Pre 3.11

Every year from February to March are the hardest times of the year. Not only is it very cold with very little sunshine and gloomy weather but it's almost the month before 3.11. This year will mark the 5 year anniversary since the earthquake in Japan and every year during this time I suffer physically and mentally the pains of the incident for an entire month. I've come to realize it's a form of PTSD and it's something that I have had to cope with no matter how many years have gone by. I suppose it's because the Japanese media start to put together feature articles and documentaries around this time of year and washes up (no pun intended)a plethora of bitter and painful memories.

It's something very hard to explain to someone unless you've experienced it yourself. Imagine the place where you grew up as a child --memories of playing in the fields, watching baseball games with family, going to buy ice cream with your uncle, fishing in the rivers with your cousin, going to the barnyard to see my aunt squeeze milk out of his cows, waiting for my uncle and cousin to bring fresh fresh from the harbor to eat for lunch -- are all one day shattered and obliterated. The place where I call my childhood home no longer exists and waves have washed away my friends, family, and memories.

Every time you remember the happy times of your childhood, it also brings up painful ones. Every time you close your eyes you can remember the tiniest details of your neighborhood and your home and then you see flashes of images of it being washed away by violent waves, and then when you open your eyes you see nothing left. You think of your family members and then you realize that they have been homeless and that they live in tiny makeshift barracks for the past 5 years. It's heartbreaking to say the least.

But I also know that there have been lots of improvements and changes being made in the last 5 years. New buildings, new initiatives, and new projects. New protocols and safety measures have also been put in place. The future is still uncertain but you do start to see a light at the end of the tunnel. One of my distant relatives, an ex-UN worker himself, has re-shifted to dedicating his life to reconstruct my city and has been an active spokesperson and NGO board member in the global community. He is actually the one that suggested to me as a child that I should work for the UN some day and he's been an inspiring model for me. He was back in Geneva for a UN conference on disaster relief and we enjoyed a brief moment on reminiscing about the good old days back home and also about the future prospects for the city and its reconstruction process.
 

He also took me out for dinner, knowing that I am a poor student desperate for Japanese food which I was incredibly grateful for. Especially because Japanese food is probably the most expensive food to eat in Switzerland (a landlocked country trying to serve seafood..... go figure)

Fusion sushi made by a Hokkaido chef: Fois-gras with sashimi sushi and mozzarella with raw scallops yum!

Yakiniku-style beef sirloin with shiitake mushrooms. Ah, my heart just melted

Japanese sesame sauce mille-feiulle

If you live overseas, you know that you crave for the most odd things. As we both have/have been living away from Japan for many years, we know what we crave for: Japanese "Financial Times" and traditional Japanese cake. Oh yes, these things are more previous than gold!

Summer School at University of Geneva: CSR

It's been a whirlwind these past 2 weeks so I was unable to update at all!
Basically I was taking a summer school program at my school for an intensive course on Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR). I can write an entire essay on the topic so I won't go into details but to be very brief. Also, there's many schools of thought please don't quote me on any of this. I am just trying to give a very general overall broad concept so people with no knowledge (aka my mother) is able to understand it a bit better CSR comes from the concept that business can no longer function with just the goal of making profit. Instead they must integrate economic, social, and environmental aspects while addressing shareholders and business expectations at the same time.

Therefore, there's a greater need for businesses to take in consideration of society and the environment in order for them to succeed in the longer run. For example, running a business without taking environmental aspects into consideration will end up in pollution damage. Though they may make profit business wise, they will come under severe criticism from other stakeholders, hurting them in the end.

 Hence businesses today try to incorporate CSR in many forms into their business plan.  For example, have you ever seen companies that promote doing charity? This is the most common form of CSR. On a more advanced level, there are companies that incorporate sustainable measures into their business plan such as IKEA selling hand made baskets from Thailand made in partnership with an NGO. Sorry these are very bad examples, I'm sure you can find much better examples with a quick Google search.

I was very blessed that our school has offered us to meet with many different agencies and companies to hear what their initiatives and work they have been doing in terms of CSR. We've gone everywhere from the UN to Nestlé to P&G, hearing amazing stories on how each organization is trying to implement CSR within its own business/organizational framework. Studying about sustainable development, it certainly has been a wonderful chance to learn more about how the concepts we've learned are being applied in the real world. It's not perfect and there's still a lot of work that needs to be done on CSR but I am hopeful about how it's going to continue bringing change into our society on many different levels

Meeting at the UN

UN guided tour

UNICEF visit

ILO visit

Nestlé visit

Final presentation session at the UN

Final reception

Final results

  

Beautiful view from atop of the UN

Groupie!

With few of our classmates, professor and coordinator. Thank you for a lovely time!

PHARE Circus

The PHARE circus has a sublime reputation so there I'm sure you can find more better articles on Google search. But just to add my quick comments, it's a must see. I know $15 is a little bit expensive (at least for local expats like me) but it's a deal considering that circus show tickets have become so extortionate the past few years (or it may be that the last time I watched a circus was on a school discounted ticket in the third grade in which kids prices were cheaper to begin with). Moreover, you're contributing a big part of the fee to the PHARE arts school and also to the performers who work hard to support themselves and their families.

I wanted to take pictures of their performances but frankly I was so mesmerized throughout the performance that I only snapped before and after the show.

Post -show with performers mingling with the audience

There are different troops within the circus and they perform completely different acts and themes which contributes to one of the successes of the organization. Many come back to see it twice or thrice as the performances rotate every few weeks.

The one particular one that we went to see a few weeks ago was about ghosts. The show had an amalgam of performances including a complete storyline, live band, acrobats, and dance involved. It was breathtaking and funny at the same time which was a great mix. Moreover, the actors seemed so exuberant and involved the whole time whether when they were acting, doing highly complicated acrobatic bravuras, or even when they were resting in between acts. I've never seen such a bunch of professional yet enthusiastic group of performers.