DOCSLIB.ORG

Commodities Switzerland’S Most Dangerous Business Berne Declaration (ED.)

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Commodities Switzerland’S Most Dangerous Business Berne Declaration (ED.) COMMODITIES switzerland’s most dangerous business BERNE DECLARATION (ED.) Preface by Karin Lissakers, The Revenue Watch Institute ‘Commodities – Switzerland’s most dangerous business’ paints a searing and detailed picture of one of globalisation’s biggest winners, a powerful industry whose dealings often take it into dangerous areas. In the last decade Switzerland has emerged as one of the world’s dominant trading hubs for commodities, handling from 15 to 25 per cent of world trade. All the world’s largest trading houses operate partly or mainly out of this seemingly peaceful and innocent country. But while these powerful companies experience an unprecedented boom, the population of many resource-rich developing countries remain mired in poverty. This book tackles the question of why? By means of research and reportage, Berne Declaration (BD) digs down to uncover the historical roots of Switzerland‘s role as a trading hub, scrutinises scandalous business practices and their political contexts, goes down a copper mine in Zambia, and exposes the leading Swiss companies and players in this discreet industry. The book reveals how commodity deals are financed and how taxes are avoided, provides insights into the social and environmental consequences for producing countries, and suggests how greater justice can be achieved in a business which is worth billions and upon which we all depend. BERNE DECLARATION (ED.) COMMODITIES switzerland’s most dangerous business EDITORS BERNE DECLARATION TRANSLATION FROM GERMAN HE TRANSLATIONS, LEICESTER www.HETranslation.co.uk ReVIEW SIMON PARKER, ZURIch BOOK DeSIGN & TYPESETTING DANIELA TRUNK, ZUG 2012, ZURIch THIS BOOK IS ALSO AVAILABLE IN PRINT IN GERMAN AND FRENCH GERMAN VeRSION TITLE ROHSTOFF – DAS GEFÄHRLICHSTE GESCHÄFT DER SCHWEIZ PUBLISHED BY SALIS VERLAG AG, ZURIch www.salisverlag.com EDITING OLIVER CLASSEN, ZURIch PATRIck SchÄR, BASEL PROOFREADING INA SERIF, FREIBURG IM BREISGAU BOOK DESIGN & TYPESETTING DANIELA TRUNK, ZUG ISBN 978-3-905801-50-7 ISBN 978-3-905801-51-4 (E-BOOK) 2011, ZURICH FRENCH VERSION TITLE SWISS TRADING SA. LA SUISSE, LE NÉGOCE ET LA MALÉDICTION DES MATIÈRES PREMIÈRES PUBLISHED BY EDITION D’EN BAS, LAUSANNE www.enbas.ch ISBN 978-2-8290-0413-1 2011, LAUSANNE BERNE DECLARATION (BD) AUTHOR TEAM (in alphabetical order) Thomas Braunschweig . Trade policy programme Thomas Chappot . Research assistant Oliver Classen . Media director Fabian Jucker . Research assistant Olivier Longchamp . Private finance programm Andreas Missbach . Tax expert and joint managing director Urs Rybi . Commodities and corporate accountability programme ACKNOWLEDGEMENts // EXTERNAL WRITERS Lorenz Kummer . Commodities expert at SWISSAID Alice Odiot . Co-director of the documentary film ‘Zambie: à qui profite le cuivre?’, 2011 PHOTOGRAPHERS Audrey Gallet . Co-director of the documentary film ‘Zambie: à qui profite le cuivre?’, 2011 Meinrad Schade . Winner of the Swiss Photo Award 2011 PUBLISHERS THANKS Berne Declaration (BD) is an independent non-governmental organiza- A generous bequest enabled Berne Declaration (BD) to publish this book . tion formed to combat the root causes of poverty by promoting more equitable and sustainable relations between Switzerland and the Berne Declaration (BD) would like to thank its colleagues at Revenue developing world . We are committed to global justice and address issues Watch (RWI), in particular Karin Lissakers and Alexandra Gillies, for of trade policy, commodity production and trade, the politics of food, their generous support for this English edition . finance and fair trade . As part of a worldwide network of human rights www .revenuewatch org. groups, environmental and development organizations, the BD promotes a more equitable and humane route to global development . Finally, the publishers would like to thank Getty Images and Keystone To this end, we carry out investigative research, run public campaigns to for their kind cooperation . raise awareness and undertake successful advocacy work in Switzerland and on the international stage . Founded in 1968, Berne Declaration (BD) today has a staff of 22 in its Zurich and Lausanne offices, and boasts a membership of 22’000 individuals, who finance over 80 per cent the organization . www .evb .ch/en CONTENts // PREFacE// Commodity Hub Switzerland: Crucial for more Transparency .......................................................12 01// INTRODUctiON Welcome to Switzerland, the commodity carousel: “Warning: risk of dizziness!” ....................................... 