Lily Safra's jewels on auction 14 May include this pair of 19.43 and 19.16 carat pear-shaped diamond ear clips (photo: Christies)
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – Some CHF20 million in jewels will be auctioned for charity by Christies Monday night 14 May, in a sale called “Jewels for Hope” at the Hotel des Bergues in Geneva. The collection is owned by Lily Safra, one of Geneva’s most famous philanthropists along with her late husband, banker Edmond Safra, who died in a fire in 1999, a case of arson for which his bodyguard was imprisoned.
Lily Safra has headed the Safra Foundation since 2000; it provides financial support for projects in a number of fields, including religion, cultural and humanitarian relief.
Edmond Safra was her fourth husband; they were married for 20 years. He was estimated to have a fortune worth $2.5 billion in the early 1990s, amassed during his 40-year career as a financier. He founded the Trade Development Bank in Geneva and Republic National Bank of New York.
The proceeds from the sale will benefit 20 charities supported by the Safra Foundation.
JAR diamond and ruby brooch, estimated value $1.25-1.5 million, to be auctioned Monday night at Christies sale in Geneva
The collection shows a wide range of design work, from a 1911 diamond lavaliere necklace by Cartier, estimated value CHF200-400,000, to 18 pieces designed for Lily Safra by contemporary jeweler Joel Rosenthal (JAR), the largest single-owner collection of his work seen at an auction.
The star of the JAR pieces is a ruby and diamond Camellia flower brooch created in 2003 and estimated at $1.2-1.5 million.
But diamonds are likely to bring in the highest bids, with two rings each expected to fetch at least $3 million: “The 34.05 carat rectangular-cut diamond ring (D/VVS1 potentially flawless, Type IIa) is a perfect stone estimated at $3.6-5 million” according to Christies.
“Formerly in the collection of Luz Mila Patiño, Countess du Boisrouvray, the famous 32.08 carats cushion-shaped Burmese ruby and diamond ring by Chaumet is offered with an estimate of $3-5 million.” A pair of diamond pearl-shaped clip earrings are estimated in the same price range.
Christies is holding its regular spring fine jewelry auction Wednesday 16 May in Geneva.
Ed. note: the Safra jewels are on display at the Hotel des Bergues until 18:00 this evening.
And it takes them only 92 minutes to cover the distance
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – The Swiss are on the move, with train travel inside the country up in particular, figures from the new federal “Microcensus” show. Each Swiss resident six years or older “covered a daily distance of almost 37km within Switzerland in 2010.
Two-thirds of that distance was covered in cars, but train travel is on the rise in this nation that rides the train more than any other country’s residents: up 27 percent in five years.
The growth in road traffic parallels that of the population, which increased 5.5 percent from 2005 to 2010.
Swiss remain world travelers
The Swiss travel 20,500km a year, a distance equal to going halfway around the globe, and one-third of that is spent on travel outside the country, the microcenss shows.
The 37km were covered in 92 minutes, including waiting time and transfers, the statistics show. They were gathered by questioning 63,000 people.
The Federal Statistical Office (FSO) and the Federal Office for Spatial Development (ARE) carried out the Mobility and Transport Microcensus, part of the new modular census that “analyses today’s accelerated social change much more effectively than was previously the case” with the old 10-year censuses.
Here’s how we moved: 23.8km by car, 8.6km using public transport and 2.8km on foot or bicycle.
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – Fame has suddenly hit the Graubuenden hamlet of Obermutten and so far, it’s just what the townfolk wanted. Mayor M Wyss and G Flatscher, who owns the single restaurant, decided last year that the village, with all its typical Swiss mountain charm, should create a Facebook page that would increase visitors.
He made one firm promise, to post every visitor’s photo on the village notice board if they “liked” the page. Soon the notice board was covered, and as the buzz picked up speed, the village’s barn walls also began to be covered with the pictures.
The page now has more than 17,000 likes and the English version of a video showing the village has had nearly 44,000 views (the German version: 3,500). And tourism has picked up, reports tnooz, a travel industry web site. “The Obermutten page now has more fans than some of the most popular tourist traps in Europe and the regional Grabunden tourist board site has since its web traffic soar by 250%. But more importantly, at the height of the ‘campaign’ four out of five fans regularly interacted with page and each other – a figure its creators reckon is higher than pages belonging to Lady Gaga, Justin Bieber and Coca-Cola.”
Here’s the first video of 11 the village has posted on its page, and a more recent one, in English. You also get a peek at some ibex.
https://www.facebook.com/obermutten
Switzerland's Val d'Herens cows fight in the spring, when left to themselves
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – It was push and shove all the way, but in the end Schakira from Toerbel in the Goms Valley in canton Valais, put her head down, locked her horns and pushed her way to the Swiss championship.
Just short of 800 kg, Schakira is the new queen of the cows among Switzerland’s famous fighting cows after the final match in Aproz Sunday 6 May.
RTS television estimates the crowd at 12-13000 spectators.
The event culminates the springtime rounds of fighting in several places throughout canton Valais, among Val d’Herens race cows, who fight naturally when in the field, to find the leader of the herd.
The short-legged black cows are agile and powerful, with generally gentle dispositions, but in the spring the pregnant cows fight to determine which cow which lead them during the summer spent high in the Alps. Once a fight is finished they start grazing again, showing little aggression.
Schakira fought her final battle with Ronja after last year’s winner, Manathon, lost her bid for victory in an earlier fight.
Earlier report, GenevaLunch, on fight in Mollens, Valais, with video
RTS video: “Schakira” sacrée reine des reines 2012 – rts.ch – info – régions – valais.
UK comic Eddie Izzard: major stops in Geneva, Zurich for 2013 "Force Majeure" tour
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – Eddie Izzard is a man of many hats and few shoes who loves to run. He is bringing his Force Majeure comedy tour to Switzerland in 2013 to give people here a firsthand look at the funny part of the Izzard phenomenon.
The show will be performed in English 25-26 April 2013 at the Geneva Arena and 27 April at the Hallenstadion in Zurch, both major venues a first for comedy in English.
He’s arguably best known to the British world as a stand-up comic but he’s also a film and theatre actor who is greatly in demand. He’s made a name for himself as a political activist and he has raised £1.86 million for charity by running marathons.
Izzard told GenevaLunch in an interview this week that he created the new show, Force Majeure, because after four years of world tours doing his previous show, Stripped, including a stint in Paris doing the show in French, “it was just time to do a new show.”
It will be the most expensive tour any comedian has done, says Izzard, with 20 countries lined up: three months of touring in 2013 and three in 2014, with the second tour to include Australia, Canada and New Zealand. Stripped was a huge hit, taking Izzard to 34 US cities, on a vast European tour and in 2010 he performed at Madison Square Garden in New York, the latter a feat accomplished by only three other comedians.
He would have liked to have done the tour in one go, but his busy film, TV and theatre schedule doesn’t permit it. He’s starred alongside a wealth of big names in the film industry, including Bob Hoskins and Robin Williams in “Secret Agent”, Sean Connery in “The Avengers”, Uma Thurman in “My Super X Girlfriend”, George Clooney and Brad Pitt in “Oceans Twelve”, Judi Dench and Jude Law in “Rage” and Tom Cruise in “Valkyrie”. His stage appearances make an equally impressive list.
Izzard’s more immediate passion is running, notably barefoot. He caught the public eye in August 2009 when he ran 43 marathons in 51 days for the charity Sport Relief.
