my entries for PHOTOS with (HI)STORY

Dear BiTwin, fellow PNEHs, painters, poets, Mai Quang and Forum friends,

Unlike my twin, Caro and HL, I don't have anything interesting or exotic to
show and tell :-).
Specially for my fellow New Yorker Quang, this is going to be very boring,
but I got to submit something and this is all I got, so here it goes:

The blue building in the collage is the main building of the headquarters
of the United Nations Secretariat in NY. The domed building connected to
the left side of the blue building is where the General Assembly Hall,
conference rooms, visitors center are situated. This is where the affairs
of the world are discussed and agreed (or disagreed :-)) upon by the
countries members of the United Nations.
Designed by Le Corbusier and Niemeyer and built from 1947 to 1952, the UN
buildings are located on a sprawling area of 17 acres going from 42nd to
48th street, between 1st Avenue and Franklin D. Roosevelt Drive and
overlooking the East River. More recently, due to asbestos problem, the
buildings had to undergo a major renovation that started in 2009 and
projected to be completed in 2013.
On the beautiful blue glass of the main building, one could see the
reflections of buildings from across the street and further, including the
top of the Chrysler building (picture in the center), or clouds.
Flags of all the member states countries, currently 193, are raised in
alphabetical order in front of the buildings, each morning. The UN flag is
blue (color of peace) and has two olive branches as symbol of peace and the
world map as symbol of all the people of the world.

There are many sculptures donated to the UN that adorn the UN lawns and
garden and many artwork and paintings inside the buildings. They are worth
a visit.
Among the sculptures, there is one donated by the former Soviet Union in
1990, representing St George slaying the two-headed dragon, entitled Good
defeats Evil. The sculpture was created by sculptor Zurab Tsereli, out of
fragments of US and former Soviet Union ballistic missiles.

In the rose garden, one can see the Japanese Peace Bell which was donated
in 1954 to the UN by the UN association of Japan. It was cast from coins
collected by people from 60 different countries. The bell is under a
Japanese style structure that resemble a Shinto shrine and made out of
cypress wood. It is rung twice a year, on the first day of spring and on
the International Day of Peace which is September 21. I wanted to take
pictures of the Peace Bell ceremony on Friday for my story, but got there
20 minutes late, so I missed it, and could only take a picture of the kids
who played the violin for the concert at the ceremony. May be next year if
the theme repeats, I will try to be on time for the news story.

Here are a few links in case you would like to check the accuracy of what I
said (I hope I did not make any mistake when I copied the facts from those
links :-)) or want to know more about the UN and the UN buildings.

http://www.un.org/en/aboutun/history/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Nations_Headquarters
http://www.un.org/en/aboutun/index.shtml
http://www.un.org/Depts/dhl/maplib/flag.htm


I am so glad I am done with my terribly boring story.
Goodnight and have a wonderful week next week everyone
from Be^n Bo*\ So^ng
MC