8th floor views

Mont Blanc in the distance

Today was a beautiful sunny day, and since my office has no windows, I took some time this afternoon for a coffee on the 8th floor terrace.  It was warm enough outside to be out without a jacket.  The views are pretty spectacular when you can see the mountains.  WHO is up on a hill, so the view is better than 8 floors would normally give.

La Saleve

French class was tough tonight.   We had a debate on the recently passed referendum on limiting Swiss immigration.  I haven't been reading much news since I've been here, and when I do, I read the Star or the CBC online, so I am really quite ill-informed about Swiss politics.  That, combined with my sleepiness from yesterday's night bus and general lack of French skills made for a pretty sad debate performance.  The Swiss system of participatory democracy really is quite fascinating, I really should "do my homework" and read up on Sunday's votes.

OK, after 10 minutes of reading, the vote was on whether Switzerland should put immigration quotas in place for European immigrants.  It was proposed by the very right-wing Swiss People's Party, and no one predicted that it would pass, but the "Yes" side won by 50.3% to 49.7%.  The country was quite divided, with the French speaking cantons and Zurich voting "No", the Italian speaking region and most of the rural Swiss-German cantons voting "Yes".  It's unclear at this point exactly what the consequences of this vote will be because, the Swiss government now has to re-negotiate the freedom of movement agreements with the EU.