Switzerland: land of the Gnomes

• A very good analogy that stretches from the bankers it was intended for to the so-called "hip" society. I've been 6 years here and can count the number of people whom I would deem to have given any help or advice to me on less fingers than make-up one hand. They don't trust foreigners and are unwilling to share anything. Don;t EVER tell them any business ideas you might have because they'll steal them from under your nose, being a nation with not enough fire and spirit to think of anything original unless it involves grabbing the rights for it - the whole concept of patents is Swiss. As for frindship, forget it. 6 years and still those whom I would deem to be reasonably well-known to me back in the UKL have yet to ask me out for a beer or include me in their social circle. The sooner banking secrecy is stamped-out by Obama/USA and the EU the sooner a dose of reality might set-in to this nation that has spent the last 500 years growing rich from other peoples misfortunes and misery. What kind of a nation is it that can't even talk openly about it's involvement with every despot and dictator that ever lived in that time? What kind of a nation makes no state provision for it's elderly? What kind of a nation turns people away from it's borders to send them to their deaths? (WW2) A cold, clinical and selfish one basically. As Orson Welles said "500 years of peace and all they've given the world is the cuckoo clock" - which they will be quick to point-out to you is an Austrian invention. The biggest joke of all, and another they can never discuss, is that the UN headquarters is in Geneva, which also happens to be the main centre for private banking to the world's infamous and despotic. Since the Iraq war started Geneva airport has turned into a bazaar of the middle eastern kind. Saddam's brother lived there for 10 years..........what more do you need to know? The whole world knows they're dodgy.........but they won't even countenance the fact because they are so 'trustworthy' with their private banking. Inverted morals to the extreme. Take away their banks and let them grow potatoes I say!

  Bored Resident 08 Feb 2009, 12:48 - Report

Why is it so hard to make friends in Switzerland?