tag:theconversation.com,2011:/uk/topics/switzerland-9108/articlesSwitzerland – The Conversation2024-02-13T06:12:38Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2233632024-02-13T06:12:38Z2024-02-13T06:12:38ZUAE and India are now the best places to start a business, but western countries still beat them in one key respect<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/575016/original/file-20240212-22-gtf8t7.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Abu Dhabi is turning itself into one of the world's leading tech hubs. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/traffic-lights-on-street-abu-dhabi-264424121">Patryk Kosmider/Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>The United Arab Emirates (UAE) is the best place in the world to start a new business, according to the latest annual <a href="https://www.gemconsortium.org/reports/latest-global-report">Global Entrepreneurship Monitor</a> (GEM) survey. The Arab nation is number one for the third year in a row thanks to a big push by the government into cutting-edge technology in its efforts to diversify away from oil. </p>
<p>Four out of the top five countries in the GEM rankings are in the Middle East or Asia, with India second, Saudi Arabia third and Qatar fifth – the only exception being Lithuania in fourth place. This is characteristic of a clear eastward shift in the quality of entrepreneurship ecosystems in the past five years, closely mirroring a similar shift in the world’s economic <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/idUSKBN20S26W/">centre of gravity</a>.</p>
<p>The UAE has made particularly steady progress, progressing from fifth on the list in 2019 to the lead ranking. Saudi Arabia has risen from 17th to third, while India is up from sixth to second, having shaken off a pandemic dip in between. </p>
<p>Western economies have slipped during the same period. So why has this been happening and what will matter most in future?</p>
<h2>How the survey works</h2>
<p>Entrepreneurship is a major driver of global economic growth. It is <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0148296318304454">greatly affected by</a> a country’s regulations, education system, financial institutions and <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S1075425321000132">overall culture</a>. By evaluating these variables, you can get a good understanding of the entrepreneurial climate. </p>
<p>GEM captures this each year through a national expert survey that goes out to a range of entrepreneurship ecosystem stakeholders, including business leaders, government officials and academics. This year, 49 countries participated in the survey including most countries in the G20 (with exceptions like Australia that didn’t participate in the most recent survey). From this, GEM produces a rating of 13 different entrepreneurial conditions to create the annual index. </p>
<p><strong>GEM rankings 2019-2023</strong></p>
<h2>The shift to the east</h2>
<p>The explanations for the rise of eastern countries include greater government promotion of business creation, more emphasis on entrepreneurship education and changes in how business activity is viewed culturally. </p>
<p>In the UAE, for instance, there have been initiatives such as <a href="https://u.ae/en/about-the-uae/uae-in-the-future/initiatives-of-the-next-50/projects-of-the-50/first-set-of-projects-of-the-50">Projects of the 50</a>, which includes priority visas for entrepreneurs and top students, particularly in areas like artificial intelligence, digital currencies and coding. It also includes pushing national adoption of leading technologies. </p>
<p>The government used Expo 2020 as a campaign to promote the Emirates as an attractive destination for business, as well as changing certain rules to make it easier for foreign investors. Notably, this included allowing for <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/uae-allow-100-foreign-ownership-companies-june-wam-2021-05-19/">100% foreign ownership</a> of companies in 2021. The <a href="https://www.abudhabi.gov.ae/en/programmes/ghadan-21">Ghadan 21</a> business accelerator programme has also been spending AED50 billion (£11 billion) in Abu Dhabi since 2019. </p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/575020/original/file-20240212-22-vdok8w.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Abu Dhabi pavillion in GITEX Global 23" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/575020/original/file-20240212-22-vdok8w.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/575020/original/file-20240212-22-vdok8w.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=511&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/575020/original/file-20240212-22-vdok8w.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=511&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/575020/original/file-20240212-22-vdok8w.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=511&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/575020/original/file-20240212-22-vdok8w.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=642&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/575020/original/file-20240212-22-vdok8w.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=642&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/575020/original/file-20240212-22-vdok8w.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=642&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Abu Dhabi selling itself in Dubai at GITEX Global 23, the biggest tech startup event in the world.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/govt-abu-dhabi-pavilion-43rd-gitex-2380335063">Adnan Ahmad Ali</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The Saudis are also focused on diversifying away from oil, and entrepreneurship is one of the top priorities in <a href="https://www.vision2030.gov.sa/en/">Saudi Arabia Vision 2030</a>. This has seen the national enterprise development agency, <a href="https://www.monshaat.gov.sa/en">Monsha’at</a>, doing things like promoting university startups and fast-growing ventures. </p>
<p>The country has been trying to make it easier for entrepreneurs to access finance through initiatives such as the Saudi Public Investment Fund and Saudi Venture Capital Company, while there has been targeted support for <a href="https://sponsored.bloomberg.com/article/Monshaat/female-entrepreneurship-transforming-the-saudi-economy">female entrepreneurs</a>. </p>
<p>To attract foreign talent, the Saudi government also approved a <a href="https://www.arabnews.com/node/2439341/business-economy">new residency scheme in 2019</a> and an <a href="https://gulfnews.com/world/gulf/saudi/saudi-arabia-introduces-three-month-temporary-work-visa-1.95099718">instant labour visa</a> in 2023.</p>
<p>In India, there has been a lot of emphasis on innovation in the country’s <a href="https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=&ved=2ahUKEwjUsPfI856EAxVAV0EAHXhVCAMQFnoECDgQAQ&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.education.gov.in%2Fsites%2Fupload_files%2Fmhrd%2Ffiles%2FNEP_Final_English_0.pdf&usg=AOvVaw2VOhw52WTOK6owxeeFXyay&opi=89978449">New Education Policy</a>, which was introduced in 2020 to raise educational standards across the board. Many school students have also been inspired by a nationwide initiative called the <a href="https://aim.gov.in/atl.php">Atal Tinkering Lab</a>, which inculcates curiosity and design mindset through science projects, while the popular TV show Shark Tank (called Dragons’ Den in some countries) has fired up dinner-table discussions about things like “equity” and “product-market fit”. </p>
<h2>East v west</h2>
<p>The weaker performance of western economies has been very noticeable over the past five years. In 2019, four out of the top ten countries were Switzerland, the Netherlands, Norway and the US. All had lost ground by 2023, with Norway and the US no longer even in the top 15, while Switzerland and Netherlands dropped from being the top two countries to ninth and seventh place respectively. </p>
<p>The weakening of business conditions in these economies is potentially explained by the surge in inflation and higher interest rates that they have endured since the pandemic. Incidentally, the UK was ranked 21st overall five years ago and is currently 22nd. </p>
<p>Western economies are still ahead in one important respect, however. When you look at countries like Switzerland, France, Norway and Germany, over 30% of their entrepreneurs are in business services. </p>
<p>The situation is quite different among the leading eastern nations in the GEM rankings, where most entrepreneurial activity focuses on consumer services like retail, hotels, restaurants and personal services. These represent 80% of businesses in Saudi and over 70% in India, while in the UAE the most recent figure is over 60% in 2022. </p>
<p>In Saudi and India, business services such as IT and professional services are less than 10% of entrepreneurial activity overall, while in UAE the 2022 figure was less than 20%. </p>
<p>These low numbers matter because companies providing business services tend to have higher margins, greater potential for scaling and greater barriers to entry. So both in the global east and also in low-income countries, there needs to be more impetus and support for encouraging business services. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/575036/original/file-20240212-20-krtozg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Arab walking past fountains at a big hotel in Riyadh" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/575036/original/file-20240212-20-krtozg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/575036/original/file-20240212-20-krtozg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=458&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/575036/original/file-20240212-20-krtozg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=458&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/575036/original/file-20240212-20-krtozg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=458&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/575036/original/file-20240212-20-krtozg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=575&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/575036/original/file-20240212-20-krtozg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=575&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/575036/original/file-20240212-20-krtozg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=575&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Consumer services like hotels make up most of business activity in Saudi Arabia.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">EPA</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>It’s also worth pointing out that entrepreneurship education needs more attention in most countries. In 31 out of 49 economies, it was rated as the weakest of the conditions assessed in the survey. Without addressing this, many potential new businesses may never come to fruition simply because a generation of schoolchildren grew up unaware that starting a business was an important option for their futures. </p>
<p>Skills imparted through entrepreneurship education such as creativity, innovation, experimentation, a growth mindset, and overcoming the fear of failure will be fundamental requirements in a world where disruptive technologies are evolving at a breakneck pace.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/223363/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Aileen is executive director of Global Entrepreneurship Monitor. The 2023/24 report is sponsored by Cartier Women's Initiative; The School of Management Fribourg in Switzerland; the Ministry of Economic Inclusion, Small Business, Employment and Skills in Morocco; the Ministry of Higher Education, Scientific Research and Innovation in Morocco; and Hassan II University of Casablanca, Morocco. All views expressed in this article are Aileen’s own. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Sreevas Sahasranamam does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The eastward shift in the Global Entrepreurship Monitor rankings over the past five years has been striking.Sreevas Sahasranamam, Professor, Adam Smith Business School, University of GlasgowAileen Ionescu-Somers, Lecturer in Entrepreneurship, Université de LausanneLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2163282023-12-20T19:19:54Z2023-12-20T19:19:54ZDreaming may have evolved as a strategy for co-operative survival<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/566059/original/file-20231215-21-wi7j11.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C83%2C7000%2C3908&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A comparison of dreams shows they play out much differently across various socio-cultural environments.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span></figcaption></figure><iframe style="width: 100%; height: 100px; border: none; position: relative; z-index: 1;" allowtransparency="" allow="clipboard-read; clipboard-write" src="https://narrations.ad-auris.com/widget/the-conversation-canada/dreaming-may-have-evolved-as-a-strategy-for-co-operative-survival" width="100%" height="400"></iframe>
<p>Have you ever woken from a dream, emotionally laden with anxiety, fear or a sense of unpreparedness? Typically, <a href="https://vividmaps.com/googled-dreams/">these kinds of dreams</a> are associated with content like losing one’s voice, teeth falling out or being chased by a threatening being. </p>
<p>But one question I’ve always been interested in is whether or not these kinds of dreams are experienced globally across many cultures. And if some features of dreaming are universal, could they have enhanced the likelihood of our ancestors surviving the evolutionary game of life? </p>
<p>My research focuses on <a href="https://davidrsamson.com/">the distinctive characteristics that make humans the most successful species on Earth</a>. I’ve explored the question of human uniqueness by comparing <em>Homo sapiens</em> with various animals, including chimpanzees, gorillas, orangutans, lemurs, wolves and dogs. Recently, I’ve been part of a team of collaborators that has focused our energies on working with small-scale societies known as hunter-gatherers.</p>
<p>We wanted to explore how the content and emotional function of dreams might vary across different cultural contexts. By comparing dreams from forager communities in Africa to those from western societies, we wanted to understand how cultural and environmental factors shape the way people dream.</p>
<h2>Comparative dream research</h2>
<p>As part of this research, published in <a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-023-43319-z"><em>Nature Scientific Reports</em></a>, my colleagues and I worked closely for several months with the BaYaka in the Democratic Republic of Congo and the Hadza in Tanzania to record their dreams. For western dreamers, we recorded dream journals and detailed dream accounts, collected between 2014 and 2022, from people living in Switzerland, Belgium and Canada. </p>
<p>The Hadza of Tanzania and the BaYaka of Congo fill a crucial, underexplored gap for dream research due to their distinct lifestyle. Their egalitarian culture, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/etho.12284">emphasizing equality and co-operation</a>, is vital for survival, social cohesion and well-being. These forager communities rely heavily on supportive relationships and communal sharing of resources.</p>
<p>Higher mortality rates due to disease, intergroup conflict, and challenging physical environments in these communities (without the kind of social safety nets common to post-industrial societies in the West) means they rely on face-to-face relationships for survival in a way that is a distinct feature of forager life.</p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/566061/original/file-20231215-19-5h9arg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="a black and white photo of a group of men sitting" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/566061/original/file-20231215-19-5h9arg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/566061/original/file-20231215-19-5h9arg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/566061/original/file-20231215-19-5h9arg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/566061/original/file-20231215-19-5h9arg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/566061/original/file-20231215-19-5h9arg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/566061/original/file-20231215-19-5h9arg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/566061/original/file-20231215-19-5h9arg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The Hadza are an Indigenous community in Tanzania, and one of the last hunter-gatherer societies remaining.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Dreaming across cultures</h2>
<p>While studying these dreams, we began to notice a common theme. We’ve discovered that dreams play out much differently across different socio-cultural environments. We used a new software tool to map dream content that connects important psychosocial constructs and theories with words, phrases, and other linguistic constructions. That gave us an understanding about the kinds of dreams people were having. And we could model these statistically, to test scientific hypotheses as to the nature of dreams. </p>
<p>The dreams of the BaYaka and Hadza were rich in community-oriented content, reflecting the strong social bonds inherent in their societies. This was in stark contrast to the themes prevalent in dreams from western societies, where negative emotions and anxiety were more common. </p>
<p>Interestingly, while dreams from these forager communities often began with threats reflecting the real dangers they face daily, they frequently concluded with resolutions involving social support. This pattern suggests that dreams might play a crucial role in emotional regulation, transforming threats into manageable situations and reducing anxiety.</p>
<p>Here is an example of a Hadza dream laden with emotionally threatening content:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>“I dreamt I fell into a well that is near the Hukumako area by the Dtoga people. I was with two others and one of my friends helped me get out of the well.”</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Notice that the resolution to the dream challenges incorporated a social solution as an answer to the problem. Now contrast this to the nightmare disorder-diagnosed dreamers from Europe. They had scarier, open-ended narratives with less positive dream resolutions. Specifically, we found they had higher levels of dream content with negative emotions compared to the “normal” controls. Conversely, the Hadza exhibited significantly fewer negative emotions in their dreams. These are the kind of nightmares reported:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>“My mom would call me on my phone and ask me to put it on speakerphone so my sister and cousin could hear. Crying she announced to us that my little brother was dead. I was screaming in sadness and crying in pain.”</p>
<p>“I was with my boyfriend, our relationship was perfect and I felt completely fulfilled. Then he decided to abandon me, which awoke in me a deep feeling of despair and anguish.”</p>
</blockquote>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/566062/original/file-20231215-31-9eh6xs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="a man sleeping with his mouth open" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/566062/original/file-20231215-31-9eh6xs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/566062/original/file-20231215-31-9eh6xs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/566062/original/file-20231215-31-9eh6xs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/566062/original/file-20231215-31-9eh6xs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/566062/original/file-20231215-31-9eh6xs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/566062/original/file-20231215-31-9eh6xs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/566062/original/file-20231215-31-9eh6xs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The dreams of people living in the West tended to reflect more anxiety.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>The functional role of dreams</h2>
<p>Dreams are wonderfully varied. But what if one of the keys to humanity’s success as a species rests in our dreams? What if something was happening in our dreams that improved the survival and reproductive efforts of our Paleolithic ancestors? </p>
<p>A curious note from my comparative work, of all the primates alive, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1002/ajpa.23427">humans sleep the least, but we have the most REM</a>. Why was REM — the state most often associated with dreams — so protected while evolution was whittling away our sleep? Perhaps something embedded in dreaming itself was prophylactic for our species?</p>
<p>Our research supports previous notions that dreams are not just random firings of a sleeping brain but <a href="https://doi.org/10.2307/27784372">may play a functional role in our emotional well-being and social cognition</a>. They reflect the challenges and values of our waking life, offering insights into how we process emotions and threats. In forager societies, dreams often conclude with resolutions involving social support, suggesting that dreams might serve as a psychological mechanism for reinforcing social bonds and community values. </p>
<h2>Why dream?</h2>
<p>The ultimate purpose of dreaming is still a subject of ongoing research and debate. Yet these themes seem to harbour within them universals that hint at some crucial survival function. </p>
<p>Some theories suggest that dreaming <a href="http://doi.org/10.25358/openscience-79">acts like a kind of virtual reality</a> that serves to simulate threatening or social situations, helping individuals prepare for real-life challenges. </p>
<p>If this is indeed the case, then it’s possible that the dreams of our ancestors, who roamed the world in the distant Paleolithic era, played a crucial role in enhancing the co-operation that contributed to their survival.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/216328/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>David Samson does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Dreaming differs across cultures, and these differences may hold the clue to how and why dreaming evolved for humans and other species.David Samson, Associate Professor, Anthropology, University of TorontoLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2070902023-11-17T17:18:21Z2023-11-17T17:18:21Z‘Many sleepless nights’: why scientists who predict landslides are under enormous pressure<p>In June 2023, in the eastern part of Switzerland, the small picturesque village of Brienz/Brinzauls narrowly avoided being wiped out by a <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/jun/16/huge-landslide-misses-swiss-mountain-village-of-brienz-by-a-hair">huge landslide</a>. The community sits at the foot of a steep slope that was on the move and eventually around 1.2 million cubic metres of rock collapsed, stopping just a few metres short of the village. </p>
<p>The landslide was predicted well in advance. The village had already been <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-65580427">evacuated</a> and there was intense media interest. The slope even had a <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3N80eDCnqaM">YouTube live stream</a>. As an expert in landslides who has been involved in these sorts of tough evacuation decisions before, I know those involved in the monitoring of the site, and making decisions around keeping the population safe, will have endured many sleepless nights. </p>
<p>Back in 2010 I was involved in the management of a landslide crisis in <a href="https://www.nation.com.pk/18-May-2010/evacuations-start-amid-fears-of-hunza-lake-burst">northern Pakistan</a>. Here, 14,000 people were relocated from the path of a potential flood after a landslide blocked a river and created a new lake. The day to day pressures of decisions like these are enormous.</p>
<p>The situation in Brienz/Brinzauls was not new (the double name is because the village has a mix of speakers of German and Romansh, Switzerland’s fourth native language). Villagers first noticed the slopes around the village were moving a century ago, and more modern monitoring has indicated that the slope had been moving at a rate of <a href="http://www.albula-alvra.ch/files/BXMediaPlusDocument8589file.pdf">seven metres per year or more</a>. The deforming slope even extends beneath the village, which has already been damaged by the movement, although the crisis this year did not affect that part of the slope.</p>
<p>In 2022 the speed abruptly increased, and parts of the slope above the village started moving at over 25 cm per day, while individual rocks started <a href="https://www.nau.ch/news/schweiz/brienz-gr-felsbrocken-donnert-ins-tal-polizei-erwischt-velofahrer-66506327">detaching</a> and falling down on the fields below. The steepness of the slope meant that a collapse seemed likely.</p>
<p>The challenge in these situations is in knowing when this might actually occur. And whether it will happen in a series of smaller landslides over weeks or even months, or as a single, more catastrophic event, that would be over quickly but would destroy the village. </p>
<h2>Movement monitoring in detail</h2>
<p>Over the past two decades, earth scientists have developed ways to monitor ground movement much more closely. This has allowed accurate assessment of the tectonic movement of continental plates, subsidence above coal mines, damage caused by tunnelling beneath cities, or the collapse of coastal cliffs.</p>
<p>Technologies include ultra-high-resolution GPS measurements, data from radar satellites and the use of robotic surveying instruments. The <a href="https://www.science.org/content/article/fleets-radar-satellites-are-measuring-movements-earth-never">precision can be extraordinary</a> – satellites located 800 km from the surface of the earth can detect movement of less than 3mm.</p>
<p>All these techniques mean the behaviour of slopes can be analysed in real time and scientists can quantify how they respond to external factors such as rainfall and earthquakes. It has even been discovered that some slopes respond to <a href="https://nhess.copernicus.org/articles/22/3125/2022/">changes in air pressure</a> as weather systems pass across the landscape. Usefully, these systems allow us to detect when a slope is moving dangerously fast, so that people can be warned and evacuated.</p>
<p>In the case of Brienz/Brinzauls, the slope had been accelerating through early 2023, although the exact causes were unclear. While short-term accelerations are common, sustained accelerations like this are a good indication that a collapse could be starting. In such circumstances, evacuation is prudent.</p>
<h2>No one wants unnecessary evacuations</h2>
<p>But relocating people, temporarily or permanently, is a huge issue. Understandably, many people struggle to cope, and there is ample evidence that relocated people often suffer from <a href="https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/286994/12-1297-mental-health-impacts-of-disasters.pdf">poor mental health and wellbeing</a>.</p>
<p>Where the population is moved into a camp for displaced people, which often happens in less affluent countries (but fortunately not in Switzerland), the evacuees are prone to <a href="https://blogs.worldbank.org/latinamerica/women-girls-gender-based-violence-aftermath-disasters-haiti">abuse, trafficking and destitution</a>. Experience tells us that women and children are particularly vulnerable in such circumstances.</p>
<p>So there are good reasons to avoid evacuating people unnecessarily, or too early, while also ensuring that the potentially affected population is kept safe. Thus, evacuating at the right time is critical.</p>
<p>Unfortunately, it is very hard to predict exactly how and when a big rock slope will collapse. Big rock slopes that are accelerating towards a full landslide typically move in patterns that can be modelled mathematically, allowing predictions that can be remarkably accurate in some circumstances. But complexities in the ground conditions mean that many slopes deviate from this, often slowing down unexpectedly. In some cases, movement returns to a crawl, or even stops altogether for a while. </p>
<p>We do not have enough information about the ground at any site to be able to know what a change in movement rate means for future behaviour (in the case of Brienz/Brinzauls, the “active slope” was about three million tonnes of rock that was, of course, extremely difficult to access safely). The ground is simply too complex to allow simple characterisation. Such a slope could resume movement in a few hours, a few days or even a few years.</p>
<p>Scientists and civil defence officers monitoring such situations have to assess the conditions continuously, making judgements as to the future behaviour. A few years ago in Norway, <a href="https://blogs.agu.org/landslideblog/2014/10/29/mount-mannen-1/">Mount Mannen</a> underwent repeated episodes of increased movement. The community at the foot of the slope was evacuated 18 times before the slope finally collapsed. The scientists were under immense pressure both to keep people safe and to avoid unnecessary disruption, all in the full glare of the national news.</p>
<p>The slope above Brienz/Brinzauls seems to have <a href="https://www.suedostschweiz.ch/ereignisse/zurueck-zu-phase-gruen-in-brienz-brinzauls">settled down</a> since the big landslide in June. Yet as climate change continues to cause environmental change in high mountain areas, the situation there is likely to play out in many more locations. As a consequence, the challenges faced by the authorities in Switzerland are likely to become more common.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/207090/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Dave Petley does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Satellites can detect land moving by just a few millimetres, but we can never be sure exactly how or when a slope will slide.Dave Petley, Vice Chancellor and Professor of Geography, University of HullLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2134752023-09-20T15:34:27Z2023-09-20T15:34:27ZThe UK re-joining the Horizon research funding scheme benefits Europe too – the data backs it up<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/549329/original/file-20230920-29-d80p8p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=10%2C0%2C6934%2C4637&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/male-scientist-analyzes-studies-research-organic-2237778033">Amorn Suriyan / Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>The UK has <a href="https://www.politico.eu/article/britain-rejoins-eus-horizon-science-scheme/">just rejoined</a> the EU’s flagship research funding programmes, Horizon Europe and Copernicus. This is great news for science, the EU and the UK. </p>
<p>The reasons are simple: science progresses through the individual efforts of scholars and through <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0048733398000547">international cooperative research</a>. The latter process involves different scientific institutions and organisations working towards common goals on a variety of different projects. </p>
<p>Science has never really been confined to what we define today as national borders. The life path of the astronomer <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Nicolaus-Copernicus">Nicolaus Copernicus</a>, provides a good example of this.</p>
<p>Copernicus was born in Torun, Poland, in 1473. After studying in Krakow, in his home country, he moved south, studying in the Italian cities of Rome and Padua. He ended up with a doctorate in canon law <a href="https://www.unife.it/en/unife-world/history">from the University of Ferrara</a>, also in Italy. </p>
<p>Afterwards, Copernicus moved back to Poland to further his studies. Here, he developed a model of the universe with the Sun at the centre, replacing the traditional model where the Earth was central. His <a href="https://www.pas.rochester.edu/%7Eblackman/ast104/copernican9.html">“Copernican model”</a> helped kick off the scientific revolution.</p>
<p>When the ability of researchers to work across borders is limited, <a href="https://www.chemistryworld.com/news/frozen-out-of-horizon-europe-swiss-science-feels-the-pinch/4015987.article">science suffers</a>. For this reason, Brexit has damaged the UK in terms of retaining European scholars. Some of the evidence comes from research using data on citations – the number of times a given scientific work has been mentioned in the literature by other researchers. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.demogr.mpg.de/papers/working/wp-2022-019.pdf">A study</a> led by Ebru Sanliturk at the Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research in Germany, which I participated in, showed that, in the three years following Brexit, scholars who originated in the EU almost doubled their likelihood of leaving the UK. On the other hand, researchers originally from the UK have become more likely to stay in their home country or move back from the EU to the UK.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="European Commission in Brussels." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/549357/original/file-20230920-27-j8xen6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/549357/original/file-20230920-27-j8xen6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/549357/original/file-20230920-27-j8xen6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/549357/original/file-20230920-27-j8xen6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/549357/original/file-20230920-27-j8xen6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/549357/original/file-20230920-27-j8xen6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/549357/original/file-20230920-27-j8xen6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The Horizon Europe deal gives UK scientists access to the world’s largest research collaboration programme.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/eu-flags-front-european-commission-brussels-162128453">Symbiot / Shutterstock</a></span>
