Dear Mom,

Since I decided to make Switzerland my home nearly two decades ago, you and I have unfortunately not been able to spend a whole lot of quality time together.

We are victims of geography, so to speak.

So this week, when you told me that you will be coming all the way from California to spend a couple of weeks with me this summer, you can bet that I was pretty happy to hear the news.

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This week a certain political party here in Switzerland, one that claims to be of and for the people, has been anything but of and for the people.

In fact, actions by its party members have ranged from downright divisive to blatantly xenophobic and racist.

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This week, Aung San Suu Kyi, current Burmese political opposition party member and former political prisoner, will be visiting Switzerland in order to speak at the International Labour Organization in Geneva.

It will be the first speech that she has given in Europe in over twenty-four years. In fact the last time she spoke here, the Berlin Wall was still standing over an ideologically divided continent.

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During a weekend visit to Zurich a few weeks ago, my cousin made a comment about how green the city is: trees, flowers, potted plants, grassy lawns, woods, and yes, even the occasional weed, overlooked by the city’s diligent gardeners.

She also pointed out the fact that even on one of Zurich’s most famous and busiest streets, the Bahnhofstrasse, you can find large trees providing shade for the throngs of shoppers, tourists and bankers that march up and down the road each and every day.

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A blue and white “Cobra” tram slowly goes by my window, causing the ground to shake ever so slightly.

At least five passengers have their iPhones out in the hopes of catching up on the latest gossip posted on their friends’ facebook pages.

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If you happened to be in Oerlikon last week, you could have witnessed an entire three-story building weighing 6,200 metric tons moving down the street.

That’s right; a small army of engineers and technicians picked up a house, put it on rollers and very slowly pushed it - at the snail’s pace of three metres and 20 centimetres per hour - sixty metres down the street.

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