Notarissen

Op de website van De Standaard : "Notarissen mogen in de toekomst testamenten met een tekstverwerker opstellen. De Ministerraad heeft onlangs een wetsontwerp goedgekeurd, dat het verplicht handgeschreven testament bij de notaris afschaft. " Maar de burger mag met de hand blijven pennen.

Lees : http://www.standaard.be/Artikel/Detail.aspx?artikelId=DMF04122008_090&ref=nieuwsoverzicht.

Whaaauw !! Wat een doorbraak ! Vroeg of laat geraken onze gewiekste bestuurders toch nog in de 21e eeuw.

A German billionaire

"Adolf Merckle, the German billionaire who lost large sums by betting on falling share prices, may have to hand over control of large parts of his industrial empire to his banks.

Bankers close to the discussions told the Financial Times that Mr Merckle and his five leading banks came to an agreement on Wednesday night.

The accord would see the banks in effect take control of Mr Merckle’s three main companies: HeidelbergerCement, the listed cement company in which he owns a stake of more than 80 per cent; Ratiopharm, Germany’s largest generic drugs maker; and Phoenix, the country’s largest drugs wholesaler."

Someone added : “It could well be that all three companies will be sold” .

Read : http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/41c64226-c17b-11dd-831e-000077b07658.html.

A very personal comment : I remember that it 1993 a flourishing Belgian cement group, roaring to develop its place in the international markets, was sold by its shareholders to a German group. For what it's worth, I still believe that was a wrong move.

Fifteen years later, the acquiring German group may have to go through the same traumatic experience. I do not wish that experience on anyone, although I must admit that the Germans did everything in their power to make the transition as smooth as possible.

Food stamps

From America the beautiful :

SNAP/Food Stamp (*) participation leapt to 31.5 million Americans in September 2008, according to figures released by the U.S. Department of Agriculture yesterday.

That means that over 10 % of the American population depends on food help !

The September 2008 increase was driven by economic factors, as well as by the impact of hrricanes Gustav and Ike. While huricanes Gustav and Ike propelled rapid increases in Louisiana and Texas, the core SNAP/Food Stamp participation rate continued to grow rapidly, at a pace that was similar to previous months, because of the recession. Forty-one states recorded increases over the prior month, and 48 states saw an increase in participation over the past twelve months.

Read : http://frac.org/html/news/fsp/2008.09_FSP.htm.

(*) SNAP is the acronym for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, the new federal name of the Food Stamp Program.

Fiat lux

Het Brusselse gerecht is in alle stilte gestart met verhoren van deze voormalige toplui van de bankverzekeraar Fortis. Dat past in het gerechterlijk onderzoek naar mogelijke marktmanipulatie.

Lees : http://www.standaard.be/Artikel/Detail.aspx?artikelId=DMF04122008_019&kanaalid=9.

Laat het licht schijnen in deze troebele zaak. Geen dag te vroeg, vind ik.

Slavernij

Ik heb altijd geleerd en geweten dat mensenhandel een schandalige en crapuleuze uitwas is, een kanker in de samenleving. Mensenhandel is slavernij en die is wereldwijd verboden - officieel tenminste, want de boodschap lijkt in sommige landen nog altijd niet doorgedrongen te zijn.

Kinderhandel is mensenhandel en dus totaal onaanvaardbaar : de zogenaamd "grenzeloze kinderwens" van een paar egoïsten wordt bevredigd door de graaizucht van een of meer anderen. Verre van enige sympathie op te brengen voor de daders en de mededaders (zoals de media tussen de regels nog wel eens durven impliceren) zouden de deelnemers aan zo'n proces zwaar gestraft moeten kunnen worden. En commercieel draagmoederschap moet definitief verboden worden.

Maar ja, dat zijn maar een paar van de "kleinere" uitwassen van onze op drift geslagen maatschappij, waar het ik en het geld de enige en abslouut geldende criteria zijn.

Kinderen zijn geen koopwaar. Wie dat niet inziet en respecteert heeft geen plaats in een normale samenleving. Maar waar kan je nog een "normale" samenleving vinden ? Voor geld is alles te koop. Alles kan, alles mag, alles moet, tenminste voor een steeds groeiend deel van onze bevolking.

Nog maar een (verschrikkelijke) uitwas van de vrije markt mentaliteit ...

