Tommy and Jimmy Dorsey, Glen Gray, Stan Kent...
More About: Simply

Old Fart, this one is for you
2007-10-09 17:03:00
You know, Bill, perhaps some people think that you blog is nothing special. It is nothing flashy. It has a certain number of widgets and gadgets. And that's about it?No, that's not about it. Because your blog is special. And so do all of your many visitors think. Because otherwise they would not come and visit. And from the number of comments you get, I am sure that you have many returning visitors.What I like about your writing is that it is simply life. The way you live it and the way you share it. Your are the living proof that one does not to be famous to be heard. But then, more than 14'000 visitors is already a bit of fame?We all enjoy to take part in your life. We know about your ups and about your downs. And many of us send you messages of encouragement. And some of us even suffer when you suffer and laugh when you laugh. To us, you are like a brother.In "real" life we would call you on the phone or drop by for a visit. Some certainly are in contact with you in such away....
More About: Fart

Tin Tin Deo (or nothing special to report)
2007-10-05 10:04:00
As I said before, Ramadan is soon coming to an end. We are now in our last weekend before the festivities. A quiet period.I am at "home" (in my container) and attend to a bunch of small things. I have to make accounts for my advances I have received from the Swiss Embassy because I will see them on my way to Switzerland in about ten days. I am also reviewing our projected figures for food distribution in 2008. Will we be able to reduce the number of beneficiaries next year? Or will we be able to start with some "Food for Work" projets. Is it sufficient what we do for therapeutical and supplementary feeding? And what about school feeding?Many questions for me to answer. And it is important that I will have the proper answers. Because next year I will be still around. For another year, maybe. World Food Programme has requested from my agency a further and last extension of my secondment. If my agency agrees it means that I will have spent around 4 years here. I don't mind. It is a sa...
More About: Report , Special

Susanne, this one is for you
2007-10-03 16:53:00
The screen of my Natel (this is the way we call mobiles phones in Switzerland, or did, because in the Swiss German part they have given it the stupid name "Handy") has something like 64'000 colors (I will have to check in my owner's manual).I know that the color spectrum is very wide. But I do not know how many colors there really are.The colors of your world, Susa nne, are millions and millions. In your photographs I discover so many colors. Colors as colors and colors as objects. Looking at these pictures is such a feast for the eyes. And a the same time, these pictures take me often on a trip to somewhere.They recall a souvenir, they create a desire and they make me content and relaxed.For you, I have choosen a Swiss Rock band (and hope that you will not get homesick) I like very much. "No'ne Blues" by Züri West is a simple and lovely tune for you to enjoy, with my thanks.

Ramadan
2007-09-30 05:26:00
I am not going to write about the religious background of Ramadan , just a bit on life during this period.We are now about a bit mor then a half through this month of fasting. And the remaining days will be long, very long. It is always like this. At the beginning, everybody is "excited" about it and the fasting period starts in joy. And through the whole month of fasting the people seems to keep this joy. My national colleagues work in good spirit and seem no to be affected by the constraints that Ramadan imposes on them. But they are affected. Because it is tough.I know. I did make Ramadan, a long time ago, 5 years in a row. Complete, like my colleagues. It was not because of a religious "engagement", it was not solidarity (perhaps a bit) with my colleagues or the population either. I did it out of respect for them.Today I am not strong enough to fast completely. I fast during the day, partially. The people get up a 4 a.m, eat and drink something and rest a bit before they go to wo...

