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In sickness and in health

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Le News english switzerland genevaOh, 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 deal with:

The Typhoid Mary: Mary Mallon worked as a private cook for several wealthy New York families between 1900 and 1907, and is suspected of infecting over 50 people with typhoid. I’ve known several Typhoid Marys in my life – co workers who bravely dragged themselves into the office and coughed all over everything – but the most virulent one must be my seven-year-old. She’s a germ’s dream host, spreading the love with every dramatic sneeze. I’m thinking of muzzling her for the rest of the winter.

The Hermit: American writer Henry Thoreau lived alone in a cabin on Walden Pond for two years. Popular belief is that he was conducting an experiment in living simply, but most likely he was just trying to shake off a head cold.

I totally understand this. When I’m sick, I want to curl up in my bed, alone. “Alone” means no cat selfishly trying to warm it’s paws on my fevered skin, no bored children bouncing on the mattress, and certainly no Guinea Pigs slipped under the duvet to “keep me company because I must be lonely”.

Rasputin, the Indestructible: Legend has it that Grigori Rasputin – faith healer, political advisor to Tsar Nicholas II and all-round creepy guy – was so strong that it took cyanide poisoning, four bullets and whack on the head to fell him. Of course this is probably an exaggeration but, still, he doesn’t strike me as a man who took a lot of sick days.

In constitution (and somewhat forceful disposition, let’s be honest), the five-year-old is a Rasputin. Thanks to a babyhood spent licking every handrail between Joburg and Florence, she has an astounding immune system and although she’ll catch the same cold as the rest of us, it won’t take hold or last long. I’ve known a few Rasputins and I must say, it’s very annoying when the germs that have been too intimidated to hang around them then come over and beat me up.

The Pollyanna: The title character in Eleanor H. Porter’s book, Pollyanna is a bright-eyed little optimist / stubborn anti-realist, depending on your viewpoint. When she gets a pair of crutches as a gift instead of a doll (what?), she doesn’t throw a blue fit like any normal child. No. Instead, she declares that the crutches have made her happy because she doesn’t need them.

As far as I remember, Pollyanna doesn’t catch a cold in the book, but if she did, she’d put a positive spin on it.

“Oh,” she’d say, lying on the floor with a temperature of 41 and her eyeballs bulging. “I’m so glad it isn’t Yellow Fever!”

Now, change her gender, cut off her ringlets, slap on some facial hair, and you have my husband. He whose mantra is, “Don’t worry, it’ll be fine.”

It’s been my sad experience that you can’t expect much sympathy from a Pollyanna when you’re sick: you first need to feel sorry for yourself, before you can feel sorry for anyone else, and Pollyannas never feel sorry for themselves.

But I certainly can, which is what I’m planning to do right now. After I’ve made myself a hot toddy (because nobody else is going to) and ousted Rasputin’s Guinea Pigs from my bed.

Health insurance, restaurant taxes and crossing Lake Geneva

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Takeaway Le News English SwitzerlandThe 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 the entire nation is to be held, who should have the right to vote?

The Swiss go to the polls every three months to decide on one key issue or another, or more, depending on whether citizens were able to gather enough signatures to place it on the ballot. Sometimes, the outcome is to the liking of the Bern or cantonal governments, other times not.

Regardless, the referendum remains a firm and very Swiss institution. Critics often argue that the country holds too many such votes, demanding citizens to make decisions on matters they do not understand. Furthermore, they point out, participation is not usually high ensuring that political activists are the ones to sway the outcome. Last Sunday’s national referendum involved barely 47% participation, less than half the country eligible voters.

Others maintain that even if referendum initiatives are sometimes obscure, they at least put the issue on the table for public debate. And that’s the point of democracy. Clearly, this is what the Scottish vote achieved. But it also has had its reverberations, notably with regard to Wales and England, and earlier this week, Catalonia.

And maybe Flanders, the Basque country, Brittany and Corsica next? Years ago, there was even back mountain and café talk of an independent Jura incorporating some of the French side. And today, some Suisse-romandes are talking (jokingly, but still not without some thought) about the possibility of the French-speaking “Greater Geneva” region seceding from German-speaking Swiss dominance on the other side of the “Röstigraben”.

Last Sunday, the Swiss pronounced on two sore subjects: the first, the creation of a single public health insurance as proposed by the country’s leftwing parties; the second, on whether restaurants should benefit from a special VAT status. As for the citizens of Geneva, they voted on whether to grant the go-ahead for a planned tunnel, known as the ‘rade’, linking the two sides of the Rhone River at the far western end of the lake.

