Lausanne, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Ethiopia’s Urgessa Weyessa has won the Lausanne marathon in 2h 21’00, and beat his countryman Girma Woyasa by 1’09. Weyessa, 26, ran his first marathon ever Sunday 25 October. He is the cousin of seven-times Lausanne winner Tesfaye Eticha. Lucien Epiney from canton Valais came in third with 2h 33’14.
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Voters in canton Vaud decide Sunday 27 September if they want to create a single canton-wide police force that combines the existing cantonal police and the various municipal forces. Lausanne’s voters will also decide where to put two new stadiums that the city wants to build.
On the same day in Geneva, voters will decide yet again on smoking in public places, and they will vote on whether or not to lower taxes. Also on the ballot: a change in the annual automobile fee. The city wants to penalize carbon dioxide-emitting passenger cars.
Details:
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Sunday 20 September is a national holiday in Switzerland, Jeûne Fédéral, which is also honoured Monday 21 September in cantons Vaud, Neuchatel, and parts of Jura, where shops will be closed.
Pinot Noir grapes, basking in the sun in early September, Valais
Two weeks of sunshine will make all the difference: Valais grapes 5 September
Geneva/Lausanne, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - The grape harvest of 2009 has wine producers in Switzerland smiling, even though grape picking begins in earnest in Valais, the early starter and the largest wine-producing canton, only this weekend. It has been an excellent year for growers, comparable to 2005, one of the best years on record, say growers: adequate rain at just the right times and generally dry conditions in most of the country’s grapegrowing regions, with the harvest size comparable to last year’s.
Didier Burkhalter, Neuchatel, new Swiss cabinet member
Bern, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - Didier Burkhalter, 49, a Radical party (centre-right) politician from Neuchatel, was elected by the Swiss parliament to the country’s seven-member Federal Council (cabinet) with 129 votes against 106 for the other candidate, Urs Schwaller, PDC (also centre), on the fourth round of voting. He succeeds Pascal Couchepin, from canton Valais, who is retiring 1 November. Burkhalter’s election means his party will retain its seat on the council and the balance remains unchanged in the power-sharing Swiss government. The language balance remains intact as well, with one French-speaking canton representative replaced by another.
Details: Swissinfo and on radio, WRS. Swiss French media: Le Temps, Tribune de Geneve/24 Heures, TSR
Background story, GenevaLunch
Swiss households spend more money
Neuchatel, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – The Swiss consumer price index was up slightly by 0.1 percent in August, compared to July, bringing the overall index to 103.1 (100 = December 2005), according to Swiss Statistics. This is still down 0.8 percent year on year, but the decline has slowed from July when the annual decline was -1.2 percent.
Title: Guggenmusik festival
Location: Neuchatel
Link out: Click here
Description: Guggenmusick, or groups of up to 40 musicians playing drums and brass will parade dressed in costumes through the streets of Neuchatel.
Start Date: 25 Sep 2009
End Date: 27 Sep 2009
Home, sweet (green?) home, Carouge, Geneva
Bern, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Homeowners grabbed at the chance to get energy certificates at a bargain rate, the Swiss Federal Office of Energy (SFOE) says, with 15,000 energy certificates sold in only three weeks following the announcement that a certificate and annexed expert report would cost only CHF200 instead of the usual CHF1,200. The cantonal building energy certificate (CECB) establishes the energy efficiency of a building and is useful as a guide to current and future energy use.
Lausanne 2009 - down to Earth and back to the books soon
Bern, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Canton Bern has decided to coordinate school vacations so they will in future be the same for children in German-speaking and French-speaking communes: this week the German-speakers started back to school and next week the French-speakers return. The decision about school holidays has until now been the perogative of the communes, rather than the canton. The cantonal education minister says the request for change comes from parents, who sometimes have children in more than one commune and who can’t coordinate family vacations.
That still leaves the problem of coordinating two-canton vacations for families with children in Geneva and Vaud, for example, particularly if they have children in private schools, where residence is less of an issue but cantonal public school calendars are sometimes observed.
Corina Casanova, Swiss chancellor
Lucerne welcomes overseas Swiss for the weekend
Geneva and Lucerne, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – The Swiss federal chancellor, Corina Casanova, told delegates to the annual meeting of the Swiss Abroad Organization in Lucerne that they will all be able to vote electronically by 2015, using a system that will gradually be extended to cover voters registered in all cantons. Switzerland thus becomes a pioneer, with Estonia, of e-voting outside the country. Swiss overseas citizens registered in Geneva will be the first to test the new system, in November 2009: Geneva, along with Neuchatel and Zurich, have been testing e-voting since 2003.
