Problem with visas for conference participants coming to CH

For a conference, at which I was invited to speak, there were supposed to be 90 participants, all carefully selected from among people nominated to attend it (the conference is not advertised).

However, some 30 of them were denied visas, including one speaker!

Are the criteria for granting visas now too strict?  Or did all 30 of them make mistakes in their applications (and if so is it now too easy to make some mistake or the other in the application form)? 

Sadly, it is not easy to find out, as the entire procedure and criteria for granting visas to the Schengen area has apparently become so secretive.

Are artists abandoning Switzerland?

Yesterday, I had two conversations which made me aware that artists are abandoning Switzerland.

The first was with a woman who is a singer and songwriter, who said that the space for creativity was being shrunk in Switzerland. When I asked in what way, she replied that Switzerland was too uniformly expensive. In other countries, even the most expensive cities, such as New York, have areas which are run down and where artists can live. But, as artists gather there, they gradually made the area attractive because small theatres and galleries come up there, though of course then gentrifictaion starts, making it necessary for artists to eventually move to other areas. So where was this woman artist moving to? Berlin.

The second was with a man whose wife is a prominent artist. The couple is based in Switzerland, but the wife goes for work-related travel to Berlin, and he unwittingly confirmed that Berlin is becoming the mecca for artists at least in the German-speaking world.

Great for Berlin. Bad for Switzerland.

While Switzerland has financial policies that attract the most succesful artists in the world to Switzerland for financial reasons, does it not seem very short-sighted to have a complete absence of thinking about a cultural policy that helps to to keep young Swiss artists here?

Das Wellness-Prinzip: Gesund leben, Glücklich sein

i have just received a stunningly beautiful brochure for a fascinating book, DAS WELLNESS-PRINZIP by the Swiss-Austrian couple who are Olympic athletes, Jacqueline Walcher-Schneider and Jörg Walcher. I see that their very impressive biographies are available at: http://wellbeing24-7.com/biographie/jacqueline_walcher_schneider/index.html and http://wellbeing24-7.com/biographie/joerg_walcher/index.html

Published by Draksal Fachverlag in Leipzig, the brochure publcises chapters titled "WellBody", "WellThink", "WellFamily", "WellJob", and "WellMoney".

That seems pretty comprehensive to me, and I am looking forward to reading it.

Situation on the road between Zurich and Basel

My son told me yesterday that someone driving from Basel to Zurich to see him was delayed by an hour for the appointment only because of how busy the road (there is one principal road) has become!

I don't think that road was ever particularly efficient but now seems to be impossible.

Even though I oftn draw attention to the deterioration of public transport in Switzerland, it is still one of the best in the world: boats, buses and trains are more or less regular and reliable - and the scheduled travel time is only 53 minutes between Basel and Zurich.

Driving in Switzerland is increasingly unjustifiable except in the more remote areas which may not be so well served by public transport. But even there, one must value travel time very low to be able to justify driving, or value mere convenience more than overall efficiency and productivity.

Swiss Train Maintenance

The standard of maintenance on Swiss trains is falling.

On my last visit to Zurich, I noticed that one of the electronic display systems on the train between the Hauptbahnhof and Wiedikon was on the blink (not working at all).

And, on the same day, on the SBB's IC train, cables were hanging out below one of the seats opposite me.

Swiss regulator stepping up watch on real estate bubble in Switzerland

That's what the following story claims:
http://www.foxbusiness.com/news/2012/01/25/swiss-regulator-steps-up-focus-on-housing-market-boom-survey/#ixzz1kZ9LBQm9

As you might expect, the story talks about risks building up in the Swiss economy and other such nice and interesting things, without tackling the key question that real estate prices are shooting up in the principal cities such Geneva and Zurich mainly because foreigners are bringing in cash for the purpose.

Switzerland's decline now reaching the level of the UK in at least one respect

Due to the apprenticeship system, the quality of work that one got in practical things (mechanical and technical matters, gardening, cooking, sales and marketing, IT matters, medical help from nurses etc) used to be very high - perhaps the highest in the world. And, due to the influence of the Bible and the influence of a close community, the level of honesty and reliability was also at least one of the highest in the world.

When I first came to Switzerland on a more-or-less long term basis (at that time we did not have any idea how long we would stay), all this had, we now realise, just started eroding.

I have been documenting the evidence of the erosion in this blog.

Yesterday, my son told me that he had approached 4 different companies to come and look at a cistern that was giving trouble, and which his colleagues, he and the house caretaker could sort out between them. Of these 4 companies, two companies declined the work. One said that he would ring back but never did. The fourth said that he would come, and set a date and time, but then simply did not turn up (no explanation, no apology). Fortunately for my son, he and his housewart and colleagues continued to struggle to understand what was wrong, and to experiment, and finally worked out a solution.

This reminds me of the situation which had already begun to develop in the UK by the 1970s (no idea if it is better or worse today - but, frankly, I would be extremely pleasantly surprised if it is better).

Cultures can be relatively easily and quickly eroded, but they take a long time to build up again.

Swiss politicians, looking at symptoms of decline of their society (such as the erosion in the work ethic), and seeking to solve that by importing people who have no allegiance to the core values of the country, have clearly either ignored, or not even thought of, the consequences of their policies.