Is Money the Curse of Art?

Don't miss the next intriguing appointment of the Franklin University Switzerland Lecture Series. Join them for a lecture by Dr. Thomas Girst, Head of Cultural Engagement of the BMW Group. The event is in English and is open to all.

Thomas Girst was born in Trier (DE) in 1971. Following studies in art history, American Studies and German Literature at Hamburg University and New York University, in 2000 he became research manager of the Art Science Research Laboratory in New York. During the same period he was also cultural correspondent for German daily Die Tageszeitung.

As a curator, he organized numerous exhibitions, including “Alive and Kicking: the Collages of Charles Henri Ford” at the Scene Gallery in New York as well as “Marcel Duchamp in Munich 1912” at the Lenbachhaus in Munich.

Since 2003, Dr. Girst is global Head of Cultural Engagement at the BMW Group and is responsible for the strategy, implementation and supervision of hundreds of long-term partnerships in the fields of art, music, design and architecture with major institutions as well as artists worldwide. He teaches at the Ludwig Maximilian University, Munich, at the Academy of Fine Arts, Munich, as well as at the Academy of Applied Sciences in Zurich.

In 2016, Dr. Girst received the international “European Cultural Manager of the Year” award.

Venue: Lecture by Dr. Thomas Girst: "Is Money the Curse of Art?"
Where: Franklin University Switzerland, Via Ponte Tresa 29, Sorengo
When: Tuesday, March 28th, 2017
Time: 19:00 to 21:00
Entry is free. A reception will follow the lecture.

Facts about waste water

World Water Day is held on March 22nd to raise awareness of the importance of freshwater. It helps bring attention to a crisis faced by millions around the globe – limited access to fresh, clean water.

This year's theme is 'why waste water' and focuses on getting people to stop wasting the valuable resource.

It is estimated that 663 million people live without access to safe water close to their homes. Instead, they must travel long distances or queue for hours to get it. Many also have to cope with contaminated water – and the associated health problems.

The United Nations General Assembly officially designated March 22nd as World Water Day in 1993. Since then, campaigns have focused on improving water quality and access to freshwater for people around the world. In 2015 – and as part of the Sustainable Development Goals – a UN Initiative set a target to make sure everyone on the planet has access to safe water by 2030.

It is estimated that by 2030, the demand for water will have increased by 50% – most of which will be from people living in cities. As a result, World Water Day organisers are calling for new approaches to wastewater management.

Facts about waste water:
- At present, more than 80% of wastewater produced is pumped back into the ecosystem without being treated or reused.
- Despite most of the world's population being expected to live in cities by 2050, most – especially in developing countries – do not have the infrastructure or resources needed to manage wastewater.
- 1.8 billion people (more than a quarter of the world's population) use a source of drinking water that is contaminated by faeces. This places them at risk of a host of deadly diseases including dysentery, cholera and polio.
- It is estimated that unsafe water and poor sanitation kills 842,000 people every year.
- An area of land roughly equivalent to the size of Sri Lanka is irrigated with wastewater or polluted water. This causes health problems in the farmers working on the land, and eventually the people who consume the products they produce.
- Water, sanitation and hygiene could prevent 9.1% of the global disease burden – and an estimated 6.3% of all deaths.
- Improved water sources reduces the number of deaths from diarrhoea by 21%, while improved sanitation can reduce it by 37.5%.
- According to the USGS, the average person uses up to 100 gallons of water per day. 95% of this goes down the drain – meaning each person wastes between 76-95 gallons every day.
- Despite most of the planet being covered by water, most of it is not available for human use. If the Earth's water fitted into a four litre jug, just one tablespoon would be available freshwater.

Swiss hospitality at its best

This weekend brought us back to Switzerland... yet again... for Expat boy needs to make his first grown-up life-changing decision. Where to go after the International Baccalaureate?

To be perfectly honest he is his father's son, total strategic focus albeit sometimes absent-mined when not interested. His two passions: football and hospitality.

For years he has known that his goal was to study Hotel Management in Switzerland, I figured it might be a good idea if he actually visited the campus and surveyed the groundbreaking training in action.

Arriving in Lausanne on a spectacular sunny day with blue skies and gorgeous views across the Lake Leman, we were blown away by the atmosphere, professionalism, efficiency, cleanliness, organization, beauty and of course hospitality of Swiss Higher Education.

The visits to two different institutes provided an opportunity to personally discover the professionalism and excellence the Swiss hospitality training is world-renowned for. Admissions officers, teaching staff and student ambassadors did an outstanding job in demonstrating what Swiss education stands for and how it successfully prepares students for a wide variety of hospitality management careers across the globe.

