Having lived in Brussels for some years myself, I can see what Brouwer means. There is certainly an element of low-level corruption in Belgian politics, and in Brussels politics in particular. (Any capital city which divides itself into 19 autonomous communes / gemeente, each with its own power structure and "slush fund", is going to be vulnerable to the wrong sort of 'democracy' !)

That said, Brussels is a bit better overall than Mijnheer Brouwer suggests, and is a pleasant place for a foreigner to live and work.

Just two points of [...]

Read the full comment detail:

(a) the law on occupancy of rented flats and apartments is very much weighted towards the landlord. You will have to pay quite a suubstantial cash deposit on renting an apartment (nothing too abnormal about that), but - no matter how carefully you look after the apartment - do not expect to see any of it back when you leave. All sort of legal pretexts are used by the landlord or his agent/"gerant" to retain your money on spurious grounds. The best one I ever encountered was 1000 euro for replacing discoloured taps on a gas cooker, when one could have bought the entire cooker for 250 euro ! (The other 750 euro was for "main do'oeuvre", or labour in replacing the taps- normally a ten-minute job. )

The second point is referring to the second language as "Dutch". This is Politically Correct in Belgium. But it is not true. EVERBODY calls it "flamand" in French, or "vlaams" in "Dutch". Both these words mean "Flemish", not "Dutch". In theory the academic written forms of the language are the same: ABN or "Algemene Beschafte Nederlands". But in practice the spoken forms and of the language are very different between "Hollands" and "Vlaams", and this also applies to written material for the press or publicity ! (I learned the hard way: never give a text for use in Holland to a Fleming to translate. Or vice-versa !) It might be better to call both languages "Nederlands", as the French do when referring to "Neerlandais".

Sorry to digress, but hopefully the Sofia Echo journalists might find this bit of first-hand experience interesting....

This comment has been removed by the moderator because it contained foul, abusive or discriminating language

THE ROTTEN HEART OF EUROPE

If one decision in the past turned out to be the worst ever in the history of the European community, it was probably the choice of Brussels as ‘Capital’ of the European Union.
This choice brought politicians from all EU-countries direct into a political environment of a country that is known for its lack of loyalty towards the most important organizations it is a member of, its known political and juridical corruption and its parasitic behavior. In such an environment with its model function it is not amazing [...]

Read the full comment that, according to the Belgian newspaper Het Laatste Nieuws, 20 percent of all European representatives sign in for the presence at meetings, for which they get 200 Euro, to disappear after signing in. Another word for that behavior is called fraud. Are they to blame? Is a young teenage prostitute to be blamed when being grown up in the brothel of her mother?

Is it honest to blame several Belgian politicians for their corruption? Not really. The political environment, developed in a situation in which the French speaking Wallonian part of Belgium financially preys on the Dutch speaking Flemish part and the biggest political party, the socialist Parti Socialiste (PS) in Wallonia and the Socialist Party (PS) in Flanders filled for years the most important ministries, causes in fact the perfect conditions in which personal gain becomes the main motivation for Belgian politicians. Being a politician in Belgium is not an ideological call but a way to gain money by the many additional jobs that are offered. A good example is the Christian-democrat Mr. Jean-Luc Dehaene. The list of official additional jobs he executes may be called formidable with as top of the bill his role in the Dexia Bank with an annual remuneration of 1 million Euro. A sum that, once brought to the attention of the newspaper readers, caused bitter comments which Mr. Dehaene called populist because 1 million Euros was a normal wage for his position in the bank. But why should enterprises, banks and other money making organizations offer a politician an additional job? And at such a price? Is it because they believe to have contracted an excellent lobbyist? Maybe too excellent because in view of a lawsuit, filed against the top of the Dexia Bank including Dehaene in Paris, he may loose his parlementary immunity to be charged. Significant for Belgium to have a representative in the EU of which the moral qualities are doubted by a French judge.
In Belgium, 9000 politicians, functioning on every level of government, possess one or more additional jobs. In 2008, 650 of them refused to report their jobs. Although they make themselves subject to prosecution, Minister of Justice, Mr. de Clerck, does not seem to be willing to enforce the concerning law. Of course not. One who is not capable of executing his task as Minister of Justice is hardly in a position to have other politicians being prosecuted.
His moral suffering was greatly intensified when the Federal Juridical Police in Brussels informed the Mr. De Clerck of a sentence file against high magistrates in Brussels. That reported the newspaper De Tijd. The police force has indications that both the Parket-Generaal in Brussels as well as the Parket-Generaal of the Court of Cassatie protect the suspected magistrates. For the investigators of Brussels the only solution was to send the file to the Minister of Justice. Well-informed sources speak about a system of corruption and book counterfeiting within the magistrature in Brussels. This coming to light, the consequences on the credibility of the magistrature would be dramatic. That confirmed several sources according to De Tijd. The investigation was already running for years, including the period in which Mr. Verhofstadt was PM. The interesting question that arises is: Would any police force dare not to inform the PM about the investigation against judges of the highest Courts of a country? Would the PM dare to keep that information for himself and not bring it to the attention of the Ministerial Council? Would a PM not have informed his successor, Mr. Leterme? Would Mr. Leterme not have informed his successor, Mr. Van Rompuy? Obviously this three PM’s in row posses a very big carpet in their offices.

