When I first moved to Belgium, I knew that starting a new business would be more difficult than in the US. Boy was I wrong! It can be damn-near impossible! I’ve been reading a short introduction to starting a business in Belgium. The book is aptly titled “local knowledge guide to setting up and running your business in belgium”. A bit of a long title, but it matches the process.

For most businesses, the government boasts that you can start up in about 3 days. This assumes, of course, that you have all your paperwork in order, you know exactly where to go and who to talk to, and you know exactly what questions to ask. For a foreigner, all three of these conditions can be tricky.

Then there are more issues to overcome. For an SPRL(U) — the popular private limited company — you need 18,550 Euro in capital to start (an SA, a public limited company, needs 61,500). Depending on where you plan to run your business, you’ll also need to have all your documents in either French, Dutch, or German. As I am only learning Dutch, I would need a lot of help establishing the paperwork for the business. Not to mention that the details of all the social laws are only available in Dutch or French. This would require me to not only rely upon, but to trust, another party with ensuring that I meet all the requirements, file all the right reports, and pay the right fees and taxes.

There is also a potential issue — which should be a minor formality and nothing more — about proving your competence in basic management skills. I would think that my BA in Business Management would be an easy score. But after reading about some of the horror stories online about other non-EU folk trying to start a business, I’m not so sure. Non-citizens also seem to face additional difficulties, although I’m not sure what they are (likely some procedural red tape).

In the end, I’m looking at about a 5 year wait. By then, I should a good understanding of the Dutch language, my citizenship, 5 years of managerial experience, and money in the bank. And in the meantime, I can simply freelance, provided my income is low enough.

My sister-in-law and son, this past Sunday, built a killer snowman. As I watched from the warmth of the living room, through the large plate-glass sliding doors, I couldn’t help but be amazed at the quality of snow falling from the Belgian sky. Don’t be mad at me though. I fell off my bike last week and was nursing a bum knee (a likely story).

I honestly thought that my snowman-building days (or at least watching others build snowmen) were over once I moved to Belgium last winter. I honestly thought that good quality snow for snowman-making was something we could only look forward to on our winter trips back to the US.

Pleasantly surprised is an understatement. I grew up playing in the snow — red fingers, icy feet, runny nose — so to see my son (who is 3) out there braving the wilds of nature to roll some frozen water around the yard was great.

Kudos to his aunt who did all the real work. She was the muscle behind it all. But I must say it took quite a bit of coaxing for her to create a 3-balled snowman; she was happy to make a short, fat two-baller. In the end, Mr. Dingledobe (ok, I just made up that name now) had 3 parts, a carrot nose, walnut eyes and buttons, and two sticks for arms.

I’ll post pictures as soon as they become available!

So I’m standing in a long line at the ING cafeteria for lunch today. The line next to me (equally as long) had to close due to a malfunction in the cash register. Ugh. All those poor buggers — close to 30 people I think — left standing dazed and confused, unsure if they should get out of their dead line and head to the back of mine, or if they should hang tight for the register to get fixed.

But then something magical happened. A guy ahead of me in my line let the first guy in the dead line cut him. Then the guy behind him did the same. And so on.

There is something poetic about two long lines of hungry people merging together before you; a giant, human zipper. It didn’t bother me one bit that I went from 10th to about 20th in line.


But some people just don’t get it.

Four women in the dead line were gabbing away (in French, so I have no idea if they were discussing national security or nail polish) next to me. It was my turn to perform the zipper move, so I let the first of the gabbers cut me.

And what do you think happened? Gabby #2 proceeded to follow her friend close behind not letting me in!

So what do you think I did? I dug my shoulder between the birds, looked at Gabby #2 square in the face, and in my best Rhode Island accent asked: “Evah hear of a zippa?”.

She looked confused. Either she didn’t understand me, or she didn’t know what a zipper was. Clearly, her and her friends were not paying attention. Or maybe they were being arrogant, or playing the “I’m a woman, so you need to be chivalrous and let me through” card.

What is this, high school? Must I be courteous in the face of such blatant disregard for the zipper?

