Old and new art in Brussels

Counting down....

Last days here...

Laundry and walk into the countryside this a.m. Laundromat is an expensive proposition here in Belgium. At least this time I did not need the 7 euro ($9) big washer and one 3.5 Euro washer. Just 2 of the 3.5 deals.

Then took advantage of the last day on my rail pass to go to Brussels and walked to the European Union area and then to the Royal Art and History museum. I did not expect to see 2 big stone Easter Island heads! One is one of the oldest discovered from there (1200 CE) and was brought here in 1934. The other was, I think, made by Europeans in the past 30 years. But not sure about the second as can't figure out some of the captions.

More on the EU some other time. It is not there yet, but they are working towards a "more perfect union". I wish we could seriously revisit the ideas of interstate as well as international solidarity for our "democratic republic." Why should MN have a pretty good public health system, moderately high state and local taxes and then have our federal tax money go to higher medical costs in Florida? The EU is so young, so diverse but is trying to work on lots of important issues.

Photos are fun on the EU plaza and banners asking about EU policies.

IF team

Sad too?

The family that cycles together.....

Last cycle ride in Flanders?

I probably had my last Flanders cycle ride for some time today. On the road (and at a couple cafes) for 7.5 hours. I will miss it.

Music & community

I heard 2 more free concerts today. One in the Royal Park in Brussels and the last Thursday night concert here in Zottegem. The noon time band in B is from Lieven's hometown and played what he called folk but I label country. A Flemish “Wabash Cannonball”, medley of Deliverance and Rawhide, yodels, yahoos, banjos, etc. And banter in a local dialect that really tickled Lieven and his brother, but the other Dutch speakers from the office did not “get it.” Tonight a band doing Dave Clarke 5, Jerry Lee Louis, Mitch Ryder, etc. Drummer reminds me of Ron Elwood....

So I think I have attended 15 or more free shows in the past 8 weeks. All of them fun, some every very good. For most of them, esp. those at Zottegem Park there is a full community mix, even people older than me! 19 14-17 year old girls at one corner, 14 14-17 year old boys on the other corner. Some snuggling in the dark corners of the park. Little ,kids running around or sleeping in strollers. Everybody drinking cheap beer but I don't see any drunks. 50 somethings remembering when those songs were young.

Maybe I over intellectualize but I think these community-sponsored and subsidized events are important here for a couple of reasons. One is to maintain community in a small town like Zottegem. Another is a have that community gather across age boundaries. Another is to maintain and build culture in a small sub-nation like Flanders. Its pretty cool. I feel the same way about the Powderhorn May Day parade and about 10 minutes of Grand Old Days. I suppose some feel that way about the State Fair, Acquatennial or Saints, but too much commercialism spoils many such events for me.

more characters encountered when cycling

Saturday cycle and work....

I cycled more or less directly to Ronse today and then took the long way back. 70 km, maybe? Beautiful hills, hamlets, byways and just one stretch of cobblestones. Coffee on the main square in Ronse - the fire department was setting up for a celebration in the square tonight. Tinder dry wood construction set up in the middle looks ready to burn, baby burn. Stage, sound system, lights, bleachers - fun for some!

Excellent cycling weather, cool, mostly sunny, dry - earlier in the week was the warmest day on record for Belgium - 101 F, though I was in a different area that day.

I got back in time to receive a phone call inviting me to meet with a member of the Belgian Constitutional Court on Monday to discuss my project. Another AFS connection of Lieven's, of course. (He and 9 day old Meip were hanging with the Begian Prime Minister and a Belgian Princess at a big AFS celebration in Iepers last year.) AFS isn't like the G8 or the Trilateral Commission, but its got connections....

So, 3.5 more hours of adding stuff. Now I need to start editing down.

Time for a beer. Did I say they have good beer in Belgium?

The face of national health care in Belgium

This is the face of national health care in Belgium. CM is one of 8 nonprofit health and social service firms in the country. Everyone is required to join one of these social insurance firms (SIF). CM has its roots in the Christian Democratic movement, (the moderately conservative political force in Europe, note the Christ and the cross in the CM name and logo) though no longer formally affiliated. The socialists, the farmers and other groupings have their equivalents.

These firms manage health care and payments to doctors and hospitals. People with income have co-payments, but these are capped at a relatively low amount and many people buy supplemental policies to cover those or other costs (like private room in hospital, etc.) The SIF are non-profit but want to succeed as enterprises so they have offices everywhere and compete with lots of services that help with home care, exercise equipment, youth groups, etc. To do this they have to keep customers happy without going broke with excessive treatment costs. So they focus on prevention, rehabilitation and getting people out of hospitals quickly and following up to insure recovery.

