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[scriver]

It's also that women did not have full right to vote until 1990, which in combination with all the other tidbits, like the rampant racism/xenophobia and stuff, paints the whole country in an (admittedly maybe-undeserved) ass-backwards colour. All that together gives them a -1000 score. They gain +500 for the sheer awesomeness of the Swiss Guard uniform.
_{Yes, I am very frivolous with these points and they should not be taken as a seriously way of measuring what I think of countries at all. Often they don't have anything to do with the nations as they currently are whatsoever.}

[olemars]

Expectations are so high now, and people have figured out what to do if any backsliding happens, so there's hope the military follows through. They might be going for a turkish model.

[Vector]

It's also that women did not have full right to vote until 1990, which in combination with all the other tidbits, like the rampant racism/xenophobia and stuff, paints the whole country in an (admittedly maybe-undeserved) ass-backwards colour. All that together gives them a -1000 score. They gain +500 for the sheer awesomeness of the Swiss Guard uniform.
_{Yes, I am very frivolous with these points and they should not be taken as a seriously way of measuring what I think of countries at all. Often they don't have anything to do with the nations as they currently are whatsoever.}

... Okay, that's quite a bit different.  Thanks for explaining it.

[Leafsnail]

Finally on February, 7th women's right to vote is accepted in Switzerland with a majority of 621,109 (66%) yes vs. 323,882 (34%) no. But in central and eastern Switzerland there are still seven cantons with a no-majority. Four more cantons introduce women's right to vote on cantonal and local level by referendums: Fribourg, Schaffhausen, Zug and Aargau.

...Wow.

Although it was actually the influence of WW1 that got women the votes here, I guess...

[scriver]

Finally on February, 7th women's right to vote is accepted in Switzerland with a majority of 621,109 (66%) yes vs. 323,882 (34%) no. But in central and eastern Switzerland there are still seven cantons with a no-majority. Four more cantons introduce women's right to vote on cantonal and local level by referendums: Fribourg, Schaffhausen, Zug and Aargau.

...Wow.

Although it was actually the influence of WW1 that got women the votes here, I guess...

In Sweden, women were given the right to vote (although I can not from memory recall if it was full right to vote or if it only adhered to some of our elections) in 1919 or 21, and we weren't even in the war. I think it was more a sign of the times changing.
Of course, Sweden gave some women (I don't remember what the requirements was, though) right to vote as early as the 18th century, for 50 years or so before the laws were changed back, and then again (for "local" elections, if I remember correctly, and only for widows and unmarrieds) during the middle-to-late 19th, so we already had somewhat of a history of suffrage. Can't say I'm knowledgeable about other countries women-rights-history however, so I don't know if they're any different.

[Vector]

Yeah, that was extremely not what happened in America.

[Leafsnail]

Well, it can be a bit weird.  We had female mayors before women were allowed to vote in national elections...

[GamerKnight]

How does that work?

[Leafsnail]

Well, women were often very active at a local level in politics.  And some men regarded it as still being in the "home sphere", I guess.

[Puzzlemaker]

Hell yes, Mubarak is out of office.

Now the hard part.

[Jackrabbit]

So the Swiss froze his account? Idiot. This is why my plan of running and buying a Villa off the coast of Italy on day three was a good idea. Too caught up in his little power trip, I guess.

[Ibid Straydrink]

So, does anyone care to speculate as to whom will come into power next, and how long they live before which foreign or internal interests have them assassinated, and install who's new puppet?

[Sir Pseudonymous]

So, on what grounds did they freeze his accounts? Being unpopular? When they continue to serve as a tax haven for real criminals, who owe money to real countries, it seems like kind of an empty, PR motivated gesture.

[lemon10]

So, on what grounds did they freeze his accounts? Being unpopular? When they continue to serve as a tax haven for real criminals, who owe money to real countries, it seems like kind of an empty, PR motivated gesture.

Errr... i'm not sure what metric you are using to say that egypt isn't a "real country" (since it is), and that mubarack isn't a "real criminal" (since he kinda is, depending on what you call a criminal). But it is probably PR motivated to a large extent, freezing the assets of anyone else probably would get them little to no attention (eg. if they froze the assets of some random arms dealer that nobody cares about).

EDIT:

This month, Switzerland passed new legislation facilitating the return of illegally accrued wealth, even in cases where a country may not yet have put together a fully functioning justice framework.

It appears that cause he got it through corruption, they are freezing it.

[Sir Pseudonymous]

"Real country" was facetious, but technically anything Mubarak did was legal, seeing as how he set himself up as supreme dictator and whatnot. Besides, establishing a precedent of freezing their assets when they step down just encourages dictators to be even more brutal when trying to hold onto their regimes. Kind of like why modern states don't execute people for robbery or home invasion: even though such things deserve death establishing obliteration as a penalty makes someone more likely to kill others to protect themselves, thus making it so that by raising the penalty you endanger the lives of innocents who might otherwise just be out their pocket change.