The Philosopher’s Attic

Twenty years of squatting in the city center of Geneva have been ended by a police ‘eviction’, but the general housing problems remain.

The city and the Police of Geneva cleared the oldest squat of the city. After almost twenty years of illegal use two properties on the Boulevard des Philosophes, the RHINO (”Retour des Habitants dans les Immeubles Non-Occupés” = Return of the residents into non-occupied houses) is no more. Geneva police started evicting to squat yesterday afternoon and all seemed to go well, until 6 pm. That’s when the riots started, the tear gas was launched and trash bins were burnt. The indignation of the people living in Rhino and the sympathiser that the city and the police started the eviction although a court hearing as to the status of the occupation (do the 20 years of occupation create a situation of tacit contract of rent or not?) still has not been decided and declared that it was only a matter of identity control. An identity control that excluded the pregnant women and the children. Everyone else was taken to the police station. Either way you phrase it, it was an eviction. Or don’t pregnant women need to have their identity ascertained?

While I am in no way hot for puerile anarchism, pot-induced socialist fantasies of a fairer world or the ‘free’ sub-cultural phenomenon of such places (cf. Rhino housed an independent cinema, a bar, restaurant and a concert stage), the squats in Geneva served a purpose.

Last year at the beginning of term, the University of Geneva announced that only 16% of all new students that were to begin their studies at the University would be lodged with the help of the University and the city. The remaining 84% would have to work something out on their own. The possible opportunities in Geneva are the following: shared housing, living outside of the city (Lausanne, France etc.) or live in a squat until you find an apartment.
In a city where your kitchen counts as a liveable room and where you easily pay 1000 SFR. for a dump simply because it’s a 3 room apartment (where the kitchen counts as a full room!), where the xenophobia of the natives is so harsh (if you’re a Swiss German you won’t get a place to stay easily, even if you advance one year of the rent) and where the living cost is as high as I’ve experienced it in Paris, RHINO had a purpose. And it had it’s fans. Over time Rhino had become the contrasting center of an otherwise posh, money-oriented city that sometimes does more to accommodate tourists and oil-rich investors from Russia and Arab countries than take steps towards a better integration of emigrants, and lesser fortunate citizens.
As a squat with a year long history, Rhino was favoured by a lot of people, city councils and artists alike. And Rhino served a vital function within the fragile situation of this city.

It allowed students to crash for a while starting their new university courses and looking for an apartment of their own with the help of the city and the university. I’ve rarely heard of people staying longer than a few months, a year at the most. The reason for this is simple: living with a communal bath and a communal kitchen with 5 to 10 people in a single flat, having to deal with the self proclaimed leaders of the squat that although sporting every platitude a “Anarchism for Dummies” could offer, relished in their own little power while other people (the tax payer) worked to pay for the electricity and the water the squats of the city (Rhino was an exception, since the squatters had a running contract for payment of charges for electricity and water, this is in contrast with the Squat de la Tour for instance) consumed illegally.

But Rhino had a reason here in Geneva. Even if it was to force the city and the surrounding communities to rethink their housing plans and constructions of new housing. It’s probably something that will never happen. And the announcement of the city to build several new housing complexes does nothing to settle my mind. 50% of these new apartments are luxury flats and won’t do anything to help young adults, young families or students with their eternal quest for a decent place to live here in the International Metropole Geneva. Capital of the UN and the Humanitarian Movement.

The joke would be full of sarcasm, if it wasn’t the sad truth.

Links:
Taux de vacance des logements à Genève : 0,19 % au 1 juin 2005
Nouveaux plans de logements à Genève
News Clipping (in English)
News Clipping Tribune de Geneve (in English)

On rainy, cold mornings like today, I just love J. Liebig and the guys over at Bass Brewery for giving us the unmistakable spread on toast that anyone not being a Brit or having grown up in British Culture treats with contempt and even disgust: Marmite.
Hot tea, Marmite on bread or toast can actually get rid of all gloomy thoughts, curses to the heavens for their perfect timing on releasing the floods a bit early this year, exactly on the day I am supposed to go to an Open-Air to listen to Muse…

Marmite Pages:
Marmite Story Page
Marmite soldiers
Wikipedia on Marmite
BBC on Marmite
Everything on Marmite

There is justice in the world, or so at least we hope…

… and whenever someone uninformed writes about something they have absolutely no clue of, they’re struck down by the wrath of God, visited by the Holy Inquisition, the Death Eaters or the Knights of Ni or at least they’re struck by lightening.

Not quite.

But almost…

Symbols have a huge meaning in our world. Most of our communication works on the basis of images and symbols. On the first look it has become so obvious to us that we might not even be aware of it, but symbols contribute a lot on how we shape our world view and on how we construct our reality. Symbolic acts can bring a nation together or destroy an opponent. But will a symbol be enough to awaken the worlds mind to one of the worst humanitarian crisis since the beginning of the modern world?

