Monkeyfilter

In "Belgians "

I was there on the march and had a great time. I don't get to involved in Belgian politics as they are just too bizarre, but this 'constitutional crisis' is just absurd. Basically the Flemish parties campaigned in the last election for more autonomy for Flanders and did reasonably well. It all comes down to a few electoral districts on the east/southern side of Brussels, known as the BHV. Should they continue their multi-lingual traditions and become part of Brussels region or revert to Flemish only and be part of Flanders. This is what has kept a government from forming for 162 days. The simple answer is to give all the residents a vote to decide. That won't happen as the majority of people want to remain bi-lingual. The Flamands, or rather the hard right Flemish politicians, are getting increasingly petty. For example three towns in the BHV have no mayors because some of them handed out electoral leaflets in French. It's important to remember that most people don't want to split into three. But the voters are not being listened to. To make it even more farcical Laterme, who is trying to get a government together and be our next Prime Minister embarrassed himself on National Day. He was asked what the day celebrated and got it wrong. Then they asked him if he knew the Belgian national anthem. He said he did and to prove it, started singing. Singing La Marseillaise, better known as the French national anthem. There are times when I think Belgium is nothing more than Rwanda with an economy.

posted by quarsan 17 years ago

In "Fat Cyclist"

Argh, I think they stopped the prizes because last year hardly anyone actually handed them over. My girlfriend is nominated for the third successive year, having won the previous two. The first year we got $20.05, some nice coffee and the offer of a free tour of Dresden. Last year, she won again and got nothing. It's a fun competition and does show some interesting blogs.

posted by quarsan 17 years ago

In "Cruise 'is Christ' of Scientology"

Feeding the Multitude - brought to you by Burger King. that's how miracles would be reported now.

posted by quarsan 17 years ago

In "Spread the Net"

what would be interesting is, instead of importing nets, to set up community manufacturing enabling villages to, say make one for themselves and more to sell at a reduced price. this would have a knock on effect throughout communities. most malaria nets i've seen on sale locally are of terrible quality and of a design that isn't appropriate as many african families would need a large circular net that the whole family sleeps under, with a reinforced bottom edge, rather than the box design that is more appropriate to 'western' style beds. i'm also in the dark about how the nets are going to be distributed, who to and what mechanisms are in place to combat theft/fraud. who decides who receives the nets? how will we know they're going to the most needy and not, say the local corrupt village leader handing them out to his friends? i am very disappointed to see just how little information is on the website - especially for one asking for cash. indeed i wouldn't support such an initiative unless a great deal more information was avaliable - but after seeing a tremendous amount of aid projects and 'cool ideas' either fail or actually do harm, i insist on asking hard questions before i part with my cash. i also am suspicious of people who tell you absolutely nothing about themselves. it may be a 'cool idea' but the problem of malaria demands a well thought out solution. to be honest, i see no sign of that in the website.