BIBLIQTHEQUE DU BIT. CH-1211 GENEVE 22

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Bulletin des anciens = Friends newsletter.

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FRIENDS NEWSLETTER No. 41 December 2006

Bureau international du Travail, CH-1211 Geneve 22 Contents

Page EDITORIAL 1

CO-EDITORIAL 6

RECEPTIONS FOR FORMER OFFICIALS 9

COMMENTS ON NL 40 AND ITS SUPPLEMENT 10-12

George Kanawaty, George Pochman, Ita Marguet, Sita Excoffier, Ivan M.C.S. Elsmark, Regine Escallier-Alapetite, Fernanda De Maio, Warren Furth, Francois Agostini, Carl and Sonja Krummel

HOW I CAME TO JOIN THE ILO 13-19

Regine Escallier-Alapetite 13 KrishnanNatarajan 16

HOW I CAME TO JOIN THE TURIN CENTRE

Fernanda De Maio 20

REMEMBRANCE OF THINGS PAST 22-26

Albert Thomas traverse la Siberie, par Jack Martin 22 Premiers pas au BIT, par Nathalie Guillenstein 24 Incendie de l'annexe du BIT au Petit Saconnex, par Claude Girard 26

PHOTO GALLERY

Two anniversaries, by Fiona Rolian 27

GALLIMAUFRY 28-33

The Sands of Time, by Fritz-the-Cat 28 Waltzing with Whatman, by Peter Sutcliffe 28 My second retirement, by Angela Butler 30 Tsunami Story, by J. Krishnamurty 32

BOOKNOTES„ 34-35

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR 36-41

Marianne Nussbaumer, Bert Zoeteweij, M.N. Unni Nayar, Salah Ayoub

NAMES AND NEWS 42-45

Ajit Bhalla, Angela Butler, Irene Chamberlain, Fernanda de Maio, Ed Dowding, Regine Escallier-Alapetite, Claude A. Girard, Bjorn Griinewald, J. Krishnamurty, Carl Krummel, Joan McArthur, Krishnan Natarajan, Don H. Snyder, Leonard (Joe) Young, Sr.

CEUX QUI NOUS ONT QUITTES 47

EDITORIAL

Djamchid Farman-Farmaian

Djamchid Farman-Farmaian passed away on 7 May 2006 after a brief but severe illness.

I have particular reason to feel close to Djamchid and indeed have done so ever since he swam into the ken of the ILO. In my very first meeting with him, he amazed me and my room-mate; he struck us dumb.

It was 1949 and I was in the Social Security Division; we had just moved to Geneva from Montreal and were installed in the delightful villa on the lakeside, on the grounds of the ILO. It had been the residence of Harold Butler in the old days. One day, a dapper young man walked in to our office and announced that he was a stagiaire from Iran; he would spend a few months in our Division; he would like to invite us both to lunch. He would come and pick us up at noon.

We figured that stagiaires were paid minimum wages and so we would insist on going to a cheap little Italian place near the station.

He came back promptly at noon. I've booked a table at the Richemond, he said. Shall we go?

We were left dumb. We had a delightful lunch at the Richemond; neither of us had ever lunched there before.

Djamchid joined the ILO in 1954 - as an official, not a stagiaire - and served in a variety of posts; these included working in the New York Liaison Office and serving as Chief of Protocol. In 1969, he left the ILO for two years to serve a stint with the Iranian Ministry of Labour as Under Secretary. If memory serves, during this period he attended the Governing Body as his Government's representative. It is difficult to switch sides from one day to the next; certainly difficult to do it tactfully and effectively.

The Iranian Revolution of 1979 brought drastic changes to Djamchid's family; it is to his credit that though I saw him fairly often since we lived close by in the same neighbourhood and had a coffee together occasionally, he never once expressed any bitterness or self-pity.

Djamchid exemplified a seamless and harmonious blending of East and West, with no signs of tension. Few of us manage it so successfully.

It is difficult to write about Djamchid and not think of his distinguished compatriot Mohamed Ali Djamalzadeh, the first Persian to become an ILO official. He joined in 1931, retired in 1956 and died in 1997 at the age of 102. He was a well-known poet in his own country.

Today when the newspapers are full of Iran and its problems, it is good to remember its rich culture and civilization. Both Djamalzadeh and Djamchid, born respectively in Ispahan and Shiraz, two centres of culture, were redolent of this and seemed to echo the rhythms and sounds of its poetry, of Hafiz and of Omar Khayyam.

What Hafiz sang in the fourteenth century might well fit our own:

Again the time is out of joint...

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'Tis a famous tale, the deceitfulness of earth; The night is pregnant: what will the dawn bring to birth? Tumult and bloody battle rage in the plain: Bring blood-red wine and fill the goblet again.

And when we mourn the past and long for what is not, Omar Khayyam tells us:

The Moving Finger writes, and having writ Moves on: nor all thy Piety and Wit Shall lure it back to cancel half a line, Nor all thy Tears wash out a Word of it.

A Retirement and a Loss to the New York Office

Another example of harmonious blending of cultures is Joan McArthur who recently retired after a remarkable career of over thirty years in the New York Office. In a world where ethnic, linguistic and religious conflicts seem to be growing in number and intensity, where we talk of the clash of civilizations, she incarnated her Hindu, Muslim and Christian roots.

So it was perhaps not strange that she found her niche in the international setting of the ILO and the ILO found in her a perfect international official.

She became the heart and soul of the Liaison Office. Directors came and went, she held the office together and ensured continuity.

More officials visit the New York Liaison Office than any other external office and many visit it regularly. Joan became not only an official support to them but a personal friend. This did not only mean advice on living, eating, shopping, entertainments and leisure activities, but all too often emergencies, accidents, hospitalizations and its many consequences. I have personal reasons to testify to her outstanding efficiency, generosity and kindness in such situations.

Her husband, Malcolm, was a consort equal to her role and provided strong support in her manifold activities; at times he seemed as much a part of the ILO as she herself.

It was fortunate that she was able to visit Geneva and attend the Reception for Former Officials on 23 May 2006 just before she retired. Though her whole career was in New York, the reception showed that she had more friends in Geneva than most of us.

I take very particular pride and joy in Joan's outstanding career. When anyone asks me if I ever made any notable contribution to the ILO, I can reply: Yes, I recruited Joan McArthur.

Loulou Boulaz

Some of you will, I hope, remember the article Dans la face nord des Grandes Jorasses by Loulou Boulaz in our Special 20th Anniversary Issue last May. We also published a photograph of her with Monique Chuard.

By coincidence, the September 2006 issue of the Bulletin of the Section Genevoise, Club Alpin Suisse, has for its cover, a photograph of Loulou with Yvette Vaucher on the Eiger in 1962. Loulou was a Membre d'honneur of the Section, and a recipient of many other honours and awards. Yvette Vaucher, who belongs to a later generation of climbers, is a former President of the Section and also an internationally known alpinist.

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Humankind cannot bear very much reality (T.S. Eliot)

Is it not passing strange that for centuries Man, who killed animals for 'sport' as well as for food, and destroyed habitats without a moment's thought, now finds himself constrained to re-introduce them? If homo sapiens had really been sapiens, would he not have avoided being so destructive in the first place?

But to be fair, we have to admit that man was - and is - equally assiduous in killing communities of his own species whenever occasion arises.

In 1979, a Convention to Protect European Wildlife was adopted in Berne; 40 Member States including some non-European ones are parties to it. Wolves and bears are covered by this, not to everyone's delight. The World Conservation Union (IUCN) has adopted Guidelines for the Re-introduction of Species. The World Wildlife Fund (WWF) has been associated with several local re-introduction projects such as building up the population of bears in the Lower Austrian Alps.

Last May, after an absence of 170 years, a brown bear, promptly nick-named Bruno, appeared in the Bavarian Alps. Conservationists were delighted, hunters licked their chops, shepherds were distressed, the authorities were nervous, reporters sharpened their word processors, the public was excited and congratulated itself on having come closer to nature. Bears are cuddly, all children play with teddy bears; they know Winnie the Pooh and Smokey Bear; on the other hand, wolves are big and bad, they chase troikas across snowy wastes and they frighten little Red Riding Hood. Moreover, bears can walk on two legs, just like us.

But Bruno was not just a bear of little brain like Winnie; he misbehaved: he killed some 30 sheep, chickens and rabbits in wanton fashion, in a 3 week rampage.

Why?

Did Bruno not know that only humans are allowed to kill for pleasure?

Did he think that because he could walk on two legs, he could imitate humans in other ways as well?

Did he believe that since his ancestors had roamed free over Europe millions of years ago - witness the paintings in pre-historic caves - he had the right to this territory?

Did he believe in ethnic cleansing?

Did he suspect the sheep of building weapons of mass destruction and so launched a pre­emptive strike?

Did he want to bring democracy to sheep-dom?

Did he aspire to become a terrorist or a freedom-fighter?

Did he believe he was waging war on terrorism?

Fearing that he would next kill a human, the authorities wanted to launch a pre-emptive strike of their own - quite a fashionable thing to do in our day and age. They wanted Bruno killed: 'terminated', 'liquidated', 'eliminated', 'wasted'. But this would have angered the public, so for three weeks they tried to capture him so he could be transported to a Nature Reserve. They brought in a team of hunting dogs from Finland, trained to hunt the moose; they imported a special trap from Montana. But Bruno

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constantly outwitted them. Then, towards the end of June, an unidentified hunter shot him, ending the drama.

Bruno would be stuffed and placed in a Museum in Munich. The shepherds of Bavaria were relieved; like the shepherds of the Valais who, when wolves began to infiltrate Switzerland from Italy and France, said that the only wolf they wanted was a stuffed one in a Museum.

The saga of Bruno illustrates the continuing battle between wildlife and humans. The list of endangered species grows longer every year. What sort of world would it be if there were no wild animals at all? We will never find out because if all wildlife were extinct, human life would also be extinguished.

There are only eight species of bear but they are spread all over the world, except for Africa and Australia. Five of these species are endangered, mainly because of hunting and for use in indigenous medicine; like the unfortunate tiger, parts of the bear are deemed to help virility and cure various ailments. The eight species include the polar bear, whose habitat is threatened by global warming. It is now on the Red List of the World Conservation Union; in the last 20 years, the area of permanent ice has diminished by 20%. And the Oh so cuddly Giant Panda (Ailuropoda melanoleuca),* the symbol of the WWF, created by Peter Scott (son of Scott of the Antarctic) as he sat doodling at the founding meeting of the organization.

Bears are intelligent and adaptable; hardly any other mammal devotes so much time to the training of its young. Its ability to stand on two feet frees its front paws for other functions, such as catching leaping salmon.

The Brown bear (Ursus arctos) is the most widely spread; it appeared several tens of millions of years ago in Asia and colonized the northern hemisphere. The famous Grizzly of North America is a sub-species.

There are practically no bears left in the Alps, none in Switzerland. In the early 19th

century, bears could be seen in the Val d'Anniviers or the Val d'Herens - one was shot near Sierre in 1834. The last one was seen in the National Park in 1923. Having eliminated the species in their own country, Swiss hunters had to go to Alaska to hunt it, while bear meat was imported for gourmets: in 1990 Switzerland imported 2.5 tons, equivalent to almost 30 bears, from the former Yugoslavia .

Since 1936, there has been talk of re-introducing the bear in Switzerland. It would be relatively easy to capture some in Italy and bring them over - as was done with the ibex. There is space and suitable habitats, for instance in the Val Onsernone next door to Italy.

Under the auspices of the WWF, 10 countries (including Switzerland) participate in the Large Carnivore Initiative for Europe. It is the first international effort to 'restore Europe's beleaguered population of carnivores and to dispel myths that wolves, bears, wolverines, and lynxes are dangerous and undesirable pests'.

Perhaps the Frs. 50 million a year that the Swiss Government pays in subsidies to sheep farmers - it is claimed that this encourages 'irresponsible farming... turning out sheep to

In July 2006, the UNESCO World Heritage Committee helped to protect the Giant Panda by accepting the Sichuan Giant Panda Sanctuary in China. It covers 924,500 ha, including seven Nature Reserves and nine Scenic parks. The area also protects the red panda, snow leopard and clouded leopard, all on the Threatened List, and is botanically one of the richest temperate sites in the world. (Information from Mountain Protected Areas Update, 1 September 2006.)

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graze unsupervised' - could be used for compensation when sheep are in fact killed by predators. The Initiative could also help to control the explosion of herbivores such as reindeer and red deer, which are causing damage to trees and plants.

Once again, you will ask me: Why are you writing about bears? What do retired officials have to do with the ursine species? And once again I have to confess: In truth, I do not know. I can only ask you to bear with me.

Grameen Bank

As we were going to press, we heard the splendid news that the Grameen Bank and its founder Muhammad Yunus have been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. Muhammad Yunus has in the past been associated with the ILO, and it is most heartening that his work to improve the conditions of the rural poor, and the work of the Grameen Bank which he created, have been recognized in this way. We hope that for our next issue some former (and present) ILO officials who have been associated with the Grameen Bank, or with some of its projects, will send us their views and assessments of the objectives, activities and achievements of that institution, and the role that they themselves have played in facilitating the access of the poor to credit.

15 October 2006 Aamir Ali

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CO-EDITORIAL

What, you may ask, is a Co-Editorial? What purpose does it serve? Indeed, does it serve any useful purpose at all?

These are all excellent questions, and if you are asking them, you should be congratulated. For I have been asking the same questions myself, without yet receiving any satisfactory response.

It all started when I told our well-beloved Editor-in-Chief what I was planning to include in my Co-Editorial for this issue.

"Oh, you cannot put that in the Co-Editorial!", he exclaimed. "Nobody ever reads the Co-Editorial."

"But they are even less likely to read my piece if I take it out of the Co-Editorial and make a separate article out of it!" I protested.

"Quite right," replied the Editor-in-Chief in his great wisdom. "Our readers are not expected to read anything in the Newsletter except the Editorial. All the rest is padding just to make the Newsletter look impressive; and in any case our readers - who are all ex-fonctionnaires, don't forget - are quite incapable of reading and retaining more than two pages in any one issue." He paused at this point to make sure that the import of his pronouncement had been duly registered. "For that reason," he went on, "I will not countenance the publication of anything that will distract attention from the highly important message that I intend to convey in my next Editorial."

"Oh, what will that be about?" I asked.