I felt proud of my actions and I also take comfort in the fact that I would not have hesitated to do the same if four burley maintenance workers tried pulling the same. Burley #2 would have gotten an earful!

Reporters Without Borders recently published their Press Freedom Index for 2008. I saw a report the other day on al-Jazeera’s English news station. The results of the list — which I recall seeing several years ago with the same reaction — are surprising. Most notable is how low the US is on the list, with most of Europe coming in before it. The report on the Index’s website says:

Two aspects stand out in the index, which covers the 12 months to 1 September 2008. One is Europe’s preeminence. Aside from New Zealand and Canada, the first 20 positions are held by European countries. The other is the very respectable ranking achieved by certain Central American and Caribbean countries.

In addition to the above, I selected a few of the countries that I thought stood out.

• 1 Iceland
• 7 Belgium
• 13 Canada
• 20 Germany
• 25 United Kingdom
• 35 France
• 36 Bosnia and Herzegovina
• 41 United States of America
• 46 Israel (Israeli territory)
• 92 Congo
• 103 Turkey
• 119 United States of America (extra-territorial)
• 132 Malaysia
• 146 Egypt
• 151 Zimbabwe
• 156 Afghanistan
• 161 Saudi Arabia
• 166 Iran
• 172 North Korea

You can read how the statistics were compiled here. You can also get the full report here. What do yo think? Are you as surprised as I was?

“Raise your hopeful voice; you have a choice” - Glen Hansard and Markéta Irglová, in the song Falling Slowly

While it is easy to criticize wrongdoings in other countries — dictatorships, cruelty, corruption, torture, oppression of women, genocide — it is more difficult, and yet so much more important, to start with the wrongdoings in your own country.

It is rarely ever said that we, the United States and other industrialized nations of the world, are responsible for the deaths of millions of poor, of children, of oppressed, in the Third World nations of the world. And yet, we are, in a very direct way.

I don’t often talk about politics, mainly because I’ve worked in the politics industry for so long and I know that it’s mostly all for show — elections are a dog-and-pony show where the powerful get elected every time, and the public rarely talks about issues that matter.

But today I’ve decided that with an audience so large, not to mention an audience as generous and compassionate as all of you are, I have a responsibility to raise my hopeful voice in defense of the voiceless, the powerless, the hungry and the dying. It would be wrong of me to be silent when I know better.

Today I’d like to talk about Third World poverty, and why we in the First World are responsible. And how we can change it.

What’s at Stake

I am not going to bore you with statistics, and this post would be pages and pages long if I went into details. But let’s just briefly look at what is happening in the Third World, a group of countries that is immensely populous but immensely poor.

The effects of the extreme poverties of these countries is devastating. Just a few:

• There is famine in many countries, and people are dying of malnourishment, of starvation, and of related diseases. Many of them live in the streets, children included, with no shelter, no jobs, no hope of anything better. From one.org: “Around the world, over one billion people survive on less than a dollar a day and one person in seven goes to bed hungry each night.”
• Access to health care is almost non-existent, and millions die of diseases that are easily preventable or curable, simply because they can’t get medicine. Again, from one.org: “Every year, nearly 10 million children die before their fifth birthday - that’s one every three seconds - nearly all of them from preventable or treatable diseases like diarrhea, pneumonia and measles.”
• Access to education is also very limited, and therefore they have very little opportunity to improve themselves. Who can go to school when you’re starving, when you’re dying of diseases, when you have no shelter or clothing? About 72 million children have no access to education.
• Health of mothers: “Every year, over half a million mothers die from complications during child birth, and tens of millions more suffer from pregnancy related illnesses and injuries.”
• Combat HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria: Although HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis (TB) and malaria are entirely preventable and treatable, they are three of the world’s most devastating diseases: in 2007, HIV/AIDS killed more than 2 million people, tuberculosis killed 1.7 million and at least one million people died of malaria.

