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

Top 10 list - Vacation (#7)

The minimum paid vacation here is four weeks, which may be supplemented at the cantonal level or at the employer’s discretion.  This puts it at the low end of the range in Europe where most countries mandate five or even six weeks but it’s clearly more generous than the US requirement (i.e. no requirement).   In any case, what I like about it has less to do with the quantity and more with the mentality and how it is administered.  When supplemented, it is done so  dependent on an employee’s age, not service with the company .   Since I’m older than dirt I get six weeks, which is more than I’ve ever gotten or ever will get.   It’s one of the few advantages of being uralt.  Also, there is no “use it or lose it” here.  You’re expected to use it and no one ever resents you doing so.   Clearly, this also means that you cannot take money in lieu of time off.   What would be the point of that?   There is one feature that I find a bit overreaching but I appreciate the thought.  That is the law requiring you to take two of your vacation weeks consecutively.   The idea is to ensure a real mental break.  I don’t know how it’s policed but people do it, sometimes twice.   Having heard all this don’t make the mistake thinking the Swiss are vacation hoarding slugs.  They’re eminently practical, a characteristic that was evident in 2012 when a national referendum to increase the minimum vacation to six weeks was soundly defeated by a two-thirds majority.   Lastly, and perhaps the most important feature of the Swiss holiday landscape, is how the school breaks are spread out.   While kids here spend more or less the same number of days in school as in other countries, including the US, it’s broken up better.  The summer break is only six weeks which leaves six weeks to spread around to cover ski holiday (very important here), Easter and a Fall break.  It’s really quite nice.  

Top 10 list - Rules (#6)

I can hear you now.  “Rules?  I thought that this would be on the list of things you don’t like about Switzerland.”  Au contraire, mon ami.  There’s nothing inherently wrong with rules.  After all, the rule of law is what allowed civilization to advance.  As with anything, of course, rules can be taken to an extreme but properly applied they provide order and stability, valuable commodities in these parts.  What I most like about the rules here, though, is not necessarily the rules themselves but the fact that people follow them.  Voluntarily.  While it can be a bit annoying when people yell at you when you don’t (unavoidable for a newcomer),  it’s a small price to pay for the benefits gained.  For instance, this rules following culture is a chief reason that the country is so clean.   And remember, via Top 10 item #3, Direct Democracy, the rules are decided by the people themselves, not by a handful of special interests.  This leads to a level of buy-in that makes the cultural adherence possible.  People observe the rules because they want to.  It’s interesting to me that perhaps the one area where Switzerland has a paucity of rules is for those activities through which you can hurt yourself.  In contrast, the US has a surfeit of rules where someone might do something stupid, hurt themselves and then sue.  Here, since law suits are rare such rules are lacking.  Their view seems to be, stupidity is permitted.  Just don’t blame us.   In the time that we’ve lived here we’ve inadvertently executed a limited developmental experiment on this topic.  The lab rat in this case was Paige, who arrived here as a typical four year old American kid with no particular proclivity towards or against rules.  Now, nine years later, even having grown up in our “American” home, she’s a rules following soldier.  To her, it’s as natural as breathing.  She would no sooner jay walk then walk through the park naked.  Actually, less likely probably, since nudity here is not viewed quite so puritanically.   In fact, for those so inclined it’s legal to enjoy the national pastime of hiking with absolutely nothing coming between you and nature.  The exception to this, sadly, is canton Appenzell Innerrhoden where this became so popular that in 2009 they voted to disallow it.  Too much of a good thing I suppose.

Top 10 list - Natural beauty (#5)

Switzerland’s natural beauty is a powerful incentive for two of the other items on the list, cleanliness and hiking trails.  The entire country is so pretty that only ISIS would disturb it and hiking provides the best means to experience it all.   Of course there’s much more to see than the bucket list spots.  For every famous natural feature like the Matterhorn or Jungfraujoch, there are fifty lesser known gems like the Stoos ridge hike, the Oeschinensee  or Val Müstair.   And while the mountains are the symbol of Switzerland’s beauty,  the lakes are breathtakingly gorgeous and the cities and towns are charmingly lovely.   You’re never far from something worth viewing.  Hell, we walk Ellie in the area behind our home and it’s simply beautiful (picture below).   It’s one concentrated package of natural splendor squeezed into a country about twice the size of New Jersey.  

