Article for The Independent - Zurich becomes new financial capital of Europe

SWatch out: Zurich beyond the chocolate and watches

Zurich close to becoming the new European financial capital

One of the most important cities of Switzerland, Zurich, is to become the financial centre of Europe as traders from all over the world move to the city in times of recession.

This true exodus of traders and investors has occurred in an increasing rate over the last two years. Attracted by the minuscule taxes and other incentives, many people have decided to move to Zurich as a way to usufruct from the benefits and savings that the city might give them. The result of such movement can be seen in the constant increase in the city’s importance and power over the financial sector. At the same time that this growing power should work as an example for other countries, there must be some caution as this might cause worse situations for other cities in times of recuperation from a crisis.

The sudden rise in the number of traders going to Zurich may harm other financial centers as money is taken away from the cities. Due to the transference of money to the Swiss city, metropolises such as London, Frankfurt and Brussels may end up having less attention given to them. This lack of interest causes fewer investments, which then generate weaker and more fragile economies. Consequently, new difficulties surge and another contraction might be knocking at our door.

For the Swiss financial capital, on the other hand, everything is going fine. The movement of traders and investors represent higher government income, more jobs and better infrastructure for the people. Furthermore, as it already happened to Switzerland and other European countries in general, boosts in welfare are almost undeniable.

The existence of such incredibly low taxes has been part of Switzerland’s economic policy for quite a long time. With the clear focus towards the services’ sector (64.5% of GDP) the country has always tried to keep money flowing within its borders. As a result of the present economic crisis, the country’s (and most specifically the city’s ) efforts were rewarded as people are doing everything they can to save money.

As it was said by the Swiss finance minister Hans-Rudolf Merz “As Zurich gains the attention of more traders, our economy gets stronger, steadier, and the city’s influence increases amongst the rest of the world.”

From now on, we should try to use Zurich’s and Switzerland’s example as ways to improve our own problems. Even though there were not any problems until the moment, we should be prepared for future troubles with the high number of traders and investors leaving cities such as London and Manchester. At the present moment, all we can do is just hope that some of the traders get sick of the chocolate

The piece was chosen as an article that would appear in the Independent because it is the type of story that is common for black banner tabloids. The people that read the independent are people that want to know more about national and international news without much influence of politics and biases. The structure of the article follows the inverted triangle and there is some contrast between subsequent paragraphs, which is a characteristic that was observed in the article analysis exercises. The lengths of the paragraphs also correspond to the usual lengths from black banner newspapers and the language of is sophisticated up to a certain extent. There is some level of sophistication, but not excess of it. In relation to the influences, the entire article was written from a British point of view. Even though, there are some elements of right wing, I attempted to balance the political views the maximum that I could. The British point of view is not something to worry about, since it is exactly what is would please the newspaper’s main readers (tacit agreement).

Article Analysis - The Independent

The Independent is one of the newest black banner newspapers in the UK. The most relevant idea connected to this newspaper is related to its autonomy in relation to biases. The newspaper claims that it is completely neutral and that it always tells exactly what happens, without any external influences. Nowadays, the newspaper is sold in tabloid format, and its main demographic group is composed by relatively intelligent and incredulous people.

The article on Fashion at the Oscars has a pretty distinct construction and passes different ideas in comparison to what usually appears in articles that are related to such topic (fluff). Throughout the article, there is a constant tentative to make it seem more thoughtful and relevant. The authors tried to associate the theme of fashion to finance and to market strategies, as a way to not disturb the tacit agreement between the newspaper and its readers. Nevertheless, even with this tentative, there is still a sense of futility tied to the article. In addition, following the objective of the newspaper, there are no opinions or signs of bias.

This article does not follow any of the standards of organization that were studied up to this point. It does not have the inverted triangle structure, and it is formed by a gigantic introduction, with the most important information at the end. The paragraphing is characterized by the contrast of ideas between subsequent paragraphs and the language is not too sophisticated. In terms of lengths, the first paragraph is composed by 30 words and all the others are around the 80 words mark, which is also unusual.

The article on the taxes on foreign income has pretty much the same level of sophistication as the one about fashion at the Oscars. There is still a certain avoidance to express opinions and political views, and the article is really neutral in this sense. The structure, contrasting with the previous article, follows exactly what is established by the standards. It has the inverted triangle structure, and it starts by saying who, what, when and where. The second paragraph gives further details of what is being done and it explains why the audience would care.

The lengths of the headline and paragraphs also follow the standards. The headline has 8 words, which is really common for black banner newspapers such as the independent. The other paragraphs are mainly composed of around 3 sentences and there are no attempts to contrast them, as it is done in the first case. The only factors that is a bit odd about this article is that it actually looks more like a tabloid than a broadsheet – its sentences’ structures are pretty simple and it get straight to the point, without plenty of explanation.

And finally, the article on the rise in taxes for the city workers follows the ‘broadsheet standard structure’ almost perfectly. It has the inverted triangle structure, and it starts by saying who, what where and when. Then it mentions why the audience cares and it starts to give more information depending on its importance (most relevant and appealing comes first). The sophistication of the language is similar to all the other articles, nevertheless, now there is a bit more emphasis in economics and politics. This article is clearly more directed to the main audience of the independent, which is formed by wealthier people that do not want to see biases in their news. The first paragraph of the article has 37 words and all the others have around 40.

