Skiing in Laax

Winter wheat and canola (oilseedrape for those of you in Europe) coming out of dormancy.  Can you guess which is which?

Believe it or not there was actually a higher purpose behind taking those photos besides a nice drive and playing with the 50mm. 

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Spotted outside a bakery near Frick - almost 50 years later it’s still funny.  Thinking of some of the other photos posted here, it’s easy to forget bad translations go both ways!

Around Zurich in early November 2010.

Up Mt. Pilatus.  Worlds steepest cog railway.

Walking through a train station in Switzerland you are confronted by one of two forms of advertisements: xenophobic ones from the SVP or well ones from Tally Weijl.  I’ll save the commentary on Tally Weijl for later as tonight I want to better understand what the SVP ones are all about.  Surely they are anti-immigration, but what is the difference between the ausschaffungsinitiative and the gegenentwurf?  Who is Ivan S?

Starting with the one on the right, the SVP wants you to vote yes to the Ausschaffungsinitiative making it easier to expel/deport foreigners convicted of crimes in Switzerland and revoke their residency permits.

On the left side, the SVP wants you to vote no to the counter-proposal (gegenentwurf)  This counter-proposal would still allow for the expulsion of criminals, but according to swissinfo.ch “insists on case-by-case examination in line with international law and the Swiss constitution. It also includes measures to boost integration.” 

Ivan S?  He’s actually Hispanic.  The SVP bought his photo from a stockphoto website, gave him a slavic name and put a black box over his eyes.

Hiking to the Triftbrücke.   Taken September 2010

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On the Rhätishe Bahn, en route to Samedan. Taken 7/3/2010