Live From Brussels

Remembering 9/11

What a strange 5 years it has been.

Censorship in Flanders

This afternoon I was shocked to hear on the radio that the 'Inquisition for fighting equal opportunity' (not their real name, but it should be) had managed to get an article removed from 'The Brussels Journal'.  The entry was titled 'Geef ons Wapens' (give us weapons) and appeared on may 21st 2006. 

Today the article is no longer on-line.  Instead we read following text (translated from Dutch):

'This text was removed at the demand of the Center for Equality of Opportunity and Combatting Racism which let us know through certified mail on may 10th that our "statements form an incitement to violence against a group based on their national or ethnic provenance (art 1 par3, 3° of the law of 30/07/1981). Hence we request you to remove the contested text or have it removed.  In the opposite case the Center for Equality of Opportunity and Combatting Racism will reserve the right to press charges about this fact with the judicial authorities"'

Pure censorship, in other words: remove your article or you will be prosecuted.  Freedom of Speech is one of the most important rights to me.  'Bad' ideas should be fought by shining a spotlight on them and by debating them, in my opinion.  Not by censoring them: that only makes them more attractive

I'll leave it up to the reader to decide if Paul Beliën has 'bad' ideas.  But this form of direct censorship crosses a line for me.  I doubted at first to maybe republish the text on my weblogs.  But in the second paragraph there is an explicit call not to do this:

'Even though I deny the charges, I hereby comply with the demand.  As author of the text in question I ask all websites and/or other publications that have copied the text outside my knowledge and without my permission, or who have quoted passages from it, to remeove these as well.  If they don't do this, it is not only a violation on my copyright but they are guilty of  "incitement of violence against a group because of national or ethnical provenance", according to the laws cited by the Centre.

Let them start by prosecuting Google!

Next Embassy to Burn: Egyptian?

Heh, this is too funny. A blogger in Egypt has revealed that the Egyptian Newspaper Al Fagr reprinted the infamous Danish Mohammed cartoons, and this already back in October 2005! He has scans too, to prove it.

He also has a quite interesting theory as to why several Arab governments have been fueling the frenzy about the cartoons in their own population.  Hint: it has to do with distracting attention away from domestic problems.

Go see this: Rantings of a Sandmonkey: Boycott Egypt.

Can Bush Now Legally Invade Syria?

An interesting side-effect of the Danish cartoon affair might be the invasion of Syria by U.S. forces.  As you can read in this CNN article, the Norwegian and Danish embassies in Damascus were burned down by angry mobs on Sunday. 

Now, depending on the level of (passive) involvement by the Syrian regime, one could make the case this is an act of war.  And since Norway and Denmark are both NATO members, Bush can invoke article V of the NATO charter that says an attack on one member state is an attack against all of them...

Presto!  Legal casus belli... and no need to find further justifications in hidden WMD's, terror sponsoring or the need for 'regime change'.  Just point the tanks in Baghdad to Damascus and start driving...

Far fetched?  You bet.  Unlikely?  Probably. But would it hold up under 'international law'?  Not so sure about that.  But then again, that's the fun of blogging: you just make stuff up as you go and count on the commenters to flesh it out...

Gas Prices Drop to Zero in Belgium

It's true!  Just read in De Standaard, a leading paper, that the justice department will no longer prosecute for gasoline theft at service stations!  Just fill up your tank and drive off without paying...

Even if the owner gets your license plate and calls the cops, prosecution is unlikely to follow.  Laurette Onkelinx, Minister of Justice, said that it is just no use prosecuting in this kind of case.  The maximum jail time is too low, so even if a conviction is obtained the perpetrator walks away because there is not enough room in Belgian jails. 

And even getting a conviction involves too much effort in court, with long, drawn out procedures and people claiming they didn't intend to steal but just 'forgot' to pay.  So the reasoning goes: why bother?  Onkelinx claimed the department of justice is not an incasso-agency for pumpstation owners.

So, if you need gas, head to Belgium!

Source: Benzinedieven niet meer gestraft.

State of the Union X

More announcements on AIDS funding.

Calls for courage, to 'finish the job'.  Freedom.  Optimism.  Faith.  Confident of victories to come.

And it is over!

State of the Union IX

Values stuff.  Praises both Democrats and Republicans for this.  Drugs, abortion, crime etc. all falling.

No reason for pessimism.  Praises new members of Supreme Court.  Thanks the senate for confirming them.  They will uphold the law, not legislate from the bench.

Asks for legislation against cloning, human-animal hybrids etc.

Says he's agains corruptoin.  Duh!

The obligatory shout-out to his wife.

85 billions spent on Katrina aid already.

State of the Union VIII

More domestic stuff.  Not so interesting for me.  Healthcare, tort refom.  Bla bla...

Alternative energy sources.  The Advanced Energy Initiative.  Hydrogen, nucular, ethanol...

Ethanol practical within six years...

Replace oil imports from Middle East by 2025.

American Competitiveness Initiative.  Education reform.  Give children firm grounding in math and science.  More research funding and tax breaks.

More teachers etc. for math and sciences.

