copyright @Wacondah - photo taken in Dakar, Senegal, December 2011
"I got out of bed for this?"
Serendipity. a field visit to a Dakar slum 3 weeks ago. This young girl was carrying water from a standpipe. I felt rather uneasy, as an hour later we were suppose to meet up with the Minister of Water, so we were quite overdressed to go on a field visit. But someone needs to take those pictures, right? And someone needs to publish them, comment them. And before you publish, you review, and that's when I stumbled on this great slogan....
When you look into these kids' eyes, unfathomable as they are in their beauty. You understand once again what our job is all about.
I wish her, and all of you and your loved ones, that in 2012 the slogan on this girl's shirt may just reveal itself a little bit more untrue.
Back from a field visit to Dakar, Senegal. It is where you meet the woman who carry water. The girls in the slums, the daily chores. Where the "borne fontainier" acts like a grandfatherly garden, and where in spite of gross inhumanity, kids still smile. And where, in spite of gross adversity, people still do a good, an excellent job.
In Dakar also the island of "La Gorée", as the Dutch GoedRaad was named. Witness to centuries of exploitation, of "la Traîte", of the inhuman slave trade. Where do we stand nowadays?
Are we better off, in terms of gross humanity happiness index? An answer can only be speculative this weekend, given the failing of the COP17 in Durban, the complete lock-out of the UK from an ever-advancing European lifeboat project. It seems that cynism, egoïsm, speculation are driving History, just like 400 years ago in Gorée.
Reading: "Spartan", and getting pschyched for Stephenson's Reamde Viewing: Contagion Listening to: Gabriël Rios Compilation CD: thank you for putting "Ausencia" on it! What a track, what a vibe! Thinking: we can't facebook our way out of the statusquo (N.Stephenson) Travelling: Maastricht, Dakar, Paris and beyond the horizon maybe Zürs, Vegas, Marseille etc...
When he was asked, toward the end of lunch, where he thought computing might be headed, he paused to rephrase the question. “I’ll tell you what I’d like to see happen,” he said, and began discussing what the future was supposed to have looked like, back in his 1960s childhood. He ticked off the tropes of what he called “techno-optimistic science fiction,” including flying cars and jetpacks. And then computers went from being things that filled a room to things that could fit on a desk, and the economy and industries changed. “The kinds of super-bright, hardworking geeky people who, 50 years ago, would have been building moon rockets or hydrogen bombs or what have you have ended up working in the computer industry, doing jobs that in many cases seem kind of ignominious by comparison.”
“What I’m kind of hoping is that this is just kind of a pause, while we assimilate this gigantic new thing, ubiquitous computing and the Internet. And that at some point we’ll turn around and say, ‘Well, that was interesting — we have a whole set of new tools and capabilities that we didn’t have before the whole computer/Internet thing came along.’ ”
He said people should say, “Now let’s get back to work doing interesting and useful things.”
De betogingen van vandaag zijn een schande, de vakbonden brengen het land ter rande. Wil men echt de toekomst veilig stellen, dat zullen zij allen mee de centen moeten tellen.
Waar eendracht en hoop en gezonde duurzaamheid gelden hoeven dramatische acties niet te velde. De vakverbanden dienen enkel de eigen zaak meer nog, zij vergeten maar al te vaak
dat zij in ons model véél te véél in tel genomen worden, méér dan het geheel van arme dwazen zoals u en ik die zich verslikken in de arithmetiek.
Voorwaar ik zeg, sta op, gij burger kies voor vooruitgang en aanpassing voor een nieuw club'ke van samenzang en laat de bonden voor wat ze zijn een overblijfsel uit 19eeuws navelstarend gezwijm.
-----
Wist u dat in België 3,4 miljoen "gesyndiceerden" rondlopen, op een bevoling van 11. Vergelijk dat met 1,5 lidkaarten in Frankrijk of 6,5 in de VSA. Dan begrijpt u direct - waarom Cortebeeck bestuurder is in de overkoepelende internationales - waarom men hier geen komaf kan maken met een ziek-makend, verstard sociaal overlegmodel.