18 02// BIG PictURE The nature and importance of commodities in world trade ............................................................ 26 03// COMMOditY TRadiNG Tools and Mechanisms ................................................. 44 04// HistORY Home of the traders: Switzerland's rise to a commodity hub ................................................... 56 05// ZUG 14// TAX AVOidaNCE Central Swiss idyll: appointment in Rich country .......... 74 ‘Transfer pricing’ & Co: tax avoidance as a business principle .................................................... 256 06// ZAMbia “This is Baghdad, just without war.” ............................ 84 15// GREY AREas Corruption and conflict zones: from ‘Kazakhgate’ 07// GLENCORE to ‘Oil for Food’ ....................................................... 290 Big, bigger, Glencore: discreet commodity 15.1// S udan and Congo: danger pay for giant at the crossroads ............................................ 112 for opportunists ............................................. 294 15.2// ‘Kazakhgate’ or the art of corruption ............... 304 08// XstRata 15.3// U zbek child labour for the global Mining made in Switzerland: Xstrata cotton boom .................................................. 310 in the “Super Cycle” ................................................ 148 15.4// T he UN in Iraq: ‘Oil for Food’ means ‘Cash for Saddam’ ......................................... 314 09// GOLD Swiss Goldfinger: frighteningly beautiful 16// INTERVIEW conflict metal .......................................................... 166 “Commodity trading involves considerable risks for Switzerland”: Professor Mark Pieth in conversation .... 320 10// ON thE hiGH SEas ‘Crude’ business idea: Trafigura's waste odyssey ....... 176 17// DistRibUtiON Unregal ‘royalties’: resource curse and 11// GENEVA distribution issue ..................................................... 330 Geneva, the oil Mecca: the “Jet d'Eau” gushes black gold .................................................... 200 18// ALTERNatiVES Ideas and initiatives: shedding light 12// AGRicULTURAL TRadE on the dark deals .................................................... 358 Soft commodities: the blooming after-harvest business ................................................................. 230 19// CONCLUsiON What now? Implications and demands ....................... 376 13// SPECULatiON The other casino: high-risk speculation ..................... 246 AppENdiX// Illustrations ............................................................. 388 References ............................................................. 390 Endnotes ................................................................ 400 COMMOditY HUB SWitzERLAND: CRUciaL FOR PREFacE // MORE TRANspaRENCY Karin Lissakers President, Revenue Watch Institute ‘Commodities: Switzerland’s Most Dangerous Business’ by Berne Decla- ration (BD) sheds light on the role of Swiss companies in the natural resource sector and commodity trading in particular, areas which have hitherto escaped close scrutiny and understanding . Aside from a few high profile scandals such as the Iraq Oil-for- Food prosecutions, traders have largely operated under the radar with limited external understanding of their business practices . However, this appears to be changing, thanks in part to the public listing of Glencore, rising commodity prices, and penetrating research such as this book . ‘Commodities’ sheds light on several aspects of this vast, powerful and global business . Firstly it provides a primer on how commodity trading works . The early chapters situate trading within the broader natural resource sector and global economy, and trace the emergence of Switzerland as the hub of trader activity . It explains the relationship between paper and physical trading, and breaks down the stages through 12 | Commodities Preface | 13 which deals are made . Such explanations are difficult to glean from operations have attracted controversy in the past . Still others, such trade publications and press reports, and will be valuable to audiences as Trafigura’s offload of toxic materials in Cote d’Ivoire, suggest how not steeped in industry affairs . What stands out from this review is the weak regulatory environments can sometimes offer