Tuesday, January 24, 2012

DA Switzerland January 2012: News and Upcoming Events


Democrats Abroad Switzerland
January 2012: News and Upcoming Events

Contents:
1) State of the Union Replay Events in Thun (Bern) and Geneva
2) Americans in Switzerland Town Hall Meetings: Geneva, Bern, Lausanne, Basel, Zurich
3) Film Screening: Into Eternity in Geneva


1) State of the Union Replay Events in Thun (Bern) and Geneva
Join Democrats Abroad in Thun and Geneva for a full replay of President Obama's most important annual speech, followed by an informal discussion.

Event in Thun (near Bern):
Date: Thursday, Jan 26, 2012
Time: 19:00
Where: DA members' home in Thun, postal code 3600
RSVP: to ashleydanae.wheeler@gmail.com for street address and further event details.
Our apartment is a short ten-minute walk from the station; we'll meet you at the Thun station and then head to the apartment for the viewing.  
One of us will be waiting at the station until 18:45 (in the main hall) and one of us will also stay at the apartment for those of you who would like to come a bit earlier than 18:45.
Some drinks and snacks will be available, but feel free to bring more to share.

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Event in Geneva:
Date: Wednesday, Jan 25, 2012
Time: 19:30
Where: Wings Bar
4 Rue Du Lievre, 1227 Acacias Geneva
Tram 15 "Acacias"
Cost: Admission FREE. Food and drinks available for purchase:  Pizzas CHF 10, Pasta CHF 14, Beer CHF 4
Who: This event is organized by Democrats Abroad Switzerland and is open to the public - Americans, non-Americans, Democrats, Republicans... Bring your friends and colleagues!
RSVP to help us plan via this link.

2) Americans in Switzerland Town Hall Meetings: Geneva, Bern, Lausanne, Basel, Zurich
American Town Hall Meetings will be held across Switzerland in the coming three months. In a new partnership initiative launched jointly by the US Embassy in Switzerland and leaders of American clubs and political organizations in Switzerland, the Town Halls will serve as a forum in which we will solicit the views of U.S. citizens in our communities on the role of the United States in the world today, and how current U.S. laws and regulations affect their ability to live and work abroad.

The meetings will also discuss how the knowledge, experiences and recommendations of overseas Americans can be more effectively communicated to the relevant leaders in the executive and legislative branches of the U.S. Government. Read more about the partnership behind this initiative here.

Mark your calendars and save the date for five Town Hall meetings: February 8th in Geneva, March 14th in Bern, March 28th in Basel, April 18th in Lausanne, and May 9th in Zurich. Details about the Geneva Town Hall Meeting are below. Information about the next Town Hall Meetings will be announced soon.

Town Hall Meeting in Geneva
Date: Wednesday, February 8th, 2012
Time: from 18:00 – 21:00
Where: Webster University, LLC Commons Room, Route de Collex 15, 1293 Bellevue
Questions/Comments: chair@democrats.ch
Come meet the U.S. Ambassador Donald Beyer, the Embassy staff and U.S. Consular staff
Let us know the concerns of Americans living overseas.
Let us know how U.S. policy is affecting you.
Learn about U.S. Embassy and Consular services. 

3) Film Screening: Into Eternity in Geneva
"Into Eternity" - Science Fiction or Nuclear Documentary?
Join us Thursday February 9th to watch "Into Eternity" and decide for yourself.

Danish filmmaker Michael Madsen won the Sbs Award for Best International Documentary Film for Into Eternity, looking at how Finland considers their options regarding the very real, very long-term issue of nuclear waste.

When: Thursday February 9th at 20:00
Where: Fonction Cinema, Maison des Arts du Grutli, rue General-Dufour 16, 1204 Geneva.
Nearest public transport stops: Place de Neuve, Theatre, Cirquewww.tpg.ch
Sponsored by: Democrats Abroad Geneva, Les Verts GenevoisSierra Club Geneva
Cost: Admission Free. No reservations.

To be followed by a debate led by Robert CramerConseiller d'Etat.
Energize yourself - come out for an award-winning film and a lively (though not eternal) exchange!
Film (75 min.) shown in English with French subtitles.

Reviews:
"A haunting nonfiction elegy about the threat of the apocalypse, Michael Madsen's "Into Eternity" explores the horrors of anticipating an unpredictable future. Madsen delves into the perilous crevices of Onkalo (which translates as "hiding place"), an ominous cave in Finland tasked with the permanent storage of nuclear waste. Since Onkalo must last 100,000 years, so too must the warnings that its contents are left undisturbed. Madsen focuses on the challenges of the latter task by continually addressing an imaginary audience watching the movie several centuries from now. He delivers the threatening dispatch in an unlikely hybrid of science-fiction and documentary, drenching each moment in otherworldly creepiness." Eric Kohn, IndieWire.com

"As human beings, we quantify the world in measurements relative to our biological experience of it. Distance is defined in terms of our physical ability to traverse it, and time is divided in to collective generations at one extreme, and individual acts of consumption at the other.  The sinister joke is that many of the byproducts of our consumptions are not subject to a biological time scale, but to a geological one; those byproducts will in all likelihood outlast mankind, including the most pernicious: nuclear waste." Louis Godfrey, SoundonSight.org


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