And if you must, do everything to fake you really care about your audience (video: Georges Michael parody). Dedicated to a former local friend who was forced to fake who she really was too. Would you renounce your true nature or beliefs for cash?
September 25, 2009
September 5, 2009
Video: Antwerp Killer “Lange Wapper” Bridge evokes massive protest
No, you’re not watching a weird stop-smoking educational video (the smoke you see is a digital effect), but a protest video to stop the planned Antwerp “Lange Wapper” killer bridge that will turn large parts of Antwerp-city into a polluted and noisy danger-zone (check endangered zone: half of downtown Antwerp), a heavily polluted town where thousands of children will inhale toxic particles and diesel fumes, just by living near a planned new bridge that could easily have been replaced by a tunnel.
Historic Antwerp cathedral dwarfed by the planned nearby huge traffic viaduct, an insane concept
[Video and discussion in English]. “Yes We Can” stop that noisy killer bridge, inspired by corporate greed and bent politicians. [Protest website in Dutch]. How would you react if some money-grabbing politicians endangered the health of your children?
[Update 18 Oct 2009: during a city referendum today 60% of Antwerp voters rejected the "Lange Wapper" overpass/bridge (the threshold being 50%). What happens next will be decided by the government in Brussels.]
August 5, 2009
The one breasted Belgian TV guide
Belgian HUMO TV-guide
If you’re American, I’m sure you’re familiar with TV guide, a publication that has probably been the best selling weekly in the US for decades. If you’re living in Dutch speaking Belgium, the equivalent is HUMO, the top-selling TV guide for over 50y.
And look what HUMO put on their cover last month: a model showing one exposed breast, while holding the other. Apparently they featured one short article stressing some apparent controversy surrounding the excesses in preventive breast cancer screening.
Caption: “Have your breasts checked”. Hey guys, it may be warm, but try to be honest: this is Belgium in 2009: using the oldest trick in the book won’t cut it. My brother’s young daughter made a poignant remark upon watching this cover: “why is this lady only holding one breast daddy? “. Yes indeed, why is she?
[This post is dedicated to all those female ànd male tourists at the local 'clothing optional' beaches I frequently visit during the summer, tourists who conveniently forget that at a certain age, it might be wise to cover up. Obviously, I'm also catering to a part of my corporate audience obsessed with the word "breast". I'll try to surprise you asap with a witty, intelligent, artistic post that will leave you all gasping for air, but right now it's a hot day without AC in August - my brain will remain on stand-by for some time. ] [More seasonal bad taste pictures from Belgian TV guide Humo]
June 21, 2009
Antwerp gay pride & Navigaytion 2009: drunken queens on a boat
Quote from the ‘Antwerp Pride’ website: www.antwerppride.com (check out event promo video 1, video 2)
“The city of Antwerp, clubs, cafés, fetish bars, erotic shops, bookshops, museums, LGBT organisations welcome you and your friends to Antwerp for the second edition of Antwerp Pride. Join ten thousands of visitors for an unforgettable pride weekend in Europe’s gay harbour, Antwerp. The combined forces of the large gay community and the support of the city of Antwerp will ensure another exciting edition.” Europe’s gay harbour? Someone must be joking. (But even the Russians in the Ukraine covered it]
OK, take two, now without the “we just love an influx of 30,000 cash-spending tourists, and we would bend over backwards to attract them, even if they came from Uranus” PR: ‘Antwerp Pride 2009 is a yearly gay event that focuses on its highlight, Navigaytion 2009, a commercial “drunken queens showing off on ten riverboats” event surrounded by numerous huge parties, an open air fetish & leather-scene show and countless activities where gay emancipation has long been replaced by cashing-in on the influx of gay tourists.
If you care for my 2008 Navigaytion pictures and video, feel free to check them out. Just added: some 2009 shots
[Update June 27, 10 pm: I just returned from Navigaytion, having taken 300 shots from the elevated riverbanks. Blazing sunshine, friendly & wild, be it with much less visitors. I was overcome by a "I've seen this too many times" feeling: people enjoying the culture of unadulterated narcissism in open air. The crowded was mixed (though +90% gay) with a yearly 'let's peek at this weird gay zoo" part where a large crowd of tourists and locals gazed at (and photographed) the Navigaytion crowd from the elevated riverside terraces. At times, it became funny, though slightly embarrassing. Anyway, Navigaytion 2009 turned out to be a predictable, perfect carbon-copy of its 2008 edition. "]</
April 21, 2009
Belgium censors internet to protect pedophile privacy
Quote: “We now take note of the fact that the first observed case of Belgian Internet censorship is not an attempt to stop child pornography on the net, but a bizarre attempt to guarantee the legislative privacy of convicted pedophiles in Belgium.”
