Sechseläuten

Tomorrow is Sechseläuten (Sächsilüüte for the locals), that amazing Zürich festival of spring, guilds, and an exploding snowman. It's probably my favorite day of the year here, when this beautiful but 

uptight city gets a bit drunk and colorful. (In an official, vintage-costumes sort of way; this ain't the Street Parade.) But it's also a not-so-subtle reminder that a lot of power here still rests within the city's guilds and old-money families. And that if you're a foreigner - where "foreigner" is defined as anyone without deep roots here, so even most of the city's Swiss residents - you really can't expect to have the same access and opportunities as a native. Is this as it should be? Theoretically no, right? But...

GAO was far and away the best place I ever worked. Yes, there was some bureaucracy - it was, unmistakably, the government - but in terms of having fair HR policies, clearly communicated and humanely applied, it was fantastic. Along these lines, there were many rules and processes around hiring - to make sure that all candidates were reviewed according to consistent criteria, veteran preference was observed, and so on. But even within this organization with model HR policies and a mission of fair, unbiased analysis - even at GAO - we would find a way to hire a mediocre intern we knew over a highly-qualified candidate we'd only met through the interview process.

It's human nature - we are biased towards what we know. We hire our friends (and our friends look like us). We rationalize this in all sorts of ways and we pay lip service to equal opportunity but deep down I think this is nearly impossible to escape. 

So bear with me here, because I don't have a watertight argument or a solution, this is just another thing I'm interested in: here we are, in the 21st century, humans are more mobile than ever, immigration is a reality and we have a moral imperative to treat our fellow humans with fairness and respect, even if they're foreigners - but at the same time we still have this bias towards our friends and people who look and sound like us, and in all seriousness what would become of these wonderful traditions of Zürich if they were suddenly open to everyone?

 

Monday's parade is exclusively for guild members and their families. But today, Sunday, was the children's parade, and it's a completely different kettle of fish. Any child 5-15 years old can participate: there's a somewhat daunting (for parents) procedure for costume rental but if you're willing to jump through some hoops, your child too can dress up and walk the parade route and throw candy to all the children of Zürich who aren't marching this year. (A great deal of candy is exchanged here.) The costumes are themed along the lines of "Zürich through the ages," so 500 years of fashion and workwear, from sailor's outfits to powdered wigs to hoop skirts to butcher's aprons, all in exquisitely detailed kids' sizes. There are marching bands, too - also mostly kids. It's a lot of fun and quite democratic but still very much in keeping with the tradition of Sechseläuten and...maybe these kids are the future, in more ways than one?

I feel like posting pictures of other people's kids is iffy, but you can watch a video about the parade here and get a good dose of Züridütsch while you're at it. 

My little (not so little any more!) Zürcherin, in "Wehntaler Tracht"

The Böögg, on death row.