"I cannot bear to tell you that" he replied. The discussion was closed.

I therefore reasoned to myself that if nobody was going to read it, it didn't matter what nonsense I put in my Co-Editorial. So here goes.

Coming round the Mountain

As winter 2006 turned into spring, and spring into summer, I became increasingly concerned at the deteriorating situation of the world: tensions in the Middle East, the war against terrorism, the collapse of the Doha Round, rising oil prices, strikes, disorders, rioting youth, tornadoes, hurricanes, floods, blizzards, retreating glaciers, natural disasters everywhere - nowhere more than in my garden. Dire predictions were being made that even that most stable of human institutions, the ILO/ITU Staff Health Insurance Fund (SHIF), was in difficulty. As I surveyed this scene of impending disaster and desolation I made up my mind that something had to be done.

Decisive action was required if civilized society was to be saved from the forces of evil and moral turpitude.

I could stand by no longer as a passive observer. I had to be determined and forthright.

I would walk around the Mont-Blanc.

So I gathered around me a group of trusted companions (actually most of them were recruited at a social gathering at which such vast quantities of wine were consumed that

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nobody realized what was going on or what they were letting themselves in for)* and together we set off on our adventure for the benefit of mankind.

The Mont-Blanc is not something you stroll around in an afternoon. It involves at least ten days of strenuous walking (or hiking or trekking, depending on where you come from) with huge rucksacks (or backpacks, depending on where you come from) on one's back, sleeping in dormitories with snoring companions at various stages of inebriation, cold showers and all sorts of other hardships and indignities. But for people determined to save the world no hardship or indignity is too great to deter us from our great mission. However, because of our multiple other commitments, and in view of our advanced age (all of us were approaching or over 60, and one was over 70), we decided to break the journey into two. The first part, late June to early July, would take us from Les Houches in France, through Courmayeur in Italy to La Fouly in Switzerland; the second, in mid-September, would take us from La Fouly back over the French frontier to Les Houches.

Part 1 was completed according to plan, and with only one hitch when one of our number (who will remain nameless) managed to break one of his walking boots. Apart from that incident, and apart from tired and aching muscles, Part 1 was pure joy. We climbed over some ten major passes, and must have walked some 130 km. The sun shone almost non­stop, the views were breath-taking, the wildlife and wild flowers we saw on the way were memorable, as was the food that we were served at various refuges (none of us will ever forget a particular minestrone soup which we devoured at an Italian refuge on our way up to the Grand Col Ferret and which was worthy of a hymn of praise). We reached La Fouly on schedule in the afternoon of 3 July.

Part 2 began quite successfully in mid-September, but on the second day disaster struck. In the morning we had successfully reached the top of a fiendishly steep and difficult rocky climb called the Fenetre d'Arpette (2665 m. - the highest point of the entire Tour du Mont-Blanc), and were well down the other side when I slipped and found myself rolling down a slope until my head hit a rock. I was immediately surrounded by a solicitous group of American walkers who were picnicking nearby, among whom were a doctor and a French guide from Chamonix. The doctor bandaged my head and the guide insisted on calling a helicopter to evacuate me in spite of my protests. The helicopter soon arrived with another doctor who gave me a quick examination; in no time at all, I was strapped to a stretcher, winched up under the helicopter accompanied by the doctor (a very charming young lady incidentally), flown to a spot nearby where the helicopter could land and take me (and the charming lady doctor) on board. Within minutes we landed at Martigny hospital, where I was X-rayed and subjected to various tests, all of which found that, apart from the head wound, I was suffering from no breaks, bruises, concussion or other damage. My head was stitched up and I was discharged by late afternoon - but with strict instructions from the doctor not to continue the Tour du Mont-Blanc for at least another two days.

The composition of this group varied almost from one day to another according to the availability of each member. Those who participated almost throughout, apart from myself, were: Larry Kohler, Jerry Ungar and Mervyn Powell. Jon McLin and Jim Akre joined us for certain stretches of the first part of the tour, and Craig Purkey participated in the second part (and came all the way from Seattle to do so). All of these brave hearts except Mervyn Powell have at some stage in their professional lives (in some cases for most of their professional lives) been associated with the ILO; Mervyn, a friend and neighbour of mine, brought a much needed element of sanity to the whole venture.

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Exit the Acting Deputy Assistant Under Sub-Editor

I could not believe my luck: it could have been very much worse. The only victim was the unfortunate rock on which I hit my head, and which is still in intensive care. As for the American walkers, after their initial shock, the whole incident provided them with plenty of entertainment - they have sent me some fantastic photos of the evacuation by helicopter.

And what about my trusty companions? They very quickly recovered from the shock, and after seeing me winched away (and after taking photos of the whole operation) continued on their way. I found them that evening carousing in the inn in the village of Trient near Martigny where we were to spend the night. They continued the walk without me the next day over the Col de Balme into France; but after that the weather became so atrocious that they abandoned the Tour du Mont-Blanc and came home.

* * *

So none of us completed the walk around the Mont-Blanc, which explains why the world continues to be in a desperate state. Not only did we fail to achieve any of our objectives; I fear that my heliported evacuation and hospital treatment will have made the already serious situation of the SHIF even worse. But do not despair; we have resolved to continue the walk around the Mont-Blanc to save mankind next year, continuing where we left off. My companions have left me in no doubt where my starting point must be next year: by that blood-stained rock on the way down from the Fenetre d'Arpette.

20 October 2006 Jack Martin

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RECEPTIONS FOR FORMER OFFICIALS

The dates for the Receptions for Former Officials are:

2006

Thursday 14 December 2006

2007

Thursday 24 May 2007 Thursday 13 December 2007

2008

The proposed dates for 2008 are:

Thursday 22 May 2008 Thursday 18 December 2008

We hope to see you all there.

In view of the generous grants that have now been received from the Staff Welfare Committee for these receptions, it is no longer necessary to seek voluntary contributions from those who attend.

We express a special word of thanks to Mirjam Newman-Staal who has been faithful and unfailing as collector of contributions for many, many years. Thank you Mirjam, we have all benefited from your untiring devotion.

This is also a good opportunity to thank all those cheerful volunteers who have helped to organize these receptions and manned and womanned the bar. Many of them have done so for many years. Their good cheer has always added a special flavour to the occasion and contributed to the friendly atmosphere. Thanks to all of them.

Christmas and the New Year are once again upon us. Have a Merry Christmas with lots of good food and good cheer; have a good New Year with lots of good resolutions, one or two of which you might actually remember after the feasting is over. Among these, do include a resolution to write something for the NL.

15 October 2006 Aamir Ali

The shopping starts and every store's a zoo, I'm frantic too: I haven't got a clue. I'd like to spend next Christmas in Qatar, Or someplace that Santa won't find handy. Qatar will do, although Lord knows, it's sandy.

Calvin Trillin.

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COMMENTS ON NL 40 AND ITS SUPPLEMENT

George Kanawaty

I got several compliments from former ILO colleagues, not on my article [Evacuation from Cyprus], but on how I looked in 1967! It is, of course, all your doing, Fiona. I really liked all the pictures, as well as the articles. For years now I have been reading about Loulou Boulaz, now I got to put a face on the person.

George Pochman

Congratulations! What a tremendous achievement the 40 issues of the Newsletter. We -former officials - know very well that this meant innumerable hours of work during these past twenty years and an enormous number of letters addressed to your colleagues who sent their contributions.

I have not yet finished reading the Friends Newsletter No. 40 and the Special 20th Anniversary issue - as my eyes get tired after some 20 minutes of reading and I have to give them a rest - but I did not want to delay any further the expression of my admiration for your so meritorious work.

It was a great pleasure to read again the enthusiastic reports on the reunions, in particular the 70th anniversary one of 1989. However it comes as a shock when seeing the names of all those active participants who are no longer living (obviously one has to bear in mind that seventeen years have elapsed since May 1989).

We former officials must thank you for all you did during these past twenty years to foster an esprit de corps among us.

Ita Marguet

I was greatly impressed by the vitality and energy in the collective knowledge and wisdom, not to speak of spirituality, to be found in the pages of ILO Friends Newsletter No. 40. Accompanied by the Special 20th Anniversary Issue Supplement, they provide a valuable collection of old and new with good and sad news from our far-flung international community, and some closer to home, who are motivated to share a variety of interests and experiences in life both during and after the ILO. It is the true essence and purpose of ILO Friends Newsletter.

Let me also thank the editorial team, Aamir, Jack and Fiona, whose dedication and hard work should not be underestimated. Like the three-hole lock on the wide gate of the original ILO building, symbolically their contributions and those from others have helped to open a valuable store of tripartite institutional memory and knowledge. If life begins at forty, then I wish them and us long life with greater things to come! Incidentally have the three-hole tripartite lock and keys to the original ILO building been preserved anywhere for posterity?

[Yes, Ita, the lock and keys are in a safe in the Archives strong room. But there lies another tale... FRJ

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Sita Excoffier (nee Rao)

I haven't nearly finished the TWO terrific newsletters, but they really are good. Just the right mixture, and good choices for the "best of. What a wonderful job you are all doing.

Ivan M.C.S. Elsmark, Editor, Letter of the ILO Section of Former Officials

The editors would like to congratulate Aamir Ali on the 40th issue of the Friends Newsletter which he first established in 1986 and which, with remarkable persistence and personal devotion, he has edited ever since.

Regine Escallier-Alapetite

Comme chaque fois qu'arrive le Bulletin des Anciens avec sa bande bleue, j 'ai la sensation de recevoir un cadeau, de Noel ou d'anniversaire. Toutes affaires cessantes, je m'assieds et me plonge dans sa lecture. Cette fois il y avait double ration avec le supplement du N° 40 ! Malgre les annees qui ont passe, je suis fascinee par les souvenirs de ces fonctionnaires - serviteurs du BIT, dont j 'ai connu un certain nombre pendant mes annees de service (1956-1969). Bravo pour le soin avec lequel sont presenter les articles et un grand merci pour votre devouement.

Fernanda De Maio

I have received today the 40th issue of the NL and read most of its contents, as well as the Supplement that starts with your introduction.

The third paragraph sounds particularly funny, where you list that "unending series of anniversaries being celebrated" in 2005. But... you failed to mention the 40 years of the Turin Training Centre of the ILO.

I wonder whether you had been informed and sent a copy of a book issued in October 2005, of which I am herewith attaching the photocopy of the front page?

After more than 10 years of retirement, I still feel proud of having served in the ILO Centre of Torino, for about 20 years as Welfare Officer.

[Mea culpa, or perhaps I should say NL culpa. No, I didn 't know it was the 40th anniversary of the Turin Centre. What about writing an article for us about your 20 years of experience with the Centre? This would partly make up for my omission.]

Warren Furth

The other night I tore myself away from "Desperate Housewives" and read the Supplement to the Friends Newsletter No. 40 from cover to cover. What a delectable concoction of fascinating, even moving, articles, none of which have lost their interest for me even though I had read them before! I cannot resist, however, mentioning that Jack Martin's evaluation of David Morse's personality and legacy seems to me to be the most accurate tribute to Morse that I have ever seen or heard. The charming reminiscences of the ladies - Antoinette Beguin, Melitta Budiner, Muriel Mowat, Paddy Stacey as well as Ruth Gordon (through Fiona Rolian) - of the pre-WWII period made me nostalgic for a smaller, less hectic Geneva and a cozier, more intimate ILO that I had

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experienced only vicariously. The other articles were the sauce to the pudding. What a perfect dish! Congratulations on having this brilliant idea of picking these articles from past issues and thus marking the 20th anniversary of the Friends Newsletter.

Francois Agostini

Belatedly (mail to our Ultima Thule is not particularly fast) I received NL 40 and belatedly too (my own fault) I started reading it. My sincere (belated, too!) congratulations, to be shared with Jack Martin and Fiona Rolian, for a remarkable, outstanding issue, and for what you personally have done over all these years. Quite an achievement. More than a welcome opportunity for nostalgic remembrance to us, old-timers, the NL must be a source of inspiration for colleagues of the younger generations who are called up to keep the fight on.

Carl and Sonja Krummel

We have another pleasure to anticipate. The Newsletter and its Supplement have just arrived, with some fascinating articles to look forward to.

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HOW I CAME TO JOIN THE ILO Régine Escallier-Alapetite

Istanbul

Un hasard heureux a voulu que je sois au bon endroit au bon moment. En 1954, ma licence d'anglais en poche, j'avais rejoint mes parents à Istanbul (mon père était depuis deux ans conseiller à la Is Bankasi). J'étais dans une grande incertitude sur mon avenir, n'ayant aucun goût pour un poste dans l'enseignement. J'eus le coup de foudre pour la Turquie. Je n'eus aucune peine à trouver un emploi temporaire de secrétaire dans une société française implantée en Turquie, puis à l'ambassade de France. C'est là que j 'ai été convoquée un jour par le premier conseiller, fin 1955, et que j'appris l'existence d'un bureau du BIT (Centre d'action pour le Proche et le Moyen-Orient) à Istanbul. On y cherchait une secrétaire polyvalente français-anglais pouvant s'occuper de la documentation. Dès mon premier entretien, je fus séduite par l'atmosphère amicale du Bureau. Paul Cassan, le Directeur, me fit confiance et m'engagea pour quelques mois. Je fus bientôt chargée du suivi au quotidien du programme des stagiaires-ouvriers turcs lancé quelques années auparavant par Thudichum.

Il régnait à cette époque dans les Centres d'action un esprit conquérant qui mobilisait les fonctionnaires souvent au-delà des heures réglementaires. Je m'intégrai vite dans l'équipe et le BIT devint dès ce moment ma seconde famille... Je veux ici évoquer le souvenir de mes collègues à qui je dois ma formation : outre Cassan qui était plus souvent en mission qu'à Istanbul, il y avait Aziz Barakat, Victor Bunting, Jean Fauchon frais émoulu de l'AGRO, plus tard Henri Vandries à qui je dois tant, Danilo Jimenez, Alfred Zacharias, Xavier Caballero (qui est toujours vaillant et passe sa retraite à Genève) et surtout Jean Orizet, qui succéda à Cassan au poste de directeur.

