The Water

Humilitas
The more or less ‘friendly’ discordance between cantons is nothing new for people living in Switzerland. Earlier this week I received the Retail Market Report 2012 from the Location Group stating that, according to their latest study, retail locatons in Zürich recently reached a staggering SFr. 12 500 per square meter. The Economist reported on this fact mentioning that Zürich has now become the most expensive city in the world, pushing Tokyo from its former position at top of the list.

The well-known Basler columnist Minu, took this information as stuff for a wonderfully witty essay which almost reads as if it were a ‘Letter to Zürich’ written from a little brother. A little brother however, who has outgrown or rather never saw the need to show-off or scream about its own worth. Basically, because the people from Basel simply don’t have to stoop to something so tasteless! Basel is seldom mentioned in such ratings and more often than not passes as invisible but this doesn’t seem to bother the Basler at all or in any way shake their sense of self-worth. There is a wonderful word that comes to mind. On Isola Bella it’s omnipresent, everywhere you look – on the gigantic lemon- and orange-tree flower pots, on the coat of arms, on the stone pathing, in the woven wall tapestries there it is – the symbol of three intersecting rings and above it written, carved in stone or woven – the word, Humilitas.

Humilitas, the Latin root of our modernday word humility, meaning not only the idea of being humble but also connotating the concept of an intrinsic sense of self-worth. To be ‘grounded’ or ‘of the earth’ are other possible interpretations because of the word’s connection to the word, ‘humus’ (earth).

I’d like to quote the end of Minu’s essay for you here (in German):

Ihr seid die Grössten. (Er schreibt hier an die Zürcher…)
Ihr seid die Teuersten.
Wir Basler schaden so dem glänzenden Ranking der Schweiz – entschuldigt, dass es uns gibt. Aber wir versuchen seit Jahrhunderten, nicht die Teuersten zu sein. Sondern die Kostbarsten.

Und das ist der kleine, kulturelle Unterschied.

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As for Basel, speaking to a fashion designer recently about the city and its self-confident and undeniable presence in Miami, the plee for independant coverage in journalism (BAZ) etc. I concluded, ‘For me, it feels like Basel still belongs to the Basler’. I like that.

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Weekend plans…

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Breakfast bird…

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Leading up to the old Sylvester celebrations in Appenzell, a young boy listens while his peers sing ancient songs in a local Beiz in Hundwil… sends shivers down your spine. The boy’s gaze reflecting the timeless mood of the evening with its archaic remnants of oral tradition where sounds more than words speak across the centuries and melodies get passed on from one generation to the next – in this neck of the woods, it’s an exclusively male domain.

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Women-men. . .

Ring out the old, bring in the new…

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