Switzerland Today
Hello from Bern,
My morning was a bit of a snooze compared to people travelling between Zurich and the suburb Oerlikon today. A man climbed up onto a building crane last night and was still there this morning, throwing objects down from it. Trains were cancelled for hours as rescue crews tried to convince the man to come down.
He finally made it down safely at 11:00 this morning, much to the relief of many commuters. Why he went up on the crane in the first place is still a mystery. What’s peculiar is that there was another incident with a crane on Sunday in a different city. In that instance the man fatally fell from the crane. It's all a bit puzzling.
One riddle that has been solved is about two previously unknown dolphin species. More in today's briefing.
In the News: Space collaborations, hate crime reporting and new dolphin species.
- Although relations remain rocky between Switzerland and the EU on the ground, they are making progress in space. Today, the European Space Agency (ESA) signed a Memorandum of Cooperation with Switzerland to set up the European Space Deep-Tech Innovation (ESDI) at the Paul-Scherrer Institute. ESDI will help coordinate and facilitate projects between universities and industry on topics like material research, data management and processing and quantum technologies.
- Hate crimes against LGBTQ people are on the rise in Switzerland. The number of hate crimes reported by the LGBT+ helpline rose 50% in 2021, reaching 92. Nearly half of these happened in the four months leading up the Marriage for All vote last autumn. But advocacy groups say the number doesn’t capture the full scale of the problem because of underreporting. They say there needs to be a national reporting system in order to capture how widespread hate crimes are in the country.
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Researchers at the University of Zurich’s Paleontological Institute have discovered two previously unknown animal speciesExternal link related to modern sperm whales and oceanic dolphins, which they identified based on ear bones. Thanks to micro-computed tomography, the researchers were able to reconstruct the softer organs around the hard ear bones to create 3D models of the ears.
Are gold imports circumventing sanctions?
Switzerland has recorded a significant increase in gold imports from the United Arab Emirates since the introduction of sanctions against Russia. In fact, the amount is higher in March than in any month in the last six years. Why is that?
The NGO Swissaid has some ideas. Swiss gold refineries, which are responsible for refining around 70% of the world’s gold, have stopped importing gold directly from Russia since sanctions were introduced at the end of February. But Russian gold may still be making its way to Switzerland via Dubai, which is one of the most important export destinations for gold from Russia.
Last year the group investigated the origins of gold travelling from Dubai to Switzerland and found huge problems in tracing the gold’s origins. The NGO asked five major Swiss refineries if they are sourcing from Dubai and one company, Valcambi, said that it is importing gold from Dubai.
Despite numerous calls from NGOs, there’s been little movement to strengthen laws and enforcement of gold making its way to Switzerland. If transparency doesn’t improve, Marc Ummel from Swissaid says, Switzerland could become an escape route for Russian gold transiting through Dubai.
Switzerland tries a nutrition lottery but without a prize
Over the next several months a “lucky” group of 100 people in the country, chosen at random, will participate in 11 discussions that will shape the future food policy for Switzerland. The group will be representative of Switzerland in terms of the mix of gender, age, political attitudes, education levels and urban-rural locations.
The group will visit different agriculture projects, meet experts and participate in moderated discussions so that by November, this “citizens’ councilExternal link” will have a set of recommendations to hand over to politicians and the government.
Switzerland has a long tradition of giving people a say in issues through the regular voting process as we saw over the weekend. But citizens councils offer the chance for regular people, meaning non-politicians, to provide input in a more substantive way and reflect their key concerns.
The idea though hasn’t convinced everyone. In an article in the Tages-Anzeiger today, Martin Rufer, director of the Swiss Farmers’ Union criticised the experimentExternal link, especially after it received financial backing from the federal government. Switzerland already has democratic structures, with a parliament elected by the people, he said. “We therefore don’t need such shadow structures that are not democratically supported.”
Given the worsening food crisis around the world, as my colleague Dorian Burkhalter explains, it might not be a bad idea to bring some fresh ideas to the (dinner) table.
Migros and its democratic way to sell alcohol
The Orange M (for Migros) in Switzerland is as ubiquitous as the golden arches (for McDonald’s) in America. It’s everywhere.
But Migros isn’t like any other supermarket chain. There are two things that make it particularly unique: it doesn’t sell alcohol and it’s also a cooperative that gives its members a say in key issues. Until June 4, the cooperative’s 2.2 million members can vote on whether to change company policy and allow the sale of alcohol. If approved, alcohol will be sold by the Swiss retailer from 2023.
According to Swiss public television, SRF, all regional cooperativesExternal link are in favour of it. It definitely makes financial sense in the short term, but some analysts say it could harm the company’s reputation. Addiction specialists also worry about how it could affect people with alcohol addiction. But then again, there’s always a Migros-owned Denner in close proximity to Migros if you absolutely need to buy alcohol, as my colleague Thomas Stephens wrote last year.
One group that won’t be sad about the end of the alcohol ban? Vaud wine growers and sellersExternal link, explains the Tages-Anzeiger.
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