Creative Challenge #287: Void

Any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental and no animals were harmed during the writing of this challenge.

Once upon a time there was a small country surrounded by many other countries that were much bigger. The bigger countries decided to stay together, and the little country stayed on its own. There were no problems. The little country was very proud of being democratic. The government of this little country allowed their people to make their own decisions. If someone had a good idea, he just collected signatures in support of this idea and permission was granted to vote. And so it came to pass one day that a leading political party had a wonderful idea, collected many signatures and it was voted.

The voting day arrived and decisions were cast, but there was a problem. There was one person more that said “yes”, meaning that it was accepted. This little country had a new law. All the people that said “no” were not happy. The politicians that wanted this new law were clapping their hands, smiling for the television cameras and were satisfied with the result. There was a small problem in incorporating this new law into the country’s ideals, as the actual government were not so keen and the surrounding big countries found it would not be in agreement with their ideas. The chief politician who wanted this in the small country was asked how this new law would be brought into effect, but he was a clever man. He said it was no longer his problem, the democracy said “yes” with one vote more and it was now for the government to discover how to do it.

Eventually all the people that did not want this law in this small country decided they would go, move to a country where the laws were better. All the big countries surrounding this little country were happy, as this little country was quite wealthy. Half of the population in the little country, plus one remained. As time passed, the little country shrunk even further and was forgotten. The population dwindled and they had even forgot why they were so alone. One day the people in this small country disappeared, no-one knew where they had gone. Instead of this small country there was just a void on the map.

There might be a moral to this story, the politicians have not yet found it.

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WordPress Daily Prompt: Polite Company

"Its never a good idea to discuss religion or politics with people you don't really know." Agree or disagree?

Local Government Building  - Law Courts

If I don’t really know the person I am speaking to then I could not imagine that my conversation would begin with “What religion are you?” or “Who did you vote for in the last election?” so we have another sort of silly subject to write a blog about. On the other hand, it depends on whether they are invited guests you do not know so well and the conversation turns to religion and politics.

I always have a thirst for knowledge. If my guests were hindu, buddist, islam or another religion then a conversation on their ideas would be interesting. I worked for many years as an export clerk and had a lot of contact, personally or by phone, with the whole world. I was also responsible for the apprentices in our office and they often had other origins. I learnt what Ramadan actually was, I learnt about living your life in a household that was based on another religion and if I wanted to know something more I asked. I found the feedback was interesting and helpful, but I would not actually discuss the basis of the religions. I, myself, am atheist and I never made a secret about it. I too was accepted with my “non-belief”. Tolerance is the basis for a mutual good relationship.

As far as politics are concerned, now that is another kettle of fish. We all have our ideas about the perfect government, but looking around the world, I have come to the conclusion that the perfect government does not yet exist and probably never will. In most Western countries we are striving for a balance, although each politician seems to believe that their way is the right way. If I am confronted with guests that are completely radically right wing, I just let them get on with it. If my guests are from the left side of politics then I also do not discuss with them their political ideas.

To discuss politics with my Swiss guests is not something I would not bother about. We are so neutral we even elect a new president every year in December. We have seven ministers in the government, 2 conserative, 2 liberal, 2 socialist and 1 something else, always from the same parties, so what is there to discuss. They take it in turns to become Prime Minister every year. The Swiss call it the magic formula and it is decreed by the country that it should be like this. Of course we have members of parliament from various parties that are voted for by the Swiss citizens, but as far as discussions on politics are concerned, it is  lost cause.

The Swiss system is such that if you have visitors that turn the conversation to politics, it usually develops into a conversation about the characters of various politicians, not liking him or her, and not a discussion about the actual political problems. 

I prefer discussion with my guests about the weather, perhaps sport, and health. Illness is always a good subject to bring up. Everyone wants to talk about their aches and pains or the weather. If the majority of the visitors are male, then sport is a good subject. 

And now to search for a suitable photo in my collection on politics and religion – I am more into animals and travel photos.

The Vet, Politics and my Garden

Well I suppose the title tells all so let's start with the vet, although not so exciting.

