Seingevers

Op de website van Het Laatste Nieuws :

"De zowat 7.000 Vlaamse seingevers van wielerwedstrijden staken. Ze weigeren om dit weekend het verkeer te regelen bij alle prof- en amateurkoersen. Daardoor moeten de politie en de organisatoren die taak zelf overnemen. De seingevers zijn boos omdat ze te weinig respect krijgen. Daarom voerden ze de voorbije weken al actie, maar de druppel is een nieuw incident, deze week. Daarbij is een seingever aangevallen toen hij een foutgeparkeerde auto wou opschrijven."

Volhouden, jongens !! Zo raken we misschien ooit verlost van het wielercircus dat ook nog bijna dagelijks breed uitgesmeerd wordt op onze geliefde BRT (geen tikfout !).

Is er een sport die de openbare weg meer teistert dan het wielrennen ? Voor mij hoeft het niet meer, maar ik weet ook dat ik met deze mening zo goed als alleen sta. Voor één keer ben ik geen goede Belg !

Zie ook "Signalers".

Wij sparen voor ... de staat

Uit de website van De Tijd (www.tijd.be) :

"Het voorstel van de Hoge Raad van Financiën om de belastingen op sparen en beleggingen op te trekken, leidde tot een storm van reacties. De Hoge Raad adviseert minister van Financiën ... om een loonlastenverlaging van 6 miljard euro te financieren met onder meer een hogere roerende voorheffing van 30 procent, het dubbele van vandaag.

... Voor de financiële wereld kwam het voorstel van de Hoge Raad als een verrassing. Een toename van de spaarfiscaliteit zal meteen het sparen en beleggen ontmoedigen, luidde de reactie. ... De banken, fondsenbeheerders en beleggingsclubs vinden het niet kunnen dat wie tijdens zijn hele loopbaan al belastingen betaalde, nog eens moet afdokken voor het spaarpotje dat hij opzij zet. 'Dat is de mensen bedotten', klonk het.

De werkgevers zijn even vernietigend. Ze zeggen niet neen tegen een verlaging van de lasten op arbeid. Maar de manier waarop de HRF die wil financieren, bestempelen ze als 'economische zelfmoord' voor een land dat nu al zo'n hoge fiscale druk heeft. Als alternatief schuiven ze een ontvetting van het staatsapparaat naar voor.

Dat vinden de vakbonden dan weer een sloganeske benadering. ... Ze stellen dat dat helemaal niet moet gebeuren op de kap van de kleine spaarders.

Ook politiek waren de reacties scherp. ... De liberalen en christendemocraten" - het spijt mij dat ik namen van politieke clubs moet noemen, maar ik moet eerlijk blijven - "vinden dat een loonkostenverlaging vooral betaald moet worden door de uitgaven te beperken. ..."

Ik ben zeker dat de HRF bemand wordt met kleine spaarders !

Waanzin ! Waar gaan we naartoe, waar gaan we naartoe ???

September 8 1676

Anna De Moor died in Pamel. Cornelius Van der Kelen (Pamel, born ca 1598 - died before 1653) was her first husband. He proved "meiseniership" in 1622. Anna was the second spouse of Cornelius. She must have lived to an old age as she was described as an "oude vrouw".
Maybe she was the Anna, daughter of Reynier De Moor and Anna Van den Bossche from Londerzeel, who proved meiseniership in 1627.

Their daughter Maria Van der Kelen (Pamel 1625 - 1676) had a son, Petrus De Vidts (Pamel 1655 - 1726, meisenier in 1700). The further line has been described more than once in this blog, but for ease of reading, I shall repeat it here.

The forementioned Petrus had a son Judocus (Pamel 1703 - 1748, meisenier in 1715).
Judocus had a son Petrus Joannes (Pamel 1749 - 1796, meisenier in 1784).
Petrus Joannes had a son Joannes Franciscus (Pamel 1784 - 1839).
Joannes Franciscus had a son Joannes (Pamel 1811 - 1881).
Joannes had a son Felix (Pamel 1853 - 1940).
Felix had a daughter Maria Antonia De Vidts (Pamel 1885 - 1949), my maternal grandmother.

September 8 1644

Elisabeth Lievens was born in Denderhoutem where she married Joannes Wynant who died in 1692. We met her before (see "August 16 1647").

Hooked

I'm in a terrible state : I did not get my newspaper on time this morning and I am highly dependent on it because I'm looking forward to getting hot under the collar when I disagree with reporting or comments. I also have a thing about typos (maybe the paper should hire me because more often than not I can be sure to harvest some fruity ones).

I took a subscription because the newspaper round was not reliable enough (sickness, weather conditions, holidays ...) although I respect those people getting up in the middle of the night to bring our timely dose of news. I'm just a big egoist : I want my paper on time and d*** the consequences

But even a subscription does not help to perform miracles : two or three times a year I get up and do not find my newspaper in the letterbox. Two, three times a year, what percentage is that ?

