We are All Foreigners in America Today

Yodelers: Happy New Year. Today’s your last chance to party with the elites in Davos. Luckily you can still party like one at any time of year—especially if Davos is practically in your backyard like it must be for many of you. To see Davos as world leaders do, Yours Truly put together some tips for CNN Business Traveller on this Switzerland travel opportunity that you can read here.

Speaking of world leaders, The Frau has never woken up the night before an American presidential inauguration feeling physically sick. She only has one word for that. Sad!

But in all seriousness, she is truly frightened for her country right now. The only thing that gives her hope is that the majority of Americans did not vote for this buffoon and that the majority seem to be stepping up to prove it tomorrow at the women’s marches across the nation. There is even a march in Geneva, Switzerland, Yodelers. All of this makes The Frau feel better.

This recent (and upcoming) American strangeness also makes The Frau feel less like a foreigner in her own country than she did after moving back two years ago from Switzerland. When over half your country also seems confounded by its bizarre direction it makes the last stages of repatriation a little easier somehow. 

Together, we are all foreigners in America these days. (This phenomenon is also making one of The Frau’s next book projects, American Life: 30 Things I Wish I’d Known, an even more interesting thing to write than she ever expected. Hopefully, that book will be ready in 2018.)

Well, here we go, America. Keep The Frau in your thoughts, Switzerland.

Sex Boxes in Zurich

The Frau almost made the international news on Monday night when an editor at The Wall Street Journal contacted her to discuss Zurich’s latest development in prostitution: the sex boxes in Zurich Alstetten. These opened for the first time on Monday night, giving prostitutes a legal place to do their business. If you haven’t seen photos of them, imagine a bunch of Swiss bus stops made out of wood and put in a line back to back. Or see a photo and read more about them here.

Anyway, why The Frau of all people was contacted to talk about prostitution in Zurich is yet to be determined, but in any case, she missed her chance since it was her “big mom night out” and she was swimming at Zurich’s Hallenbad.

But it got her thinking about Zurich’s new sex boxes and stark difference in the way the Swiss have reacted to them in comparison with the rest of the world.

On Monday, the topic of Swiss sex boxes was featured in about every paper around the world—with the exception many Swiss ones. Even Blick am Abend, the local Swiss tabloid that loves sex like no other newspaper, had no mention of the sex boxes in its Monday evening edition. Instead, Lady Gaga graced the cover.

The NZZ, the Zurich equivalent of The Wall Street Journal, had an article about the sex boxes—but it was regarding the rest of the world’s fascination with them.

Here’s the thing, Rest Of The World: For the Swiss, sex boxes aren’t a new discussion. They are a practical solution to an old problem.  While the rest of the world is making jokes or pushing taboo problems further under the rug, the Swiss are making both their own neighborhoods and the world’s oldest profession safer.

The Swiss are matter-a-fact and realistic. They engineer everything—even prostitution. While the rest of the world is tittering over this so-called “taboo topic” like teenagers, the Swiss have moved on to conquering the next one through referendums.

To the Swiss way of thinking—people will do “taboo” things no matter what. Better to legalize them and make them safe then pretend they don’t exist or spend millions putting people in prison for them. There's a reason there isn't much crime in Switzerland. It's because the Swiss give people safe places to do so-called illicit things. As a foreigner in Switzerland, The Frau can’t vote. But if she could, it would give a big “yes” to most of these progressive ideas. Yes- Give the prostitutes beds with policemen and social workers nearby. Yes- Give the druggies clean needs. And yes- Give the people who want to die access to the drugs to be able to do so. 

What do you think of Switzerland's legal activities?

Why America Should Do Nothing About Syria

Sometimes The Frau gets fed up with the Swiss press. For instance, Monday night there was an article in Blick am Abend with the headline, "What is Obama doing?" (Was macht Obama?). A photo of a frustrated Obama accompanied the article along with an American warplane. The article discussed the Syrian war and what Obama was doing wrong.

Now The Frau realizes getting upset over a Blick article is like getting upset over a piece in Star Magazine or something, but still.

