A Swiss rubbish shed
Bern, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - The Swiss may have a reputation for being among the world’s tidiest people, but the Federal Environment Department argues there is room for improvement.
It has just completed the first-ever calculation of how much it costs to clean up the country’s litter and the tally is CHF200 million, of which CHF50m is for rubbish left on public transport vehicles and the rest for rubbish left in public areas.
The cost comes to nearly CHF30 a person per year to sweep up cigarette butts, beverage and food containers and wrappers, which make up the bulk of the mess.
Taxes and public transport charges generally cover the cost, but the government once a year since 2008 has been holding a roundtable discussion to find creative solutions. It invites communes, cantons, manufacturers and industries such as the restaurant and food store businesses to take part. This year’s session will have not only precise figures to work with but clearly defined problem areas pinpointed, such as train station environs and public parks.
Swiss Alpine bee (photo ©2011 Ellen Wallace)
Bern, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – The Swiss love their bees, to the point where there is a waiting list to rent one through a project to help the bees survive a global bee disease problem whose origins remain murky.
Swiss Rentabee is a project was started by Thomas Eberhard three years ago. “After all the bad news about bees dying all over the world, I realized that there are many people who would like to help, who would like to do something for the bees. Bees are well-liked animals, making a well-liked product! I also wanted to motivate beekeepers and show them that they are not alone in their struggle against the bee diseases.”
Eberhard’s interest was also personal and rentabee.ch is part of a non-profit association. ‘I am a bee-keeper myself, my bees fly in the middle of the city of Bern.”
World’s bee population continues to fall
The death of bees has been news for the past five years. ABC News in the US a year ago wrote:
“In 2009 almost 29 percent of the bee colonies in the United States collapsed, say scientists who surveyed commercial beekeepers and brokers. That’s slightly less than the 36 percent loss in 2008 and the 32 percent counted in 2007, but an informal survey just finished suggests that the die-off continues.”
The BBC in 2010 reported that Manx bees, queens from the Isle of Man, could be the secret to keep Britain’s bee population, down 15 percent in the previous two years, from being decimated in the face of the little-understood problem.
“The bloodsucking Varroa virus and other infections have been blamed for the decline, which has infiltrated many colonies across the world,” the BBC writes in one report, while quoting experts in another who blame changing agricultural practices.
How Swiss Rentabee works
Photo, ©2011 Swissmilk
Bern, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – The Swiss have outdone themselves as cheese-eaters, climbing from their world leader position in 2009, when consumption was a record-breaking 21.4 kilos per inhabitant, to 21.55 in 2010.
The new figures, published by Swissmilk, show the Swiss eating more fresh cheese in particular, but also semi-hard and very hard cheese.
The news is not all good for Swiss cheesemakers, with the total increase of 170 grams including an increase of 300 grams of imported cheese.
Foreign cheeses account for 27.2 percent of the market in Switzerland.
Mozzarella remains the most popular cheese by far, followed by Gruyere, but Appenzeller and Emmental are gaining in popularity.
Source: Swissmilk 2011
Seat of Swiss federal government in Bern
Bern, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – The neutral Swiss had a very rare glimpse of a foreign military power on home territory Monday 21 March, as 20 British military vehicles, escorted by the Swiss army, crossed the country from Basel to Chiasso in canton Ticino.
The passage, details and the path of which were not divulged by the federal government, would only have appeared remarkable to those who spotted the soldiers because of the type and markings of the vehicles: Swiss military vehicles and soldiers from the citizen militia are a common sight in Switzerland.
The British government requested the right of passage of aeronautic equipment as part of its commitment to prevent the Qaddafi regime in Libya from using force against the civilian population there.
Geneva airport
Zurich, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - Hainan Airlines, which will begin operating non-stop flights between Zurich and Beijing 31 May, is opening sales in Zurich 1 May with Aviareps handling bookings and service for the privately owned Chinese company.
Hainan Air will initially offer three flights a week, but this is scheduled to increase if the demand is strong enough.
