New poster campaign - a bit bad taste

I agree... there and ways and means of doing things... outright discrimination of something so sensitive should never be an acceptable way of broaching any subject, just as with the rest of the SVP-style poster campaigns. Raise the issue in a parliamentary house or bring it up on a question time... but don't allow the spread of posters basically saying disabled people are a drain, posted in front of where they park. It's a horrible way to do things... and tantamount to schoolyard bullying in my opinion.

That's what I thought - even if it is designed to open the debate, it's rather like opening the debate about a child in a class being neglected at home by allowing the other kids to call him 'Skinny Stinky Pants who Never Washes'. And giving it the stamp of officialdom by having the teacher join in the chanting.

It's nasty.

kodokan

... and had you ever been to a Swiss schoolyard, you wouldn't be surprised one bit of this way of running campaigns.

As I said in another thread about Swiss schools, just look at the way Swiss adults behave and you'll get a pretty good idea about what their schools are like.

So what you are saying, on behalf of everyone, is that everyone has to

follow what you say, and you will not tolerate dissent from your opinion.

I think it's important to add, because it really seems to be lost in translation, that the initiators are most likely not those you for some reason expect them to be : SVP or right-wing organisation.

We'll soon discover that it is some leftist party, charity instiution etc. who actually opposes the viewpoint of the posters, but printed them just to deliberately spark a discussion. I think most if not all Swiss instinctively knew that, but the message was completely missinterpreted here. It's by the way an old tactic of Swiss socialists to take the perceived opinion of their political enemies to an extreme to show "where all this is leading".

I could probably show you a couple of examples of this kind of argumentation.

Swiss dark sarcasm without the slightest hint of humour..

Some background information for those who speak either German, French or Italian:

http://www.news.admin.ch/message/ind...e&msg-id=27468

http://www.20min.ch/news/kreuz_und_q...ie-IV-10844925

in german again, but it is a IV campaign...check pics for the add-ons...

Or here a more detailled report from NZZ: It's indeed the IV that initiated this crap.

Well, I'd suggest they cut down a bit on their advertising budget since they got such a huge debt....

They have actually made people think about that. It's really a good thing.

Absolutely disgraceful! Where do we draw the line and say NO!

Some things should just not be permitted to be printed/advertised/posted. If this is the Swiss idea of humour then it is a sick sense of humour.

I only hope that person(s) behind this sick campaign(?) fall victim to the idea they are trying to stop. Call it cruel but its usually referred to as Poetic Justice.

What do you suggest captainjack ? Dissolve the IV ?

It's actually not humour.....

Are you the Capt. Jack who flew from Torchwood ? (joke)

... are schoolyards elsewhere ideal for the fainthearted ? Accepted, I had an older brother who had the habit to defend the weak and beat bullies to pulp. And so when I stated that I had to discuss this or that matter with my brother who might come over to argue, the debate usually was closed, as people knew the nature of his "arguments"

Quite right, but what has all this to do with "Swiss humour" or "Swiss idea of humour" ? The IV to me NEVER has appeared to be a nest of "Scherzkekse" and their intention was not to make good jokes. They were illguided and resorted to a lousy and detestable style. But the IV is a serious institution nevertheless and not a cabaret.

Its not a good simile, age cannot be faked (normally), a discapacity, especially in its milder degrees, can be faked. Actually, I have witnessed at least one person faking disability, just to get money from the state.

I don't think this campaign is against handicapped people but against those who fake it and those who don't put enough controls.

More precisely it's against people who think that some people fake their invalidity and therefore want to impose stricter controls, deliberately trying to put them on the same level as those who wish to disband the institution altogether...

Silly indeed, and genuinly offended some people... so ffs IV concentrate on what you should be doing, provide for those who need our help and filter out those who want to cheat into it, and stop wasting the publics money in such a stupid way!!

This campaign of course is not really against handicapped people, but looks like being against handicapped people. There is no hint against fakers visible.

And this means that those at IV not only reveal lousy taste, but also regard themselves as too important. Reality is that the majority of people will NOT get into information about the problem as they hope, reality is that no architect just on the basis of this will make his buildings accessible for the handicapped, that no municipal administration will work to make trottoirs and roads easier for the handicapped. I would say that the campaign is in the field of "overkill actions" .

So you're saying the current status quo is as good as it gets, we simply cannot improve the quality of life and integration into the workplace for handicapped people?

Because I believe this is what this is about. The approach seems to be ineffective/wrong, but there is still a lot to be done in this field... at least I think so.

Absolutely, the public discussion is far too advanced in all political spectrums (right to left) to allow it return to such a low level. ("handicapped people just cost money")

We're currently discussing technicalities on how to refinance, how to prevent abuse, how to tackle reintegration into work etc... no Swiss in his right mind (the majority, surprisingly for many of you I guess ) would even care to seriously debate if or why we need IV for the disabled...

I'm not up to speed with the various groups and parties in Switzerland. Does the poster campaign have anything to do with this work integration scheme for the disabled ?

If people need this kind of incentive to start caring, how much do they really care? That they do not mind public humiliation of others? How smart do these campaigning companies consider people here to be that they have to feed them this crap? It is offensive to the whole country, not just disabled folks. What is the percentage of the people who will not be offended by this? I hope very tiny, since it assumes Swiss are a herd of sleepy unintelligent cows that need to be "provoked" by some heavy duty dirt. The means do not justify the reason, if kids will grow up having this poster in their subconsiousness.

Wow. It is scary. I really think the debate is provoked in the most disgusting manner and I hope handicaped people can raise their voice against this.

What about the people that will take the posters as a "rule" to follow? The brains that are made to just stick to the rules can easily adopt the least sophisticated, black and white, offensive and downright wrong assumptions? The thought behind it that matters might not even get to people. The company who created this is so focused on their intentions, it is just so unprofessional and redneck.

I realized some public campaigning is weird here when I sat in some waiting room few years back pregnant and there was a huge poster for some financial advisory service, and it pictured depressed pregnant couple, a dark skin young person and sad old person with humongous sentence "If you happen to be one of these, contact us". I was pisSed that they fed this stereotype to people - of wrong financial moves of the preggos, foreign or old. Bad public image.

When we lived in the sticks we had a family of disabled individuals who were clearly abusing the system, living right above us throwing wild alcoholic orgies. They should have been cought, etc. But, if this campaign catches the few that abuse the system but the whole image of handicaped gets portrayed as the lazy bastids milking the system, more damage is done than the possible positive outcome of such debate. I have met so many folks thinking in stereotypes here, affecting negatively foreigners, women, etc.

Sorry I am jumping in late, I didn't even have time to read the whole thread. I really appreciated the info on the background though, that is hard to reach for us here.

Ok. Rant's over.