Opinion of Switzerland

[Simfan34]

Honestly, from the few hours I've spent in that country- all of it in transit- I wouldn't be inclined to think so highly of them. The last time I was there, which must have been three years ago, was spent travelling to and from Milan. On the outbound journey, we witnessed two drunks stumble into a bathroom on the train from the airport (there was a man sitting across from us that had a look that plainly said I'm-sorry-this-is-the-first-thing-you-see-of-our-country) and had to deal with an incredibly apathetic woman at Zurich when we couldn't find our train tickets to Milan.

On the return, whilst waiting for the train to the airport, we had two police officers carrying Uzis run across the train tracks towards us and question my parents because they had "heard that there was an African family arguing". The experience of being questioned by heavily armed police officers being totally alien to me, I slowly backed away, which they did not escape their attention. So on the whole, not the best of times.

But the country is run well, and I've always been fairly understanding of societies that are a certain way and wish to remain so; it is a far more logical attitude than others that welcome immigrants and then, only after immigrants have put down roots, decide they don't care for immigrants all that much. At the same time, having experienced about as much overt racism in the few hours I spent in Switzerland than I can recall offhand in a lifetime living in the US, it is clear more open-mindedness would not hurt. The minaret ban being a example of something crying out for that.

On that note I do admire the general resistance in referenda to bad ideas, the recent example of soundly rejecting setting the minimum wage to $25 or so being a prime example. I'm skeptical such a thing would happen here.