New Left Review I/87-88, September-December 1974
John Berger
Directions in Hell
Geneva today is a town of 250,000 inhabitants. Its population 15 years ago was 195,000. Geneva is not an industrial centre: it is a centre of paper work, of contracts, deals, plans, treaties, agreements, reports. Most of these emanate from organizations dedicated in one way or another to international co-operation and exchange: the United Nations, the International Red Cross, the International Labour Office, etc. Beside the governmental international agencies, there are also many multinational companies and banks. Geneva—perhaps more exclusively than any other town in Europe—is a capital of words: words written in reports and on cheques: spoken words, interpreted and recorded. All of them relate to what is happening in the rest of the world; and many of them go out into the world as recommendations. During the last 15 years the number of words has much increased and, correspondingly, the town has grown.
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