VOL. 67, NO. 3 - AAFI-AFICS, Geneva - UNOG

I invented a new system of double massage. I sat on the bed facing her feet so I could massage
them. At the same time, she could massage my back. I have registered this system with WIPO to copyright
it.
You won’t believe this but then the bulb in the kitchen went Pop ! Jamais deux sans trois. Bulbs were
packing up at the same rhythm as my backbone. We were returning to the Dark Ages. Aha, but this bulb was
like the ones we had when I was young: you twisted it clockwise to get the old bulb out and anti-clockwise to
get the new one in. But you had to stand on an old chair to reach it. Stand on a chair with a wonky back?
kings.
Until my back is back to normal, dear Editor, you must put up with squashed cabbages and deposed
When sorrows come….
Yours very full of sorrows,
Aamir Ali
BOOK REVIEW
The WTO Building – Rediscovery of Hidden Treasures
The WTO Building was designed by Swiss architect, Georges Epitaux, as the headquarters of the new
International Labour Organisation (ILO), and was inaugurated in 1926. Based originally along the lines of a
classical Florentine villa – inner courtyard, grand entrance and staircase sweeping up from the main
entrance, it rapidly proved to be too small and wings were added, as well as a third floor. In 1975 the ILO
moved to a new headquarters building in the Grand Saconnex, and the newly renamed Centre William
Rappard became home to both the UN High Commissioner for Refugies (UNHCR) and the General
Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT), to be replaced in 1995 by the World Trade Organization (WTO).
Inevitably these changes led to structural transformations and a number of artworks designed specifically to
integrate with walls, windows and ducts, could not be moved. Different persons and tastes meant that some
of these works disappeared from view, stored or covered over. Fortunately in 2007 a group of staff members
and art experts was able to unveil these treasures which are now on view.
The WTO has recently published a remarkable and fascinating brochure containing photographs of murals
painted by Maurice Denis, Sean Keating, Gustave-Louis Jaulmes and Dean Cornwell, Jorge Colaço’s tiled
panels, the Delft panel of Albert Hahn and Luc Jaggi statues, as well as the former office of the Director-
General, the Library and the grounds.
This publication is available from the WTO Library in English, French and Spanish, at the price of CHF 20.-
Old timers among ILO former staff members will certainly wish to express their warm appreciation to all
those in the WTO who have enabled this remarkable restoration, which brings again to life major symbols of
the nobility of human endeavour, consecrated at the ILO immediately after the First World War, in the form
of paintings, statues and other artworks to the glorification of labour. It also pays tribute to all those who,
since the creation of the ILO, have strived within these walls to pursue their ideals for social justice. What is
now missing in the William Rappard Center is that fragrance of wax-polished flooring that once embalmed
the corridors with the irresistible atmosphere of a Tyrolean inn. But that, old timers among ILO former staff
members will have stored in their memories.
An Old Timer
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