"You can talk Mrs. Human, how would you feel if you was having a midday sleep and someone wakes you out of your tuna fish dreams and puts you in a cage" and Fluffy gave me an "if cats could kill" look.
"Fluffy I told you we had to go and see uncle doctor. It's all for the benefit of your good health. You know now and again you had some digestive problems and now he wants to check that everything is ok", although Fluffy was still glaring at me.
"That's not the point Mrs. Human, going to the vets is not in my calendar. I have my own routine and travelling in a lift down to the garage is not one of the appointments I had for today."
"But Fluffy, you seemed to be quite happy in the car and didn't make one disapproving miaow all the time. I was quite proud of you."
"I must admit a car ride is not so bad, but afterwards waiting in that vet's surgery until it was my turn was a bit degrading. There are all sorts of animals there, and they don't smell so nice either. I was glad to get into the vet's room for some peace and quiet. Although that was definitely not peaceful. First of all it stuck a needle in my back and ignored the fact that I had to jump when he did it. As if that was not enough he stuck another needle in me muttering something about more resistance and vitamins. Stupid doctor, a tin of tuna would have done the job just as well. As if not enough with degradations, he gave me an infusion and that is really not my sort of thing."
"But it is all for your own good, Fluffy" I told him.
"If you think having an infusion is fun, then I can tell you it isn't. It was only because of that infusion that I made the newspaper wet in my cage on the way home. And while we are talking, I do not like newspaper in the cage. It is so common. I prefer the cat litter, it is so much more discreet. In England you don't even wrap fish and chips up in newspaper anymore."
"OK, sorry Fluffy the next time I will put cat litter in your carry box ."
"Mrs. Human I saw you were taking some photos of the vet's parrot as well, so you should put that here just to show everyone what a nice parrot it is."
"OK, Fluffy, will do, but promise you will go to sleep afterwards."
"Am already nearly in Nirvana Mrs. Human."
And with that Fluffy made a circle, put his head down and slept. If only we humans could sleep as well as a cat.

Did I say something about politics. Well basically I try to avoid the subject of foreign politics. I like to go on about Swiss politics sometimes, but then I have to live with them and our politicians are not better than the others, although they seem to be fairly resistant. We have seven ministers, each with his own department and spread amongst the main political parties. One of them had a heart attack about a month ago, the finance minister. He had an operation for a bypass and other things and now a month later he is back at work. During his absence one of the other ministers looked after his department. We don't have a socialist, conservative, democrat or republican government, it is all mixed up. Of course what goes on in the houses of parliament is spread according to who got the most votes as in other countries (Kantonsrat). We even have a house of lords/senate or whatever you like to call it (Standerat here) and we do have a Federal system based on the American one. Anyhow America decided to go voting yesterday. Not wanting to get mixed up in who was the best and who won, let's just say they now have a president which can probably write his own speeches, which I don't think they had over the last few years, although John McCain was also probably capable of writing what he wanted to say. I decided to let America get on with it, after all it is not my government and they have to put up with it (but I am not unhappy).

And now to the garden. Yes, I have back ache, my shoulder was hurting yesterday and I felt very tired. I have just two small gardens, one at the front of the house and one at the back but they have to be put into hibernation for Winter. As we live in a rather cold climate in Winter, you can't just leave plants to get on with survival through the cold Winter months. They have to be covered up and wrapped in special warm insulating material. The Spring bulbs (daffodils and crocus this year) have to be planted and Mrs. Swiss has just taken a weeks holiday to get it all done. I am now almost finished with all, just have to get some fir tree branches tomorrow at the supermarket to cover up the remaining rose bush. I did buy some today, but they have already been used up on the two rose bushes in the front garden. I now have to protect the one in the back garden.

Mr. Swiss has made himself scarce during the garden work, although he was busy looking after the rooms indoors. Yesterday evening he was out for a rehearsal with one of his jazz groups and this evening again with another group. Yesterday I was left with a football match to watch on the television which I quite enjoyed, but this evening looks like a book evening. I am fighting my way through a book called "The Foucault Pendulum" by Umberto Eco. I don't like giving up on a book, but this one is really a bit on the difficult side (perhaps I should have bought the English version instead of the German one, but I don't think it would have made a lot of difference. Umberto Eco is a complicated author as I found in "The Name of the Rose" which I also read in German).

