First Benelux blogging service!!!

I figured I just had to post something on this in support of bloggers in and around Belgium, the ones already present and the ones to come:

Skynet, a Belgian ISP has started the first Benelux blogging service!!! [loud cheers, clinging of glasses]
Here come the links:

Maarten Schenk had the scoop on his own Brusselsblog of course, being one of the guys to take credit for the development of the service, and here's the link to his developmentblog and Skynet's own. Maarten worked on the whole thing together with his friend Philippe.

Luc Van Braekel, the Instapundit of Belgian blogging was the first to put up most of the links toward all of the above, I just put them up here with some explanations in English: here's where you can find his post.

Blogging is spreading ! Haste ye to enter into Blogistan!!!

UPDATE: something must have gone wrong with Philippe's URL. Go here: http://root.skynetblogs.be/

 Thursday 7:38 29/05/2003  (CET)

  Our Dearly Beloved Constitution To Be

A lot of things have been said lately about Europe's constitution and how it will develop. The Convention on the Future of Europe has come up with some proposals, but those views will have to be laid out before the public, in some countries people will have to judge them through referendums.

Giscard d'Estaing thinks the EU should have a President (be it of a "United States of Europe" or another name that is also to be discussed) while others feel strongly against a "Brussels-based superstate" - I don't think anyone can blame them, Europe having performed so well in the latest dozen or so crises ?

Steven Den Beste has some remarks on the voting systems in Europe, also a point to be worked out:

The American system for electing the House of Representatives is much more like the British system (and, in fact, was based on it), with each individual Representative having to stand for election in a specific district every two years. They're in a party, and the party they're part of does matter, but they as individuals have to face the voters. That makes the government much more accountable.

In the American system, I have a Representative. But in some European countries, a given voter may not really think of any particular member of Parliament as being "his" member.

I know I never did. People I know who did always got something in return for their vote ... .

The Telegraph has a summary of the latest version of Our Dearly Beloved Constitution To Be*, and you can find the full version here (in pdf format).

*: I'm not saying this to make fun of the American Constitution, on the contrary, but I think Europeans will have to go a long way before we can say this.

 Thursday 6:37 29/05/2003  (CET)

  WMD on wheels

Reuters reports that the two truck-trailers found in Mosul late April were almost certainly mobile labs for the production of biological weapons:

The trailers now under U.S. military control in Baghdad were the first pieces in what was probably a series of two- or three-trailer systems, and Iraq may have produced as many as nine of these systems, said one of the officials who asked not to be identified.

The article has a link to the CIA-report, but it appears to be broken. Go to this link, or to the main page of the CIA and click the "May 28" link.

Here's another country upgrading their defense: (via Cox & Forkum)

ABU DHABI [MENL] -- Iran and Saudi Arabia are said to have agreed to finance an ambitious program to modernize Syria's military.

An ambitious Iranian plan to stimulate the local defense industry? Hmmm ... .

 Thursday 4:30 29/05/2003  (CET)

  Trials, trials everywhere

Last Thursday, Al-Qaeda trials began in Brussels to investigate the accusations against Nizar Trabelsi and Tarek Maaroufi. Both are said to have provided false passports for the murderers of Ahmad Shah Massoud and to have participated in the planning of an attack on Air Force Base Kleine Brogel, where anti-nuclear activists say nuclear weapons are stored. 
Both of them are also being accused of plotting an attack on the American Embassy in Paris, and in a snackbar in the center of Brussels, two friends of Trabelsi were found in posession of large quantities of  sulfer and acetone. Before his arrest, Trabelsi was found in posession of a list describing  products suitable to fabricate bombs. 

Meanwhile in the United States, Zacarias Moussaoui, who fired his own attorneys, is playing it rough:

Seizing on his right to represent himself, Moussaoui has insulted his standby lawyers, blasted the judge and taunted the Justice Department with a stream of blistering handwritten motions and courtroom outbursts.

The trial in Brussels is expected to last one month, let's hope everything goes to plan - which I personally doubt:  Maaroufi was allready convicted for three years because of connections with Algerian GIA. When his trial started in 1995 he appeared before the judges with a grin on his face and asked "Madam, may I ask you how you are today?". Now if that isn't promising!

Interesting detail: one of the lawyers defending Trabelsi appears to be a former councillor of Dutroux and a few other dirty minds in Belgian surrealism ... . Yes, the well-known you know who ... . I wonder if this is a typical case of specialising towards a specific branch in one's domain of work?

