Antifascist reflections I

Seeing last night a TV item about the Flemish National Sing-along in Antwerp I felt my stomach tighten. I saw the usual suspects from nva and it's unloved mayor sitting brotherly side by side with the Vlaams Belang (former Flemish Block. Looking at the images I saw faces of people I have spoken with and realized how insidious nationalism can be. Good five-thousand people opened thousandfold their throat in unison. If it were mere folklore, I might not feel so uncomfortable with it. Yet this singing is a political signal:" Flemish independence is no luxury" What? It foolishness, a luxury we cannot afford. In Kenya today there are elections and there too are two ethnic, linguistic groups. Last elections 1300 people died in the uproar. In Belgium it are not the people who die, but the state which is slaughtered. After the last general elections, you'll remember over 555 day's of negotiations were needed to find a livable compromise. If however Flanders would be independent, we would have an outbreak of pestilent nationalism. The flags and banner-waving, the strange uniforms reminiscent of a certain WWII faction, I saw it all on TV.

What about working together, being an open society, inclusive and working for peace and a clean environment having friends who speak other languages, even languages one doesn't understand, broadens the mind. Antwerp is great city, being taken down by a faction of the Flemish ruling class, but with these people I can only imagine dystopian futures...

Yellow snow on the San Francisco Peaks

The Snow Bowl Ski Resort on the San Francisco Peaks near Flagstaff, Arizona didn’t have enough snow a few winters in a row. They decided, and it was approved by the municipal council, to turn the sewage effluent into snow. They sell 1,5 million  gallons of waste water per day. The environmental impact assessment pointed out several problems: scaring of the landscape, noise from the snow making machine, the changes in the soils’ chemistry and thus the destruction of wildlife habitat. The area concerned is one where herbalists, Native American healers from several nations as far away as the Zuni from New Mexico. The area is used for finding medicinal herbs, is part of a pilgrimage and is the home of the Hopi Katsinam. Sacred land should not be soiled, defiled. Declarations by elders and healers in court and massive protest by environmentalist and Sierra Club hasn’t helped. Gathering herbs is sacred,it is also a service to the members of one’s community. Sadly all bad things came to pass and the snow made from the waste water to their 'astonishment' turned yellow. Virginia Tech indicated that the snow from the sewage could be a breading ground for antibiotic-resistant genes. So what ever you do, don’t get into making a snowman or a snow angel in the wider area around the ski resort...

The ugly face of flemish nationalism

I am compelled to write about politics today. In Belgium there where communal elections and in Flanders' biggest city Antwerp he, whose name I don't want to give more google hits, won. The arrogant, aggressive, power hungry bully declared "The city is ours"... Ours? A non-inclusive city, with strict separations between who is part of 'us' and who is not? No way. The city's slogan used to be "The city belongs to everybody", an inclusive idea which worked. Commentators say it is good that 'he' won since the extreme right lost half their votes. A good thing it is not: The extreme right was a clear enemy, surrounded by a 'sanitarian cordon' meaning that no other party would govern a town with them. According to their own figures his party, the N-VA, has 21 % people who came from the 'Vlaams Belang' (former Flemish Bloc) embedded in its list. According to vlaams belang even 40%. So the extreme right becomes salonfähig and thus invisible in its workings. The leader who won was biting in his speeches, merciless in his moment of victory. He and his supporters marched loudly as a mob to the town hall, almost storming it, claiming it theirs. The man lost half his weight in a short time with a crash diet. He not only cuts a sharp image now a days but he is even sharper and ruder than before. He declared the local elections to be a preview for the next elections in 2014, when he hopes Belgium will be turned into a loose confederation. Flemish Chocolate? Walloon steel? To me that would be an aberration since I perceive there is something like 'Belgitude': Magritte, Ensor, Absurdity, 13 dog breeds, a joie de vivre. The storming of the town hall, the physical demonstration of their power is over the edge of democratic behavior. Oh how sad it is to be an aging hippie, living in an non-inclusive society where rudeness and aggression is rewarded. Ugliness rules. All the efforts to keep Antwerp a lively town with not to many cars and car free walking streets will also be undone with parkings in front of the Rubens' house and the Town square, two places where now one can walk around, go for a drink and relax, talk with friends.

With N-VA as the leading party there can be no relaxation. We all need to be vigilant and live our values, whatever may come, lest we end up in the capital of Dystopia.

At the canal to the left - Bij het kanaal naar links

The play by Alex Van Warmerdam is a co-production between Toneelhuis ( Belgium) and Orkater (The Netherlands). When I bought the tickets for the performances, the person on the phone said: Oh you will enjoy that one. As it is: I feel bewildered, dissatisfied, wondering... The content: two families (one consisting of four people: mother, father, brother Machien, sister Angelique and the other just a father and son Lucien) have a feud since a few generations. Living in dystopian times the mother, seen the father hasn't been paid for a long time, and the son of the other family look for cooperation setting in motion a chain of events. From a depressed woman, she becomes strong while the policeman father grows weaker and grayer. Machien hates the other family for not being of pure blood. The two families are the only six white people left, Angelique being 'the only fertile female'. Under the bridge are the Congolese, to the east 'the pretty but dark' Iranians, to the south the gypsies and Mongolians and along the canal 'it is black with people and who knows where they are from'. Luciens plan is to make a child with Anglique. The mother brokers the deal. After the suggested intercourse, she goes home, embraces her brother who kills her. End of play. People, also the bunch of young boys from an out of town school who had chosen this as a cultural activity laughed. I failed to appreciate the jokes. The play was what a classical play and listening to other theater goers on the way out, it seems I was not the only one to be dumbfounded. A strange effect of the co-production was that in each of the families there was one character speaking the Flemish variant of Dutch which puzzled me for a while what it mean, why...
The introduction was right: I quote: I see a full house. It happens outside, but all of you came here. I don't know whether you made the right choice. I suggest you lower your expectations.
A last positive remark: the actors did a great job in the performance and the school boys were giggly after the suggested intercourse and having seen naked breasts...