Back to Tell’s Land
Day Two.
Saturday, 16 January 2016
The more I
know, the less I understand
All the
things I’d figured out
I have to
learn again
(Don Henley)
Murten, where
we are putting up, is a German majority town in the French majority canton (state).
Every place we visit, signs are written in 3 languages: German, French and
English. Why, it even has a French name, Morat (pronounced Moha, so I’m
told).
Nationwide,
German is spoken by 63.7% of the population, French 20.3%, Italian 6.5% and
Romansch (which descends from Latin used by the Romans) 0.9%. So why don’t they
make German the official language, like the Burmese government has done with
the Burmese language?
I put this
question to Mr Roland Salisberg, head of the Peace Policy Section of the
Foreign Ministry, who has come to receive us at the lunch reception. “The answer is simple: forcing German to be
used by all won’t help with our national unity,” he says. “It may, on the
contrary, even serve to divide us, and pull us apart.”
 |
Festival of
lights in the Morat Lake.
(Photo:
www.murtentourismus.ch)
|
So, why don’t the Swiss
Germans join their cousins in Austria and Germany to form a bigger nation
instead? (What’s on my mind when I ask this question? Probably a vague thought
that Shans, who call themselves Tai, have also cousins in Laos, Thailand, Vietnam
and even China.) “It would be difficult for us to enjoy the same rights as we
do now if we are united with these countries, as Switzerland is geographically
partitioned from them.”
Murten, where
we had arrived by bus from Geneva at noon, is 30.9 km from Bern, the country’s
administrative capital, a 24 minute drive away.
The whole town is quiet, as
if deserted. (It is Saturday) Few people are seen in the streets. During the 5
days we are there, I don’t even remember seeing the sun. And it is cold, so
cold I have to change into a thick pair of socks, pull down my woolen cap so it
covers both my nose (and ears but not my eyes), when I’m outside. But inside
the buildings, there is heating, so that you are warm and, at times, even
stuffy.
As night
falls at 18:00, the whole town comes to life. We learn later that they are
holding a 10-day light festival, which began 3 days ago. They even float
lighted receptacles in the town’s Morat Lake, 8.2 km x 2.8 km, one of the more
than 100 lakes in the country, just like the Loi Krathong festival in
Thailand.
By SAI KHUENSAI / Director of Pyidaungsu Institute and Founder of Shan Herald Agency for News (S.H.A.N)
All views expressed are the author’s own.
Tags: Opinion
