I can really only speak for Switzerland and France as I don't read the German press (I don't speak German). They have followed the Clinton crisis very closely, expressing both surprise at such a public display of the personal life of the president of the United States and at first some amusement at Clinton's predicament, but now, after the release of the Starr Report and the testimony and congress' impeachment process in the works, the general feeling is that America has gone mad. As during the McCarthy era.
In fact, with regard to the broadcasting of the video testimony on Monday, many European news channels chose not to release Clinton's live and in full, out of a sense of fairness.
Politicians in France and Switzerland are rarely subject to such
personal scrutiny by the media. For instance, it was widely known
that former President Mitterrand had a daughter with a woman other
than his wife, there was even a book about it years ago which
was a best seller -- yet he was never made to account for it.
A lot!
it's very complicated and a costly process, Institutions, companies and governments will have to allow for extensive staff training, new business processes, new software, new hardware (even new keyboards, to include the Euro symbol).
But the biggest problem will be in having people changing their mindset. In France for example, although the "new franc" has been introduced long go, a lot of people still think and calculate in "old francs."
I think there were different levels of response: first shock and surprise.
We all grew up believing that Switzerland never entered the war because it had such a good army, and that it would be too costly for Germany to try and invade us. Not because it was negotiating with the enemy.
Amongst the older generation there was initially denial, some attempt at justification and some old and buried feelings of anti-semitism came to the surface again. The rest of the country was horrified and very disappointed at how inadequately the government and especially the banks responded to the situation.
To settle and make amends was widely felt like the right thing to do. But as for many other countries, it will take years for Switzerland to come to terms with its past and with its tarnished reputation.
In the last couple of months, the press has been writing special reports and articles on the subject so I would say the awareness level generally going up.
Also, European countries have to deal with the introduction of the Euro and this has taken precedence. But each country has a different level of preparation for having come into the game sooner or later. The UK is probably the best prepared along with Scandinavian countries, France is apparently behind schedule as is Germany and the southern european countries even less so. In Switzerland, though the government has only recently appointed a "year 2000 man," work is well under way in most sectors such as finance, utilities, airlines. But today, no one, in any field can say with certainty that everything will run smoothly.
"You are only as strong as your weakest link" and that is the biggest problem.
Copyright 1998, Thomas L. Mangan
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