Switzerland Today
Greetings from Bern,
I think my weight has stayed pretty much the same during the Covid pandemic. On the one hand I’m no longer cycling 14km a day to and from the office, but on the other I’m no longer spending a small fortune on the office snack machines and I’ve been eating out less. However, the average Swiss in my age group has apparently put on an impressive/alarming 6.7kg – that’s the weight of two newborn babies!
In the News: Dramatic scenes on Lake Zurich in the small hours of this morning.
- One boat went up in flamesExternal link in the harbour of Lachen, and by the time the emergency services turned up some ten boats were ablaze. No one was hurt, but the damage is estimated to be at least a million francs. Police are looking into the cause of the fire.
- The average Swiss has put on 3.3kg (7.3 pounds) during the Covid-19 pandemic, according to a study. The most affected group by far – those aged 45-64 – put on 6.7kg. Reasons included more snacking and less exercise while working from home, not having enough money for healthy eating, and an increased intake of alcohol.
- The pandemic is also threatening to interfere with autumn holiday plans. As the number of Covid cases and pressure on hospitals increases, Swiss Health Minister Alain Berset has said he’s considering bringing back quarantine for travellers for the autumn holidays. Travel quarantine was lifted in Switzerland on August 4. The next major school vacations are due in Swiss cantons in October.
When it comes to the systematic abuse of children, Switzerland has a shocking recent history.
There were the so-called Verdingkinder (“slave children”): until the 1950s it was common for poor Swiss families to give or sell their children to farmers. Many of these children were starved, beaten or sexually abused. There were also the Swiss gypsy people, known as the Jenisch, who were the victims of a calculated policy of Nazi-style eugenics carried out well into the 1970s. These are just two of many scandals.
In May Switzerland was urged by the United Nations to investigate illegal adoptions from Sri Lanka which took place over three decades beginning in the 1970s to determine whether some of the children involved were victims of enforced disappearances and other offences.
Today is UN International Day of the Victims of Enforced Disappearances. We spoke to Olivier de Frouville, a UN human rights expert, who explains how the report shows a clear connection between trafficking and enforced disappearances.
In May journalist Imogen Foulkes devoted an episode of her Inside Geneva podcast to the UN Convention on Enforced Disappearances. How does it work? Does it help prevent disappearances? And why are so many countries reluctant to ratify it?
RIP legendary Jamaican reggae producer Lee “Scratch” Perry, who died yesterday aged 85. Perry moved to Switzerland 30 years ago to live with his Swiss wife.
Here is a gallery of the colourful eccentric, including pictures taken at home in the idyllic mountain surroundings of Einsiedeln.
Despite spending the last 30 years of his life in Zurich, he recently moved back to Jamaica. In January he wrote on Instagram that Switzerland was “too cold” and the “energy was bad”, saying he needed the sun of Jamaica.
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