Geneva to Amsterdam seats will increase by 14 percent on KLM this summer and Basel will have Swiss flights to Nice starting 1 July for an introductory fare of CHF99. Swiss is also adding 7 flights a week to Rome’s Fiumicino Airport from Basel 27 March, in addition to its current four from Zurich.
Zurich, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Swiss was the best-performing of Lufthansa Group’s carriers in 2010, Air Transport World reports 21 March. The airline group 17 March published its annual report for 2010, showing Swiss in a much stronger position than in 2009.
It carried 14 million passengers, the highest number in its history and had a load capacity of 82.4, above the industry average: Europe averaged 79. in 2010 and North America 82.2, according to Iata (industry association) figures.
Financially, Swiss had profits of of €298 million, up from €93m in 2009. Revenues rose 25 percent to €3.46 billion. The figures exclude Edelweiss.
The company has increased traffic by about 50 percent a year for the past five years, since its partnership with Lufthansa, and it has hired 1,000 new staff.
The strong 2010 performance “is due largely to effective cost management, but also to strong demand and the upswing in intercontinental and freight business, as well as strong sales in the domestic Swiss market”, the company said in a message to shareholders.
The Swiss economy outperformed Europe in 2010.
Alessia and Livia Schepp, missing Swiss twins, in the summer of 2010
Update 16:05 Geneva and Lausanne, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - Family, friends and those who have been involved in the search for missing twins Alessia and Livia Schepp gathered at the Pierrette beach in Saint Sulpice, near Lausanne, at 15:00 Wednesday 23 February for an hour-long solidarity walk.
The missing girls’ mother, Irina, met briefly with the 100 or so people who gathered, to thank them for their support and to accept white flowers from two little girls, before she returned to her apartment in tears (photos: 20 Minutes).
Mother describes the girls’ contrasting personalities
She granted an interview to Italian newspaper Corriere della sera, which appeared Tuesday evening. She told the journalist that she “absolutely must find” the girls, that this has now become her life. She talked about sleeping little and waking up to the pain every day, taking painkillers and sleeping pills.
“Where are my children? There is such wickedness, such cruelty in what Matthias did that I still cannot believe it, Irina says.
Coach and co-owner of the Geneva Servette Hockey Club, Chris McSorley
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - Christophe Stucki joined the Geneva-Servette Hockey Club Monday 14 February as the company’s new general director, with responsibility for the staff, monitoring revenue and developing game operations, according to Chris McSorley, one of the club’s two owners.
The move by club President Hugh Quennec comes shortly after the team hit a rough spot in the 2010-2011 season, with several crippling injuries and the loss of top player Thomas Déruns in order to keep the club’s finances healthy.
The team has slipped slightly in Swiss A league club rankings to 6 out of 12 teams, but it has made it to the playoffs for the eighth time in nine years. McSorley says that while he expected this, he is proud of the club’s efforts despite what he calls “an abnormal amount of injuries”.
The team has won 17 of 46 matches this season.
Stucki’s addition will not deplete the hockey team budget, which is separate from that for administration. It’s the latest in a step-by-step effort to professionalize the entire operation, says McSorley, moving beyond previous director Philippe Kneubuehler, who left in 2009 after four years and Louis Christoffel, former director.
“Our ambition is to be one of the biggest, best-run sports franchises in Europe,” McSorley says, noted “for the quality of the administration and the players on the ice.”
Stucki’s background is in finance, most recently in the jewelry industry, and includes a stint as a senior auditor for PriceWaterhouseCooper. He was head of finance and administration for Cartier Joaillerie, a branch of the Geneva Richemont group, until 2008, and he has worked as an independent consultant since then.
“We’re not only the owners, but it’s an owner-managed company,” says McSorley of his role and that of Quennec, his partner. “Hugh is involved as a poliltician, in the renovation project at Les Vernets, the new arena project and monitoring the programme of the foundation. I still have my hockey club responsibilities. I’m both manager and coach, two fulltime jobs in one.”
