• To Jim Jakson

    pubblicato da Utente eliminato in Svizzera forum  

    Dear Jim,

    Thanks for your post, I can feel that you had a hard time living in Switzerland there is no doubt about it... As far as I am concerned, I also didn't get used to the life here even after 18 years! I have a few good friends here and some of them are Swiss... Generally speaking I find that being a foreigner you have to continuously show and prove to local people that you are and integrated person in order to be accepted, this is of course valid for locals who are willing to accept you! But what makes it different form other countries, it's the hidden racism. I was surprised by some people, whom I initially thought to be cheerful and friendly, turned out to be racist and xenophobic! I lived in other countries before and I didn't feel such hypocritical attitude!!!

    One other aspect that I dislike here is that you don't feel totally free as the people are not that tolerant especially to noise (I mean reasonable noise)! I experienced and heard about many cases of complaints from the neighbourhood about noise... If you use your mobile phone in the bus you may get some stares form some passengers or a "pffffffff" although you try to speak with a low voice. I used to live near a park with a playground for children, I was chocked the day I came to know that a group of people were signing a petition to remove the playground as it generated a lot of noise, fortunately their request was swiped away!!! Once an "anonymous neighbour" stuck a peace of paper on my letterbox complaining about the noise of my door's lock. that person claimed that when I locked the door I waked up the whole building! I wrote on the same peace of paper that the person who complained anonymously is a coward, I added that it was not fair for other neighbours as everyone became suspect in my eyes! The peace of paper disappeared very quickly and I never had any further complaints!!! When I was fireman volunteer, it rarely happened that I took a quick shower quite late after a intervention, at that time there was no shower in the fire-station! What happened? the neighbours upstairs complained... The worst was when we (firemen) were scolded very rudely by a house owner as we were cutting (by using a chain saw) some thick branches fallen on the road after a severe wind storm, it was around 3:30 am and we have been working since 6 pm non stop under heavy rain, thunder and wind!!!

    I have many other examples and it will be very long to state them all, yet I dislike to live being constantly afraid of disturbing others! That's the feeling I have and that many people do have when they live in Switzerland. You really feel being controlled all the time, and you have to bare in mind that there is always somebody watching you behind the curtains...

    Anyway I am leaving very soon...

Pubblica una risposta

Altre risposte