Pumping up

That's it. I started. I started. After 5 years I started going to the gym again. It's called "mise en forme" (making you fit) and it lasts 45m every Tuesday and Thursday at the Sports Centre of the Council, where I work.

It's funny to see your colleagues in spandex and pink gym socks (I also have a pair), or wearing white leggings with butterflies, or shorts so short you can almost see their buttocks. Wait until I see them again in one of our meetings to discuss secure communication and information systems and cyber-protection...

Anyway, it feels great. I'm able to stay upbeat for the first 30m, but the last 15m are a descent into muscle hell. The teacher keeps teasing us (nicely) and that helps to keep us going, but still... I'm on the floor and it feels like climbing.

I'm thrilled though, to be pumping up again. The heart says thank you.

pays de mon plaisir

Can you imagine, we've had a full week of glorious sunshine in Brussels.

C'est le pays de mon désir, c'est le bonheur, c'est le plaisir.

Vive le soleil! It's better than moonshine, it's damn better than rain! Shine till the end of day.

European Court for Human Rights

(to the presenter of Newsnight on BBC2 - 8 February 2011)

Dear Mr Paxman,

I have just seen you on TV sporting your supposedly charming macho swagger, badmouthing the European Court for Human Rights. In all honesty, you seemed to be pandering to the lowest common xenophobic denominator with your ignorant comments about the Court:

- unelected judges: as if UK judges were elected, and as if this in any way compromised their integrity and independence.

- a Russian judge deciding on British cases brought to Court: well, British judges decide on Russian cases too. What is so surprising about that? Or are you suggesting that some nationalities are better than others when it comes to professional competence?

What your comments and snide remarks show is a total lack of understanding of how international (voluntary) communities of States work. When you sign up to a Treaty you accept the principle of give and take. Moreover, the Human Rights Convention is a standard setting Treaty that provides citizens of signatory countries with one last possibility for redress when their appeal efforts within national jurisdictions have been exhausted. You should ask the citizens who were able to obtain this redress against the judicial machines of their own countries, including the UK, how important the Court was in applying justice where it was needed.

Perhaps the UK - interestingly enough just like Russia - doesn't like to be reminded that it sometimes fails to protect its own citizens in accordance with its own and international human rights standards which it is supposed to uphold and promote? Maybe the UK doesn't like the Court because it provides its own citizens with the chance of redress when its own national jurisdiction has proved unfair or failed to do so?

Mr Paxman, you either accept the principle of an international community of values, with its attaining institutions, or you don't. You either accept that in a community of values everybody is entitled to enforce compliance with commonly agreed rules, or you don't. If the latter is the case, well, good riddance!

And by the way, leaving the Court and thus leaving the Council of Europe would have very direct implications on EU membership (i.e. withdrawal too). Again, if that is the UK's wish, good riddance!

changing taste

I didn't really like rock before, I didn't like U2, I didn't like the Rolling Stones. Well, I've changed. I like change. I enjoy changing. I like adding new tastes, new colours, new feelings to my life.

People say you don't change after a while. It's scary to think that might be true. Well, it ain't. I like rock now. Not all of it. But I like rock. It's good to know we are not the same throughout our lives. We change. I've changed.

I like the sound of electric guitars, I like the sound of shouting, I like the sound of coarse voices, I like the sound of drums. I sing the body electric.

So I left the Metro early this morning humming One by U2. One Love. One Life. Sisters. Brothers. Shout. Shout. Strings. Strings. Rock. Electric.

acte définitif

Today we signed the final act of sale for our new house in Av. Tahon, by Rouge Cloître. I signed my full name. Long, visible, hard, with ups and downs like a ship in wavy waters. A very giddy signature.

The lady told us that the carps are one metre down, by the bottom of the garden pond, waiting for Spring to arrive. Then they will come up and Georgina will learn how to feed them.

The lady said she would cut down the big tree in the front, it lets too many leaves fall down in Autumn. But we like that tree and cutting it doesn't feel right. A shovel will come in handy. May the tree rain many happy leaves on us throughout the years. A tree is like a limb, you only cut it if you must.

I will have a room to paint all by myself. Visitors will be welcome, but by appointment only. I will let in anyone who comes with a song, or a hug, or a question mark upon their lips. Their lips must be carmine of course! Or mauve.

A house. Imagine!

rocky start for the Hungarian Presidency of the EU

The Hungarian Prime Minister was today in Strasbourg to address the European Parliament at the start of the country's 6-month Presidency of the Union.

Many (mainly centre-left and left-wing) parliamentarians challenged him and his government on the new media laws they are planning to introduce, which independent analysts consider to be a step back in time to a more authoritarian Hungary as seen under the former Communist leadership.

Sometimes the EP is worth our vote, not often, but sometimes one feels glad (surprised?) to see politicians take a stand for what is right. A bit of bullying in this case, including from the European Commission - finally alert to its role in the Treaty also as a defender of the Union's values and principles and not just as an Internal Market prosecutor - is actually a welcome sight.

No pasarán!

Ceci n'est pas un pays

No comments... well, maybe a couple:

- it's infuriating to see a country being broken apart by mediocre politicians! And while everyday I go to work trying to assist in the creation of a more united Europe, these fools are such a terrible and dispiriting example to watch.

- Magritte, that quintessential Belgian surrealist painter had once made a painting with the image of a pipe and the words "ceci n'est pas une pipe". I suppose a contemporary painting of his would have to read "ceci n'est pas un pays".

BBC NEWS
6 January 2011 Last updated at 17:45 GMT

Belgian mediator resigns over government deadlock

The mediator entrusted with ending the crisis that has left Belgium without a government for nearly seven months has tendered his resignation.

Johan Vande Lanotte, appointed by King Albert II, said he could make no further headway a day after two out of seven parties rejected his plan.

"You can lead a horse to water but you can't make it drink," he said.

The king has yet to accept his resignation and is due to see him again on Monday.

A caretaker government has been running Belgium since the election (my added comment: since June 2010!).

Belgium has been under pressure to reach a deal because sovereign debt is close to 100% of gross domestic product.

The plan proposed by Mr Vande Lanotte would see a further decentralisation of power to Belgium's regions, split between the Dutch-speaking Flemish population and French-speaking Walloons.

'Utopia'

The Flemish population has been seeking more control over tax policy while Walloons want greater protection and more money for the region around the capital, Brussels.

The Flemish Christian Democrats said earlier that essential items of the plan would have to be adjusted.

The New Flemish Alliance, which made the break-up of Belgium a central manifesto pledge at the election, said it had "fundamental remarks" to make about the proposal before continuing negotiations.

But the leader of a third Flemish party accused both parties of seeking "Utopia".

"I think the parties who don't see the note [plan] as a basis for negotiations will have to run for election in a country called Utopia next time," Bruno Tuybens of the Flemish Social Democrats said on Flemish TV.

"Those who pull the plug now will have to take the responsibility."

Mr Vande Lanotte, who is also a Flemish Social Democrat, said the parties would have to agree eventually.

"One day the politicians will have to take that step in the interests of the prosperity of our country," he told reporters.

While Belgian media were already speculating about a new choice of mediator, some analysts argued that fresh elections were a distinct possibility.

"If nothing else is possible, you have to vote in a democracy," Professor Carl Devos at Ghent University told Reuters news agency.

"It is not a structural solution to the problem but sometimes things improve afterwards."