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<p>Why is this the case? One of the key EU funding agencies is the <a href="https://erc.europa.eu/homepage">European Research Council (ERC)</a>. It does something unusual: it funds research projects led by a scientist who is then free to change institution after the grant has been awarded. </p>
<p><a href="https://dashboard.tech.ec.europa.eu/qs_digit_dashboard_mt/public/sense/app/afe00964-3272-45c4-b60c-b64ed20d98d1/sheet/61a0bd1d-cd6d-4ac8-8b55-80d8661e44c0/state/analysis">ERC data shows that</a>, since 2007, 98 UK institutions have been awarded 2,397 projects and a total of more than four million euros. Put another way, the UK took 16% of all projects and total ERC funding. </p>
<p>The ERC has large individual grants: <a href="https://erc.europa.eu/apply-grant/starting-grant">between 1.5</a> and <a href="https://erc.europa.eu/apply-grant/advanced-grant">2.5 million euros</a> per project. It has contributed to raising the stakes in European science, and being awarded an ERC grant <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/education/2022/apr/25/brexit-row-threatens-250m-in-uk-research-funding-from-eu">has become a badge of honour</a> for principal investigators – the scientists who lead research projects. </p>
<p>Moreover, <a href="https://erc.europa.eu/about-erc/erc-glance">12 ERC awardees</a> have received a Nobel Prize. The UK has benefited too, by attracting principal investigators from <a href="https://dashboard.tech.ec.europa.eu/qs_digit_dashboard_mt/public/sense/app/afe00964-3272-45c4-b60c-b64ed20d98d1/sheet/61a0bd1d-cd6d-4ac8-8b55-80d8661e44c0/state/analysis">59 different nationalities</a>.</p>
<h2>International networks</h2>
<p>In many scientific areas, Europe has a comparative advantage when it pools resources and minds. Networks of scholars and institutions make discoveries, push forward our knowledge and transform scientific findings into applications.</p>
<p>So EU institutions and scholars can significantly gain from interacting with UK-based scholars and institutions. The UK undoubtedly houses the top institutions in Europe in many fields. If we take the <a href="https://www.topuniversities.com/university-rankings/world-university-rankings/2024?&page=1">general top 20 ranking of universities</a> from the company QS (Quacquarelli Symonds), four UK institutions are included, one from Switzerland and none from the EU.</p>
<p>Research infrastructure – the facilities, equipment and tools used for science – are <a href="https://www.esfri.eu/esfri-events/esfri-20years-conference">fundamental to enabling discoveries</a>. Some of them are viable only by investing a large amount of money and resources. </p>
<p>In some cases, no single country in Europe can afford the infrastructure needed – one example is the <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/alexknapp/2012/07/05/how-much-does-it-cost-to-find-a-higgs-boson/">Large Hadron Collider at Cern</a>. The more members there are, the easier it is to spread the costs of such projects.</p>
<p>Another example is Copernicus, an <a href="https://www.esa.int/Applications/Observing_the_Earth/Copernicus/Europe_s_Copernicus_programme">EU-funded Earth observation programme</a> using satellites to monitor the health of our planet. It provides open data, with everybody able to access it in real time – which is particularly useful in cases of environmental emergencies. As part of its deal to join Horizon Europe as an associate member, the <a href="https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/en/qanda_23_4373">UK will become part of Copernicus</a>.</p>
<p>However, the UK has not negotiated an <a href="https://www.esfri.eu/people/delegates">associate membership of ESFRI</a>, the European Strategy Forum on Research Infrastructures. ESFRI projects, such as the <a href="https://www.europeansocialsurvey.org/">European Social Survey</a> and the <a href="https://share-eric.eu/">Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe</a>, provide important scientific insights. These translate into social and economic policy assessments by comparing results across countries – effectively using Europe as a natural laboratory. </p>
<p>So, there are potential wins and losses to everyone involved from the particular way the new deal has been negotiated between the EU and UK.</p>
<h2>Prospects for the future</h2>
<p>Some 17 countries are associate members of Horizon Europe, including science powerhouse Israel (which is a per capita <a href="https://dashboard.tech.ec.europa.eu/qs_digit_dashboard_mt/public/sense/app/afe00964-3272-45c4-b60c-b64ed20d98d1/sheet/61a0bd1d-cd6d-4ac8-8b55-80d8661e44c0/state/analysis">leader in receiving ERC research grants</a>), and major players such as Norway, as well as countries with large populations like Turkey and Ukraine. Switzerland, on the other hand, <a href="https://www.sbfi.admin.ch/sbfi/en/home/research-and-innovation/international-cooperation-r-and-i/eu-framework-programmes-for-research/horizon-europe.html">does not have associate member status</a> with Horizon Europe, but does collaborate with other research teams in Europe using other sources of funding.</p>
<p>Whether the UK’s relationship with the EU on science will evolve towards a strong and stable partnership model similar to the one of Israel or Norway, or towards a more ad hoc one like Switzerland’s, is hard to foresee. </p>
<p>If science and impact are key, a complementary, strong and stable partnership is in the interests of both the UK, the EU and other countries with associate membership of Horizon Europe. This can make us cautiously optimistic about the future for all parties.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/213475/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Francesco Billari received funding from the European Research Council, Horizon Europe, and the Economic and Social Research Council (UK). </span></em></p>Science works better when barriers to collaboration are removed, say experts.Francesco Billari, Professor of Demography, Bocconi UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2080532023-06-28T16:56:12Z2023-06-28T16:56:12ZPoliticians believe voters to be more conservative than they really are<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/534112/original/file-20230626-19-k2azps.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C11%2C7360%2C4891&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Could this be what politicians have in mind when they invoke the "hardworking family"? </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/fr/image-photo/happy-parents-sitting-on-sofa-looking-1056238637">Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>In Germany, the far-right Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) won a <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/jun/26/far-right-afd-wins-local-election-watershed-moment-german-politics">district council election for the first time</a> on Monday. Robert Sesselmann’s victory as district administrator – the equivalent of a mayor – in the Eastern town of Sonneberg comes only a day after Greece’s conservatives clinched an outright majority in the country’s parliamentary polls, topping left-wing parties Syriza and Pasok. Meanwhile, the Spanish left is also bracing for an early general election on 23 July, after losing to the Spanish conservative Partido Popular (PP) and far-right Vox parties in May.</p>
<p>Such developments might send a signal to European politicians to lean further to the right in a scramble to save votes. Yet our latest research, <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/american-political-science-review/article/do-politicians-outside-the-united-states-also-think-voters-are-more-conservative-than-they-really-are/D21A9077EE2435F2B910394378E96450">published this month</a>, shows that politicians’ perceptions may not actually reflect voters’ true interests and opinions. Worse still: it appears to be an error that many other politicians have already made.</p>
<h2>866 officials surveyed</h2>
<p>In an influential 2018 study, David Broockman and Christopher Skovron <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/american-political-science-review/article/bias-in-perceptions-of-public-opinion-among-political-elites/2EF080E04D3AAE6AC1C894F52642E706">showed</a> that US politicians overestimated the share of citizens who held conservative views. On questions related to state intervention in the economy, gun control, immigration, or abortion, the majority of both Republicans and Democratic representatives surveyed believed that a greater share of citizens supported right-wing policies than what public-opinion data revealed.</p>
<p>We were curious whether conservative bias in politicians’ perceptions of public opinion was limited to American politics or was a broader phenomenon. To explore this, we interviewed 866 politicians in four democracies that whose political systems differ from each other and from that of the United States: Belgium, Canada, Germany and Switzerland. The politicians interviewed spanned the full political spectrum, including politicians from the radical right (Vlaams Belang, SVP/UDC), moderate centre-right (CDU/CSU, Conservative Party of Canada), centre-left parties (SPD, PS, SP.a-Vooruit) and radical left (PTB, Die Linke).</p>
<p>Participating officials, who included members of national and subnational (provinces, cantons, regions, Länders) legislative bodies, were asked to evaluate where general public opinion (but also that of their party voters) stood on a range of issues: pension age, redistribution, workers’ rights, euthanasia, child adoption by same-sex couples and immigration. We then compared their answers with public opinion data that we evaluated using large-scale representative surveys that we fielded in the four countries at the same time.</p>
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<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/534064/original/file-20230626-23-k4jhtz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/534064/original/file-20230626-23-k4jhtz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=397&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/534064/original/file-20230626-23-k4jhtz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=397&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/534064/original/file-20230626-23-k4jhtz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=397&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/534064/original/file-20230626-23-k4jhtz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=498&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/534064/original/file-20230626-23-k4jhtz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=498&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/534064/original/file-20230626-23-k4jhtz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=498&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption"></span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="license">Fourni par l'auteur</span></span>
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<p>Our findings are clear and straightforward. In all four countries, and on a majority of issues, politicians consistently overestimate the share of citizens who hold right-wing views. Figure 1 reports the average gap between politicians’ perceptions of general public opinion and citizens’ actual opinions (circles), and the gap between their estimation of their party’s electorate opinion and the observed opinion within that electorate (triangles). These estimates are reported for each issue domain and each country we studied. Both measures reveal a substantial and largely consistent conservative bias in politicians’ perceptions – both for the overall public and party electorates. Importantly, politicians’ overestimation of how many citizens hold right-wing views is consistent across the ideological spectrum. Politicians hold a conservative bias regardless of whether they represent left- or right-wing parties.</p>
<p>While the overall pattern is remarkably stable, we also uncovered important variation across issue domains. For example, citizens are much less in favour of raising the pension age than politicians think. There were also differences between countries, such as a smaller conservative bias in Wallonia (Belgium). But the global picture is clear: the overwhelming majority of politicians we studied (81%) believe that the public holds more conservative views than is the case. </p>
<p>The only exception appears to be when politicians estimate public opinion on immigration-related policies. When asked about issues such as family reunion, asylum or border control, there is also a misperception of public opinion among politicians but not always in the conservative direction. Politicians in Belgium (both Flanders and Wallonia) and in Switzerland have a conservative bias on such issues, but in Canada and Germany, there is a large <em>liberal</em> bias in politicians’ perception of public opinion regarding immigration.</p>
<h2>The result of lobbying?</h2>
<p>The big question is <em>why</em> politicians perceive public opinion to be more right-wing than it truly is. One explanation provided by Broockman and Skovron for the United States was that right-wing activists are more visible and tend to contact their politicians more often, skewing representatives’ information environment to the right. We tested this explanation in our studied countries, but could not find evidence to support it. The right-wing citizens in our sample are not more politically active, and therefore visible, than their left-wing counterparts. Yet the idea that politicians’ information environment might be skewed to the right can find support in other work.</p>
<p><a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1111/spsr.12224">Earlier research</a> has shown that politicians tend to receive disproportionally right-skewed information from business interest groups. Social media, which politicians use more and more, also tends to be dominated <a href="https://pure.rug.nl/ws/portalfiles/portal/148014700/review_Schradie.pdf">by conservative views</a>, and as politicians spend more time online, and their news media diet is growingly filtered through social media feeds that create interactions and feedback skewed to the right, their views may be accordingly distorted. It has also <a href="https://doi.org/10.1017/S000305542100037X">been shown</a> that politicians tend to pay more attention to the policy preferences of more affluent and educated citizens, and those citizens vote more often and hold more often right-wing views, at least on economic issues.</p>
<p>The observed conservative bias might also be associated with what social psychologist call “pluralistic ignorance” (i.e., misperceptions of others’ opinions). When it comes to liberals, for example, social psychologists have shown that they tend to exaggerate the uniqueness of their own opinion (<a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/24247730/">“false uniqueness”</a>. Conservatives, by contrast, perceive their opinions as more common than they are (<a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0146167214537834">“false consensus”</a>). These processes could explain why we find a conservative bias found among both liberal and conservative politicians. Finally, recent election results such the Presidential elections in France, or the recent parliamentary elections in Greece and Finland, with the growth of the radical right and the victories of right-wing conservative parties, might also have sent a signal to politicians about the conservativeness of citizens that is not necessarily in step with their actual opinions.</p>
<h2>A threat to representative democracy</h2>
<p>Irrespective of the sources of the conservative bias, the fact that it is persistently present in a variety of different democratic systems has major implications for the well-functioning of representative democracy. Representative democracy builds upon the idea that elected politicians are responsive to citizens, meaning that they by and large attempt to promote policy initiatives that are in line with people’s preferences. If politicians’ ideas of what the public thinks – let alone their own party’s voters – are systematically biased toward one ideological side, then the political representation chain is weakened. Politicians may erroneously pursue right-wing policies that do not in fact have the popular support, and may refrain from working to advance (incorrectly perceived) progressive goals. But if citizens are less conservative than what politicians perceive them to be, the supply side of policy is at risk of being consistently suboptimal and may have broader, system-wide implications such as growing disaffection with democracy and democratic institutions.The recent social unrest in France regarding raising legal pension age might be an example of a policy debate in which governments perceive public opinion leaning more to the right than it actually is.</p>
<p>The situation is not without hope, however, and access to accurate information seems to play an important role. A <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdfdirect/10.1111/spsr.12495">2020 study</a> in Switzerland has shown that a sustained use of direct democracy might help politicians better understand public opinion. In the same logic, a recent study of US elected officials show that they tend to misperceive support for politically motivated violence among their supporters. But when exposed to reliable and accurate information, <a href="https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.2116851119">they update and correct their (mis) perceptions</a>. Building on such studies, we believe that more work needs to be done both to understand the sources and prevalence of conservative bias, and to identify additional ways of offsetting it.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/208053/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jean-Benoit Pilet has received research grants from the European Research Council (ERC) and the Belgian National Fondation for Scientific Research (FNRS) </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Lior Sheffer has received funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC).</span></em></p>A survey of nearly 900 politicians in Germany, Switzerland, Belgium and Canada reveals that they systematically overestimate their electorate’s conservatism on a range of issues.Jean-Benoit Pilet, Professeur de Science Politique, Université Libre de Bruxelles (ULB)Lior Sheffer, Assistant professor in political science, Tel Aviv UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2081332023-06-22T19:00:18Z2023-06-22T19:00:18ZDehumanisation, animalisation: inside the terrible world of Swiss human zoos<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/533508/original/file-20230622-27-5pjfu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C8%2C2000%2C1332&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Genève, exposition Nationale, le "Village Noir" dans le parc de Plaisance </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://blog.bge-geneve.ch/le-village-noir-de-lexposition-nationale-de-1896/">Antoine Elie Chevalley, photographe</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>After a stay in Leukerbad, <a href="https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/643832/notes-of-a-native-son-by-james-baldwin/">James Baldwin affirmed</a>:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>“From all available evidence, no black man had ever set foot in this tiny Swiss village before I came. I was told before arriving that I would probably be a ‘sight’ for the village; I took this to mean that people of my complexion were rarely seen in Switzerland and also that city people are always something of a ‘sight’ outside of the city. It did not occur to me – possibly because I am an American – that there could be people anywhere who had never seen a N___o.”</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Baldwin’s odd realisation does not hold the historical evidence, though. Fifty years before the American writer set foot in the Alps, about <a href="https://libreo.ch/revues/didactica-historica/2018/didactica-historica-4-2018/c-est-la-fete-au-village-!-les-exhibitions-de-l-exposition-nationale-suisse-de-geneve-en-1896">two third of the Swiss population</a> visited the “Village noir” in Geneva. How is it possible that, half a century later, the exhibition of 200 African people that two million people visited has fallen into oblivion? How likely is it that none of them came from the region of Leukerbad? But most importantly, what was this “Village noir”?</p>
<h2>A “Black village” in the heart of the Alps</h2>
<p>Today, Geneva is considered one of the capitals of human rights. Back in 1896, during the Swiss Second National Exhibition, it hosted a human zoo. There are very few visible references to it, except for one street called after its corresponding “white” exhibition, the <a href="https://www.geneve.ch/sites/default/files/2022-03/monuments-heritage-raciste-colonial-espace-public-etude-2022-ville-geneve.pdf">“Village Suisse”</a>. However, several researchers’ archival work helped unearth the history of the first Swiss “Village noir”.</p>
<p>Inhabited by more than 200 individuals from Senegal, the village was situated a few streets from the city’s central square, the Plaine de Plainpalais. For six months, paying visitors observed these “actors” living their lives. Their religious ceremonies were advertised as public events. Tourists could take pictures with the African troupe and walk around their dwellings.</p>
<p>These encounters were far from being a sideshow, triggering multiple opinions. On the one hand, critical voices emerged in the press. This “missionary” point of view <a href="https://www.peterlang.com/document/1052283">asked</a> for respect for the “native” people and their dignity while attacking the behaviours of the allegedly civilised visitors. As Davide Rodogno of the Geneva Graduate Institute <a href="https://www.chahut.ch/decoloniserlaville/episode/7c593b9f/2-inventer-le-sauvage">stated</a>, the general system of human zoos was not questioned, and the racial hierarchy was accepted as truth.</p>
<p>On the other hand, racist groups were vociferous. According to them, Senegalese individuals had “free time” to move around the city. This triggered their fear of a “Black invasion”. Does it ring a bell to today’s Swiss political campaigns? Indeed, the racist discourse that spread from the Parc de Plaisance is still largely among us. Why? The answer lies in the country’s past.</p>
<h2>From freak shows to human zoos</h2>
<p>Far from being a Swiss peculiarity, human zoos were spread around the West. Human exhibitions were a form of entertainment invented in the early 19th century in Great Britain. Turned into a <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1-D8N5uaePw">film</a> in 2010, one of the most famous shows was Sara Baartman, the “Hottenton Venus”. Because of her unconventional body shape, she was brought to Europe from South Africa to participate in an exhibition. Such <a href="https://www.historyextra.com/period/victorian/freak-shows-podcast-general-tom-thumb-pt-barnum-john-woolf/">“freak shows”</a> spread around Europe and North America, and included people considered different because of their unusual physical appearance, including dwarfism and albinism.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/1-D8N5uaePw?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption"><em>Black Venus</em> by Abdellatif Kechiche.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Things changed in the late 19th century, when shows became part of national and colonial exhibitions. The first ethnic exhibition of Nubians occurred in 1877 in Paris, when the term <em>human zoo</em> appears to have been used for the first time. The concept seems an oxymoron, though it reveals the violence of these exhibitions. Geneva Graduate Institute’s <a href="https://theconversation.com/debate-welcome-to-the-new-old-global-age-of-weaponised-racism-126852">Mohamed Mahmoud Mohamedou</a> suggests that human zoos were common entertainment in the second half of the 19th century. For the ticket-buying public, the experience was comparable to a visit to a regular zoo; it was about observing “exotic animals”. As it often happens with animals, organisers re-created the subjects’ “natural habitat” with mud huts, typical clothes, and rituals.</p>
<p>The setting was constructed to perform authenticity. On the one hand, the civilisational discourse justifying colonial expansion and domination exaggerated the living representation and exhibition of the “savage” in need of enlightenment. On the other hand, the alleged brutality of the “native” was displayed through the <em>mise-en-scène</em> of their “primitive life”. These exhibitions did not present savagery; they <a href="https://www.si.edu/object/siris_sil_904393">invented a specific kind</a>, which prepared the ground and fuelled further expansions and the ruling of “barbarian” and “uncivilised” societies.</p>
<p>Without minimising the system’s inherent violence, but to prove its performativity, <a href="https://www.letemps.ch/opinions/suisse-exhibait-sauvages-geneve">Lionel Gauthier</a> explains that the “natives” were paid “actors”. They staged various ceremonies and activities to entertain Western visitors. All activities were meant to nourish Westerners’ enthusiasm for the exotic: they eroticised Black women’s bodies, dehumanised Black men, and “proved” their animalistic strength, for instance, by organising boxing matches between Western champions and African hosts.</p>
<h2>Two faces of the same racist coin</h2>
<p>It was at this time that racism entered the game. The turn of the century was among the highest points of scientific racism. This was when the pseudo-scientific attempts to create a superior race thrived within Western anthropology and biology academic departments. For eugenicists, human zoos provided ‘samples’ for racist theories. During the Geneva National Exposition of 1896, Emile Yung gave a <a href="https://www.geneve.ch/sites/default/files/2022-03/monuments-heritage-raciste-colonial-espace-public-etude-2022-ville-geneve.pdf">conference</a> where he presented 15 people from the “Village noir”. He compared their skin colour and skull size to those of a Genevan. This process aimed to demonstrate how the size of the skull affected the level of civilisation and mental capacities. These ideas were <a href="https://www.letemps.ch/suisse/emile-yung-village-noir-deferlement-theories-racialistes">spread among schoolteachers</a> and helped crystallise and expand racist stereotypes.</p>
<p>Indeed, human zoos were breeding grounds for racist stereotypes. Visitors were presented with an invented representation of Africa that deliberately debased and denigrated Africans. Moreover, as Patricia Purtschert of the University of Bern <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/1070289X.2014.944183">suggests</a>, evolutionism and racist human-development theories at the core of the exhibitions had clear educational goals. Thus, scientific racism developed within academia went hand in hand with popular racism: human zoos were places where these two faces of the same coin met.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/dxfbpnjUgUE?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">A long view into the sinister history of human zoos in the West, from 1810 to 1940.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Tackling the legacies of human zoos</h2>
<p>Human exhibitions were the result of Western colonial thinking – says Patrick Minder – in which the Genevan’ “Village noir” fits perfectly. Hence, note <a href="https://www.geneve.ch/sites/default/files/2022-03/monuments-heritage-raciste-colonial-espace-public-etude-2022-ville-geneve.pdf">Mohamedou and Rodogno</a>, the Swiss Confederation has never been immune to colonialism and racism. The setting up of a human zoo at the centre of Geneva served to spread and reinforce the superiority of the West, the right to expand and dominate, and racism, which many among Swiss cultural, political, economic, and academic elites shared. Indeed, Swiss scientists were <a href="https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1057/9781137442741_3">active in shaping colonial mentalities</a>. Despite not possessing colonies, the country was in fact as involved in colonialism and racism as the rest of the West.</p>
<p>Unlike other countries, Switzerland did not stop its human exhibitions during the interwar period. Until the 1960s, the national circus Knie presented the <a href="https://www.orellfuessli.ch/shop/home/artikeldetails/A1030462950?ProvID=10917751&gclid=Cj0KCQiAlKmeBhCkARIsAHy7WVt8zV9ADHtR7dqc3Zuhf0q2vx95ntE9mlpeIAa6YYCevT3Vf09eizkaAq0BEALw_wcB">“Völkerschauen”</a>. It included the display of Eskimos, Catholic Indians, “mysterious Egyptians” or people with albinism. According to Purtschert, this is <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/1070289X.2014.944183">symptomatic of the lack of a decolonisation process in Switzerland</a>. By self-representing itself as a colonial outsider, Switzerland has never come to terms with its colonial mentality, racist representations and discourses.</p>
<p>Against this backdrop, talking about human zoos in Switzerland should not only be of interest to historians. It is a crucial step to allow Swiss society to become aware of its past. Most importantly, it engenders a broader reflection on the legacies of colonialism today. If we keep silent on human zoos, we cannot see <a href="https://www.letemps.ch/opinions/suisse-exhibait-sauvages-geneve">how visiting a “typical” Maasai village echoes the old colonial habits of the <em>mise en scène</em> of rural, primitive life</a>.</p>
<p>The inability to face part of the past also perpetuates racist patterns. Only by acknowledging a shared European colonial history, ruled by the dictum of Whiteness, will Switzerland be ready to face its still-too-present, yet slightly invisible, issues of racism. Otherwise, the absence of such a reflection will continue, recalling Baldwin’s words, the self-entitled Swiss’s “luxury of looking on me as a stranger”.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/208133/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Letizia Gaja Pinoja ne travaille pas, ne conseille pas, ne possède pas de parts, ne reçoit pas de fonds d'une organisation qui pourrait tirer profit de cet article, et n'a déclaré aucune autre affiliation que son organisme de recherche.</span></em></p>On paper, the lush and wealthy city of Geneva is one of the capitals of human rights. Yet, one historian’s work points to a darker history few one want to see.Letizia Gaja Pinoja, PhD Candidate, Graduate Institute – Institut de hautes études internationales et du développement (IHEID)Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2026632023-05-08T18:04:20Z2023-05-08T18:04:20ZCome pests, frost or fire: How the Swiss are arming their wines against climate change<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/524615/original/file-20230505-17-sxlgnl.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C6%2C1024%2C672&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The lush Canton of Valais has long been known as Switzerland's most prolific wine-making region.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vignoble_du_Valais#/media/Fichier:VignesSion.jpg">Wikimedia</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Climate change is increasingly felt globally, and the wine industry is no exception. In vineyards, global heating is synonymous with increased <a href="https://www.rts.ch/info/suisse/8565768-le-gel-printanier-a-malmene-lensemble-du-vignoble-suisse.html">frost and hail</a>, <a href="https://www.vitisphere.com/actualite-97334-secheresse-et-chaleurs-le-vignoble-de-la-moitie-sud-en-souffrance.html">droughts</a>, <a href="https://france3-regions.francetvinfo.fr/occitanie/pyrenees-orientales/perpignan/incendie-dans-les-pyrenees-orientales-un-meilleur-entretien-des-vignes-aurait-permis-de-reduire-la-surface-brulee-selon-des-vignerons-2756878.html">fires</a> and <a href="https://www.letemps.ch/suisse/precipitations-favorisent-attaques-champignons-vignes-locales">disease</a>.</p>
<p>This is problematic when we know the production of high-quality grapes requires consistent weather conditions. The <a href="https://www.wsetglobal.com/knowledge-centre/blog/2021/june/22/the-lifecycle-of-a-vine/">growth cycle of a vine</a> spans from April to September, and each stage depends on different weather conditions. For example, sunny and warm weather is essential during flowering and fruit set, while sun with moderate rain and marked day/night temperature differences are ideal during maturation.</p>
<h2>The biggest climate risks facing the wine sector</h2>
<p>Each vintage is at risk of climate hazards, leading to unpredictable variations in quantity and quality compared to the historical norm. As a result, winemakers now recognise significant business risks come with the territory, including:</p>
<ul>
<li><p>Changes in grape growing conditions: <a href="https://www.nationalgeographic.co.uk/environment-and-conservation/2019/10/climate-change-changing-flavour-french-wine">disruptions to the seasonal cycle</a> can affect the quality and quantity of grapes harvested. This, in turn, can erode a region’s and producer’s reputation and, by extension, its revenues.</p></li>
<li><p>Increased pests and diseases: Warmer temperatures provide ideal breeding conditions for <a href="https://oeno-one.eu/article/view/1780">disease</a> and pests. In response, winegrowers will typically compensate by dousing cultures with pesticides, hampering sustainability efforts.</p></li>
<li><p>Water scarcity: <a href="https://cbey.yale.edu/our-stories/water-to-wine-the-case-for-wine-amidst-the-california-drought">Repeated droughts</a> can limit irrigation and force producers to invest in expensive water management methods.</p></li>
<li><p>Vineyard relocation: Some wine regions may become unsuitable for growing grapes, ultimately prompting producers to relocate elsewhere. In turn, increased competition for <a href="https://www.liquor.com/emerging-wine-regions-5191526">newly hospitable regions</a> for grape growth puts additional pressure on revenues.</p></li>
