Switzerland Today

This content was published on July 10, 2024 - 18:00

3 minutes

A multimedia journalist, Dominique Soguel began her international reporting career at Agence France-Presse covering the Arab Spring. She also served as the Istanbul correspondent for the Associated Press before moving to Switzerland in 2016. A native English and Spanish speaker with Swiss roots, she loves to travel and will take any opportunity to chat in Italian, Arabic and French – preferably over coffee. No tea, thank you!

Greetings from Basel,

Back to clouds and drizzle here. If this continues my next dispatch will be from Malta or Cyprus, which boast 300 to 340 sunny days per year. Or canton Valais (also offering a respectable 300 bright days or so). The sunshine chase is on.

Meaenwhile, my toddler has mastered cycling. I wonder how much CO2 his pedalling saved so far. Pro Velo’s “Cycle to Work” campaign galvanised 109,090 Swiss and saved 4,000 tonnes of CO2. That’s the equivalent of the annual emmissions of about 600 people in Europe. Keep pedalling. If my tiny tyrant can, so can you. I’ll cheer.

And now for serious news…

A cameraman at WEF — A photographer at WEF Copyright 2024 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved

In the news: Davos drama, Eurovision at risk, safe skies and seismic Swifties

A former African-American employee is taking legal action against the World Economic Forum (WEF) and its founder Klaus Schwab over alleged racial and pregnancy discrimination. The plaintiff’s role was terminated after her maternity leave. She was allegedly replaced by a white woman who was not pregnant, according to the Swiss newspaper Handelszeitung.
Switzerland wants to join the European Sky Shield Initiative (ESSI). The air defence scheme aims to cut costs for countries by coordinating their procurement of air and missile defence systems. Russia’s war in Ukraine presents a major security concern for many nations in Europe.
Our Alpine nation is supposed to host the 2025 Eurovision Song Contest. But a couple of political parties oppose the idea on penny pinching and security grounds. Referendums are in the air.
Felt a tremor in Zurich? That was probably a spike in seismic activity triggered by Taylor Swift fans. True story.

Digital wills and deadbots

Have you considered your digital afterlife? Perhaps it’s time you should. There is the practical side – passing on your passwords, pending tasks and your will with a click of the mouse or through a QR code.

And then there is the emotional side. Digitalisation has brought us virtual remembrance spaces and, in China, so-called deadbots. These are chat robots that have been fed data of the deceased person so they can mimic that person’s communication style.

Do you find such options comforting or creepy?

A new study by the Foundation for Technology Assessment unpacks dying in the digital era. It finds digitalisation can help with painful practicalities like inheritance planning and processing grief. But it also carries risks.
“When we die, we legally cease to be a person,” lawyer Nula Frei, who was involved in the study, tells Swiss public broadcaster SRFExternal link.

Switzerland, Frei notes, has no post-mortem protection of personal rights and associated rights such as data protection. There is no way of combatting slander from the grave if hurtful or false information about a deceased person appears online. “The relatives cannot delete or correct incorrect data,” says Frei. “There is a legal loophole here.”