Infrastructure

Last year I posted my top 10 list of things I like about Switzerland.  One reader commented that #3 (Direct Democracy) isn’t what it’s cracked up to be and used California to support his argument.  I’ve never lived in California so can’t speak to this first hand but…the state is chock full of Californians and relatively few Swiss so we’re talking serious apples to oranges here.  Anyway, I digress from the original point of this post which was to note that when I featured characteristic #2 (Public transportation) I was perhaps defining it a bit too narrowly.   Recently, when driving home after a week’s ski holiday, I was reminded of the excellent roads, bridges and tunnels.  In other words, the general infrastructure that makes #2 possible.  This got me to wondering whether there is any infrastructural element which is not excellent here.  I commented to my wife that I bet Switzerland has the world’s highest rated infrastructure and when we got home I did a bit of research and, sure enough, it does.  According to a report published in 2014 by the World Economic Forum¹, Switzerland’s infrastructure is #1 in the world (out of 144 countries rated).  This evaluation comprised more than just roads and rail of course.  In fact, there were nine categories in total, such as air transport, telephone, electric grid and even seaports, a category where Switzerland somehow managed a #44 ranking in spite of being landlocked.  Surprisingly, Switzerland wasn’t #1 for rail infrastructure.  That honor went to Japan, although Switzerland was #2.  The area where Switzerland shined highest was electric grid, a recognition to which I can attest.  In our ten years here we’ve suffered only a single power failure and nary a flickering light.  Naturally, I was curious to see how the US ranked and was surprised that it managed a respectable, but not great, #16.  In overall Global Competitiveness, the US ranked #3 (after Switzerland and Singapore) so we make up for it in other ways, for instance Marketing sophistication where we were ranked top in class (Go Mad Men).   One last observation that I found interesting.  One of the many other sub-categories in which Switzerland finished #1 was “Capacity to attract and retain talent”.  They got me to come and stay, didn’t they?

¹ The Global Competitiveness Report 2014–2015: Full Data Edition.  Published by the World Economic Forum within the framework of The Global Competitiveness and Benchmarking Network (available at www.weforum.org/gcr).

McRaclette

I saw this ad the other day.  Haven’t tried one yet, just doesn’t seem right.

Turkey smuggling

A few weeks ago we celebrated Thanksgiving.  It’s just a typical work day here so we always celebrate it on the Saturday directly afterwards.  We get together with several other families and do the whole thing.  Stuffing, pumpkin pie, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, cranberry sauce.  And, of course, turkey.   Turkey’s a lunch meat here.  No one really cooks a bird whole.  Our first year we made it work with a scrawny specimen that the farmer killed specially for us.   It was like a wild turkey is in the US which, last I knew, no one actually eats.   The second year we learned that in Germany it's possible to get a frozen one, similar to a US turkey but about half the size, which is just as well since a US bird wouldn’t fit in a Swiss oven.   That worked well so every year since I order one from the German supermarket and pick it up a few days before we cook it. This year, as we were expecting around 30 people, I ordered two.  As usual, the Wednesday beforehand I zipped across the border on the way home from work to pick them up,  While I was waiting for them to be brought out I looked over some information the store had and saw that the import limits had changed.   For all of the time we’ve lived here, poultry was treated differently than beef with regards to how much you could bring into Switzerland.  The brochure I was reading, however, noted that now, meat was meat, meaning that even for poultry there was a 1 kg limit.  As such, for each kilogram over there is an import duty of CHF 18 (roughly $18 now).  The two turkeys I was waiting for were close to 12 kg total.  Some quick math told me that they were going to cost, in addition to the purchase price, about $200 just to bring them over the border.    Unless …. I smuggled them.    We’ve generally been pretty law abiding citizens here.  Keep our noses clean, that’s been our strategy.  This, however, turned me.  I couldn’t help it.  I was breaking bad.  I became a turkey trafficker.    

Ginkgo seeds

This being Autumn it’s time for the annual shedding of seeds by the female Ginkgo trees in our neighborhood.  Anyone who knows these trees is aware of the characteristically offensive odor emitted by the seeds when they are stepped upon.  This smell, which derives from the butyric acid within, is powerful and, for lack of a polite comparison, I’ll say simply that it is reminiscent of vomit.  Why am I bringing this up in this blog?  Not because these trees are unique to Switzerland.  In fact, Ginkgo biloba is not even native here.  I raise this topic as an illustration of Swiss fastidiousness.  Last week, as happens every year at this time, the city sent out the forces who, working from lifts,  meticulously  shook the seeds from the trees so that they could be vacuumed up prior to being stepped on.  We can’t have our neighborhoods smelling like puke after all.  

