Belgium's aid to Africa
In the past years, Belgium has been among the European countries playing an important role in the development of Africa by granting emergency aid in the form of cash and goods to some African countries.
Recently, the Belgian government announced its release of 500,000 euros for the purchase of 1,200 tonnes of food to be distributed by the World Food Programme (WFP) to the inhabitants of Kenya.
The government has also released 750,000 euros to the WFP to purchase 1300 tonnes of food for drought-affected victims in Ethiopia.
The Belgian Cooperation Ministry has announced that the food would be distributed as a priority to young children and mothers of those countries.
Since the beginning of last year, Belgium has granted food aid to the tune of 2.5 million euros to the Democratic Republic of Congo, Burundi, Niger, Somalia, and Zimbabwe.
In another development, Belgium's Cooperation and Development Minister Charles Michel told a news briefing in Dakar, Senegal, that Public Development Aid (PDA) to Senegal in 2010 will amount to 55.5 million euros.
Under the arrangement, Belgium will be dedicating 0.7% of its gross domestic product to the PDA to become one of the nations in Europe. Other European countries affiliated with this pact are Sweden, the Netherlands, and Luxembourg, with the highest level of financial aid to developing countries.
The Belgian minister explained that Senegal remains one of the 18 countries where the PDA would be fully implemented within the New Cooperation Indicative Programme.
The program was signed in Dakar, the capital of Senegal, between Michel and the Senegalese Minister of State in charge of Economy and Finance, Abboulaye Diop.
Under the agreement, the program would be for a period of four years (from 2010 to 2013, instead of the previous three years).
Terrorism in Africa
Islam means patience, love, and togetherness. That's what the Koran says and the definition that is given by many Muslims when asked to give a little explanation of what the religion is about.
However, that definition is immediately called into question or disagreed with by the new global desire for violence and the desire of Islamic fanatics to kill innocent people to end their lives.
Islam is rapidly turning into a more violent religion than the unity and love they advocate. Umar Abdulmutallab, a failed suicide bomber, expressed his terrifying vision of a world run by radical Islamic hardliners in a string of online messages.
Frequently, the African continent is completely disregarded or undervalued. World leaders are cautioned not to undervalue Africans anymore after this 23-year-old terrorist managed to evade security measures and all of their detectors to board the aircraft to bomb Flight 253, which was traveling from Amsterdam to the United States.
Had his murderous plans been successful, Islamic extremists such as al-Qaeda would have boasted about it and plotted additional assaults.
It is now time for world leaders to concentrate more on Africa to prevent the usage of that continent as a safe haven for terrorists.
I believe that there will be a time when genuine Muslims and true followers of the Prophet Mohammed will openly speak against what their fanatic brothers are doing and try to do their best to end or reduce this unnecessary global violence, especially in Iraq, Pakistan, and Afghanistan.
Yves Leterme, Belgium's former prime minister, who is now deputy secretary-general of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD)
On Wednesday, 25 November 2009, Belgium named the controversial Dutch-speaking conservative Yves Leterme as its prime minister, succeeding Herman Van Rompuy, who resigned to become the European Union's first president.
The 49-year-old Mr. Leterme, although he is held unpopular by many people in the French-speaking colony, got the job because he is the most popular politician in Belgium's majority party, the Flemish-speaking Christian Democrats.
Although Belgium is a relatively small country with 6 million Dutch speakers, 4 million French speakers, and 70 thousand German speakers, it is a country difficult to be governed because the people are not one.
This has caused much distress in the country in terms of politics, employment, and distribution of resources.
Leterme, as an intelligent politician, must be aware that a strong economy is not built on sand. His second coming to most Belgians does not mean anything, but what he is coming to do is what matters.
He has a big responsibility on his shoulders by creating more jobs for the Belgians because Belgium lacks jobs. Even before the severe economic recession hit America and Europe, Belgium was one of the leading Western European countries with few job opportunities.
However, comparing the country to other European countries, Belgium is one of the best countries to live in Europe in terms of the cost of living. Astonishingly, employers pay very well.
Another crisis that Leterme has to pay particular attention to is resolving internal tensions over how much autonomy to grant to the three regions of Wallonia, Brussels, and Flanders.
Dutch-speaking Flanders wants to avoid paying taxes that fund the poorer region of French-speaking Wallonia and seeks to expand its administrative powers.
But it has so far fallen short of demanding full independence, mostly for fear of losing its shared political control of Brussels, a majority French-speaking city located within Flanders.
The Belgians are watching him to tackle what they called (aggressive issues) affecting and dividing the country; else his second coming would be seen as meaningless.