</ul>
<p>In addition to these direct effects, climate change can drive up the cost of inputs such as energy, water, and labour, reducing producers’ profitability.</p>
<p>Overall, the economic consequences of climate change for wine producers appear complex. Might it be possible for producers to mitigate these impacts by resorting to more creative practices?</p>
<h2>Up to 40% of losses avoided</h2>
<p>To answer this question, we turn to the Canton of Valais, Switzerland’s most prolific wine-making region located in the country’s south. The area is reputed for its international grape varieties, syrah and pinot noir in particular, but above all for its local stars, such as the petite arvine, amigne, or cornalin. Overall, more than 50 varietals exist in the region.</p>
<p>Valais makes for a promising case study for at least two reasons. First, the region produces a large array of red and white grape varieties. This factor sets it apart from French vineyards, where <a href="https://www.thewinecellarinsider.com/wine-topics/wine-educational-questions/wine-grapes-vineyard-france-classifications-appellation-law/">AOC</a> rules limit the varieties that can be used. Second, the Valais grape varieties react differently to climatic hazards. Syrah, for example, allows for a drier climate, whereas pinot noir require cooler temperatures. Gamaret, on the other hand, is more pest resistant. Our question is therefore whether a diversified portfolio of grape varieties could reduce climate risk.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Variability of quantities" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/519944/original/file-20230407-440-fj7o5p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/519944/original/file-20230407-440-fj7o5p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=370&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/519944/original/file-20230407-440-fj7o5p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=370&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/519944/original/file-20230407-440-fj7o5p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=370&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/519944/original/file-20230407-440-fj7o5p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=465&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/519944/original/file-20230407-440-fj7o5p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=465&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/519944/original/file-20230407-440-fj7o5p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=465&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">This graph shows how grape diversity can offset climate risks faced by the wine sector. The horizontal axis shows the number of grape varieties, and the vertical axis shows the extent to which the harvest varies from year to year compared to the historic norm. The solid line indicates the average variation when 1 to 10 grape varieties are used.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>As seen in Figure 1 above, winemakers growing one type of grape face a 1 in 3 chance that the harvest will vary by more than 44%. However, the risk drops as winemakers grow more varieties. The first blue dot on the left shows that choosing pinot noir, a type of grape that is more consistent over time, lowers climate risks. Boasting a mix of grape varieties slashes risks even further.</p>
<p>With four different varieties, it is possible to reduce by 40% the variability of the quantities produced. The continuous line progressively decreases from 0.44 to 0.27 when the number of varieties increases from 1 to 4. The risk is halved when producing eight randomly selected grape varieties. The dashed line in the figure shows that it is possible to reduce the risk even more if the grape varieties are chosen with particular care: combining four white and red, late and early varieties can reduce the climate risk by almost two thirds.</p>
<p>Figure 2 focuses on the variation in <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oechsle_scale">Oechsle degrees</a>, which estimates the ripeness of grapes and predicts the eventual alcohol content of a wine produced. As such, Oesle degrees are considered a quality indicator. Certainly, other dimensions define a great wine. Nevertheless, to make good wine, one must harvest grapes at maturity and, therefore, with enough sugar. The figure shows that working with multiple grape varieties reduces the risk of suffering from a lack of maturity or excessive maturity. The results are similar to those in Figure 1, except that the vertical axis contains lower values. This shows that quality variations are smaller than quantity variations. This is explained by the fact that it is possible to modulate the harvest dates to obtain grapes with sufficient maturity.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Variability of the quality" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/519946/original/file-20230407-3644-zx48ni.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/519946/original/file-20230407-3644-zx48ni.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=370&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/519946/original/file-20230407-3644-zx48ni.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=370&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/519946/original/file-20230407-3644-zx48ni.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=370&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/519946/original/file-20230407-3644-zx48ni.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=465&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/519946/original/file-20230407-3644-zx48ni.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=465&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/519946/original/file-20230407-3644-zx48ni.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=465&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption"></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>An example to follow?</h2>
<p>Our research confirms regions that allow the growth of different grape varieties are better equipped to face off climate risks and could serve as an example for others. Benefits include:</p>
<ul>
<li><p>Increased resilience: By planting grape types with varying <a href="https://news.climate.columbia.edu/2020/01/27/wine-regions-shrink-climate-change/">tolerance to environmental stressors</a>, producers increase the resilience of vineyards to changing climate conditions. For example, if one variety is impacted by a heatwave, another may still produce a high-quality crop.</p></li>
<li><p>Improved crop quality: Different grape varieties have different flavour profiles, sugar levels, and acidity, resulting in more interesting wines.</p></li>
<li><p>Protection against disease: Producers can reduce dependence on a single variety and protect vineyards against disease outbreaks.</p></li>
<li><p>Adaptability to changing conditions: By drawing from different grape varieties, producers can ready their vineyards to erratic weather patterns and ensure their long-term viability.</p></li>
<li><p>Market diversity: By tapping into a broader market, producers reduce economic dependence on a single variety. This reduces market fluctuation risk and ensures a stable income stream.</p></li>
</ul>
<p>The diversification strategy is not without its obstacles, however.</p>
<p>Different grape varieties have different soil requirements. If these aren’t attended to, they may not grow as well. Some grape varieties also take longer to mature, impacting overall productivity. To tackle these challenges head on, transitioning producers will have to invest in equipment, labour, and other resources, sometimes at a hefty cost.</p>
<p>Not to mention that consumers may end up not generating sufficient demand even if one has overcome these challenges. It is therefore crucial for winemakers to carefully consider these issues as they embark onto a diversification strategy, starting off, perhaps, with an in-depth feasibility study.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/202663/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jean-Philippe Weisskopf a reçu des financements de la part de la HES-SO Haute Ecole Spécialisée de Suisse Occidentale. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Philippe Masset ne travaille pas, ne conseille pas, ne possède pas de parts, ne reçoit pas de fonds d'une organisation qui pourrait tirer profit de cet article, et n'a déclaré aucune autre affiliation que son organisme de recherche.</span></em></p>In the face of climate change, research shows it might be best not to put all one’s grapes in one basket.Jean-Philippe Weisskopf, Associate Professor of Finance, EHL Hospitality Business School, Haute école spécialisée de Suisse occidentale (HES-SO)Philippe Masset, Professeur associé, Haute école spécialisée de Suisse occidentale (HES-SO)Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2032782023-04-05T12:26:34Z2023-04-05T12:26:34ZFinland, NATO and the evolving new world order – what small nations know<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/519390/original/file-20230404-29-9zng90.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=38%2C0%2C5150%2C3171&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Finnish military personnel raise their country's flag at NATO headquarters in Brussels.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/finnish-military-personnel-install-the-finnish-national-news-photo/1250764069?adppopup=true">Dursun Aydemir/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>In the world of geopolitics, great powers make, break and play by their own rules. Smaller states largely have to make do with adjusting to the world as determined by others.</p>
<p>Which is why the <a href="https://www.nato.int/cps/en/natohq/news_213448.htm">decision by Finland</a> – a country of <a href="https://worldpopulationreview.com/countries/finland-population">just 5.5 million people</a>, noted for decades as a <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/26999271">neutral presence in Europe</a> – to <a href="https://www.nato.int/nato-welcome/index.html">join NATO</a> is so important. It underscores just how the Russian invasion of Ukraine has <a href="https://theconversation.com/ukraine-war-has-exposed-the-folly-and-unintended-consequences-of-armed-missionaries-197609">upset global realities</a> long thought settled, at least by the Western powers.</p>
<p>The vaunted “<a href="https://www.lowyinstitute.org/the-interpreter/what-does-rules-based-order-mean">rules-based order</a>” that the United States and its NATO allies have touted as the best way to run the world is changing – attracting some, yet more suspicious in the eyes of <a href="https://www.brookings.edu/research/the-united-states-china-and-the-new-non-aligned-countries/">nations not privy</a> to club membership. Meanwhile, Russia and China are disputing the hegemony of the U.S. and the West over global affairs and seek a system in which <a href="https://theconversation.com/ukraine-war-has-exposed-the-folly-and-unintended-consequences-of-armed-missionaries-197609">power is distributed regionally</a>, with Moscow and Beijing holding sway over what they they see as their parts of the world. </p>
<p>Smaller nations all over the globe are <a href="https://www.nysun.com/article/as-during-first-cold-war-an-anti-american-non-aligned-movement-grows">recalculating how they fit</a> into this renewed division of the world.</p>
<p>Finland is one such state and has made a dramatic choice. For centuries it has had to consider its own interests in conjunction with – and in accommodation of – those of its gigantic neighbor: czarist Russia, then the Soviet Union and today Vladimir Putin’s Russia. Through the years of the Cold War, Finland adopted a model of neutrality and accommodation in order to coexist with Russia. That way of dealing with a nearby neighboring great power was <a href="https://www.economist.com/the-economist-explains/2022/02/11/what-is-finlandisation">known as “Finlandization</a>.”</p>
<p>With Russia’s invasion of Ukraine a year ago, decision-makers in Helsinki have seemingly driven the final nails into the coffin of Finlandization. The worry for Putin – and perhaps the West – is that the model has not only been killed off for Finland; it is also dead as a <a href="https://www.brookings.edu/blog/up-front/2014/03/06/finlandization-for-ukraine-realistic-or-utopian/">potential off-ramp solution</a> to the conflict in Ukraine.</p>
<h2>The past no longer as prologue</h2>
<p>After more than a hundred years within the czarist empire, Finland <a href="https://blogs.loc.gov/law/2018/01/finland-100-years-of-independence-global-legal-collection-highlights/">gained its independence</a> in 1917. For the next roughly 20 years it became an anti-Soviet outpost precariously positioned next to the USSR. </p>
<p>Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin saw Finland as a gateway to the communist state’s enemies. In his mind, Finland was an existential threat – similar to how <a href="https://thehill.com/policy/international/3874880-putin-says-ukraine-war-poses-existential-threat-to-russian-people/#:%7E:text=Putin%20says%20Ukraine%20war%20poses%20existential%20threat%20to%20'Russian%20people',-by%20Lauren%20Sforza&text=Russian%20President%20Vladimir%20Putin%20said,in%20its%20war%20in%20Ukraine.">Putin sees Ukraine</a> today.</p>
<p>After annexing eastern Poland and the Baltic states – Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania – after the signing of the <a href="https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/german-soviet-pact">German-Soviet Pact of 1939</a>, Stalin demanded serious territorial concessions from Finland. </p>
<p>The <a href="https://www.iwm.org.uk/history/a-short-history-of-the-winter-war">resulting war</a> saw the Finns lose much of their eastern provinces, but they managed to preserve their independence – at some cost. The price for maintaining its democratic state and capitalist economy in domestic affairs during the Cold War was Finlandization.</p>
<p>Through the adapted model for neutrality, Finland was able to convince Moscow for more than a half-century that it was no threat but a loyal trading partner. </p>
<p>With the demise of the Soviet Union in 1991, doubts about Finlandization <a href="https://history.state.gov/milestones/1989-1992/collapse-soviet-union">grew among Finns</a>. They debated whether they should consider joining the Western alliance.</p>
<p>But it was <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-did-russia-invade-ukraine-178512">Putin’s invasion of Ukraine</a> in 2022 that tipped the scales and finally convinced Helsinki that its security would be enhanced by becoming a member of NATO.</p>
<h2>The dilemma of neutrality</h2>
<p>The invasion also killed off any idea of Finlandization being a model for post-Soviet Ukraine as well.</p>
<p>For the past 30 years, independent Ukraine was viewed as a problem for Putin, who <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2022/03/putin-nato-finland-sweden-support-ukraine/626965/">feared its gravitation</a> toward the West. Similarly, even before the invasion last year, Russia was a problem for Ukraine, with authorities in Kyiv fearing dominance from the East.</p>
<p>Before the present war, the Finnish model of independence and neutrality was touted as a <a href="https://www.nationalreview.com/corner/ukraine-and-finlandization/">viable alternative to Ukraine</a> joining either NATO or drawing closer to the Russian-led strategic alliance, the <a href="https://en.odkb-csto.org/">Collective Security Treaty Organization</a>.</p>
<p>Finland’s experience in preserving its sovereignty by compromising its right to act completely independently in foreign policy might have been a viable model for former Soviet states, some observers held, especially in regards to Ukraine.</p>
<p>Findlandization might have also, so the thinking went, provided a solution to Ukraine’s internal divisions on the question of which to favor: the West or Russia. </p>
<p>Throughout the 1990s and 2000s, Ukraine <a href="https://theconversation.com/ukraine-war-follows-decades-of-warnings-that-nato-expansion-into-eastern-europe-could-provoke-russia-177999">swung between a pro-Russian orientation</a> favored in eastern Ukraine, and a more Ukrainian nationalist identity powerfully evident in western Ukraine. A Finlandization of Ukraine, coupled with the federalization of the various provinces of Ukraine, might have lessened political polarization with Ukraine and allayed the fears of the Russians, and Putin in particular. </p>
<p>Of course, history cannot be rewound; such alternative possibilities cannot be tested. And federalism, which would have required that some decision-making be handed to regional governments, was considered suspect as a viable form of statehood by many in Ukraine and Russia alike. A similar process of federalization was, after all, <a href="https://doi.org/10.12987/yale/9780300106497.003.0033">blamed for the breakup</a> of the Soviet Union.</p>
<p>Moreover, events forced Ukraine’s hand. As Russia <a href="https://www.newstatesman.com/international-politics/2022/03/how-russia-descended-into-authoritarianism">gravitated toward authoritarianism</a> and used its oil and gas as a weapon against Ukraine, the attractions of the West – democracy, prosperity and a shiny modernity – seemed far more enticing.</p>
<p>On the initiative of the United States, the West <a href="https://www.npr.org/2022/01/29/1076193616/ukraine-russia-nato-explainer">vaguely promised Ukraine NATO membership</a>, which Russia found completely unacceptable. And the European Union offered Ukraine closer economic and political ties, stirring up fears in Moscow that this was the first step toward NATO.</p>
<p>After the Russian <a href="https://www.brookings.edu/blog/order-from-chaos/2020/03/17/crimea-six-years-after-illegal-annexation/">seizure of Crimea in 2014</a>, Ukrainians turned even more sharply toward the West and became more receptive to Western promises of NATO membership.</p>
<h2>‘Small nations can disappear’</h2>
<p>In hindsight, hopes that Ukraine could “Finlandize” or federalize were both casualties of Putin’s increasingly hard line toward Ukraine. </p>
<p>Finland’s entry into NATO marks the likely end of the Finlandization model. Even Finland has abandoned it; neutral Sweden is now anxious to join the Western alliance; and other states, even Switzerland, are questioning the efficacy of nonalignment in a polarized world.</p>
<p>In its place, we have the “NATOfication” of Eastern Europe – something that Putin unwittingly accelerated and which leaves Putin’s Russia with less accommodating neighbors. Meanwhile, countries like Finland and Sweden have been left with fewer options. “A small nation can disappear,” the Czech writer Milan Kundera <a href="https://www.nybooks.com/articles/1984/04/26/the-tragedy-of-central-europe/">reminds us</a>, “and knows it.”</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/203278/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Ronald Suny does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>A historian looks at the steps leading up to Finland joining the Western strategic alliance – and what that means for small nations elsewhere.Ronald Suny, Professor of History and Political Science, University of MichiganLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1927702022-10-26T15:08:22Z2022-10-26T15:08:22ZIn France, the tough debate about hunting and alcohol<p>Over the last <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/nov/28/france-three-people-injured-over-weekend-in-latest-hunting-incidents">weekend of November alone</a>, a 26-year-old hiker was shot in the arm while walking in the Alpilles mountains in Provence and a 64-year-old man, in the stomach, in Dordogne. Lead pellets also hit a 58-year old man in Brittany.</p>
<p>The link between these gruesome incidents? They were all caused by careless hunters.</p>
<p>All the more timely, then, is the French Senate’s report released in September, which called for a <a href="http://www.senat.fr/notice-rapport/2021/r21-882-notice.html">ban on alcohol and narcotics while hunting</a> alongside for a spate of <a href="https://www.lefigaro.fr/actualite-france/le-senat-propose-un-taux-maximal-d-alcoolemie-pour-la-chasse-20220916">measures</a> similar to those applied to drink-driving. On 25 October, the government released a <a href="https://www.lemonde.fr/planete/article/2022/10/25/delit-d-alcoolemie-demi-journees-sans-chasse-les-pistes-envisagees-par-le-gouvernement-pour-ameliorer-et-garantir-la-securite-a-la-chasse_6147294_3244.html">policy roadmap</a> comprising some of these suggestions, including restrictions on drinking. “Hunting involves an arm. Like driving, it is not compatible with a high blood-alcohol concentration,” the secretary of state for ecology, Bérangère Couillard, said. The Elysee is now awaiting to hear feedback from hunting federations with the view to formulating decrees by early 2023 at the latest.</p>
<p>The president of France’s National Hunters’ Federation (FNC), Willy Schraen, has retorted that <a href="https://www.marianne.net/societe/agriculture-et-ruralite/le-velo-bourre-cest-dangereux-aussi-nouvel-argument-du-patron-des-chasseurs-pour-esquiver-le-debat">“a drunk guy on a bike is dangerous, too”</a>, apparently forgetting French drink-driving laws <a href="https://www.securite-routiere.gouv.fr/chacun-son-mode-de-deplacement/dangers-de-la-route-velo/bien-circuler-velo">also apply to cyclists</a>.</p>
<p>The French hunting chief’s remark would not hold water in other countries, where representative organisations advise hunters to abstain from alcohol. Absent an EU-wide legislation on the matter, national legislation in states such as <a href="https://gestiberian.com/2017/01/27/sanciones-por-cazar-con-copas/">Spain</a>, <a href="https://www.rtbf.be/article/ouverture-de-la-chasse-quels-sont-les-droits-et-obligations-des-chasseurs-et-des-promeneurs-11076343">Belgium</a> and <a href="https://www.jagdverband.de/vor-und-waehrend-der-jagd-ist-alkohol-tabu">Germany</a> restrict drinking while in possession of a firearm. Or take, for example, the official website of <a href="https://www.hunter-ed.com/newyork/studyGuide/Alcohol-and-Drugs/20103502_138053/">a US agency for hunting education</a>, which states that</p>
<blockquote>
<p>“consuming alcohol before or during the hunt increases the risk of incidents because it impairs coordination, hearing, vision, communication, and judgement”.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>This may seem like common-sense advice, but alcohol is still integral to the world of hunting, both in France and farther afield.</p>
<h2>Hunting while drunk</h2>
<p>In the United States, where the general population consumes <a href="https://donnees.banquemondiale.org/indicateur/SH.ALC.PCAP.LI?locations=US">20% less</a> alcohol than in France, a <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/01639625.2019.1631069">recent survey</a> carried out on a representative sample of 2,349 young adults found that 23% of male hunters had at some point hunted while inebriated.</p>
<p>And in France? Although there is an absence of hard data, the Senate report tentatively ventures that a “small minority” of people have hunted while under the influence of alcohol. However, the senators offer more precise statistics regarding deaths and serious accidents in hunting, 9% of which are attributable to a hunter’s state of inebriation.</p>
<p>Unfortunately, the report ignores most international data available on the topic, failing to mention that in the US, <a href="https://ajph.aphapublications.org/doi/abs/10.2105/AJPH.78.12.158">drunkenness is involved in 15% of hunting accidents</a>. Also overlooked is an extensive Danish study of 1,800 hunters, which revealed the risk of firearm-related accidents <a href="https://journals.lww.com/jtrauma/Abstract/2009/12000/Firearm_Related_Hunting_Accidents_in_Denmark.21.aspx">was directly proportional to the hunters’ alcohol intake</a>.</p>
<p>Moreover, the recent Senate report does not clarify how alcohol significantly raises the risk of accidents. But we have managed to pinpoint three contributing effects of inebriation.</p>
<h2>Locomotion and motor coordination</h2>
<p>A study conducted at a Swiss A&E service showed a third of the hunting-related injuries there resulted from falls – for example, <a href="https://www.hindawi.com/journals/emi/2015/284908/">when shooters tumbled from tree-stands</a>. Alcohol is conducive to this type of incident, particularly by interfering with the <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.alcohol.2008.04.004">inner ear and cerebellum</a>, which regulate balance. This has a negative impact on the hunter’s anticipation and motor coordination skills.</p>
<p>Other <a href="https://bmcresnotes.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/1756-0500-3-243">research</a> demonstrated that when individuals were instructed to avoid obstacles while walking on a treadmill, their reaction times were significantly longer, even at low levels of alcohol intake.</p>
<h2>Visual and hearing impairment</h2>
<p><a href="https://www.thieme-connect.de/products/ejournals/abstract/10.1055/s-2008-1050922">Alcohol also impairs peripheral vision</a>, thus affecting judgement and accuracy in angles of fire. This is what causes double vision and <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.3758/BF03207543">blurred vision</a>, by disturbing the action of muscles that control visual focus. It enhances <a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/415330/">glaring</a>, by slowing down the muscles responsible for opening and closing the pupil in response to surrounding light levels.</p>
<p>Over the long term, <a href="https://theconversation.com/alcool-et-autres-substances-pourquoi-leur-dangerosite-est-elle-sous-estimee-par-les-usagers-159369">high alcohol intake</a> alters <a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/26465148/">colour perception</a> and promotes the emergence of <a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/34055263/">chronic diseases</a>, such as <a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/20443769/">cataracts</a>. It can lead to <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/02713683.2021.1942070">age-related macular degeneration</a> (AMD), a condition characterised by <a href="https://theconversation.com/la-degenerescence-maculaire-est-la-premiere-cause-de-cecite-au-pays-comment-la-prevenir-154683">damage to the central region of the retina</a>.</p>
<p>Alcohol even <a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33341812/">deteriorates our hearing</a>. In one study, subjects who had consumed alcohol were found to have significantly poorer hearing abilities compared to those who had not.</p>
<h2>Errors of judgement</h2>
<p>Once the extent of alcohol’s effects on sight and hearing are better understood, the range of stories that pop up in local newspapers – such as the man who ended up <a href="https://www.lyonmag.com/article/90723/beaujolais-le-chasseur-ivre-vise-un-lievre-et-tire-sur-son-ami">riddled with buckshot</a> when his hunting companion mistook him for a hare – become less of a surprise.</p>
<p>According to France’s <a href="https://www.ofb.gouv.fr/la-securite-la-chasse">Biodiversity Agency</a> (OFB), hunting accidents are often the result of carelessness and bad judgement. The OFB reminds hunters that, once fired, the projectiles can reach a distance of up to five kilometres (three miles). When a target is far away or moving, how can a hunter guarantee – drunk or sober – that their bullet doesn’t <a href="https://france3-regions.francetvinfo.fr/auvergne-rhone-alpes/haute-savoie/ouverture-du-proces-du-chasseur-accuse-avoir-tue-vetetiste-haute-savoie-1900586.html">hit a mountain biker</a>, a <a href="https://www.20minutes.fr/faits_divers/2338343-20180918-limoges-fillette-grievement-blessee-chasseur-tirait-faisan">ten-year-old girl playing by the river</a> or a <a href="https://www.lavoixdunord.fr/1143614/article/2022-02-22/femme-de-25-ans-tuee-lors-d-un-accident-de-chasse-ce-qu-sait-sur-ce-drame">young hiker</a> ?</p>
<h2>Drinking makes for riskier decision-making</h2>
<p>The choice of whether to pull the trigger or hold fire is dependent on another dimension. According to the Senate report:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>“More than two thirds of accidents result from gross misconduct that contravenes basic safety rules. Moreover, some one hundred incidents per year lead to devastating consequences, whereby shots are fired at vehicles or homes.”</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Assessing risks and perceiving the consequences of our actions are two processes that are <a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33065446/">notoriously affected by inebriation</a>.</p>
<p>A 2015 study demonstrated this effect using a straightforward method, which involved presenting two jars filled with cards to bar patrons, aged 18 to 43. The subjects were told that they could earn a prize if they found a winning card. In the jar on the right, 50% of the cards were winners, whereas the probability of winning was not given for the jar on the left. The results showed that the drunk men (but not the women) <a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/25642202/">more often chose the riskier option</a>. Could this be likened to the scenario of taking a shot in the dark in the hopes of hitting a target?</p>
<h2>A major factor in human aggression</h2>
<p>By directly affecting the prefrontal cortex, alcohol disturbs <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/hup.1194">executive cognitive functions</a>, which are involved in our ability to consider or maintain multiple options simultaneously in order to solve problems, as well as our attention skills, our action inhibition skills, and <a href="https://compass.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1751-9004.2007.00051.x">our ability to control aggression</a>. In fact, alcohol is the psychoactive substance most often linked to <a href="https://www.dunod.com/sciences-humaines-et-sociales/drogues-alcool-et-agression-equation-chimique-et-sociale-violence">human aggression on a global scale</a>.</p>
<p>Of course, it’s not alcohol but hunters who have <a href="https://www.ledauphine.com/france-monde/2019/11/17/en-20-ans-les-chasseurs-ont-tue-plus-de-400-personn">shot 400 people dead</a> in the past two decades in France and injured thousands more. (And it should be noted that alcohol is responsible for <a href="https://www.inserm.fr/wp-content/uploads/2021-05/inserm-expertisecollective-alcool2021-synthese.pdf">almost a million deaths</a> in instances not related to hunting).</p>
<p>Given that alcohol has clearly been identified as an avoidable risk factor, however, it seems wise to ban its consumption for those using rifles and shotguns in woodland areas frequented by the public. When consuming alcohol, hunters threaten the lives of others, and their own as well.</p>
<hr>
<p><em>Translated from the French by Enda Boorman for <a href="http://www.fastforword.fr/en">Fast ForWord</a>.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/192770/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Laurent Bègue-Shankland has received funding from the Inter-ministerial Mission for the Fight against Drugs and Addictive Behaviour (MILDECA).</span></em></p>A recent French Senate report calling on a ban on alcohol use while hunting has prompted the wrath of the country’s hunting lobby. Do its arguments hold water?Laurent Bègue-Shankland, Addictologue, Professeur de psychologie sociale, membre de l’Institut universitaire de France (IUF), directeur de la MSH Alpes (CNRS/UGA), Université Grenoble Alpes (UGA)Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1891972022-10-18T16:37:55Z2022-10-18T16:37:55ZGlaciers in the Alps are melting faster than ever – and 2022 was their worst summer yet<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/489197/original/file-20221011-25-oj2kz1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=1834%2C0%2C9111%2C5320&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The Aletsch Glacier in Switzerland is the largest in the Alps. A century ago it was several kilometres longer and several hundred metres thicker. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Alberto Garcia Guillen / shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Finally, after what was arguably the worst summer on record for glaciers, snow has begun to fall in the European Alps. It is much needed. Over the 19 years that I have visited and studied the glaciers in Switzerland, I have not seen a summer like 2022. The scale of change is staggering. </p>
<p>Glaciologists like me used to use the word “extreme” to describe annual ice loss of around 2% of a glacier’s overall volume. This year Switzerland’s glaciers have lost an average of <a href="https://scnat.ch/en/uuid/i/2e076759-0234-567e-9bfb-2cdfebd6ff34-Worse_than_2003_Swiss_glaciers_are_melting_more_than_ever_before">6.2% of their ice</a> – extreme indeed. </p>
<p>The new flurries of snow will form a protective blanket to shield and reflect 90% of the sun’s radiation back into the atmosphere and limits the warming and melting of the ice beneath. When snow falls over the winter, and then subsequently doesn’t melt over the summer, it adds to the mass of a glacier. Over a few similar years, gravity would take over and glaciers would start to advance downhill. </p>
<p>However over the past century, that has not been the case. The protective layers of snow have not been thick enough to offset the warming summer temperatures and on average <a href="https://www.ipcc.ch/report/ar6/wg1/downloads/report/IPCC_AR6_WGI_Chapter09.pdf">glaciers around the world have been wasting away</a> since the end of the little ice age in the mid-late 1800s.</p>
<h2>Saharan sand and a huge heatwave</h2>
<p>Back to this summer. Across the Alps, the preceding winter had very limited snowfall and therefore glaciers were not well insulated against the forthcoming summer melt season. </p>
