Meanwhile In Belgium

Two noteworthy events happened in Belgium these past 24 hours.

I´m sure you´ve already heard about the most recent one: the bomb attacks in Brussels International Airport. It´s been four days since the main suspect in the Paris attacks was captured in Brussels, so it didn´t really come as a surprise. We´ve been hearing for years how our country is the focus point of unhealthy terrorist attention. I´m even surprised this hasn´t happened earlier. Like a bad migraine breaking through after you´ve been feeling it coming for days.

Belgium has now raised its terror threat level to 4, which is the highest level.

(One of the reasons this is all happening in Belgium, the bellybutton of Europe, is explained here.)

 

The other event, one you might not have heard about, happened yesterday (Sunday 21 March 2016): 25000 people took to the streets of that same beleagered Brussels. Their message was: there are alternatives. There are alternatives to repression, to fear, to cutbacks, to an unsustainable economy, to turning the country into a police state, to mutual distrust, to fear.

 

It takes only a few people with bad intentions to blow up an airport.

But it takes a lot more to mobilize 25000 people to get out of their house on a Sunday. (Especially in a country that only has 10 millions inhabitants and where Sundays are sacred.)

I believe in that power.

May that Good Force be with us.