So that was a typical Mrs. Swiss holiday day and now I wish all my colleagues in England a happy 5th November with lots of Fireworks and bonfires and make sure you keep the cats indoors.
"Yes Mrs. Human tell the people that we cats do not like fireworks. We are frightened of the noise they make."
That was a little plea from all of my three cats.

Bits and Pieces

This was early Monday morning in the office. It was early because we were dealing with details before the daily work began. What do we see - on the right and left two of my colleagues and in the middle a third colleague concentrating on some important work. I did mention on one of my last blogs that the Panini sticky photos for EU2008 had now arrived in Switzerland. Over the week-end my colleagues and I had been sticking our photos of footballers into the album and had managed to sort out the photos that were double. I even took time to make an Excel list with filter, so that I did not have to take the album to work but just the photos. We were then busy exchanging our double photos - after all for one franc for a packet of five pictures, it is not a cheap hobby. I seem to have the Turkish team complete and quite a few Swiss, but the Italians are few and far between.

I was reading in a magazine under the title "Panini fever hits Switzerland" that the Swiss are buying the most and even 83% of the infected are over 15 years old - is this possible?. The biggest problem that Panini had was to pick the 20 footballers from each team to put in the album. Yes, Panini are very sly. In the 2006 world cup they apparently chose the German goalie Oliver Kahn as being the goalie for that team, only to find that Jens Lehmann was the chosen goalie. No problem, they quickly issued a sticky of Jens to replace that of Oliver Kahn. They even brought out a special edition to accommodate the new photo with information about Jens Lehmann.

Well I have about 300 pictures to go, so I am sure I will get there in the end. Even Mr. Swiss offered on Saturday to go half way with the pictures I bought. Yes, although the Swiss team have zero chances of winning anything the fever is there.

And now for something a bit sad. Now and again a bear finds its way into Switzerland. Not very often and it still gets into the headlines. The photo is bear JJ3 (we give them names) who has been drugged before being shot. There is of course a big uproar in certain groups of the population, so what did this bear do wrongly. He has been around for some time and decided why hunt for food when the human population leave enough lying around, so he started going too near to the villages. People living in bear countries know the problems with bears, basically they are scavengers taking what they can, but the Swiss do not realise this and leave their rubbish in bins outside. JJ3 thought this was meant for him and was getting too near to civilisation. To make sure that he didn't take any humans with him on his food hunting trips, it was decided that he days should come to an end. I was listening to a radio report where one of the wildlife keepers said that the trouble was JJ3 was getting too intelligent and was avoiding the wildlife keepers and going more to the houses where people were living. The authorities found that this was getting out of hand and shot JJ3. There is a bit of a discussion in Switzerland about this act of "terror" as the WWF found that our hunters should have waited a bit before making such a decision (wait for what - the first dead cat/person/child?). He was even offered a roof over his head at the bear pit in Bern, but this was turned down. Anyhow JJ3 will be preserved for the following population of the Swiss. He will be stuffed and exhibited in one of the museums.




Further to a blog I once wrote about politics in Switzerland and a lady, Eveline Widmer-Schlumpf, that was elected into the government of Switzerland as a minister, things are not going so good, or perhaps they are. Her own political party did not want her in the government as there was a strong fraction still supporting the minister that had to leave. This party, like any other, has rightwingers, and moderate wingers. The politician that had to go was extreme right, and this lady is more moderate. The situation was sharpened up last week. Her party said she no longer had their support and should quit the parliament immediately. The rest of the government were sort of split ideas, and she herself said she would stay. Well one thing must be said for the women of Switzerland. There was a bit demo in Bern (over 10,000 people which is a lot for Switzerland) came together and made their thoughts clear that the lady should stay. She came herself eventually, accompanied by loud applause and said "You came here not only for me, but because doubt has been cast on our democratic institutions". More than 100,000 people have signed an online petition in support of the justice minister (that is her department). Her party has said (i.e. the right wing) that they will expel her from the party, but I don't think this will go that far. You see we even have a bit of wild west in Switzerland from time to time.

