Thursday, January 26, 2012
Wednesday, January 4, 2012
CYCLISTS NO LONGER NEED TO BUY BICYCLE STICKERS
Friday, 30 December, 2011, 14:07
End of the road for bicycle stickers
As of Sunday, mandatory bicycle insurance stickers will no longer be required in Switzerland.
For decades, the “vélo vignettes” have been a presence on Swiss bike frames—or at least they should have been.
Each year, cyclists were obliged to buy a sticker for six francs, which provided liability insurance for accidents.
But earlier this year Parliament voted to do away with the stickers.
Centre-right parties argued they were no longer necessary as 90 percent of the population is covered for bike accidents under their personal liability insurance.
Pro-cycling campaigners argued in vain that this would leave 10 percent of cyclists uninsured. They also said it would make it more difficult to trace lost or stolen bikes.
One insurance company has warned that uninsured cyclists could be liable for hundreds of thousands of francs in damages in the event of an accident.
http://worldradio.ch/wrs/news/wrsnews/end-of-the-road-for-bicycle-stickers.shtml?28313
For decades, the “vélo vignettes” have been a presence on Swiss bike frames—or at least they should have been.
Each year, cyclists were obliged to buy a sticker for six francs, which provided liability insurance for accidents.
But earlier this year Parliament voted to do away with the stickers.
Centre-right parties argued they were no longer necessary as 90 percent of the population is covered for bike accidents under their personal liability insurance.
Pro-cycling campaigners argued in vain that this would leave 10 percent of cyclists uninsured. They also said it would make it more difficult to trace lost or stolen bikes.
One insurance company has warned that uninsured cyclists could be liable for hundreds of thousands of francs in damages in the event of an accident.
http://worldradio.ch/wrs/news/wrsnews/end-of-the-road-for-bicycle-stickers.shtml?28313
Thursday, December 15, 2011
THE TRAILING SPOUSE
15 December 2011 Last updated at 00:03 GMT
How an overseas job can affect family life
By Kim Gittleson BBC News, New York
Imagine finding a family home in four days flat in a town you've never been to. Now imagine that involves moving country, too.
That's something Nicki Thorogood knows all about.
In the autumn of 2008, her husband's company said it wanted him to move from England to New York, starting in January - four months later.
Nicki moved almost immediately because she didn't want to make her three children uproot themselves halfway through the school year.
"Basically, I moved with the boys on my own into a house, into a town, into a country I didn't know," she says. The transition hasn't been easy.
While Nicki says her children were treated like "rock stars" at their new school, she had to leave her job at a childcare centre and found suburban life to be a struggle.
Now, more than three years later, her house in a New York suburb is filled with images of the union jack, and she still dreams of returning to England.
"I'm torn between going home and staying," she says. "If someone said I've got a one-way ticket, I'd take it."
Given such high stakes, companies from Shell to Dupont are looking at the factors that can lead to successful stints abroad for their employees. A happy spouse has long been, and continues to be, the best predictor of a successful move.
"The number one reason for assignment failure is the family's inability to acclimatise and adjust to the new location," says Andrew Walker, the director of global mobility at WorleyParsons, which oversees more than 3,000 employees who move abroad.
"As long as I've been in field, it's been an issue," he says. "But it's only within the last five or 10 years that organisations have been more pro-active about addressing it."
On average, about 80% of expatriate workers move with their spouses.
As recently as 20 years ago, most of these so-called "trailing spouses" were women who stayed at home with the family.
But over the past decades, more and more are looking to find work.
Kathleen van der Wilk-Carlton, the director of the Permits Foundation, which lobbies governments to allow spouses to get work visas, warns: "Employers ignore this at their peril."
Career coaching
Finding a job as a trailing spouse is difficult - and it's getting harder.
According to a 2011 study of global employment trends, 60% of trailing spouses were employed before relocating, but only 15% found work after they moved - down significantly from the peak in 2006.
"This is a huge problem for corporations because they are now finding it increasingly difficult to find a significant talent pool candidate to staff these overseas assignments and these transfers internationally," says Scott Sullivan, executive vice-president at Brookfield Global Relocation Services, which produced the report.
Brigitte Hug, who runs Dupont's global relocation office in the US, says that the company tries to tailor relocation packages to the employee, and that the package typically includes some sort of career coaching both before and after the move, as well as relocation support and job assistance for spouses.
But even though the number one reason for assignment failure is spousal unhappiness, only 18% of spouses felt they had been adequately supported by their partner's companies, according to a 2009 survey conducted by the Permits Foundation.
Thursday, December 1, 2011
No mercy for naked Swiss hiker
Photo credit: Guido H. (File)
Published: 17 Nov 2011 14:41 GMT+1
Switzerland’s Supreme Court dealt a fierce blow to naked hikers on Thursday as it sided with an eastern canton that fined a 47-year-old man for strolling unclothed through the mountains.
The court was far from unanimous, with a verdict eventually reached by three votes to two.
Ultimately though, the Supreme Court ruled that the decision by canton Appenzell-Ausserrhoden to ban naked hillwalking was not unconstitutional.
“It is not arbitrary [on the canton’s behalf] to consider naked hiking in public a gross breach of decency and convention,” the court said.
The case began when a woman reported to police seeing a naked man wandering near a picnic area where she and her family were seated in Appenzell-Ausserrhoden in October 2009. Local authorities fined him 100 francs ($109), but the naturist refused to pay.
His case was heard by the cantonal court in Appenzell in May 2010. He admitted he had been hiking without clothes, a practice he said he had indulged in for two years, but denied he had been acting indecently.
The judge acquitted him, arguing that the case was beyond the canton's jurisdiction since the Swiss Penal Code regulates all crimes involving sexual integrity.