The Swiss voted with a significant majority (61.9%) among its 26 cantons against the idea of a public health insurance. Only seven cantons, four of them French-speaking (Jura, Neuchâtel, Geneva and Vaud), favoured the idea. The Bern government was delighted acknowledging that a majority of Swiss supported its proposal to focus more on insurance innovation and quality based on competitive diversity of choice. At the same time, the vote indicated – yet again – another cultural and political “röstigraben” divide between largely Romand western Switzerland and the German-speaking Swiss north.

In a similar vein, people voted overwhelmingly (71.5%) against reducing the 8% VAT for restaurants, which is less for supermarkets and fast-food outlets, or at least an across-the-board tax for all commerce. Restaurant and café owners maintain a higher VAT for them is “discrimination” and only persuading potential customers to eat more at home. One reason perhaps for citizens denying them a reduction is that too many Swiss restaurants offer poor quality for high prices. Maybe the vote will provide sufficient food-for-thought persuading restaurants to focus more on good value for money rather than high priced menus for not particularly great cuisine.

And finally in a Geneva only cantonal initiative, 63% of voters opted against a proposed project by the right-wing UDC party to build an over four kilometre tunnel costing at least CHF 1.2 billion linking the two sides of the Rhone River at the western end of Lake Geneva. This is the third time that Genevans have voiced their opinion on this subject, the last times in 1988 and 1996. The Geneva government breathed a sigh of relief given that city planners did not consider the ‘rade’ a viable option.

The over one century-old debate, however, is not over. Up for discussion is another tunnel (or bridge) that will be longer (14.2 km) and costlier – anywhere from CHF 2.9 to 3.7 billion – but further up the lake from Geneva’s city centre. This appears to be favoured by both the Swiss and Geneva governments, but, in the event of a later “Yes” vote, funding is unlikely to be made available until 2030.

Throwing off the yoke: Swiss farm numbers decline

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Switzerland english le news lenewsIt 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 with more than 30 hectares grew by 2.5%.

According to the latest official figures, “the disappearance of farms has allowed the expansion of those that remain. The average farm size is now 19 hectares compared to 17 hectares in 2005.”

Swiss farms have traditionally been family-owned, although farm workers increasingly tend to come from outside the family and are often foreign labourers. There has been a general erosion of employment in agriculture with women now numbering nearly one-third of the total workforce and occupying two-thirds of part-time jobs. However, only 5% of farm managers are women.

Livestock farmers continue to switch to poultry in a trend that began in 1990 as pig farming declined. The number of cattle remains stable, but dairy farming, the hallmark of Swiss agriculture, has declined by 2.3%. The one bright spot is bio farming which experienced an above average growth of 12.1% in 2013.

Swiss referendum aims to change health insurance

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Reform Swiss health insurance referendum 28 September 2014Many 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 cited reasons for these often high costs are a lack of cost competition between medical practitioners, a system that reimburses the charges of all registered practitioners regardless of price, and the high prices of patented drugs – a 2005 Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) ranking showed Swiss retail pharmaceutical prices to be the most expensive at nearly double the OECD average.

The referendum however is not about addressing these problems. It is focused on whether to replace 67 private health insurers with one national insurer for compulsory health insurance (LAMal). Compulsory health premiums can differ significantly. Just a quick check on bonus.ch revealed that in a typically standard case, the cost of a compulsory insurance premium ranged from CHF 533 to CHF 875 for exactly the same service, under exactly the same conditions.

Importantly, irrespective of the vote’s outcome, private insurers will still be able to compete to insure supplementary care and services not covered by compulsory insurance.

Those in favour of the proposal say that a single national fund would avoid the marketing, administrative and actuarial costs incurred by private health insurers, while opponents argue that a system which has only one insurer lacks competition and will lead to even higher prices.  Although both sides might agree on the problem, they appear to disagree on the solution.

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US mid-terms: What Americans need to know!

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Le News in English Switzerland With US mid-term elections coming up, expatriate Americans need to be aware of their rights and how to go about voting.

