Newsletter
October 2007
Thank you for your interest in swissworld.org. We have introduced some new content, which we hope you will enjoy. And there is plenty to get your teeth into in the rest of the site as well.
Link Competition
Have you registered for our swisslinks competition yet? There are seven study trips to Switzerland to be won.
We want you to help us spread the word about swissworld.org. All you have to do is to get links to swissworld.org set on as many different websites as possible. Once you have set a link, enter it in your competition account, and score points. The seven people with the most points on November 30th will win a five-day visit to Switzerland.
Do you have your own website? Do you contribute to blogs and forums on the web? Why not set a link to swissworld.org there? You can also suggest a link to a public website, such as one belonging to a university, language school or tourism organisation.
For more details about how to register and how to win points, go to our Link Competition. In order to help you enter your links, we have redesigned our page to take you step by step through what you have to do.
Start linking now - every point counts!
Story Switzerland
Autumn is the season of harvest, and the apples are ripening on the trees. For Switzerland the apple has a special meaning: it is associated with the popular hero William Tell, who was forced to shoot an apple from his son’s head. This story dates back to the very beginnings of Switzerland’s tradition of freedom, when communities banded together for self-protection against their feudal lords.
You can find all sorts of nuggets about what makes Switzerland special in Story Switzerland.
Culture
The wine harvest in Switzerland is an excuse for celebrations in all the vine growing areas. The most colourful and most surprising is held in Neuchâtel, when dozens of brightly coloured floats drive through the streets. The special thing about them is that they are made up entirely of flowers – but that doesn’t stop the designers letting their imagination run riot.
You can read about this festival in our culture section.
Many of Switzerland’s autumn festivals are associated with eating in one way or another, from chestnuts to onions. We have described them too.
If you are intrigued by the wealth of traditions in Switzerland, have a look at our DVD on Customs and Traditions.
Resources
October sees elections to both houses of the Swiss parliament. Switzerland has an intriguing political system, and it isn't always easy for outsiders to understand what is going on.
How much power does parliament have? Will the elections make any difference to the composition of the government? What about Switzerland's famous system of direct democracy?
Have a look at our Direct Democracy DVD and become an instant expert!
Why Switzerland?
Why does a top Google developer swap the US for Switzerland? What are the pluses and minuses of working at a Swiss university compared with one of the world’s major start-ups? Is the swimming better in California or Lausanne? And what is the purpose of algorithms?
German-born computer scientist Monika Henzinger is one of twelve foreign citizens featured in “Why Switzerland?” on swissworld.org. She compares and contrasts her life working for Google in California, and teaching and researching at the Federal Institute of Technology, Lausanne
Why Switzerland? introduces you to prominent figures from different walks of life and different countries. What unites them is that they have made Switzerland their home. The interviews were conducted by twelve different top journalists and twelve different photographers took the pictures.
Swiss Tags
Have you tried out the Swiss Tags yet? Click on one of the key words to discover all the swissworld.org content associated with the particular term. The more people select a particular word, the bigger it grows.
Which are the subjects that most interest other swissworld.org readers? Are they keener to know about edelweiss or gentians? Is Zurich more interesting than Geneva? Do a lot of people want to learn about Swiss politics? You can compare interest across the languages too – just click on the language buttons at the top. You may be surprised to see just how much difference there is.