(21 February 2025) (Rl.) The advantages of the EU are obvious. For months, we have only heard good news; there are hardly any problems left, except that the economy is not yet running smoothly – but let’s be honest, where is it running smoothly? So, it’s easy to understand why some Swiss federal councillors get clammy hands when shaking hands with EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen (UvdL).
by Guy Mettan,* Geneva
(22 November 2024) Next time you travel to Lhasa, be sure to visit the Museum of Modern Art. Climb the often narrow and steep stairs of the White and Red Potala Palace, light a candle made from yak butter in front of one of the thousands of painted Buddhas of the Jokhang. They are to Lhasa what Versailles and Notre Dame are to Paris.
by Heinrich Frei*
Somalia has a population of 18.7 million, with around three million living in the capital Mogadishu. Somalia is more than 15 times larger than Switzerland and about 1.8 times the size of Germany. More than 3.8 million people in Somalia have been forced to flee their region due to the war, which has been raging for more than 30 years, and natural disasters. They live in camps on the outskirts of the major cities under catastrophic conditions. Women and children make up 80 per cent of the internally displaced persons and are exposed to great risks.
by Guy Mettan,* Geneva
(25 January 2024) In 2022, I published a major report on the economic transformations of Vietnam, notably visiting the large Vinfast electric car factory in Haiphong. A friendship has linked me to this country for twenty-five years. In the early 2000s, I had to go there multiple times to prepare a book on the Geneva Accords which ended the Indochina War in 1954 and I was able to meet a number of veterans of Dien-Bien-Phu, including the famous General Giap. The rapidity of the changes since then is fascinating.
by Guy Mettan,* Geneva
(19 July 2023) I know you’re good at geography, but I dare you to tell me where Orenburg is. This city of 600,000 inhabitants is located at the foot of the Ural Mountains, in the middle of the Russian-Kazakh steppe, on the border of Europe and Asia. For us, in the middle of nowhere.
by Tankred Schaer, Germany
(13 June 2023) (Edit.) More and more citizens are noticing that the major media as well as a considerable part of the political representatives are reporting or taking a stand on important questions of life in a more or less homogeneous way. In the question of war and peace, of Corona and health care, of education and child rearing, of gender and diversity – to name just a few current topics.