Je n'oublie pas un personnel local dévoué : Leyla Morali (Leyla hanum), descendante d'une famille de dignitaires ottomans, secrétaire/bras droit du Directeur, Hadi bey, le factotum chargé des relations avec les douanes et les administrations turques, les secrétaires Marthe Nilovitch, Marthe Zygomala et Sophie Joannides-Camzi (qui termina sa carrière à Genève), ainsi que les chauffeurs successifs Mehmet et Nazim. J'ai moins connu Bilge et Kutluay, engagées plus tardivement.

De temps à autre était annoncée une visite du Siège central ! C'est ainsi que je connus quelques fonctionnaires que je devais retrouver par la suite à Genève : Camboulive, Lyman, Livchen, Flores, Shaheed, André Aboughanem et Francis Blanchard alors à la tête de la Division de la Main d'œuvre. J'en oublie bien sûr.

Le Centre d'action occupait un étage d'un bâtiment administratif qui abritait également le Service de l'Emploi turc (Is ve Isci Bulma Kurumu). Cette proximité nous valait parfois de traverser des files de demandeurs d'emploi, arrivant d'Anatolie. Le quartier de Tophane, près du Bosphore, où était situé le Bureau, avait un aspect pittoresque avec ses maisons de thé (çayhane) et ses joueurs de trictrac. On parlait aussi de produits opiacés... La petite mosquée de Tophane était toute proche et on y voyait des moutons entravés attendant le sacrifice avant le Kurbam Bayram... Le BIT déménagea plus tard vers un quartier plus noble sur la colline de Taksim en plein développement...

A Tophane, à l'étage au-dessus du nôtre s'installa l'Institut du Travail pour le Proche et le Moyen-Orient, destiné à la formation des inspecteurs et administrateurs du travail de la région. Un expert, Maurice Michel, travailla de longues années dans cet Institut. Le Directeur était un belge, Roger Roch, à la voix de stentor. Entre les cours, il essayait de convertir ses stagiaires au bel canto et ouvrait les fenêtres pour chanter « Rigoletto »! Dès qu'il avait un problème grave, on le voyait dégringoler les escaliers et venir chercher

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un peu de réconfort au Centre d'action... C'était un caractère généreux mais d'humeur abrupte.

Dès 1956, une bibliothécaire était arrivée de Genève : Ariane Koechlin. Au bout de quelques mois, Ariane eut la bonne idée de se marier avec un chef d'entreprise français et démissionna du Bureau. Un poste d'AMD - Bibliothécaire fut mis au concours et je pus participer. A l'époque, il n'y avait pas de quotas de nationalité. Je fus nommée avec un contrat permanent et devins fonctionnaire internationale !

Ariane et moi sommes restées en contact et je la vois toujours régulièrement. Elle a eu deux enfants et est de nombreuses fois grand-mère. Son mari est décédé mais elle habite toujours leur belle maison de village près de Montpellier.

Lagos

Début 1959, j'étais transférée comme AMD - Assistant administratif au nouveau Centre d'action pour l'Afrique au sud du Sahara, situé à Lagos (Nigeria). J'y retrouvai Jean Orizet, Cedric Matthews et Bob Walker, et je fus tout de suite comme eux accablée de chaleur. Il n'y avait pas encore beaucoup de climatiseurs dans les hôtels et les bureaux.

Arthur Prandle était venu auparavant à Lagos et grâce à lui le BIT était installé dans un immeuble moderne près des administrations britanniques. On était en période de préparation à l'Indépendance et c'était bien de ne pas avoir à parcourir de trop longues distances. De mon (vaste) bureau, j'apercevais le cimetière d'Ikoyi qui nous entourait de sa verdure rafraîchissante. Le samedi (oui, nous travaillions 6 jours par semaine, avec horaires aménagés) on pouvait entendre des chants joyeux et rythmés : une famille accompagnait à son dernier repos un de ses membres.

Tout était à faire. On engagea du personnel nigérian et un secrétaire dahoméen pour la correspondance en français. Il y eut une secrétaire anglaise et bientôt une belge (Irène Keyaerts, devenue Mme Carie). Les « hommes » étaient la plupart du temps en mission pour créer les bases d'une future action du BIT. Il y avait un travail intense à fournir pour digérer leurs rapports et assurer la bonne marche du Centre.

Nos conditions de vie s'améliorèrent rapidement. Grâce à l'esprit de camaraderie qui régnait entre nous, nous formions une équipe qui surmontait ses difficultés par la discussion, et souvent dans les rires. Nous trouvâmes des logements décents, grâce à un accord longuement négocié avec les autorités. Pour une femme seule, à cette époque, la vie à Lagos ne présentait aucun problème de sécurité.

Les fêtes de l'Indépendance donnèrent lieu à des festivités qui culminèrent lors du grand spectacle du Stade de l'Indépendance. Toutes les régions envoyèrent des délégations et rivalisèrent pour donner des danses somptueuses, des scènes de chasse et de guerre etc., le tout très coloré et très bien organisé.

Je fis quelques voyages en voiture dont l'un me fit connaître le sud du pays : Ife, le Niger et Port-Harcourt entre autres. C'était avant la guerre du Biafra. Nous allions fréquemment à Ibadan plus au nord. Mais à mon grand regret je n'ai jamais visité Kano et les régions des sultans.

Du 5 au 16 décembre 1960 se tint à Lagos la première Conférence régionale africaine sous la présidence du Ministre fédéral du Travail de Nigeria. Une équipe de Genève était venue au préalable s'occuper de l'organisation matérielle. On me confia le service des renseignements (Information Desk) qui était placé dans le grand hall du bâtiment où avaient lieu les séances plénières. C'était la meilleure position pour voir passer les délégués et faire connaissance avec les fonctionnaires du Siège. David Morse vint me dire un mot gentil, il visita par ailleurs le Centre d'action. Wilfred Jenks, Francis

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Blanchard et Abbas Ammar étaient aux manettes en qualité de Secrétaires généraux adjoints. La machinerie bien huilée des conférences du BIT m'impressionna fort. Il y eut des réceptions.

Dr. Abbas Ammar, David Morse, Wilfred Jenks et Philippe Blamont à leur arrivée à l'aéroport de Lagos, décembre 1960.

A la fin de la conférence, je me souviens qu'Ammar présidait au ré-embarquement du personnel du Bureau. Sur le tarmac de l'aéroport, au petit jour, on put se rendre compte que certaines demoiselles du Pool avait fait des dégâts dans les cœurs de quelques célibataires de Lagos. Il y eut des pleurs de déchirement. Abbas Ammar fronçait le sourcil et activait le mouvement...

Au tout début 1961, je fus réveillée un dimanche matin à l'aube par Grégoire Koulischer, tout nouveau Directeur ayant succédé à Orizet. Il venait me chercher avec le chauffeur pour l'accompagner à l'hôpital où avait été transporté quelques heures auparavant Bob Walker, victime d'un accident automobile sur la route de l'aéroport. Bob gisait aux urgences, la tête entourée de bandelettes. Il avait un traumatisme crânien gravissime. On ne donnait pas cher alors de sa survie. Il fut rapatrié en avion sanitaire. Nous regrettions tous ce collègue affable et plein d'humour, qui put heureusement reprendre sa place au Bureau quelque temps plus tard.

Au printemps 1961, je fus transférée à la Division des Services extérieurs (FSD) à Genève. En 1964, je participai avec succès à un concours interne (grade P2/P3) au Service du Personnel. En 1969, je démissionnai pour raisons familiales.

* * *

Quelques réflexions d'une ancienne fonctionnaire

Il y a longtemps que j 'ai quitté le Bureau. Toutefois je suis restée en relation avec le BIT par le biais d'emplois temporaires au Service de la formation (cours de langues), de mes

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amitiés et par l'intermédiaire de mon mari, Jean-Louis Escallier. C'est avec lui que je suis partie de 1976 à 1979 au Bureau régional de Kinshasa, où j 'a i joué le rôle pas toujours facile d'épouse de chef de mission. J'ai retrouvé là avec plaisir les relations avec les experts, et avec les membres d'autres missions de la famille de l'ONU et en particulier du PNUD.

Avec le recul, je crois pouvoir dire que le BIT m'a apporté énormément, m'a en quelque sorte modelée, et m'a confortée dans une éthique qui était certes déjà celle de ma jeunesse. Le travail dans le « field » était exaltant. On croyait dur comme fer aux principes de la Déclaration de Philadelphie. Les réalités du travail quotidien au Siège étaient moins flamboyantes, mais on avait le sentiment d'appartenir à une grosse machine qui ne pouvait avoir tort.

Je suis maintenant une provinciale française. Je ne m'ennuie pas une minute entre le souci d'une grande maison de famille, la garde de mes 4 petites-filles qui habitent à proximité, le jardinage, le chant choral et les associations locales dont je fais partie.

Que puis-je exprimer sur ce qui se passe dans l'Europe de 2006 (et dans le monde en général) sinon un fort désenchantement? Mais les temps changent. J'entends parler de temps à autre de l'action du BIT et j'aime lire dans les journaux les références des uns ou des autres aux Conventions du Travail et aux travaux de la Conférence de juin. Je suis toujours restée attentive aux actions de développement et de solidarité, et je suis heureuse de constater que dans leur scolarité mes petites-filles se voient proposer des voies de réflexion plus ouvertes et plus tolérantes que 60 ans auparavant ! ....

Je voudrais terminer en envoyant un salut amical à tous les anciens collègues qui auront eu la patience de me lire et qui se souviennent de moi.

13 juin 2006

Krishnan Natarajan

My Career in ILO

I entered the ILO in 1963 in New Delhi; this was the golden era of the Organization and I consider myself fortunate to have worked during that period.

I joined the ILO in 1963 in New Delhi in a National Vocational Training project. It was here in the Vocational Training Project I met, for the first time, Mr. Darshan Khanna who was seconded from the ILO Branch Office, to work as Assistant to the Senior Adviser, Mr.Tim Talbot. My association and friendship with Darshan from 1963 continues till today. In 1970, when the ILO Branch Office in New Delhi was converted to an Area Office, I was serving as one of the junior officials. In 1985, I won an internal competition and was posted to the ILO Caribbean Office in Port-of-Spain as Programming Officer. My working in the Branch Office, had given me an opportunity to learn about the traditional ILO activities. When I left the ILO New Delhi Office for Port-of-Spain after 22 years of work, Mr. Nakatani, the then Assistant Director-General of the Asia Pacific Region, remarked that mine was one of those very few cases of an official from the Asian Region getting posted to a distant region with different priorities and culture. However, my experience in New Delhi was a source of strength to my work in the Caribbean Office.

The ILO Caribbean Office in Port-of-Spain was responsible for technical cooperation activities for 21 countries/territories; some of them small islands and two of them -Guyana and Surinam - forming part of the larger South American Continent. Out of these, eighteen are English-speaking, and the remaining three Dutch-speaking. Even in

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these three Dutch-speaking countries/territories, English is widely spoken and used for official purposes. The volume of technical cooperation activities was not very big. However, small and well-directed activities spread over these islands kept the internationally recruited officials busy. A very significant part of the official's time was spent on travel. Many of the readers of this article who have travelled in the Caribbean region would agree that the people of the Caribbean are a wonderful lot and very friendly. The beautiful lush green Islands and the Blue Seas of the Caribbean are very inviting and thus make the region a tourist's paradise. The Carnival, the Calypso and the Steel Band of Trinidad and Tobago and the wonderful music legacy of John Marley from Jamaica are enduring memories. For the Cricket lovers, it will indeed be a good opportunity to revisit the Caribbean when the World Cup is organized there in the first half of 2007.

After about three years in the Caribbean, I was transferred in 1988 to ILO Headquarters in Geneva and posted to the Occupational Health and Safety Branch (SEC/HYG) as Technical Cooperation Officer. (The name of this technical Branch has since changed -now known as SAFE WORK). My six years in Geneva was a very rewarding and rich experience. SEC/HYG was truly a professional Branch with Occupational and Medical Doctors specialized in Health and Safety subjects directing one of the most important activities of the Organization. The Department (TRAVAIL), under which SEC/HYG functioned, was heavily involved in the elaboration almost every year of a Convention and the relevant Recommendation. Also SEC/HYG was executing a large number of technical cooperation projects in several developing countries. The combination of promoting a large number of Conventions and Recommendations and implementing a significant number of technical cooperation projects made it a real pleasure and a rewarding work experience in SEC/HYG.

The Department (TRAVAIL) and in particular SEC/HYG in collaboration with International Social Security Association (ISSA) organizes every four years an International Conference on Occupational Safety and Health Issues. This is truly a global event where professionals from all over the world present technical papers of a high quality, organize exhibitions and show documentary films produced in safety, health and social security fields. This global event, successfully organized in New Delhi in April 1993, was the first of its kind in a developing country. I was fortunate to have been associated in some of the administrative functions of this Global Conference and it was one of the most cherished events in my ILO career.

Apart from the rich experience I gained working in Headquarters, my family too enjoyed immensely their stay in Geneva. My two sons who had entered the Universities in 1992 in U.K. were extremely happy about their proximity to Geneva. Their frequent trips to Geneva from U.K. though pinched my pocket. Unfortunately, we did not have Ryanair or similar budget airlines operating cheaper flights to Geneva from London and other European cities in the early 1990s.

In April 1994,1 won again an internal competition and was posted as Deputy Director of the ILO Office in Manila. This was the time when Multi-disciplinary Teams were formed by the then Director-General Michel Hansenne and technical activities got decentralized to the field. After about nine years I was happy to be back in the Asian Region. Manila is an exciting and sprawling metropolitan city. At first a visitor is taken aback by the traffic jams and the enormous population of Metro Manila; but one gets used to it quickly. The Filipinos are the most friendly people; their amicable nature and the ease with which they interact with others, especially foreigners and their ability to communicate in English (Americanised) instantly makes you feel at home. The ILO Manila Office, in addition to the Philippines, is responsible for Indonesia and the South Pacific Island countries for decentralized technical activities. The Office provides administrative and logistical support to the Multi-disciplinary Team stationed within the Office premises. Another

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important role of the Manila Office is to liaise with the Asian Development Bank. The tripartite constituents in the Philippines are very knowledgeable and well informed about the ILO and its activities. It was, therefore, indeed a pleasure to interact with them. The Department of Labour and Employment (DOLE) which is the nodal government agency for ILO is one of the best informed and well versed Labour Ministries.