3,5 miljoen burgers die altijd maar weer voor het eigen groot gelijk stemmen, dat is een democratisch deficit, want iedereen weet, dat vakbonden NIET opkomen voor de gewone mens, maar enkel voor hun vetpotten, hun para-statale structuren, hun "perks", hun "ledenbestand" en niet voor de maatschappij staan. De illusie die naar voor geschoven wordt, en gekwalificeerd als het "Middenveld", is een verzuiling van de democratie, gericht op conservatisme, op het in stand houden van bepaalde verhoudingen.
Wil men in dit land écht vooruitgang boeken, dan moeten de grondbeginselen van ons solidair model op een nieuwe leest geschoeid. Het is voor mij, en mijn kinderen, onbetaalbaar geworden om die parasitaire gedragingen te dulden.
Reading: Spartan Viewing: Shutter Island Listening to: Max Richter
Thinking: Belgian national debt= 360bn€: 1% increase in interest rate for sovereign paper => 3,6bn€. We raised 200m€ last week with a gov't bond. Next year we need to re-finance approx 80BILLION€. Can we please un-blind our eyes? Can we please stop auto-believing the "good news show"? Will you tell your kids twenty years from now: we could have done it differently but we chose to put the burden on your shoulders....
We naderen de limieten van groei, beschaving, democratie, demografie en ecologische voetprint. We stellen met afgrijzen vast hoe onze leidinggevenden, als Nero, aan de zijlijn staan te feesten, als over-getestosteroneerde voetbalvaders, terwijl onze "progressive" democratieën ten onder gaan aan de dictatuur en de ijzeren logica van de geglobaliseerde samenleving, de speculatieve vulture/casino-criminelen et de apathie van de in-slaap-gevallen "burger".
Tussen staat en burger heerst enkel wederzijds wantrouwen. Tussen burgers onderling, op het randje van het ranzige leedvermaak, kan geen project meer tot stand komen: ieder voor zich; zo lang mogelijk, tot de laatste druppel petrol verbrand is in mijn ouderwetse explosie-motor.
Burgerinitiatieven zoals de G1000 of Occupy & Anonymous staan in kinderschoenen maar worden afgedaan als een zootje ongeregeld, door media en besluitvormers, en ja zelfs door de eigen medeburgers.
Het wordt tijd dat de burgers niet langer toekijken, maar spreken en vooral DOEN.... Dat wij, die het menen goed voor te hebben met dit "clubke" dat we onze samenleving noemen, boodschappen in de wereld sturen, niet van negativisme, niet van ongemak of onwil, maar van - lange-termijn-denken - verandering, beweging en aanpassing - en van hoop
... en dat we het voortouw nemen: - een vriend bestelde een TESLA S; levering 2012 - een andere vriend stelt voor om onze grondwet te hertekenen naar meerderheidsstelsel en op écht confederale leest geschoeid - nog iemand anders roept op om meervoudig stemrecht terug in te voeren op basis van "burgerzin" (nog te bepalen in een open debat) zodat men het democratisch deficit, en vooral het electoraal surplus dat sommige partijen door de status-quo-gezinden krijgen toegespeeld, teniet gedaan wordt - nog iemand anders stelt een haircut voor om op heel korte termijn van de zeer pijnlijke staatsschulden te worden verlost - nog iemand anders vraagt dat de Staat haar woord gestand doet en niet elke 3 jaar nieuwe belastingen wil heffen zonder zelf te besparen - en verder en verder....
Hoe wil u leven in 2050? Met welke energie, in wat voor maatschappij? Hoe wil u dat uw kinderen u aankijken? Zal u moeten toegeven zoals onlangs een Franse Graaf ons zei: nous sommes tous coupables d'avoir gaspillé l'avenir de nos petits-enfants?