attractive business size of the transactions in question and the scale of Swiss involvement . opportunities . These anecdotes provide data points which are not yet For example, Swiss companies conduct 35 per cent of global oil trading; connected, but they certainly make a strong case for further study . Glencore alone trades volumes that top 25 per cent of total world trade Finally, the authors call for greater transparency . By the time this in several minerals, including zinc, copper, lead and thermal coal; and recommendation is made, the reader is well convinced that the activities Geneva-based companies sell up to 50 per cent of Kazakh and 75 per of trading companies – be they Swiss or otherwise –
Load more

Recommended publications
  • PR Firms Are Becoming More Powerful, but Good Journalism Still
    Close Academic rigour, journalistic flair Subscribe Fourth estate follies Trawling through the dustbins of the UK media PR firms are becoming more powerful, but good journalism still prevails October 19, 2016 4.00pm BST Author John Jewell Director of Undergraduate Studies, School of Journalism, Media and Cultural Studies, Cardiff University Mission accomplished: putting a positive spin on Iraq. White House Recent articles about the public relations firm Bell Pottinger are a stark reminder of the power and pervasiveness of PR in today’s fragmented media landscape. The Sunday Times and the Bureau of Investigative Journalism revealed that Bell Pottinger was hired by the Pentagon in Washington to coordinate a covert propaganda campaign to boost America’s profile in Iraq following the “end” of hostilities in 2003. And, earlier this year, South Africa’s Business Day newspaper revealed that the firm had been retained by the scandal-hit billionaire Gupta family to burnish its image after a string of stories accusing it of “state capture” – allegedly using its influence with the president, Jacob Zuma, to advance the family’s business interests. Bell Pottinger’s former chairman Lord Tim Bell confirmed to the Sunday Times that the firm had been paid US$540m for five contracts with the US government between 2007 and 2011. He said the firm reported to the Pentagon, the CIA and the National Security Council while working on the account. The investigation, “Fake News and False Flags” relied on interviews with a former Bell Pottinger employee, Martin Wells, who claimed that the PR company created short TV reports in the style of Arabic news networks for broadast in Iraq.
    [Show full text]
  • The Profitable and Untethered March to Global Resource Dominance!
    Athens Journal of Business and Economics X Y GlencoreXstrata… The Profitable and Untethered March to Global Resource Dominance! By Nina Aversano Titos Ritsatos† Motivated by the economic causes and effects of their merger in 2013, we study the expansion strategy deployment of Glencore International plc. and Xstrata plc., before and after their merger. While both companies went through a series of international acquisitions during the last decade, their merger is strengthening effective vertical integration in critical resource and commodity markets, following Hymer’s theory of internationalization and Dunning’s theory of Eclectic Paradigm. Private existence of global dominant positioning in vital resource markets, posits economic sustainability and social fairness questions on an international scale. Glencore is alleged to have used unethical business tactics, increasing corruption, tax evasion and money laundering, while attracting the attention of human rights organizations. Since the announcement of their intended merger, the company’s market performance has been lower than its benchmark index. Glencore’s and Xstrata’s economic success came from operating effectively and efficiently in markets that scare off risk-averse companies. The new GlencoreXstrata is not the same company anymore. The Company’s new capital structure is characterized by controlling presence of institutional investors, creating adherence to corporate governance and increased monitoring and transparency. Furthermore, when multinational corporations like GlencoreXstrata increase in size attracting the attention of global regulation, they are forced by institutional monitoring to increase social consciousness. When ensuring full commitment to social consciousness acting with utmost concern with regard to their commitment by upholding rules and regulations of their home or host country, they have but to become “quasi-utilities” for the global industry.