Le Temps and NZZ will be publishing US cables on Switzerland, from WikiLeaks
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Swiss newspapers Le Temps (registration required) and NZZ will publish, in French and in German starting next week, selected cables from the 5,814 that WikiLeaks collected. The two negotiated an agreement to receive the entire collection and several journalists from the two publications are meeting this weekend to determine which to publish.
The cables cover the period from 1978 to 28 February 2010.
Le Temps explains its decision: “It normally takes several decades for the reality, on which we want to shed some light, to surface.
More money found in Italian mailboxes as searches continue in three countries
Mother appeals on Swiss television to thank the public
Click on images to view larger
Alessia and Livia Schepp, photos taken last summer - the twins turned 6 in October
Lausanne and Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Missing twins Alessia and Livia Schepp were last seen for certain on the ferry that took them to Corsica from Marseille, police in canton Vaud said at an evening press conference Wednesday 9 February.
French police have now confirmed to their Swiss colleagues that several people saw the children in a play area on the boat and the woman in the adjoining cabin heard children crying during the night. A man who saw the father leave the boat with two small girls was able to positively identify the father, but not the children.
Reports that the girls were later sighted in Italy have not been confirmed, however, they insist, referring in particular to the owner of a bar in Italy who has come forward as a witness. Interviews with witnesses are taped and reviewed by police involved in the investigation. The police have received a large number of calls from potential witnesses, they say, all of which are being followed up.
Two more envelopes containing money, mailed by the girls’ father to his wife, have been found in mailboxes near the Cerignola train station, one containing €950 and the other €550.
Alessia and Livia Schepp, missing Swiss twins, in the summer of 2010
Three Italian police officers from a mobile unit in Bari, Italy, visited the Vaud police headquarters in Lausanne Wednesday to exchange information “useful to our investigations” said Jean-Christophe Sauterel, head of Vaud police communications, but they declined to provide further information in order not to prejudice the investigation.
New photos of the girls were also distributed to the media.
Searches, including the use of bloodhounds continues in three countries: Switzerland, Italy and France.
The mother of the girls, Irina Lucidi, has agreed to appear, live, on Swiss public television TSR Wednesday evening at 19:30.
Police at the Vaud head office were surprised to hear she would be appearing live, shortly before the TSR programme, but Sauterel told GenevaLunch that the family is free to talk to media and others: it’s important to remember that this is not a criminal investigation.
The relations between the family and Vaud police are excellent, “and in an extremely difficult context. And in an emotionally charged situation,” says Sauterel. Nothing happens fast enough for them, of course, he points out, and yet they understand, but it means continual highs and lows as information comes in.
“The family has been very lucky to have Irina’s brother, Valerio Lucidi, as a buffer between the immediate family” and the world’s media, who have followed the story closely, he notes. “He’s a doctor and he’s got strong shoulders – they are very lucky to have him there.”
Related stories on GenevaLunch
Livia and Livia Schepp, not identical twins
Witness makes unconfirmed report girls seen in Italy day father died
Update 13:25 Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - French authorities say Wednesday morning 9 February that missing Swiss twins Alessia and Livia Schepp were seen on the ferry to Corsica 31 January. The information has not yet been confirmed by Vaud police, who are leading the three-country investigation, but it appears the search for the girls may now intensify in and around Corsica.
An Italian witness has come forward to say she saw the father and his daughters in Cerignola, the town where the father committed suicide, the day of his death. Italian newspapers carry an interview with a bar/cafe owner in the town who says the father asked her if his daughters could use the toilets. Video camera footage reportedly shows him, but not the girls, although she says they, too, were there. If police accept her as a credible witness, it would be the first time they were seen in Italy.
French public defender Jacques Dallest told a Wednesday morning press conference in Marseille that witnesses have now come forth who say they heard and saw the girls: the woman with the cabin next door to the trio heard them in their room and later saw the girls in the ferry’s play area. She has positively identified one of them.
The person who saw them Tuesday morning, getting off the ferry, has been identified as an elderly man who couldn’t see the girls clearly, but who saw a man and two children.