<p>Spring was particularly harsh as natural atmospheric weather patterns carried <a href="https://www.severe-weather.eu/global-weather/saharan-dust-cloud-europe-march-2022-forecast-mk/">Saharan dust</a> to Europe and blanketed the Alpine landscape. Since dust absorbs more solar energy than snow (which is white and therefore more reflective), the now orange-tinted snow melted faster than ever. </p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1358399804670418948"}"></div></p>
<p>Then a major heatwave saw temperature records smashed across Europe, with parts of the UK <a href="https://theconversation.com/heatwave-britain-hits-40-3-c-heres-how-scientists-know-when-a-temperature-record-has-been-broken-187235">reaching 40°C</a> for the first time. The Alps were not spared. For instance Zermatt, a famous car-free Swiss village in the shadow of the Matterhorn, recorded temperatures up to 33°C despite being 1,620 meters above sea level. </p>
<p>Glaciers in particular took a beating. By July, the Alps looked like they normally look in September: snow free, with snow and ice-fed rivers flowing at their peak. This was not normal. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/489161/original/file-20221011-17-e3h6bi.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Satellite image of glaciers" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/489161/original/file-20221011-17-e3h6bi.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/489161/original/file-20221011-17-e3h6bi.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/489161/original/file-20221011-17-e3h6bi.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/489161/original/file-20221011-17-e3h6bi.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/489161/original/file-20221011-17-e3h6bi.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=533&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/489161/original/file-20221011-17-e3h6bi.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=533&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/489161/original/file-20221011-17-e3h6bi.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=533&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Glaciers near Zermatt in July 2021 – a ‘normal’ year.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://sentinels.copernicus.eu/web/sentinel/home">Copernicus Sentinel / European Space Agency - ESA</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/">CC BY-NC</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/489170/original/file-20221011-19-qz7rpm.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Satellite image of much smaller glaciers" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/489170/original/file-20221011-19-qz7rpm.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/489170/original/file-20221011-19-qz7rpm.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/489170/original/file-20221011-19-qz7rpm.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/489170/original/file-20221011-19-qz7rpm.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/489170/original/file-20221011-19-qz7rpm.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=533&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/489170/original/file-20221011-19-qz7rpm.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=533&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/489170/original/file-20221011-19-qz7rpm.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=533&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">…and the same glaciers in July 2022.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://sentinels.copernicus.eu/web/sentinel/home">Copernicus Sentinel / European Space Agency - ESA</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/">CC BY-NC</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The last time glaciers had an extreme melt season was in 2003 when, again, temperatures were very high across Europe, and a heatwave killed at least 30,000 people (more than 14,000 in France alone). That calendar year, <a href="https://twitter.com/glamos_ch/status/1575011474870661125">3.8% of glacier ice</a> melted across Switzerland. </p>
<p>This year, for the first time ever, Zermatt closed its summer skiing. Guides stopped leading high mountain expeditions as permafrost – the frozen ground that binds rocks together – was thawing and causing almost constant rockfalls. <a href="https://explorersweb.com/mont-blanc-climbing-closed">Mont Blanc was closed</a>.</p>
<h2>50 years of data</h2>
<p>We are able to put this in historical context thanks in part to work by the charitable organisation <a href="https://alpineglacierproject.org/">Alpine Glacier Project</a> which was established in 1972 and, along with the <a href="https://www.salford.ac.uk/study-environment">University of Salford</a> where I work, has led scientific expeditions to glaciers near Zermatt every summer for 50 years. </p>
<p>Scores of students have helped to observe the effect of our warming climate through chemically monitoring changes in meltwater, topographically surveying the landscape and by taking photos from the same position over the years. Over the project’s five decades, Gorner Glacier and Findel Glacier have retreated 1,385 metres and 1,655 metres respectively. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/489428/original/file-20221012-18-3wbmt0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Three photos of mountain range with progressively smaller glacier" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/489428/original/file-20221012-18-3wbmt0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/489428/original/file-20221012-18-3wbmt0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=181&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/489428/original/file-20221012-18-3wbmt0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=181&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/489428/original/file-20221012-18-3wbmt0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=181&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/489428/original/file-20221012-18-3wbmt0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=228&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/489428/original/file-20221012-18-3wbmt0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=228&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/489428/original/file-20221012-18-3wbmt0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=228&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Same view of the Gorner Glacier near Zermatt in 1920, 1972 and 2022.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Alpine Glacier Project, David Collins, Neil Entwistle</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/489404/original/file-20221012-20-1dn0nj.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Two photos of mountain valley with larger and smaller glacier" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/489404/original/file-20221012-20-1dn0nj.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/489404/original/file-20221012-20-1dn0nj.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/489404/original/file-20221012-20-1dn0nj.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/489404/original/file-20221012-20-1dn0nj.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/489404/original/file-20221012-20-1dn0nj.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/489404/original/file-20221012-20-1dn0nj.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/489404/original/file-20221012-20-1dn0nj.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Left: University of Salford students on a Alpine glacier visit in 2009 looking toward the tongue of the Gorner Glacier. Right the same view in 2022.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Neil Entwistle</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In Switzerland these glacial meltwaters are used for hydropower. In fact, water falling on <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0960148118309017">93% of Switzerland</a> ultimately passes through at least one electric power plant before even leaving the country. So one consequence is that melting glaciers help to compensate for low rainfall in times of drought, filling reservoirs to supply the nations energy supply. </p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1575011474870661125"}"></div></p>
<p>You could argue that not all glaciers were equally affected by this summer’s catastrophic retreat and ice loss. In part, this is true. The extent to which a glacier has melted does depend on the altitude at which it is located, how steep the glacier tongue is, and how heavily it is covered with debris. There may too be localised climate factors. </p>
<p>However, research just <a href="https://wgms.ch/latest-glacier-mass-balance-data/">published</a> has shown that Austrian glaciers have also lost more glacial ice in 2022 than they have in 70 years of observations and therefore it is quite clear that severe melt has been the norm in 2022.</p>
<p>Visiting and viewing the geography of high mountain environments is a breathtaking experience, but my fear is that the continued ice melt and extreme temperatures seen this year are not an anomaly. Many more glaciers could be lost entirely within a generation.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/189197/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Neil Entwistle receives research funding from NERC, and The Environment Agency. He is affiliated with Manchester Geographical Society, Royal Geographical Society, and the Alpine Glacier Project.</span></em></p>Switzerland’s glaciers just lost 6% of their ice in a single year.Neil Entwistle, Professor of River Science and Climate Resilience, University of SalfordLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1578472021-04-12T12:27:47Z2021-04-12T12:27:47ZHow many states and provinces are in the world?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/391534/original/file-20210324-17-1y77u3i.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=16%2C13%2C997%2C611&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">There are so many different states – and provinces, districts, regions and lander!</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/photos/state-welcome-signs?agreements=pa:91269&family=creative">Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><figure class="align-left ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/281719/original/file-20190628-76743-26slbc.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/281719/original/file-20190628-76743-26slbc.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=293&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/281719/original/file-20190628-76743-26slbc.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=293&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/281719/original/file-20190628-76743-26slbc.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=293&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/281719/original/file-20190628-76743-26slbc.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=368&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/281719/original/file-20190628-76743-26slbc.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=368&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/281719/original/file-20190628-76743-26slbc.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=368&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption"></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p><em><a href="https://theconversation.com/us/topics/curious-kids-us-74795">Curious Kids</a> is a series for children of all ages. If you have a question you’d like an expert to answer, send it to <a href="mailto:curiouskidsus@theconversation.com">curiouskidsus@theconversation.com</a>.</em></p>
<hr>
<blockquote>
<p><strong>How many states, or provinces or other divisions, are there in the world? – Noé, 8, Minneapolis</strong></p>
</blockquote>
<hr>
<p>The exact answer is hard to come by – for now. Your question has actually sparked scholars to start talking about compiling an official, authoritative database.</p>
<p>Right now the best estimates land somewhere between 3,600 and 5,200, across the world’s roughly 200 nations. It depends on whether you collect <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_administrative_divisions_by_country">data from specific nations’ own information</a>, the <a href="https://www.cia.gov/the-world-factbook/field/administrative-divisions/">CIA World Factbook</a> or the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ISO_3166-2">International Standards Organization</a>.</p>
<p>There are <a href="https://www.un.org/en/about-us/growth-in-un-membership">195 national governments recognized by the United Nations</a>, but there are as many as <a href="https://www.cia.gov/the-world-factbook/field/administrative-divisions/">nine other places</a> with nationlike governments, including Taiwan and Kosovo, though they are not recognized by the U.N.</p>
<p>Most of these countries are divided into smaller sections, the way the U.S. is broken up into 50 states along with territories, like Puerto Rico and Guam, and a federal district, Washington, D.C. </p>
<p>They are not all called “states,” though: Switzerland has cantons, Bangladesh has divisions, Cameroon has regions, Germany has lander, Jordan has governorates, Montserrat has parishes, Zambia has provinces, and Japan has prefectures – among many other names.</p>
<p><iframe id="lnmnT" class="tc-infographic-datawrapper" src="https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/lnmnT/1/" height="400px" width="100%" style="border: none" frameborder="0"></iframe></p>
<p>Most countries have some type of major subdivision – even tiny Andorra, tucked in the Pyrenees Mountains between France and Spain, has seven parishes. <a href="https://www.cia.gov/the-world-factbook/field/administrative-divisions/">Slovenia has the most, with 212</a>: 201 municipalities, called “obcine” in Slovenian, and 11 urban municipalities, called “mestne obcine.” </p>
<p>Singapore, Monaco and Vatican City, all small city-states, are the three nations that have what are called “unitary” governments that are not divided into smaller sections.</p>
<p>Dividing governing power between national and subnational levels is called “<a href="http://www.forumfed.org">federalism</a>.” It lets countries organize large areas of land and large numbers of people, handling different interests of diverse groups, often with different languages, religions and ethnic identities. </p>
<p>National governments still control international relations, military power and money and banking systems – things that affect everyone in a country equally. But states, provinces, cantons and the like let more local government groups have some amount of say over health care, education, policing and other issues where needs can vary substantially from one area to another.</p>
<p>Variations in laws and regulations benefit people in a couple of different ways. First, people can leave one area and move to another that has laws or policies that are <a href="https://doi.org/10.1086/257839">more to their liking</a>. In addition, different regions can <a href="https://www.gsb.stanford.edu/insights/steven-callander-how-make-states-laboratories-democracy">try different approaches</a> to solving particular problems – like educating all children or providing health care in rural areas, perhaps identifying which methods are more effective.</p>
<p>Federal systems also make it easier for citizens to join government by running for office, including challenging the current officeholders. It is <a href="https://ftw.fraserinstitute.org/studies/the-new-federalist">much cheaper and less complicated</a> to seek support from voters in a smaller area. Smaller government agencies can also <a href="https://ftw.fraserinstitute.org/studies/the-new-federalist">make better use of local knowledge</a> about geography or historical traditions to govern people in ways that fit their needs.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/391537/original/file-20210324-17-8zekx2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="People gathered in a village in India" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/391537/original/file-20210324-17-8zekx2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/391537/original/file-20210324-17-8zekx2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/391537/original/file-20210324-17-8zekx2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/391537/original/file-20210324-17-8zekx2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/391537/original/file-20210324-17-8zekx2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/391537/original/file-20210324-17-8zekx2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/391537/original/file-20210324-17-8zekx2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A village council meeting in India.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:A_Gramsabha_in_a_rural_village_of_Madhyapradesh.jpg">Shagil Kannur via Wikimedia Commons</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>There are some drawbacks, too: Some regions may have laws and rules that expand business opportunities or protect the environment – while other regions may have fewer business regulations or more damaged landscapes. Problems like that can mean people who live near one another – but in different states – have <a href="https://doi.org/10.2307/2669275">unequal qualities of life</a>.</p>
<p>And sometimes provincial governments can <a href="https://repository.upenn.edu/wharton_research_scholars/50/">slow the progress of major national initiatives</a> meant to benefit everyone.</p>
<p>But most countries seem to have decided that the positives outweigh the negatives. And in fact, they’ve gone even deeper into federalism. Beyond states and provinces, there are many even smaller units of government. </p>
<p>In the U.S., states are made up of counties, which are in turn made up of towns, cities or other municipal governments. There are many more thousands of these – the <a href="https://gadm.org/data.html">Database of Global Administrative Areas tallies 386,735</a>. Brazil alone has <a href="https://www.paho.org/salud-en-las-americas-2017/?page_id=97">5,570 municipalities</a>. <a href="http://search.oecd.org/regional/regional-policy/profile-India.pdf">India has 250,671 village councils</a>, called “gram panchayats.” But even those are <a href="https://www.pria.org/panchayathub/panchayat_text_view.php">divided into smaller districts</a> called “wards,” each of which votes for its own council member. </p>
<p>If you want some more fun, try <a href="https://www.crwflags.com/fotw/flags/">looking for the flags</a> of each of these subnational governments!</p>
<hr>
<p><em>Hello, curious kids! Do you have a question you’d like an expert to answer? Ask an adult to send your question to <a href="mailto:curiouskidsus@theconversation.com">CuriousKidsUS@theconversation.com</a>. Please tell us your name, age and the city where you live.</em></p>
<p><em>And since curiosity has no age limit – adults, let us know what you’re wondering, too. We won’t be able to answer every question, but we will do our best.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/157847/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Vasabjit Banerjee does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The U.S. is broken up into 50 states, plus territories like Puerto Rico and Guam, and a federal district, Washington, D.C. Most other countries have smaller parts too.Vasabjit Banerjee, Assistant Professor of Political Science, Mississippi State UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1582682021-04-08T17:31:58Z2021-04-08T17:31:58ZWelfare dependency of foreign nationals during the pandemic: insights from Switzerland<p>Welfare expenditures are a contested field, not just politically but also in public discourse. This hotly debated theme includes expressions of support for those in need, discussions on attempts to control social benefits, as well as endorsing the preexisting images of those believed to be receiving benefits without “deserving” them. </p>
<p>While these debates can be found in many countries, this contribution will deal with the Swiss context and discuss social assistance, which is at the intersection of migration law and the current pandemic. This analysis is necessary in order to elaborate on the consequences that foreign-national welfare receivers face, the most extreme case being deportation.</p>
<p>Social assistance is understood as the last resort, providing financial assistance only after other forms of support have been ruled out (e.g., unemployment benefits, retirement and survivor’s insurance, and invalidity pensions, or even private financial means). Yet in Switzerland there is no federal law regarding social assistance. Instead, it is either the cantons or municipalities (or a mixture) that take care of expenditures, financed via the state and municipality taxes. This puts <a href="https://www.srf.ch/news/schweiz/wie-viel-sozialhilfe-ist-zu-viel">pressure on municipalities</a> with a higher number of people in need, and this in turn can give rise to attempts to reduce basic needs or increase the sanctioning mechanisms that are at hand.</p>
<p>Basic needs and sanctioning mechanisms are generally suggested by the <a href="https://richtlinien.skos.ch/a-voraussetzungen-und-grundsaetze/a8-auflagen-leistungskuerzungen-und-leistungseinstellung/a82-leistungskuerzung-als-sanktion/">Swiss Conference for Social Assistance</a>, of which all cantons and some municipalities as well as many national ministries are members. Despite their aim to create a “fair and effective social assistance”, political motions and <a href="https://www.srf.ch/news/schweiz/wie-viel-sozialhilfe-ist-zu-viel">the reactions</a> of certain members have an effect on the decisions made. Thus, influencing the generosity of assistance provided and the means taken to sanction individuals seen as “recalcitrant”.</p>
<h2>(Un)deserving welfare recipients</h2>
<p><a href="https://www.srf.ch/news/schweiz/sozialhilfe-auffangbecken-in-der-not-oder-haengematte">Public debates</a> have circled around <a href="https://www.udc.ch/actualites/articles/exposes/halte-aux-abus-dans-lassurance-invalidite/">images</a> of supposed “welfare abusers” depicted as undeservingly receiving social assistance and other benefits without “contributing”. Such characterisations can target the socially and financially marginalised, individuals who often face difficulty in reentering the job market due to limited education, social difficulties or health issues that are not considered “severe enough” to allow them support via disability insurance.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.snf.ch/SiteCollectionDocuments/nfp/nfp45/NFP45_MaederU_SB.pdf">Restrictive policies</a> also target individuals who are working, yet despite their employment are unable to fully support themselves or their families. These are the so-called “working poor”, who often have jobs that do not pay a minimum wage and don’t offer regular hours. They are at risk of being exploited by employers while at the same depending on social assistance. </p>
<p>Research has discussed the increasingly harsh measures taken against those falling into the “last security net” in context of <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0020715206070268?journalCode=cosa">neoliberal policies</a> It has also addressed how disadvantaged populations are <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0167268119301969">socio-economically marginalized</a>, especially when unable to participate in everyday life, and criticised the [welfare-to-workfare] approach. </p>
<p>There has been a further step into the limitation of rights through <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1111/1468-5965.00263">“welfare chauvinism”</a>, which proposes that assistance should be restricted to certain groups, often at the exclusion of foreign nationals. </p>
<h2>Intertwining of migration law and social policies</h2>
<p>Over the last few years in Switzerland we have witnessed an intertwining of migration and social policies. Cantonal/municipal social services have had the obligation to report social aid dependency since 2009, the 2019 revision of the Foreign Nationals and Integration Act (<a href="https://www.fedlex.admin.ch/eli/cc/2007/758/en">FNIA</a>) states that social assistance dependencies of foreign nationals must be reported “unrequested”. In addition, any claim for supplementary or unemployment benefits must be reported to the respective cantonal migration authorities (<a href="https://www.fedlex.admin.ch/eli/cc/2007/758/en#art_97">art. 97 FNIA</a>). </p>
<p>The <a href="https://nccr-onthemove.ch/projects/governing-migration-and-social-cohesion-through-integration-requirements-a-socio-legal-study-on-civic-stratification-in-switzerland/">transferred and shared</a> information by the social services includes the sum of benefits received, as well as a brief report on the overall behaviour of foreign nationals commenting on their level of cooperation and efforts taken to reenter the labour market. </p>
<p>Other agencies and institutions may share information on social networks and linguistic skills that will be considered by migration offices when they assess the feasibility of a (non)prolongation or the withdrawal of a (<a href="https://www.fedlex.admin.ch/eli/cc/2007/758/en#art_63">permanent</a>) <a href="https://www.fedlex.admin.ch/eli/cc/2007/758/en#art_62">residence</a> permit. Also introduced in 2019, migration authorities might decide to downgrade the permanent residence permit to a temporary one in case of social-aid dependency (art. 63 FNIA). The <a href="https://explore.rero.ch/fr_CH/if/result/L/VlRMU19SRVJPUjAwNzkzOTEyMQ==">assessment of the integration</a> of a foreign national is done for both, third country nationals and EU/EFTA citizens residing in Switzerland. </p>
<h2>Insecurities, no rights claiming and destabilization of legal stay</h2>
<p>With the current pandemic and given the number of foreign nationals working in the Swiss labour market, current discussions circle around the consequences of short-time work and an increase in unemployment. A study from Zurich’s <a href="https://digitalcollection.zhaw.ch/handle/11475/19967">University of Applied Sciences</a> states that during the state lockdown, foreign nationals were afraid to claim social benefits due to the risk of losing their residence permit.</p>
<p>At the same time, according to the <a href="https://skos.ch/fileadmin/user_upload/skos_main/public/pdf/medien/medienkonferenzen/2021_Medienkonferenz/Analysepapier_Herausforderungen.pdf">Swiss Conference of Welfare</a>, foreign nationals are among the persons whose social-welfare dependency will rise due to the pandemic. According to the organisation <a href="https://www.swissinfo.ch/ger/-die-angst--die-schweiz-verlassen-zu-muessen--waechst-/45907516">Isa Bern</a>, a cantonal integration program provider, foreign nationals avoid not only welfare support, including direct social assistance, but also supplementary benefits, reductions for health insurance and childcare support. This is due to the fact that in some cantons these services are understood to be social assistance. If we look at <a href="https://cigev.unige.ch/files/3716/0692/0389/rapport_covid_parchemins_juillet2020.pdf">former <em>sans-papiers</em></a> who were recently regularised by a Geneva program called <a href="https://www.ge.ch/dossier/operation-papyrus">Papyrus</a>, they too avoided social assistance due to their fears of losing their newly recognised legal status. </p>
<p>The fears to claim their rights in one sector (welfare policies), due to circumstances in another sector (migration law) have severe consequences, from <a href="https://www.cairn.info/revue-sciences-et-actions-sociales-2020-1-page-53.htm">extreme cases</a> of homelessness, loss of health insurance and hunger. The pandemic has increased the anxiety of many foreign nationals that their residence permit could be withdrawn. Yet there are only minimal responses from public administration.</p>
<p>The <a href="https://www.sem.admin.ch/sem/de/home/publiservice/weisungen-kreisschreiben.html">State Secretariat of Migration</a> (SEM) has recommended taking into account the current situation when evaluating cases, yet there were only two migration office so far (to the best knowledge of the authors), <a href="https://www.bernerzeitung.ch/auslaender-koennen-trotz-sozialhilfe-bleiben-914043313985">Bern-City</a> and the <a href="https://www.ge.ch/actualite/covid-19-employabilite-formation-aide-sociale-permis-23-04-2020">canton of Geneva</a>, that have publicly announced that they will strongly take into account the sanitary situation when assessing social assistance dependencies. Some nongovernmental organisations and political parties have <a href="https://beobachtungsstelle.ch/news/migrantinnen-drohen-rechtliche-folgen-aufgrund-von-corona/">criticised this practice</a>, arguing that calling into question the legal stay of disadvantaged foreign nationals <a href="https://www.parlament.ch/de/ratsbetrieb/suche-curia-vista/geschaeft?AffairId=20200451">should not be deemed a crime</a>. </p>
<p>With this contribution, we wish to highlight how restrictive migration laws undermine social-policy goals and does not take into account the harsh realities that disadvantaged populations face. We argue that the objective of social policies today increasingly emerges from neoliberal state practices, which not only function to control citizens, but also aim to exclude foreign nationals in the quest to reduce state expenditures. Especially in times of a worldwide pandemic, the attempt to circumscribe rights calls into question the very functioning and intentions of welfare states.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/158268/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Lisa Marie Borrelli receives funding from the National Centre of Competence in Research (NCCR) – on the move, which is funded by the Swiss National Science Foundation (51NF40-182897)</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Stefanie Kurt receives funding from the National Centre of Competence in Research (NCCR) – on the move, which is funded by the Swiss National Science Foundation (51NF40-182897)</span></em></p>The Covid-19 pandemic raises the question of the precariousness of foreigners dependent on social assistance in Switzerland - a precariousness that is still growing.Lisa Marie Borrelli, Chercheuse, Haute école spécialisée de Suisse occidentale (HES-SO)Stefanie Kurt, Professeure HES assistante, Haute école spécialisée de Suisse occidentale (HES-SO)Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1578142021-03-29T12:57:59Z2021-03-29T12:57:59ZHow COVID caused the Swiss far right to tie itself in knots<p>The first COVID-19 case was reported in Switzerland on February 25 2020. Soon after, the country experienced alarmingly high rates of the disease. The Swiss population <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1002/epa2.1094?casa_token=CTcUiI-ST_YAAAAA:e-H7IyeDKFflhAVU8Q0mYvvdFG0IUAy4tRQOIylbFEVOSZ83gpOzWAu04YrCP9wxqzC2edMgq3w6rHo">moves around a lot</a>, crosses borders with neighbouring countries regularly and lives in concentrated areas, none of which helped matters. </p>
<p>On March 11 2020, the World Health Organization classified COVID-19 as a worldwide pandemic and five days later, because of the “<a href="https://www.swissinfo.ch/eng/covid-19_swiss-parliament-interrupts-spring-session-over--rapidly-worsening--coronavirus-situation/45618696">rapidly worsening</a>” outbreak, Switzerland declared an “extraordinary situation” under the <a href="https://www.bag.admin.ch/bag/en/home/gesetze-und-bewilligungen/gesetzgebung/gesetzgebung-mensch-gesundheit/epidemiengesetz.html">Epidemics Act</a>. This declaration allowed the government to order necessary measures to contain the spread of the virus without approval from parliament. </p>
<p>All private and public events were banned; restaurants, bars, leisure facilities, non-essential shops and most schools had to close. The government also introduced checks on the borders with Germany, Austria and France and deployed around 8000 military personnel to help with logistics.</p>
<p>Switzerland has a decentralised, federal political system. The country has also been characterised as a <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/2009820?seq=1">“consociational democracy”</a> in which a grand coalition of the four largest parties forms the government. This solves political conflicts by negotiation and broadly based compromises. The concepts of democratic inclusion and participation are also held in high regard. Against this backdrop, the federal government’s invocation of exclusive power was a controversial one.</p>
<p>All this means that Switzerland became an excellent case to study for understanding how a global health crisis affects the stability of well-established democratic institutions and shifts political debates.</p>
<h2>Lockdown tension</h2>
<p>The largest of Switzerland’s four major parties in the government, the Swiss People’s Party (SVP) is one of Europe’s strongest and <a href="https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1057/s41295-016-0087-1.pdf">most successful far-right parties</a>. Since the 1990s, the SVP has shifted further to the right and has, in the process, progressed from appealing largely to conservative voters in rural areas to becoming a national force. It is anti-immigration and anti-EU integration.</p>
<p>The SVP occupies an unusual position in that it holds two of the seven seats on the Swiss Confederation’s federal government but continues to aggressively promote itself as the opposition to the political establishment. This balancing act has become particularly challenging during the pandemic.</p>
<p>At first, the four governing parties found themselves <a href="https://www.sp-ps.ch/de/publikationen/medienmitteilungen/einer-fur-alle-alle-fur-einen-politische-parteien-stehen-geeint">surprisingly united</a> on introducing restrictions. However, this unity did not last long. True to its strategy of being both part of the government and the opposition, the SVP quickly changed direction. The party bemoaned the negative impact lockdown was having on the Swiss economy and instead demanded stricter border controls to prevent the spread of the virus. At the same time, it criticised the government’s general handling and management of the crisis, increasingly targeting the federal minister for health (from the Social Democratic Party).</p>