Jennifer, this one is for you
2007-09-28 10:57:00
You help us to find out if we men are jerks. Basically I think that I am not one. But then I am sure that I have done some "jerk things". And to whom I ever did them, I still apologize.You lead us also on the way to graciousness and goodness. Your posts give us a lot of food for thought. And they also bring calm and serenity to our minds. Sometimes I feel New Age thinking among what you tell us.I have selected for you the title "Mandragora" from the album "Canverna Magica". It is played by the Swiss harpist Andreas Vollenweider, a musician I like very much.
More About: Jennifer

Another "technical" issue
2007-09-28 10:47:00
And it cancels everything I said before about the music.It seems that soon smaller widgets from TuneFeed will be avaible. You have not seen me post "actuality" these days. This is because I spent a lot of time "playing" around with the music issue.I like and wish to have the "proper" music to be connected to the "proper" post. And I have the solution of making a TuneFeed for every music. They are a bit big, but as I said, soon the feeds should be smaller. But it makes things easier, you don't have to go and search anymore if you would like to hear a song from a previous post.I am now going to put a post for Jennifer. After that, I will (hoping that the test phase is finished) resume "regular" posting. And of course dedicate a post with, what I feel, appropriate music for each of you.
More About: Technical , Issue , Technic

Dr. John, this one is for you
2007-09-26 04:44:00
Your "Saying of the day" is always with a lot of sense. And makes me smile quite often.The "News from Pigeon Falls" amuse me and often make me think. Because again, there is a sense behind it."Today's link" has lead me to discover interesting blogs. And then, one day you had put me in that link and the number of my visitors increased from that day.Reading you, with your sense, wit and humor, gives us all a lot of joy.So, I have choosen for you "La Réjouissance" from Georg Friedrich Haendel's "Music for the Royal Fireworks".
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A "technical" issue
2007-09-26 04:30:00
I still haven't succeeded of putting the music in the TuneFeed in such a way that the tunes stay in order of "appearance" on the posts. This is a bit "gênant" because if I write in the "actual" post that you will hear the abc-music and then in fact you hear the xyz-music, it will be confusing.Temporarely I have "solved" the problem by putting a second TuneFeed. It is "hidden" at the end of the blog.The main TuneFeed plays the music of the actual post it refers to. If you click on the "headset" icon, a windows opens and you can select "Previous music". Then you can play the tunes of the 5 previous posts.
More About: Technical , Issue , Technic

Titania, this one is for you
2007-09-23 04:39:00
Today's music is for you.You help us "Finding Life's Enchantments". You put "titaniastarlight" as name of your URL and a few month ago I wrote and said that you shine bright as a star.You also make us "Ride the Astral Plane". Plane could have two meanings. Either it is an "airplane" that takes us to the astral fields. Or plane could be looked at as a level (like a plateau in a mountain chain) we reach for a better understanding of these astral fields.I make it simple: You take us to the stars.Hoagy Carmichael (like Cole Porter and others) wrote beautiful songs. Here is the lovely "Stardust" for you, played by the wonderful Glenn Miller and his Orchestra.***An information concerning my TuneFeed. The pieces of music corresponding to the last three posts will appear. Normally they should be in the order "newest" first and then the other. But sometimes the order is different, I don't know why but I try to improve this.

Thursday Thirteen, Nr. 14, about movies that marked me
2007-09-20 04:28:00
Thirteen Things from Me1. 1950: ?Bamby? and ?Cinderella? by Walt Disney. At the cinema with my grandmother. I remember well how I got carried away by these lovely movies. I don?t like the style of animation and drawings of today?s Disney movies. 2. 1958: ?Roots of Heaven? with Errol Flynn, Trevor Howard and Juliette Greco. Adventure movie with the story happening in Chad. This might have been my trigger for spending over 20 years in Africa. And two of them in Chad. 3. 1965: ?My Fair Lady? with Audrey Hepburn and Rex Hamilton. I went to see it, was marveled and went to see it again the next 5 days in a row. And my son, who loves to see Ninja, Spiderman, Die Hard and other movies did buy the DVD of ?My Fair Lady? last year. And loves it. 4. 1968: ?2001 Space Odyssey? by Stanley Kubrik. It disturbed me much. But I don?t remember why. 5. 1969: ?James Bond against Dr. No?. The first James Bond movie. A real cinema event, with the beautiful Ursula Andress. Since then I have seen all the J...
More About: Movies , Thirteen , Thursday

