Hurry up and wait

Pic of the week

Quick, Europe's version of McDonald's, was founded in Schoten, Belgium in 1971.  Photo by John Weaver

Tyger Tyger

Pic of the week

Tiger cage at the Antwerp Zoo. Click to enlarge!
Photo by John Weaver

Leuven in Scène

Quirky Belgium

Photos by John Weaver

Leuven in Scène is one of my favorite things in Belgium. It's a street theater festival that takes place every 3 years or so (I can't quite figure out their schedule). 

The enemy within

Scrapbook

by John Weaver

July Fourth always sneaks up on me. When you don’t live in the US, it’s a holiday that easily falls off your radar, only to hit you by surprise at some point on the day itself when you look at the calendar and say to yourself, “Oh yeah.” 

But while I didn’t BBQ or light any fireworks again this year, I did celebrate my roots when the US played Belgium in the World Cup this week. We lost, but the quality of the competition definitely made me proud to back the Red, White & Blues. In fact, that match put US Soccer on the map in Belgium, and I’m sure other countries took notice too. 

It also put Belgium on the map for many in the US, where more than 21.6 million people (not including those at bars and other public places) tuned in to watch.

So it was a win-win for me. But I was sorry to see Belgium get knocked out by Argentina in a lackluster performance Saturday.

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Something that did hit my radar this week was a comment by Lawrence Wilkerson, former Chief of Staff to Colin Powell, when asked by the Huffington Post whether Dick Cheney was immoral or amoral: 

"I think amoral is a better and more precise, descriptive term…Immorality is something that can be ferreted out, checked and balanced. Amorality is an altogether different affair, especially when you're exploiting the politics of fear in order to carry out state purposes, which is what Dick Cheney's forte is.”

Before & After: Brussels comes alive at the World Cup

Pic of the week

Before Belgium won on Thursday...

Photos by John Weaver

The Belgian Red Devil

Pic of the week

Photo by John Weaver

Upset at the World Cup

Pic of the week

The Netherlands beat Spain 5-1 on the second day of the World Cup. Photo by John Weaver

People watching

Wanderings

Window decorations in Mechelen, Belgium  Photo by John Weaver

Walking down the street, you sometimes get a glimpse into people's lives through their windows. I don't usually stop and stare, but this house made me pause…

Bubble house

Pic of the week

Photo by John Weaver

I got a taste of Belgian surrealism this week when a cloud of giant bubbles drifted down on my path while I was out for an evening walk in Mechelen. I traced the bubbles to their source, a man named Bart who was making them from his second-story window and then taking pictures of his creations as they floated away into the faded blue sky.

We had a nice chat and at one point he asked me: 

"Do you have a tripod?"

"Yeah," I said.

"Ya ever take pictures of fire?"

"No," I said, laughing.

"Ah man, we gotta do that!" he said. 

…maybe a future project!

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Smile when you say Taxes

Here’s a new term they didn’t teach us in Economics class:

'Reverse Robin-Hoodism' - the belief that economic success depends on being nice to the rich, who won’t create jobs if they are heavily taxed, and nasty to ordinary workers, who won’t accept jobs unless they have no alternative.

This comes from this great NYT article by Paul Krugman, in which he argues that adults in their prime working years (25 to 54) across Northern Europe are much more likely to have jobs than their U.S. counterparts.

Europe’s new poster children

Quirky Belgium

Woman carrying a child past a wall designated for campaign posters. Belgians go to the polls this Sunday to vote in federal and European elections, in which anti-immigrant and anti-European Union far-right parties are expected to make gains. Photos by John Weaver

“Uw stok achter de deur,” or “Your stick behind the door,” goes the campaign slogan of the Flemish far-right party Vlaams Belang. Replace the word “stick” with “baseball bat” and you have a pretty good idea of what the party stands for – protecting their property (read: Flanders) from intruders (read: foreigners) using the blunt instrument of populist rhetoric.