December 6, 2007
Frozen Conflict, Duplex Suite
The Avenue Louise is the most elegant shopping district in Brussels, but these days you are just as likely there to run into the leader of some embattled former Soviet republic as the bejewelled wife of a Belgian millionaire.
At the Conrad Hotel (Ave. Louise 71), where a duplex suite with a kingsize bed for a couple on a romantic getaway costs €1,865 a night, I had an enlightening conversation on Thursday morning with Lado Gurgenidze, the new US-educated prime minister of Georgia.
As a former managing director and emerging markets specialist at Dutch bank ABN Amro, not to mention Putnam Lovell, a boutique investment bank, Gurgenidze was surely less impressed than I was with the glories of the Conrad Hotel. This is disconcerting, because he doesn’t even turn 37 until December 17.
Still, Gurgenidze is clear about what needs to be done to ease Georgia’s acute political and social tensions. After taking office last month in the wake of opposition street protests, he quickly raised salaries and pensions for the less well-off, and he came up with extra funds for internally displaced Georgians.
"I’m a libertarian, for God’s sake, but here I am going ahead with pension and salary increases," he said, as if amazed at his own recklessness. "I’m only doing so out of the deep conviction that it has to be done to ensure the continuity of the economic reforms."
Further up the road (Ave. Louise 381-383) is the Warwick Barsey, a smaller hotel where a prestige suite with a king bed costs a mere €760 a night. Here on Thursday afternoon I found myself next to a man who could hardly be more different from Gurgenidze - President Vladimir Voronin of Moldova.
Voronin is a 66-year-old ethnic Russian communist who once ran a bread factory in Dubasari (remember the taste of Soviet bread, anyone?). He later had one of those jobs only the Soviet Union could have invented - and did: "Vice-director of the organisation section of the central committee of the communist party of the Moldavian Soviet Socialist Republic".
Voronin was in Brussels to tell European Union officials that it was high time to get Romania, the new EU member-state that is his much bigger neighbour, to behave itself. He is peeved at what he thinks is a refusal by the authorities in Bucharest to treat Moldova as an authentic, independent nation.
Well, Voronin may have a point. But Gurgenidze appeared to get the more sympathetic hearing this week from EU officialdom.
So here’s a tip for Voronin. Next time you’re in Brussels, check into the Conrad. After all, my wife and I can hardly occupy the duplex suite every night.
I had no idea that the tennets of Libertarianism included state spending that is three times higher than necessary in order to cover the travel expenses of public servants…
…but there you go.
Posted by: Dave | December 7th, 2007 at 9:48 am | Report this commentBrussels and Belgium ,at the center of Europe, must get its own house in order and select a working Government right away, make Brussels an example of public transportation and Energy Independence by installing solar panels and concentrators everywhere possible and in every street lamp post , hydrogen fuel-cells in every building like the small gas Panasonic fuelcells in Tokyo, ethanol and plug-ins in most gas stations and turbines for wind and water : the Atlantic has good currents and it only takes 10 km/h. current to generate electricity or with the new buoys ( like Oregon State University in the Pacific) get going with ocean energy !!! ,i wish just one politician in Brussels and Washington D.C. would tell the truth : the reason that the Housing Market in the USA collapsed is that low income mortgage holders are chocked with the utilities costs (gas-electric-water-phone and insurance,etc.) and the car/truck gasoline /diesel costs, these items on top of the mortgage and a slight twist down in the economy and : whack ! down with the whole game ! Europa and the Americas must switch to the solar home with turbines and batteries, http://www.solardecathlon.org/ , with new insulation materials and the new hydrogen-electric-ethanol-bio-diesel cars/trucks: it’s the only way to avoid another crash in the near future, http://www.fuelcells.org/ , when are the Brussels and Washington pro-corrupt and incompetent Politicians going to make the move for their own Society ? when ? this is a test to all our Culture, we must change forward NOW ! and Brussels can be a showcase of these new technologies, and with training for architects and plumbers,programmers to control from remote these technologies and carpenters and roofers to install them,electricians and engineers alike, training of the new crop of professionals : the future of the European and American Culture,without it we don’t stand a chance with Asia, so when are our “so-called” Elected Leaders going to make the move , when ?
of course we know the neocons, who want EU and USA addicted to oil and stuck in the Middle East with all their money and Military ,will be against this , they hate the idea of a EU and USA Energy Independent, so what will the local patriots do ? the profit of the Middle East or the future of our Culture?
Brussels got a lot of work to do, can it be the creative center that Europe needs ? or will be just another Lobby and incompetent politician hang-out?
Posted by: blogger | December 10th, 2007 at 6:10 pm | Report this commentYour comment about Louise being the most prestigious and pricey place in Brussels made me chuckle a bit. I lived in that area for awhile as a student attending the UAB. It is true that you see the high-priced stores (Dior, Versace, Polo, etc.), but if you walk about five minutes from there; you will be in the “African” district, which is where I lived. Not being African or familiar with French, I was pretty easy to spot in a crowd (I am a absurdly tall American), but I loved my “little Africa”. The reason for the chuckle (sorry for the prolonged digression) was that the Louise area is also the easiest place to score drugs, have female friends groped by random strangers, or have your car stolen. I would be extremely interested if you ever happen to do an in-depth piece on the poor side of Louise Street.
Posted by: mantis | December 13th, 2007 at 5:55 pm | Report this comment