sandraexitbrexit.bsky.social
Pro European, love my family, especially the dog. No DMs please.🤩 #FBPE. No follow backs for empty accounts and crypto.
If you follow me and unfollow when I follow you back, I will block you.🇺🇦🇺🇦🇺🇦🇺🇦🇺🇦🇺🇦🇺🇦
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Just to continue the story: the Apple Watch must be the most profitable watch today. Apple was of course co-founded by Steve Jobs, who‘s father was from Syria and who’s mother was of Swiss and German descent. Apple moved the majority of profits from watch making from Switzerland to the US.
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But I am saying that the system you see today was not around forever. And the specific US system is so convoluted and broken that it basically pushes good people into the undocumented status. Those people *want* to do things the right way, but law makes it difficult.
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hat act, of course, was driven by a racist fear of Chinese people. About a decade later, the Federal Immigration Bureau was born, and thus people were processed at ports.
I recognize that many people feel nations must have borders. I'm not here to argue about that.
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Depending on what you mean by "foundational immigration law," it's not true that this system has existed over a millennia.
For much of US history, migrants arrived by simply walking off of a boat. First US immigration law came in 1882 with the Chinese Exclusion Act.
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Zenith is great today because it fostered a cosmopolitan, industrialized workforce that included immigrants, whose families arrived during a time of free migration. They innovated a business structure that shaped many of the brands you sell. Many adopted their manufacturing model
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Lucky for Favre-Jacot. At the time, the region had virtually no immigration controls. This changed after WWII. The rise of radical right-wing movements lead to a fear of Überfremdung ("over-foreignization"), which largely targeted Italian migrant workers. There were proposals to cap immigration.
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And who were these talented craftspeople? Many were immigrants from France, Italy, or Germany. Or they came from families that descended from the Huguenots, who were Calvinist Protestants that escaped religious persecution in France and landed around Europe, including Geneva.
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Favre-Jacot is important in watchmaking history because he came up with the idea of bringing a region's diverse talents under one roof. This means the foundry, rolling mills, stamping processes, and case- and dial-making were all done under one company.
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So far, we've only focused on founders because without them, these companies would have never existed. But without the workers, they also wouldn't be where they are today. So let's talk about the workers.
In 1865, Georges Favre-Jacot founded a Swiss watch brand called Zenith.
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From Switzerland, he moved to England under another open-door policy, returning to France only when Paris stabilized.
Once again, lucky for France! In an industry dominated by the Swiss, Breguet is known for their distinct French design sensibility.
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This was, of course, the start of the watch brand Breguet.
However, it was dangerous to be a foreigner during the French Revolution, esp since Breguet made watches for the royal regime. At one point, Breguet was marked for the guillotine, so he escaped back to Switzerland.
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When he was 15, his parents decided to send him to Paris so he could study watchmaking. Again, at the time, immigration was largely unregulated, so free movement was possible.
What luck for France! In 1775, he opened a watchmaking workshop in Quai de l'Horloge, Paris.
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Immigration also flowed in the other direction. For instance, Abraham-Louis Breguet was born in 1747 in Neuchâtel, then a Prussian principality (now part of Switzerland). After his father died, his mother remarried Joseph Tattet, who came from a watchmaking family.
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Even after becoming a naturalized Swiss citizen, Patek continued to support Polish refugees. He funded mutual aid orgs, built a library, and brought in more Polish emigres after a failed 1863 uprising against Russia. For his support of emigres, Pope Pius IX bestowed Patek the title of count.
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After the two parted ways, the company was named Patek Philippe & Co. What luck for Switzerland! Patek Philippe today is known as one of the best luxury watchmakers in the world (they are also my favorite brand). This was possible because Switzerland took in two Polish immigrants.
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Under pressure of the Russian government, France decided to expel the Polish insurgents. Some, including Patek, settled in Switzerland under an open-door policy. There, he met another Polish immigrant named Franciszek Czapek, who was of Czech descent. Together, they founded Patek, Czapek & Co.
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Similarly, Antoni Patek was a Polish nobleman who fought in the Polish November Uprising against Russian rule in the late 1820s. At one point, he organized an evacuation route for Polish insurgents through Prussia and into France, where soon settled and worked for a time as type-setter.
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Nonetheless, Hans Wilsdorf founded Rolex in 1908, the main luxury watch you sell.
Unfortunately, Wilsdorf wasn't able to fully dodge xenophobia. Anti-German sentiment during WWI contributed to Rolex moving its HQ from England to Switzerland. Hence why it's a Swiss company today.
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Although the 1905 Aliens Act was motivated by a fear of Jewish migration, the law targeted a broader group. Migrants could be turned away if they were suspected of being unable to support themselves. Would a young 22 year-old Wilsdorf have passed these tests? We'll never know.
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Lucky for him. Two years later, fear of poor Eastern European Jews flooding the UK led to 1905 Aliens Act, which moved the country from an open-door policy to one of stricter control. This was the first British law that labeled certain migrants as "undesirable."
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In 1881, Hans Wilsdorf was born in Bavaria, then part of Germany, to parents who died not long after he was born. At a young age, Wilsdorf set off into the world. He landed in England in 1903, which at the time had virtually no formal immigration controls.
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This is the story of how democracy died.
#r4today
bsky.app/profile/thet...
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This is the story of how democracy died.
#r4today
bsky.app/profile/your...
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They are not the only ones
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No one talks about the cost of the energy other than a vague notion it’ll be cheaper than big nukes - that’s a high bar..:) These mini nukes won’t land until after we hit the 2030 target….we don’t need them - It’s nuclear proliferation - of sites to risk manage and contain…..madness…..
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www.thelondoneconomic.com/news/no-mill...
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Oh dear
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Zero cost for a massive gain and chance to fix this - or let another private capital outfit have a go at maximising profit and minimising investment. I know which one I choose..:)
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My spidey senses told me he'd block me.
Why troll so pointlessly if you don't have the guts to push back.