WorldcrunchStay updated with comprehensive news on Switzerland from Worldcrunch. Discover insights on Swiss politics, economic strategies, societal issues, and cultural landmarks with translations from top international sources. Highlights include Zurich, Geneva, and cultural events.
GENEVA – Depression is usually associated, in our minds, with women. Yet of course men suffer from it too, and often it comes with an extra stigma even in our modern society. Genevan psychiatrist Theodore Hovaguimian talks about it in his new book, La Depression Masculine (Male Depression). This breakthrough book helps break a taboo […]
BERN – Switzerland may be set to become the world champion of shareholder democracy. Swiss voters gave overwhelming approval to the popular initiative against excessive corporate compensation — an initiative launched by Thomas Minder, an entrepreneur from the city of Schaffhausen. Some 68% voted in favor of Sunday’s ballot measure, and each local canton received […]
LANDQUART – He stirs his spaghetti with one hand, holding a cigarette in the other. Mohamed* has drops of sweat beading on his forehead despite the near-freezing temperatures. “It’s really tough here,” he says in his broken English. “Last week, there was a knife fight between the Afghan and the Nigerian. They were drinking, shouting. […]
A new Swiss study helps explain why we think that our important changes are behind us — and how this false belief can drive us to make poor decisions.
A casting call for kids in the Swiss Alps offers a somewhat softer image than the all-or-nothing American children’s paegants.
This musical and cultural project in Switzerland aims to redefine the very essence of the creative process.
GENEVA – It’s called simply, “Human Brain Project” (HBP), and it is as audacious as it is ambitious: 256 individual labs scattered across 24 countries in order to create a virtual human brain. Though only officially awarded a one-billion-euro grant Monday by the European Union, the debate around the endeavor has been brewing for years […]
BASEL – Johann Ludwig Burckhardt’s bust can be seen at the foot of the monumental staircase of his family’s palace in Basel, Switzerland. It is hard to believe that this is his family home when you see his long curled beard and oriental turban. Burckhardt – also known as Sheikh Ibrahim – who died at […]
Awash in cash, the Swiss National Bank has been making major direct investment in the private sector and the bond market. It’s a frightening level of financial sway.
Sounds a bit like Mark Zuckerberg?
UN INVITES IRAN TO GENEVA 2, SYRIAN OPPOSITION THREATENS BOYCOTT SERIES OF BAGHDAD EXPLOSIONS KILL DOZENS At least 24 people died and another 58 were injured in the Iraqi capital of Baghdad after it was hit by half a dozen explosions, Reuters reports. YANUKOVYCH TO NEGOTIATE WITH PRO-EU OPPOSITIONUkraine President Viktor Yanukovych has agreed to […]
GENEVA – Reto Stöcklin can boast owning the world’s largest collection of venom. He has 1,200 samples in a freezer. A biochemist by training, he’s also a “serial entrepreneur.” The five start-ups he has created are all linked to his famous library of samples taken from snakes, fish, insects and venomous shellfish. Founded in 1995, […]
Local memories and a final salute from French-speaking Switzerland to the founder of the Montreux Jazz Festival, who died on January 10.
Set to be available in the US this year, this mixture of medicines in one pill is aimed at reducing heart attacks. Its inventor says even middle age people with no symptons should take it.
GENEVA – Pontus Elofsson, head sommelier at Copenhagen’s Noma restaurant, ranked best restaurant in the world for the past three years, swears by them: natural wines. These are the wines with “nothing added, nothing taken away” – no sulfites, no foreign yeasts, no added sugars, no enzymes. Traditional wines, on the other hand, are “corrected […]
GENEVA – The female mice are chasing the males around the cage; they raise their behinds in order to sniff their genitals, some even biting the males’ private parts. It is a strange spectacle, monitored by researchers from the University of Geneva (Unige). The phenomenon is described in an article in the latest issue of […]
PARIS – At every exhibit opening, he takes off his shirt, sits on a pedestal, his back to the public, waiting for a visitor he will never see and doesn’t want to hear. Turning on his MP3 player in order to block out cruel comments and hurtful jokes is part of the ritual. Tim Steiner […]
On the left, a wall of washing machines and stoves. On the right, a man is taking apart a vacuum cleaner, another a food processor. A little further away, an employee looking through a powerful magnifying glass pokes at a telephone with tweezers. In the background, a television set without its shell is broadcasting a […]
GENEVA – Marie-Gisèle Sandoz lives by herself, and has no children or siblings. When the retiree decided it was time to make a will, it didn’t take long to decide who would be the benificiaries: three-quarters of her assets will go to the World Wildlife Fund for Nature. “Ecology has always been an interest of […]
-Analysis– Karen L. King, the first woman to occupy the Hollis Chair of Divinity at Harvard, recently caused a sensation in Rome. At the International Congress for Coptic Studies, she revealed a fragment of papyrus measuring 4 cm by 8 cm (1.6 inches by 3.15 inches), dating back to the fourth century and covered with […]
GENEVA – Sami, age 7, is puzzled. On the screen of his iMac, a small Darth Vader orders him to conjugate verbs in the future tense. The boy hesitates at the first question. “You… will likes?” Darth Vader squeaks. Wrong! Sami pulls his grammar book out of his desk, checks it, and corrects his answer […]
GENEVA – People strolling, music, smiles, bursts of laughter. Customers walk between clothes and trinkets, homegrown zucchini and children’s games, spread on tables or on the ground. A neighbor has brought his electric razor; another has just found a book by French sociologist Marcel Mauss. This kind of flea-market-with-veggies could be coming to your neighborhood […]
Essay: The fury of fundamentalist Muslims should not obscure efforts to consolidate democracy.
A shockwave, an explosion, a fire. The boat lets in water and topples over, passengers hang on to life boats or jump into the waves. Few circumstances have the tragic intensity of a shipwreck, which takes mere seconds to throw human beings into life-threatening situations, where the cruelest of decisions have to be made: who […]
Since June, it is possible to witness the extent of deforestation, in quasi-real time, with just a few clicks. This is thanks to Terra-i, the first satellite deforestation detection and surveillance tool in Latin America. Presented at the Rio +20 conference, Terra-i is based on calculation algorithms bio-inspired and developed at the Vaud School of […]
She remembers her panic attacks at age six, whenever she lost sight of her mother at the supermarket. Later, to avoid getting lost on her way to high school, she was constantly accompanied. Andrea* is now 47-years-old and lives with her father in Vancouver, Canada. To go to work, she follows an itinerary that is […]
Wandering around Scottish putting greens — this is how Pascal Bonvin, a 52-year old Credit Suisse executive, chose to improve his English language skills. He flew to Edinburgh early this summer to learn English with a private professor. Once his daily language class was over, Pascal Bovin swapped textbooks for golf clubs. Language lessons in […]