call for ... revolution

Do you hear the people sing
Singing the song of angry men
It is the music of a people
Who will not be slaves again
When the beating of your heart
Echoes the beating of the drums
There is a life about to start
When tomorrow comes

(from Les Miserables)

There are two ways to look at life (and by extension, to ways to live).

One. You have 'faith' that you'll get a second chance, either through an afterlife, or through reincarnation, or through ... whatever. Religions of every form prey (not pray) upon this 'faith'. This way of life inocculates - on a macro level - political systems against change (revolution). It inocculates - on a personal, micro level - people against discontentment with their current situation. There is still beter to come, isn't there ?

Two. You know you only got one shot (that rapper did get that right for sure) at life. You were not there in the years before you were born and you are not going to be there in the years after you die. Time is an enormous black curtain and there's only a very tine slit in it, your time in the limelight. This is a sobering idea, but it is not meaningless. It tells you to seize the day (carpe diem) and live life at the fullest.

Look at it from another way. I have a cat. When I lived on my appartment the animal had to stay inside. She got used to that. I had her neutered. Not nice of me, but the animal had no say in the decision and got used to it. Recently I moved to a house with a garden. By slow degrees I allowed the cat to go outside. And then one day I let her out without a leash. At first she was very unsure of herself, but the very same night there was a big noise as she fought and overcame another cat twice her size for the dominion of the garden. She did not have to do that. There's absolutely no point in it for her (being neutered). But she did. Without a second thought she seized the day (well, night in her case). I'm happy for her ! She still comes inside to be groomed, she loves that as well, but if she didn't it would be my loss, not hers !

Having said all that ...I now call out for a revolution against the Belgian political class. Against all of them. Against the whole corrupt system. I don't care a rats ass if you speak Dutch, French or German, I'm willing to talk Esperanto or Zulu if necessary. I'm just very fed up with the whole political show which is about to go through another useless loop. Paid for by us, I might add. So, who stands with me ?

negative becomes positive

Language is powerful. It carries information. Decisions are taken on that information. And therefore it is - although you can play with it - not a toy. Even when I listen and watch obvious entertainment, say the Tour de France, I expect the reporters to use language correctly.

Yesterday I noted : "The last two years there have not been a lot of doping-related articles in the press. This is due to the fact that there have not been any negative doping-tests in the Tour de France."

This might be what everybody is secretly thinking when you see the likes of Contador and Schleck ride up a mountain, but surely the reporter means : "... This is due to the fact that there have not been any positive doping-tests in the Tour de France". Right ?

A test that comes up clean is negative. If you are testing for pregnancy and you are not (pregnant), the test is negative. If you are (pregnant), the test is positive. There is no different rule for doping. No doping in the testresults is a negative test, doping in the testresults is a positive test.

I expect somebody speaking for our national broadcasting company - which still has education as its task - to know that.

sissy gladiators

Repeat some imaginary transgression long enough, have it repeated by those in authority, have it repeated by the media and you create ... guilt.

No, I'm for once not talking about religion ... although the parallel is of course very clear. No I'm talking about what happened in the Tour de France yesterday. The yellow jersey (Andy Schleck) had a mechanical problem and his biggest opponent (Alberto Contador) took the chance and ... the yellow jersey. And he's probably going to keep it.

I do not see the problem. Nor did Alberto at first yesterday. He did not sabotage Andy's bike or in any other way cause it to fail. Andy was obviously pissed, the media jumped on that and then Andy said : "Alberto should have waited ... this is not fair ...".

Excuse me ? If it wasn't for a disgusting display of 'solidarity' earlier on in the Tour, Andy would have been out of the race for the yellow jersey a long time ago (he was 'fair' enough to at least acknowledge that).

The Tour de France is a modern gladiator-fight. I do not know about you, but I want to see struggle, emotion and battles. I want to see the balance of victory swing not once, not twice but every day (if possible). What I do not want to see is a Cars-like ending (anyone else notice the similarity ?) that only Pixar and Disney can come up with and only - very - small childeren like. Life is not like that.

This morning the nauseating result of media-, team- and 'authority' pressure came in over the radio. Alberto 'apologizes' for what he did ...

My sympathy goes to Marc Renshaw. What he did was not correct, but at least he understands the nature of the game.

alternatives

In Belgium a group of old men admits in writing that for decades they covered up the sexual abuse of childeren (and who knows what else). In the country of Dutroux one then expects an outcry, a call for justice, a call to hang these very men by their (proverbial ?) cojones from a (proverbial ?) cross. Nothing of the sort happens.

In Thailand the government 'cleans up' the protest in the center of Bangkok in a way that looked eerily like the 'cleaning up' of the protest on a square (Tiananmen) in Peking, 20 years ago (and that was condemned the world round). Nobody seemed to have noticed the similarity. It must be said that the Thai government played things very clever, labelling the protestors as 'terrorists'.