State of the Union VII

Describes economic achievements.  More jobs created than EU and Japan combined.  Growth is great.

Immigrants are good for the economy.

Make the tax relief permanent.

Reforms to cut spending.  Cut deficit in half by 2009.

Earmark reform.  Asks for line-item veto (again, hehe).

"Congress did not act on my proposal to save social security": The democrats actually applaud this!

Castigates them for this: the rising costs will not go away...

Calls to solve this problem in a bipartisan way.

Calls for more open markets.  Buy American!  With level playing field, no-one can out-compete the American worker.

Secure borders, stronger immigration enforcement and border protection.  Also rational and humane guest worker program (without amnesty!)

State of the Union VI

Talks about compassion and foreign aid.

Praises government departments fighting terrorism (DOHS, military...).  Standing ovation for them.  Asks for reauthorization of the Patriot Act.  Applause on one aisle (guess which).

Defends wiretapping, citing example of 911.  Calls it international surveilance.  Cites previous presidents and legal precedents for doing this.  "If people in the U.S. are talking to Al Qaeda, we want to know about it, because we will not sit and wait to be hit again."

Hillary Clinton smiling beatifically at this.

State of the Union VI

Talks about compassion and foreign aid.

Praises government departments fighting terrorism (DOHS, military...).  Standing ovation for them.  Asks for reauthorization of the Patriot Act.  Applause on one aisle (guess which).

Defends wiretapping, citing example of 911.  Calls it international surveilance.  Cites previous presidents and legal precedents for doing this.  "If people in the U.S. are talking to Al Qaeda, we want to know about it, because we will not sit and wait to be hit again."

Hillary Clinton smiling beatifically at this.

State of the Union V

Tears into critics of Iraq policy.  Describe what would happen if U.S. is to withdraw.  Kerry looks as if he doesn't like what George is saying.

Praises the military.  Quotes from a letter of a fallen marine.  The parents and sister get a standing ovation.  Calls to never forget sacrifices of military families.

Says defeating terrorism is not just military thing, but also battle of ideas.  Asks for more democracy over broader Middle East.  Mentions Egypt and Palestine.  Says Hamas must disarm, recognize Israel and work for lasting peace (and pigs should fly...)

Also says Saudi Arabia should democratize.  Middle Eastern democracy will not look like ours.

Calls Iranian govenment on supporting terrorism in Palestine.  No 'nucular' weapons for Iran.  Calls people of Iran hostages of small group of clerics.  Speaks directly to Iranian people.  Hopes to be friends one day with democratic Iran.

State of the Union IV

He just listed the 'new' axis of evil.  Zimbabwe and Syria are now on the list too.

He also seems to avoid the 'WMD' word.

But he does call the enemy by its name: 'Radical Islam'.  That's new.

Also mentions liberation of Europe.  Hint to the EU?

Listing where they are on the offensive.  Claims he does have a plan in Iraq.

Describes how far they've come in Iraq in three years.  Declares confidence in military, in Iraqis and in victory.

State of the Union III

And there he is!  Bush was just ceremonially announced.  A lot of smiling, hand shaking and picture taking ensues.

The CNN commentators mention that many representatives actually staked out seats on the aisles, often coming in hours before the speech, just so they could be in the picture when Bush walked in.

Bush was just announced by the speaker.  He's off!

He begins by eulogizing Coretta Scott King.

He is appealing for a more respectfull and civil debate.  And there is the phrase 'The State of our Union is Strong'.

He's making the case again for spreading democracy as a guarantee for American security.

State of the Union II

So, here we go...  I've lost count how often I've liveblogged the SOTU, but it has become a fun tradition for me.

So far, the representatives of the various branches of the government are coming in.  The atmosphere of this thing is special every year, and no press report in the Belgian media comes close to describing it...

State of the Union I

Well, I managed to stay awake this far.  Just saw on CNN that Cindy Sheehan was arrested for unfurling a banner inside the House of Representatives.  Guess she got what she came for... publicity.

State of the Union

As is my yearly tradition, I'm staying up late to watch the State of the Union address live.  It starts at 3.00 in the morning here in Belgium, in case you were wondering...

Paris Riots: Measures Taking Effect... or Just the Weather?

A.P. reports a steep drop in the number of arrests and cars burned in France.  Good news if you live there! The article speaks of the state of emergency and curfew laws taking effect, and links this to the decline. 

However, interestingly enough, if you take a look at this page of weather data for one of the Paris airports, something jumps out if you compare the average temperature with the number of cars burned.  It also says there was rain on the 9th.

Might there be a correlation?  Let's hope for a few more cold and wet days...

French Riots in Numbers

Just stumbled on this nifty overview table of the recent unpleasantness in France.  There are also some interesting graphs suggesting things may be quieting down. A few days of really cold or rainy weather would also help, I think.  For those of you who read Dutch, yesterday I wrote a limerick about the situation on my other blog.

  Wikipedia rules.

