Tag Archives: Politics

After the catastrophic covid crisis of 2020 and 2021, the extremely impactful and consequential Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022, many hoped that 2023 would break this terrible bad spell and finally present us all with some hope, economically, geopolitically, socially, technologically. Unfortunately, it only offered further reasons for serious concerns on all these fronts.  Economically, even though the official inflation rate followed a downward...

read aloud pause X Switzerland’s parliament has finalised the 2024 budget after agreeing to a CHF10 million cut on humanitarian funding. Share Facebook Twitter E-mail Print Copy link On Thursday, the House of Representatives and the Senate chambers cleared up the last budget disagreements. The last sticking point was whether to retain or cut Swiss funding for the UN Agency for Palestinian Refugees (UNRWA).+ Budget: extraordinary spending...

The rules around state pensions for widows and widowers are significantly different, something deemed discriminatory by a ruling from the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) in 2022. To remove the discrimination, the federal government plans to cut pensions for widows to bring them into line with those for widowers. Photo by RDNE Stock project on Pexels.comCurrently, women get a lifelong widows’ pension when their husband dies. Bereaved husbands only get one until their children reach...

Part II of II, by Claudio Grass, Switzerland One of the maxims I tend to mention quite often in sociopolitical debates or in response to arguments about the flawlessness of the democratic process is “the smallest minority is the individual”. To some, it might sound trite or banal, and perhaps it is; but it does carry a meaning that I believe is an essential human value and a fundamental building block for any civilized, productive and prosperous society. Any group of people,...

Part I of II, by Claudio Grass, Switzerland It is a worn-out cliché that many (if not most) political zealots meet their downfall because of their arrogance. “Pride goes before destruction, a haughty spirit before a fall,” the proverb goes, and it does prove true more often than not. The specific kind of pride, or haughty spirit, or plain hubris in this case, has to do with the certainty that some people have (one can’t imagine how and why it could have been originally...

Part I of II, by Claudio Grass, Switzerland It is a worn-out cliché that many (if not most) political zealots meet their downfall because of their arrogance. “Pride goes before destruction, a haughty spirit before a fall,” the proverb goes, and it does prove true more often than not. The specific kind of pride, or haughty spirit, or plain hubris in this case, has to do with the certainty that some people have (one can’t imagine how and why it could...

The number of tenancy disputes in Switzerland jumped 42% in the first half of 2023 compared to the second half of 2022, reported the government this week. Photo by Alex Green on Pexels.comAcross Switzerland a total of 17,519 tenancy or lease arbitration proceedings were initiated between January and June 2023. The rising number of disputes follows rent hikes, often triggered by increases in Switzerland’s rent reference rate, a rate that tracks the average mortgage rate, a cost borne by...

Part II of II by Claudio Grass, Hünenberg See, Switzerland This is precisely what the State is doing. The idea of war, mayhem and destruction being economic boosters is exactly what has supported the thin facade that politicians like to place over their greed and their personal gain that they derive from the military industrial complex. “It’s good for the country”, is certainly easier to sell than “it’s good for me and my reelection campaign”. The taxpayer will not see...

Part II of II by Claudio Grass, Hünenberg See, Switzerland This is precisely what the State is doing. The idea of war, mayhem and destruction being economic boosters is exactly what has supported the thin facade that politicians like to place over their greed and their personal gain that they derive from the military industrial complex. “It’s good for the country”, is certainly easier to sell than “it’s good for me and my reelection campaign”....

Part I of II by Claudio Grass For any reasonably well read adult, any amateur student of history or any responsible citizen for that matter, the idea that ”war is the health of the State” should be adjacent to a truism. After all, literally nobody benefits from violence and bloodshed apart from those at the heart of any State that is directly or indirectly involved and their cronies. In fact, the more horrific the violence and the more protracted the bloodshed, the greater the...