Traffic and Body mass index

In the last 10 years (2001-2010) commercial transport went up 5% in Belgium.

Private car traffic went up 30%.
80% of private traffic is for distances under 15km.
62% of private traffic is by drivers without passengers.

In the same period (1997-2008) the number of obese people increased from 41% to 47%.

Regina Spektor Album covers

Corneel's jaaroverzicht in limerick (1988)

Zaïre reis
Een président-fondateur uit Kinsjasa
verwende zijn gast als een pasja
Ze reden wat rond
met siroop om de mond
en hij passeerde alweer aan de kasja.

nieuwe vorstenkiek 
Een koningspaar uit Laken
begon uit de mode te raken
Ze bekeken mekaar
en besloten dan maar
om eens nieuwe portretten te maken.

gemeenteraadsverkiezingen
Een Seefhoekbewoner uit A'pen
kreeg buikpijn van kind'ren en schapen
Hij liep naar het stemhok
en loste een aardschok
maar wel in zijn bloedeigen rapen

rime riche
Een gewezen minister uit Brussel
had geluk dat er niks rijmt op Brussel
Dus zeggen we maar
zonder veel commentaar
er rijmt echt niks fatsoenlijks op Brussel.

Intifada
Een PLO-Palestijn op de Westbank
die gooide een steen naar een pesttank
Kom eens hier, zei Shamir,
gun mij ook een plezier!
Wel, die knaap heeft nu last met zijn es-klank. 
 

Ford makes fun of carbon emmission in commercial

In a recent Flemish radio commercial ford makes fun of carbon emmission research.
They portray a east european researcher, barely speaking dutch, that invented mini cows because they are farting less, and thus produce less carbon dioxide.
Subsequently they qualify the research as useless.
As one of the main causes of carbon emission problems, Ford is in a bad position to ridiculise of people trying to solve that problem.
Unsurprisingly, they do not know what they are talking about. Cows do not produce carbon dioxide. They are producing another greenhouse gas, however: methane.

De gucht against carbon emmission import tax

At the hearing of EU trade commissioner-to-be Karel De gucht he rejected the idea of a carbon emission import tax for goods originating from countries that pollute the planet with carbon.
The disadvantage of these protectionist measures is that they quickly result in trade wars, which would not be a good start for a trade commissionar (who was already involved in a quarrel with Congo last week).
This tax has been proposed by Sarkozy to enable europe to go forward with carbon emission cutting measures without putting our industry at a disadvantage on the internal market. It could well be the only means to go ahead with carbon cutting measures after the failure to find a world wilde consensus at the Kopenhagen climate summit.
Import taxes are a good means to protect internal market restrictions that are not applied elsewhere.
They might also be used to counter the disadvantages of our social system for the industry against countries that do not protect their working class.

Greenpeace action at European Parliament

On december 11th greenpeace deployed some climate slogans at the european summit in Brussels. They managed to get at the entrance with all the European presidents.
Greenpeace says all it took were some fake badges (with Greenpeace logo), business suits and a rented expensive car.
Reaction of the Brussels City Police: " If we had imagined that someone would be so stupid to do such dangerous actions, this would never have happened. Security has not failed. If people use heavy infrastructure to imitate police cars and access badges anybody can get in there."
This is what you get if you give security European security into the hands of a small city police force. Additionally in Brussels is composed of 19 municipalities and the police force is fractured over 6 regions.

Belgian connection in Romania event