BRUXELLES : GARES POUBELLES

Les gares à Bruxelles sont annonciatrices de ce qui attend le voyageur...une ville souvent sale, désarticulée, envahie par les "trotinettes"et les sacs pour ordures.

Les gares du Nord et du Midi représentent tout ce qui peut aller mal coté sécurité, services, hygiène et accueil. Elles se trouvent aussi dans un environnement urbain hallucinant. Bref ce "welcome to Brussels" est un autre pas "direction problèmes".

Il semble que les autorités supérieures aient enfin pris conscience de la dégradation de la situation. Maintenant il faudra décider qui fait quoi. L'incurie des pouvoirs supposés responsables fait que toute initiative cohérente devient une gageure. 

Bruxelles est la capitale des petits chantiers qui s'adressent rarement aux défis et aux ambitions plus larges. La voirie est une suite d'asphaltes en mauvais état, de nids de poule et de pavés piégés. La cohérence est aux abonnés absents.

Les élections législatives en 2024 devraient être déterminantes pour le cadre constitutionnel du pays. Elles devraient en premier lieu sanctionner la myopie des petites satrapies couteuses, responsables de la dégradation accélérée de la qualité de vie dans la capitale .

Voter = sanctionner.

LONDON IS A TALE OF TWO CITIES

In London there is the City and the city -the Urbs-. One is greedy and international, willing to revisit the unforgivable Brexit decision. The city remains contemptuously English with the peculiar mannerisms that come with it.

Obviously Brexit created a gridlock and an economic slowdown that continue to haunt the business community. The former model of free-enterprise and deregulation has become a machine stuck in a bureaucratic nightmare of its own making. The open market became to the UK what a free market might feel like for the Chinese. The City struggles to retain its former sterling reputation and relevance as a financial hub.

The city self remains as arrogant and perversely funny as before. Unlike other capitals on the Continent, London was always a Commonwealth-obsessed city, showing little interest for other capitals, who struggled for relevance in a world that has chosen English over nostalgia. London never gave up its arrogance, even in its more vulgar, quaint appearances.

London retains that exceptional vibrant quality which also benefits from the input from what Churchill called the "English speaking people". Other capitals might look romantic, spectacular, impressive, but none beats London in cosmopolitan allure. Yes, the Londoners can be supercilious, inhabiting a world of sweets, tea time and mannerisms, but these are just a cauda in a play.

Probably the continental Europeans miss the British more than they themselves want the former anchor to the continent restored. The EU is a club of frustrated countries that compete for lost relevance. The Londoner can still rejoice in wit and pomp, knowing that he is the world's second-best entertainer, after the United States. 

CAMP DAVID : MENAGE A TROIS

President Biden is hosting the leaders of Japan and South Korea in Camp David. The location is bucolic enough and is traditionally the chosen setting for difficult gatherings.

The leaders might realize very well that coming together is in their interest. Their Asian constituents might be more reluctant regarding a cozying-up between Tokyo and Seoul. Public opinion on the Asian side remains often moored in unfortunate bleak historical references. While both governments realize that their discreet cooperation and coordination, mutually and with the US, need a more sustainable permanency, their constituents remain largely unconvinced.

President Biden wants to institutionalize another deterrent in  Asia directed at North Korea and China. The hardcore hooliganism of the Kim system and the perverse moves of China need to be matched by enough "might" to guarantee freedom of navigation. Pyongyang's dangerous war games need to be monitored. If the summit arrives at some form of muscled, organized permanent cooperation a trois it would be a welcome development, albeit a fragile one given the political travail both in Tokyo and Seoul.

There was never an Asian version of the de Gaulle Adenauer embrace, which ended a 100 years war once and for all. Asians have a hard time getting over trauma. The still raw resentment of the Chinese versus Japan is the example of the perfect storm that can be unleashed at any given time.

America often acts as a healer, the "good partner", and seems to believe in its own fallacy. This is surprising given its spotty record in the past. Even its more commendable actions are seldom devoid of self-interest.

LE PIEGE DU CONTEMPORAIN

Les mauvaises nouvelles et les images qui vont au coeur du mal se multiplient. Le "meilleur des mondes possibles"apparait trompeur, un lieu sans lois ou les sens qui étaient supposer assister l'homme le trompent. Les quatre cavaliers de l'Apocalypse ont fait irruption...ou pas ?

Est-ce que nous sommes vraiment entrés dans l'accélération du mal ? Il est certes indéniable qu'il est devenu difficile de sortir indemne du tourbillon de malheurs en tout genre. 

On compare le présent au passé, en oubliant que ce papier peint est trompeur. Le monde a traversé en perpétuité des malheurs répétés mais ce sont les moyens de communication accélérée qui ont fait monter les décibels, jusqu'à l'insupportable. Les nouvelles de l'incendie nous arrivaient longtemps après que le brasier s'était éteint. Aujourd'hui nous brulons en direct....

Ce qui a fondamentalement changé ce sont les les moyens qui ont fondamentalement bouleversé le temps de la réceptivité.

