VOL. 66, NO. 5 - aafi-afics - UNOG

Dublinia and the Viking WorldDublin’s major heritage attraction provides a living experience of the Viking Story with the arrival at Ireland’sshores of these pirates and fierce warriors. It brings to life the early settlements, enacts their occupation andlife styles, trading and commercial practices, not least of which were the raids and ruthless plundering oftradable goods, livestock, provisions and people to sell as slaves.Visitors can share a simulated sea voyage in a Viking vessel of the type of the replica long ship“Havhingsten fra Glendalough” presently on view in Dublin.Ita MarguetThe Oxford Handbook on the United NationsREVIEW OF BOOKSOxford University Press has just published (in 2007) this Handbook , edited by Thomas G. Weiss and SamDaws, under the auspices of the UN Association of the UK and the UN Intellectual History Project. Its widerange covers political approaches and legal perspectives on the UN, sections on its principal organs,relationships with regional groups, the financial institutions, civil society, the private sector and the media,international peace and security, human rights, development. It ends with prospects for reform. Well-knownUN figures have contributed to the Handbook, including Ramesh Thakur, Bertrand G. Ramcharan, JacquesFomerand, Gian Luca Burci (WHO). Yves Beigbeder, one of the AAFI-AFICS Committee members, haswritten the section on Children’s rights.LETTERS TO THE EDITORIN MEMORIAM – HARALD SMAAGEHarald Smaage, former Administrative Officer in the Office of the Director-General of UNOG, passed awayon 14 August 2007. A Norwegian seaman, Harald had been recruited, at the age of 26, by the UnitedNations in April 1956, to become part of the Field Service group, a newly created special corps of mobilestaff needed to meet increasing field-oriented requirements in political and peacekeeping missions aroundthe world. A wireless operator by profession, Harald became a Field Service radio operator. He worked inpeacekeeping missions in sensitive, and sometimes risky missions, in the Middle East and Asia and hebecame known as a highly competent and reliable staff member, well-liked by all his colleagues. His FieldService career also brought him to Geneva, where he worked in the Telecommunications Section for a fewyears from 1964. In 1972 he applied for the position of Administrative Assistant in the UNOG Director-General's office, a key administrative function at the Palais des Nations, and he was selected to replace theretiring incumbent Christiane Turell. He held this function for fourteen years and retired with the rank ofAssistant Administrative Officer in 1984.Having served in identical functions, both in the field and in Geneva, Harald and I became good friends. Iremember him as a very dedicated staff member, an excellent team worker and good administrator. Indeed,he became an expert on the UN's administrative procedures and he was always ready to sort out48