So what was the general sentiment in Switzerland when Oprah Winfrey charged a Swiss saleswoman in an upmarket shop of racial prejudice, I ask my tour guide in Thurgau.
He shrugs and says, “Well a lot of people didn’t care enough to comment. Others said why should a Swiss salesgirl recognise an American celebrity? How do they even expect it? We Swiss people aren’t too fond of watching American TV shows. And then, if a Swiss celebrity went to the US, how many people would recognise her and make a fuss?”
Yet, Switzerland is close to the US in several ways; for one thing, the hotels tend to have CNN rather than BBC. And despite economic blues, American tourists love to visit this country of breathtaking natural beauty.
During World War II, the Americans had bombed regions of Switzerland bordering Germany on many occasions. “That is why we had painted huge cross signs on the highest points of our cities so that the American pilots could see that this was Swiss and not German territory, but several times we got bombed,” says our guide Marion Preuss, while walking us around the historic and charming little town of Stein am Rhein bang on the right or northern side of the Rhine river. It has buildings with exquisite paintings, carvings, and above all huge oak rafters, used to support the construction. It has a population of barely 3,200.
Pointing out one of the towers at the centre of the town, she says one pilot had dropped nine bombs on the town killing four women and five children. “This tower was literally split in half and several other buildings were damaged and destroyed. Of course, the Americans later helped build them.”
Wikipedia talks about the daylight bombing of Schauffhausen, also on the bank of River Rhine, on April 1, 1944, when 50 B-24 Liberators misidentified Schaffhausen as their target Ludwigshafen am Rhein and dropped bombs that killed 40 people and destroyed many buildings. “Allied investigations into the incident found that bad weather broke up the American formation over France, high winds that nearly doubled the ground speed of the bombers confused the navigators…. By October 1944, $4 million had been paid in restitution.”
One wonders about the deaths caused by the unjustified invasion of Iraq in 2003, and the tens of thousands of deaths following that carnage. And the compensation? Americans pulling out leaving behind a devastated country that continues to be rocked by violence, death and destruction.
Returning to the bonhomie between Switzerland and the US, at the opening ceremony of the huge ongoing media event to market Swiss tourism, the history and amazing punctuality of Swiss trains was of course showcased. The cliché in the rest of the world is that you can set your clock by the arrival or departure of a Swiss train.
One of the slides said: “Coming soon: World’s first Starbucks on Rails.” This led to quite a few murmurs and jibes from many Europeans in the 140-odd journalist crowd such as “what a terrible idea”, and “we hate Starbucks".
But returning to the charming town of Stein Am Rhein, a walk around it takes you straight back to the best of the medieval ages, and is an example of the passion with which the Swiss embrace and hold on to their history, art, culture and traditions. As in most such historic places, you cannot alter, renovate or even repair any part of your house without the approval of the town authorities.
The building that today houses the huge and sprawling Hotel Adler with its frescos, and paintings across its façade is the most prominent. One half of the paintings are ancient, but the other half modern, in a town which encourages and hosts artists, writers, poets, etc to come for a three month sabbatical to work on any idea or project. The only condition is that a bit of their work should be gifted to the town.
Marion then takes us to a place which was once a hospital for the poor, but got the patronage of a wealthy man, who donated it 13 buildings. “All of a sudden the hospital became very rich and had so much money that it started giving credit to people at 7 per cent interest. Perhaps that was the beginning of the Swiss banking system,” she chuckles.
(To be continued)