09-15 Switzerland 1993

A young girl was making me a sandwich in a small shop in Interlaken, cutting the crust off the bread with care and precision. Then I went for a walk in the outskirts of the town and went up to a home to look at the wood piled outside. It was cut and stacked again with precision. This experience was reinforcing my view that the small firms of a nation reflect the culture of its society, and the Swiss people were precise in everything they did.
Mary and I were in Interlaken for the 20th International Small Business Congress, and the photo shows Mary on the verandah of our hotel. I never fully understood the nature of development until I was able to study it first hand travelling to Congresses around the world.
So much beauty everywhere. And one of my favourite stops was in Lucerne. The photo shows the famous Lion Monument which remembers all the Swiss who died trying to defend Louis XVI during the French Revolution.
One of the most distinctive sights in the Swiss Alps is the Jungfrau mountain shown in the photo. And what was called the Jungfraujoch Railway that takes you through a tunnel and up close to a village near the mountain.
And, don’t you learn a lot from your tour guides? That beautiful home in the picture with Mary is a fully stocked military bunker disguised as a giant country home. There are roughly 3000 of these facilities. Apparently, in case of an invasion, all the roads, bridges and airports can be blown up. It is a nation that is invasion-proof.
When you get away from the major cities of Bern, Geneva and Zurich, all located in the nations plateau, and move into the mountain and rural areas, you see the characteristic beautiful Swiss chalet-type homes and resorts.
There are about 1500 lakes in Switzerland, and the photo of Lake Brienz near Interlaken is breath-taking. So many lakes make it possible for Switzerland to produce massive amounts of electricity that drive their efficient rail system.
I had friendships from academia going back to the 1970s. I was always interested in hearing them talk about the Swiss economy and society. So massively decentralized, so democratic, so technological, so small and yet so international. It all seems to get back to the Swiss culture, which is orderly, organized and disciplined. And by the way, they pay their teachers more than any nation I know.
Do they have fun? Who knows. Anyway, if you like pets, they put a tax on pets and that to me is kind of funny. And they love their chocolate which is the best in the world.