(Story continues below)
For someone who moves so frenetically, onstage and off, he is remarkably low key in person. He told GenevaLunch he’s not on-stage or jokey all the time, as some performers are, and it’s not really an issue for those around him. He likes to watch movies to relax.
“I think I have a natural comedy instinct. So does my brother, my father, so I guess it’s genetic. I just like laughing.”
The running dates back to 2002, when ancient Greek notions of being fit in mind and spirit and body began to appeal. “I thought, that’s a good place to be. I had this idea I was designed for running. We all have this ability.” He meets people through running, enjoys the fact it is healthy and that he can raise money through it.
Barefoot running is new for him and he loves it. “It seems more hardcore, but it’s actually easier. The more you do the easier it gets. It feels strangely powerful.” We were moving without shoes for at least 2,000 years, he points out.
“The past is in your future. Running with shoes is like writing with gloves.”
By 2020 he intend to be doing another kind of running, for office, possibly as a member of Parliament. He’s been an active member of the Labour party since the 1990s and was most recently out stumping in March for Labour Mayor of London candidate Ken Livingstone.
Meanwhile, Izzard, who is good at getting down to the bare bones of matters, has a show to plan.
Ed. note: tickets go on sale Friday 4 May at TicketCorner. Details, International Comedy Club, run by Guy Stevens of Jackanapes Productions who, with Mike Perrin Productions in the UK is bringing Izzard to Switzerland.
Max and mate are keeping three little ones snug and warm and fed
ZURICH, SWITZERLAND – Max the stork now has three little ones in the family nest on the Swiss-German border.
This is Max’s 11th time around as mother, and she and her mate have managed to keep all three young birds alive during their first week, despite high winds and unseasonably cold temperatures.
Foreign non-residents lax when it comes to safety gear
BERN, SWITZERLAND – The Swiss Safety Council’s latest figures for the use of safety equipment on the country’s ski slopes and off-piste show good use up to age 17, then a dip after age 25 until age 46, when skiers and snowboarders suddenly put on their safety gear again.
The council for the first time compared use of safety equipment by “foreign guests” and Swiss residents, and the foreigners fell far short, with 73 percent wearing helmets, as compared to 88 percent of Swiss residents, all ages and genders mixed.
The use of helmets has increased sharply in the past 10 years thanks in large part to the council’s safety awareness campaign, but wearing them has not been evenly adopted, with the 84 percent Swiss average hiding a big language region difference: 89 percent in German-speaking Switzerland and 71 percent in French-speaking Switzerland.
Biggest increase in helmets seen with 18-25 year-olds
The group that showed the sharpest increase in the use of safety equipment was the 18-25 year-olds, up 12 percent.
Ed. note: no explanation is provided for the difference between 88 percent for Swiss residents and the 84 percent that is the average between French and German regions; presumably Italian region use is lower than German region use.
Skiers have caught up with snowboarders in terms of helmet use, both now averaging 84 percent after 10 years of skiers gradually closing the gap. The 2002-03 season saw only 20 percent of snowboarders wearing helmets and 14 percent of skiers.
The council’s safety check, carried out on the slopes with questionnaires this year in order to include foreign residents, covered 4,521 skiers this year and 1,038 snowboarders, slightly more than the previous year. The safety council works with 20 cableway companies throughout Switzerland to compile the statistics.
Team says decision not unexpected as it scrambles to meet requirements for appeal deadline
Sion FC trainer quits
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – These are odd days for Swiss football, with Basel winning but saying in advance that even if it won this weekend, it wouldn’t accept the title, while in Geneva, fans of Servette FC are holding their breath. Monday morning’s news, 23 April, that the Swiss Football League has refused to give the team a license for next season is the latest blow to a team struggling to get back on its feet.
Hugh Quennec, one of the owners of Geneva Servette Hockey Club, pledged a month ago to raise enough funds to save the Geneva football club as it slipped to the brink of bankruptcy after then-president Majid Pishyar conceded defeat.
He went before judge Fabienne Geisinger Thursday 19 April to ask for an extension of the deadlline, reportedly saying he is close to raising the money but needs a few more days.
The financial viability of the team is one of the conditions for obtaining a license and GSFC manager Philipp Kneubuehler said Monday the team was not surprised by the SF League’s decision not to give a license now. “We haven’t yet filled all the conditions for getting a license but we’re counting on doing it in a very short time. A complete file will be handed in, in a second request.”
Quennec would like GSFC function as the hockey club does, building a strong sense of community with the team’s fans. He’s off to an early start with a buy-a-brick plan to raise funds while building popular support. He’s also intent on building interest in the team in the expatriate community in the Geneva area; to that end GSFC just worked with So Money Productions and Patrianova Communication to publish a community service video featuring player Philippe Senderos talking in English about why the community needs the team.
Sion football trainer Laurent Roussey resigned Monday morning, the latest in an ongoing saga for the troubled Valais club.
Finals are just 2 weeks away and Valais’s finest Alpine cows show their stuff in Mollens arena
Tete-a-tete, Swiss fighting cows
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – You know spring is here when Swiss cows begin to fight (tourism office schedule) and the crowds stream in from all corners of the country to watch them.
Cool weather at 900 metres in Mollens, canton Valais and 30 titles to be won Sunday 22 April brought out 4,000 spectators for a tradition that is as popular as it is unusual in the animal world.
Spring comes slowly to the alps, the splendid pastures high above the Rhone River where lucky Swiss cows get to spend their summers, but the girls don’t take the wait lying down.
This is the season when many of the cows get pregnant, and as hormones kick in, snow melts and the air starts to smell of fresh grass, the herds look for their leaders.
These are the cows that are smarter, tougher and like a good challenge. The short legs on the Val d’Herens breed of small (relatively) black cows are particularly good for maneuvering steep Alpine slopes.
The cows don’t need encouragement from humans: left alone, they fight in the fields to determine the hierarchy of the troop.
Wander through canton Valais during the next six weeks and you’re likely to see a black cow start pawing the dirt and eying her buddies to see which one is up for a good tussle, then the cowbells suddenly clang like mad while they leap into action.
Yes, these are cows. No, they are not bulls!
700+ kilo of pure cow pushing, head to head, Swiss fighting cows
The crowds love it. A cow that walks away from a fight is promptly eliminated. It might happen in a first round, when her mettle isn’t up, or after three rounds, when she’s had enough and wants to go back and graze peacefully.
These are not mean or vicious cows and they tend to have particularly warm ties to people, so they get a loving nose rub at the end of the match and the crowd cheers its appreciation.
The cows all have names. The dirt is raised as they leap and push, but you’ll hear someone cheering on a young cow called Gazelle.
By mid-June she’ll be heading up from her winter home on the plains to pastures at anywhere from 1,200 to 2,200 metres, sometimes higher.
She will eat fresh grass and flowers and provide the milk that makes Switzerland’s famous Raclette cheeses. These vary in taste depending on the pasture, much as wines vary depending on their terroir.
The cows fight in different weight categories and, as in sports, they are led off for drug control tests the day of the fights.
Down to the finish!
The big winner in every sense in Mollens Sunday is one of the canton’s heavyweights, Furibonde from Nax, age 8, who weighed in at 769kg. The finalists: Chips, Manila, Darwin, Rite and Calin.
The finals are 5-6 May in Aproz, when the Queen of the Cows is crowned, a title worth a few thousand francs to her owner.
