I grew up in Germany. Patriotism is a very ambivalent issue here because honestly, if you are proud to be a german it is often just equalled to being a Neonazi. Honouring our soldiers on memorial day would mean honouring soldiers that commited crimes against humanity and were fighting for a country that was guillty for causing 2 world wars. Honouring our flag falls into that same category. So when we have a memorial day we do not honour our fallen soldiers but mourn rather those whose death we ...

On Sunday, Switzerland had a referendum regarding a building regulation concerning minarettes. Henceforth, it is illegal to build new ones. The swiss government didn't really believe that the referendum would be successful and has since tried to do damage control. They are concerned about how this vote might reflect on their foreign relations and location for international banking. It might be bad for business, and according to criticism the ban violates the human rights of freedom of religion. ...