Lion of Lucerne
I took this photograph when I lived in Switzerland and worked for Swiss Re. It is the Lion of Lucerne, commemorating the valor of the Swiss in battle. Mark Twain described it as the “most moving piece of rock in the world”. I took the photograph to show the small pond in front of it, to convey the serenity of the space. The two German women tourists facing the rock give a sense of scale. I learned a great deal about life and health insurance, property-casualty insurance and reinsurance from my experience at Swiss Re and Swiss Re, my former employer, became a client of my small business. Poor people in the developing world usually lack access to basic financial services, such as insurance to protect against contingencies. A drought affecting the small family farm, or a flood, can be catastrophic, as can illness or unemployment. The poor typically don’t have insurance for life, health, property or unemployment to provide coverage. One of the areas in which my business worked was to try to develop such solutions that would be cost-effective on a micro-scale for many small policyholders.