No, Doug Ford isn't paving over Ontario's best farmland with houses | Toronto Sun - "If you listened to Doug Ford’s critics, you’d think he was paving paradise to put up a parking lot. That’s because they’re stuck living in a ’70s pop song instead of reality. The truth is, only about one-third of one percent of the Greenbelt will be opened up for housing with more land being added. Yet the NDP, and plenty of other critics are calling this the paving over of farmland... I’ve visited some of the parcels and they aren’t farmland that’s feeding the province’s population. Take the parcel in Ajax that borders Kingston Rd., Lake Ridge Rd. and Highway 401. It’s currently growing cow corn. It’s also the type of land that should be developed given that it is closer to the highway, closer to transit like the GO Train station down the street. It’s not the place any farmer would be growing fresh produce for humans these days. Do you want fresh peppers or lettuce on your table grown next to the fumes of the 401? In Hamilton, a plot of land on the south side of White Church Rd. E. is being used for farming, but it’s for sod, not food. That land hasn’t been used for what most people consider farming in years as it was sold off for planned development near the airport... Anyone claiming that this is all farmland that will be paved over clearly hasn’t visited the sites. They haven’t even looked them up on Google Maps... Many of these land swaps have been requested in the past by councils in Grimsby, Hamilton, Pickering, King City, Clarington and York Region. This isn’t Ford just deciding he wants to drive a bulldozer over some farm land. There are more than two million acres in the Greenbelt, and the government is proposing to take 7,400 acres, or less than one third of one percent of the land total for development while adding 9,400 acres."
All the people who bitch about losing farmland should demolish their houses and sell the land to farmers
Lies about Ford's Greenbelt plans no basis for a police investigation | Toronto Sun - "Have you heard the story about the wealthy developer family that took out a $100-million loan at 21% interest to buy a property just before the Ford government announced they would allow some 7,400 acres of Greenbelt land to be developed for housing?... In May 2021, TACC Developments, controlled by the DeGasperis family, purchased a 107-acre parcel of land off Pine Valley Drive north of Teston Road in Vaughan. They bought the land because there were 27 acres of development land included in the parcel and most of the land actually remains in the Greenbelt even after changes by the Ford government. The land is also next to another 200-acre parcel TACC owns that has long been zoned for housing development. Also, the 107-acre parcel wasn’t purchased for $100 million but for $50 million. TACC took out a $30-million loan to finance the purchase with an option to increase the loan to $100 million if needed to finance development costs. As for the interest rate, it wasn’t 21% but was set at prime plus 75 basis points. The original story, published in November by the Globe and Mail, didn’t confirm the facts before putting the story out in the world. Since then, there has been no end to the politicians and activists willing to comment on this wildly fake claim. The online insinuation from critics of the Ford government is that this is obvious corruption by the premier, while the DeGasperis family have been subject to racist slurs as a result. Now, calls for a police investigation over a lie. It’s all quite disgusting, to be honest, but par for the course in a world where alternative facts are used instead of common sense, logic and reason. It’s far easier to smear someone, to delegitimize and dehumanize them, than it is to have a reasonable conversation."
LILLEY: Mythology of Greenbelt shouldn't stop common sense solutions | Toronto Sun - "Since it was created in 2005, a mythology has built up around the Greenbelt that stretches from Niagara to Port Hope... most of the land being looked at in this land swap hasn’t been farmed for decades. And what is farmed – like cow corn or sod – isn’t for human consumption. One of the other myths is that the land that is the Greenbelt now must always be in the Greenbelt, it cannot change. The truth is, the former Wynne Liberal government took land out of the Greenbelt at least 17 times and I don’t recall an uproar, a fuss or claims that paradise was being paved over for a parking lot. In at least one instance, with Wynne’s decision to allow land to be taken out of the Greenbelt, much of it was turned into a parking lot. A section of land off near Bronte Creek off of Appleby Line was removed from the Greenbelt by the Wynne government – it’s now a giant Lowe’s hardware store. In another case, a series of lots in Vaughan were taken out of the Greenbelt to allow the construction of at least six massive homes backing onto protected land adjacent to the Humber River. These McMansions come complete with swimming pools and in one case a tennis court – it’s not solving the housing crisis unless you are already loaded. The Wynne Liberals allowed lands to be taken out of the Greenbelt in Hamilton, Oshawa, Clarington, East Gwillimbury, Markham and even wetland adjacent lots in Pickering. Some of that land became housing, some is currently being used for a golf course and some hasn’t been developed at all but was still taken out... The reason the government has given for the land swap is to build 50,000 new homes and unlike when Wynne took land out of the Greenbelt, Ford’s PCs are saying if homes aren’t built quickly, they’ll put the land back under protection – there is no sitting on this offer."
