Does size matter? aka the Tr...p syndrome...
http://gallery.leica-users.org/v/Phileica/Playground/Engelberg-Horn+_amp_+Ph-300283.jpg.html
<http://gallery.leica-users.org/v/Phileica/Playground/Engelberg-Horn+_amp_+Ph-300283.jpg.html>
Another thing I learned there is that grass, holy cow, is sacred.
Amities
Philippe
> Le 7 juin 2017 à 14:18, Jan Steinman <Jan@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> a écrit :
>
>> From: "tOM Trottier" <tom@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
>>
>> On 6 Jun 2017 at 13:12 re:"Re: [OM] Donald. (Duck)..."
>>
>>> The Swiss context is somewhat different. For its size, the country has a
>>> huge army with little to do since nobody has bothered them since Napoleon,
>>> so they spend their time hiking around the mountains with their guns.
>>
>> Huge army. No invasion. Coincidence?
>
> I find Switzerland to be fascinating for so many reasons. Their “inverted”
> governance is refreshing. Much power goes to the Gemeinde (municipality), all
> the way down to immigration policy. Cantons (states or provinces) have a lot
> of power, too. The Federal government is actually quite weak. This means that
> certain areas have become havens for rich immigrants who lust after that red
> passport, paying millions to the local government for the right to live in
> safe seclusion.
>
> The Swiss military is interesting in its own right. They have universal
> conscription (for men, at least), and you serve in the reserve for life,
> unless you become disabled. You must maintain and keep an automatic weapon
> for your mandatory annual time in the reserves, which your employer is
> required to pay for. (Handguns are not allowed.) Your military record and the
> politics of the military are very important for getting and keeping a job.
>
> It’s a highly regimented society. At least when I lived there, doing laundry
> on Sunday was not allowed. We thought it was a joke, but one Sunday, while
> hanging laundry, an old lady on the next balcone was wagging her finger at us
> and making “tsk” sounds. A few weeks later, and our employer had a talk with
> us about how to behave as a “guest” in their country. He was a bit
> embarrassed at having to do this. This means: 1) we got turned in, and 2)
> someone in the government found it important enough to contact our employer
> and have them “do something” about it.
>
> On the other hand, during the year I was there, they only had five murders,
> and they were all foreigners. We had just come from New York City, a
> similar-sized population that could have five murders A DAY sometimes!
>
> I brought my roller-blades with me, which were looked down upon to the extent
> that a bus (run by the PTT, their post office system) tried to run me off the
> road! When I told the story at work, a colleague said (only half-jokingly),
> “Well, have you paid your tax on those?”
>
> “What do you mean?” I asked.
>
> “Anything that is not mandatory is not allowed. And anything that *is*
> mandatory is taxed.”
>
> The Swiss are great at ragging on themselves for this, telling such jokes
> often. Q: “Why does Switzerland have so little crime?” A: “We have six
> million policemen!” (Out of a population of six million, at the time.) It is
> said that Alexander Solzenitsen said, after a human rights conference is
> Geneva, that he couldn’t wait to get back to the Soviet Union, where he felt
> he had some freedom.
>
> On the other hand, the Swiss, while earning a reputation for stiff formality,
> are kind and honest. You had to push a button to get change from our coffee
> machine at work, which means that sometimes, someone would put in 50 rappen,
> get their coffee, and forget to get their change, leaving the digital display
> showing “0.15”. As a typical American, I would think, “My lucky day!” and put
> in 20 more rappen to get a coffee.
>
> So I was mollified one day when I went to the machine, and there on the table
> beside it was 15 rappen with a note: “Someone forgot to take their change.” A
> different place, indeed.
>
> All this was brought back when someone on mu43 was asking about what lenses
> to take on a Switzerland visit, prompting this article and photos:
>
> https://www.mu-43.com/threads/alpine-lens-choices.92215/page-2#post-1028876
>
> :::: Jan Steinman, EcoReality Co-op ::::
>
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