29 October, 2013 . THE BIGGER THEY ARE, THE HARDER THEY FALL; SWITZERLAND, A COUNTRY WHERE A LITTLE RACIAL HATRED IS OK, AND, BASEL’S BULL ELEPHANT SETS OFF FOR SWEDEN

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One unlucky family in Zwingen in Basel-Land is likely to remember last Wednesday for quite some time. Things started to go rapidly wrong for the Ellenbergers just after 8 in the morning when the 30 metre-long boom of a construction crane came crashing down into their garden. Fortunately the couple were indoors at the time, and their 9-year-old daughter Anna had already left for school. “Just think how things could have turned out differently,” said Mr Ellengerber, “if the weather at the time had been better and we’d all been out in the garden – something we do regularly.”

Although, fortunately, nobody was hurt in the drama, the family’s trampoline has lost its bounce forever, a hedge will need a lot of surgery, and the neighbours also have a long list of repairs needing attention. In all, the damage is estimated to be somewhere in six figures. The head of the construction company that operates the crane came round to apologise for the upset, explaining that the crane was overloaded at the time.

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In a few days’ time Basel will play host to the second annual Start-up Weekend. The conference, sponsored by the Swiss Commission for Technology and Innovation, aims to provide a 3-day venue where young entrepreneurs can share their ideas, get feedback, network and hopefully find some financial and management resources. The forum is open to business ventures in any industry. For example, this year's anticipated participants will field ideas in waste disposal, cloud computing and urban farming. Sign-ups are still being accepted and the cost is 60 francs for all three days. Past participants include the Urban Farmer folks who have built a successful enterprise farming arable crops on rooftops and selling their produce to local restaurants and supermarkets. This year, they're back to expand their concept into rooftop aquaculture.

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Pedestrians walking past a block of flats in Basel’s Kleinhüningerstrasse  gaped in awe and shock last Thursday morning when they saw that one resident had hung a sheet over the balcony clearly showing a home-made painting of a Nazi swastika. Even more shocking was the news that the resident seems to be within his rights.

Police called to the scene took the flag down while enquiries were made. It seems, however, that although public display of the swastika is forbidden in Germany, in Switzerland no such law exists. It’s a tricky decision, however, since Swiss law does prohibit use of the swastika to make propaganda.

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On Monday, the Elizabethenkirche played host to a special 90 minute service for pets and their owners. Parishioners were treated to organ music and a special benediction by Monika Bühler who led the service. Amazingly, and perhaps a result of Swiss training, the full congregation of pets present were well behaved and received their blessings without so much as a bark or whimper. In conjunction with the Humane Society of Basel, the event was a great success, which many pet owners appreciated – especially the temporary lifting of a general prohibition against animals in the church!

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If you were out and about in town last Saturday you might have noticed more traffic than usual – more even than the rush you might expect to turn out for the opening day of the annual Herbstmesse. Hardly surprising really, since traffic around the busy Schifflande was blocked for an hour and a half after a spectacular collision between a bus and a tram.

The smash happened just after 1 in the afternoon, when a French bus, number 604, was on its way back to Saint Louis, and attempted to turn left in the Blumenrain by the Three Kings Hotel. What the driver didn’t see, was a Basel tram coming the same way up his left hand side but looking to turn right to get onto the Mittlere Rheinbrücke. 

There were some injuries, mostly dealt with on the spot, although one 48-year-old woman had to be taken to hospital.

Although the bus appeared to be badly damaged by the shunt, the driver was able to drive it away about an hour later - after giving police his account of the accident. 

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In a follow-up to a story The English Show reported on a few weeks ago, Yoga, a male bull elephant living in Basel Zoo was moved to a Swedish Zoo last week while construction of a new elephant enclosure is completed. Despite the challenges of transporting such a large passenger, Yoga is expected to be well looked after - and in the company of a female elephant whom both Swiss and Swedish zookeepers hope will successfully mate and breed with her new Swiss chum.

The transport started in the early hours of last Wednesday as the four-and-a-half ton animal was slowly led into a transport crate which was then lifted by a 200 ton crane unto the bed of a articulated truck. The subsequent 48 hour journey wound its way through Germany to the port of Travemünde where a ferry took the crate on to Malmö, and finally on to the Boras Zoo in south-western Sweden. Handlers and zookeepers report that Yoga arrived safely, is slowly emerging from his travel crate and already made trunk-to-trunk contact with his female host.

It is expected that Yoga will be strutting his stuff on Swiss soil again when his newly-constructed enclosure at the Basel Zoo is completed in the fall of 2016.

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Basel´s Euroairport has reported an 11% increase in passenger numbers in the first 9 months of this year.

And there is no surprise as to which airline dominates the airport market share. EasyJet now flies 54% of all passengers to and from Basel from the 44 destinations it serves from the Euroairport base. Swiss, which a decade ago was the leader with 41.5%, now only flies just under 5% of all passengers. Air France which a decade ago commanded 35.4% from Basel now has 7% of the local market.

Swiss is planning to further reduce its presence at the Euroairport as it cuts flights to Barcelona from January. However, the Lufthansa-owned airline promises to return with more flights and destinations in 2015 when it takes delivery of 20 new regional jets.

Just to make Swiss and Air France´s life more difficult, Easyjet will be adding further destinations in 2014 from its Basel base making it even harder for the higher cost airlines to compete.

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