    [Show full text]
  • Foreignpolicyleopold
    Foreign Policy VOICE The 750 Million Dollar Man How a Swiss commodities giant used shell companies to make an Angolan general three-quarters of a billion dollars richer. BY Michael Weiss FEBRUARY 13, 2014 Revolutionary communist regimes have a strange habit of transforming themselves into corrupt crony capitalist ones and Angola -- with its massive oil reserves and budding crop of billionaires -- has proved no exception. In 2010, Trafigura, the world’s third-largest private oil and metals trader based in Switzerland, sold an 18.75-percent stake in one of its major energy subsidiaries to a high-ranking and influential Angolan general, Foreign Policy has discovered. The sale, which amounted to $213 million, appears on the 2012 audit of the annual financial statements of a Singapore-registered company, which is wholly owned by Gen. Leopoldino Fragoso do Nascimento. Details of the sale and purchaser are also buried within a prospectus document of the sold company which was uploaded to the Luxembourg Stock Exchange within the last week. “General Dino,” as he’s more commonly called in Angola, purchased the 18.75 percent stake not in any minor bauble, but in a $5 billion multinational oil company called Puma Energy International. By 2011, his shares were diluted to 15 percent; but that’s still quite a hefty prize: his stake in the company is today valued at around $750 million. The sale illuminates not only a growing and little-scrutinized relationship between Trafigura, which earned nearly $1 billion in profits in 2012, and the autocratic regime of 71-year-old Angolan President Jose Eduardo dos Santos, who has been in power since 1979 -- but also the role that Western enterprise continues to play in the Third World.
    [Show full text]
  • Raiders of the Lost Ark
    Swiss American Historical Society Review Volume 56 Number 1 Article 12 2020 Full Issue Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/sahs_review Part of the European History Commons, and the European Languages and Societies Commons Recommended Citation (2020) "Full Issue," Swiss American Historical Society Review: Vol. 56 : No. 1 , Article 12. Available at: https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/sahs_review/vol56/iss1/12 This Full Issue is brought to you for free and open access by BYU ScholarsArchive. It has been accepted for inclusion in Swiss American Historical Society Review by an authorized editor of BYU ScholarsArchive. For more information, please contact [email protected], [email protected]. et al.: Full Issue Swiss A1nerican Historical Society REVIEW Volu1ne 56, No. 1 February 2020 Published by BYU ScholarsArchive, 2020 1 Swiss American Historical Society Review, Vol. 56 [2020], No. 1, Art. 12 SAHS REVIEW Volume 56, Number 1 February 2020 C O N T E N T S I. Articles Ernest Brog: Bringing Swiss Cheese to Star Valley, Wyoming . 1 Alexandra Carlile, Adam Callister, and Quinn Galbraith The History of a Cemetery: An Italian Swiss Cultural Essay . 13 Plinio Martini and translated by Richard Hacken Raiders of the Lost Ark . 21 Dwight Page Militant Switzerland vs. Switzerland, Island of Peace . 41 Alex Winiger Niklaus Leuenberger: Predating Gandhi in 1653? Concerning the Vindication of the Insurgents in the Swiss Peasant War . 64 Hans Leuenberger Canton Ticino and the Italian Swiss Immigration to California . 94 Tony Quinn A History of the Swiss in California . 115 Richard Hacken II. Reports Fifty-Sixth SAHS Annual Meeting Reports .
    [Show full text]
  • LAS Alpine Institute Cresting the Final the Dreaded Extended Learning Dr
    LEYSIN AMERICAN SCHOOL IN SWITZERLAND Introducing THE 2016 EDITION 2016 LAS ALPINE INSTITUTE Welcome to Leysin American School’s new educational center for mountain science, sport, environment, and culture. A MAGAZINE FOR ALUMNI AND FRIENDS panorama LEYSIN AMERICAN SCHOOL IN SWITZERLAND Today, for a summer to Tomorrow remember YOUR GIFT TO THE LAS ANNUAL FUND, combined with those of other alumni, families & friends, ensures that we can continue to develop innovative, compassionate, and responsible citizens Alpine Adventure (ages 7-11) of the world. Alpine Exploration (ages 12-14) Alpine Challenge (ages 15-18) THE LAS ANNUAL FUND HELPS: • Support student scholarships and financial aid making LAS more diverse • Recruit, retain, and provide professional development for our world-class faculty • Continue to improve and upgrade our facilities and technology • Expand and enhance our wide range of academic, arts, athletics, and residential programs. Classes Excursions Cultural Tours Switzerland International Friends Morning classes in a Weekend excursions Students choose Switzerland offers Students share their variety of subjects to various a European country safety, security, and cultures local attractions to visit for one week natural beauty and lifestyles Please visit www.las.ch/alumni/giving to learn more about making a gift today! + 41 24 493 4888 | [email protected] | www.las.ch/summer 2 panorama | 2016 30 20 panorama Editors Emma Dixon, John Harlin III ‘14P, Benjamin Smith, Anthony Leutenegger Graphic Design Brittany Free Contributors Dr. L. Ira Bigelow ‘12P, ’13P, ‘15P, Mike Brinkmeyer, Alex Flynn-Padick, Paul Fomalont, John Harlin III ‘14P, Will Johnson, Mark Kolman, LAS Arts Team 49 (R. Allen Babcock, Kelly Deklinski, Keegan Luttrell, Brian Rusher), Anthony Leutenegger, Dr.
