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I don't think it would even occur to them to make a Southern European comment. You forget how many whole or part Southern Italians not only live in the U.S. but have become prominent and completely accepted. It's a different world from Europe. I've never in my life in the U.S. been belittled or attacked for my ethnicity, but it happened in Switzerland, and in Germany, places I will never again visit and whose products I will under no circumstances buy.
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Indeed. That's why I thought I was being polite in not using English to ask for a stamp but instead used Italian, you know, given it's one of the NATIONAL languages of Switzerland.
Instead, that was a big NO, NO. Can't ever use anything but Swiss Dutch in that town, certainly not Italian. When my aunt explained later (the phone having been buzzing all afternoon) the sexualized invective he used on me, a fourteen year old girl, I wanted to go back the next day and punch him. The town is Liestal, in case anyone is wondering, right near Zurich. Never been back, or to Switzerland in general. When my aunt and my cousin and her Swiss German husband want to see me they come to Italy. I never forgive or forget.
In Germany it was some sort of customs official who had been called over. Probably thought my husband was a Turk.
That time my husband almost decked him. The guard thought better of his lack of civility when my husband stood up and got a little too close for comfort given my husband is over six feet and at that point was a gym rat carrying 200 + pounds of sheer muscle on him. They don't make members of the Master Race the way they used to...
Allow me, a foreigner that lives in Switzerland since 2005 and who in the meanwhile got a Swiss citizenship, to comment on this. You must be traumatized by the incident and I'm sincerely sorry for what happened to you. I hope you'll agree that something like this could happen basically anywhere. No country has a lack of idiots, right?
I'm writing this only for the forum members that could get a wrong picture of Switzerland, based on your strongly biased and unfair statements. For the sake of the truth and facts, I'll add this:
1. You have clearly presented Switzerland as a chauvinist (a more suitable adjective than a "rasist") country. And you give the example of U.S. as an opposite example where the Italians are well integrated. As a matter of fact, 40% of the Swiss population has an immigration background. See for yourself:
https://www.bfs.admin.ch/bfs/en/hom...igration-integration/by-migration-status.html
The Italians hold one of the biggest shares and they are very well integrated as well as the numerous Portuguese, Germans, Spanish, folks from the Balkans, Turks, British, Asians, Africans or other. In my area close to Zürich, there are 120 different nationalities among roughly 30'000 people. My own experience is only my own, but I can assure you that as a "Yugo" I'm more than well accepted. I don't earn less than genuine Swiss and my background was never ever a issue despite having a strong foreign accent which I can't hide. I've worked from Zürich to Berne and this applies to every place I've been. I worked and I am working with many Italian colleagues and bosses too.
2. Italian is one of the national languages of Switzerland, that is true. It was your poor judgement, Angela to address someone in the German part in Italian. Having 4 national languages makes people around the world to think that all Swiss speak indeed all 4 languages. That is a very wide misconception. In the German part they speak mostly only German (some learn FR or IT in the school but their level is mostly basic), in the French part they speak French (some of them speak Swiss German, closer to the Swiss German border) and we have the same in Italian part, in the only Italian speaking canton - Ticino. Round 60'000 people in Grisons use Rhaeto-Romanic on daily basis (beside CH German). Angela, you were only 14, you couldn't know that. But you should know better now and you should stop living in that trauma of yours. If you don't want to - don't. Just don't bash one of the most inclusive and democratic countries in the world in front of the whole forum. This is clearly a narcissistic behaviour.
3. A decision not to visit or buy anything from Switzerland is just not rational. Many of those products are produced and sold by those 40% people of foreign background. What makes Switzerland economically strong, are the middle and small enterprises, were the mentioned 40% play a significant role. They are very often the entrepreneurs or they work there for their living. Think about who are you "punishing".
4. Liestal isn't close to Zürich but to Basel, close to German and French border. A region that is very proud of it's multiculturalism.
5. Your comment and the language on the episode with the German customs is appropriate for a teenage, not for a moderator on a forum. To offend a whole nation with a vicious remark "Master Race" based on an individual case, where you only have your own subjective assumptions "he probably thought my husband was a Turk"? Are you serious? And then the "my husband is stronger then you" remark? That's kindergarten level.
Angela, you are a chauvinist, are you aware of it? You don't like the Germans and you see the whole nation as nazis. One old fart gives you a hard time and you have the whole Switzerland on your black list. The customs officer "probably thought your husband was a Turk" and "They don't make members of the Master Race the way they used to..."? How should one read this?
If I were a moderator, I would kindly warn you to be cautious...
Don't "ever forgive or forget"...