Swiss Fury at Foreigners Boiling Over

The Washington Post ^ | October 9, 2007 | Molly Moore

[yorkie]

At 1:30 a.m., Antonio da Costa heard a knock at the back entrance of the McDonald's restaurant where he worked as a janitor after-hours.

He opened the door, he recalled in an interview. There stood two men, each gripping a chain saw. One yanked the cord on his saw, stepped toward da Costa and shouted above the roaring machine: "We don't need Africans in our country. We're here to kill you!"

The two masked assailants cornered da Costa and began raking him with the whirring chain-saw blades. They slashed one arm to the bone, nearly sliced off his left thumb and hacked his face, neck and chest, the 37-year-old Angolan said, his voice quavering as he recounted the May 1 attack.

The gruesome assault in a suburb of Zurich -- consistently ranked in international surveys as one of the world's most livable cities -- dramatized the surge in racism and xenophobia as Switzerland confronts its most difficult social transformation in modern times. Today, more than one in five people living in Switzerland are foreign-born, the second-highest percentage among countries in Europe.

One of the world's oldest democracies is at the center of Western Europe's most divisive political debate: to embrace an increasingly globalized, multicultural society or to retreat into social isolation in an effort to preserve eroding traditional identities.

Across Switzerland, anti-foreigner and anti-Islamic attitudes have become so pervasive on the streets, in politics and within governmental institutions that the United Nations, European Union, Amnesty International and Switzerland's own Federal Commission Against Racism have expressed alarm in recent months.

[Paulus]

If you were not born in Switzerland and you wish to become a citizen after the mandatory wait time, 5 years if you are married to a Swiss or 10 years if you are not,(this may have changed) you may apply for citizenship. Your background is investigated and your petition is subjected to a community vote by the people in the town you live or the hometown of your wife.

By the way this incident occurred in May. I do not see why it is news now. http://www.nzz.ch/2007/05/01/zh/newzzf16fe4zo-12_1.352998.html

[I still care]

“to embrace an increasingly globalized, multicultural society or to retreat into social isolation in an effort to preserve eroding traditional identities.”

Are these the only choices?

To “embrace a multiculteral society” or “retreat into isolation”?

How about embracing traditional society and rejecting multicultural invasions? Like that better.

[CarrotAndStick]

Hacking the arms and face of an unarmed, most likely innocent man with chainsaws, by cowards in masks, is vigilantism?

What about the Brown Shirts? Were they Vigilantes too?

Oh, and by the way, judging by the name of the victim, he was most likely a Christian. Too bad the Swiss couldn’t grow a pair to attack an R.o.P-er in this manner, eh?. It may send out lessons to the others; you know, a strategy that probably works... violence and terror.

Isn't it a mystery why such brutal attacks rarely happen to R.o.P immigrants, legal or not, even after deliberate provocation? I’ll tell you what, the perps who did this are most likely white-thrash, anti-Semitic, anti-American Nazi sympathisers/ Neo-Nazis, who wouldn't dare face up to their ideological twins, the Islamonazis. Not unlike these:

[Will88]

Can no ‘journalist” write a story concerning immigration of third worlders to the West without the personal story of victims of racism, xenophobia, or the sob stories of separated families?

But what did anyone expect allowing policies or illegal immigration to build up to foreigners becoming 20% of the population? And we should keep in mind that this is almost exclusively a one-way deal. Westerners are not moving by the thousands and millions to live in the third world. The West someday will no longer be the West, but the third world nations will still be mostly third world nations.

Third world poverty can’t be solved by allowing almost open border into the West, but huge areas of the West can definitely be turned into third outposts.

[kittycatonline.com]

what did this guy besides mop floors at a mcdonalds?

Indeed. What, did the two attackers miss out on a potential pot of janitorial gold because of this African guy taking the last choice job at the local McDonalds? I'm sure there is a mop and a bucket waiting for a willing master at the local Burger King or Arbys or whatever other gaudy fast food joint there is in Zurich.

{who the heck would go to Zurich and eat at Mcdonalds ???}

[Will88]

“By the way this incident occurred in May. I do not see why it is news now.”

Because every story of massive legal and illegal immigration into a Western nation from poor nations must contain the obligatory anecdote that demonizes the native majority white population. At least every story in liberal MSM media outlets.

And it seems to have worked well as many here are outraged over this criminal attack on one immigrant (five months ago), and have nothing to say about a population that has become 20% foreign.

Does this indicate that once safe Zurich has become one of the great crime centers of the world? Or did the WP just need the obligatory demonizing story of mistreated third world immigrants?

