Monday 9 June 2008

Discrimination at the heart of the EU!

I've just got back from a two-week visit to Belgium. Did you wonder why things had gone at bit quiet? I felt very relaxed whilst I was there; now I've come back to my desk to find 526 posts waiting to be read in my feed aggregator -  a lot of them about  the TechEd conference that Microsoft have gone and held in my absence and the announcements of  a whole load of new stuff that I'll feel compelled to read up on.

Enough of my post-holiday blues; on to more important matters. Whilst away I came across a shocking example of unfair discrimination. Have a look at this sign that I saw in a shop, posted on a refrigerator stocked with alcoholic beverages:

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Can you believe it? I couldn't. Only 100 km from Brussels, the HQ of the EU, that champion of Human Rights, and I find such blatant discrimination against inoffensive, hard working members of the population. What's more, this was in the heart of the Flemish Polder - flat lands, reclaimed from the sea by dykes - a more unlikely place to be overrun by marauding miners, I can't imagine.

What a difference a letter makes, eh? ;-)

P.S. I have nothing but gratitude for the kind people that ignored my ignorance of their language, and spoke to me in mine. And sheer admiration for our tour guide in Bruges, who not only provided commentary in four different languages, one after the other (including off-the-cuff remarks about the cute baby swans), but also piloted the boat through Bruges' miniscule bridges at the same time!

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