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alexandre afonso Profile picture
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Jan 24 • 7 tweets • 2 min read
State Secretary Blinken trying to convince Switzerland not to invade Ukraine. Image
Nato "very worried" about Swiss movement of troops picked up by satellite imagery. Image
As usual, any declaration of war by Switzerland would be subject to a popular referendum. ImageImage
Swiss tanks at the ready. Image
Swiss infantry is famous for its unorthodox training techniques. Image
The famous headquarters of the Swiss military command atop the Matterhorn. Impenetrable because of its sophisticated defence system allowing 62 tons of melted fondue cheese to fall of assailants in the event of a ground attack. Image
The Swiss ground-based air defence system is a strong deterrent. Image

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More from @alexandreafonso

alexandre afonso Profile picture
Jan 26
A political economy thread on why the Netherlands has become the main entry point for South American cocaine into Europe. Image
33 tons of cocaine were seized in the port of Rotterdam in 2019. Last year cocaine amounts with a street value of 5 BILLION EUR were seized. How has it come to this? Let's go to 1980s Colombia.
nltimes.nl/2019/11/11/coc…
At first, Colombian drug traffickers would channel cocaine into Miami via the Caribbean, using boats or planes flown by people like Barry Seal (there is a movie about him). But then, the amount of product that could be circulated was limited. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barry_Seal ImageImage
Read 31 tweets
alexandre afonso Profile picture
Jan 15
A thread about how, sixty year ago, Portugal lost a 36-hour war against India.
In 1497, Portuguese explorer Vasco da Gama discovers a maritime route to India via the Cape of Good Hope, providing an alternative to the trade routes to Asia by land controlled by the Ottoman Empire and Italian cities.
The Portuguese establish a number of trade posts in India through a combination of military battles and arrangements with local political leaders
Read 17 tweets
alexandre afonso Profile picture
Dec 20, 2021
How Chelsea owner Roman Abramovich became the richest Portuguese man alive, a thread.
In 1496, the King of Portugal Manuel I wanted to marry the daughter of the kings of Spain, Isabella, Princess of Asturias. She died shortly thereafter, in childbirth.
One of the requests of the King of Spain in the marriage negotiations was that Portugal would force Jews to convert to catholicism or be expelled, which Manuel did. Those that continued to practice in secret were burnt, most had to flee.
Read 32 tweets
alexandre afonso Profile picture
Dec 19, 2021
Interesting differences in naturalisation practices in Switzerland:
1) Man originally from Kosovo is denied citizenship because citizens of the town where he applied say he walks around in tracksuit bottoms.
blick.ch/schweiz/basel/…
2) Woman originally from Germany, active on the neonazi scene, organising illegal demonstrations against corona measures and calling for revolution, was granted Swiss citizenship last year in Luzern.
20min.ch/story/corona-d…
3) Man, originally from Cape Verde, is denied Swiss citizenship because he had driven a car with a windshield that had only been *partially* de-iced. Got a fine, sufficient to fail his application. laliberte.ch/info-regionale…
Read 14 tweets
alexandre afonso Profile picture
Dec 17, 2021
Why are there no secessionist tensions in Switzerland while they are strong in Belgium? A thread in maps. ImageImage
Here is a map of dominant languages in Switzerland and Belgium, namely French, German, Italian and Rumansh in Switzerland and French, Flemish and German in Belgium. ImageImage
Now here is a map of average income by municipality in Belgium. As you can see, it doesn't track the language border absolutely perfectly, but there is nevertheless a fairly close correspondence between the two: Flanders is richer than Wallonia 3/ ImageImage
Read 10 tweets
alexandre afonso Profile picture
Nov 17, 2021
So here's are time series of the percentage of immigrants (% born abroad, except for some countries where I use % non-citizen) in a number of countries since 1850, suing census data, statistical yearbooks and other sources. Image
So for some countries finding this data is pretty easy, like in Canada. Image
For others I had to look in the Danish Statistisk Årbog 1896, luckily digitised. Image
Read 5 tweets

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