The Filipinos are proud of the 'Peoples Power' movement which was instrumental in removing the Marcos rule. It was indeed a great personal joy for me to have met the father of this movement Cardinal Sin, who was the Archbishop of Manila during my tenure. Another eminent personality I fondly remember meeting is Mr. Bias Ople, who was a dynamic Secretary of DOLE and later Foreign Secretary of the Philippines Government. His statesmanship and intellectual capacity will instantly impress anyone who comes across him. I also value with pleasure my association and interaction with the locally recruited ILO officials of the Manila Office.

I took voluntary retirement in 1997 and bid good-bye to the ILO from Manila. I will feel I missed something important if I do not mention my good friend and colleague Mario Galman with whom I had developed an enduring friendship. Like me, Mario too took voluntary retirement from the ILO in 2001. Unfortunately, Mario died in 2003, when he was serving as the Philippines Ambassador to Laos. To this day, I am not able to reconcile myself to the tragic loss of this young and promising official who, I am sure, would have progressed very well in the Foreign Ministry of the Philippines Government.

While serving the ILO, I was always happy. It is the ILO that moulded my personality and character. That happiness continues in my retirement.

Retirement

Opting for voluntary retirement (golden handshake) was easy. However, it was difficult for me and my wife to decide as to where we should settle. On the eve of my retirement in 1997 from Manila, we had applied and obtained a special visa for Australia aptly called "Retirement Visa". However, my wife felt that we should spend our retirement both in India and Australia rather than staying in one place only. Again what was difficult was the choice as to whether we should settle down in Madras (now Chennai) or Delhi. We decided to opt for Chennai. In Australia we chose to reside in Brisbane, Queensland.

An important factor to settle down after 40 years in Madras is that we are originally from Tamil Nadu. So the resettling was smooth. My 34 years in the ILO with posting in four duty stations had taught me and my wife to adapt quickly to the conditions of developing and developed countries. We, therefore, had no difficulty in alternating between Madras and Brisbane.

It is indeed an exciting experience to live in a fast changing developing economy. Since the opening of the economy, India is beginning to look different with rapid changes in every sphere. While in some States, especially, Bihar, Orissa and Uttar Pradesh, development is slow, there is a new awakening and urgency even in those parts to catch up with the rest of the country in the developmental process.

Although I have lived in Delhi for 27 years until 1985,1 am unable to recognize the city today, which has undergone tremendous changes. One example is the finest Metro Railway System which has solved, to a great extent, the worst transport problem of this sprawling city. Another change that strikes you is the number of flyovers to ease the traffic jams.

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Computerization of the commercial activities, especially in urban areas in India and the ever-increasing ATM machines everywhere is another example of modernization. Travelling between cities is now much easier and faster. Until 1985, when I was still working in New Delhi, there were only 2 flights from Delhi to Madras. Today there are about 15 flights to Madras from Delhi and a flight probably every forty minutes to Bombay. Believe me, even then these flights are always full and you need to do your booking at least 2 to 3 days in advance. There are now many private airlines operating cheap flights to the major cities in India. Bookings for air and railway journeys can be made through internet. Equally spectacular is the communication network. Cell phones are becoming a necessity in India. Bangalore is already the Silicon Valley of Asia. Chennai, Hyderabad and Chandigarh are also fast becoming mini Silicon Valleys of India. The Information Technology is ushering in a new vigour and prosperity. The growing consumer needs, triggered in large measure by the middle income group in India, is changing the face of the country fast. What is exciting is that all these changes are happening through democratic process. To achieve an 8.3 per cent economic growth for a vast country with a population of more than a billion is great. Even greater is the excitement in personally witnessing these rapid strides the country is making. I therefore enjoy every minute of my retirement in India.

Living in short spells in Australia gives me a chance to compare the two economies. While it will certainly take a long time for India to reach the level of Australian economy, the take-off is spectacular. If the present growth is sustained, there is no doubt that India will be a strong country economically in two decades.

I would like to end this write-up with my own view of global developments. Many of my countrymen, especially the politicians, want India to be a Super Power in another 25 to 30 years. This implies that the world would have two more countries, China and India, to dominate the vast Asian Region and eventually the world. This may not be a good thing for the world at large. We are already witnessing some of the super powers dominating the world and dictating terms to smaller nations to toe their line. The aim of China and India should be to ensure that they play a helping hand in spreading economic growth in other countries of Asia and achieve a poverty free world.

Finally, to end this note on a lighter vein, I would like to narrate an incident that was given wide coverage in the newspapers and visual media in India. The people of a particular District near Chennai (Madras) were fed up with the lethargy and tardy attitude of the District Authorities in handling their civic problems. Their numerous petitions and plea had no effect on the District Administration. So they decided on a novel way of protesting. They brought a donkey near the Town Hall and painted both the sides of the animal with the words "District Administration". They collected all their petitions and decorated the donkey's neck with these petitions as garlands. The District Authorities were infuriated by this move and complained to the police. The police tried to detain the demonstrators through the court but could not succeed as the demonstration was peaceful. This is not the end of the episode. Do you know what ultimately happened? The magistrate ordered the detention of the poor donkey!

8 October 2006

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HOW I CAME TO JOIN THE TURIN CENTRE

Fernanda De Maio

So many times, driving on one of the thoroughfares that lead to the centre of the town, in Turin, I had glanced at an imposing building (a masterpiece of one of the most famous Italian architects, Pierluigi Nervi) in front of which the UN blue flag waved by a big sign: ILO-OIT - and I would wonder: "what does it mean?".

I had filled in - in joke - the yellow application form a friend of mine had brought home. I would expect anything but being called for an interview.

I had been teaching English and French in secondary schools for ten years. "Better the devil you know than the devil you don't": my relatives and colleagues tried to dissuade me from leaving pupils, classrooms, blackboard and chalk and duster, homework and translations to correct at home, oral tests to prepare, meetings, examinations... all that was my life. But the temptation to change was too strong.

So, one day, I started working at the "ILO" (I knew the meaning now!).

My being Italian was a "handicap", since the official languages in the Turin Centre were English, French and Spanish. So I had to prove my knowledge of them, passing several hard written and oral tests, and to certify that one of them could be considered as my mother tongue. The choice was English. (Later I got the language allowance for French as well.)

The fact that I was offered a contract, at first on a short-term basis, then on an annual basis (no certainty of future extension!) didn't make me go back on my decision. I was fascinated and ready to afford all the new experiences in the Personnel Office: the new timetable (new to me, of course) which meant staying the whole day out of home, with new colleagues, a totally new job, an electric typewriter (no computers at that time!) that seemed to spite me every now and then... BUT I could practise three foreign languages, I could meet interesting foreign people, I would work in an attractive environment... I gave my "journey" the green light.

The first "discovery" was that, well, yes, the ILO Turin Centre IS A SCHOOL! The pupils are called fellows or participants, they come from all over the world to attend training courses given by teachers from all over the world, and live together under the ILO flag in a modern, comfortable campus situated in a park with huge trees and coloured flowers, along the river Po which separates the busy town from the green hills full of villas and gardens. The teachers, students, staff members (150) and collaborators work and study, meet and gather and talk in different languages, each one bringing and sharing his/her own habits. They also enjoy themselves practising sports and organizing evening events.

My first appointment took place in October 1974. My tasks have always been related to the Personnel Welfare. Any newly recruited official was accompanied to my office (sometimes by the Director himself), he or she was introduced and was told: "Here is the person who will assist and help you and your family in any circumstance related to your stay in Italy and at the Turin Centre". That is to say: first accommodation, house finding, furniture and car, schools for children, social assistance, SHIF papers, diplomatic procedures, missions, visas, etc. (I was in touch with Norma Wagstaffe - how kind and sweet she was! - and the SHIF colleagues at ILO Geneva.)

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Being therefore their "Italian mummy", I had the chance of striking up a pleasant friendship with my colleagues' wives and children, which lasted during the whole stay in Turin: we saw one another very often on weekends and organized joyful evening parties all together. When they left, the farewell was more a "see you soon" and "let's keep in touch" than a real parting. So it has been with many of them - we are still very good friends.

I keep an unforgettable souvenir of each of them.

I now realize that such "personal contacts" have been the reason why I loved my job so much during about twenty years. Twelve years ago, health and family problems gave rise to my retirement, aged fifty-five.

23 May 2006

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REMEMBRANCE OF THINGS PAST

Albert Thomas traverse la Sibérie

par Jack Martin

C'est grâce à Marianne Nussbaumer (voir sa lettre à l'Editeur) que nous avons eu connaissance d'un petit livre sur le chemin de fer Transsibérien écrit par... Albert Thomas1. Oui, il s'agit bien de «notre» Albert Thomas, le premier Directeur du BIT qui, en 1898, lorsqu'il était étudiant à l'Ecole normale supérieure (où il faisait des études brillantes) a reçu comme prix d'excellence de la part de la Compagnie des wagons-lits un billet pour le Transsibérien. Ce livre, qui a été publié récemment, contient des extraits du récit de ce voyage2, écrit par un jeune homme qui à l'époque n'avait que vingt ans, et qui a eu la chance de pouvoir voyager dans ce train extraordinaire bien avant que les travaux sur l'ensemble de la ligne qui devait relier Moscou à Vladivostok aient été achevés.3 Il a néanmoins fait le voyage de Moscou à Tomsk (environ 2880 kms - quand on pense qu'il n'a fallu que six ans pour construire 2880 kms de chemin de fer en Russie à la fin du 19eme siècle, alors qu'il en fallait autant au début du 21eme pour construire une voie d'une vingtaine de kilomètres entre Genève et Coppet !), et le moins que l'on puisse dire c'est qu'il nous livre un témoignage d'une grande maturité pour un jeune homme de 20 ans. Dans ce récit d'ailleurs on ne trouve la moindre trace de la langue de bois qui va caractériser les rapports de mission qui seront écrits par les futurs fonctionnaires de la future grande Organisation dont il deviendra le premier Directeur ! Bien au contraire, avec un style simple et limpide il dresse un tableau vivant de la Russie de l'époque ; il nous transporte dans l'immensité des plaines et des tundras russes ; il fait des petits portraits exquis des autres voyageurs et décrit la vie à bord de ce train impressionnant. Mais surtout, il observe le peuple russe, il démontre une connaissance approfondie de la société russe et de son histoire, et il laisse entrevoir les grandes transformations qui vont se produire dans ce vaste pays grâce notamment à l'industrialisation et à l'exploit extraordinaire que fut la construction du transsibérien. Non, il n'a pas prévu la révolution d'octobre dans tous ses détails, mais il a bien senti que quelque chose allait changer, sans savoir quoi ou comment. Voici quelques petits extraits de ce livre passionnant pour illustrer mes propos:

Partout la même pauvreté, partout la même misère. Dans la masse anonyme des moujiks, il n 'y a point de variétés ; qu 'ils soient pêcheurs ou marchands, ouvriers ou agriculteurs, la même somnolence alourdit les traits, décolore les yeux. ...C'est qu'il s'exerce sur tous, uniformément, des influences plus constantes que celle du métier : l'influence du climat et celle de la misère. ...Point de nourriture fortifiante : du thé, du pain, des confitures ; la vodka compense l'insuffisance de ces mets. Le tempérament russe s'est formé ainsi, comme les spectacles grandioses de la nature ont formé l'intelligence.

Quel mystère que ce peuple, jeune par son caractère, par ses institutions, par sa vigueur de race, et vieux déjà de sa longue histoire ! ... Et la même question, toujours, obsédait l'esprit : comment ce peuple instinctifprendra-t-il conscience de son effort ?

' Le Transsibérien, un récit d'Albert Thomas, publié dans la série Heureux qui comme ..../Paris, Magellan & Cie, 2005. Un exemplaire du livre a été déposé aux Archives.

" Le texte original, intitulé La Russie, race colonisatrice ; Impressions d'un voyage de Moscou à Tomsk, était publié en feuilletons dans Le Tour du Monde en 1905.

3 Les travaux de construction ont commencé en 1892 et ont été terminés en 1907.

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Quelques-uns rêvaient de « l'apparition de l'individualisme dans la conscience russe », d'une assimilation plus profonde des institutions occidentales. Le mi/, disaient-ils, et tout l'organisme villageois étaient ébranlés ; une classe moyenne se formait, une sorte de bourgeoisie à l'occidentale, mêmes qualités et même esprit ; l'industrie bouleversait la masse tranquille des moujiks, un prolétariat urbain naissait, et la Russie allait devenir brusquement plus démocratique et plus organisée, avec toute une hiérarchie, toute une variété de classes.

Erreur ! Erreur ! répondaient les autres. Le mir n 'est point en décadence ... La force de révolution que vous prêtez à l'industrie s'éteint dans notre pays ; le moujik ouvrier reste semblable à son frère des champs. La sainte Russie adoptera l'industrie ; mais l'industrie ne bouleversera point les conditions de sa vie. ...

Quelle était la vraie de ces deux thèses ? Longuement nous poursuivions ces pensées, tandis que nos yeux erraient sur la plaine. ...Il nous semblait qu 'un changement s'était fait. ...Des embranchements quittaient la ligne, descendaient vers des usines aux briques noircies par la fumée, et surmontées de cheminées en tôle. Ces usines se mêlaient aux cabanes, elles se groupaient, comme les villages agricoles devenus plus nombreux ...Et с 'était là, comme des mirs industriels, où le moujik apprendrait le communisme nouveau.

* * *

Vingt ans plus tard il allait faire plus ample connaissance avec ce « communisme nouveau », et trente ans plus tard il devait renouer avec le Transsibérien. Dans son excellent livre Yes and Albert Thomas Edward Phelan mentionne les voyages qu'Albert Thomas a ensuite faits en Russie pendant la première guerre mondiale : le premier en compagnie de René Viviani, Président du conseil des ministres français à l'époque (c'est lui qui a nommé Thomas au poste de Sous-secrétaire d'État de la Guerre chargé de l'artillerie et de l'équipement militaire) pour rendre visite à l'allié russe encore sous le régime tsariste ; le deuxième en 1917, quand il a été chargé par son gouvernement de se rendre en Russie au début de la révolution pour convaincre les socialistes russes de continuer la guerre avec les alliés (voir l'article sur cet épisode dans le n° 36, mai 2004, de ce Bulletin).

