Kan het nog hypocrieter ?
De belgische regering "schenkt" een monumentaal kunstwerk" van 105 meter lang en 20 meter breed aan China dat op 23 mei a.s. officieel zal ingehuldigd worden in Peking.
Nonkel Kruk die natuurlijk van niets weet, zegt dat het een beslissing is van zijn voorganger Guynokkio, die een cadeau wilde overhandigen uit naam van de belgische regering naar aanleiding van de Olympische Spelen. Ooit gehoord dat landen peperdure cadeaus aan mekaar geven bij een sportmanifestatie ? Is Guynokkio rond geweest met zijn hoge hoed tijdens een ministerraad en hebben ze daarvan het kunstwerk gekocht ? Dat zal niet, want het ding kost minimaal 5.000.000 euri, 5 MILJOEN. Het geld komt voornamelijk uit onze zakken. De Nationale Loterij, Belgacom en Delhaize betalen ook wat.
U weet het, die Nationale Loterij zit volgestouwd met afgedankte en ondergeschikte partijcreaturen van de traditionelen en al de winsten die gemaakt worden (de overschotten van het gokken) worden in allerlei potjes gestopt. Men moet dringend deze constructie die aanleiding geeft tot ongebreidelde willekeur grondig controleren. Contractueel is de Loterij gehouden bedragen af te staan voor culturele en sportieve elementen die naar de gemeenschappen geschoven worden voor verdeling door de betrokken ministers. Er zijn ook sociale en andere werken die kunnen aanspraak maken op de steun van de loterij.
Daarnaast "sponsort" de loterij zélf een aantal initiatieven via beslissingen van haar Raad van Bestuur (daar zitten ook uitsluitend pionnen van de partijen). Zo laat de regering bijvoorbeeld het Spionnencentrum (het CGKR) sponsoren, met een jaarlijkse toelage van circa 4,5 miljoen euri, net het bedrag voor de loonkosten van de 100 personeelsleden. En nu is er weer een grabbel gebeurd in de kassa van de Loterij en worden uitgaven gefinancierd waarvan men goed weet, dat ze zouden stuiten op enorme parlementaire en mediatieke bezwaren. Welke geheime projecten, doelstellingen, aankopen worden er nog gefinancierd op deze verdoken wijze ? Wie is de verantwoordelijke minister voor de Nationale Loterij ?
Het komt hier op neer, dames en heren, dat al wat de regering buiten de parlementaire controles wil houden (en dat blijkt onder Guynokkio nogal wat geweest te zijn) laat zij financieren door de ondoorzichtige geldmachine die de Nationale Loterij is.
Om dan doodleuk te zeggen als er in kamer of senaat een vraag gesteld wordt : "Daar heeft u niets mee te maken..." Dit is een onuitputtelijke reserve aan grijs geld. Mugabe kan hier nog iets komen leren, hij is de expert van het zwart geld.
En wat zal Anciaux nu doen op 23 mei bij de onthulling van het cadeau ? Als minister van cultuur kan er geen bezwaar zijn om even te komen kijken, niet ? Peking is niet zo ver en hij kan Inge Hermans meenemen van de vrienden van Tibet : in een politieregime voelen beiden zich goed.
Savat
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nationale kloterij
Elke week wordt voor hezelf de meest rendabele combinatie gespeeld. Het gaat als
volgt, de de deelname formulieren worden in de rekencomputer ingegeven, die berekendt welke nummers moeten gespeeld worden om er zoveel mogelijk aan over te houiden. De ballekesfilm wordt gemaakt: met momentopnames van de ballekes wordt een film in elkaar geknutseld voor de nul en konsoorten, dit alles natuurlijk onder toezicht van een gerechtsbeunhaas.
Regelmatig is er gene ene op, het geld blijft lekker op de rekening staan....
Waarom wordt de trekking niet in het openbaar gedaan zoals vroeger met de nationale kloterij? Om de doodeenvoudige reden, het wordt iets te moeilijk om te foefelen.
pralineke
leugenaar (dat mag van de witte)
om over na te denken
Thailand's wealthy untouchables
BBC News, Bangkok
Sometimes a single incident manages to shine a spotlight deep into the soul of a society.
There was just such an incident in Thailand last year, which has just gone to court, and which speaks volumes about the dislocating impact of more than four decades of break-neck economic growth.