ABVV

Normally I hate search engine spammers, but when they try to googlebomb the ABVV ( a Belgian union), I'm game.  Last week the ABVV went on strike, even before negotiations with the government about pensions and wage increases had even started.  They even forced people into 'solidarity' by stopping them from getting to work.

Of course, when you're a dad working from home, there's not much they can do :-)

Down with America!

Well know Belgian blogger Luc Van Braekel reports on the newest song by Raymond Van Het Groenewoud, a popular singer in Flanders who's been around for years.  The title of this new masterpiece?  'Down with America'.

Here are some of the (translated) lyrics (original Dutch below):

Hamburgers and cola, yeah, you knew that already. But do you also know the cause of the general decline?  Shortsighted thinking, talking loud, getting stuck in one-liners.  Down with America! Down with those American peasants! Down with America! Down with American colonialism!  Down with that ugly, biting English.  All that Aglo-saxon arrogance.  Yeah, a hot poker in their butt, and that's that.  Those foolish machos, oh man, they've been playing cop for sixty years.  I'm from the Belgian, the European panel, and I'm asking, clear my channel!

(Hamburgers en cola, ja dat wist u al. Maar kent u ook de oorzaak van het algemeen verval? Kortzichtig denken, luidruchtig spreken, eeuwig in oneliners blijven steken. Weg met Amerika! Weg met die boeren van Amerika! Weg met Amerika! Weg met het kolonialisme van Amerika! Weg met dat lelijke knauwende Engels. Al die Angelsaksische pretentie, arrogantie. Ja, een gloeiende pook in hun gat, en dat is dat! [...] Die dwaze macho's, moh vent moh vent, die spelen nu al 60 jaar politieagent. [...] Ik ben van het Belgische, het Europese panel, en ik verzoek u: clear my channel! [...])

If you are American, well, lucky for you!  You see, in Belgium we don't have that pesky First Amendment thing, meaning that there are actual laws prohibiting certain speech, including speech that incites hatred against people for their nationality... So why not send an e-mail here if you feel offended: the center for equality of opportunity and fighting racism, the official government sponsored institution set up to deal with this kind of thing.

In my opinion, speech should really be free and there is no such thing as a right not to be offended, but if there has to be a government sponsored thought-police anyway it is better to clog it up with complaints of the kind that the founders never anticipated than to just let it sit there...

New Orleans Blog with Camera

For the past few days, weblog The Interdictor  has been posting quasi-live updates on life in hurricane-wrecked and flooded New Orleans.  The blog seems to be run by employees of DirectNIC, who have gone through extraordinary efforts to keep their datacenter running.

They have also managed to keep a webcam feed on the air throughout most of the crisis, which looked mostly like this:

I've done some searching with Google Earth and the address information I managed to dig up for DirectNIC, and I've been able to recreate the camera location in Google Earth.

Seen from above, it looks like this:

For those of you who have Google Earth installed, here is a placemark file you can download to go there yourself: Download Interdictor_cam.kmz

Here is also a direct link to the location in Google maps.

Read This if You are British

Paul Belien at The Brussels Journal quotes from an article in De Morgen (one of the most prominent leftist newspapers in Belgium).  It is a full scale attack against the British and their behaviour as tourists in the rest of Europe:

The Huns are back, and they speak English with a variety of invariably common accents. No other nation manages to spoil other people’s holidays so thoroughly as the British. They do that all through the summer everywhere the sun shines with their unique mixture of wantonness and arrogance, their pathetic addiction to drink, their bad taste, and actually just their ugliness and thickheaded presence. There, that is a relief.

The actual quote is much longer, go read it if you feel like doing so.  The entire thing is bursting at the seams with crude generalizations and stereotypes.  One might even consider it racist in places.

...which is exactly what an MP for the far-right Flemish Interests (Vlaams Belang) party has done.  He has sent a complaint about the article to the official government institution that deals with racism and discrimination issues.

The funny thing is, due to a lawsuit brought by this same institution the Flemish Interest party had to change its name last year because its previous incarnation was condemned for being racist... on the basis of party publications that contained 'crude generalisations' about certain population groups, with the intent to incite hatred.

Back then, the aforementioned newspaper was wildly cheering on this verdict.  Oh, the irony!

Anyway, that's what it is like to live in a country without true freedom of speech...

Iraq Tactics

Michael Yon sends a dispatch from Mosul, Iraq: Jungle Law.  Contained in the long (and good) piece, is this tidbit about American tactics vs. crazy jihadi's.

Deuce Four is an overwhelmingly aggressive and effective unit, and they believe the best defense is a dead enemy. They are constantly thinking up innovative, unique, and effective ways to kill or capture the enemy; proactive not reactive. They planned an operation with snipers, making it appear that an ISF vehicle had been attacked, complete with explosives and flash-bang grenades to simulate the IED. The simulated casualty evacuation of sand dummies completed the ruse.

The Deuce Four soldiers left quickly with the "casualties," "abandoning" the burning truck in the traffic circle. The enemy took the bait. Terrorists came out and started with the AK-rifle-monkey-pump, shooting into the truck, their own video crews capturing the moment of glory. That's when the American snipers opened fire and killed everybody with a weapon. Until now, only insiders knew about the AK-monkey-pumpers smack-down.

