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I consider Switzerland to be my "second country" since my Mom is Swiss, and I am very proud of my Swiss heritage. So here's the answer to what good has one of Jag's countries done for anyone lately.
Switzerland was one of the earliest democracies. It was formed in 1291 when three cantons - Schwyz, Uri and Unterwalden - joined together to protect their borders. That beats the US by almost 500 years. Switzerland has also already had three women who filled the highest governmental office of that country, equivalent to our president. The US has yet to elect a woman as president, as we all know.
The Swiss were formidable fighters. Any Latin student who labored through Ceasar's Commentaries will have spent some time reading about the Swiss, or Helvetians. One of Ceasar's statements: "The Helvetians, because of their geographic situation, are hemmed in on all sides... They do not consider the extent of their territory sufficient either ... for their military prowess, or for their reputation for courage." The Swiss continued as formidable fighters throughout the Middle Ages. Many other kingdoms and powers hired Swiss soldiers because they were best in all Europe. Swiss mercenaries continued to serve in other armies for centuries to come and earned an unrivalled reputation for their skill and courage. Swiss soldiers fought to the last man defending the King of France in the French Revolution. Even today the Pope is protected by the Swiss Guard.
Interesting enough, it was the Swiss who founded the Red Cross in Geneva in 1863. The symbol for the Red Cross is the inverse of the Swiss national flag. Three Swiss have been recipients of the Nobel Peace prize, and at least 22 others have won Nobel prizes, mostly in the area of the sciences. This is a stunning achievement for a country of only about 6 million people.
Some famous Swiss: Albert Einstein, Carl Jung, Hermen Hesse, Jean-Paul Marat, Jean-Jaques Rousseau, and Paul Klee, to name only a few.
There has been much criticism of Swiss actions in WWII, and some of it is indeed deserved, but people need to keep in mind that Switzerland was surrounded on all sides by Hitler's armies and in order to help preserve its neutrality, the country was forced to make some unpaletable concessions. Despite this fact, Switzerland permanently sheltered 60,000 civilian refugees (0.85 % of the 1990 population) and 60,000 soldiers, most of them allied troops (amounting to a total of 1.7 % of the 1990 population). The US itself repeated turned away Jewish refugees and accomodated only some 250,000 Jewish refugees from 1939 to 1945 (0.1 % of the 1990 population), and, therefore, has no right to throw stones.
Given the fact that Switzerland is a small land-locked country with a small population in comparison with other Western countries, its current prosperity and the contributions its people have made to Western civilization is nothing short of stunning. We Americans are soooooo ignorant of other nations.
attachment: "The Dying Lion; Swiss memorial to its soldiers who fell defending the King of France.
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