Swiss town denies passport to vegan campaigner 'for being annoying'

swiwi_ · 13-01-2017 03:20AM

kunst nugget wrote: »

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/switzerland-deny-passport-dutch-vegan-anti-cowbell-nancy-holten-animal-rights-annoying-a7520991.html

It's not the fact she's vegan that will be annoying the village. It will be her campaigning, and trying to impose or bring others round to her views.

As a naturalised Swiss, my experience is that the Swiss prize personal liberty very highly...provided you don't interfere with other people's ability to enjoy that same personal liberty.

The villagers wouldn't give a flying f*ck that she is vegan.

The animal rights activist has campaigned publicly against the local traditions of putting bells around cows’ necks and piglet racing

Right there is the problem. The Swiss will think she can f*ck right off with her campaigning. She can live in Switzerland, but she has no inherent right to become Swiss, Switzerland is not "desperate" for more Swiss citizens. If she wants the perceived privilege of being Swiss, she needs to know what being Swiss means: much more freedom than in Ireland to not follow "group think", you can be as weird and wacky as you want, but don't irritate other citizens by invading their personal space and free time with your vegan crusade.

Trying to lecture the rural farmers who highly prize all sorts of dairy and beef products etc is just going to end badly for her.

The Swiss can be quite stubborn, and they care a lot lot less about what other countries think of them, than say Ireland. You can read all the usual comments about "boring", "Nazis", "banks" etc, the Swiss just shrug, look around at their wealthy, peaceful, calm society and say "so what". Irritates the hell out of people, and there would be lashings of schadenfreude from other European countries if Switzerland went down the gurgler, but that's just the way it is.

jmayo · 13-01-2017 11:54AM

Capt'n Midnight wrote: »

If you want to hate them again then they are running a scam where all of Zambia's copper is exported on paper through a small village for tax avoidance reasons.

Scum.

They are great at laundering money for all sorts of dodgy characters and helping people avoid taxes.
Then again so are places like Caymans, Channel islands, Isle of Man, Liechtenstein and oh yeah Ireland to a certain extent.

Small nations and states with very little going for them as regards natural resources have found they are niches that they can fill for the big guys.
The Swiss have just been doing longer than most.

andekwarhola wrote: »

They're the Prince Philip of Europe: wealthy, intemperate curmudgeons but mordantly amusing.

They are certain things I like about the country.
They are probably the most able neutral country when it comes to defense and you can your hands on a proper gun.
Yet they have nowhere near the gun crime of the likes of US.
They allow a high level of local democracy.
The landscape is truly amazing.
Everything runs on time.
They don't give a shyte what others think of them.
Euthanasia (assisted suicide) is legal.
They used to have personal number plates that you could look up, ok it is a bit of a stalkerish thing but could be very handy tracking people.
And they make damn fine pocket knives.
Oh and I like the cheese.

Things I dislike about the place.
They are very anal about things like noise control and AFAIK all bikes have to be limited.
They actively provided war materials to the Nazis in WWII and helped keep their war machine going.
They tried to protect their banks and allow them keep keep millions from holocaust and other victims of WWII.
They have actively allowed their banks to hide the ill gotten gains of some of the most despicable despots in history.
They invented toblerone.

Zebra3 wrote: »

While you're at it, throw in Ford and General Motors.

Ehh and don't forget the Bushes

Lots of very rich individuals and companies made a lot of money out of WWII.

I could go all conspiracy theories here and talk about the links between industrialists/bankers on both sides and drag in Prince Bernhard of The Netherland and the subsequent founding of the Bilderberg Group.
Man that would take this thread in all sorts of directions.

Capt'n Midnight · 14-01-2017 11:53AM

OxfordColours wrote: »

You can't hate a whole nation of people, because of the actions of a single large corporate body?

The locals in the village of Ruschlikon voted to allow it. So they get a 2% change in local tax funded by a country where 60% live below the poverty line.