Phelan raconte aussi dans le détail le voyage qu'Albert Thomas a entrepris en Russie soviétique en 1928 en tant que Directeur du BIT. La raison principale de son voyage était de se rendre en Chine et au Japon en empruntant le Transsibérien. Mais il a profité de ce voyage pour prendre contact avec les autorités soviétiques ; malgré le fait que l'Union soviétique n'était pas membre de Г01Т à cette époque - elle était au contraire tout à fait hostile à une organisation qui prônait le tripartisme plutôt que la lutte des classes, et le socialiste Albert Thomas lui-même était considéré comme un traître à la cause ouvrière -lui et son entourage étaient très bien reçus à Moscou par les autorités, et ont même pu assister comme hôtes d'honneur aux manifestations pour célébrer l'anniversaire de la révolution d'octobre. Ensuite ils ont pris le Transsibérien depuis Moscou jusqu'en Chine,. et Phelan donne un compte rendu superbe de ce voyage, qui a été marqué par un incident insolite. Quand le train s'est arrêté à Sverdlovsk (aujourd'hui de nouveau Iekaterinenbourg), Dubourg (secrétaire d'Albert Thomas) et Ayusawa (fonctionnaire japonais) en sont descendus pour mettre du courrier à la poste - et le train est reparti sans eux ! Non seulement Albert Thomas était privé des services de son secrétaire, mais ce même secrétaire avait gardé dans sa poche les clés des valises qui contenaient des livres sur la Chine qu'Albert Thomas voulait consulter avant de traverser la frontière. Ce n'est

Communauté villageoise.

DEPTS-2006-11 -0050-1 -En.doc 23

que beaucoup plus tard que ces deux malheureux fonctionnaires ont pu rejoindre Albert Thomas et les autres membres de sa mission - à Mukden.

25 septembre 2006

Albert Thomas en route pour la Russie, mai 1917.

Premiers pas au BIT

par Nathalie Guillenstein

« Tchik » - une porte s'ouvre au pool russe et le prince Mirsky, l'un des rédacteurs du groupe russe, cherche d'un regard curieux la nouvelle recrue. Aucun étonnement de la part de mes collègues. Elles savent déjà que les trois lettres de l'alphabet russe (Tch-i-k) veulent dire: «Tchest imeyou klanietsa », autrement dit: «j'ai l'honneur de vous saluer». M. Mirsky aimait plaisanter. Ses séances de travail s'émaillaient généralement de moult anecdotes, du genre : « Savez-vous pourquoi les vaches suisses ont les pattes latérales gauches plus courtes que celles de droite ? A cause des pâturages dans les montagnes, évidemment ; autrement elles perdraient l'équilibre... ».

Ce qui faisait la particularité du pool russe à ses débuts, - contrairement à ce qu'il en était dans les autres pools, aucune de mes collègues n'était une vraie professionnelle et avaient toutes dépassé vingt ans. Elles venaient d'Allemagne, d'Angleterre, de France, d'Amérique latine, et l'émigration suisse en Ukraine et en Russie. Le seul lien entre nous était la langue et la culture russes. Quant à nos expériences antérieures, elles n'avaient souvent rien à voir avec la machine à écrire (mécanique...).

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Un exemple tiré de ce kaléidoscope est celui d'Olga Pavlovna Birukoff. Elle naquit à Genève, pendant l'exil de ses parents. Son père, biographe et ami intime de Léon Tolstoy, accueillait dans sa maison d'Onex de nombreux révolutionnaires de l'époque. Lénine, entre autres, faisait sauter la petite Olga sur ses genoux. Héritière des idées humanitaires et sociales de ses parents, O.P. était le chantre de la non-violence et du végétalisme. Lorsque je la connus en 1957, elle venait de publier chez Grasset « Socialisme et christianisme », œuvre fortement inspirée des théories tolstoyiennes.

Première étape donc dans une Organisation dont je n'avais encore aucune idée ni du fonctionnement, ni de l'esprit fondateur.

Avant d'accéder au poste que je devais occuper plus tard à la Formation professionnelle, où tant mes études techniques que mes expériences antérieures dans le domaine de l'industrie trouvaient leur application, je fus, épisodiquement :

• surveillante des pools russe et allemand, période pendant laquelle je pus participer à quelques réunions hors-Siège :

- en Argentine, où les rudiments d'espagnol que j'avais glanés aux cours de langues organisés par le BIT me furent d'un grand secours, mais inutiles pour décourager dans un café un groupe d'ouvriers du port de Buenos Aires d'insister auprès de Jean Fauchon et moi-même de leur chanter une chanson française. Pris de court, Jean ne trouva que « Frères Jacques » pour calmer leur ardeur. Nous eûmes beaucoup de succès !

- au Palais des Nations, où, à la suite de séances tardives de notre Conférence annuelle, je reçus un charmant mot de remerciement de José Herrera, mot dont les termes auraient pu prêter à confusion. En effet, ce mot disait : « A mi antigua amiga con la que pasamos tantas noches mirando al alba y oyendo cantar los pavos reaies ». En fait, il s'agissait de « Pierrot » le fameux paon du parc de l'ONU qui venait parfois sur le rebord de la fenêtre où nous terminions tard la nuit la préparation des documents nécessaires aux séances du lendemain.

• secrétaire des deux Assistants Spéciaux du DG (D. Morse) : Dr. Wou Saofong et A.S. Koudriavtsev. Tous deux préparaient des rapports périodiques sur les conditions de travail en Chine et en URSS. Première ouverture extrêmement intéressante pour moi, à travers ces rapports, sur les problèmes économiques et sociaux dans ces deux grands pays. Le Dr. Wou Saofong avait été un compagnon de Sun Yat-Sen. Il me fit découvrir Lao Tseu et la philosophie chinoise en général. A.S. Koudriavtsev sollicita mon aide, pendant les fins de semaine, pour collationner des documents d'archives et de l'administration de la Ville concernant le séjour de Lénine à Genève. Je pris ainsi contact avec une famille genevoise qui avait repris, directement de Plehanov, l'appartement situé au-dessus du café Landolt. A la Société de Lecture, on me permit de consulter les livres empruntés par Vladimir Oulianov, membre de la Société, livres qu'il avait annotés de sa main. Histoire vivante...

Deux, trois souvenirs de mes « premiers pas ». D'autres horizons allaient s'ouvrir à moi à la Formation professionnelle. Mais ceci est une autre histoire...

19 juin 2006

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Incendie de l'annexe du BIT au Petit Saconnex

par Claude Girard

Ce 15 novembre 1966, je fêtais avec quelques amis, mon brevet de pilote au restaurant de la « Ferme de l'Hôpital ». En rentrant chez moi au Petit Lancy, j'ai aperçu une colonne de fumée dans le lointain ; par curiosité humaine, je m'en suis rapproché. Horreur, c'était notre annexe du Petit Saconnex qui était en feu !

Une des ailes de ce bâtiment était occupée par la Section des impressions de la Division d'édition avec laquelle j'avais d'étroites relations, notamment en cette période de l'année où plusieurs manuscrits (faits main) de l'Annuaire des statistiques du Travail, édition 1966, y étaient entreposés avant d'être transmis à l'imprimerie Kundig. Ce sont des semaines de travail de toute une équipe qui allaient partir en fumée !

Grâce à la compréhension du capitaine des pompiers, un de ses hommes et moi-même avons pu rentrer, en brisant une fenêtre, dans la partie de l'aile (rez-de-chaussée) du bâtiment qui, quoique bien enfumée, n'était pas encore atteinte par le feu. Par chance, la cinquantaine de manuscrits de notre Annuaire qui se trouvait en attente dans le bureau de M. Richardson a pu être sauvée et, par la même occasion, le Registre central de la Section des impressions dans lequel figurait l'état d'avancement de tous les travaux d'impression du Bureau au cours de cette période. Je savais que, pour M. Richardson, cette « Bible » représentait une grande valeur.

Dans cette aventure, j 'ai été sérieusement aidé, outre les pompiers, par M. Weder qui, par la fenêtre, a réceptionné tous ces documents et en a pris grand soin. Quelques minutes plus tard, tout était en flammes !

Tout est bien qui finit bien, et j 'en ai été fort heureux. Certes, des félicitations m'ont été adressées mais, lorsque quelques jours plus tard j 'ai demandé le remboursement de la facture du nettoyage chimique de mon manteau de pluie et de mes vêtements imprégnés par la fumée, l'Administration n'a pas accédé à ma requête... ces frais n'étant pas couverts par l'assurance-incendie !

9 septembre 2006

[Fred Richardson, Chief of the Printing Section, wrote a note to Mr. Chapman, Chief of the Editorial Department and to Mr. Lacroix, Chief of the Statistics Department, in which he said: "By good fortune, Mr. Girard was in the vicinity of Petit Saconnex at the time of the fire and his long and close collaboration with the Printing Section enabled him to appreciate and recover this very valuable documentation, which permits the Printing Section to continue production with much greater ease than would otherwise have been the case.

I understand that Mr. Girard penetrated the violently burning office of the Printing Section and the charred (but very usable) condition of the Work in Progress Records bears mute testimony of the great personal danger to which he exposed himself.

This splendid action, typifying Mr. Girard's devotion to the Office in the best international official tradition, should not go unrecorded and is worthy of higher commendation. "]

26 DEPTS-2006-11 -0050-1 -En.doc

PHOTO GALLERY

Two anniversaries

by Fiona Rolian

Anees Ahmad very kindly responded to our call, in the Supplement of NL 40, for old photographs which could be scanned and placed in the ILO's iconographic archives. We are pleased to publish one of the photos he sent, a group photo taken in about 1954, of members of the Application of Conference Decisions Division including Naseer Ahmad, Anees' father, who was Chief of Division from 1952 to 1955. This photo is particularly appropriate in this 80th anniversary year of the establishment, in 1926, of the Committee of Experts on the Application of Conventions and Recommendations. A two-day colloquium, and a photographic exhibition on R3, will mark this special occasion during the Committee's forthcoming session in November-December.

Nicolas Valticos, Jean Lasserre-Bigorry, Ernest Landy and Naseer Ahmad, ca. 1954

The 80th anniversary of the inauguration of the old ILO building, on 6 June 1926, was also marked with a short slideshow on the WTO's public Website. For those who are interested, it can be viewed on:

http://www.wto.org/english/thewto_e/80anniv_e/80anniv_e.htm.

7 October 2006

OEPTS-2006-11-0050-1-En.doc 27

GALLIMAUFRY

The Sands of Time

by Fritz-the-Cat

As the desert wind that relentlessly does blow Seemingly so soft that you would hardly know That it roams here, and there, and ev'rywhere Silently eroding by stealthy wear and tear The stoutest rocks into thinnest powder: Such is Time, that into fine grit and sand Unrelenting grinds, impossible to withstand.

The Sands of Time move thick and fast; Their ghastly abrasive encompassing grasp Mercilessly engulfs and uncheck'd mounting, Subdues and erases, blots away the living Into dark oblivion. Quicksands they are, A deadly trap that trodden unaware Swallows up its prey, ne'er to yield it back.

The Sands of Time are creeping upon me, Their weird embrace I feel around my knee And by-and-by I find I am waist-deep In the ever moving mass. Shall I keep My eyes closed, vainly ignoring the worst? I sink, up to my neck, smother'd, lost. No mark'11 be left that I existed once.

L'Envoi

The Sands of Time steadily strive to stifle Memory. The Past from Oblivion to retrieve: such, History, Is thy bounden Duty.

February 2006

Waltzing with Whatman

by Peter Sutcliffe

We're a couple of old-timers, this sheet of watercolour paper and myself, and know a thing or two about this and that, as the saying goes.

Prodded by Management to produce at short notice a third entry for the Kulay sa Tubig National Watercolour Exhibition and Competition, I had first to find a sheet of the required 29x21 inches dimension, preferably of a heavy weight 3001b.

28 DEPTS-2006-11-0050-1-En.doc

That is not readily to hand in Manila. All I had left in stock was a solitary Imperial* sheet of Whatman 2001b, the last of a batch I bought at Green & Stone in Chelsea in 1978, the year I resettled in Geneva after tours of duty in Africa and Asia.

The paper was manufactured in 1931; it was older even than myself.

I approached my intrusion on its awesome sanctity with proper reverence. Here before me was perhaps the last remaining sheet of a reel of superlative material from the hand of a master paper-miller quite likely born when the Impressionists were at work: remember that much of an intervening generation was wiped out by World War I. For 47 years it had awaited a purchaser. It then languished 28 years in my paper cabinet.

After 75 years, Destiny had chosen me to resurrect it.

I steeled myself for the ordeal by recalling an identical challenge undergone by my old English mentor, W. Heaton Cooper, R.I. Commissioned in the 1950s to paint a new nuclear power station in its dramatic setting on the coast of Scotland, Heaton possessed but a single irreplaceable Double-Imperial sheet of his preferred Royal Watercolour Society (RWS) paper. His painting would be 60 per cent stormy sky: wet-in-wet alia prima virtuosity alone would do it, across 600 square inches and with no margin for error.

He took a deep breath and did it. As far as I know, the painting still hangs in the London office of the British Nuclear Fuels corporation.

Asking for trouble, I also chose to cover my top 60 per cent with a stormy sky, this one over the Zambales Hills north of Manila, site of the deadly Mt. Pinatubo volcano.

Somehow I got away with it. Only just, mind you. I don't find Whatman entirely to my liking, which explains why the paper lay unused in my drawer for so long. The Whatman gave me a hard time, yielding nothing without a fight. My storm-clouds became pools of volcanic mud: Mt. Pinatubo's Revenge stared me in the face.

For a ghastly hour The Whatman and I slugged it out. Eight rounds in the ring with Muhammed Ali must have felt pretty much like this. Finally, scrubbing desperately with a 2-inch Chinese hake - a weapon of last resort - I secured a draw on points and slunk off to lick my wounds, a sadder and wiser man.

Thereafter, as in a Beethoven symphony, calm followed the storm. The Whatman beamed sweetness and light, and rewarded me with a quite magical, Dutch fairytale landscape foreground...a foreground I had prayed for, to divert attention from the celestial disaster zone behind it.

Three days later I presented the mounted work for Management's blessing. The quite magical, Dutch fairytale foreground went unremarked. All eyes feasted upon the Disaster Zone. 'Just look at that fantastic sky!' Head of Management gasped. 'We'll stick this in the competition.'

English mills identify a standard 30x22 inch sheet as an 'Imperial'. The standard trade package is a ream, consisting of 280 sheets. Paper weight (e.g. 1001b, 3001b) is the weight of an Imperial ream. French paper is classified by weight in grams per square metre (gsm, g/m2) of a single sheet: thus, for example, French 300gsm corresponds to English 1401b.