The hospitals are all nonprofit and/or religiously affiliated. At least earlier in the decade almost all doctors are in solo practice.

Patients get to choose their medical providers, though I suppose that if a SIF falls out with the doctor of your choice, you may need to change to a different SIF – you can do so quarterly.

How is it paid for? Employees and firms pay tax to government. The tax does not vary according to health care cost risks. If you change jobs or move, you can keep the same SIF. Government pays money to the SIFs based on how many they have enrolled. If you are elderly, disabled, unemployed, you sign up with a SIF and the tax system also covers your costs, including your co-payments.

What is the difference between what this has and what is being debated in the U.S.? This is nearly single payer – government collects taxes and pays most of the costs. Individuals and private insurance cover a relatively small %. The SIFs seem to have a good management role with incentives to keep and get people well. There is no screening for pre-existing conditions, confusing and patch-work coverages. My guess is that they may employ more accountants and clerks than the French or British system but far fewer SIF people are focused on getting healthy people into the company, keeping sick people out and fighting to find ways not to pay the bills of sick people, than we see in the U.S..

There is a political process in which the SIFs, doctors and other medical providers and government negotiate the national budget for health care and thus have some cost controls. A little bit like how the federal medicare system sets reimbursement rates for costs of medicare patients, though far more comprehensive. So, I am sure that doctors, drug companies, SIF CEOs, hospital administrators and the like are not as highly paid in Belgium as in the U.S.. I also will bet that institutions consider very carefully before getting into races to have the absolutely latest technology, upgrading the quality of carpets in their waiting rooms, etc.

So far as I can tell, there is nothing here like the VA medical system that, through clinics, hospitals and an insurance system (Tricare) seems to have grown to be both generally high quality and cost-effective. I wish that model would be more carefully considered in the U.S., but I am OK with keeping the medical providers independent from the government. There is much to be said to just hiring staff to provide a service rather than having the many layers of institutions and costs that the U.S. system now enjoys. That's why we still have a public police department, paid for with taxes and managed by professionals with a goal of public safety, not private profit.

Healthcare and life expectancy are high here in Belgium.

Unfortunately, the Dingell bill for single payer healthcare, that would take the profiteering out of the payment collection and distribution system (insurance companies) seems to be DOA in Congress. If a government plan is included in the reform effort in the U.S. we may make some steps forward. I think that the coop idea is a diversion. Any alternative to the big health insurance “system” will also need to be big in scope to have any impact. And, Group Health, now Health Partners in Minnesota started as a coop but I think is now effectively captured by a management system that is little different from its for profit competitors.

Health care is good and life expectancy is high here in Belgium. According to Reuters, Belgium spends 10.2% of GDP on health and the U.S. 16% (50% more than Belgium as a portion of the economy.) The World Health Organization ranks Belgium at # 21 and the U.S. at # 37. France, spending just a little more as % of GDP (11%) is ranked #1 in the world. It can't be just the great beer and wine in Europe
that makes the difference.

Oh, and by the way, one of my Belgian contacts wants to be sure that we know that the "Palin Death Panels" are still only sitting in profit-making insurance company offices, not in the national health programs in Europe. Her 92 year old relative is scheduled for heart surgery soon.

This one is for Tony F: auto traffic

While i've been in autos only 2x in past 6 weeks, I do traverse the streets frequently. Today I figured out one of the big changes that I could not put my finger on. Almost no stop signs in towns or elsewhere. At major intersections, traffic lights. Or traffic circles - a good design to keep traffic flowing.

Where in US there would be stop signs at every corner, here there is a rule that driver always yields to auto on the right, unless corner is signed otherwise. If there is no-one approaching from right - go thru carefully. If traffic comes from right, wait til it passes. Stop for peds and cyclists in cross walks. This works pretty well but many people drive far too fast. What's new with that?

Saturday cycle to Oudenaarde, Koppenberg

This was a straight shot main road pedal to Oudenaarde, 20 km wsw of Zottegem. It is home to the Centrum Ronde van Vlaanderen (Tour of Flanders Center.) A good museum, starting with a movie which puts you "on the cobbles" quite effectively with three screens. Learned about the history of the race, the history and construction of the up to 300 year old cobbled roads (now officially protected and reconstructed from time to time). Movies, photos, jersies, shoes, cycles, maps, cobbles, stationary cyles set up with screens to simulate climbs, etc. A separate exhibit focused on Eddy Mercxk's July 1969 Tour de France win - it occured on the same day as the Apollo moon landing and Woodstock. Flemish papers divided front page in half - top to EM and bottom to Moon.

