A country is only as nice and beautiful as its people :-)

This went through my head yesterday - after another 2.5 years re-patriating in Switzerland -the country I was born and raised in and lived in for over 35 years by now! Why the h... does your forum come up first in my google search???? I wanted to see if there is s.b. out there who thinks the same - just to find that there are many of your - and the country is Switzerland!!
Is this maybe because this is most true for Switzerland and the Swiss????
I also lived in and visited other countries like USA, Canada, Australia, Italy, Georgia and even Germany ... and as I read in most of your comments me too experienced that the people were on average much nicer, friendlier, happier, genuinely better spirited, than here in the land of milk, honey, chocolate & money (a new rhime .
Is this maybe proof that money alone does not make a happy person?
I was googleing for "A country is only as nice as its people" ...
Well, I read some of your opinions and comments and let me maybe provide some insight on the depressive fact:
It is a problem that Swiss people do not learn to socialize with new people at a young age since they go to Kindergarten and school with the same set of kids their age from age 5 to maybe 17 and more! ... hence their friends from Kindergarten and school - never learnt to make new ones! The expression "to make a friend" does not even exist in Swiss German, there exists only "to have - or not to have - a friend" this is here the question .
The fear of all foreign is maybe instilled at a little age and over generations by our elders, since somehow Switzerland survived a few wars outside the armed conflict by staying neutral and within its borders? I think the entire WWI and WWII Swiss generations are war-traumatised to say the least - even though they survived relatively good compared to the rest of Europe's population. Maybe there should have long been offered a mass therapy for everyone here??
Last but not least, even when you are Swiss it is difficult to make new friends for some of the same reasons as you quoted - they don't know you, you speak a different dialect .., you might be better or worse off than them which could cause them attacs of superiority feelings or inferiority complexes, they have already a full schedule and don't see the benefit of meeting new people .. and at the same time risking to change some of their set views or habits over it. Myself I am married to an non-Swiss, a so called Ausländer (s.b. from out of the country), which some Swiss find very disturbing, and trust me, they find ways to let you know that.
Last but not least, once you have gained a Swiss friend, s/he is with you (not there for you) as long as you play in the same league, but the minute you need their support small or little most disappear from your life instantly like birds that see a hungry cat.
So I have come to the conclusion that a country is only as nice and beautiful as its people, and in that statistic, do not look up Switzerland in the top rankings.
To all the Swiss, treat yourself and your friends and maybe even a neighbour to icecream with Swiss chocolate if you do not fit into my stereotyping . To all the non-Swiss, do the same if you happened to think its just you - because its not .

Barb N. 28 Jul 2009, 02:49 - Report