Red

Last week the local elections took place here in Belgium. Normally this wouldn't attract so much attention from foreigners, but on Sunday many journalists from abroad had found their way here, to Antwerp. There is a lot to see here for tourists, but this time it were the high expectations about the outcome of the elections that caught all of the attention. You could actually call it some kind of disaster tourism, as everybody had come to see political extremism prevail. Everybody supposed it would indeed happen, over the past years this party has grown steadily and was on the verge of becoming the largest party in certain areas, mainly close by or in Antwerp. I am proud to say now that not everything went as bad as was expected. (Bad in my opinion would of course have been that extreme right would have gained more power) All over Flanders the "Vlaams Belang" had indeed grown, with the exception of two areas, being the city center of Antwerp and one of it's districts Borgerhout, where I live. Here, and in many other regions, the socialist party had grown immensely and for the first time in years the right party had lost some percentages. Not really much of course, but maybe it's a start, at least that is what I want to believe. You could say that that fact that the extremists grew everywhere else overshadows their loss in two areas, but even the right party showed that it was more the other way around. They had not expected to loose in the one place where it all started for them and where their popularity had spread from so also for them this came as a shock. They won't truly admit this, but some behind the screens filming has showed their disbelief and disappointment. Now I just hope that this will go on also in the years to come and that more people would realize that negativism implies no improvement in the way a city or country is governed.

My sister has come up with another alternative for when you aren't happy about the government. She would want to see a party being started, that supports animal rights. What the other ideas of the party would be, aren't very clear yet. I agree of course that animals need to be treated well, kind of equally, but to start a party for it? Maybe if pets would have the right to vote... My cat would want more card board boxes I think, otherwise she seems quite happy over here. :) So far my political statements. ;)

Apart from this red Sunday I also experienced a red Tuesday. Some colleagues at my work meet to practice some sport each week and this time they were going to play volleyball. I used to like this at school so I decided on joining them. It really was a very nice evening, the play wasn't exactly professional so my mistakes didn't stand out that much. :P The main problem however was the ball, it was incredibly hard! With each serve my right wrist hurt like hell, spreading the pain to the rest of my arm and shoulder. Everybody complained about it, so I was not the only one being like a baby (or fuffi ;) ). By the end of the evening I could move my thumb anymore and cycling back home was quite hard each time I drove over a bump with my hands on my steering wheel. :P And sports are supposed to be healthy? ;)