Short video of a quick win
And here is a view of what it’s like when they let a group into the arena, as the eliminations get started
Lake Geneva region has no shortage of things to keep you happy this weekend despite mixed weather
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – The weather forecast for the Lake Geneva region, and for the rest of Switzerland, is mixed, with lows of 5C and highs of 12-13C for the next three days, and rain alternating with some sunshine. Take an umbrella if you’re going out. Better yet, take advantage of the many events going on indoors in the region. Top of the pick:
Area gardens are coming to life
Lakeside villages (here, St Prex, canton Vaud) have lovely little gardens tucked away, so if the sun does come out, take a walk!
Schilliger Garden Centre in Gland is presenting its Jardins du Monde, a series of specially designed theme gardens that take you from the tropics to the Alps.
They are beautiful to walk through but even better for avid gardeners because a series of how-to sessions are organized for Saturday (08:00-18:00) and Sunday (09:00-17:00).
A bonus is that the center’s enormous hothouse is open to the public this weekend.
Schilliger grows most of its own plants, rather than importing them other climate areas and the greenhouse is a treasure chest worth viewing.
Check ahead for times of guided tours.
Morges Tulip Festival
The annual month-long tulip festival at the Parc de l’Independence in Morges is underway, and it has warmed up enough for the flowers to stand tall. This is a must-see for gardeners and anyone with visiting grannies or small children. A beautiful park, dressed to the nines for spring, on the lakefront in the city centre.
Cinema, a tried and true way to beat the rain
Visions du Réel film festival in Nyon
Nyon is growing in stature in part because of its documentary film festival, Visions du Réel, which kicks off officially Friday night 20 April and runs until 27 April.
The programme is a rich mix, in terms of style and cultures.
The shows are popular, entrance CHF15 or CHF35 for a daily card, with special rates if you want to go all week.
Arvinis, the wine season opener
The new 2011 vintages are out, although some are not yet even bottled, but they are available for sampling this weekend at Arvinis. The wine fair that opens the tasting season attracts some 20,000 people a year and the first two nights showed this year is no exception.
Arvinis runs from 18-23 April and offers wine-lovers 230 stands. The system is simple: you pay CHF30 to enter, are given a glass and you are free to wander around and try what you like. Don’t lose your glass!
Tips from GenevaLunch to make it an enjoyable learning experience
Visiting the Swiss Wine Promotion stand
Gewurtztraminer from Henri Cruchon, a top Morges producer
The guest of honour this year is Swiss Wine Promotion, which has a stand for each of the country’s six wine regions. These wines are to the left, shortly after the entrance.
Ed. note: visit EllensWineWorld on Facebook for wine notes for 25 white wines sampled at Arvinis (currently adding them), including several from the guest of honour; a series of tasting notes for red wines will be published Saturday.
Plan ahead and check the list of wine producers and other exhibitors, then match the ones you want to visit against the map of the stands.
There is still space at some of the special events, which vary in price and length. GenevaLunch editor and Swiss wine specialist Ellen Wallace is giving a class Friday evening, Introduction to wine-tasting, in English (2 spaces left as we publish).
For first-tme visitors, here is a mini-guide to Arvinis:
Transport, parking: Take public transport, to avoid drink/driving problems, but also because there is little parking next to Arvinis. The large public parking area at the entrance to Morges, coming from Geneva, is the best place to leave your car if you do drive.
Fee, tasting glass: CHF30, Visa, Masters credit cards accepted and PostFinance card
Hours: Open from 11:00 Saturday and Sunday, from 16:00 Monday, closes at 22:00 every evening except Sunday, 20:00
Children, animals: Children under age 16 must be accompanied by an adult. No animals allowed.
Ordering wine: This is a commercial wine fair and producers will happily take your orders for delivery later. Many of them ship via the post office, at little or no cost depending on quantity. But the main goal of wine producers at Arvinis is to introduce their wines to you and help you learn about them.
Feel free to ask as many questions as you like and don’t be afraid to show that you’re not an expert.
For those whose French is weak, this is the perfect opportunity to perfect it, but a number of the wine producers speak English – just ask!
Longer term solutions sought. to absorb immigrants
BERN, SWITZERLAND – The Swiss government’s announcement late Wednesday 18 April that it will temporarily cap the number of workers allowed from the European Union-8 States, has prompted several reactions outside the country, which reflect a mix of concerns. But within Switzerland it’s the additional measures to seek longer term solutions to deal with migration that will be debated.
The Federal Council says a quota of 2,000 B residence permits for 12 months will be revived starting 1 May, for workers from the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Slovakia and Slovenia. Switzerland had quotas but suspended them 1 May 2011. The government will decide before May 2013 if the quotas will remain in place for the following 12 months.
Agreement with EU allows quotas for transition period that ends in May 2014
By 31 May 2014 the quotas will be lifted permanently, under the terms of the Swiss-EU greement on the free movement of persons (AFM), says Bern, although some EU officials appear to interpret the agreement differently, according to media reports.
The stated rationale for the move is that the safeguard clause in the Agreement on the free movement of persons (AFM) allows Switzerland to unilaterally re-introduce quotas for the EU-8 countries until 2014, “provided that in a given year the number of residence permits and/or short-term residence permits for job seekers from the EU/EFTA States exceeds the average of the previous three years by at least 10 percent.”
The conditions were fulfilled for category B permits, says Bern, from May 2011 through April 2012: the quota could legally be implemented if more than 2,283 B residence permits were issued during that time. More than 6,000 were issued.
The conditions were not, however, met for L permits, and no quota is being implemented there.
B permits are granted, Bern notes, “to persons who possess an employment contract in Switzerland that is valid for more than a year or for an unlimited period, and to individuals who are self-employed. Short residence permits of category L are granted to foreign workers whose employment contract is valid for up to one year.”
EU-8 leaders and some EU politicians unhappy
Tax filing day has different implications for Americans abroad
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – This is the day when Americans back home are scrambling to get their tax forms to the IRS, but outside the US the difficulty of remaining tax compliant is leading a growing number of citizens to hand in their passports: on average, 7 Americans a day took the oath to stop being a US citizen in 2011.
For many of them, and this writer is one, 18 April offers a reminder of sorrow, not to be part of the nation one grew up believing in, but also relief that a major burden, often perceived as unjust, is gone.
“I’m just really relieved now”, says one former US citizen, who was grappling with the impact on pension money that could have been taxed twice, by the US and by the country of residence because their retirement fund laws differ.
The number of renunciations of citizenship (called “loss of citizenship” by the US Department of State) rose to 1,780 in 2011, the highest number ever. It is well up from the 235 figure for 2008, although overall the numbers have been steadily climbing since the US Department of Treasury began publishing them in 1998. Names of anyone who renounces and whose name is provided to the Treasury by the US Department of State are listed in the Federal Register.
Several people who have renounced have told US overseas citizen groups that their names have not appeared, so accurate figures are hard to come by.
US citizens subject to double taxation: issue is not money owed but compliance burden
How many are related to tax issues? Impossible to say, since the oath taken by those who renounce makes it clear that if you do so for tax reasons the renunciation can be considered invalid. Few ex-US citizens will therefore openly say taxes were the reason.
One person who gave up a US passport said that at the “cut-and-dried, impersonal” interview at a US embassy the explanation given was simply that it has become too complicated to become an American citizen abroad, and the official nodded, having clearly heard this before. “Few dare to go into much detail.”