Vaud police, at a Tuesday evening press conference, stated that the father has never been been violent, correcting information that has appeared in some media reports. “There wasn’t any reason to think the lives of his daughters were at risk,” before the girls disappeared, said Jean-Christophe Sauterel, head of press and communications for the Vaud Cantonal Police.
The girls’ uncle, who has been talking to media from outside the mother’s home in St Sulpice, has said he will no longer be available to the press.
Reminder, girls’ appearance: when last seen in St Sulpice the two blond six-year-olds, who wear titanium-rimmed glasses, orange and bordeaux were dressed as follows: Alessia was in blue jeans, with a striped T-shirt and white jacket, Livia had a purple ski jacket and was wearing pink and white sports shoes.
click on image to view larger: father and daughters were last seen together Monday 31 January and police are seeking more recent sightings: police number +41 21 644 8231
Update 15:15 Geneva / Lausanne, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Police in canton Vaud who are leading the investigation into the disappearance of two six-year-olds, missing for a week, Tuesday provided details of the massive manhunt that is on in Switzerland as well as France and Italy, to find the children.
They issued a correction to their Monday report, saying it is now known that the father himself stamped a ticket to take a ferry to Corsica from Marseille Monday evening 31 January, but there is no confirmation that the girls, Alessia and Livia Schepp, were seen together at a travel agency in Marseille one week ago. It is not known if the father actually took the ferry.
The last time the girls were seen alive, with certainty, was Sunday 30 January at 13:00, when they were seen near their father’s place in St Sulpice.
The father, Matthias Schepp, committed suicide Thursday 3 February.
Swiss boats, lake, rivers, roads, gas stations have provided no leads
Canton Vaud police now have 40 officers investigating the girls’ disappearance. They have searched the homes, inside and out, three times, of both parents, who were living apart in Saint Sulpice, near Lausanne. Eighty households in 60 buildings in the area have been interviewed. Four boats docked in Morges and Vidy, which belong to Philip Morris, Matthias Schepp’s employer and to which he could have had access, have been searched with a finetooth comb, as have been ports in the area.
All service stations between St Sulpice and Geneva have been contacted.
Bern, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – In the third such incident in two years, a group of Swiss students have been arrested for violence while on a school trip abroad. Four young men, age 18, were arrested by police in Berlin, Germany after knocking down a couple and stealing money and a cell phone from them.
Police have not provided the name of their school in Bern.
The incident, which left the couple with minor injuries, took place Friday morning 4 February in the Prenzlauer Berg neighbourhood in Berlin. The 38-year-old man was thrown to the ground and the 27-year-old woman with him also fell.
Similar incidents occured in Munich in 2009 and in Rome in 2010.
International sports, skiing
Swiss ski star Didier Cuche
Kitzbuehel, Austria (GenevaLunch)- Didier Cuche dominated the field to win his fourth title on the famed Streif run at Kitzbuehel, 22 January. It was also the fourth successive victory for Swiss skiers. Bode Miller looked the likely winner until Cuche produced a stunning run to send the American back into second place by almost a second. The French skier Adrien Théaux took third place to push the Austrians off the podium.
Cuche, age 37, equalled the record of Austrian legend Franz Klammer, who won four times in the 1970s, and also broke the record for the oldest winner of a World Cup event. The skier from Neuchatel has not yet announced when, and if, he will retire.
Maria Riesch won the women’s downhill at Cortina in Italy. Her friend and rival Lindsey Vonn came in third after almost crashing. It was the 14th successive downhill won by the pair, with nine for the American and five for the German.
Links to other site: TSR
(Federer and chocolate balls video) Zurich, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Rising cocoa bean prices and glum consumers in 2008 and 2009 have plagued the chocolate industry in recent months, forcing prices up and profits down. Chocolate-makers Lindt & Spruengli near Zurich, are cheering a return to the black, however, with sales figures released Tuesday 18 January.
