Switzerland: Wealth, Democracy, and a whole ton of Chocolate

I was in the Chicago airport a few weeks back and was a bit disappointed by the food offerings in the international terminal. There were basically three things to choose from: candy, alcohol, or chips. Now I'm no expert on nutrition, but I try to be one on Switzerland and guess what. In the pathetically slim food offerings in all of the international terminal at Chicago O'Hare, the Swiss dominated. Their chocolate was on the shelf. And not much else was.

You have to hand it to this country. They're smaller in population than the entire city of Chicago, and yet their products are on shelves in Chicago and around the world.

Yes. This country is facinating. Maybe you can tell I think so by the number of years I've been writing this blog now.

Anyhow, if you're new to Switzerland, considering moving to Switzerland, live in Switzerland, or just want to know more about the kind of people who eat (and probably sell) more chocolate than anyone else on earth, Expatica.com, a website for expats in Europe, is in the process of publishing a Swiss Survival Guide. Parts of the guide are already available online, including the introduction, which is written by yours truly. Read more about these rich, democratic, and traditional people here, in Welcome to Switzerland.

The New Swiss Beauty Queen in Crowned

Maybe it was just me and my bad Swiss German comprehension. But I could have sworn that Linda Faeh, who was crowned Miss Switzerland on Saturday night, didn't answer her final question correctly.

But who cares. She has blond hair and a nice smile. And apparently that's all that counts in these things.

Now perhaps this is unfair. The new Miss Switzerland is beautiful and could also be highly intelligent and who am I, a crappy German speaker, interpreting her Swiss German, to say she didn't quite get the question. Maybe she was just nervous and didn't realize that the final question was "A woman has fallen asleep for 20 years and now wakes up, what would she say about what has changed?" Instead she answered it like "A woman has fallen asleep for 20 years. What did she dream?"

To be fair to my German, the final two contestants answered this question like I thought it should be, proving that maybe I have half a German brain. They talked about the shock of seeing new technologies, etc, etc. But they lost. This brings me to point #2. Democracy.

Yes, you're probably wondering what the heck democracy has to do with Swiss Beauty Pageants, but like the rest of the overly-democratic country, it has a lot to do with it. The judging panel's vote only counted for 50%. The viewer's vote counted for the other 50%. (Although like everything else in Switzerland, democracy came at a price. 80 Rappen per vote via SMS, to be exact.)

So really, it was all a popularity contest, not a beauty contest. But I have to hand it to the Swiss. They know how to turn anything, event a beauty pageant on TV, into a money maker. So whoever has the richest and the most friends wins. It has nothing to do with intelligence or talent (there’s no talent show in case you’re wondering). But in this sense, it's not unlike most other things in life, really. This post was written on behalf of AffordableCallingCards.net. But as you can probably tell, it’s entirely my opinion.

And if anyone wants to argue with me on the final question from Saturday night, please do. Swiss German interpreters over French announcers (the event was held in Geneva this year) can make things even more difficult to comprehend for us non-native Swiss speakers.

Tune in next week on the ACC site for more of my thoughts on Swiss beauty pageants. And if you can’t wait (and who can blame you) click here to read my take on the Mister Switzerland pageant, held earlier this year. What do you think of Swiss Beauty Pageants? Or beauty pageants in general?