 Tuesday 8:41 27/05/2003  (CET)

  Islamists against terrorism

The "Arab Street" is making something I would call a Bismarck-turn and doesn't like Al-Qaeda anymore says the Washington Post:

CASABLANCA, Morocco, May 25 -- Tens of thousands of demonstrators chanting "no to terrorism" thronged the streets of Casablanca today, nine days after 43 people were killed in coordinated suicide attacks in the city.

According to Arabic News, 1.5 million people (?!) were on those same streets the WaPo is describing.

And the frontpage of the Maghreb Arabe Presse reminds me of the frontpage of the FBI-site right after 9/11.
In this case however, trials are starting a week after the attacks, according to this article:

RABAT, May 26 - Moroccan justice minister, Mohamed Bouzoubaa, said the trial of several persons suspected of involvement in the string of terrorist attacks in Casablanca on May 16 will start this Monday.

The article also has a few other interesting remarks of the minister:

He stressed that the attacks range and methods were very surprising and nobody could expect that young Moroccans "would transform themselves into bombs that kill innocent victims".

I have to wonder where all this "surprise" is coming from ... .

 Tuesday 6:23 27/05/2003  (CET)

  Stupid Worm

Be careful when opening mails, I've seen other bloggers and sites the last couple of days who were purportedly sent  mail by microsoft's support. 

 Friday 22:49 23/05/2003 (CET)

  Strange solar eclipse on May 31

Be sure to write this in your agenda!

On Saturday, May 31 there will be a partial solar eclipse that will be very special because of the fact that it will only be partial ... . Huh? Yes, the Moon will come before the Sun and leave only a small border of the Sun uncovered, the Moon will almost be in the center of the Sun (the Moon is actually "too small" to cover the whole surface). When that happens they call it an "annular eclipse". The eclipse will be viewable in large parts of Central Europe, but also in Greenland, North-West America, Alaska and Canada, the Middle-East and Asia.

Nasa has more details (hours, for instance) on the 4 eclipses in 2003, and Spacewatch has a viewer's guide with nice pictures. If you're wondering where the Moon and the Sun will be when the eclipse occurs, the American Navy has a very spiffy calculator that tells you at what time you should get out of bed. Don't worry if you don't know where you live (coordinates!), there's a way to find out on the same page.

As long as we're in space: the Mars Global Surveyor has taken a snapshot of the Earth, and SpaceShipOne, a ship that should make it easier to leave our planet has been tested succesfully (in private!).

UPDATE: LVBlog has seen the Earth too, but shows us why the snapshot is  well ... a snapshot.

 Friday 22:10 23/05/2003 (CET)

  Top ten Appropriate Uses of the F Bomb

10. "What the F*** was that?" - Mayor Of Hiroshima, 1945
9. "Look at all them F***ing Indians!" - Custer, 1877
8. "Any F***ing idiot could understand that." - Einstein, 1938
7. "It does so F***ing look like her!" - Picasso, 1926
6. "How the F*** did you work that out?" - Pythagoras, 126 BC
5. "You want WHAT on the F***ing ceiling?" - Michelangelo, 1566
4. "Where the F*** are we?" - Amelia Earhart, 1937
3. "Scattered F***ing showers....My ass!" - Noah, 4314 BC
2. "Aw c'mon. Who the F***'s going to find out?"- Bill Clinton, 1999
1. "Geez, I didn't think they'd get this F***ing mad." - Saddam Hussein

Thanks to Simmins !

Friday 15:25 23/05/2003 (CET)

  We should all be gratified

New York, 22 May 2003 - Secretary-General's statement to the Security Council following adoption of Resolution 1483 on Iraq [as delivered]

Thank you very much, Mr. President, Excellencies,

We should all be gratified that the Council has come together to chart the way forward in Iraq. As you know, I have always held that the unity of this Council is the indispensable foundation for effective action to maintain international peace and security and international law.

The Council has adopted a Resolution which spells out the assistance you expect the United Nations to give to the people of Iraq, in coordination with the occupying powers, who have the responsibility for the effective administration of the territory. The mandate you have given us involves complex and difficult tasks. But we will carry it out to the best of our ability, just as we are already carrying out our vital task of humanitarian relief.

Whatever differences there have been in the recent past, we now have a new basis on which to work. And we must all work very hard, keeping the interests of Iraqis at the forefront of all our efforts.