According to an article published today in Belgian Daily “Tijd” (‘Time’) [in English, by Google], the Belgian federal government has quietly introduced technical measures that redirect Belgian surfers to this updated STOP page when entering URLs that contain content the Belgian government considers to be illegal [fccu.be is the Belgian Federal Computer Crime Unit, a part of the federal Police]. Apparently major ISPs have voluntary agreed to accept this form of yet unclear censorship. The news came as a total shock and I’m still busy checking which sites have been affected. Update: “Big Belgian Firewall activated“ -translation by Google: Belgium is apparently blocking a Dutch site that does not respect “the privacy of convicted paedophiles”… I’m not kidding: Belgium does not actively block sites that cater to child molesters, but now does block one single site that lists those sex offenders. [Leading newspaper report]
Check out what is being blocked: http://www.stopkinderporno.eu (“stop child porn”): blocked (use a non-Belgian proxy from within Belgium). Welcome to Belgium: the charming country protecting the “privacy of child molesters by censoring the sites that list them”. Coming soon to a pc near you: mind-blowing tales covering the pathetic Belgian state attempts to censor a billion “illegal” pages. Or how a tiny, virtually bancrupt country showed the planet how to censor the entire WWW in order to uphold its own obscure ideas on what should not be available on the net. [Background: "Towards full Belgian Internet censorship"]
March 6, 2009
Boobs for votes: Belgian boob election ad causes a stir
“Do you vote right or left-wing?” this unusual Belgian billboard poster inquires. The remarkable poster campaign, at first glance designed by Antwerp ad agency/magazine publisher Think Media for the “Flanders votes” weblog [in English, translated by Google] drew a lot of attention (surprise..) but finally resulted in a formal ad council complaint [in English, translated by Google] by two local women who felt this public street ad, currently all over Antwerp on huge billboards for clint.be was inappropriate and in breach of common public decency standards. The complaint is, well, “pending”. Are your billboard ads this “outspoken”?
No bridge for Antwerp: traffic gridlock to continue for a decade
Amidst rising protest from a significant part of the Antwerp population, a local majority party along with the Antwerp mayor and a government minister are no longer supporting the infamous “Long Wapper” (no guys, it’s not a burger) river bridge, planned 10y ago to connect the left and right banks of this town in order to alleviate the ongoing daily traffic jams. Much of the road freight traffic between England, Holland and Germany currently tries to squeeze through the old 2x three-lane Antwerp Kennedy tunnel, causing 10-lane gridlock. [source]
While hundreds of millions have been spent preparing for this connection and actual construction was about to start, Antwerp inhabitants finally realized a huge, noisy and polluting bridge was being built over a part of their residential neighborhoods, inducing a massive protest. Do check out my “New Antwerp bridge to kill 56 locals yearly” post from May 2008 or watch the planned bridge video (Windows Media Player format, audio in Dutch). Oh well, traffic gridlock is very likely to continue for at least a decade in this no-longer-attractive second largest port of Europe. Add the current economic crisis and you get a very gloomy picture.
I’m convinced very few would accept a “bridge over their head”, even if it meant less traffic obstruction locally.
March 5, 2009
Antwerp city to sponsor Gay Pride 2009, alongside extreme sex clubs
I’m quite upset reading that my “beloved” city of Antwerp is once again an official sponsor of the Antwerp Gay Pride 2009, a predominantly commercial event where gay emancipation has long been replaced by cashing-in on the influx of gay tourists. But what I, and a majority of responsible gay Antwerp citizens cannot fathom is the need to stand alongside extreme-sex fetish events such as A hard Night, featuring some clubs that have a bad track record or are just notorious for the unsafe sex practices of their visitors.
Dear city of Antwerp, do you actually realize that you are sharing a bed with sleazy clubs such as The Kinky’s, a private, gay, extreme fetish club? [Update: Antwerp pride removed the link after discovering this post...] Many of us are utterly shocked, especially since this way Antwerp City indirectly appears to endorse extreme sex clubs catering to a livestyle that is bound to spread STDs and potentially even HIV. The fact that safe-sex advocate organization “Sensoa” is also one of the sponsors makes this Antwerp Gay Pride 2009 event utterly unreal.
[Tragic note: in 1999 a Belgian court judge was fired after engaging in SM with his own wife. He even lost his civil rights. Ten years later the city of Antwerp is endorsing an open air SM and fetish fair near the prestigious city marina next June. Weird, isn't it?]
We, the majority of responsible gay Antwerp citizens urge everyone to contact the city of Antwerp to object to their sponsorship.
March 2, 2009
US State Department criticizes Belgium for human rights abuses
According to an article in the Belgian EUobserver, the US State Dept found it necessary to state in its 2008 US government report on worldwide human rights (issued Feb 25, 2009) that “the Belgian government “generally respected the human rights of its citizens,” (oh, really? I hadn’t noticed) but found several human rights ‘problems’, such as overcrowded prisons, lengthy pre-trial detention, poor detention conditions prior to expulsion and “ethnic discrimination in the job market.“
Local Belgian sources acknowledged Belgium experienced, like most EU countries, ongoing social issues, but ever so kindly suggested that the US State Dept would consider buying full-sized mirrors and a free trip down memory lane to take a long, careful look at the abysmal human rights track record of the USA. “We don’t kill our prisoners”, “nor do we deny our gay citizens basic human rights” one Belgian source noted with rising indignation. Do you personally feel the US has regained its “moral authority” to start pointing fingers at the world regarding “human rights abuses” in other countries?
This blog is not affiliated with or endorsed by the city of Antwerp, Belgium.