Corruption, the wide spread phenomenon in Belgium, is brought to the knowledge of the world when Willy Claes, the Flemish Belgian socialist and Secretary General of NATO, was forced to resign in 1995. His involvement in the Agusta corruption case led to his political ruin. Typical for Belgium is that none of the involved PS and SP politicians ever saw a prison from the inside. A penalty of 1500 Euro, three years of prison sentence conditional and a five year denial to execute any political job was all he and the top of the PS got. And this is what also the other involved politicians got. The only politician of all, involved in the Agusta case, who escaped any corrective measure was the last Belgian Minister of Education Vandenbroucke. In 1994 Vandenbroucke had to resign as foreign minister and in 1996 he also resigned from parliament due to his involvement in the Agusta scandal. He acknowledged that he was confronted with millions of Belgian francs which came as bribery money from the Italian helicopter builder Agusta. He advised his staff-party members to "have the money burned" if necessary. Vandenbroucke was never prosecuted destroying material evidence of a crime but took a voluntary sabbatical at Oxford (1996-1999). The honorable corrupted Claes was nominated Minister of State by the King of Belgium. Although only an honorable title and not paid for the job, the signal to the rest of the Belgian politicians was clear. They did not need to fear any effective prison sentence. In fact, the only painful measure was the obligation to return their booty to the treasury of the State of Belgium. Since 1990 a row of local politicians on the level of community, provincial and federal government have been subject to investigations concerning fraud, abuse of community funds and abuse of by the government issued VISA-cards.
An example of abuse of government funds that speaks to the imagination is Minister of Defense of Belgium, Pieter de Crem. Visiting New York with his staff end November 2008 for a conference that was cancelled, his misbehavior attracted the attention of a Belgian female servant in a New York bar. Following his visit, bartender Nathalie Lubbe Bakker blogged their visit (in Dutch), talking about how disgusted she was of how drunk De Crem was and how embarrassed she was about his behavior. Worst part, she wrote, was the fact that one of the politician’s advisors admitted to her that the meetings they were
there for on taxpayer’s money were in fact canceled because the UN was meeting
in Geneva. Couple of days later, someone from De Crem’s office had a telephone call with Nathalie’s boss, after which she was promptly fired. This was initially denied by the politician, and it remains unclear if her termination was a direct result of the call or the blog post in question. However, the trip was paid by Belgian tax-payers. Even though the meeting was canceled, he still decided to come to New York just because “he’d never visited the city anyway". Getting drunk in a bar is for a Belgian politician obviously business as usual and expresses the fact that he mentally stays in touch with his voters. Mr. De Crem is not to be blamed. His Belgian colleagues on every level of government made and still make traveling on public expenses and accompanied by wife to a national hobby. And the activity is considered to be fully acceptable. At least in the political environment it is.