Meme - 2014: *couple in stadium in seats*
2015: *couple in stadium in seats*
2016: *woman in stadium in seat*
2020: *cardboard cutouts of couple in stadium in seats*
Turkish Giants Fenerbahce Have Paid A Loving Tribute For Couple Who Passed Away - "Fenerbahce have paid tribute to famous fans Mumtaz Amca and Ihsan Teyze, who have both passed away in recent years, by placing cardboard cutouts of the couple at their seats. The pair rarely missed a game at the Sukru Saracoglu Stadium during their years as fans before Mumtaz sadly passed away a few years ago, his wife Ihsan also died recently."
BBC World Service - The Food Chain, An alternative Christmas - "‘With this new prosperity came new tastes’
‘Something they never did in Eastern Europe was eating out in a restaurant. And that was something that was very American. It was also inexpensive. And that's where the opportunity became available for the first time to try these other ethnic foods that were completely strange to the immigrant Jews.’
‘There were Italian restaurants in their neighborhoods, but it was hard to feel comfortable there.’
‘They were running away from Russian Orthodox persecution in Russia. And to go into an Italian restaurant in New York was still part of the Christian religion. There were pictures of saints on the walls. There was a lot of pork on the menu, which isn't kosher.’
‘In other words, it's not allowed under Judaism's food laws, is what's called trief food. The tentative first tastes at their local Chinese restaurants were more successful. The forbidden pork was served there too, but it wasn't so obvious.’
‘Everything was finely chopped. It was wrapped in wantons and it was hidden. And there was also no use of dairy products in Chinese cooking. So there's no mixing of meat and milk, which is not allowed in kosher food. So yes, the Jews who were immigrants were leaving behind eating kosher by entering a Chinese restaurant, but it was considered a safe trief. It was safe non kosher food, because you couldn't see it.’
‘A logic along the lines of what you don't know won't hurt you. And not only that, the food was deliciously different with some reassuring touches of familiarity, like the dumpling’
‘The wanton was something these European Jews ate with beef in it, it was called a kreplach’
‘Eating Chinese gradually became a popular diversion on the Christian Sabbath.’
‘Traditionally, Jews in suburbia in the United States in the 50s, and 60s and 70s would go out on Sunday evening for dinner, because this was parallel to people going to church and going to have lunch after church. And I think Jews felt left out. On Sunday mornings, Jews would start to go for dim soom [sic] across the United States, and Chinatown. And sometime in the 1980s and 90s, it became really widespread on Christmas, that just as Jews would go visit the movie theater in the cinema to see a movie on Christmas Eve, it would often be accompanied by going to a Chinese restaurant. And we see this not just in New York, but in Los Angeles and Chicago, Miami, and in large, and small areas where Jews lived across the United States. The restaurants were open, Chinatown was open, and Jews could feel like insiders on Christmas Eve and Christmas day, even though they weren't partaking of the traditional Christmas eve dinner, or Christmas day meals...
The owners of these kosher Chinese restaurants who are Chinese tell me that it's their busiest day of the year. Do fellow rabbis go to eat Chinese food on Christmas. I'd say they take it a step further. Many of them plan events in their synagogues where they're, they're having a kosher Chinese meal in there. They're having a Chinese meal at the synagogue for members of their congregation to come and have a Chinese food meal around Christmas time. So they've actually co opted the Chinese food and brought it into the synagogue.’"
