Bush in Brussels (2) - Quotes and images

For Justice, Freedom and Democracy: STOP BUSH NOW !

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Thanks for clearing up the "great eyes" comment. My wife said "ooohhh, George is gonna get it from Laura" when we saw the clip on CNN. I thought it was a little cheeky coming from the President and wondered how far the media would run with it.

And here I am. Nice blog!

I thought so too. Still, you haven't answered my other question: are you another friend of hers (and I didn't mean 'just' to sound deprecating)?

@JVS: thanks for the information. Tell us, bud, are you gonna get free drinks at the spot for being so helpful in spreading the name? Or are you just another friend of hers?

@Barbara: Could you detail those 'private sources funding culture for 90%' in your place more in detail?

@W. Culture doesn't "fend for itself" in the US. There are tax advantages to creating foundations and a strong sense of personal responsiblity for doing good for the community. There is also prestige in underwriting cultural activities: there is a lot of institutional and social support for charitable giving of all kinds in the US. In another post someone mentioned, jokingly, that Americans did'nt have the stomach for a 65% marginal tax rate. Joke or not I hope it will ever be thus. Capital is left much more in the hands of private individuals here, and strangely (to people who think that the only way to ensure anything is through government intervention) culture survives. The town where I live is a great example. Large university, lots of high tech and a bohemian (really hippie) subculture. Total population met area, about a million. And yet we have two of the best non-commercial radio stations in the US, and the best "Public TV" station anywhere, and an internationally syndicated music show that is produced by said PBS station. We have an opera (very limited season), a symphony..the list goes on. Funding for this stuff comes 90% from private sources. Don't you think that there is enough intrinsic appreciation of culture and creativity in the Dutch-speaking lowlands, or in Belgium or in whatever geographical/cultural area you define to replicate this? The reason you can't (now) is because of the underlying distribution of capital and , secondarily because of the mindset I mentioned above. I remember when the big push began about 15 years ago to stop govenment funding of PBS- the crying and carrying on! And yet programming is more dynamic now than it was then. It was like being weaned from the big teat. Awful at the time but, boy, solid food is much better!

@Dof: I wasn't talking about you. You're probably an 'active' viewer, 'looking for surprises, for the extraordinary'. So you probably don't need generalistic stations like VRT or VTm. Besides, there's a lot more to local production than soaps. And please don't act that disdainful towards soaps. You're just defining yourself that way, in stead of saying something about soaps. Just compare the sense of identity of the Flemish to the sense of identity of the French-speaking Belgians (non-existing, or very fragmented). I put it to you that Flemish television has been the main identity-building tool in half a century, and that fiction (which is a lot more than soaps, but soaps are part of it, and they deserve consideration) has played an important role in it). French-speaking Belgium never has gone to any trouble to produce its own fiction. French-speaking Belgium nearly limits itself to consume imported culture.

Jumping from soaps to 'its the people that watch VRT that are brainwashed with tranzi ideology' is also an extreme shortcut, when a soap like 'Thuis' e.g. is referred to in French Belgian forums as an example of 'le repli sur soi' of Flemish society. So not tranzi at all.

May be the economical aspect will help you off your disdain. Producing stuff like 'Familie' or 'Flikken' or Matroesjka's' requires know-how and capital (hundreds of millions of old BEF) and very specialized personnel. Only dynamic enterprises manage to maintain themselves in this risky field.

@Barbara: the facts that things are done one way in the States, doesn't yet mean they should be done the same way elsewhere. May be public television in a market of 270 m people (280? 290? It seems to grow by 10 m every month) can be funded by private means, but Flanders is only as big as a hanky. If you drive from Bangkok Airport to Bangkok Centre you probably pass as many Thais under the fly-over as you'll find Flemish in all of Flanders. I shudder at the idea that culture should be left to fend completely for itself in this country. It would go up in a puff. The theatre or classical music for example can't survive by themselves either. Neither can even daily papers. Without public money all television in Flanders would look like its local niche stations Ka2 or VT4: just hatches to pass trashy American action series through. Television would no longer reflect this country. If there is a strong sense of identity in Flanders, it's there because local television stations VRT and VTM offer so many local productions helping to define that identity. And commercial VTM offers so many local productions because it has to keep up with public VRT. Without VRT VTM would just sit back and score without having to exert itself. So please keep your approach for your own market. Of course Lvb will agree with you all the way. He's so starry-eyed about whatever's blown this way over the pond.