<p>Undoubtedly, some of the SVP’s criticisms were justified. The pandemic has revealed how trying it is for a government to steer a coherent course and communication when a country faces unexpected circumstances. This is even truer for a federal system with sub-national political entities. In Switzerland, each region (canton) has fiscal autonomy and significant devolved powers. And each of the 26 cantons has a different view of how to tackle the crisis, depending on their economic and cultural circumstances. What works for Geneva may not work for Zurich.</p>
<p>After a significant period of <a href="https://sotomo.ch/site/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/6.-SRG-Corona-Monitor.pdf">public support</a>, scepticism began to really set in by the time of the second national lockdown in late October 2020. And yet people wanted more, not less <a href="https://sotomo.ch/site/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/6.-SRG-Corona-Monitor.pdf">central control over decisions</a>. </p>
<p>In response, the SVP intensified its criticism and went as far as accusing the federal government of “<a href="https://www.tagesanzeiger.ch/wir-muessen-die-absolute-macht-des-bundesrats-brechen-863764234402">introducing a dictatorship</a>” – a surprising accusation from a party with two representatives in that same government and the most seats in parliament. What the SVP hoped to achieve with this strategy remains something of a puzzle.</p>
<h2>Half in, half out</h2>
<p>Far-right leaders leaders and parties around the world have responded in different ways to COVID-19. Some political scientists argued that their responses depend on their position in each respective political system. If they are in <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/638E1BEA8CF82CA068DBC46149BE9F42/S0090599220000938a.pdf/victims-of-the-pandemic-european-far-right-parties-and-covid%2019.pdf">power</a> they are likely to enforce strict measures and if they are in opposition, they attack strong measures from the government.</p>
<p>The SVP occupies both positions, resulting in a meandering approach accompanied by an increasingly radical rhetoric in line with its ideological views. The attacks eventually culminated in questioning the Swiss consociational system itself – which, in turn, forced one of the SVP representatives in the Federal Council to <a href="https://www.ejpd.admin.ch/ejpd/de/home/aktuell/reden---interviews/interviews/2021/2021-02-271.html">publicly defend </a> the status quo. </p>
<p>Ultimately, amid all this confusion, it is difficult to say whether or not this strategy has benefited the SVP. On the one hand, it allowed the party to strengthen its own populist profile, to be visible in the media, and to act as the defender of the public interest and the national economy. On the other, the SVP’s campaign against the government has made it look a rather ineffective partner in a grand coalition government.</p>
<p>The SVP’s troubles may be tied to Switzerland’s unique political system but they also speak to a question that resonates with far-right parties everywhere: once you’ve found success as an outside agitator, what do you do once you become part of the establishment?</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/157814/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Adrian Favero receives funding from Economic and Social Research Council. </span></em></p>Switzerland is a key case study for understanding how a global health crisis affects the stability of well-established democratic institutions and shifts political debates.Adrian Favero, Research Fellow, Department of Politics and International Studies, University of BirminghamLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1508062020-12-10T13:36:42Z2020-12-10T13:36:42ZOregon just decriminalized all drugs – here’s why voters passed this groundbreaking reform<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/374023/original/file-20201209-21-1aik374.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=30%2C7%2C5111%2C3423&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">According to Oregon law, possessing a small amount of drugs for personal consumption is now a civil – rather than criminal – offense. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/teenage-schoolgirl-reaching-for-cocaine-in-her-back-royalty-free-image/1132980785?adppopup=true">Peter Dazeley via Getty</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Oregon became the first state in the United States to decriminalize the possession of all drugs on Nov. 3, 2020. </p>
<p><a href="https://ballotpedia.org/Oregon_Measure_110,_Drug_Decriminalization_and_Addiction_Treatment_Initiative_(2020)">Measure 110</a>, a ballot initiative <a href="https://www.klcc.org/post/election-preview-measure-110-would-make-oregon-1st-state-decriminalize-drug-use">funded by the Drug Policy Alliance, a nonprofit advocacy group backed in part by Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg</a>, passed with more than 58% of the vote. Possessing heroin, cocaine, methamphetamine and other drugs for personal use is no longer a criminal offense in Oregon. </p>
<p>Those drugs are still against the law, as is selling them. But possession is now a civil – not criminal – violation that may result in a fine or court-ordered therapy, not jail. Marijuana, which Oregon legalized in 2014, remains fully legal.</p>
<p>Oregon’s move is radical for the United States, but several European countries <a href="https://www.loc.gov/law/help/decriminalization-of-narcotics/decriminalization-of-narcotics.pdf">have decriminalized drugs to some extent</a>. There are three main arguments for this major drug policy reform. </p>
<h2>#1. Drug prohibition has failed</h2>
<p>In 1971, President Richard Nixon declared drugs to be “public enemy number one” and launched a “<a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2012/03/the-war-on-drugs-how-president-nixon-tied-addiction-to-crime/254319/">war on drugs</a>” that continues today.</p>
<p>The ostensible rationale for harshly punishing drug users is to deter drug use. But decades of research – including <a href="http://tupress.temple.edu/book/20000000009196">our own on marijuana</a> and <a href="https://us.sagepub.com/en-us/nam/drugs-and-drug-policy/book258916">drugs generally</a> – has found the <a href="https://www.vera.org/publications/for-the-record-prison-paradox-incarceration-not-safer">deterrent effect of strict criminal punishment to be small</a>, if it exists at all. This is especially true among young people, who <a href="http://www.monitoringthefuture.org/pubs/monographs/mtf-vol2_2019.pdf">are the majority of drug users</a>. </p>
<p>This is partly due to the nature of addiction, and also because <a href="https://nij.ojp.gov/topics/articles/five-things-about-deterrence">there are simply limits to how much punishment can deter crime</a>. As a result, the U.S. has both <a href="https://www.sentencingproject.org/criminal-justice-facts/">the world’s highest incarceration rate</a> and <a href="http://www.espad.org/sites/espad.org/files/TD0116475ENN.pdf">among the highest rates of illegal drug use</a>. Roughly <a href="https://www.prisonpolicy.org/reports/pie2020.html">1 in 5 incarcerated people in the United States is in for a drug offense</a>. </p>
<p><a href="https://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=dNcNUjn4UQEC&oi=fnd&pg=PP9&dq=Crime+in+the+Making:+Pathways+and+Turning+Points+Through+Life.&ots=UfXRYQfehU&sig=jAyUyb68tCm1Bw9dXXtlyUlXPro#v=onepage&q=Crime%20in%20the%20Making%3A%20Pathways%20and%20Turning%20Points%20Through%20Life.&f=false">Criminologists find</a> that other consequences of problematic drug use – such as harm to health, reduced quality of life and strained personal relationships – are more effective deterrents than criminal sanctions. </p>
<p>Because criminalizing drugs does not really prevent drug use, <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/3342518?seq=1">decriminalizing does not really increase it</a>. Portugal, <a href="https://time.com/longform/portugal-drug-use-decriminalization/">which decriminalized the personal possession of all drugs in 2001</a> in response to high illicit drug use, has <a href="https://www.emcdda.europa.eu/system/files/publications/11331/portugal-cdr-2019_0.pdf">much lower rates of drug use than the European average</a>. Use of cocaine among young adults age 15 to 34, for example, is 0.3% in Portugal, compared to 2.1% across the EU. <a href="https://www.emcdda.europa.eu/system/files/publications/11331/portugal-cdr-2019_0.pdf">Amphetamine and MDMA consumption is likewise lower in Portugal</a>. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/373956/original/file-20201209-13-1k3fxx5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Woman with a dog waits at a white van while a man drinks from a tiny cup" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/373956/original/file-20201209-13-1k3fxx5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/373956/original/file-20201209-13-1k3fxx5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=391&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/373956/original/file-20201209-13-1k3fxx5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=391&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/373956/original/file-20201209-13-1k3fxx5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=391&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/373956/original/file-20201209-13-1k3fxx5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=492&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/373956/original/file-20201209-13-1k3fxx5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=492&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/373956/original/file-20201209-13-1k3fxx5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=492&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A mobile drug-services van in Lisbon gives out methadone, a medication for people with opioid use disorder, in 2017.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/patient-rita-pestana-holds-her-puppy-while-her-husband-news-photo/857614826?adppopup=true">Horacio Villalobos - Corbis/Corbis via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>2. Decriminalization puts money to better use</h2>
<p>Arresting, prosecuting and imprisoning people for drug-related crimes is expensive. </p>
<p>The Harvard economist Jeffrey Miron estimates that all government drug prohibition-related expenditures <a href="https://www.cato.org/publications/tax-budget-bulletin/budgetary-effects-ending-drug-prohibition">were US$47.8 billion nationally</a> in 2016. Oregon spent about $375 million on drug prohibition in that year. </p>
<p>Oregon will now divert some the money previously used on drug enforcement to pay for <a href="https://www.statesmanjournal.com/story/news/politics/2020/10/16/oregon-2020-election-ballot-measure-110-decriminalize-drug-possession/3620146001/%22%22">about a dozen new drug prevention and treatment centers</a> statewide, which has been <a href="http://www.justicepolicy.org/uploads/justicepolicy/documents/04-01_rep_mdtreatmentorincarceration_ac-dp.pdf">found to be a significantly more cost-effective</a> strategy. Some tax revenue from <a href="https://www.bizjournals.com/portland/news/2019/07/25/oregon-cannabis-tax-revenue-gets-higher-and-higher.html">recreational marijuana sales</a>, which exceeded $100 million in 2019, will also go to addiction and recovery services. </p>
<p>Oregon <a href="https://www.oregonlegislature.gov/citizen_engagement/Reports/2019-OCJC-SB1041-Report.pdf">spent about $470 million on substance abuse treatment</a> between 2017 and 2019.</p>
<p>Not everyone who uses drugs needs treatment. Decriminalization makes help accessible to those who do need it – and keeps both those users and recreational users out of jail.</p>
<h2>3. The drug war targets people of color</h2>
<p>Another aim of decriminalization is to mitigate the significant <a href="https://www.sentencingproject.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/Disparity-by-Geography-The-War-on-Drugs-in-Americas-Cities.pdf">racial and ethnic disparities associated with drug enforcement</a>. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/373973/original/file-20201209-17-i30jco.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Black and whit image of police arresting a Black man in a New York subway station; no faces are seen" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/373973/original/file-20201209-17-i30jco.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/373973/original/file-20201209-17-i30jco.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=339&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/373973/original/file-20201209-17-i30jco.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=339&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/373973/original/file-20201209-17-i30jco.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=339&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/373973/original/file-20201209-17-i30jco.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=426&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/373973/original/file-20201209-17-i30jco.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=426&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/373973/original/file-20201209-17-i30jco.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=426&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">New York’s ‘stop and frisk’ policing most often resulted in marijuana possession charges and targeted young Black men. It was declared unconstitutional in 2013.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/saw-this-young-man-being-stopped-in-nyc-subway-by-two-news-photo/185494998?adppopup=true">Third Eye Corporation/Getty</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Illegal drug use is <a href="https://www.samhsa.gov/data/sites/default/files/cbhsq-reports/NSDUHNationalFindingsReport2018/NSDUHNationalFindingsReport2018.pdf">roughly comparable across race</a> in the U.S. But people of color are significantly more likely to be <a href="https://ag.ny.gov/pdfs/OAG_REPORT_ON_SQF_PRACTICES_NOV_2013.pdf">searched</a>, <a href="https://www.drugabuse.gov/about-nida/noras-blog/2020/06/message-director-racially-motivated-violence">arrested and imprisoned for a drug-related offense</a>. Drug crimes can incur long prison sentences.</p>
<p>Discretion in drug enforcement and sentencing means prohibition is among the <a href="https://newjimcrow.com/">leading causes of incarceration of people of color in the United States</a> – an injustice <a href="https://www.cato.org/multimedia/daily-podcast/bipartisan-drug-policy-reform">many Americans on both sides of the aisle</a> increasingly recognize. </p>
<p>Freed up from policing drug use, departments may redirect their resources toward crime prevention and solving <a href="https://thecrimereport.org/2015/06/24/2015-06-reinventing-american-policing-a-seven-point-blueprin/">violent crimes like homicide and robbery</a>, which are time-consuming to investigate. That could help restore some trust between law enforcement and Oregon’s communities of color. </p>
<h2>Risks of decriminalization</h2>
<p>One common concern among Oregonians <a href="https://www.opb.org/article/2020/10/15/measure-110-oergon-politics-decriminalize-drugs/">who voted against decriminalization</a> was that lessening criminal penalties would endanger children. </p>
<p>“I think it sends a really bad message to them, and influences their perception of the risks,” James O’Rourke, a defense attorney who helped organize the opposition to measure 110, <a href="https://www.opb.org/article/2020/10/15/measure-110-oergon-politics-decriminalize-drugs/">told Oregon Public Broadcasting in October</a>.</p>
<p>But U.S. states that legalized marijuana haven’t seen adolescent use rise significantly. In fact, marijuana consumption among teens – <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/add.14939">though not among college-aged Americans</a> – actually <a href="https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamapediatrics/fullarticle/2737637">declined in some states with legal marijuana</a>. This may be because legal, regulated marijuana is more difficult for minors to get than black-market drugs. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/373955/original/file-20201209-13-pm4j84.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Woman browses various types of marijuana in glass jars on shelves, in well-lit, upscale setting" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/373955/original/file-20201209-13-pm4j84.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/373955/original/file-20201209-13-pm4j84.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=406&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/373955/original/file-20201209-13-pm4j84.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=406&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/373955/original/file-20201209-13-pm4j84.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=406&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/373955/original/file-20201209-13-pm4j84.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=510&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/373955/original/file-20201209-13-pm4j84.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=510&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/373955/original/file-20201209-13-pm4j84.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=510&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Customers must be 21 or older to purchase marijuana from dispensaries like Oregon’s Finest, in Portland.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/woman-shops-at-oregons-finest-a-marijuana-dispensary-in-news-photo/491438512?adppopup=true">Josh Edelson/AFP via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Research also shows that for some people, particularly the young, banning a behavior <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4675534/">makes it more alluring</a>. So defining drugs as a health concern rather than a crime could actually make them less appealing to young Oregonians.</p>
<p>Another worry about decriminalization is that it will attract people looking to use drugs. </p>
<p>So-called “drug tourism” <a href="https://www.economist.com/europe/2009/08/27/treating-not-punishing">hasn’t really been a problem for Portugal</a>, but it happened in Switzerland after officials in the 1980s and 1990s began officially “ignoring” heroin in Zurich’s Platzspitz Park. People came from across the country to <a href="https://theculturetrip.com/europe/switzerland/articles/a-brief-history-of-zurichs-needle-park/">inject heroin in public, leaving discarded needles on the ground</a>. </p>
<p>The local government shut down Platzspitz Park. But rather than chase off or arrest those who frequented it, it began offering methadone and prescription heroin to <a href="https://ssir.org/articles/entry/inside_switzerlands_radical_drug_policy_innovation">help people with opioid use disorder</a>. Public injection, HIV rates and overdoses – which had all become a problem in Zurich – <a href="https://www.northcarolinahealthnews.org/2019/01/21/switzerland-couldnt-stop-drug-users-so-it-started-supporting-them/">plummeted</a>. </p>
<p>Certain parts of Oregon already have higher rates of public drug consumption, namely Portland and Eugene. Because public drug use is still illegal in Oregon, however, we don’t expect a Platzspitz Park-style open drug scene to emerge.
These places should benefit from the expansion of methadone programs and other medication-assisted treatment, which is endorsed by the <a href="https://www.ama-assn.org/delivering-care/opioids/ama-push-better-access-opioid-use-disorder-treatments">American Medical Association</a>.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.theolympian.com/opinion/editorials/article247180921.html">If neighboring Washington state decriminalizes drugs</a>, which it is considering, the chances of drug tourism would drop further. </p>
<p>[<em>The Conversation’s science, health and technology editors pick their favorite stories.</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters/science-editors-picks-71/?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=science-favorite">Weekly on Wednesdays</a>.]</p>
<h2>Upside – and downside</h2>
<p>There are risks with any major policy change. The question is whether the new policy results in a net benefit. </p>
<p>In Portugal, full decriminalization has proven more humane and effective than criminalization. Because drug users don’t worry about facing criminal charges, those who need help are more likely to seek it – and <a href="https://www.opensocietyfoundations.org/uploads/52ff6eb9-76c9-44a5-bc37-857fbbfedbdd/drug-policy-in-portugal-english-20120814.pdf">get it</a>. </p>
<p>Portugal’s <a href="https://www.emcdda.europa.eu/system/files/publications/11364/20191724_TDAT19001ENN_PDF.pdf%22%22">overdose death rate is five times lower than the EU average</a> – which is itself <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/products/databriefs/db356.htm">far lower than the United States’</a>. HIV infection rates among injection drug users also <a href="https://www.emcdda.europa.eu/system/files/publications/11331/portugal-cdr-2019_0.pdf">dropped massively</a> since 2001.</p>
<p>These policies show that problem drug use is a public health challenge to be managed, not a war that can be won.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/150806/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Possessing heroin, cocaine, meth and other drugs for personal use is no longer a criminal offense in Oregon. The idea is to get people with problem drug use help, not punishment.Scott Akins, Professor, Sociology Department, Oregon State UniversityClayton Mosher, Professor, Sociology Department, Washington State UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1375422020-04-30T16:00:01Z2020-04-30T16:00:01ZIt can’t cure COVID-19, but sunlight was long seen as having healing powers<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/331756/original/file-20200430-42951-qhxb7g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=3%2C1%2C1004%2C679&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Dr Auguste Rollier (centre) examines a patient at the heliotherapy Clinique Miremont, Leysin, Switzerland.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Dr_rollier_-_heliotherapie_-_leysin.jpg">Clinique Miremont postcard</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>The suggestion from the US president, Donald Trump, that COVID-19 could be <a href="https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20200327-can-you-kill-coronavirus-with-uv-light">treated with light</a> was rightly criticised by scientists and clinicians, but sunlight has long been seen as a cure for disease, leading to a boom in “heliotherapy” 100 years ago.</p>
<p>In the 19th century, when industrialisation and urbanisation had drastically reduced the amount of time people spent in the sun, concerns about the effects of lack of sunlight became widespread. In 1903, <a href="https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/medicine/1903/finsen/biographical/">Niels Ryberg Finsen</a> (1860–1904) earned a Nobel Prize in medicine for his pioneering work in the field of phototherapy. Light therapies that involved exposure to both natural and artificial lamps became popular, and there was a proliferation of theories about the best way to administer light.</p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/331741/original/file-20200430-42923-1xaloxn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/331741/original/file-20200430-42923-1xaloxn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/331741/original/file-20200430-42923-1xaloxn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/331741/original/file-20200430-42923-1xaloxn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/331741/original/file-20200430-42923-1xaloxn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/331741/original/file-20200430-42923-1xaloxn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1131&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/331741/original/file-20200430-42923-1xaloxn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1131&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/331741/original/file-20200430-42923-1xaloxn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1131&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">From the 1937 catalogue for the Homesun UV Lamp.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:A_lady_using_a_Homesun_UV_Lamp_Wellcome_L0074516.jpg">Wellcome Collection</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>At the same time, nudism and naturalism were gaining in popularity, and the sight of tanned skin began to be associated with health and beauty. Medical theories praised the benefits of sun exposure through the practice of taking “sunbaths”.</p>
<p>The Swiss doctor <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2248938/pdf/tacca00123-0052.pdf">Auguste Rollier</a> (1874-1954) was the most prominent sun advocate at the time. In numerous <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Heliotherapy-Consideration-Surgical-Tuberculosis-Publications/dp/B00086Z1VY">publications</a> and at international congresses, he argued that the sun could heal a wide variety of lesions — syphilitic ulcers, all kinds of burns and fractures — as well as rickets and tuberculosis, the “white death”. Sun exposure could also have a positive effect on one’s mood and overall outlook.</p>
<p>But strict discipline and expert supervision were indispensable for the treatment to be effective. Rollier conceded that one could sunbathe anywhere and obtain some benefit. But he felt picking the proper climate was essential. If too hot, the sun “depresses and congests” – if too cold, it could be dangerous. </p>
<p>He also argued that the proper technique should be followed, and for this reason he was critical of those who attempted sunbathing without medical supervision. He decried their “snobbism” – as he saw it, they deemed it unnecessary to seek expert advice. He scorned their goal of merely “acquiring in record time a tan darker than their neighbour’s”, and emphatically listed the possible medical consequences, from erythema (redding of the skin) and sunburns, vertigo and palpitations, to lung and brain congestion.</p>
<p>The proper technique eliminated all barriers between the sun’s radiation and the body, and managed exposure in carefully timed increments. He used a specific chart that indicated the exact number of minutes each body part required, starting by revealing only the feet and extending the amount of the body and the length of time exposed to light with each day. All reactions, including headaches or lack of appetite, had to be carefully monitored so as to be able to adjust the therapy. Hats and sunglasses were recommended, as was moderate exercise. </p>
<p>By 1930, Rollier ran 37 heliotherapic clinics housing a total of 1,100 patients of all social classes. The Swiss town of Leysin where he was based became home to 80 treatment centres, hosting 3,000 patients, 50 doctors, and 300 nurses. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/331763/original/file-20200430-42918-19z8gp5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/331763/original/file-20200430-42918-19z8gp5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=428&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/331763/original/file-20200430-42918-19z8gp5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=428&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/331763/original/file-20200430-42918-19z8gp5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=428&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/331763/original/file-20200430-42918-19z8gp5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=538&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/331763/original/file-20200430-42918-19z8gp5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=538&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/331763/original/file-20200430-42918-19z8gp5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=538&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Heliotherapy patients at Auguste Rollier’s Leysin sanatorium, 1914.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Transactions_of_the_American_Climatological_and_Clinical_Association._(1914)_(14577768999).jpg">American Climatological and Clinical Association</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>A lasting effect</h2>
<p>Before antibiotic treatments became available, time in a solar sanatorium was effective for treating tuberculosis, and the <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3014565/">associated conditions</a> which could develop in long-term and untreated cases. Scientists later discovered that UV rays could destroy the bacteria that caused the disease. It was also effective at curing <a href="https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/rickets-and-osteomalacia/">rickets</a> by helping the patients’ bodies <a href="https://www.nhs.uk/live-well/healthy-body/how-to-get-vitamin-d-from-sunlight/">develop vitamin D through sun exposure</a>.</p>
<p>But heliotherapy also contributed to a much deeper holistic healing process. Rollier treated the “whole patient” (<em>malade tout entier</em>), paying attention to both physical and emotional health. Each person arrived with “a heart heavy with pains, preoccupations and inquietudes”. The sunlight, warmth and calm of the sanatorium may have <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2290997/">encouraged the body to create endorphins</a> and boosted the patient’s sense of wellbeing and positivity. </p>
<p>Many of his patients came from poor backgrounds and lived in very unhealthy conditions. In Leysin, some people would work in an agricultural colony or on machinery especially installed by their bed (notably at the Clinique Manufacture Internationale), where they could benefit from sun exposure while reducing the cost of their treatment. Rollier believed the “joy” of being in the open air, together with the pride and satisfaction of supporting oneself, would do much for the overall improvement of the patients’ morale, spirit and, ultimately, physical health.</p>
<p>Rollier’s all-encompassing approach sought to treat not just the physical but the psychospiritual aspects of the patient, without which he felt his treatments would not progress. Despite the absence of formal transcendent elements, his approach had a quasi-religious quality that sought to give life meaning, purpose and a vision to guide both present and future – an approach he felt would benefit not just individuals but the world as a whole. Rollier thought of his clinics as a forum where patients from various countries could meet and interact in a friendly environment. He saw them as a workshop to build international cooperation and peace.</p>
<p>Newly developed antibiotics as well as cancers and other pathologies caused by overexposure to the sun’s rays have since robbed the sun of its status as a entirely beneficial source of health (although phototherapy is still used for certain conditions such as <a href="https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/psoriasis/treatment/">psoriasis</a>). But Rollier’s humane and holistic approach still resonates in our time, as he sought to address issues ranging from mental health to conflict to social inequality – which remain far from being solved a century on.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/137542/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Ilaria Scaglia received funding for part of this research through a Volkswagen–Mellon Postdoctoral Fellowship for Research in Germany (2016–2017). She sits on the board of the Coordinating Council for Women in History (CCWH).</span></em></p>Sunlight is not a cure for everything, and certainly not for COVID-19, but 100 years ago it was a popular treatment.Ilaria Scaglia, Lecturer in History, Aston UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1304512020-02-27T14:38:31Z2020-02-27T14:38:31ZWhy does Swiss cheese have holes?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/316919/original/file-20200224-24701-1lk36vg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=53%2C33%2C4439%2C2957&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Holey moley!</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/cheese-on-wooden-board-125744069">Tim UR/Shutterstock.com</a></span></figcaption></figure><figure class="align-left ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/281719/original/file-20190628-76743-26slbc.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/281719/original/file-20190628-76743-26slbc.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=293&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/281719/original/file-20190628-76743-26slbc.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=293&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/281719/original/file-20190628-76743-26slbc.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=293&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/281719/original/file-20190628-76743-26slbc.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=368&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/281719/original/file-20190628-76743-26slbc.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=368&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/281719/original/file-20190628-76743-26slbc.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=368&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption"></span>
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<p><em><a href="https://theconversation.com/us/topics/curious-kids-us-74795">Curious Kids</a> is a series for children of all ages. If you have a question you’d like an expert to answer, send it to <a href="mailto:curiouskidsus@theconversation.com">CuriousKidsUS@theconversation.com</a>.</em></p>
<hr>
<blockquote>
<p><em><strong>Why does Swiss cheese have holes? – Owen F., age 13, Belmont, Massachusetts</strong></em></p>
