Switzerland Today
Greetings from Bern,
Here are the latest news and stories from Switzerland on Tuesday.
In the News: Switzerland’s Crypto Valley continues to grow, with the number of companies exceeding 1,000 for the first time.
- There are currently 1,128 companies from the blockchain industry in the region, with a total valuation of $611.8 billion (CHF563 billion), according to an industry report published today. What’s more, 14 of the companies are so-called unicorns, i.e. companies with a valuation of more than $1 billion.
- A Swiss court has ignored prosecution demands to jail seven environmental activists accused of trespassing and assaulting police during a demonstration at a quarry. They were found guilty of lesser offences and fined. They were among dozens of protesters who were arrested last year at the site owned by cement maker Lafarge-Holcim.
- An alliance of business groups and right-of-centre political parties today called for the immediate suspension of the government’s anti-Covid measures, notably the work-from-home and quarantine rules, saying they were “disproportionate” and not suitable for improving the situation for businesses and society.
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Switzerland has slipped from third place to seventh in an annual corruption index compiled by Transparency International.
Although the country is perceived as a relatively clean when it comes to public sector corruption, on balance it could do more to eradicate the practice, the financial watchdog said today.
This year the top countries – perceived as the least prone to corruption – are Denmark, Finland and New Zealand. Norway, Singapore and Sweden also outperformed Switzerland.
Switzerland has seen several public sector scandals make waves over the past year. One of the largest concerned overpriced IT contracts that culminated in a four-year prison sentence for a former official of the State Secretariat of Economic Affairs.
Martin Hilti, director of Transparency International Switzerland, says the most concerning issue is the public sector’s vulnerability to nepotism and frequent failures to recognise clear conflicts of interest. A classic case is the commune of Arosa, a popular ski destination in eastern Switzerland where local politicians have regularly received a free ski pass worth CHF550. They publicly defend the practice although such actions are clearly problematic, Hilti says.
He says Switzerland’s most serious shortcomings fall in areas the index does not measure. He highlights the fight against money laundering, the regulation and transparency of political lobbying, and the protection of whistleblowers as areas in need of urgent improvement.
Who knew that Indian philosopher Jiddu Krishnamurti visited a Swiss mountain village every year for 25 years to share his thoughts on the world? Quite a few people, as it turns out.
Krishnamurti, who believed that true freedom could be obtained only when people free themselves from “the content of their consciousness”, had originally visited Gstaad, in the Bernese Oberland, in 1957 to recover from an illness. He wrote about the “calming influence” of neighbouring Saanen and returned there in 1961, giving several talks in the packed town hall.
The Saanen Gatherings Committee was formed to organise a series of public talks in subsequent years. The first official gathering took place in 1962, held in a domed tent that could accommodate 900 people.
The Saanen Gatherings grew in size and reputation and thousands of people flocked to the village each year. Rubbing shoulders with locals and hippies were big names such as writer Aldous Huxley, violinist Yehudi Menuhin, aviator Charles Lindbergh and actor Richard Gere.
However, the Saanen Gatherings were no Burning Man or Woodstock. “The atmosphere was clean. You didn’t want to be seen drinking beer or smoking. There was no loud music, drunkenness or taking drugs,” one attendee told SWI swissinfo.ch.
The summer of 1985 was to be the last of the Saanen Gatherings. Krishnamurti, now 90, was in poor health, but he still managed to deliver all his public talks. After the final Saanen Gathering, Krishnamurti returned to Brockwood Park, a school he had founded in the UK, and then embarked on his last trip to India. He died in 1986 in Ojai, California, less than year after his last summer in Saanen.
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