Our most important task will be to ensure that the people of Iraq – men and women alike – are able, as soon as possible, through a transparent and impartially managed political process, to form a free and representative government of their own choice, so that they can regain their national sovereignty and build a stable and prosperous Iraq, at peace with its neighbours.

The United Nations will play its full part in this international effort. You have asked me to name a Special Representative to lead on our side. I will do so without delay. The full support of all members of the Council will be essential, and I am confident that my Representative will have that support.

Thank you very much.

Let's open the bottles, the days of wine and roses are here to stay! Or not :

An international investigation conducted by ABCNEWS found widespread corruption in the U.N. program, which helped Saddam build his fortune in U.S. currency.

"Everybody knew it, and those who were in a position to do something about it, were not doing anything," said Benon Sevan, the executive director of the Office of Iraq Program. When asked if that included him, he told ABCNEWS, "I have no power."

The program was originally designed to provide food and medication to the Iraqi people, after the U.N.-imposed sanctions prevented Saddam from selling Iraqi oil as a result of Iraq's invasion of Kuwait in 1990.

Under the program, all money from the sale of oil was supposed to go into U.N. bank accounts in New York to buy food and humanitarian supplies

On second thought, leave the bottles where they are, there's more where that came from ... .

  Thursday 18:12 22/05/2003 (CET)

  9/11 fulfils the function of the "burning of the Reichstag"

Two articles I found, to end the day in beauty ... which is something that can be said for the last one, but not for the first: (contains graphic pictures!)

Today, the United States is governed by a junta of war criminals who took power through a kind of coup. That coup may have been preceded by (dubious) elections: but we should never forget that Hitler was also an elected politician. In this analogy, 9/11 fulfils the function of the "burning of the Reichstag", allowing the junta to grant its police force powers similar to those of the Gestapo. They have their own Mein Kampf -- the National Security Strategy --, their own mass associations -- the patriot organisations -- and their own preachers. It is vital that we have the courage to tell these truths, and stop masking them behind phrases such as "our American friends" that have by now become quite meaningless.

On the frontpage it says "Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875" -- no further comment ... .
The second one goes with it just to balance things, you don't want to read the above before you go to bed do you?
I' ll be honest with you, I didn't even read the following article completely before I decided to put up a link to it, I'm willing to take the risk though:

The ruins of the 3,000-year-old desert capital of the kingdom of Saba (the biblical Sheba), outside the Yemeni city of Ma'rib, should be overrun by tourists. Mud-brick towers tilt crazily on a vast, sunbaked mound, amid the crumbled debris of antiquity.

Sounds like the beginning of an ancient, fantastic  story --  Robert D. Kaplan also wrote "Soldiers Of God", a book that reads just like that.

Wednesday 19:51 21/05/2003 (CET)

  Quiz

Lots of badgers, wolves, Lord Of The Rings-people, and other fantastic creatures or animals on the web lately, all thanks to Quizilla. Here's one that is a bit more serious and lets you find your place in the fierce world of politics:

Participate in THE WORLD'S SMALLEST POLITICAL QUIZ and find your political identity

Found on Nova Civitas, a Belgian site that reads in Dutch or in English.
Uhm ... for all English-speaking readers: "libertarian" in Belgium means allmost the contrary to what it means in America, just so you'd know.

Wednesday 13:55 21/05/2003 (CET)

  African defenseforce to be.

SHAPE:
(Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe, it does have a nice ring to it, not?)

Plans by France, Germany, Belgium and Luxembourg to create an EU army separate from NATO continue to generate high media interest.

(May 2nd 2003)

If all goes to plan, this will be the first step towards enabling Africa to avoid always having to rely on the international community to solve its problems. 

It's about time too ... . After Europe, now Africa is going to have a "huuuge" defenseforce. Well, those are the plans anyway.
Hat tip to the AfricaPundit !

Wednesday 10:35 21/05/2003 (CET)

  1335 years

It's steaming on both sides of the Atlantic. And now Shell and the Group Captain are joining up with a third member. Will Shell be able to handle this? (hum ... )
The longest sentence ever handed out: 1335 years! Mandrake has the link. Sad. Real sad.

Tuesday 15:35 20/05/2003 (CET)

  Genuine Danish design

An installation by Chilean-born Danish artist Marco Evaristti of working blenders containing live fish is seen at the Trapholt Art Museum in Kolding, Denmark, on Feb. 11, 2003. The display invited visitors to blend the fish if they wanted to. Museum director Peter Meyer was charged with animal cruelty after complaints by animal rights activists, but was aquitted Monday, May 19, 2003 after a court ruled that the display was not cruel because the fish were killed "instantly'' and "humanely". (AP Photo/Nordfoto, Palle Hedemann)

I would be tempted, but I would have a really weird day afterwards. Human nature!

