Switzerland Today
Hello from Bern,
Where the city’s annual Gurten music festival wrapped up at the weekend, and the next big item on the summer agenda is Swiss National Day. The fireworks frenzy that takes over each year on August 1 could however be the topic of a popular vote in the future – more on this after the news.
In the news: Swatch in court, traveller funding, and crack-cocaine.
- Swiss watchmaker Swatch has filed a lawsuit against the Malaysian government after the latter seized some 172 rainbow-coloured watches from 16 outlets in the Asian country. The watches were part of Swatch’s ‘Pride collection’; some featured the letters “LGBTQ”. Malaysia has previously jailed or caned people for homosexuality, which is a crime in the country.
- Federal support for itinerate Yenish and Sinti communities in Switzerland is to be cut for the period 2025-2028, SRF reported today. The cuts are directed specifically at funding for local authorities to set up transit sites for the travelling groups. Federal officials say much of what they offer to cantons and municipalities currently goes unused. Advocacy groups say authorities continue to duck responsibility.
- The number of crack-cocaine addicts is rapidly rising in Geneva, causing concern among drug prevention officials and addiction groups. The Geneva addiction shelter Quai 9 has seen a significant rise in the number of observed crack addicts – from 3,400 in 2019 to more than 17,000 last year. The shelter has had to turn people away due to lack of resources. Addiction Suisse has called on Geneva authorities to act.
Carving out history in Rome: a monumental mistake.
In 1850, the writer Gustave Flaubert moaned about disrespectful tourists in Egypt:
“In Alexandria, a certain Thompson, of Sunderland, has inscribed his name in letters six feet high on Pompey’s Pillar,” Flaubert wrote. “You can read it from a quarter of a mile away. You can’t see the pillar without seeing Thompson’s name and consequently thinking of Thompson. This cretin has thus become part of the monument and has perpetuated himself along with it […] He has in fact overwhelmed it with the splendour of his gigantic lettering […] All imbeciles are more or less Thompsons from Sunderland. How many of them one comes across in life, in the most beautiful places and in front of the finest views!”
Almost two centuries later, it seems the only thing to have improved is the size of the lettering. Driven by a pressing need to literally become part of history – or overwhelmed by the high temperatures – various tourists have been caught defacing the walls of the Colosseum in Rome recently. They included a British-based man (not from Sunderland) who said he only learned of “the antiquity” of the 2,000-year-old amphitheatre after he had scratched his name on it. A 17-year-old Swiss woman was also caught carving the letter “N” (“numbskull”?) into the ancient brickwork last week.
What’s the solution? Authorities, thanks to camera phones and vigilant citizen detectives, are increasingly able to track down the culprits, presumably more easily than they could in 1850. And the fines are hefty: the Swiss woman could be facing a bill of up to €15,000 (CHF14,550) for damaging cultural property. However, in the age of the internet, the real punishment seems to be social: the video of the British-based man carving his and his girlfriend’s name has been seen 300,000 times on YouTube, while his identity has been printed by various major newspapers. He has since apologised.
Testing times for Switzerland’s English-language skills.
Apparently the Swiss are getting (comparatively) worse at English. Despite debates about the impact of English on the national languages – German, French, Italian, and Romansh – the country is actually moving backwards when it comes to speaking it, the Sonntags-Zeitung wrote yesterday. The paper cited an annual global survey by the EF language group, which now puts Switzerland 29th, compared to 11th in 2011. Among neighbouring countries it’s 23rd: “The Swiss speak English worse than most in Europe,” the paper lamented.
Unfortunately it didn’t delve into the methodology of the survey, which is based on the results of free opt-in online tests. Even EF – a globally active private training company – admits that “only those who want to learn English or are curious about their English skills” are likely to respond; i.e. the results don’t necessarily give a comprehensive picture of what’s going on at all levels of education and age in each country. It is “not guaranteed to be representative”, EF writes.
But of course such gripes aren’t much fun! And it is summer. And so the Sonntags-Zeitung offered something much more entertaining: a light-hearted and wholly unscientific English quiz. Questions included: is “the police” to be treated as singular or plural? Is “yours sincerely” more polite than “yours faithfully”? In the US, does “first floor” mean “ground floor” or the first floor above the ground floor? You can take the test hereExternal link; this journalist, despite getting all the aforementioned questions wrong, was nevertheless relieved to find out he was a “native speaker”, or at least close to it.
Fireworks under attack by sensitive citizens’ movement.
It’s high season for fireworks here, especially with the Swiss National Day coming up on August 1. However, such fun is now the target of a people’s initiative, Blick writesExternal link. Anti-fireworks folk have collected 90,000 of the 100,000 signatures needed to force a vote on banning the sale of noisy fireworks to private citizens. They have until November to collect the remainder. They say people, pets, and wild animals are severely affected by the noise, and that only big public fireworks displays should be organised in future. But even on that front, change is afoot: Geneva’s “Feu Ô Lac” festival switched to a drone-light show this year, while the popular “Züri Fäscht” might also scrap the traditional fireworks for its next edition in 2026 – due to environmental concerns.
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