So much so, that my husband has now decided he wants to go back to study!

You say "tomato", I say "tomato"

It's often said that the biggest difference between a British accent and an American one is rhotacism; words in British English have a flat "r" sound, while in American English the sound is rolled.

Of course, this often isn't true, as accents within Britain and America vary so widely. New York and Boston accents, for example, have a flat "r" sound, while Cornish, Scottish and some West Midlands accents are among those in the British Isles to retain the rhotic "r".

So which is the most common English accent?

English is spoken worldwide by around 840 million people, and is the third most-spoken global language after Mandarin Chinese and Spanish. It's the mother tongue of 335 million people, and a second language for a further 505 million. As most English speakers don't speak the language natively, that means the most common English accent in the world is probably what is known officially, if imprecisely, as "international English".

So for some Sunday entertainment I thought I'd share the song – “You say tomato, I say tomato” – which defines the major differences and in which we supposedly agree to call the whole thing off... being half American, half British this is the story of my life!

What does it mean to live together in Switzerland?

Why are rubbish bags in Switzerland different colours? Where can you play sports, and what do you need to know when looking for a job or going to school? These are some of the questions newcomers to Switzerland are confronted with. A new app from swissinfo.ch and the Swiss Broadcasting Corporation provides the answers through an interactive quiz game and online resources.

“Together”, as the app is called, is available for free in seven languages: English, German, French, Italian, Portuguese, Spanish and Arabic. It allows users to test their knowledge, learn new information and challenge other players in 10 quiz categories ranging from jobs to Swiss landmarks.

The app contains more than 300 questions with more questions and categories to be released in the coming weeks and months. Users who have more questions of their own about daily life in Switzerland can submit those to the team behind the appexternal link to have them researched, answered and included in the quiz. How cool is that?!?

Swissinfo.ch and the Swiss Broadcasting Corporation decided to produce the “together” app to address newcomers’ desire to integrate into Swiss society and learn more about daily life in the country. Its content is largely based on swissinfo.ch’s “Switzerland How To” external link offering, which provides information about daily life in Switzerland in 10 languages. So, if you haven't checked it out yet hop over and go browsing!

Together is a playful way to test your knowledge, learn new things and find useful information. Together, we are Switzerland.

The world's most influential language

What makes a language influential? Is it one with the most speakers?

According to one group of scholars, including cognitive scientist and linguist Steven Pinker, whether or not a language is influential is less about that language itself, and more about how it connects to others.

To establish how languages are connected, the scholars looked at three forms of writing. If someone, a journalist for example, wants their story to go global, they will most likely print the story in their native language, as well as in those languages they think will have the biggest reach.

First, they looked at over 2.2 million book translations between 1979 and 2011, which were made in over 150 countries and more than a thousand languages. They then looked at which edits to Wikipedia were being done in more than one language, scanning 382 million edits in 238 languages by 2.5 million editors. Finally, they turned to Twitter, looking at 550 million tweets in 73 languages written by 17 million users – more than 10% of Twitter’s active user base.

If researching a global language network shows one thing, it's that English remains the number one most connected language in the world. After English, however, there was no single global network, but rather three sets of smaller networks around the world, linked together by languages that have had historical and colonial influence, such as French, Spanish, German, Russian, Portuguese and Chinese.

International Mother Language Day

UNESCO is celebrating International Mother Language Day (IMLD) today. 2017 runs under the theme “Towards Sustainable Futures through Multilingual Education”.

On the occasion of this Day, I launch an appeal for the potential of multilingual education to be acknowledged everywhere, in education and administrative systems, in cultural expressions and the media, cyberspace and trade. Irina Bokova, UNESCO Director-General  

Well, Switzerland represents the prefect example with its four National languages: German, French, Italian and Romansch. Multilingualism is an integral part of Switzerland's national identity, however, that does not mean every Swiss is multilingual.

It is important to know that there are three official languages in Switzerland (German, French and Italian) but there are four National languages (German, French, Italian AND Romansch). Although Romansh is spoken by only some 10,000 people in certain parts of Graubünden, it has five distinct dialects: Sursilvan, Sutsilvan, Surmiran, Puter and Vallader.

