What Do We Want?

We seem to live on the main protesting drag in town. Since we moved in (4 weeks ago?) three protests have passed noisily past our windows (and that's just the ones while we were at home!) first there were the people who were cranky because they had lost their jobs with the train people (or are about to, or something like that) then there were the May Day neo-nazis who seemed to have come here specially for their hard day's protest (and possibly also for the charming scenery) because they were yelling at us in german, which apparently isn't the done thing in this neck o' the protesting woods. Then this evening there was a joint appearance by what Reto describes as a bunch of generic lefties/anarchists/punks/illegal immigrants. I'm not sure what their point was, nor how you spot an illrgal immigrant simply by looking, but they certainly won in terms of numbers.

Sheepish

Look what I got at my favourite cafe today!It's funny because it's true (sort of)*.



* "I'm a black sheep too", which obviously has political implications, but is also reminiscent of these ads in Zurich that tell people that all the public transport there is integrated and you can use the same tickets on everything (eg. "Ich bin auch ein Bus" stuck on the sides of boats or trams or whatever). Not that I am suggesting that the public transport thing has much to do with me, because I am not also a bus, but you know what I mean.

On The Hustings

All the electioneering that is going on in Switz at the moment is kind of interesting. The blurbs we get in the mail are reliably entertaining (usually as a result of the funny photos of politicians trying to prove what normal people they are by being photographed with their binoculars (because they are such birdwatching fans, or because they are peeping toms?) or while cooking vast quantities of hearty Swiss fare (because they want to nourish the nation, or because they want us all to die of roesti-induced heart attacks?). Sometimes because of the rage-inducing racism, apparently, but we haven't got any of those here. Yet). People are enthusiastically embracing the poster vandalism, which I will probably bring you some photographic evidence of one day.

Now I hear that a website has been set up so that foreigners living here can (unofficially) vote in the elections too. Which I think is a great idea. Come on, everyone! Cast your pretend vote!

Howard Out (of switzerland)

Oh, and then there's this version of the SVP poster (one of many that I found while googling idly the other day). I presume the dude is supposed to be Christoph Blocher from the SVP, but don't you think he bears a striking resemblance to our own proud leader*?

* I mean John Howard, for those of you who are UnAustralian.

My Two Cents

I've decided to get on the wagon that was quite popular a little while ago among foreign people in Switz with blogs (and which is now becoming more popular in the international press) and complain about politics. I realise that this is really repetitive and behind the times for everyone in Switz, but I think that basically everyone who reads my blog is Australian (plus you, Danish Nick, but you may perhaps consider yourself Australian for the purposes of this post), so prepare yourself for something shiny and new and unheard-of.

The SVP is a popular right-wing political party here (they hold more seats than any other party in the lower house of parliament, apparently. I don't know how it all works here though, so I can't really tell you what that means except that lots of people vote for them. Although not really that many. Apparently about 25% of voters vote for the SVP). Earlier in the year they caused a bit of a brouhaha when they, along with some other party here, tried to have minarets banned, apparently on the grounds that building them diminished people's freedom of religion. Hmm. So perhaps it should not have come as too much of a shock when, a month or two ago, the SVP posted out a pamphlet with this image on it:

and a blurb about how foreigners in Switzerland who commit crimes (like murder, rape, drug-related crime, ripping off the social security system etc) should be kicked out of the country (which on its own doesn't seem entirely unreasonable), and if they are under 18 then any family members of theirs who live in Switz should be given the boot too (!).

In case these ideas are too complex or boring for you to bother thinking about, or if you don't like to vote on something before you have had a chance to really absorb the details via the medium of computer gaming, the SVP has a website that helps you to understand the heart of the issue. Yes, why not play a game where you (Zottel the slightly deranged-looking goat who is apparently the mascot of the SVP) have to simultaneously catch the Swiss passports before they fall into the wrong (=foreign) hands, kick the pesky judge out of the way when he appears (because his evil aim is apparently to make all the dastardly foreigners Swiss) and headbutt the loopy greenie who is just throwing passports out willy-nilly out of the way? Not so much to your taste? Well why not try the one where you have to headbutt the black sheep that are trying to sneak across the border (aided once again by the greens, as you will note from the writing on the buses) back to whatever Loser Country they came from? Fun for the whole family!

Happily it seems that this campaign has been poorly recieved by just about everyone, and whenever you see one of these posters they have usually been heavily defaced

(which says something along the lines of "nazis choose the SVP"). A vegetarian restaurant in Zurich also apparently made an alteration to their menu (in cartoon form only, but it's the thought that counts. And that is Zottel the SVP goat, in case you are confused)
More recently I saw this poster

in the train station in Aarau (it's a campaign poster for some local SVP candidate). Happily it was also graffitied into illegibility and then taken down (and is apparently now the subject of an investigation into the possible breach of anti-racism laws).

So there you go. Switzerland. It's not just cows and watches and idyllic countryside.