24 hours: readers’ letters from July 1, 2024

Movie theater

An actor of international stature, Canadian actor Donald Sutherland passed away on June 20 in Florida at the age of 88. His long figure (1.92 m) appeared on the “film” of more than 200 films shot over sixty years, an impressive career spanning all genres.

Donald Sutherland was first and foremost a presence, whether he was the lead actor or a “luxury” supporting actor, he was one of those actors whose face everyone knew, but not always his name. The list of directors who cast him is rich and long (Fellini, Stone, Bertolucci, Hudson, Malle, Crichton, Irvin, Altman, Pakula, Sturges, Redford, etc.). He was also the last of Robert Aldrich’s “The Dirty Dozen” (1961).

Very little TV for Donald Sutherland, but movies on the channel. Few people know it, but Donald Sutherland shot a film in Geneva in 1993, the title “Punch” by Johannes Flütsch and Alan Birkinshaw, this film recounting the tumultuous and rocky journey of the great Swiss boxer (Oberlander of origin) Walter Blaser died by suicide in 1988 at the age of 41 in Geneva. The role of Walter was played by Ernst Siegrist.

Donald Sutherland admirably played the role of the manager cut out in a navy blue suit. For the filming, a ring was set up at the Pitoëff theater in Plainpalais. I was one of the many extras representing the spectators of the fight. Part of the film was also shot in the Bernese Oberland.

Donald Sutherland told “La Suisse” in 1993: “I prefer a small role in a big film to a leading role in a film that I don’t like”, a nice modesty for an actor whose idol was Marlon Brando. Goodbye, Donald!

Karim-Pierre Bahechar, Geneva

Agriculture

Concerns the article “An agricultural Eden turns into administrative hell” (“24 hours” of June 25).

Following this very precise and comprehensive article which concerns us, we have received an impressive number of expressions of sympathy and support, by email, by post, by telephone call, from friends, acquaintances, people we did not know . So much so that it is currently impossible for us to respond to everyone, and we have chosen this path to do so and to thank you all for your kindness. The article highlighted the dysfunction of communication between the population and the authorities, between living people and defenders of the laws “that” are decreed definitive and immutable.

Ruth and Honorio Petralia, Ollon

Question: What is the difference between an authoritarian government and a runaway bureaucratic democracy? Answer: none! In a dictatorship, the absolute power of a single person brings in the army to appropriate the land of the peasants, until they disappear… despite the opposition. And here, in Switzerland, in Ollon, it is the absolute power of bureaucrats who deprive farmers of housing and means of subsistence. With this frightening observation, that there is no one in the State who takes any responsibility, each service having applied its regulations. And no political figure – elected for the good of the population – will take the risk of taking a look! It is both ubuesque (Alfred Jarry) for the cruelty and megalomania and Kafkaesque for the oppression and the nightmarish future of the hostages of the regulation!

Jean-Rodolphe Dellsperger, Vevey

Asylum in Sainte-Croix

Concerns the article “Under dismissal, a mother threatens her life” (“24 hours” of June 20).

As citizens of Sainte-Croix, we are dismayed by the action taken by this young Afghan mother who has been living in deep distress for too long.

How can our authorities want to send a woman back to a country, Croatia, where she suffered nothing but mistreatment while she was pregnant?

At the beginning of 2023, the couple finally arrived in Switzerland after a difficult and traumatic migration journey, and the reasons for their flight were not heard, their vulnerability was not taken into consideration.

Asylum in Croatia is not what you dream of when you go on holiday to this beautiful country. For migrants, this place means a hostile reception, rarely a roof over their heads, difficult or no access to medical care, not to mention the brutal encouragement to leave the country as soon as possible! Serious reports have documented the brutality and cruelty of the Croatian police.

We do not understand why Switzerland refuses to activate the sovereignty clause which would allow this couple and their 10-month-old baby to finally be able to see a peaceful future and rebuild their lives. This is the only wish of the husband, who painfully notes: “We suffered all this for that?”

So we strongly demand that this inhumanity stops!

Anne-Lise Tanner, Sonja Desplos, Ste-Croix

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