The seven-year-old surprised me the other day by hopping into the back seat of the car, with full make-up on: eyeliner, mascara, gold eye-shadow (mostly all over her forehead, but still), blusher and lipstick. And engulfed in a cloud of perfume.We looked at one another in the rear-view mirror for a few moments. I know […]
Editorial comment: Can you be a good Swiss?
In an article highlighted last week by SwissInfo, a Swiss government-funded information service, a new survey on what is a Swiss has been issued by a group of artists, historians and sociologists fifty years after a controversially censored ‘Gulliver’ questionnaire was carried out during the Swiss National Exhibition in Lausanne in 1964. Basically, the landmark […]
UDC open to immigration compromise
Christophe Blocher, vice-president of Switzerland’s right-wing UDC party, has indicated that he is prepared to compromise on the controversial 9 February, 2014, referendum that demands quotas on mass immigration from Europe. In an interview last Sunday with the German-language SonntagsZeitung, the Zurich politician said that he was open to exploring more subtle approaches, such as […]
Language thermidor – Robyn Goss grapples with French
When they heard that I was moving to Switzerland, many of my South African friends assured me that I would be speaking French fluently “in no time”. Most of them do not speak French themselves, and were most likely confusing French the actual language with French the menu language. The latter usually has helpful English […]
Switzerland to silence whistle-blowers
Proposed law provides no protection for whistleblowers The proposed whistleblowing law adopted by the Swiss Conseil des Etats, the upper house of parliament, will effectively silence employees who are best placed to report wrongdoing and threats to the public interest. The law, which focuses on whistleblowing procedures rather than on the public interest value in […]
Lake Geneva’s higher education card
A recent article in Le Temps suggests that Patrick Aebischer, president of Lausanne’s prestigious École Polytechnique Fédérale (EPFL), has gone too far with his ambitious plans to expand what is now referred to as the “MIT of Europe”. The 9 February referendum on immigration threatens not only EPFL’s European Union funding, but also access to […]
In sickness and in health
Oh, hooray. It’s cold and flu season again (again? Wasn’t it just November, like, a month ago?) and to amuse us all during this trying time, I’ve compiled a short list of sufferer ‘types’, based on my family. I’m sure there are more types, so contributions are welcome, but this is what I have to […]
Health insurance, restaurant taxes and crossing Lake Geneva
The concept of a referendum appears to be viewed increasingly by Europeans as a quick way to impose change on politicians (first Scotland, then Catalonia). The question, however, is whether the referendum really constitutes an effective form of democracy. Is decision-making not supposed to be the role of elected parliamentarians? And if a referendum affecting […]
Throwing off the yoke: Swiss farm numbers decline
It is hardly news that Swiss peasants have been abandoning farming in recent decades but the phenomenon increased even further in 2013. By the end of last year, there were 2.4% fewer farms than were worked in 2012, particularly smaller farms of between 5 and 20 hectares. On the other hand, the number of farms […]
Swiss referendum aims to change health insurance
Many of those in favour of the Swiss health insurance changes proposed for the 28 September 2014 referendum believe they will deliver cost savings and reduce average compulsory insurance premiums. Swiss health care costs were the second highest in the world after the US and 66 percent higher than in the UK, according to a recent analysis by the Economist Intelligence Unit. Often […]
