06 septembre 2010

Is there something like a belgian culture ? If so, does it offer room for dialog ?

There is not. Begium is known as the country of compromises, not dialog.

Somewhere in history, our politicians have ruined any survival chance for something like a Belgian culture.

We do not have a minister in charge of culture. Culture has been one of the first thing politicians did split off. We've got one minister for each language: french, flemish and german. And, in Brussels, we've got 3 delegated ministers: one in charge of the french culture, one in charge of the flemish one and one in charge of blilingual projects. That's a lot: six ministers in total. How could this lead to a common culture ? And if by chance, you get the opportunity to visist our public TV and radio stations, you'll discover that they live in the same building and  used to have a shared entrance. Today, the building is split. Feels like our culture is going libanese without the war. And that's our luck, so far. By chance, in Brussels you find some artists like Arno who sings in all langaugaes and doesn't bother about cultural belongings.

But people living in Brussels are not very much listened to ? Politicians make polls and surveys but they make them in Flanders and in Wallonia. Based on these partial and distant insights they define their strategy, their positions. They never include what flemish and french speaking people living in Brussels might think.  And today, while our politicians have to define a future for the country ans its stakeholders, those living in Brussels are forgiotten again.

Why can't we talk to each other ? Because in politics there is something like the economy of democracy. A democracy with three maximizers:

-The politicians wants to maximize the votes he will gain at netx elections,

-The business people who want tpo maximize cashflow for their companies.

-The citizens who want to maximize their confort and way of life. But no attention is paid to those living in Brussels.

All three are aiming at maximizing their goal but know they'll have to cope with the two others. Sometimes two maximisers might join forces. Business man and politicians are trying in most democracies.  UNIZO, Voka, Feb are trying right now in Belgium. And citizens get only one chance toprticipate, through the unions. They are inivited to some talks about the future of our democracy. But who do they represent  ? Are they representative of the citizens ?

More than ever we need pliticians that have a vision for all the stakeholders of this country. More than ever we need politicians who can be elected by all our stakeholders. We need a Belgian culture a Belgian election field and some people fighting for it.

It can't happen without dialog. Is there still room for dialog ? Our TV Sations show how far we've been. They live in the same buliding but don't talk to each other. Except in Brussels, the flemish and walloons have grown indifferent to each other. That is a pitty. That is our pitty. 

Jan Goossens,  the boss of KVS, a flemish theater in Brussels, says that too many people believe claim that the belgian culture is artificial and put their faith in their nation, Flanders. Hebelieves that we, Belgains are the product of multicultural  identities and if we do not protect this, the anglo saxon culture will take over. Steven Spielberg did already acquire the rights of Tintin.

What's left  ? Social networks and committed citizens who dare to express themselves and challenge to maximizers who maximised the number of votes they got and will never get again: Bart De Wever and Di Rupo.  They have nothing in common except a maximum of votes originating from citizens who don not want them to talk to the other. At least, this is the perception of those two maximizers. 

Our country gets a huge opportunity to leverage social networks and show that participatory democracy can do better than what the economic theroy of democracy has shown so far.

Its up to us, citizens..

 

 

 

Posted via email from Dialog or Death

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Welcome on Patrick Willemarck's blog

I'm the founder of Dialog Solutions.
On this blog I want to share views and opinions about business and more specifically about Brands, Consumers, Marketing, market research, innovation, loyalty, etc., all those business aspects that are deeply affected by social media.
Every company shouldn't be present on every social media network. but every company is becoming porous to the outside world and has therefore to become both social and media.

Patrick