Why no national Swiss media?

GENEVA The Swiss are well known for their language capabilities, many of them speaking at least three.

Foreigners living here are therefore often surprised to discover how wide divisions are among the country’s four different language regions. Mastery of others’ tongues has been on the decline for decades, while there are few common cultural events and no national media.

Last week, the television magazine Couleurs locales on TSR1 in Suisse Romande joined forces with its counterpart in German-speaking Switzerland, Aktuell on SR1, to try to change this. The result was a week of reports from both sides of the dividing line, the River Sarine,where the two presenters met in the middle of a bridge in Fribourg to share a symbolic plate of Rösti.

It may be too early to assess the success of this attempt to bridge the culture gap,but Claude Torracinta, former editor of Téléjournal, a nationwide programme from the 1960s–70s, isn’t optimistic. “Téléjournal as a single [national]programme failed,” he said, explaining that the show was broadcast simultaneously in German, French and Italian from a studio in Zurich with no presenters, but different language voiceover narrations for the same video images. “Each region was unsatisfied because the news did not give them enough about their own region and they weren’t interested in other regions,” said Torracinta. “Even the journalists who worked with me complained that it was like different chefs trying to prepare a common dish. It simply didn’t work.”

When it comes to a national newspaper, experts say that is impossible in a multi-lingual country. Others note that back in the old days, it was assumed that most educated Swiss could at least read a newspaper in another national language. The problem, said Torracinta, is that “today fewer Swiss are really bi-lingual, especially in Suisse romande, and certainly not fluent enough to speak on radio or TV. Even the majority of federal counsellors express themselves badly in another national language.”

Elsewhere in Europe, attempts have been made to encourage communality among various national languages and cultures through mass media. In the former Czechoslovakia, a single news programme was broadcast both in Czech and Slovak before the Dissolution of Czechoslovakia split the country in two. Today, they are once again combining forces to produce joint media shows. The former Yugoslavia, although not a multi-lingual country, had two alphabets and during the Tito years produced a national newspaper with articles in Cyrillic and Latin script. Currentlythe only really successful pan-European television network is Euronews, which confronts the multi-lingual issue by narrating the same video, often with different presenters, in 13 languages.

The Forum Helveticum, founded in 1968 in Lenzberg (Aargau) to foster linguistic and cultural understanding among the various Swiss regions, is concerned about the rise of isolationism and nationalism. “We don’t know very much about what’s going on in the other regions,” said director Roland Boss. “We are living in a time when we know too much about our own region and not enough about neighbouring regions.”

This problem is exacerbated by recent efforts to drop French as the second national language in schools and the decline of standard German in favour of local dialects, something some teachers disagree with given that it undermines the students’ grasp of Hochdeutsch, or high German. In the 18 May referendum, voters in Aargau approved an initiative to ban standard German in primary schools and promote dialect instead. Zurich approved a similar initiative three years ago. “These days when people from Suisse romande or Ticino come here, they find that no one speaks standard German any more, only dialects,”said Boss. “In the end they are forced to speak English and that is clearly something we don’t want.” He believes the lack of any type of national media could be part of the problem. “Maybe some sports programmes are jointly broadcast in the national languages but not the news. At least the news continues to be in standard German but local radio stations are only in dialect.”

Forum Helveticum noted that the break with standard German came after WWI when Swiss-Germans wanted to separate themselves from Germany. This desire only increased with time and after WWII. By the 1970s, the Swiss national broadcaster SRG/SSR had decided radio and television programmes should be in local dialects.

Boss believes one of Switzerland’s strengths is multi-lingualism and that it could play a greater role in aiding understanding of the different cultures. “For example, we could be better partners on European issues because we have, through language, a greater understanding of other cultures. But alas, Switzerland today is more concerned about itself.” He noted that TV stations do have one major joint initiative on 1 August, the National Day celebration of the founding of the Swiss Confederation in 1291. “There is usually a joint programme of three stations together but last year it was heavily criticized because the Swiss-German presenter didn’t speak in standard German but in his own dialect. And people were right to criticize this.”

Torracinta,however, is adamant that it is impossible to have a single, nationwide TV programme for Switzerland. “As much as I think a single broadcast won’t work and as much as I think a single newspaper won’t work, I do agree that we need to make a greater effort to understand each other.” His recommendations include not onlybetter training ofjournalists in reporting on events happening in other regions,but also to encourage more exchanges among regions at the political level. “Because it’s true there is a tendency to regionalize all information,” he said.