GENEVA An American friend recently recounted how his parents, after many years of living in Switzerland, were surprised to learn that they still had the right to vote in US federal elections. In fact, every American citizen, 18 and over living outside of the United States has the right to vote.
And with the onset of mid-term elections that may be decisive in the balance of power in Washington, D.C. for years to come, exercising that right, this year, is as important as ever.
As reported in Le News recently, both Democrats and Republicans, are working hard to encourage US citizens resident in Switzerland to “go out and vote”.
Social events of all kinds, round-tables, conference calls with candidates, phone-banking and non-partisan voter registration are being organized by members of Democrats Abroad to help register all Americans, using votefromabroad.org, the first website ever developed to register overseas Americans. Republicans too are doing their bit.
Le News in English Switzerland Having registered before is no longer enough – most US states require citizens to re-register every election cycle. This is critically important for several reasons.
Mid-term elections usually draw smaller turnouts than presidential election years and can be unrepresentative, giving small, motivated groups bigger impact. What’s more, the millions of Americans living overseas – there don’t seem to be accurate figures – play an increasingly important role in elections, and have tipped the balance in a number of election years. This is why our voices are increasingly hard for either party to ignore.
There are many critical issues on the table today that may be decided along party line. First, there is the composition of Congress. In addition to all 435 seats in the House of Representatives, 36 seats in the Senate are in play, 21 held by Democrats and 15 by Republicans. Who controls the Senate will have a huge impact on major issues such as immigration reform, infrastructure repair, employment practices, climate and environment, LGBT rights, the budget and other financial issues affecting the livelihoods and the quality of life of Americans living in Switzerland.
For more than 50 years, Democrats Abroad has been advocating in Washington for overseas Americans on these issues of concern, keeping them informed of the candidates and the elections and helping them to register and vote. Some Americans may be concerned that voting can affect state and local tax status. Voting in some state and local elections may potentially do so, but voting in federal elections doesn’t.

As the first state deadline of 4 October approaches, register now to make your voices heard! Registering is easy. Go to: VotefromAbroad.org.

Anne-Shelton Aaron is Chair of the Democrats Abroad Switzerland

Le News in English Switzerland

Glory Days – Cracking Up

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“How much longer do you plan to go on living?” the seven-year-old asked me the other day, after giving me one of those long, appraising looks that children are so good at.

I like to think that this question had nothing to do with greed for her inheritance (which currently stands at: my wedding ring; a nice pair of earrings; and several drawers full of denim jeans in assorted shapes and sizes).

Robyn Goss - Glory DaysNo. I think she asked because I’m turning forty-four next month and that seems so old to her that she can hardly believe I’m still tottering about on my geriatric legs.

That’s okay. No offence taken. I remember being in my early twenties and thinking there really wasn’t much point in living past thirty because the people I knew in their thirties were incredibly boring. They never went out at night; they just got together at each other’s houses. And they were obsessed with cooking! They’d start planning that night’s dinner sometime in the mid-afternoon, instead of – thrillingly – waiting to see what might be in the fridge when they got back from work. In my case that was seldom more than a bottle of vodka and several nail polishes, but I had a string of takeaway restaurants on my route home, and absolutely no gastronomic standards. Life was good and forty wasn’t even on the radar.

Then I met someone and … well. Here we are. That’s where fooling around on the first date will get you: married, with two children and a house full of noisy pets.

So now I have all the trappings of adulthood: a lounge suite that sort of matches; a fridge with real food in it; insurances; wrinkles; a compression bandage for my left knee. But deep down inside … I don’t feel like I’ve ever really grown up. The real me is still a twenty-something, skipping around Joburg without a care in the world (except being mugged or hijacked, of
course, but you know what I mean. No other cares in the world).

I don’t think I’m alone in this. My mother, now in her seventies, once told me that she’s never felt a day over twenty-five. And I suspect that most people feel this way, to some extent: inside the most buttoned-up of businessmen is the hairy youth they used to be, playing air-guitar like it’s an actual instrument that they actually know how to play; inside the most professional of businesswomen there’s a girl going crazy on the dance floor; buried deep in the most responsible of parents is a younger, wilder version, who once did things that they’ll never tell their children about. Or, maybe they’ll tell their children about these things as cautionary tales, but they’ll never admit how much fun they were.

Anyhow. Back to birthdays. I do believe I’m overdue for a mid-life crisis, which I was intending to have as soon as I could clear my diary. And for it, I was planning to get a really big tattoo, increased surface area being one of the benefits of ageing.

“Vraiment?” asked the seven-year-old (a phrase and teenage tone that she recently picked up from her Furby).