Monday, Monday

Today was very cold. I didn't really want to go anywhere today, but work called as usual. Luckily it was a quiet day - it seemed to me that Europe was taking it easy. I was glad to get out of the office by five in the evening and made my way home. My cats had quite an enjoyable day according to Mr. Swiss and spent most of the time outside, so when I got home they had decided to wave their tails at me and have a sleep. As you can see Nera was already in her favourite cushion. She is getting a bit too big for the cushion and when she spreads herself out her paw is usually hanging over the edge.

Tabby on the other hand is a real sleeper, spends 23 hours a day sleeping and one hour looking for somewhere to sleep, so this was the only photo I could manage today. Tabby and Nera are still up on the cupboard in their cushions having a sleep.

Fluffy was showing no signs of being exhausted or tired and was waiting for a chance to go out. As it was so cold, although sunny, Mr. Swiss and I decided that he could stay in. He did start singing in his meowy way (notice the open jaw), but we told him forget it. Cats can be like kids sometimes.

And now for something completely different. Our Foreign minister in Switzerland as been a bit in the headlines later. Her name is Micheline Calmy Rey and she is always good for a surprise/shock. I did once show her singing when she was our President last year (the Swiss have a different President every year chosen from our ministers). This lady is a grandmother, but is well known for being very active and quite enjoying trips to other countries. At the moment she is not very popular, especially in other countries. She decided to pay a visit to the President of Iran, Mr. Ahmadinejad . Now as we know Iranians do not have many women in their government, so our Mrs. Calmey-Rey decided to do things in a diplomatic way, although I am not sure it was found favourable with the Western World.

The lady in question organised a sort of head dress to fit the situation. When she arrived back in Switzerland she had to give answers to the press and the tv about this fancy dress thing.

She said that when speaking to Mr. Ahmadinejad "I emphasized that corporal punishment, amputations and being stoned is unacceptable and told Mr. A....d that it was not in order to wipe Israel off the map as Israel belongs to the community of states. She also said further that the allegation that she was caught in an Iranian propaganda trap was false. After all she didn't have to go to Iran to meet the people (although I somehow don't think they would have come to Switzerland to meet her). She was in Iran to ensure the signing of a contract between Iran and a Swiss concern for having gas delivered from Iran which is apparently worth Millions (the word used was milliarden - is that something more than a million?) and then she said after all actions speak louder than words. Well her actions certainly did.

That she wore a headscarf at the meeting with Mr. Ahm....d brought criticisms from Switzerland and various other states (Israel and the USA to mention two). She said in an interview with West Swiss Television that she held herself to the rules in Iran. If she had not worn the headscarf the Iranian minister that picked her up at the airport would just not have turned up (She could have taken a taxi?). She said she had to wear the scarf to be able to carry out discussions about human rights, the atom question and the support of a Swiss Company. (Must remember that when having the next misunderstanding with Mr. Swiss - if I wear a headscarf he might show more understanding).

Well we might be a small country, but we know how to attract attention. The lady is a year older than me. At that age I start thinking only another year to go and I am retired. I wonder if she is thinking the same?.

Politics is a strange business.

Our Swiss Minister, Moritz Leuenberger

Being minister in a government is not always easy. In Switzerland you do have a very close contact to the government. It is a small country, most of the ministers are known and are always in the public eye. Moritz Leuenberger is no exception, as he noticed last week. A word to his person - he is member of the social (labour) party and is responsible for the department of Environment, Transport, Energy and Communications. He can be found in his official job here.

Moritz Leuenberger is a likeable person - he does his job well and he BLOGS, but he had a bit of bad luck on his last blog. A translation from me in English (it is only otherwise available in German and French)

"Alarmed by enquiries from the Swiss television and the Blick newspaper I noticed a story in the newspaper called 20 Minutes. It seems that a policeman filled a parking meter with his own money, that I had forgotton to do, to avoid that I would received a fine.

First of all I could not remember this episode, but then I realised what happened and I do not want to keep silent about the truth on this Blog.

