Antwerp steps up downtown camera surveillance

As we all know, electronic surveillance has become a part of most Western city dwellers everyday life. Some cities/countries like London/England have turned to “blanket coverage” using an absurd number of cameras on virtually each and every street corner (one cam for every 14 Britons, a shocking number), but Antwerp, Belgium has been lagging behind.

Yesterday Antwerp City council took a “bold step”: they increased the number of city street police surveillance cams from the present 13 to 63. Imagine, 63 cameras: now we’re all “feeling real safe”, especially if you consider that downtown Antwerp has a population of 500,000. The fact that the Antwerp police force suffers from a chronic lack of resources doesn’t help either. The Antwerp mayor appeared briefly on TV, but with elections in June, we all realized this 63 camera projects was just a laughable election stunt. Well, so much for imaginary safety in downtown Antwerp

The Kathy Sierra death threats: Why you won’t be getting any

It was all over the blogosphere this week: influential US blogger Kathy Sierra got rather nasty death threats.
Guru blogger Robert Scoble (former Microsoft employee and #1 blogger on WordPress) claimed (quote) “I’m physically ill after reading what happened to Kathy Sierra”. Being American, this high-profile blogger suddenly “freaked out” reading the “sexually crude jokes”, while openly publishing his cell phone number prominently on his own blog - ready to be used, or, more likely, abused (do you post your private cellular number online?).

OK, let’s get real now.

Kathy Sierra was the tragic victim of criminal death-threats/”sexually harassing” comments, along with a hate campaign instigated by a group of “rival bloggers” and mindless trolls. The events were deplorable. But was the blog-diva assaulted? Did she suffer an unrepairable physical trauma? No, she did not. In fact, she widely publicized the incidents, and don’t we all know what happens if you feed the mentally unstable part of the blogosphere? In fact, why on earth did she allow the situation to escalate?

Quote from Katty Sierra: “I wish to thank everyone for their support, but honestly–the high visibility and coverage of this one post has led to more trouble for me. Now, even people who had never heard of me are expressing hatred and creating new problems (posting my social security number and address, horrific lies about me, etc).”

Death threats online are common crimes. But is this woman just another attention-addict who will “cover” the problems she insist on posting/creating? More recent developments are available at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kathy_Sierra. Time to check facts.

At any rate, you and I, “the regular non-high-profile bloggers with 300 pageviews a day” only tend to suffer from comment spam.

Some high-profile bloggers however insist on elaborately detailing the ’shocking’ comments received from the mentally unstable, making their real motives highly questionable. Related: BBC coverage. [image: Kathy Sierra]

Antwerp Beach: swimming may kill you

[view from Antwerp left bank showing the historic downtown]

Antwerp’s left bank is a most unusual area: during the 60’s is was developed as a remarkable attempt at mixing the qualities of a city with the classic character of suburbia. It boosts numerous high-rise 25 floor residential apartment buildings, right in the middle of an extended green oasis with long, wide boulevards, many of them overlooking the impressive riverbanks or the lights of the historic right-bank heart of Antwerp. Le Corbusier inspired the initial urban planning.

There is a 27°C (80°F) open-air olympic pool, a riverside camp-site and a charming marina, but the ancient river beach boulevard has a definite “look, don’t touch” feel: it’s perfectly safe to use the (non-artificial) beach for sunbathing, but swimming may actually kill you - the river Schelde is extremely treacherous, ‘not very clean’ and basically used for commercial traffic. Anyway, at 18°C/68°F in March (10°/50° is “normal”) the Antwerp beach was real busy. Global warming is not dramatic if one conveniently ignores the long term predictions.

[Pictures taken March 27. Antwerp Left bank: its boulevard, swimming pool, and beach - but absolutely no swimming ]

Belgians: “racist and lazy”?

Belgium is a divided country: the Southern half speaks French, the Northern part Dutch. As much as we differ in language, we also profoundly differ in lifestyle. This morning two major Belgian newspapers (one in Dutch: “De Standaard”, one in French “Le Soir”) published the results of a large scale opinion pole: the results in Dutch were published in this morning’s Standaard (poll conducted by interviewing a representative sample of both Dutch (Flemings) and French (Walloons) native speakers + the inhabitants of the French speaking capital, Brussels).