BBC World Service - The Food Chain, The online food fighters - "‘Can I ask each of you for your kind of your, like your top three most hated food or diet culture myths?’
‘Say I slightly struggle with that question, because for me, it changes on a regular basis. But I think the themes tend to stay the same. And I still think one of them is this belief that food can cure you of your ailments, that food will act like medicine, I really do think that we would be in a much better place if we realized that that wasn't true. And we'd have a much better relationship with food as a result of it. So yes, of course it can have an impact on your overall health but so can exercise, so can sleep, but we don't treat those things. So can community, by the way, as well and so can social interaction and being with other people. So can lack of stress. We don't treat those things with the same fervor that we do around food.’
‘So what is it about food that leads to so much mythmaking’
‘We want to believe that we have control over our health. And we don't like to believe that the overwhelming majority of our health is determined by things we have no say over. Our life expectancy is mainly determined by where we were born and who our parents are. What we do during our life obviously has an impact, but not really in the grand scheme of things. That might sound really depressing. But actually, I would argue it's quite freeing. But we like to think that food is this status symbol, that our health is this status symbol, that it means that we're better than someone else, because we're healthier than them. We'd like to think it's something we've done that has led to that. But I think a lot of people are unwilling to entertain that conversation.’...
‘I think the biggest thing too, is making sure you're not making your decisions when you're at the grocery store based off of fear. Like if you are constantly looking through your you know, social media feed and it's making you afraid of your food constantly, you know, really look into those accounts and like you shouldn't be afraid of what you're eating, like it shouldn't be something that stresses you out. And so if it is, you know, try to seek out more science based content, you know, Food shouldn't be something you're afraid of and that you're stressed out over.’"
BBC World Service - The Food Chain, The hot sauce sensations - "[On sriracha] In Vietnam, like in America, and in Thailand, people have gotten to enjoy spicier, hotter food. That, that wasn't the way food was in Thailand and Vietnam traditionally. There was a very mellow kind of heat, a balanced heat. But for a lot of young people nowadays, their palate gravitates towards hot, hot, hot and hotter. But that said, I have to tell you that more often than not these days, I talk to people and as soon as I admit that Sriracha is a little bit too hot for me, they smile, and they say, oh, me, too...
He started making the sauce in 1980. And he did not really debut publicly in terms of marketing until around 2014 That was really the first time that I saw his face and heard his voice in a short three minute video… Sriracha is perfect for Thai food. Because Thai food is full of these peaks and valleys and it's very exciting. Whereas Vietnamese food, very mellow. And there is an aspect of me that worries that we lose this sense of what is what, what is pure, what is tradition, because we are fusing so many, many of our experiences together. But you know, what do I know? I know little because Vietnamese food has has evolved so quickly in Vietnam. And it keeps me on my toes and it keeps me eating. Sometimes it gives me a little heartburn, but that's a small price to pay."
BBC Radio 4 - Best of Today, Friday's business with Katie Prescott - "‘She's worked with over 350 influencers and microbloggers’
‘We've given out 15, 20,000 pounds worth of freebies.’
‘Now though, she wants to concentrate on working with paid influencers, even those with just a few thousand followers.’
‘These smaller influencers and bloggers have been much better in terms of a return, how they've showcased my product, how they've appreciated the product.’
‘Ashanti Acabouci [sp?] is a digital strategist at her company Virtue Brands. The key, she says, is to know what you want from the relationship’
‘When it's the right influencer influencers can be very good for small business. A lot of the backlash that we're seeing is actually in response to people out there calling themselves influencers that actually haven't earned the right to call themselves an influencer.’
‘Of course not all influencers asked for freebies or get paid by businesses. But as advertising evolves to be more authentic and inclusive, where does this leave the influencer industry?’
‘If everyone says no, then someone's going to have to pay for cake at some point. And they’ll be customers again, and we love influencers as customers’"
BBC Radio 4 - Best of Today, Wednesday's business with Dominic O'Connell - "‘The lack of a 5G phone does not seem to hurt Apple at all. And you know, along with other tech stocks in the US, its share prices soared this year. It's also about Apple’s, it sort of plays right around the park, doesn't it? Has services as well as hardware sales. That's why investors like it.’
