You may have noticed that Switzerland has been in the international news recently. Last Sunday, on June 14, 55% of Swiss voters rejected a proposal to cap the country’s population at 10 million by 2050. Right now, the country has a little over nine million people. If the Swiss had said yes to the proposal,Continue reading “A Small Defeat for Toxic Nationalism”
Author Archives: Kim Hays
My Swiss Washday
Soon after I moved to Bern in 1988 as the young wife of a Swiss man, I met a delightful American woman named Margaret, who had been the young wife of a Swiss man in the 1930s. She’d married a farmer, and when we spoke, she was still living in a Bernese farmhouse. I wasContinue reading “My Swiss Washday”
The Luck of the (One-Sixteenth) Irish
Happy Saint Patrick’s Day! When I was in elementary school, it was customary for anyone who didn’t wear green on March 17 to be pinched by their classmates. I made an effort to remember my “something green” every year, but I must have forgotten at least once, since I can recall crying as a seven-Continue reading “The Luck of the (One-Sixteenth) Irish”
Direct Democracy at Work
On March 8, the Swiss are voting on whether to add three amendments to the constitution. These “initiatives,” as they’re called, have been proposed by one or more politically active citizens who have gathered 100,000 signatures within 18 months to demonstrate sufficiently broad support. The government has decided to offer a “counter-proposal” to one ofContinue reading “Direct Democracy at Work”
Meet the Muskox
Last month, in mid-December, I experienced muskoxen for the first time. I ran my hand down one of the animal’s massive horns and stroked its brown wool coat. I grabbed handfuls of its soft, downy, and extraordinarily warm underwool, called qiviut. I even got to feed dried lichen to two young oxen. No, I wasContinue reading “Meet the Muskox”
My Favorite Fiction of 2025
Last January was the first time I wrote about my favorite books of the year, and now I’m doing it again for 2025. I didn’t experience as many reading highlights this year as I did in 2024, but I’ve still had fun thinking back and picking out which novels I could barely wait to getContinue reading “My Favorite Fiction of 2025”
The Patron Saint of Children
Yesterday, December 6, was the day of Saint Nicholas, the patron saint of children and the fourth-century bishop of Myra, a Byzantine city in what is now Turkey. On this day, many Swiss-German households with young children are visited by “Samichlaus,” as Sankt Nichlaus is pronounced in the Swiss-German dialect. He doesn’t arrive in theContinue reading “The Patron Saint of Children”
BEFORE THE LEAVES FALL
Over two percent of Switzerland’s nine million people belong to EXIT, one of the nine or ten organizations in Switzerland that offer people who don’t want to live anymore a painless way to commit suicide. Since 1942, Swiss law has permitted one person to assist another to commit suicide as long as the motive forContinue reading “BEFORE THE LEAVES FALL”
My Fall Fling
It’s October 29, but the plants in the window boxes hanging from the railings of my balcony are still bravely blooming. As fall has progressed, my twenty-two geraniums have produced steadily fewer purply-pink flowers. Only a scattering of the bright clusters still remains. The blue stalks of sage on either side of the geraniums standContinue reading “My Fall Fling”
Beauty Spots near Bern
I’m sure all of you host visitors now and then, whether they are close friends staying in your homes for a week or acquaintances passing through for a day or two. Have you developed favorite places to take them? We certainly have. The first outing is always a tour of Bern’s Old Town, which inevitablyContinue reading “Beauty Spots near Bern”
Kim Hays 