Time to hear the conservatives go on and on how gun control curtails our freedom and how the criminals are all gonna kill us in our beds, because we don't have any weapons. Switzerland finally votes on the issue of gun control on February 13. The defense minister (also a right-wing conservative) was awfully dismissive today in an interview in a ( Read more... )

In honor of today, the Swiss National Holiday, I thought I'd make a Swiss-centric entry ( Read more... )

At least, politically speaking. The anti-Blocher movement finally gets their asses into gear.

The swiss gun laws are under fire again, because there has been another shooting with an army gun. In the meantime, the swiss parliament has decided to at least not to let them keep the ammo at home. But they still persist in letting them keep the gun at home, despite the fact that they aren't legally allowed to do anything with it, except storing ( Read more... )

I saw "Sicko" today and I must say I'm so grateful to live here in Switzerland. Our healthcare system is far from perfect and basically a bottomless moneysucking pit, but I've never heard of someone getting thrown out of the hospital, because they couldn't pay their bills. And everybody's got to have basic health insurance, it's the law ( Read more... )

Switzerland elected a new parliament today and the conservative, right wing nationalists gained again. Not quite as much as 2003, but still gained, while the social democrats lost both seats and voter %. At least the Green Party gained a bit, but I was seriously hoping for a different direction. So apparently I live in a country with 27 % morons.

Because of you, the Independent thinks we're all a bunch of racists. And I can kind of see why. As a society, we've gotten so used to the spiteful, hateful messages the SVP is sending out, we don't take notice anymore. We're not so easily shocked anymore, so they keep trying to provoke us even more. I know I tend to tune them out. But they really ( Read more... )

The issue of gun control has come up once again in Swiss politics and they are still refusing to do anything. I don't get it. I just don't get it. Approximately 300 deaths a year and they still don't think that maybe, just maybe they should change the current situation. How fucked up is that? The policy of keeping your army gun maybe made sense in ( Read more... )

Sometimes I wonder why I even bother voting. The results of this weekends vote are depressing. I hate the fact that fear and envy won over compassion. I hate that people feel mistreated by the government. Like it's so desirable to be an asylseeker in a foreign country, thousands of miles away from the people they love, in a country where they don't ( Read more... )

The world is a scary and depressing place. The climate changes more and more, leaving the world with draughts, floods and hurricanes like we've never seen them before. The weather is getting more and more extreme. Case in point this summer: over 30 degrees celsius in July, 15-20 degress and raining in August. That is not normal ( Read more... )