Things I do not understand...

1. Everybody I have ever met agrees that Belgium needs one uniform nationwide voting ballot during national elections, allowing all Belgians to vote for all political parties, without any kind of regional or cultural restrictions. So why don't we have this yet?

2. Out of six train rides I took this week, six arrived late. Worst was about 30 minutes late, second worst about 12 minutes late. Why doesn't the train company create a real train schedule ? Why is management not fired for this?

3. Most working people have to get to work about 240 days per year. There are 365 days in a year and yet the majority of workers insist on commuting on the exact same time and the exact same days (Monday to Friday), thus creating huge traffic jams. Why not ditch this legacy Middle Aged system of weekdays land use all 365 days of the year in a sensible way?

4. Why the hell are we changing the time twice a year ? It has been proven multiple times that "daylight savings" is wasting energy!

nine provinces in Flanders ?

Radio 1 this morning discussed a proposal to split Flanders into nine provinces. Disregarding the fact that I oppose the eight layered governance of a random street(*) in my city, I would like to redraw the current map of Flanders.



One of the main issues that prevents this country from having a government resolves around (imho ridiculous) language problems in and around Brussels (the brown area). Brussels is surrounded by (officially) Dutch speaking communities, but is itself mainly French-speaking.
Bad governance between 1970 and 2010 resulted in discrepancies (for instance: French-speaking people in Dutch-speaking territory BHV can vote for French-speaking politicians, but Dutch-speaking inhabitants of the French-speaking part of Belgium cannot vote for Dutch-speaking politicians).

Also, Brussels is structurally way too small to make decisions that it should be capable of making (about its airport/highways/public transport/industry/...), since those are mainly in Dutch speaking parts outside Brussels (falling under another government).

The new map:


This new map enlarges Brussels so that it can manage the areas that currently surround Brussels but that economically and structurally belong to Brussels. Another advantage is that adding more Dutch-speaking people to Brussels makes it more balanced linguistically.
The red part is the new province of Leuven. Some municipalities from the former province of Vlaams Brabant migrated to neighboring provinces.

(*) Depending on what happens in a random Antwerp street, one or more of the following eight 'governments' is responsible:
- district (part of the city)
- gemeente (the city council)
- kanton (district, smaller than a province)
- provincie (province)
- gemeenschap (the Flemish Community)
- gewest (the Flemish Region)
- land (Belgium)
- Europese Unie (European Union)
What happened to the KISS strategy ?!

Politics in Belgium

There used to be three parties in Belgium : Catholics (orange), Liberals (blue) and Socialists (red). And even though they all split in a French-speaking and a Dutch-speaking part fifty to sixty years ago, these big three ruled Belgium for more than one hundred years.

The Seventies and Eighties saw the rise of extremist parties like VU-Volksunie and Agalev. Both joined the federal government briefly, but dissolved right after that. The Nineties saw the rise of Vlaams Blok.

Look at the total percent of votes that went to the big three :

1985: 79%
1987: 79%
1991: 71%
1995: 72%
1999: 64%
2003: 73% (including the Dutch-speaking socialist kartel)
2007: 70% (including several kartels)

Some of these kartels are history today.

The Naughties already made clear that many new and/or extremist parties (LDD, Ecolo, Vlaams Belang, Groen) might rival the election results of the big three (who are six now).

Too many parties will get around ten percent of all Belgian votes (including the six from the big three). Forming a government will become very difficult.

The upcoming elections of June 7th are European and regional (not federal!), but they will have an impact on the federal government. Many people expect federal elections in October 2009.

So what's the choice for the upcoming elections ?

My European vote might go to Bart Staes, the only politician in Europe to have a clue about open standards, and who also votes accordingly.

On the Flemish front:
- LDD wants smoking back in restaurants ?! No!
- Groen wants to halt nuclear energy ! No!
- CD&V the good old catholics, with this miserable failure?! No!
- Vlaams Belang is excluded by all other parties (except LDD?), this gives them some sympathy. But they lack a real program, and get lots of votes from racists. No!
- N-VA has Peter Dedecker, but they are too Flemish extremist. No!