The Causes of Third World Poverty, Briefly

There are many, many causes of Third World poverty, and it would take several books to explore each of them. But I’ll mention a few briefly, so that we can see how we’re responsible:

• Agricultural conditions: Many poor nations don’t have a lot of arable land due to many factors: deforestation (usually to meet the paper, beef or other needs of First World countries), erosion, overgrazing, droughts, and other man-made or natural causes.
• Corruption: Many countries have gone through decades of devastating corruption at all levels of government — systematic corruption which robbed the taxpayers, left the nation with crippling debt, and left many other problems as well. Many of these countries (not all) have gone through major government reforms, so that the corrupt regimes are a thing of the past — but the debt and other problems they left behind are still very real.
• Debt: Because of corruption and mismanagement of funds, among other issues, Third World countries are often left with enormous debt that they will never be able to pay back — and in the meantime their debt payments cripple their economy so that they cannot improve conditions. This debt can easily be forgiven by First World countries with little impact to our economies.
• Overpopulation: Many poor nations are extremely crowded, especially in urban areas, without the infrastructure required to feed, clothe and house these rapidly growing populations. The issue of overpopulation is a complicated one, and it’s being addressed internationally. But actually most poor nations could theoretically feed their populations if things were restructured. For example, they grow enough crops to feed their population, but much of it is exported to richer nations — 80% of the world’s crops are consumed by the richest 20% of the population (First World countries). Much of their land is also used to produce crops that are excessive considering their population’s needs: tobacco, for example, and sugar, beef, biofuels, and other crops to meet the demands of First World countries.
• “Structural changes”: The organizations of the First World (WTO, World Bank, etc.) have forced Third World countries to accept “structural changes” and unequal trade agreements that leave these countries at an even further disadvantage to solve the problems they face. Because of the enormous power of rich First World countries and crippling debt of the Third World countries, the poor nations have no bargaining power. First World countries, for example, can offer some debt relief to the poor nations, but only if they accept “structural changes” that will allow the First World countries and global corporations to profit from the Third World countries. Often they are forced to privatize public assets, for example, selling major governmental entities to global corporations (giving them a monopoly over public assets) and leaving the government with less of an income stream. The list of changes these countries have been forced to make is long and catastrophic.

Again, this is just a very brief introduction to the causes of Third World poverty, but it serves as an illustration for what we in the First World can do to help.

What We Can Do to Help

While it might seem like an overwhelming and insurmountable problem, we in the First World have the power to make a major difference, if we can get enough of us to join in the effort. Some of the causes of global poverty in the section above are fixable, with actions from our government. And as we have democratic control over our government, we can pressure our elected officials to make important changes.

Some things we can do:

• Debt relief: First World nations can cancel debt owed to them by Third World countries without imposing devastating conditions on them, freeing up resources for human development. This single step would be huge for most poor countries, and make very little difference to developed nations.
• Release controls: We need to stop imposing controls on underdeveloped nations (through the World Bank, IMF and World Trade Organization) that favor multinational corporations and hamper the growth of these nations.
• Send aid: While aid is already going to Third World countries, it is on a very small scale and can easily be increased. It should also be directed more effectively to improve human conditions, for education, sustainable development, improving the rights of workers, and address deplorable living conditions, for example.
• Empower people: We can help people in underdeveloped nations become more empowered by providing them access to free education (with no user fees), giving them free health care (again, with no user fees), assisting local businesses to grow their businesses and create jobs, and so forth.
• Fair trade: Developing countries should have the freedom to set their own trade and investment policies (instead of having them imposed by international institutions), putting the interests of their people first. Instead, “liberalization” has been forced upon these countries, allowing multinational corporations to harvest natural resources, exploit workers and farmers (who are powerless against these corporations), export much-needed capital, and in general end any chance at sustainable development.

What You Can Do Right Now

So if this problem is something we in the First World can help alleviate, what can you do as a person, right at this moment? Several things:

• Let your elected officials know: The policies outlined above (and more) can easily be enacted by our governments, with the proper political will. It’s just a matter of enough people letting elected officials know how important this is to the electorate, and voting accordingly.
• Join together: It’s only if we unite that we will make progress. Join an organization such as the Global Call to Action Against Poverty and One.org so that you can help make these policies a reality.
• Support organizations: Support Fair Trade companies by buying products marked with “Fair Trade” and donate to organizations that are helping developing nations (United Students for Fair Trade). Support Train For Humanity (an initiative I’m involved in) which allows endurance athletes to use their training to raise money for humanitarian causes.