In the Summer holidays I parked my car in front of a museum, to be able to pick up a book I had ordered (it was called "Art and Politics" and I needed it for my own book about lies and deceit). When I returned to my car a few minutes later a friendly gentleman spoke to me and said that I should have put money in the parking meter, but he had done this for me. Perhaps in return he could have a chat with me. A further friend arrived on the scene and we spoke about God, the world, and Zürich. As already mentioned it was Summer, no-one on the streets, also no cars. I found that during the conversation I did not have to pay any further parking dues as I was now carrying out a freight transport. No, said the friendly gentleman, transport of a book is not a freight transport, and a political book not at all. Then a lady came out of the museum and said "Mr. Leuenberger your wife has ordered two large paintings from us, could we perhaps put them in the boot of the car?". This was actually a mistake as my wife actually wanted to surprise me with these paintings. However in spite of this we put the paintings in the car and I said to the friendly gentleman " You see, it is now a freight transport". "That is true" he replied "but I have already paid the parking meter taxes for you, and the town of Zürich now has the money. By the way I am a policeman".

I kept this meeting a a good memory, even more as I must confirm that as driver I am not spared and have paid many fines in Zürich. I hope this confession does not give another story for the television

Until the next time

Moritz Leuenberger"

I sort of half watched the tv programme, my husband watched all and added that Moritz Leuenberger naturally refunded the money to the policeman that had filled up his parking meter. Here is a link to the blog in question. My comment is also included (the one mostly in English with a bit of German and Swiss-German),

That is one of the things I like about Switzerland - just one big happy family (nearly always)

reporting from Walt Disney land in the Alps

Taps was back in the office

Taps, my friends dog was back in the office yesterday. I made a short film (must remember not to talk so much when filming). He seems to be making himself at home slowly and quite enjoying himself. He has a nice sleep under the desk, gets lots of pats on the head from the girls in the office - he has moved in. He is now nine years old and is some sort of a retriever, but I am not so good on dog races. He has a new toy.

He also seemed to enjoy being photographed and let me take a close up of him. He definitely didn't disturb the work in the office. He is a very well behaved dog and most of the time was having a quiet lay down. He did attend one meeting, but didn't have much to say. It seemed that he was quite partial to croissants in the morning break.

Further to my blog yesterday in connection with the Swiss political situation, the story goes further today. The lady that became the candidate to replace the person that was no longer voted into the parliament, said she would give her decision this morning at eight o'clock whether she would accept or not. I had an appointment at the docs at 08.15 so I had just arrived at the parking house at 8.00 and was sitting in my car listening to the radio. Two cars away from me there was a young lady sitting in her car and I was sure she was doing the same. All's well that ends well, and the female candidate for the seat in our government said she would accept. I got out of my car at the same time as the other young lady who was sitting in her car and we both laughed and exchanged a few words on our satisfaction about the new member of the government. There is now quite a dispute about the whole thing in Switzerland.

Mr. Swiss did try to explain the details to me, but it is all so complicated. Someone did ask me how comes that you can just vote anyone into the government in Switzerland. Mr. Swiss said it is just part of the democracy that we are a free country and everything can be put to the vote. This makes the Swiss democracy a bit slow moving sometimes. If the government decide on something and you collect enough signatures against it then we all go voting to decided yes or no, with the result that we have 6 or 7 voting week-ends per year. Luckily we can also vote by post.

Of course to get popular enough to be voted into the government means you have to have a political party behind you, but it is possible and often happens in the annual government elections that always take place a couple of weeks before Christmas. If anyone is interested about what has happened now, you can read all about it on this link and click on the related stories, then you get the whole thing.

I am not very political really, I just know what I like and don't like. There is always a bit of excitement amongst us females in Switzerland when one gets voted into the government. Don't forget in Switzerland women only got the vote in 1971 and it is now the first time that 3 of the 7 members of the government are women.

Politics in Switzerland

Yes we do have them, although not very well known in the wide world. After all it only needs six hours to travel from West to East and four from North to South in Switzerland (by train or road of course, if the mountains were not in the way it would go a lot quicker).