The results are shocking. 30% of all Dutch speakers polled called him/herself “somewhat racist”, while the same number (29%) of French speakers mentioned without hesitation that “laziness” was a part of his/her social disposition. Both are well known clichés, but these amazing results are self-proclaimed. Other “qualities” that constitute the “Belgian personality” included optimism, a moderate conservative attitude and a non-religious way of life.

There were very strong local dissimilarities (especially the French speaking inhabitants of Brussels appeared to live in another country, with 70% being a self-proclaimed “progressive”), so if you care to read all the details: go to http://babelfish.altavista.com, paste the article (www.standaard.be/Artikel/Detail.aspx?artikelid=PG1A5433) into the translator and select your language (most likely ‘translate from Dutch to English’). A French version of the poll is available at www.lesoir.be/dossiers/Face_a_face/enquete/article_519400.shtml

You will be surprised

Three dinners and an indigestion

Indeed, it was ‘one of those weekends’ I prefer not to blog about [do you really care about how I spend my weekends? Of course you don't, why should you? ]

OK, let’s get it over with asap: I speeded to Brussels Friday night, passing the airport and the closed detention center for illegal refugees (don’t even dream about migrating to Belgium without papers any longer, the open doors policy recently turned into a barbed-wire detention center).

I spent an evening with my diving buddies in one of those former-medieval-estates turned-convention-center, overeating on a superb diner.

Saturday started off with an exotic bird as I was kindly offered to enjoy having home cooked lunch with friends near a Southern Belgian diving spot, while at night a close friend turned 40, throwing a huge party in the former railway-station turned-restaurant at Spontin.

To top it all off, I just returned from the Antwerp diving exhibition on the city riverbanks. From Friday to Sunday, I had way too much wine, food and company - how boring life can get sometimes. I added some cell-phone camera shot, but I doubt anyone cares

Christian fundamentalism: “purity balls” for 9 yo girls

Belgian daily “Het Laatste Nieuws” reports on an phenomenon today: “purity balls” for 9 yo girls in the Southern/Mid-Western USA. Troubling news, for secular W-Europeans.

Basically it boils down to “balls”, where Christian fundamentalists have their 9 yo daughters make a promise to stay ‘virgins’ until their marriage. Making these increasingly popular events even more disturbing is the setting: these small, emotionally fragile children are dressed up as brides, while their father is the one they make their “purity” vow to.

There is no scientific evidence that abstinence-until-marriage programs—those that censor information about contraception—are effective or emotionally safe. To the contrary, Advocates for Youth points out that these vows are often broken, leading to guild, promiscuity and unprotected sex when these “purity ball brides” reach adolescence.

In a strange way, these US Christian fundamentalists remind me of traditional Muslims, where female “virginity” before marriage is just as sacred [image: courtesy www.hln.be]

Video: “The failure of the American public education system”

There are millions of ignorant people everywhere on the planet, but watching this collection of selected “mentally challenged average US citizens” is just plain funny. Or is it just profoundly tragic?

Blog indexing: does Windows Live Search really “Suck”?

While Google does a fine job in presenting on-topic general search results, both Google (general search) and “Windows Live Search” persistently come up with the most amazing off-topic results when they make an attempt at blog indexing. Let’s give them a spin, using the (deliberately confusing) search string “Traffic list Antwerp”.

Google: http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=traffic+list+Antwerp: the first result is totally irrelevant, followed by a somewhat acceptable result with traffic info, metro lines, traffic and mobility: the first page is partly relevant for the rather confusing search string. No blogs appear on page one. [Update Oct 7, 2007: this blogpost appears at #1..]

Windows Live Search: http://search.live.com/spresults.aspx?q=Traffic%20list%20Antwerp: at number1: this blog
[update Oct 7, 2007: Windows Live Search dropped Antwerp Calling]

How did MSFT Live Search came up with this bizarre result? I don’t know their search logic, but they simply cross-linked “traffic (jams)”+” “(beverages price) list”+ ”Antwerp”, all located on different, separated pages and blog posts… At number two: “Audiovisual Performers”. Then the results get more on track: a shipping traffic list appears, along with other traffic related results.

