Word: swiss
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...last week a singularly discordant note was struck in the finely tuned harmonies of Swiss political life. Forgoing customary politesse, the leaders of the Social Democratic Party, the country's second largest, accused their conservative coalition partners of "arrogance" and voted to walk out of the coalition. The issue that precipitated such un-Swiss behavior: Parliament's rejection of the first woman ever to be nominated for the august Federal Council...
...sexual walls tumbling down, it was Lilian Uchtenhagen, 55. An economist, she had compiled a distinguished record as president of the finance commission in the lower house of Parliament and served on the board of directors of a major Zurich retail chain. As the wife of a prominent Swiss psychiatrist and the mother of three adopted children from Madagascar, Uchtenhagen has a touch of the hausfrau that, it was thought, would make her acceptable to her male colleagues in government. Convinced that Uchtenhagen was well qualified for the job, the Social Democratic Party nominated her to fill a vacancy left...
...Many Swiss women felt betrayed by the vote. "We live in a patriarchal society," proclaimed Marie-Therese Gwerder, Switzerland's most popular television announcer. Said Leni Robert, an independent member of Parliament...
...fact, public opinion polls taken before the vote showed that 64% of citizens thought it was time to have a woman at the highest level of government. Said the Zurich tabloid Blick: "The people wanted Lilian, but the gentlemen in Bern elected a man." Swiss women refer to the day of the vote, Dec. 7, as Black Wednesday...
American bobsledders, on the other hand, are trying to recapture former glory. Until 1956 the U.S. dominated the sport, with 14 medals. But the Swiss and the East Germans have been masters of the 90-m.p.h., highly technical thrill ride in recent decades. The East Germans now recruit the cream of their summer sprinters for the event's crucial 50-meter running start. The U.S. has moved slowly to catch up. Long controlled by several venerable clubs around Lake Placid, U.S. bobsledding has become parochial and, some critics claim, possibly racist. Efforts to add speedier newcomers have prompted tensions...