Some people call it a fad. But for the city of Flint, Mich., that urban style known as ’sagging’ is now a criminal offense.

What are your thoughts? Im 100% behind the Flint police department.

From Wikipedia:

The origins of the doctorate dates back to the ijazat attadris wa ‘l-ifttd (”license to teach and issue legal opinions”) in the medieval Madrasahs from the 9th century, though it was limited to Islamic law at the time, as in a Doctor of Laws degree.[4] … The degree of Doctor of Philosophy was a doctorate, generally granted as honorary degrees to select and well-established scholars

What I find particularly troubling about the US media, reporters, and politicians right now is the latest sensationalism: The evil Madrassas teaching children to hate America! Oh No! I doubt the vast majority of Americans really understand what a Madrassa is.

It is important to note here that there have been negative connotations applied to the word by news reports in Europe and the United States, in which madrasahs are often incorrectly inferred to be Islamic religious schools. Madrasahs are simply schools, and as with schools anywhere in the world, they may have different affiliations and curriculum.

I’m not sure what the psychology is, but this idea that average and non-average Americans alike need to be fearful of a handful of “Islamic” schools in Pakistan is absolutely absurd. The logic is totally fallacious; lazy thinking, lazy reporting, and sensationalism at its best. Meanwhile, inner city schools in the heart of every major city in the US is failing to produce well educated Americans who stay out of crime circles (most of whom would even think about higher education, let alone have it available to them!).

So while it is clear that curriculums around the world vary in extremes, from totally pro-America (perhaps the typical Australian school) to totally anti-American (schools in North Korea), it should also be clear that this will forever be the case as long as our world remains flat. And that the US (reporters and politicians) should not go on scaring the public into believing that the monster really does live under the bed and vacations in the closet.

Yet another example of word associations. For years I have been calling for an end to the association between “Islam” and “Terrorism”. Finally, as I wrote a short time ago, the US Government has called an end to it. One too many pig heads thrown into Mosques, I suppose.

From CAIR:

(WASHINGTON, D.C., 7/3/2008) - The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) today termed “unconstitutional and un-American” a proposed Justice Department policy change that would allow the FBI to investigate Americans without evidence of wrongdoing and could permit religious and ethnic profiling.

Under the new guidelines, which are expected to be implemented later this summer, the FBI would be permitted to consider race and ethnicity when opening an investigation. Agents would also be allowed to ask open-ended questions about the activities of American Muslims and Arab-Americans, and could initiate an investigation if a person’s employment or background is labeled as “suspect” by government analysts looking at public records and other information.

The FBI currently needs specific evidence or allegations of wrongdoing before it can investigate a U.S. citizen or permanent resident.

Buses 79 and 21, to be exact.

I attended a business event with my colleagues at our new offices in the Tractebel region of Brussels. From Troon, which is where I am currently stationed, Tractebel is pretty far. The only way to get their aside from driving is by bus.

So I logged into the SNCB (b-rail.be) website and planned my route. I like their site, it makes it fairly easy to get from place to place in Brussels. I wish they had some better mapping, but no biggie.

After I got my route together, I took hold of my jump pass and hopped on the 21. Totally uneventful except for the fact that it started to rain. It always rains when i head to a work event *sigh*. Next came the 79. Again, totally boring. But this time, at least, the bus was pretty much empty so I had more room to sit and relax. There was a pretty interesting fellow with his seeing-eye dog. I really have no idea how that works. This man, using his dog as a guide, walked right over to the open doors of the bus and up into it without troubles. He then went right over to a seat and sat down. How did he know some old lady wasn’t already sitting there? Certainly his dog couldn’t relay that info.

Anyway, I sat through a DRP (disaster recovery plan) and Business Continuity presentation from a colleague that was both very interesting and thoroughly boring. Later I ate some oddball Belgian food then got a ride by new friend Frank to Central Station.