De Commissie hangt zo van die spreuken op in het Brusselse - meestal holle slogans over hoe fijn onze ontwikkelingssamenwerking wel werkt; of verwelkomend een zoveelste lid tot de unie. Maar in de buurt van Arts/Loi hangt een stelling die wij kunnen bewijzen:
"M.Gandhi: Be the change that you want in the world"
I enjoyed this 1-minute movie very much, http://www.theyearsareshort.com/landing.html it makes you stop for a while and reflect that... damn, I'm already halfway through this day...
Even in Death, Steve Jobs remains inspirational. What would you do if today "is" your last day? Optimism is a moral imperative. To live well, is to prepare for death. To die well, is to live each day as best as you can.
"If you live each as if it were your last, someday you'll most certainly be right"
#Respect
Speech from his Commencement Adress Source: http://news.stanford.edu/news/2005/june15/jobs-061505.html
Stanford Report, June 14, 2005 'You've got to find what you love,' Jobs says This is a prepared text of the Commencement address delivered by Steve Jobs, CEO of Apple Computer and of Pixar Animation Studios, on June 12, 2005.
I am honored to be with you today at your commencement from one of the finest universities in the world. I never graduated from college. Truth be told, this is the closest I've ever gotten to a college graduation. Today I want to tell you three stories from my life. That's it. No big deal. Just three stories.
The first story is about connecting the dots.
I dropped out of Reed College after the first 6 months, but then stayed around as a drop-in for another 18 months or so before I really quit. So why did I drop out?
It started before I was born. My biological mother was a young, unwed college graduate student, and she decided to put me up for adoption. She felt very strongly that I should be adopted by college graduates, so everything was all set for me to be adopted at birth by a lawyer and his wife. Except that when I popped out they decided at the last minute that they really wanted a girl. So my parents, who were on a waiting list, got a call in the middle of the night asking: "We have an unexpected baby boy; do you want him?" They said: "Of course." My biological mother later found out that my mother had never graduated from college and that my father had never graduated from high school. She refused to sign the final adoption papers. She only relented a few months later when my parents promised that I would someday go to college.
And 17 years later I did go to college. But I naively chose a college that was almost as expensive as Stanford, and all of my working-class parents' savings were being spent on my college tuition. After six months, I couldn't see the value in it. I had no idea what I wanted to do with my life and no idea how college was going to help me figure it out. And here I was spending all of the money my parents had saved their entire life. So I decided to drop out and trust that it would all work out OK. It was pretty scary at the time, but looking back it was one of the best decisions I ever made. The minute I dropped out I could stop taking the required classes that didn't interest me, and begin dropping in on the ones that looked interesting.
It wasn't all romantic. I didn't have a dorm room, so I slept on the floor in friends' rooms, I returned coke bottles for the 5¢ deposits to buy food with, and I would walk the 7 miles across town every Sunday night to get one good meal a week at the Hare Krishna temple. I loved it. And much of what I stumbled into by following my curiosity and intuition turned out to be priceless later on. Let me give you one example:
Reed College at that time offered perhaps the best calligraphy instruction in the country. Throughout the campus every poster, every label on every drawer, was beautifully hand calligraphed. Because I had dropped out and didn't have to take the normal classes, I decided to take a calligraphy class to learn how to do this. I learned about serif and san serif typefaces, about varying the amount of space between different letter combinations, about what makes great typography great. It was beautiful, historical, artistically subtle in a way that science can't capture, and I found it fascinating.
None of this had even a hope of any practical application in my life. But ten years later, when we were designing the first Macintosh computer, it all came back to me. And we designed it all into the Mac. It was the first computer with beautiful typography. If I had never dropped in on that single course in college, the Mac would have never had multiple typefaces or proportionally spaced fonts. And since Windows just copied the Mac, it's likely that no personal computer would have them. If I had never dropped out, I would have never dropped in on this calligraphy class, and personal computers might not have the wonderful typography that they do. Of course it was impossible to connect the dots looking forward when I was in college. But it was very, very clear looking backwards ten years later.
Again, you can't connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something — your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever. This approach has never let me down, and it has made all the difference in my life.