Another example of the bad model function of Belgium as ‘Capital of Europe’ is the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mr. Karel de Gucht. Feeling the need to show the importance of Belgium during a visit to Congo, the former Belgian colony, he expressed in public his opinion that during his visit he had seen no good government. He talked as being a colonial inspector who has been there to see how the political development progressed. The president of Congo, Mr. Kabila, was rather embarrassed and the diplomatic relations between Belgium and Congo reached lowest point in years. Not guided by any diplomatic knowledge, Mr. de Gucht expressed in public his opinion that the Dutch Prime Minister, J.P. Balkenende, was a ‘Harry Potter’ with a grocer’s mentality. Mr. Balkenende, after getting knowledge of the remark, obviously remembered that if one walks through a pig stable, one has to accept the odor and grunting of the animals and at first he did not react. After another Belgian politician of doubtable quality, Mrs Vandenbossche, expressed her senses of malicious pleasure about the remarks of Mr. de Gucht, the Dutch government reacted slightly irritated in the way a psychiatrist reacts on the nasty remarks of his patient who lies on his couch. Mr. De Gucht also is, as his colleague Mr. De Clerck, a proponent of the separation of the constitutional powers, the Trias Politicas. After a ministerial meeting on which was decided to sell the Fortis Bank to a French banking group, Paribas, within a few hours his wife sold their shares of Fortis bank. A few hours after she sold them, they were worthless. His wife, a Belgian judge, denied any communication about the subject with her husband and during trial her colleague judged that there was no evidence that Mr. De Gucht had contacted his wife to tell her to sell those shares. Maybe an independent German, Dutch, English or Spanish interrogation team would have achieved another conclusion. And the anti-Mafia specialists of the famous Italian Carabinieri would certainly have been able to teach the concerned Belgian judge some lessons in successful interrogation and investigation methods. But Mr. De Gucht is right. The Trias Politicas is the basis of any functional democracy and in particular when it suits the man. And no man can be happier than him with a wife that is blessed with clairvoyance.
Mr. de Gucht is a very strict man. He is known for his honesty. In case of the accession procedure of Croatia to the EU, the Croatians hesitate to deliver a possible subject of war crimes, Ante Gotovina, to the Yugoslavia Tribunal (ICTY) in The Hague. In a reaction, Mr. De Gucht considered Croatia ‘probably not ready’ for membership of the EU. Someone could call that a way to put pressure on Croatia. Someone else would call it blackmail. If Croatia is economically ready for membership and it fits the political requirements of the EU, it should join. Otherwise it should wait until the conditions are achieved. The chairman of the ICTY is a Belgian. This fact may play a role in the remarks of Mr. De Gucht after his lobbying to get a Belgian on that post. A failure of the Belgian chairman of the ICTY would not exactly be an example of authority and Mr. De Gucht knows that.
Mr. De Gucht is also very concerned about human rights everywhere in this world, as the Belgian government always has been. In 2003, the Belgian genocide law was legislated and it did not take more than one week before hundreds of complaints were lodged against US and Israeli politicians and military men. According to that law, a Belgian court was legitimated to prosecute anyone who committed genocide, irrespective of nationality of the offender or the location where the genocides took place. Unfortunately, during the same period the NATO had to decide about the location of the new headquarters. President Bush made clear that a possible arrest and prosecution of a brave military man, visiting HQ NATO and based on a Belgian law, was unacceptable. The decision to build the new NATO HQ in Brussels had to be reviewed under these conditions. The cast iron backbone of the Belgian political top, in particular Mr. Verhofstadt and Mr. de Gucht, turned out to be made of the material jelly-fishes are made of. The new law on war crimes was enfeebled immediately and offenders only prosecutable when the crime took place under full moon, with 3 white clouds visible from the Royal palace, a dove would, with its excrements, hit the right eye of the prime minister and the milkman stumbled over a banana skin. And that all had to happen at the same time. Obviously, economy is more important than genocide. From then on former President Bush, Mr. Rumsfeld, Mr. Cheney, Mr. Powel, Prof. Rice and many brave US military men were, when visiting Belgium, benevolent tolerated war criminals in change for the willingness of the US tax-payer to accept the financial burden of the presence of NATO Headquarters and SHAPE in Belgium.
Mr. de Gucht is also very concerned about the future of Belgium and he wants, of course, only the best politicians, in particular liberals, to govern the country. And where can they be found elsewhere than within the family of very good straight forward and honest liberal politicians. The exceptional political gifted Mr. De Gucht is the proud father of a 24 years old son, Mr. Jean-Jacques de Gucht. Of course, a father is pleased when his child steps into his professional trail. And in view of the principles of Mr. de Gucht who are, like his back bone as hard as cast iron, he fights as a lion to get his son on the place of the voters list where he belongs according to a proud father. And that is the top of that list. Carl Devos, a well respected political scientist in Belgium, described that as follows in an article in the Belgian newspaper Het Laatste Nieuws: Because the Flemish themselves also wish support, also political support, for their own sons and daughters, they apparently tolerate that the children of politicians get preference. This kind of clientelism is so much rooted in the Belgian political system that 10% of all politicians are son or daughter of a politician. A picture of Mr. Jean-Jacques de Gucht in Het Laatste Nieuws of April 15 2009 showed a young man who does not stand close enough to his razor blade in the morning and the local barber will not count him as one of his best clients. Fortunately, Mr. Jean-Jacques de Gucht has clear personal insights and in an article of the Belgian newspaper De Morgen of June 11th, stated that he feels being too young executing a post as minister in the Flemish parliament, if offered eventually. Seldom has a personal introspection of a would-be politician been a blessing for the population of a nation. Mr. Karel de Gucht was deeply worried by the fact that his beloved son suffered under the lack of any important job and found the solution. His son now occupies the job of spokesman on the subjects of public health and moral for the liberal party and the predecessor, a very principled man and medical doctor named Vankrunkelsven, left disappointed the political scene. He bitterly mentioned in an interview in a Belgian newspaper that his successor was nothing than a schoolboy. Mr. Verhofstadt’s remark some weeks before this extraordinary event, that the party top of the Belgian liberals had to be renewed and younger people had to take the places of the older, suddenly got a sinister character. But, as could be expected, the positions of the older party members like Mr. Verhofstadt, Mr. Karel de Gucht and Mr. Patrick Dewael were not subject of this vision.