So there you have it. The most mundane adventure yet. I hope to have more interesting things to say… at some point… hopefully…

So I had an aha moment the other day while in Amsterdam. I was talking with a new friend about the Dutch language and he said something that really made me stop and think. For all my life (well, for as long as I could count to at least the number 13), I never questioned where the “teen” came in. We go from twelve to thirteen to fourteen and so on. I reasoned that “teen” was just a better and more fluid way of saying “ten”. Thirten and Fourten just don’t sound as cool.

But here is the aha. Ten in Dutch is “tien”, which is prounounced like “teen”. Also in dutch, numbers are built backwards (which I am still getting used to). So, for example, the number twentytwo in dutch is translated as “two and twenty”.

Just like our “teen” system! Three and ten, four and ten, five and ten, etc… Get it?

I feel so much smarter now. It turns out that our “teen” system is likely a derivative of Dutch and/or Germandeveloped before 900AD. Real linguists out there will know for sure. But I don’t really care about the specifics!

Last night I jumped on the train to Amsterdam to attend a conference put on by Q4K (Quest for Knowledge). (I’ll blog more about the content of the conference over at Tod means Fox.) The conference runs ’till Friday.

The train ride was long and hot. For a stretch (between stops Brussel Centraal and Mechelen), I had to stand. Not a lot of fun when you have to stand with about a dozen other people in a poorly ventilated tin can. And not a lot of fun when you have a laptop and suitcase resting at your feet. One kid took a tumble when the train hit a bump and his foot got caught on the exposed wheel of my bag. I felt bad, but hey — he was alright. Nothing broken. No blood.

The train got significantly lighter when we dropped off passengers in Antwerpen Centraal. And then again in Roosendaal. By the time we reached Den Haag, I was living large. I bought a Coke from the cart guy (a dirty old man wheeling a cart of expensive goodies down the isle like a stewardess on Northwest Airlines). I had a seat next to me all to myself, and I was cruising along in my new book: Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking, by Malcolm Gladwell.

I really enjoyed Malcolm’s Tipping Point, and am really enjoying Blink so far. I’ll be posting more about this soon…

…

So here I am, at the hotel. Questing for knowledge and thinking without thinking. Sort of ironic I suppose.

Yesterday, I took the family out to to see the steam engines. I don’t take them out much, but when I do…

We had a great time. And my son — a major Thomas & Friends fan — didn’t stop smiling all day. That was well worth the 10 euro price of admission.

The event was in Maldegem. We drove from Drongen up the E40 toward Brugges. The ride was about 30 minutes and both kids were fast asleep the entire time. Ahh… zen.

On to the steam engines: These things are much louder and smellier and dirtier than I imagined. And yes, I have spent time imagining what it would have been like taking a steam train into work very day. Now, I take the electric trains, which are reasonably quiet and clean.

At one point, my wife pointed out all the little black particles (not really sure what they were, maybe bits of coal or some byproduct from the steam) scattered on her and our daughter — sort of like steam engine dandruff you could say. I felt like a real bad dad for a bit. My poor daughter is only a few months old and here we are! Sprinkling her with coal jimmies.

Josef Fritzl is just full of surprises.

On top of locking his daughter and incestuous relationship with her up in the basement, raising a few and hiding a few of their children, and having at least one prior rape conviction, more victims and reports are coming out:

Officials in Linz, Upper Austria, found files from 1967 showing that Fritzl was a known sex offender. His record contains a conviction for a rape and an attempt rape as well as an arrest for public exposure.

For more than 40 years, this man has been lying his way through a dictatorial existence, running his household like his likely idol: Hitler.

Among his other talents are forging letters, concocting an elaborate story that his daughter Elisabeth had joined a cult, and impersonation, when he would pretend to be Elisabeth in phone calls to his wife.

Sometimes I can’t believe that people like this exist. But then the sickest man in Europe comes along and reminds me that they do.

Literally.

I was at a friend’s house working on the computer. My son was in the other room crying a bit. So I leaned over to see him… a bit more… a bit more…

POW! BAM!

Holy cow. I fell off the chair. (My wife would be keen to remind me at this point that cows aren’t holy!)