A letter from the shores of Lake Geneva

摘要

I wonder if it is in any way propitious that this letter is being penned on the day the WHO'S Framework Convention on Tobacco Control comes into force, and not far away from the institution which conceived and gave birth to it as well. Switzerland is a country not immediately associated with tobacco. And yet it has its own special story to tell. As long ago as 1949, Orson Welles, alias Harry Lime in that all-time movie classic, The Third Man, scornfully and mistakenly, attributed to the Swiss the creation of the cuckoo clock. Yet Switzerland is world famous for many things: its more than 200 years of political neutrality; its private bankers; delicious chocolate; faultless chronometers, not to mention trendy Swatches; political stability, relative prosperity and a consistently high standard of living; and three official languages.