Top 10 list - Cleanliness (#4)

I’ve never been to Singapore so can’t comment first hand on its legendary cleanliness but even if true it’s just an overgrown city so how hard can it be?  Especially when you’re allowed to whip people to achieve the goal.  Switzerland manages its spotlessness without the threat of caning because it’s cultural.  With the exception of cigarette butts, people don’t litter.  And they clean up after their dogs too.  But being free of trash is just the beginning.  You’ve heard the term, “squeaky clean”?   Here, this refers to the floors in parking garages where your tires literally squeak when driving in them.  There’s a lovely area near our home where people go to stroll in the countryside.  These paths crisscross between the fields of pumpkins, corn, rapeseed and other crops.  On a regular basis a Gemeinde worker cruises up and down them driving a small street sweeper to clean up the agricultural detritus that’s landed there.  Wouldn’t want to step in horse manure out there amongst the cows, would you?  This attention to Sauberkeit extends even to road kill.  In the US, these carcasses often remain on the road past the point of being picked clean by scavengers to when the elements have reduced them to a pile of dried out, bleached bones.   Never happen here.   I wonder if these poor animals are always even yet fully dead before being removed.  There is one three day period each year, however, when the Swiss litter gloriously, at least here in Basel.  It’s Fasnacht, the Basel equivalent of Carnival or Mardi Gras.  I think it’s because there is so much confetti strewn around that if you drop trash on the street it just sinks into this strata of Räppli, disappearing from view.  It doesn’t matter though because at the end of the three days, the clean-up elves come out and miraculously vacuum the city clean so that by Thursday morning it’s as though Fasnacht never happened.  You have more confetti stuck in the cuffs of your pants or hiding in the pockets of your coat than there is remaining on the streets of Basel.   

Top 10 list - Direct Democracy (#3)

I’ve lauded this in a post already so you know where I stand but truth be told,  they do get it wrong from time to time.  The most recent instances of this were in 2014 when the citizenry voted narrowly (50.3%) to restrict immigration (in the face of existing EU treaties) and the 2009 initiative banning the construction of new minarets.   Both of these embarrassments  were led by the SVP (Schweizerische Volkspartei), the Swiss People’s Party, their version of the Tea Party but not as irrationally nutty.   Such setbacks aside, and the reason I have this on my Top 10 list is that the opportunity to submit a popular referendum offers a huge advantage over our indirect system because it provides a path around special interests thus reducing the influence of lobbies.   This opportunity doesn’t displace the responsibility of the main law making body, it’s in addition to it.  Indeed, the Federal Council may make a counter proposal to one made by a citizen group which would result in two options landing on the ballot.  The one receiving more votes wins.   If the US had such an option then sensible initiatives could be proposed and voted on.   It’s an antidote to Congress’ continuous bickering and fighting as it allows the citizenry to simply go around them.   An example would be gun control.  While an extreme proposal, like an outright gun ban, could be made, it wouldn’t fly so the more likely scenario is a reasonable version that makes sense to most of the voters.  This opportunity for the real majority to be heard (not just the loudest or richest) is why Direct Democracy is #3 on the list for me.

© Die Landsgemeinde: ein Fresko von Albert Welti und Wilhelm Balmer

Top 10 list - Public transportation (#2)

