Follow the Leader… or Maybe Not

by with No Comment CultureFeaturedGlobal

Spring has come and the Covid-19 is still with us, filling news reports and front pages. Bodies pile up in hospitals in some countries, in others extreme lockdown measures have enabled the virus spread to be limited, and the medical staff handles the situation bravely. The number of deaths all over the world is soon reaching, as I write, an appalling 200,000, for almost 3 million diagnosed cases. The USA amounts for a fourth of the fatal cases. 

Trump’s daily briefing points are an embarrassing comic relief in the tragedy whose ending is still unpredictable. He has now decided these press points are not “worth the effort,” and I do not know whether to be thankful or desolate. At a time when leadership and trust is most crucial, he fails to embody the strength and good sense Europeans relied on so many times in the past. It is like watching a gutter TV reality show, and obviously he knows a lot more about that than about empathy. Erratic syntax, limited vocabulary, references to absurdities like disinfectant injections (justified as sarcasm on the next day, ha ha) and promoting non-tested miracle cures, tantrums whenever the question is not to his liking, blatant lies and disinformation… all of these offer a sharp contrast with many (not all, looking at you, Brazil) governments’ response to the pandemic. 

In Switzerland, the federal councillor in charge of the Interior, Alain Berset, has uttered a phrase that is now the epitome of the crisis, “As quickly as possible, as slowly as necessary.” It is true that the idea of not rushing things is quintessentially Swiss, and we are often mocked for our slowness in many matters (driving, speaking or making decisions being a few). However, despite the crisis affecting many entrepreneurs and businesses, small and big alike, the Swiss people stick to this motto and mostly follow the recommendations as strictly as they did following the March 13th lockdown. Some shops are scheduled to open on April 27th, such as garden centres and hair salons, providing yet another test of the popular compliance with emergency circumstances.

Unlike in several American states, there are no demonstrations in the streets accusing our authorities of turning into tyrants or asking for our freedom back. No one here thinks we have been robbed of our liberty or imposed some sort of slavery, which is something I read on an American protester’s placard. As for now, the moment, the streets and parks are empty, in the supermarkets the distance rules are observed and students are patiently waiting for a decision to be made by the federal council about whether or not they will sit their matura exams (= high-school diploma, A levels). The decision will be made and announced this week, as quickly as possible, as slowly as necessary. Younger students will already go back to school on May 11, while high schoolers will have to wait until June 8th. 

As a teacher, I am looking forward to going back to school and seeing my students again. It’s been a month and a half now, and distance teaching/learning has become my new routine. I will not linger on how much time I spend adapting resources or modifying documents, trying to reach students who do not reply to emails or submit work for assessment. It is my job, and I do it in whatever conditions this crisis has imposed on us. I do it with my own children at home, waiting for me to entertain and play with them all day long. I do it in between baking and cooking, finger painting and seed planting, floor mopping and laundry folding, hide and seek and car playing. I do it at night, when the kids and my partner sleep. I do it. 

Nevertheless, I have observed what I already knew, but did not see in such proportion before: the amount of people who think teachers are lazybones who deserve their pay to be cut down for doing nothing all day and ostensibly bragging about it on their balcony or in their garden while others still go to work as normal. It looks like half the population thinks this way, judging by the comment sections of online newspapers. And they do not use words as kind as the ones I have chosen above to express their grudge. It saddens me to witness this lack of faith and trust in people who, after all, sometimes have to neglect their own children to make sure others’ get their daily or weekly supply of knowledge.  I have no access to my school buildings (homeless people have been accommodated in them), and I have over 100 students. I cannot, unlike my children’s primary school teachers, print and send, or deliver, files. We rely on the internet and the distance learning tools and programmes our department has chosen for us to work with. In just a week, we had to learn how to use them, get organised, alter programmes and adapt whatever was planned to this new situation. We did it. Well, to be honest, most of us did. 

