Tag Archives: society

in english

While we were away, Belgium ceased to exist… not!


It’s the end of Belgium as we know it… only joking, originally uploaded by Chiva Congelado.

As we came back from London in the Eurostar, I came accross this newspaper article (also reported in the Beeb). If you’re not aware of the story, check it first before continuing reading this post.

The good news is that at least now people noticed that this can really happen, and the backlash was, I’d say, healthy. I, for one, would be very sad to see the idea of Belgium be defeated, as this country is very unique, and I quite like the good sides of it (in both Dutch and French). More background about Belgium and Belgian politics in Wikipedia.

in english

Pulp fiction dialogue

Jules & Vincent are talking about Vincent’s European experiences.
Vincent: …But you know what the funniest thing about Europe is?
Jules: What?
Vincent: It’s the little differences. I mean they got the same shit over there that they got here, but it’s just – it’s just there it’s a little different.
Jules: Examples?
Vincent: Alright, well you can walk into a movie theater in Amsterdam and buy a beer. And I don’t mean just like in no paper cup, I’m talking about a glass of beer. And in Paris, you can buy a beer at McDonald’s. And you know what they call a, uh, a Quarter Pounder with Cheese in Paris?
Jules: They don’t call it a Quarter Pounder with Cheese?
Vincent: Nah, man, they got the metric system, they wouldn’t know what the fuck a Quarter Pounder is.
Jules: What do they call it?
Vincent: They call it a “Royale with Cheese.”
Jules: “Royale with Cheese.”
Vincent: That’s right.
Jules: What do they call a Big Mac?
Vincent: A Big Mac’s a Big Mac, but they call it “Le Big Mac.”
Jules: “Le Big Mac.” [laughs] What do they call a Whopper?
Vincent: I dunno, I didn’t go into Burger King. But, you know what they put on french fries in Holland instead of ketchup?
Jules: What?
Vincent: Mayonnaise.
Jules: God damn!
Vincent: I seen ’em do it, man, they fuckin’ drown ’em in that shit.
Jules: That’s some fucked up shit.
in english

Nordic alcohol consumption

I was discussing about that with a friend of mine who has never been in Finland, and had to explain him the basics: yes, Finns tend to have more, say, heavy-duty drinking habits, some people (especially the young) tend to literally drink to get drunk (so beers with high alcoholic content represent more value for money :-0 ), taxes to alcohol are therefore very high although they were dropped a couple of years ago and alcoholic beverages above a certain percentage are only available at the national monopoly.

The good news is that not everybody drinks like that (or maybe they do, but only in their student years 😉 ) and you find quite a few people who drink in a more Continental European kind of way (maybe some wine with food, but nothing of the harder stuff). Now that’s more like it.

in english

Belgian bureaucracy

2 Comments

I had heard before that Belgium is renowned throughout Europe for being so thoroughly bureaucratic. I didn’t want to believe it (after all, Latin countries have exacly the same problem), but, boy, were they right. I won’t rant here about the immigration/residence permit procedures, which are excruciating as usual, but even simple stuff like ordering cable TV and getting WLAN at our flat has been an ordeal. The bureaucracy at the school has been the exception that confirms the rule, though, they’ve been spotless.

My advice: if you move here, make sure you don’t need anything urgently.

in english

Second Life

Second Life is a 3D virtual world. Just tried it and was absolutely amazed by its functionality (including a virtual economy), customisability, and the whole “feel” of it. We hear at the CWF about how are residents using this world to do things that they wouldn’t be otherwise able to, even at work. I’ve tried not to use it too much because it is quite addictive.

Talking with a friend of mine about it he came to the conclusion that the danger of it (exposed in many cyberpunk novels before) is that people would use these kind of virtual worlds to escape reality. Whereas I’m sure that some will do exactly that, I believe most people will learn to live with it, as it is a tool to engage imagination and create something new, which in the physical world may not exist.

Could anybody with more experience on it share their insight?

in english

I admire our grandparents

1 Comment

One point brought home from another of the speakers at the CWF is the fact that people of our grandparents’ generation (65+ years old) have already gone through very big changes in the world, something that I don’t think we recognise often enough. If your grandparents are old enough, they saw the introduction of radio, TV, trans-atlantic travel, the Second World War, decolonisation, the European Union, the nuclear bomb, the massification of the automobile… without even talking about microwave ovens, immigrants from different parts of the world, computers and the internet… If you take into account that the rate of change is much faster now than when they were your or my age, you can only come to the conclusion that the world will be even more drastically different when we reach their age.

If there’s people over 70 wathching pictures in Flickr and doing their banking over the internet, that’s the kind of person I want to be when I’m their age, and I understand why not everybody can be like that (there’s also cultural issues of, say, uncertainty avoidance involved which they are not responsible for, among many other factors). If at that age they still take the world at face value and enjoy what they do, that’s the person I want to be. So if you agree with me spare a thought for your parents and grandparents and give them your love and respect. Probably a hug would be nice too.