Swiss Review 1/2021

Swiss Review / February 2021 / No.1 2S4witzerland in figures Beard business 50 Trimmed beards for better security! From 1 November 2020, police officers guarding the Federal Palace are only allowed to have beards of up to 50 millimetres in length. Longer beards are a “security issue”, says the Federal Security Service. Facially hirsute policemen have since been transferred to other posts. 380 However, length is not the only thing that matters at the so- called International Alpine Beard Festival. Pius Sidler, reigning champion in the “Natural Alpine Beard” category, not only sports a 380-mm beard, he also cuts a very authentic and dignified fig- ure. Anyone who wishes to put up a challenge will have to wait until the next festival on 3 October 2021 in Seewis (Grisons). 1750 Incidentally, a flowing beard made by hand in Switzerland from real buffalo hair costs up to 1,750 Swiss francs and is a product beloved of St Nicholas lookalikes across the country. Switzerland’s many dedicated St Nicholas associations make tens of thousands of visits to families every year, but they had a hard time of it in 2020. Demand for their services fell amid the pandemic. At least they had plenty of time to care for their beards instead. 46 However, healthcare workers are anything but idle at the moment. “Clapping for carers” is all well and good, but no other profession is currently haemorrhaging as many people as healthcare. Around 46 per cent of all qualified personnel change careers, often at a young age. The main reason that leavers give is that they are chronically overworked due to staff shortages – a situation exac- erbated every time one of their colleagues calls it a day. 1000000 In these turbulent times, it’s the little things that count. Take the Swiss-invented REX peeler. Dating back to 1947, it is the epitome of frugality, sleek design, and timelessness. Zena Swiss has been producing and selling a million of these patented kitchen utensils every year since 1969. If you want to know how useful this humble peeler is, ask Betty Bossi (see page 14). F IGURES COMPI LED BY MARC LETTAU Readers give “Swiss Review” good marks – and have a clear idea of what they want A very large proportion of “Swiss Review” readers rate our magazine as “good” or even “very good”. Many of them also have clear ideas as to how we could improve the publication. These are the results of our reader survey. MARC LETTAU How would readers describe “Swiss Review”? We are a trustworthy, informative magazine that provides unbiased reporting on relevant issues in a clear and comprehensible manner. This is the overriding consensus among those who took part in our reader survey in sum- mer 2020. The ResearchCenter for the Public Sphere and Society (FÖG) – the University of Zurich’s independent body specialised inmedia re- search – conducted the survey. According to social scientist and sur- vey coordinator Jörg Schneider, one specific quality stands out in the results: “A very high percentage of readers think that ‘Swiss Review’ is a trustworthy publication”. The verdict fromour highly diverse, multilingual, worldwide read- ership was positive overall, with 42 per cent giving the magazine top marks (“very good”) and 38 per cent scoring us as “good”. A further 17 per cent are more or less satisfied, while under 3 per cent marked us as poor or very poor. But this is just a rough snapshot. Marks varied – albeit marginally for themost part – depending on gender, age, and country of domicile. For example, the under-25s and the over-65s share a slightly more positive view of our magazine compared to age groups in between. Andwe consistently received slightly bettermarks fromwomen than from men. Geographical distance also played a role, with people liv- ing in places like South America or Australia more inclined than EU expatriates – our main readership community – to score us higher. According to our readers, “Swiss Review” also has weaknesses. Around 10 per cent believe that its visual appearance can be improved. This opinion camemore fromonline readers than fromreaders of the print edition. “Swiss Review” is politically biased, according to 12 per cent of readers, half of whom accuse us of being too govern- ment-friendly and too afraid to speak ourmind. The other half accuse us of exactly the opposite, saying that we are too critical of Switzer- land, and that our position verges on “socialist”. According to Schnei- der, this relatively small contingent – and the views they express – confirm, if anything, that our magazine has, in his words, a “good command of controversial political issues”. SwissCommunity