KUL

Het mandaat van de verkozen rector van de KU Leuven wordt niet verlengd. De inrichtende overheid wil veeleer een manager aan het hoofd van de eerbiedwaardige instelling, en de zittende rector krijgt het verwijt onvoldoende leiding te nemen en niet besluitvaardig te zijn. Volgens de studenten heeft de evaluatie 'tot spanningen en wantrouwen in de hele universitaire gemeenschap geleid', .

Over de negatieve evaluatie bestaat ook geen eensgezindheid. De externe bestuurders - mensen met managementervaring in het bedrijfsleven en bij de overheid - waren unaniem over de niet-verlenging. In de academische raad daarentegen waren dertien hoogleraren voorstander van nog eens vier jaar met de zittende rector, elf hoogleraren waren tegen.

Lees : http://www.standaard.be/Artikel/Detail.aspx?artikelId=OJ23KHRI&ref=front.

Moet een universiteit geleid worden door een manager in plaats van een wetenschapper ? Hebben vele topmanagers in de laatste maanden niet voldoende getoond uit welk hout ze echt gesneden zijn ? Management vormt geen supermensen, gelukkig maar. En is het beheersen van managementtechnieken echt een criterium om een universitair beleid te beoordelen ?

Ik stel voor dat binnen de kortste tijd de kardinaal - de kerk blijft de inrichtende macht van de KU Leuven - op zijn management beoordeeld wordt en dat ook onze democratisch verkozen regeringen door een zelfverkozen "elite" van het land beoordeeld en mogelijks afgezet kunnen worden.

Wat is het belangrijkst : wetenschap en democratie of management ? Management is nooit meer dan een middel ; een sterk overroepen middel dat daarenboven alleen kan afgemeten worden in monetaire termen. En als ook onze universiteiten gaan gemeten worden met de criteria van vrije markt en winstgevendheid is het einde inderdaad nabij.

Ik vind deze beslissing, juist ja ... kul.

Multiculturalism

In my darkest moments I sometimes think that multiculturalism is not the expression of a deep need for mutual understanding in mankind, but a potentially poisonous consequence of the free market economy and of globalisation. Or am I putting the cart before the horse ?

I shall have to think that through.

Duomo

"De twee Marokkanen die gisteren in Italië zijn opgepakt, wilden met kerst een bomaanslag plegen op de Dom van Milaan. Zij hoopten dat een aanslag tijdens de drukke feestdagen tientallen mensenlevens zou eisen. Dit blijkt uit afgeluisterde telefoongesprekken, zo meldt de krant la Repubblica.

Het tweetal behoort tot een islamistische terreurcel die al maanden door de Italiaanse politie in de gaten wordt gehouden.

De Duomo di Milano is een van de grootste gotische kerken van Europa. De Dom herbergt meer dan tweeduizend marmeren beelden, de grootste collectie marmeren beelden ter wereld. De 18e-eeuwse gouden Madonnina op het hoogste punt van de kathedraal is het symbool van de hoofdstad van Lombardije."

Lees :
http://www.demorgen.be/dm/nl/990/Buitenland/article/detail/525323/2008/12/03/Marokkaanse-terroristen-gingen-Milanese-Dom-opblazen.dhtml.

A possible terror attack on the Milan Duomo about Christmas time ...

So some potential terrorists are thinking about targeting religious symbols at last. I have been slightly surprised for years that they haven't yet tried to blow up St Peters in Rome or St Paul in London, or any other significant religious symbol. But maybe they were smart enough to realise that they should let sleeping dogs lie, because, even in sleepy souls, religious beliefs remain a potential powder keg ...

Politically correct multiculturalism is fine with me, but isn't it high time to realise that societies and religions which continue to breed this kind of extremists, even in very marginal numbers, should take a very critical look at themselves ? And isn't it high time to realise that politically correct multiculturalism very often is a one sided exercise ?

I don't remember where I read that if there are one billion muslims, and only one in a thousand is a potential terrorist, there still are one million potential terrorists around ? Simple mathematics ...

And isn't it high time for the moderates in those societies and religions to speak up and form a front against the rotten apples in their civil and religious communities ?

The big three

"Detroit's Big Three auto executives have ditched their corporate jets for hybrid cars and replaced vague pleas for federal help with detailed requests for as much as $34 billion in their second crack at persuading Congress to throw their struggling companies a lifeline."

Read : http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5hTlR_ry_mjT2nXKPWyYI4asuW1jQD94R4L7O0.