    [Show full text]
  • Download Download
    Facts, Truth, and Post-Truth: Access to Cognitively and Socially Just Information Rachel Fischer, University of Pretoria, South Africa Erin Klazar, University of Pretoria, South Africa Abstract This article addresses facts, truth, post-truth, and the impact on access to cognitively and socially just information. It is predominantly situated within the post-truth context where information is manipulated to such an extent that it becomes disinformation, disguised as truth. The article consists of four main sections: the first section will provide an introduction and overview of key concepts intrinsic to understanding the concerns at hand. The next section is a case study of the role the PR firm, Bell Pottinger, played in South Africa and Iraq and the cognitive and social injustices visible in the corresponding events. The selection of these countries provides an opportunity to demonstrate the effect of post-truth and whistleblowing in relation to the challenges experienced in the Global South. The third section, on Cambridge Analytica and Digitality, is a discussion of the infamous Cambridge Analytica and its interferences in political campaigns in Trinidad and Tobago and the U.S. These discussions lead to the final section as an antidote to post-truth influences, which reflects on the way forward. This section makes recommendations for South African and international initiatives based on UNESCO’s intergovernmental programme known as the Information for All Programme (IFAP). Keywords: cognitive justice; disinformation; fake news; post-truth era/politics; social justice Publication Type: research article Introduction his article will focus on the role of information in the fairness with which economic, political, and social benefits and burdens are distributed in society.
    [Show full text]
  • Academic Years
    LEYSIN AMERICAN SCHOOL IN SWITZERLAND Academic Years 2020-2022 EXTRAORDINARY EDUCATORS Our educators’ teaching methods are informed by years of research, education, and experience, allowing them to provide your child with high-quality, innovative learning opportunities. TOP UNIVERSITY ADMISSIONS We take pride not only in educating strong students but also attracting the attention of strong universities. The LAS University Advising Office plays a key role in our students’ successes, providing them with active guidance throughout their time at LAS. A CARING COMMUNITY LAS is a diverse, tight-knit community in which staff members are always on hand to provide students with care and guidance as they navigate the responsibilities and challenges that come with young adulthood. A HOME AWAY FROM HOME From LAS to post-graduation we provide the foundation and resources for students, parents, and alumni to stay connected and maintain lifelong friendships. LIVING OUR MISSION STATEMENT BY Developing innovative, compassionate, and responsible citizens of the world. A PASSION FOR LEARNING We help students uncover their passion by creating exciting ways for them to select Fred and Sigrid Ott had a vision—a school where students from around the world could reach their academic and engage with the material they are being taught—this includes hands-on learning, and personal potential in a beautiful, secure location, and become ready to face the world’s challenges as true individualized academic schedules, and opportunities for immersive travel. “citizens of the world.” Since 2005, LAS has been a non-profit philanthropic organization with the school’s leadership provided by the Ott family, now in its third generation.