The issue as reported by US media often implies that Americans outside the US are avoiding paying taxes, with little understanding or awareness that the US is the only government of a sizable country to tax its citizens who live abroad and pay taxes in their country of residence.
GenevaLunch in the past year has talked to a number of former US citizens who say they owed no tax to the US, they paid their taxes regularly in their country of residence, but the US tax obligations had simply become too heavy, too unmanageable.
US citizens cannot renounce unless they already have a second nationality
The numbers are very low compared to the number of new US citizens every year, and as a percentage of the 5 to 7 million US citizens living abroad, but a key factor in renouncing US citizenship is that the person must already hold another nationality; international law does not allow a person to become stateless. Acquiring another nationality is often a long, slow process.
One ex-citizen notes that Americans abroad fall into two groups, those who are overseas for relatively short periods, often not learning the language of the place and sending their children to international schools. A second group stays longer, marries someone of another nationality, has dual nationality children, becomes fluent in the language and the culture of the new home. And pays taxes in the new country, buys into the pension and housing systems.
Awareness, for many in this second group, of new US tax and citizenship obligations began to surface only in about 2009, although some of the requirements, such as the FBAR, date back to post-911 anti-terrorism legislation and new rules, about which little information circulated publicly for several years.
The non-compliant group is a time bomb ticking
No one has figures on the number of Americans abroad who are not up to date on filing US taxes, but estimates are high. This is a group who will rarely speak openly, but several have spoken to GenevaLunch in the past year, usually after asking for first-hand information about what renouncing citizenship involves. Most say they stopped filing because it was too complicated and expensive, requiring specialist tax advisors even to declare no taxable income. They would like to file back taxes, but it is simply too complicated.
Given that renunciation involves promising to fulfill IRS obligations, they are afraid to move ahead on renunciation.
The FBAR, which is anti-terrorism rather than tax legislation, requires Americans to disclose financial assets over $10,000 (on any given day of the year), to which they have signatory power. This includes joint accounts and for Americans married to non-US citizens this rule alone often creates uncomfortable situations, which become far more so in the case of divorce.
One young man told GenevaLunch he would have serious reservations about marrying an American woman now that he sees what is involved.
Three couples married for more than 25 years have told GenevaLunch they took the drastic steps of closing down all joint accounts, including mortgages, to separate their finances and allow the American spouse to continue filing while protecting the other spouse’s pension and pre-marriage assets. Others have told GenevaLunch that being pulled in two directions led to or contributed to divorces.
At least a dozen people have said their almost-adult children consider a US passport a burden rather than a privilege and they intend to renounce before they starting earning money.
Meanwhile, banks in Switzerland and, with a time lag, in other countries are refusing to provide basic banking services to Americans due to soon to be implemented Fat legislation. Fatca will require foreign banks to report to the US government any assets and income of US citizens.
Passport legislation now in Congress could force people’s hands
The latest unnerving information making the rounds in the long-term overseas American community is that passport renewal may be linked to tax compliance. A law moving through Congress would give US officials the right to not issue new passports to those who are not up to date on taxes, but to stop Americans from traveling if they are suspected of being in arrears.
There is a precedent, reports The Atlantic in a 17 April article: a parent who is behind on child support payments can be stopped from leaving the country if a tax lien exists.
Lausanne meeting will benefit from recently published media and government information on changes
The growing complexity of tax compliance rules for US citizens abroad will top the agenda for the fourth of five American Town Hall meetings in Switzerland, Wednesday night 18 April in Lausanne. The meetings are jointly organized by the US Embassy in Bern, American Citizens Abroad and the Democrat and Republican parties abroad.
Questions about giving up citizenship are likely to be raised as well. These have come up at other Town Hall meetings, but now with increasing media attention in the US leading to greater awareness of the obligations and related difficulties for Americans abroad, “quiet” Americans abroad are getting noisier.
Related articles
- The Atlantic,“No Taxes, No Travel: Why the IRS Wants the Right to Seize Your Passport”, 17 April 2012
- The Economist, “Guides through the swamp, A big shake-up for America’s tax-preparation industry”, 12 March 2012
- The New York Times, “For Americans Abroad, Taxes Just Got More Complicated”, 17 April 2012
- Reuters, “Tax time pushes some Americans to take a hike”, 17 April 2012
- Isaac Brock Society, very active blog in Canada for US citizens abroad
Big names don’t disappoint: Noel Gallagher, Sinead O’Connor, Van Morrison, Tony Bennett, Bobby Womack, Jane Birken
LAUSANNE, SWITZERLAND – This wasn’t the plan, but the Montreux Jazz Festival has unveiled its music programme, just hours after Paleo, its lively younger cousin, posted its programme 17 April.
A terse message arrived in journalists’ mailboxes Tuesday evening 17 April, stating that the programme is being published: “Following an indiscretion by a Swiss media, which published some information it received from one of its readers – despite an embargo imposed by the Montreux Jazz Festival (MJF) – the programme for the 46th edition of the Festival was partially revealed on its German language site, two days before the official announcement.”
The headline names offer the usual rich selection, and newer musicians provide a rich and eclectic mix for the festival that runs from 29 June to 13 July. Tickets for two hugely popular artists have already been on sale: Noel Gallagher and his new project “Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds”
and one of Germany’s biggest names, Herbert Grönemeyer.
Tickets for the rest of the programme go on sale Friday 20 April at 10:00 and all information will be available on the website Wednesday April 18 at 14:00, montreuxjazzfestival.com.
Story filmed by RTS and BBC airs in UK on “Panorama” tonight
Switzerland’s largest company in lengthy rebuttal says not so
DRC copper mining at Kamatanda, near Likasi in Katanga province (mine NOT owned by Glencore), 17 January 2011 - Photo: Carême/Meinrad Schade
ZURICH, SWITZERLAND – Glencore, Switzerland’s largest company in terms of turnover and reportedly the supplier of 50 percent of the world’s copper, is accused of indirectly buying material from an “artisanal mine” in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) that uses freelance miners as young as 10 years old. The company reacted with a lengthy refutation, not of the Glencore report (pdf) by two Swiss groups, but to a show based on that information, to be aired tonight by the BBC.
Glencore and XStrata are presenting their proposed merger to shareholders in May, prompting closer scrutiny of the Glencore’s reputation in the area of ethical business practices.
The merger would make the new $90 billion company the world’s third largest mining and raw materials group.
Both are based in Zug. Xstrata’s roots lie in a firm called Südelektra, founded in 1926. The name was changed in 2002 and the company went public 10 years ago.
The accusations of child labour and other illegal or at best dubious practices on the part of Glencore are made in a lengthy report issued 16 April by two politically active Swiss charities who are noted for their research “into the causes of poverty that affects large sections of the population”, says Zewo-certified Swiss Catholic Lenten Fund (Carême in French and Fastenopfer in German), which issued the report with Bread for All.
The report is the result of six months of investigation into the company’s work in the DRC, a followup to an earlier report when Glencore was listed on the stock market in 2011. Among its findings:
- copper from a mine where one-third of the miners are children, working in unsafe conditions, is making its way into Glencore’s supply lines; Glencore owns the mine, which is dormant, and the company says it has been overrun by artisanal miners, industry lingo for freelancers who mine and sell as best they can
- ” In one of Glencore’s processing plants in Luilu, sulphuric acid is discharged untreated into the river of the same name, with devastating consequences for the environment and the people living in the surrounding villages, who have lost an important water source.” The company says the problem pre-dates its ownership and has now been dealt with but film footage reportedly shows otherwise
- Glencore is accused of not respecting labour laws and of using fiscal practices that deprive the country of income that could replace aid money: “Glencore lawfully pays duties in the DRC in the form of licence fees and import/export tax. However, with the company shifting its profits made in the Congo through transfer pricing between its subsidiaries and into tax havens, the Congolese state’s according to calculations of the Swiss Catholic Lenten Fund and Bread for all loss in dividends and tax on profits amounted to around196 million US dollars in the last two years.”