Sales were up 7.3 percent in local currencies, to CHF2.58 billion, an increase that the company says is well above industry-wide improvements. The company saw double-digit growth in its key North American market in 2010, with direct exports from Switzerland performing very strongly despite the Swiss franc’s 5 percent appreciation against the dollar in the past 12 months.
Lindt & Spruengli, which owns Lindt, Ghirardelli and Caffarel brands, invested heavily in manufacturing in 2010, notably in the US, where the company says it “is now in the position to execute every individual production step on-site, from processing the cocoa beans right through to the finished product. This enables currency risks to be significantly minimized and transportation costs optimized.”
The company doesn’t mention the impact on sales of its airport check-in videos featuring Roger Federer (Ed. note: if you enjoy this one, also check out the more tennis-oriented “Who is Roger Federer’s sweetest fan?”)
Finished video: The making of Federer and “Airport” (where he mentions that he lives near the factory, often smells the chocolate and likes to drop in to pick up a bit of chocolate)
Bern, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Fifteen percent of Swiss citizens authorized to vote electronically took up the option in the 28 November federal, cantonal and communal votes. Electronic voting is gradually becoming more widely available but on a long-term test basis, with 12 cantons now making it available to at least some of their voters. The total number of people who can vote electronically, including several voter abroad, is now 193,236.
Swiss citizens living abroad can vote electronically only if their canton offers the option and they live in a country with which Switzerland has a treaty to allow encryption, one of the 45 nations that are part of the Wassenaar Arrangement.
The Wassenaar Arrangement describes its role as “promoting transparency and greater responsibility in transfers of conventional arms and dual-use goods and technologies, thus preventing destabilizing accumulations.”
Crime rate low, but insecurity an issue; de-centralization carries day on higher taxes for wealthy: voters strongly refuse initiative
Geneva rejects longer shopping hours, Vaud town says yes to Lake Geneva public access
Update 2, 21:10 Bern, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - Swiss media and political parties are scrambling Sunday evening 28 November to analyze the significance of a solid majority of voters approving the right-wing UDC (SVP, Swiss People’s Party) popular initiative to automatically expel foreigners found guilty of serious crimes. Fifty-two percent of voters went to the polls and approved the foreign criminals initiative by 52.9 percent. Not a single canton accepted parliament’s alternative counter-initiative. French-speaking cantons, with the exception of bilingual but French-majority Valais , rejected the UDC proposal, but all German-speaking and German-majority cantons voted for it except the city of Basel.
Voters also resoundingly rejected a Socialist popular “fair taxes” initiative that would have obliged some cantons with low taxes for wealthy people to raise their tax rates. It failed by 58.5 percent.
The Federal Justice and Police Department Sunday evening issued a notice that the government will set up a working group before the Christmas break to begin looking at how the foreign criminals vote can be implemented. In its statement it noted that:
“The working group will have the task of examining open questions and drafting a proposal as to how the initiative can be implemented, which the FDJP can subsequently put to the Federal Council. Ultimately it will fall to parliament to decide how the initiative is to be implemented in the form of a federal act. The Federal Council will also be counting on the sponsors of the initiative to keep the pledge they made before the vote to contribute constructively to producing a solution that is compatible with the constitution and international law.”
Sunday and late shopping in Geneva fails while La Tour-de-Peilz says yes to public lakefront
Voters also settled a number of cantonal and communal issues. In the Lake Geneva region: Geneva voters rejected later shopping hours while in canton Vaud the town of La Tour-de-Peilz voted in favour of making the Lake Geneva waterfront accessible to the public.
What the foreign criminals vote means
Cecile Brossard's conviction for the murder of banker Edouard Stern drew packs of journalists in 2008. She has now been sent back to France.
Bern, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – The Swiss go to the polls once again Sunday 28 November to vote on two popular initiatives, one to deport foreigners who commit crimes, where voters are given three options.
The second federal item on the ballot proposes to reduce the differences among Swiss cantons in their tax rates on large fortunes by calling for a Swiss-wide minimum tax rate and abolishing “degressive” tax rates. This calls for ending the practice, which some cantons have had in the past, of reducing the tax rate in proportion to the size of the fortune. Bern is opposed to the proposal, noting that in any event degressive tax rates have been outlawed in Switzerland since 2007.