Here are some more facts:

- German is the main language of around 64.9% of the population. However, they do not speak standard German but rather various Alemmanic dialects that are collectively known as “Schwiizerdütsch” (Swiss German).
- Swiss German is not a written language, although it is used sometimes in personal correspondence. Standard German is used for all formal, written communication.
- French is the main language of around 22.6% of the population.
- Italian is the main language of around 8.3% of the population.
- Romansch is the main language of about 0.5% of the population.
- Several cantons are multilingual: Bern (German-French), Fribourg (French-German), Valais (French-German) and Graubünden (German-Romansh-Italian).
- Swiss German is the most widely used language in the workplace (66%), followed by standard German (33%), French (29%), English (18%) and Italian (9%).
- Over 42% of the population over the age of 15 regularly use more than one language.
- Foreigners living in Switzerland also contribute to the country's linguistic diversity. English and Portuguese are the most commonly spoken foreign languages.
- Other commonly spoken foreign languages include Spanish, Serbian, Croatian and Albanian.

How Bilingualism rewires your brain

Around the world, more than half of people – estimates vary from 60-75% – speak at least two languages. Many countries have more than one official national language – South Africa has 11. And you thought Switzerland had a lot with four?! People are increasingly expected to speak, read and write at least one of a handful of “super” languages, such as English, Chinese, Hindi, Spanish or Arabic, as well.

Multilingualism has been shown to have many social, psychological and lifestyle advantages. Moreover, researchers are finding a swath of health benefits from speaking more than one language, including faster stroke recovery and delayed onset of dementia.

Did you know that as a bilingual your brain is continually processing information in both languages?

“Bilinguals are a really a model of cognitive control,” Pennsylvania State University cognitive scientist Judith F. Kroll told Quartz, citing bilinguals’ ability to both hold two languages in their head and expertly switch between them at the right times.

How art historians constructed "Swiss art"

"Swiss art" has always been a risky concept; however there is virtually no other country on earth with as many museums per capita as Switzerland. Even with its numerous galleries and internationally famous fairs, the Swiss maintain their modesty on the subject.

Join Dr. Fayet as he discusses the construction of "Swiss Art" from 1876, when Johann Rudolf Rahn published his History of the Fine Arts in Switzerland, down to the present day.

Roger Fayet was born in Zurich in 1966. From 1994 to 1999 he was Assistant Curator at the Johann Jacobs Museum, Zurich. From 1999 to 2003 he was Head Curator of the Museum Bellerive and the applied arts collection of the Museum für Gestaltung, Zurich. In 2003 he was appointed Director of the Museum zu Allerheiligen, Schaffhausen. Since 2010 he has worked as Director of the Swiss Institute for Art Research (SIK-ISEA), Zurich and Lausanne. Fayet teaches the University of Zurich and at the Zurich University of the Arts (ZHdK). From 2009 to 2015 he was President of the Swiss National Committee of the International Council of Museums (ICOM Switzerland), and he is currently Vice President of the International Association of Research Institutes in the History of Art (RIHA).

Now that's what I call an impressive CV. This promises to be an extraordinary evening and an opportunity for all art lovers that is not to be missed!

Venue: How art historians construct(ed) "Swiss art"
Where: Franklin University Switzerland, Nielsen Auditorium, Via Ponte Tresa 29, 6924 Sorengo
When: Tuesday, January 31, 2017
Time: 7:00 PM to 8:00 PM
Entry is free. The event is in English and open to all.

Old World language families revisited

When linguists talk about the historical relationship between languages, they use a tree metaphor. An ancient source (for example Indo-European) has various branches (e.g., Romance, Germanic), which themselves have branches (West Germanic, North Germanic), which feed into specific languages (Swedish, Danish, Norwegian).

Lessons on language families are often illustrated with a simple tree diagram that has all the information but lacks imagination. There’s no reason linguistics has to be so visually uninspiring.

Minna Sundberg, creator of the webcomic Stand Still. Stay Silent, a story set in a lushly imagined post-apocalyptic Nordic world, has drawn the antidote to the boring linguistic tree diagram.

Meet the Swiss Federal Council 2017

The release of the Swiss Federal Council's official photo for 2017 on New Year’s Eve caused quite a stir in the media, even becoming a trending topic on twitter. Creative minds were quick to publish inventive versions of the original portraits taken by photographer Beat Mumenthaler.

The original version

An adapted "nice" version

The Swiss government comprises seven members to form the Federal Council. The president is elected for a one-year term of office and is regarded during that time as ‘Primus inter pares’, or first among equals.

The Swiss Government has revamped its official website where you can find information about the Swiss Government and a restricted amount of news in English. Personally, I do think this year's photo is a great deal more stylish than in past years. So let's look at the bright side, the Swiss Federal Council are definitely making an effort.

Someone decided to adapt the official photo into a video showing the Federal Council singing ‘Bernhemian Rhapsody’. See the result for yourself:

Un Natale insolito

The kids' attention nowadays is difficult to peal away from the screen. The children's library in Besso (LA BIBLIOTECA DEI RAGAZZI) tries its best to captivate the young readers' interest with all kinds of activities and events.

