DO THEY HAVE A SOUL?

With their bureaucracies regulating all their actions one may wonder whether they have a soul. However... international organizations are not just robots with pre-established rules but living creatures which depend on the “brain” which leads them.
It is particularly impressive to notice how enthusiasm, courage, quality of work, even devotion to work, depends on the boss. It is he who projects a certain image of the organization which every one will identify him/herself with.
There’s nothing like a chief who spends most of his/her day playing tennis to discourage the staff and destroy the organization. On the other hand, a chief who believes in what he/she is doing can achieve miracles.
This was the case with Gunnar Myrdal, the first Executive Secretary of the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE).
His pugnacity, his courage and his intelligence succeeded in keeping an organization afloat in the middle of stormy waters.
In the middle of the cold war, accused by some of being a communist henchman, and by others a capitalist agent, Gunnar Myrdal succeeded in getting both camps around a table to help reconstruct Europe, despite the differences of interest and ideology. What is even more amazing is that sixty years later, his influence is still present in the UNECE which continues to work with the same enthusiasm to improve everyone’s daily life.
To know more about Gunnar Myrdal come and have a look at the exhibition which will be located on the third floor of the Palais des Nations new building from 23 to 27 April 2007.