Gstaad

I am looking out of my window at the green landscape and forested mountains rising beyond, as peaceful a scene as there is in this troubled world, but this is Switzerland, a country that hasn’t fought a war in 700 years, resisting both Napoleon and Hitler through friendly persuasion and by having banks that don’t talk.

No longer. The new big bully on the block, Uncle Sam, in cahoots with the vermin that is the EU, is forcing the Swiss to open up and spill the beans. What I don’t get is why the Swiss are lying down and playing dead. Sure, they have all sorts of referendums, but the government keeps signing treaties with the depraved bureaucrats of the most successful criminal enterprise invented by man, once upon a time known as the Common Market. Some Swiss say it is the diplomatic version of judo, winning a battle by seeming to yield. I don’t believe a word. The Swiss people have turned left and their government reflects it. They turned left because they looked around and saw European workers sitting on their asses and getting paid for it. When the EU crooks threaten boycotts, the Swiss give in. I find it incredible. The Swiss were ready to fight the Wehrmacht in the mountains after giving up the cities and major towns, yet they tremble when smiling wallet-lifters and shysters pose as Napoleons.

The great futurist Taki predicts that Switzerland will soon be a busted flush. The reason is a simple one. If Switzerland becomes like the rest of Europe, overrun by migrants and bound tightly to EU laws, many of the foreigners who live and spend their millions here will go back to where they came from. Switzerland, after all, is a very small place. It takes less than two minutes for a fighter jet to cross its air space. Geneva is already an unsafe place full of Balkan criminals, who mug people, and African beggars. Once upon a time people came to Geneva because it was safe. Personally, I’d rather be attacked in Paris or London where I have fun, than in Geneva where it’s dullsville. I’m a Swiss resident and pay high taxes — I am judged by my lifestyle, the size of my house and the kind of car I drive — and I’m happy to do this as long as I get a great quality of life in return. Switzerland used to guarantee privacy and safety. No longer. Anyone can come and demand to see my tax returns. Why should anyone except the tax authority have the right to do this?

Papa Hemingway described going broke as slowly at first, then all of a sudden. If Switzerland becomes like the rest of Europe, unsafe, crowded, expensive and intrusive, people who can will head for Wyoming, the best state in the union, great scenery, no professional sports teams and no crime. I’d hate to leave good old Helvetia, where I’ve spent close to half the year for the past 55 years, but if the Swiss turn this place into an EU hellhole, I will, and will do it with a smile on my face. I am, after all, an American citizen, as well as a Greek one, so the scum in Brussels can kiss my ass.

Last week I saw a lot of my friends the Nicholsons, as in Camper and Nicholsons, who had Prince Hassan, younger brother of the late King of Jordan and uncle of the present king, staying. He is the only one of those Middle East families who call themselves royal who has the right to be called royal. The Saudis, who usurped the Hashemite throne 70 years or so ago, were desert peasants who slept with goats and probably their camels, whom they resemble. To call themselves royalty is as obnoxious as it gets, an insult to the language, as arrogant as it’s ignorant. The scummy Qataris are just as bad and the Queen lunching with them was an obscenity. Prince Hassan is an articulate and educated man, as is his wife, he an old Harrovian and Oxford grad, unlike the Gulf States ‘royals’ who attended Camel U. He was King Hussein’s man on the spot and has met with all the bad guys, starting with Ariel Sharon and on down.

Prince Hassan is not exactly optimistic about the Middle East. How could he be? All the news, all other concerns, fade into insignificance beside the horror of the massacre in Gaza. Those of us with a sliver of humanity left in us have to cry out and protest. There is no moral equivalence as the Israelis are claiming. Shooting rockets with a thousand-to-one success ratio cannot be compared to the murderous fire of the Israeli drones, F-16s and army commandos. And armed settlers shooting dead unarmed West Bank youths throwing stones can hardly be called cricket. It’s outright murder but I don’t hear any EU bureaucrook or American politician demanding the Israeli terrorists desist or else. And the Arab world has turned its eyes away; the Saudis and Gulf bums are in London for hookers and whisky, and the Egyptians are helping Israel close the lid on the coffin that is Gaza. What has happened to decency? Aipac shut it down, that’s what. In the meantime, here in Gstaad the problems of the very rich multiply. The sun hasn’t come out in weeks. Everyone’s heading south, including me. It’s the Peloponnese or bust.