Swiss legal loopholes for overseas subsidiaries targeted
The report notes that
BERN, SWITZERLAND – A Spanish judge investigating a corruption case involving the king of Spain’s son-in-law, Iñaki Urdangarín, 10 April ordered the freezing of Swiss bank accounts used for “opaque payments”. The case, which has gripped Spain for weeks, flared up again with the announcement. But a spokesperson for the Swiss Federal Justice Office, which handles foreign requests to block accounts, told GenevaLunch 12 April that the office “has no knowledge of a request for judicial assistance in this case”.
A foreigner’s bank account in Switzerland cannot be blocked except by order of the Swiss government after it receives a request from foreign government authorities or in some cases, such as the fall of dictators, the Federal Council will act on its own.
Urdangarín, a former Olympic handball player married to the king’s daughter, Cristina, has been accused of siphoning euros 5.8 million of public funds intended for the Noos Institute, a Spanish non-profit foundation, which he headed between 2004 and 2006. The institute sponsored sports and tourism congresses with the regional financial backing of Valencia and the Balearic Islands.
Swiss accounts resurface during testimony
The Duke of Palma, as he is also known, was jeered at as he entered court in February, the Guardian reported at the time. The lengthy interrogation that followed turned up an Irish fiduciary, Alternative General Services Ltd, that was allegedly involved in transferring payments.
The Lake Geneva region and Ticino show the highest percentage of mental health problems, with figures based in part on questionnaires
BERN, SWITZERLAND – The extent of mental illness in Switzerland have remained relatively stable for the past 10 years, a new report by the Federal Health Office shows.
The cost in economic terms is CHF11 billion a year, with a large part of this due to indirect costs such as absenteeism and early retirement.
The number of people who seek treatment remains very low, rising from only 4 percent to 5 percent between 1997 and 2007.
The report, released 12 April, is the third such review by the office. While 74 percent of the population describe themselves as feeling full of energy and optimistic most of the time, 19 percent have said in surveys that they are affected moderately or more seriously by mental health problems, including 4 percent of the population that is handicapped by a debilitating mental health problem.
The figures are based on a combination of statistics and several different surveys by federal departments.
The Lake Geneva region and Ticino continue to have a higher incidence of mental health ailments than German-speaking Switzerland. Serious mental health problems affect women and young people more often than men and the elderly, but milder forms of depression are more prevalent among women and older people, the report’s statistics show.
Renovated Musée d'Orsay in Paris during filming for Google's Art Project
LAUSANNE, SWITZERLAND – The Olympic Museum in Lausanne has provided the Google Art Project with 104 artworks by 33 artists, from its collection.
The museum is one of 155 worldwide to share part of their collection online and it is the first in Switzerland to do so.
Art Project now includes Hans Erni’s 1983 “Basketball” sculpture and paintings series, Dennis Openheim’s “Olympic Centennial Newton Discovering Gravity” and a series of Rosa Serra’s elegant black sports figures sculptures.
The project started a year ago, with 17 museums and 1,000 artworks, but as Google points out, it was “almost all paintings from Western masters.
Today, the Art Project includes more than 30,000 high-resolution artworks, with Street View images for 46 museums, with more on the way. In other words, the Art Project is no longer just about the Indian student wanting to visit the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.
It is now also about the American student wanting to visit the National Gallery of Modern Art in Delhi.”
The collection houses an extraordinary variety, and some of the partner sampler pages are fun, such as a moving (in every sense) video visit to the White House in the US.
The expanded gallery, which Google presented in Paris Tuesday 3 April, has several new features. Among them:
- Street View images are now displayed in finer quality. A specially designed Street View trolley took 360-degree images of the interior of selected galleries which were then stitched together, enabling smooth navigation of more than 385 rooms within the museums. You can also explore the gallery interiors directly from within Street View in Google Maps.
- 46 artworks are available with Gogle’s gigapixel photo-capturing technology, “photographed in extraordinary detail using super high resolution so you can study details of the brushwork and patina that would be impossible to see with the naked eye.”
- A bonus for students and teachers in particular is a new My Gallery feature that lets viewers make their own collections, add comments to each painting and share the whole collection.
How to use Google Art Project video
Modernized Super Pumas delivered to Swiss air force
BERN, SWITZERLAND – The first two Puma TH06 helicopters that are part of a modernization programme for the Swiss air force’s helicopter fleet were officially received in Emmen Monday 2 April by Armasuissse. The new choppers are equipped with: a modern Flight Management System, two global position systems (GPS), inertia navigation system, modern digital card system, anti-collision alert system, and new radio (police, encryption and satellite transmission) systems.
The two are part of a fleet of 15 that is being re-equipped over three years. They were bought in two batches, from 1987-89 and 1991-93, but once modernized the fleet will be equipped to last another 15 years and should be comparable to the Cougar transport helicopters also used by Armasuisse.
The fleet has been used for armed forces transport needs, but also for civilian emergencies abroad, and the modernization project is designed to meet the needs associated with the varied uses of the helicopters. They have been used in Albania, in Sumatra when Indonesia suffered heavy flooding, in the Balkans and to help put out fires in Israel.
Dark Swiss chocolate, not just good but good for getting the stress level down (photo: E Wallace)
LAUSANNE, SWITZERLAND – We’ve all suspected it and now Nestlé researchers tell us it is true: a nibble of dark chocolate a day reduces our stress level. A research team that looked at the biochemical basis for what many of us like to consider comfort food found “strong evidence that a daily consumption of 40 g of dark chocolate during a period of 2 weeks is sufficient to modify the metabolism of free living and healthy human subjects, as per variation of both host and gut microbial metabolism.”
Their findings, presented at a conference in California 28 March, showed “that the chemical compounds contained in dark chocolate may improve the disposition of people who experience higher levels of stress.”
You might have to use more diplomacy now that the word is out when you offer chocolates to your stressed mother or others. Remind them that the group also found that “the level of stress-related hormones reduced in all participants, including those who were not assessed as stressed at the start.”
The test group consumed half the chocolate in the morning and the other half in the afternoon.
In more scientific terms, the group’s abstract reports this:
“A clinical trial was performed on a population of 30 human subjects, who were classified in low and high anxiety traits using validated psychological questionnaires. Biological fluids (urine and blood plasma) were collected during 3 test days at the beginning, midtime and at the end of a 2 week study. NMR and MS-based metabonomics were employed to study global changes in metabolism due to the chocolate consumption. Human subjects with higher anxiety trait showed a distinct metabolic profile indicative of a different energy homeostasis (lactate, citrate, succinate, trans-aconitate, urea, proline), hormonal metabolism (adrenaline, DOPA, 3-methoxy-tyrosine) and gut microbial activity (methylamines, p-cresol sulfate, hippurate). Dark chocolate reduced the urinary excretion of the stress hormone cortisol and catecholamines and partially normalized stress-related differences in energy metabolism (glycine, citrate, trans-aconitate, proline, β-alanine) and gut microbial activities (hippurate and p-cresol sulfate).”