UPDATE: I just remembered, I e-mailed this page once:

It's quite existential really. Of course a truly wicked person can always turn on the mixers and transform the fish into mush, and sometimes they do, but most just look. So far, nine fish have been liquefied. They are difficult to remove. We use a tea strainer.

Sorry, but I just like the idea and the way it makes you think. It's an excentric stream in art I like very much.

Tuesday 11:55 20/05/2003 (CET)

  “Don’t Hump the Help”

Sgt.Mom has a new post on a hot topic, and I think I can see a discussion erupting! Go read, those guys are  my favourites, and they deserve it !!!

Tuesday 9:54 20/05/2003 (CET)

  ... the use of violence to further their goals ...

I'm going for a bookhunt this week [feels pockets][checks bankaccount] - once I'm there, nothing can stop me, money or no money. Anyway, this looks like a good idea: "The Age of Sacred Terror", written by Daniel Benjamin and Steven Simon. Found a review on it by Ellen Laipson at  Foreign Affairs, it had this excerpt:

What the authors find is disturbing. According to them, al Qaeda's belief system cannot be separated neatly from Islamic teachings, because it has -- selectively and perniciously -- built on fundamental Islamic ideas and principles. This link applies to contemporary issues as well: al Qaeda's views on Islamic law, Israel, or Iraq would not differ significantly from the positions of moderate Islamists, even if they disagree on the use of violence to further their goals. ...

... After describing the history and motivations of al Qaeda, the first half of the book ends with a chapter titled "Fields of Jihad." It quickly reviews the status of Islamists across the Muslim world, assessing the power of jihadists in Egypt, Saudi Arabia, the Palestinian territories, Pakistan, and Central Asia, among others. But Benjamin and Simon end the section with a reminder that radical Islamists live in Western societies too, not only among immigrant Muslim communities but also as converts. The lesson is that we must think less about the Muslim world and more about radical Muslims in the world. Geography may matter less and less as this struggle continues.

The latter half of The Age of Sacred Terror presents Benjamin and Simon's insider story of working on counterterrorism in the U.S. government. The account tells us a great deal, and those who served in other parts of the bureaucracy or even elsewhere on the NSC staff (as this reviewer did) would agree with much of it. Yet one cannot escape the sense that the second half of the book, written breathlessly after September 11, has a different tone and purpose, and therefore quality, than the first 200 pages.

In the end, the best prescription for fighting terrorism or other unconventional threats comes down to leadership. ...  As America grapples with terrorism, Benjamin and Simon's powerful account makes a solid and sober contribution to how we should think about and respond to this profound new challenge.

Tuesday 6:50 20/05/2003 (CET)

  Jayson Blair Becomes Consultant to Bloggers

(2003-05-17) -- Reporter Jayson Blair, fired from The New York Times, has launched his own business as a consultant and editor for writers of personal weblogs.

Oddly enough, Mr. Blair got the idea from a New York Times story about bloggers reporting on their friends and co-workers causing "hurt feelings, newly wary friends and relatives, and the occasional inflamed employer."

Mr. Blair will use his experience at the Times to help bloggers disguise identities, create more interesting lives for themselves, and "keep out of trouble."

"I'm going to take what I learned in my wide travels for the Times, and use it to benefit humanity," Mr. Blair said. "Jessica Lynch's father once told me, as we sat on his front porch overlooking the tobacco fields and cattle pastures, 'if life hands you a lemon, you make lemonade'."

Mr. Blair said "ongoing personal problems" prevent him from disclosing how much he will charge bloggers for his services.

As usual, ScrappleFace is at it ... .

Tuesday 0:03 20/05/2003 (CET)

  Charges against Tommy Franks to be transfered !

Belgian prime minister Guy Verhofstadt promised the US on Saturday to transfer the charges against Tommy Franks (made by seventeen Iraqis and two Jordanians ...). "The genocide law permits to do this and so I will" he said.

Translation is mine, you can read the full article in Dutch here.

Monday 20:36 19/05/2003 (CET)

  Belgian election bolsters coalition parties

The New York Times (subscription required) writes:

May 18, 2003
By Daniel Dombey in Brussels

The main parties in Belgium's coalition government were strengthened by early results in the general election yesterday. But the vote showed the far-right Vlaams Blok party also making gains.