A nice place to do business, Lake Geneva area
Bern, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – The Greater Geneva-Bern Area (GGBA) economic development agency was launched in Bern yesterday 2 July in an effort to sell the economic advantages of doing business in the region in a concerted and coordinated way. The GGBA joins the separate development agencies of Bern with those of Vaud-Valais-Neuchatel and the existing cooperation between Geneva and canton Fribourg.
La Chaux-de-Fonds, Neuchatel (GenevaLunch) – The Swiss watchmaking centres of La Chaux-de-Fonds/Le Locle was the scene of a celebrations in the street Saturday night after the news was announced that theit is one of 11 new Unesco World Heritage cultural sites. Italy’s Dolomites in the north of the country, near Switzerland, were named one of two new natural sites, and, for only the second time, a site was remove from the list. Germany’s Dresden Elbe Valley has lost its title because of a four-lane highway being built through the centre of the site.
The description of La Chaux-de-Fonds, from the Unesco list:
Solar Impulse computer model in flight (image: EPFL)
Duebendorf, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – “Yesterday, it was a dream. Today, it is an airplane – tomorrow it will be an ambassador of renewable energies”, Bertrand Piccard told journalists gathered Friday 26 June for the unveiling of his futuristic fuel-free airplane Solar Impulse.
Piccard is the head of a project to build and fly a plane that uses only the sun’s energy to fly non-stop around the world.
Never too old to rock at Fete de la Musique in Geneva - Photo Jared Bloch
Lake Geneva region, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - The Geneva edition of the fête de la musique attracted 200,000 visitors this past weekend, 19-21 June, organizers said.
Rain on Friday night dampened the festivities a bit, and it was windy and cold on Saturday. But 500 official concerts and 2,000-3,000 musicians around town and the surrounding communes ensured something for every taste, from hip-hop to classical, reports Le Temps (Fre).
Swiss windmill, Valais
Morges, Vaud and Zurich, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Romande Energie, which serves electricity to much of French-speaking Switzerland and ewz, the energy company of the city of Zurich, are joining force to create a consortium that will build the country’s largest wind generating station if the project is approved. The two groups presented their plans Wednesday morning 17 June, for a project to build windmills in three Vaud villages in the Jura, Provence, Romairon, Fantanezier and the village of Val-de-Travers in canton Neuchatel.
© 2007 Vivre sans Fumer
Neuchatel, Switzerland (24 heures, Fre) – Smokers have invaded the streets outside bars and restaurants since the canton of Neuchatel banned smoking in all public places 1 April 2009. Smokers are unhappy. Some restaurant-owners too, reports 24 heures, although owners the newspaper spoke to say their complaints are tempered by the realization that some clients now stay longer after their meal, or come with the family. Bars and discotheques generally have nothing nice to say about the new law, reports 24 heures, and their neighbours complain that customers go onto the street to smoke, leave cigarette butts lying around and annoy the neighbours at night.
Hans Erni, age 100, in front of earlier self-portrait
Lucerne, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Articulate, still handsome, far more interested in debating the state of the world than in basking in the recognition that has at last come to him: this is Hans Erni at the ripe age of 100. Visitors tend to walk up to him, awestruck by his age, and walk away from him having forgotten his age because he gives them too many other things to think about.
A career spanning 80 years, the globe – with peace an enduring theme
Erni is one of Switzerland’s finest 20th (and 21st) century artists, but he has only relatively recently been acknowledged as fully as he deserves. His career, spanning nearly 80 years, was celebrated in February with a major retrospective in Martigny at the Gianadda Foundation. The Kunstmuseum in Lucerne 24 May opened the first public museum showing of his work since 1979 with a collection that traces the development of the artist.
Erni was honoured in Geneva Saturday 6 June: his most recent project, a 60-metre peace fresco at the entrance to the United Nations building, the Palais des Nations, was unveiled at an outdoor ceremony open to the public. The year 2009 is a series of such events, throughout Switzerland – and Erni finds the energy to travel and participate in several of them.
Politics took their toll
It is not that Erni is an unknown artist: quite the opposite. He has a large popular following, his work is housed in the Hans Erni museum in Lucerne (an extension of the country’s most popular museum, the Transportation Museum) since 1979, and for decades he has been the guest of governments around the world.
Lake Geneva region, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - The long Pentecost/Whit weekend was marred by a number of deadly accidents in the area. In Neuchatel a 33-year-old Swiss woman drowned in Lake Neuchatel near Colombier 31 May, apparently after getting cramps while swimming. A 52-year-old man from Bex died when his glider crashed, for reasons that are not yet clear, near Gryon. He had left the airfield at Bex shortly before and was heading for the Vaud Alps.
