Earth: Mostly Harmless

Five hundred years of brotherly love, democracy and peace…

September 29, 2008 on 8:16 pm | No Comments
Categories: Uncategorized
Tags: schweiz, switzerland, travel, zürich

Three weeks ago today I moved to Zürich, or “downtown Switzerland” as the tourism bureau ads insist on calling it.

My previous visit to Switzerland was to the picture-postcard village of Lauterbrunnen in the Berner Oberland, a mid-summer holiday five years ago with a friend and his family. In Zürich I’ve seen another side to it. Most of these observations will be bleedin’ obvious to anyone who has been to the city, but never mind…

The typical things you expect of Swiss cities are absolutely true. Order and conservatism are clearly an integral part of life in Zürich. The public transport is superb, dense and easy to use. The chocolate is delicious and the mulled wine and roasted nuts are readily available from street vendors. Dozens of ‘private banks’ (the ones where the bankers come to visit you), emblazoned with chandeliers, stern receptionists and smoked-out windows, inhabit the lower third of the Bahnhofstrasse. Shops selling fur ply their trade with abandon. And yes, there are cuckoo clocks in the shops.

However, a few things have surprised me. The extent of the confederal system is one thing: it’s very rare to see any TV adverts, notices or announcements from the government in Berne. Rather, the canton of Zürich seems to have Amts (departments/bureaux) for a whole lot of things that in Scotland and the UK we might consider central government services. About the only thing the central government seems to advertise is military call-ups and exercises.

The prominence of Switzerland’s famous direct democracy is also quite remarkable. A couple of days ago, the people of the canton voted to outlaw smoking in workplaces (yay!). The turnout was low - 37% - but impressive given the phenomenon of ‘voter fatigue’ and other things they warn you about when talking about direct democracy in political science classes. The marketing for the vote was interesting too: the ‘against’ campaign attempted to portray the measure, which is fast becoming a pretty standard piece of legislation across Europe, as incredibly radical, and therefore dangerous. It gave me pause for thought on how socially conservative this state still is.

Another thing that seems slightly unusual, and perhaps impressive, to me is the extent of local media coverage of the city. There’s a TV channel called Züri-TV which broadcasts most of the day, and only covers stories from the city of Zürich. I was in New York City last month, and I can safely say that NY1 is far more parochial and embarrassing than Züri-TV, despite being the local channel for a city sixteen to twenty times as big. Still, the media here retain a hilarious degree of chocolate-box Swissness. By that I mean that train delays (what?!), people in Lederhosen, archery competitions for young boys, and yodelling folk singers are BIG news, even in the self-described ‘kleinste Metropole der Welt’.

Oh, and talking of the trains - they don’t always run on time. But with punctuality a matter of national pride, this circumstance is not taken lightly. When it happens I keep imagining the poor railway signaller who caused the delay getting bawled at in Schwiizerdütsch. Which is not a pretty sound, believe me.

Over and out.

Fan-zones

June 7, 2008 on 3:13 pm | No Comments
Categories: Uncategorized
Tags: euro 2008, football, switzerland, zürich

I don’t pretend to know anything about football, but the criticism of Austria and Switzerland’s preparations for Euro 2008 looks to be misguided, if Zürich is a representative example.

I’ve been there since yesterday - for reasons which I won’t mention in case I jinx something - and the whole place has seemingly been transformed. The Limmatquai, the main street which runs along the river, has been turned into a fan mile, with a carnival atmosphere and all sorts of scrumptious food. There’s a lot of live music going on and a huge Fan Zone has been set up at the botttom of the street. A lot of the local shops have special Euro 2008 lines and window displays, and the Euro seems to be accepted as an ersatz currency (though I think that’s the case for most touristy areas here anyway). And fans are being given free public transport throughout Switzerland and Austria on match days as part of their match tickets.

There were reports that Scotland was on hand to take over should Switzerland fail to prepare sufficiently. Unless Zürich is an anomalous example then I can’t take these reports as anything more than UEFA grandstanding (ho ho ho).

On a separate note, my passport was checked while entering Ireland from the UK on the way here. What gives, Common Travel Area?