Swiss initiative to limit immigration might run into legal problems

On 9th of February 2014 Swiss voters accepted a referendum to limit immigration. This included also EU citizens, which conflicts with the international agreements Switzerland has made. The vote was very close, only 50.3% of the votes was for accepting. 9000 votes would've tipped the scales.

The campaign was fierce, SVP leading the initiative. As a foreigner living in CH, the campaign looked very shady. Hate mongering against immigrants was constantly happening.

Now the courts will have a look if the campaigning was racist, and whether the referendum should be declared invalid. Article inTagesAnzeiger

Let's see how SVP will spin this. Certainly they start screaming "the will of the people", but I really hope this will set some limits on how racist the campaigns can be.

Xmas blues

It is this time of the year again: Xmas. As a kid is was much waited for. In Finland the Santa visits the families on the 24th in the evening. The kids get to sing to the Santa, and even sit on his lap. Smaller kids start to cry as they're afraid of this strange man who brings presents, but who also CAN bring twigs if the kids haven't been nice.

No matter if the Santa sounds a bit like uncle Oiva who lives next door, you believe in the real Santa anyway. If you don't, you might not get presents!

Anyway, as the time passes, things change, and although Xmas is still very special time of the year it comes with the Xmas blues. At least to me it does.

You notice that yet another year is gone, and your spare tire is still on your hips despite your decision in the beginning of the year. And no, you didn't get that personal project done. 

And if you live abroad like I do you're not still fully integrated within the local populace. You do have social contacts, but your relatives and closest friends are often so far away that a quick visit isn't really an option.

 

Oh well.

 

At least it is not cold over here (thus, no skiing this Xmas, either)...

 

But, at 3km there is snow. Not much, but anyway (this from last Sunday)

Strange, how we get used to things

While sitting onboard a ferry I just realized how much I have learned to rely on mobile data. Mobile nets are not reachable for most of the journey, which feels really strange.
Should I get worried for my addiction?

A strange webshop experience

I had a very strange webshopping experience the other day. I wanted to buy stuff and expansys offered in this case the things I wanted. I've bought from expansys.co.uk earlier, so I though "why not".

Then I noticed that they have a local, CH website, contact information and all and I thought "Great!".

So, in shopping frenzy I put the goods in the shopping cart, headed to the cash register, typed in my credit card information and I was a bit surprised to notice that the "Verified by Visa" question didn't come.

Thought nothing of it, until the next day I received an e-mail asking me to scan my credit card and ID/Passport and upload them to their website.

WHAT?!?!

They must be out of their mind!

Certainly I expose myself to the identity theft by scanning my passport - NOT! I stay away from their website from now on. Search continues...

We have two new family members (or: the strange things you can find in a forest)

My SO went to forest to walk the dog....

And found these two ladies there!

Hühner aus dem Wald

What a strange place I live in!

Sex can be dangerous in many ways

I know that lovemaking is sweet after a fight, but sometimes it might be dangerous as well.

A Brazilian hubby claims that his missus tried to poison him with her candybox......

Oops, sorry! We did not mean to shoot you!

This looks like a sketch from a comedy show, but it is unfortunately true: Israeli troops shoot mistakenly somebody in his bed, and goes on basically: "Oops, we're sorry! We didn't mean to shoot you!".

Like it changes anything.