My second story is about love and loss.
I was lucky — I found what I loved to do early in life. Woz and I started Apple in my parents garage when I was 20. We worked hard, and in 10 years Apple had grown from just the two of us in a garage into a $2 billion company with over 4000 employees. We had just released our finest creation — the Macintosh — a year earlier, and I had just turned 30. And then I got fired. How can you get fired from a company you started? Well, as Apple grew we hired someone who I thought was very talented to run the company with me, and for the first year or so things went well. But then our visions of the future began to diverge and eventually we had a falling out. When we did, our Board of Directors sided with him. So at 30 I was out. And very publicly out. What had been the focus of my entire adult life was gone, and it was devastating.
I really didn't know what to do for a few months. I felt that I had let the previous generation of entrepreneurs down - that I had dropped the baton as it was being passed to me. I met with David Packard and Bob Noyce and tried to apologize for screwing up so badly. I was a very public failure, and I even thought about running away from the valley. But something slowly began to dawn on me — I still loved what I did. The turn of events at Apple had not changed that one bit. I had been rejected, but I was still in love. And so I decided to start over.
I didn't see it then, but it turned out that getting fired from Apple was the best thing that could have ever happened to me. The heaviness of being successful was replaced by the lightness of being a beginner again, less sure about everything. It freed me to enter one of the most creative periods of my life.
During the next five years, I started a company named NeXT, another company named Pixar, and fell in love with an amazing woman who would become my wife. Pixar went on to create the worlds first computer animated feature film, Toy Story, and is now the most successful animation studio in the world. In a remarkable turn of events, Apple bought NeXT, I returned to Apple, and the technology we developed at NeXT is at the heart of Apple's current renaissance. And Laurene and I have a wonderful family together.
I'm pretty sure none of this would have happened if I hadn't been fired from Apple. It was awful tasting medicine, but I guess the patient needed it. Sometimes life hits you in the head with a brick. Don't lose faith. I'm convinced that the only thing that kept me going was that I loved what I did. You've got to find what you love. And that is as true for your work as it is for your lovers. Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven't found it yet, keep looking. Don't settle. As with all matters of the heart, you'll know when you find it. And, like any great relationship, it just gets better and better as the years roll on. So keep looking until you find it. Don't settle.
My third story is about death.
When I was 17, I read a quote that went something like: "If you live each day as if it was your last, someday you'll most certainly be right." It made an impression on me, and since then, for the past 33 years, I have looked in the mirror every morning and asked myself: "If today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I am about to do today?" And whenever the answer has been "No" for too many days in a row, I know I need to change something.
Remembering that I'll be dead soon is the most important tool I've ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life. Because almost everything — all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure - these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important. Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart.
About a year ago I was diagnosed with cancer. I had a scan at 7:30 in the morning, and it clearly showed a tumor on my pancreas. I didn't even know what a pancreas was. The doctors told me this was almost certainly a type of cancer that is incurable, and that I should expect to live no longer than three to six months. My doctor advised me to go home and get my affairs in order, which is doctor's code for prepare to die. It means to try to tell your kids everything you thought you'd have the next 10 years to tell them in just a few months. It means to make sure everything is buttoned up so that it will be as easy as possible for your family. It means to say your goodbyes.
I lived with that diagnosis all day. Later that evening I had a biopsy, where they stuck an endoscope down my throat, through my stomach and into my intestines, put a needle into my pancreas and got a few cells from the tumor. I was sedated, but my wife, who was there, told me that when they viewed the cells under a microscope the doctors started crying because it turned out to be a very rare form of pancreatic cancer that is curable with surgery. I had the surgery and I'm fine now.
This was the closest I've been to facing death, and I hope it's the closest I get for a few more decades. Having lived through it, I can now say this to you with a bit more certainty than when death was a useful but purely intellectual concept:
No one wants to die. Even people who want to go to heaven don't want to die to get there. And yet death is the destination we all share. No one has ever escaped it. And that is as it should be, because Death is very likely the single best invention of Life. It is Life's change agent. It clears out the old to make way for the new. Right now the new is you, but someday not too long from now, you will gradually become the old and be cleared away. Sorry to be so dramatic, but it is quite true.
