November 17, 2010

A walk in Niederdorf, one of the old parts of Zurich.

Just came back from two weeks in Sweden where the traditionally biggest party, the Social Democrats, is facing a major crisis. They had a disastrous result in the latest election and now the leader, Mona Sahlin, has resigned. This is not the first time she is resigning. She did it once many years ago from a position as a minister in the government because she had bought Toblerone (swiss chocolate) and diapers with the credit card of the ministry. An affair that might seem ridiculous for the more southern Europeans that are used to more political extravaganza but that really pissed of the Swedish working class.

Anyway, what is so funny about the situation in Sweden at the moment is that there is this huge pool of people that are terribly loyal to Social Democrats that don't know what to think any more. They actually mean what they are saying: "we don't know what to think" because the party hasn't decided on their politics and therefore haven't informed the "grassroots"about what opinions they should have. One would expect that you belong to a political party because you share their ideals and visions but in Sweden people are so loyal that they stick around until the leaders of the party have decided on a new policy. I find that rather hilarious.

October 27, 2010

A fantastic autumn day at Hönggerberg. In and around the Friedhof Hönggerberg there are really some extraordinary views. It is very peaceful but a bit awkward to wander around in graveyards, especially when you walk in to a group of people about to bury one of their loved ones. I am not a big fan of the church and I am not sure but I might not even be a member any more but whenever it comes to funerals they are doing a great job. I read a couple of years ago that now when people are not believers anymore they go around spreading their ashes a bit everywhere and that in some places in Switzerland, like Zermatt, they start becoming really annoyed with all Germans going there to spread the ashes of their dead. I think it is more that they annoyed with Germans in general because ashes are biodegradable and unless you believe in ghosts I don't see why they should create any trouble.

In France they are still striking as that is what they do best. It is quite difficult to sympathize with the French movement that are against lifting the retirement age from 60 to 62 when all countries I have ever lived in have a retirement age of 65. The poor frenchies might also loose their 35 hour work week which must be really hard when all their neighboring countries are working 40 hours a week. I am not claiming that there are not problems in France and their economy but if they worked a bit more and went on strike a bit less I am sure that many problems would solve themselves. The most ridiculous thing is when the Lyceens (people in high school) are also manifesting as if the "old people" are taking their jobs. It is so obvious that they are just happy to skip classes and hardly know what they are protesting against. No wonder they will not get any jobs when they graduate if they spend all their time demonstrating in the streets instead of learning something useful. In the end they can't all become union leaders. I know I sound terribly conservative but sometimes I just can't grasp what planet these French people are living on.

In Switzerland the extreme right party SVP has a new slogan "Swiss votes SVP" which is a rather silly slogan as only Swiss people have the right to vote. I guess they expect 100% of the votes in the next election.

October 20, 2010

A really nice walk is to go from the ETH, passing the University and then down to the Kunsthaus where there is currently a great Picasso retrospective from his early years until 1932. It is more or less the same exhibition that Picasso himself set up in Zürich more than 70 years ago. If you are interested in art there is a well done audio guiding that explains all his different phases. If you are not interested in art it is still very beautiful to walk around there. Without any difficult interpretations Picasso simply made fantastic paintings and you don't need to have specific knowledge or passion for art to enjoy that.

October 13, 2010

Bahnhof Enge and around in kreis 2. This is a really beautiful part of the city that I visit much too rarely.

This week is indeed the week of the miners. The 33 miners trapped in a mine in Chile all got rescued and the longest tunnel in the world, the basis tunnel of the Gothard pass here in Switzerland, 57 km long, was finished. Both exploits were huge successes, the miners in Chile was saved 2 months ahead of schedule and the two tubes of the Gothard tunnel met at only 8 cm divergence. I hope that the aftermath of the events will be as positive as the feelings this week. When your trapped in a black hole for almost three month I guess a lot of things will happen in your head, apparently one guy decided to get married but I wonder how many of the guys decided to get a divorce or make another radical change in their lives. You can do an awful lot of thinking in three months. I am also curious to see how many of them that will stay in the mining industry.

With all the glory being cast on the miners this week I wonder if this will be the new dream job for young boys.