Claudia Franziska Brühwiler

The US reality television show The Bachelorette is one of the most successful productions in its genre. It only recently featured its first African American lead, a long-expected departure from the show’s dominantly white cast. By analysing how the show discusses race, this article sheds light on how reality television sensationalizes racism. Racism in reality television is not, as the production wants to make viewers believe, the result of individual cases of prejudice, but a problem of those responsible in the control room and, arguably, of those tuning in.

The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) has undergone a considerable transformation in the recent decades: from being driven by a pre-dominantly Swiss body of employees, it has become an organization dominated by international staff that hail from all over the world. While the leadership is still firmly in Swiss hands, the transformation has put into question to what extent the ICRC has been able to uphold its foundational values and its special relationship with Swiss culture. The strong ties with Swiss values such as neutrality, independence, consensus, reliability, work ethics, and participation used to be perceived as key factors for the organization’s continuity and success in delivering humanitarian aid in a politically more and more divided world. Indeed, from a historical perspective, the Swiss rootedness shaping the organizational culture and identity allowed the ICRC to be successful in its endeavors as a neutral humanitarian actor even in times of crises. This paper, through an analysis of interviews with ICRC staff members of different nationalities, seeks to explore to what extent Swiss values are perceived to still matter in the ICRC, its humanitarian work and how Swiss and non-Swiss staff members interpret these values. The research suggests that there are three distinct narratives, namely, an internationalist, a traditionalist, and a pragmatist. While the internationalist narrative perceives the ICRC’s internationalization as a positive development for the organization as a whole, the traditionalist is concerned about detrimental effects on the organizational culture as well as on the credibility of the humanitarian work in the field. The pragmatist narrative recognizes the benefits of strong Swiss values in the ICRC, yet highlights that current developments call for internationalization. The study extends our understanding of the importance of core organizational values and principles in a process of internationalization in order to stay a credible and successful humanitarian actor.

The novels by Russian immigrant writer Ayn Rand (1905-82) still attract a large readership, not least thanks to a recent renaissance of libertarian ideas in the US. Was it Rand's intention, when writing her novels, to construct political tracts, as many insinuate, or was she indeed trying to imitate her literary idols, as she herself claimed? The answer is complicated due to Rand's own contradictory statements on fiction's impact. Although Rand suggested that it was the reader who gave text meaning, she also believed her books to have an unambiguous message that should have a distinct effect on the reader.

The cover illustrations on this issue show two murals that are part of Martin Disler's (1949-1996) work "Usura," which he painted directly onto the concrete walls of one of the main rooms in the University of St.Gallen's Library Building. Constructed in 1989 on a hill overlooking St.Gallen, Switzerland, the building is testament to the University's success, as it evolved from a small Business Academy (Handelsakademie) founded in 1898 to a School for Economic and Social Sciences (Hochschule für Wirtschafts- und Sozialwissenschaften, HSG) to the University it is known as today. Often, the renaming and the thereby implied upgrading came with either a move to a new building or an expansion of the campus. As its earlier names imply, the University of St.Gallen is not a University in the strictest sense but has mainly made its name as a Business School and the place to study if you would like to pursue a career in, for instance, consulting, banking, or law. In this sense, it might appear a rather unlikely location for a gathering of the Philip Roth Society-yet there are some commonalities between location and subject. http://muse.jhu.edu/login?auth=0&type=summary&url=/journals/philip_roth_studies/v011/11.1.bruhwiler.html