Freedom and Liberty
2007-09-18 17:51:00
This is a picture from my town Montreux. It shows the statue of Freddy Mercury stretching out over the lake. What was he looking for? Perhaps peace of mind? He spent the last month of his life in Montreux, just before he died. And I am convinced that our lovely, quiet town on Lake Geneva has given him a peaceful mind and led him to eternal liberty.This statue is for me the symbol of liberty and freedom. Like the Statue of Liberty in New York is and has been a symbol for thousands of people looking for something new. They came to the USA with the hope of a new and better life. They came with the hope of being free after having been troubled in their countries of origin, because of political turmoil or because for economic reasons.Since centuries people have gone to new fields, to new challenges, all over the world. Many did not ever return to their place of origin. Either they did not want to go back or they could not go back. Because they felt that where they came from, there was no...
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That's it. It is done, the music is on!
2007-09-16 17:36:00
From now on, you will hear the music I like.You click on the play button of the widget (I did not want to "force" the autoplay on you) and you hear the music. You will also normally see the artist's name and the title of the tune plus a picture of the album cover. I paid for the music, you cannot copy it. But in case you like what you hear, you can buy it by clicking on the "Buy" button. It will lead you straight to amazon.com.Without any further ado here is the first one. Benny Goodman and his orchestra. With the "Bugle Call Rag". A song played when many of you were not born yet. And I song I listened to when I was young. I hope you enjoy it.I like many kinds of music and as time goes by, you all will "get" something you like. And I have the intention to put symphonies, like from Beethoven. Then I am sure that you will stay 45 minutes on my blog.
More About: Music , The Music , Music I , Done

Thursday Thirteen, Nr. 13, about my gadgets
2007-09-14 01:05:00
Thirteen Things from Me1. I have a Play station Portable. And I can also watch movies on it. Like ?National Treasure? with Nicolas Cage. It helps me getting through the hours when I am not blogging.2. My iPod gives me hours of music, any kind. Some people made a court case with Apple claiming that the thing worked only for 4 hours instead of 18 before recharging, as promised by Apple. I checked, mine lasts 23 hours.3. I don?t have a digital camera. I don?t need one. My Nokia N91 mobile phone is sufficient for my needs. But I would like to have an old Rolleiflex camera. I had one, but it got stolen.4. At home (in Switzerland) I am watching bluewin-TV. With over 100 channels. And many times just rubbish to see. But I can tell it from here (Sudan) to record something nice for me. 5. My TomTom navigator lets me find any address and leads me to there. This was always convenient when I had to pick up my daughter at 3 o'clock in the morning after partying.6. I cannot get lost in the deser...
More About: Gadgets , Thirteen , Thursday

About Bingo and Awards
2007-09-12 18:00:00
I have been hit by the 10?000 visitor since I count (from January 2007). From 101 countries (there are 181 in the world), so I covered 56 % of the world. BINGO.But with Bing o , you can win a lot. Did I win a lot? I say yes. Out of the total number of visitors, the majority stayed only less then 5 seconds. But 2.4 % stayed online 5 to 20 minutes and 17.3 % stayed for over 20 minutes. This is a comfortable percentage and I am very pleased about it.I have also a decent percentage of returning visitors. 15 % have visited me 1 to 5 times, 2 % looked at my posts 5 to 10 times and 1.5 % came back more then 10 times. This corresponds to 150 people who are ?glued? to my blog all the time. This is of course an average. Because I know a few that have returned much, much more (all of them ladies, but I won?t tell you who).The 5 countries that provided the most visitors are USA (some 4?600 visitors), Switzerland (1?100), Italy (620), Canada (610), UK (560). In the range from 100 to 200 visitors w...
More About: Awards , Oscar , Queen