When using both general search engines, it appears their search logic links unrelated words in unrelated posts on blogs, making my blog the “most relevant” for a search-string that has no bearing on or connection with the subject at issue.

Anyone with equally confusing results from “Windows Live Search” when search results from blogs are presented?

YouTube’s “Vote Different” - “Hillary 1984″ hard hitting attack ad

OK, after +1 million views since March 5, “Vote Different” definitely has become a shocker in US politics.

The San Francisco Chronicle calls it “a watershed moment in 21st century media and political advertising.”

The Huffington Post calls the video “powerful evidence that YouTube is a huge game-changer in political campaigns.”

Nordette Adams at Confessions of a Jersey Goddess writes that she has “trouble believing a genuine Democrat or liberal created the video. Portraying Hillary as some kind of all-powerful Big Brother figure reminds me of propaganda spouted against Hillary by conservatives ever since her husband was in office and she proposed health care reform.”

But then, who exactly is trying to “hit dear Hillary” in the powerful “vote different” video?
[an excellent analysis can be found at Another day in the empire]

Extreme diving: exploring submerged plane wrecks in Southern Belgium

Extreme diving can be a thrill, especially when you’re allowed to watch the taped adrenaline challenge on someone else’s laptop afterwards, while having a perfect lunch with assorted specialty beers during the ‘event’.

I know, it all sounds like I’m becoming a spoiled “diver groupie”, but I guess you really need to get the whole picture.

Would you, just for the thrill of it all, dive in a pitch-dark, 50m (150 feet) deep former marble quarry (water temp 5°C/40°F), looking for an intentionally sunken WW-II plane while sleet and hail makes the entire endeavor look like a scene from a cheap disaster movie?

Well, six of my diving buddies just did, enjoying each and every second last Sunday.

I preferred tasting the unique local Rochefontaine specialty beer, the gourmet kitchen and listening to the stories from those who “survived” the experience.

The former marble quarry-turned-extreme-diving-spot is located at La Roche Fontaine, deep down in Southern Belgium, just two steps away from the French border. Although I really enjoyed the weekend, I just couldn’t stop myself from reminiscing about my tropical dives in Egypt last October

[left: a copy of the plane currently at -50m / right: small part of the quarry before it was abandoned/submerged]

Antwerp city issues flood alert, closes emergency doors

Much like the real life drama from Al Gore’s “an inconvenient truth”, Antwerp just issued a flood alert for the historic downtown, closing all sliding doors in the 5 km long, 1m/4 feet wall that should provide us with some very basic protection from an upcoming flood tide.

As I arrived home after an eventful diving school weekend on the Belgian/French border, cars were desperately trying to find a parking space after firefighter crews closed Antwerp’s emergency flood protection doors.

At present the rising water has already caused minor flooding, with real flood tide expected on Tuesday. I will post pictures as soon as the river Schelde bursts its banks [update March 20: alert canceled due to improved weather]

[image left: historic downtown quays - right: riverbank protection, flowers covering the sliding doors. Images courtesy city of Antwerp]

[March 18, 2007: waves start inundating Antwerp's river banks]

The Death of Innocence

[my photo: cemetery, Antwerp, Belgium, March 15, 2007]

The swimming transvestite

Yes, they actually do exist in Belgium: swimming/diving transvestites Each year on March 11, Belgian diving schools swim 9 km (6 miles, no stops) between the Southern Belgian villages of Bomal and Hamoir, quiet communities along the meandering river Ourthe. In general the temperature hovers around 5°C, often with snow.

Basically, it’s an endurance race to open the diving season: if you make it through you can safely assume that diving in more friendly tropical areas will not pose any “stamina” problems. Over 1,500 succeed each year without major issues.

This year the event carried a special flavor: the weather felt like spring (15°C/60°F), with bright sunshine and competitors from as far away as Amsterdam, Holland.

But what really made it special were the most unconventional competitors who joined the race: an all-gay diving team, and yes, a busload of transvestites. Like anyone else, they finished the 9 km speed contest, soaking wet and realizing that there is really no such thing as “waterproof mascara”, whatever the commercials may try to tell you

The failure of “integration” in Belgium?

