Sunday, December 28, 2008

Holiday Greetings

With a few colleagues/friends, we went to Ho Chi Minh City to celebrate Christmas. I had experienced one Christmas before in this motorbike mad city and remembered it to be insane. The crowds would not disappoint me and in combination with Vietnam’s first leg victory over Thailand in the ASEAN Cup, everybody more or less went berserk.

We had German cuisine for a change and I thoroughly enjoyed the bratwurst with red cabbage. As a starter, I had Hungarian goulash soup and it was really to die for. It brought back some memories of my mother’s home cooked meals.

I’d like to wish everyone a belated Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. I hope all your wishes and dreams will come true.

Vietnam stage late rally to clinch Southeast Asian title

HANOI, Dec 28 (Reuters) - Vietnam scored a last gasp second-leg equaliser to finish 1-1 with Thailand and clinch the Southeast Asian championship for the first time on Sunday.

With the match tied 2-2 on aggregate and seconds away from extra time, the dangerous Le Cong Vinh leapt high above the Thai defence to head home Nguyen Minh Phuong's free kick and spark wild celebrations at the My Dinh stadium.
Three-times champions Thailand, upset 2-1 in the first leg, had most of the chances and went ahead after 21 minutes when Teerasil Dangda beat the goalkeeper to head Sutee Suksomkit's free kick into the net.
Thailand paid dearly for their misfiring and conceded a disputed free kick deep into stoppage time, which Vinh flicked into the net to earn Vietnam their first international title.

Here are some pictures I took in Vung Tau. Everybody came out onto the streets with their motorbikes and lots of people were waiving the Vietnamese flag. They were certainly enjoying the moment.


Tuesday, December 23, 2008

Belgian PM's resignation accepted

The Belgian king has accepted the resignation of Prime Minister Yves Leterme's government, but asked it to stay on in a caretaker capacity.
Former PM Wilfried Martens has been asked to mediate in efforts to put together a new government. A palace statement said Mr Martens had accepted.
Analysts tip another former PM, Jean-Luc Dehaene, as favourite to head a new interim coalition.
Mr Leterme offered to resign amid a row over the sale of troubled bank Fortis.
The moves come after a series of consultative meetings over the weekend to consider the impact of the government's resignation during the current financial crisis.
Mr Leterme only took office in March, nine months after a general election had resulted in political deadlock founded in tensions between Flemish and Walloon groups.
He tendered his resignation in June after he failed to push through plans to devolve more power to the regions, but the king rejected it.
Court ruling
Fortis bank has been one of the European banks hardest hit by the credit crunch, leaving it desperately short of cash.

The government was forced to take over and sell nearly all of the company's assets.
Hundreds of thousands of investors were left with virtually nothing and so began a successful legal action effectively preventing the asset sale.
Earlier this month, the Brussels appeal court ruled in favour of the shareholders and froze the sale of most of Fortis to France's BNP Paribas, which was supposed to have been finalised this week.
Last week, Belgium's Supreme Court president said there were "undoubtedly significant indications" that members of the Belgian government had attempted to influence the outcome of the court case.
Belgians sometimes make sarcastic jokes that they live in a banana country, crudely referring to what happens politically in some third world countries. I hope this will be the start of a political rejuvenation, because with all due respect, bananas taste better in South East Asia/Africa/South America than in Europe.

Friday, December 19, 2008

Belgium's government in crisis over Fortis

RNW News
19-12-2008

Belgium's Prime Minister Yves Leterme has been accused of trying to influence a judge in the Fortis takeover case. On Thursday the opposition called for his resignation. A higher court, the Court of Cassation, is investigating the matter.

Prime Minister Yves Leterme of Belgium After an eight-hour session on Thursday evening the cabinet decided that neither the prime minister nor any ministers would step down. Belgium's VRT public television is reporting that ministers were discussing the possible resignation of Mr Leterme, as well as Deputy Prime Minister Didier Reynders and Justice Minister Jo Vandeurzen over the affair. It has not been confirmed that all three were involved in the alleged pressurising of the judges.

A decision on the ministers' position has been postponed until publication of the Cassation Court report about the judicial procedure that led to the verdict in the Fortis case. The court will report on Friday.

So what happened?

A week ago the Court of Appeal in Brussels declared that the government's sale of the Fortis Bank to BNP Paribas of France should not have taken place without shareholders' consent. The sale of the state-owned bank has been frozen for 65 days. A senior official from Mr Leterme's office contacted court officials in an attempt to prevent the Court from reaching this decision. The Prime Minister has confirmed that there was one such contact.

