Tag Archives: UN

Mar 1 2012

Geneva – last leg of Switzerland

This fountain below is quite a famous icon of Geneva.

It er, stopped suddenly.  I asked the other tourists if they broke it?  🙂 There wasn’t any passing vessels in the lake, I guess there could be some water pressure issues maybe.

I am not sure how many Christians and Jews there are in French speaking Switzerland, I did notice this interesting poster on the tram for Hannukah though (this was first week of January 2012 I was there)

There is a large and interestingly styled synagogue here also.   Not sure how old it is, but the road is named after the synagogue also.

Geneva is a great place to go shopping, but I didn’t find a great deal of interesting things, although I was only there for a day. There are modern shops for everything single clothing brand you can think of.   They are all full too.  No one closing down, or having any panic sale, unlike the death of so many retailers in the UK and US that is happening.

The famous red cross museum was shut which was recommended by a friend, apparently they need 2 years until its operational again.   I would of been interested to see the UN headquarters, but I didn’t get time for this after all.

By the time I was leaving I was very skint, and used my last of my francs to get a train to the airport.   My flight back to Israel was at a usual silly time of the night, and meant I slept for a bit on the floor there.   By the time I had to leave, the staff there told us we had to do a swab of our shoes and clothes and put the samples into a briefcase shaped computer controlled explosives detector machine.   Back to Israel for me to continue doing my volunteer IT work…

Oct 1 2011

Iranian pastor Youcef Nadarkhani faces execution

I was sad to hear about a young pastor called Youcef Nadarkhani about the same age as me who is facing death in his home country of Iran for apostasy.

Apostacy in crazy Islamo-fascist states like Iran, is defined as leaving Islam because its not your cup of tea, not through insulting Mohammed or the Koran.  In this case though, its because some Persian people would rather seeking the love of Jesus than their state enforced religion.

Heck, Iranian people can’t even write blogs as they can be traced via their internet providers.   Executions of Christians is a depressing reality that happens quite often, especially in Iran, China, Indonesia and even Turkey.

Iran has the largest number of Muslims coming to Christ.   Some of the time this down to missionaries in the most hostile place in the world, and sometimes its down to dreams and visions (Joel 2 : 28)  and without any human intervention, entirely down to the holy spirit.

I really think western nations and the UN should get more vocal about this and put pressure on Iran to set this man free.

After the recent Ahmadinajad’s crazy outburst at the UN, should be a huge embarrassment for all decent people who work for Iran’s government, if there are any.   I wonder what rules the UN have for this kind of outburst and if they have ever asked anyone to leave.

In the mean time, please do pray for this man and contact the UK Iranian embassy and tell them what you think on info@iran-embassy.org.uk or 0207 225 3000.

Jul 12 2010

Riding to work – commuting Jerusalem style Part 1

first bit –  second section –  Third and final

I thought I would mention a bit about my commute to work.

My house is in East Talpiyot, is 6km (4 miles) from work, I got a bike not long after my return from the UK in March.

I have had to commute distances before in previous jobs, when I started working for the Southampton NHS trust (for non-UK people, a hospital authority) to start with, the drive of about 26 miles was hell, due to heavy traffic and the maddeningly complex lane system around Southampton.  After getting a Tomtom unit and planning a different route and fair bit of practice, this journey got easier, after a couple weeks I really started to enjoy this job, and my boss gave me some assignments to do in other parts of the city (there were about 100 different buildings to be visited between a team of about 8 of us)   I think this was God telling me to be more persistent with things.   Plus after a couple of months of this role all the roadworks was complete, giving me more time to get in.

Here though, I am on two wheels which might seem dangerous given the more er, ‘energetic’ Israeli style of driving here, but in general riding around isn’t too much problem as I use the pavement and just keep an eye out for pedestrians. Right: Out of my flat

This junction here doesn’t look much, but I actually have a archaeological site 100 yards from my house. The Talpiyot tomb. I have looked around and I can’t actually see this place, I have a feeling its probably hidden one of those electricity type shed things to the left.   There are steep steps down from this junction, so it could be under the road.
Up a hill, then down.   Then up.   A sneaky short cut up this hill to the right.

Good morning UN!   The United Nations building used to the headquarters of the British Mandate of Palestine (pre 1948)  Apparently looking at this location on a map, shows this place during biblical times was called the ‘Den of evil council’ (!)
I then cut to the right where this white car is:

The promenade!!  You get some amazing views from this place!!   Today it was a bit misty though, I am not sure how you get fog in a dry desert country but visibility in mornings is often like this.

Ride along this path.

Another sneaky shortcut, to the right takes a few minutes off…

first bit –  second section –  Third and final