Regularly, clouds of dust are thrown up in the center of Brussels. Cause is the vacancy in some international organization, preferable the chairmanship, Chief so-and-so or Secretary General. Belgian politicians of doubtable quality nervously run around to search for their Special Cooperation User Manual (SCUM). In Belgium, caused by the ever lasting political controversy between French speaking Walloons and Dutch speaking Flemish, the SCUM is one of the most important written guidelines for dealing with all kind of problems between the two tribal groups of the political, financial, constitutional and law-and-order jungle that is called Belgium. Also in case of an application for chairmanship of the important Committee for the Promotion of Peaceful Co-existence between Frogs and Flies, the upcoming vacancy of High Representative of the EU for Foreign Affairs or the chairmanship of the European Committee, the SCUM gives the correct guidelines. It tells exactly whether the candidate has to be a Walloon or a member of the Flemish tribe, it weights the importance of the vacancy, the remuneration, the possibility to offer subordinate jobs to a row of tribe members, the opportunity to deal advantageously with lobbyists and last but not least whether the job includes a free daily lunch. After all plusses, minuses, comma’s and periods are scrutinized, Mr. Karel de Gucht acts as illusionist, puts his high cylinder hat at the table and out of it comes the rescuer of Europe, Mr. Guy Verhofstadt. Depending on the importance of the vacancy the possible candidate also may be the local street sweeper or a young man who does not stand close enough to his razorblade and is only a bad customer of the local barber.
The European Commission glances weary at it and compares the political situations of Belgium and Bulgaria. It decides that Bulgaria is, compared to Belgium, an example of a law-and-order nation.