Your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life. Don't be trapped by dogma — which is living with the results of other people's thinking. Don't let the noise of others' opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.
When I was young, there was an amazing publication called The Whole Earth Catalog, which was one of the bibles of my generation. It was created by a fellow named Stewart Brand not far from here in Menlo Park, and he brought it to life with his poetic touch. This was in the late 1960's, before personal computers and desktop publishing, so it was all made with typewriters, scissors, and polaroid cameras. It was sort of like Google in paperback form, 35 years before Google came along: it was idealistic, and overflowing with neat tools and great notions.
Stewart and his team put out several issues of The Whole Earth Catalog, and then when it had run its course, they put out a final issue. It was the mid-1970s, and I was your age. On the back cover of their final issue was a photograph of an early morning country road, the kind you might find yourself hitchhiking on if you were so adventurous. Beneath it were the words: "Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish." It was their farewell message as they signed off. Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish. And I have always wished that for myself. And now, as you graduate to begin anew, I wish that for you.
Reading: Reamde - Neil Stephenson Viewing: Hereafter, by Clint Eastwood Listening to: DJ Shadow: The less you know, the better Thinking: Meervoudig stemrecht op basis van "burgerschap", zou dat geen correctie voor de representatie democratie zijn #www.G1000.be Travelling: Paris these days Last picture: "thou art fucked"
Hard to imagine how quickly this decade has gone by. I highly recommend Philip Stephens article from the Financial Times.
What we are left with is a world betwixt and between. The sweep of history will record the past decade as a parenthesis – separating a brief period of unparalleled US might from a new, and chaotic, multipolar world. Al-Qaeda had to be defeated. But for all the horror he inflicted on 9/11, Bin Laden did not really change very much at all.
On 9/11/2001, I was a in a winery in Bourgogne, France with a couple of friends returning from our last "innocent" holidays in the South of France. After sampling some delicious "crus" we surfaced into a hot and sunny afternoon to discover that all our phones (yes we had those clunky nokia's) went hell-bend into overdrive as parents and friends were trying to raise us. The drive back North over deserted highways, with jetfighters patrolling over the North-Eastern part of France was a drive to remember: radio commentators were going crazy, politicians were declaring the 3rd world war and nobody had a clue. We saw the first images of the towers in a packed petrol station in Luxembourg and decided to race home to our families.
The shock and awe, the sheer terror of viewing this incredible apacolypse brought tears to all of our eyes. It was the day that the lot of us lost our youth. It was also the day that we woke up to face/fight/form the future.
A couple of days to the first decade after 9/11; I've been thinking of meaningful words and couldn't phrase it better than with the following song from the summercamps in Algonquin
Source: http://www.firesoffriendship.com/SongBook/song3.htm The Taylor Statten Camps
Evening Grace (Hymn Of Thanks)
Let us give thanks that life is high adventure, That unscaled heights await us, await us every day. Let us be glad for work and love and laughter, For loyal friends and comrades, and comrades on the way.
The evening shadows gather round the sunset, This day will join our long lost yesterdays, As builders of a better world we seek, May we be wise to use each newborn day, Let us give thanks.
Music by - Murray Adaskin Words by - Dr. A E. Haydon
Horrifying news from Japan's 3 "shaken" nuclear reactors is god-given amunition for the anti-nuke lobby worldwide who are starting to question the protection schemes in Europe (e.g. Bundestag Green party or in Belgium). This clearly is a case of spin and over-reaction, building upon populations' inner aversion for things they hardly understand, i.e. nuclear energy. Can we please have an honest debate about this?