After lunch at a very warm town square in Oudenaarde, I set off to find the legendary Koppenberg hill, one of the roughest in the RvV. 682 meters in length, rise of 66 meters with maximum slope of 20% on small and roughly set cobbles.

By lucky accident, I made a wrong turn and came to the top of K from the other side on a windy paved road as I know the road bike and I would never have made it up the nearly straight cobbled path. I saw 2 young guys coming up on fancy new bikes - one made it 70% and had to get off for a while. Later a woman - maybe 30 years old - pushed her way allo the way up quite steadily. Hurrah for her! Cobbles look worse than those on The Muur in Gerardsbergen. If I ever fail a drug test I am sure that it is because Tom Boonen pee'd on the blackberry patch that I sampled fruit from at the top of the hill.

On the way back I did pedal most of the way up Steenberg, 821 m, max. slope of 13%. Nary a cloud in the sky, 85 degrees, I'd say.

Lots of cyclists out, including a group of 20 all in Quick Step kit. Was it the real team or imitators? I don't know, I was riding too fast (in the opposite direction) to see if I could recognize Tom Boonen. Probably not, they are to race in Germany tomorrow. Back next week in Belgium and Netherlands.

Good day. Still thirsty....

Mother Theresa, Fenders, Fedoras and Pogroms

Came back to Z to find the central square and main street looking like the midway of the state fair. Filled with soon to be flashing nosy rides, deep fat fryers, etc. A kermis... More on this later.

 After dinner went to the Thursday night concert in the park. 5 piece blues band, fedoras, Fenders, harp. A song dedicated to Mother Theresa with the refrain "you gotta pick a card..." They'd fit right in at Famous Daves in Uptown. All local guys. By the way, Alice Cooper was here my first weekend in Z, when I was in Brussels at another concert. If this was 1973 I would be kicking myself for missing him. 

 Back to the kermis. here is what Wikipedia has to say: "Kermesse or kermis, is a Dutch language term derived from 'kerk' (church) and 'mis' (mass) that became borrowed in English and French, originally denoting the mass said on the anniversary of the foundation of a church (or the parish) and in honour of the patron. Such celebrations were regularly held in the Low Countries and also in northern France, and were accompanied by feasting, dancing and sports of all kinds. Arguably the first kermesse was an annual parade to celebrate the events of 1370 (some sources say 1369) in Brussels, when all the Jews of the city were burnt alive for having profaned a basket of communion hosts, which bled when stabbed. 

According to one source, those Jews who could prove that they did not profane the hosts were not killed, but were merely banished from Brussels." I found a painting at the Brussel city history museum which shows the story. Hooked nose men stabbing communion wafers, the hosts bleeding, drops being caught in a cup, presumably to be drunk. Just like the priest and communicants, except for the knives. No doubt the Jews of Brussels had accumulated a significant amount of property and were owed money by those in power and it was time for redistribution of resources.... There goes my materialism mixed with cynicism again.... 

Even without the troublesome history I will probably avoid it until Tuesday when there is a big cycle race that starts in Zottegem. I suppose there is an awful story about pogroms associated with most every town in Europe..... Confession - jumped into an issue at LASM today via email....Will try to stay away.

poem: Thinkers Holiday

Thinkers Holiday: Renee Magritte, John Wayne, Texas, 1962

Monsieur Magritte in bowler hat black shiny suit.
Surrealist in disguise.

The Duke in foulard knotted at the neck
He-man or flaneur?

Wayne, drafted by MGM, to rule an empire of lights.
Magritte, a harlequin in helmet, almost … an exquisite corpse.

When the hour strikes
great expectations
the search for truth
the search for absolutes
clairvoyance from the flavor of tears.

A ready-made bouquet is tossed
“And 'blood will tell'” returned.


James E. Wilkinson
August 11, 2009

(they did meet. Credit to Magritte's titles, poetic perturbances of reality, not descriptions, can you find them?. He described WWI era army experience as living dressed in helmet and harlequin suit.)

Human Rights, Surrealism all in 1 Day

I read, wrote, edited and pushed ahead on the research on International Human Rights and deliberate termination of disabled infants lives. 

