Despite all, ex-prisoners emphasized that they do not shelter any hatred against their country, as they believe in the Christian doctrine, as they put it, on the contrary they want Cuba to prosper for the good of all. For more details read our article.

The very interesting hearing in the EP’s human rights sub-committee I attended was all the more interesting for someone like myself coming from a once Communist state. I recalled my childhood memories of kids summer camps, where we used to learn songs about Fidel Castro with a refrain like “if two hands touch each other, either black or white”…

I recalled my childhood memories of kids summer camps, where we used to learn songs about Fidel Castro with a refrain like “if two hands touch each other, either black or white”…

Back then I had no clue who this guy was, and the song with the underlying idea about interracial friendship was music to my ears. Later on in my teenage years, when I realized that Castro was not really the guy to sing songs about, I thought that his regime will be gone once the much attended changes in Central and Eastern Europe have taken place. I was mistaken…It is still alive and kicking.

Thus I can only reiterate what one of the prisoners told MEPs about how the EU should relate to Cuba: “Do not listen to the words by the Cuban government, look at the concrete facts!”

Have somebody seen Anete?

Apparently the perfect combination for such an office is a smooth mixture between the elements mentioned above, between personal, yet mysterious touch. Well, this kind of office and place belongs to our Latvian editor, Anete.

Her favourite object in the office is the picture of Himalaya behind her desk. “It is from the Russian painter and philosopher Nicholas Roehrich. His pictures have always inspired me. At some point it also turned out that a picture of a mountain behind one’s desk gives strength and protection according to the principles of Feng Shui”.

Well, with a bit of a more personal note, she went on… “Both pictures with the Cuban musicians are a spontaneous present from my brother. I saw them on the floor at his place, liked them and he said – you can have them. They are cheerful and remind me of my brother.

The perfect combination for such an office is a smooth mixture between the elements mentioned above, between personal, yet mysterious touch.

Although preserving the same charm, this is yet a different type of office than the ones I have seen so far. It is simple, personal, yet gives a bit of mysterious taste. It belongs to Anete… and I am heading again for the laughs!

Reach your destiny...

End of the corridor, very well hidden and almost all the time closed, this office is a bizarre compilation of photos and posters, not forgetting to mention the enormous, astonishing, yet scary looking devil, seen by the artist, ironically to my view, as “the god of destiny”. First impression proved all of a sudden to be wrong and superficial after Pietro spelled out the idea behind it.

“The art installation on my wall is named ‘The god of destiny’. It is made of transparent roads. The parallel roads are the one that society is suggesting you to take, the others are the one you decide to take to reach your goal:  reach your destiny = the head, the turquoise diamond is the eye of the god. But the head is a round about and there are no paths to the eye. Even if one day you will reach the head you will not understand that you are at your goal because you will keep turning around without never stopping and you will be tempted to take one of the many other roads starting from the cross, so you might lose the path again and again”.

I am now cutting on this part and focus a bit on the photos hanging throughout the room… carnivals and masks in beautiful Venice, cats, dogs, happy faces and colours can easily mesmerize one’s eye. “The wall on the left have an exhibition on it that is named ‘The other side of the carnival’. It was my first exhibition I exposed some years ago in Brussels. The other giant black and white photo is from a friend of mine in Italy, a really good artist and photographer”, Pietro confirmed.

The head is a round about and there are no paths to the eye.

But the most special thing in the office, also in his view, is the cats and dogs in front of the desk. “It was a photo I exhibited in Milano long time ago and it is representing my dog sniffing, nose to nose, a baby cat. I did it in Dubrovnik during a reportage I was doing on the former Yugoslavia countries”, he summed up…

I had no clue photographers are so shy when having their photos taken. Having all this said, one more office just got checked. Next one, please!

Toto, where are my red shoes?

