Field Excursion #8- Geneva: The UN, Switzerland, and 11.6

                                                         GENEVA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Earlier this week we had the privilege to visit the lovely city of Geneva, Switzerland. We all boarded a plane around noon Monday and were in the city in no time; ready to show the Swiss people what the Justice Studies in Budapest Program is all about. The reason for our trip was to visit two UN offices located in Geneva, UNEP (United Nations Environmental Programme) and UNHCR (The UN Refugee agency). This gave us a very rare experience to be able to meet face to face with important people from all over the globe who are very esteemed and experienced in their respective fields.

The logo to the UN Environmental Programme 

           

          After eating about seven baguettes and forty-five croissants we set out Tuesday morning to the UNEP offices in downtown Geneva. When we arrived we saw a schedule for the day’s festivities, and you’re not going to believe this, but we were on the schedule! We entered the meeting room and were greeted by two distinguished women in their fields, Angela Cropper and Barbara Ruis. Mrs. Cropper is the Deputy Executive of UNEP, which is essentially the second in command for the entire organization. Mrs. Ruis was a long-term employee of the UNEP offices who also had spent considerable time working as a professor and working in other UN agencies. They were both extremely amiable and intelligent, and they spoke with us in a very frank manner. They let us dictate the meeting with our own questions and curiosities, and they did not shy away from answering the “tough” questions the JSPB program is known for.

                                          The Justice Studies boys and girls can handle the truth!

             We talked for a somewhat lengthy time and the entire presentation was interesting, yet as always there were several key take away points that really stood out to me. One was Mrs. Ruis’ comments about how she felt guilty about the fact that she worked for an environmental organization yet was constantly flying to different locations around the world, and therefore creating a very sizeable “carbon footprint”. She also pointed out that one of the troubles about working with the different environmental ministries around the world was that quite often they are on the bottom end of the ol’ totem pole in their respective countries’ government. I felt that was a good point because more than likely if you asked the average American who the head of the EPA is (Lisa Jackson), they would have no idea and perhaps rightfully so due to the somewhat ceremonial aspects of the position. Mrs. Cropper spoke about the paths countries must take to work towards a “green economy”, and the different costs and benefits of doing so. I myself asked a somewhat ambiguous question regarding the wastefulness of major cities and the perils of over-population and over-industrialization, She answered the question very thoughtfully and did not dodge the major issues that the world’s ever-growing population presents to the world’s geography and availability of resources. She pointed out that cities can be environmentally friendly and energy efficient if they are built in a proper and precise manner. She also said that environmental groups are aware of the problems that over-population may place on the world, but they are working on figuring out where these problems will surface the most and how to combat them in the most efficient manner possible.

            

                                        This is a video by the one and only Cat Stevens called, "Where do the Children Play". It deals with the ideas that over-industrialization can make us forget about the simple things that make life worth living.

After a quick lunch in the infamous UNEP cafeteria, we set upon the offices of the UNHCR (The UN refugee Agency). I was extremely excited for this because I am involved and interested in the plights of displaces and disadvantaged people in Uganda and the Congo and I hoped that the speaker may offer some insights as to how the agency was dealing with these agencies. The speaker’s name was Semih Bulbut, and he was a Turkish man who had been working with the agency for a very long time. He spoke at length about the definition of a refugee and what he and his agency does on a daily basis. Although he did not go into specific details about disaster relief scenarios, he was very esteemed and cordial and his talk did have some interesting moments. Towards the end of his talk he spoke about relief efforts in Iraq since the start of the US occupation in 2003. It was interesting how he described the fact that the US donates more money than any other country to the UN’s disaster relief efforts, but in this case we are the ones responsible for the disaster! With that being said I sensed no tone of anger or resentment from Bulbut, in fact he told us that he hopes to one day see us working in his office side-by-side to help better the cause of humanity!

Field Excursion #7: Talkin' with important people is cool

         This week the gang and I had the privilege to meet with Dr. Attila Nyikos, who is the head of Hungary’s National Disaster Management International Relations department. We were able to better understand how the Hungarian government (and all governments) coordinates disaster relief, cleanup, and prevention efforts. Mr. Nyikos is one of those people who just look important, and he was wearing a suit coat with jeans which is a bold look no matter where you are in the world. He started out by explaining to us exactly what his agency was and what it did. He compared it to FEMA in the states, except his department is larger in scale and includes civil positions such as firefighters. He also spoke about the disaster management in depth, explaining that law enforcement and civil duty are the two cornerstones of successful disaster relief and management efforts.

                     This is a photo of Mr. Nyikos. I found this image on google, so you know he's important!

     Mr. Nyikos described the basic system that disaster management follows. It follows three basic pillars: Prevention, Response, and Recovery. He explained that like any country there are many different types of disaster scenarios that Hungary could be vulnerable to, and it was his offices duty to be prepared for whatever may happen. These include but are not limited to natural disasters, flooding, pollution of water supplies, and the maintaining of nuclear power plants. He also explained the different challenges his department faced over the last ten years. These include terrorism, heat waves, heavy rainfall, and the now infamous red sludge incident.

           

One of the most interesting parts of the talk was his description of his role in Hungary’s Presidency of the EU last spring. He explained that during Hungary’s presidency he took over the EU’s office of Disaster Management. This means that during this time he presided over the safety of the over 485 million people living in the EU member states. He also described the EU’s Mechanism Operations during this time, and they included helping the United States with the gulf oil “deep water horizon” incident, along with the massive tsunami in Japan. He described how his organization sent tons of food to Japan including dried soup, apples, and apricots. He acknowledged how awkward it was that apricots were one the things sent, but he insisted upon the fact that the Japanese people had requested them. One of the boldest things he said was that during the crisis Japan lied to both its people and the rest of the world regarding radiation levels in the inflicted areas!

