ZURICH BRIEFING February 2005

News this month

Running the asylum

Although Switzerland has banned asylum-seekers from working during their first three months in the country, Zurich—home to 17% of the country's total—will not follow suit. The canton began a pilot programme in 2003 that lets immigrants work for a small “motivational” payment that does not exceed Sfr400 ($337) per month. Controversially, the canton recently voted to continue the programme.

Monika Stocker, head of the city's social-affairs department, says that the general fate of the country's asylum-seekers has worsened since Christoph Blocher, head of the right-wing Swiss People's Party, took charge of the federal justice ministry in the last year. A study has found that the work asylum-seekers do in Zurich is worth about Sfr1.5m to the cantonal authority, but observers doubt this will affect the ban elsewhere in the country.

Global solidarity

From January 26th to 30th, about 2,250 bigwigs—politicians, business leaders, journalists, NGO representatives and a few celebrities—met at the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos, Switzerland to discuss improving the world. This year, the forum concentrated more on social problems, including poverty, climate change, social security and AIDS, especially in the developing world.

With temperatures hovering around 20ºF below zero, protection duties fell to 5,000 bundled-up Swiss soldiers, who patrolled on land and in the air. The forum itself went off without a hitch: some 80 opponents demonstrated peacefully in Davos, with larger and more violent clashes in Basel. No demonstrations took place in Zurich. Perhaps the biggest stir this year came when Eason Jordan, the chief news executive of CNN, claimed that the American military was deliberately targeting journalists in Iraq. He back-pedalled when pressed for evidence.

Art furore

Thomas Hirschhorn, a Swiss artist, is aiming to press a few political buttons. In his multimedia installation “Swiss-Swiss Democracy”, which was exhibited through January at the Centre Culturel Suisse in Paris, he said he wanted to protest against “the absurdity of direct democracy” and the election of Christoph Blocher, a controversial right-wing leader, to Switzerland's federal council. The show included several provocative paintings and a mock play nominally about William Tell, a Swiss national icon, which featured a woman vomiting into a ballot box and an actor on all fours raising his leg in mock urination onto a portrait of Mr Blocher.

What really irked politicians, though, was that this exhibition was funded by Pro Helvetia, a government-funded cultural-development body. In retaliation, the Swiss parliament lopped Sfr1m from its annual budget. Pro Helvetia has made much of its political independence, but several politicians chastised it for dragging Switzerland's most prized values through the mud. Parliament will soon discuss alternative ways to promote Swiss culture and the arts.

Worth their salt

Switzerland's unusually cold winter has created a run on salt, an easy way to melt snow. At the beginning of the season, the canton of Zurich had 13,440 tons of salt in store. By the end of January, more than half had been used up—fluctuating temperatures required several road re-saltings. In late January, 246 city employees with 160 vehicles were salting and clearing 1,000km of pavement and 750km of road. More salt has been ordered, but at prices 25% higher than they were over the summer.

A dithering host

In January, Zurich agreed to host three games during the 2008 European football championships, which will be played across Switzerland and Austria. The city will have the same number of matches as Basel, Bern and Geneva. For some time, officials were undecided about where in Zurich the games would be played—the city could choose between the Letzigrund and Hardturm stadiums, neither of which is completely finished. The local government finally agreed to fund an upgrade to the Letzigrund stadium, while the Hardturm project remains mired in legal questions.

Catch if you can

February 2005

Hindu Zurich

Through February 26th 2005

Just under one-sixth of the world's populace—most of India and the Indian diaspora, along with significant chunks of Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan—is Hindu. There are roughly 30,000 Hindus in Switzerland, with more than 20% in Zurich. But in this buttoned-down, Teutonic canton, Hinduism remains something of a mystery, a polytheistic network of faiths more often mentioned than understood. Besides examining the religion, this show explores the faith as it exists in Switzerland. Colourful photographs depict the Hindu way of life, and numerous interviews with Swiss Hindus shed light on personal experiences of practicing in Switzerland. There are also three short films of a Hindu wedding, a temple ceremony and a family ritual.

Stadthaus, Stadthausquai 17, 8001 Zurich. Tel: +41 (0)1 216-31-11. Open: Mon-Fri, 9am-6pm; Sat 9am-12pm. For more information, visit the exhibition's website (in German).