If you've been to seemingly placid Switzerland the past few weeks you've no doubt seen the many billboards of the right-of-centre Peoples' Party showing a white sheep and a black sheep - which perfectly illustrates what seems to be their main campaign platform in upcoming Swiss federal elections:

The white sheep represents the old order - the sturdy law-abiding Swiss and the black sheep represents the newer immigrants and their deleterious effect on Swiss society.

A party spokeswoman, on BBC radio this morning, claimed that "most of the folks in jail in Switzerland are immigrants and that most of the kids in schools that cause problems are also from immigrant families.

And the Beep reporter said that a plank in the Peoples Party platform says that if any member of an immigrant family commits a crime the whole family should face deportation - rather drastic it seems to me.

Now it said Switzerland, with 20% of its population immigrants (not including UN, etc. staffers) is one of the most immigrant-dominated countries in the world. And the other side pointed to the many law-abiding immigrants who have become stellar citizens.

The Beep story harks back to one about a month ago about how immigrants become citizens and voters - each village or town has to vote on whether or not they can become citizens - hardly a uniform or fair process IMO

So if a tourist to Switzerland in the coming days and weeks expect a slightly less tranquil place. Just yesterday there were violent riots in Bern, the capital as opposing factions clashed. It was said to be the first such political rioting there in ages.

Oh, the Swiss have political riots every year on 1 May in Zürich. Switzerland is no heavenly enclave on earth, but an ordinary country with ordinary people.

But political demonstrations are single occurencies. Tourists will no be affected by these events - unless they choose to march in the "black block" (make sure to bring your hooded sweatshirt and a pantyhose for the face).

No i should have made the point that the average tourists will have no impact from this - for me being in a country during elections only makes it more interesting.

NO impact on tourism.

We vote on things 3 - 5 times a year. The upcoming election deals with our Standerat and our Nationalrat. They are comparable to the Senate and Congress except that both must agree when passing a law. Someone told me it can be like ping pong sometimes.

Oh, those riots. Our SVP (People's Party) is very patriotic and was instrumental in representing Switzerland's view to the EU. Now that the EU is a non-issue (momentarily anyway) the SVP decided to turn to our immigrant problems. They got everyone talking about integration (or lack of) but has lost some reputation lately. The SVP has gone overboard in pushing Swiss nationalism and, consequently, has lost credibility. Just like the US right wing vs. left wing, our left wing is growing and our right wing is losing.

It seems many of those rioters were liberal, conservative, right and left and mostly young. They used the SVP meeting to sow their wild oats, so to say. Of course, this is not a good thing to do and we'll be analyzing the situation for quite some time.

The police did not react satisfactorily and many people are now hesitant about security at the Europe 2008 soccer championships.

As for those sheep, I passed some beautiful gray sheep grazing about the Vierwaldstättersee today. Looking at them, I envisioned our next Swiss generation. The SVP will have to find another provacative issue. More and more people are leaning towards automatic citizenship for immigrants who have lived here from birth to 18 years of age.

I was up on Titlis today and loved walking around the nostaligic photo shop. All those Indians (from India) and Asians posing in dirndls, trachts and Swiss folklore costumes. Although these were tourists, we'll be seeing more and more of this in our daily lives as well.

Schuler - thanks for the analysis. Switzerland has always been a conundrum for me - the first few times i went mainly to Grindelwald, Zermatt, etc.

But many trips later allowed me to spend time in cities like Zurich, Bern, etc. And the Swiss you meet there don't wear those leather shorts or play the Alp harp or whatever they call it

I've always noticed how 'hip' younger Swiss have become - the piercings, tattos, etc. like all modern youth. this always conflicts with the picture-perfect image of a flower-bedecked Alpine chalet with cows all around.

And as i noted before visiting the drug parks of a decade or so ago was eye opening - seeing young 'all-American' looking Swiss kids going in for a legal fix - seeing them shoot up and then walk back into the general population was eye opening. In the Zurich 'needle park' as i believe they called it, it was right behind the main train station on the river. They had taken SBB luggage carts from the station and made them into impromptu desks and then used their Swiss Army knives to heat the drug up before injection. Not only did this experience jolt me into thinking that Switzerland is a real nation with the usual problems but that the Swiss themselves were evolved enough to tackle the drug problem not by punishment but by making sure they got a good fix, etc. and not overdose. I'm not sure of the politics but it impressed me a whole lot.

Switzerland is a real country with real problems and when they manifest it just seems so un-Swiss to me.