</blockquote>
<hr>
<p>There are <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_cheeses">thousands of kinds of cheese</a>, each with its own color, shape, nutritional value, flavor and texture. </p>
<p>Since cheese is made from milk, cheese types tend to vary based on the source of milk. Some of the most popular cheeses are made from the milk of cows, goats and sheep. But there are also cheeses made from camel milk, water buffalo milk – even <a href="https://nowthisnews.com/videos/food/moose-cheese-is-one-of-the-most-expensive-cheese-on-earth">moose milk</a>.</p>
<p>To make cheese, you need to add bacteria to the milk. These create chemical reactions that cause it to change into a combination of solid “<a href="https://www.dictionary.com/browse/curds">curds</a>” and liquid “<a href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/whey">whey</a>.” The whey is generally drained off, concentrated and dried into a powder.</p>
<p>Variations in the amount and type of bacteria influence the taste and texture of the final product. Other aspects factor into the type of cheese that’s produced: the salting method, its temperature and how long cheesemakers age it, which refers to the amount of time it is left alone to ripen and form. Some cheeses are aged <a href="https://luxeadventuretraveler.com/bitto-storico-cheese/">for as long as 18 years</a>.</p>
<p>Like many other cheeses, Swiss cheese is made with cow’s milk and contains bacteria that help convert the milk into a solid. </p>
<p>So why does Swiss cheese have holes? Also called “eyes,” they’re so essential to Swiss cheese that when they’re missing, the cheesemakers say the batch is “<a href="https://www.cheese.com/swiss/">blind</a>.” </p>
<p>What makes Swiss cheese “holey” is additional bacteria called <em><a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2909200/">Propionibacterium freudenrichii subspecies shermanii</a></em> – <em>P. shermanii</em> for short. Under the specific conditions that Swiss cheese is made, the <em>P. shermanii</em> produce a gas: carbon dioxide. </p>
<p>Because Swiss cheese is made at a warm temperature – around 70 degrees Fahrenheit – the cheese is soft and malleable. So as the bacteria grow, the gases they emit end up creating round openings. Think of blowing a bubble with chewing gum: As you blow air from your lungs, the pressure forces the gum into a circle. The bubble eventually pops, due to air pressure from your lungs or the atmosphere. </p>
<p>But when a bubble has formed inside a hunk of warm cheese – and then that cheese is cooled to around 40°F – the hole stays in place. The cheese now has its eyes. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.cheesehouse.com/cheese/how-the-aging-process-works/">It takes about four weeks</a> at 70°F for the eyes to form. In total, it takes about six weeks to make Swiss cheese, and then it is aged two additional months before it is sold.</p>
<p>Swiss cheese was first made in Switzerland in the 15th century. But there, it’s known as “<a href="https://www.cheese.com/emmental/">emmental</a>” or “<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1a7f9wzOfWk">emmentaller</a>.” </p>
<p>Other countries are also known for cheeses that are similar to Swiss cheese. France has <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gruy%C3%A8re_cheese#/media/File:Gruy%C3%A8re_Premier_Cru.jpg">Gruyere</a>, while Italy has <a href="https://www.castellocheese.com/en-us/cheese-types/semi-hard-cheese/fontina-cheese/">Fontina</a>. In the U.S., cheesemakers concoct a modified version, called Baby Swiss, which tends to have <a href="https://www.swissvalley.com/business/products/cheese/Baby%20Swiss/">smaller eyes</a>. Gouda cheese – which originated in the Netherlands – is sometimes intentionally made with cultures that produce a little bit of gas and <a href="https://www.mariekegouda.com/product-page/marieke-gouda-plain-mature-6-9-months-1-lb">tiny eyes</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/316649/original/file-20200221-92497-fui4nj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/316649/original/file-20200221-92497-fui4nj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/316649/original/file-20200221-92497-fui4nj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/316649/original/file-20200221-92497-fui4nj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/316649/original/file-20200221-92497-fui4nj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/316649/original/file-20200221-92497-fui4nj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/316649/original/file-20200221-92497-fui4nj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Fontina cheese also has ‘eyes.’</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/italian-cheese-fontina-di-valle-d-523684417">Brian Yarvin/Shutterstock.com</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>But in most cases, cheesemakers actually <a href="https://www.dairyscience.info/index.php/cheese-quality/67-causes-of-early-gas-production-in-cheddar-cheese.html">try to prevent the formation of gas in their cheeses</a>. Especially in harder cheeses, gas doesn’t lead to nice, round eyes; instead, it forms <a href="https://www.thespruceeats.com/thmb/--MBrgZEz-icGvgl2vwa5PrtiBA=/960x0/filters:no_upscale():max_bytes(150000):strip_icc():format(webp)/wheel-of-cut-gruyere-cheese-on-a-table-with-a-knife-179313182-c1033ccf75f54802b4bdac89a4aa435d.jpg">unsightly crevices, cracks and splits</a>. </p>
<p>[<em>Like what you’ve read? Want more?</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=likethis">Sign up for The Conversation’s daily newsletter</a>.]</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/130451/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Stephanie Clark has received funding to support research on dairy foods from the Midwest Dairy Foods Research Center, National Dairy Council, Minnesota Corn Growers Association, Agricultural Utilization Research Institute. </span></em></p>When the holes – also called ‘eyes’ – don’t appear in a batch, cheesemakers say the cheese is ‘blind.’Stephanie Clark, Virginia M. Gladney Professor of Food Science and Human Nutrition, Iowa State UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1307182020-01-28T16:25:27Z2020-01-28T16:25:27ZNegative interest rates will not fix the global economy – just ask Switzerland<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/312286/original/file-20200128-81357-476m9d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Below ground level. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-illustration/switzerland-flag-background-1197476725">Andamati</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Would you deposit one pound with a bank today if it was going to give you back less than one pound tomorrow? Simple rationality suggests that the answer is no. We are all used to positive interest rates where, say, if the rate is 2% per annum and we put in £100, we’ll receive £102 at the end of the year. </p>
<p>Yet base interest rates have actually been negative in Switzerland, Denmark, Japan and the eurozone for a number of years. This represents a new macroeconomic policy experiment primarily designed to stimulate economic activity: a logical extension of the way that central banks usually cut rates when growth falls away. If negative rates have tended to go unnoticed by many people, it’s only because the rates have generally only been imposed by central banks on the retail banks in their area, and not on most high-street customers. </p>
<p>Negative rates started in 2012 <a href="https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2016/11/negative-interest-rates-absolutely-everything-you-need-to-know/">with Denmark</a>, and over the next four years the other jurisdictions joined in – along with Sweden, which became the only one so far to <a href="https://tradingeconomics.com/sweden/interest-rate">raise rates</a> back up to 0% late last year. With global growth <a href="https://theconversation.com/buckle-up-for-turbulence-why-a-global-debt-crisis-looks-very-hard-to-avoid-127260">still lacklustre</a>, many believe that other countries may follow suit: US president, Donald Trump, <a href="https://markets.businessinsider.com/news/stocks/negative-interest-rates-explained-what-they-are-why-they-matter-2019-8-1028516867">called on</a> the US Federal Reserve to take rates negative, for instance. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/312287/original/file-20200128-81341-1di74wt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/312287/original/file-20200128-81341-1di74wt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/312287/original/file-20200128-81341-1di74wt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/312287/original/file-20200128-81341-1di74wt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/312287/original/file-20200128-81341-1di74wt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/312287/original/file-20200128-81341-1di74wt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=533&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/312287/original/file-20200128-81341-1di74wt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=533&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/312287/original/file-20200128-81341-1di74wt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=533&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The sub club.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-vector/realistic-submarine-sun-glare-under-water-1263499933">Tikofff1</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Switzerland and Denmark have gone furthest into negative territory, both offering unprecedentedly low rates of -0.75%. The Swiss National Bank, which has kept its rate at this level since 2015, <a href="https://www.ft.com/content/67f75b4c-fbe9-11e9-a354-36acbbb0d9b6">signalled recently</a> that it intends to stick with this experiment and is not ruling out going even more negative. It <a href="https://www.ipe.com/swiss-central-bank-sticking-with-negative-rates-in-pension-funds-interest/10034293.article">has said that</a> negative rates were boosting the economy and that the country’s fundamentals were not being significantly affected. </p>
<p>Not everyone agrees on what “not significant” means. Some commentators argue that the policy <a href="https://www.ft.com/content/67f75b4c-fbe9-11e9-a354-36acbbb0d9b6">has been very damaging</a> to the country. So who is right, and what can be learned?</p>
<h2>The plan</h2>
<p>The base interest rate set by a central bank plays a dual role. It influences people’s decisions on whether to save or invest their money – broadly speaking, people tend to save more when rates are higher and to invest and spend more when it’s cheaper to borrow. At the same time, interest rates influence a country’s exchange rate. The higher the interest rate, the higher the value of the currency. </p>
<p>Central banks in smaller economies such as Switzerland and Denmark introduced negative interest rates both to encourage people to spend more and because bigger players like the US and eurozone were experimenting with another unconventional monetary policy: <a href="https://theconversation.com/quantitative-easing-now-looks-permanent-and-has-turned-central-banks-into-pseudo-governments-130098">quantitative easing</a>. </p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/312291/original/file-20200128-81411-63nfn2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/312291/original/file-20200128-81411-63nfn2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/312291/original/file-20200128-81411-63nfn2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=704&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/312291/original/file-20200128-81411-63nfn2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=704&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/312291/original/file-20200128-81411-63nfn2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=704&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/312291/original/file-20200128-81411-63nfn2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=884&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/312291/original/file-20200128-81411-63nfn2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=884&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/312291/original/file-20200128-81411-63nfn2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=884&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Cuckoo?</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/emilywaltonjones/4010048580/in/photolist-77mxJC-wgXGCJ-6jUeaM-61iDxX-VM7p7Q-61nPo7-b6pvTv-bakF8H-itshuN-2W3a9S-aEDMgY-bakEQH-bakFJZ-TPFKNN-5xGCRr-eAjm-noKXq-paTpWf-CKvihB-9hqf7D-8TTiR6-pGMhzG-9kMrhZ-icJBh-bakG1V-HCzEfF-4sh98v-5pM7Mb-9TZLv3-cgjadA-5V8XRH-DFGiT2-31XibG-4VZhub-ffS9pb-8YYiDa-fjZX1-21yrBF3-7kxNr-2icEq2i-TPFKQw-dDGiYz-341vtX-kDynGK-kDyRTH-dutyiB-qCSQZd-9JjEW9-eHaCZt-7mPn71">Emily McCraken</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>This policy was increasing the amount of dollars and euros in circulation, which pushed down the exchange rates on these currencies. This encouraged forex traders to buy the likes of the Swiss franc instead, driving up its price. Since a stronger Swiss franc would potentially hamper the country’s exports, negative interest rates were a way of pinning back the value of the franc. </p>
<p>Incidentally, not all central banks implemented negative interest rates for this reason. The European Central Bank’s decision was for the same reasons as it pursued quantitative easing: to avoid <a href="https://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/financialcrisis/11002498/Eurozone-falls-further-towards-deflation-trap.html">getting sucked into</a> a deflationary spiral, in which people develop a mindset where they think the price of goods is going to keep falling so they decide it is better to hang on to their money than spend it. This would risk grinding economic activity to a halt. </p>
<h2>Outcomes</h2>
<p><a href="https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=cKDDDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA42&lpg=PA42&dq=negative+profits+switzerland&source=bl&ots=BVYKH1Kd1A&sig=ACfU3U2uX-7giXwZsXKDGLAYYx0hZCIzGw&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwixrIG5qqbnAhXQTxUIHXhhDr8Q6AEwEXoECAoQAQ#v=onepage&q=negative%20profits%20switzerland&f=false">In practice</a>, making rates negative has caused a problem in Switzerland – and much of what follows is true in Denmark as well. The banks know that if they went so far as to charge the average customer for depositing money, customers would simply withdraw en masse. This would wreck the whole banking business model by reducing working capital and causing severe funding problems. So the Swiss deposit rate for ordinary customers <a href="https://www.moneyland.ch/en/savings-accounts-international-comparison">is now around</a> a maximum of about 0.25%. </p>
<p>Banks have therefore had to absorb the charges they are paying themselves to deposit their own money with the central bank every day, where in times of positive interest rates they would be earning interest. Banks usually make money on the difference or “spread” between what they pay customers in interest for deposits or savings and what they charge in interest for loans. To minimise the damage to their profits, the retail banks have been unwilling to cut their lending rates to customers beyond a certain level – the average lending interest rate in Switzerland <a href="https://tradingeconomics.com/switzerland/lending-interest-rate-percent-wb-data.html">is at just over 2.6%</a>, for instance. </p>
<p>So what the experiment has shown is that once the deposit rate reaches the lowest that banks are willing to go, a central bank can’t further reduce the base rate into negative territory to encourage cheaper lending. In other words, further reductions become ineffective at stimulating the economy. </p>
<p>The retail banks have had to live with reduced profits in this environment – despite <a href="https://www.swissinfo.ch/eng/swiss-financial-marketplace_even-with-negative-interest-rates--swiss-banks-post-positive-results/45211400">performing relatively well</a> under the circumstances. There is also <a href="https://www.ft.com/content/a730ce84-f95e-11e9-98fd-4d6c20050229">pressure</a> on the country’s <a href="https://www.ipe.com/swiss-pension-bodies-increasingly-concerned-about-negative-rates/10033391.article">pensions industry</a>, since negative interest rates have also helped to turn bond yields negative, which affects how much they can pay to pensioners in benefits. </p>
<p>As a way of mitigating these difficulties, the banks and pension funds have sought riskier investments than usual for their spare capital. In particular, this has driven up the amount of money invested in real estate. <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-03-19/world-s-lowest-interest-rate-brews-trouble-for-swiss-property">Property prices</a> have <a href="https://www.swissinfo.ch/eng/million-dollar-home_steep-increase-in-swiss-housing-prices-in-last-decade/44477772">overheated</a>, taking Switzerland <a href="https://lenews.ch/2019/10/11/zurich-homes-market-in-highly-overvalued-territory/">to the brink</a> of a housing crisis. To try and defuse this, Swiss lending rates on fixed ten-year mortgages <a href="https://en.comparis.ch/hypotheken/hypothek/analyse/hypobarometer">are now edging upwards</a> – notwithstanding the negative base rate. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/312288/original/file-20200128-81403-1nlxvf0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/312288/original/file-20200128-81403-1nlxvf0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/312288/original/file-20200128-81403-1nlxvf0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/312288/original/file-20200128-81403-1nlxvf0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/312288/original/file-20200128-81403-1nlxvf0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/312288/original/file-20200128-81403-1nlxvf0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/312288/original/file-20200128-81403-1nlxvf0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/312288/original/file-20200128-81403-1nlxvf0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Property prices have gone crazy in places like Zurich.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/zurich-switzerland-april-28-2018-street-1452973094">Viktor Jiang</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In sum, the whole financial system in Switzerland looks more fragile than before. The Swiss National Bank argues negative rates <a href="https://www.ft.com/content/67f75b4c-fbe9-11e9-a354-36acbbb0d9b6">have been successful</a> because they have kept a lid on the Swiss franc, but the country is certainly paying a price. </p>
<p>And until now, public opinion has been somewhat muted because rates have not been passed on to the average bank customer. Yet there are <a href="https://money.cnn.com/2016/06/16/news/economy/negative-interest-rates-europe/">mounting concerns</a> both in Switzerland and in other countries about how people’s pension benefits are <a href="https://october.eu/dutch-consumer-worried-about-negative-interest-rates/">being affected</a>, and the prospects of even more cuts to interest rates and perhaps even depositor charges in future. </p>
<p>In the face of widespread popular disapproval, maintaining or even reducing these rates further would be very challenging for central banks. In the hunt for an answer to the global economic crisis, those in charge of monetary policy would be advised to look somewhere else.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/130718/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Alla Koblyakova does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Will the all-time lowest rate in the world of -0.75% be enough for these alpine explorers?Alla Koblyakova, Senior Lecturer in Property Finance, Nottingham Trent UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1295912020-01-09T13:32:22Z2020-01-09T13:32:22ZHow countries in conflict, like Iran and the US, still talk to each other<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/309148/original/file-20200108-107209-ejixs3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Diplomacy has provided a solution for how countries in conflict can communicate.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-illustration/global-communication-international-messaging-translation-concept-450712048">Shutterstock/cybrain</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Even countries that have broken ties with each other need to communicate in times of crisis and war. </p>
<p>That includes the U.S. and Iran, which have not had an official way to talk directly to each other since President Jimmy Carter <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_the_Iranian_hostage_crisis">cut off diplomatic and consular relations</a> in April 1980, as part of the <a href="https://history.state.gov/departmenthistory/short-history/iraniancrises">Tehran embassy hostage crisis</a>. The link has never been restored.</p>
<p>But international diplomacy has found an ingenious solution to the problem of communication between countries that have broken ties.</p>
<h2>Intermediaries</h2>
<p>A third country, often a neutral nation, acts as a go-between, called the “<a href="https://opil.ouplaw.com/view/10.1093/law:epil/9780199231690/law-9780199231690-e980">protecting power</a>.” For many years, for example, the Swedish have performed this role, acting on <a href="https://foreignpolicy.com/2018/04/25/why-trump-needs-the-swedes-in-pyongyang/">behalf of the United States in North Korea</a>. The Swedish Embassy in Beijing has been the intermediary between North Korea and other foreign countries which do not entertain diplomatic relations with North Korea.</p>
<p>Switzerland and its embassy in Tehran have played the same role between the U.S. and Iran. Since May 21, 1980, <a href="https://www.eda.admin.ch/eda/en/fdfa/foreign-policy/human-rights/peace/switzerland-s-good-offices/protective-power-mandates.html">they have been the protecting power for the U.S. in Iran</a>. </p>
<p>The Swiss were called on to perform this role during the recent crisis, <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-iraq-security-blast-swiss/swiss-deliver-us-message-to-iran-over-soleimani-killing-idUSKBN1Z21AC">Reuters News Service reported on Jan. 3</a>:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>“ZURICH (Reuters) - A Swiss diplomat delivered a message from the United States to Iran on Friday over the U.S. killing of senior Iranian military commander Qassem Soleimani, the Swiss foreign ministry said.</p>
<p>"The chargé d’affaires was informed of Iran’s position and in turn delivered the message of the United States,” the ministry said in an emailed response to a Reuters query, without elaborating.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>The <a href="https://www.eda.admin.ch/eda/en/fdfa/foreign-policy/human-rights/peace/switzerland-s-good-offices/protective-power-mandates.html">Iranians have asked fellow Muslim nation Pakistan</a> to be their liaison country with the U.S.</p>
<p>These arrangements have provided U.S. and Iranian citizens with normal consular services for passport and visa issues and matters relating to health, adoptions and even negotiating the return of citizens imprisoned by the other country.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/309147/original/file-20200108-107204-7skxdi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/309147/original/file-20200108-107204-7skxdi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=402&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/309147/original/file-20200108-107204-7skxdi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=402&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/309147/original/file-20200108-107204-7skxdi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=402&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/309147/original/file-20200108-107204-7skxdi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=506&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/309147/original/file-20200108-107204-7skxdi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=506&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/309147/original/file-20200108-107204-7skxdi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=506&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A rally marking the anniversary of the 1979 Islamic revolution on Feb. 10, 2017, in the capital, Tehran.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/iranians-hold-a-dummy-representing-us-president-donald-news-photo/634505838?adppopup=true">ATTA KENARE/AFP via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Bridging the gap</h2>
<p>More importantly, these intermediaries have enabled politicians from the two estranged countries to keep in touch diplomatically. </p>
<p>Any message President Trump wishes to convey to his Iranian counterpart, or any urgent information Iran Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif wishes to pass on to Secretary of State Pompeo, will be transmitted through the Swiss Embassy in Tehran or the Pakistani Embassy in Washington, D.C. </p>
<p>Thus, any exchanges regarding the Iranian nuclear deal, U.S. sanctions on Iran, military maneuvers and perhaps even sometimes information on forthcoming airstrikes tend to go through either Switzerland or Pakistan. Late last year, for instance, <a href="https://www.npr.org/2019/12/07/785814895/american-held-in-iran-released-in-prisoner-exchange">Switzerland brokered a carefully negotiated prisoner swap</a> between Iran and the U.S.</p>
<p>The air strike on General Soleimani, however, came as a total surprise to both Iran and Switzerland <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/us-allies-response-trump-iran-qasem-soleimani-attack-alone-world-2020-1">as well as the rest of the world</a>. Some information about the Iranian counterstrikes may well have been passed on to the U.S. via Switzerland, but this is difficult to verify at this stage. </p>
<p>Unusually, Switzerland has also <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-swiss-iran-usa-exclusive/exclusive-swiss-humanitarian-channel-to-iran-seen-within-months-swiss-us-officials-idUSKBN1YF23E">taken the initiative to open a humanitarian channel to Iran</a> to provide Iranians with food, medicine and other essential supplies that have been affected by U.S. sanctions. It will begin in the next few months.</p>
<p>This initiative has received U.S. endorsement, though the U.S. intends to make sure that Iran’s Central Bank <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-swiss-iran-usa-exclusive/exclusive-swiss-humanitarian-channel-to-iran-seen-within-months-swiss-us-officials-idUSKBN1YF23E">is not involved and that no payments to the Iranian government occur</a>. </p>
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<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Klaus W. Larres does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Even when countries have broken ties with each other, they can communicate – as the US and Iran did just a few days ago.Klaus W. Larres, Richard M. Krasno Distinguished Professor; Adjunct Professor of the Curriculum in Peace, War and Defense, University of North Carolina at Chapel HillLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1249172019-10-22T17:56:31Z2019-10-22T17:56:31ZWhich cheek and how many? In France and beyond, a kiss isn’t just a kiss<p>In the English-speaking world, friends and family generally greet each other with a wave, handshake or hug, depending on their degree of intimacy. In France and other countries, however, the kiss is more common – not on the lips, but a symmetrical brush of the cheeks. </p>
<p>The image is well known in world culture and is a part of everyday life in much of Europe, but the ritual can seem impenetrable to the uninitiated. Would you kiss someone the same way in Marseilles as in Madrid? Which cheek should you present first? And how many kisses? </p>
<p>For my upcoming book, <a href="https://www.armand-colin.com/parlez-vous-les-francais-atlas-des-expressions-de-nos-regions-9782200623401">“Do You Speak the French Language(s)?”</a>, I collected information about how French is spoken via an <a href="https://francaisdenosregions.com/2015/05/18/quel-francais-regional-parlez-vous">online system</a>. It allowed me to identify the prevalence and range of a number of regional expressions, including the classic <a href="https://theconversation.com/pain-au-chocolat-vs-chocolatine-fight-85923">“pain au chocolat” versus “chocolatine” debate</a>: In English, one simply says “chocolate croissant,” but the question is trickier in France. There’s also the vexing question of how the French refer to a <a href="https://www.huffingtonpost.fr/2017/10/18/crayons-a-papier-ou-crayons-de-papier-la-carte-du-francais-de-nos-regions-qui-fait-hurler_a_23247359">pencil</a>, not as simple as you’d think.</p>
<p>To better understand the question of how one greets a friend or family member with a kiss in Europe, I decided to map it. </p>
<h2>Greeting with a kiss isn’t just a ‘French thing’</h2>
<p>First things first, while many Anglo-Saxons believe that kissing as a greeting is unique to France, the practice is common in a wide range of European and Latin countries, as well as Russia and <a href="https://www.cntraveler.com/story/a-guide-to-kissing-etiquette-around-the-world">certain Arabic and sub-Saharan nations</a>. </p>
<p>Its origin is unknown, though there are many theories. Is it a ritualized form of ancestral behavior, like sniffing each other for recognition, or is it an emotional one arising from childhood? There’s no consensus among historians, anthropologists and other experts of human behavior. The ritual appears to date back to antiquity and has known highs and lows throughout modern human history. Sometimes it was encouraged, other times forbidden.</p>
<p>The question becomes even more complex when one tries to understand <a href="https://www.lexpress.fr/informations/l-art-de-la-bise_636138.html">contextual factors</a>. There’s the event itself (saying hello, goodbye, wishing someone a happy new year, etc.), and then there’s the relationship between the people involved (it was long reserved for <a href="https://www.lci.fr/societe/faire-la-bise-interdite-cette-tradition-francaise-qui-ne-plait-pas-a-tout-le-monde-1502800.html">family members</a> and those of the same gender). <a href="http://www.leparisien.fr/week-end/la-bise-une-affaire-d-hommes-25-03-2013-2669525.php">Kissing between men</a> was once stigmatized, yet is common in certain contexts and <a href="http://factsanddetails.com/russia/People_and_Life/sub9_2c/entry-5010.html">some Slavic cultures</a>.</p>
<p>For the past 15 years or so, this ritual has been a regular subject of online debate. Some of the discussions are about how many kisses one should give. In France, the question first cropped up in 2003 with the appearance of the website <a href="http://combiendebises.free.fr/">Combiendebises</a> (“Howmanykisses”). The greeting also inspired a popular video from British stand-up comedian Paul Taylor, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T-VWbV6TJxU">“La bise.”</a></p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/T-VWbV6TJxU?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">“La bise” (Paul Taylor, 2016).</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>How many kisses?</h2>
<p>To better understand the question, from 2016 to 2019 we conducted a series of <a href="https://francaisdenosregions.com/2015/05/18/quel-francais-regional-parlez-vous">online surveys</a>. Our initial map was based on answers from more than 18,600 respondents who said they had spent the bulk of their youth in Belgium, France or Switzerland. </p>
<p>When asked “How many kisses do you give to greet someone close to you?” the respondents were given the choice of one, two, three, four, five or more. We tracked the responses for each district in Belgium, France and Switzerland, retaining the number with the highest percentage of responses. The results are striking and show a number of clear patterns.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/297925/original/file-20191021-56194-zru25i.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/297925/original/file-20191021-56194-zru25i.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/297925/original/file-20191021-56194-zru25i.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/297925/original/file-20191021-56194-zru25i.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/297925/original/file-20191021-56194-zru25i.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/297925/original/file-20191021-56194-zru25i.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/297925/original/file-20191021-56194-zru25i.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/297925/original/file-20191021-56194-zru25i.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Distribution of the number of greeting kisses in Belgium, France and Switzerland.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In Belgium, nearly 100% of respondents stated that the correct number of kisses was one. Interestingly, the only part of France where the same holds true is hundreds of kilometers away, in the Brittany’s Finistère region. There the percentage answering one kiss was slightly lower, at around 70%, but still a clear majority. </p>
<p>Elsewhere in France, most residents exchange two kisses when greeting somebody, except for those in the region of Languedoc and the south of the Rhône-Alpes region. Two kisses are also customary in the French-speaking parts of Switzerland. In northern France, the areas in pink correspond to places where people still give four kisses. However, data indicate that in these regions the four-kiss greeting has stiff competition from the two-kiss version.</p>
<p>As can be seen on the maps below, the custom of four kisses is more prevalent among older residents of France, primarily in eastern Brittany and the Loire region. Yet there’s also a hot spot of support among under-25s in the Champagne region.</p>
<p><em>Move the mouse over the map below to see the prevalence and distribution of four kisses in the under-25s and the over-50s.</em></p>