The Frau is tired of everyone else’s problems being America’s problems. No wonder America can’t solve its own problems. They are too busy getting blamed for the rest of the world’s.

To this particular article, “What is Obama doing?”, The Frau wanted to scream—what about you, Switzerland? You’re rich. What the heck are you doing about Syria? Why are you waiting for Obama to act if you think he’s doing a bad job?

The Frau loves Switzerland. It’s so perfect. It gives women paid maternity leave. It offers workers amazing unemployment benefits such as 70% of your salary for 18 months. It’s safe. It’s clean (except for all the cigarette butts). The Frau can take advantage of all of these things while living here as an American. But her American friends in the U.S. don’t have all of these things.

Why? Because America is too busy taking care of the world to take care of themselves.

So the time has come, America, to face the fact that your own problems have become too big to add the rest of the world's to your agenda.

It’s time to solve violence, unemployment, and poverty at home. And the only way to do that is to leave the rest of the world alone. Even if it means letting down wealthy countries like Switzerland, who want you to act so they don’t have to.

Thanks. 

Stereotypes in the mainstream press

Hello yodelers

A Swiss blogger living in Texas, author of True America(n), recently wrote me an email suggesting that perhaps there is even more going on in some of these so-called news pieces I’ve posted than what I’ve previously mentioned.

He is right. So I would like to open up this discussion and see what you think as well.

The media can be dangerous, particularly magazines, newspapers, and TV news that we read or watch casually, like Blick am Abend.

While I find it endlessly interesting to understand the European view of the U.S. by reading publications here, it can also be somewhat disturbing if you look deeper.

Here’s the Swiss blogger’s view of the article here. He is also responding to my recent posting of it:

I admire your viewing this as just a cultural difference and understand why others in the comments don't get it. What we’ve really got here is the stereotype and subtle propaganda you can find in every newspaper in Europe. It is the daily dose of Anti-Americanism in Europe since 1776. That's how the European press fosters a special image about the United States and Americans, for centuries and for various reasons.

So, what about this little innocent article? There is no real information, nothing newsworthy about it. There is only one reason for it: Keep a certain image alive about the U.S. and Americans. Let’s take a closer look at the caption and this first sentence. Europeans see Las Vegas as something "childish, silly, ridiculous" and also "fake, not genuine" or like many things in Vegas as a "copy" of something original in the old world. Las Vegas serves as a moniker in this text for those adjectives. In your translation, you also missed the German "immer", or „always.“ Its position in the sentence also puts stress on it. This little word actually pulls the whole sentence out of the context and becomes a general statement. Here's what people understand when they read this first sentence: "Americans are always childish and everything is fake."

As an American, I do find that this stereotype exists a lot in the press here. And I think it is dangerous to people who don’t understand both sides. American and Swiss cultures are very different—friendly and exuberant versus private and discreet. Nothing is wrong with either, except when we fail to try to understand the differences. It is unfortunate that a lot of mainstream media prefers stereotyping to in-depth stories that help us better understand the world. The American press is guilty of this as well. In fact, I think a lazy press is to blame for a lot of the issues in the world today.

What do you think?

Not a time to celebrate

I heard the news from Swiss radio first: "Osama bin Laden ist tot."

"Really? They finally got him?" These were my thoughts as I lay in bed. Surprise. Disbelief. And finally, hope that the world will be a safer place.

And then I went to the NewYorkTimes.com and CNN.com and saw photos of Americans around the U.S. celebrating Osama's death with flags, fireworks, and cheers.

And then my hope was gone.

Have we learned nothing over the last ten years? Shame on people for celebrating death so outwardly. And double shame on the media for posting these photos on the Internet for the world to see.

Of course, following this story was another piece about how the terror level is even higher.

Yep. Instead of reacting in a way that would not feed a terrorist's motives any more than necessary, we celebrated in a way that would make them hate us even more.

Perhaps Americans abroad have a different view of these kind of events than those back home. If I had billions to donate to a cause, I would make sure all Americans could experience a world outside of their borders.

Until then, I guess the celebrations will continue.

What do you think?