In Korea the North seems (?) to have torpedoed a vessel of South. The South is going to take the issue to the UN. The North claims to be ready to go to war if further sanctions are put upon it. Analysts consider this an empty threat given that the economical position of the North does not allow for 'a long war'. Does nobody realise that if North-Korea's leaders take a "let us be all we can be"-stand, the "Third Rock from the Sun" is not going to be around for 'a long war' ? It'll be over in minutes.

In Europe the governments now find out what the average online-game-owner already knows before even starting up the game. But let me spell it out for them : "If your players agree on bringing down your economy, it goes down, no matter what you do or say ...". The 'hex' of Germany on 'shorters' is - and the top Belgian investor in the London City agrees with me - a very understandable gesture ... but a futile one. There is NO real difference between a game-economy and a real economy. In fact, a game-economy is better, for if every attempt at control fails you can shut the game down.

We need alternatives.

Which brings me to the upcoming elections in Belgium, my only personal chance to choose an alternative. Well, I'm going to choose as alternative as I can, I'm voting PVDA+. They are idealists, but at least they also put their effort (in everyday life) where their mouth is.

The rest I have to leave up to chaos theory.

anarchy sounds better

Two traditional bases of power are having a hard time in Belgium at the moment. Not a day passes without yet another catholic priest (or bishop or whatever ... no level is spared) being exposed as a child abuser. On the other hand the whole of the political 'class' has shown once again that good government is about the last thing on their minds. That will not keep them from making a lot of empty promises in the campaign towards the coming elections though.

Power corrupts, absolute power corrupts absolutely.

Some good can come out of this though. This might be a good moment to clean out the last remaining grip that religion has on our society. Let us turn completely secular. No more 'approved' religions, no more state money to its dignitaries. None. And that includes your religion, my muslim readers. If you are having a good laugh at the expense of the catholic priests at the moment, I have this to say to you : "read up on the - confirmed by muslim historicians - history of Aisha and your so-called 'profet' before you start throwing proverbial stones".

The political class is going to be a bit tougher to remove. If you sift through the political nonsense on the radio and television these days you'll find that our political system (called 'democracy') is actually an unassailable, self-sustaining parasite on the back of our society, beneficial only to those belonging to it. Very much like a religion in fact. However, as was shown in 1940 at Eben-Emael (and by the catholic church this very day), unassailable forts do not exist.

small mind

Kipso, Kinoo, Zopicloon, Trio di Pasta, Les Eleveurs, Chupito, Mikado, Mario, Eldo, Rib&Rap, Peking Garden, Snooker Twenty One, Zenn-Grill, Villa Fantasia ...

Names of restaurants. In Halle, Belgium, province of Vlaams-Brabant ... where I live. Which is a Dutch speaking region (for those readers that do not know Belgium). The above list contains all the names that are either meaningless or not-Dutch.

There are restaurants in Halle with Dutch names. Of course. But definitely not the majority. And the above list contains the best restaurants available. Les Eleveurs and Peking Garden for example have an entry in the Michelin Guide.

My point about this is ... why o why is it so important that a new restaurant should have a Dutch name. Is it because it competes in the 'Mijn Restaurant' (My Restaurant) competition on tv ? Who cares ? Apparantly a lot of politicians. In an open letter the major, Dirk Pieters, implored the owners of Les Deux to change the name.

Yes, I insist on being addressed in Dutch. In some shops in Halle the staff do think that French is the language in this region and if they persist in that I do not visit that shop again. But how small-minded does one have to become to fall over the name of a restaurant ? Think about that, mister Dirk Pieters, next time you drink an expensive French wine with your expensive foie-gras dinner in Les Eleveurs (paid for with the taxpayers money).

too trusting

An item on the news this week was about the use of the Blackberry by high ranking officials in our country. Our security services have some serious concerns about that.

As is usual the high ranking officials themselves could not care less. And for once this included mr. Vincent Van Quickenborne who concluded that this was another storm in a glass of water.

So let us see :
Fact 1 - The Blackberry makes use of a Network Operating Center. The ones for Belgium are in the United Kingdom.
Fact 2 - It is common knowledge that the United Kingdom monitors all electronic trafic. That system is called Echelon.

Now, let us make some assumptions with those facts in the back of our minds :
Assumption 1 - The Belgian governments are working hard to keep the Opel plant in Antwerp running.
Assumption 2 - GM probably does not care where the axe in Europe falls, as long as it falls.

Now, is it really too farfetched to believe that Germany, the UK and any other country with an Opel or Vauxhall plant would be very interested in any information they can get on the strategies of the other countries ?

Mr. Van Quickenborne, I am a big fan of your modernisation of our government. But it is also your task to protect the less knowledgable officials against possible mistakes that could harm Belgium.