Wondering why Al Jazeera hasn't aired *that* footage...

Hillary 2008

Heh, pretty funny flash video...

Juvenile Criminals Caught on Tape Controversy

Via an article on the weblog of Jurgen Verstrepen I read that Filip Dewinter, a Flemish far-right politician has published a video on his website showing a bunch of criminal youths of foreign origin breaking into a car. The video was taken by a citizen with a hand-held camera who was watching from his home. The accompanying article complains about how the neighbourhood where it was taken was recently declared a police 'hot zone' by one of the city's aldermen but remains a crime-ridden area.

Now, I don't know the exact context of the story: it seems the 'kids' were arrested and put on trial, although if and how they were punished is unclear to me right now.

What is clear is that some people now want to sue Dewinter because the faces of the car-vandals are clearly visible on the video, and because they are minors there are all kinds of privacy issues.

Personally I feel that this sort of thing should be allowed, in the name of freedom of speech and open journalism: if people (minor or not) commit crimes in the public space and they are filmed, people should have the right to report about it.  Nobody complained when the London bomber's pictures taken by the Underground camera's were released.  Even if the kids were punished and 'did their time' I should have the right to see this, so that I can move my car if I see them in my street.  But that's just my opinion.

Another thing I noticed however had me equally upset: by design a large part of the video is blacked out, I suppose by Dewinter.  Why?  To hide the date and time of course...

Unfortunately for him, the video is kind of jumpy, so the black rectangle doesn't obscure this data all the time...

April 25th 2004... more than a year ago.  Looks like this didn't fit in the look-what-is-happening-in-a-police-hot-zone story Dewinter was trying to spin...

Politicians and technology... when will they ever learn?

King Fahd Dies...

Just now on CNN.com: Saudi King Fahd dead. I wonder what consequences this will have.  I'm by no means an expert on Saudi politics, but I've heard left and right that the Saudi princes have been doing an 'Arafat' for years (i.e. keep the body 'warm' until everything about the succession of power is properly settled).

This BBC profile of the new king, Abdullah, seems to contain a nugget of hope for the people in Saudi Arabia who like freedom:

Limited reform

Since 1995 he has grown into his role as de facto leader. Abdullah has won praise from Saudi liberals for advocating reform.

What exactly this reform means becomes clear two paragraphs later:

He has allowed mild criticism of the government in the press, and hinted that more women should be allowed to work.

Saudi traditionalists appreciate his forthright manner, and welcomed his recent criticism of the United States' foreign policy, particularly in the Middle East and Afghanistan.

Some reformer, huh?

Dutch Jihadis in Iraq Caught on Tape

LGF is reporting on a story that has been circulating the blogs for a while about a U.S. soldier in Iraq who was filmed by some jihadis as they shot him, then got back up and with his team injured, captured and treated his would be killers.

The funny thing is, Dutch weblog GeenStijl.nl is now reporting that the shooters are clearly speaking Dutch, with what sounds like a Morrocan accent: Hé hakbar, hebbie uhm geraakt?.  I must say, after watching the movie for myself, I tend to agree with their conclusion.

What they are saying:
-Allah Ahkbar (x3)...
-Did you hit him?
-Yes

UPDATE: closed comments and trackbacks on this entry due to spam.  If you want to comment on this, leave me an e-mail...

Terrorists Strike in London

Just heard over the radio: Multiple blasts paralyse London.  Apparently several explosions in subway trains and busses rocked London this morning, causing a number of deaths and injuries...

No report of who is behind this, but the scale, timing and organisation seem to indicate these are no mere amateurs.

UPDATE: amateur pictures are streaming in on Flickr...

Merksem Cemetary Makes Yahoo! News

Heh, always funny when an event at a place you used to pass daily when going to school makes the international news: Gravediggers throw party at cemetery - Yahoo! News.

Of course, news like this also gets picked up at Fark... where they seem to think Antwerp is in the Netherlands.  Well, can't blame them, what with all the Dutch coming there in droves during weekends, hehe...

So it's a NO in the Netherlands too

I'm watching the results of the E.U. Constitution referendum come in on Dutch television, and it looks like a resounding NO.  Quite funny: they have a bunch of politicians on the stage of major political parties, but unlike any other election-night special they are all agreeing with each other!

It looks like most politicians were for the constitution, while more than 60% of the electorate was against it.  And boy are they squirming under the eye of the camera...  The people didn't understand it, they voted for the wrong reasons, they don't know anything about Europe, they are scared that things are going too fast...  Anything but admitting that they were wrong.

Anyway, personally I'm glad NO won.  Constitutions shouldn't be over 300 pages long, and shouldn't spell out policy.  They should define how institutions work, how power is shared, checked and balanced, and how it is transfered.  Some basic rights should be in there too, and personally I prefer the way the U.S. does it: their constitution says that the people have certain rights, which can't be taken away, and that the people are granting the state certain (limited) powers.  The E.U. constitution, as far as I understand it, says the state has certain powers, and grants the citizens their rights.