‘Exactly. I think everyone struggles to put together the fact that we have sort of these gradual iterations of new iPhones every year, and they don't necessarily grow so so much, and yet the share price keeps going up. And that's because there's a fundamental misunderstanding of what Apple is. It's not a sort of smartphone company like a Nokia or Motorola. It's a, it's an ecosystem and a software company. It owns like some of these great technology franchises like Microsoft or Google, it owns the operating system, which is iOS, it controls that walled garden, it controls your access to the internet. And as a result, it charges that through, by actually charging 1000 pounds for an iPhone, while Google charges you through advertising. Microsoft charges you through a, through a software license. It’s just a different model of the way they monetize that phenomenally powerful ecosystem.’
‘There is though a threat to that walled garden, that ecosystem in the shape of increased regulatory scrutiny, a Democratic-lead panel, a congressional panel in the States has talked about breaking up big technology companies, including Apple, do you see that as a real threat?’
‘I mean, it's certainly a threat. I think that the problem with the regulatory processes is to try and actually find a way to to actually be able to do that legally. You know, you have to go back to 2000, 2001. And it was Microsoft that was in the crosshairs. And actually, a district judge ruled that Microsoft should be broken up. And obviously Microsoft has not done too badly since and certainly the share price hasn't been too shabby since and in the same way that sort of Bill Gates is your sort of favorite philanthropic billionaire grandfather today, the same way that, you know, Mark Zuckerberg is now in the crosshairs. So, you know, I don't think any sort of outcome is going to be too different to what's happened in the past with these big tech regulation and antitrust cases.’"
BBC Radio 4 - Best of Today, Tuesday's business with Dominic O'Connell - "‘The paradox of negative interest rates, if you tell people that things are so bad that we need negative interest rates to encourage people to spend, people actually do the opposite and start saving more.’
‘There can be unintended consequences. When Japan went to negative interest rates a few years ago, the, one of the best selling items in the shops was safes, because Japanese consumers begin to shove money in cash literally under the bed. And this is why economics is so difficult. It is known as you know, the dismal science. Not, not to be rude about it. But just because you're dealing with people. And when you come, when it comes to money, people behave in very unpredictable and potentially irrational fashions. So you may have a terrific model that suggests that negative interest rates are good for the economy. And people may end up just doing completely the opposite to what you expect.’"
BBC Radio 4 - Best of Today, Friday's business with Katie Prescott - "‘But a lot of customers were disappointed that it had to go that far. And that insurance didn't pay out earlier during the pandemic when they really needed the money. I mean, this must have had a real reputational impact on the insurance industry.’
‘It certainly has. But you also have to see the other side of it. An insurance company is a company that manages money on behalf of a large group of insurance customers. And what you need to make sure as the company is that you pay out a claim only if it's 100% justified, because you want to make sure that the whole group of customers is not penalized by favoring one group at their expense.’"
BBC Radio 4 - Best of Today, Doctor stabbed on doorstep tells attacker 'I feel bad for you' - "‘That was the voice of a Bristol doctor. Dr. Adam Towler rang the emergency services after a stranger knocked on his door at Halloween three years ago. What he confronted was not a trick or treater but a stranger armed with a knife. What's even more extraordinary than the call, the calmness of it is, the victim impact statement which Dr. Towler read out in court yesterday, which he addressed directly to his attacker, Chanz Maximen, who was 17 at the time. In that statement, Dr. Taylor said he wished his attacker well. And he felt bad that he was free but Chanz was in prison. I've been speaking to Dr. Towler about that night. And the connection, he says he formed with a man who almost killed him.’...
‘You're describing this incredibly calmly, but these multiple knife wounds came very close to taking your life.’
‘Yes’...
'I'm not upset or angry, you said, I don't think you owe me an apology, addressing your attacker directly'"
How far can maladaptive altruism go?
Good luck if he attacks someone else - being kind to the cruel results in being cruel to the kind
BBC Radio 4 - Best of Today, 20th anniversary of the release of Bend It Like Beckham - "‘To this day, it has one record that no other film has in the world. And that is that it has been officially released in every single country in the world, including North Korea.’
