Switzerland Today
Dear Swiss Abroad,
In the last briefing of an eventful year, we look at what awaits International Geneva in 2024. We also celebrate the 60th anniversary of a Swiss New Year’s Eve custom – made in England.
In the news: Firework fatigue, relaxing laws on expanding landfill sites, and the three most valuable Swiss companies.
- More than three-quarters of the Swiss population support the initiative submitted in the autumn to restrict the use of fireworks by private individuals. According to a representative survey, the main reasons for this are animal welfare and air pollution.
- The regulations on the expansion of landfill sites are to be relaxed in Switzerland. The government wants to address the lack of landfill space for the disposal of non-recyclable waste. The environment ministry said the expansion of existing landfill sites was one way of counteracting the tense situation.
- Three Swiss companies – Nestlé, Roche and Novartis – have once again made it into the top 100 most valuable listed companies in the world. More than half of the most highly valued large corporations are based in the US. The food group Nestlé was ranked 26th with a market capitalisation of just over $307 billion (CHF258 billion) as of December 27.
2023 has been a year of crisis after crisis for International Geneva; 2024 promises to be just as complicated. Here’s a look at what the new year could bring.
On January 14, an attempt at brokering peace in Ukraine will not be made in Geneva, but in the Swiss Alps, in Davos, where a round of discussions will be held on Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s peace plan. At a time when official Swiss mediation seems impossible, parallel diplomacy via discreet NGOs enables indirect dialogue between Russians and Ukrainians. In 2024, it will probably continue this way, hidden from view.
The outcome of the war in the Middle East remains uncertain. Repeated calls from Geneva by humanitarian agencies for a ceasefire have so far only yielded a one-week humanitarian pause at the end of November. During this pause, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) played a key role, facilitating the transfer of 80 Israeli hostages in exchange for 240 Palestinian prisoners.
In November, the eyes of International Geneva will turn to the United States, where the presidential elections will take place. A “rematch” is possible in which incumbent President Joe Biden and his predecessor Donald Trump will once again face off. During his term of office (2016-2020), Trump displayed his contempt for multilateralism, casting a pall over the international organisations in Geneva. At his instigation, the US withdrew from several bodies, including the Human Rights Council and the World Health Organization (WHO). The result was the rise of China, determined to take advantage of the vacuum left by Washington.
The UN’s political decisions are taken in New York, but they have consequences for the work of its European headquarters in Geneva, from where humanitarian action is coordinated in particular. In 2024, in its second and final year as a non-permanent member of the powerful (if often paralysed) Security Council, Switzerland will have the opportunity to take its values to the highest level.
Same procedure this year? A New Year’s Eve tradition in Switzerland – as in Germany and several other European countries – is to sit down and watch the cult television classic Dinner for One, which this year celebrates 60 years since its first broadcast.
A birthday party without guests, an increasingly tipsy butler and an unfortunately placed tiger skin – these are the ingredients for the 15-minute English-language sketch featuring British actors Freddie Frinton and May Warden (pictured).
However, the programme’s popularity in German-speaking countries is matched only by its total lack of popularity in Britain – hardly any Brits have ever heard of it, let alone seen it. Indeed, it has never been shown on a terrestrial channel in the UK.
The black-and-white production was first broadcast on March 8, 1963, in the German programme Guten Abend, Peter Frankenfeld. The likeable butler James (Frinton) and the elderly Miss Sophie (Warden) were so well received by German audiences that Dinner for One or The 90th Birthday was recorded in English by NDRExternal link in Hamburg a few weeks later. Frinton had already been performing the two-person sketch in England for more than ten years with various partners.
The mini theatre piece found more and more fans over the years. However, Dinner for One was not established as a permanent New Year’s Eve tradition until 1972. Since then, it has been shown exclusively at the turn of the year and no longer just to fill gaps in programmes on German-language television. The sketch then also had fans in many other countries – apart from Britain.
The story: Miss Sophie wants to celebrate her 90th birthday with her friends – all men – but they have been dead for years. But that’s no reason to cancel the party. So the butler – as every year – takes on the roles of Sir Toby, Admiral von Schneider, Mr Pommeroy and Mr Winterbottom at the festively laid table. However, he only steps in to toast the fantasy guests. Stomach-filling food – soup, haddock, chicken and fruit – is served only to Miss Sophie. James gets increasingly wobbly – no wonder after four rounds of sherry, white wine, champagne and port. He stumbles without fail – 11 times in total – over the tiger skin, cracks his heels during Admiral von Schneider’s military salute and even drinks from the flower vase at one point.
The sketch did not make the duo rich, however. According to NDR, they were paid 4,150 marks (€2,120 (CHF1,965) at today’s exchange rate).
Dinner for One will be shown on Swiss public television, SRF1, at 7:05pm on December 31.
Happy New Year, wherever you are!
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