Europe's Guardian of Liberation

"We're Switzerland," says Walter Bransen in one of the tightest and captivating circumstances of the "Amazing Race 8: Family Edition". Come to think about it, of the final four teams in the said reality game show, the Bransen family is the only one that never got into a quarrel with the other teams and was comfortable with playing fair and square. In short, they're detached and libertarian in the simplest sense.

With Mr. Bransen's sudden outburst about their stance in the competition, I started to contemplate. Why does everyone bring up Switzerland when it comes to neutrality and decent play? Well, the answer to this subject could be traced back to how it became a nation -- its population and history.

interior and nestled in the Alps, Switzerland boasts a multi-cultural people that speaks Romansch, French, German, and Italian and for hundreds of years, has practiced a sense of nationality and democratic traditions. Its part in world dealings could be best remembered for its neutral stance where it refused to align itself with the Allied or Axis forces during World War II and the Western and Communist ideologies of the Cold War Era thus preventing it from being attacked by foreign military forces. Another impressive thing about Switzerland is that, although it plays host to a number of United Nations' agency, it was never a sector of it until 2002.