But if they are granted by the state, they can also be taken away by the state.

Osama Dead?

Earlier today I heard on Belgian state radio that a website with ties to Al Qaeda had announced the death of Osama Bin Laden.  The news had been picked up by 'an Israeli website with ties to the intelligence community' (actual quote).  I don't know if the story is true or not, but I get really irritated by radio and tv news  these days if a website is mentioned, but not the URL.  Do journalists think we're too stupid to check the site ourselves?

Anyway, I know only one 'Israeli website with ties to the intelligence community', and sure enough,  DEBKAfile has a headline on this, but no further information.  Knowing DEBKAfile's reputation, I'd say there is a 20% chance of this being true.  Let's hope it is...

Pope Watch

Just before leaving for the prolonged Easter Weekend, I give you Pope Watch.  Created using www.superblog.org and a bunch of RSS feed search engines.  I have a feeling Pope Watching will be on the rise in the coming days...

Thoughts on the Schiavo Case

With all the discussions going on around the blogosphere and elsewhere about the Schiavo case, here are some thoughts I've been having about this affair.

If I understand correctly, this woman is in a coma, with severe brain damage, and very little hope of recovering.  However, the rest of her body is fine, she doesn't need any special treatment to keep her alive.  Much like a normal person, she just requires food, water and oxygen to keep her going indefinitely.

Apparently it is legal to kill this woman by starving/dehydrating her, because there is no  or very little chance of her ever recovering.  But if you follow that logic, wouldn't suffocation be a much more humane and quicker way to do it?  And once you take that step, why not a letal injection or just a bullet?  Would that be less humane than what they are doing now?  I certainly don't think so.

Also, many people seem to be arguing in favour of euthanizing this woman because of the cost of keeping her fed and cared for.  I don't think this is an argument you want to be making.  Pursued logically, it leads to euthanizing mentally handicapped people who don't contribute to society either, then the physically disabled, then the chronically unemployable, then the elderly...  After all, they are just a 'drain' on society too.

Another thing I find very hard to understand is that the 'killing by starvation' is still going on, despite there undoubtedly being many people right now who would be glad to bear the cost of feeding and caring for her (her parents, for example). Scary that it comes down to the law to decide who should be killed, even if no crime has been committed by that person other than being 'a drain on society'.

For the record, if I ever end up on life support or in a coma, somebody please keep my body going for as long as possible, and my brain too, preferably.  You never know what miracle cure science comes up with next: nanotechnology, stem cells, artificial implants...   Thank you.

Flag Burning

Quite an amazing picture at Power Line today.  Iraqi protesters burning a flag... but not the one you'd expect:

Nope, they are setting fire to the flag of Jordan, to protest the fact that a Jordanian who blew himself up killing more than 100 people was being celebrated as a martyr by many Jordanians.

Passengers Take Over Plane... to Protest Against Terror and for Regime Change?!

Weird news from Brussels airport today, as reported by Reuters.  A number of Iranian passengers on a Lufthansa plane refused to disembark.  They 'occupied' the plane, but appear to be unarmed.

Why are they doing it?  According to the Reuters article:

"We want the European Union to remove the Islamic leaders from Iran. We want to remove the mullahs from power," Armin Atshgar, a protester, told Reuters by mobile phone from the aircraft.

On the evening news today here in Belgium they had an audio clip of one of the passengers being interviewed by cellphone.  He said that Osama Bin Laden was in Iran, and that people are being executed there for no reason.

It also appeared that the group was pro-monarchy, but against the return of the 'legal' heir to the shah that was driven out by the islamic revolution in Iran.  At least, according to a spokesman of the group at the airport (who seemed a bit confused).

All in all, a weird story.  Is this terrorism?  I think it isn't: nobody has been hurt, and they aren't threatening anybody.  Will their action have any effect?  Wait and see...

Update: also blogged by Alan K. Henderson.

Rules of Engagement

As usual Cox & Forkum sum it up nicely

For the record: I don't believe Sgrena's car was targetted deliberately by U.S. forces.  If it was, she wouldn't be alive to tell anyone about it.  And U.S. forces wouldn't have allowed her taken to hospital after the incident.

Besides, what good would it do for the U.S. to shoot at Sgrena, and agents of the secret service of an allied nation?  I don't buy the story that she had some info the Americans didn't want to come out.  If she had, why hasn't she published it yet?  And contrary to popular belief, Americans are not that stupid: if they didn't want her to leave Iraq, they'd have planted an Improvised Explosive Device next to the road or something else they could blame on 'terrorists'.

I guess what irks me most is that someone (probably the Italian government) paid millions in ransom to obtain the release of this woman.  I hope she enjoys the rest of her life and makes something worthwile of it, because all those dollars are going to get a lot of other people killed (how many bullets and car-bombs will that money buy, do yo think?)

In fact, after this payment, can Italy be described as a nation funding terror now?  Will the bombing start in five minutes?