I'd better keep my big trap shut and be grateful that it does not happen more often !

Alzheimer

Question
What's the difference between an economist and a befuddled old man with Alzheimer's?

Answer
The economist is the one with the calculator.

From : http://netec.mcc.ac.uk/JokEc.html.

September 7 1723

Birthday of Elisabeth Baveghems - see "July 3 1737".

Paradise ?

Only in America ...

Au revoir

I have a few more articles in preparation and then the update of this blog will stop for a short while I will be pursuing other interests. Maybe I shall tell what these interests are - after the break.

September 7 1653

A line which I owe to another Broeckaert descendant. Joannes Broeckaert was born in Wetteren on September 7 1653 and died there on November 9 1742. He married Adriana Canuel who passed away in Wetteren in 1730.

Their son Pieter lived in Wetteren from 1687 to 1749. Pieter's son Joannes Josephus (Wetteren 1726 - 1760) had a son Bernardus (Wetteren 1758 - Serskamp 1802).

Eugenius Broeckaert (Serskamp 1792 - 1846) was a son of Bernardus.

Karel Bernardus was a railroad worker : he was born in Wetteren in 1832 but married in Okegem where he died in 1928. He was the father of 12 children. He was part of one of the first generations to move a significant distance (on a Belgian scale ...) away from the region of their origin. Before the railroad that was relatively uncommon.

Karel Bernard was the father of my great-grandmother Clementina Broeckaert (Okegem 1858 - 1939), the spouse of Hermilianus Neukermans, just mentioned in a previous article.

De kloefkapper

Op 7 september 1932, nu 75 jaar geleden, stierf mijn overgrootvader Hermilianus Neukermans in zijn huis op de Rattenberg (Leopoldstraat) in Okegem. Hij werd te Okegem geboren op 3 October 1855 en verloor zijn vader Amandus (Okegem 1824 - 1857) voor hij twee jaar oud was. Hij had drie zussen - een stierf zeer jong - en een broer, die zelfs enkele maanden na het overlijden van zijn vader geboren werd. Moeder Catharina Asselman (Okegem 1823 - 1892) stond er na acht jaar huwelijk alleen voor ...

Hermilianus - ik heb eigenaardig genoeg nooit zijn roepnaam geweten - was een keuterboerke en klompenmaker. Hij was ook (een tijdje ?) suisse in de kerk, en naar ik hoorde was hij geen van de gemakkelijkste.

Hij was gehuwd met Manse (Clementina) Broeckaert (Okegem 1858 - 1939) met wie hij acht zonen en twee dochters had. Hun oudste zoon, Naren (Bernard) stierf in 1921 aan de gevolgen van een gasaanval in de eerste wereldoorlog. Zijn derde zoon, mijn grootvader Cis nam de ouderlijke woning over.

Mijn overgrootvader's broer Ferdinand huwde met een zus van mijn overgrootmoeder Manse - er waren dus twee koppels Neukermans-Broeckaert in Okegem en ze waren nog buren ook (waarschijnlijk was op een bepaald moment het voorouderlijk erf gesplitst).

Over het tweede koppel is er enige verwarring : mijn moeder sprak over nonkel Jef (grootoom Ferdinand ?) en tante Adèle (groottante). Die tante heb ik nog gekend. Volgens mijn gegevens stierf ze in 1945, maar in mijn geheugen situeert haar dood zich later, maar voor het overlijden van mijn grootmoeder Marie (De Vidts, de vrouw van Cis), die gestorven is op 25 september 1949.

Een foto van mijn overgrootouders en van mijn grootouders vind je eerder in deze blog ("My great-grandparents" en "My maternal grandparents").

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Het huis van mijn grootouders en overgrootouders ... ik heb er de beste herinneringen aan - ik bracht er al mijn vakanties door tot diep in de jaren vijftig. Er was een behoorlijk grote tuin aan en in het midden, achter de boomgaard, stond een met rozen overgroeid gebouwtje waar mijn overgrootvader de klompen maakte. Dat gebouwtje heb ik niet meer gekend, maar mijn moeder sprak er nog dikwijls over en ook over de klompen die haar grootvader voor haar maakte en altijd speciaal versierde met een bloemetje.

Na het overlijden van mijn grootvader werden huis en "geleeg" verkocht en enkele jaren later werden huis en bijgebouwen afgebroken en vervangen door een nieuwbouw.

September 6 1627

On that day, Egidius Goossens was born in Denderhoutem, where he died on July 30 1665.

The line from Egidius to me has been described in "July 30 1627".

