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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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. (more…)

In another couple of days, after the March 11 vote, we’ll know the answer: will the Swiss choose to give themselves more vacation time?

My prediction? Probably not. This is how direct democracy can function in Switzerland. (more…)

Most people don’t really think about where the energy needed to recharge their iPhone battery or to fire up their laptop computer on their daily train commute to work every morning comes from.

But since the massive earthquake and ensuing tsunami hit and damaged the nuclear power plant at Fukushima, Japan, earlier this year, resulting in a series of failures, reactor meltdowns, and the release of radioactive materials into the environment, the topic of energy - specifically nuclear energy - has been on the minds of nearly everyone who reads a newspaper or follows the news. (more…)

The debate surrounding the issue of language and identity in Switzerland is one that always stirs up a lot of attention.

Last weekend, the voters of canton Zurich voted on whether High-German or the local Swiss-German dialect - “Mundart” - should be spoken and taught in kindergarten classes at public schools throughout the canton. (more…)