August 26, 2002
Geneva, the Oldest of the Old World
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| Mosaic of Geneva's flag. |
Perhaps this is what you think of when you think of Switzerland?
Some interesting new impressions:
1. Heavy military spending. 9% of the national budget. Every Swiss is armed and dangerous. Highest rate in the world (don't guess Israel to answer the question "which nation has the highest rate of gun ownership?")
2. No passport-stamping on the way in or out. To make it easy to shuttle dough?
3. Arabs, lots of them. Lax entry politicies to reward the sheikhs for keeping their oil-money in Swiss banks?
4. Urban decay, everywhere. Geneva is filthy, poorly maintained, poorly furnished. Worst, it has poor districts right at its heart and in desirable quarters (near the lake). Is this the product of over-weaning social welfare policy? Anti-gentrification or the result of gentrification?
5. John Calvin ground zero -- Geneva was his capital. Every building is dull, dull, dull. Grey, square, dull.
6. The Swiss are sort of "weird". I have had this experience with many of the smaller European countries, like the Dutch or the Danish. They just strike you as having strange personalities. Maybe you don't sympathize. But I find I have not framework for understanding the people or their culture. Perhaps because I know nothing about the Danish.
7. Cantons. Switzerland is kind of like the United Arab Emirates. A bunch of city-states that loosely federated for common protection. Not a strong national center. Keep that in mind when trying to think of political forms that resemble the US federalist model.
8. Romande. The fourth official language of Switzerland, apparently a latinate language though it sounded like Polish to me. But perhaps James Bond speaking Romande sounds Polish to anyone.
9. Geneva is a major international city -- home of the WTO and UN (Europe). But the population is under 300,000. That's smaller than the Upper West Side.
10. Geneva: dull, dull, dull. Do not go.