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“Neutrality remains essential”

ICRC President Peter Maurer* discussing war and peace

Interview held by Roger Köppel on October 6, 2022

(7 November 2022) (Ed.) As President of the International Committee of the Red Cross, Peter Maurer has visited the hotbeds of conflict around the world. In his final interview as president, he expresses cautious optimism. Peter Maurer believes that international humanitarian law is being better upheld in the Ukrainian conflict. The role of a neutral mediator remains essential in the struggle for peace.

Russia’s homage to Nord Stream pipelines

by M. K. Bhadrakumar,* India

(7 November 2022) David Brinkley, the legendary American newscaster with a career that spanned an amazing fifty-four years from World War II once said that a successful man is one who can lay a firm foundation with the bricks others have thrown at him. How many American statesmen ever practised this noble thought inherited from Jesus Christ remains doubtful.
Grain of sand

Petition to the Federal Council

by Suzette Sandoz,* Lausanne

(31 October 2022) Well, here we go again! Yesterday evening (10 October), on the news of the French-speaking Swiss television RTS, we were presented with an article about – free of charge – vaccination, the fourth dose for people at risk or, quite simply, from the age of 16! We are again “shown” bare (ohhh) pricked shoulders and, above all, we are served up some deaths, some thousands of Covid cases, some hospitalisations, in short, the liturgy from which we had been spared for a while. And of course some testimonies (I get vaccinated because I am a teacher, because I am a nurse – undercurrent: to protect others!); it is true that one also heard one person who refused vaccination, but without any justification. AND the whole thing is under the responsibility of the FOPH [Federal Office of Public Health].

On the joy of being a (class) teacher

Is the shortage of teachers a result of the profession being made less attractive?

by Margrit Brügger*

(31 October 2022) Rebellious children, demanding parents threatening to sue, excessive administrative tasks, the curricula and official inspectors who often aren’t helpful at all to pedagogy – class teachers are confronted with all this and on top of that often massively hindered in their work. Alain Pichard has described the diverse, sometimes trying tasks of a class teacher.1 So, how can you speak of the joy of being a class teacher?

“If Europe is incapable of working for peace, it will vanish from history!”

Interview with Georges Martin* conducted by “Indocile.press”

((31 October 2022) Edit.) Now retired, Georges Martin, former No. 3 in Swiss diplomacy, is committed to and wants to be an ambassador for peace. The man who served neutrality shows us that he is so attached to this notion that he would not want to corrupt it with the convoluted language of diplomacy. “Indocile” called on this diplomat whose personal commitment to neutrality allows the Iranians to make the pilgrimage to Arabia and the Saudis to Mashhad.

A war Russia set to win

The Europeans have been nicely played by the Americans

by M. K. Bhadrakumar,* India

(31 October 2022) Two massive terrorist strikes misfired spectacularly and a terrible beauty is born in the Ukraine war. These two carefully planned attacks in quick succession – on Nord Stream gas pipelines and Crimean Bridge – were intended as a knockout blow to Russia. According to President Vladimir Putin, people ‘who want to finally sever ties between Russia and the EU, weaken Europe’ are behind the Nord Stream blasts. He named the US, Ukraine and Poland as ‘beneficiaries’.