Top 10 list - Lost & Found (#10)

And now to #10.  Making this list was tougher than I expected.  Lots of things to like about living here.    Nevertheless, restrict it I must so for the last position I choose a modest little behavior which exemplifies the thoughtfulness and honesty of the people who live here.  In Switzerland, when someone finds an object that was obviously dropped accidently by its owner they generally don’t take it to a Lost and Found, and they certainly don’t keep it.  Instead, usually they simply place it in a spot where the owner can return to find it.  And the people who subsequently pass by, but aren’t the owners, leave it there.  My son once lost an expensive pair of sunglasses.  As soon as he realized they were missing he simply retraced his steps and, sure enough, someone had picked them up and left them in an clearly visible position alongside the path he was walking.  Lost and Founds exist of course but are most often used for items lost in high traffic areas or on public transportation.  In fact, SBB, the Swiss Rail System, receives so many lost items that ten years ago they commissioned a solution which led to the founding of Fundsachenverkauf (lost property sale), a business that buys (in bulk, sight unseen) and re-sells the roughly 8,000 unclaimed items left monthly in Swiss trains, buses, airports or post offices  http://www.fundsachenverkauf.ch/.   Interestingly, the merchandise part of their website has a sex toy section.  Hmmm.  Sex toys lost on public transportation.  No doubt if they’d been lost on a hiking trail somewhere they’d simply be picked up, dusted off and placed on the side for the owner to find.  

Top 10 list - Safety and Security (#9)

Anyone who’s spent time here will confirm how safe one generally feels.    People are expected to watch out for themselves to avoid, for instance, getting run over by a tram but when it comes to violent crime one will feel pretty secure regardless of the time of day or section of town.  Switzerland’s low homicide rate places it #6 out of the 36 developed countries ranked by the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) while the US sits proudly at #32.   Paradoxically, among this same group of countries Switzerland trails only the US in gun ownership rates.   Does this mean that whereas  Americans use their guns to kill each other the Swiss use them for protection?   Hardly.  Gun rights people  here are as vehemently protective of these rights as their counterparts in the US but you will not hear them supporting their argument with fear.   And they will never, ever say that they need them as protection against their own government.  For many of them, in fact, it’s the government that has provided the gun.  They  just say that they like having and shooting guns.  Nothing wrong with that.  In any event, at the risk of simplification I’ll play the amateur sociologist and opine that Switzerland’s low violent crime rate is ultimately a reflection of a lower feeling of desperation within the population, especially at the bottom of the socioeconomic ladder.   People are less desperate here and the resulting confidence that they have options makes them less likely to kill another person.  Maybe I’m right and maybe I’m wrong.  But it is safe here and for the peace of mind that this gives me and my family, I’m appreciative.    

Top 10 list - Weather (#8)

This one might surprise you because usually weather as a hi-lite is reserved for warm climates with perpetual sun.   This is my list, though, and I’ll tell you why I’ve included it.  We’ve got four seasons.  Four genuine, glorious seasons.  For me, the cycle begins with Spring and ours is the classic version, full of the new life that puts a skip in your step.    No whiplash change from cold to hot but, rather, a nice transition that lasts long enough to savor.  Next, just as you’re ready for summer, it arrives.  Not too hot but warm enough that’s it’s clearly summer.  Generally just right for mountain hikes, dips in the community pools (which are without exception terrific) and even a nice Rhein swim.  In September, comes Fall, generally beginning with a nice Indian summer as the leaves begin to change, bringing with them the clear freshness in the air that makes you break out the sweaters while not regretting having to do so.   Lastly, we have Winter, which brings cold, but not bone chillingly so, temperatures.   For the most part, just right to enjoy the snow sports or a nice fondue after a hike in the snow.   In a nutshell, what you get are the seasons without the extremes that plague some regions of the world.  And on those rare occasions when the summer temperatures rise too high?  You can head to the mountains.  This past summer we had an atypical heat wave when the mercury reached over 35 °C (95 °F) for three weeks in a row.  It was so hot that even friends visiting from South Carolina complained.  What did we do?  We went to the mountains, where we played in the snow and cooled off.   Try doing that on a hot, muggy New Jersey summer day.  

Engelberg on July 5th