Earlier on Thursday, parliament wanted to question Mr Leterme about his contact with judges in the case, but he failed to appear. The speaker of parliament had been sent a letter by the Court of Cassation, which contradicted the prime minister's earlier assurance that he had not tried to influence any judge.

Avoiding a new crisis

The parties in the governing coalition are not eager to break up the cabinet, which is made up of five parties: two Liberal, two Christian Democrat, and one Socialist. It took nine months to agree on a coalition programme, during which time Belgium was practically without a government. A new period of political uncertainty, particularly during a difficult time for the national economy, is something that many politicians in Brussels say they want to avoid.
Kristof: I feel ashamed, embarrassed, disgusted...

Thursday, December 18, 2008

Life in Vietnam

It’s been a pretty busy time lately. Not really because of a huge amount of work or anything like that, I’ve just been busy trying to collect my thoughts. Trying to fit some of the pieces of the life jigsaw puzzle together. The most important decision I have made is that I will stay at least one more year in Vietnam. Leaving would have too many negative impacts on both my teaching and sports career.

Ultimately, I would like to continue combining work/studies with my duathlon and triathlon career. I achieved some great results the past year and would like to see where the sky limit is for me. As I’m still young, I feel I can still make progression in certain areas, especially on the bike and swim. Keeping a status quo is at this time the best way to go.

I have started training again for the upcoming season. I’ve had a bit of a setback concerning my left knee. The inflammation has returned and for the past week or so, I’ve only been able to swim. I hope there is no extra cartilage damage. I’m going to assess the situation and hopefully with some rest, the injury might solve itself. Otherwise, it’s another date with the MRI machine and I’m not looking forward to that.

The injury comes at an unfortunate time as for once, fortune might have decided to give me a bit of a sponsorship boast. Through my coach, I might be able to get a new bike for free. It would be a Valdora Cycles frame, Profile Design bars, Hed wheels and Token components. I’m keeping my fingers crossed.

Thursday, December 4, 2008

Lizi and Hintong's Wedding Mama Mia

As promised, here are some pictures of the wedding of the Mama Mia gang doing their duties for the groom.

Wednesday, December 3, 2008

I guess I'm a lazy bastard

Last night, I covered uncountable and countable nouns in my intermediate adult class. I gave certain instructions and the students had to write a noun compatible with 6 different quantifiers. One of the instructions went as followed: Write down some things you can buy with your salary.

The first person to complete the instruction was my female student Van. She gave her answers and concluded the exercise by saying “and only one husband”. I couldn’t resist the temptation and had to ask her how much she was willing to give for a husband. She gave quite an ambiguous answer and I continued by asking her how it would work. Do you go to a room with a big glass window and you just choose the candidate you like most? I like number five, please. And then suddenly she said: “Don’t worry teacher, I wouldn’t want to buy you. You’re too lazy. You’re never home and never cook your own meals. I can’t rely on you, especially if I have children.”

I spontaneously started laughing. How could I argue? I am lazy to cook my own meals. Why would I when I can buy them all prepared and ready to eat for US$ 2? I think I’m going to stick to my laziness.

Tuesday, December 2, 2008

Writing is therapeutic

One of the greatest weaknesses I have is that at the core of my heart I want to believe that all people are genuinely good. Obviously, doing so spells naivety and it’s just not a realistic philosophy to adopt in today’s world. The last few days, Asia has been rocked by tragedy in Mumbai and sheer political lunacy in Thailand.

Up to this day, the most amazing trip I have ever made was my four month tour of southern India seven years ago. The whole experience was more than mind blowing. I remember arriving in Mumbai and absolutely hating it without any rational thought. I knew I had to give this metropolis another chance. Just before I went back home, I stayed a few days in this cultural hub and fell totally in love. To watch the Taj Hotel being ravaged and scores of people dying by terrorists who totally defy the core of Islam, has been hard to bear. India has just had its own 9/11.

Perhaps lunacy isn’t the appropriate word to describe the current crisis in Thailand. Maybe economic and political suicide is a better summary. One million people could lose their job due to the struggle for power. The government and the opposition are giving a new definition to hypocrisy. And the normal Thai is sandwiched between all this mess.

Another character flaw I have, besides my naivety, and I know it sounds like a contradiction, is the difficulty I have to trust people. Living in Vietnam certainly doesn’t help. I’m not going to get into the psycho-analytical reasons, but generally speaking foreigners fall into a different class. That means you always have to hold your guard. When you actually meet a local who you might get along with, might appreciate as a friend, and then have more lies and deceit slapped in your face, it hurts twice as hard.

My mission for the next few weeks: find some people who are genuine, folks you can trust. I’m tired of this protective wall around me. It’s starting to suffocate me.