May 27 – Politics in English is Politics in German
I actually looked up “politics” in German because I thought that would be a good title for this piece, but it’s still “politics”. After having been here for a few months, I think that I’m getting a pretty good feel for the attitudes here in Switzerland, or at least, Eastern Switzerland. The eastern part is much more conservative than the rest of Switzerland. I heard that when the French, Italian, and more western parts vote “yes” to a new proposal, it’s always a solid “no” on the eastern side.
Our house is actually in the middle of a political issue in St. Gallen. They residents of the town don’t like having the university here so much. It’s one of the most conservative areas of the country. The university has a huge German population, which could be one of the reasons why they don’t like it. Or, it could be that drunken students are always walking around at night heheheh. I can’t say that I’m not a part of this “problem,” but c’mon now, we’re harmless.
The latest development is that the school wants to tear down the house that I’m living in, along with the house next door, to build a new sports centre. Almost everything here is open to a public vote and so some people have been coming by to take a look at our house. I’m not sure when the vote is, but if it were up to a lot of people in St. Gallen, they’d kick the university out of town.
On to a more important topic: Switzerland is voting on whether or not to join the Schengen agreement on June 5. This doesn’t mean that they’re joining the EU, it’s just the agreement for free movement within the signed countries and some other details. Anyways, check out these “advertisements” that have been put up EVERYWHERE. Whatever group is doing this has a LOT of money. These are at bus stops, train stations, and every single household got a flyer (see pictures). I have never, ever seen such blatant PROPOGANDA in my lifetime before. Obviously, there’s been worse propaganda in the past, but this is 2005 and in a country that I thought of as above something like this. My general prognosis is that the attitude in Switzerland is overall much more conservative, protectionist, and closed in comparison to North America. I never knew this before I came here, but they’re pretty worried about external forces changing their “perfect” country.
Our house is actually in the middle of a political issue in St. Gallen. They residents of the town don’t like having the university here so much. It’s one of the most conservative areas of the country. The university has a huge German population, which could be one of the reasons why they don’t like it. Or, it could be that drunken students are always walking around at night heheheh. I can’t say that I’m not a part of this “problem,” but c’mon now, we’re harmless.
The latest development is that the school wants to tear down the house that I’m living in, along with the house next door, to build a new sports centre. Almost everything here is open to a public vote and so some people have been coming by to take a look at our house. I’m not sure when the vote is, but if it were up to a lot of people in St. Gallen, they’d kick the university out of town.
On to a more important topic: Switzerland is voting on whether or not to join the Schengen agreement on June 5. This doesn’t mean that they’re joining the EU, it’s just the agreement for free movement within the signed countries and some other details. Anyways, check out these “advertisements” that have been put up EVERYWHERE. Whatever group is doing this has a LOT of money. These are at bus stops, train stations, and every single household got a flyer (see pictures). I have never, ever seen such blatant PROPOGANDA in my lifetime before. Obviously, there’s been worse propaganda in the past, but this is 2005 and in a country that I thought of as above something like this. My general prognosis is that the attitude in Switzerland is overall much more conservative, protectionist, and closed in comparison to North America. I never knew this before I came here, but they’re pretty worried about external forces changing their “perfect” country.
posted by lilswtamy at 3:24 p.m.
1 Comments:
Wow. Sad.
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