Briefing+Book

=Briefing Book= On this page you can view pressing articles that have been written in Time, Newsweek, The New York Times, or Swissinfo. The following 15 acticles have been uploaded to livebinder.com. Below that is a summary of 5 of the articles in livebinder.

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Article 1: Switzerland celebrates World's Longest Rail Tunnel
In this article, you find out that Switzerland, after 12 years, has finally drilled through the Swiss Alps to create the rail tunnel. It is going to be the longest rail tunnel in the world. 2,600 people worked on the tunnel that was 1.5 miles and through 23 million tons of rock, although, the project won't be completely finished until 2017. It will be costing $12 billion. Not only is the tunnel a monument, but it is also expected to increase travel and trade, while decreasing emissions and congestion. Which will be important because over the past 20 years, concerns or increasing congestion have risen.

Article 2: The World is Flat, and Chocolatiers Want to Coat it
In this articles, you read about the $2.1 billion factory called Lindt & Sprungli in Zurich, Switzerland that brings a great smell throughout the city. To get people to eat more chocolate, the Swiss company is creating new types of chocolate such as hot chili pepper flavored dark chocolate. In the article it says that Zurich remains to be a chocolate loving city and that they are many chocolate stores in Zurich. Although, there is a trend in dark chocolate and single origin chocolate. People like chocolate that they're used to.

Article 3: Imigration, Black Sheep, and Swiss Rage
In this article, you read about a poster with 3 white sheep kicking a black sheep. Above this, the poster says, "To Create Security." The poster was put up by the Swiss People's Party and is against the campain in Switzerland to end imigration. The current president of Switzerland at that moment had said that the posters were discusting and unexceptable and asked anyone who didn't agree with the posters to have the courage to speak up. One of the fellow Swiss people's party members, Bruno Walliser, said that people thought of their posters as raceist when he considered them a simple message. He said that the black sheep in the poster was a foreign criminal and that they didn't want him.

Article 4: A Hole in the Earth, A Hole in a Pocket
In this article, you read about the Swiss Alps has had many tunnels put into it that is causing environmental damage. It says that the Alps are right between Europe's 2 most economical regions. Not only are the tunnels bad on the environment, but they are extremely costly too. The lastest tunnel at the time was the Lotschberg tunnel costing $3.5 billion for it to be built. Another way that the tunnels are so costly is that in 2006, $1.1 billion were collected in tolls. Even though the tunnels are so costly and environmentally hazardous, the Swiss plan on continuing.

Article 5: The End of Switzerland
In this article, you can read about how Switzerland is having a slow, gradual dowfall. It talks about how the counrty deregulated on low tax economics with the rule-of-law democracy. It also states that in this little counrty, the cities are grubby, the trains are always late, the highways are always under repair, and the politcians are always provincial. It says that Switzerland seems like just another small struggling European country. It also states that Switzerland is looking less and less important in world affairs.