Wednesday, December 19, 2007
Map of Palestine
Hey!I am back in Berlin after an exciting time and a beautiful trip to Jordan.
I finally found a map that I like:
Tuesday, December 04, 2007
Ever had a company meeting in a car?
Well, I did, yesterday. While I was working on the feasibility study in one of the computer pools at Birzeit University, I got a call. For the first time I had forgotten a company meeting and it was an important one with the Federation of Palestinian Chambers of Commerce, Industry and Agriculture.
Thanks to the Palestinian flexibility the contact accepted to wait 20 more minutes (he had called me 10 min after the time of the meeting) until I could get to him by taxi. He was already waiting in his car and we went to his office close to the wall and Jerusalem. Coming closer to Qalandya there was a big traffic jam. First we thought it might be an accident. But no, the checkpoints around Ramallah had been closed. (One of the stories I heard about that was that there had been a shooting at the checkpoint the day before and a kid got injured or killed, so the security alert went up.)
So we waited a bit in the car and talked about AIESEC, our extension project, how we could cooperate and then went on to more private talks. Finally he took me back to Ramallah via the Qalandya camp. That looks much different than Ramallah and more like the Palestine we are used to watch in TV. Small, not very beautiful houses and huts standing very close to each other, no trees, small roads, some without tar and kids playing.
After he had brought me to Al Manara he tried to find a way to his office. Sometimes there are smaller, longer roads to get to your destination. I heard that the checkpoints were opened again in the evening.
Thanks to the Palestinian flexibility the contact accepted to wait 20 more minutes (he had called me 10 min after the time of the meeting) until I could get to him by taxi. He was already waiting in his car and we went to his office close to the wall and Jerusalem. Coming closer to Qalandya there was a big traffic jam. First we thought it might be an accident. But no, the checkpoints around Ramallah had been closed. (One of the stories I heard about that was that there had been a shooting at the checkpoint the day before and a kid got injured or killed, so the security alert went up.)
So we waited a bit in the car and talked about AIESEC, our extension project, how we could cooperate and then went on to more private talks. Finally he took me back to Ramallah via the Qalandya camp. That looks much different than Ramallah and more like the Palestine we are used to watch in TV. Small, not very beautiful houses and huts standing very close to each other, no trees, small roads, some without tar and kids playing.
After he had brought me to Al Manara he tried to find a way to his office. Sometimes there are smaller, longer roads to get to your destination. I heard that the checkpoints were opened again in the evening.
University Update
After the fights the unversity remained closed for two days. The student leaders of Fateh and PFLP, together with another student, are dismissed from University for a certain time. Furthermore, most student members of PFLP got arrested (Fateh is the ruling party). And to really demonstrate, that the conflict is solved, two tables in the cafeteria, that were known to "belong" to the PFLP, were removed from the cafeteria. Well, if that is not some masterpiece of conflict solution...
The university indeed was famous in former times! Due to security concerns and travel restrictions less foreign students and, more important and damaging, less foreign professors find their way to Birzeit. Which has led to a slow decrease in the university's fame.