‘That is quite a record, isn't it? Why do you think it struck such a chord and particularly in the, in this country?’
‘Well, I think it was coming off the whole sort of Cool Britannia thing, you know, with Tony Blair’"
BBC Radio 4 - Best of Today, Henry Dimbleby reflects on the National Food Strategy - "We were trying to do two things with the food strategy. One was to give people new way to think about the system and to tackle the false ideas about how the food system works. And one of those which is deeply ingrained, is the idea that willpower and exercise are enough to alleviate the problems that the food systems causing to our diet"
BBC Radio 4 - Best of Today, France re-elects President Emmanuel Macron - "‘We have changed the image of the party and of Marine Le Pen in people's eyes’
‘Is the big issue for you French identity? Is it immigration, is it the cost of living what is, what is the big issue?’
‘I would say French identity, I would say French traditions. Traditions of every people are very important, because a person cannot develop if he has no roots, and roots are in traditions. When a politician takes care of the traditions of his nation. It's not because he's a nationalist. It's because he wants his people to grow over generation after generation.’
‘To stay French’
‘To stay French.’...
‘Did you vote for Macron? Or for Le Pen?’
‘Against Macron. Not for Le Pen… Because during five years we can see he do nothing for people.’
‘Nothing for people in this area.’
‘Yes. Ah, yes. Nothing for les gens Paris je crois. I am not rich. So’
‘You're not rich. So you can't vote for Macron?’...
‘A spoiled ballot paper… even though you don't like Le Pen. But you take the time and the trouble to come here, to abstain’...
'Around a third of French voters had chosen to actively abstain spoil their ballot paper, or stay at home, the highest figure since 1969'...
‘If she were racist, how could you explain that she won an overwhelming 60 to 40% for Mr. Macron, in the French Antillas (sic), for example, where most of the population, black people’
‘The French Antilles, an overseas territory’...
‘Now the political debate is not between right and left in France. It is as in many countries, by the way, in many European countries between defense and identity and globalism.’"
Clearly in the French Antilles, they're too dumb to know that Marine Le Pen is racist
Movie Studios Can Be Sued Over Misleading Trailers, Judge Rules - "Universal lost in a lawsuit brought on by fans of actor Ana de Armas over her appearance in a trailer for a movie that doesn't feature her. As Variety reports, two fans of the Blade Runner 2049 and No Time to Die actor sued the studio in January 2022, claiming they rented the movie Yesterday after seeing de Armas in the trailer, only to discover that she was cut out of the final film... According to the studio's legal team, a trailer constitutes an "artistic, expressive work" that tells a three-minute story conveying the theme of the movie and should therefore be considered "non-commercial" speech. U.S. District Judge Stephen Wilson rejected Universal's argument, ruling trailers fall under "commercial speech" and are subject to California's False Adverting Law and the state's Unfair Competition Law... Yesterday is a 2019 romantic comedy directed by Danny Boyle about a world where only a handful of people remember the existence and the music of The Beatles. De Armas played a rivaling love interest for the film's male protagonist. Her scenes were cut out when test audiences found that her role reflected negatively on the main character."
Corporate concentration - "Canada has one of the most concentrated food systems in the industrialized world... Typically a ratio of 40%, 4 firms controlling at least 40% of a market, is considered concentrated (CR4=40). Unfortunately, most segments of Canadian food supply chains exceed 40%... In 2009, AAFC (2009) estimated that the 4 largest food retailers (then Loblaw, Metro, Empire [Sobey's] and Safeway) held about 72% of national market share (a high degree of concentration). Since then, the mix of firms has shifted. Sobey's bought the Canadian stores of Safeway from its US parent company and Loblaw purchased Shopper's Drug Mart so it could move more food through their pharmacies and use Shopper's pharmacy supply chains to supply their food store pharmacies. Similarly, Metro has purchased Jean Coutu pharmacies... The CR4 ration is still around 72% of the food retail market (Arnason, 2017). The US Department of Agriculture has estimated that the top 5 Canadian retailers hold 80% of the market (Loblaw's, Sobey's, Metro, Costco and Walmart) (Finnigan, 2021). Only in Quebec do the independents still hold significant market share, with about 60% (AAFC, 2015)."