These days, a phantom is reported to be seen in the middle of the night in the vicinity of several prisons in the neighbor countries of Belgium. This phantom checks main gates, height of prison walls, counts the bars in the windows and counts the empty cells. No one needs to worry about that weird phenomenon. It is not a phantom. It is Mr. De Clerck, Minister of Justice of Belgium. This same excellence is also seen during daytime in a strange procession, ahead of three thousand prisoners and trekking through Europe while searching for an opportunity to lock them in. Not strange in view of the fact that during the last 10 years the situation of the Belgian prisons has gone from worse to dramatic. Belgium has in total about 8.500 prison cells available while more than 11.000 inmates are behind bars. And in view of the fact that the famous Mr. Verhofstadt, being Prime Minister from 1999-2008 decided during his PM-ship that prison sentences of 3 years of less will not be served and the possibilities to condemn people to wear a CPS-bracelet is exhausted because of a lack of personnel and equipment to control the movements of this people, who strictly should also have served a prison sentence, much more prison cells should have been available. One could not blame Mr. De Clerck for not having enough prison capacity available. One could blame Mr. De Clerck for accepting the job as Minister of Justice knowing that he would not be capable of executing the job after the results of the perfect governmental period of Mr. Verhofstadt. But Mr. De Clercks conscience, being a lawyer, is elastic enough to accept that minor imperfection.
Mr. De Clerck shares the opinion of Mr. De Gucht about the independence of the three constitutional powers. But exceptions may occur. A Polish gipsy, named Adam G., killed in a Brussels railway station a young Belgian during the robbery of an MP3 player worth about 39 Euro. Adam G. flew to Poland and was shortly after arrested by Polish police men. Poland was willing to extradite the killer under the condition that he had to serve a possible prison sentence in Poland. The Belgian government accepted that condition. After trial and condemned to 20 years of prison sentence, the lawyer of the killer requested in a short lawsuit Adam G. not to be extradited to Poland because in a Polish prison he would, being a gipsy, possibly be maltreated by prison guards. In one breathe the total of the personnel of all Polish prisons and the Polish government were offended. The first for being gipsy crackers and the latter for being not capable of correcting the expected misbehavior of Polish prison personnel. An obscure Belgian judge decided thus without having seen any proof of the statement of the lawyer. Mr. De Clerck expressed his opinion that another judge in an appeal court would correct the verdict. The fact that this Brussels judge took the word of a lawyer for the true without any evidence was for Mr. De Clerck no reason to have that judge send to a psychiatrist in order to check his mental capabilities. The Polish Minister of Justice, Mr. I. Dzialuk, was rather embarrassed and reacted with visible irritation. Mr. De Clerck mentioned the independence of the three constitutional powers not to intervene. His conviction and honesty in this matter was subject to doubts when Belgian judge Walter De Smedt, having to trial a notorious robber, decided to set the man free because two of his earlier sentences were not executed by Mr. De Clerks department. Reason: No place in Belgian prisons. Suddenly Mr. De Clerk forgot all about the independence of the three constitutional powers. He felt personally attacked by a judge who dared to point out that politicians should not dare to ignore the verdicts of Belgian judges. With bloodshed eyes, foam at the lips and growling sounds that had nothing to do with a respectable politician, Mr. de Clerk decided that Mr. De Smedt was a danger to the Belgian legal order. He totally forgot that Belgian judges suppose to be members of one of the three constitutional powers. By now Mr. De Smedt only may decide about cases of divorce in which both parties agree to that divorce and cases in which Belgian flies protest against being eaten by Belgian frogs. He will not be happy with his degradation and bitterly regrets figuratively slapping a politician in the face for not doing his job. And Mr. De Clerck is clearly not doing his job. At the end of June (22) 2009 he considered advanced release of prisoners against overpopulation in prisons. Protest against that intention made him show up with another proposal in June 24 2009. That was the release of prisoners because a hot summer was expected. The conscience of Mr. de Clerck seems to be extremely elastic. His strange behavior as Minister of