          This is a photo of some of the damage done by the red-sludge incident in October, 2010. This was an extremely difficult clean-up process for Mr. Nyikos and his organization. 

   The talk was extremely interesting and educational and I think everyone took away valuable information regarding how government agencies coordinate disaster relief efforts. However, I had mixed feeling regarding Mr. Nyikos as a speaker. In one regard he was extremely smart and clearly very distinguished for his young age. On the other hand he at points came off as smug and somewhat full of himself; essentially he was not afraid to toot his own horn. I also felt that his answers to our questions were extremely dubious. For instance, I asked him what the Hungarian people’s response to the disaster was and he responded, “extremely positive”. Now I don’t want to call him a liar, but I highly doubt that a large majority of the Hungarian people were too happy with the government and its cleanup agencies after the red-sludge incident. This is not to imply that Mr. Nyikos and his agency didn’t do a good job, but rather that anytime an environmental disaster occurs the people will inevitably blame the government. On top of that, several Hungarians we have met have expressed their displeasure with the whole incident and the government’s handling of it. Yet as a whole, the presentation was both informative and entertaining and gave us a different perspective on things from a person who is very distinguished in his field.

                     I would hope that Mike Brown and W wouldn't say that the public response to their handling of Katrina was "extremely positive"

Photos from Vienna

                                         

Photo Blog-Budapest

Hey everyone,
I know this is long overdue but I want to add some photos of  Budapest and all the places we've been to so far. So in the next couple of days I'm going to add some photos from the city, Vienna, Munich, and Amsterdam. This is part one-Budapest, hope you enjoy!

                           This is the courtyard of our home on 3 Benzcur Utca. Budapest, Hungary

                                 The side view of a centuries old church near our building

                                       The left side of the Heroes Square Monument

                                             Old communist statue of Lenin

                                                    A massive/bizarre Soviet Statue

                                      The next few photos are of the city, taken from atop the Citadel monument hill which gives one an entire view of the city

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                                            Me on an old WWII machine gun turret

                                             View of Buda (left) and Pest (right)

         The Famous Chain Bridge, the first bridge ever built connecting the two sides of the city

Field Excursion #6: The boys and girls meet a man who works for the Man

          This week the gang and I met with the venerable Dr. Lajos Korona, a lawyer who works in Budapest’s metropolitan public prosecutor’s office. For about an hour he shared with us the details of his profession and we were able to ask him questions to learn exactly how the prosecutor’s office of Budapest operates. Dr. Lajos Korona was an extremely amiable character and to quote “Tito” Wasiuk he was one fly-dressed cat.
         

            The prosecutor’s office in Budapest consists of many levels and branches, which each have different jobs and jurisdictions. Dr. Korona’s office deals with crimes of a more serious nature such as homicide or other violent acts, drug crimes, and high-scale property crimes. He explained to us the process in which a supposed crime goes from the initial police interrogation to a submitted plan with questions to ask the suspect for the prosecutor. He oversees the investigations of the police and makes sure that all the procedural rules are followed to ensure the prosecution is obeying the law and putting forth a good case for conviction. What is interesting is that Dr. Korona is not obliged to spend any time at trial at all, for that aspect of the case is handled by a different branch of the prosecutor’s office. Essentially Korana’s office works to ensure that the best case is brought to trial, and they do all the pre-trial work and then just simply pass it on to the trial prosecutor. I would argue that Mr. Korana’s job is more important than the trial prosecutor, because if evidence is not collected properly and witnesses are not asked the right questions pre-trial than the trial itself. Essentially there is no chance of a conviction unless Mr. Korona’s office puts forth a good case. 

          Sadly for this woman Dr. Korona doesn't wear a uniform, but rather oversees the men    who do.

Another important aspect of his job is to kind of “oversee” the Renderseg (Hungarian police for all you Americans) and make sure they are following the proper procedural rules and are not participating in any unethical behavior. Dr. Korona explained that very seldom do they find any evidence of police corruption, and that when it is done it is often an isolated incident. This is somewhat contrary to what we’ve been told about the police from some Budapest natives. One gentleman we met told us that the police are often times corrupt and take bribes and break procedural rules. This man who told us this had actually worked in a police station as a clerk and said he had experienced several incidents of police corruption first-hand. When I heard Mr. Korona say that corruption wasn’t a big issue, I instantly thought to myself that one of them might be not telling the truth. Maybe the man we met was exaggerating the extent of the corruption or it was isolated to just that particular station. In contrast, maybe Mr. Korona was unwilling to admit to a bunch of strangers that there was rampant police corruption or the police officers are just good at getting away with it and Mr. Korona didn’t know. I have no idea of who’s right or wrong, but I found it interesting to hear two very different perspectives on the Hungarian police force.   

                            Perhaps if the corruption allegations are true the Hungarian police force could learn a thing or two from the sure-handed leadership of Chief Wiggum.

            I would compare our experience with Dr. Korona as similar to a guest-lecturer in a college class. We were able to study justice (hardy har har) from a different perspective, and were able to draw upon our prior knowledge of American legal institutions. Overall he did a good job presenting the material in a way that kept us interested throughout and I think all of us had a favorable opinion of the lecture.

                        

                                    I think Lady Justice would be pleased with Hungary.