Switzerland Today
Dear Swiss Abroad,
Summer has arrived here in Bern, with temperatures above 20°C and huge thunderstorms. Maybe it’s the tail-end of what left a trail of devastation across north-eastern Italy.
In the news: Biodiversity Day, digital fitness, and more working stats.
- Species diversity in Switzerland is under increasing pressure with 17% classified as critically endangered or endangered. A further 16% are classified as vulnerable, according to two reports released by the Federal Office for the Environment on Monday, to mark the International Day for Biological Diversity. In total, populations have declined by 30% over the past 10 years.
- Education and income are becoming more important factors for “digital fitness” than age, a study has shown. Some 55% of high-education respondents to the survey were digitally competent, whereas the figure for those with lower education levels was 26%. For people with a monthly income over CHF9,000 ($10,022) the figure was 56%; for those earning less than CHF4,000, it was 19%.
- The total amount of hours worked in Switzerland increased by 1.3% between 2021 and 2022 and is now back to pre-pandemic levels. The uptick last year was due to a 1.5% increase in the number of jobs, the Federal Statistical Office said today. At the same time, average weekly working hours of full-time employees (excluding self-employed) fell by almost an hour between 2017 and 2022, to 39 hours and 59 minutes.
Survey shows gender’s star possibly on the wane.
Switzerland seems determined not to be left out when it comes to angry modern debates these days. From spats about drag queensExternal link in Zurich to a secondary school cancelling a planned “gender day” due to online threats, there’s never a dull moment – much of it driven by the obliging folk in the media, as well as by the country’s biggest political party declaring war on wokeness.
But what does the population think about it? For most, not much. A survey of over 30,000 people published in Tamedia newspapers today shows that only 18% think questions about gender equality need to be solved, while just 13% are interested in issues of “cancel culture” and “wokeness”. As for gender-neutral language, only 23% say it concerns them.
Ahead of elections in October, for most people, beyond the clicks, the issues remain classic: health costs, pensions and climate change.
More
Switzerland’s woman in Tehran gets a summons.
It’s a tough job being the Swiss Ambassador to Iran. In February, Nadine Olivieri Lozano was pictured wearing a full-body-length Islamic garment (see briefing February 24). She was slammed for cosying up to a repressive regime, by supporters of activists who are fighting (and dying) for the right not to have to wear such garb.
Three months later, Lozano is under pressure from the other side: this weekend she was summoned in Teheran after the Swiss foreign ministry tweeted condemnation of the executions of three men in connection with the protests. Even more serious than the anti-death penalty stance, it seems, was that a photo in the tweet included a pre-1979 revolution Iranian flag.
The tweet was “unconventional”, “unprofessional”, and “interventionist”, Iranian authorities said, and “not compatible with the friendly relations” that the two countries maintain. Indeed, Switzerland has had a special status with Iran for decades, and has been representing US interests there since the breakdown of ties between Tehran and Washington in 1980. But it’s a tricky balancing act.
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