This is what worries me about Switzerland
2007-09-10 13:18:00
The excellent article below was published on 7 September in "The Independant", Great Britain. It is a vivid example of what I fear. We a drifting from the former label of "Harbor of Humanity" into something of a label of "extremist racism". I felt important to share this with you. And hope that "The Indepedant" does not mind for me doing so. I requested their permission, but have not received an answer.Switzerland : Europe's heart of darkness? Switzerland is known as a haven of peace and neutrality. But today it is home to a new extremism that has alarmed the United Nations. Proposals for draconian new laws that target the country's immigrants have been condemned as unjust and racist. A poster campaign, the work of its leading political party, is decried as xenophobic. Has Switzerland become Europe's heart of darkness?By Paul Vallely, Published: 07 September 2007At first sight, the poster looks like an innocent children's cartoon. Three white sheep stand beside a black sheep. The...
More About: Witz

Cleaning Up
2007-09-08 21:48:00
That is what my colleagues did in the aftermath of our catastrophe.Cleaning up, that is what I am doing with my blog. I prepared this text offline. This means it takes me only a few seconds to transform the word document into html and to publish. Which right now (and you know about it) is important. Because I am not the only one who wants to "talk" to the outside world. Soon, we are ok again, both for the food situation and the technical side of our communication. Thanks a lot my dear colleagues.I did profit to make some changes, as you can see. First, the layout. Green is my favorite color and with this new presentation, there are different shades of green. Also the text colors are in the greenish line. Together with the beige background I feel it is a bit nicer for the eyes. Not so much to look. But rather for them to rest, to have less strain.I have taken off the "particular picture". It will not come again. It was cumbersome to find something interesting. I know there are millio...

Re: Previous Post
2007-09-08 05:13:00
My colleagues from Logistics worked very hard the last three days. They are tired. And the result is that we lost 5 tons of food only. Out of several thousand. And the planes with the new warehouses are expected today. It seems that it will be those huge Antonov's.Thank you all for your comments.
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Another 5 minutes: The Power of Nature
2007-09-06 16:04:00
This is the way our warehouses look like, now. After that passing of the storm, hurricane or haboob, as it is called here. Twenty are damaged, beyond repair. Wind gusts of over 150 km/h did this.I have spoken to elderly people from around here. Nobody has ever seen something like this around here, not in a lifetime. During the rainy season we might have storms. But they come gradually, e.g. in the morning we have a blue sky and then during the day clouds are slowly building up. And then towards the middle of the afternoon, rain will fall, or not. And sometimes a strong one and sometimes just some droplets. And three days ago it was the same. I was smoking a cigarette outside and joking with a colleague who was complaining about the clouds. And I told her: ?Don?t worry after the rain the sun will shine again. But it didn?t. All of sudden it was there.We barely could make inside the building to protect ourselves. Now we are assessing the enormous damage. But mainly, we are trying to r...
More About: Power , Nature , Minutes , Natur , Utes

I am given 5 minutes
2007-09-05 09:34:00
To quickly say hello.Two days ago a terrible hurrican hit us. Unforeseen. This has never happened before here. In lifetime memory. 20 of our warehouses distroyed. Our communication equipment also. Now we have emergency contacts only and I am allowed to manifest myself quickly. But the line of the ones wanting to go online also is quite big.So I go again and hope to be back soon.
More About: Minutes , Utes

I cannot paint. A tribute to two great men
2007-09-01 06:17:00
He could.The man in this picture is my grandfather. I am born in 1943, he passed away in 1944. So I did not know him. I probably saw him but of course was too young for me to recall something. He was a prolific painter. It does not matter whether he made oil paints, crayon or aquarelles, his paintings are simply beautiful.It also did not matter whether he painted objects, people or sceneries. He was at ease for any type of subject. I was told that he had the habit of walking around or seeing something and he just started drawing or painting. Also, when he went on vacation, as most of us do, he sent postcards from his vacation spot. Postcards which he has painted himself whilst on the spot.Julius, that was his name, did not artistic painting for a living. But he had a professional building painting company. I recall the college in his town where I went many times. In the fifties it still had the walls painted by him. A warm creams color. But even there you could see his artistic lin...
More About: Great , Paint , Tribute , Tribu , T Pain