Lots of ink has flown since the terrorist attacks in Paris, a lot of it was a bunch of nonsense. I’m not going to address that. What I will speak of is how the attacks relate to my home country, Belgium, what the future holds and how I plan on living my life in this “new” reality. To do that, I have to go against my policy of refusing to talk politics. To paint you an accurate picture, I need to address the political situation in Belgium even though I’d rather not get into it. To be clear:
- I will not engage in political discussions in the comments section. If you do so, I will either block your comment or ignore you.
- Both people from the left and the right will not appreciate what I have to say. If I get everybody upset, I’ll probably come closer to the truth than if I only get one side angry. For the record: I despise all politicians equally.
- If you do get angry, see the first point in this list.
- I will only speak of Belgium. If any of it applies to your country too, fine. If it doesn’t, equally fine as I wasn’t talking about your country to begin with.
That said, here are my thoughts.
The Paris terrorist attacks
Last Friday, I drove through one of the Brussels municipalities called Molenbeek (we’ll get back to that) on my way to dinner with friends. I made some comments to my girlfriend about the state that municipality is in, the problems there and how one day, it’ll blow up… A few hours later we left the restaurant, I checked my cellphone and saw the news of the Paris terrorist attacks. My first thought was “It’s begun.”
The writing has been on the wall for years for the Paris attacks, I’ve often stated both in private and in public that terrorist attacks are to come both in Europe in general and in Belgium in particular. Back then, the response I usually got was ridicule or eye-rolling. Today, the response is fear and panic. Neither response is useful.
It’s early days, but from the looks of it, this is the attack I’ve feared for a long time was coming. Some of the changes that have been seeping into EU societies will now pick up steam and get implemented at an increased rate. More on that later, but first and foremost: my condolences to all the families of the victims.
The connection to Belgium
Many of the Islamist terrorist attacks in Europe (and beyond) are linked to Belgium in general and Molenbeek in particular:
- The Paris attacks.
- The Charlie Hebdo attack.
- The Thalys train attack
- The Verviers foiled terrorist plot
- The assassination of Massoud
- The suicide bombing in Iraq
The list is longer than this, but you get the picture: this has been going on for a long time.
There are many reasons why jihadist terrorists find Belgium such an attractive place to stay. I won’t cover all of them, just the ones I feel are most relevant. Let’s start with the first one.
Belgium is an artificial state with systemic failure built into it.
Long story short, Belgium was created as a buffer to keep other European countries from going to war all the time. The current result is three ethnic communities (Dutch-speaking Flemish, French-speaking Walloon and German) forced together into a construction that never worked properly and likely never will. For example, for a country with only about eleven million inhabitants: [Read more…]
