chasing time in the big apple

Part of this glorious weekend was spent in the humanitarian forum...which I will not comment about.

On the bright side, I took Sunday off and headed to the Museum of Modern Arts. One of the main reasons for going to this place is seeing Van Gogh's Starry Night. I HAVE FOUND IT. MY LIFE IS COMPLETE.

I've been chasing this painting half way across the world and it was right here in the states at the MoMA. I've always been a fan of impressionist painters so spending a good amount of time in this section was totally worth it. Also, there's a sculpture garden in the MoMA. Total peace of mind there. The weather was perfect and it was the perfect place to be in the midst of all this craziness of the city. Having a day off is super nice. I definitely needed it.

total peace

OOF

In other news, we are just entering the discussion of the Arms Treaty Trade. Both Switzerland and Trinidad and Tobago have offered to host the ATT Secretariat.

We also had another large discussion on the Conference on Disarmament. Having worked extensively with this body that's been in stalemate for the past 17 years, you can see why it's so frustrating working with them. I may start twitching again if I hear "lack of political will" or the "revitalization" of the CD. It's all been overstated. It's also apparently "progress" in the CD when just recently in the third session of 2013, the CD negotiated an Informal Working Group with a mandate to negotiate a PROGRAMME OF WORK. That... isn't progress. That's just another way to stall negotiations even more.

Lots of side events during lunch and spending time with good company. I love the city. I love fall in the city. I also miss the New England autumn colors.

Still more things to do before the end of October! I must get on with it and get with the program...of life. The world is opened to me and I plan on taking full advantage of it.

n.y.c. what is it about you?

view from UN

New Yoooooooorrk! Oh, how I have missed you.

First thing first. UNGA First Committee meeting!

The last time I was at the UN as a visitor was probably in 2003. I just remember being super excited when the guide told us we were standing on international ground.

My first event was to attend the conference on humanitarian consequences on nuclear weapons. Quite a crowd and various delegations attended including a number of NGOs. Since I was only able to make it to the last past of the meeting (thank you, American Airlines for your delayed flight), I caught the part about "Don't bank on the bomb." The discussion focused on the financial aspect about the maintenance and production of nuclear weapons. According to the speaker, there are 32 countries in the world that supports such maintenance which amounts to $314 billion US dollars. And then, there was talk regarding a treaty banning nuclear weapons. As Rebecca Johnson argued, getting to the treaty is the first step. Training comes after, to educate the people, provide training courses like the CTBTO does. The States Parties should also look at what is missing in the NPT.

The session started at 15h, where I was really glad to see many representatives from Geneva in the room. It's always nice to see familiar faces, especially at the First Committee. It was certainly lovely to have the DPRK and Japan have their rights of reply at the VERY END of the conference. So it lasted half an hour more than it was supposed to and I didn't get home until 21h30. What an exhausting day.

After taking the train to Penn Station this morning, I walked the 40 mins distance to the UN and headed to a meeting with a delegation. The discussion today for the side event was International Humanitarian Law hosted by New Zealand and Switzerland. Though this was round 2 of the IHL discussion stemming from the OEWG, most of the second part of the event was the same, on the necessity and proportionality of IHL.

Finally, the result of 8 months worth of work for the Open-ended working group on taking forward multilateral disarmament negotiations -- the Chair of the OEWG reported back to the GA today. Glad my internship in the past 8 months produced some results. More statements from various countries, including the USA who mentioned that they will not support any new mechanisms for nuclear disarmament.

So far so good. I look forward to the rest of the week until the 26th, frolicking in the city. That being said, I'm so glad to be back in the city again. Café, museums, central park and all those shenanigans, here I come!

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