Justice is not recent. Already in February 2009 his spokesman in a blog elucidated the confusing vision on the Trias politicas of the honorable Mr. De Clerck. Another challenge for His Excellence was the case of attempted murder on a young Belgian, Mr. Wijffels, by two Ukrainian brothers. They were at the moment of the facts 15 and 16 years old. Their family had requested political asylum in Belgium. Although the legal action ran against juveniles, the family was definitively expelled meanwhile. The Ukrainians waited till the oldest son in December 2008 conditionally was released and then have left voluntarily. The brothers stayed after the facts respectively nine and fifteen months in a closed institution. They were been guilty to attempt murder, but a possible decision to place them in a closed institution for criminal non-adults could not be enforced because they stay in Israel. The senior of two is meanwhile no longer in an age to be eligible for treatment as non-adult and can’t be placed. The Ghent Youth Court decided finally and at contumacy a reprimand for attempt to assassination. For Mr. De Clerck this weird decision was no reason to consider the concerned judge to be a danger to the Belgian legal order. The limits of lack of legal insight, monitoring of the legal procedures in Belgium, rejecting each responsibility for matters where the Minister of Justice for is sworn in and appointed, concerns ignoring him a letter with the proofs of failures by a local police unit, a Public Prosecutor and a female judge named Selleslagh of the Cantonal Court in Beauraing refusing pertinently to take knowledge of written proofs of extortion, tax evasion and black labor that were brought to their attention. The fact that one of the black laborers was also a municipality Council member of the local Liberal party may have played a role in her decision to act as an unguided judicial projectile and, with her verdict, let the extorter, black laborer and tax evader in the possession of the results of his crimes. Mr. De Clerck considered that to be normal behavior and did not put any efforts in restoring the Belgian legal order. Maybe his fear that no prison cells were available made him decide thus.
Under the excellent management of Mr. De Clerck resorts also the Belgian police. Mistakes, theft, crimes and fraud, committed by members of this organization, are seldom subject to prosecution. An interesting proof of the professional honesty of members of the Belgian police corps was the newly legislated fire weapons law. When the new weapon law in June 2006 was legislated, the ten province governing boards organized the possibility for owners of prohibited and illegal weapons to deliver them anonymously to the police, which many did. But instead of registering the submitted weapons on a list of fire weapons to be destroyed, some inspectors kept the most beautiful copies for themselves. They sold those to arms trafficking criminals, foragers and other illegal circuits. The most wanted copies were hand-made hunting weapons of the weapon masters of FN-factory that had values of up to 12.500 euro a piece.
The list of misbehavior, fraud, theft, counterfeiting, murder, police commissioners and judges who drive a car on public roads under the influence of alcohol and false warrants is that long that it seems to be normal behavior not worth punishment in Belgium.
Mr. De Clerck is a lucky man and in good company of loyal friends. Mr. De Gucht, the world-wide known Belgian who is allergic for bad government, Harry Potters and grocers and in the possession of a son who does not stand close enough to his razor blade to be well shaven and is a bad customer of the local barber shop, was willing to solve a delicate problem for Mr. De Clerck. Two secretaries of the Belgian Commissioner-general, Mr. Fernand Koekelberg, where obviously illegally promoted by the by then Minister of Home affairs De Wael. In a political environment as the Belgian is, this affair could easily be kept covered. Unless someone is getting troubles and knows about it. To get rid of the problem, Mr. De Gucht, in his quality of Minister of Foreign Affairs, offered Mr. Koekelberg a post as liaison officer on the seat of Europol in The Hague, Netherlands. Koekelberg refused, according to the Walloon newspaper La Libre Belgique, categorically.
The Gucht, by means of that golden side track, as a good informative source called it sneering, wanted to solve the problem of the Commissioner-general. Mr. De Wael denied any responsibility or wrong doing. Of course Mr. Koekelberg refused this golden side track. As a policeman he knew that policemen who are contaminated with the odor of any crime or irregularly are at best politely accepted by international colleagues but never trusted.

