At the end of March 2018, the Swiss National Bank (SNB), held 8.93 million A class shares compared to Mark Zuckerberg’s holding of 8.91 million, according to the newspaper Handelszeitung. However, most of Zuckerberg’s shares are B class shares, a class of shares which is not quoted and give the founder control of the business. […]
Archives for 2018
How a Swiss-American journalist ended up in court for defending French cultural heritage
In 1989, war correspondent Edward Girardet came face to face with Osama Bin Laden. Bin Laden threatened to kill him. This time around it’s money and principle rather than his life that are at stake. On 4 April 2018, he’ll be in a French court defending himself against a defamation charge brought by a French […]
Food consumes far less of Swiss budgets than it did 25 years ago
Comparing the most recent statistics on Swiss consumer inflation to those in 1993 reveals a steep drop in the percentage of spending allocated to food. When statisticians calculate consumer price rises they look at the prices of a standard basket of goods. In 1993, food and non-alcoholic beverages made up 14.3% of the value of […]
Swiss fact: more than 60% of one Swiss canton is farmed organically
25% of Switzerland’s surface is farmed, a total of just over 1 million hectares. Much of the rest is mountains or forest. Of this roughly 1 million hectares, 142,000 hectares (13.5%) is farmed organically. The organic percentage varies hugely by canton and even more by region. The canton with the least organic farming is Appenzell […]
Aerial photos of Zurich 100 years apart
The first photograph was taken by Eduard Spelterini between 1893 and 1924. Swiss-born Spelterini was an early aviator who took to the air with his camera in a balloon well before flying as we know it became a reality – the Wright brothers made their first powered flight in 1903. The photograph below was taken […]
Tax and spend – canton of Geneva generates a surprise budget surplus
When Geneva’s finances make the news it is typically bad. At the end of 2016, the canton had debts of CHF 12.5 billion, equal to 153% of its income. In January 2018, the rating agency Standard and Poors gave Geneva a negative outlook citing risks related to the canton’s poorly funded public pension scheme. This […]
FILM: PETER RABBIT – an Easter movie that will make you feel as high as a kite
30 March 2018. PETER RABBIT ***1/2 All is right with the world…as long as we get films like this which make us feel as high as a kite, warm in our hearts and as optimistic as Peter himself! American director Will Gluck (“Friends with Benefits”, “Annie”) has gone British (the classic bunny tale, the setting […]
Tariq Ramadan – new testimony undermines alibi
This week, things took a turn for the worse for Tariq Ramadan. According to a report by Swiss broadcaster RTS, a witness contradicted an alibi given by the Swiss muslim academic. One of his accusers claims she was raped in Lyon during the afternoon of 9 October 2009. In opposition to this claim, Tariq Ramadan’s […]
Swiss traffic misery – worst traffic days of the year
If you thought you’d beat Switzerland’s traffic by leaving on Good Friday (30 March 2018) you’ll be disappointed. The two worst days for traffic in the first quarter of this year are Good Friday and the day before it – 29 March 2018. This map shows Easter traffic hotspots. Traffic predictor Via Suisse has four […]
Swiss government raises allowable limits for pesticide residues in waterways
In 1998, the maximum concentration of micro pollutants, such as heavy metals, drug residues, pesticides and other substances in the water of Swiss lakes and waterways was set at 0.1 μg/litre. This month Switzerland’s government decided to change this limit, reducing it for some pollutants, but setting it significantly higher for many others. Among the […]
