"Mountains tend to restrict the horizons of the mind," he once told for TIME'S Robert Kroon.

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/ar...908908,00.html

"They take our jobs, and they work too damn hard,"

SWITZERLAND: A Bout of Xenophobia

** Monday, Oct. 28, 1974


Read more: http://www.time.com/time/magazine/ar...908908,00.html

Do you think most of them they change the mentality in the last 26 years. Is just a question regarding xenophobia and I need some opinion.

Well, I can't stand Foreigner, and I like living in the Switzerland, so it must be true, isn't it?

What are you think?

An opinion on what exactly ? Just a few points to be considered :
- Less than 20% of the CH-population live in the mountains
- Xenophobia in CH always was up + down just as in the adjoining countries
- Opinion polls in Baden-Würt., Lombardy, Burgundy have the same results
- The most xenophobe parties are active in France + Austria
- The most xenophobe party in CH has its heartlands outside the mountains

Lunatics like Oehen exist in every country, and they haven't got it right. But one has to acknowledge that there is a problem. The foreigner percentage is actually more 23% afaik, not 18%. Switzerland has always been an immigration country in recent history, and immigrants are both the reason for its success and a cause for social distress. Some people are just overstrained by the transformation of the country. If you look at the infamous minaret vote, the regions that opposed most were the ones that had the least contact with islam. It's all about imaginary pictures in people's heads.

Hello. This was written in October 1974. That's over 36 years ago. Hence the figures are out of date. But the sentiments remain hold true. Valentin Oehen is now 80.

My opinion? It was prophetic...

Mountains are not the only geographic feature that isolate people and shape their mentality.

The USA is isolated by two oceans. Most people in the US have never been outside its borders. Now there is a huge anti-foreigner movement in the USA against foreigners either taking jobs (illegal Mexicans), or stealing their jobs and moving them overseas.

As an American myself I am aware of the complete isolation and "USA is the world" mentality. When you live there, nothing else exists outside of what you see on the TV, which is a very distorted picture, especially if you watch FOX.

That's all fine and well, except the USA is armed to the teeth, capable of invading and destroying countries, which it has done repeatedly over the past century.

Switzerland at least keeps its dysfunction within its borders.