It took three years of patient waiting, but last Sunday we finally sat down at the table of El Bulli. We shook hands with Ferran Adria, the legendary master of new tastes, of decomposition and minimalism, who hugged us unexpectedly in warm gratefulness. We visited the cool and extremely neat kitchen, almost a laboratory, filled with plastic boxes, knives, machines of unknown beauty and above all, cleaner than an operation room. We watched the brigades work like disciplined robots, admired the view on the public beach (where life...

The Summit of the African Union in Malabo showed two clear points of view that must have disturbed diplomats in Europe and the US. One was the way the Western led intervention in Libya and Ivory Coast was analyzed as nothing more or less than neo colonialism under the not so clever leadership of France. The UN troops were accused of being a cover for French policy in Sub Saharan Africa.  And second, the way the International Criminal Court of Justice in The Hague was accused of hunting down...

Was er de laatste jaren iets treurigers op de televisie te zien dan het gezicht van Charlene Wittstock?  Twee uur lang keek ze gedwee maar vooral uitgespeeld om zich heen. Ze had nog geprobeerd te vluchten, maar, net als DSK, werd zij op het laatste moment uit het vliegtuig geplukt. Niet omdat zij Albert II van Monaco tegen diens zin had aangerand (dat lijkt geen enkele optie), maar omdat zij Monaco geen gezichtsverlies mocht bezorgen. Albert is al dik in de veertig en heeft ernstig behoefte aan een...

Belgium proves that most governments are useless anyway. For more than a year the Belgian people have worked, learned, moved and enjoyed life without having an official government. Nothing changed (as usual in Belgium) and there was no panic. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs has a spokesman who tells the (huge) rest of the world that Belgium has no opinion. There are no Belgianm troops involved in any international operation, so the Ministry of Defense can be as silent as ever. All other Ministries are sleeping and actually doing...

In ten days from now a new state will be born: South Sudan. Instead of preparing for a huge party, troops of southern and northern Sudan are fighting each other along the new border to be. It is not only about Christians against Muslims. It is about power sharing in the near future. Who is going to have influence in the middle of this huge country? Who will control the oil reserves? Because, yes, it is about oil, as usual. But above all, it is about racism: black (Nubians) against brown (Arabs)....

Time Magazine chose to put the portait of Osama bin Laden on its cover of the May20th issue. His face has been crossed. No doubt about it: Time is relieved, like most of us. But is it the right signal? Of course, for the US, capturing the murderer of thousands of innocent people is more than a victory. It is justice at long last. But must an American magazine be radical to the point of rubbing things in? I try to place myself in the head of a moderate...

The famous war historian Martin van Creveld held a lecture yesterday in Amsterdam about the future of war and peace in the Middle East from an Isareli point of view. He was invited by the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs, whose spokesman told the guests that Van Creveld's opinions are not necessarily those of the Dutch government. Good for him, because the historian's  opinions were not only radical -which is nice- but especially biased -not to say racist in tone- and over simplified. For him every Arab is an...

Mr. & Mrs. Barack Obama walked around in Buckingham Palace yesterday and wondered why it is so much bigger than the White House. The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge (William & Kate) showed them around. They are convinced that an older nation, the cradle of democracy, has the right to have more extravagant palaces than the young democracy on the other side of the Atlantic. Kate feels at home. From the house of her toy producing parents to the real Toy is only a small step. She smiles and can hardly hide her excitement.  Lord, did she...

OK, I am wrong. He did it. At least he did something a man in his position shouldn't have done. Oh, I am sorry, in any position there are things you just cannot do. In whatever position.  Well, you get it. I have been reading all these articles by renown and less known scandalized women about the ugliness of men who abuse women because they are in power. Who the hell do they think they are, these super macho's with their jobs, money, cars, planes and what have...

In our country a suspect is not guilty unless proven otherwise. In the United States it is the other way around. Another left over from the good old Western days, when a sheriff could put any cowboy in prison as long as he was a suspect. No hard proof needed. Shoot first and ask later...