On Saturday Cause for hope among new-found friends

TE festive season began to loom large for many of us this week. I, for one, am feeling particularly Yuletide-ish because, as I write, I am enjoying a tour of the Christmas markets of Switzerland.

They know how to do things properly, the Swiss. Their trains run on time, their watches never lose or gain a second and they make excellent chocolate, cheese and wine. So it has been no surprise for me to discover their Christmas markets are as – well – as Christmassy as Christmas can possibly be.

If the idea of tinsel-town log cabins and illuminated pine trees laden with genuine snow – viewed through steam rising from mugs of mulled wine – doesn’t put you in the festive mood, then I don’t know what will.

Visit the land of cuckoo clocks in December and you will see how it is possible to build Christmas-themed marketplaces that even Walt Disney himself would be proud to call his own. You’ll observe crowds of friendly people milling about being merry as they consume roast chestnuts and sip hot spiced wine. Turn a tinsel corner and there’ll be folk chomping on foot-long sausages or dipping hunks of bread into vats of molten cheese. This mid-European, preChristmas phenomenon is a very jolly thing indeed. Even the cockles of Scrooge’s heart would melt like a Swiss fondue.

However, the underlying inspiration for my festive feelings has been more about the company I’ve been keeping than the sparkling markets or the mulled wine. I am feeling upbeat because I am with a party of journalists who’ve come from all around the world to witness the traditional Christmas buzz here among the mountains.

I have been on these multinational press trips before, and I love spending time with complete strangers from distant places. I suppose being journalists we have a lot in common before we even make the first toast, but what I love – what gives me so much pleasure and what causes me to feel optimistic about the future – is the way in which people seem to get along so easily and amicably without having to make any effort.

When I come on these trips, I realise that the conflicts and wars which inspire all those worrying and terrible headlines are actually the exception to the rule. The default is that we humans are actually far more similar to one another than we are different. Most of us share the same forms of happiness and pleasure as well as identical fears and woes.

In our particular case, for example, the vast changes which have hit the media industry in the UK have also taken their toll on my new international friends, whether they are from deepest darkest Hungary or Beijing. The reporter from rural Poland has exactly the same concerns as the girl who plies her trade in Lisbon, and the guy from Prague has seen much the same changes in newspaper journalism as me.

One of my new friends told me about the recent deaths of his elderly parents and the story reminded me of the passing of my own mother and father. Another described how he’d suddenly and unexpectedly been hospitalised in his 50s and it reminded me of my own run-in with the Grim Reaper at the same age. Another talked about how lonely Christmas makes her feel because she has few friends and no immediate family – and, sitting there in a crowded Swiss bar thinking of my own wonderful grandchildren, I was overcome by a deep and almost crushing sense of sadness for her.

There are differences, of course. A friendly, bubbly Indian journalist talked about how she’d be missing her maid and other servants over Christmas because, naturally, she’d be giving them time off. Blimey! I do not know a single English hack who keeps a private staff, or anyone else for that matter. But when she saw my expression of surprise, the girl from Delhi just laughed and shrugged: “It’s just how things are in India…”

And that was it. No big deal. No arguments. We are a bunch of new pals – and why would anyone want to argue with a new pal? Call me naive, but for days here in the foothills of the Alps I have been wondering why the world in general can’t be like a group of diverse individuals who meet up for the very first time.

We are all on our best behaviour because each and every one of us would loathe to upset any one of our new-found friends.

If someone comes across as a little odd or peculiar, so what? It’s nothing. Shrug, and live and let live, is what we seem to say.

As we’ve toured around Switzerland, so local guides have been telling us why there are things like old city walls and ancient fortresses. This corner of the world used to be a massive conflict zone. They were fighting one another around here for centuries. Now it is one of the most peaceful places on Earth.

So I’ve been thinking how odd it is that new acquaintances can get along so well, and how old enemies can live in such a state of peace. It seems to be the middle bit when things go wrong. So let’s hope the world gets over its present bout of teenage tantrums soon.

This corner of the world used to be a massive conflict zone for centuries. Now it is one of the most peaceful places on Earth