What is home?

I’ve heard some people respond to this question by saying, “Wherever the toothbrush is”.  I don’t see it that way though.  For me, home is where Lisa is.  And the dog.  It’s important that I list them in that order as Lisa reads this blog but I can’t neglect the dog.  Lisa and I in a hotel room is not home.  Throw in the dog, however, and it’s getting pretty close.  This makes it sound like the dog is more important than Paige which is mostly not true but Paige’s influence is diminished by the reality that someday, as her siblings have done, she will fly the coop.  But not Lisa.  Lisa = Home.  Why do I raise this now?  In August, we mark ten years of living here and when I mention this to people the first thing they say is usually, “When do you plan to move back”?  The unstated word they leave out is “home”.   As adults we’ve lived many places in the US but never once did someone ask me when I planned to return to Rhode Island or Lisa, to Miami.  But here people assume that we’re biding our time until we can move back “home”.   Our family, as defined by next generation up and next generation down, is extremely important to us but does not and could not define home.  With two daughters in San Diego, a son in Houston and parents in Rhode Island and Florida, we’re too spread out.  Visiting them wouldn’t be significantly easier if we lived stateside anyway.  Cheaper, certainly, but still requiring airports.  Fortunately, in addition to holidays, both Lisa and I have been able to tag on days to business trips so the opportunities to see family hasn’t been as infrequent as one might think.  The end result, in fact, is that we’ve seen our parents more often while living here than we did when living in Chicago, St. Louis, Kentucky or Pennsylvania.   It’s a matter of making it a priority.  So, if you want to ask us when we’re going to return home we’ll probably say we’re already home but that next week or next month or this fall, we’re going to San Diego or Florida or Houston or Rhode Island.  Because we don’t need to move to those places.  We just need to visit some people who happen to live there.    

Trump’s NATO ignorance

I’m going to stray a bit off the path I set when initiating this blog a year ago.  While I never committed to avoid politics I implied that I would stick to Swiss issues.  Or at least issues affecting Americans living in Switzerland.  But I never anticipated Trump.  Now some may ask how he’s impacting us over here but this question would betray a basic ignorance regarding the role and responsibility the U.S. plays throughout the world, including Switzerland.    The U.S., for good or bad, is the key to global stability.  Our foreign policy matters.  As we go so does the rest of world and history has shown that a policy of isolation doesn’t work.  That was the case in 1918.  It was so in 1939 and it’s been true ever since.  What’s frightening and deeply troubling now is that Trump is completely unaware of this.  His foreign policy knowledge (and appreciation of the value thereof) is non-existent.  Last week’s statement implying that the U.S. might reconsider our NATO obligations to help protect our allies was the latest evidence of this ignorance.  He really isn’t cognizant of the role NATO has played in the stability and relative peace that Europe has enjoyed since the dark days following WWII.   It seems he thinks that nearly seventy years of peace in a region whose previous record was maybe ten minutes has been luck.  Who knows, maybe he hasn’t noticed.   He also probably doesn’t know that NATO’s Article 5 (the collective defense article) has been invoked only once and this was after the 9/11 attacks when NATO led troops were deployed to Afghanistan, in our defense.    

Did I ask you what you think?

I got barked at today.  By an old Swiss guy.  It reminded me of the time not long after we arrived when Lisa and Paige were on the tram with one of Paige’s friends and her mother.  The two girls were standing on the spot between the cars that swivels when the tram takes a corner and being kids, were swaying with the motion.   After a bit, an old guy stood up to leave.  At the door, he paused then turned to bark at Lisa and the other mom.  Lisa understood nothing of what he said but smiled, nodding politely.   After he was gone, her Swiss friend said that they’d just been told what awful mothers they were.   This kind of interaction isn’t terribly uncommon here and is unrelated to our status as foreigners.  Generally, in fact, the complainer doesn’t even realize this.   It seems that these unhappy people are surprisingly self-aware but they simply cannot help themselves (or don’t care).   Paige and her friends were recently scolded on the bus by a woman who continued at the conclusion of her admonition to remark that they probably just thought she was an unpleasant old lady.  They were too polite to confirm her suspicion but they didn’t deny it either.

Schwingen

One of the elements of the Swiss experience that I regrettably left off my Top 10 list was tradition.  Switzerland is full of fun and interesting traditions, some observed across the country and some locally.  We try to experience as many of these as possible, for example the cow fighting I posted about in April.  In 2013 we attended Das Eidgenössische Schwing und Älplerfest (sorry, no translation possible).   A Swiss colleague encouraged me to go, telling me that for pure, concentrated Swissness this is ground zero.    It’s a sort of Swiss Olympic Games that’s held every three years, each time in a different location.   The sites are just vast open fields so for each Games an enormous temporary arena capable of seating roughly 50,000 fans is constructed.  Since considerably more than 50,000 people show up, several enormous screens are also set up in the grounds surrounding the arena.   The competition is comprised of three different events, the main being a form of wrestling called Schwingen, which takes place in a 12 meter diameter ring covered with saw dust.   The other two are  Steinstossen  and Hornussen.  Steinstossen involves the throwing of a small boulder weighing 83.5 kg, which is a bit more than I weigh.  The winner generally manages a hernia popping distance of about four meters.  Hornussen is difficult to describe so I won’t even try.  Imagine Quiddich without the brooms or flying.  Checkout this website if you’re interested (http://www.myswitzerland.com/en-ch/hornussen-where-the-nouss-flies-from-the-ramp-and-into-the-playing-field.html).   The main event, however, is clearly Schwingen.  As with cow fighting, the winner receives no cash.  Just more glory than you can shake an alpenhorn at and a giant pile of dry goods donated by sponsors who are nevertheless not permitted to advertise.  Washing machines.  Lawnmowers.  Furniture.  Tools.  Livestock.  Sort of like the winners of 70’s game shows in the US (plus farm animals).  The event will be held this summer so make your plans to attend.  Pure, distilled Swissness taking place in Estavayer (Canton Fribourg) from August 26^th to 28^th.  Don’t miss it.

