Thursday, February 21, 2008


Buch Day 173
[back @ work week 23]

location: behind a flat monitor
office mates' shirts colours: green, gray, white
air: freakin' H A P P Y! for no [apparent] good reason

working on:
  • the approval & rejection criteria for reports
  • comments to the listed justifying documents
  • comments to the Beneficiary's Guide
  • a limited number of [so-called] personal projects
APPs SQ: 48/50

19.02 & 20.02 - L&A talk - 05.03 as submission day
22.02 through 02.03 - Cluj-based training on project management & monitoring

last read: Pascal Quignard's Vila Amalia
on my ears: last.fm

Quote of the Day:

Why do you have to be a nonconformist like everybody else? - James Thurber

Saturday, February 16, 2008

Geneva Rumblings

Somehow I only feel the urge to post here when away from Romania. All in all, Geneva is quite a bore. Not that there aren't places to have fun, things to do, mountains to climb and plenty of jazz music to listen to. Even friends are fairly easy to come about and excellent sushi places are quite the treat.

The big bore is the ubiquitous lack of people. It feels drained, too quiet, too neat, too brisk, too proper and definitely too smarmy. The streets are empty, the bars half full; shops close at 6 and if you're lucky you get off early enough on a Thursday to make it in time for the 9 PM exceptional closing time.

The border of Hungary and Ukraine gets more action than the Geneva Red Light District. I think Coelho dreamed about the 11 minutes on Rue de Berne.

Unlike Zurich, Geneva is France, not Switzerland. Physically it's about 20 minutes give or take from the French border. And unlike Zurich, the Geneva Swiss seem to have embraced the laisser-faire attitude of their neighboring country from work ethics to servicing industry. I am starting to believe the Swiss efficiency is built on the backs of foreigners and German Swiss.

It is a city for kids, families, older people and highschool trips to the UN. So far I seem to have missed its vibe, if any. I'm off on an exploring city trip in search of the extra sparks of life. I may just come back with the conviction that Geneva is the Truman Show of Europe, only this time Truman is MIA, probably away on a sky trip.

Tuesday, February 12, 2008


The Red Hand Campaign

One million red hands against the use of children in wars

According to the UN Convention on the Rights of a Child it has been forbidden to use children as soldiers since 12th February 2002*. Unfortunately, the number of child soldiers has hardly changed since then. There are still 250,000 children used in the wars of the adults.

Children and teenagers have initiated the Red Hand Campaign and appeal to old and young to participate. Send your message on a sheet of paper including your name and your town to the UN politicians. As an expression of your protest, place your hand print with red finger paint on it! [...]

*a.k.a. Red Hand Day [today]
[image & text taken from here]

I believe that the practice of Children Soldiers is one of the most infamous & abominable schemes in the world to-day! [below: Palestinian children protesting against the Israeli ban - Reuters]

Saturday, February 09, 2008

Sacred Choices.The Rights to Contraception and Abortion in Ten World Religions
by Daniel C. Maguire

As written here, a good approach of what Maguire is trying to do in his book would be by means of the relationships between the title and the so-called conventional wisdom:

Family planning, contraception and abortion are all intimately related issues which are often subject to rancorous debates in modern society and international politics. According to conventional wisdom, traditional religious beliefs and institutions are opposed to all three. According to conventional wisdom, religion is inevitably anti-choice in such matters. What if conventional wisdom is wrong?


You can find a summary of the religions being discussed and Maguire's deconstruction of their traditional wisdom here. I believe the making of his contentions is a good start; it's critical thinking with regard to religion(s). And we all appreciate critical thinking around here, don't we? :)

His arguments are broadly displayed as in the following example (p. 32 of the book):
The separation of power and ideas is one of the tragedies of human life. The Catholic tradition is filled with more good sense and flexibility than one would gather from its leaders. Religious leaders are often not equipped to give voice to the best in the tradition they represent. (...) Lay people are changing this as they enter the field of Catholic theology and bring their real-life experiences as workers, parents and professionals. Catholic theology is no longer a clergy club, and that is a gain.

As you can read from the above, he's bringing common sense into religious interpretation; I would contend, however, that his arguments might have been pushed a bit more than what is done by the book. Common sense is a good start for setting forth a common sense debate; yet a religious debate would need more religion-grounded contentions, and this is the account on which the book eluded me. I do perceive it as a good initiative, but its efforts must be sustained by a continuation which would bring the discussion to the next level.

Monday, February 04, 2008

Technologically Frustrated

... last night, my mobile phone fell off my pocket on the backseat of the taxi that got me back home; it had not only all of my contacts & the only alarm clock I use to wake up during workdays, but also my Dutch sim card (with all my Utrecht & A'dam contacts), as well as my Portuguese sim card... I will miss it dearly, at least for some time...

p.s. Alex: sorry for not havin answered your msg, I had no clue until Fri morning on whether I'd be in Iasi or not last weekend; in the end, I stayed in Buch.. hope you had fun!

Saturday, February 02, 2008

Buch Day 154
[weekend feel]

working on: trying to catch up with all those Bucharest-related things that I didn't manage to do for 1,5 months
gps: Kate's place; later on: a park, the shopping centre & home

day-type: in the organizational-administrative domain
in the air: some sun & hopes
on my mind: the outlook over the coming 4 weeks

03.02 - Andrei B.'s birthday
04.02 & 05.02 - the Guide, the Instructions & the Templates
06.02 - analysis criteria
by 08.02 - (hopefully) concluding the baasje talks

yesterday's discovery: Moroccan food @ L'Harmattan

Happy February, everyone!