BBC Radio 4 - From Our Own Correspondent Podcast, Zuma on Trial - "Zuma is still popular in his home province, particularly in rural areas. Speaking from a stage in the park, the former president says what he always says these days. He's a victim of foreign governments of those who want to sell this country to white businessman. And then he sings an old liberation song. Bring me my machine gun.
BBC Radio 4 - From Our Own Correspondent Podcast, Aftermath - "People like Duduzane Zuma, the son of the imprisoned former President Jacob Zuma, had started off by encouraging supporters to loot responsibly. But a few days later, having reread the public mood, he said there'd been a misunderstanding, and he posted photographs of himself joining the cleanup"
BBC Radio 4 - From Our Own Correspondent Podcast, Afghanistan: Questions, Doubts and Fears - "‘Lal Bihari was a young man, only 22 years old with his whole life ahead of him when he found out he was dead. At the time he was standing in front of a desk at the local government office in his village, looking the official who broke the news to him straight in the eye. He was incredulous. But how can I be dead? I'm right here in front of you. The official shook his head. I don't care if you're in front of me. It says right here in black and white that you're dead. It's a story worthy of a Kafka novel. But it's not fiction. There was no convincing the official reality was constructed on a typewriter. The flesh and blood person before him was a mere inconsistency, easily brushed aside. Lal Bihari walked out of that office a dead man, and he would spend the next 18 years, more than a third of his adult life, battling to prove he was alive. And he isn't alone. He set up the Association for the Living Dead of India to help the 1000s of people who've been declared dead, either because of clerical error, or because of the actions of unscrupulous relatives hoping to inherit property. A few sentences altered on an official document, and a life can be snuffed out. Quiet men behind desks can wield real power. I know a thing or two about bureaucracy from my experiences in Greece, the country my mother's from and where I've often worked. I remember reading a few years ago about a man called Yanis *something*, who went to vote in an election, only to find out his name wasn't on the electoral roll. When he went to the local municipality to find out why they told him it was because he was dead. It turned out to be a clerical error. Born of a one in a million coincidence, another man by the same name, who lived in the same area, and whose parents also had the same first names as Yanis. His parents really had died. It took down his 14 years to correct the error and reinstate himself among the living. 14 years, during which time this supposedly dead man's wife was officially refused a widow's pension, that he was still expected to pay tax. But that was one isolated case. In India, this seems to have happened to people all across the country.’...
[On Paris] 'The wedding ring trick is usually worked in pairs. One person distracts, another steals from the target. But with so few people around, gang members are spreading out in search of anyone at all… I encountered my first petition scam, where you're begged to sign a scrappy piece of paper. The woman holding it indicated she was mute. When I refused, she shouted a stream of curses. Outside the Eiffel Towers main gate, were armed security patrolled alongside souvenir hawkers. I wandered over to witness a team working the old ball under the cup scam,careful to keep my back to a tree for safety. I saw tourists handing over 50 euro notes and winning even more to applause from total strangers. The Swiss couple next to me hadn't twigged that this was all an orchestrated show. In Down and Out in Paris and London, George Orwell described a 1920s postcards sent out on Boulevard Saint-Michel. The postcards were sold in sealed packets as pornographic ones he noted, but were photographs of chateau along the river Loire. The buyers found out too late. And of course at all well, they never complained. Nearly a century later, the thieves and cursing scammers still rely on old fashioned gullibility and naivete'"
BBC Radio 4 - From Our Own Correspondent Podcast, Madagascar: The Threat of Starvation - "Dictators and radical insurgent groups do tend to be very good sources of memorabilia, something to do, I think, with their desire to leave their mark on the world. Saddam, for example, put on his face on everything, from banknotes to wristwatches, or Hezbollah churns up mugs and car stickers bearing their Kalashnikov logo. A colleague who covered the war against Islamic State in Iraq, even has a souvenir Islamic State parking ticket, found during a trip to Mosul"
