[Culturechat] Another war

[Vance Roy]

The Swiss and the Germans are at it once more. For several years, the 
Germans have been jumping up and down about the noise pollution that 
the Zuerich airport causes. Planes coming into the airport must use 
some German air space particularly over Wuttenberg. The airport is only 
about 12 miles from the German border. This has been a long time 
irritation and the Swiss and German have been negotiating for several 
years. Deals have been struck, but one or the other country's 
governments haven't been happy. The Swiss think their transport 
minister has given too much away, and the Germans don't feel they are 
getting enough.

The last deal was to drop the number of flights from 150,000 per year 
to 100,000 and to eliminate flights after 10 PM and on weekends to a 
large degree. A CH parliament committee nixed that idea. Now the 
Germans say they will drop the limit to 80,000 flights per year and 
stop using the Swiss controllers and use their own. This will cost 
several companies a lot of money.

For once, I like what old Herr Blocher's party, the SVP, says. Their 
idea is to say OK, no more German 40 ton trucks come through CH on the 
way to France, Italy, and the Mediterranean ports. Let them go around 
through Austria or France. It would save the roads and cut the gas 
emissions. Countries seem to fight like school boys sometimes.

While we are at this, anyone want to dump some French wine and cheese? 
Maybe a trip to Budapest instead of Paris?

Vance Roy
gigli.saw@dplanet.ch
http://homepage.mac.com/fredch