For both Torracinta and Boss, the key to safeguarding Swiss cohesion is preserving its four founding languages. They agree that English is fine for the economy and travelling the world, but it doesn’t help with understanding the culture of other regions, especially the nuances that are lost when one doesn’t fully understand a language. This is reflected by growing numbers of Swiss families, particularly those with international exposure, or of mixed backgrounds such as German and French, or French and Italian. They ensure that their kids learn, either at home or school, at least two Swiss tongues, while embracing English as the language of the future for professional reasons.

Pamela Taylor

 

A tsunami on Lake Geneva? Well, one did happen over 1,400 years ago.

BERN  As difficult as it may be to imagine a tsunami in landlocked Switzerland, geophysical and climate scientists consider it their duty to adopt a long-term view of cataclysmic events to help mankind prepare preventive measures. Records show that a tsunami caused by an earthquake did strike Lake Geneva back in 563. It created 8-metre-high waves that not only killed untold numbers but also destroyed villages, with waves that rose as high as the walls of Geneva’s Old Town. The subject of tsunamis on Swiss lakes has continued to come up over the years in scientific circles, most recently at the European Geosciences Union General Assembly in Vienna (27 April – 2 May).

Flavio Anselmetti, a professor of geology and paleo-climatology at the University of Bern, addressed the conference about the latest research in sophisticated computer codes and simulations that monitor underwater lake movement, and realistic scenarios regarding which land areas might be affected. He said that much of their research is sponsored by insurance companies and local authorities, which need hazard maps for their communities.

Anselmetti agrees that it is difficult for the general population to imagine the hazards of a tsunami that might not happen for several generations. “A thousand years may seem long. But if it was decided to build a nuclear power plant on a lake shore, it would have to be safe for more than a thousand years. If a structure could not be made safe from an event for that length of time, we would recommend against building it.”

Anselmetti said that his tsunami research on Swiss lakes was underway long before the 2011 ocean surge that caused Japan’s Fukushima nuclear disaster. There was nevertheless much discussion in Vienna about the increasing dangers of catastrophic flooding throughout the world owing to climate change. In his History of the Franks in the sixth century, Grégoire de Tours gave this account of the event: “A curious bellowing sound was heard for more than sixty days: then the whole hillside was split open and separated from the mountain nearest to it, and it fell into the river, carrying with it men, churches, property and houses. The banks of the river were blocked and the water flowed backwards.”

According to a 2012 study by Katrina Kremer of the University of Geneva, the 563 tsunami is believed to have occurred following a massive landslide on the mountain of Le Grammont, near Les Evouettes, at the point where the Rhône empties into the extreme eastern end of Lake Geneva. Such events are not uncommon in the Alps. The Kremer study cited reports of waves as high as 13 metres in Lausanne and eight meters in Geneva. City excavations indicate that waves washed over the walls of the Old Town. The lake’s shoreline is today populated by more than a million people, 200,000 of them in Geneva alone, which is most vulnerable because of its position at the far western end of the funnel-shaped lake, in a configuration that increases the height of the waves.

So would Anselmetti buy a house on the shores of Lake Geneva today? “I was asked that once and I said I don’t have the money, but if I did and knew that such waves occur only every thousand years or so, why not?” Anselmetti added that geologists must be able to imagine phenomena that have no historical equivalent, examining such rare events as the extinction of dinosaurs by meteorites 65 million years ago. “If we are not prepared for exceptional possibilities, questions could be asked of people like us, why didn’t you know about this and warn us?”

Pamela Taylor

GENEVA  Much has been written about the bleak future for bookshops in the face of digital competition, with booksellers around the world fearing their shops may become quaint relics of the past, like tobacconists, albeit for different reasons.

This phenomenon also has been noticed in Switzerland where Payot, the Suisse Romande chain, has stood fast in its insistence on supplying quality literature and out-of-print or hard-to-find books. It has come up with an original way to attract and keep a demanding clientele by transforming its store on Rue Chantepoulet in Geneva into a non-francophone, international bookshop.

Books in French have been transferred to the new Payot on the mezzanine of Gare Cointrin and will continue to be the main feature at other Payot shops. Browsers at Chantepoulet, however, will find a huge selection of books in English: not only literature and bestsellers, but also translations of important works in other languages, in addition to the usual categories of history, poetry, psychology, gardening and the like. Another innovation is the addition of shelves devoted to books in German, Italian, Spanish and Russian.