    [Show full text]
  • Economic Inequality and Social Progress1
    Chapter 3: Economic inequality and social progress1 Coordinating Lead Authors: Stephan Klasen, Giovanni Andrea Cornia, Rebeca Grynspan, Luis F. López-Calva, Nora Lustig2 Lead Authors: Augustin Fosu, Sripad Motiram, Flora Myamba, Andreas Peichl, Sanjay Reddy, Eldar Shafir, Ana Sojo, Ingrid Woolard3 Contributing Authors: Shai Davidai, Michael Förster, Rahul Lahoti, Judith Sutz, Rainer Thiele4 Abstract Inequality and its effects on societies have received increasing prominence in debates among economists and social scientists and in policy circles over the past thirty years. There are many, often interacting inequalities and different forms of inequality. Wide income and wealth inequality has harmful consequences for the economic welfare of societies, social cohesion, and other factors that intrinsically and instrumentally diminish social progress. While between- country income inequality has been falling recently, within-country inequality has been rising to varying degrees in most industrialized and many developing countries, though the experience of 1 Acknowledgments: Note that all authors have contributed to this chapter in their personal capacity and any views expressed here should not be attributed to the organizations the authors are affiliated to. 2 Affiliations: University of Florence, Florence; Ibero-American General Secretariat, Madrid; University of Göttingen, Göttingen, Germany; World Bank, Washington, DC; Tulane University, New Orleans. 3 Affiliations: University of Ghana, Accra, Ghana; University of Massachusetts, Boston, and Indira Gandhi Institute of Development Research, Mumbai; REPOA, Dar es Salaam, Tanzania; Center for European Economic Research, Mannheim, Germany; The New School, New York; Princeton University, Princeton, NJ; United Nations Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean, Santiago, Chile; University of Cape Town, Cape Town.
    [Show full text]
  • Tradition Und Moderne in Der Literatur Der Schweiz Im 20. Jahrhundert
    HUMANIORA: GERMANISTICA 4 HUMANIORA: GERMANISTICA 4 Tradition und Moderne in der Literatur der Schweiz im 20. Jahrhundert Beiträge zur Internationalen Konferenz zur deutschsprachigen Literatur der Schweiz 26. bis 27. September 2007 herausgegeben von EVE PORMEISTER HANS GRAUBNER Reihe HUMANIORA: GERMANISTICA der Universität Tartu Wissenschaftlicher Beirat: Anne Arold (Universität Tartu), Dieter Cherubim (Georg-August- Universität Göttingen), Heinrich Detering (Georg-August-Universität Göttingen), Hans Graubner (Georg-August-Universität Göttingen), Reet Liimets (Universität Tartu), Klaus-Dieter Ludwig (Humboldt- Universität zu Berlin), Albert Meier (Christian-Albrechts-Universität zu Kiel), Dagmar Neuendorff (Ǻbo Akademie Finnland), Henrik Nikula (Universität Turku), Eve Pormeister (Universität Tartu), Mari Tarvas (Universität Tallinn), Winfried Ulrich (Christian-Albrechts-Universität zu Kiel), Carl Wege (Universität Bremen). Layout: Aive Maasalu Einbandgestaltung: Kalle Paalits ISSN 1736–4345 ISBN 978–9949–19–018–8 Urheberrecht: Alle Rechte an den Beiträgen verbleiben bei den Autoren, 2008 Tartu University Press www.tyk.ee Für Unterstützung danken die Herausgeber der Stiftung Pro Helvetia INHALTSVERZEICHNIS Vorwort. ............................................................................................... 9 Eve Pormeister (Tartu). „JE MEHR DIFFERENZIERUNG, DESTO MEHR KULTUR“. BEGRÜSSUNG .................................................. 12 Ivana Wagner (Helsinki/Schweiz). NUR DAS GESPROCHENE WORT GILT. BEGRÜSSUNG DURCH DIE BOTSCHAFTSRÄTIN,
    [Show full text]
  • Chapter 48 – Creative Destructor
    Chapter 48 Creative destructor Starting in the late 19th century, when the Hall-Heroult electrolytic reduction process made it possible for aluminum to be produced as a commodity, aluminum companies began to consolidate and secure raw material sources. Alcoa led the way, acquiring and building hydroelectric facilities, bauxite mines, alumina refineries, aluminum smelters, fabricating plants and even advanced research laboratories to develop more efficient processing technologies and new products. The vertical integration model was similar to the organizing system used by petroleum companies, which explored and drilled for oil, built pipelines and ships to transport oil, owned refineries that turned oil into gasoline and other products, and even set up retail outlets around the world to sell their products. The global economy dramatically changed after World War II, as former colonies with raw materials needed by developed countries began to ask for a piece of the action. At the same time, more corporations with the financial and technical means to enter at least one phase of aluminum production began to compete in the marketplace. As the global Big 6 oligopoly became challenged on multiple fronts, a commodity broker with a Machiavellian philosophy and a natural instinct for deal- making smelled blood and started picking the system apart. Marc Rich began by taking advantage of the oil market, out-foxing the petroleum giants and making a killing during the energy crises of the 1970s. A long-time metals trader, Rich next eyed the weakened aluminum industry during the 1980s, when depressed demand and over-capacity collided with rising energy costs, according to Shawn Tully’s 1988 account in Fortune.