Continuing the offices crawl, I stepped into a much ‘whiter’ office than the previous ones, situated at the end of corridor, where my Greek colleague, Eirini explained me that “an office is a means (to work) and not an end in itself. This is why I have not invested in it as many efforts as other colleagues have done or as I did with my own place…The most important thing for me is to be able to find documents easily – of course there are periods when my desk has piles of papers on it but I generally try to avoid it because too many papers around affect me psychologically (in my own place for example, I have made all books vanish from my living-room and bedroom)…”

Yet, as you can see, it is not at all white, as she tried to explain. “Since in our line of work we have to spend a lot of hours at the office, it is important not to feel depressed every time you look at your walls trying to find inspiration… Thus, you can find some colourful posters with EU information (that I got from the Open Days) on my walls (blue being privileged as I come from a Mediterranean country…) and a couple of plants to add a touch of nature… ”

And what about one special thing?

“It is me!” Eirini shouted out. “I would say that the special thing in my office is my cupboard, full of extra coffee provisions that I got from Greece and gym stuff for when I just need to go to my gym nearby to relax in the sauna or (rarely) do some actual sports…”

 It is important not to feel depressed every time you look at your walls trying to find inspiration…

Forgive me for swapping again to fantasy time, but since Tibo mentioned the Wizard of Oz, I am thinking that maybe in what concerns offices, less can indeed be more. Maybe a coloured packed one could mean less than an apparent simpler office, since Dorothy could be hiding her red shoes in such a cupboard, no?

Disclaimer: I am Dorothy’s friend, thank you very much.

Much more to see here...

This is by far the most ‘complex’ and packed office I have ever seen since so far. First question that pops up is “Could anything be possibly missing from here?” I think not. Slowly, I managed to squeeze in without allowing myself to get distracted by all the children paintings, plants or airplanes flying around and asked Pavel for some insights, which I am sure almost all of my colleagues have been wondering about and looked for.

“I usually spend eight to nine of my most creative hours of the day in my office and thus my wall represents a space onto which I project my inspiration and which reflects it back. Many objects in my office have a specific personal significance vis-à-vis my life. To give you an example: maps are important and allow me to travel both in time (such as a historical map of the Austro-Hungarian Empire of 1914) and in space, especially when people can show me where they are from (wall map of Europe). Moreover you would find in my office some fine oil-paintings of my seven-year old daughter, as well a painting made by my wife, juggling balls, models of airplanes, trains and cars (I love to travel) and a chess board (chess is a lifetime passion of mine).”

When in the office of my Czech colleague, Pavel, my impression has always been that I am entering an ‘unknown’ territory which awaits to be explored. Yes, just like Lewis Caroll’s Alice in wonderland entering the fantasy world with all the giant puppies, Bill lizards or white rabbits, one too can have a much reality based, yet similar feeling in this particular office, when seeing all these diverse objects, all hiding ripples and stories behind it, awaiting to be told out.

Well, instead of fantasising further, I should just listen to my colleague’s explanation: “Over time I was taught to listen to the energy flowing around us and so into my office space I incorporated elements of age-old wisdom, such as the teachings of Feng Shuei. My office is divided into spheres, which each represent different aspects of energy, symbolised my such elements like fire, earth, metal, water and wood. Flowers are very important in that context. My office space is far from perfect though, but nevertheless I believe that ying and yang are in good balance and people who come to my office often comment on a sense of harmony they feel inside”.

It’s just like Lewis Caroll’s Alice in wonderland entering the fantasy world with all the giant puppies, Bill lizards or white rabbits.

Of course, a natural question I had to mention was related to stuff he wouldn’t add in his office. “Although I have a Czech flag hanging in my office, I would definitely not put up a picture of the current Czech president – perhaps mainly because that place is already taken: inside the frame is a stately photograph of Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk (1850-1937), founder and first president of Czechoslovakia. He was a professor of philosophy, a formidable democrat and a great believer in the European ideal”.

Well, how about all this? Quite impressive I would dare say. But hey, I have to wrap up for now with this office and continue my journey…

One Friday afternoon...

How many colours, how many places, all on the wall in front of me, all dreamy, all stuck together on the wall of the person I am sharing office with every day. Therefore, allow me to introduce to you Evita, our Head of Unit’s assistant. She is in charge with the practical side of the unit, from holidays to mission orders and meeting organisation.

A person becomes someone with 2 faces – one – as seen by your colleagues – and other: as seen by your friends, relatives and loved ones.