Switzerland Today
Greetings from Bern,
I’d love to give you some good news, but I’m afraid that’s in short supply today. There’s the tragic situation in Afghanistan and, more specifically, the chaos at Kabul airport, where desperate crowds are trying to find a flight out. Many, many magnitudes less serious is the news that Roger Federer needs another knee operation and will be out for several months, with his retirement looking increasingly likely. Let’s hope tomorrow gives us something to smile about.
In the News: Has Roger Federer hit his final winner?
- Afghanistan is on the front pages of most Swiss newspapers today (see below) – apart from tabloid BlickExternal link, which splashed with a massive picture of Federer and the headline, “Is that it, Roger?” This follows the news that the 40-year-old tennis star needs another operation on his knee and will be out of action for many months. “It’s doubtful whether he’ll ever play again,” said a pessimistic Blick. More than 1,600 people have voted in our poll to find the greatest male tennis player of all time. Have you?
- The first large-scale studies since a pay equality law was introduced last year have shown that around 95% of firms do not discriminate in paying men and women. That said, the studies also found that overall salary differences persist: on average, men take home pay packets around 20% higher than women, with the differences being justified by “objective factors like experience, career history, or education”, according to the NZZ am Sonntag.
Talk of the Town: Swiss newspapers are exasperated and unforgiving about the Taliban’s “predictable” takeover of Afghanistan.
“The catastrophe in Afghanistan is also a personal debacle for US President Biden,” said the Neue Zürcher ZeitungExternal link (NZZ), which reckons Biden bears a fair share of the responsibility for the collapse of the Afghan army, “overruling the Pentagon, which advocated a continued military presence, and ignoring all the experts who predicted that a rash total withdrawal would result in a catastrophe”.
Biden has faced increasing criticism – at home and abroad – after sticking to a plan, initiated by his Republican predecessor, Donald Trump, to end the US military mission by August 31. America’s longest war was launched after the 9/11 attacks.
“There’s also the threat that anti-West terrorist cells will form under the protection of the Taliban, as in the 1990s,” the NZZ said. “With the 20th anniversary of the 2001 al-Qaeda attacks approaching, it seems America has already forgotten one of the most important lessons of that tragedy.”
The Tages-Anzeiger saidExternal link the US was “paying the penalty for its arrogance”. The paper said that although Biden couldn’t be blamed completely for the fall of Kabul – the corrupt Afghan government shared responsibility – “the US and its Western partners had massively overestimated their influence in Afghanistan for 20 years. Since 2001, they have pumped astronomical sums into building up the security forces. The Biden administration therefore assumed the Taliban would need at least one-and-a-half years to return to power. They needed one-and-a-half weeks”.
For the Tribune de GenèveExternal link, the Taliban’s ten-day “lightning offensive” shows the extent of their popularity with the population. “Women are once again being sacrificed.”
Biden told the Afghans that the Americans could not fight in their place, it said. “Even if it means sacrificing all those who believed in democracy, who educated their children to build a country other than that of the mullahs. All the women who have been able to study, work, take care of themselves, express themselves, without fear of being sent back to the cellars. Joe Biden didn’t want to bequeath this war to his successor – he has bequeathed these Afghans a pit of despair”.
Culture corner: Two years ago we carried out a survey that revealed striking inequalities faced by women artists in terms of visibility in Swiss art museums.
Institutions and players in the museum sector have discussed the issue and public pressure on museums has increased, but changes have been modest. The women-only programme at the Musée des beaux-arts in Le Locle in 2019 was a solitary beacon of light.
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