HHGG commentary

“In the beginning the Universe was created. This has made a lot of people very angry and been widely regarded as a bad move.” The radio serial The Hitch-hiker’s guide to the Galaxy illustrates a series of themes in many different ways. The excerpt exposes the themes “The importance of humanity”, “42”, the probability of the improbable, and aliens rule. Throughout the entire passage, there are recurring references to such themes, which is done with the use of motifs and literary devices. In this commentary, we will consider how motifs such as ‘Earth’, Ape man, the answer, Zaphod, and mice are employed together with irony, juxtaposition, absurdity and diminishment to express the themes and ideas in the passage.

The theme that is most expressed throughout the fragment is ‘ the importance of humanity’. Two examples that demonstrate how this theme is shown in the passage can be the ways that the characters relate to the earth and to the humans. Firstly, by observing how the author portraits the humans, it is possible to see that there is a tentative to diminish our image. With expressions such as ‘strange ape like beings’ and ‘nothing that as ever happened on earth could possibly make sense’, we can perceive that the passage clearly wants the audience to think that the humans are insignificant and primitive. The motifs ‘ape like beings’ and ‘the earth’ are used in this context, which reinforces the thoughts of the audience and makes the humans seem even more ridiculous and simplistic. In this fragment, the author makes use of literary devices such as irony, diminishment and absurdity with the objective of surprising an shocking the audience. Since we do not expect to be regarded and treated as an inferior race, we pay even more attention to what is being said. The literary devices work together with the motifs as ways to emphasize what the theme expresses and the audiences ends up actually paying more attention to our ridiculousness and weirdness.

HHGG commentary excerpt

This excerpt occurs at the beginning of the episode, where the main characters are delivered by an explosion to the restaurant at the end of the universe. As with the beginning of each episode of this or any serial program, there is a review of previous events in order to bring the audience back into the story as well as the reintroduction of the cliffhanger moment with which the previous episode ended. Unlike most serials however the HHGG also uses its introduction to tell strange ironic and usually absurd tales intended to amuse its audience.

There is a reminder within this introduction that the earth was in fact a giant computer run by mice and created solely for the purpose of determining the question to the answer 42. This answer to the question of the meaning of life, the universe and everything and the idea of earth as a program is highlighted by the use of a biblical reference and an absurd creation story from ‘another’ intelligent species . Thus the recurring themes of the importance of humanity, mostly harmless, aliens rule, 42 and the probability of the improbable are all reintroduced before returning to the narrative itself.

These themes are of course all intertwined as 42, the all important answer cannot now be properly questioned due to the untimely destruction of earth, raising the importance of the seemingly (until now) unimportant ape like creatures, who populated its surface. The double irony is that they are unimportant, but may now prove to be of great importance (and will later again prove to be of no importance of course). Their unimportance is emphasized by the use of jargon and hyperbole, ‘hyper-intelligent pan-dimensional beings, gigantic supercomputer,’ juxtaposed against the description of mankind as ‘strange ape like beings’ and ‘totally unaware’. All of this is of course both wildly improbable and totally absurd which is of course the fundamental driving force and intention of this work.

The discussion of creation by means of the biblical allusion, its antithetical response and the absurdist creation story which follows, all serve the absurdist intent of the author which sets the tone for the episode as well as leading nicely into the reintroduction of the creation story of the earth….

Broadsheet Article on last Tueday's meeting

New cleanup measure is received with anger and criticism

The school’s environment is threatened by unjust cleaning system

The ZIS principal Mr. McLeod established a new cleaning system for all students at this Tuesday’s assembly.

The proclamation of the new measure was made by the principal himself, who believes the idea will result in a cleaner school. The new system made many of the older students frustrated, and created a feeling of injustice around the school. At the present moment, there is plenty of discussion and rumors going on about the future of the school and the absurd involving the new decision.

According to the school’s principal, this new resolution was the only plausible idea to avoid the recurring mess that dominated the school after lunchtimes.

Since the beginning of the school year, the school’s administration has struggled to decrease the disorder and accumulation of garbage in the common areas. Such situation became even worse after parents of prospective students complained about the untidiness of the school. Following Mr. McLeod’s words, this happening was a disgrace to the school’s community and image.

The basic idea of this new plan is that every week, a group of students will be responsible for the neatness of a certain area. They will be expected to collect any garbage and to check for any objects that are damaged or out of place.

The greatest source of complaints by the students comes from the evident reality that most of the disorder is only caused by the 9^th graders. The older students are outraged by having to pay the costs for the babies’ apparent lack of respect.

In addition, there is the problem with the money. The school fees are approximately 30000 Swiss Francs per year. With this argument, many students believe that a cleaning service should be provided to them. In accordance to those students, if they pay that much money it is because they want to study, and not do menial jobs.

Until the moment, there have not been any major responses to the students’ complaints. McLeod still has faith on his plan, and there are no signs that there will be any significant changes for a relatively long period of time.

By looking from another perspective, the parents’ thoughts about the school are pretty comprehensible. The hallways really do become disordered and there are some areas that are just inacceptable.

The problem here is that, in one side there is the administration trying to make all of the students pay for the misbehavior of few, and on the other there are the students, who think they are being unfairly treated as if they were the causers of the mess.

“By taking a simple walk around the school, it is possible to see many flaws in the building’s structure and organization. We are not prepared to have this massive amount of people”. As we can see in the words from an 11^th grader, the students are not the only responsible for the problems in the school. The administration also has some blame for everything that is happening, and they should also pay for some of the errors that they commit.

At the moment, all that we can do is just wait for solutions to our problems. Either the administration will encounter a more efficient and intelligent answer for this dilemma, or the students will simply accept their job. In both cases, there must be some flexibility from one of the sides, and let’s hope that it does not take too long for one of them to wave the white flag.