In addition, some Swiss are voting on cantonal and communal issues.
Three choices for expelling foreigners or leaving the law as it stands
The voting item that has received the most attention from outside Switzerland is a proposal to automatically expel foreigners for some crimes. Recent polls, 10 days before the vote, have shown a majority of Swiss favouring the UDC proposal and a majority against the counter-initiative proposed by the government, with little movement in opinions.
The right-wing UDC party initiated the referendum on sending home foreigners who commit crimes by getting the necessary 100,000 signatures on their proposal. Swiss citizens vote three to four times a year on a number of referendums, some of which are proposed by the government while others are known as popular initiatives and are proposed by groups of interested citizens.
The UDC motion has been hotly debated, but not the fact, confirmed by the government, that the proportion of foreigners who commit serious crimes is well above the 21.7 percent of the Swiss population. Switzerland, like many other governments, already expels foreign criminals and charges them not to return for set periods of time, usually within the framework of agreements with other countries.
Cecile Brossard is a case in point: a French woman famously sentenced to prison in Geneva for murdering banking scion Edouard Stern, she was released early in October 2010 on good behaviour after serving part of her sentence. She was sent back to France with an order not to set foot on Swiss soil for 10 years.
The UDC text
Munich, Germany (GenevaLunch) - Three Zurich youths who were in Munich, Germany on a school trip in July 2010 were handed sentences Monday 22 November, from 2 years 7 months to 7 years, on various charges ranging from assault to attempted murder. They were sentenced for attacking five men in Munich 1 July while they were on a school trip to Germany. One of them later explained their actions by saying they were looking for a “little fun”, according to swissinfo. Few details about the trial have been made public because the youths are minors.
Real estate and recovery in share prices account for improvement
Zurich, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Per capita net worth for Swiss households rose to about CHF333,000 in 2009, up from CHF316,000.
Home values rose in Switzerland in 2010
Housing prices and a recovery in share prices have brought Swiss household income back up to the level of 2007, before the 2008 global economic crisis, figures published Friday 19 November by the Swiss National Bank show. Financial assets held by households grew 8.7 percent in 2009, up CHF151 billion to CHF1,883 billion.
“Movements in financial assets were strongly influenced by rising stock market prices: roughly one-third of the price losses suffered in 2008 was recouped in 2009 on stock markets in Switzerland and abroad,” the central bank notes in a statement. The stock market improvement resulted in the value of household shares rising by CHF43 billion to CHF212b. The value of collective investment schemes climbed by CHF19b to CHF181b.
Pension funds see contributions outweigh benefits drawn
Pension funds, too, saw an improvement: contributions to occupational pension schemes exceeded the benefits drawn and price gains were recorded on pension fund investments, says the SNB.
More home buyers and rising apartment prices account for higher real estate value
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - The federal police and foreign affairs departments have agreed to back the Swiss attorney general’s office to press charges against a prominent Geneva politician at the request of Libya. The two departments announced Thursday 18 November that Libya had formally requested that charges be pressed against Eric Stauffer, president of the Mouvement citoyens genevois (MCG), for “outrage” (insults) against a foreign government.
The foreign government in question must file the request with the Swiss Foreign Affairs Department before Swiss authorities can act on it.
Stauffer, who has recently had a number of conflicts with authorities in Geneva, has backed his party’s use of a poster featuring Libyan leader Muammar Qadaffi in campaigns for the 28 November popular referendum on sending foreign criminals back to their home countries.
Bern, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Swiss banks will have tougher capital requirements for trading, known as the Capital Adeqacy Ordinance, starting 1 January 2011, a year ahead of the rest of the world, the Swiss Federal Council (cabinet) announced Wednesday 10 November. New capital requirements have been drawn up by the Basel Committee of central bankers, known as Basel III, but the committee delayed the implementation deadline under pressure from countries. US Treasury Secretary Timothy Gleisner and the European Commission’s internal market commissioner Michel Barnier agreed in October 2010 to a December 2011 deadline for the new trading book rules.
