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Over the past couple of months, I repeatedly asked myself the same question over and over again. Does real justice exist? Being a Belgian, I can’t help but follow the Belgian news through the wonderful technology of the internet. Earlier this week for example, I watched online the live launch of the Sojouz capsule bringing Belgian Frank De Winne to the International Space Ship where he will stay for the next six months, and where he will become the first European commander of the ISS from October onwards. So far the good news.

I also learned the astonishing news how a 64-year-old woman was robbed of her purse (with only 50 euros in it) by a bunch of teenagers who kicked her repeatedly on the head and the body, and who left her behind at her doorstep with permanent brain damage and no hope for recovery. Belgian police arrested a couple of teenagers, and freed them almost immediately, as they had nothing to do with that particular robbery. They had only robbed some other elderly ladies who fortunately have survived the attacks. A couple of days later, the real robbers were arrested. There is no doubt that it will take a very long time before they will be brought to court.

In September of 2007, Simon Wyffels, a Belgian teenager was stabbed in his neck twice by two Russian school boys who were illegally staying in Belgium. Simon was lucky to have a policeman in the neighbourhood who saved his life. The two Russian brothers were arrested, and freed by the justice department a couple of months later, only to go on the run again. They left Belgium and are now living in Israel. They were supposed to appear in court earlier this month. They did not show up, and they will never pay for their awful crime. Simon and his family have been going through hell over the past twenty months, but this victim is now being punished a second time by the official bodies who are supposed to protect our society.

Earlier this week, a Belgian judge in an Antwerp court room refused to send a burgler to jail. Why? This burgler had appeared on various occasions before the same judge, the last time in February of this year. At that time, he was convicted to eighteen months in prison for burglary. The justice department however did not send him to jail, but let him free. Almost immediately, the guy committed another crime by breaking in into a car, got arrested and appeared again in court. The judge made a political statement by not convicting this guy again. In my humble opion, this is a complete insane statement and a wrong signal. As a result, even more people will lose their faith in justice.

On February 7th of 2009, a good friend of mine, Peter De Wolf, made a mistake. He was involved in a car accident. He left a party, and instead of calling a taxi, he took his car to get back home. He was drunk. He was the Chief of the Ghent Police Force. He called a couple of his officers, and they tried to cover up the story. Another mistake. One month later, the truth came out. Immediately, Peter was on trial by the Belgian press. Several times he has been on every front page of every Belgian newspaper, and he was the main topic in a whole lot of news journals on television. During the past two and a half months, Peter has received a bigger press coverage than Kim De Gelder, a young Belgian lunatic who stabbed two babies and one adult to death in January of this year, one week after he had killed an elderly woman as well.

And guess what? All of a sudden, the justice department is able to work very quickly. Peter had to appear in court last Friday. Less than three months after the truth came out! He knows that he has made a mistake, and he is aware that he will have to pay for this mistake. But how high will the price be? He risks to be put away in jail, to lose his civil rights, to lose his job and to lose his pension. While he is one of the most capable police officers in the whole country who served his community over the past couple of decades to the best of his capabilities.

Fortunately, he has hired one of the best lawyers in Belgium. And apparently, due to the rush in which the Justice Department wanted to work, they made some mistakes as well, using methods which are illegal to get to the truth. According to Peter’s lawyer, due to these mistakes, he should be freed. The verdict is due to come on June 19th.

I hope Peter’s lawyer is going to win the case. Having known Peter since 1983, I know he is not a criminal. He is a normal human being who has made some mistakes. But haven’t we all?

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Last time I was writing about fish for us all and the devastating effect of our lifestyle on animal life in our oceans. Elspeth in South Africa did send me the following message:

Bruno,
Here in South Africa the Sea Fisheries Institute have a telephone number that you text/send an sms on your mobile/cell phone (depending on whether you’re talking American or British English!) with the name
of the fish you’re considering buying or eating in a restaurant.

You then get a message back which tells you whether the fish is coded red: overfished and endangered, do not buy/eat, orange: diminished stocks, consider not buying/eating, green: abundant supplies, ok to buy/eat.

It’s a really useful service, virtually everyone I know – but then most of my friends are greenies – uses it.

Our local fishmonger rolls his eyes when he sees us hauling out our cell phones and tapping fish names into it!

Yours,

Elspeth

In the mean time I found additional information about fish farms in the science supplement of NRC Handelsblad.

In 1970 only 6 % of all the fish we were eating came from fish farms. In 2006 this percentage had risen to 50 % or a total quantity of 60.000.000 tons of fish. Demand for this kind of fish is rising faster than the demand for any other kind of food because of increasing world population and decreasing fish stocks in our seas. I have seen cheap Pangasius from Vietnam on the menu of French and Spanish restaurants. The way Pangasius is being farmed in Vietnam leads to the devastation of the environment around the breeding ponds in only 10 years.