<iframe frameborder="0" class="juxtapose" width="100%" height="800" src="https://cdn.knightlab.com/libs/juxtapose/latest/embed/index.html?uid=b11520e4-f4a4-11e9-b9b8-0edaf8f81e27"></iframe>
<p>The reason behind these differences remains unknown. One respondent remarked that the custom of three kisses appeared more prevalent in the area roughly corresponding to 17th-century Protestant France, and that it could have been a way of recognizing those of the same faith (three being a sign of the Trinity). Tradition has it that four kisses are given so that each person can kiss each of the cheeks of the other twice.</p>
<h2>Which cheek first?</h2>
<p>The second debate relates to the cheek that should be presented first for a kiss. While 15% of the 11,000 respondents said “both” or stated that they didn’t know, the remaining 85% had clearer ideas, as shown in the map below.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/298177/original/file-20191022-55655-gjuzeg.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/298177/original/file-20191022-55655-gjuzeg.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/298177/original/file-20191022-55655-gjuzeg.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/298177/original/file-20191022-55655-gjuzeg.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/298177/original/file-20191022-55655-gjuzeg.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/298177/original/file-20191022-55655-gjuzeg.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/298177/original/file-20191022-55655-gjuzeg.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/298177/original/file-20191022-55655-gjuzeg.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Distribution of which cheek is presented first when kissing in Belgium, France and Switzerland.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>We can see that the territory is <em>broadly</em> divided into two parts. In the south-eastern and eastern areas of France, it’s left cheek first. In the rest of the country, it’s the right. There are, however, two islands in each of these broad regions: In the blue zone, the French-speaking part of Switzerland stands out. In the red zone, Haute-Normandie is the exception. Here again, the patterns do not correspond to any known zones that could explain the difference.</p>
<h2>What do you call it?</h2>
<p>It is a less known fact that the way in which French speakers refer to the action of greeting with a kiss also varies. Our surveys enabled us to map with precision the areas corresponding to the use of seven regional verbs and expressions.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/298178/original/file-20191022-55701-sb6ib4.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/298178/original/file-20191022-55701-sb6ib4.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/298178/original/file-20191022-55701-sb6ib4.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/298178/original/file-20191022-55701-sb6ib4.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/298178/original/file-20191022-55701-sb6ib4.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/298178/original/file-20191022-55701-sb6ib4.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/298178/original/file-20191022-55701-sb6ib4.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Distribution of expressions for ‘greeting with a kiss’ in Belgium, France and Switzerland.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Most of the words found on this map belong to the same family as the contemporary French term “bise” (from which “bisou” is derived). While it has fallen out of everyday use, the informal verb “biser” is found in the writing of authors such as <a href="http://www.philagora.net/lettres/queneau5.php">Raymond Queneau</a>) and still appears in some dictionaries. It is still used in western-central France, alongside the variant “biger,” which likely entered regional French by way of the local dialects (Poitevin, Angevin or Tourangeau) spoken by our ancestors a century ago.</p>
<p>The word “baise” is a slang term for sex in France but has no such connotation in Belgium, where one gives a “baise” (to someone). In fact, it’s based on the verb “baiser”, to kiss – also found in the old-fashioned word “baisemain,” meaning a kiss on the hand.</p>
<p>The variation “baisse,” found in part of the Picardie region, is also linked to the local form of the word “baiser.” The verb “se boujouter,” typically used in Normandy, comes from the word <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GIKT4_vC-0k">“boujou,”</a> which is a dialectical form of the French “bonjour” used in the region. (Note that it’s not related to the French word for cheek, “joue”).</p>
<p>In French-speaking Switzerland, the expression “se faire un bec” is used. It’s derived from the verb “becquer,” still used in French, which originally meant “to take by the beak.” The word “bec” can be linked to its informal French equivalent, “bécot” (which gives us the verb “bécoter,” meaning to kiss or smooch).</p>
<p>In the parts of France where Germanic dialects were spoken at the beginning of the 20th century, the term “schmoutz” is found. It’s of German origin and now means “kiss” in French – and also gave English speakers the word “smack,” as in to smack one’s lips. </p>
<p>Given the richness and variety of European culture and language, it’s unsurprising to find that how one refers to and performs a “simple” greeting can vary so much from region to region. In our great-grandparents’ time – not so long ago, really – regional dialects and languages were what distinguished different communities. Today, this wonderful diversity lives on, both in the physical world and, much to the delight of linguists, also online.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/124917/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Mathieu Avanzi ne travaille pas, ne conseille pas, ne possède pas de parts, ne reçoit pas de fonds d'une organisation qui pourrait tirer profit de cet article, et n'a déclaré aucune autre affiliation que son organisme de recherche.</span></em></p>Why do some people greet each other with a kiss? How does the custom vary from place to place? This article is excerpted from the forthcoming ‘Atlas of Regional Expressions.’Mathieu Avanzi, Maître de conférences en linguistique francaise, Sorbonne UniversitéLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1103652019-01-24T07:24:46Z2019-01-24T07:24:46ZExplainer: South Africa’s central bank – ownership, mandate and independence<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/255152/original/file-20190123-135160-19pjcd6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Lesetja Kganyago, governor of South Africa's central bank. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">EPA-EFE/Pete Marovich</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>In recent months, <a href="https://www.thesouthafrican.com/ace-magashule-vows-south-african-reserve-bank-nationalised/">various debates</a> about the South African Reserve Bank have focused broadly on three aspects – its shareholding, its mandate and its independence.</p>
<p>The three debates are somewhat convoluted. They are indeed three different issues, but they are interlinked. </p>
<p>Let’s turn to the issue of ownership first. </p>
<p>The South African Reserve Bank is one of <a href="http://www.scielo.org.za/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S2222-34362016000100010">only eight central banks</a> in the world with private shareholders. The others are in Belgium, Greece, Italy, Japan, San Marino, Switzerland and Turkey.</p>
<p>The debate about shareholding in South Africa’s Reserve Bank centres around the issue of <a href="https://www.fin24.com/Economy/South-Africa/eff-tables-draft-bill-to-nationalise-sarb-20180816">nationalisation</a>. Some political players, such as the third largest party – the Economic Freedom Fighters – are <a href="https://www.timeslive.co.za/politics/2018-08-17-new-eff-bill-proposes-nationalisation-of-the-reserve-bank/">calling</a> for the ownership of the Bank to be transferred from current private shareholders to the South African government and has tabled a bill in Parliament to achieve this objective.</p>
<p>The issue is very charged. But it’s also confused and not very well understood. There’s an assumption that a change of ownership would automatically mean a change in the role the Bank plays. This isn’t the case because in fact the Bank’s shareholders play no role in its mandate. In that sense it doesn’t matter who the shareholders are. Because they can’t affect its mandate, nationalisation <a href="http://www.scielo.org.za/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S2222-34362016000100010">won’t affect</a> the independence of the central bank. </p>
<p>But there are other ways in which the Bank’s ability to do its job can be undermined. This is where the Bank’s <a href="https://www.fin24.com/Economy/South-Africa/reserve-bank-mandate-is-enshrined-in-the-constitution-kyanyago-20190117">primary mandate</a> comes in.</p>
<h2>The mandate issue</h2>
<p>The mandate of South Africa’s central bank is set out in the <a href="https://www.gov.za/documents/constitution-republic-south-africa-1996">Constitution</a>, which says:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>The primary objective of the Bank shall be to protect the value of the currency of the Republic of South Africa in the interest of balanced and sustainable economic growth in the Republic.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>The Bank also adheres to an inflation target which was <a href="https://www.resbank.co.za/MonetaryPolicy/DecisionMaking/Pages/default.aspx">put in place</a> in 2000. This requires it to keep inflation within a band of 3% to 6%. The Bank uses monetary policy and interest rate decisions to achieve this objective. In short, when the inflationary trend declines, the interest rate declines and when the inflationary trend increases, the interest rate increases. </p>
<p>The issue of the Bank’s focus on keeping inflation within this band – and the fact that its mandate sets out clearly that managing inflation is it’s core job – is hotly contested. </p>
<p>Those on the left of the political spectrum, including the country’s largest trade union federation, <a href="http://www.cosatu.org.za/show.php?ID=14279">argue</a> that the South African Reserve Bank shouldn’t focus primarily on inflation. Instead, they say, it should also be taking account of economic growth as well as the employment rate in the country. </p>
<p>The Bank’s response has been that its current mandate is broad enough because it says quite clearly that, while managing inflation, it must do so “in the interest of balanced and sustainable economic growth in the Republic”.</p>
<p>For those like myself who oppose a broader mandate, the issue is quite simple: giving the Bank a broader mandate raises the danger that the Bank will take its eye off inflation because it’s having to concentrate on other issues. This, in turn, could lead to rampant inflation.</p>
<p>The Bank’s mandate is crucial in another respect. The SA Reserve Bank’s ability to pursue its mandate without interference from government is how its independence is measured. </p>
<p>South Africa’s central bank has acted on the whim of politicians before. It didn’t end well. </p>
<h2>How political interference can hurt</h2>
<p>In the 1980s inflation rose dramatically, resulting in the country suffering its <a href="https://www.inflation.eu/inflation-rates/south-africa/historic-inflation/cpi-inflation-south-africa-1980.aspx">highest inflation</a> rates ever: on average about 15% per year for the decade.</p>
<p>Despite the fact that rising prices called for the Bank to act by raising interest rates, it failed to do so on instructions of the government. Inflation wreaked havoc on the earnings of ordinary South Africans, as well as on the value of people’s pensions. </p>
<p>The government’s interference was dramatically brought to light ahead of a by-election in 1984 in a Johannesburg suburb called Primrose. Just prior to the by-election the government instructed the South African Reserve Bank to drop the interest rate. This subsequently became known as the <a href="https://repository.up.ac.za/bitstream/handle/2263/27224/05chapter5.pdf?sequence=6">Primrose Prime incident</a>. </p>
<h2>Where the focus should be</h2>
<p>The debates swirling around the central bank have <a href="https://www.timeslive.co.za/sunday-times/business/2017-08-02-reserve-bank-warns-policy-uncertainty-may-deepen-economic-slump/">created uncertainty</a>. This is despite <a href="https://www.sowetanlive.co.za/news/south-africa/2019-01-16-no-intention-to-tamper-with-independence-of-reserve-bank-ramaphosa-assures-business-leaders/">reassurances</a> from South African President Cyril Ramaphosa. </p>
<p>The President needs to do more: he also needs to establish certainty about the executive management of the South African Reserve Bank. </p>
<p>An executive vacancy at the central bank, created by the <a href="https://www.fin24.com/Economy/just-in-reserve-bank-deputy-governor-francois-groepe-resigns-20190102">resignation</a> of one of the Deputy Governors, Francois Groepe, must be filled as a matter of urgency. And the President should make clear his intention to reappoint the Governor, Lesetja Kganyago, and the Deputy Governor, Daniel Mminele, whose terms expire this year. </p>
<p>These appointments are under the purview of the President. The SA Reserve Bank Act <a href="https://www.resbank.co.za/BanknotesandCoin/CurrencyManagement/Documents/SA%20Reserve%20Bank%20Act%2090%20of%201989.pdf">stipulates</a> that the President must fill executive positions after consultation with the Minister of Finance and the Bank’s board. </p>
<p>South Africa needs stability at the central bank to ensure a growth trajectory for the country. The President should get the process of filling the vacancy and providing certainty about the future of Kganyago and Mminele underway sooner rather than later.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/110365/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jannie Rossouw was previously employed by the SA Reserve Bank and owns shares in the central bank. He is an NRF C-rated researcher and previously received research funding from the NRF.</span></em></p>There’s an assumption that a change of ownership would automatically mean a change in the role the Bank playsJannie Rossouw, Head of School of Economic & Business Sciences, University of the WitwatersrandLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1015482018-08-21T20:58:00Z2018-08-21T20:58:00ZIs ‘chocapocalypse’ looming? Why we need to understand what’s at stake<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/232842/original/file-20180821-149484-eark6h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=45%2C28%2C3711%2C2546&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Is chocolate a sustainable market?</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://pxhere.com/fr/photo/812471">Pxhere</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>No more chocolate by 2050? Several articles have pointed recently that we are heading to a <a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/nation-now/2018/01/02/m-ms-maker-fears-chocolate-shortage-2050-report-says/996962001/">major chocolate crisis</a>.</p>
<p>Global chocolate market value keeps reaching new highs, <a href="https://www.coherentmarketinsights.com/press-release/global-chocolate-market-to-surpass-us-17222-billion-by-2025-fuelled-by-health-benefits-431">potentially doubling by 2025 compared to its 2015 level</a>. Consumption is mainly driven by perceived health benefits such as anti-aging, antioxidant effects, stress relieve, blood pressure regulation and others.</p>
<p>So where are the biggest chocoholics located? Traditionally, more than half of all chocolate produced is eaten in <a href="https://www.statista.com/statistics/818903/global-chocolate-market-share-by-region/">Western Europe and North America</a>. Country with the “sweetest tooth” in the world is <a href="https://www.statista.com/statistics/819288/worldwide-chocolate-consumption-by-country/">Switzerland</a>, with more than 8kg per capita of chocolate consumed in 2017.</p>
<h2>New chocolate markets</h2>
<p>But even though developed markets are at the forefront of chocolate indulgence, future growth opportunities could be elsewhere. One way to look is toward China and India, with populations over 1 billion people each. Rapid urbanization, growing middle class and changing consumer tastes have triggered increasing appetite for chocolate.</p>
<p>India is currently one of the <a href="https://www.statista.com/statistics/262988/retail-sales-value-of-the-fastest-growing-chocolate-markets-worldwide/">fastest-growing chocolate markets</a>, with demand steadily rising over the past years. In 2016, <a href="https://qz.com/968956/indians-are-eating-more-chocolate-than-ever-before-because-they-think-it-is-healthy/">over 228,000 tons were consumed</a>, an increase of 50% in comparison to 2011. Indians have a fling for anything sweet and chocolate has become one of their favourite treats as they perceive it as healthy, hence they do not hesitate when it comes to snacking.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/232841/original/file-20180821-149463-wqvpn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/232841/original/file-20180821-149463-wqvpn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=567&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/232841/original/file-20180821-149463-wqvpn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=567&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/232841/original/file-20180821-149463-wqvpn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=567&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/232841/original/file-20180821-149463-wqvpn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=712&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/232841/original/file-20180821-149463-wqvpn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=712&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/232841/original/file-20180821-149463-wqvpn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=712&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">India’s Tallest Chocolate Eclair Tower by Chef Kunal Kapur, 24 November 2010.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Chocolate_tower.jpg">Wikimedia</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/">CC BY-NC</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>As for China, in the wake of economic reforms in early 1980, chocolate was considered as a rare delicacy. Since then, the country has lagged behind others in chocolate consumption, with less than 1kg consumed per year by an average Chinese.</p>
<p>But things are changing as new trends like <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/china-coffee-craze-Millennials-embracing-culture/">“coffee culture” emerge</a>, affecting ways chocolate is used and consumed. Also, millions of affluent Chinese <a href="https://www.scmp.com/business/companies/article/2110537/new-generation-chocoholics-may-turn-china-major-chocolate-market">shop online</a> for high quality foreign delicacies, pushing retailers such as Alibaba to rethink <a href="https://www.scmp.com/tech/e-commerce/article/2105950/alibaba-spur-fresh-growth-new-services-partnerships-part-its-e?edition=international">their business models</a> in order to stay on top of their game.</p>
<h2>Endangered chocolate production</h2>
<p>Yet chocolate producers are struggling. Cocoa, the delicate plant behind chocolate needs humid tropical climates and shades of rainforests, which limits areas where you can grow it. Leading regions are found in West Africa, with Ivory Coast and Ghana alone contributing to more than 50% of the <a href="https://www.worldatlas.com/articles/top-10-cocoa-producing-countries.html">entire world’s production</a>.</p>
<p>However, as a result of global warming, cocoa cultivation in these areas is expected to <a href="https://www.climate.gov/news-features/climate-and/climate-chocolate">literally move uphill</a> to maintain optimal growing conditions. The challenge remains in the limited areas of land available, as many of these locations are currently banned from cultivation or might not be suitable for it.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/232845/original/file-20180821-149484-rul85n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/232845/original/file-20180821-149484-rul85n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/232845/original/file-20180821-149484-rul85n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/232845/original/file-20180821-149484-rul85n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/232845/original/file-20180821-149484-rul85n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/232845/original/file-20180821-149484-rul85n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/232845/original/file-20180821-149484-rul85n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">February 23, 2015: Isla de la Amargura, Caceres, Antioquia (Colombia). Jose Blanquiceth harvests cocoa on his farm.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/usaid_images/18054872053">USAID U.S. Agency for International Development/Flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Contagion and alternative products</h2>
<p>Enemies of cocoa trees come in different shapes and sizes, two being disease and pests. Estimates indicate that these nuisances cause <a href="https://www.icco.org/about-cocoa/pest-a-diseases.html">yearly losses of 30% to 40%</a> of the total global cocoa production.</p>
<p>In June of this year, Ivory Coast announced it will have to take out an <a href="https://phys.org/news/2018-06-icoast-cocoa-trees-virus.html">entire cocoa plantation of 100,000 hectares</a> contaminated by swollen-shoot plant virus to stop it from spreading further. It will take at least five years before the area can be it replanted again.</p>
<p>As a result of “natural” hazards coupled with price fluctuations, cocoa farmers consider switching to alternatives potentially more profitable and easier to produce.</p>
<p>Indonesia, the world’s third largest cocoa producer, experienced <a href="http://www.gbgindonesia.com/en/agriculture/article/2016/overview_of_indonesia_s_cocoa_industry_lack_of_supply_still_hampers_growth_and_investment_11670.php">declining cocoa output since 2010</a> due to poor weather and ageing cocoa trees. Consequently, <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-food-summit-indonesia-cocoa/indonesia-q1-cocoa-output-to-slump-60-pct-on-heavy-rains-idUSBRE82D0TF20120314">some farmers shifted production</a> to crops such as corn, rubber or palm oil.</p>
<h2>Producers look east and south</h2>
<p>These general threats and high demands from new markets send a clear signal to major cocoa producers.</p>
<p>Ghana, world’s second largest cocoa supplier, has its eyes on Asia and specifically China as the next “big thing”. To boost its yearly cocoa production, Ghana is trying to secure a $1.5 billion loan from Chinese Eximbank. Collaboration is backed by governments of both countries as mutual interest is obvious, reflected in the <a href="https://www.confectionerynews.com/Article/2018/05/14/Ghana-seeks-investment-from-China-to-improve-cocoa-production">potential the Chinese chocolate market</a>.</p>
<p>Other <a href="https://www.confectionerynews.com/Article/2015/07/22/10-fastest-growing-chocolate-markets-globally">“hot” destinations</a> are found across Middle East and Africa. United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia are leaders in chocolate spend per person, well above the regional average. Consumers in these markets perceive chocolate as a wealth symbol, driving demand for premium brands.</p>
<p>Chocolate confectionery in Algeria has a healthy performance as well, driven by different rationale. <a href="https://www.euromonitor.com/chocolate-confectionery-in-algeria/report">According to Euromonitor</a>, Algerians consider chocolate to be a an energy booster making individual consumption thrive particularly among youth, while it is less present in gift giving.</p>
<h2>Is sustainable chocolate real?</h2>
<p>The <a href="https://www.icco.org/about-cocoa/chocolate-industry.html">largest chocolate producers</a> take active part in sustainability initiatives such as <a href="https://www.rainforest-alliance.org/">Rainforest Alliance</a>, <a href="https://utz.org/">UTZ</a> and <a href="https://www.fairtrade.org.uk/">Fairtrade</a>.</p>
<p>US-based Mars Wrigley Confectionary, leading global candy maker by net sales in 2017, dedicated $1 billion funding to help create <a href="https://eu.usatoday.com/story/money/nation-now/2018/01/02/m-ms-maker-fears-chocolate-shortage-2050-report-says/996962001/">more heat-resistant cocoa</a>. Moreover, in 2009 Mars was the first major chocolate company to <a href="https://www.confectionerynews.com/Article/2009/04/10/Mars-pledges-sustainable-cocoa-only-by-2020">commit to 100% certified cocoa by 2020</a>, followed later by its competitors Hershey’s, Ferrero and Lindt.</p>
<p>Mondelez International wants all of its cocoa sustainable as well. Milka is the latest one of its brands to join <a href="https://ir.mondelezinternational.com/news-releases/news-release-details/milka-chocolate-joins-cocoa-life-sustainable-sourcing-program">Cocoa Life</a>, launched in 2012, aiming to empower cocoa farmers.</p>
<p>While these initiatives are a great leap forward, main supply-chain stakeholders admit that they’re not sufficient to bring cocoa farmers out of poverty, which is one of the major problems they face. An example is Ivory Coast, a primary cocoa producing country. A UTZ-certified cocoa farmer will only earn additional yearly income of 84€ to 134€ – approximately 16% more in comparison to the non-certified one.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/232904/original/file-20180821-149490-1jaavqu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/232904/original/file-20180821-149490-1jaavqu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=388&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/232904/original/file-20180821-149490-1jaavqu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=388&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/232904/original/file-20180821-149490-1jaavqu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=388&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/232904/original/file-20180821-149490-1jaavqu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=487&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/232904/original/file-20180821-149490-1jaavqu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=487&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/232904/original/file-20180821-149490-1jaavqu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=487&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Annual cocoa household income in Ivory Coast.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">UTZ (compiled by ConfectionaryNews)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Other constraints emerge, such as limited reach of certification. Farmers should be members of cooperatives to benefit fully from the process. In the case of Ivory Coast only around 30% of them are currently in. Another difficulty is to ensure that no child labour is used over the entire supply chain, something that’s basically impossible to control.</p>
<p>Local cocoa producers in Africa have plans of their own, with an announced <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-06-04/why-african-cocoa-growers-are-having-an-opec-moment-quicktake">OPEC-like initiative</a>. They want to have more influence over global cocoa prices by better coordinating production levels and sales policies between countries. This could better protect small cocoa farmers who are vulnerable to price swings in global market.</p>
<p>While claims of a looming “chocapocalypse” might be overblown for the time being, risks are real and we need to be mindful of them.</p>
<p>It is optimistic to see that main stakeholders in the process of chocolate manufacture are pitching in with their own contribution. Whether it will be enough to secure the future of chocolate remains to be seen.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/101548/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jovana Stanisljevic ne travaille pas, ne conseille pas, ne possède pas de parts, ne reçoit pas de fonds d'une organisation qui pourrait tirer profit de cet article, et n'a déclaré aucune autre affiliation que son organisme de recherche.</span></em></p>The future of chocolate is in question as producers face challenges to keep up with new threats as well as rising demand from new consumer markets.Jovana Stanisljevic, Professor in International Business, Department People, Organization, Society, Grenoble École de Management (GEM)Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1001302018-08-13T16:18:19Z2018-08-13T16:18:19ZHow a Swiss bank was toppled by a financial scandal in Malaysia – and what can be learned from it<p>The <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/jul/28/1mdb-inside-story-worlds-biggest-financial-scandal-malaysia">world’s biggest financial scandal</a>, over missing billions from Malaysian state-run development fund 1MDB, has left the country’s former prime minister, Najib Razak, facing charges of corruption – charges which he denies. In addition to bringing down a government, the scandal’s effects have reached as far as Switzerland, where Swiss bank BSI was forced to close after over 140 years of trading.</p>
<p>The 1MDB fund was overseen by Najib as prime minister, financial minister, and chairman of the advisory board, and was controversial from the outset in 2009. When in 2014 it was reported that 1MDB had amassed <a href="https://www.scmp.com/business/money/markets-investing/article/1524084/surging-debt-malaysias-shadowy-1mdb-fund-emerges">US$11 billion in debt</a>, posing a threat to the Malaysian ringgit, the scandal began to unravel.</p>
<p>Documents leaked to investigative journalist Clare Rewcastle Brown’s website <a href="http://www.sarawakreport.org/2015/02/heist-of-the-century-how-jho-low-used-petrosaudi-as-a-front-to-siphon-billions-out-of-1mdb-world-exclusive/">Sarawak Report</a> in 2015 revealed how money appeared to have been funnelled out of the fund via a close friend of the prime minister, Malaysian tycoon Jho Low. He has denied any wrongdoing, but is <a href="https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/hong-kong-law-and-crime/article/2154783/alleged-1mdb-mastermind-jho-low-flees-macau">currently facing an Interpol warrant for his arrest</a>. The Wall Street Journal then published serious allegations of financial fraud, including the transfer of US$681m into <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10130211234592774869404581083700187014570">Najib’s personal account</a>. Funds were alleged to have been siphoned off through a <a href="https://www.wsj.com/graphics/1mdb-money-flow/">web of shell companies and bank accounts</a> and lavishly spent on items including a luxury property, a <a href="https://qz.com/1350137/a-250-million-souvenir-of-1mdb-corruption-is-sailing-back-to-malaysia/">private yacht</a>, and even <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-malaysia-scandal-redgranite/the-wolf-of-wall-street-producers-to-pay-60-million-to-u-s-in-lawsuit-settlement-idUSKCN1GJ0FH">funding for a Hollywood film</a>. Investigations into these and other activities continue; Najib and Low deny any wrongdoing.</p>
<p>While Najib was initially cleared of any criminal offence in 2016 (the report was <a href="https://www.nst.com.my/news/2016/04/137829/auditor-generals-report-still-classified-osa-says-pandikar">classified under Malaysia’s Official Secrets Act</a>), and Malaysia’s central bank’s investigations led to 1MDB being fined (<a href="https://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/asia/malaysia-s-central-bank-governor-maintains-case-closed-against-1-8038452">an undisclosed amount</a>) for irregularities, the scandal attracted the attention of authorities in Singapore, Switzerland and the US – and it was these regulators that claimed the scandal’s first victim, the venerable Swiss bank BSI.</p>
<h2>End of a bank’s bull run</h2>
<p>The 143-year-old bank was one of the oldest in Switzerland and the sixth largest, having expanded overseas during the 2000s into the high-growth markets of Asia, Eastern Europe, the Middle East and Latin America. As a strategically important financial centre, the bank opened a Singapore subsidiary in 2005. Under chief executive Hanspeter Brunner it grew rapidly. Among its clients were high net-worth individuals, family-owned companies, and several state-owned wealth and development funds – including 1MDB.</p>
<p>Storm clouds were gathering. In 2011, the Monetary Authority of Singapore, the state bank and financial regulator, inspected the bank for the first time, finding policy and process lapses and weak enforcement and control. A second inspection in 2014 uncovered <a href="http://www.mas.gov.sg/News-and-Publications/Enforcement-Actions/2016/MAS-directs-BSI-Bank-to-shut-down-in-Singapore.aspx">serious shortcomings in BSI Singapore’s due diligence</a> conducted on assets supposedly underlying the investment funds. The bank became embroiled in regulatory investigations related to 1MDB – now BSI Singapore’s largest and most profitable client. </p>
<p>A subsequent intensive on-site inspection of BSI Singapore revealed multiple breaches of anti-money laundering regulations, a pervasive pattern of non-compliance, poor and ineffective oversight from senior management and <a href="http://www.mas.gov.sg/News-and-Publications/Media-Releases/2016/MAS-directs-BSI-Bank-to-shut-down-in-Singapore.aspx">numerous acts of gross misconduct</a>. The bank’s licence was withdrawn in May 2016, and the names of BSI Singapore employees, including Brunner’s, were <a href="https://www.businesstimes.com.sg/banking-finance/mas-orders-shutdown-of-bsi-bank-in-singapore-over-alleged-anti-money-laundering">passed to authorities</a> to determine whether they had committed any criminal offence. Investigations into Brunner and other executives continue, although Brunner recently <a href="https://www.finews.com/news/english-news/32524-hanspeter-brunner-bsi-1mdb-cad-singapore-passport-returned-investigation-malaysia">won back a confiscated passport</a>.</p>
