The Ronald McDonald House Charity provides families of seriously ill children with heavily subsidised accommodation close to the major hospitals in seven Swiss cities including Geneva, Bern and Basel. The service greatly assists families that have other young children and those that live far away. It allows parents and siblings to be together close to […]
Explaining Switzerland’s issues
Earlier this week, I had lunch with an expat friend from Vaud at one of Geneva’s leading hotels overlooking the Rhone River. He has been living in Switzerland for nearly 30 years, including a nearly decade-long stint in the German-speaking north. So he is very much aware of the divides that exist within Switzerland itself, […]
Hostages: To pay or not to pay, that is the question
The grotesque assassination of the American journalist James Foley has publicly raised the complex question of whether or not governments, companies or individuals should pay a ransom to free hostages. There are supportable arguments on both sides of the issue and, not surprisingly, there are differences on to how to deal with the problem. There […]
Top ranked Switzerland’s Achilles heel
GENEVA Broadly confirming the findings of IMD’s World Competitiveness Report last May, the World Economic Forum’s latest global competitiveness report once again ranks Switzerland, for the fifth time in a row, at the head of the 148-country listing. But there is a serious caveat. One of the country’s biggest problems is to maintain this lead […]
Geneva University submarine exploration
Geneva University and its partners have completed a two-week expedition – Terra Submersa – to explore Greece’s underwater past and the prehistoric landscapes in the Gulf of Nauplio. Operating from the MS Tûranor Planet Solar, the world’s largest solar catamaran, archeologists mapped the sea floor and uncovered Paleolithic and Neolithic remains dating back 36,000 years.
Swiss search engine jumps for moon
Swisscows.com – Switzerland’s answer to Google – is beginning to give the California search engine a run for its money. Since launched by Hulbee AG in June, it has attracted 400,000 users. Responding to Google’s market hold, Swisscows presents itself as the first intelligent “answer engine” based on semantic information recognition coupled with intuitive search […]
Lausanne launches integration fund
With 42% of its population coming from 160 countries and carrying a passport other than Swiss, promoting integration is a key objective for Lausanne. The city announced that it is launching an integration fund of CHF 100,000 to give associations and not-for-profit groups the means to run projects that prevent racism and promote social cohesion. […]
Learning to live in the region
The International Women’s Club of Lausanne’s annual “Living in Lausanne and the Canton of Vaud Seminar (LIL)” will take place the 29th and 30th September 2014 at the IWC Clubhouse, Avenue Eglantine 6, in Lausanne. The IWC has organized this excellent seminar every year since 1983. Open to all, it provides newcomers with valuable information […]
Americans abroad – Pushed to vote
Democrats and Republications Abroad, two non-profit organizations representing US citizens, are pushing hard over the next few weeks for expat Americans to register for the next presidential election. While some states retain permanent overseas registration, most require their citizens to re-register every time. Democrats Abroad Switzerland is holding informal events in Geneva and Zurich to […]
Basel: Public transport with vision
Among European cities such as Helsinki, Copenhagen and Freiburg, Switzerland’s north-eastern city of Basel ranks as having one of the continent’s most visionary approaches to public transport. It is one that the Lake Geneva region would do well to heed if it is to deal with rising car traffic in a more imaginative and environmentally […]