Let them go bankrupt. Auto makers are not banks. They do not bear the weight of the whole economy. Let them go bankrupt : it will be better for the environment and for the average tax payer. It is the only way to teach top executives a lesson. It could be the beginning of a better economic structure. I know that hundreds of thousands of workers depend on their jobs in the car industry, but they should not be used as hostages by their executives.

Or, if one can't stand the loss of votes by doing nothing, one should nationalise them, and let the average citizen partake in the profits as well as in the losses.

Now, I know that, having written that, I will be branded a despicable communist in the USA. I couldn't care less : I have seen about enough of the "benefits" of the "free" markets.

Many observers continue to say that the system should not be condemned because of a crisis, even a very severe one. I sincerely think that the system is rotten to the core and will collapse sooner or later. So we'd better be prepared and start working for a better one. One which is no longer based on greed and on the primacy of profit maximalisation. One which gives priority to people and to the environment.

Shortsightedness

I just read the dramatic story of an old man who had placed all his savings in 22.000 Fortis shares and lived off the dividends. Now that the shares are almost worthless the man has lost "everything".

I find it difficult to sympathise with that man. How stupid can one get ? Doesn't every prudent saver avoid to put all his eggs in one basket ? Was it stupidity, shortsightedness or greed for the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow ?

In any case, I hope there is life after death, so that bankers get their well deserved comeuppance for their sheer stupdity, utter shortsightedness and limitless greed which ruined thousands upon thousands of gullible clients.

Because they will never get it in this life.

An old but a nice one

There is water on Mars. See the formal proof :

http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/0504/WaterOnMars2_gcc.jpg.

December 2 to 4

December 2 : on that day in 1973, in the afternoon, my paternal grandmother Rosalia Margaretha Ravijst (Margriet) died in the university hospital in Ghent. She was the last of my grandparents to pass away. She had been born in Meerbeke on March 20 1892. She had a strong character and has suffered bad health most of her life.

December 4 1953 : as stated in previous posts, she survived her husband Pieter Jozef Timmermans (Pieje uit 't Schalkom) by 20 years, almost to the day. My grandfather passed away much too soon in Ninove in the evening of December 4 1953. He had been born in Meerbeke on August 18 1886. He was a strong and very gentle, compassionate man. He worked until the day he was admitted to hospital, a couple of weeks before his death.

They had seven children, five of whom lived to be adults. My father was their second child and their first son.

I have very clear and vivid memories of both of them. I wrote about them in previous posts. How time flies !

December 3 1940 : in the afternoon of that day, their first grandchild (a boy) was born in his parent's house in Okegem.

Oeps

De Standaard website meldt dat "de bekende Nederlandse weblog GeenStijl.nl" aangekondigd heeft dat ze onze minister van defensie de komende weken extra in de gaten gaan houden. Aanleiding is de uitspraak van de minister dat blogs een gevaarlijk fenomeen zijn.

Lees : http://www.standaard.be/Artikel/Detail.aspx?artikelId=DMF02122008_023&ref=front.

Ik heb al geschreven wat ik over die zaak denk. Verder moet ik erkennen dat die website mij totaal onbekend is en ook mag blijven.

Toch kan ik het niet laten even te reageren omdat onze noorderburen het blijkbaar ook niet kunnen laten : oeps, daar gaat dat vermanende en bemoeizieke Nederlandse vingertje weer.

Zij kunnen toch zo vermoeiend zijn, onze noorderburen ...

Schaamteloos

Uit de commentaar van De Standaard :

"Dit lijkt te gek voor woorden. Gilbert Mittler eist van Fortis 900.000 euro aan bijkomende pensioenuitkeringen. Laat er geen misverstand over bestaan: die 900.000 euro komt bovenop de 4,2 miljoen euro die Mittler kreeg bij zijn ontslag. En laat hier ook geen misverstand over bestaan: Mittler was als financieel directeur van Fortis betrokken bij de overname van ABN Amro, een dure overname waaraan Fortis lelijk zijn broek heeft gescheurd.

... Dit doet niets af van de onwaarschijnlijke lef van Mittler om nog eens extra langs de kassa te willen passeren. Het lijkt wel of hij lak heeft aan alles en iedereen en dat hij nog eens extra zijn middenvinger opsteekt naar al wie eerder verongelijkt reageerde op zijn ontslagpremie."

Lees de volledige tekst op : http://www.standaard.be/Meningen/Commentaar/.

