－Omid-X to Esperan-M (his mother)－
My lifegiver, after a few days’ passage through northern France, I crossed the border into this tiny country called Belgium, and now I am comfortably settled in my hotel room in Brussels, the capital of Belgium. Tomorrow I will be on my way to visit different parts of the country’s northern region, called Flanders. As the name signals, this area is the land of the Flemish people, who are ‘close’ cousins of the Dutch people, in the Netherlands. In fact there is very little difference between the Dutch and Flemish languages, the differences are generally concentrated in the pronunciation (Dutch harsher than the ‘melodic’ Flemish) and the vocabulary (Flemish including some French words in its vocabulary).
But tonight I want to write about my discoveries and thoughts while I was strolling around Brussels most of the day. You will notice, my lifegiver, most of the stories have very little to do with the city itself, but being in this city prepared the background and the setting of the thoughts and discoveries.
You see, soon there is a general election across many countries around here－the grouping that is called the European Union (EU)－and many analysts give the collective of the different parties of extreme-right tendencies as the big winner of this upcoming European elections. Now the collective will not (hopefully) get absolute majority, and hopefully not even a ruling majority, but they will probably become King-makers, even though these EU Parliament members have limited ‘real’ powers.
As I was walking around Brussel’s Grande Place to digest a hearty lunch and to absorb all of what Balthy had just told me－my local philosopher friend, Blathazar Simeone－I thought of the city center and how it touches both on the majestic and small-town looks. The city being the administrative center of EU, you see and you get significant levels of politics, diplomacy, even military vibes, which can easily overwhelm your senses. And yet, Brussels is a small town.
Yes, so Balthy was telling me that when he looks at where EU is these days, he has tears in his eyes. He tells me that for the past 8-10 years many heads of states or governments in the European countries constantly used the fear of the extreme-right to get elected. Whether from the right or the left, these politicians promised time after time to stand up to the emergence of disruptive extremism. Yet, cycle after cycle, the Europeans saw very little improvement in their lives, and a progression of extremism in votes.
I had never seen Balthy like this. You could see the pain of a strong believer in the goodness of the European Union who has witnessed its decomposition and the disappearance of the values and ideals he had for it. A total loss of bearing and ambition.
Yes, my lifegiver, it was not pleasant to see the end of hope in his eyes, but I am convinced that just as our planet managed to survive and even improve itself after the great implosion, these earthlings will do so, for they cannot be dumber than our own citizens in the few decades before the great implosion.
From Brussels, Belgium - 16 April, 2024 (Earth)