Public transportation, or öV (ou fow) as it’s known, for öffentlicher Verkehr, is one of the highlights for which Switzerland is clearly and deservedly well known.   Most have heard about how dependable it is but that’s only part of the deal.   It goes everywhere.  There is no corner of Switzerland that cannot be reached by public transportation, be it bus, train, tram or boat.   Even the cable cars are considered part of the network.  The trains are expensive but everyone who lives here gets a Halbtax card (~$150), which cuts the fare in half.  Kids sixteen and under are half price anyway and with a Junior-Karte  they’re free when with their parents or grandparents.    Planning is simplified as the ticket price is not dependent on when you get it so no need for advance planning to snag the best deal.  And getting back to the legendary dependability... this reputation is no exaggeration.  It’s a matter of pride, not just with the employees but with the citizenry too.  It’s evident when the taxpayers put their money where their mouths are.  In 2014, there was a referendum to approve a $45 billion long-term plan to finance and upgrade the rail  infrastructure. Proportional to population, that would be a $1.8 trillion commitment in the US.   It was approved with a clear 62% majority.   As an example of how seriously they take their commitment to on-time service, Lisa and Paige once experienced a rare late train going down to the Valais which resulted in missing the last bus to their ultimate destination.  What happened?  They, and everyone else in the train, were given taxi vouchers to cover the last part of their trip.   The message was clear. We’re sorry and embarrassed and this is what we’re going to do about it.  Lastly, in a nod to perhaps the softest spot in my heart, I have to mention this.  On öV, Ellie is welcome to ride too.  Otherwise, how would you take your canine companion on a hike with you in the mountains?

Top 10 things I like about Switzerland

Everyone likes a top 10 list so I thought I’d pull one together.   I’ll post one item in each of the coming days and invite readers to comment.     

1.  Hiking trails

There isn’t a nook or cranny of this country that you can visit that’s absent of hiking trails.  And not just some tamped down paths through the woods.  Switzerland has a 65,000 km system of well-marked hiking routes maintained by the Swiss Hiking Trail Federation, an organization that has worked since 1934 to develop a safe and standardized network covering the entire country.  They’re posted, classified (according to difficulty) and timed.   The system is supported by SwitzerlandMobility, a foundation whose slogan is “The network for non-motorized traffic”.  The literal translation from the original German, “Das Netzwerk für den Langsamverkehr”, would have been “The Network for slow traffic” which just doesn’t sound fun, so they came up with something else but it’s not much better.  Maybe we could sponsor a contest to come up with something snappier.   In any event, they manage a national network for hiking, cycling, mountain biking, skating and canoeing and have an App which overlays all of the trails on a relief map along with your current location.  http://www.schweizmobil.ch/en/schweizmobil.html     It’s really terrific and while it won’t keep you from falling off the side of a mountain (in Switzerland, that’s your own business) it’ll help you avoid getting lost.  

