Television

Fifteen years ago, when I visited the States, I was a big fan of most things, but I hated American breakfeast, American coffee and American television.

It is a remarkable feat of American marketeering that, once some people had discovered what a decent coffee tasted like, they managed to build a coffee imperium, which I will not name here. Frasier was one of their good customers.

It is a remarkable feat of American "cultural" imperialism that European tv in general, and Flemish tv in particular, have fallen to an all time low of crass commercialism, compared to which American tv of the eighties was the summum of good taste.

In Flanders, private VTM is yapping at the heels of public market leader Eén. And people claim to be surprised. I am not. For years and years Eén has tried to be a conform copy of the tasteless pulp of VTM, but, as is often the case, the original wins out in the end.