Surprise, surprise

I posted more than 200 messages on this blog without referring even once to my all time favorite kinda guy. That must change. So I selected one of the zillion jokes on the web about the "misunderestimated" one. This one comes from Anvari.org. I kinda like it.

There's a teacher in a small Texas town.
She asks her class how many of them are Bush fans.
Not really knowing what a Bush fan is, but wanting to be liked by the teacher, all the kids raise their hands except one boy, Johnny.
The teacher asks Johnny why he has decided to be different.
Johnny says : "I'm not a Bush fan".
The teacher says : "Why aren't you a Bush fan?"
Johnny says : "I'm an Al Gore fan".
The teacher asks why he's an Al Gore fan.
The boy says : "Well, my mom's an Al Gore fan and my dad's an Al Gore fan, so I'm an Al Gore fan!".
The teacher is kind of angry, because this is Texas after all, so she says : "What if your mom was a moron and your dad was an idiot, what would that make you?".
Johnny says, "That would make me a Bush fan."

By the way, I don't like Al either, the pompous ***.

September 5 1623

Barbara Walravens was born on that day in Sint-Pieters-Leeuw, the cradle of that family. She died in Sint-Kwintens-Lennik on November 5 1699. In 1644 she married Zeger Van Cutsem (Sint-Martens-Lennik ca 1620 - Sint Kwintens Lennik 1681) in Sint-Kwintens-Lennik. Zeger's mother was Maria Pipenpoy - through her I trace back some f the oldest links in my genealogy.

Their daughter Barbara Van Cutsem was born in Sint-Martens-Lennik and Barbara's son Michael Galmaert lived in Gooik from 1690 to 1786 - an almost unbelievable age for that era.

Michael's daughter Barbara Galmaert was born in Gooik in 1720 and died in Aalst (see also "August 15 1678"). Her daughter Maria Josina Covens lived in Pamel from 1759 to 1827. She was the mother of Maria Elisabeth Van Lierde (Pamel 1790 - 1838).

Maria Elisabeth was the mother of my great-great-grandfather Joannes De Vidts (Pamel 1811 - 1881).

This is one of the lines in which a significant number of famous and relatively well known farming "dynasties" in Western Brabant link up into my ancestorship.

Verdraagzaamheid ?

Uit Kerknet (http://www.kerknet.be/nieuws/index.html) :

"De Internationale Vereniging voor de Mensenrechten, die het lot van vervolgde christenen wereldwijd ter harte neemt, beklaagt er zich over dat er in de Egyptische samenleving almaar minder weerstand leeft tegen de onthoofding van tot het christendom bekeerde moslims. Aanleiding is de onthoofding van de 25-jarige journalist Hegazy, die overstapte naar de koptische Kerk. Hegazy verzocht zijn godsdienstkeuze op zijn paspoort te veranderen. Daarop riep sjeik Youssef al-Badri van de gezaghebbende ‘Al Azhar’-universiteit in Cairo op tot de onthoofding van Hegazy. Ook de decaan van de Hogeschool voor Vrouwen van de ‘Al Azhar’-universiteit deed een gelijkaardige oproep. Uiteindelijk pleitte zelfs de minister voor Religieuze Aangelegenheden, Mahmoud Hamdi Zakzouk, voor onthoofding. Volgens hem staat bekering gelijk met hoogverraad. De Internationale Vereniging voor de Mensenrechten onderstreept dat ieder mens het recht heeft op godsdienstvrijheid. Zij roept de Egyptische president Moeberak op daarover een ondubbelzinnig standpunt in te nemen. "

En dit gaat over Egypte, niet over Saudi-Arabië. Verdere commentaar is overbodig.

September 4 1672

On that day, Gisbertus Wynant died (or was buried) in Denderhoutem, where he had been born (or baptized) on June 12 1672.

He married Livina Lievens (Denderhoutem 1675 - 1742) and their descendance has been given in "August 16 1647".

A note which I should have written at the very start of this blog : before the French Revolution almost all dates are based on parish records, which means that in most cases it is unclear whether dates given are for births or baptisms (most children were baptised - when at all possible - on the day they were born) and for deaths or burials.

Why God created Eve

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When God finished the creation of Adam, He stepped back, scratched his head, and said : "I can do better than that."
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From : CatholicSites.com.

September 3 1698

Petronella Stockmans was born in Pamel where she died almost 70 years later on April 30 1768.
Her husband Joannes Janssens was born around 1700 and died in Pamel in 1770.

The link from this couple to myself has been described in "August 23 1770" and "August 2 1668".

Déjà vu : meetings

Why does all of the following sound familiar ? So familiar that I copied it outright ...

Business Meetings

To really succeed in a business or organization, it is sometimes helpful to know what your job is, and whether it involves any duties. Ask among your coworkers. "Hi," you should say. "I'm a new employee. What is the name of my job?" If they answer "long-range planner" or "lieutenant governor," you are pretty much free to lounge around and do crossword puzzles until retirement. Most jobs, however, will require some work.