<p>On the same day, the Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority (Finma) started criminal proceedings against the BSI group for failing to prevent suspected money laundering and bribery in its dealings with 1MDB. The BSI group was fined 95m Swiss francs (US$96m), the amount the bank had generated in illegal profits. The group’s chief executive Stefano Coduri stepped down, and subsequently BSI was taken over by private banking group Zurich-based EFG International, on Finma’s condition that the BSI group would be <a href="https://www.finma.ch/en/news/2016/05/20160524-mm-bsi/">dissolved within the next 12 months</a>.</p>
<p>The US Department of Justice also filed civil forfeiture complaints in 2016 and 2017 seeking to recover about US$1.7 billion tied to 1MDB – the largest action brought under the <a href="https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/us-seeks-recover-approximately-540-million-obtained-corruption-involving-malaysian-sovereign">US Kleptocracy Asset Recovery Initiative</a>.</p>
<h2>Three lessons from BSI’s demise</h2>
<p>There will always be tension between the demands of business and regulations controlling a bank’s exposure to risk, especially when directives are given to achieve high growth targets. This scenario plays out in banks all over the world – but which should prevail? BSI appears to have prioritised customer demands in its pursuit of growth and profit, at the expense of compliance and internal controls. The outcome, as it was during the financial crash of 2007-08, is plain to see.</p>
<p>The failure of senior management to provide any effective oversight of non-compliance or misconduct of bank employees ultimately points to a dereliction of duty. Did BSI staff not notice that 1MDB had 100 accounts at the same bank? Such high numbers of accounts are considered a sign of “layering”, a method that makes it more difficult to detect money laundering activity. While precisely what happened has yet to be established, it seems clear that BSI failed to perform its due diligence or to monitor transactions.</p>
<p>In a globalised world economy, the risks associated with compliance breaches and management failures in one region can have far-reaching implications in others. All chief officers in banks like to say that compliance and risk management is their key priority. But most participate only at the strategic level, and other departments such as legal, IT and project management must implement it. A common vision of strategy and compliance across all levels of all departments of a company’s global operations is required to ensure that management oversight is consistent throughout the company. </p>
<p>Ultimately, the result of failing to pay attention can be catastrophic for the company involved – and others too, if struck by the domino effect.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/100130/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The world’s largest financial scandal has toppled a government, threatened a currency, and revealed deeply problematic failings at a buccaneering Swiss bank.Salvatore Cantale, Professor of Finance, International Institute for Management Development (IMD)Ivy Buche, Business Transformation Project Manager, International Institute for Management Development (IMD)Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/956072018-04-26T13:41:03Z2018-04-26T13:41:03ZMaking cities cooler is a no brainer – so why are we doing so little about it?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/216323/original/file-20180425-175058-1b6su86.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Hot hot heat. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/sunrise-over-modern-office-buildings-business-222030145?src=9DRG0Wu5vPHES2gto5RBAQ-1-0">TWStock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>You walk through a park in a city on a warm day, then cross out to a narrow street lined with tall buildings. Suddenly, it feels much hotter. Many people will have experienced this, and climate scientists have a name for it: the urban heat island effect. </p>
<p>Heavily urbanised areas within cities <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/j.1475-4959.2007.232_3.x">are between</a> 1°C and 3°C hotter than other areas. They are contributing to global warming and damaging people’s health, and it’s <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/nclimate3301.pdf">set to</a> get worse as <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/cities/2018/mar/19/urban-explosion-kinshasa-el-alto-growth-mexico-city-bangalore-lagos">urbanisation intensifies</a>. </p>
<p>Numerous cities around the world are trying to do something about this problem. But there is a very long way to go. So what is holding us back, and what needs to happen?</p>
<p>Urban heat relates to how most cities have been designed. Many rows of tall buildings are organised into blocks which resist any natural breeze. Streets and roofs are clad in dark materials like asphalt and bitumen, which retain more heat than lighter materials and natural surfaces like soil.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/216324/original/file-20180425-175077-nkwshu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/216324/original/file-20180425-175077-nkwshu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/216324/original/file-20180425-175077-nkwshu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/216324/original/file-20180425-175077-nkwshu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/216324/original/file-20180425-175077-nkwshu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/216324/original/file-20180425-175077-nkwshu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/216324/original/file-20180425-175077-nkwshu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/216324/original/file-20180425-175077-nkwshu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Roll out the bitumen.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/sunrise-over-modern-office-buildings-business-222030145?src=9DRG0Wu5vPHES2gto5RBAQ-1-0">Dmitry Kalinovsky</a></span>
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<p>Natural ground absorbs rain, which is evaporated by the sun’s rays on a warm day and released into the air, cooling everything down. In a city, the rain just runs into the sewer system instead. </p>
<p>Urban areas tend to lack trees. Trees help reduce the air temperature by blocking the sun’s rays, <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-37813709">while</a> cutting the levels of pollution by absorbing harmful particles. </p>
<p>Cities are also warmer because they are full of human activity. Everything from transport to industry to energy output makes them hotter than they otherwise would be. </p>
<h2>Cause and effect</h2>
<p>Urban heat has various consequences. Combined with heatwaves and <a href="https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2017/08/global-warming-chart-100-years-in-35-seconds/">global warming</a>, both of which are <a href="https://edition.cnn.com/2017/06/19/world/killer-heat-waves-rising/index.html">also on the rise</a>, these hotspots are producing conditions that kill and hospitalise <a href="https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017/08/05/european-heatwave-kills-five-temperatures-soar-40c/">growing numbers of people</a>. The worst affected are the elderly and other vulnerable groups like <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-heatwave-usa-cities/feature-extreme-heat-an-unseen-threat-burns-u-s-urban-poor-idUSKCN1BW037">the homeless</a>. </p>
<p>The World Health Organisation (WHO) <a href="http://www.who.int/en/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/climate-change-and-health">has warned</a> that increased city temperatures lead to more pollutants in the air. These can aggravate respiratory diseases, particularly among children. As cities get bigger, more and more people will be affected by these threats to their health.</p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/216325/original/file-20180425-175047-lqi7xg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/216325/original/file-20180425-175047-lqi7xg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/216325/original/file-20180425-175047-lqi7xg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=793&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/216325/original/file-20180425-175047-lqi7xg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=793&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/216325/original/file-20180425-175047-lqi7xg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=793&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/216325/original/file-20180425-175047-lqi7xg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=996&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/216325/original/file-20180425-175047-lqi7xg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=996&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/216325/original/file-20180425-175047-lqi7xg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=996&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Il fait chaud.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/sunrise-over-modern-office-buildings-business-222030145?src=9DRG0Wu5vPHES2gto5RBAQ-1-0">VladisChem</a></span>
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<p>Higher city temperatures are one reason why we are using <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/energy-environment/wp/2016/05/31/the-world-is-about-to-install-700-million-air-conditioners-heres-what-that-means-for-the-climate/?noredirect=on">more and more</a> air conditioning. One US study <a href="http://news.mit.edu/2018/urban-heat-island-effects-depend-city-layout-0222">found that</a> the urban heat island effect in Florida was responsible for over $400m (£287m) of extra aircon, for example. </p>
<p>Aircon <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-global-impact-of-air-conditioning-big-and-getting-bigger-62882">feeds climate change</a> by producing more carbon emissions through the extra electricity demand, creating a vicious circle where it gets hotter because more aircon is required. The increased energy demand means a greater risk of summer blackouts, causing both human discomfort and economic damage. </p>
<p>Hotter city roads and pavements <a href="https://www.conserve-energy-future.com/causes-and-effects-of-thermal-pollution.php">also raise</a> the temperature of storm-water runoff in sewers. This in turn makes rivers and lakes warmer, which can affect fish and other aquatic species in relation to things like feeding and reproduction. </p>
<p>Finally, there are major economic consequences to hotter cities. One paper from last year <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/nclimate3301.pdf">predicts that</a> all the extra wear and tear caused by the excess heat would amount to between 1% and 10% of lost GDP in thousands of cities around the world. </p>
<h2>How we’re reacting</h2>
<p>The solutions to the problem are clear enough: they include using paler more reflective building materials, and wiser urban planning that incentivises more parks, tree planting and other natural open spaces. </p>
<p>When it comes to taking these steps, however, it’s a very mixed picture. Countries and municipal authorities have <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/nclimate2744">typically</a> become very good at adopting plans to cut emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases. They are not so good at taking steps to adapt to climate change. <a href="https://phys.org/news/2013-11-reality-europe-response-climate.html">A study</a> from 2014 found that most European cities had failed to introduce urban heat plans, and the situation looks little better today. </p>
<p>This being the case, city administrations that have gone the extra mile look particularly enlightened – even though they tend to be somewhat sporadic. Melbourne, for instance, <a href="http://urbanwater.melbourne.vic.gov.au/projects/permeability-infiltration/permeable-bluestone-pavement/">has substituted</a> its trademark bluestone pavements in several areas with a permeable version that absorbs rainwater, thereby increasing the amount of evaporation. </p>
<p>New York City’s <a href="http://coolroofs.org/documents/NYC_CoolRoofs_6-14-17_Presentation.pdf">Cool Roof Initiative</a> has seen <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EEydVkoi1Z0">thousands of volunteers</a> painting <a href="https://www.amny.com/news/nyc-hiring-workers-for-coolroofs-energy-saving-program-1.13353595">some of</a> the city’s flat bituminous roofs with a reflective polymer material. Lately, Los Angeles <a href="https://weather.com/news/news/2018-04-10-los-angeles-painting-streets-white">has launched</a> an initiative to paint roads white, part of a <a href="https://phys.org/news/2017-02-cool-city-world.html">pledge</a> by city hall to lower the temperature by 3°C in the next 20 years. Beijing, meanwhile, <a href="http://www.xinhuanet.com/english/2016-02/21/c_135116438.htm">has been </a> introducing zoning measures to reduce smog. </p>
<p>Other administrations have been encouraging <a href="http://www.growinggreenguide.org/technical-guide/introduction-to-roofs-walls-and-facades/green-roof-definition/">green roofs</a> – rooftops covered in vegetation: they are a legal requirement for big new developments <a href="https://www.toronto.ca/city-government/planning-development/official-plan-guidelines/green-roofs/green-roof-bylaw/">in Toronto</a>; there are <a href="https://www.portlandoregon.gov/bes/44422">floor area bonuses</a> for developers who include them in Portland, Oregon; and Chicago had a <a href="http://www.vegetalid.us/green-roof-technical-resources/green-roof-and-stormwater-management-incentives.html">funding scheme</a> for a while. In Swiss cities and regions, green roofs <a href="http://www.bbc.com/travel/story/20120608-switzerlands-habitats-in-the-sky">have been</a> a legal requirement for many buildings for years. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/216326/original/file-20180425-175038-10ce1we.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/216326/original/file-20180425-175038-10ce1we.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/216326/original/file-20180425-175038-10ce1we.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=397&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/216326/original/file-20180425-175038-10ce1we.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=397&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/216326/original/file-20180425-175038-10ce1we.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=397&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/216326/original/file-20180425-175038-10ce1we.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=499&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/216326/original/file-20180425-175038-10ce1we.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=499&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/216326/original/file-20180425-175038-10ce1we.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=499&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Lofty shoots.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/green-roof-on-urban-building-102303940?src=BpWVrKj1-PvO6M9dQ2ajPQ-1-18">Alison Hancock</a></span>
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<p>These are all just pockets of activity, however. Many other mayors and city administrations need to start implementing the kinds of bylaws and incentives to adapt to the reality of hotter cities. </p>
<p>The cities of the future can still be green and cool, but only if they move up the agendas of many city halls. The laggards need to follow the example of those that have been leading the way. The reality is that the social, environmental and economic costs of urban heat islands add up to a bill that is too high for humanity to pay.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/95607/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Francesco Pomponi receives funding from the EPSRC.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Tiziana Susca does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>How to move beyond the warm words about tackling urban heat islands to doing something about them.Tiziana Susca, Research Fellow, Edinburgh Napier UniversityFrancesco Pomponi, Vice Chancellor's Research Fellow, Edinburgh Napier UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/883242017-12-05T19:19:44Z2017-12-05T19:19:44ZFrom Oregon to Belgium to Victoria – the different ways suffering patients are allowed to die<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/197532/original/file-20171204-4062-1p2hrsh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Victoria's model is pretty conservative compared to other jurisdictions that have legalised euthanasia or assisted dying.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">from shutterstock.com</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Australia will, from mid-2019, once again join the list of countries that have legalised a person’s right to die if he or she is suffering unbearably. This comes after Victoria became the first state in the country to <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-11-29/euthanasia-passes-parliament-in-victoria/9205472">legalise voluntary assisted dying</a> in November 2017 – more than two decades after the federal parliament struck down the Northern Territory’s short-lived <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rights_of_the_Terminally_Ill_Act_1995">euthanasia act</a>.</p>
<p>The <a href="http://www.legislation.vic.gov.au/domino/Web_Notes/LDMS/PubPDocs.nsf/ee665e366dcb6cb0ca256da400837f6b/d162e1f2fcc3f7c3ca2581a1007a8903!OpenDocument">Victorian bill</a> provides a model for physician-assisted suicide, where a patient can request and receive help to <a href="https://theconversation.com/dying-a-good-death-what-we-need-from-drugs-that-are-meant-to-end-life-85445">source the drugs</a> necessary to bring about their own death. This is different to voluntary euthanasia, which typically requires another person such as a doctor to actively cause the death of the patient at the patient’s request. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/want-to-better-understand-victorias-assisted-dying-laws-these-five-articles-will-help-88310">Want to better understand Victoria's assisted dying laws? These five articles will help</a>
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<p>Under the Victorian model, there is scope for a doctor to administer the drugs if the patient is physically incapable of doing so themselves. To access the scheme, the patient must meet strict criteria. They must have an illness likely to end their life within six months (12 months for neurodegenerative conditions such as motor neuron disease) and be experiencing suffering that can’t be managed in a way tolerable to the patient. They must be over the age of 18 and a resident of Victoria. </p>
<p>Victoria’s model is pretty conservative compared to other jurisdictions. Some broaden eligibility to minors, non-residents and people suffering non-terminal conditions and disabilities. Others include access to both voluntary euthanasia and physician-assisted dying. </p>
<p>Here is a roundup of the laws around the world that permit assisted dying or euthanasia and ways in which they differ.</p>
<h2>Oregon</h2>
<p>Outcomes of the Oregon model have influenced debate in many jurisdictions, including Australia. Oregon passed its <a href="http://www.oregon.gov/oha/PH/PROVIDERPARTNERRESOURCES/EVALUATIONRESEARCH/DEATHWITHDIGNITYACT/pages/index.aspx">Death with Dignity Act</a> in 1994. Finally taking effect in 1997, it is one of the longest-standing legislative schemes for physician-assisted suicide. </p>
<p>Oregon’s eligibility requirements are similar to those in Victoria. Assisted dying is available to adults over 18 who are capable of making decisions, have a terminal diagnosis with a life expectancy of six months and are Oregon residents.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/the-six-month-amendment-could-defeat-the-purpose-of-victorias-assisted-dying-bill-87941">The six-month amendment could defeat the purpose of Victoria's assisted dying bill</a>
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<p>The initial process for seeking assistance to die is also similar: a series of requests and evaluations over a period of time. Unlike the Victorian bill, though, the Oregon law doesn’t require patients or doctors to seek a licence or permit from the state prior to taking or allowing the medication. But doctors are required to report deaths to the state for evaluation purposes. </p>
<p>As of January 2017, 1,749 people had <a href="http://www.oregon.gov/oha/PH/PROVIDERPARTNERRESOURCES/EVALUATIONRESEARCH/DEATHWITHDIGNITYACT/Documents/year19.pdf">received prescriptions under the Oregon law</a> since it came into force in 1997. Around 1,127 patients had died from ingesting the medications provided, 133 of these in 2016. Most participants (70%) were 65 years or older, and most (77.4%) had cancer.</p>
<p>The Oregon law has been remarkably stable. There was an unsuccessful attempt in 2015 to extend the eligibility period from six to 12 months. But the regulatory and eligibility criteria remain unchanged since 2006, when the law’s validity was last challenged in the courts.</p>
<p>Other US states to legalise assisted dying include Washington, Montana, Vermont and California. These are <a href="https://lop.parl.ca/Content/LOP/ResearchPublications/2015-116-e.html?cat=law#a6">based on the Oregon model</a>, but there is <a href="https://www.deathwithdignity.org/learn/access/">minor variation in process between jurisdictions</a>. </p>
<h2>Netherlands, Belgium and Luxembourg</h2>
<p>In the Netherlands, Belgium and Luxembourg, both voluntary assisted dying and euthanasia are legal. There are no specific diagnostic requirements for access to the scheme for adults. The patient only needs to be experiencing unbearable suffering without prospect of a cure. </p>
<p>Patients accessing assisted dying and euthanasia in these jurisdictions have done so not only for terminal conditions but also non-terminal ones too. These include <a href="http://www.worldrtd.net/news/belgium-analysis-euthanasia-cases-dementia-and-psychiatry">dementia</a>, alcohol and drug addiction, mental illness and <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/belgium/9801251/Euthanasia-twins-had-nothing-to-live-for.html">disability</a>. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/separating-fact-from-fiction-about-euthanasia-in-belgium-58203">Separating fact from fiction about euthanasia in Belgium</a>
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<p>Both Belgium and the Netherlands have reduced or removed age eligibility criteria to include minors. Since 2014, minors of any age who are terminally ill have been able to access assisted dying or euthanasia in Belgium, after a psychiatric assessment. In the Netherlands, children from 12 years can access the laws.</p>
<p>In the <a href="http://statline.cbs.nl/Statweb/publication/?DM=SLEN&PA=81655eng&D1=10&D2=a&D3=a&D4=l&LA=EN&VW=T">Netherlands</a>, 6,672 people died as a result of euthanasia and 150 of assisted suicide in 2015 – or 4.6% of all deaths. This is <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27380345">consistent with estimates</a> that assisted suicide or euthanasia accounts for between 0.3% and 4.6% of all deaths in jurisdictions where it is legal. Thus it remains relatively rare.</p>
<h2>Switzerland</h2>
<p>Despite being recognised as the first “euthanasia” jurisdiction, the Swiss system is somewhat of a legal irregularity, as the laws don’t expressly authorise physician-assisted suicide. Rather, while the <a href="https://www.admin.ch/opc/en/classified-compilation/19370083/201709010000/311.0.pdf">Swiss Penal Code 1942</a> makes voluntary euthanasia and assisted suicide an offence in the case of “selfish” motives, it is <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1125125/">silent on the status</a> of assisted suicide for “non-selfish” motives. </p>
<p>As the system rests on an omission rather than an express scheme, there are no mandated eligibility requirements relating to age, residency, condition or prognosis. </p>
<p>Since the 1980s, not-for-profit organisations have interpreted this law as permitting them to provide assisted suicide services.</p>
<h2>Canada</h2>
<p>In the 2015 case of <a href="https://scc-csc.lexum.com/scc-csc/scc-csc/en/item/14637/index.do">Carter v Canada</a>, the Canadian Supreme Court ruled that a terminally ill patient has a right to a physician’s assistance in dying under the <a href="http://laws-lois.justice.gc.ca/eng/Const/page-15.html">Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms</a>. The case resulted in <a href="http://www.parl.ca/DocumentViewer/en/42-1/bill/C-14/royal-assent">Bill C-14,</a> which excludes from Canadian criminal laws those who provide assistance in dying to Canadian residents over the age of 18, with capacity to make decisions, who are suffering from a “grievous and irremediable” medical condition rendering the end of their life reasonably foreseeable.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/viewpoints-should-euthanasia-be-available-for-people-with-existential-suffering-79564">Viewpoints: should euthanasia be available for people with existential suffering?</a>
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<p>Bill C-14 has been challenged because of the “reasonably foreseeable” requirement. The <a href="https://bccla.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/2016-06-27-Notice-of-Civil-Claim.pdf">British Columbia Civil Liberties Association</a> has argued it is more restrictive than the finding of the Canadian Supreme Court in Carter, which required only that the plaintiff be experiencing intolerable suffering. <a href="http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/assisted-dying-constitutional-challenge-1.4349773">That court challenge is continuing</a>, while the law remains valid.</p>
<p>Quebec, a province of Canada, has also legislated a form of euthanasia. Under <a href="http://legisquebec.gouv.qc.ca/en/showdoc/cs/S-32.0001">Quebecois law</a>, doctors must administer assistance personally and remain with the patient until they die. This imposes a greater burden on doctors than assisted dying models. </p>
<h2>Colombia</h2>
<p>Colombia permits both voluntary euthanasia and physician-assisted suicide to terminally ill adults. The practice is regulated by a set of guidelines published in 2015 by the Colombian Ministry of Health and Social Protection. The guidelines came some 20 years after the <a href="http://www.patientsrightscouncil.org/site/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/Colombia_Court_Decision_05_20_1997.pdf">Constitutional Court ruled</a> no person could be criminally liable for taking the life of a terminally ill patient who had consented.</p>
<p>In common with the Victorian model, the Colombian guidelines require prior external authorisation. However this is obtained from an external review committee in Colombia, rather the Secretary of the Department of Health, as in the case of the Victorian model. </p>
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<p><em>If this article has raised concerns for you or anyone you know, contact <a href="https://www.lifeline.org.au/">Lifeline</a> on 13 11 14, or <a href="https://www.beyondblue.org.au/">beyondblue</a> 1300 224 636.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/88324/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Wendy Bonython does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The Victorian assisted dying laws are based on those in Oregon, which are quite conservative. Laws in the Netherlands, Belgium and Canada are more relaxed.Wendy Bonython, Associate professor, University of CanberraLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/873782017-11-15T13:28:48Z2017-11-15T13:28:48ZSouth Africa must do more to keep teachers from seeking ‘greener pastures’<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/194354/original/file-20171113-27635-1uabqyn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Much more must be done to keep teachers in South Africa.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Around the world, many teachers are choosing to leave their home countries once they’ve qualified. It’s a global phenomenon, and one that impacts both developed and developing nations – in <a href="https://www.un.org/press/en/2010/gaef3291.doc.htm">some positive</a> ways, but with negative effects particularly for the source country that’s losing skilled teachers to supposedly “greener pastures”. International teacher mobility is driven primarily by the prospect of earning more money. Teachers from developing countries can <a href="http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/jid.1313/pdf">double their real income</a> by teaching in some more developed host nations.</p>
<p>South African teachers are often recruited, particularly by industrialised nations, to deal with teacher shortages. South African teachers are particularly favoured for their hard work, loyalty and dedication. Most of them can also teach more than one subject.</p>
<p>I wanted to understand why South African student teachers might find working elsewhere more attractive. What is driving their migration, either through recruitment or on their own steam? So I conducted <a href="http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/18146627.2017.1286942">a study</a> with a group of final-year Bachelor of Education (BEd) student teachers from a South African university. They responded to a 27-item questionnaire whose aim was to find out their career plans for the near future.</p>
<p>A sample of 134 students were involved in the survey. Most (79%) planned to stay in South Africa in the year after graduating – but a relatively high number (38%) said they’d like to be teaching in another country in five years’ time. The good news is that, of the 38%, most plan to return to South Africa after teaching elsewhere for a time. There were three main reasons for migration: the opportunity to travel; the chance to earn a higher salary and professional development.</p>
<p>But what of those who plan to leave for good? It’s important for a country like South Africa, which has a <a href="http://sace.org.za/assets/documents/uploads/sace_29250-2016-08-31-A%20review%20on%20teacher%20demand%20and%20supply%20in%20South%20Africa.pdf">scarcity</a> particularly of maths, science and language teachers, not to lose its trained teachers. Policy needs to focus on making the teaching profession stable and more appealing. South Africa must ensure that its locally trained teachers are recognised and nurtured so that they have more reason to stay in the country.</p>
<h2>Greener pastures?</h2>
<p>Of the students I surveyed, 8% said that they planned to teach in another country upon graduating and 8% were undecided. Another 4% indicated that they would not be entering the teaching profession at all. </p>
<p>Australia was most students’ preferred destination country. More than a quarter of the students (27%) who were planning to teach in another country preferred Australia, followed by the United Kingdom (16%), South Korea (16%) and the United States (14%). The most important reasons for choosing these four destination countries were higher salaries, friendly people, family and/or friends as residents. The students also cited those countries’ high standard of education and opportunities for professional growth. </p>
<p>A small percentage were planning to migrate to Canada, New Zealand, Japan, Taiwan, Saudi Arabia, The Netherlands, Switzerland and Scotland.</p>
<p>For the most part, students were motivated by pull rather than push factors. Some were worried about <a href="https://www.news24.com/SouthAfrica/News/why-teachers-are-leaving-their-profession-20170830">bad working conditions</a>, bad social services, an <a href="https://www.timeslive.co.za/news/south-africa/2017-06-15-schools-are-so-violent-teachers-live-in-fear/">unsafe environment</a> and South Africa’s <a href="https://tradingeconomics.com/south-africa/unemployment-rate">high rates of unemployment</a>. Mostly, though, they were focused on what other countries had to offer – pull factors.</p>
<p>They indicated that their most important migration needs before leaving South Africa were information about health care, accommodation, salary scales, banking assistance, cost of living (transport and food costs), methods of learner assessment and tax advice.</p>
<h2>Making South Africa a more attractive option</h2>
<p>Migration is always an option, especially for professionals like teachers, and is in some cases inevitable. There are no reliable figures to show how many South African teachers are lost to other countries each year. But what’s important is that the country not lose too many of its teachers, whether they’re newly qualified or established; the best and the brightest of those who are already working are also targeted, especially in scarce skill subjects such as maths and science-related subjects.</p>
<p>More must be done to make teaching an attractive, stable profession in South Africa. This can be done by improving teachers’ working conditions and salary scales – particularly those who are teaching scarce skills subjects. Policy makers and authorities must monitor teacher recruitment agencies carefully to ensure that there isn’t a mass exodus of teachers that catches the country by surprise. </p>
<p>This is important if the country is to keep at least some of its qualified, passionate teachers and build up skills in areas like maths and science.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/87378/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Rian de Villiers does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Policy needs to focus on making the teaching profession stable and more appealing. South Africa must ensure its locally trained teachers have more reason to stay in the country.Rian de Villiers, Associate Professor: Teacher migration, University of PretoriaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.