Ik had mijn verontwaardiging niet beter kunnen beschrijven. Dat soort "heren" (in de feodale betekenis van het woord) zal nooit toegeven, en misschien zelfs nooit willen inzien, dat ze enorme fouten gemaakt hebben. Zij zijn de equivalenten van de vroegere geldadel en van de roofridders in de vrije markt ; ook zij denken dat ze hun eigen regels kunnen maken.

Het plebs zal wel betalen. Is het ooit anders geweest ?

Advent

Yesterday was the first sunday of advent.

The darkest days of the year, but a time of expectation nevertheless. This is my 69th advent : I was born in the first days of advent 1940. From all I heard about it, it was a time of intense happiness for my parents and grandparents in a time of grievous misery and death for the world. People hoped and prayed for the end of the second world war (which had been raging for just over a year) and for a happier life.

When I compare the world of my very first memories with today's world, the changes are unbelievably profound and drastic. If I were a writer, I could write book upon book on this subject.

But I want to keep it simple : in the material sphere, we lived in a desert, and now we are in paradise ; at least a significant part of the world population is. The majority still lives under condtions which are worse, or barely better, than ours 70 years ago.

But spiritually and morally I have seen nothing but decay, fed by continuing wars, by ever present greed, and by the development of telecommunications and mass transports. Never in the history of man have changes for good or for worse spread so fast. But apparently the forces of evil have spread so much faster than the forces of good.

All over the world humans have the same objective. We all want to live a happy life in peace and in relative wealth ; but the means to do so remain scandalously concentrated in the hands of the super rich in our regions, and in our hands as compared to the third and fourth worlds.

Advent, expectation and hope.

In the last couple of months a crisis has developed, the like of which the world has not known since the 1930s. The world never again will be the same as before, but hopefully, something will change in attitudes and structures.

If this crisis can lead to a more equitable, and yes a more moral world, let it last as long as it takes to do so. The result will be worth waiting for. But that is far from a given. When people are threatened in what they possess, aggressiveness can, and often has, grown into terrible warfare.

Let's hope we have become just a little bit smarter. If not, the future looks very bleak indeed.

Rorate

Another one of my gregorian favorites.Translations can be found on the net.

Mrs Laura Bush

In CNN's top stories : "Laura Bush describes post-White House plans".

If you're interested, read : http://edition.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/11/30/laura.bush.future/index.html.

My personal reaction is : who (fashionable expletive deleted) cares ?

Tobacco

The world is not completely mad yet ! From The Economist :

'Some people would say it was tantamount to foxes asking to be consulted about the welfare of chickens. But the global tobacco industry, while no longer denying that its products do terrible damage, has long insisted that in any discussion about how to limit the medical effects of the weed, it is a legitimate partner.

That claim was emphatically rejected by health officials from 160 countries after a week’s deliberation in South Africa which concluded on November 22nd. In a statement that grew steadily tougher in the course of the meeting—to the dismay of cigarette firms and the delight of their adversaries—it was proclaimed that there is a “fundamental and irreconcilable conflict” between the interests of the tobacco industry and the cause of public health.'

Read : http://www.economist.com/world/international/displayStory.cfm?.story_id=12678335&source=hptextfeature.


A step in the right direction at least. But let's remain vigilant, lest our leaders forget that there are many other sectors of activity who have "earned" a similar dressing down !

In how may specified cases has health been more important than profit ? And in how many specified cases has profit been more important than health ? I rest my case.

Fraudulent bankrupcy

A well known Dane, famous cycling manager and notorious ex winner of the Tour de France has been had.

It appears that one of his main sponsors has disappeared and that the sponsor company is in fraudulent bankruptcy. Maybe, just maybe a case of the deceiver deceived ?

Belgian fries

Believe it or not, today sees the start of the week of the Belgian fries.

As I wrote a couple of days ago, anything goes to to get into the media.

See : http://www.demorgen.be/dm/nl/2907/Magazine/article/detail/518552/2008/11/30/Week-van-de-Friet.dhtml.

Or, if you are addicted : http://www.weekvandefriet.be/.

I would be glad to hear that Vlam, Vlaams Centrum voor Agro- en Visserijmarketing, did not put some of my tax money in that stupid and useless initiative.

Belgian fries are bad for one's health, but we all know that they will continue to sell themselves without outside help, because if you can find good ones (which is becoming a problem even in Belgium) they are absolutely tasty. Yumyum.