Thursday, November 19, 2009

President Who?

Whilst not wishing to alienate my ever-growing readership in Oostende (Ostend in old money), Belgium and the wider European continent, I find I now have a President whose name I had never even heard of until ten minutes ago! I am not, like many of the Thanet bewildered, a detractor of the European project, nor am I a supporter of Tony Blair. But having to swear allegiance to the Prime Minister of Belgium, and address him as 'President' van Rumpy-Pumpy is not, frankly, floating my boat!

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

It's amazing how Belgium has benefited the EU. WIthout it, it would have stayed as a small, ugly insignificant country, best rememebered for being trampled to bits by both German and Allied forces during two world wars.

And can anybody recall six famous Belgians? Not including Hercule Poirot, who is fictitious.

Unknown said...

# Eddy Merckx, five times winner of the Tour de France
# Adolphe Sax, inventor of the saxophone
# Herge (Georges Remi) , the creator of TinTin
# Audrey Hepburn, actress
# Plastic Bertrand, punk/rock singer of 'Ca Plane Pour Moi' fame
# Peter Paul Rubens, baroque painter
# Rene Magritte, surrealist painter
# George Lemaitre, astronomer who invented the Big Bang theory
# Albert Claude, the first biochemist to isolate a cancer cell
# Leo Hendrik Baekeland, the inventor of bakelite

Richard Eastcliff said...

Speaking as a fictitious character, I'll see your Hercule Poirot and raise you:

Jean-Claude Van Damme
Georges Simenon
Victor Horta
Herge
Tintin
The Smurfs
Charlemagne
Audrey Hepburn
Rene Magritte
Van Eyck
Van Dyck
Dick Van Dyke
Jacky Ickx
Eddy Merckx
Plastic Bertrand
Pepin the Short

and Jacques Tits (mathematician)!

Richard Eastcliff said...

Great minds think alike, Puffinman!

Anonymous said...

Up your kreik (a beer)

Anonymous said...

What about the Singing Nun. You will remember that she was famous for hits like 'Glory Be to God for the Golden Pill' and of course 'Dominique'.

Unknown said...

Does the owner of the Belgian Bar qualify??