I have been in New York for nearly two months now and it feels the city has really become an integral part of me and vice versa. Although the honeymoon is over, it feels I have really settled down into this gigantic and rich city. New York, like any other city or country, has its annoyances but these things do not weigh up to the many positive things it has to offer. I understand now why people keep coming back to this city. A normal holiday is simply too short. I sometimes even wonder whether six months are enough to fully enjoy this city. Probably not when you're working from Monday until Friday, but I am not complaining. So far, my evenings and weekends were well spend. I have met with colleagues for lunch in Brooklyn and dim sun in Queens. I have been jogging in Central Park and I have made long walks to Washington Heights, Harlem and along the Hudson River. Furthermore, I have been to a NBA basket ball game, to bars with very good live jazz music ,several restaurants and one ore two art gallery's. Nevertheless, there are still many things left on my "to do list". Last Tuesday I had my first visitor from the Netherlands. Tijmen, a friend of mine working for the KLM, had a 24 hours stop in New York. We met in his hotel after work and had dinner in a really nice tapas restaurant in Soho. Afterwards we had a couple of drinks in Greenwich and the Meat Packing District. It was a great evening and it was nice to catch up with a good friend from back home. Next week, I will have my next "special" visitor, Laura. I am really looking forward to see here again after two months of separation. I have never been a believer of long distance relationships and never thought I would end up in one, but it is working out pretty well so far (thanks to skype as well). She arrives next Wednesday and is staying for ten days. I will take Friday and Monday off from work. Friday the 19th is my birthday as well, so it will be a very special one as I will turn 30 in New York with my girlfriend. I have nothing else to wish for. Well maybe a sunny week like last week, because it is raining constantly right now.
This is also a good moment to reflect on my first six weeks with GPF. I have to admit that the internship has not fully lived up to my expectations so far. This has a simple reason. GPF is an independent non-governmental organization which relies on funding from individuals, foundations, partner organizations etc. Lately, GPF, like many other non-governmental organizations, has been the victim of funding cuts. Last year our boss Jim had to let go all of his paid senior staff as he simply could not afford having them on board. As a result, the interns run the office without, in my view, proper guidance and structure. Everyone has been working within their portfolio without properly informing the others about their work and activities. I noticed, furthermore, that there were many ideas and projects floating around the office, but that there was no incentive into materializing them. This has negatively affected the atmosphere in the office in terms of motivation and inspiration and most people were quite annoyed about it.
Jim was away last week and I proposed an intern meeting to sit down and discuss how we could better structure our work and make it more challenging for ourselves. It turned out to be a very fruitful meeting with many good ideas and plans and we decided to make some important changes, like two weekly staff meetings (a regular one and a thematic one), the creation of an interns blog, and the creation of vodcasts and podcasts for the website. Me and Joe have also decided to take up a project on the UN individual sanctions regime and the recent creation of the UN Ombudsman. We had our first thematic staff meeting last Wednesday in which we briefed each other about the latest developments in our portfolios and we got some nice discussions and idea's going on. The atmosphere in the office seems to have improved since last Monday and everyone seems to enjoy their work much more. Let's hope it stays this way.
The best part of my internship has so far been my UN pass, which has given me almost unlimited access to any UN meeting and the opportunity to meet very interesting people and other interns. Last Thursday I attended a forum addressing the Goldstone Report on the Gaza conflict and the underlying question whether international law really matters. It was a very interesting meeting and I was especially impressed by one of the keynote speakers, Richard Falk, an American professor emeritus of international law at Princeton University and Special Rapporteur for the Palestinian Territories of the Human Rights Council in Geneva. His arguments in support of the report were spot on and he spoke very clear and eloquent. Yesterday I attended a meeting of the UN Human Rights Committee (HRC) as it was considering a state report by Uzbekistan under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. This was also very interesting as I got a better notion of the work of the HRC. Hopefully, I will attend more interesting meetings in the near future. So yes, things are looking positive right now. Both personally and professionally.