Mr. de Gucht is in the possession of a nose that smells unexpected financial possibilities. After the European elections, he resigned and kindly accepted the post of European Commissioner for Development and Humanitarian aid. The remuneration was good enough and, more important, a free daily lunch on public expenses was granted. And even more important: He could turn his back to the political, juridical and criminal mess that is called Belgium and deny any responsibility for being one of the three top politicians of the Flemish Liberal Party who caused this mess by ignoring the increasing problems during the eight years in which the savior of Europe, Mr. Guy Verhofstadt, acted as Prime Minister of which Mr. Di Rupo, partyleader of the Parti Socialiste said: “ One snap of my fingers and he is gone.”
Only for certain politicians of the different EU countries and the US this may cause some inconvenience. It is rumored that, after being forced by diplomatic politeness to shake hand with Mr. de Gucht, they inevitable have to go to the bathroom urgently. To wash their hands.

One could ask how the government of a country during many years could have the situation in their country financially, governing, juridical and political worsening without reacting. Maybe that question can be answered by a remark once made by a man who’s nose for well paid jobs including free lunches, is well known in Belgium. Mr. Dehaene, former PM and predecessor of Mr. Verhofstadt. His remark was: “We solve a problem once it announces itself.” He forgot to tell that the blind and the deaf never recognize a problem. Maybe that question also can be answered by the prevailing political mentality in Belgium. Maybe it also can be answered by the mentality of the whole of the population in Belgium. To describe that mentality, we will have to go back in time to the sixties when PM Mr. Vandenboeynants ruled the Belgian waves.
Belgium is known for its famous political decision making process. After the US forces, with the loss of thousands of soldiers, liberated this land everybody was eternally grateful. Women expressed their gratitude towards their liberators by offering themselves and thus helping to create a baby boom while their husbands closed their eyes for it because they wanted to share in the famous chocolate, food, cigarette, nylon stocking and alcohol flow that accompanied the victorious US forces. Not unrealistic in that circumstances of course. The funds for the Star Wars Program of former US president Reagan are hardly sufficient would the US had to pay for the pensions of all this ’unknown’ American Belgians. After the end of that war Belgium became one of the most pro American countries in Europe. With the exception of the citizen who had been collaborating with the Germans and the communists. With the start of the European Community for Carbon and Steel, Belgian interest in the US begun to fade away. Europe was closer and offered more opportunity for Belgium to win influence and enjoy the accompanying economical advantages. Belgium started to collect international institutions on its soil. When President De Gaulle threw the NATO HQ, SHAPE and AFCENT out of France because he was not allowed involvement in the US/UK nuclear program, Belgium was quite willing to accept that organizations in Brussels and Mons. For Belgians, al this international organizations proved that the country is indeed the ‘heart’ of Europe. Besides that, the vast staffs of this organizations make exceptional remuneration’s and give a lot of employment. The fact that such organizations are also a cause of wasted funds, corruption, theft and favoritism, fitted perfectly the Belgian mentality. The Belgian Prime Minister Vandenboeynants of the years ’60 was in the ’90’s sentenced 3 years conditional for tax evasion. Belgian history since then shows a long, long row of this kind of political misbehavior which reached the top with the famous Agusta and Dassault corruption affaires, taking the political heads of several socialist politicians, ending with Willy Claes. The opinion that this behavior only concerns politicians is wrong. The mentality is rooted in almost every individual in Belgium. When PM Martens in December 1990 refused the deliverance of 155mm Howitzer ammunition to the UK to be used in the Gulf War, is was because the Belgian government was involved in negotiations with Saddam Hussein of Iraq to free the Belgian hostages in Iraq. But the envoy only negotiated the liberation of Belgians. The fate of the other international hostages was obviously not important. Shortly after the refusal to deliver ammunition to the UK, the hostages were free. When NATO requested Belgium on 22 December 1990 a contribution to the ACE MOBILE FORCE in favor of Turkey, Mr. Martens hesitated and claimed that the Diyarbakir Airfield had to be inspected to see if it could support the Belgian F-16 squadron. This decision making process took him 11 days. He could have had the answer via a simple phone call from the AMF-cell at SHAPE in the five minutes the responsible clerk needed to find the last inspection report. And he must have known that because also Belgium has a Chief of Staff. Between the 22th and the 24th of December 1990 US, UK, NL and German officers openly declared that NATO and SHAPE should leave Belgium immediately and be transferred to another and loyal country.
The Gulf war was in Belgium generally considered to be a war to keep the deliverance of oil to the US guaranteed. The government never tried to change that opinion of the population by some official explanation. Contrary to that, the Belgian newspapers criticized that war with almost any motivation to be found or made up. Of course they were loyal and offered contribution. A minesweeper and plaster. Also the US motivations for the second Gulf War resulted in anti-US rhetoric that was far away from any logic. The fact that in almost every management of Belgian newspapers a politician is somehow involved can’t be ignored.

The terrorist attack on New York, well known as 9-11, made the beloved Belgian PM, Mr. Verhofstadt, declare that Article 5 of the NATO Treaty did not apply. He was not the only one but for sure the loudest. Of course the brave Belgian government was loyal and willing to assist in military cooperation. The Belgian offer of four F-16 Falcon Fighters to protect US airspace caused a problem for the Pentagon. In the first place because the concerned US officers rolled over the floor by laughing and second: How could they fit this four planes into the already existing operations and an overfilled US airspace. But the offer was accepted and for some time the Belgians patrolled the blue American sky on places where they could not do any harm.

With the beginning of the war in Afghanistan, the Prime Minister of Belgium, the still famous Mr. Verhofstadt, in his different statements never stated that Belgium as a sovereign country was standing right behind the US. He stated that the European Union was standing behind the US. When he said ‘we’, he talked as temporary chairman of the EU. He never stated that the European Union was standing absolutely behind the US. As chairman of the EU he made immediately a statement that this ‘standing behind’ concerned the fight against terrorism. And after some days he enfeebled that ‘standing behind’ by stating that terrorist, arrested in Europe, would not be delivered to the US because they might get condemned to capital punishment. And cooperation had to be negotiated, had to find a consensus within NATO and the EU, had to be thought over again etc.
The Belgian world wide known decision making process worked well and initially Belgium stayed out of any military operation. Except, of course, the inevitable humanitarian aid, plasters and now and then a flight with an aged C-130.