Their latest invention is a funky advent calendar. Just take a look at what today's window opens up to: a lovely short story read by a local family of five called "Un Natale insolito".

Should your children understand Italian it is a charming bedtime story to listen to, just click here: 

http://www.labibliotecadeiragazzi.ch/23-dicembre/

The modern Third Culture Kid

Denizen is an online magazine and community dedicated to people who grew up in multiple countries, international school alumni, or Third Culture Kids (TCK). Third Culture Kids are the international nomads that possess the cross-cultural views and diverse experiences that are necessary in a ever-shrinking world.

Formally defined, TCKs are people who have spent a portion of their formative childhood years (0-18) in a culture different than their parents. TCKs are, quite literally, citizens of the world. They are hard to define and are made of an infinite amount of experiences.

Last August Denizen conducted an informal online survey of more than 200 Third Culture Kids. The majority of respondents were female, with the average age being 29. They were curious about the lives of the modern Third Culture Kid. They wanted to learn more about who these TCKs were, how often they’d moved, and how they had aged.

To the most frequently asked question “Where are you from?”, the easiest response is always “It’s complicated.”

Educating for complexity

It started with three simple words back in 2015: New Strategic Plan which resulted with a three page Strategic vision resumé last night.

In between lay months and months of hard work: preparation, organization, team building, work shopping, brainstorming, cooperation, compilation, creation, realization, revision, leading up to the revelation and launch of the school new innovative and ambitious Strategic plan. A road map towards the future.

Last night a little association created over 50 years ago in Paris announced to the world it was going to play with the big guys of International schools by putting itself on the educational map. It did so with a bang inviting staff, students, parents, alumni, press and local dignitaries to celebrate the official launch in the Natural History Museum of Paris. It was the perfect surroundings to get a very important message across to everyone.

The IB school has reached a crossroad in it's life cycle: it can either engineer its way around this and carry on as before or it can redesign a new, more challenging but ultimately more rewarding path for staff and students.

There is a palpable sense of evolution as the school's mission transforms in the service of a different vision. More than half a decade of accumulated experience in International education gives it the confidence to offer a bold vision for its future. We are moving from experience to influence.

Lived experience is often complex and it is communities such as our school's that have so much to offer. The new Strategic plan provides a road map for the future allowing our children to engage with and succeed in an increasingly complex world.

As for last night, out of roughly 400 kids I can say I did not see a single one walking around with his head stuck in a device! All of them were running along the esplanades of animals under superbly designed lighting effects and theatrical settings. It will be night in the museum they will not forget... and neither will I.

A spectacular backdrop for a celebration

Moving from experience to influence

It's a complex world we are navigating in

Familiar faces

Curiosity never hurts

Amount of waste a family of four produces in 10 days

The World's Biggest Eye Contact Experiment

On Saturday the 29th of October, 2016 hundreds of thousands of people from around the world – from Tel Aviv to Melbourne – will stand united in eye contact. It is the official date for the World's Biggest Eye Contact Experiment, a global event inspiring the world to share authentic eye contact and connection in public. Last year over 100,000 people from over 156 different cities were involved.

The Liberators International are the global organisers of this event. They are a peaceful international social movement founded in Perth, Australia and are passionate about creating participatory public demonstrations for peace and videos that allow us to see that beyond our differences there is love and humanity.

Why?
“Our global society has become thirsty for true connection and this experience allows you to be the change you wish to see in the world by creating an authentic, loving and respectful platform for human connection to flourish in public.”

Your participation in this global event demonstrates that beyond our differences there is love and humanity. You will be representing your country on this incredible day and what happens will forever change the social fabric of the present and future. Sign up here.

The only Ticino event is awaiting clearance for Locarno. Stay tuned with this list of participating cities: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1dycjvpldFI8jhsgpkYO2CWBXCseKqRwnKLgQ_UQABRE/mobilebasic

For more info click here: http://www.eyecontactexperiment.com

International Day of the Girl

In 2011, as the result of youth advocacy around the world, the United Nations declared October 11th as the International Day of the Girl. Its mission is “to help galvanize worldwide enthusiasm for goals to better girls’ lives, providing an opportunity for them to show leadership and reach their full potential.”

It is a day when activist groups come together under the same goal to highlight, discuss, and take action to advance rights and opportunities for girls everywhere.

The challenges girls face differ across the world, but by ensuring data on girls is gathered and recorded, it is hoped that this year’s International Day of the Girl will support future progress by recording present facts.