@Michael: "there is NO CHANCE WHATSOEVER you will find a Nixon Avenue or a Reagan Street, much less a Bush Alley."

Nail on the head. The most recent occurence of a Republican president in a Belgian street name is probably the "Generaal Eisenhowerlaan". Considering the fact that the man died almost 36 years ago, that says something. By the way, there are several "Clinton Parks" in Belgium. In Roeselare there is a business park that is called that way.

Joe said: "Greet is really great. She has been living in the USA, spoke with many big shots there, and she understands perfectly well the American spirit and society."

Missuz De Keyzer has indeed spent an awful lot of time in The States. She bundled her observations in a book:

"Amerikanen. Wie zijn ze, wat willen ze, wat kunnen ze?": http://www.thehou...

Which means: "Americans. Who are they, what do they want. What can they?"

It is a merciless propaganda pamplet against the Bush Administration, in which she states that after 9/11 Americans have become paranoid warmongering idiots full of vengeance feelings who go to war driven by a hateful ideology. Since Missuz De Keyzer is a perfect example of the politically correct morally superior sophisticated post-modernist atheist crowd, I assume she means by that "hateful religion" Christianity. For her the whole Bush Admin, the Prez up front, is a bunch of intolerant Bible-Thumping arrogant red-necks. Four years ago Greet reported on the Republican Convention and in her hate for W did not fail to include numerous shots of hobo's, white trash, trailer parks and dirt-poor neighborhoods. The underlying message was as transparent as Alexandra Kerry's see-through blouse: with Bush in the White House you get this. One small detail Greet overlooked: Clinton had been in office for eight years.

The hatred shown for Republican presidents and their Administrations is a persistent plague in Belgium and is also no recent phenomenon. One of many circumstances proving this is, for instance, the naming of streets, squares, tunnels etc... While in Belgium you will regularly find a Roosevelt Square, a Kennedy Avenue, a Kennedy Tunnel, even a Clinton Park (in Erembodegem near Aalst), there is NO CHANCE WHATSOEVER you will find a Nixon Avenue or a Reagan Street, much less a Bush Alley. Zero, zilch, nada. All thanks to self-righteous people with a mindset as narrow as Greet De Keyser.

But don't think Greet reserves her distaste only for Republicans, since you, ladies and gentlemen, are still all lumped together as uneducated, grossly overweight, dumb, schizophrenic, sexually frustrated nuts.

@Pete: I correct my previous statement about the 80% of VRT funding that comes from the State. VRT has an annual budget of 370 million euro. It has own revenues of 120 million coming from radio commercials, the rest comes from state funding. So it's approximately 2/3 state funding, 1/3 commercial income. I still call this 'state-funded'.

'Flemish state-run television VRT' sounds a bit overdone. It's the term its ailing completely-commercial competitor VTM likes to use to make it look a bit shady. VRT nowadays is a 'vennootschap' (a company) with 'aandeelhouders' (shareholders)- the only joke is the Flemish region is the sole shareholder. - But if the Flemish region decides to sell its shares, it'll be a completely commercial outfit. VRT used to be manned by civil servants. They've become a small minority and brainstorms are being held about how they could be tricked subtly into disappearing completely, one hears. The fact that the state does not really run VRT may be demonstrated by the heartburn nearly all politicians manifest as a consequence of the fact they can't influence it anymore like they used to in the good old times. Even the VRT's politically defined board nog longer has a lot of influence. Nearly all it can do nowadays is watch as the VRTs top management goes its own way. Management can do so, as it's only bound to fulfill the (mostly quantitative) terms of a 5-year overall contract between the Flemish government and VRT. But there's light at the end of the tunnel for the political apparatus: a new 5-year contract is being negotiated and a lot of jostling is going on off-screen to restore political influence and to curb VRT's success so VTM's market share will rise again, its advertisers will return and its profits will soar.

More likely W was referring to the large portions of her eyeballs that are visible, making Greet look like a Druggie or sufferer from Hyperthyroidism.