After the start of the war in Iraq, Mr. Verhofstadt opened his giant file system to find the right excuses not to cooperate with the US and GB in this important operation. The big piles of excuses fell out and an avalanche of the most ridicule reasons why Belgium should not be involved in any military operation covered the poor man. It took not long before the world started to condemn this war, condemn Pres. Bush and made PM Blair ridiculous. The terms ‘war monger’ and ‘Bush’ poodle’ appeared to be common in Belgium. From then on in the Belgian newspaper appeared cartoons of the most disgusting kind about Pres. Bush, PM. Blair, security advisor Prof Rice and the top of the Staff of The white House. The Belgian Minister of Interior, Patrick De Wael made the top of the bill by a series of comparisons between Pres. Bush and a monkey. Later on explaining that some of his civil servants had set the series together and careless and without shame declaring that if Bush thought to be offended, he was willing to apologize. His behavior was that of a boy with an inferiority complex seeing someone being maltreated and after the maltreaters are gone kicking the on the ground lying victim. The facts were brought under attention of Pres. Bush, who took the same position as the Dutch PM Balkenende: Dealing with pigs means getting dirty feet. A very disgusting cartoon about Prof. Rice, being an impeccable lady and not contaminated with the smells of adultery and corruption as many Belgian politicians are, will only have caused an attack of serious nausea and, of course, after having a meeting with the Belgian Minister of Foreign Affairs, a painful hand washing with sulphur acid and steel brush.

Again the question rises: Must the European Union be governed from a place in a country that:
1: has itself a government marked by politicians who are not capable enforcing the laws of the county?
2: wants the advantages of the presence of the EU commission on its soil but refusing to pay the costs of the international school, thus having the taxpayers of the other countries paying for it?
3: is condemned for the tenth time in 2009 for not complying with the obligation to put European directives into national laws? Over 2008 Belgium received seven condemnations for the same facts?
4: with knowledge and permission of the present PM, Mr. Van Rompuy, allows the present Minister of Finance Mr. Reynders to turn in a stability program with a budgetary planning for the coming years that was marked by the EU as Incredible hypotheses, always sliding down budget objectives for the period 2008-2013, one-off interventions, no structural savings, missing information, no reforms, thus being the equivalent of a scribbling paper?
5: has a Minister of Finance who actively or by lack of political skills frustrates the fight against the tobacco fraud for which Belgium received 72 million Euro and had the money transferred to the national treasury?
6: abused for 9 million EU subsidies?
7: uses 2 obesities suffering politicians, Dehaene and Louis Michel who considered the treasury of the EU, so the property of the people of the whole of the EU, to be their own gold mine and used funds for the modernization of the public broadcasting RTNC in Congo by the Belgian audiovisual facilities company Talent & Vision. In fact a pure commercial operation and only camouflaged as development aid. Coincidence or not, but the Belgian Minister for Development Aid, Charles Michel, is the son of Louis Michel, predecessor of Karel de Gucht, the present European Commissioner for Development and Humanitarian Aid.
8: is a capital of the criminals! Politicians and diplomats, who work in Brussels (Belgium), strike alarm: The city sinks in violence and criminality!

Another question that arises is, whether the people of Europe want to be governed by a European government that allows politicians of one of the less loyal countries to be prominent part of them, whether they want a chairman of the European Council from that country.
Belgium is geographically not the center of Europe, is a source of an unreliable Court system with partially unreliable to corrupted judges and, according to the Belgian newspaper Het Laatste Nieuws, a Court of Cassation that covers doubtable judges as De Tandt, Selleslagh, Reynders (sister of the incapable Minister of Finance), De Lentdecker and Blondeel.
The bad situations in Belgium concerning justice, finance, police, corruption and criminality are developed and increased during the blessed period of government and guidance of Mr. Verhofstadt, being the puppet in the headstock theatre of his fabulous advisor Mr. Noel Schlangen during eight years, Mr. De Gucht, proud father of a son who does not stand close enough to his razor blade and is only a bad customer of the local barber and Mr. Patrick De Wael being a man with a preference for monkeys and a fanatic supporter of the tactics of hyena’s, i.c. hitting a man who is already down on the floor. And this all with the warm support of the majority of the Belgian politicians and continued by the famous former PM Mr. Leterme and his successor PM Mr. Van Rompuy.

To be continued with the exiting stories:
The puppet master.
The miserable story of an unused razorblade.
The development and improvement of the Handbook for SCUM users.
The world under the wet stone.
The slave-unit of France.

C. Brouwer
Neuhauser Strasse 29b
98746 Katzhuette
Bundesrepublik Deutschland