One of the best known symbols of the city of Geneva is the “Jet d’eau” a water fountain in the Lake Geneva that raises up to 140 meters into the air. As far as symbols go this is not anything of historical value. Even if the fountain has been operational since the 1890ies - which is slightly surprising - there is no mythology (think of the fountains of Versailles), no historical grand gesture (think of the train in the forest of Compiègne) to warrant such a symbol, no even an eminent death (think of the Empress Elisabeth of Austria). The “Jet d’Eau” was at its beginning a simple valve that was used to balance the system of the nearby power generator. But it somehow stuck with the city of Geneva and the lake which has a huge importance here.

Tonight however, this symbol will unite with another huge symbol here: the UN. As the ‘capital’ of the humanitarian movement, as the legal siege of the UN and all it’s humanitarian bureaus, the city of Geneva will illuminate its chief symbol - the Jet d’eau - tonight in blood red in order to waken people’s sensibility for the drama that is still being ignored: Darfur.

Like the first of the Makot Mitzrayim or the Ten Plagues of Egypt, the fountain of Geneva will seem as if it had turned into blood. The blood of over 200′000 people dead and over 2 Million cast away in abominable refugee camps in a lawless and ignored region.
The Jet d’eau, an icon made of water takes thus another meaning. That of one of the main reasons behind this one-sided conflict: water. Thus our lake, the Lake of Geneva, takes on the reason, meaning and the unnumbered voiceless cries of the victims of Darfur.

The icon of the water can be seen for miles around. And with the “Fête de Genève” around the corner, where the city attracts a lot of foreign guests, maybe there are people that will be touched this symbol. Maybe it will help us to ask some of the necessary questions that we dared not to ask up till now: Why have we let this crisis unfold unstopped for 3 years already? How can we all sing to the Life Earth tune, but will not raise our voices for those over 2 Million refugees that cannot? How many more corpses and displaced (Official Sudanese Speak for Darfur Refugees) people will it take for the West, the NATO and the UN to take real, military and humanitarian action?

The TRIAL Association here in Geneva has made a strong start with a strong symbol. And we all need to do our bit that this start will not simply stay symbolic.

Well, well, things have been a bit strange lately and I do apologise for not getting back to my regular posting rhythm as I intended to do, but my fatigue level was through the roof… I suppose two years of running around Switzerland for your healthy relationship, several years of running around Europe for your smashing career and ten months of wedding preparation (… again involving a lot of running around all over Switzerland …) will do that to you.
When all of that slows down in matter of a single day (aka Wedding Day), I think it is wise to listen to your body telling you (rather screaming at you with neuralgia, headaches, laryngitis and other minor health issues) that enough is actually enough.
So I have been taking it really slow these last few weeks. Sleeping a lot, reading a lot and limiting my internet time in favour of my husband and me settling in here in Geneva.

I still do have a lot to say - fear not ! - and writing ideas are sprouting out of my mind just as the sunflowers on my window sill. Granted, they don’t look as good at the moment, but with a bit of tender care and loving they might just be enough to tempt me into something foolish… such as a podcast on medieval prejudices, the History of University or some other far fetched pill out of the “Dangerous Drugs” cabinet…

I hope the ones that will read this (if there really still are such daring persons around the net) will find it in their heart to forgive my too long silence and that they will check back in to see how things are moving on in my part of the world.

Quelques mots, puisqu’il faut des mots, car il faut des mots, aussi.

Mendiant de toi, j’ai laissé résonner en moi tes mots;

Mendiant de toi, j’ai empli mon coeur de ton regard;

Mendiant de toi, j’ai enfin été comblé.

Il ne m’est de lumière que celle qui émane de toi,

Il ne m’est d’ombre que celle de ta silhouette.

La poussière de nos rêves nous a transformé,

L’un à l’autre la confiance nous a donné,

C’est le début de toute chose.

(c) JL, 2005.

The stress level has been picking up steadily and I have been busy making my wedding invitations (all on my own), printing and posting them to the four corners of the world. But apart fighting with the Swiss Postal Service (which lost a contract that I was supposed to sign in order to start a new job), figuring out how all the rest of the wedding is best organised - or how to get all the things I still need… - things are good and fine.
Easter has come and gone and helped me a lot in “recalibrating” some of the chatter in my head. I went to Rome for a week and got back safely… although Roma Ciampino Airport settings have made me doubt it for several tense moments… and now I’m preparing a lecture that I accepted to give in Freiburg im Breisgau (Germany), trying to find my bridal shoes (the things we do), a date for my gown fitting and the legal wedding which will take place on May 11th…
So, blogging about serious philosophical questions sort of falls down on my to do list, but I promise to do better in the future once the worst stressors are rid of. Promise. I’ll leave with a great picture from the eternal city: Rome.