But the prosecutor decided to take the case to the court of appeals, which disagreed with the acquittal, concluding it was the duty of the local authorities to uphold public morality and ordering the man to pay 200 francs ($218) for “indecent behaviour.” It was this ruling that prombted the hiker to take the case to the Supreme Court.
In recent years, nudist hikers have become much more common in Switzerland, with German naturists in particular often crossing the border for mountain walks.
Tired of seeing people walking naked in their mountains, citizens of the canton voted overwhelmingly to ban the practice on April 26th 2009. Nudist hiking is not outlawed in the rest of the country.
The Local (news@thelocal.ch)
Published: 17 Nov 2011 14:41 GMT+1
Switzerland’s Supreme Court dealt a fierce blow to naked hikers on Thursday as it sided with an eastern canton that fined a 47-year-old man for strolling unclothed through the mountains.
The court was far from unanimous, with a verdict eventually reached by three votes to two.
Ultimately though, the Supreme Court ruled that the decision by canton Appenzell-Ausserrhoden to ban naked hillwalking was not unconstitutional.
“It is not arbitrary [on the canton’s behalf] to consider naked hiking in public a gross breach of decency and convention,” the court said.
The case began when a woman reported to police seeing a naked man wandering near a picnic area where she and her family were seated in Appenzell-Ausserrhoden in October 2009. Local authorities fined him 100 francs ($109), but the naturist refused to pay.
His case was heard by the cantonal court in Appenzell in May 2010. He admitted he had been hiking without clothes, a practice he said he had indulged in for two years, but denied he had been acting indecently.
The judge acquitted him, arguing that the case was beyond the canton's jurisdiction since the Swiss Penal Code regulates all crimes involving sexual integrity.
But the prosecutor decided to take the case to the court of appeals, which disagreed with the acquittal, concluding it was the duty of the local authorities to uphold public morality and ordering the man to pay 200 francs ($218) for “indecent behaviour.” It was this ruling that prombted the hiker to take the case to the Supreme Court.
In recent years, nudist hikers have become much more common in Switzerland, with German naturists in particular often crossing the border for mountain walks.
Tired of seeing people walking naked in their mountains, citizens of the canton voted overwhelmingly to ban the practice on April 26th 2009. Nudist hiking is not outlawed in the rest of the country.
The Local (news@thelocal.ch)
Monday, October 31, 2011
Sunday, October 23, 2011
Crazy cows attack Alpine hikers
Photo credit: Brendan Gogarty (File)
Published: 24 Aug 2011 14:25 GMT+1
Updated: 24 Aug 2011 13:56 GMT+1
Updated: 24 Aug 2011 13:56 GMT+1
Switzerland's spell of sizzling weather seems to have left Alpine cattle a bit hot under their cowbell collars. For the second time in a couple of weeks, hikers in Canton Graubünden have been attacked by cows nursing newborn calves.
In the latest incident, a cow attacked a man and two women who were hiking in the Dreibündstein region on Sunday near Chur in south-eastern Switzerland, Blick newspaper reported.
The animal first went after the man with its horns, according to police. The two women who tried to escape to get help were then also attacked and injured. Swiss air rescue services (Rega) flew the injured parties to hospital.
Another cow who had recently calved attacked hikers on August 14th on Alp Maises. One woman was injured and a man who came to her aid was also attacked by the cow. The hiking trail leads through fenced pasture.
Bündner agricultural authorities recommend hikers, but also farmers, to stick to certain codes of conduct.
Anyone coming into contact with cattle is advised to keep a safe distance, while calves should not be touched under any circumstances. Also, dogs are to be kept on their leads except in emergencies.
Saturday, October 22, 2011
"Heidi" shot in New Zealand
Photo credit: YouTube screenshot
Heidi ad shot in New Zealand angers Swiss
Published: 13 Jul 2011 16:01 GMT+1
Updated: 13 Jul 2011 11:25 GMT+1
Updated: 13 Jul 2011 11:25 GMT+1
A TV commercial advertising a Swiss milk brand called “Heidi” was shot in New Zealand, a move that has angered Swiss tourism officials in the real Heidiland.
The commercial, portraying a typical Swiss setting with a merry Heidi frolicking in the bucolic Alps surrounded by peaceful cows, was actually shot in New Zealand using a local actress and local animals, said a report on the 20 Minuten newspaper.
Migros, the Swiss supermarket chain that commissioned the advert, argued that it needed a summer setting and filming had to take place place during the Swiss winter in 2004.
The move angered officials in Switzerland’s Heidiland, a popular tourist area stretching between Bad Ragaz and Amden.
“It's not very logical,” Björn Caviezel, the head of Heidiland Tourism, told 20 Minuten.
“We could have provided an ideal setting for Migros. And perhaps we could have mutually benefited from the situation. Also, coming here from Zurich is certainly a lot cheaper than a 24-hour flight to New Zealand," said Caviezel.
External link(s):
Migros Heidi advert »
source:
The commercial, portraying a typical Swiss setting with a merry Heidi frolicking in the bucolic Alps surrounded by peaceful cows, was actually shot in New Zealand using a local actress and local animals, said a report on the 20 Minuten newspaper.
Migros, the Swiss supermarket chain that commissioned the advert, argued that it needed a summer setting and filming had to take place place during the Swiss winter in 2004.
The move angered officials in Switzerland’s Heidiland, a popular tourist area stretching between Bad Ragaz and Amden.
“It's not very logical,” Björn Caviezel, the head of Heidiland Tourism, told 20 Minuten.
“We could have provided an ideal setting for Migros. And perhaps we could have mutually benefited from the situation. Also, coming here from Zurich is certainly a lot cheaper than a 24-hour flight to New Zealand," said Caviezel.
External link(s):
Migros Heidi advert »
source:
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