My Life on this planet.

In Belgium, attempts to form a government stalled (partly) due to disagreements over tax reforms as these should be more balanced. While these reforms are essential, they should not disproportionately benefit the wealthy, as this would place a greater burden on middle and lower-income citizens. When the majority can no longer afford to spend, businesses will suffer as consumer demand will decline, leading to a decrease in profits. Initially, probably local companies are more affected, but eventually, even larger corporations will feel the impact as well. In the UK in 2022, Prime Minister Liz Truss ’s government also found it essential to reform the tax system, but her government collapsed shortly after introducing a plan as it was considered too extreme and bad for the economy. PM Truss argued that British taxes were among the highest globally, a claim that seemed exaggerated — especially compared to Belgium’s system which imposes much higher taxes at lower income thresholds. While...

The Roman Catholic Church struggles to do good even when it tries, as it remains trapped in outdated worldviews that even the Pope cannot change within the institution he leads. Pope Francis himself appears unable to fully overcome these entrenched beliefs. Pope Francis I recently visited Belgium to improve relations and reconnect with a Church that has lost many followers over the past few decades, partly due to the widespread sexual abuse of children by priests, which was then covered up by Church authorities to protect its reputation. The legacy of conservative Pope John Paul II , consistently praising "traditional families" but condemning LGBTQ individuals who are part of families, preaching against contraception and abortion while allowing the Church to conceal abuses, still lingers today by many. On the other hand, increasing numbers of people stopped attending Church because they saw a discrepancy between its teachings on LGBTQ issues and contraceptives and their own e...

Wednesday, 15/08/2024 Three years ago, the angels who liberated Afghanistan from the devilish Taliban and al-Qaida after they attacked the USA that resulted in nearly three thousand dead Americans, and after earlier attacks against the USA in other nations, those angels were defeated by the same devilish Taliban although al-Qaida was no longer involved after senior leaders such as Osama bin Laden were killed. Instead, a new force named Islamic State Afghanistan rose who are at the same level, some say even worse, as the Taliban. In the past I have written a history as Westerns know about 50 years of Afghanistan , about 50 years of suffering whereby the years under USA rule were not the worse years. Therefore, many Afghans who realised a defeat of the Western forces was imminent, tried to escape and those who were able to leave Afghanistan were lucky as the return of the Taliban equalled a return of human right abuses, and just as during the first rule of the Taliban especially women su...

02/03/2024 -  Israel faces mounting pressure to investigate Gaza food aid deaths Remember the movie "Noah". In that movie, people were locked in enclosures in huge numbers. In one scene, a living goat was thrown in the enclosure, and people fought to eat it alive. Later the area was flooded and the violence stopped.  In the movie "Exodus: Gods and Kings", the king killed his own people when they were desperate for food and looted his warehouses.  The nazi's starved the Jews in Warsaw until they rebelled and could be exterminated. Quite similar with what is happening in Gaza.  It shows we understand that people will start to fight when they are desperate for food. And thus Israel had to shoot to people who seemingly came towards the Israeli soldiers. We have an official explanation in the article. But we know the first one will be correct as Netanyahu is a pathological liar. Ask old presidents Obama and Sarkozy.  What I find chocking is that president Biden simpl...

I have long not written any post about the gun culture and violence in the USA (see my earlier posts 17), although the killings such as in schools , markets and religious buildings continued. Indeed, when a society continues to defend free gun laws while people die from guns, justice will become stricter to prevent more deaths.  Still, I understand that, as long as a large section of society even threatens with violence when gun laws may become stricter such as exclude people with mental problems, when they become aggressive even when there are only discussions about removing the right to carry semi-automated weapons, than other people need guns to defend themselves against those who may use gun violence when they feel their rights are limited, even when such restrictions will reduce the many deaths during mass killings.  And now, as could be predicted in a society where stricter gun laws are opposed by those who claim they have the democratic right to carry, even use their ...

I like photography. Here a series of photos I took with my NikonD5300 with lens Nikkor 18-300mm during the carnival in my hometown Sint-Truiden. I like them, although I sometimes have troubles as the photos are sometimes too dark, and with up exposure they can sometimes by too light. But, better mastering my camera and lens will likely improve my "wow" factor when straight out the camera.  Here a few pictures, all taken with my Nikon D5300 and lens Nikkor  18.0-300.0 mm f/3.5-6.3.

More of my post on Facebook during January and February 2024 about the terrible conflict between Israelis and Palestinians. FB 03/01/2024 - No targeted liquidation of terrorists, but a collective punishment A minefield in the Middle-East. The bombing of the Gaza Strip continues while Hamas members are murdered outside Israel and the Palestinian territories. As long as the conflict remains limited to the Middle-East, Israel may gain because people in the rest of the world can't continue to protest the tens of thousands of dead and wounded Palestinians. And when Islam terrorism returns to Europe and America when Muslims are angry that too little is done to enforce a ceasefire, Muslims will be blamed. Indeed, mainly Muslims are killed by other Muslims such as likely happened today in Iran, still they continue to blame others for this violence. And thus, for now, Netanyahu likely can continue to order the murders of other humans, instead of a targeted liquidation of Hamas terrorists. B...