“We decided to go international at Chantepoulet because of the increasing demand for books in English,” said store manager Xavier Huberson. “The other languages were chosen because the first two are, of course, national languages, and because there are so many residents in our region from Spain and Russia.” He said Payot felt there was no need to compete with a very good Portuguese bookshop for the large Suisse Romande community.

Payot may be riding the crest of a new wave. Already in the US and the UK, where digital books have swept even large bookstore chains off the street, there are signs that e-books may have peaked in popularity. Waterstones has plans to open a dozen new shops in the UK in 2014 and statistics from the American Booksellers Association show that fewer bookstores are closing down and that their number has stabilized.

Many independent booksellers have tried various ways to tempt clients away from ordering books online, including creating coffee shops or cafés as meeting places, but Payot seems to have found its own, unique business model, perhaps only applicable to a multilingual country. “We found we have a special clientele who are very well-read and who demand titles not easily found on the internet,” said Huberson, noting that while many anglophones live in Canton Vaud, “most of them work on Geneva’s Right Bank”. With this in mind, he said, Payot took the decision to specialize in books of quality, “the kind we received orders for in the past, from anglophones working at international organizations, rather than the popular type found more easily on Amazon or Google”.

Payot also sells electronic readers and e-books through its website, but Huberson says there have been fewer requests for them.

Pamela Taylor

GLAND There are over 12,000 alien animal and plant species in Europe, ranging from the North American grey squirrel, red-eared terrapin and grass carp to the highly dangerous Asian hornet and tiger mosquito. They are causing €12 billion worth of damage annually and pose an ever-growing threat to biodiversity and health.

Walking around ponds and swamps in the Lake Geneva region, such as at the Aubonne Arboretum, the Bois de la Bâtie in Geneva or where the Rhone enters the lake near Villeneuve, you can often see turtles sunning themselves or searching for food in the shallows. These are probably not the rare European pond turtle, or cistude, but rather the rapacious American red-eared slider – those green little terrapins originally brought over by the pet trade and now found throughout Europe. While the red-ears are not thought to have established breeding populations in Switzerland, they can live as long as a human, grow to 30 cm in length and prey on water fowl, fish and frogs. They are also pushing out the country’s only native terrapin.

Other invaders include the North American racoon (introduced to Germany during the 1930s), grey squirrel (now overrunning the native red species), racoon dog (from north-eastern Russia), the South American coypu, or nutria, and North American muskrat (both brought over for the fur industry), American catfish, bullfrog, various species of Asian and American crayfish, and even the exotic mandarin duck from China.

Many can spread disease, kill nesting birds, or ruthlessly compete with other species. Out of the 28 types of fish in Lake Geneva, half are considered invasive such as rainbow trout, sunfish and even giant goldfish or koi. The Thai chipmunk, in northern Italy has encroached to within three kilometres of the Swiss border. It carries diseases such as Lyme disease. Some animals, notably the Italian crested newt, escaped from a Geneva research station and have how completely displaced the local great crested variety.

Last month, the European Union introduced an action plan to counter problematic plants and animals introduced to the wild by humans. “Not all invasive species are bad, so the main focus is to protect biodiversity and to counter those that are a problem,” noted Piero Genovesi, who heads up the specialist Invasive Species Group at IUCN in Gland and is a scientist at the ISPRA environmental institute in Italy. “The only way to do this is through concerted prevention on a European-wide basis.”

For Wolfgang Nentwig of the Institute of Ecology and Evolution at Bern University, which produces DAISIE, the European invasive species inventory, such species have become more frequent because “space and resources are limited; someone else has to disappear”. “Clearly, one cannot stop all species, but one can introduce effective management to reduce their spread,” said Genovesi. “It’s also a matter of informing people properly. Locally, one does not see a huge change, but globally it means the 50 native bird species in Hawaii that have been replaced by 50 outsiders.”

The problem is expected to worsen as climate change encourages some species to move north. One of these is the deadly Asian giant hornet, which consumes 50 honey bees a day, threatening honey production and pollination. Highly venomous, it has already arrived in northern Italy and is expected to cross into Switzerland soon. “The hornet could spark a general crisis with other pollinators of fruit trees and other forms of agricultural production, which are crucial for human survival.”