Bush in Brussels

Want to know everything people are writing about the visit of (a great leader and defender of freedom/the evil bush-hitler chimp)* to Brussels?  I've got you covered, with a quickly hacked up PlanetPlanet site showing the latest blog posts about Bush in Brussels, as tracked by Technorati.

* Pick one, depending on your point of view.

Kyoto...

Heard a funny story from my wife today.  She teaches at a small primary school, which is actually part of another, larger school.

Today, as the media here have pointed out repeatedly, the Kyoto-protocol went into action.  To 'celebrate' this, Belgian schools were asked to organise a 'thick sweaters' day.  The idea was to turn off the heating in the school buildings for the day, to save energy, and to have everybody wear extra clothing instead, including thick sweaters.

So far, so good.  My wife follows the lesson plan, explains it all to the kids and turns off the heating in her building.  But then, for some classes, her pupils need to go to the other, larger school.  There, they also have 'thick sweater day'.  But they didn't manage to turn of the thermostat.

Result: super hot classrooms.  Talk about global warming...  And to make things even worse, because everybody was wearing extra clothes and things were geting really  unbearable, apparently some teachers even opened the windows of their classrooms, with the heating still on full-blast...

Oh, well, I guess a bit of extra carbon emissions can't hurt that much...

National ID Card, Belgium Style

Just got my new Belgian ID card.  For those of you who are not Belgian, allow me to explain.  We have a national ID card here, issued by the state, that we have to carry with us at all times.  It is used to identify a person at banks, polling stations, when you get married... and for all sorts of other official business.

Of course, the card is also used to prove your age at certain parties in bars, to check your name at video rental stores and for many other, non-official purposes, although I'm not sure those uses are entirely legal.  I think cops and civil servants are the only ones that may legally oblige you to show your card.

Anyway, this new card is supposed to be safer and easier, since it now comes with a chip that contains a digital signature, and it can be used in card-readers, kind of like credit or debit cards, with PIN codes and stuff.  It is also a lot smaller, so it is now the same size as a credit card.

Only, they forgot one thing: when they handed me the card this afternoon, they also handed me an A4-size sheet of paper.  "What's this?" - "Oh, they forgot to print address data on the card, they only put that info on the chip.  So if you have to prove residence, you can show them this paper..."

Great.

Condi in Belgium: Scuffle at the Airport

Belgian blogger Luc Van Braekel writes a report (in English) on Condi's arrival at the airport: Rice with Belgian fries, please!.

Apparently U.S. Secret Service agents got into a scuffle with a Belgian protocol droïd official, and hilarity ensued.  Check it out!

Who Watches the Watchdogs?

Last evening I attended a debate organised by the Master Class in Journalism of the Erasmushogeschool.  The theme was: "Who Watches the Watchdogs?", and panelists were Yves Desmet (De  Morgen), Luc Van der Kelen (Het Laatste Nieuws) and Peter  Vandermeersch (De Standaard), all three of them newspaper editorialists.

The debate was split up into three questions, and each panelist in turn took the role of moderator on one question so the other two could debate on it.

The first topic was the difference between 'quality' and 'popular' papers in Flanders, and the debate was between Luc and Yves.  One of the first remarks was that there seems to be almost no 'tabloid' press in Flanders, for some reason or another.  One hypothesis floated was that since Flemish people don't read too many papers, they expect quality from them, not entertainment.

The difference between the so-called quality and popular papers thus lay not so much in quality as in topic selection.  Politics, culture, science etc. in one paper, sports, gossip and local stuff in the other.  Of course, the other topics would also be present, but less in-depth.

One thing Yves Desmet from the more leftist De Morgen completely dissagreed with, was the letters-to-the editor section in Luc Van Der Kelen's Laatste Nieuws.  He said it looked like "people burped, hit enter and it was published in Het Laatste Nieuws".  Any opinion, no matter how stupid, was published.  According to Van Der Kelen this fulfulled a social function, by showing what really lived with people.  Desmet argued that sewers also fulfill a useful function in society, but he doesn't publish "shit", in a manner of speaking.

In my view, Van Der Kelen was right here.  I think these poorly thought out letters are hardly going to convince anybody, but it is good that these opinions can be aired out in the open, to protect against ivory-tower syndrome.  How can you argue with public opinion, if you're not allowed to know what it is?

The second debate was between Luc and Peter, and the topic was: "do newspapers have an impact on society or not?"  The main tone of the debate was that they used to have an enormous impact, back in the day when they were closely linked with political parties.  Editors in chief used to make or break governments, often deciding who got which cabinet position.  This is no longer the case.

Peter Vandermeersch added that with nearly all newspapers writing either nothing about or plainly against the far-right Flemish Bloc party, this didn't stop it from continuously gaining votes in the last thirteen elections, so their influence can't be all that big.  I put a question mark here.  Maybe it is partly because of this that they have been gaining votes, because they are seen as the only alternative by many people?  A sort of 'unintended' influence, as it was.

He also defended his paper's decision to start to publish articles and advertisements from the Vlaams Belang (the new name of the Flemish Bloc, after it had to change it's name due to a conviction for racism).  Basically he said other politicians often write the exact same arguments, and they can get published, but if they write the same article as member of the Belang, they wouldn't be eligible anymore?  What kind of hypocrisy is that, he wondered.  I have made a short video of this section, which you can download here (about 5 meg, wmv-format).