Yet some parents (and some non-parents) are unhappy about our incongruous right to a salary when working from home. I read a mother accuse teachers of being Nazis in disguise for wanted to send her children to the gas chamber, aka the classroom. Of course I find it unbelievable to have the nerve to compare the final solution with trying to teach kids. But what I also cannot believe is the idea that the teachers have their word to say in this. We are employees, we do what our hierarchy tells us to do, (in that case, going to work), which is why another fraction of the population hates on us right now: we are like the blind SS, obeying orders against the general good. I did not choose the job thinking I was going to get praise and statues, but I am still stupefied by the constant outbreaks of hate and criticism. As teachers, our role today is to maintain a sort of normality, a routine of learning and understanding the world we live in, through remote connection with all these pupils and students whose parents have to worry about other concerns. We try to make sure they are OK, we let them know they can reach out to us in any case, and we reassure them. We give them homework, set up video calls and formative tests so they can move on and feel they are doing their part. We tell them they are important because they are the future, so they need to know things to make the right decision when it comes to them being in charge. 

I have already thought about the perfect activity for my students to practise their own criticism skills: I am going to show them a few pictures of these American protesters, and ask them what they think of that. Would they rather live in “dangerous freedom” rather than “peaceful slavery”? Why does the US resonate as some dystopian setting, reminding us alternatively of “The Handmaid’s Tale” when some compare the right to abortion to social distancing and wearing a mask, or “The Giver,” a novel by Lois Lowry presenting a society in which all differences have been suppressed —suggesting they fuel dangerous behaviours and crime—hence leading to a safe, but deprived of any free will, civilization. Inequalities are more than ever palpable amidst the pandemic, with the poorer populations paying too dear a price for their leaders’ lack of action. If only this crisis could make things change for the greater good, and erase some of these differences instead of intensifying them… 

The 6th American president, John Quincy Adams, said “If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, you are a leader.” In that respect, today’s teachers are much more real leaders than some presidents. 

ALABAMA ABORTION BAN IS TAKING WOMEN BACK TO THE DARK AGES

by with 3 Comments CultureFeaturedPolitics

As the news of the Alabama abortion ban reached my ears, I got shivers down my entire body. A body that I own, that I cherish–most days at least–, a body I now realize that some men think doesn’t actually belong to me.

Back in the Middle Ages, men were actually convinced women, dripping blood once a month, were the incarnation of Satan, orgasms were a devilish force men were warned not to release and the uterus was held responsible for every strange ailment women seemed to be so prone to displaying, such as… sadness. You would think people in 2019 know better. You would be mistaken then.

By denying women the right to own their bodies and to decide whether or not they feel ready to bring a child into this world, these men bring us back to these dark ages of ignorance and cruel patriarchy. By excluding rape and incest as valid reasons to deny women, and unfortunately sometimes girls, the right to overcome nature and make a rational decision, these men show how little they know about women, abortion and health. By implementing the heartbeat rule, they demonstrate their lack of awareness of basic biology. Unless you’ve been trying for a baby and are taking pregnancy tests regularly, or have a very regular cycle, 6 weeks is often the moment the pregnancy is discovered. I was 8 weeks pregnant when my gynecologist told me there was no heartbeat. After enduring a very traumatic surgical procedure to clear my uterus, as I was crying my heart out my (male) therapist told me, “You haven’t lost a baby. You’ve lost a fetus.” So it’s fine to rationalize when nature takes its course, but not when a woman takes control of her body? I never went back to this therapist. To this day, it remains one of the most unacceptable things I’ve been told because when you deeply want a baby, or when you get pregnant and feel ready to be a mother, the baby is not only in your belly, but also in your head, in your dreams, in your future.

On the other hand, when the pregnancy is not wanted or can’t be carried out willingly, it turns into a nightmare or a haunting dilemma. What should be taken into account is the potential wreckage of two lives, maybe more, compared to the benefits of constraining a woman to give birth. By refusing to acknowledge most women seeking abortions, especially in searing-poor areas and countries, are victims, and will probably struggle to come to terms with what they had to do, these men confirm that they, in fact, are not men: they are self-entitled idiots with bigotry-caked brains. Sadly, one of them was elected president of the United States, and rallied his peers, swarming over progress like maggots over an open wound. By refusing to accept that men are responsible for their own bodies as well perpetuates a supremacy based on one thing, and one thing only: the medieval fear of women.

