Thoughts of the day.

There is an agreement in Belgium to sign the CETA deal with Canada, we can all go back to sleep now, the power of global economics has beaten local worries and questions about sovereignty yet again. The whole debate made it clear to me that 'europe' is not and can not -ever- be for the people it claims to represent. We call it the E.U. 'European Union' we used to call it the EEC, which was a little bit more honest, because that included the extra 'E' for economic. It's all about trade and economy and that takes first place above local and cultural concerns, or working practices. Multinationals rule the world, for them it's easy , more and more produce is being concentrated in less and less hands, hands that don't have to reckon with 'democratic' elections -all the CEO's and corporate magnates have to do is make sure the shareholders keep increasing their dividends and they are in the clear. Politicians have to get elected every few years...

This morning I spent an hour in the cafetaria of our local hospital, to be honest it’s more like a bar. I was at the hospital after giving a friend a lift (he was in for a check-up - finger up the bum- man stuff).  The cafe at the hospital is typical Belgian, a guy in dressing gown a few tables down - obviously an inmate - ordered a dark brown Belgian special monks beer -it was 10:00 am. With the beer came the little bowl of nuts which had probably been given to a few customers before him, nuts that had been fondled and touched by all sorts of disease ridden patients I fantasized.  You’d think that a hospital café/bar would only serve healthy snacks and drinks, but it was quite the opposite, cakes with lush cream toppings, beer, toasted sandwiches with artery clogging cheese fillings, all on sale. It’s as if the hospital had created the perfect business model - curing people while creating the next generation of patients/customers.  It’s the times we live in, eve...