BERN, SWITZERLAND – Journalists have been hounding the Swiss government for months about the number of US clients of Credit Suisse targeted by the US Justice department and Wednesday evening the information came out, but through a back door: it was tucked into a budget note from the Federal Council. The number of clients whose data the bank turned over to Swiss authorities in order for the government to share them with US authorities is 650, and the expected cost is CHF4.7 million, a tab the government expects the bank to pick up
In addition, the council is requesting CHF1.1m to cover the end of the work linked to a 2009 agreement between Switzerland and the US concerning tax evaders who were clients of UBS.
What isn’t clear from the budget message is where the US and Switzerland are with a political agreement that would cover all Swiss banks, but it appears that the deadline to review the Credit Suisse cases, which is not provided, is linked to the larger discussion.
The information was part of a request by the Federal Council (cabinet) to parliament to approve 13 additional credits, beyond the basic budget, for CHF90 million. Two of the largest projects are CHF14 million for European research organizations including CHF12.2m for Cern, and CHF60 million to encourage technology and innovation in the face of the strong franc. CHF7 million is earmarked for a new alarm system to alert the population and, last item on the list, CHF5.8 million to “cover the cost of the additional work done for the administrative assistance request from the United States, an extra burden linked notably to the Credit Suisse affair.”
The discreet budget item: a request for CHF5.8m to cover the cost of office space, specialists and other expenses linked to the Credit Suisse affair with the US Justice Department
The budget request notes that the US request for administrative assistance was made 26 September 2011 but that work had already begun a year earlier to prepare for such requests to enable Swiss authorities to move more quickly on grouped requests, based on the experience with UBS.
The federal Service d’échange d’informations en matière fiscale (SEI), the office within the tax department which handles information requested by other governments, “was reinforced by taking on temporary staff, lawyers and administrative staff, as well as external collaborators (who had already been hired for the [UBS case]. Additional office space had to be hired and the IT infrastructure had to be adapted to handle the new situation. The additional credits requested (CHF4.7m) must cover the extra costs incurred by the administrative assistance request and concern for the most part (CHF2m) the cost of consultants.”
Credit Suisse will be billed for the total cost, says the Federal Council.
Police in Vaud and Geneva join forces to combat cross-border theft
Number of assaults in Geneva fell in 2011
Violent crimes fell in Geneva in 2011: orange shows simple injuries and yellow serious plus homicides (Source: Geneva Police / OFS statistics)
GENEVA / LAUSANNE, SWITZERLAND – Geneva tops the Swiss list for a 2011 rise in property crimes, including break-ins and theft, but Lausanne, Basel, Bern and Zurich also saw increases last year that outpaced population growth and were well above the national average of 71 per 1,000 inhabitants.
Geneva’s violent crimes, including all degrees and forms of assault, fell in 2011, however; one exception was the increase from 4 (2008) to 15 knife attacks, in four years.
Urban border regions in western Switzerland in particular have seen cross-border burglary increases and Tuesday the cantonal ministers in charge of police for Geneva and Vaud announced a joint task force to step up coordination with French police to tackle the problem.
They are also calling for tougher penalties against repeat offenders and note that the “Lake Geneva region appears to have become a privileged target for robbers.”
Two features of the cross-border crime that are worrying police in Geneva, reports swissinfo, are the number of under-age Balkans working in theft in a stretch from Milan to Paris and a shift from street crime to burglaries by a group of about 400 North Africans living illegally in Geneva.
Burglaries in Geneva rose 29 percent in 2011, break-ins 19 percent and vehicle theft 9 percent
The new European Sourcebook of Crime and Criminal Justice Statistics 2010 indicates that Switzerland has one of the highest rates of criminal problems linked to migration, but the most recent figures are five years old, covering 2003-2007, and European reporting standards differ. The UK, for example, records ethnic background rather than nationality for criminals arrested, while Switzerland, which has one of Europe’s highest rates of resident foreigners, lists nationality.
Geneva and Basel are the only two cantons with 2011 crime rates higher than 100 per 1,000: 159 for Geneva and 119 for Basel (source: Swiss Federal Statistical Office)
Crime statistics for Switzerland for 2011 were released Monday by the Federal Statistical Office in Neuchatel, and include cantonal details.
Cantonal police have been releasing highway and accident statistics in the past few days.
Overall, numbers show a mixed safety picture, with property crimes up, more foreigners entering and re-entering the country illegally and who are often linked to other crimes.
Nationwide, violent crimes are down by 7 percent and in the Lake Geneva region there were fewer road accidents.
Geneva was the subject of much media hype in 2011 about personal safety and crime but the statistics don’t bear out complaints that the city is unsafe, physically, although residents and visitors would do well to watch their cars, motorbikes and bags, with theft on the rise.
Vaud saw its overall crime rate jump 18.6 percent, with a 14 percent increase in break-ins and 7 percent increase in robberies. Country-wide the rate of break-ins rose 16 percent. Car theft was up by 4 percent.
A concern in Vaud is the “massive presence of Bulgarian and Romanian prostitutes, implying a potential problem with human trafficking,” the canton notes in a press release. Police closed down immediately 7 of the more than 700 massage parlours they checked during the year.
Credit Suisse reported to be asking Americans for tax advisors’ names, proof of filing in the US
Swiss flag, more portable than a bank account
BERN, SWITZERLAND – The Council of the Swiss Abroad (CSE) is demanding that the government and Swiss banks find a reasonable solution to the growing banking problems of Swiss citizens who live outside the country, particularly those in the US.
The move by the group that represents the 700,000 Swiss who live abroad, about 10 percent of the total population, comes as Aarguer Zeitung, a Zurich area newspaper, reports that Credit Suisse has sent out some 4,000 letters asking American clients to sign by 23 April that they have filed their 2010 US taxes and asking for the names of their tax advisors.
The newspaper quotes a bank official as saying the request is not linked to new demands by the US but is a precautionary move by the bank. Credit Suisse has been under investigation by the US Justice Department for helping wealthy Americans avoid taxes by hiding their money. The bank is widely thought to have given bank data on about 130 clients to the US early this year.
Two sides of a rough coin
Swiss citizens who live or have lived in the US are finding themselves in an uncomfortable seat that closely resembles that of many Americans in Switzerland. Swiss banks are increasingly turning them down their own citizens as clients, including people who have been with the banks for a number of years and use their Swiss bank accounts to pay mortgages on homes back in Switzerland, for example.
Home away from home, but where's the bank for the mortgage payments?
The cost to a Swiss person of doing regular foreign banking from the US is prohibitive. The same is true for Americans living in Switzerland who try to do regular Swiss banking through a US-based bank, assuming they are allowed to maintain an account. A Swiss person who takes the desperate measure of keeping quiet about a Swiss account by, for example, using a Swiss address, risks getting the client in trouble with the Swiss bank, not to mention tax authorities.
US citizens in Switzerland have been faced with similar tax and banking dilemmas thanks to the rising cost to Swiss banks of showing they are compliant with American laws covering US taxpayers.
UBS in 2008 and now Credit Suisse have been investigated by the US for helpingAmerican citizens resident in the US to hide money in their offshore Swiss accounts.
But even US citizens who live in Switzerland and pay taxes here have been caught by the fallout from the offshore legal battles as banks move to avoid further legal hassles.
