Switzerland Today
Hello from Bern,
There’s no shortage of things to do in Bern these days, and no shortage of visitors to enjoy them. But could the city be reaching a saturation point? Is this a case of too much of a good thing?
Thoughts on this and more news from Switzerland in today’s briefing.
In the News: Swiss scouts evacuate Jamboree, seniors go digital, and climate activists disrupt Locarno.
- Some 1,400 Swiss scouts have been relocated from the site of the world’s largest scout camp in South Korea after typhoon warnings.
- Internet use among the over-65s in Switzerland rose sharply over the past two years, according to a national survey of online media behaviour.
- Two climate activists from the group Renovate Switzerland glued themselves to the stage during an awards ceremony at the Locarno Film Festival on Monday evening. A video broadcast on social media showed the activists taking the stage to plead for greater climate action.
Swiss foreign minister goes island-hopping in the Pacific
There are plenty of reasons for Ignazio Cassis to visit Australia and New Zealand. It’s been a decade since the last Swiss minister traveled to the region, and relations have only warmed since then. Just last year, Australia opened an embassy in Bern, and if Spain hadn’t beaten Switzerland in the round of 16, Cassis could’ve cheered on the Swiss national team at the World Cup.
But it’s less clear why Cassis is meeting with the foreign minister of Niue – an island with 1,700 people – the size of the village of Erlenbach in Simmental. The tiny island in the South Pacific is a 30-hour flight from Geneva and has little to no trade with Switzerland
As Tamedia reportedExternal link though, Niue fills a gap in Switzerland’s diplomatic network. Niue is the only member of the Pacific Islands Forum regional organisation with which Switzerland does not yet have a formal relationship. Niue, like many other countries in the region, are trying to expand their foreign policy scope amid growing influence of China and the US. Switzerland is happy to step in, especially given the region’s importance for food security, climate protection, and security.
Is Bern having too much fun this summer?
After Covid put a damper on mass gatherings for three years in a row, summer fun is back in Bern. There’s a music festival nearly every weekend (and some weekdays!) not to mention the pop-up cafés along the river, the open-air cinemas, circus tents, football matches among the many other summer activities.
Not everyone is happy about this though. Noise complaints have risen, and local politicians have questioned whether the city should approve so many concerts in the future.
But Corina Liebi, which der BundExternal link refers to as the city’s new “nightlife boss”, says that there’s too much complaining. “Naggers are given too much weight,” she told the paper. The real problem she said is that everything is concentrated in the summer and in a few locations. There needs to be more indoor festival halls according to Liebi. It isn’t that the city is having too much but rather that it shouldn’t save all the fun for summer.
More
How Swiss is your name, really? It depends on how you look at it.
Is your last name Müller or Meier? Well, you’re not alone in Switzerland. But even these family names represent less than 2% of the Swiss population. According to an interactive map produced by Tamedia, there’s incredible diversity in family names in Switzerland.
That’s at least the case when you look at a national level. Look at a local level, and it’s a different story. Every fourth person has the name Schmid in the Valais municipality of Ausserberg. In some really small communities, there’s an even greater concentration. In Rebévelier in the Bernese Jura, 33 of the 41 residents are an Amstutz.
See the mapExternal link to find out how common your name is.
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