Once a year we have voting for our country's government. Basically there are 7 ministers, all carefully chosen and they have to be from certain parties. Sort of 2 Socialists, 2 Conservative, 1 Christian and 2 peoples party. It is a bit of a thing with this people's party. Many years ago they were known as the farmer's party and it was good. The farming regions had their representatives in parliment and had their say of things - bearing in mind that a great deal of Switzerland is occupied by cows and therefore many farms. to go with them. However over the years a business man appeared on the political scene representing the people's party. He had very right wing views and decided it was time to get rid of certain foreign elements in the population. This is always popular with any country and many people decided he was our new "saviour". I took this all with a pinch of salt. At this time there were 2 from the Christian party in the government and 1 belonging to the people's party. This person became so popular with some rightwing elements of the Swiss population that he was voted as No. 2 of the people's party into the government and one of the christian party had to go.

This is the man I mean. Now today we had a nice little sensation in our houses of parliament at the annual voting of the parliament ministers. He was deselected. He did not obtain enough votes from the members of parliament to maintain his post as Minister. My husband phoned me at work to tell me the good news. Although loved by many in our country, not by all and I do not belong to his fans. At the same time a new minister for the parliament was voted for. A female who is very well-known, liked by many and her father was one of our earlier ministers, but now retired. She also belongs to the people's party, but as with all parties there are moderate politicians and extreme politicians. She is moderate and very popular. Our little country had one little problem. The lady in question did not expect to be voted as a minister today and she was not in the houses of parliament but somewhere else, so they had to find her and tell her. This took four hours (in such a small country). The second problem is would she accept or not. She has now been asked officially and said she needs time to think about it and will give her answer tomorrow. So we are all waiting for her answer.

If she says no (which I hope she doesn't) it means that the comedy starts again from the beginning. If the gentleman on the poster above is again suggested, it could be that his faithful disciples decide that everyone must be there to place their vote, and he gets in all the same.

Excitement in Switzerland, but like any other land, politics is just a dirty business some way or the other. Here is a picture of the lady in question - will she or will she not accept???

Trouble in Switzerland

Our government is quite a neat thing. Seven ministers, each one responsible for his department and a sort of assistant that looks after everyone. They are from different parties and all work together. Sort of a magic formular, 2 Socialists, 2 conservative, one christian party and 2 people's party basically speaking - just a rough translation. The gentleman second from the left is the one of the ministers in the peoples party. He had a good idea so he thought. He got all his patriotic party memebers together and said lets go marching through our capital city, so they did and this was the result.

Much to the disappointment of the lady 4th from the left in the white blouse who is a member of the socialist party and at the moment our President. We choose a new president every year from the selection as shown above. This year it was her turn. She is a grandmother and sometimes has some funny ideas.

I was just watching a political programme on tv about what happened and it wasn't very pretty. The people's party who are quite right wing went on their march through Bern singing their Swiss patriotic songs, waving their flags and some dressed up in patiotic colours of red and white. They even had a small goat leading the way. Their politician also marched with them.



At the same time a branch of another party decided to do a contra meeting. They called themselves the Black sheep as this word was used by the people's party to describe the people in Switzerland who according to their ideas, should not be there. They even had a bandstand with a pop music group.

The police got ready, armed with their shields, but unfortunately not with very much common sense. They probably thought it would be a good idea to see what was going on. It all started quite peacefully until a third group, with hoods and masked of course, decided to bring some life into the party. From what I heard from the interviews with them on the tv they were probably not exactly the best at being clever. However, what they could do was collect bricks and throw them at the people's party or at anyone that got in the way. The people's party then altered the route of their march and eventually ended up on the square in front of our parliament building, where a fight broke out. Unfortunately the police didn't know the route had been changed so they were waiting somewhere else. Now the action really got going and eventually the police did arrive and arrested about 50 people and the injured were cared for, luckily no fatal injuries and this in a country with seven million inhabitants.

Our president was naturally shocked. She was interviewed this evening on the tv and said that the whole thing gives a false picture of Switzerland in the world. I believe the New York Times brought full coverage on the front page. I am not very political and just watch from a distance, but it did disturb me a bit. Our farmers sometimes get worked up usuall about the prices they are paid for their produce, so they spread manure and straw in front of the parliament building once and then they all went home, but they didn't have a go at anyone with pitchforks.

So that was my report from a quiet week-end in Bern.