Switzerland has already taken a number of protective steps in the wake of the December 2008 bailout of UBS, the country’s largest bank: higher overall capital requirements and tougher rules on liquidity were adopted for the country’s big banks in October 2010. New rules also created restrictions on bankers’ pay and a cap on the leverage ratio.
The Federal Council noted in its press release on the decision that “the financial crisis made it quite clear that the risks of loss attached to trading activity and securitization were underpinned by insufficient capital levels.
Zurich, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - The Zurich to London Swiss flight LX-332 Sunday 31 October was spooked by a Halloween surprise, hitting a bird as it took off. The plane’s crew decided to return its 194 passengers to the airport, reports Air Crash Observer, and they were placed on other flights. Switzerland’s two main airports in Geneva and Zurich each have 30-50 bird strikes a year. The airport safety programmes have created bird strike committees and the incidents are closely monitored.
Switzerland is on a main north-south migratory path for birds and in recent years the airports have stepped up their fauna protection programmes for air safety reasons, but also to safeguard native and transitory wildlife.
Background, GenevaLunch: “Travelers flock to Geneva; so do birds”, 20 October 2009
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - Geneva Airport has been given the right by the Swiss federal government to dip into the country’s strategic petrol supplies to cover emergency fuel needs until the end of 2010.
The airport’s supplies have fallen due to the French strikes of recent weeks. Zurich and Basel airports’ petrol supplies have not been affected.
In other airport news: Swiss this week announced it will offer two flights a day between Geneva and Madrid starting 17 December and Baboo, which is struggling to stay profitable without cutting services, 26 October announced a revised winter schedule, with flights to Athens and London cut starting in early November.
Swiss is doubling the number of planes based in Geneva from four to eight in 2010.
International sports, tennis
Stan Wawrinka
Flushing Meadows, New York, USA (GenevaLunch) - Lake Geneva region’s own Stanislas Wawrinka defeated American player Sam Querrey 7-6 (9), 6-7 (5), 7-5, 4-6, 6-4 in a long and tough fight Tuesday night 7 September.
For much of the match it appeared to be two equals battling it out. When Wawrinka eventually wore down Querrey, he ended US hopes of having a player in its own Open.
The 25-year-old Swiss player now has his first quarter-finals slot in a Grand Slam tournament. He and Roger Federer are both in the final eight, the first time Switzerland has had two players at this stage since 1968, when tennis became a professional sport.
Wawrinka began training 1 August with Swedish coach Peter Lundgren, Roger Federer’s former coach.
Links to: San Francisco Chronicle, US Open, Wawrinka site
Swiss Gruyere, aging for six months in a mountain cheese cellar
Bern, Switzerland (GenevaLunch.com) – A Gruyère is a Gruyère, but not exactly: Swiss authorities said 14 August that France has abandoned its three-year-old fight to get AOC (appellation d’origine contrôlée) status for its holey version of the famous but smooth Swiss cheese, named after the village it calls home.
The French version of the cheese has a distinctly different taste.
The Swiss cheese was given AOC status in 2007 and the French version in 2007, when France decided to seek AOP recognition, essentially the same but at a European level.
Instead, following recommendations from Brussels, the French have agreed to IGP (indication géographique protégée) status, less prestigious, but it allows them to continue using the name.
Swiss cow in the Alps: high pasture grazing gives Gruyere a special flavour
Facts about the Swiss cheese: it takes 400 litres of milk to make one round of the cheese, which generally weighs 35 kg. It is made according to recipes dating back to 1115.
The cows are fed on grass during the summer, hay in winter, and no additives are allowed to the diet or cheese.