There is no way in hell we're going to be independent from fossile fuels or nuclear-generated energy for decades to come and this is largely due to failing government policies and subsidy mechanisms. Societies as a whole have to make dramatic shifts into renewables and sustainable energy production/consumption modi, but this is not going to happen without a lot of abuse and free-riders diverting energy subsidies. Take a look around your villagen and "admire" your neighbours' abusive installation of tax-paid voltaic cells on his roof. All those tax-evasiing measures should have been directed to other research. All of these efforts should be collectively harnassed instead of individually abused.
We seriously need to have a societal INFORMED debate on this. Why aren't we planting more windmill farms in Belgium? Why aren't we capatilzing on the nuclear-intellect we've gathered over the decades? Why are we going to force our population to depend on external energy supply (be that Gaz from Russia, or fossile fuels from the Gulf)?
In Belgium: over 250days with #NOGOV in the meantime in India; the sanitation crisis keeps on raging, but innovative solutions and proposals are on/off the table
If you don't have a toilet at home, you might not get a bride in India. In a silent revolution of sorts, Indian women across the country, especially in rural and semi-urban areas, have a single condition before they agree to a match – the groom must have a toilet in his home.
No toilet, no bride! India's women start a sanitation revolution http://t.co/5SaSUjq via @guardian #globaldev
On Feb.17, 2011, the Belgian governmental formation discussions following the landslide elections of 2010 will beat the worldrecord "government building" and take the saddest first place in the world palmares, just before the doomed gov't building effort following Iraq's first tribal-influenced democratic elections, post Gulf War II.
Is this something to be proud of? Is this something worth mentioning in int'l media? Is this something to reflect on?
It illustrates the complete lack of civism on behalf of our elected officials, that's all.
How many of those past 249+ days have REAL negotiations taken place? And what is the common goal? to mock the voter, to achieve media coverage in view of inevitable upcoming (local, regional or who knows even federal) elections? The utter incapacity to even hammer out a minimal coalition programme points to a sort of "alors on danse" "tout va bien madame la marquise" "weimareske" dreamworld where our political caste (refuse to call it an elite) parties "all night long".
If politicians are serious about accountability, then they better start coming up with some evidence that they've actually done something else than mud-slinging.
As I've mentioned earlier (and long before M.Temmerman); we should impose a no cure no pay, no cure no sex ban on all those involved, including the opposition parties.
Reading: Ranulph Fiennes expedition stories Viewing: Basta, the best show produced by Neveneffecten/Woestijnvis so far. Listening to: Anna Calvi, Black Eyed Keyes, Thinking: You can run from what's chasing you, but you can't run from what's boiling inside you (Ruandan proverb) "If you fail... fail cheap, fast and forward" "If you're a tank battalion commander, choose your HQ wisely... in the latest model Abraham, instead of in a cloth tent" #entrepreneurship Travelling: Paris weekly and soon to the Alps Last picture: insta.gram application on iphone: http://wacondah.tumblr.com/
“Today a heavy rainstorm caught me by surprise when I was walking down the street “Thank God I had my umbrella and raincoat. Except that they were both in my car, parked quite a distance away. “While I was running to get them I thought what a strange sign I was receiving from God – we always have the necessary resources to face the storms that life prepares for us, but most times these resources are locked away in the bottom of our heart and this makes us waste an enormous amount of time trying to find them. “And when we finally find them, we have already been defeated by adversity.”
So, let us always be prepared; otherwise we will miss our chance, or lose the battle.