I was just starting to defend myself in a considered, grown-up sort of way (“Don’t tell me what to do! You’re not the boss of me!”) when the smaller child burst into noisy tears.

“You can’t be in the middle of your life,” she sobbed. “You have to live forever!”

So there we go. It seems I’m too old for youthful high-jinks and too young for an Indian summer.

Happy birthday to me.

Robyn Goss is a South African writer, recently moved to Switzerland. You can read her blogs at www.robyngoss.com

Le News Diary

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Change is a constant at Le News so we decided to add this section to keep readers up to date. We are excited about our progress and the role the paper is now playing in the community. We have also taken on three new talented contributors on the editorial side, begun investing further in digital and increased our distribution. This week we are printing 28,000 copies – the most we have printed this year. We have gained traction with advertisers, securing repeat business from many and attracting some high profile new clients. We only exist due to our advertisers, so please engage with them and mention you came via Le News. We have recently sponsored several events including Caveman and the Show Jumping at Villars. The Montreux Art Gallery is next on 5 November, with more to come. And last but not least, we have launched a new free classifieds offer that includes free print.

Le News Diary

Le News Diary

To pick up a copy, find your closest distribution point on our website or subscribe to the paper (CHF 49.95 per year to cover delivery). Please also sign up for our weekly e-newsletter to keep abreast of what’s going on in the region.

Jihadists, FIFA and the “new” old age

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Swiss JihadistsHow should we deal with Swiss Jihadists joining ISIS?  Berne may not consider it a problem, yet, but all it takes is one or two to return as terrorists,  While European Muslims are finally speaking out against the beheadings, crucifixions  and Mosque burnings, influential figures such as Tariq Ramadan in Geneva need to condemn ISIS – loudly and publicly – as being un-Islamic and uncivilized.  FIFA’s refusal to publicize the findings of its 350-page corruption inquiry over Qatar’s hosting of the 2022 World Cup is another concern. Zurich’s foundation oversight body should not tolerate the actions of an organization, even one as powerful as FIFA, that is caught up in one scandal or cover-up after another. The International Olympic Committee in Lausanne had similar abuses, but opted for change under new leadership.  And finally, UBS’s “80 is the new 60” report on how Swiss are living longer, feeling younger. Sadly, it’s not the same for everyone. On 1 October, International Day for Older Persons, a “Leave No One Behind” discussion at the United Nations will explore how the need to recognize the achievements of older people, while ensuring their rights and well-being.

Girardet Portrait 2 croppedEdward Girardet, Managing editor

editor@staging.lenews.ch

FIFA accused of cover-up: Qatar to lose cup?

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The refusal by the International Federation of Football Associations (FIFA) to release the findings of its 350-page report can only lead to further speculation regarding allegations of corruption over the granting of the World Cup to Russia in 2018 and Qatar in 2022. It also suggests that nothing has changed within the powerful Zurich-based organization, which represents 209 member football associations worldwide.

According to the London Sunday Times, German judge Hans Joachim Eckert, who chairs the adjudicatory chamber of FIFA’s ethics committee, plans to keep the report “under lock and key forever”. The Munich-based jurist noted that the findings, which are based on 200,000 pages of evidence, would not even be shared with FIFA’s Swiss President Sepp Blatter, or any of its 27 executive members. Michael Garcia, a former US attorney for New York, who was appointed FIFA ethics investigator, is apparently furious.

FIFA’s damning cover-up Officially, FIFA maintains that it had always argued that the report would be kept confidential as this was part of the guarantee given to all executive council members interviewed. At the same time, FIFA had assured journalists that the results of this self-commissioned report to investigate itself would be made public.

The main question now is whether Qatar used illegal means to sway the FIFA decision in its favour. There are already signs that the report’s content is damning. According to German paper Sport Bild, Theo Zwanziger, a German FIFA Executive Committee member, said that the World Cup will not be held in Qatar because of “scorching temperatures”. For its part, Qatar has denied Zwanziger’s claim – as has FIFA, which argues that this is a “personal opinion”.

For years, FIFA has been accused of corruption in the form of “brown envelopes” and other incentives. As claimed earlier this year by the Sunday Times, Mohammed Bin Hammam, an ex-FIFA executive member for Qatar, had allegedly paid USD 5 million in bribes to secure the 2022 World Cup bid. It also asserted that Bin Hamman had made “dozens” of payments to top football bosses as a means of creating a “groundswell” for Qatar’s campaign, and lavished African officials with junkets and cash. Bin Hammam was ousted from the world of football at the end of 2012.