L'ailleurs, l'exotisme, l'étonnement sont des espèces en voie d'extinction. La peur ciblée a cédé la place à une sorte de mauvaise conscience diffuse. Dans les années cinquante, le nucléaire inquiétait. Aujourd'hui il fait partie  des vieux meubles. Les nouvelles technologies et la montée du phénomène "fake news" ont balayé le discours Socratien. Surtout, de nouveaux acteurs sont désormais à mème de s'approprier l'influence par dessus la tête des élus. Un coup d'état hybride se prépare sur le dos de l'ordre existant.

L'intelligence artificielle représente une menace immédiate. Elle pourra un jour se substituer à tout et rendre caduc le rôle des écrivains, créateurs, médecins, pour n'en citer que quelques uns.

Certes la "proximité nouvelle" rend les drames mitoyens. Il n'y a plus d'ailleurs.  Elle finit aussi par rendre la réaction par rapport aus tragédies au quotidien plus blasée. Il faut prendre garde à ce qu'un regard sur-informé sur le grand dérangement ne conduit à une nonchalance coupable.

Nous avons aujourd'hui  pléthore d'indésirables mais à long terme, ce sont les intentions d'Elon Musk § Co. qui requièrent un suivi, en alerte renforcée. Il est des objectifs et ambitions qui dépassent déjà les moyens des pouvoirs en place qui ne réalisent pas assez que leurs jours sont peut-être déjà comptés. 

THE RULE OF HETERODOXY ?

Of all yesterday's prophets only Samuel Huntington survives. His predicted clash of civilizations (?) has only gotten worse. It has become less measurable, a hybrid which affects groupings in collision as well as countries in collusion. 

The former 'enlightened' have packed or lost their benchmarks. There are a few situations in the past wherein the relative weight of cynical pragmatism was as prevailing as it is today. The non-aggression pact between Russia and Nazi Germany might have been be a short-lived example of what has become the norm today.

The US has their hands full, dealing with their home-grown Tyrannosaurus who, if elected, would create havoc worldwide. The EU chose to cozy up in Brussels and fights for relevance. The odd Russian/Chinese couple is an ad hoc arrangement wherein both stray when it fits their interest. The South at large is a pack of wolves.  Davos becomes some religious service, open to all and attended by few.

There remain some lifeless gatherings, regarding climate, the Amazon, female genital mutilation, that change nothing but support the service sector in the successive host countries.

Suffice to look at Ukraine to experience the cowardice of the West and to measure its apprehensive composure. In the Middle East only money talks. Niger and Sudan are treated as 'embarrassment'. The list goes on. The Leitmotiv could be that too few do too little too late, the contrary of the coalition of fools made by Bush père et fils. 

At 100 Dr. Kissinger is forgiven his Chili and Cambodia incursions since he too has become just a daguerreotype of a world gone. His tool kit worked then though.

There is plenty of disparagement and backstabbing that should oblige individual countries to rearrange the furniture at home rather than to bother the neighbors. Leave the Chinese & Co. deal with their own contradictory impulses and claim back the high ground where it counts. The European 'frugality' versus Ukraine is a moral affront.

The former times of measured involvement pending on ulterior motives are over. Outrage is unsparing when the crime is of such a defaming magnitude. Churchill's words remain applicable.

Spinoza said that a man's duty, when he surveys the world, is 'neither to laugh nor to weep, but to understand'.

30 ANS DEJA

Le Roi Baudouin I a été un grand Roi.

Cet homme est resté emblématique et énigmatique durant tout son règne.

Bien que ses convictions n'étaient pas toujours partagées par les citoyens, elles n'ont jamais amoindri la juste reconnaissance de ses mérites ou leur respect affecteux.

Il était peut être le dernier roi, dont la seule présence tenait lieu de pouvoir. 

Les difficultés réelles qui sont apparues n'ont jamais affecté son règne ni l'appréciation de la classe politique.

Avec la Reine Fabiola il a réussi la difficile gageure de démontrer que classe et distance n'étaient point pareilles.

Avec le temps, apparait une certaine nostalgie pour un passé dans lequel les évidences apparaissaient plus spontanées.

THE 2% SOLUTION

In 2014, all NATO members decided that their contribution had to arrive at a number representing 2% of their GDP within a decade.

In 2023 only 11 allies have fulfilled their commitment. 

This was one of the few reasonable demands that former President Trump made as a peremptory condition for not  blowing up the alliance.

One doesn't dare to imagine what might happen if Trump were to return. Elaborating on this nightmare is too frightening to engage in.

During the current nightmare in Ukraine, which is already hard to contain, NATO (mostly the US) was able to show both relevance and drawing power.

Belgium hosts both NATO and SHAPE. Brussels benefits politically and financially from this situation. Nevertheless, Belgium does not come close to the commitment it underwrote. It is last of the class, with Luxemburg.

It could have been expected that Belgium would continue the tradition of Paul Henry Spaak and Andre De Staercke. After all, being the headquarters comes with a certain pride or responsibility. But besides a new tramline the Belgian input is minimal, not to say outrageous.

Last 21 July the military parade was more bon enfant  than impressive. The minister of defense, good looking and bonne socialiste, could at least have asked a regiment of (hapless) Brussels street cleaners to join in this traditional James Ensor- looking parade of losers, struggling not to lose their step in the cobblestone hell.

Countries are not respected out of bad habits. Respect needs to be earned. Belgium is already overflowing with surreal, self- inflicted mortgages. It should make room for some high-principled reliability.