It was a seemingly routine accident along Sukhumvit Road, one of Bangkok's busiest and most traffic-clogged thoroughfares.
A Mercedes-Benz was pulled up alongside a city bus, and a young man was having an angry exchange with the bus driver, whom he accused of scraping against his car.
The passengers started shouting at the man, who got back into his car and appeared to be about to leave.
But instead he accelerated forwards onto the pavement and into the crowd of passengers, crushing several of them under his vehicle.
One woman later died, and several other passengers were seriously injured.
A fit of road rage perhaps? The police charged the young man, Kanpitak Pachimsawas, with murder.
But the case very quickly turned into one about class differences, about the perceived arrogance of Thailand's rich, towards the poor.
'Bad attitude'
Kanpitak, it turned out, was the 20-year-old son of a former Miss Thailand beauty queen and a wealthy businessman.
He was also the nephew of a powerful police officer.
The bus driver reported that his father had arrived at the scene and threatened to use his police connections against the passengers.
"He thinks he has money and a big family name, so he can do things like this to poor people," the bus conductor told reporters at the scene.
Kanpitak's father was unrepentant. Speaking on a TV chat show two days later, he showed more concern for his son than his victims.
Responding to the bus conductor's comments he said: "They are uneducated. That's how they are.
"They think they are abused, that rich people are bad, that the police are bad. Lower class people have a bad attitude towards police officers and rich people. They hate us and curse us."
Inequality
Thailand has one of the most unequal distributions of wealth anywhere on the planet, despite some recent improvements.
And that yawning gap between rich and poor is most openly on view in Bangkok, where ostentatious displays of wealth are commonplace alongside the grinding poverty experienced by millions of migrant workers who have come from the countryside.
Luxury cars costing more than the entire annual income of a village rub up against the battered carts of street vendors.
New shopping centres and apartment blocks are crowding out what little open space remains in the city, projects that help the rich get even richer.
It should come as no surprise that it is in Bangkok that a five-star hotel is offering its 50 highest-spending guests what it calls the meal of a lifetime, prepared by a team of Michelin-starred chefs and preceded by the guests being flown by executive jet to a village in eastern Thailand to witness a little poverty before tucking into their 10-course feast.
Total cost: around US$300,000 (£150,000). The event has barely raised an eyebrow in Thailand, but caused such an uproar elsewhere over its questionable taste that many top chefs in France have decided to boycott it.
What is so striking about Thailand's inequality is how little visible social tension there is.
For the most part people appear to accept their lot without resentment. Some put this down to Buddhist concepts of fate and karma, others, to Thailand's deep-rooted sense of hierarchy, with the king at its apex.
Social activist and former Senator Jon Ungpakorn sees more prosaic causes.
"Because of the high growth rates in Thailand there is a sort of buffer," he says.
"Even the poor feel they are doing better than they would have done many years ago. They still see that they have opportunities ahead."
'Damage is done'
The case of Kanpitak Pachimsawas has struck a raw nerve.
Websites in Thailand are filled with comments demanding that the young man face the full force of the law, regardless of his family connections.
Some poke fun at his father's claim that it was mental stress that caused him to drive his car into the crowd.
But there is little of the blistering anger that erupted in China after a similar case four years ago, when a woman who drove her BMW at a farmer she had been arguing with, killing his wife, was given only a suspended jail sentence.
It forced the Chinese authorities to reopen the case, and to close down websites carrying the online debate over the case.
In Thailand, Kanpitak Pachimsawas was released on bail and, amazingly, even allowed to continue driving.
On his first day in court he was apparently overcome by nerves and said he was unable to answer any questions. The judge adjourned the case until November. He may never go to prison.
Suchira Insawan, the daughter of the woman he killed, says she feels no anger towards him.
She has yet to receive any compensation from the Pachimsawas family - she has asked for 7m baht ($222,000; £111,000) but is likely to get less, perhaps even less than the list price of the Mercedes-Benz that crushed her mother.
"The damage is done," she told me. "I forgive him. I don't want to destroy his future, I don't want him to be jailed. I don't want bad karma."
She also had little faith that the courts would find against such a privileged young man.
"Many parts of the Thai bureaucratic system favour rich people. If you are not one of them, you will always be left at the back of the queue."