To finish I want to put one of your statements on Blackberry security against another statement :
Statement 1 - Obama uses a Blackberry
Statement 2 - France banned the Blackberry in 2007 for government officials
Think about it ... and consider the chance that mr. Obama really uses the very same unmodified Blackberry that mr. Leterme uses (and goes through the very same NOC's that mr. Leterme uses). I think you'll find that chance ... nil.

i remember

I remember. I remember very well the day that the nuclear missiles arrived in Belgium. There was a debate in parliament on that very day and on that very topic. Prime Minister Wilfried Martens strongly defended the American position. Note that today another christian Prime Minister, the Dutch one, is defending an American position. The position of being a good ally in whatever America deems to be a good cause.

The position of Wilfried Martens was accepted in parliament, not suprisingly since his majority was rather big. However, the very next day the real truth came to light. The American transport planes carrying the missiles were already airborne and close to Belgium before the vote was even taken.

I also remember very well who was the proverbial plumber in the government at that time. The man taking and selling most of the tough decisions. Is that not a fact, Jean-Luc Dehaene ?

At that time there was a young and upcoming politician that everybody called 'the kid' (after Billy The Kid I assume). He would often come forward in tough matters and really put some heat on the government. But ... I do not remember you saying anything against the nuclear missiles at that time ... Guy Verhofstadt ... Nor did you do anything about them in the period that you were Prime Minister.

As for Willy Claes, we all remember his career, do we not ? Convicted for taking bribes in the Agusta arms (attack helicopters) deal. Which cost him the job of ... secretary general of the NATO (basically an American-run war machine).

Gentlemen, you've got your good sides. I look forward to Jean-Luc's solution for the institutions in this country, I hear Willy is a decent piano-player and Guy can sell anything to anybody. But please ... refrain from opinions on the nuclear missile issue, for all three of you had the power to do something about it ... and did nothing.

read and weep

Statement by Pat Robertson on Haiti
...something happened a long time ago in Haiti, and people might not want to talk about it. They were under the heel of the French. You know, Napoleon III and whatever. And they got together and swore a pact to the devil. They said, "We will serve you if you will get us free from the French." True story. And so, the devil said, "OK, it’s a deal." And they kicked the French out. You know, the Haitians revolted and got themselves free. But ever since, they have been cursed by one thing after the other. Desperately poor.

Statement by Tom on Pat Robertson
Well mister Robertson, I have to assume the words you state above have come to you through divine communication. For I assume you were not around at the time the events you mention transpired. Your words however have been recorded and transcribed (you were even so kind as to put them on your very own website) verbatim. I hope they will haunt you for every minute of the eternity you seem to belief in. Forgive me for putting into italics the important (according to you, the rest was - your own words - whatever) part of your message. You clearly have a very bad case of the brain-disease I've been talking about in my previous post.

intelligence

Today, my readers and only friends, I want to talk about intelligence. And I want to do this by talking about mister Godfried Maria Jules Danneels (76) and mister André-Mutien Léonard (69).

These two men are prominent members of the church of the Big Fairy In The Sky. And they not only believe in the creed of the Big Fairy, they have sworn to spread it. The first one is about to retire from the top job of the church in Belgium, the second one is the most likely candidate to get that job.

The question is, are these two men intelligent ? The media seems to think these men have moral leadership (whatever that means) and are both very intelligent. But let us study the evidence.

Both men live in splendor. Paid for by the state (all of us) and the gullible (they call those people faithful). In return they offer ... words. Empty ones. So, like most successful politicians they have grasped the basics of human psychology. This is definitely a sign of - rudimentary - intelligence.

Both men have spend (wasted) the best part of their lives in the service (one could say 'the pursuit') of an invisible, untouchable, unverifiable entity, comparable to the invisible fire-breathing (heatless of course) flying dragon that lives in my garage. They claim to 'hear' the voice of this entity in their heads. This is definitely a sign of a brain-disease.

Mr Danneels is said to be a modest man. When asked what he would do now that he has more spare time he answered : "I will pray more". Translated this means he wants to communicate even more with the voice of the entity that he claims to 'hear' in his head. He also answered : "I will read in the bible a lot more". For those who do not know this, the bible is a book that contains mythological stories about the Big Fairy and his son (who is at the same time also the Big Fairy itself). Now, the fact that somebody wants to read mythology is not of course weird. I myself like ancient Greek mythology very much. But his man claims that the bible contains 'truth' (and worse, he wants to spread that opinion). Now, that is more like a raging lunatic than like a modest man. You might as well claim that the goddess Athena really did spring bodily from the (split-open with a hammer) head of the god Zeus.

Mr Léonard is less modest, he is said to be a radical. He called upon Freud to claim that homosexuals are stuck in a development phase. Actually he used the word 'abnormal' for homosexuality, but later retracted that. I watched him on television claiming that a man has a problem when he can not accept his manhood. I thought that was a bit rich for a man in a dress that wasted the best years of his manhood to run after a fairy. Anybody else making such claims would be persecuted for discrimination, but freedom of religion (not freedom of speech, freedom of speech excludes hate-speech) protects this man.

It is my opinion that the media would do well to keep as far away as possible from these two men (and all men and women like them). Intelligence is not contagious, but brain-diseases are and these two men have a disease that we do not want to spread (again).