Let me say i really love both Switzerlands - the Alpine Valhalla of small farms, etc. and the vary varied city ones like Zurich, which has to be one of the most cosmopolitan cities in the world.

so it's kind of refreshing to see Switzerland is not some kind of caricature of bucolic Alpine scenes that many first-time tourists probably end up think of it as.

>...the Swiss themselves were evolved enough to tackle the drug problem not by punishment but by making sure they got a good fix, ...<

"Oh brave new world that has such people in it.."

You might find Huxley's novel of interest.

The novel he wrote while high on psychedelics?

yes but i think that needle give aways and government testing of heroin and killer hard drugs is enlightened

as is the British way of prescribing heroin to addicts lest they have to steal and have their health be effected (though this policy may have changed)

The U.S. where half the prison population is said to be on drug charges and these inmates get literally no help and are turned lose to... go back to their habits.

Ira i'm not sure what your point was vis-a-vis in reference to Huxley's book but punishment for drug users to me is medieval and a more enlightened let's help them enlightened. And someday will be the case even in Jo-Jo.

Ira - re-reading when i said to get a 'ggod fix' could be taken as you probably did

but my this i meant to get a non-lethal fix

actually these drug parks, i went to one in Bern not far from the national capital building made me ill - seeing these fairly yes all-American looking kids shooting up

but i did not mean that it's enlightened to give them a 'good' fix, just one that would not kill them

>>as is the British way of prescribing heroin to addicts lest they have to steal and have their health be effected (though this policy may have changed)<<

Well actually, it did change about 30 years ago under pressure from a certain other country. Since when, the problem is far worse. Still, we can't know whether it would otherwise have been worse still. Trouble is, this is precisely the sort of area that is prone to the law of unintended consequences.

Looks like SVP black sheep campaign and their right wing beliefs have been nipped in the butt.

The King of the SVP, Christoph Blocher, has been voted off the Bundesrat. Long live democracy!

http://tinyurl.com/38xrjk

good news to me though i'm not Swiss

The black sheep campaign backfired on Blocher, Mörgeli & Co. - good riddance.
The SVP has been playing opposition even when they were part of the government - at least in the last 4 years. So their withdrawal is not going to change anything.

so the billboards now have gray sheep grazing on them?

"Beep"? You surely meant Beeb...?

>so the billboards now have gray sheep grazing on them?

No, tiger-striped ones.

It's been real interesting talking to the locals about it. Many are still SVP fans but are glad Blocher is out. He was too demanding, arrogant and unrelenting in his SVP beliefs. Some feared he was becoming too "nationalistic". Common sense, secret meetings and political backstabbing between the rest of the parties (and even among some SVP officials) led to a lack of votes for Blocher's next term as Bundesrat.

Most are quite excited about the new female Bundesrat, Frau Widmer, who is also from the SVP party. She is intelligent and not as radical.

The SVP has a lot of self-evaluation to do before this mess clears up.

Yes, the other parties played the game pretty well. It was majestic to see how they managed to keep everything secret until the final moment.

With Blocher out, the arrogance is out of the Bundesrat and we're back under civilized people. Since he became Bundesrat 4 years ago, security leaks on official documents have become a regular thing. Some 2 weeks, he was caught discussing a confidential dossier with 2 journalists in the back of the audience. Next day, it was out in the paper for whichboth journalists work...

It is politically correct to say he is right-of-centre. But it is better to say he's on the far side of right-of-center.

He's going to form the opposition now. With all the secrets he has learned of while being a bundesrat, s**t will hit the fan in the next years...

Over half the inmates in US prisons are or have been illegal drug users. But drug use in and of itself doesn't get any significant number of people sent to prison. They get sent to prison for other crimes (selling drugs, property crime, violent offenses, etc.)--it just so happens that drug users commit these other crimes at a much higher rate than the non-drug using population.

<-it just so happens that drug users commit these other crimes at a much higher rate than the non-drug using population>

not sure you got the right thread but i'd say it also depends on how much police pressure is being put on a targeted group

critics would charge that in U.S. inner city folks are arrested for drug crimes in much higher numbers perhaps because police are trying to entrap them, etc. while the wealth cocaine snooting lawyers in the suburbs are not.

But wrong thread i think???

Correct thread--I saw your comment "The U.S. where half the prison population is said to be on drug charges and these inmates get literally no help and are turned lose to... go back to their habits" and didn't want people to interpret as meaning that half the people in prison are sent there for just using drugs--being drug addicts.