Switzerland
No, its not Sweden! Its Switzerland, a small and
beautiful little country, middle of Europe.
Ah Switzerland ... Did
you know?
- There are a lot of mountains in
Switzerland, some of them harboring glaciers.
- There are a lot of lakes in
Switzerland, the largest which is totally within the Swiss borders
is Lac Neuchaål.
- There are only about 7 million
people in Switzerland (7.164 million as of Dec 1999).
- About 20% of the people living in
Switzerland are foreigners (19.6 in 1999).
- That the Swiss system of
government was patterned after the US Constitution? Unfortunately,
the US courts have invalidated many important parts of the US
Constitution whereas Switzerland still upholds those principles.
- 100,000 Swiss can demand via
referendum that the Constitution be revised.
- A new president of Switzerland is
elected every year.
- There are seven members of the
Swiss Federal Council (Executive branch) who are elected for four
years. A new President is elected from these seven each year.
- The president of Switzerland for
1999 was a woman and Jewish. Her name is Ruth Dreifuss.
- To see who is the current
president of Switzerland,
click here.
- There are four official
languages in Switzerland: German, French, Italian, and Romanch.
English is sort of an unofficial fifth language, and you will find
this selection of five languages on the
main Swiss Government
Web Page.
- The Swiss voted in favor of a new
Constitution 18 April 1999.
- There really is no lake named:
Lake Geneva. It's real name is Lake Leman
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