[kbingham]

“more ammunition to use against us”
“...inferior and threatening violence”
I’m not a gun owner. If I were given a gun, I’d have to read the directions from start to finish, from loading to cleaning. I’m not for shooting pedro—or anyone else.

“[illegal protestors are] just another set of kooks to make fun of alongside ANSWER, Code Pink, and the International Vegans for Fruit-flavored Communism.”

This is a typical misdirection/strawman rhetoric, and it is how we arrived here. I can remember in the 1970s when So Cal was a much different place—an American place. It has not taken long. 30 years...now it’s a mostly Hispanic, Spanish speaking, gang infested, graffiti adorned, brain drain (in my opinion).

Examples are aplenty. People will think what they will, and waving a foreign flag here is a major sign of disrespect to any American who sees it. Americans know it. They’re just afraid to do anything about it.

People like you give them an excuse to continue to do nothing about it.

As far as...David Duke allusions. Whatever...whatever. Americans have been running away, terrified of being called racist for many years now. Let the word bounce or stick. I don’t care.

[SteveMcKing]

Money dams the competitive urge to kill your neighbor and steal his wife - but only until the winners have everything, and there are enough losers to overpower whatever mercenaries are protecting the system.

Marxist prophecy says that the dam must break. But it won’t break so long as 1) it is strong and 2) enough trickle-down flows through the spillway to satisfy the middle-class tools who are stuck servicing the thing for fear of seeing it break.

True or not, I am moving to higher ground.

[Constantine XIII]

*Rolls eyes* What’s an “American city” supposed to look like?

Cleveland?

LOL

[Paulus]

I have no problem walking anywhere in Zürich City at anytime day or night. My wife also feels comfortable walking around in the evenings. It is a beautiful and friendly city.

This incident happened in the village of Dielsdorf, about 20 KM away from Zürich City. Dielsdorf is in the Kanton of Zürich. Implying that this indeed happened in the city of Zürich is a stretch.

[muawiyah]

Antonio sure betta’ give up that Islam, Fur Shur.

[muawiyah]

You'll notice that our own United States Constitution refers to Congress setting a uniform rule for naturalization. It does not even say that the United States must have a federal law for this purpose ~ just (by necessary federalist implication) that each state or municipality follow the same rules if, in fact, they are going to extend citizenship to people not born here.

Foreign people coming here are also referred to as being "imported" ~ and that would not necessarily apply only to slaves since they didn't ordinarily get "naturalized".

That would mean someone who comes to the USA on his own volition isn't actually covered by the immigration powers of the US ~ just those brought here by large corporations, states, Scottish Tribes, Huguenot aid societies or some other force in order to work.

The Founders definitely had an idea about immigration that was far different than our own.

[dfwgator]

Switzerland was an island of Democracy and civiliation during WWII.

And they made a lot of money from stolen Jewish assets.

[stephenjohnbanker]

“I’m ready to isolate. Good luck to the Swiss.”

BUMP....multiculturalism is poison!

[ashtanga]

I hate to say it, but Islam is viewed in much of the world as an ongoing criminal conspiracy at best, and a cosmic death camp at worst. Some will pretend that this is not so, and some, like the Swiss, will make their feelings known.

[Radix]

The excerpt above makes this seem to have been a racist action.

I suspect that it is more of an anti Islamic sentiment that is fomenting such hostility.

[mylife]

Holy Crap!

[RobinOfKingston]

... more than one in five people living in Switzerland are foreign-born, ...

When the new-comers get above a certain level (not sure what that level is) it is no longer immigration, but invasion.

[AnalogReigns]

Switzerland is now (and always has seemed to be) one of the most difficult countries to get citizenship in. I have Swiss friends, well, really she is swiss, and her husband is German, and he anticipates he will never have citizenship, even though he is a permanent resident.

1) You must live there a minumum of 10 or 12 years.
2) You must be able to speak the local Swiss dialect (that would be Swiss-German, Swiss-French, Swiss-Italian, or Romish... each one quite distinct to Switzerland (a German for example has a very hard time understanding Swiss-German)) and pass an extensive test in it.
3) You must pass an extensive test on Swiss history and culture....
4) You must be involved in civic associations and such in your local village/town/community.
5) Your local village/town/community must vote on your suitability to be a citizen—as I understand it, this is a unanimous thing, one person can black-ball you....
6) If after all that you pass, then the national government will review the case, and may (or may not) accept your application.
7) If the national government accepts your application, then you will be granted the privilege of paying $60,000+ (cost varies) to cover the required military service you never did....
8) Finally, then, and only then MAY you become a Swiss Citizen.

As an example of how hard it is to gain citizenship: Arguably Switzerland’s most famous resident, John Calvin of 16th Century Geneva, was never a voting citizen.