But this is only one example. Today 99 % of all fish farms in the world are polluting river deltas, coral riffs and mangroves. Fish in fish farms not only have to eat food mixed with antibiotics but they are also clearly showing stress. Because they are living under stressful circumstances they get ill more often and grow slower than wild fish.

On his website dr Mercola is asking us to stop eating fish because we are running a serious risk of mercury poising.

Looking at what Elspeth wrote me I’d like to know Gino if a similar warning system exists in your country.

Thanks for dropping me a line.

Kindest regards from Brunothedoglistener

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A couple of years ago, I saw these clips for the very first time.

Somehow, earlier this morning, they came back into my mailbox, and I enjoyed watching them again.

Some things just don’t turn out to be what you think they are going to be when you first see them.

I hope they’ll put a smile on your face as well.

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I could tell you three stories about the typical “Portuguese Productivity” that I am experiencing in this country each and every day. Three stories that happened today, but hey, the weekend is approaching, the sun was shining all day long, despite the typical “Portuguese Productivity”, I had a very busy and productive week, so… I am going to keep it positive.

I had some free time in my late afternoon, and before going home, I was taking a look at some of the pictures I have taken over the past fourteen months. I selected a couple of them, which I specifically like. Some were taken when I was on a one week trip with a very special friend of mine through the Spanish province of Andalucia in April of last year, others were taken on different locations, on different days, over the past couple of months. I just call them my “Random Favourite Pictures”.

Having seen quite some pictures today, I believe it’s about time to buy myself a new toy, a new and decent digital camera. Although I am pretty proud of the pictures below, which were taken with a tiny little digital Sony camera.

I hope you like them as much as I do.

Algarve, Portugal, April 2008

Algarve, Portugal, April 2008

Public Transport, Lisbon, Portugal, April 2008

Cordoba, Spain, April 2008

Cordoba, Spain, April 2008

Spanish landscape in spring, April 2008

Spanish landscape in spring, April 2008

Andalucia in spring, April 2008

Al Alhambra, Granada, Spain, April 2008

Al Alhambra, Granada, Spain, April 2008

Al Alhambra, Granada, Spain, April 2008

Al Alhambra, Granada, Spain, April 2008

Al Alhambra, Granada, Spain, April 2008

Al Alhambra, Granada, Spain, April 2008

Al Alhambra, Granada, Spain, April 2008

Al Alhambra, Granada, Spain, April 2008

Windows on Granada, Al Alhambra, Spain, April 2008

Al Alhambra, Granada, Spain, April 2008

Break at Al Alhambra, Granada, Spain, April 2008

Spanish market, Andalucia, April 2008

Spanish market, Andalucia, April 2008

Spanish market, Andalucia, April 2008

Spanish market, Andalucia, April 2008

Sierra Nevada, Spain, April 2008

Sierra Nevada, Spain, April 2008

Trevélez, Spain’s highest village, Sierra Nevada, April 2008

City Center, Cacela Velha, Algarve, Portugal, April 2008

Ria Formosa, Algarve, Portugal, February 2009

Ria Formosa, Algarve, Portugal, February 2009

Coimbra, Portugal, April 2009

Steps of Coimbra, Portugal, April 2009

Streets of Coimbra, Portugal, April 2009

Streets of Coimbra, Portugal, April 2009

Windows of Coimbra, Portugal, April 2009

2 girls at the bullfight, Féria de Abril 2009, Sevilla, Spain

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So the man in the white dress is on a trip again. This time, he’s touring the Middle East. After his last trip to Africa earlier this year, where he was spreading aids all over the place, I had sincerely expected the Pope to be a little bit more cautious with his behaviour this time. For example… he didn’t find it necessary to take off his shoes while visiting one of the biggest mosques in the Muslim world. Is this due to a lack of respect for Islam? I won’t call myself a big “connaisseur” of the Bible, but I believe that “having respect for the other” is somewhere written in it.

And I am sure that “Thy shall not lie” is also mentioned somewhere in the Bible. So why did the spokesman of the Vatican, Frederico Lombardi, a couple of days ago declare that Pope Benedict XVI “has never, never been a member of the Hitlerjugend”? Although the Pope himself has confirmed his membership of the Hitlerjugend (even in a book) on various occasions in the past. Having been confronted with the real truth, Lombardi had to withdraw his first lie, but stated that the young Joseph Ratzinger had been forced to join the nazi organization. Of course, we already knew that.

I am not complaining about the fact that the Pope has been a member of the Hitlerjugend. It all happened in another era. And if my information is correct, as a result of a special “Hitlerjugend-law” dating somewhere in 1939, every German teenager from seventeen onwards was obliged to join them. And in 1941 membership was obliged for every boy from the age of ten onwards. The Pope was born in 1927, on April 16th. His birthday is the only thing I have in common with him. So he was still a very young man during World War II.

