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(18p) No Belgian apologies for its colonial past - A missed opportunity

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The Belgian Commission on Belgium's colonial past was a failure as politicians didn't want to agree on an apology about the terror under, mainly, king Leopold II's reign in Congo, although later also Belgium didn't always act correctly. Originally an apology was planned although without compensation , but even this was too much.  Belgium doesn't apologise for its past in its colonies It is beyond believe that Belgians still don't want to condemn officially and with the strongest possible wording the crimes, the genocide committed under their second king Leopold II who allowed the mutilation and dead of men, women, even children when they didn't work hard enough, and to use the violence as an example for others to work harder. Estimates are that up to 10 million people died under king Leopold II's rule over Congo as his personal property; he should never have taken that land. Remember Hitler's 6 million Jews, and most Germans are rightly ashamed of ...

(18o) Being part of society - the World Cup as example

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27/11/2022.  Fights between Moroccans and police in Belgium during and after the World Cup match Belgium versus Morocco. Of course, many Belgians but also those belonging to the Moroccan culture are furious. Why this violence? During a next game, Moroccans formed a human chain to control the violent persons  and prevent fights with the police. Of course, parents should try to avoid aggression by their children although distrust towards police, and more general society should not be so intense that their children refuse to acknowledge the authority of police and more general, government. First, we also complain about Belgian hooligans during Belgian competition games . Thus, it seems that a certain part of football supporters is attracted to football for a fight, not for the game. I repeat, a certain section of football supporters, whether Belgian or Moroccan supporters. Heavy machinery to stop potential supporters from entering the centre of Brussels But, I think a problem ...

(10s) Women, often the enemy of their own progress - Abortion as example

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Who are often the biggest enemies of progress for women apart from the obvious men who try to secure their own positions at the top? Indeed, women.  First of all, I understand why certain people are anti-abortion as they cannot understand that a woman doesn't want her baby, someone who should be someone to look forward to according them. Still, certain of these anti-abortion people are not interested in babies, for them this is a religious political issue to gain votes. It is similar with certain powerful politicians who claim people should not divorce but they have extramarital relations their partner doesn't know about; for the public eye they seem to be faithful but in practice they are not although they are not divorced. The below article discusses why abortion is sometimes important, just as contraceptives are important to pervent unwanted pregnancies, and thus abortions. It also describes how women can be used by men for their century old conservative agenda, even when wo...

(17j) More deaths in USA as a result of weak gun laws

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Although I hoped there would be fewer mass shootings in the USA than previous years, I always feared many more may come. And thus, after a silence on gun violence after previous posts (see numbers 17 such as 17e and 17i in which I already referred to other mass shootings that killed), here another article on my blog after another two recent shootings in the USA that killed more than 30 people, including many children - some of below texts were first publications on my Facebook account.  The solution? Fewer weapons, and certainly semi-automatic guns should not be available. But, opposition to stricter gun laws is strong, certainly in certain mainly rural and conservative states so little can change and more evidence that weapons in society kill is likely to become available after more future shootings. Indeed, first comes a period that supporters of free gun-ownership can proof that supporters of stricter gun laws are wrong and thus that more weapons in societies protect people. I...

(15e) Afghanistan, 50 years of hell and no end in sight

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Since before August 2020 and still , many discuss America's involvement in Afghanistan as the USA retreated from Afghanistan, together with its allies. Certain people voice happiness as the USA seems to be defeated and they hope the USA may collapse, just as the Soviet Union did not long after it retreated from Afghanistan, and as many other empires did before in that troubled country. For the world, I hope the USA is not defeated as a power as we still need it (without saying the USA never made mistakes such as support of dictators). Publications condemn the West for having left Afghanistan and even suggest the Russians were not as bad as Western policies. I do agree we should have help Afghans who helped the West during the occupation as these people are now at the mercy of the Taliban. But, I do not agree that we need to provide help when people didn't accept freedom when it was in the country and even fought against it and killed Western soldiers. In this publication I sta...