DEPTS-2006-11-0050-1-En.doc 29

Thus did the stone that the builder rejected, as it were, become the cornerstone. One never knows...

But I do know that without a lifetime's experience I could never creditably have partnered The Whatman in that breathless Domesday Dance. I'm gratified that I didn't let him down, and enabled him to do the job he was made to do, for which he waited long. Next month he'll be up in lights on a gallery wall where he belongs.

Our combined age is close to 150 years: it's nice to know we're both in robust condition and undimmed by the decades.

The shepherds in the hills where I was bred used to say, 'If it's a long road, take an old dog.' They could well have been right.*

20 July 2006

My second retirement

by Angela Butler

To crib from someone we all know well, the time has come, to talk of many things - and more particularly to put some of them down on paper for the Friends Newsletter.

Why? Simply because I have started in on my second retirement. I retired from the ILO in August 1981. Now, 25 years later, having successfully survived the 'troisieme age', I have resolutely embarked on another stage and changed my way of life. Perhaps I should call it my 'quatrieme age'. Whether it will be as long as the third stage remains to be seen. I hope not. Not that I intend to give up, but I suspect that one day I shall have fewer friends to write for in the FNL, and if one writes a letter one wants it to be read. I have never been able to keep a diary, so my letters to members of my family and to friends are important to me.

A few of my friends will have received a 'Change of address' notice. I intended to follow it up with individual letters but I fell down on the job. Perhaps that is one of the changes I have noticed that have brought me to change my lifestyle: things seem to take longer than they 'should'. Or the days have become shorter. Or perhaps I have become lazier. No matter, I don't seem to get as much done in the waking hours available to me.

I moved into the Residence Amitie at the very end of March 2006. April, May and June just disappeared. I don't know where they went. I needed those three months to clear up my apartment on the Grand'Rue, to vacate it so that I could turn the keys over to the Regie for the first of July. It was strange to see the flat, empty as on the first day of my tenancy. None of my usual clutter. It looked very empty indeed.

I had already been sleeping at the Residence for three months but up until then the move had not seemed real. Now the reality of it hit. What has changed? Everything - and not much. As some people will remember, July 2006 was hot and humid. Geneva at its nastiest. Only one other period in Geneva comes near it: the dark weeks of November/December/January when the clouds lie hopelessly low and grey over the city. You know that the sun is shining somewhere up there above them but you can't get at it. I did a bunk up to Vercorin in the Valais.

* The shepherds were proved right, for the painting was placed sixth in the competition, missing a first prize by just one vote (27.10.2006).

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In September I came down to earth, to the Residence. It didn't take long to convince me that to move to an EMS (Etablissement Medico-Social) had been the right decision. Until then I had not been quite sure.

One of the biggest hurdles had been to admit that I could no longer cope on my own. It was the practical housekeeping problems that were the deciding factor, more than the health problems, though the latter were there as well. I had been making do with help coming in so many times a week - aide a domicile - but it was not enough. Shopping had become a real problem: with both hands occupied by two elbow crutches (cannes anglaises) you cannot carry anything much. I was very fortunate to have in all this the help of my sister and my two nieces, but they have their own lives to lead.

After deciding to move there was another problem: where to move to? My sister was invaluable in helping me solve it. Together we visited a number of EMSs and eventually whittled the list down to just two: the Residence Amitie and one other. I applied to both for accommodation - and then waited to see what one would happen. That was two and a half years ago but I was not in a hurry. In the meantime I became convinced that the Residence Amitie was the one I wanted so I was glad when that was the one which replied first: Was I still interested? I could move in tomorrow! Of course that was too soon but having waited two years I was not going to drop it. We compromised on a week later.

My sister and my nieces were invaluable when it came to organizing the actual physical move from my four-room apartment to the Residence. They drew a plan of the new premises, measured the furniture to make sure what would fit in. Books were one of the major problems. What did I want to keep and have by me? How does one get rid of English books in a francophone community? And there was the table linen and china and glass. It's appalling the amount of 'stuff that can be accumulated in close on fifty years! I had not moved since I took on the Grand'Rue apartment in 1958! I could not have managed without the family's help.

Now, taking stock, I recognize that the rhythm of my life has changed - but not that much. The meal times have changed. Breakfast is flexible enough - 7.30 to 9.30 - and no one seems to mind when I am still sitting over my coffee cup at 10 a.m. I can see various people smile for I was known as someone who was never really on deck until after 10 a.m. Lunch is a problem. It is the main meal of the day and is at 12 noon, whereas I was used to having a snack mid-day at any time from 13.00 to 14.30. Even more difficult to adapt to is a supper at 6 p.m. Most of my friends have their main meal in the evening, at some time after 7 p.m., more often after 8. If I want to go to a concert or a movie that, too, is likely to be after 8.1 still do go to both, and a small working party I participated in yesterday began at 8.30 p.m. They soon realized at the Residence that I needed to have a key to let me leave the building and come home independently after hours. So if I have to adapt my habits a bit to theirs, they have adapted a bit to mine.

My sister and I, when we did our tour of EMS establishments in Geneva to see which we liked the most, picked out the Residence Amitie as the most agreeable, the one which did not fall into a state of shock when I said I needed to bring my computer, the one where I felt I would most likely be able to fit in and, very important, be able to continue my own life. We were right. The whole atmosphere is friendly, open. It is just as well because, having always, in my adult working life, lived by myself, I am finding it a little strange to be living not with but among other people. Perhaps it is good for me?

Anyway I no longer look on this, my quatrieme age, with trepidation. I moved in to the Residence with two bookcases, my desk, filing cabinet, TV, CD player (and a basic selection of CDs), my computer and printer, have got a direct-line telephone fixed up,

DEPTS-2006-11-0050-1-En.doc 31

and am now open for business. I can no longer put people up at the apartment but visitors are welcome. Just give me a ring first to be sure I'm at home (+41(0)22 919 95 31).

9 October 2006

Tsunami Story

by J. Krishnamurty

[J. Krishnamurty was an ILO consultant on a World Bank-Asian Development Bank-UN mission to assess the damage done by the tsunami of December 2004 in South India. This short story is a result of that.]

Kumar woke up in a cold sweat. He had the same dream, night after night. He was dozing in his chair on the beach. He saw the giant hooded serpent, hissing down on him threateningly. It was about to strike and there was no escape. "I have come to take away your past and steal your future. I will take away your men, women and children. I will destroy your boats and nets. I will wash away your homes." There was nothing Kumar could do but squirm in his chair, paralysed, unable to move. "I have no use for you," went on the serpent, "you are nothing! You are of no use to anybody. You are just a miserable cripple tied to a wheelchair. If I took you, I would be taking nothing."

Kumar looked again. This was no serpent, but a giant wave about to wash away everything from Nagapattinam beach. The wave rose high into the sky, turned away from him and washed away all that came in its path. Catamarans were flying through the air like projectiles and thudding into nearby buildings. He could hear the sickening sound of buildings collapsing. The air was filled with the shrieks of his parents, his sister, and his childhood friends... all being washed away.

He had survived! Even the tsunami did not want him. It passed him by and took away all his near and dear ones.

* * *

When Kumar managed to make his way back to his house further up on the beach, the giant waves had subsided, leaving havoc in their wake. His family home had been washed away without a trace. His mother's comb lay near a broken piece of mirror. His sister's favourite wooden toy, an elephant, lay with its trunk buried in the sand. He looked for the little shed which was his cycle repair shop. There was no trace of it. The tsunami had washed it away. His puncture kit and the cycle parts had disappeared under a mound of sand. There was nothing he could do: he sat on his chair and wept for the family he lost and the occupation he could no longer carry on.

Neighbours came to console him and relief workers provided him with food packets and fresh water to drink. He had no idea how long he remained in this condition.

One day, as usual he went down towards the sea in his wheelchair. The village people were gathered there, talking earnestly to a group of foreigners. "These are high officials from international organizations," whispered a knowledgeable neighbour. "They will provide the money to buy new boats and nets and build new houses." The village chief was busy talking to them about their losses. "We lost 50 lakhs of rupees worth of boats and nets and another 20 lakhs will be needed to rebuild our houses." The visitors took out their calculators and were busy doing sums. One of them was looking at the destroyed houses and another was talking with the fishermen about their boats and how much fish they would catch each day.

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As the visitors made their way through his village, Kumar tried to move his wheelchair so that he could get a good view of them. At the same time, the women gathered around some of them and told them about the self-help groups to which they belonged and how the tsunami had washed away all that they had. "All we have is some money in the bank, and huge loans that we cannot pay. Do help us." The village elders were sympathetic, but raised again and again the need for grants, rather than loans, to help them to recover. Kumar did not know the difference between grants and loans, but it did not seem an opportune time to try and find out.

The visitors appeared to be a little cold and distant. They asked pointed questions and wrote down the replies in their little notebooks. Most of them were foreigners. A young woman and an older man appeared to be Indian, for they spoke to the village women in Tamil. Kumar instinctively felt they were more sympathetic. The young woman listened patiently to the woes of the village women and promised to help them. Somehow her assurances rang true. The Indian man's expression was sad and he appeared to be overcome by what he saw and heard.

Kumar wanted so much to tell both of them about how the tsunami had spared him but taken away his livelihood. Each time he tried to approach them, a group of women would step in and push him back. After a while, he gave up the effort and began to wheel himself back towards the coast.

As he stopped for breath, he saw that the pair had caught up with him. "What is your problem? How can we help you?" he heard them ask. They listened patiently to all he had to say, never interrupting him or cutting him short like government officials and other important people do, and then they promised to see what could be done to help him to start his cycle repair shop again. "He is an example to all those able-bodied persons who put out their hands for grants and hand-outs, said the man. "He wants to be self-reliant again, but he does not ask for anything," commented the woman. "I just want to start my cycle repair shop again," repeated Kumar.

Weeks passed and nothing happened. Kumar felt that he had built up false hopes. He started looking for some way to start his cycle repair shop, but he had neither the tools nor the stock of parts to make it work. Some villagers helped him out by asking him to oil their cycles and carry out minor repairs and adjustments. This was very kind of them, but he realized that this would not help him much.

One morning as he was sitting in his chair near the beach, Father Joseph arrived. Father Joseph ran the local church social service unit. "I have good news for you. We will be rebuilding your cycle shop and providing the tools and parts you need." Kumar was very excited. He could not believe his good fortune. "How did this happen? Was it the man and the woman who visited our village last month?"

Father Joseph said: "I don't know what to tell you. Just remember that God is great and he reveals himself in mysterious ways."

* * *

Kumar dreamt of the tsunami often, but he did not let it frighten him any more. When he dreamt of the monster wave, he remained calm. He could hear himself saying: "Poor tsunami! You let me live because you thought my life was not worth taking. How wrong you were!"

19 September 2006

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BOOK NOTES

Bimal Ghosh, Migrants' Remittances and Development. Myths, Rhetoric and Realities, International Organization for Migration, 2006,118 pp.

We all know Bimal, as a former colleague, contributor to our Newsletter and highly-respected expert on migration. He kindly sent me a copy of this important, rigorous analysis of the money stream that migrant workers from developing countries send to their home countries, contributing to productive investment there, and/or immediately increasing relatives' consumption and living standards.

We are talking money here. In 2005 such transfers amounted to some $160 billion. If not even more, because much is sent through informal channels and escapes the statistics of the World Bank - the main source of data. Compare this with official development assistance of the order of $80 billion or so. But as chapter 1 explains, transfers out of developing countries and other corrections reduce the net impact of inward flows by possibly scores of billions. So one can only guess the real size of benefits and costs of remittances for developing countries. But there can be no doubt that the net benefits are very substantial. The following chapters enlighten the reader further on the nature of the economic and social benefits of transfers, and on what NGOs, banks and multinational corporations can do to hamper or enhance these benefits. All this impeccably documented and painstakingly analyzed.

One hopes for a sequel. On p.8, the reader is warned that the "wider issues of migration are not taken up" in the book. This reviewer would very much like to know Bimal's views on some of these. Aamir, a migrant himself, raised a few in the Newsletter. So did I, also a migrant. Doubters in developed countries of the benefits of immigration for themselves, are told it is necessary to support their future pensions, that their hospitals would be understaffed (but in, e.g., Switzerland and the US, there seem to be too many native medics), that they could not get help in their own households, and that their countries' economic growth would stagnate because of labour shortages. What "myths, rhetoric, and realities" does Bimal see in these arguments?

I warmly recommend the book.

June 2006 Bert Zoeteweij

David H. Freedman, Youth Employment Promotion. A Review oflLO Work and the Lessons learned, Youth Employment Papers 2005/1, ILO 2005, 73 pp.

Economists, such as yours truly, are known to be boring and opinionated folk. One of the rare exceptions is David Freedman. Though a good economist, he is cheerful, entertaining and open-minded. He joined the Economic Branch in the late 1960s. A few years later, that unit was abolished and David went to the Employment Department.

Seeing the title of his study, some might associate it with the second generation immigrant youth's riots in France late last year and again in May. As well as similar, smaller disorders in, e.g. Canada, and incidents involving unemployed youths in countries like Brazil and India. Though the study warns of social disorder caused by youth unemployment, it does not mention specific cases, no doubt because it was written

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before the French incidents. However, as the title page indicates, it is the first in a series of papers, and presumably will be followed by others.

The "Network" (YEN) of the title comprises the ILO, the UN and the World Bank. The paper reviewed here deals mostly with the ILO's work; it would be interesting to know what the others have done. One might also wonder why UNICEF is not a participant. It is an ILO partner in the separate programme for child labour. And that, and the young workers programme partially overlap: 15-17 year olds are included in both. Why not amalgamate them? (UNICEF, with its Xmas cards, and "ambassadors" like the late Danny Kaye, has plenty of money.)

That said, David gives a very interesting survey of relevant ILO labour standards, ILO resolutions, Programme/Budget statements, technical cooperation projects and Office and outsiders' research. Followed by an impeccable analysis of 16 of these products by 11 criteria of their importance as "building blocks" in further work on matters like social, political and security implications of youth unemployment, and employment creation. All this with scientific precision and depth.

Pages 23 ff. present "outputs" of the network's efforts: a new ILO programme for skills, knowledge and employability of young workers; country programmes; and further resolutions. One would like to know of any outputs by way of numbers of youth jobs clearly as a result of YEN'S activities in a future publication. Summing up: David's first-rate study should be read by all who are interested in youth unemployment, hopefully to be followed by other papers.