“The issue is that we never seem to learn from our mistakes,” said Genovesi.

Hence the need to focus on prevention, including rules to inhibit the import of certain species before they can become established. It is also necessary to react rapidly. Canadian beavers released in the wilds of France were removed in a matter of weeks. In other situations, it is too late to act. The golden jackal, which is spreading naturally and through quick adaption from the Mediterranean, has now arrived in Switzerland and Italy and is moving toward Estonia and Hungary, probably as a result of climate change rather than direct human intervention.

Edward Girardet

BERN Switzerland’s scientific community heaved a collective sigh of relief following measures from Bern to temporarily fund some projects.

The panic has not completely died down however, since the measures proposed by the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF) are transitional, pending resolution of the problem posed by the cutoff of EU funding. After the 9 February vote against mass immigration, the EU halted Swiss participation in the European Horizon 2020 scientific projects.

The SNSF’s offer of temporary funding resulted in nearly 150 applications from scientists at the University of Geneva, Zurich’s Institute of Technology (ETH) and EPFL in Lausanne. The concern is that it may become more difficult for Swiss scientists to participate in European research projects if they are no longer eligible for common funding through the important European Research Council (ERC) grants.

Roland Siegwart, professor of robotics at Zurich’s prestigious ETH, believes the main damage to Switzerland is not financial but rather to its reputation as a reliable and important partner in scientific research. “It is not as catastrophic as some people think, although painful and the wrong move,” said Siegwart, who is also vice-president of Research and Corporate Relations at ETH. “We had controlled immigration from Europe before 2002 but people are nevertheless worried and may decide not to come here because of this uncertainty.”

Much has been reported about the important physics experiments going on at the CERN nuclear research centre outside Geneva. Less is known about other important projects such as the Human Brain Project, piloted by EPFL in Lausanne and relocated to Geneva at the beginning of this year. There is also a myriad of other significant research projects in medicine, pharmaceutics, robotics and nuclear fusion – not to mention ecological and energy projects from solar to hydroelectric and biotechnology.

Swiss universities historically get about two thirds of their researchers from abroad and most of those have come from Europe since Switzerland signed up to the EU Free Movement of Persons Agreement in 2002. The question is, will Switzerland turn towards non-European scientists to fill the gap? “It may be that Switzerland is now free to attract more scientists from non-European countries such as the US or India,” said Siegwart. “For them the situation might actually improve because until now it was much easier to get people from Europe. It will now be equal for everyone.”

Perhaps with this in mind, minister for economy Johann Schneider-Ammann flew to Brazil in early April to inaugurate a new office for the Swiss science and education network known as Swissnex. This is a public and privately funded network to connect Swiss scientists with research projects around the world. The Rio office will be the sixth. The first office opened in Boston in 2000, followed by San Francisco, Singapore, Shanghai and Bangalore. Notable by its absence is any office in Europe.

Nevertheless, most Swiss scientists don’t believe that non-Europeans will fill the gap. This is partly because it is more difficult to have common funding mechanisms with individual countries. It is also because the ERC not only provides funding for basic research, but also offers awards for outstanding research, an area in which Switzerland has excelled. According to Siegwart this cannot be replaced and he is confident the government will find reasonable solutions. “Most Swiss know their government usually finds a way out of these problems but foreigners don’t know that and are understandably anxious.”

NYON Living with special needs, either physical or intellectual, is no impediment to a full and active life in the Lake Geneva region.

Stretching from Geneva to Montreux, the region offers an often unique wealth of opportunities for children and adults living with special needs. These include private and state-run schools and centres for youngsters with physical and learning disabilities, such as the Cité Radieuse in Echichens or the Institution de Lavigny above Morges. Geneva and Vaud seek where possible to include children with disabilities in mainstream education. Policies are in place to encourage training and integration in the workplace. Meanwhile, numerous associations offer support to those living with special needs, and their families. There are half-way houses for recuperating drug addicts or for young people with depression seeking to re-integrate themselves in active society.

But it’s not all work and no play. For people living with special needs, being able to participate in leisure activities is equally important. Here, too, the area offers several opportunities.