Whether a rapist needs a knife, a gun or his hands around a woman’s neck to gain access to her genitals, whether an uncle or a family friend need threats and promises to convince a little girl not to tell anyone that they share a very special secret, whether a husband or boyfriend refuses the use of contraception or press for one more child, whether any religious leader or authority pretends that birth control is against His law, they are all committing the same act of violence against the very beings on whose existence our survival depends. Contraception does not always work, doctors are sometimes wrong, timing may not be adequate, and these are only a tiny portion of the reasons that may lead a woman to end a pregnancy. And you can take my word that any woman who had to undergo this is somehow scarred. Even if she knows there was nothing else she could do. The pro-life argument has to be about the woman in the first place, and empowering girls, giving them the assurance they can choose what is best for them, providing easy and safe access to contraception, ensuring both boys and girls get adequate sex-ed and the right talks on consent, mutual respect and dignity is the only way abortion numbers will fall. Criminalizing abortions will result in tragic deaths, suicides or illegal abortions. Angel makers will operate in backrooms at the cost of human lives, again.

Actress Alyssa Milano suggested a sex strike. What if tomorrow women decided to go on reproductive strike? What if the access to a woman’s reproductive organs were denied indefinitely? What if women decided to force vasectomy on all men by passing a bill stating that males don’t know what they’re doing with themselves and need to be put under strict control, without exception? Or what if we decided to offer these men the Godly mission of caring for all those abandoned children waiting for parents in orphanages? After all, that would solve so many problems, all at once. I have never, ever, heard of a place where men abide by women’s decisions regarding their sexuality. I wish such a place didn’t exist, to be honest. Because the only person who is allowed to make decisions regarding their body and organic functions is the person who lives in that body. Women need to stick together and fight back against this retrograde oppression. And if there’s one thing that is even more unbelievable than a bunch of male politicians imposing such a senseless decision in order to “protect life”, it is women sharing their point of view.

At some point in my life, I had to make the hardest decision of all. I did get an abortion. My doctor had told me there was no way I would ever get pregnant without strong medication. I had already had a miscarriage, so after years of infertility, it felt as if nature was playing the cruelest trick on me. With a future father who chickened out of the picture as fast and sneakily as he could, a family who was appalled at the situation and studies to complete, my choice was the rational one. I was not going to make so many people, including an innocent child, suffer. I still think about it when I look at my beautiful sons, who wouldn’t have been born if I hadn’t made this heartbreaking decision back then. Nurses, doctors, anesthesiologists, counsellors… they were all sorry for me and knew how lonely and desperate I was. A few years later, I sought advice and group therapy helped a lot to appease my grief and guilt. I’m glad and proud to say that in Switzerland, there are measures to protect women who seek such procedures, which are performed in hospitals or private clinics (abortion clinics don’t exist) and paid for by health insurance, and no one is hurling abuse at women entering these facilities to make them suffer through their “walk of shame.” If there were, I’d take my sons and my students there to teach them about dignity, freedom and solidarity. 

Brexit: The Predictable Divorce?

by with 2 Comments FeaturedGlobal

Back in December 1992, Swiss voters refused to join the EU, and many lamented that Switzerland was going to be an island in the centre of Europe, soon isolated and helpless. Again rejected in 2001 and 2014, potential membership stayed pending until 2016, when it was officially cancelled. Last year, the world witnessed Great Britain choosing to cut loose from the EU. The Swiss were not surprised. 

If there is one thing Brexit is teaching us, it is that no economic and political breakup can happen without hurting. Not a day passes without stories of torn families, aborted career hopes and abandoned plans. The consequences are devastating and heartbreaking, even though Brexit supporters keep repeating there was no other way out. When the relationship loses its balance, it is time for a divorce.

