tenlittlebullets | (no subject)

You know what? As soon as I can, I'm fucking out of here. Canada. Germany. Britain. Switzerland. Somewhere. This isn't the idle liberal outcry of "I'm off to Canada if Bush wins;" for one thing, I have full intention of carrying it out, and this isn't about the election.

Okay, I lied. The election factored into it. But it was the straw that broke the camel's back, and there was plenty of weight on the camel before it hit. Shitty interventionist foreign policy. The Patriot Act. A government that will most likely be extremely homophobic and transphobic for years to come, no matter who wins the presidency, because after all who controls Congress? Who's gonna have a stranglehold on the Supreme Court if Bushie wins and gets to appoint more judges? A shitty electoral system. Rabid nationalism.

Yeah, that's what got to me most I think. Nationalism, egotism, a population who largely thinks that America is the only country in the world that matters and everyone else can either bow down or get bombed. "American pride." Flag-waving. We're all living in Amerika. Well, I don't want to anymore.

And I guess I've always, since I was little, wanted to live in another country for a time, even if only to break away from the American-centric worldview. If it just happens to be at a time when America's in its current sociopolitical climate, hey, I'm not complaining. Maybe I'll move back after a while, who knows, but I'm getting cabin fever on a national level.

To that end, although I'm too young to move out, I'm looking at my options for studying abroad. I don't know if sophomores get to do that, but I would like to spend a year at a German university. At any rate, after next year I have the option of staying here for junior and senior years or transferring to another college, and while I'd been looking at Reed before, now I'm seriously considering my options in Canada and Europe. Actual emigration is a bit more distant, because I'm still only 16, but I do want to get the hell out of the USA.

sandwichii, what's the political climate like in Switzerland?

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Well, it'd be a lot easier to explain, but our political system has been in "uproar" in the past year. Here's why:

We have a full-blown democracy (one plus point, there's no country that's as democratic as we are), so we have 7 main parties who each have so and so many seats in the socalled "Bundesrat". Obviously we don't have a president, we have 7 presidents of each party.
Okay.
From far left to far right:

Die Grünen with 1 seat
Sozialistische Partei (SP) with 2 seats
Christiliche Volks Partei (CVP) with 2 seats
Freisinnige Demokratische Partei (FDP, my dad belongs to that one) with 2 seats
Schweizerische Volkspartei (SVP) with 1 seat.

Now until now, the socalled "Zauberformel" as in "Magic Formula" has been
2:2:1:2 (SP:CVP:SVP:FDP, we don't count the greens)

During the last elections though (summer 2004), the Magic Formula was broken. It has existed in many different ways, (One it was something like 6:4:1, or 5:1:1:3 or summit, it doesn't really matter) but this particular one has been our Magic Formula for I think over 100 years.
This year, SVP won so many new votes (I despise SVP, lots of people do in Switz, only the really Swiss farmers and uber-racists like SVP), that the Magic Formula was broken. SVP won one seat, and CVP lost one. It is now 2:1:2:2. This caused much uproar, because... well, nobody wants to give up a 100 years of trdition, right? But we're a democracy, so we just had to take it as it came.

Fortunately, the person who won the extra VP seat (Christoph Blocher, he's a huge celeb and a political bad boy, me hates him to fucking death), isn't getting much oohs and aahs from the people, so he's a bit down at the moment. Yay!!

But all in all, it's a very very good climate. I'm not uber interested in politics, so I only know the major stuff. But I feel comfortable under our 7 "presidents", there are many things that we have to vote about, and because we're not in the EU, we can decide about everything that goes on. Brussels decides a lot about what happens in EU countries, that's why EU countries are similar in many political aspects. I guess that's also what makes Switz special, nobody tells us what to do except ourselves. Recently we had to vote about Insuriance for women who are mothers with small children (it was accepted), about a new law for immigrant-acception (it was declined, because we have an immigrant problem, but that's a world wide knowledge, so I don't have to go into that) and about something else... um... can't remember. Lots of people say that it's stupid that we go straight to vote for every single issue, but I think it's good, because literally, we people sculpt our own country, which, in my opinion, every country should.

Sorry, I'm rambling... You asked :D

Nonono, don't apologize, it's fascinating. If it weren't for said immigration problem, which probably makes it very hard to stay, I'd be over there like a shot.

Well, it's not really a general immigration problem. It's mostly people from the Balkan states, we get them in numbers that hurt your head... Me being the uber-anti-racist don't mind or care, as long as they follow the rules and our laws they can be here no prob. Unfortunately lots of people here don't agree with this point of view (many do, but you always have people who contradict you) have a problem with them though, because it is statistically proven that the immigrants from the Balkan are especially violent. But it's a devil's circle. Swiss people have prejudices against them for being violent, which makes them angry, which again "proves" the prejudices.
Anyway, I doubt it would be a big problem, but that's a bit off-hand. I mean, I'm not an expert. But if you compare the western immigrante to the eastern immigrants, you shouldn't have as difficult problems as they do, if any at all.

usually i couldn't care less that i'm canadian, but times like this, i'm glad i am.

..ew patriotism.