BBC Radio 4 - From Our Own Correspondent Podcast, Risk of Collapse - "The view of Britain here is not as an old enemy, a conquering rival power that defeated Germany in 1945 but rather a liberating force that helped Germany get back on its feet after the horrors of Nazi rule. Post-war German political and media institutions were partly modeled on British ones and traditionally there's often been a lot of fondness for the UK... Every New Year's eve, a black and white comedy showing an elderly British aristocrat being served by her butler is broadcast on TV here"
BBC Radio 4 - From Our Own Correspondent Podcast, News Management in Belarus - "What exactly is a producer?... the cliche in this business is that the reporter gets all the credit, the cameraman gets all the fun and the producer, the producer gets the blame. There is an element of truth to that. One of their main tasks is often to be an intermediary between the team and the news desk back in London, managing expectations and bruised egos, explaining why things didn't quite work out as planned"
BBC Radio 4 - From Our Own Correspondent Podcast, Fear and Fatalism in Kiev - "A manager at the safe house drove me through the rundown streets where the girls are pimped out and recounted a recent conversation with a trafficker. Forget dealing drugs, the trafficker had told him, drugs are risky. You need capital. With girls, all you need is a big mouth and they’ll fall into your lap. It's easy money."
BBC Radio 4 - From Our Own Correspondent Podcast, Kyiv’s last stand - "Neutrality is in fact something Switzerland citizens think about a lot. But they also get frustrated when the rest of the world suggests it knows what Swiss neutrality means. letting others fight the wars and making loads of money all the while. It's an old and tired cliche, that gets dusted off by the international media whenever wars start or sanctions are discussed, and it makes the Swiss defensive. For them, neutrality is much more complicated, and much less self serving. Switzerland was granted eternal neutrality at the Congress of Vienna in 1815. It was a geopolitical move that suited everyone, because the country was seen as a buffer between Europe's big powers. France on one side, Austria and Prussia on the other. Over the next 150 years, the Swiss had civil war and famine in their own country, and then two world wars during which their nearest neighbors France, Germany and Italy were on different sides. The Swiss national languages are French, German and Italian. Who the worry was, would the different language groups have supported if Switzerland had not been neutral? Make no mistake. In the minds of many Swiss especially the older generation, neutrality was originally necessary above all, to prevent their own country being ripped apart. But somewhere along the way, neutrality got mixed up with doing business, and Switzerland's famed banking secrecy. In the Second World War, Switzerland took in a lot of refugees, but it also took in a lot of wealth looted by the Nazis. It took the country half a century to face up to that and to offer compensation. To the enduring shame of many Swiss, Switzerland didn't join sanctions against South Africa during the apartheid regime. Indeed, Swiss bankers, who used to say money doesn't smell have in the past looked after the funds of dictators and criminals, from Ferdinand Marcos of the Philippines, to Colombian drug barons. But things have changed. Switzerland joined the UN sanctions against Iraq in 1991, and EU sanctions against former Yugoslavia in 1998. So sanctioning because of a blatant violation of international law, such as Russia's invasion of Ukraine is not necessarily new here. What's more, that famous banking secrecy has changed. Pressure from other countries and from the Swiss themselves who believe their country has better things to offer than looking after dirty money mean money laundering laws are rather strict. So why did the Swiss government hesitate over sanctions against Russia? Why did it for at least 48 hours appear not to know what to do? I hear from Swiss colleagues that there was a struggle between the social democrat pro Europe members of the coalition government and the more right wing traditionalists. After a shambolic press conference, which prompted more questions than answers, ministers were excoriated in the Swiss media. Finally, on Monday, clarity. All EU sanctions would be imposed, oligarchs’ accounts frozen, travel bans for all of them, and Swiss airspace closed to Russian planes. Even my local coop has stopped selling Russian vodka. It doesn't mean Switzerland has abandoned its neutrality. The Swiss president stressed that neutrality didn't mean indifference to violations of international law. It didn't mean turning a blind eye while the Geneva Conventions are trampled underfoot"
