13-01-2003 15:58									#1
	What's the status of Switzerland's reputation? Full PM-box? Change here!

Just wondering how the world see us nowadays. What comes to your mind first? Any prejudices?

on a sidenote, there are like 3 or 4 active Swiss posters around here - do you fellows have any idea on why not more?

	13-01-2003 16:09									#2
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I confess my impression of the Swiss was that they were pleansant and largely harmless -- until the Nazi gold and art scandals a few years back. After that (and the denials and obfuscation that followed), you guys started seming like a nation of amoral greedheads. Though that's not a strong impression, nothing's really happened to change it.

Waiting until 1971 to give women the vote isn't really that impressive, either.

My other impression of the Swiss is garnered from The Third Man:

quote: In Italy for 30 years under the Borgias they had warfare, terror, murder, and bloodshed, but they produced Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci, and the Renaissance. In Switzerland they had brotherly love - they had 500 years of democracy and peace, and what did that produce? The cuckoo clock.

Now I've never really thought that was fair. After all, you also gave the world fondue.

	13-01-2003 16:30									#3
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you forgot the müesli... and Einstein!

As for the women's right to vote - I can make it even more a shame by telling you that the male population of one of Switzerland's smallest cantons refused to do so till the nineties when finally our supreme court ordered them...

	13-01-2003 16:34									#4
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But you wrote a very nice answer to my question about first- and second-class train service, so my impressions of the Swiss have just improved dramatically. Thanks!

	13-01-2003 18:22									#5
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quote: Originally posted by mapfi you forgot the müesli... and Einstein!

He only lived in Switzerland for 15 years...

But they included his annus mirabilis of 1905, so I suppose you get half-credit. Germany takes the other half.

	13-01-2003 18:23									#6
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My opinion of Switzerland?

Small, european, odd and mostly harmless.

	13-01-2003 18:27									#7
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Kinda cute.

	13-01-2003 18:28									#8
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Switzerland doesn't exist. No-one knows anyone from Switzerland. (In case someone does know someone from Switzerland, he/she's a German actor.) No-one knows what happens in Switzerland - or has happened, apart from few things (cuckoo clocks, Nazi gold). Even the name sounds like something Americans think European countries are named.

Switzerland is a conspiracy.

	13-01-2003 18:35									#9
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I know a lot of people from Switzerland

Let me think, I know 3 guys from Geneve (French Switzerland)
And 6, maybe more as I probably forgot someone from around Lugano and in Locarno (Italian Switzerland)

Although nobody from German Switzerland

They all are nice people.

Saluti

	13-01-2003 18:36									#10
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Damn German.

	13-01-2003 19:00									#11
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Einstein was
German from birth 1879-1896,
no citizen because he denounced German citizenship from 1896-1901,
Swiss from 1901-1914,
Swiss and German from 1914-1933,
Swiss from 1933-1940,
Swiss and American from 1940 until death 1955,
so most of the time Swiss.
He finished highschool here and studied at the same uni as I do now. He also taught at the uni for 3 years before leaving for Germany again. But I wasn't too serious when giving Switzerland credit for Einstein...

	13-01-2003 19:01									#12
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I've met Swiss people and they seemed like a nice bunch...but in general, it is things like the Nazi gold scandals which stick in the memory. Like many places, individually the people are nice...collectively they can be less so.

Although it's always amusing to see a sea of yellow on maps of the EU with this one lil brown spot right in the middle...

	13-01-2003 19:02									#13
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He only lived in Switzerland for 15 years. Doesn't matter how long he held citizenship there. Most of the period of 1896-1914 was spent in Switzerland. After that it was Germany and then the US.

	13-01-2003 19:09									#14
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quote: Originally posted by Clear Skies Although it's always amusing to see a sea of yellow on maps of the EU with this one lil brown spot right in the middle...

and I think that'll probably stay that way for quite another while...

and frogger, for that matter he lived in the US only a few years more than 15, but as I said I wasn't too serious!

	13-01-2003 19:10									#15
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I also think the Swiss are braggarts and blowhards, so eager to protect their status that they stoop to obfuscation and self-aggrandizement.

	13-01-2003 19:14									#16
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I know that Switzerland invented the Helvetica font. (Kind of obvious really).

	13-01-2003 19:37									#17
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They made the Swiss Army Knife too...

