Dat was toch echt fenomenaal: Rowan Atkinson in het orkest bij de opening van de Spelen. Dat is nou Britse humor op z'n best. Totaal lak hebben aan conventies en een niesende, treiterende Mr. Bean de ruimte geven voor zelfspot en jongensdromen (wat liep hij mooi voorop op dat filmstrand!). Ook uniek was de James Bond act met de Queen, de wentelende hondjes, de helikopter, het parachute springen. Elisabeth II lacht zelden, maar ze heeft zeer zeker humor, net als haar man Philip trouwens. Stel wij krijgen in...

With a dull title and sometimes an over esoteric content, the British magazine is one of the few printed media to be in good health, especially in the United States. In 2010 The Economist sold 1,42 million copies each week, out of which 820.000 in the US alone. According to The New York Times, it is all about marketing: the elegance of the sober logo, good and daring (and funny) covers, an Oxbridge tone of voice (appealing to American snobs) and a fairly high price contribute to the...

When ancient generations in Alpine villages had to find names for the mountains surrounding them, they either used geomorphical characteristics (rivers, rock formations, strange forms, lakes etc.) or more romantic features (sun, moon, flowers, stars, paradise, heaven etc.). Newly created ski resorts like Les Arcs, Tignes (France) or Beaver Creek (Colorado) use more modern names to underline how young they are. But what to think of names like Diavolezza (devil's mountain, near Pontresina, Switserland), Mont Pourri (Haute Savoie) or Mont Maudit (near the Mont Blanc, French side)? Did...

You can cycle or you can use a mountain bike. These are two different worlds. Cycling on a road or cycling on a path with rocks, holes, roots, prickly bushes and twigs hitting your face. When you just cycle, chances are that you come home in the same state you left it. But after a tour on a mountainous track you are guaranteed to have bruises, cuts and at least one sore wrist. I have just spent some time on French tracks between Tignes, Les Arcs and Bourg...

Het kon niet uitblijven: er is een boek* verschenen over het intieme leven van de heer en mevrouw Strauss-Kahn. Het verslag van het leven van een glamour paar, dat jarenlang de voorpagina's van roddelbladen haalde en dat de jaloezie van menig socialistische politicus wist op te wekken. Een duo met veel geld, veel vrienden en veel vijanden. De eerste socialisten die zich niet schaamden om Renoirs aan de muur te hangen, huizen in Zuid Frankrijk en Marrakech te bezitten en eerste klas te vliegen naar suites in New...

Imagine: a big carpet, attached to the ground by four ropes. A kind of flagship, where designers and producers share thoughts and dreams. (we see a big carpet attached in the sand)The place where new ideas are combined to create new products, unexpected alliances and surprising generosity (we see a carpet, attached, full of busy people) The place where different worlds can exchange knowledge. An international co-creation. There is no direct hierarchy, no boss, no single owner, it is about we and us…(we see strangers hugging)...

All those young Israeli who serve in the army must have been irritated for a long time: their orthodox friends had the privilege not to wear a uniform. While the regular Israeli have to endure years of training, running, sweating and shooting, the privileged ones were able to stay home and pray for their country instead of guarding the boarders. Now a new law forces them to take off their orthodox clothes and spend time under the arms. I cannot imagine one of them becoming a member of...

The Geneva conference on Syria has finished in a compromise that is unacceptable. It leaves it to the Syrians to solve their internal problems. What? It asks the parties -the Syrian government and the Syrian opposition- to negotiate about a new government. Not excluding Mr. Assad himself, thanks to the insistence of Russia. What do the creative politicians gathered in Geneva had in mind? A little party with murderers and torturers on one side of the floor and the freedom fighters on the other waiting to be invited...

De kranten raken niet uitgeschreven over de toekomst van de euro. En dat terwijl er maar één oplossing is: een centrale Europese bank, in Frankfurt, die alle andere semi-centrale banken aanstuurt, controleert en helpt. Net als in de Verenigde Staten. Daar is elke staat verantwoordelijk voor zijn eigen begroting, maar als de nood aan de man is (Californie, Florida) dan springt de FED in. Eén munt betekent ook één directie en één set regelgevingen. Eén munt betekent één hoofdcoach die ook het functioneren van de banken in alle...

If you read the papers you will think this cannot be true, but it is. Iranians don't disapprove of the US, and certainly not of the American people. They do disapprove of the sanctions that diminish their business and make prices rise sky high. These sanctions are a result of the lack of transparency the Iranian authorities deploy on their nuclear ambitions. Nuclear weapons, that are or are not being developed as I write, could threaten the region and especially Israel, America's long time ally. As long as...