At a recent meeting in Geneva of American Citizens Abroad, half of the people in the room, 90 or so, raised their hands when asked if they have had bank accounts closed or been refused bank services recently because of their US nationality.
Greencard holders not spared, new US Supreme Court decision implies
Swiss or other non-US persons who spend more than four months in the US are considered residents and thus liable to US taxes, as are greencard holders.
A 21 February US Supreme Court decision makes it clear that US green card holders who withhold information about bank accounts outside the country risk deportation and face a possible and potentially costly exit tax, tax experts at the Venable Tax Group wrote last week.
Uh-oh, time to eat this for the morning coffee break: Swiss dark chocolate ice cream in its half-empty carton is forming telltale ice crystals, center top
LAUSANNE, SWITZERLAND – If you’ve never considered the instability of your ice cream beyond the fact that it disappears too quickly, you are clearly not an ice cream manufacturer.
We thought we were finished writing about the work of WSL, the Swiss avalanche and snow research insititute, now that the ski season is ending, but Nestlé has brought them back with news that the food multinational is collaborating with the WSL on ice crystals research, using a one-of-a-kind x-ray machine.
Nestlé hopes to uncover the holy grail of ice cream makers: how to keep its texture and structure and therefore quality for longer. Initial research results published 9 March in the journal Soft Matter.
A follow-up study is now underway with the SLF and a research group at the Paul Scherrer Institute in Switzerland, the company notes in a press release.
“The study found that as some ice crystals grow in size they fuse together, creating bigger crystals which cause the texture of the ice cream to coarsen,” says Cédric Dubois, a scientist working on the project for the Vevey-based food company.
“We already know the growth of ice crystals in ice cream is triggered by a number of different factors. If we can identify the main mechanism, we can find better ways to slow it down.”
A too-short slippery slope towards hard and icy or chewy ice cream
Closeup: Ice crytals come from the milk itself: not what mother cow intended
If you store ice cream too long in your freezer it develops ice crystals and, often, an inconsistent quality, with some bits going chewy and others hard. The ice crystals are the water that is in the ice cream itself.
“Ice cream is an inherently unstable substance,” says Hans Joerg Limbach, a scientist at the Nestlé Research Center in Switzerland. “As part of its natural aging process, the ice will separate from the original ingredients such as cream and sugar.”
Limbach says that temperature variations, which are clearly not good for ice cream, can occur at different stages of the product’s transportation and storage.
“For example, most home freezers are set at minus 18C, but the temperature doesn’t remain constant. It fluctuates by a couple of degrees in either direction, which causes parts of the ice cream to melt and then freeze again. The ice cream can sometimes become chewy due to loss of water or air, or icier and harder to scoop.”
WSL and the art of staying cool while studying ice crystals
Enter the WSL, which has the world’s only x-ray tomography machine “that allows long-term observation of tiny particles in a substance at temperatures of zero to minus 20 degrees Celsius,” Nestlé notes in its statement about the partnership. They “monitor the evolution of ice crystals in snow and how this affects its properties: key factors for understanding avalanche formation. Ice crystals affect the properties of ice cream in a similar way, altering its texture and structure as they grow and change shape.”
The WSL is one of the world’s top avalanche and snow research centres. The Davos-based institute, which in 2011 celebrated its 75th anniversary, is a well-known name to Swiss back-country and off-piste sports fans, thanks to its excellent snow condition maps and bulletins. GenevaLunch includes the group’s daily bulletins every Friday during the ski season when we issue a Swiss resorts weekend snow and winter sports report.
Ice cream people in Vevey, with its fine view of the snowy Alps, naturally turned to the WSL with their dilemma. The difficulty until now has been finding a way to examine material at -20C without destroying the sample. “This method is non-invasive and does not disturb the product,” says Dubois. “X-ray technology is normally used at room temperature, but this machine works within exactly the right range for frozen food.”
The new work with the Paul Scherrer Institute is giving the researchers “access to technology that should enable them to examine even higher resolution images of the microscopic particles in ice cream.”
Google on famed Rhaetian Railways line in Switzerland: world's first Street View train shots
ZURICH, SWITZERLAND – What better country than Switzerland to start showing train lines on Google Maps Street View, and what better line than the Unesco World Heritage site Albula/Bernina line on the Rhaetian Railways!
The new views were unveiled Thursday at the Transport Museum in Lucerne.
The rail company and Google worked together in October to show the magnificent scenery and craftsmanship of this very special train line, with Street View images from the 122 km between Thusis in canton Graubuenden Tirano in Italy.
The project is part of a larger cooperative effort between Unesco and Google to make digital visits of World Heritage sites available to people around the world, says Mattias Nutt, director of UNESCO Destination Switzerland.
Mounting the Google Trike onto the Rhaetian Railways train roof
The images were shot by Street View cameras mounted on a “Trike”, a three-wheeled bicycle placed on one of the Rhaetian Railways cars that was specially prepared for the job.
It was put at the head of a special train, allowing the cameras to take a series of panoramic photos of the line and its vistas.
Four of Google’s new Rhaetian Railways Street Views
Hospital waste water should be treated separately
Lausanne, Lake Geneva
LAUSANNE, SWITZERLAND – A startling discovery made by researchers at Vidy, in Lausanne, has led to recommendations that waste water dumped into Lake Geneva be given complementary treatments and that waste water from hospitals be treated separately. The research team from Eawag, the Swiss aquatic research institute in Lausanne, has found that while water treatment programmes reduce the overall number of germs, they appear to create an environment which actually encourages the most resistant bacteria.
The Eawag team set out to learn if the lake water environment is also affected by the increasing animal, including human, resistance to bacteria that is being shown by a number of studies.
A preliminary report was recently published by Frontiers in Microbiology.
About 15 percent of Switzerland’s waste water is dumped into lakes after being treated. The situation in Vidy is far from an isolated case, Eawag says. Once waste water from the Lausanne area is treated, some 90,000m3 a day, it is released into Lake Geneva ab0ut 700 metres from the shore via a pipe that ejects it at a depth of 30m in the Vidy bay.
CHUV, Lausanne
Lausanne has no pharmaceutical industry, the researchers point out, nor does it has related industries, but the 214,000 inhabitants of the region use a number of small medical centres and hospitals and the large university hospitals centre, the Chuv, is linked to the city’s waste water treatment system.
The team studied the resistance to antibiotics in parallel with classic tests, looking at growth rates in the water environment and using sophisticated genetic research tools.
The study created a previously unequaled quantity of data about waste water and lake sediment. It showed that there is a particularly high number of bacteria-resistant germs in the waste water coming from the Chuv.
And while 75 percent of the germs are eliminated through current treatment, the multi-resistant ones that are left are encouraged in their new environment.
Recommendations: further treatment and separate hospital waste water
The Eawag group says there is no reason for alarm, since measurements show the resistant germs tend to remain in the sediment rather than in the water near it, but they are recommending two changes. Additional water treatment is needed in selected stations to neutralize a large number of the resistant germs, and hospital waste water should be treated separately.
World water day is 22 March – whet your appetite for water news
Those of us next to Lake Geneva are among the world's lucky, with easy access to pentiful water supplies
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – Today is World Water Day, declared by the United Nations, and we’re taking a moment out to think about what is historically one of humanity’s greatest problems and where we are with solving it.
In a nutshell, here’s what we “drink”, according to the UN: “There are 7 billion people to feed on the planet today and another 2 billion are expected to join by 2050.