 

Then I went to the new Renee Magritte Museum on the "hill of arts" in Brussels. His work was always back there in the "pop-art 60s/70s posters" of my limited art consciousness. The museum has a good intro movie and then 3 floors of photos, paintings, video, letters, newspapers, etc. Some of his best pieces I had never heard of before. He lived a mostly quiet life, working in his living room, dressing like a banker, supporting leftist politics (though never compromising his art.) One thing I really appreciated today was how he combined poetic sensibilities with visual arts, both in his concepts and titling. 

After finishing, returned to office to get a briefcase and then headed to Le Fleur en Papier Dore, the bar across the street where Magritte and other Surrealists hung out for years. Its an official historic site and I am sure Renee drank beer at the table where I sat. The painting is The Empire of Lights, one of a series showing a combination of times, lights, etc.

Cycling To & Up "The Wall" in Gerrardsbergen, BE

This is reputed to be one of the toughest climbs in the Rond de Vlaamse or Tour of Flanders. Up to 20% grade, cobblestones all the way, narrowing as you ascend the turns, about 1 km. I would have made it all the way on the mountain bike I think, but walked about 30% as I had the high gear, skinny tire road bike yesterday.

Pierre Mertens, activist and artist

Pierre Mertens is the President of IF, the organization I am working with. He leads the organization, works as a psycho-therapist and does art. Click title to go to his art webpage.

1st bier review, Oude Geuze Boon, Lambic 2006-7

I've had lots of good beer here. This is not the best but it has interesting features. And it inspired me to take notes this afternoon.

Oude = Old. Brewed in Lembeek in the 06-07 season.

Lambic is a style of beer made from water, malt, wheat, hops and nature's own yeast. They reportedly leave the windows open and let the winds carry in what yeast is in the fields and is needed to start the fermentation. E.U. regulators are threatening the production of this kind of beer because they cannot regulate and test and measure every aspect of the process. Bastards - same ones who limit how much info Germans (and I assume others) can put on their wine labels.

Gueze, if I recall correctly, is a mix of lambic brews.

This is a very bubbly beer with a high, fast-fading head. A summer brew, with the lambic's characteristically sour notes supplementing the light and fresh features of a "wit" (wheat) bier. 6.5% ETOH. Tasty, lower alcohol than some of the ales and abbey beers that I have come to like a lot.

The label says "best consumed before April 7, 2029".

Sara's 46th birthday! I decided to push ahead and finish it at the cafe table on the central square in Zottegem so as not to miss the deadline. Mission accomplished.

My work here

If you are interested in seeing an early draft of the introduction of the paper I am working on here, applying international human rights standards to a protocol that leads to euthanasia of disabled newborns because of predicted "poor quality of life" let me know and I will send it to you.

Cycling and Rocking, August 1

Lazy morning, but I went out for 4.5 hours on the road cycle this afternoon. Went NE and then NNW of Z. Fewer hills, bigger farms, some confusion on the cycle point by point system as they have new points that are not on the map and those points obscure the ones I'm looking for. No big deal as its all good biking, even when I find myself going in circles. Wind - seldom at my back of course, 60+ km.

This evening I went to Gent to meet Lieven, Inge and friends to attend the Dioniss music festival. I met their best friends and we heard some really good music. Buurman (neigbor), group that plays folkish rock with a passion. Think Wilco as a US model. They played a song that says, in Flemish, something like “In heaven there is no Bob Dylan, thats why we love him here...” And J Cash's Ring of Fire (in Flemish.)

Next up, Trixie Whitley, daughter of sadly departed Chris Whitley, guitarist and producer recalled by some who dug deep into obscure quality rock in the 70s and 80s. She puts on a very strong show and has good voice and stage presence, with a Joss Stone, Bonnie Raitt vibe. She lived in Gent as her mom is from Belgium. Her songs in English. She could make it big and you might see her in the US as she lives in NYC now.
www.trixiewhitley.com
Then the Gent based Rhythm Junks. I'd call them a rock band with a jazzy horn section and a lead singer who wails on the harmonica. Think of the Stones' “Brown Sugar” feel brought up to date with some added diversity. A very tight band. I was impressed - I generally prefer to keep genres separate, but the RJ's were more than convincing. www.therhythmjunks.com

We left after one upbeat, well-done song by Lady Linn and DJ Red D. I suspect that those who appreciate house/dance music would have liked that show too.

A great evening of free music. Belgium summers are a music freak paradise with huge # of free and not free festivals. Antwerp has a show w/ Lou Reed, Laurie Anderson and John Zorn later in the month. Not sure if they are playing as a group but a fascinating line up. Will have to check the price.