Live From Brussels

Great Books for Free launched

2008-06-18T09:07:10+02:00

I've started a new site where you can read great books for free in blog format. You can even leave comments and trackbacks on them, or subscribe to their RSS feed. Currently there are seven books 'running', but more will follow soon... The current list is:

Potato Chip Maker Pwn3d by Bloggers in Belgium

2007-03-10T00:03:46+01:00

Recently a marketing agency in Belgium sent out a bunch of e-mails to local bloggers, asking them if they were interested in trying the newest potato chips from Croky. They were free to 'make or break' the chips on their blogs afterwards.

As part of the campaing, the bloggers were were asked to submit video of themselves talking about the chips. These movie clips would then be displayed on www.maakofkraak.be ("Make or Break"), one week later.

There was only one problem... The marketing agency forgot to register the domain name!

A local blogger snatched it away and posted a 'ransom note'. And that is why the first edition of the soon to be held Belgian Weblog Awards (the Bwards) will have free potato chips for all participants!

Remembering 9/11

2006-09-11T14:24:33+02:00

What a strange 5 years it has been.

Zidane

2006-07-09T22:33:09+02:00

I'm not someone who watches soccer a lot, but that Zidane... what a disgrace! No matter what happens, headbutting someone is simply 'not done' in my book.

BarCamp Video

2006-05-22T00:20:24+02:00

I was at BarCamp Brussels 2006 yesterday and took a lot of video, which I posted on my Dutch language blog: http://www.blogologie.be/2006/05/accessibility_d.html#more

There are some English language presentations there too, so if you don't speak Dutch, have a look anyway!

Censorship in Flanders

2006-05-16T00:36:37+02:00

This afternoon I was shocked to hear on the radio that the 'Inquisition for fighting equal opportunity' (not their real name, but it should be) had managed to get an article removed from 'The Brussels Journal'. The entry was titled 'Geef ons Wapens' (give us weapons) and appeared on may 21st 2006.

Today the article is no longer on-line. Instead we read following text (translated from Dutch):

'This text was removed at the demand of the Center for Equality of Opportunity and Combatting Racism which let us know through certified mail on may 10th that our "statements form an incitement to violence against a group based on their national or ethnic provenance (art 1 par3, 3° of the law of 30/07/1981). Hence we request you to remove the contested text or have it removed. In the opposite case the Center for Equality of Opportunity and Combatting Racism will reserve the right to press charges about this fact with the judicial authorities"'

Pure censorship, in other words: remove your article or you will be prosecuted. Freedom of Speech is one of the most important rights to me. 'Bad' ideas should be fought by shining a spotlight on them and by debating them, in my opinion. Not by censoring them: that only makes them more attractive

I'll leave it up to the reader to decide if Paul Beliën has 'bad' ideas. But this form of direct censorship crosses a line for me. I doubted at first to maybe republish the text on my weblogs. But in the second paragraph there is an explicit call not to do this:

'Even though I deny the charges, I hereby comply with the demand. As author of the text in question I ask all websites and/or other publications that have copied the text outside my knowledge and without my permission, or who have quoted passages from it, to remeove these as well. If they don't do this, it is not only a violation on my copyright but they are guilty of "incitement of violence against a group because of national or ethnical provenance", according to the laws cited by the Centre.

Let them start by prosecuting Google!

Klaartje and Penguin

2006-02-19T15:51:21+01:00

Maarten Schenk

At the Zoo with Klaartje

2006-02-19T15:22:27+01:00

Maarten Schenk

Next Embassy to Burn: Egyptian?

2006-02-08T23:58:15+01:00

Heh, this is too funny. A blogger in Egypt has revealed that the Egyptian Newspaper Al Fagr reprinted the infamous Danish Mohammed cartoons, and this already back in October 2005! He has scans too, to prove it.

He also has a quite interesting theory as to why several Arab governments have been fueling the frenzy about the cartoons in their own population. Hint: it has to do with distracting attention away from domestic problems.

Go see this: Rantings of a Sandmonkey: Boycott Egypt.

Can Bush Now Legally Invade Syria?

2006-02-05T17:41:11+01:00

An interesting side-effect of the Danish cartoon affair might be the invasion of Syria by U.S. forces. As you can read in this CNN article, the Norwegian and Danish embassies in Damascus were burned down by angry mobs on Sunday.

Now, depending on the level of (passive) involvement by the Syrian regime, one could make the case this is an act of war. And since Norway and Denmark are both NATO members, Bush can invoke article V of the NATO charter that says an attack on one member state is an attack against all of them...

Presto! Legal casus belli... and no need to find further justifications in hidden WMD's, terror sponsoring or the need for 'regime change'. Just point the tanks in Baghdad to Damascus and start driving...

Far fetched? You bet. Unlikely? Probably. But would it hold up under 'international law'? Not so sure about that. But then again, that's the fun of blogging: you just make stuff up as you go and count on the commenters to flesh it out...