But… change should come to Rome rapidly. The old guys who run the place are making one mistake after the other. In January, Richard Williamson, a bishop who denies the Holocaust, was welcomed back to the church. They promote aids in Africa. They lie to the public. They don’t like gay people.

How many mistakes more are they going to make? I honestly believe the Pope should change his board of advisors rapidly.

And the next message just reached me as well. I would consider this as praying, but it’s only one other difference in point of view that I have with the old guys who run the Vatican.

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Imagine you have a job.

Imagine that, one day, for whatever kind of reason, you decide not to come to work anymore. You don’t say anything to anyone, you just don’t turn up anymore.

Imagine that, a couple of weeks later, you receive a letter from your boss in which he says that he doesn’t like your behaviour and that you are not welcome anymore.

Imagine you don’t like the letter, so you go to the union, calling your boss all kind of names, and you take your boss to court.

Imagine that, once in court, your boss (apparently a real nice human being) is willing to settle for a deal, and is offering you six months of salary.

Imagine you don’t accept that, and you ask for one full year of salary.

Imagine the judge tells you that you should be ashamed to ask for such an outragious amount of money, and you should accept the offer.

Imagine you still want the twelve months of salary.

Imagine your boss refuses to pay you anything more than six months of salary, tells you you can fuck off and agrees to see you again in court.

Imagine that a little bit later, you are applying for a new job, as you need to make some money obviously.

Imagine your new “possible-future-employer” is asking for some references.

Imagine you give the telephone number of your ex-boss…

How is he going to react when he receives a phone call from your “possible-future-employer” ?

You won’t believe this, but this is exactly what happened to me yesterday. Late in the afternoon, I received a phone call from some Human Resources Manager of a Portuguese company who wanted to check on one of my ex-employees, asking me if she can be trusted, as the job was pretty responsible, including a company car and an above average salary.

I told him the truth about her. My truth. I wonder if she’s gonna get the job… But honestly, I just couldn’t care less.

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Why ask ourselves if there is fish for all? With my wife Béatrice and our two Labradors I live in the Spanish province of Alicante. I presume that many people would not like the old and small house we rent in the mountains. But for us it is a superb heaven on the margin of the forest. We overlook the valley and are being offered some of the most beautiful sunsets in the world. Most of our neighbours are sheep, goats, wild boar, rabbits and the occasional fox. They are definitely less noisy than trucks, motorcycles and cars.

Our Spanish friend Benjamin is an organic farmer in Benissa. In his tiny shop we buy bread, marmalade, fruit and vegetables. For things like Kefir and cheese we have to go to a supermarket. The other day I accompanied my wife Béatrice and had a look at the fish counter of the supermarket. It turned out to be a mind blowing experience.

What I saw made me take the notebook I always carry in my pocket and I started writing. Why? Because of the information I found on the price tags. That day there were 51 price tags for 51 different kinds of fish. The list of the countries of origin of that fish is similar to a trip around the world. It started in Holland, going over to Senegal, Italy, Turkey, Portugal, Canada, United States, South-Africa, Namibia, Vietnam, Greece, Morocco, Norway, India, France, Ecuador, Argentina, Peru, China and stopping in Scotland. Do not think that all the fish had been caught in the oceans of our planet. The provenance of trout, dorada, salmon, and shrimps were fish farms in Spain, Turkey, Norway and Ecuador.

For several years I have known that the fishermen in the coastal towns of the Spanish Costas are out of work. In the past I knew the names of the fish we were eating. Today we are being offered fish with totally different names.

Why?

Because the sea, called ‘Mare Nostrum’ by the Romans, that sea that has been the cradle of our Western culture, well that sea is now empty. Over the last 50 to 60 years Europe has reached an incredible ‘high standard of living’ and maybe we consider it to be given to us as some sort of a divine right. We have developed a way of living and eating that has become insane. Today we are eating the last surviving stocks of fish in the world, joined by the United States and Japan.

The indigenous fishermen in Senegal, South-Africa, Namibia, Vietnam, Morocco, India, Ecuador, Argentina and Peru see how their stocks of fish are quickly disappearing. Many cannot feed their families anymore. Looking at the fish counter of a supermarket in a small Spanish town, I felt suddenly ashamed. Was I going to buy the fish that has been for many centuries the staple food of poor fishermen all over the world? Many decades ago I stopped eating meat. I did not want to be part of a vicious, cruel and unhealthy system whereby billions of animals are tortured and degraded before being turned into hamburgers and sausages. Was it bad for my health? Not at all. Today I am 66 years old and still cycling, walking and practicing karate and kobudo.