When it had the choice, Switzerland refused to commit to the EU, despite going on several dates along the years, securing beneficial treaties while refusing the downsides of an exclusive marriage. Those who predicted the continental island was going to regret it had to admit they predicted wrongly. Too afraid of losing their identity, the Swiss preferred to wait and see whether they had really missed the boat to their honeymoon. 

The UK refusing to adopt the common currency, the Euro, was undoubtedly a strong move and a very symbolic one. While many countries struggled to counter the effects of the introduction of the Euro, the UK proudly kept their Queen’s portrait in their wallet. The power of the Swiss franc was definitely an argument against the bond.

Similarities can be seen between the USA and the UK in terms of what is at stake, and although the reactions and suggested solutions differ, the idea of sacrificing one’s happiness for the common good is hard to handle for those who think that being patriotic means being separated. The 2017 Catalonia debacle is yet another example of the rise of political and ideological divorces.

A crucial element to its uniqueness, Switzerland’s protective attitude towards its independence dictated the refusals, even when the dowry seemed attractive. Today, many people feel relieved they get to be the shoulder on which to cry instead of the estranged other. They feel sorry for the UK, but cannot help but thinking “We knew it was going to happen.” 

Similar Read: God Save the Queen: The Demise of a Regime

God Save the Queen: The Demise of a Regime

by with 3 Comments FeaturedGlobal

Our future at a standstill yet again. Brits really are living in a really tedious and overdrawn episode of Black Mirror. Instead of riding the crest of the wave of Brexit, we are very much drowning in its turbulence, our surf board bashing us in the face as it flails behind us. And yet I’m still trying to decide how I feel about it all, including Theresa May’s leadership. After all, she has had to steer a ship she didn’t want to be built in the first place.

Just a reminder as to why Britons are in despair over Brexit. If and how we leave the EU will determine the fate of the UK’s economy. Whilst countries such as Norway thrive outside the EU, the UK has built an economy based on an open market. Without absolutely any viable plan even being proposed for how we can make Brexit a success, the next 10 years is likely to be grim. Whilst our politics isn’t anywhere near as parody worthy as that occurring in the USA, the sting of our losses is continually being felt. 

Even with us being in limbo, we have already felt the impact of Brexit in the U.K. The pound is worth less than the Euro for the first time that I can remember. House prices have stagnated in London. The economy is predicted to shrink and foreign investment have either avoided us or pulled out. As an advisor to our National Health Service (NHS), I personally worry about maintaining our free accessible public healthcare system. The level of healthcare that is available free of charge in the UK is astounding. Cutting edge cures for cancer that would otherwise require life savings, pediatric spinal surgery, no qualms emergency treatment, HIV medicines, all available on the NHS. To see this potentially privatised resulting in denied equal access to thousands would perhaps be one of the greatest travesties to come out of Brexit.

Extra money for the NHS was one of many broken promises from the Brexit campaign we are still reeling from. If I had to name one positive from the campaign of lies that had been masqueraded on the side of an iconic red London bus, it would have to be what we have learned with hindsight. We have learned that it is easy to dupe even the cynical, supposedly educated British public. That pandering to xenophobia unites voters from both ends of the class spectrum. That we have strict advertising rules for multivitamins yet absolutely no safeguards to protect us from reckless, misleading claims from politicians. Even more astoundingly, that Jeremy Corbin, (leader of the main opposing party) also backed to leave the EU and no one has batted an eyelid.

As much as I shouldn’t, I can’t help but feel saddened by our lost status in the world. I’m not one to depict the UK as Royal Britannia on her chariot gracing her commonwealth subjects whilst eating scones with clotted cream and earl grey tea. However, I already miss the comfort in knowing that our politics were generally going to be somewhat centred. The time when we could roll our eyes, tut and say ‘ah, the rest of the world. What are they like?!’ I’ll say it, I miss our politics being dull. And now we take centre stage in our own slapstick amateur hour in political leadership. The chariot is now on fire and being led by blind horses hurtling towards the sea.

