When cities control the countryside

We will most likely lose our hospital due to a recent referendum that resulted in 66% of voters in our canton rejecting an initiative to keep regional hospitals open. And this is despite 80% of voters in our area voting otherwise.

The cities just don't want to subsidize the countrysides. Sadly, these urbanites don't realize what this means. Such a closure will bring us back to the days when people died of minor health complications.

Take my grandfather's brother, for example. He died of a ruptured appendix while attempting to walk the 45 minutes from Lauenen to the Saanen Hospital. It was the 1930's and his parents had both died of the Spanish Flu. His older half-brother--who was now head of household--had refused to give him taxi fare (the only car in the village belonged to the postman).

This means that if you are in our village and break your leg, suffer a rupturing appendix or a stroke, you will have to get yourself to the closest city hospital, which could take you more than an hour by car on windy mountain roads. There will be an increase in surgeries being done on the spot by house physicians. Is this safe? Many say to take a helicopter, but what if there is fog like there has been due to warming temperatures?

This is an example of the cities controlling the countryside.

In contrast, the recent US presidential election is an example of the countrysides (or what is left of them) controlling the cities (California and Northeast).

These two unrelated democratic events show how urban-rural power struggles can end in opposite ways. The 2016 US presidential election resulted in cities (represented in the popular vote) voting for Clinton while the rural areas voted for Trump (thanks to the Electoral College).

Some say this is what happens when you have a democracy with federalism (the Electoral College) and democracy without federalism (a popular vote).

Democracy isn't perfect in either country.

Finding Late Gothic art at the foot of the Alps

Coming down from the mountains to get some shopping done in Bern didn't turn out the way I thought it would. I ended up checking out a few churches and walking through the old town.

If you ever make it to Bern, go to the Münster. It's a large Gothic cathedral in the old town, dating back to 1421. (Interestingly, a small romanesque chapel existed there as early as 1191 during the founding of Bern.)

My legs were too sore from yesterday's training to go up the Münster's tower which is 100 meters tall. Apparently, it's the tallest cathedral in Switzerland. I did, however, enjoy looking at the Last Judgment sculpture above the main portal. As it turns out, it represents one of the most complete Late Gothic sculpture collections in Europe, and it is the only sculpture in Münster to survive the iconoclasm of the Protestant Reformation. I had never heard of him, but the artist was Erhard Küng from Wesphalia. It totally reminded me of Hieronymous Bosch's "Last Judgement."

Hiking, witch hunts, and Halloween

Today, we hiked a steep wooded path to reach Cholisgrind, a round hill overlooking Saanen. Choli is Schwiezerdütsch for the sir name 'Kohli',  and Grind means 'face'. We planned to eat sandwiches on the top--by the edge of the cliff that strangely resembles a face--the site of century-old witch burnings and prisoner hangings.

My friend and local historian Beat tells me that Kohli might have been the name of a Saanen man, who--having been sentenced to death, (yes, the death penalty existed in Switzerland)--might have had his head chopped off on this hill. Our local historian explained that another form of death penalty was putting the prisoner in a barrel and pushing it over the cliff.

Predicting that the children might complain about the steepness of the climb, I tried to pique their interest by telling them about witches and how they were hunted and persecuted in Europe.

"Were there really witches, mommy?" asked my six-year old son.

"No, not really," I replied. "Not real witches. People were very religious back then. They had no internet, no iPhones, no TV's. They didn't even have newspapers. The only thing they had was the church. They went there all the time. It was the only place that men, women, and children gathered to find out what was going on. So, you can imagine that this might have made people rather one-sided."

I was on a roll. So I continued.

"Let's say there was a woman, who lived alone in the village, and who didn't like going to church. And let's say, she liked to collect wild mountain plants and herbs and mushrooms, cook them in a cauldron, and make soups to cure her aches and colds. Some people might have thought she was strange. Oh, and let's say she could read, which most women couldn't do back then, because women were meant to only cook, clean, and have children. All it took was for a bunch of people to think this woman was strange. And, let's say, something bad happened in the village, like someone had an accident, then, people blamed the woman and called her a witch. Remember kids, when uneducated people get scared and get together in large groups, sometimes they do mean things. Which is why it is so important for you all to go to school and get educated. So, this poor lonely woman was probably called 'strange', and then the people called her a witch. Then, they took her up this very path, which we are walking on, and burned her to her death."

"Those people were dumb," said my 10-year-old daughter. "You can believe in God and not do such stupid things."

It worked. The children were no longer focused on how tired they were but on the conversation. The topic of witches got us onto Halloween.

"Mommy, why is October such a scary month?"

"Because of Halloween, which takes place on the last day of October," I replied.

"But why is Halloween in October?"

"Because the word Halloween comes comes from 'All Hallows Eve' or the evening before All Saints Day. All Saints Day or Allerheiligen is on November 1. It's a holiday in the Catholic Church."

"Not in this part of Switzerland," added Beat.

"It's a day to honor and remember those who have died, especially those who have sacrificed their lives for others," I continued. I went on about the ancient Celts and how they believed that spirits were more likely to visit them on All Saints Day than on any other day of the year. They believed that if you dressed up with a mask that you could invite the nice spirits and ward off the evil ones.

"Why do they use pumpkins for Halloween?" asked my daughter.

"Well, think about it. What's still growing in our vegetable garden?" I asked her.

"Pumpkins!"

"That's right! They are in-season. It was only later in America that pumpkins became part of Halloween."

Our conversation turned to turnips and why they made better lanterns for carrying around than pumpkins, when we reached the top of the Grind, and the children joined Beat, who had turned into an archeologist, and forgot to eat their sandwiches.