Biel/Bienne, Jura, Switzerland (TSR, Fre) – Canton Jura will leave the Dews (Western Switzerland Economic Development) group at the end of 2009 to join the two Basel cantons (Basel State, Basel City) for economic promotion. The canton, in a press release, expressed its disappointment at the results of its collaboration with Vaud, Valais and Neuchatel. Dews will in any event be undergoing a change, enlarging to cover the rest of French-speaking Switzerland, including Bern, Fribourg and Geneva before the end of 2009.
Electric bike manufacturers exhibit products, Neuchatel
Neuchatel, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - Switzerland is setting a successful example for its “soft mobility” meeting zones, with more than 500 in cities and towns across the country, according to Matthieu Chenal, spokesperson for SwissEnergie, which is co-hosting with the city of Neuchatel the second National Mobility Fair, 15-16 May. Chenal, in a lengthy interview with Le Temps, talks about objections to and ultimate success of the zones.
The fair brings together experts in the field of environmentally-friendly transport and exhibitors who display a range of eco-mobility products. A highlight will be the Saturday exhibition of low-fuel use vehicles. The fair also brings together companies and communes in an effort to encourage businesses to be involved in finding eco-friendly solutions for the company’s but also its employees’ transport needs.
This is the third and last of three articles that together make up the English version of a feature published 2 April 2009 by Swiss news weekly L’Hebdo magazine on expatriates in the Lake Geneva region. GenevaLunch, a partner of l’Hebdo brings you the English version.
French version © 2009 l’Hebdo
English version © 2009 GenevaLunch (may not be reproduced in part or whole without written permission.)
[Part 3, continued] By Julie Zaugg and Mehdi Atmani
How did Switzerland become a nation of expats?
French-speaking Switzerland has an attractive infrastructure, with an international airport at the edge of Geneve, efficient public transport, good hospitals and top universities that are at the front lines of research and serve as conduits for interesting technology transfers,” says Blaise Matthey, director of the Fédération des entreprise romandes (French-speaking business federation).
Vaud, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - The Vaud parliament’s upper house (cantonal council) has submitted to the ruling Grand Conseil its new law that will prohibit indoor smoking in public places starting 1 September 2009, reports the Tribune de Geneve. The ban, approved by voters 30 November 2008, covers administrative offices, prisons, schools, museums, theatres, cinemas, public transport, shopping malls, tents, and public buildings.
Neuchatel, Switzerland (20 Minutes, Fre) – The number 5 tram between the Neuchatel and Boudry ran off its tracks about 08:30 Wednesday morning in the centre of the city, partially blocking one of the city’s main roads.
Title: Hike through the Vieille-Thielle natural reserve park
Location: Vieille-Thielle, NE
Link out: Click here
Description: A 5-km easy hike through the Vieille-Thielle natural reserve near Cressier in Canton Neuchatel.
Date: 04 Apr 2009
Neuchatel, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Valérie Garbani, Neuchatel’s colourful mayor whose leftist politics as well as sometimes embattled personal life have drawn media attention, has resigned, efffective September 2009. Her decision is for personal reasons, a press release from the city council says, and neither the council nor Garbani will comment further, it notes.
Related: TSR, Fre
Background stories:
- “Neuchatel councilor fined for abusing police,” GenevaLunch, 13 August 2008
- “Neuchatel councilor back in news for home uproar,” GenevaLunch, 16 June 2008
Title: Urban hike: Chocolate Village
Location: Neuchatel
Link out: Click here
Description: A guided urban hike through the old Suchard factory, in the “quartier de Serriers” in Neuchatel.
Date: 07 Mar 2009
Food supplements? Medicine?
Neuchatel, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Switzerland saw a 75% increase during 2008 in the number of potentially illegal medicines reported by Swiss customs to Swissmedic, the body which authorizes and supervises therapeutic products. Eighty-seven percent of the products reviewed were destroyed after they were analyzed because they did not conform to Swiss law, but Swissmedic points out that in half the samples tested, the products did not contain what they claimed.
Neuchatel, Switzerland (Le Temps, Fre) – Le Temps today, 11 February, carries a lengthy article about the work of Patrick Robinson, British-Swiss father of two who is pushing for more shared custody by parents in divorce cases, in French-speaking Switzerland. The law has allowed shared custody since 2000 but it is granted in only 34% of cases.
Neuchatel, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – A child in Switzerland costs his or her parents CHF500-1,100 a month in direct costs, although the cost of an only child rises to CHF1,819. Mothers spend about 60 hours a week on the family and domestic chores, fathers about 32 hours a week.
Neuchatel, Switzerland (20 Minutes, Fre) – A rare phenomenon, a mini-tornado spinning over the centre of Lake Neuchatel, was captured by a photographer Tuesday evening. The event occurs once every two years or so in Switzerland. The phenomenon is essentially the same as for a land tornado, but with a weaker force and the funnel disappears as it nears land.
