BBC: Some 70% of Swiss voters appear to have supported plans to give shareholders a veto on compensation and ban big payouts for new and departing managers, projected referendum results suggest. One of the organisers of the referendum, Brigitte Moser Harder, told the BBC she thought the Swiss people agreed with the proposals because the gap between rich and poor had become wider. "From the beginning, 2006, we had the support of the people of Switzerland because you know not everybody in Switzerland is rich."
[more inside]
posted by Wordshore
on Mar 3, 2013 -
15 comments
"Of the top 100 Swiss companies, 49 give shareholders a consulting vote on the pay of executives. A few other countries, including the United States and Germany, have introduced advisory "say on pay" votes in response to the anger over inequality and corporate excess that drove the Occupy Wall Street movement. Britain is also planning to implement rules in late 2013 that will give shareholders a binding vote on pay and "exit payments" at least every three years.
Minder's initiative goes further, forcing all listed companies to have binding votes on compensation for company managers and directors, and ban golden handshakes and parachutes. It would also ban bonus payments to managers if their companies are taken over, and impose severe penalties — including possible jail sentences and fines — for breaches of these new rules."
posted by vidur
on Jan 21, 2013 -
32 comments
Can the 'Swiss finishing school' be saved? The finishing-school tradition dates from the 1800s, when wealthy debutantes began coming to Switzerland, famed for its clean air, majestic mountains and multilingual population. Here, they would complete their education by acquiring the domestic and life skills needed to run a household – and to attract a suitable husband. The goal was to produce an ideal mate, someone refined and accomplished with impeccable manners. [more inside]
posted by modernnomad
on Dec 9, 2012 -
28 comments
"McPhee describes two things: how Switzerland requires military service from every able-bodied male Swiss citizen—a model later emulated and expanded by Israel—and how the Swiss military has, in effect, wired the entire country to blow in the event of foreign invasion. To keep enemy armies out, bridges will be dynamited and, whenever possible, deliberately collapsed onto other roads and bridges below; hills have been weaponized to be activated as valley-sweeping artificial landslides; mountain tunnels will be sealed from within to act as nuclear-proof air raid shelters;
and much more." (
via)
posted by vidur
on Jun 20, 2012 -
100 comments
One afternoon in September 1958, a beautiful, distinguished and mysterious woman arrived at the door of number 46 rue Hippolyte Maindron. This was the Paris studio where Alberto Giacometti had been working since 1926, having arrived in the city four years earlier. [more inside]
posted by Trurl
on Dec 1, 2011 -
7 comments
Guinea pigs are sociable animals and Swiss law prohibits owners from keeping the furry rodents on their own. But what happens when one dies? Don't fret, just call Priska Küng, who runs
a 'rent-a-guinea pig' service.
posted by ArmyOfKittens
on Sep 22, 2011 -
60 comments
"Free Repair" is a project by Swiss artist Roland Roos, who traveled through Europe for over two years to repair broken, displaced or damaged things in the public space - without an assignment, but also without asking for permission. He documented his endeavor with photographs. (
Coral Cached Link)
posted by starzero
on Jul 5, 2010 -
25 comments
Dear Friend,
I am a Swiss Banker currently in possession of over $ 1 Billion in funds stashed away by the late dictator Mobutu Sese Seko of the Congo. Our Swiss Confederation President Micheline Calmy-Rey said her government is holding just $6.6m frozen in accounts.
"We discussed the question of Mobutu's funds and my government is prepared to restore the money to the DR Congo as soon as possible," Ms Rey
told reporters in the DR Congo capital, Kinshasa, after talks with Mr Kabila.
But we can help you get the rest of the 92.4 million dollars if you will just send us your bank account number and call to confirm your ID and pin number.
posted by infini
on Jul 17, 2007 -
65 comments
The Swiss are investigating an international smuggling ring suspected of providing nuclear program components to Libya. There's just one
problem. Meanwhile, the United States is opening full diplomatic relations with
Libya and removing it from its list of nations that sponsor terrorism.
posted by EarBucket
on Jun 2, 2006 -
16 comments
A Profile of Adolf Wolfli : "Adolf Wolfli, a Swiss madman, born in 1864, who spent the last thirty-five of his sixty-six years in a psychiatric hospital, is among the greatest of outsider artists. Indeed, he could serve as Exhibit A in a study of the outsider phenomenon: cases of wild, solipsistic genius that challenge the values of formal training and cultural initiation, not to mention sanity, in significant art. ... [His]large, incredibly dense drawings combine religion, sex, language, music, geography, economics, and other aspects of the artist’s fantasy empire, which, for him, was more or less the universe. ... Especially in his earliest surviving pictures -- from 1904 to 1907, after the staff at the Waldau Mental Asylum stopped regarding his work as 'stupid stuff' -- he emerges as, among other things, a master of graphic design with an exceptional talent for tonality."
You can see reproductions of sixteen of his works
here. I looked around for more examples of his work online, but found little beyond this diminutive
Artcyclopedia entry. (Thanks to
Robot Wisdom for the first two links.)
posted by eyebeam
on Apr 30, 2003 -
30 comments
Swissair reborn: "SWISS Air Lines"... "Our 'Swissness' subtly informs the way we look, operate and care for our passengers.
From colour palettes that reflect our natural environment to the cleanliness of our fleet and freshness of our food, our Swiss origins inspire us in all areas of our business."
Can the new airline be rebuilt around a new set of "design" principals, spearheaded by Tyler Brûlé of
Wallpaper mag fame?
posted by hulette
on Mar 26, 2002 -
9 comments
Swiss Holocaust Cash Revealed To Be Myth. "The tribunal said that it had processed about 10,000 claims in response to the list of dormant account names published by the Swiss Bankers’ Association five years ago. Only 200 accounts — containing £6.9 million — could be traced to Holocaust victims."
posted by tpoh.org
on Oct 14, 2001 -
2 comments