June 2006 Bert Zoeteweij

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LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

Une trouvaille

Pensant avoir encore quelques aspirations intellectuelles, je me suis rendue au Salon du livre. En flânant parmi les stands, je suis tombée sur une petite publication « Heureux qui comme ... Le Transsibérien », écrite en 1905 par un certain Albert Thomas. Curieuse, j'ai acheté ce livre pour découvrir que son auteur était bel et bien un futur Directeur du BIT. Jeune étudiant brillant, Albert Thomas avait gagné en 1898 un prix d'excellence peu banal offert par la Cie. des Wagons-lits, soit un billet gratuit pour le Transsibérien : ses impressions de voyage forment un témoignage charmant sur cette ligne mythique encore inachevée à l'époque. Le style est magnifique et le tout se lit avec grand plaisir. (Edition Magellan et Cie.)

28 avril 2006 Marianne Nussbaumer

[See Jack's article under "Remembrance of things past".]

My favourite readings

These are my favourite papers to read: our Friends Newsletter; the sophisticated newspaper I often read (Kofi Annan, Jacques Chirac, Tony Blair, Gordon Brown, our widely respected colleague Bimal Ghosh, and other luminaries sometimes contribute to it); the Staff Union's Letter to Former Officials, and a few books on history, politics and economics.

Ron Kirkman

Gratefully, I read Roberto Payrô's moving obituary in the Staff Union's Letter to Former Officials of May 2006 of Ronald Kirkman - whose untimely death leaves many with a grievous loss. I had seen Ron some 30 years ago in Bolin's Publications Board, of which Roberto, John Western and I were members, and Roberto took him to observe proceedings, but Ron never spoke there. Some five years ago, as Freda and I had a meal in our favourite village restaurant "Le Tilleul" in Commugny, he came over to our table to say hello. I remembered him vaguely, thought he seemed a nice man and forgot him again. A few months later, as some 10 relatives gathered for a dinner party I had convened in Le Tilleul, I saw him sitting at the next table. He could not have known I would be there, as on his arrival our large table was still unoccupied. I suggested to him that he, Freda and I have lunch together some time. Which we then did, once every month or so. He was a most pleasant friend, with a wide range of interesting conversation. But while he always asked details of my own ailments, the medicine I had to take and so on, curiously, when we asked how he was himself, it was always "just fine". (But after his death the patronne of Le Tilleul, with whom he had also been very friendly, told us that he had often complained to her of chest pains). So the news of his death shocked us profoundly. At the time, however, I had fallen badly, being practically immobile. So to my deep regret, I could not attend the funeral service in Gingins nor the reception in Le Tilleul.

US Withdrawal

In FNL 39 and 40 Jack Martin, Hans Hammar and Oscar de Vries remind us of the sad problem of why the United States once quit the ILO. I had ignored Jack's request for contributions, believing that my own thoughts on the matter were already known. But

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apparently they were not. In FNL 9, I mentioned the USSR's interference with our Organization and how the US reacted to it, including the facts in Hans' and Oscar's notes, and a bit more. And I wrote of my own modest role in the drama of the US withdrawal. DG Francis Blanchard had asked me to go and see John Dunlop, and persuade him to stop the Kissinger letter we knew was imminent and would announce the withdrawal. John was known to be a friend of mine and at the time was Secretary of Labor in the Nixon administration. My mission failed miserably. I flew to Boston, where he lived, on a Sunday, so he would not be busy at his department. I phoned his home, but every time I rang his wife would answer and say he was "not there at the moment". Until at last he answered, and reluctantly told me how to get to his place. There he said the decision to send the letter had been taken and was irreversible. Shamefaced, the next day I had to tell Francis Blanchard, as he was sitting in the UN Assembly Hall in New York, of my failure. In fact, Jenks' appointment of the Soviet ADG had been the last straw on the US camel's back of grievances against the ILO - such as the anti-American attitude of some Governing Body members.

Veto Five

To have Francois Agostini as its historian resident is a piece of good luck for our Newsletter. As it is for the Staff Union's Letter, where he has the same role, and in November 2005 wrote a most interesting, perceptive article on the history of the Veto Five in the UN Security Council, and how he proposed to revise it: more permanent members, and abolishing veto rights altogether. As he puts it, the existing veto five had persuaded Stalin to agree with the arrangement. I believe that the USSR had been rather more involved in making it (see Weinberg, A World at Arms, Cambridge U.P. 1994; Gaddis, The Cold War, Penguin 2005). Next, I look at the IFI's (World Bank, IMF), where a similar problem has arisen, but different solutions have been proposed.

A new institution called "Security Council" with five veto powers was adopted at the UN founding conference at Dumbarton Oaks on Stalin's own proposal. As Francois reports, Roosevelt also wanted such rights for his "Four Policemen"; but not in a new body, as Francois implies, but in the Assembly. At that Conference, Churchill wanted vetoes also for France and China, insisting, however, that there must never be outside interference with the UK colonial structure (including Hong Kong). That was in line with Stalin's insistence that there must be no such interference in the Soviet empire. Stalin did not mind a few more permanent members with vetoes because, a staunch believer in Marxism-Leninism, he reckoned that capitalist members would soon destroy each other in wars over markets. Yet, they might first want to "gang-up" against his empire, their immediate common enemy. So, to prevent them from outvoting him at that stage, to the US/UK horror, he demanded that all 16 Soviet republics should also be permanent Council members. Gromyko had made clear that on that point, outvoting him, there would never be concessions. That persuaded Roosevelt, too, to accept Stalin's new Security Council, for five permanent members with vetoes. Stalin may, indeed, have believed there was a risk of a "ganging-up". But perhaps a more important reason for his waving that flag at home was the need to keep control of some opponents of his one-man dictatorship, such as Beria and Malenkov, telling them that in the 1917 crisis Lenin had also had to have such powers. In that, at least, he succeeded. Yet, when in 1948 he had ordered land and waterway access routes to West Berlin to be blocked, he told his air force not to stop the first Allied airlift. (On Khrushchev's orders Beria was later assassinated, and Malenkov despatched from Moscow to the countryside.)

The rationale for the veto rule was that the five Policemen might have to ensure world peace by military might, and should not be prevented from doing, or compelled not do so, by non-military powers. At the time, that theory was a bit unrealistic, since neither France nor China were credible military powers. Stalin did not mind China's weakness, convinced that his allied Maoist rebels there were sure to beat the capitalist Chiang Kai-

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shek lot. With their A-bombs, China and France today are militarily credible. So, on the military level veto for each of the five is still rational. Aspirant new permanent members such as Brazil, Germany and Japan are not credible military powers. How it works out on the political level, we shall see.

The Security Council issue settled, Stalin gladly embraced the UNO, including its specialized agencies. But he would have no truck with the capitalist IFIs. Which were, and are, not UN specialized agencies. Unlike the latter, the IFIs do not get biannual or annual budgets from government or inter-government money, and they do not report to the Economic and Social Council, ECOSOC. Their money comes from the difference between the interest rates they charge their borrowers, and those they have to pay in the private capital markets to get the money for making loans, because of their higher credit ratings. The IFIs had been set up at about the time of Dumbarton Oaks in another leafy US resort, Bretton Woods. At the time, its shareholders were the US, and the war-ravaged West European countries. Shareholders had votes in the IFI governing boards, roughly in proportion to the number of their shares, the latter roughly set by the size of their economies. Later on, other countries, such as Brazil, China, South Korea, while still small economically, also became members/shareholders with small holdings and vote numbers. Now they are economic giants, larger than most European members. But their shareholdings/votes have not been raised accordingly. A situation similar to the Security Council's conundrum. However, there are signs of a positive wish to solve it. Rato, the Executive Director of the IMF, and in the Bank the new economic powers and some high Bank officials have proposed a fair solution. Whether that will be adopted depends mainly on the Europeans' willingness to see their own voting rights diluted. Incidentally, post-Soviet Russia is a member, and even tries hard to join the World Trade Organization.

Proper English

Now the last item on this list of my favourite readings: Jack's comment, in FNL 40, on my ponderings about CUE-ZUT in the same issue. It prompts me to amend what I wrote there about my school teacher's English. I blamed him, Dr. Oudegeest, a Dutchman, for not knowing "proper English". Apart from Jack's remarks, I have since read and heard about a growing belief, in England and elsewhere, that non-natives are better at teaching English than natives. It means that, rather than Oudegeest being blamed for incompetence, he should be praised as a pioneer who more than 60 years ago foresaw that English natives would spoil their own language, and bravely protected his pupils from falling victims to that. He deserves a posthumous English CBE, and the highest Dutch honours!

June 2006 Bert Zoeteweij

[Bert tells us that this will be his last contribution to our Newsletter, although he will remain an ardent reader. Thanks for your support over many years, Bert; we regret, but understand your decision, and we will not hold it against you if now and again you sent us a little piece of excellent English prose for the Newsletter/ JPM.J

[To keep a NL of this sort going, we need loyal contributors; you have added a touch of gravitas to our NL and proved that while you are a serious person, you can also be human and humorous.

I am accustomed to believe all that you say but I do not believe that this is really your last contribution. David Attenborough said, "The urge to communicate is as vital to the

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evolution of the human species as the feather is to the bird or the fin to the fish. " Am I to believe that you no longer have the urge to communicate? AA.J

Eiji Mizutani

In the late 1960s I was given the task of selecting a candidate for a vacancy in the Asian Desk of the Management Development Branch in Geneva and remember being told by the Personnel Department that the most preferred nationality for recruitment was Japanese and the least preferred was mine - Indian! That said, a small stack of applications of Asian candidates was left on my desk for review. As coincidence and good luck would have it there was Eiji Mizutani's file, one among very few Japanese candidates who seemed tailor-made for the position and also happened to be in Europe on business. The Personnel Department acted quickly, brought him to Geneva for a series of interviews, and we recruited him to join us in the Spring of 1968.

Eiji had four appealing qualifications: first was his high competence in English, an uncommon attribute for a Japanese of his generation. As an English literature graduate with honours he honed his language skills when on loan from his first employer, the Mitsubishi Oil Company, to the Japan Productivity Centre (JPC) serving as an interpreter-cum-coordinator of almost a dozen study missions to Europe and the USA. Second was his academic training at the University of Chicago in economics and business administration, which he undertook during his assignment with the JPC. Third was his wide range of professional experience due to veering from the conventional Japanese wisdom of working with one lifetime employer and instead networking with numerous leading Japanese companies successfully promoting the export of their tools and dies for which he received the Japanese government's export contribution prize for three consecutive years. Fourth was his experience at the regional level with the Asian Productivity Organization that hired him to conduct management consulting and training activities based on his previous achievements.

Upon joining the ILO, one of the ongoing projects he was assigned to supervise had the objective of developing Korean management consultants within the Medium Industry Bank of Korea to support small and medium industries that received bank loans. At the time an ILO team of three management consultants and their Korean counterparts had undertaken a survey of the bank's existing clients and identified some of their common problems in both export management and manufacturing (e.g. poor metal finishing of parts or end products, and poor quality castings due to blow holes in ferrous and non ferrous products).

Eiji, after his first visit to Korea, proposed a refreshingly new idea of relying on Japanese expertise to resolve the imminent problems identified in this project. He suggested entrusting the ILO project manager in Korea to work in collaboration with a few consulting companies in Japan and identify short rather than long term consultants who could improve manufacturing processes. Personnel Department found an acceptable way to implement this. Over the next three years around 24 short-term visits (6 to 12 weeks) by Japanese consultants effectively assisted the project. The UNDP later rated the project as the best so far implemented in Korea by any UN specialised agency, a feather in the cap of Eiji and the project manager who incidentally was Rex Jenkins, now 91 years old and living in Sydney.

In 1970, after two full years in Geneva, Eiji left us to go back to Tokyo for personal reasons. As a parting souvenir from our branch we gave him the 1969 ILO Nobel Peace Prize memento. At the end of the same year the Asian Desk of the Branch moved to Bangkok where I continued to supervise management projects across the region including the Korean project that Eiji shaped. During this period I had the opportunity of

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meeting him a few times while on mission in Tokyo. My family and I also took a private holiday to celebrate our elder daughter's sweet sixteen birthday in Japan with Eiji, his wife Chizuko, his sons Riyuchi and Yutaka, and two of our other close family friends stationed in Tokyo.

In 1985, after fifteen years based in Tokyo working for leading European and American management consulting companies as a partner, human resource development director, managing director, and as a consultant to the UN International Trade Centre, he agreed to rejoin the ILO for one year as Regional Advisor in Management for Asia in Bangkok where I was stationed in a new overall management capacity. During this period Eiji developed a management consulting and training project in Bangladesh while our bank based technical assistance projects of the Korean type, that were later developed in Malaysia and elsewhere, were progressively assigned by UNDP to UNIDO with the ILO playing a subsidiary role. A year later his return to Japan coincided with my transfer to the ILO Liaison Office in New York.

Back in Tokyo for another fifteen years, Eiji took on several challenging offers to establish new or existing American and Canadian management consulting companies in Japan and vice versa. Among these were a global human resource compensation and benefits consulting firm and a Japanese-English translation software development and marketing company. He also published three books and over 50 articles in the US and Japanese press, mostly on the topic of cross-cultural management for multinational companies. We had the opportunity to meet during my six years in New York when he was invited to attend board meetings of the North American companies he represented in Tokyo.

The last time I met Eiji and Chizuko was as ILO retirees in 1994 at SAR II in Geneva. We maintained regular correspondence thereafter and particularly enjoyed receiving their annual greeting cards with highlights of family holidays, updates on their sons, and their respective professional activities. Chizuko, as a Japanese language teacher for international students, was a major foil adding to his lustre. We had hoped to meet again during 2001-2002, had he been able to fulfil an open invitation to address McGill University's Management faculty at the Centre for Entrepreneurial Studies while my wife and I were with our daughter and family in Montreal.

The family's 2005 greeting card stated that "his major activity has been a five year project mentoring [Japanese] entrepreneur CEO's, nine in all running ventures in a wide range of esoteric fields. He has guided them in their efforts to develop global literacy and master global business. Their outcome has been heartening." In response to our condolences earlier this year his wife said, "the night before he was hospitalized by the ambulance car, he told me proudly that the average of their [CEOs] growth rate in 2005 was 49.2%, up from 25.3% in 2004 and 15.1% in 2003." These two quotes for me capture what a dedicated professional he always was. Eiji has indeed lived a full, active, and fascinating professional life spiced by a great variety of challenges and successes to the very end.