FIFA has suffered from other embarrassing blows, notably revelations that the Brazilians at the last World Cup had distributed 65 gift bags each containing a Parmigiani watch worth CHF 25,000 to FIFA executive committee members and other officials.

According to UEFA president Michel Platini, the former French footballer who now heads the Nyon-based Union of European Football Associations, it is a “mistake” for FIFA not to go public. As the governing body of 56 European football associations, UEFA is considered far more transparent than FIFA, primarily because of higher European governance standards.

One international football insider added that FIFA is seeking to continue with “business as usual and that nothing has changed”. Given that 75% of FIFA’s revenues come from TV rights and sponsorship, a lot has to do with money. But the real issue, he added, is about governance and transparency. This cannot happen with FIFA, a despotic organization, pretending to support two self-proclaimed “independent” investigative and adjudicating ethics commissions, which, in the end, it controls.

“I doubt this will affect grassroots football, but eventually there will be a tipping point,” he said. At the same time, he noted, it is possible to turn an organisation around successfully as happened with the International Olympic Committee in Lausanne which had been riddled with scandal.

Contacted by telephone, FIFA officials were reluctant to comment other than to refer to an online link on their website to the ethics committee. When asked to elaborate on concerns that without appropriate transparency, FIFA – as a Swiss foundation – could lose its tax-exempt status, a press spokesman said that he would have to check with the legal team, but they never comment in public anyway.

Edward Girardet

Swiss jihadists – foreign fighters recruited by extremists over the internet

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Swiss JihadistsAre Swiss Jihadists a danger?  The silence of Switzerland’s moderate Muslims was broken last week following the arrest in Kosovo of two imams who had travelled to Switzerland to recruit for Syria and Iraq. Four days later, the Albanian Islamic Centre of Lausanne denounced what it called “the brain washers” whose actions “daily shock the world and which have nothing to do with Islam”. One of those arrested is the imam of the Grand Mosque in Pristina, Shefqet Krasniqi, who visited Switzerland on his Schengen visa. The police found a considerable sum of Swiss francs when searching his home, according to Albinfo.ch, the Lausanne-based website for Albanian-speakers. Swiss-born Muslim convert Nicolas Blancho, known for his extremist views, including a bid to create a caliphate, had invited Krasniqi to address local mosques.  The official view from Bern is that there is little risk of jihadist attacks against Swiss citizens and that ISIS activities here consist mainly of enrolling fighters via the internet and attempting to hack into banks to finance its holy war. The Swiss Intelligence service (SRC) has not updated its May 2014 estimate that there are 40 jihadists from Switzerland now in Syria and Iraq. Terrorism experts are also monitoring the online activities of 60 others on Swiss territory.

A francophone network was recently uncovered, involving several Swiss jihadists. According to a French television (TF1) report on 12 September, Switzerland has become a target of French intelligence following the arrest of an alleged terrorist from Thonon-les-Bains, who was part of a recruitment network led by an unnamed Swiss from Orbe.

“This is a war being managed online, on Twitter, Facebook or through blogs,” said Christina Schori Liang, a security expert with the Geneva Centre for Security Policy (GCSP). “This has caught the international community flat-footed. It is the first digital war the world has seen and we don’t know how to fight it. They are basically friends talking to each other online. What happens is that one of them leaves and then helps to recruit others. ISIS is not allowing them to return because it is training them to become martyrs for suicide missions.”

Other experts say that while Westerners are beheaded when ransom money is not paid, it is moderate Muslims who have more to fear because they oppose a caliphate. Schori Liang and others believe one effective weapon against ISIS is counter-propaganda. The US Center for Strategic Counterterrorism Communications recently posted a video showing ISIS sympathizers blowing up mosques with Muslims inside and executing others. It ends with a note to would-be martyrs: “Travel is inexpensive because you won’t need a return ticket!” It then shows a body being thrown off a cliff.

Meanwhile, the Savatan Police Academy in St Maurice is planning a forum on 10 October to discuss the return of religious wars and how to use the internet to combat jihadist recruitment. Lorenzo Vidino, a security expert at the Federal Institute for Technology (ETH) in Zurich, agrees with the official view that the primary jihadist activity in Switzerland is using the internet to recruit martyrs and hack into banks. He also believes the jihadist threat to Switzerland is small because “the Swiss policy of neutrality does not provide a source of political grievance”.

Pamela Taylor

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