Maternity leave

I had a conversation yesterday with a colleague who’d heard that Obama was about to sign an Executive order granting paid sick leave.   He couldn’t grasp that this wasn’t already the case.  I had to point out that this order would only benefit people working for companies with federal government contracts.  The other 99.5%?  Stop coughing and get back to work.   This evolved into a discussion about paid leave in general, which led to maternity leave.  Usually, when this topic comes up I like to describe Lisa’s experience when Erica was born.  At the time, Lisa was a young vet working in a large equine practice in Lexington, Kentucky and her pregnancy came smack in the middle of the busy Spring foaling season.   Thanks to the cloaking effect of the coveralls she wore each day she managed to keep the pregnancy secret, at least to all her clients with a Y chromosome (which was all of them).  Erica’s estimated due date was Wednesday,  May 10^th and sure enough, when Lisa  got home from work that evening, after a typical day palpating mares and making sure the foals got their colostrum, the contractions began.  We jumped in the car and following pre-arranged plans,  dropped Lindsey off with some friends and hurried off to the hospital.  Ever in a hurry, Erica arrived about twenty minutes after we got there leaving us with four nice days together before Lisa returned to work on Monday,  visiting her clients to check on the mares and foals and leaving Erica to be raised by wolves along with Lindsey.  Note to people who don’t know us well, the wolf part is a joke.  Everything else is true.   The farm managers, since they hadn’t seen her all weekend, and she pretty much worked seven days a week, naturally asked where she’d been.  Picture their faces when she told them she’d had a baby.  “ You found a baby?”  “No, I had a baby”.  “ A foal?”  “No, a person.  A daughter”.  “Excuse my French, Ma’am.  I mean, Doctor, but you’re shitting me, aren’t you?”   Clearly, this was the first time ever, in the history of the state of Kentucky, that there’d been a pregnant horse vet, and they’d missed the whole thing.  Damn.  Most likely, they still bring it up from time to time.  Anyway, upon hearing this story, my colleague reacted in typical fashion.  He recoiled in shock, no more so than if I’d told him that we’d subsequently sold Erica and set about growing another.   I offer this story not to imply that this was typical in the US, only to note that it was legal.   Her bosses at the time, who were marginally less clueless than the farm managers, became aware that she was pregnant in month six and immediately put her on leave while they considered firing her, before realizing that this, in fact, would have been illegal.  They then allowed her to return to work, after signing a sheaf of release papers,  with the pregnancy eventually concluding in the long weekend maternity leave described above.    The US is joined by only Papua New Guinea in the club of countries without any mandated paid maternity leave.  For those women working for larger companies, things look better, but not as much so as you might think.  In 2012, Working Mother magazine polled their “100 Best Companies” to see how it is for such lucky women.  http://www.iwpr.org/publications/pubs/maternity-paternity-and-adoption-leave-in-the-united-states-1.  The average paid maternity leave was 7.2 weeks with 14% enjoying more than 12.    As they say, in the land of the blind, the one eyed man…  The worldwide average for paid maternity leave is about 16 weeks.  In Europe, it’s 20.  Here in Switzerland, it’s a miserly 14 weeks at 80% pay up to a ceiling of about $1000/week, which, if they had a minimum wage here, would be about that level.   Interestingly, in Switzerland it’s illegal to return to work in the first 8 weeks after birth, something that, as a mandate, is ridiculous but must reflect the will of the people.   As I’ve mentioned before, nothing happens here without a discussion and vote.  As an epilogue to the story of Erica’s birth, three and a half years later Daniel was born and Lisa’s employers, having seen the light and combined with her timing (Daniel was born in the foaling off season), allowed her to bask in the luxury of a full two week maternity leave.  Unpaid.  

Renunciation

I went to Bern this morning to renew my passport.  Yesterday, in order to make this as painless as possible I accessed the US Embassy website to print out the forms, make a reservation and make sure I had everything I needed.  While there, the page titled “Renunciations” caught my eye so I explored.  Before your thoughts begin to wander, let me be clear here.  I may bitch.  I may complain.  I may laud all of the wonderful aspects about living here (compared to the US).  But I will never, ever, renounce my US citizenship.  I fully understand why some would do this.  Those who’ve gained citizenship via the fluke of Jus soli and never really lived there aren’t really Americans anyway.  To them, it’s a convenience and they just need to decide if the convenience outweighs the inconveniences, most of which you cannot appreciate unless you’ve lived outside the US as an American citizen.  But people like me, or Lisa, or even Paige, who doesn’t really remember living in the US, we’ll always be Americans.  I honestly don't think it would be possible to renounce it.  Maybe legally but not in the heart.  It’s a roots thing I guess.  Anyhow, if you’re curious, it’s a nine step process, the first three of which are, in one form or another, checks to make sure that you really, really want to go through with it.    One of the FAQ’s is, “What privileges of my U.S. citizenship can I retain after I renounce?”  I wonder how “Frequent” this question really is.  Their response is basically, “None of them you stupid shit”.  They leave out the last two words and they’re a bit more polite but that is their answer.   They also include the subtle comment, “ Such a question indicates a lack of full understanding of renunciation”.  I bet the embassy staff had fun answering that one.  For those still certain that they want to go through with it, the cost is 2,350 USD, which can be paid in cash (USD or CH), credit card or cashier’s check drawn on a US bank.  Is it just me or does it seem somehow wrong to renounce one’s citizenship via credit card?   Anyway, thanks to my advance legwork the renewal process this morning took only 15 minutes.  Everyone was very polite and helpful with the only annoyance being that I couldn’t bring my iPad into the embassy.  They had conveniently worked out an arrangement with a bakery down the street to hold such devices for a small fee but it was annoying to have to do so.  I went with the flow, though, and should be rewarded in a few weeks with a nice shiny new passport good for another ten years.  I wonder, though, would they have been so nice if I had been there to renounce?