after moving here from the usa i feel how much better it is to live here. also we are much more free. i just think we should keep everything the way it is with no change in ethnicity. i do however believe we could use some more architectural review as i do like the medieval styles (most of which were still being built in the early modern era). if i were president of switzerland i would ban ugly buildings in favor of old ornate styles.

I'd prefer it to be, in the main, as it once was. Cleanliness everywhere, unlittered pavements and grass verges, with little traffic, lots of window boxes in summer, uncrowded trains, hardly any crime, no fast-food ugliness, people reading books instead of gazing into 'phone screens, no concreted-over shopping 'palaces', proper, comfortable restaurants with decent menu cards, real beer, people who complained when the general infra-structure was damaged, people who cleared the snow away outside their homes,shop apprentices who washed the pavements outside the shops in the evenings, houses that looked as though they must be lovely to live in - and so on.

Not that many things haven't changed for the better but an old, seldom, talented, precious and caring culture has been replaced (as everywhere) by a society of non-stop consumers.

In my opinion.

I think most things that make up Swiss society will have to change well before Switzerland brings in a presidential system of government ...

Yes, and could we go back to CHF20 to the UK pound while we're at it??

I have to agree with Busby... even just 4 or 5 years ago the country felt so much safer! but specially once politicians passed that stupid criminal law the crime has alarmingly increased; and those youngsters littering and behaving improperly? their ancestors (if they are swiss) would be extremely disappointed.

Be careful what you wish for. You might very well be on that list of things the Swiss wish would go home because you've ruined the country.

a) 4-5 years? Let's go back to the 90s, when Zurich was Europes center for heroine junkies. What a clean and cosy city it was! Especially the "needle park"!

b) Crime rising? The rate is actually dropping... but facts usually get lost in all the criminal foreigner propaganda.

You mean as ornate as these lovely buildings :


Castelgrande



Castello di Montebello



Castello di Sasso Corbaro



Murata






beside the facts that there A) is no "president" in Switzerland (except the one of the SNB), and that B) construction-regulations are NOT a Federal but a Cantonal matter, and C) that laws are decided by the Cantonal and Federal parliaments

i love switzerland is could be a bit more outgoing i guess :P

Didn't work out so well for a particular guy in recent history.

Racist, go home.

But they're so OLD!

And I go past them so often!

Tom

...and that comes from an american??? oh the irony

Nothing stays the same in this lightning fast information tech world.The beauty of switzerland is the incredible control of the rate of change.The ethnicity comment is one of wanting a homogenous bland society and even the swiss people(most of them)don't want.

I'd bring back Neanderthals and deport the rest. I'd get rid of trains buses cars etc
and bring Zurich back to life!