Link to: Gruyere AOC official site
By Bob Evans
Click on images to view larger; more photos in GL “Albert Anker” album
Albert Anker Der Schulspaziergang, 1872 Öl auf Leinwand 90 x 150 cm loaned by Christoph Blocher
Bern, Switzerland (GenevaLunch.com) – A gaggle of lively children, some barefoot, take a nature walk with their young teacher; a downcast farmer counts coins from his purse to pay a tax debt; a dozing old man cradles his sleeping grand-daughter on his lap.
These are some of the iconic scenes of late 19th century life captured by an artist little known outside this country that can be seen in reproduction today in homes and offices across the modern Switzerland of technology and high finance.
They are also key works in a major exhibition, “Beautiful World”, at the Bern Fine Arts Museum this summer. It marks the centenary of the 1910 death at the age of 79 of Albert Anker, often described as Switzerland’s “national artist.”
“For Swiss people, I think, Anker offers a view of a society that has gone forever but which we don’t want to forget,” says Therese Bhattacharya-Stettler, curator of the show.
Children and childhood in a small provincial town, and their relationship with the older people around them, are a focus of the exhibition.
Anker painted children as “little personalities in their own right”
Albert Anker Schlafendes Mädchen auf einer Holzbank, um 1900 Öl auf Leinwand 45 x 70 cm Kunstmuseum Bern, Dauerleihgabe
“Anker saw children as little personalities in their own right, quite outside their own class, age or gender,” says Bhattacharya, who has spent years studying his work. And the artist—a great favourite of Swiss right-wing politician Christoph Blocher who has a large collection of Anker’s works—often used his own offspring as his models.
Among the most striking paintings on display in Bern are an 1867 full-figure portrait of his blonde daughter Louise, aged 3, clutching a doll, and his son Rudi, aged 2, lying on his deathbed in 1869, a work exuding calm but also high emotion.
Zurich, Switzerland (GenevaLunch.com) – Swiss is flying high again, with CHF61 million in profits for the first six months of 2010, after a dismal start to the year thanks to the Icelandic volcano that forced planes to stay on the ground. Profits were down compared to the first six months of 2009 (CHF65m), but the company’s total income, CHF2.25 billion, was up 6 percent compared to a year earlier.
The outlook for 2010 remains bright, according to Swiss chief exective CEO Harry Hohmeister. “The developments of the past few months enable us to look ahead with greater confidence than we could have mustered just a few months ago. Business has picked up, and the trend is particularly encouraging on our intercontinental routes. We’ll be investing well over half a billion francs in renewing our fleet and further developing our product this year, and will also be recruiting 500 new staff.”
Hohmeister credited Switzerland’s economic recovery, stronger than its neighbours’ in Europe, with contributing to the good results. The company noted, however, that Swiss “is suffering the effects of both a weakened euro and (above all) a substantial increase in fuel costs.”
International sports, Tour de France cycling
Brussels, Belgium (GenevaLunch) - Fabian Cancellara kept the leader’s yellow jersey at the end of the first full day’s racing of the 2010 Tour de France. The Swiss world and Olympic champion finished with the pack in a chaotic finish that featured a number of crashes. Because these took place in the final three kilometres the riders keep their times at the time the crashes occur. Italian Alessandro Petacchi won the sprint but Cancellara still has an overall 10-second lead from German rider Thomas Martin and Briton David Millar.
Earlier in the race a golden retriever had caused a pile-up which left a number of riders injured. Several complained about the dangerous conditions caused mainly by the large crowds and narrow roads.
Links to other sites: Tour de France, New York Times
Video, Danish TV2
Cliff-hanger continues over treaty as lower house says yes – but with option to put vote to national referendum
Bern, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – The right-wing UDC party held to its promise and supported the US-Swiss treaty covering a US request for judicial assistance for 4,450 UBS bank accounts. The treaty passed, 81 in favour, 61 against – with 54 abstaining, mainly UDC members. The vote in favour comes with a rider, however, that the option for a popular vote on the treaty should be exercised, forcing the two houses to now work out a compromise solution there. A popular vote would prevent Switzerland from meeting the treaty obligation to review all 4,450 accounts for the US by 31 August 2010.
