Switzerland Today
Hello from snowy Bern,
It’s beginning to look a lot like winter here thanks to the first snow of the season. In Switzerland snow days mean fondue season has arrived (although for many Swiss, every season is fondue season). This year there are some new cheesy varieties on offer that will appeal to the vegans out there. You can have your choice of cashew nuts or cauliflower fondue. I tried the former and it’s pretty tasty. And, there's a bonus - no stinky cheese smell.
Here’s what else Switzerland is serving up today.
In the News: Swiss deportation policy, women’s retirement age, and relations with the EU.
- Some 500 people demonstrated in Geneva to express anger and sadness after an 18-year-old Afghan asylum-seeker took his own life last week. The man had just been informed that he was to be deported from Switzerland and had been suffering post-traumatic stress from his difficult journey. Federal authorities are facing criticism for not taking into account the suicidal risk of the young man when deciding to expel him from the country.
- In its meeting on Friday, the government agreed on the timeline for the implementation of the pension scheme reform that was approved by voters in September. This includes raising the retirement age for women from 64 to 65 starting in 2025. This will be done in four stages, starting with women born in 1961. By 2028, the retirement age will be 65 for everyone.
- According to a government report, the bilateral route is most advantageous for Switzerland in its relations with the European Union. The report examined all the options on the table: free-trade relations, continuing the bilateral path, joining the European Economic Area and joining the EU.
The precarious life of academics in Switzerland is also a precarious situation for science.
Years, sometimes decades, of schooling only to find yourself overworked, poorly paid and without any job security. That sounds familiar to many academicsExternal link in Switzerland writes the Tribune de Genève today, which has exposed numerous stories of precarious working conditions at some of the top universities in the country.
This isn’t a shocking revelation. According to federal statistics, 78.4% of academic positions (full-time equivalents) at universities weren’t fixed, meaning that they are based on temporary contracts, usually around 2-3 years. What is new is the scale of the problem and what it means for Switzerland’s competitiveness.
One person at the Federal Institute of Technology Lausanne (EPFL) told the paper, “I’ve seen several of my colleagues throw in the towel and it’s a huge loss for research”. Another said that even with a good resume the odds of getting a permanent position is not in his favour. One woman said that universities were like machines that grind people. “We invest like crazy and it ejects you after a few years,” she said.
The subject is starting to get more attention, points out the paper. The public service union launched a campaign calling for more permanent positions under the title “stable positions to improve science”. Parliament plans to look into the situation.
Switzerland may be out of the football World Cup, but luckily there’s always Switzerland’s tennis superstar.
Even without tennis, Roger Federer is still making headlines. This time it was Federer’s 20-minute chaExternal linkt with comedian Trevor Noah on the Daily Show, where he talked about everything from life after tennis to his recent run-in with a Wimbledon security guard who wouldn’t let him enter because he wasn’t a member of the All England Club.
But the interview is more than tennis and comic relief, it’s also one big advertisement for Switzerland. Noah and Federer are both half-Swiss and half-South African, so that’s already a point in Switzerland’s favour. Then there was the talk about Swiss humility, the time Federer gave Noah a tour of Switzerland, and then the behind-the-scenes anecdotes from Federer’s Switzerland Tourism videos with Hollywood movie stars.
It’s a good morale booster for the country after Switzerland’s stinging defeat in the football World Cup this week.
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