Girls in numbers:
-  70% of the world’s poor are girls and women
-  62m Number of girls who should be in school but are not.
-  830 girls and young women die during pregnancy and childbirth every day
-  55% of the 20.9m victims of forced labour are girls and women
-  39,000 girls are married before they turn 18

Source: plan-international.org/because-i-am-a-girl

October 11 is not just a day; it’s a movement!

Clean Up Day 2016

It's Clean Up Day!

This Friday and Saturday join the Clean Up Day action organized by the city of Lugano. Volunteer to remove trash, recyclables, and other litter across the city to help reduce the amount of pollution that goes into the local ecosystem.

Did you know that every year, 20 million tons of garbage is added to our oceans, 80% of it from mainland waste. That’s like dumping over 710,000 Boeing 737 airplanes into the ocean…each year?

Together with the event organizers, you can volunteer collecting litter from the sidewalks and grass areas, in the spirit of the international initiative called “Let’s Do It”, a civic-led mass movement that began in Estonia in 2008 when 50,000 people united together to clean up the entire country in just five hours. Since then, Let’s Do It! has spread this model—one country in one day—around the world. To date, 113 countries and over 16 million people have joined us to clean up illegal waste.

Venue: Clean Up Day 2016

Where: City of Lugano

When: Friday, September 9th and Saturday, September 10th, 2016

For more info contact: +41 58 866 77 17 or email: cleanupday@lugano.ch

National website: http://www.igsu.ch/fr/actualits/clean-up-day/#action-de-cartographie

Switzerland and Modern Diplomacy lecture

Back from vacation? Ready to start the new school year? Don't miss the opening lecture of the Fall 2016 Lecture Series at Franklin University Switzerland by Ambassador Pio Wennubst, Assistant Director General and Head of the Global Cooperation Department at the Swiss Agency for Development Cooperation.

Ambassador Wennubst was born in Lugano in 1961 and has extensive experience in development diplomacy based on extensive field work in areas such as rural development, microfinance and public health. He joined the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC) in 1995 and was initially posted to Bolivia and subsequently to Madagascar where he was tasked with reorganizing Swiss development cooperation activities. From 2008 to 2011, he was the deputy permanent representative of the Swiss mission to the Rome-based UN agencies. He later joined the Swiss permanent mission to the UN in New York as head of the economic and social development team, and currently manages the Global Cooperation Department as Assistant Director General of the SDC.

Now, this promises plenty of interesting aspects to learn about Modern Diplomacy and Switzerland.

Venue: Switzerland and Modern Diplomacy by Ambassador Pio Wennubst
Where: Franklin University Switzerland, Nielsen Auditorium, Via Ponte Tresa 29, Sorento
Date: Thursday, September 1st, 2016
Time: 19:00 to 20:00

This is for my girls...

In March, the First Lady Michelle Obama launched Let Girls Learn to address the range of challenges preventing adolescent girls across the globe from attaining a quality education that empowers them to reach their full potential.

Let Girls Learn employs a holistic approach to change the perception of the value of girls at the individual, community and institutional levels; fostering an enabling environment for adolescent girls’ education; and engaging and equipping girls to make life decisions and important contributions to society.

But Michelle Obama did not stop there, she enlisted a major girl squad to sing the power anthem "This Is For My Girls." The song, which was inspired by the Let Girls Learn initiative and the 62 million girls around the world who do not have access to education, features Kelly Clarkson, Missy Elliott, Jangle Monáe, Kelly Rowland, Zendaya, Lea Michele, Chloe x Halle, and Jadagrace.

While the First Lady is not featured on "This Is For My Girls," it was a natural fit for her to join James Corden for a Carpool Karaoke segment to sing the song and celebrate the power of musical activism.

Now, I don't know about you, but my vote definitely goes to the current first lady!

The world is as big or as small as you make it

This is a video worth watching about a group of North Philadelphia local kids that gather at a rec centre to participate in an innovative program where they forge friendships with their peers across the world.

These students need to go through a metal detector every day at school. Despite a difficult environment they tell and listen to stories of the world that 10 years ago they wouldn't have had the opportunity to be exposed to.

This amazing bunch of kids are blessed with having an awesome mentor who wants to spread empathy and understanding by connecting teenagers. She decides to "retool" what the kids already have.

She guides them to ask real questions and learn about what separates them and what unites them. As they connect with kids from New York, Nigeria, Tanzania, Uganda, Kenya, Paris and Kazakhstan, they discover that their worlds are not as different as they might think.



"The World Is As Big Or As Small As You Make It" | Sundance Institute.