Recently, at my occasional restaurant job, a family from the U.S. from New Jersey came in, and there was this deep part of me that when I realized where they were from I was like “yes! I recognize you! We are members of the same tribe.”
I don’t necessarily want to feel this way. First of all, nationalism can be a dangerous thing, I mean just look at the state of things, in the United States but also in a lot of Europe and parts of South America, Asia, and Africa as well. But I can’t help it; I’m American. Even though I live in Switzerland, and when I’m traveling I tell people I’m from Switzerland to simplify things and also to avoid being American, I feel American, I can’t help it. If I can improve my language skills (which I believe I can, I just don’t know how long it will take), I’m eligible to become a Swiss citizen, which is obviously a really enticing prospect. But I don’t know if I’ll ever really feel Swiss.
Now seems like a good time to ruminate on nationalism and identity for a couple of reasons: one is Trump’s/the USA’s “family separation” policy, which has now become the “detain an entire Central American family indefinitely but together”. Republicans have been bending over backwards to explain away the horrendousness of the situation, with one (that I know of, but probably many more) Fox News commentator, Brian Kilmeade, saying that it’s not that bad because they’re not “our” kids.
“These aren’t our kids. Show them compassion, but it’s not like he is doing this to the people of Idaho or, uh, or, uh, Texas. These are people from another country.”
Borders make it so easy to be “us” against “them”. Another very nationalistic, border-dependent activity that’s going on right now is the World Cup. I actually love the World Cup. In general, no one is less into sports than I am, but once every four years I get super into the World Cup, following the groups and standings, rooting heavily for one or two teams until they get eliminated and then finding new teams to root for until the very end. (And what’s worse, I really only follow the men’s World Cup. I’m not this into the women’s, not because I don’t care about women’s sports – I don’t care about any sports – but what I love about the men’s World Cup is that it feels like the entire world is watching together, and unfortunately, it doesn’t feel that way when it comes to the women’s World Cup.)
Despite everything terrible going on, if the U.S. was in the World Cup, I’d probably root for them until they got themselves eliminated. But they saved everyone the trouble this time and didn’t even qualify. So now of course I’m all about Switzerland.
Last night, Switzerland beat Serbia 2-1 in a pretty exciting game. I hadn’t really considered this going in, but Switzerland has a large population of Kosovan Albanians who were refugees during the Kosovo war of the late 1990s. For some Swiss, this game wasn’t just about their team advancing but a hashing out of deep, old, national hurts.
The two men who scored goals for the Swiss team were both of Kosovan origin, and both upon scoring crossed their hands at the thumbs and waved their hands like wings, the sign of the eagle which is on the Albanian flag (and one of them took off his shirt, earning him a yellow card).
Sam was not impressed. He thought they were unnecessarily bringing politics into the game, and that since they were playing for Switzerland as Swiss people, they shouldn’t be bringing political conflicts between other countries into it (that’s me paraphrasing what I took from what he said so maybe not spot on).
I don’t know how I feel about that particular incident. I don’t really care either way. I think people should be able to express themselves however they want, and apparently there was a lot of booing by Serbian fans at Switzerland’s Kosovan Albanian players before any of this happened. I never really understood the whole “unsportsmanlike” thing; who gets to decide what is okay and what isn’t?
But the idea of sports being apolitical has obviously been a big topic in the United States because of the NFL taking a stance against players kneeling during the anthem to peacefully protest police violence against communities of color. There are those that argue that sports should be something fun that exists outside of the realm of politics, but of course, that’s fantasy. Sports are incredibly political, and it’s pretty impossible to argue that the World Cup, a tournament literally based on political borders, could be anything but political.
A nation’s borders aren’t mandated by God or nature, no matter what Mike Huckabee and co. says. Borders are human inventions and are completely political. The existence of a Serbian team is political. Kosovan Albanians on Switzerland’s team is political. The fact that European countries tend to dominate the World Cup is political. The fact that Palestine could never be in the World Cup even if they were all the best soccer players in the world because it is not recognized by the powers that be as a nation is political. (In fact, one of my favorite articles recently is from Roads and Kingdoms about a soccer tournament of unrecognized countries and territories).
While the nationalism that comes with the World Cup isn't my favorite, I do totally see the value of finding your tribe. Hopefully, they aren't all from the same country as you, but of course, it's pretty likely that they will be if you live in the country where you're from. And even if you don't, people in foreign countries often gravitate toward one another based on language or nationality. Heck, as much as I hate to admit it, I'd kill to meet an American or Brit who lives in our town!
In other news, things are chugging along. I am still working occasionally at the restaurant, trying to become comfortable with always being confused and feeling a step behind. The weather has been absolutely lovely. Today Sam and I went on a short mountain bike ride (I mean, objectively short, subjectively very long). I am a notoriously bad biker. I get winded on the uphills and scared on the downhills, yet mountain biking for some reason is something I really want to do. Because during those relatively flat moments, it’s really quite lovely, and overall, it feels like quite the workout.
Yesterday we drove down to Poschiavo, one of the small Italian-speaking parts of our Canton (Switzerland has an entire Italian-speaking Canton, Ticino, but within our Canton, Graubünden, there are a few pockets that are Italian-speaking as well). We walked around the lake in La Prese and had a very delicious, if not overpriced, lunch.
A couple weekends ago we went on a hike that started literally three minutes from our house. It was our first big hike of the season and it definitely took a lot out of me. There were parts where we had to walk through snow, and we had to cross a little waterfall which put me into something of a panic, something that’s come up a couple of times since I saw my friend Adele fall in Shenandoah last year. But overall, it was a really beautiful hike, with mountain meadows and little lakes and ponds, speckled with wildflowers. Would recommend.
So here are some pictures from today’s bike ride and our hike from the other week to Lej da la Tscheppa (gotta love that Romansh!). And I hope all your World Cup dreams come true, unless your World Cup dreams are in conflict with mine. Hopp Schwiiz!
One of many nice views down into Silvaplana from our hike to Lej da la Tscheppa
Monty enjoying one of those nice mountain meadows on the way to Lej da la Tscheppa
My absolute favorite picture from that hike
Walking through a little tunnel in the rocks around the lake in La Prese near Poschiavo
Lake pictures are never bad pictures
You can tell I was biking because there's a bike in the picture
You gotta bike to get views like this (or you could just walk up)
And as always, a nice Monty picture. Is he happy or just very thirsty?