That day in the supermarket I decided to stop eating fish. And you know what? I am beginning to understand why a village elder in Somalia calls the pirates in his country ‘heroes’.

Enjoy your meal.

Brunothedoglistener

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A couple of weeks ago, I published a post that was written by my good friend Bruno Goffin. I met Bruno in the early days of 1993 during one or the other business meeting in Brussels, Belgium. Since then, we have become good friends. We kept in touch, despite the fact that, over the past sixteen years, Bruno has been living and working in Belgium, Austria, Spain and South Africa while I was working and living in Belgium, the Netherlands, France, United Kingdom, Ireland and Portugal. It is very special to have a good friend like Bruno. I wrote it here before, but I will never forget what it meant to me a couple of years ago when I was in hospital recovering from a serious heart-attack, and he, after finding out, just jumped on a plane in Johannesburg, South Africa, to fly all the way to Portugal to come and visit me.

Bruno has recently moved back from South Africa to Spain. We are now living a bit closer to each other, instead of 8000 kilometers, the distance between us has now dropped to only 800 kilometers. Due to his immense experience in communicating with other human beings, he has developped a peculiar view on life in general. He loves writing, and I am very proud and honoured to be able to announce that Bruno is willing to write some posts on this blog on a regular basis.

I am pretty sure that you will enjoy his posts on various topics that will be published over here in the foreseeable future.

Bruno and I, during a visit in the beautiful city of Obidos, Portugal, November 2007.

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Big news from Belgium reached me this morning. Tom Boonen, one of the current champions in professional cycle racing has been caught for using cocaine during an out of competion drugs test that was done at the end of last month. Apparently, history is repeating itself again. Last year, at the end of May, he was also caught for the same thing. He was not welcome in the 2008 Tour de France, and if the organisers are consistent (and they are), he will be denied to take the start in this year’s Tour de France as well. Today he has already been suspended by his Belgian Quick Step team. I am not going to talk about the legal consequences for this great athlete, but one can ask why someone who is at the top of his career is taking these kind of chances? Being a top athlete, he’s supposed to act as an example for society. He’s got a responsability to his team, his fans, his fellow athletes and to professional cycle racing in general. It is a shame that he is risking to lose it all for this stupid mistake.

According to Lance Armstrong, he is not the only one with this kind of problem. Armstrong calls it a social problem more than a sports problem. I believe he’s right in this. I’ve been told that there are literally hundreds of thousands of cocaine users in Europe. Apparently on almost every party that is being organised by the more wealthy people, one can find this drug. Everytime I go to Lisbon, and go for a dinner in the “Barrio Alto”, there are many cocaine dealers walking the streets, trying to sell the white stuff to passers by. And everytime I wonder where the police are?

I haven’t got a clue what this drug does to a human being. We used to drink alcohol and smoke cigarettes when we were going out a long time ago. Except for the cigarettes, that hasn’t changed over the past decades as far as I am concerned. But maybe I am just becoming a grumpy old man who doesn’t understand why these youngsters don’t think twice if they feel the temptation for drugs.

Or maybe this is just another proof that some professional cycle racers are not amongst the most intelligent of all human beings…

Tom Boonen, in better times, when winning his third Paris-Roubaix less than a month ago on April 12th.

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It happened thirty eight years ago today, on May 8th, 1971. It was my dad’s 37th birthday. As a treat to himself, he had bought a brand new bicycle, a light brown coloured “Peugeot”. At that time, one of the most modern bicycles that was available on the market. I had just become eleven years old / young. The whole family, my parents, me and my sister (my younger brother was born only five and a half years later) went to pick up the bike at the local bikeshop in Aalter, Belgium. Very proudly, my dad jumped on his bicycle and rode it all the way to his parents, who were living about ten kilometers away. My mom was following him while driving the family car, and we were all watching dad, riding his brand new bike as if he was racing a time-trial stage in the Tour de France.

A little later, me, my dad and my grandfather were sitting next to each other on a bench in his garden full of flowers my grandmom was so passionate about, admiring his new toy. I remember exactly my grandfather’s words: “Son, enjoy your life to the fullest, because once you have become thirty seven years of age, the years will be passing by very, very quickly!”. My grandfather was 63 at that time. He passed away in 1994, aged 86.

Somehow, during all my life, I have never forgotten these words, and from time to time, I stand still and take a moment to think about my grandfather’s words. I am now forty nine, twelve years older than my dad was in 1971. As an eleven year old kid, I couldn’t quite catch the meaning of my grandfather’s words. But now, I must admit he was right. Every day is going faster and faster. I’m just making the best out of it each and every single day. Life’s far too short not to enjoy it to the fullest!

My dad is celibrating his 75th birthday today. So… happy birthday dad. Make it a BRILLIANT day today!

My parents and me at their 50th Wedding Anniversary Party on 4th of April of this year.

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