This leaves only OpenVLD (the good old liberals) and SP.a (the good old socialists). One could vote for blue integrity and experience ? Or one could follow Pieter and vote for red charm and beauty ;-)

Louis-Philippe Loncke

Vandaag te lezen in de standaard.be (links toegevoegd door mezelf)

BRUSSEL - Een 31-jarige Belgische avonturier heeft als eerste te voet en zonder hulp de Australische Simpsonwoestijn doorkruist. Louis-Philippe Loncke legde de zandtocht van 600 kilometer af in 35 dagen. Dat bericht de Australische krant Herald Sun zaterdag.
Loncke arriveerde eerder deze week in het Zuid-Australische William Creek. De Belg besliste om de tocht te voet af te werken en niet met de wagen, 'om de pracht van het landschap ten volle te absorberen', weet de krant.

Loncke begon aan zijn tocht met een zelfgebouwde trailer met 140 liter water, voedsel voor vijf weken en een tent. Overdag piekten de temperaturen tussen 30 en 35 graden, 's nachts vroor het tot min 3 graden.

Op zijn tocht werd hij aangevallen door vijftien kamelen. Hij kwam er af met de schrik. Loncke heeft al een nieuwe trip in gedachten, een wintertocht door Tasmanië.

From the article in the Herald:

"I got attacked by 15 camels, they charged on me really fast, running from the top of the dune," he said.

"They stopped 30m away from me and were coming at me really slowly, growling and baring their teeth. I was screaming and yelling and it was horrible."

nmbs

Ik neem zelden de trein, dus heb geen idee van trein-uren of reistijden.

Op 14 augustus, om 22u33 komt een vriendin van mij aan in Brussel-Zuid. Ik zeg haar "neem de trein naar Antwerpen-centraal", en ik zoek vervolgens de uren op nmbs.be.

Tot mijn verbazing duurt deze rit 56 minuten (22u53) of 1u17 minuten (23u31). Dat lijkt me erg lang voor die 50km (tussen de twee grootste Belgische steden). Die laatste trein rijdt dus gemiddeld 39km/u ?

Het kan normaal zijn...maar ik wou toch eens vergelijken (www.ns.nl). Zelfde dag, zelfde uur, maar tussen Eindhoven en Breda (steden die 60km uit elkaar liggen). Er zijn blijkbaar twee soorten treinen daar (een boemel en een inter city ?). De ene doet er een uur over, de andere 36 minuten (gemiddeld 100km/u).

Hoe komt dat ? Wat maakt dat de verbinding Brussel-Antwerpen (39 tot 50km/u) dubbel zo traag is als de verbinding Eindhoven-Breda (59 tot 100km/u)?

Edit: Bedankt Tom om me erop te wijzen dat het aan de Brussel-Zuid-Brussel-Noord bottleneck ligt. De rit van Brusel-Noord naar Antwerpen bolt wel aan een deftige snelheid. (En volgens Clo ligt er een pittoresk en bezienswaardig stadje tussen Antwerpen en Brussel.)

Belgium:Keep it simple (part 2)

First... i'm going to mitigate my blogging on politics. I read all the replies to part one. I saw Dag and Ploum reacting with more follow-ups... Sorry to all of you for not replying in depth... but the subject is...erm... well exhausting.

I will however try to list current issues...and my simple solution to them. But don't expect any lengthy replies!

Brussels
Economic and structural Brussels is currently larger than political Brussels. Brussels must be bigger! Please expand Brussels to include its ring and airport. The Halle-Vilvoorde region (arrondissement) and Tervuren should be part of the big European Capital named Brussels.

Languages
The goal is COMMUNICATION, and language is just a tool. Hence it should not be an issue. I would propose that we allow any language anywhere! Anyone is allowed to use any language to COMMUNICATE (free as in speech).
Even in Flanders, it should be allowed for citizens to use French or German, providing that both parties are willing to speak French or German. I think it is silly to outlaw certain languages in certain places!
I believe that knowing more than one language is an advantage. I see this in many companies : people speaking only one language are missing out on promotions.

When two people (and i don't care where) are too hardheaded to both speak the same language...then the law should mandate English as the only official Belgian language. Yes English, not French, not Dutch. I'm pretty sure that most people in the "Big Brussels Area" are able to COMMUNICATE. If they are too hardheaded to make an effort, then force English onto them.

