Fight For Fasnacht Tradition; Sky Shrouded In Saharan Sand; Police Tease E-Car Rivalry

 News For 9 February 2021

More than 3500 Basler Fasnacht fans signed a petition to support the broadcasting of the famous Fasnacht Schnitzelbänke. The beloved political satire poems are an essential part of the Fasnacht celebrations - which, along with the entirety of the festival had been cancelled. Politicians and fans alike, insisted that Fasnacht, which had recently become part of the UNESCO world heritage list of events, should be allowed to film their 20 Schnitzelbänke in order to preserve the tradition.  Initially, the health authorities insisted that there was no reason to extend the Covid health rules concerning singing in public or groups, especially as they then might have to exempt other Fasnacht activities.  Caving to public sentiment, late last week they reconsidered their stance, and gave Telebasel permission to film the Schnitzelbänke in their studios, which will be presumably broadcast during the traditional Fasnacht time.

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From Snow to Sand, Basel has certainly seen some varied weather over the last few weeks.  On Saturday the sky turned yellow as airborne dust from the Sahara desert covered the sky.  According to SRF Meteo, the dust comes mainly from the northwest African states of Mauritania, Mali and Algeria. There it rose two to five kilometres into the air due to the weather and the warm temperatures and was carried as far as Switzerland by the winds.  According to SRF Meteo, the Saharan dust is likely to have a negligible impact on people's health, and with temperatures anticipated to drop to minus nine this week in Basel, any remaining dust in the atmosphere will be cleared.

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A bit of friendly ribbing by the Basel Police department was directed at their Zurich counterparts via social media last week.  The Zurich police published a post announcing the deployment of their Audi E-Tron, electric powered police cars as the first in Switzerland to be used for patrol.  While technically true, Basel's police force have had their Teslas in service - as "on alert" vehicles for more than a year.  Although the distinction is not clear or obvious, the Basel police published a post of their own, teasing their counterparts for the claim of being the first.  In the spirit of the Fasnacht season, they even penned a "Schnitzelbänke" poem claiming "dibs" on whose E-cars were first.  Zurich police, not to be outdone, "complemented" Basel police on their traditional poetry skills.