‘t Is hier niet meer om te lachen / ce n’est plus drôle
Baron Buysse deze ochtend op Radio1 had het bij het rechte eind. De vadsige luihuid en de over-weldadige luxe die onze verkozenen des volkes ten berde spreiden over de laatste 212 dagen loopt stillekesaan niet alleen de weldenkende intelligentsia de spuigaten uit, maar ook de financiële markten laten zich niet langer “paaien” door de al-te-licht bevonden verklaringen van de mislukte voormalige eerste minister en konsoorten. Buysse had het over leiderschap, over enthousiasme, over de toekomst van onze kinderen en over het verspelen van welvaart. Casinokapitalisme wordt verguisd, maar als de verkozenen hun democratische plicht niet uitoefenen, dan kan men wellicht beginnen nadenken over strafmaatregelen tegen woekeraars, valsspelers, zakenvullers, prima-donna’s en regelrechte gokkers. Of het nu ligt aan misplaatste fierheid, onwil of onverzettelijkheid om de welvaartstaat te moderniseren (want dat wil toch iedereen niet waar, maar niet tegen gelijk welke electorale prijs…) of het niet-meer-bergrijpen hoe we het land/regio/dorp verder klaarmaken voor de uitdagingen van de 22e eeuw; feit is dat het oorverdovend stil is geworden in de wetstraat; ondanks het feit dat al die vervloekte dienstweigeraars alsmaar blijven roepen over het eigen grote gelijk ….voor eigen publiek. Vandaag wordt pijnlijk duidelijk dat het leegstelen van onze portefeuille, het verkwanselen van onze pensioenen, het verpachten van onze welvaart, het grootschalig uitverkopen van alles wat nog troeven heeft, en – vooral - het gebrek aan visie of Bundestreue (of anders gezegd respect voor de vlag(gen); criminele proporties begint aan te nemen. De wereld staat in brand, en zoals Buysse het treffend verwoordt zitten wij in ons gehucht zoals Asterix te wachten tot er iets gebeurt, en vechten we onze eigen vetes uit. Je kunt van Buysse zeggen wat je wil, maar hij pleit tenminste openlijk voor zijn mening, hij komt er voor uit en als geen ander verwoordt hij wat zo veel mensen eigenlijk ook zeggen: hou op met uw gezever, uw holle fratsen, en uw machiavellistische spelletjes maar HERVORM en REGEER dan; als er niet rap pacificatie komt, lopen we het gevaar van in de maelstrom verder mee te worden gesleurd die net om de hoek ligt te wachten. – Wie gelooft die mensen nog? Het is maar al te duidelijk dat het “model” België moet aangepast, en daarover liggen de kaarten nu al 50 jaar duidelijk op tafel. Wie nu nog niet inziet dat er een onvermijdelijke staatshervorming moet komen op zeer korte termijn, is ofwel dom, ofwel blind, ofwel beide. De kostprijs van het nihilisme, van slecht bestuur en van gebrek aan voorbereiding op de toekomst wordt niet door de heren en dames politici gedragen. Net als hun voorgangers baby-boomers en soixante-huitards zijn de huidige “leiders” bezig met het verkwanselen van de opportuniteiten. Buysse heeft het over het buitenland, over BRIC-landen, over de verschuiving van de evenwichten naar het Oosten en daar lezen wij BITTER weinig over; daarover wordt geen maatschappelijk debat gevoerd – neen, wij hebben het liever over de opritten van de Brusselse ring. De burger wordt boos en begint zich zo langzamerhand toch een beetje te ergeren – tot voor kort was de “Crisis” iets van de rijken, van Brussel, van de rand; een collectief “nimby”-staren van er gebeurt toch niks met mij; maar als de paniek dan echt losbreekt; zullen we misschien een nieuwe vorm van burgerlijke ongehoorzaamheid zien? www.camping16.be is al een klein voorbeeld. Maar de overgrote zwijgende massa zit voor de tv naar spelletjes en sport te kijken. Ben benieuwd wat de fameuze mars op Brussel van 23.01 zal meebrengen. Vrij naar P.Buysse: “ik ben geen politicus, dat is een aartsmoeilijk beroep maar wij hebben verkozenen gekozen en opgezadeld met een democratische plicht om te besturen, niet om oeverloos te zwanzen en tonnen papier te produceren…” Voilà, dat moest er effkes af; we all need to do our jobs better…. En dat die partijen zelfs al niet meer rond te tafel willen gaan zitten, of zelfs nog maar niet akkoord geraken over een onderhandelingsmethode doet het ergste vermoeden.
Reading: Confucius Viewing: The Life of Brian Listening to: Hall & Oates "You make my dreams" Thinking: Et si omnes, ego non Travelling: Paris and London