There are two major kinds of work in modern organizations:

1. Taking phone messages for people who are in meetings, and...
2. Going to meetings.

Your ultimate career strategy will be to get a job involving primarily No. 2, going to meetings, as soon as possible, because that's where the real prestige is. It is all very well and good to be able to take phone messages, but you are never going to get a position of power, a position where you can cost thousands of people their jobs with a single bonehead decision, unless you learn how to attend meetings.

The first meeting ever was held back in the Mezzanine Era. In those days, Man's job was to slay his prey and bring it home for Woman, who had to figure out how to cook it. The problem was, Man was slow and basically naked, whereas the prey had warm fur and could run like an antelope. (In fact it was an antelope, only nobody knew this).

At last someone said, "Maybe if we just sat down and did some brainstorming, we could come up with a better way to hunt our prey!" It went extremely well, plus it was much warmer sitting in a circle, so they agreed to meet again the next day, and the next. But the women pointed out that, prey-wise, the men had not produced anything, and the human race was pretty much starving. The men agreed that was serious and said they would put it right near the top of their "agenda". At this point, the women, who were primitive but not stupid, started eating plants, and thus modern agriculture was born. It never would have happened without meetings.

The modern business meeting, however, might better be compared with a funeral, in the sense that you have a gathering of people who are wearing uncomfortable clothing and would rather be somewhere else. The major difference is that most funerals have a definite purpose. Also, nothing is really ever buried in a meeting. An idea may look dead, but it will always reappear at another meeting later on.

If you have ever seen the movie, "Night of the Living Dead," you have a rough idea of how modern meetings operate, with projects and proposals that everyone thought were killed rising up constantly from their graves to stagger back into meetings and eat the brains of the living.

There are two major kinds of meetings:

1. Meetings that are held for basically the same reason that Arbor Day is observed - namely, tradition. For example, a lot of managerial people like to meet on Monday, because it's Monday. You'll get used to it. You'd better, because this kind account for 83% of all meetings (based on a study in which I wrote down numbers until one of them looked about right). This type of meeting operates the way "Show and Tell" does in nursery school, with everyone getting to say something, the difference being that in nursery school, the kids actually have something to say.When it's your turn, you should say that you're still working on whatever it is you're supposed to be working on. This may seem pretty dumb, since obviously you'd be working on whatever you're supposed to be working on, and even if you weren't, you'd claim you were, but that's the traditional thing for everyone to say. It would be a lot faster if the person running the meeting would just say, "Everyone who is still working on what he or she is supposed to be working on, raise your hand." You'd be out of there in five minutes, even allowing for jokes. But this is not how we do it in America. My guess is, it's how they do it in Japan.

2. Meetings where there is some alleged purpose. These are trickier, because what you do depends on what the purpose is. Sometimes the purpose is harmless, like someone wants to show slides of pie charts and give everyone a big, fat report. All you have to do in this kind of meeting is sit there and have elaborate fantasies, then take the report back to your office and throw it away, unless, of course, you're a vice president, in which case you write the name of a subordinate in the upper right hand corner, followed be a question mark, like this: "Norm?" Then you send it to Norm and forget all about it (although it will plague Norm for the rest of his career).

But sometimes you go to meetings where the purpose is to get your "input" on something. This is very serious because what it means is, they want to make sure that in case whatever it is turns out to be stupid or fatal, you'll get some of the blame, so you have to escape from the meeting before they get around to asking you anything. One way is to set fire to your tie.Another is to have an accomplice interrupt the meeting and announce that you have a phone call from someone very important, such as the president of the company or the Pope. It should be one or the other. It would a sound fishy if the accomplice said, "You have a call from the president of the company, or the Pope."

You should know how to take notes at a meeting. Use a yellow legal pad. At the top, write the date and underline it twice. Now wait until an important person, such as your boss, starts talking; when he does, look at him with an expression of enraptured interest, as though he is revealing the secrets of life itself. Then write interlocking rectangles like this: (picture of doodled rectangles). If it is an especially lengthy meeting, you can try something like this (Picture of more elaborate doodles and a caricature of the boss).

If somebody falls asleep in a meeting, have everyone else leave the room. Then collect a group of total strangers, right of the street, and have them sit around the sleeping person until he wakes up. Then have one of them say to him, "Bob, your plan is very, very risky. However, you've given us no choice but to try it. I only hope, for your sake, that you know what you're getting yourself into." Then they should file quietly out of the room.

From : www.lotsofjokes.com.

September 1 1652

On that day, sexton Judocus Vernaillen died in Okegem. We have met this character before : see "July 10 1663".