Born in 1887 in La Chaux-de-Fonds, Switzerland, naturalized in France in 1930 and considered by many to be the father of modern architecture, Le Corbusier (a nickname used from 1920) has been presented as a fascist anti Semite in two recent books. One by Xavier de Jarcy entitled: Le Corbusier, a French fascism (Le Corbusier, […]
Swiss happiness – more than just money?
Switzerland, which came out top the recent 2015 World Happiness Report, has a habit of doing well in surveys that look beyond wealth to compare levels of human wellbeing – Switzerland also ranked third in the recent 2015 Social Progress Ranking. Why is this? Some cynics conclude that it all boils down to dollars and […]
Hans Erni Switzerland’s Picasso dies
Hans Erni, considered by some to be Switzerland’s Picasso, passed away on Saturday at the age of 106. Born in Lucerne in 1909, the sculptor and painter never stopped working. He completed the fresco at the entrance of the Palais des Nations, which contains the office of the United Nations in Geneva in 2009. The […]
Everest in the Alps – Toby’s story
Toby is battling with a brain tumour and suffered terribly before it was diagnosed. Now he is battling through his first 18 months of chemotherapy. His father Rob explains what’s happening. (See Everest in the Alps Challenge.) My son, Toby, has a brain stem tumour. His tumour was diagnosed when he was five following a very […]
Countdown to world-first Everest challenge in Verbier, Switzerland
Everest in the Alps is a highly imaginative initiative to raise money for the Brain Tumour Charity while at the same time roping in both mountain skills and the outdoors for a worthy cause. The effort is the world’s first ski-touring challenge to take place in this manner, notably at the Swiss ski resort of […]
Anne Frank’s cousin Buddy Elias dies
The humanist and actor Buddy Elias passed away on 16 March 2015 just before his 90th birthday. He was president of the Anne Frank Fonds in Basel, Switzerland and the last living relative of Anne Frank. He was also a friend of Le New’s editor Edward Girardet who visited him late last year. The following […]
Swiss are not the world’s biggest cheese eaters
In 2014 the average Swiss resident ate 21.37 kilograms of cheese according to recent calculations done by the Swiss Farmers Union. A 1.6% increase on 2013 consumption, this is equivalent to two portions of fondue a week, and weighs more than the heaviest suitcase many airlines will check in for free. Around half of Swiss milk is turned […]
Vaud prodigy checkmates rest of Switzerland
11 year-old chess prodigy, Johann Williams, has won the Swiss Under 12 Rapid Chess Competition held last weekend in Solothurn. Johann, who lives in Morrens near Lausanne has been creating a stir in chess circles over the last couple years with a series of superb performances at competitions around the country. Suisse romande players have […]
Geneva-based author Paulo Coelho slams Swisscom on Facebook
What can you do when you have a nasty experience with a phone company and can’t get things fixed? If you are the world famous Geneva-based Brazilian author Paulo Coelho with over 26 million Facebook followers you can do quite a lot! Early this morning he took to Facebook to vent his frustration at the […]
Former Swiss president Didier Burkhalter wins a second vote
Last weekend the former Swiss president was elected Swiss of the year in an RTS Two Swiss television broadcast on Saturday. According to RTS he received 46% of the public votes made by the public by telephone and SMS. Last year’s winner was the Swiss tennis star Stan Wawrinka.
