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"The basis of our governments being the opinion of the people, the very first object should be to keep that right; and were it left to me to decide whether we should have a government without newspapers or newspapers without a government, I should not hesitate a moment to prefer the latter. But I should mean that every man should receive those papers and be capable of reading them." – Thomas Jefferson There are times when people ask me if I’m French and I reply, half-jokingly, “don’t call me French, I’m Belgian!” I take an offended tone; I don’t want to be French. But today, I am, everyone is French, I am and everyone else is Charlie. Sitting in my mum’s house in the French countryside, we’re grieving, the tears and whisky are flowing. We are scared at the idea that there are people in this world who are willing to kill because they didn’t find a joke funny. The radio is on, we’re following the development of the events, listening to the day-long homage to the...

When talking about homophobia and horrible countries that pass anti-gay laws we often think about Putin's Russia, Uganda, Mugabe, and such. These places are more or less far and their society are perceived as traditional, old fashion, nothing like our Western society that is so amazing. Yet we needn't look so far from home... We forget homophobia is on the rise everywhere, even in Europe. I feel awful whenever I tell my girlfriend I can't hold her hand when we're walking in the centre of Brussels, the capital of Europe. She doesn't hold it against me but I get angry at our society where I can't feel safe because of who I love. A week after Kansas almost did the same but gave up at the last minute, Arizona passed a bill that would allow businesses to refuse to serve or give medical treatment to gays on religious grounds . First off if you want to get biblical, according to the scriptures, you should hate the sin, not the sinner (Matthew 5:43-44, 6:14-15, ...

I currently live in the German Colony of Jerusalem, it's south-east of the city. Right now the numerous muezzins are calling for prayer "Allaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah w'Akbar!", it feels very unreal sometimes. Sometimes it feels like thousands of people are crying at the same time, desperate. Sometimes it feels serene, calm, hopeful and peaceful. In the part of the neighbourhood I am in, most people find it invasive. They believe Arabs do it on purpose to bother them. That's what people have told me how they feel about it anyway. Down the streets begin the Arab part of the city, all the way to the wall. That famous separation wall I can see from my bedroom window. I stare at it. My bedroom window view. When the weather allows it you can see the mountains in the background. It's not rare to hear gunshots. And on Fridays, there are usually weddings, fireworks, it makes me want to go party with them. I think I might go crash a wedding in the next three mo...

Many of my friends and some members of my family don't understand this but I don't like going to Brussels town centre or taking public transport in Brussels especially the underground transportation. They tell me I'm being unreasonable, paranoid and weird. A few days ago, Sofie Peeters, a Belgian film student released her short movie/documentary that raised a lot of debate. The film, "femme de la rue" depicts sexism in the centre of the capital. I don't consider myself to dress in a provocative way, it is not my style, I don't like women that do not because it is (they do what they wanna do)  but because in my humble opinion it is vulgar, I don't want to see a girl's chest on the same account that I don't like low cut jeans that show off men's asses (and often women too) because I don't need nor do I want to see people's attributes other than in an intimate context. Many people say that victims of sexual harassment in the str...

Yes. Again. The Kony 2012 has quickly been criticised on the basis of numerous arguments (If you still don't know what I'm on about, I suggest you get out of your cave). Once again today I contributed to Rupert Murdoch's fortune by buying The Time in which Daniel Finkelstein wrote a pretty good opinion piece on the campaign. I must say I agree with him. While it is probably naive to think that the Western World can put an end to the LRA and arrest Kony just like that, because people have seen the Hollywood-like, 30-minute-long film and felt really bad (my eyes teared up, I admit it) because let's face it, Western Governments aren't interested in spending a great deal of resource on arresting a powerful man as Kony, it's all about business and money, what's in it for our governments? Nothing so chances they will act are close to nothing. People have criticised the fact the documentary is too Hollywood-like and manipulative. I have to say yes, it might...

For a little while now I have been struggling to find a subject to write about but tonight I have found something that really affects me. You might have seen KONY 2012 posters, people wearing tshirts with the same slogan or even heard about a man named Joseph Kony and wondered what it was or who he is. I urge my readers to support the KONY 2012 campaign and to raise awareness to stop the criminal that Joseph Kony is. For almost three decades Kony has been abducting children from their homes to turn them into soldiers or sex slaves. Kony is the founder and leader of the Lord's Resistance Army which fights for a theocratic governments based on the bible laws and while it started in Uganda, the LRA has now spread to other African countries. An estimated 66,000 children are forced to fight for them. These children are forced to mutilate others, to kill their own parents and other terrible things. Last year, Obama sent 100 advisers to help the Ugandan Army catch this man but t...