Actually, I offer you Margaret_thatcher - not only was she a woman but she was actually made of iron.
There's more of them: Category:Current_female_heads_of_state
There are many non-white people in governmental positions around Europe (from counsellors to politicians and beyond). I've struggled to find a leader in Europe but as we know many US citizens are geographically-challenged, I'll claim Ellen_Johnson-Sirleaf
Me - I prefer focusing on how nice a person is and how they treat me.
I was busy at Migro reading my book on "z-scores" and "bankruptcy analysis"....
Did you order any food? Maybe they did not want you holding on to the table? Maybe the guy was an idiot. That does not automatically mean that all Swiss are idiots though.
Huh! What the hell are you on about? Thanks for confirming that you are just a loud mouth
Dumb question about MLK's dream. It's a work in progress. Change does occur. We just have a lot of slow people. There are definitely things under the rug, but there is a process underway. We don't have dictators. There are millions of people doing God knows what, and we have (I hope) a concept of personal liberty that doesn't allow anyone to tell them how to live their lives.
But that is gender issue, not race. I personally would have gladly traded Reagan for Thatcher, if it were up to me. If you look at the number of CEOs in major corporations, I think we have more women.
I am from India, and I have seen Indians asking all sorts of questions to any white person they will see. Doesn't make them racist.
Of course I don't deny that the land lady's remarks were prejudiced.
Personal liberty? What about the personal liberty that your govt directly takes away from citizens of other countries?
Personal liberty within reason one has in Europe as well. I think patriotic Americans would be better off looking at their own backyard and the erosion of personal liberty back home post Sept 11 before declaring superiority in matters of liberty or racial tolerance Was nice debating with you Phos. I have a meeting with the devil now.
I ordered food, and was finished eating, there were plenty of tables. Not that this has anything to do with being profiled as Albanian.
Holidays are on offer to those who wish to take it to the third knockdown
Try washing your car on a Sunday.
Not really a good comparison. You can find somewhere with an open car wash on a Sunday in Switzerland (been there, wasn't that difficult, got the T-shirt).
This is a bit different to asking for dozens of personal details of foreigners flying to the states.
Which you can't avoid unless you choose not to go to the US...
Or is that just someone winding me up?
I believe that to be true. All that information can be captured, stored, and mined. Will they come with paramilitary units and nab you? I don't believe so. Will they watch your other messages? Probably.
So what's that got to do with personal liberty?
30+- % voted for SVP. Probably a sizable % of them were xenophobic rather than outright racist. Even if we assume that 30% were racist then do you honestly think that you won't find 3 in 10 American racist?
I personally put the 30% who voted for SVP on the same intellectual level as the 50+% who voted for Bush
but you have no problem (in the UK) with cameras watching your ever move in public. Most Americans would put this on their annoying list. Though, it is coming to America too. And hopefully not Switzerland.
I'm not sure you fully understand what racism is.
First of all, not all who voted for the SVP voted for reasons of race. Secondly, not all who DID not vote for the SVP were non-racist. This discussion is not an issue of quantity or percentage of the population.
You think a racist is a person. To me, a racist is someone who is practicing a racist act. Any individual can practice racism. It's a natural tendency in human beings. Racism is a thought pattern, but it can be turned ON or OFF.
In the 'states, it's typically turned OFF in public. You can be penalized for turning it ON in public. Here, it's okay to leave it ON in public.
Either that or it films groups of drunk twenty-somethings throwing up in the gutter on a Saturday night, then knocking seven shades of s**te out of each other.
Excellent waste of money.
That's why I came to Switzerland - I can do my criminal activities unobserved...
In my opinion, the OP mixes two completely different subjects. A seemingly trivial (or so I see it) one related to the way people treat him/her, and more serious one with assumtions on full ethinic groups made based on little or no experience.
On the first point, people are curious, you are challenging their pre conceptions, and you have the unique chance of making a lasting impression on them, don't let it slip away just because you don't like their tone! That's a unique advantage we all have as expats here, we set the benchmark for what people may think about our culture, ethnic group or country.
On the second issue, just forget about the lady, I don't think there is any point on wasting your time on thinking why she thinks in that way.
On the way swiss react with foreigners/different looking people, there is one point I think we may consider before being so harsh with them; they were here before we came, it is their country, and inmigration is a relatively new phenomenon. We can't expect them to react as if they were british or american. Things take its time, and eventually they will learn how to accept different people. In the meanwhile, we always have the option of leaving if we don't like it.