Geneva-based Cap Loisirs is a case in point. Founded in 1980, the not-for-profit association offers structured leisure time activities for children and adults living with a mental disability. The range of pursuits on offer is impressive and includes, among others, horse-riding, cycling, skiing, archery, and swimming as well as cultural activities. Cap Loisirs also arranges fully inclusive ‘adventure’ holidays ranging from a weekend to three weeks. Destinations have included Australia, Canada, France, Norway and even Mongolia where participants crossed the Steppes on horseback and slept in Yurts! All activities are organised and supervised by a team of fully trained, specialised, multilingual staff whose dedication is unparalleled.

Thanks to Cap Loisirs, children and young people for whom such activities might ordinarily be out of reach are able to develop their full potential and lead well-rounded active lives. It also means that parents, families and carers are able to get some much needed respite safe in the knowledge that their charges are being taken care of in a happy and secure environment. The association additionally hosts sports days that bring together able participants and those with special needs as part of efforts to encourage their integration. On average, it welcomes 450 participants, one-third of them children and adolescents, and organises the equivalent of 8,000 activity days.

Today, the association is very much part of the Geneva fabric. An important date in Cap Loisirs’ calendar is the annual plant sale, a fundraiser that seeks to raise awareness of the services offered by the association and encourage more people to join in. Organized entirely by volunteers, this event is more than a simple plant sale. It is a chance to meet others who take part in Cap Loisirs’ activities and to share experience and insights. It is also a testimony to the importance that people place in Cap Loisirs and its activities. In a show of support for the association, the plants are supplied by local horticulturalists and market gardeners, several ‘vignerons’ supply wine for sale by the glass or bottle, a local business donates refreshments, volunteers bake cakes, while local musicians provide entertainment. In short, it’s a fun day out. To find out more about Cap Loisirs and its activities, visit the website. For details of other organisations and associations for people with special needs, visit this page.

Kathrine Mann

ANZÈRE It may not be the best-known destination in the Valais, but the 43-year old ski resort of Anzère is among the greenest, possessing one of Europe’s largest wood-pellet heating systems, after Denmark and Sweden. A similar heating facility for Le Brassus Bois SA was built in Le Sentier, Vaud in 2009. Local Swiss energy expert, Albert Bétrisey, and his German friend, Markus Mann, whose family has had an apartment in Anzère since it was built in 1970, launched the clean-energy project in 2010. Two years later they founded Chauffage Bois Energie Anzère and proudly announced that 40 village buildings with 600 apartments, plus three hotels and a wellness centre, were fully heated by burning wood pellets.

Chauffage Bois claims that its 6.3 megawatt burner has saved 1.3 million litres of fuel oil in the past two winters by burning pellets made of waste wood cuttings from Valaisan forests. A proposal is underway to extend service to the southern part of the village by 2014–15. The CHF 8.5-million facility located just outside Anzère village is the size of a family home. It features two 300,000-litre silos filled with granules (produced by Valpellets in Uvrier, near Sion), and fed into two boilers.

At a Renewable Energy Summit last September, wood biomass experts visited the Valais from neighbouring countries, the Czech Republic and Argentina to climb up to a newly equipped hut below the Bishorn peak, where they celebrated the delivery of ten tons of wood pellets. Mann remarked that not only does the Valais now host the largest centre for burning wood pellets, but “it can now also boast of possessing, with the Tracuit hut, central heating at the highest altitude”. The individual use of wood pellets as fuel has increased in recent years, but Anzère is the first Swiss village to heat its buildings with this type of clean, renewable fuel.

It is not yet know to what degree heat or electricity from wood pellets contributes to climate change. Some studies indicate that burning such forms of biomass releases large amounts of CO2, creating a carbon debt that can last for 20–25 years despite the overall net benefit. “With the rising price of oil, timber is now a competitive energy source,” said Bétrisey, adding that Switzerland can do even more. In Austria, he noted, 30% of heating comes from wood sources while in Switzerland it is only 7%, although “the proportion of forests is substantially identical”.

What other resorts are doing
Leysin (VS) – The revolving panoramic restaurant Le Kuklos is operated by solar energy. Patrons can even try their hand at solar cooking in the kitchen.
Zermatt (VS) – The Monte Rosa hut at 2,883 meters is 90% energy independent with energy generated from photovoltaic panels and solar thermal systems.
Villars-sur-Ollon (VD) – The four-star Hotel du Golf and Spa has installed water-flow restrictors, solar panels and low-energy bulbs in all of its rooms.
Les Granges (VS) – The rural Hotel Balance has a solar-heated swimming pool and its 100% organic vegetarian menu is sourced partly from the hotel’s garden.