Luc and Peter also remarked that the 'politics' editors of a newspaper used to be the core of the editorial staff, wielding enormous power, but that this has declined steadily over the years.  Many fields outside of politics have become much more important, like economics, Europe, science... and many journalists aren't as familiar with these fields as with politics.  It used to be that the dream of every young reporter was to cover national politics, but now they need to be almost forced into covering it...

The final round was with Peter and Yves, about who watches the watchdog?  The conclusion was that no extra watching was needed, because there is legal protection enough against abuse, according to them.  Anyone that gets written about can demand and get a right of reply, and commercial pressure ensures most papers won't play dangerous games with their reputation.

A quick question was asked about the role of blogs in this, and Rathergate was cited, but nothing much came of this question, except a quick dismissal of blogs as people who just write stuff, and enormous amounts of noise with very little relevant content.  Pity that this wasn't developed further, but time was almost up and some other questions about the deontological journalism body were demanding the panelists attention.

State of the Union Speech - first impression

Well, it looked like Bush was very confident and relaxed, smiled a lot too.  Most of the topics he spoke on were not new to those who followed his election campaign.  I guess he can afford to be relaxed, with a majority in both houses and the presidency, nothing can stop him from fulfilling what he promised back then.

I'm not going to comment much on the social security issues, just that he certainly seemed to reach out to the Democrats, soliciting ideas and all.

On terrorism, he kept hammering this theme of democratization of the Middle East, even calling on nominal allies Egypt and Saudi Arabia to take steps... and 'threatening' Syria and Iran.  Freedom, freedom, freedom... with just one mention of WMD's and way more mentions of terrorism.  Guess he won't fall for the WMD-trap again.

His intentions are clear, no need to be stealthy about it anymore for the sake of sparing the feelings of some 'allies':  the goal is nothing less than democratizing the Middle East, and look out if you are standing in the way of that goal! The Bush doctrine in action.

To finish, a remark on his speaking style.  I didn't hear many stutters or gaps, and he didn't fumble any difficult words, except maybe the name of the Iraqi woman.  And 'nuclear', but I bet he does that on purpose to annoy some people.

State of the Union Speech

Like every year, I'm staying up to watch the State of the Union address of president George W. Bush.  This time I will not post every five minutes or so, but instead make one large post when it is over.

UPDATE: it is over, click below to read my live "transcript"

Election in Iraq

I haven't been blogging much this weekend due to  all kinds of other obligations, but I'm very happy that the elections in Iraq seem to have gone relatively well.  Iraqi bloggers Omar and Mohammed at IRAQ THE MODEL certainly seem to think so.

So, this marks the second democratic election in an islamic country in a few years that was violently opposed by Al Qaeda.  And the second time Bin Laden's boys failed to stop it.  Seems like the evil, idiot, bushitler-chimp and his Halliburton cronies must be doing something right...

With this vote, the Iraqi people have (literally) given the finger to those who did not want them to have a democracy.  Imagine, the turnout was higher than in the U.S. presidential election, and nobody was bombing polling stations over there! 

Of course, turnout was lower than in Belgium, where voting is obligatory, and in pre-invasion Iraq, where voting for Saddam was obligatory.  Kind of hard to beat 100% turnout, 100% of the votes for the same guy.  But that's democracy for you.

Luckily, as Dog of Flanders remarks, the run-up to the Iraqi election wasn't as deadly as  the last Spanish election.  Remember the Atocha train-bombing?  Kind of puts things in perspective.

Let's hope that Iraq fares as well as Japan, Germany, Korea, Italy and other places that needed an invasion before democracy took root firmly and led to prosperity and freedom at greater than ever levels..

Freedom of Speech

While in Belgium you can go to jail if you say that the Holocaust wasn't as big a deal as some historians have made of it (not that I feel that way, by the way, so don't arrest me), in America, the Nazi Party can openly sponsor a road: check out the article in the  Statesman Journal.

I guess this serves to illustrate that Freedom of Speech means something there, and it is not just the freedom to express popular or mainstream opinions.  The ultimate test of this freedom is always to see how free people are to express unpopular, immoral (to some) and downright offensive ideas.

Would this be possible in Belgium?  Not a chance...

Referendum Halted (out of Fear of the Voters?)

Belgian state media reports that there probably won't be a referendum in Belgium about the new EU-constitution.  At first it seems that the idea of a referendum had a slight majority in a parliamentary commission where it was discussed, but now Spirit, a small leftist Flemish nationalist party (which formed a cartel with the Flemish socialist party in the last election) has changed its mind and is going to vote against the referendum, along with its cartel-partner.

The reason?  They say they are afraid the far-right Vlaams Belang party (Flemish interests party) might try to turn the campaign for the EU-referendum into an indirect referendum about the membership of Turkey.