Too many Governments
We should all aim for a Flemish and Walloon culture in a unified political and economical Europe. And give some room to Brussels to be the European Capital.

Too many parties
Have all elections on one day. People can be on only one list. Actually...i have no solution for this...

Cultural Differences
Hey, we all live on this planet! Enjoy the different cultures.

Money
Bruno (and others) claimed that money is a problem in Belgium. Please compare your wealth to the rest of this planet and start sharing!
@Matt: Yes i would probably keep on supporting my family.

Language Border(s)
You know my opinion about borders. I don't say we have to remove all borders today, but we have to at least realize *why* these borders exist. Borders exist because we don't want to lose our wealth.
@Dag: You still make some valid points though!

Conclusion
Well at least my fourth sentence "nothing will happen in the near future" was correct ;-)

Like i said in the beginning. I will blog less about politics!

Belgium:Keep it Simple!! (part 1)

Belgium is in trouble. It's been more than a year since the last elections, and still there is no government, no agreement between parties and communities. There is only uncertainty about the future, nobody knows what will happen next. My guess is the same as most people : nothing will happen in the (near) future.

So let's keep it simple and take a look at the problems that exist (please add missing problems, a follow-up post with simple solutions will follow).


Problem: What to do with Brussels ?!

Many people talk about splitting Belgium in two or more parts. Independence will solve all problems (yeah right). But nobody has a good solution on where our capital fits in such a scenario.
Brussels is an island in Flanders, completely surrounded by (officially) Flemish communities. But Brussels has only a small minority of native Dutch (aka Flemish) speaking inhabitants.
In the present situation, Brussels is suffocated by artificial boundaries. One example is Strombeek-bever. Strombeek-bever is a community that is part of Brussels in a structural/economical/regional/physical sense, but it belongs to Flanders in a legal/official/bureaucratical sense.


Problem: Languages ?!

Most Belgians are native Dutch speaking (65%) or native French speaking (35%). Some native Flemish regions contain French minorities and vice versa. These minorities are annoyed, teased, even pestered with irrational language demands. Some people are not allowed to use their native language in their own country ?! Add to this minor annoyances like road signs (Liege/Luik/Luttich, Antwerpen/Anvers, Geldenaken/Jodoigne...) that are confusing for everyone!


Problem: Too many governments ?!

Belgium has a King, a federal government, some regional (Flanders, Brussels, Wallonia) governments, some community (French, Flemish, German) governments, a bunch of provincial (ten provinces since the Brabant split) governments. This besides hundreds of municipalities. So who is responsible for what ? The paperwork to get anything done is too much, and most people complain about getting the right documents from the right organization (think Kafka or Task 8).


Problem: Too many political parties ?!

About a gazillion little parties participated in the last elections, resulting in none of them getting more than about ten percent of votes. Add to this that those getting the most votes are cartels (temporary alliances between different parties). A minimum of five to eight parties need to agree before any government can be formed.


Problem: Cultural differences ?!

Not a big problem in itself (cultural differences enrich a country!), but it occupies the minds of many Belgians. Expressions like "Walloons are lazy!" or "Too much money is transferred from Flanders to Wallonia!" are common. People always blame someone and Belgians tend to blame the other (language) side of being irrational or being the cause of problems.
Hint: The same would happen in an independent Flanders, so let's quickly get rid of the "Westhoek" and "de Limburgers"...and so on...until you stand all alone in the world and can only blame yourself!


Problem: What to do with Europe ?!

Europe poses some problems for Belgium. First, it adds another layer to the government (oh no). Second, people tend to forget great European achievements (like the euro!). Instead they complain about politicians going to Europe (like it is their pension and they do nothing there but relax) and they complain about the European rules.
Europe is also a threat to Belgium as a state. In the (far?) future, Europe will have one European government and many cultural regions. We can keep the countries for the World Cup and the Olympics, but any real responsibility should go to Europe and only cultural/recreational/tourist stuff should belong to a regional level.

Anything else in Belgium that poses a big problem, or that causes the current situation ?