February 23, 2013

3rd last Friday


As the title shows, it’s my 3rd last Friday here, which means I have another 17 more days before my loooong journey back. I’m not looking forward to sitting in a plane for more than 10 hours, what more having to change planes twice and a transit of 4 hours before I can see Penang again!

I’ve been getting up tired these last few days; not sure why. I sleep fairly early, before midnight, so it’s not as though I’m not getting enough sleep or rest. But then again, it could be the fact that I just want to snuggle under the warmth of my covers and not go outside. J

It was -3C this morning! Brrr….my hands have started to freeze again. L And I felt slightly under the weather today.

By the way, did I mention that there is a Janet Jackson look-alike on the bus that I take to work? The first time I saw her, I did a double take. And then, every time after that, I found myself being on the same bus as her! I am so tempted to approach her and tell her about her similarity to MJ’s sister but she has an unfriendly face, so I better not do that.

There was a talk today at work. The speaker was Peter Weiss (born 1925, in Vienna, Austria – he fled to before the Germans came) and he is one of the most recognized and innovative human rights lawyers worldwide. He is Vice President of the Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR) in New York, with which he has been associated with for forty years, and a prominent member of the National Lawyers Guild, a radical lawyers’ association. During his long and prolific career, he has been involved with the campaign to rid the world of nuclear weapons, and is President of the Lawyers Committee on Nuclear Policy and Vice President and former President of IALANA (International Association of Lawyers against Nuclear Arms). Moreover, he is a member of the Executive Committee of Americans for Peace Now, which advocates a just peace in the Middle East. In the past, he served as President of the American Committee on Africa and as Chairman of the Board of the Institute for Policy Studies in Washington.

He was also the principal author of the draft brief on the illegality of threat or use of nuclear weapons used by many countries in making written submissions to the International Court of Justice in the 1996 nuclear weapons advisory opinion, and served as counsel to Malaysia at the hearings. When he spoke about this, my boss here introduced me (as a visitor from Malaysia) and the crowd actually applauded when they learned about my work. The way my boss spoke of my work sounded so noble and important. Lol! Not that it’s not important but you know what I mean…J ! (My boss chose to introduce me at the exact same moment that I took a bite out of a pastry! It was supposed to be a lunch talk but by 2.30pm, no one was eating. I took a pastry after I saw Bibiana eating. Anyway, I managed to avoid being terribly embarass as everyone was understanding and just laughed; later on, Carolijn said that I’m such a charming person, that no one else could have gotten away with that scene as graciously as I did. Aww…). He came with his wife who is such a lovely lady and she told me that Malaysian officials at UN events don’t even know about the nuclear talks that Peter Weiss was hired to do. I told her these issues don’t usually reach the public and only stays at the level that the government think is important.

Sighs…I’m kind of glad it’s Freitag; although I will not be sleeping in tomorrow as I’ll be going to the Sachsenhausen Concentration Camp. I’m really excited and I hope I feel better tomorrow. Christoph said that this camp is much smaller than Auschwitz, and does not have much of the real buildings left; nevertheless, I’m still going coz it’s a once in a lifetime opportunity to see these places and try to grasp the horrors that went on.

Oh…I also called my mum. It’s her birthday tomorrow (23rd Feb) and so when I called her at 5pm my time, she was just ushering in her birthday. She told me that there were only 6 people with her at the shop and she loved it that it was such a small group. J

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p.s. Just as I was going to upload this, the electricity went off!! I knocked on my hsemate’s door and there was no answer. So I called her handphone and she was actually sleeping. She told me to wait for a few minutes! After 10 minutes, she got out of her room and lit two candles, giving me one and taking the other for herself. She said it sometimes happens but not always. She acted like it’s normal!! Thank God it came back after 20 minutes or so. 

2 comments:

SFGEMS said...

The mundane life creeps in, even in Berlin!

Except for the applause, you'd not know you were living a dream.

So glad you have so many wonderful experiences.

Shakun said...

I'm blessed to have such an opportunity!

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