Currently, we are at another crossroads with a second referendum to stay/leave, early general election, no deal exit or renegotiation all on the cards. Unusually we are in a position where it is better to look back at what’s happened rather than attempting to look forward. As a young Brit living in London, it’s difficult to decide how I feel. Is this karma for the British Empire? Should we be aspiring to be like Norway/Switzerland? Have the experts got it all wrong? Or perhaps this a sinking ship and we just need to evolve into fish people to survive. And with the above being said, no Theresa. You have not done a good job.

Similar Read: The Predictable Divorce

The Delicate Art of Compromise

by with 4 Comments FeaturedGlobalPolitics

There are numerous parallels between the USA and Switzerland, a small country niched in the centre of the European continent. Both rely on federalism, both had to fight to gain or preserve their independence, and both have a huge number of weapons in circulation among the civil population. However, this is pretty much all there is to compare. Over the last couple of years, it has become obvious there is one characteristic these two nations do not share, and this is the art of compromise.

If Swiss citizens are allowed to keep their armed service rifle at home, it is strictly forbidden to own matching ammunition. Permits are delivered according to strict rules and security checks. Over the last 18 years, there have been very few mass shootings, resulting in less than 20 victims. However, army weapons tend to be used in suicides and when killing happens within the family or private circle. Swiss citizens rely very little on weapons when it comes to their own protection, but rather on private alarm systems and quick police intervention.

This peaceful approach to safety and crime is probably best mirrored in the political system and traditions of Switzerland. The seven members of the Conseil Fédéral (Federal Council) are elected by their party and each year, one of them is elected President. The major parties are usually represented according to a stable blend of political affiliation hence ensuring a balanced government. The Chambers are similarly constituted. Whereas the American campaign for presidency showcases the traditional battle between Republicans and Democrats, the Swiss live and swear by compromise. This is a very Swiss thing to disagree but go with the flow anyway. It does not mean each Swiss citizen is happy with the way things are, it is more a matter of submission to the supreme authority, the People, who regularly vote despite an obvious cultural, linguistic and social discrepancy.

Far from perfect, this system nevertheless allows people with different origins, languages, creeds and traditions to live quite peacefully together. Looking at what is happening to Switzerland’s neighbour France with the Yellow Vests Movement, or to the USA since the shutdown, it is only fair to wish they could function with compromise as well. This requires strong egos to back down and minor voices to rise, so they can meet halfway.

But the question remains, is it what powerful leaders are after? From the outside, it seems like the shutdown has nothing to do with the people, but embodies the personal and selfish victory –or defeat—one man will meet. Decisions need to be made, and what is at stake is not whether or not one man is right, but the wellbeing of thousands of people. Compared to the hundreds of migrants pouring into Europe, fleeing armed conflicts, famine and hopelessness, the USA cannot be fearing an invasion. As a nation of immigrants, who settled in the immensity of a country that already belonged to its Native peoples, the USA have a duty never to forget how they became to be.

Borders, walls, fences, and limits have probably always existed and today can still be admired as the stone ghosts of their builders’ will to protect themselves: the Great Wall of China, Hadrien’s Wall, Berlin’s Wall, or their ideological counterparts, the Iron Curtain, the Swiss Röstigraben* among others. Some know there is already a wall between the USA and Mexico, as depicted by the American writer T.C. Boyle in his 1995 novel “América”, the Tortilla Curtain rises between those who dream of a better future and those who seclude themselves in their gated communities to avoid contact with the invader. As the novel shows, the enemy is not always the stranger, and evil can grow its roots among the “rightful” ones.

No system, no regime, no government has ever been labeled perfect, but as the time comes, people can make a difference. As with children fighting over a toy, waiting for politicians to reach a compromise requires patience and understanding. But meanwhile, it requires people who work to receive the salary they deserve too. And this is why the art of compromise works in Switzerland: no one is left without a benefit. 

*Imaginary line separating French-speaking and German-speaking parts of Switzerland, alluding to a typical dish made of grated potatoes.