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Pastimes : Kosovo -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: goldsnow who wrote (15858)	1/27/2000 4:40:00 AM
From: GUSTAVE JAEGER	Respond to of 17770

Re: His university teachers have even thinner memories of their new leader. Putin seems to have glided through the prestigious Leningrad (now Saint Petersburg) law faculty without leaving a trace. He got his degree in 1975 and with it, a job in a Russian secret service department, then part of the KGB. Gus, your teachers remember you well, right? ROFL! Actually, a couple of my teachers might indeed recollect me as a lazy-brilliant oddball.... So, as far as my student background goes, I don't fit exactly Putin's career path. But, more importantly, I'm not currently employed by the Belgian Gestapo --I'm rather a freelance cyberpundit. Did I ever contemplate running for some political role in Belgium? Not even in my wildest dreams!! If anything, I'll end up as kinda political refugee in the U.S. Am I making a fool of you? Just look at what's going on in Austria right now and figure it out.... Remember when I was hinting at the coming clash between Neofascistic Europe vs. Laissez-faire America? I've written a paper on this issue a couple of years ago.... maybe I'll put it online on my Suite101 e-parlor. Besides, remember that I've branded myself as a pro-Yankee Anarchist, a much too weird label for conservative Belgium :o( Unlike France, Belgium has never hosted a strong leftist intelligentsia and, while the French have had, since Pres. F. Mitterrand's election in 1981, several Communist Ministers, conversely, in Belgium, the PTB (ie Parti des Travailleurs de Belgique) is depicted as a terrorist-like gang! Belgians are always striving to display a mild-mannered, pragmatic image of themselves in the political sphere as well as in more mundane areas (such as business, everyday customs,....) However, such a squeaky-clean veneer conceals a rather murky reality.... For instance, the Dutroux fiasco prompted a dramatic parliamentary commission that was broadcasted live on two national TV channels in 1997. After lengthty hearings --sometimes till all hours-- several members of Parliament came to the conclusion that the Gendarmerie was actually un Etat dans l'Etat, that is a law unto itself, overriding the two other Constitutional powers (basically the Executive and the Legislative ones). Part of the reason for such a deleterious intrigue lies in the language struggle between the rising Flemish bourgeoisie and the French-speaking/friendly old guard. So, Goldsnow, as you can see, it's not easy to take up politics in such a narrow-minded environment: in Flanders, the political agenda will be more and more ethnic-conscious as the hawkish bourgeoisie will prevail over the moderate Christian-democrats... Whereas in Wallonia tensions will intensify between the nostalgic (mainly Catholic and managerial) bourgeoisie and the "France" lobby. (To be continued) Gus.