Belgium is going to the polls in June, with integration of ‘migrants’ being an hot issue. Each and everyday day I’m getting election flyers claiming social/ethnic integration in Belgium either failed/succeeded/must be improved. So, was does “successful integration” really entail?

For starters, a general definition of “integration”: “The bringing of people of different social, racial or ethnic groups into unrestricted and equal association, as in society”. OK, that seems like a fair start: “unrestricted and equal association”.

Next, a theoretical view on diversity:
“Diversity equates fostering an inclusive environment where the individual differences among us are understood, respected and appreciated, recognized as a source of strength and valued as qualities that enrich the society in which we live”

Social reality check, Belgium 2007 (all quotes from translated election leaflets):

- On poor “migrants” from countries like Morocco or poverty-stricken former Eastern Block EU countries:
“in 2005 up to 70% of poor 2nd generation Moroccans in Brussels married a non-local partner, often by ‘importing’ their partner from their native country. These women arrived in Belgium to get married, got children, stayed at home, completely dependent on their partner. Very few speak Dutch. In general these migrants suffer from unemployment rates up to 5x the Belgian average. Employed male migrants from the new EU countries often hold non-registered and dangerous jobs. Most of their children never make it through high-school in Belgium.”

- On rich “migrants”/expats working for the EU (or related multinational organizations) :
“Virtually all these migrants live in the wealthy Brussels suburban areas, having their own private schools, shops and social clubs. Most enjoy very high standards of living. Most speak their native language (predominantly English) in public and make no real effort whatsoever to ‘integrate’ into Belgian society. The exorbitant wages payed to EU staff have caused rents in suburban Brussels to skyrocket, driving away native Belgians and creating ‘rich EU/expat” ghettos.”

OK, so I may be living in a multicultural country, but all I read about are high gates, self-chosen (eg the Chassidic Jews that control the Antwerp Diamond trade) or factual segregation and profoundly separated communities.

Given that the Dutch/French natives of Belgium never succeeded in “integrating” themselves (this country has a strict language barrier, there is no “unified Belgian society”), must I assume that “integration” is just an empty word in Belgium, currently used and abused to get votes? Help me out here, I’m getting confused: has “integration” been “successful” if all communities just continue to lead their predominantly separate lives, without social incidents?

A visitor from the US Department of State

“Can you please mail me your autographed picture? I’m sure you know
where I live” Funny though how they keep on reading this blog -
especially my posts about legalized prostitution are a favorite in DC

Antwerp shipping disaster: The ship that never went down

Browsing through my counter logs, I noticed that a long forgotten entry from last year all of a sudden got +400 page views in a couple of hours.

My 2006 post is still available here but had nothing to do with the “the Repubblica di Genova”, a ship from the Grimaldi Lines which started tilting yesterday in the port of Antwerp, losing a large number of containers.

Disaster tourism (”the act of traveling to a disaster area as a matter of curiosity. The behavior can be a nuisance if it hinders rescue, relief, and recovery operations”) must be part of human nature, although I have slowly begun to resent people who turn someone else’s real life misery into a “pleasant day trip”

The same goes for blogging: an in-depth analysis can go completely unnoticed, while yet another boring repost mentioning “sex”, “Paris Hilton” or another popular search word yields a countless number of pageviews.

“Tabloid blogging”: what do you think about it?

[my photo: the Valdivia, right here on the historic riverbanks. No disaster, just a plain container vessel almost in front of my door ]

Horse-induced traffic gridlock

     

Antwerp, Belgium (pop. 1 million) has a weird, self-induced downtown traffic problem.
[image: daily traffic jams, Antwerp, Belgium]

So what, I can hear you say, the whole world is suffering from traffic issues.

Still, I wonder how many are induced by horse-drawn tourist carriages, causing gridlock during rush hour in the narrow medieval streets.

[My photo: horse-induced traffic gridlock in historic downtown Antwerp]

“American lifestyle would outrage Jesus” - John Edwards, US presidential candidate

Quote of the day: [Question]: “What parts of American life do you think would most outrage Jesus?”