Tort law

I’m no lawyer (although my oldest daughter is) so anything I have to say about tort law is strictly from a  layman’s perspective.  That being said, I’ll state unequivocally that the Swiss approach to tort law is clearly superior to the US version.    Switzerland has laws designed to keep harmful products off the market but if you want to do something stupid and hurt yourself…  Well, that’s your fault.  Don’t blame someone else.    With regards to medical malpractice suits, you may be surprised to learn that it’s forbidden here for lawyers to participate in any punitive damages or financial compensation their clients are awarded.   They are paid strictly on a fee for service basis.  Plus, the burden of proof for liability is much higher.   The result, as you can imagine, is far fewer lawsuits, lower malpractice premiums and a paltry level of CYA on the part of doctors and hospitals.  This was driven home for us once several years ago when Paige was hospitalized for a severe asthma attack.  The situation was stabilized quickly after admission but the doctors wanted to keep her overnight until her blood oxygen remained above a certain level while sleeping.  As it was not an issue while awake we asked if she could be released temporarily to attend a Christmas performance in which she was supposed to participate.  They said, sure, why not, and released her to our care, still wearing her hospital bracelet, with our promise to return her to the hospital that evening.  Think that would ever happen in the US?    

Subtle wealth

Switzerland is clearly a wealthy country.   According to every study or report I’ve seen it’s the richest in the world.   The 2015 Credit Suisse Global Wealth Report compares 174 countries and lists Switzerland in the #1 position with the average adult having a net worth of $567,122.   New Zealand was #2 ($400,811) followed by Australia ($364,896).  The US and UK rounded out the top five with $352,996 and $320,368 respectively.   When I read this I thought, wow, that’s a lot of money.  It doesn’t seem correct.  Then I looked at the second column in the table, the one showing the median adult wealth.  This shows  how broadly this wealth is distributed in each country and Switzerland gets a surprisingly low grade in this category.  When you look at the ratio of average wealth to median wealth, Switzerland’s is 5.3, which isn’t as bad as the US (7.1) but compared to New Zealand and Australia (both 2.2) it’s considerably less fair than I expected.  Another, more sophisticated metric that economists use to measure fairness of wealth distribution is the Gini coefficient.   At the risk of oversimplifying the statistics involved, the Gini is a quick way to assess how financially satisfied people will be in the context of their culture and country.  In yet more basic terms, it’s an indication of how they see themselves compared to their neighbors.   In Gini terms, zero means that everyone has the same wealth and 100 means one guy has it all.   The Gini in Switzerland is 80.3 while in the US it’s 85.0.  To give a bit of perspective, the average for European and North American countries is 74.8.  Those Kiwi’s and Aussies?  65.5.  Damn, talk about finding an economic sweet spot.  Wealth and fairness, together.   If you’re wondering where Putin’s kleptocracy ranks, it’s a 91.2, which, as a bad as that sounds, it’s even worse when you consider that the average net wealth in Russia is south of $12,000.  The economic unsweet spot, poor and unfair.  Anyway, back to the subject of this post, subtle wealth.  The reason that I was surprised that Switzerland’s wealth is relatively unevenly distributed is that you  don’t see the level of ostentatiousness here that you do in the US.  Plainly, there are a lot of rich people here.   Try to find them though and you’re bound to be disappointed as the Swiss are masters of subtle wealth.  They’ll wear a watch worth more than your retirement savings but hide it under a shirt sleeve.  They are a private species and matters of money may be viewed as the most private of all.  When I first moved here I noticed that even the model numbers on the BMW’s and Mercedes, indicating the engine displacement (and value),  are left off  the cars sold in Switzerland.   The attitude seems to be, why rub it in?  While you’re not likely to see a rich Swiss dressing down, you won’t see them behaving flamboyantly either.  And you will never hear them publicly making a boorish statement like, “I’m rich, really rich”.  Ever.

By the way, have you ever met an unpleasant, unhappy Kiwi or Aussie?  Me neither.   

Culturally Swiss

Lisa and I moved here too late in life to ever really be culturally Swiss.  Sure, we share many of the characteristics that are considered Swiss (follow rules, habitually on time, fiscally conservative) but these are personality traits that we arrived with and which partly explain why we’re so comfortably happy here.  Paige, on the other hand, has developed into a veritable Heidi.  For her, we’ll never know whether it was nature or nurture but she’s as Swiss as they come.  Should we apply for Swiss citizenship, there’s a requirement to demonstrate assimilation and she’s our ringer.    Speaks perfect dialect?  Check.  Member of several local clubs?  Check.  Drinks Rivella voluntarily?  Check.  Participates in Fasnacht?  Double check ( five year member of a clique).   Really the only non-Swiss behavior she exhibits is that she answers the phone by saying “Hello”.  You’ll hear no “Crump” barked out when calling our home.