    [Show full text]
  • Schweizer Gegenwartsliteratur
    513 Exkurs 1: » ... fremd und fern wie in Grönland«• Schweizer Gegenwartsliteratur Die Schweiz, von Deutschland aus betrachtet-da entsteht das Bild einer Die Schweiz Insel: eine Insel der Stabilität und Solidität und Neutralität inmitten eines Meeres politisch-ökonomischer Unwägbarkeiten und Unwegsam- keiten. Eine Zwingburg der Finanz- und Währungshoheit, eine calvinisti- sche Einsiedelei, in der das Bankgeheimnis so gut gehütet wird wie an- dernorts kaum das Beichtgeheimnis, getragen und geprägt von einem tra­ ditionsreichen Patriarchat, das so konservativ fühlt wie es republikanisch handelt, umstellt von einem panoramatischen Massiv uneinnehmbarer Gipfelriesen. Ein einziger Anachronismus, durchsäumt von blauen Seen und grünen Wiesen und einer Armee, die ihresgleichen sucht auf der Welt. Ein Hort »machtgeschützter Innerlichkeit<<, mit Thomas Mann zu reden - eine Insel, von Deutschland aus betrachtet. Mag dieses Postkartenbild auch als Prospektparodie erscheinen - es entbehrt doch nicht des Körnchens Wahrheit, das bisweilen auch Pro­ spekte in sich tragen. >>Was die Schweiz für viele Leute so anziehend macht, daß sie sich hier niederzulassen wünschen, ist vielerlei<<, wußte schon zu Beginn der 60er Jahre ein nicht unbekannter Schweizer Schrift­ steller, Max Frisch nämlich, zu berichten: >>ein hoher Lebensstandard für solche, die ihn sich leisten können; Erwerbsmöglichkeit; die Gewähr eines Rechtsstaates, der funktioniert. Auch liegt die Schweiz geogra­ phisch nicht abseits: sofort ist man in Paris oder Mailand oder Wien. Man muß hier keine abseitige Sprache lernen; wer unsere Mundart nicht ver­ steht, wird trotzdem verstanden.( ...) Die Währung gilt als stabil. Die Po­ litik, die die Schweizer beschäftigt, bleibt ihre Familienangelegenheit.<< Kurz: >>Hier läßt sich leben, >Europäer sein<.<< Soweit das Bild- von der Schweiz aus betrachtet-, das sich die Deutschen von ihr machen.
    [Show full text]
  • Land and Ubuntu As Competing Narratives in Rural South Africa: a Practical Theological Perspective
    Land and Ubuntu as competing narratives in rural South Africa: a practical theological perspective by Hermanus Nicolaas Holtzhausen A thesis submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree PHILOSOPHIAE DOCTOR In Practical Theology In the Faculty of Theology, University of Pretoria, South Africa Supervisor: Prof J.C. Műller August 2017 Declaration I, Hermanus Nicolaas Holtzhausen, declare that LAND AND UBUNTU AS COMPETING NARRATIVES IN RURAL SOUTH AFRICA: A PRACTICAL THEOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVE, which I hereby submit for the degree Philosophiae Doctor at the University of Pretoria, is my own work and has not been previously submitted by me for a degree at this or any other university. All the sources that I have used or quoted have been indicated and acknowledged by means of complete references. Signed at Wolmaransstad on 30 August 2017 ........................................................................ i Acknowledgements Allow me to acknowledge the following people and institutions that enabled this work: My wife, Catherine, for her patience and tenacity in being married to someone who loves the land. May this work set some of the land’s questions to rest. My children, Nicolaas and Pippa, who lived with this work in our house like a third child, understanding that I had to close a door or stay home, when we could have had fun together. My late sister and forebears, buried at Strydpoort, who were known for their compassionate focus on social justice. My family and neighbours at Strydpoort. I hope we can co-create stories with positive outcomes for us all after this work. Professor Julian Műller, who supported and encouraged me with immeasurable patience and clarity.
    [Show full text]