The vote - in which the Socialists made strong gains and the Liberals consolidated their position - could pave the way for a more compact coalition than the six-party government headed by Guy Verhofstadt since 1999.

There are no big national parties in Belgium, since each big grouping is split into separate parties serving the majority Dutch-speaking population in Flanders and the minority Francophones in Wallonia.

While Mr Verhofstadt's out- going government comprised Liberals, Socialists and Greens from both linguistic groups, in the new parliament the Liberals and Socialists may be able to govern alone. Mr Verhofstadt's claim to the premiership will depend on whether his Liberal grouping outnumbers the Socialists.

In initial returns across the country, the Socialists made the biggest gains, while Green parties lost up to two-thirds of their support. The Christian Democrats, who dominated Belgian politics for 40 years until the last elections in 1999, failed to make much progress.

The anti-immigrant Vlaams Blok continued the steady progress it has made in Flanders in recent elections, increasing its share of the vote by 3-4 percentage points in many districts and racking up more than 20 per cent of the vote in several areas.

Some of the leaders of this Socialist Party have actually done quite well, I believe - without mentioning the true dangers that ly in a "give-away" kind of politics:  giving retired people free bustickets without telling them someone actually DOES have to pay for them is euh, well ... dangerous.

What concerns me more is the way we are going to deal with things internationally. My fear is that socialists are more focused on health-problems, public transportation, which need to be looked into of course, but will they be able to show they have the teeth when it comes down to international matters? I doubt it.

UPDATE: out of respect towards the elder: I do believe they KNOW someone has to pay for them.

Monday 20:02 19/05/2003 (CET)

  Belgian voters ditch Greens

PROJECTED SEATS 

Liberals 49 - up 8 
Socialists 48 - up 13 
Christian Dems 29 - down 3 
Vlaams Blok 18 - up 3 
Greens 4 - down 16 

That's what this BBC-report says, Agalev and Ecolo (Flemish and Walloon) have left the theater. 
More on the fight to come later! (We have made it a tradition in this country to negotiate the way the government is run ... )

Monday 14:03 19/05/2003 (CET)

  Let's call it a day, a very enriching one.

I'm calling it a day, I have gotten more things done than I dreamed of this morning. I still have a lot of work to do in discovering the secrets of HTML - without mentioning Frontpage. Hence the reason why things will stay rather rudimentary, if not simplistic, for a while; e.g. no comments section, no Trackback, site-stats. "Hell, not even an e-mailaddress!" : patience please, there will be in a day or two, but untill the basics aren't there, I'm having nightmares of a mailbox full of deep-voiced "Hahahahaaaa" 's !

Sunday 22:58 18/05/2003 (CET)

  Ever flown a kite?

It's awesome! Spent about 5 minutes trying to figure out how it worked, and if my friend could have stayed longer - mothers-in-law! - I still would have been standing there, flying my arms off. (I believe it was a "Q-Pro-I" made by Didakites, a "powerkite", I will be powered  tomorrow!)

My personal favourite: the NPW5, the Nasawing, or whatever you may call it. It's a 60's design developed by NASA to slow down their rockets and other highspeed objects when landing. Very powerfull, it consists only of a piece of cloth and a few wires - NO sticks. Amazing science!

I live in a kind of rural area, the suburbs if you will, so it's usually very, very calm ... . We were there for about half an hour and in that timespan I saw 2 recumbant bycicles, an amazing amount of "straight" bikes, both race and leisure, a model speedboat which seemed as though it was ready to take off from the water and on top of all that two sailboat models, both about 1 meter high and almost as long. And the weather wasn't even that good! I believe spring is in the air!

Sunday 18:14 18/05/2003 (CET)

  Vote!

Mine's in! Took me less than 5 minutes - hail Information Technology ! Everything seemed to work well: cardreaders, touchscreens, except for state-funded televisionchannel VRT who went off the air for about a quarter of an hour ... hmmm, remember those days?

The outcome of these votes, to me, are very important. These elections have never been connected to international politics as they are now.
They will determine the way Belgium is going to pivot between "old" and "new" Europe, the United Nations, extremist Islamism, and many many more challenges that we will have to meet.

UPDATE: LVBlog, a site I just recently stumbled upon, has a few very interesting posts on the Belgian elections. For the techies: one of them even has a link to the sourcecodes used for the voting software. Go read.

Sunday 12:53 18/05/2003 (CET)