	13-01-2003 19:56									#18
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Didn't they invent the obnoxiously sticky sweet children's morality story, i.e., Heidi? In a way they're the the moral founders of Disneyland and its ilk. I've seen "Bread and Chocolate" though so I'm fully aware of their true nature.

	13-01-2003 20:15									#19
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i associate switzerland with the Helvetians and Thyon skiing

	13-01-2003 20:38									#20
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What's wrong with Heidi!!?!?!?!?!!!

	13-01-2003 20:43									#21
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Didn't Heidi eventually prove that the crippled girl was just a spoiled brat who was faking the whole thing? This was obviously the forerunner of the nazi's program to eliminate the weak from their society.

	13-01-2003 20:47									#22
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That's the most interesting interpretation I've ever heard - wonderful!

	13-01-2003 20:57									#23
	Re: What's the status of Switzerland's reputation? Enter the AD-FREE zone

quote: Originally posted by mapfi Just wondering how the world see us nowadays. What comes to your mind first? Any prejudices? on a sidenote, there are like 3 or 4 active Swiss posters around here - do you fellows have any idea on why not more?

Banks. That pretty much sums it up

	13-01-2003 21:43									#24
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The Infamous Swiss Bank account, where Criminals, Dictators, and Tax Dodgers hide their loot.

Switerland profits on other countries crime.

	13-01-2003 21:48									#25
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of which the last one is nowadays really true - the other two have really been fighted, but who knows...

	13-01-2003 22:35									#26
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Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway and Switzerland are members of EFTA. The EFTA Convention established a free trade area among its Member States in 1960. In addition, the EFTA States have jointly concluded free trade agreements with a number of countries worldwide.

Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway entered into the Agreement on the European Economic Area (EEA) in 1992, which entered into force in 1994. The current contracting parties are, in addition to the three EFTA states, the European Community and the 15 EC Member States.

EFTA is served by three institutions: the EFTA Secretariat, the EFTA Surveillance Authority and the EFTA Court.



At its Headquarters in Geneva the EFTA Secretariat serves the EFTA Council and its substructure in implementing the EFTA Convention and free trade agreements worldwide.

In Brussels, the Secretariat serves the EFTA Standing Committee and its substructure, the EEA Joint Committee and the EEA Council in implementing the EEA Agreement providing for the extension of the EC Internal Market to Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway.

In Luxembourg, the Secretariat administers statistical cooperation on the basis of the EEA Agreement as well as technical assistance programmes.

Furthermore, the EFTA Secretariat serves the EFTA Parliamentary and Consultative Committees in pursuing their duties.



The EFTA Surveillance Authority shall ensure that Iceland, Liechtenstein, and Norway respect their obligations under the EEA Agreement and that enterprises abide by the competion rules.

The Authority can investigate possible infringements either on its own initiative or on the basis of complaints.



The EFTA Court carries out the judicial control regarding the EEA Agreement, operating in parallel to the Court of Justice of the European Communities. The EFTA Court has jurisdiction with regard to the EEA EFTA States.
The Court is mainly competent to deal with infringement actions brought by the EFTA Surveillance Authority against an EFTA State:

for the settlement of disputes between two or more EFTA States,

for appeals concerning decisions taken by the EFTA Surveillance Authority and

for giving advisory opinions to courts in EFTA States on the interpretation of EEA rules.

	13-01-2003 22:47									#27
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Now if you're planning on running a business in one of those countries this is useful information...

	13-01-2003 22:48									#28
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Ignore Ozz, it's a DL and has been already owned.


Switzerland is under a bit of pressure this time of year for harmonizing its bank secrecy laws with these of the EU.

Has to do with taxing EU citizens with money abroad and tax evasion.

	13-01-2003 22:53									#29
	Re: What's the status of Switzerland's reputation? Support Apolyton buy from Amazon

quote: Originally posted by mapfi Just wondering how the world see us nowadays. What comes to your mind first? Any prejudices?

First things that come to mind are: knives, watches, chocolate, neutrality, and that cyclotron-thing you have.

quote: on a sidenote, there are like 3 or 4 active Swiss posters around here - do you fellows have any idea on why not more?

I'm not really Swiss.

	13-01-2003 22:57									#30
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so it's like 2 or 3... and a few hiding maybe

Who'd be crazy enough to make it look like he's Swiss = the uttermost scum of western civilization?