Page 501 - 100 Reflections that Crafted Geneva International_V.Petrovsky_private edition_hardcover

Vision for the Future of Geneva International

countries of asylum; and protect them against enforced return to danger. In
2000, UNHCR is assisting 30 million people of concern.

The UN must also deliver a strong response to today's large-scale natural
disasters. If the news bulletins seem grim, they are merely reflecting a reality:
three times as many natural disasters occurred in the 1990s as during the
1960s. The Geneva-based International Strategy for Disaster Reduction must
st
therefore fulfil its mandate: “A safer world in the 21 century.” The World
Meteorological Organization (WMO) is increasingly under pressure to
buttress prevention strategies by gathering and disseminating early-warning
data on dangerous weather patterns using satellite technology and Internet.

The World Health Organization (WHO) will continue its remarkable
work in extending healthcare to all. It will surely see off polio from our list of
concerns, and leprosy too. Just as it eradicated smallpox in the 1970s, WHO
may well find the cure for that most indiscriminate and devastating public
health phenomenon: AIDS.

Perhaps it is the boom in information technology and the spread of
Internet that will most assure Geneva's global position in the future. One of the
most important stories of the twentieth century is the impact of computer and
communications technology on the way we live, work and play. Individual
empowerment has been one result of the IT revolution, radically altering our
perceptions and expectations. Interactive communications allow us to span
vast distances and to control aspects of our lives that were previously
controlled by powerful institutions like Governments, corporations and the
news media. These changes will gather more momentum in the new century
and at the heart of it all, the International Telecommunication Union (ITU)
will both continue its pioneering work and help close the digital divide between
the North and South.

Every four years at Geneva, the ITU organizes “Telecom,” the world's
largest fair for state-of-the art technology. Telecom 99 gathered together
thousands of IT experts, including Bill Gates. Almost a victim of its own
success, Geneva's hotels were so overbooked that executives were making day
trips from as far away as London. Telecom 2003 thus promises us a vision of
the cutting edge; in fact, ITU's presence in Geneva is so important that many
IT companies are moving here. It would not be fanciful to project that a future
Silicon Valley may one day stretch along Geneva's famous Lake shore.

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