Money Matters

Switzerland. Worldwide known as the country of watches, chocolate and banks. Especially Australians and Americans still confuse us with Sweden, though. But what can we expect? A lot of Swiss are blond like the Swedes and both countries are in Europe somewhere - although nearly 2000 km apart from each other with a bit of ocean in between. But who are we to judge the geographical knowledge of others? We take ourselves a bit too important for our small size (~300 km x 400 km). Quite a lot of Swiss people think they can travel around all Australia in only one month, obviously forgetting that Australia is not only a country but also a whole continent.

However, we can claim to be world famous for our banks. How we've won this fame might be questionable, but still, saying that I have a Swiss bank account helped me quite often - although there is less money in it than is in my Australian one.

Imagine what must happen to Swiss people's feeling of security if their banks turn out not to be as infallible as we thought. Though, I don't think that it was the feeling of security that was deeply shaken the day before Christmas, when only two hours before shop's closing the whole electronic paying system collapsed throughout all Switzerland. Emotions were certainly high and tempers rose rapidly. Who the heck is carrying cash nowadays? Queues of full trolleys had to be left at the checkouts and cash had to be raised as quickly as possible, or the space under the Christmas tree would have been emptier than intended - and so would have the stomachs. But this was only the beginning. The next day, on Christmas Eve, all ATMs* of one of our biggest banks decided to confiscate all cards that were put into their slits. Many of the people concerned were about to leave for skiing holidays - where, usually, you use your plastic card more often than any other time of the year.

Poor old Switzerland no chocolate for Christmas since the banks' systems failed. At least our watches and clocks have some value still thanks to the great timing of both collapses.

* Automatic Teller Machine (Bankomat)

Vera Kaufmann, Januar 2001