September 2006 M.N. Unni Nayar

Gone with the wind

Q: Under the pretext of globalization, flexibility of labour markets and competition, international labour standards are ignored and conditions of work are deteriorating rapidly. Where is the Governing Body Committee of Experts on the Application of Conventions and Recommendations?

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A: Gone with the wind.

Q: And where is the Conference Committee on the Application of Conventions and Recommendations? A: Gone with the wind.

Q: And where are the ICFTU, WFTU and similar international, regional and national workers' organizations all over the world? A: Gone with the wind.

Q: And where is the ILO? A: Soon be gone with the wind.

Q: And where are the employers' organizations all over the world? A: Making money, satisfying rich shareholders, hoping for more deterioration and enjoying their life.

9 October 2006 Salah Ayoub

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NAMES AND NEWS

BHALLA, Ajit, 28 route de Geneve, CH-1291 Commugny. Tel.: 022 776 14 87. E-mail: abhalla@hotmail.com

[Ajit Bhalla held an exhibition of his painting last summer in the Hotel du Lac, Coppet. It was his second exhibition.]

Until a few years ago, like you, I had no idea that I was an artist!!

This is a post-Cambridge job. I am leading a very different life now. I have given up on economics and development issues. The last book which came out in March this year (Poverty and Inequality among Chinese Minorities, Routledge, London) closed one chapter of my life.

Now I am enjoying history, architecture and genealogy. My latest book, In Search of Roots: Guru Amar Das and Bhallas, is being published by Rupa & Co. in New Delhi. Another one, Royal Tombs of India (13th to 18th Century), is the result of photographic expeditions in India. It goes into the history and architecture of Tughluq, Lodi and Mughal tombs. So from now on, it is all art, which I am thoroughly enjoying!

27 May 2006

BUTLER, Angela, Residence Amitie, 1 rue Baudit, 1201 Geneva. Tel: 022 919 95 31.

[See her article under "Gallimaufry ".]

CHAMBERLAIN, Irene, E-mail: irene54ch@aol.com

[Change of e-mail address.]

DE MAIO, Fernanda, 21 via Graglia, 10136 Turin, Italy.

[See her article under "How I came to join the Turin Centre ".]

DOWDING, Ed, 16A Moore Street, Birkenhead, 1310 Auckland, New Zealand. E-mail: eudowding@xtra.co.nz

We certainly hope to make the next 5 year reunion even though I will be 90.

12 September 2006

ESCALLIER-ALAPETITE, Regine, Route de Valreas, F-26770 Taulignan, France. E-mail: regine.escallier@wanadoo.fr

[See her article under "How I came to join the ILO".]

GIRARD, Claude A., 6 chemin de Relion, CH-1245 Collonge-Bellerive.

Pour vivre heureux, vivons caches ! Ce dicton m'a toujours paru plein de sagesse et, en regie generate, j 'a i essaye de le suivre dans ma vie quotidienne.

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Ceci dit, je prends grand plaisir à lire le Bulletin des anciens et à prendre connaissance des nouvelles de mes anciens collègues du BIT et des souvenirs de leur activité au sein de cette « Grande maison » à laquelle ils restent, comme moi d'ailleurs, très attachés.

Mille merci à toi, à Jack Martin... et à tous les autres, d'avoir su créer, et surtout faire perdurer cet important fil rouge en y consacrant beaucoup d'énergie et de passion ! J'ose espérer que d'autres prendront, en temps voulu, le relais car « l'Histoire » d'une organisation comme la nôtre ne repose pas uniquement - et de loin - sur les résultats politiques acquis dans le monde des relations du travail, mais aussi sur la « Petite Histoire » dont les nombreux acteurs sont les collaborateurs de tout grade grâce auxquels elle a pu être écrite. Que l'on ne l'oublie jamais !

Comme promis lors de notre dernière rencontre à l'occasion de la réception des anciens fonctionnaires, j 'ai décidé, une fois n'est pas coutume, de donner quelques nouvelles de ma petite personne et d'y ajouter un souvenir « cuisant » à l'article de D. Farman-Farmaïan (cf. Bulletin des anciens, mai 2006) relatif à l'incendie qui a détruit l'annexe du BIT au Petit Saconnex, le 15 novembre 1966.

Je suis entré au BIT (Division statistique) en 1949 avec un contrat d'un mois ; après avoir eu le bonheur et la chance de gagner quelques concours, j 'y suis finalement resté... 34 ans ! J'ai démissionné en 1983 en tant que Chef de la Section des statistiques courantes et de l'administration du Bureau de statistiques, ceci après environ 30 années riches en expériences et bonheur professionnel ; pour diverses raisons, les quatre dernières années le furent moins !

Durant cette période j 'ai connu trois Directeurs généraux, dont David Morse que j 'ai eu le privilège à apprendre à bien connaître, tant sur le plan professionnel que personnel (via, à l'époque, son Chef de Cabinet Eric Hutchison et sa Secrétaire Holly Crosby). Quelle merveilleuse époque... ! J'ai travaillé sous la direction successive de six Chefs de Division/Bureau, parmi lesquels, Robert J. Myers a représenté pour moi un très important chaînon suivi, pour des raisons fort différentes, par Henri P. Lacroix et Bert Zoeteweij.

Depuis ma retraite anticipée en 1983, je vis à Collonge-Bellerive, près de Genève, où mon épouse et moi-même avons pu construire une petite villa sur un terrain familial. Mis à part quelques petits problèmes de santé inhérents aux années qui passent (et oui... !), tout va pour le mieux. Je reste très actif dans beaucoup de domaines, notamment ceux liés à l'aviation, qui fut ma passion.

9 septembre 2006

[Claude was awarded the title of 'Membre d'Honneur du Groupe des Pilotes de Montagne' of the Aero-Club of Geneva on 15 July this year: a signal and well-merited honour.

See also Claude's article concerning the Petit Saconnex fire under "Remembrance of Things Past ".]

GRÛNEWALD, Bjôrn, P.O. Box 126, S-783 23 SÀTER, Sweden. Phone: +46-225 52 999; Fax: +46-225 52 699; Mobile: +46-70 565 0611. E-mail: bjorn.grunewald@telia.com

Concluding our preparations for a smooth transition into our Third Age, we have recently changed our residence into a comfortable condo with reasonable medical and other services within reach. Very comfortable indeed!

4 June 2006

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KRISHNAMURTY, J., 7 chemin du Champ-d'Airier, 1209 Geneva. Tel: 022 920 02 66. E-mail: krishnamurty@gmail.com

I am a retired ILO official. I worked for the ILO from 1986 to 2003. My last assignment was with the InFocus Programme on Crisis Response and Reconstruction. Subsequently, in February 2005, at the request of the New Delhi Office, I served as an ILO consultant on a joint World Bank-Asian Development Bank-UN mission to assess the damage done by the tsunami of December 2004 in the southern States of India.

"Tsunami story" [which appears elsewhere in this issue] is based upon an actual experience in Nagapattinam in Tamil Nadu during the February 2005 mission, but is written as fiction.

19 September 2006

KRUMMEL Carl, The Pines, 400 Avinger Lane, Suite 205, Davidson NC 28036, USA.

[Change of address.]

McARTHUR, Joan, 142-05 Roosevelt Avenue, Flushing, N.Y. 11354, USA. Tel.: (718) 939 6891.

[See the Editorial]

NATARAJAN, Krishnan, 6/333 Mogappair East, Chennai-600037, India, Tel: (91-44) 26563123; E-mail: mynat20@yahoo.com; and 10 IDA Street, Putney, Sydney NSW-2112, Australia. Tel.: (61-2) 98095572

[See his article under "How I came to Join the ILO".]

SNYDER, Don H., Kimball Farms Retirement Community, 235 Walker Street, Lennox, MA 01240, USA.

[Don has sent a message of greetings to everyone from his Retirement Home. His son reports that all things considered, he is doing well and still enjoys a glass of wine with his meals or a Heineken.

His son would be glad to pass on any messages you care to send. His address is: Courtney P. Snyder, Coldwell Banker Real Estate, Somerville, Mass., USA. E-mail: cpsnyder2@msn. com]

YOUNG, Leonard (Joe) Sr., 302 West 14th Street, Wilmington, DE 19801-1117, USA

I read the May 2006 Friends Newsletter and, as always, I found such interesting things to read about. I wish to congratulate you on your continued interest in and dedication to this great publication for the benefit of ILO retirees.

When I reached the ILO mandatory retirement age, some 26 years ago this month, I was fortunate in having Temple University in Philadelphia seek me out to accept a position with them that kept me occupied for ten years. It was a most enjoyable assignment - to travel to 17 counties of Pennsylvania and assist candidates to complete the requirements for certification to become trade skill instructors in Vocational Schools. I was able to set

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my own visitation schedules and was well paid for my services, travels and per diem. I was gratified by the reception that I received from the candidates.

Since I stopped working for pay in 1990, my wife and I have been attending the University of Delaware's Academy of Lifelong Learning in Wilmington, Delaware where we live. This is some information that I would like to pass on to retirees.

The Academy was established in 1980 to provide opportunities for intellectual and cultural explorations and development for men and women of retirement age. The Academy programme is developed by its members with the support of the Division of Professional and Continuing Studies of the University. All courses at the Academy are taught by persons who are also enrolled as students. Currently more than 230 courses are offered and there are 2,100 students enrolled. Members are entitled to take up to 5 classes per week per semester and classes run for 75 minutes. Members are also permitted to participate in extra-curricula activities such as band, book club or travel opportunities. One class that I have taken for each of my 16 years is entitled "Yesterday for Tomorrow" and that is a writing course - writing your life experiences in short stories - one to three pages long. Each class period members read their stories to the class. I have written close to 200 such stories, which are of interest to our children and grandchildren. Anyone with a computer who might be interested in learning more about the Academy can find it on the website www.academy.udel.edu.

27 May 2006

Erratum: In Anura Krairiksh's article "A unique experience" which appeared in the May issue of the Newsletter, the website of the meditation centre she visited was erroneously given as www.dhamma.com. For those who are interested, the correct address is: www.dhamma.org.

DEPTS-2006-11-0050-1-En.doc 45

CEUX QUI NOUS ONT QUITTES C'est avec tristesse que nous devons signaler le décès de :

ALCOCK, Anthony ANDRADE HERNANDEZ, Jose AOTRAKUL, Chimlim ARTIMANA, Laura BARAIBAR, Ponce de Leon BRUCE, Evelyn CABALLERO DE ZAVALETA, Benita CLARKE, William G. CORONA, Raquel CORRADO, Roberto (époux de Viviana Giordan-Corrado) COUPY, Aristide COX, Jessie (épouse de Bob Сох) DE CARTON, Claire Madeleine DIENG, Bakary DOSTAL, Helmut DREESEN, Robert DUNAND, Roger (époux de Pierrette Dunand) EL-KOUSSY, Ahmed Fouad FARMAN-FARMAÏAN, Djamchid FERRIER, Alisa Elizabeth FILLINGER, Judith (épouse de Donald Fillinger) GALER, Julio GHAZAWI, Badriah GONNET, Odette HABELT, Ethel May HERRERA PADRON, Armando HEUCHENNE, Jean-Jacques ISMAIL, Sevilay (épouse de Mensur Ismail) IWATA, Teruyoshi KITAGO, M. KLINGELE, Ralph KOCHER-GILLON, Simone LLOYD, Margaret (veuve de Johnny Lloyd) LOPEZ-JULIOS, Manuel LUKAWSKI, Andrzej MARCHESI, Aurélia MARRIOTT, Teresa Ethel MEERTENS, Helena (épouse de Dick Meertens) MILBURN, Kenneth MIZUTANI, Eiji MOHAMMAD Fateh NGUYEN, Thi Chat (épouse de Van Vuong Nguyen) NOOR, Ahmed PARSONS, Edith POORAN, Eileen (veuve de Peter Pooran) PROUST, André QUAYNOR, Festus Kwetei RAHARIMANANOROSOA, Lalaoarisoa Razanakoto RUBIO DE LA TORRE, Francisco SCHUMACHER, Ernest

2 septembre 2006 21 juin 2006 24 septembre 2006 6 janvier 2006 8 août 2005 2 février 2006 20 juillet 2006 13 août 2005 21 mai 2006 21 avril 2006 3 janvier 2006 8 septembre 2006 14 juin 2005 16 juin 2006 22 avril 2006 13 mai 2006 5 juillet 2006 27 janvier 2006 7 mai 2006 15 décembre 2005 15 avril 2006 22 juillet 2006 24 février 2005 30 janvier 2006 7 décembre 2005 26 juillet 2006 19 juillet 2006 7 mai 2006 20 janvier 2006 2 mai 2006 17 novembre 2005 12 avril 2006 9 mai 2006 21 février 2006 4 février 2006 4 décembre 2005 5 avril 2006 13 mai 2006 20 février 2006 30 janvier 2006 13 juin 2006 24juin 2006 21 mai 2005 5 mars 2006 1 avril 2006 28 août 2006 21 août 2006 15 juillet 2006 24 janvier 2006 2 août 2006

DEPTS-2006-11 -0050-1 -En.doc 47

SPILMAN (FAZIO), Rosaria THEROND, Claude TRAN, Thi Loc (veuve de Dinh Hue Tran) TURPIN, Thomas USAKLIGIL RUDICS, Elisabeth UTTING, William T. VALTICOS, Nelly (veuve de Nicolas Valticos) VELLER, Jean (époux de Jacqueline Veller) VICHNIAC, Isabelle (veuve de Jacques Vichniac) WALKER, Elena Maria ZAKI, Dalai Elba (épouse de Ramzi M. Zaki)

8 décembre 2005 7 février 2006 20 juin 2006 23 août 2006 15 septembre 2006 9 octobre 2005 14 août 2006 21 juillet 2006 29 octobre 2006 3 avril 2006 26 juillet 2006

Please address all correspondence, contributions, news and views to Aamir Ali, 14 ch. de la Tourelle, CH-1209 Geneva. Tel. and Fax: +41 (022) 798 83 39.

E-mail: aamirali@bluewin.ch Or : friends@ilo.org

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