[Answer] “Our selfishness. Our resort to war when it’s not necessary. I think that Jesus would be disappointed in our ignoring the plight of those around us who are suffering and our focus on our own selfish short-term needs. I think he would be appalled, actually.”
Source: www.beliefnet.com [image: John Edwards (Democrat), US presidential candidate]

I’ve yet to see the first Belgian mainstream politician mentioning “Jesus”. Doing so would frighten Antwerp voters: mixing religion with politics/government continues to kill millions worldwide

Get a free copy of the Koran

My local newspaper, De Standaard came up with an original “teaser” today: a coupon for “one free copy of the Koran, Dutch translation”. People actually queued in a long line in downtown Antwerp to get their free +800 page paperback, probably just because it was ‘free’. The Belgian newspaper which so generously distributed free copies obviously had a most visible agenda: running a 15 day special about Islam/muslims in Belgium gets a lot of media attention by handing out free copies of the Quran as a kickoff. To put figures in perspective: most Belgians are secularised “Catholics”, the “wedding and funerals only” variety, just like I am.

Less than 5% of Antwerp’s total population are Muslims, so I’ve never read a single line of the Koran. But today, I did.
I’m not sure if I will ever find the time to browse through the 880 page translated “Quran” ( القرآن ‎or Koran, or Qur’an), but I’ll keep it as a reference source. One thing must be very clear: just browsing the Qur’an does not even vaguely “explain the basics of Islam”, but then, the same goes for the bible. Guess I’ll need to read the “in-depth” newspaper coverage after all

The tragic demise of Antwerp’s cruise terminal

Antwerp has always been a popular tourist attraction. Given its wealth of historic landmarks conveniently located on a symbolic square kilometer near the riverbanks, this town has been pulling crowds for years. In early 1997, Antwerp, the 2nd largest port of Europe acquired the status of port of call for cruise ships and decided to build a 2 million euro Cruise Terminal, just minutes away from the old and picturesque city center.

Walking off your cruise-liner into the historic heart of a city turned out to be a success story, although the cruise terminal itself tragically failed to live up to the city’s expectations: cruise passengers completely ignored the glass/steel building, heading straight towards the historic downtown, a 2 min walk.

Antwerp’s cruise terminal quickly became a 2 million joke, with the attacks of 9/11 chasing away many US cruise liner visitors. While in 2001 Antwerp was the popular port of call for 39 major cruise ships, that number went down to an insignificant 6 ships, only one being American.

When I returned home last Sunday, I noticed a strange phenomenon: people were actually dancing the Tango in the (almost forgotten, graffiti and dust gathering) Antwerp cruise terminal.

Tragic events make up the backbone of the Tango repertoire, a tragic demise became the fate of Antwerp’s cruise terminal. [my photo: Antwerp cruise terminal cafe, March 4, 2007]

Drug user? Get castrated

Belgian former-singer-turned-conservative-politician Margriet Hermans shocked the nation when she proclaimed last Saturday that drug users should be castrated… The former singer is quoted by man-ouvre: “We must stop approaching drug users as patients. The time has come to lock them all up and castrate these addicts in order to stop them breeding offspring”.
VLD, the Belgian liberal-democrats she represents as a senator was outraged, pointing out that her shocking statement was uncalled for and totally unacceptable. Hermans, who lost 58 kg worth of bodyweight after invasive surgery, has been airing numerous highly controversial statements recently. I guess the senator lost more than just fat

Save the flag! Antwerp suburb removes public portrets of Belgian Royals

Belgian public broadcaster VRT-TV just announced on its 24/24 Dutch text-service that Mortsel (an Antwerp suburb) removed all pictures showing the Belgian Royal couple from town hall.. The far right wing extremist Vlaams Belang separatist, anti-royal party had requested the removal in a formal proposal put to the vote: the majority in the suburban Antwerp borough of Mortsel backed the motion. The mayor, Ingrid Pira, told reporters she was shocked but had taken the Royal pictures to her own office. This country is going crazy, what will be next: a motion to burn the Belgian flag? [note: not a joke, but breaking news not yet covered in English. Belgian/Dutch National Newspaper report. Image: GVA]