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Showing posts from October, 2011

Is the crisis of the Middle East coming to Europe?

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In the Middle East, people are fighting against their governments: Libya, Tunisia and Egypt have new governments while the Syrian government is still killing its own people untill those in the government will be killed by the people as happened in Lybia (politicians who murder their people deserve to be punished). Often those protests started with people protesting on a square , demanding more rights and freedom of speech . Then the regimes tried to stop the people protesting , using violence and shooting them; as a consequence people became more angry. In the past, by killing some people the governments could control their population. But when people are desperate and hungry (indeed, food prices are rising worldwide because of natural disasters, therefore people can't buy much food and are hungry), guns loss their power. In the meanwhile, Western governments are demanding changes in the Middle Eastern countries: people should be allowed to speak their own mind and protest on t

Indignados

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On Saturday 15 October there was a march of Indignados in Brussels. A few days earlier they arrived after a long walk from Spain, walking through France, bringing people with them and finally arriving in Brussels. They arrived in Koekelberg, close where I live. Koekelberg has a large Basilica (praise the Lord) on top of a large park. And yet, they were told they couldn't stay in the park because the park is protected and the grass, of which some might be several hundreds of years old I assume as it can't be replaced easily when damaged (if these people might even think about damaging it). But the mayor had a solution: the people could stay in an old and empty university building. And I think most people welcomed that as it was cold during the night, and many people came from warm Spain and where not really used to such cold weather in autumn. Thus, Saturday was the demonstration, and the mayor threw the youngsters out of the building while they were in the demonstration f

New job at the FAGG

Since September 1, 2011, I am working at the FAGG (Dutch abbreviation for Federal Agency for Medicines and Health Products). No, it is not an organisation where only fags work (LOL). I was looking for some time for this type of job, although I have to admit I would prefer to work at an earlier step in the whole process. I am closing dossiers, checking that all adjustments to be made in the Summary of Product Characteristics (SPC), the Leaflet and Packaging with regard to legal drugs in Belgium are made (and this for the three languages of Belgium: Dutch, French and German). Reading the SPC and Leaflets I notice I still miss science, gaining its knowledge and meeting other scientists. I would prefer to work in the middle of the whole process because at that level people read and decide about the content of the English texts provided by the industry and they meet each other to discuss the process and adjust it when necessary. The text they approve will then be used in all countries of