UN in Vienna! (a guest post by Zoë | October 8)

After leaving Schönnbrunn, we headed to the UN headquarters to find the anti-corruption hand sculpture that is also in Doha–the thing is, when we got there, a security guard told us that we could not go in without a guided tour, and apparently we needed government issued IDs to go on a tour. Mom had her driver’s license, but she didn’t have my passport.* 

Things weren't looking great

But, after we did a little research, and went to Billa to eat, we booked a spot on a tour.

Zoë with a Kinder Surprise from Billa (having already eaten her bread)

The security lines were so long!!! 

I was starting to think it wasn’t worth the security to see a hand statue that we might not even be able to see on the tour, but once we started the tour, I changed my mind.

I learned that there are 4 different UN headquarters in the world, New York being the first, and Vienna is the third.** 150 different countries work together–that is so many people! Vienna can only host up to three people from every country at a time. New York can host five! With so many different people, there are a lot of different languages, and not everybody understands English, which is what most of the conferences are in.

The UN’s main languages are English, Arabic, Chinese, French, Russian, and Spanish. There are boxes higher up in the conference rooms that the translators sit in and, well, translate. Since German is not a main language, in all of the conferences in other places, there isn’t a German translator. But when Vienna hosts, they are allowed to put a translator in one of the boxes.

A model of a dhow from Doha

There are gifts from almost everywhere in the world. 

Art installations, Nobel prizes, a rock from the dark side of the moon, etc., perfectly normal things! 

Art Installations

Nobel Peace Prize

A rock from the dark side of the moon

The hand statue is from Qatar, but the tour never actually got there. Mom asked the tour guide if we could go take a picture in front of it, and the tour guide said: “It’s not part of the tour technically, but if you hurry, you can.”

Mom said that it was just a bending of the rules, but really, I think it’s more like breaking the rules with permission.

The UN collaborates in space, as well, to help with cleaning up space junk. China’s Chang’E mission collected rock and soil samples from the dark side of the moon, and gave a rock to the UN in Vienna. It’s very small, but it’s still really cool.

There are a lot of jobs in the UN: medical, astronaut, etc.

Since I want to be a medical doctor someday, I’m thinking of working for the UN. It’s really quite cool. I don’t know if I’ll work in the UN in Vienna, but I just want to work for the UN in general.  

* Or my drivers license, because how would she? I don’t have one.

**  The second one is in Geneva, Switzerland, the fourth one is in Nairobi, Kenya.

*****

Mom's addendum: One fun fact we learned is that the building that houses the UN in Vienna is owned by the city. The UN signed a 99-year lease with the city for the "symbolic annual rental sum of one Austrian schilling (equivalent to seven euro cents)" annually. But the UN also brings many visitors to Vienna (for conferences and so forth), adding significantly to the city's tourism and hospitality markets, so having the UN be in Vienna is a good thing...even if the rent is only seven cents per year.