Jan spent just over two weeks in Geneva, home to numerous private banks, UN bodies, as well as multinational corporations. Plans changed as the UN Commission on Human Rights was dissolved just prior to his arrival, its powers given to a new Council that will meet for the first time in June of this year.


Perhaps the most beautiful parts of the city are the quai areas where the city downtown meets Lake Geneva.



Early on during Jan's stay, Falun Gong practitioners and others calling for basic human rights in China held several activities, including a candlelight vigil to commemorate the deaths of thousands of practitioners at the hands of Communist Party authorities.

It's not all landscapes for this post, however -- many wonderful faces were seen in Geneva, including that of this young boy:


It was not all business in Geneva either. Jan managed a visit to Geneva's Museum of Ethnography (MEG), which had several fascinating exhibits, including the highly topical Nous autres, which roughly translates as, "Us and the Others."


Nous autres tag line: Are other communities made up of savages, role models or merely people like us?


One part of the exhibit focused on methods such as hate propaganda are used to "otherate" people, as in campaigns to make them appear different or threatening in the eyes of society. This one hit home in a big way.

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