So how about...

It's time for a "how about..." post. Many comedians have used this formula for years in delivering their rants, so I see no reason why it won't work just as well for me. Although, this is not really funny.

Today's "how about..." features the cost of living in Belgium. As many keen observers have recently discovered, there is something seriously askew with the amount of money being pumped in and the amount of money being drained from an average household.

The cost of life is climbing. Everywhere in the Western world, we are paying more and more for our proverbial daily bread. Between coughing up an exuberantly high rent, forking over the food budget and throwing out the transportation fund, it has become virtually impossible to live comfortably on your own when receiving a normal salary. Of course, one could cut down on luxury items such as Internet, television and electronics, but where's the fun in that? Especially seeing as though those luxury items are ironically the only things getting cheaper every year. No, if we want to maintain the lifestyle that is being forced upon us by the media we will have to endure a lot more stress and a lot less zero's in our bank accounts.

Granted, what I am describing is a long way from real poverty, but that really should not be the issues. There are always people who are worse off. The fact that those people exist should not be an excuse to let things get worse for middle income groups.

And basically, that is what is happening. Every measure the state takes is either geared at helping the very wealthy, or aimed at helping the extremely poor. If you don't starve, but have to scrape to get by... no one really gives a toss.

Belgium is a brilliant example of how a government ignores real issues in favour of trumped up problems that have no real bearing on the populace's quality of life. While politicians have bickered and argued about what language people should be speaking and who gets to botch what, nothing serious is being done about …well anything really.

Let’s take a closer look at a few of the problems that have been swept under the carpet… I will use the year 2000 as a reference point. Because of its symbolic nature and the large amount of statistics I was able to dig up for that year.

• Housing costs: Buying a small home is now twice as expensive as it was eight years ago. Renting that same home, will cost will probably set you back 60% more than it would have in 2000.
• Transportation – part I: Gasoline prices are not in line with oil prices. At one point eight years ago, oil was actually more expensive than it is now. Yet, we paid half a dollar per litre less at the pump than we do now. The recent fall of the Dollar compared to the Euro also means that importing oil has become cheaper for countries like Belgium. And yet, prices keep rising.
• Transportation – part II: Taking the bus or train is highly commended. People, who leave their car at home, are praised by all. But when push comes to shove, there are a staggering amount of commercial/industrial areas -that employ thousands of people- without a decent connection to public transport. Prices of public transport keep rising as well, to the point where getting a subscription for a year –just to go back and forth between only two fixed destinations- is more than a lot of young people have in their savings account. And of course, let’s not get into the incredible delays, cancellations, strikes, …
• Public safety and tolerance: Basically, what the media and government mean by tolerance is letting people who they deem are beyond help do whatever they want. If you are a woman and someone is shouting obscene things to you from their car? Let them. If you are an elderly person and someone is snatching your purse? Let them. If a drunk is bothering everyone on the train? Let them. Or at least, let them if they fall into the right economic and/or ethnic category.
  

This rant will be continued at a later time.

A taste...

...of a glorious future! Or in other words, this main blog will contain several subject until I get my other ones up and running. But even then, I'll continue to mix things up in here as well, with some fruity facts and delicious details concering various aspects of life.

Blahblogblah

Once upon a midnight dreary... I had a blog. Sadly, it choked on its own vomit. And so, several years later and in repsonse to a great demand from within my armchair... here is the new and improved -in the sense that it may or may not actually be better- blog!

Or more correctly, it is a new blog. The first of a few that will be divided by subject matter and/or colour of excrement.

There will be one about health/food/sports -watch me jump the shit out of that bandwagon-, there will be one about politics/art/philosphy -advanced gratitude to the wandering left eye of my nod awake future reader- and there will be one about my business, namely corporate efficiency consulting.

As you may have noticed, I tend to make long sentences and construct them in a "classical" manner. Whereas some people may find this confusing or difficult, some people fornicate themselves with a stuffed hamster. I will try to include typos now and then, just to keep everyone on their toes.

A beginning.

Alone with everybody
by Charles Bukowski

the flesh covers the bone
and they put a mind
in there and
sometimes a soul,
and the women break
vases against the walls
and the men drink too
much
and nobody finds the
one
but keep
looking
crawling in and out
of beds.
flesh covers
the bone and the
flesh searches
for more than
flesh.

there's no chance
at all:
we are all trapped
by a singular
fate.

nobody ever finds
the one.

the city dumps fill
the junkyards fill
the madhouses fill
the hospitals fill
the graveyards fill

nothing else
fills.