And what if the VB would do just that?  Are they scared the sheeple people will  just blindly vote for what the Vlaams Belang tells them to vote for?  Or are they just scared the people don't agree with them?  Anyway, let's just not hold a referendum, just to make sure we get our way, they seem to have reasoned.

The solution is quite obvious, if you ask me: hold a second referendum specifically about Turkey.  But then again, the fact that they dont seem to dare to do this seems to indicate they have no real faith in the outcome.  This either signifies an incredible arrogance or just a plain undemocratic attitude, in my view.  Or maybe it is none of these two, but just plain fear of the Vlaams Belang. 
Anyway, I feel cheated out of my democratic right to vote for or against the EU-constitution by this decision.

It also seems like Spirit has betrayed its own acronym with this position.  The 'I' stands for 'Integraal Democratisch' (completely democratic).  Here is what their website says about this principle (translation in red)

INTEGRAAL DEMOCRATISCH

spirit blijft bij uitstek de enige geloofwaardige verdediger van de radicale democratie. Spirit remains especially the only credible defender of radical democracy Integrale democratie gaat niet enkel over de spelregels. Integral democracy is not just about rules of the game.l Het is een allesomvattende filosofie waarbij de bevolking centraal staat. It is an all-encompassing philosophy where the population is central. Wij vertrekken van een fundamenteel respect voor de bevolking en een inzicht dat de politiek het niet altijd beter weet. We start from a fundamental respect for the people and the insight that politicians don't always know best. spirit brengt opnieuw een politiek door de mensen, voor de mensen. Spirit wants politics to be by the people, for the people again.

iets concreter? More concrete?
spirit wil de invoering van het bindend referendum, de afschaffing van de senaat en van de politieke rol van de monarchie, de rechtstreekse verkiezing van de regeringscoalitie en de regeringsleiders, stemrecht voor migranten, stemrecht vanaf 16 jaar… Spirit wants the introduction of the binding referendum, the abolition of the senate and the political role of the monarchy, the direct election of the government coalition and heads of government, voting rights for immigrants, voting rights from 16 years of aga...

So, purely out of fear for the Vlaams Belang they have abolished one of their core principles.  Nice going there...

Ward Beysen Found Dead, Suicide Suspected

It's been confirmed on the news here that Ward Beysen has been found dead.  Mr. Beysen used to be a member of the (currently co-governing) VLD party, until he broke away and founded his own party.  The breakup occured because he didn't agree with the more leftward course the VLD was taking, especially on the issue of voting rights for immigrants.

The police and media have confirmed it was a suicide, althoug it isn't clear on what basis.  Beysen left his home in the morning to go to an appointment, but never arrived.  His wife reported him missing around noon.  Reportedly, there were 'clues' that indicated a search of the suroundings of a nearby pond would be useful.

On the banks of the pond the coat, cellphone and keys of Beysen were found by the authorities, and his body was discovered the next day at the bottom of the pond

Reportedly, Beysen had been depressed for a while, and it is also a fact that his new party was a complete failure that only got a fraction of the vote.  So a suicide is certainly plausible.

Still, some questions remain that I'd like to see answered:  the body was found fifteen meters from the bank, at a depth of four meters (accoring to Jan Wynants, a diver with the Antwerp fire brigade, who located it, quoted in De Standaard). How did it get there?  Normally, a body floats, unless it is weighted down.  But how can you swim fifteen meters like that?  Did he use a boat then?  And why did he take off his coat?  Hardly seems worth it, does it?

Also, if he planned this, why would he make an appointment at the same moment?  And according to André Gantman (another VLD politician and friend of Beysen, quoted in the same article), Beysen seemed relaxed at their last meeting and was planning his new-years reception tomorrow.

And if he didn't plan it, where did he get the weights to be able to sink to the bottom?  If there were weights, that is.

Another weird thing: apparently he left no note.  What politician would kill himself and not leave a note?

Anyway, it is quite possible that there is a logical explanation, but the stories currently in the media here don't seem to make much of this event and provide little additional detail.  Maybe more information will come up in the coming days that will clear everything up.

UPDATE: On the website of the Liberaal Appel, Beysen's party, they have an in memoriam picture and a mysterious message.  It reads "Give us hope, e-mail us: liberaalappel@telenet.be".

IN MEMORIAM

26-6-1941     14-01-2005

Spirit of America Last Minute Donation

I just made a last-minute donation to a Spirit of America project (Friends of Democracy), and hope some of you might be interested in contributing something too.  If you believe that the best way to make people's lives better is by giving them more freedom, put your money where your mouth is and chip in.

I donated in the 'blogger challenge', where blogs compete to gather the biggest amount of donations.  As real believer in the power of the blogosphere, I put my donation behind Iraq The Model, a blog ran by three Iraqi bloggers who want Iraq to be a model for the entire Arab world.

Jeff Jarvis Rips Juan Cole a New One...

Go read this post at BuzzMachine. Jeff Jarvis is mad because lefty professor Cole has said some pretty bad things about Iraqi bloggers Omar and Mohammed from IraqTheModel. He goes into full-on Fisking mode, and leaves only dust and ashes behind...