“Statistics say that each of us drinks from 2 to 4 litres of water every day, however most of the water we ‘drink’ is embedded in the food we eat: producing 1 kilo of beef for example consumes 15,000 litres of water while 1 kilo of wheat ’drinks up’ 1,500 litres.”
Geneva, International Rainwater Harvesting Alliance: Before reading about the many problems linked to water where solutions are not in place, look at the wonderful collection of photos from the International Rainwater Harvesting Alliance, from its 2011 global photo contest. The Alliance, based in Geneva, brings together the many groups who are working to ease water shortages by harvesting rainwater, as part of sustainability programmes.
Switzerland: Palestinian refugees in seven camps in Lebanon are receving $2.62 million over two years for a remediation and upgrading of camp water supplies project, a cooperative effort between the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC) and the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA). The project began at the end of December 2011.
It is designed to “ensure healthier lives for Palestine refugees by preventing and controlling diseases by providing access to safe drinking water. In addition, SDC will provide UNRWA with three Swiss technical experts for the project,” according to UNRWA.
West Bank:The UN News Centre 19 March published the results of a survey that show significant problems with access to water for West Bank Palestinians, as Israeli settlers move in nearby. “Palestinians have increasingly lost access to water sources in the West Bank as a result of the takeover of springs by Israeli settlers, who have used threats, intimidation and fences to ensure control of water points close to the settlements, according to a new United Nations survey released today.
“Thirty of the springs were found to be under full settler control, with no Palestinian access to the area, according to the survey carried by the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) over the course of last year.”
Africa, Yemen: Africa’s continual problem of water shortages and frequent droughts is hugely compounded by fighting in conflict zones. The International Displacement Monitoring Centre in Geneva 21 March issued a statement about the situation in Yemen: ”
Switzerland and airlines – Zurich Airport shows strong growth, China Air has Beijing-Geneva project
Airline industry could dip into the red if oil prices continue to rise
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – “it will not take much of a shock to push the industry into the red for 2012,” says Tony Tyler, chief executive of Iata (International Air Transport Association).
The Geneva-based airline industry group Tuesday 20 March announced a downgrade to its growth forecast for 2012, citing the rise in oil prices.
Iata said in a statement that it “expects airlines to turn a global profit of $3.0 billion in 2012 for a 0.5% margin. This $500 million downgrade from the December forecast is primarily driven by a rise in the expected average price of oil to $115 per barrel, up from the previously forecast $99.
Several factors prevented a more significant downgrade: (1) the avoidance of a significant worsening of the Eurozone crisis, (2) improvement in the US economy, (3) cargo market stabilization and (4) slower than expected capacity expansion.”
Estimated profits for 2011 are now expected to be $7.9 billion, up from an earlier forecast of $6.9 billion, largely due toa “much better than expected performance of Chinese carriers.”
Regional imbalances growing
China Air is reported by RTS public broadcasting to have a project in the pipeline for a direct Geneva-Beijing flight, although it is not yet clear when this will happen. There are currently direct flights from Zurich to Beijing but not from Genev. The new route is one more indication of a trend: growing differences between regions,with Europe and Africa while Asia-Pacific booms.
Too big to fail banks should increase capital base more quickly
BERN, SWITZERLAND – The International Monetary Fund’s annual review of the Swiss economy holds no major surprises, but the IMF did warn of the risk of fallout from eurozone crises. It was firm that the country needs to heed its three recommendations, the federal government said in a statement issued Tuesday 20 March:
- In order to counter the financial consequences of demographic developments, the IMF recommends taking measures quickly to reform the pension system; in particular it recommends a “a binding rule that would link the retirement age and pension benefits to life expectancy”
- Given the environment of persistently low interest rates, the IMF experts see a growing risk of a real estate bubble in parts of the real estate market: “Against this backdrop, it considers it advisable to swiftly introduce the countercyclical buffer proposed in the report of the “Financial stability” working group and strengthen the capital requirements for the mortgage lending business. Moreover, the IMF recommends including affordability limits in the macroprudential oversight toolkit”; for future homeowners, this translates as larger downpayments.
- Finally, the big banks should raise high-quality capital more swiftly.
Your home is your castle, but getting the mortgage to buy it might get tougher
The IMF forecast reflects those issued in recent days by the big banks and Seco, the state economy ministry: “the IMF anticipates subdued economic growth due to slower export demand. It sees an upturn in the economic outlook in the second half of the year. This is mainly due to global economic growth picking up and improved competitiveness.”
The overall note for Switzerland was positive, with the IMF finding the cap on the Swiss franc, CHF1.20 to the euro, an “appropriate policy response” although in the medium term it would like to see a freely floating currency.
The pension system will begin to feel pressure at the end of this decade, the IMF warns, and measures should be taken now to improve the situation.
“Under unchanged policies, the increase in aging-related expenditure will already start to bite in earnest around the end of this decade. Consequently, time for reform preparation and implementation is running out quickly. Specifically in the pension system, equalization of the male and female retirement age and pension indexation to inflation only (rather than both inflation and wages) could be considered. Most important, drawing from the experience of other countries, a specific “fiscal rule” that automatically links the retirement age and/or pension benefits to life expectancy could be introduced. Such a rule would reduce the need for repeated and often difficult reform discussions.”
Beware the bubble in housing hot spots
Minimum affordability ratios should be more widely used to reduce risk in the housing market, the IMF says.
“As monetary conditions loosened in 2008, housing price growth accelerated and there are signs of overheating in some ‘hot spots’ and market segments, as well as evidence of loose mortgage lending policies. Since monetary conditions are unlikely to be tightened for some time, the risk that a bubble may form is intensifying. Domestically-oriented banks (and to a more limited extent, the insurance sector) are exposed to the domestic real estate market through both credit and interest rate risk. The latter is building up as longer-term mortgages at low fixed interest rates are becoming more widespread.”
New Bombardier double-decker trains require larger shed
ZURICH, SWITZERLAND – The first shovel of dirt was lifted 16 March for the new Herdern train storage shed in Zurich, a visible sign of how growing rail traffic is affecting Switzerland. The CFF rail company today carries 40 percent more passengers than in 2004 and one of the solutions to handle the continual growth in traffic was to order bigger trains in 2010.
The company ordered 59 new Bombardier double-decker trains, which cost CHF1.9 billion, that will begin linking French- and German-speaking Switzerland via main stations in 2014. The trains can carry 1,200 passengers each and they are 400 metres long each, necessitating the new shed, which will be the third longest building in Zurich.
The layout of the interior of the trains is currently under discussion following a decision last week by a high court to accept some of the complaints from two groups about handicapped persons’ access, notably concerning the level of the entrance to the trains and the restaurant accommodation.
The court ruled, however, that their demand for an elevator to the upstairs restaurant was a “disproportionate response” to the problem of inadequate access to good services.
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – Geneva’s financial sector remains a significant part of the canton’s economy, responsible for 20 percent of the gross domestic product (GDP), but in 2007 that figure was 25 percent, and 2011 shows new slippage. Ocstat, the canton’s statistical office, Monday 19 March said that while financial business rose by 0.9 percent in the first quarter of 2011, it then fell each quarter, down by 1.6 percent, 0.4 percent and 0.7 percent.
Overall, the Geneva economy showed growth in 2011, albeit slow and mainly thanks to be good first quarter, with the fourth quarter up 0.3 percent compared to previous quarters’ increases of 0.4 and 0.2 percent.
Ocstat published provisional figures 16 March. The final figures will be released in September 2012.
