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van den Boogaard, Oscar
2 articles of this author have been cited in the European Press Review so far.
A room with a car
Luxury dwellings are being built in the Berlin district of Kreuzberg - much of whose population has a low standard of living - which for security reasons have parking spaces on the upper floors. De Standaard newspaper comments: "Why don't people who are so afraid of their surroundings that they don't even want to walk from their cars to the front door just move to another neighbourhood? Rich people need an audience, they need looks of admiration and envy. They feel especially secure when they know that wolves are prowling outside their 'gated community'. ... The elevators for the luxury cars can lift almost five tons, meaning the armoured limousines can also come upstairs. But what happens when the lift is busy, or worse still, broken down? The inhabitants will be forced to take the stairs, and walk (unprotected) among all the beggars and loitering youths to get a cab. All at once they will be humans in the midst of other humans, and in need of trust."
» full article (external link, Dutch)
More from the press review on the subject » Public Culture, » Crime and Law, » Germany
Oscar van den Boogaard on a lack of national identity among Belgians
The Dutch writer Oscar van den Boogaard considers that "Belgians have too little national conscience, and even less national pride. Their natural landscape has been fragmented and covered with buildings, their architectural gems discarded. Incapable of opposing this as a united force they stand by and watch, heavy-hearted. Belgium is a small version of Europe: a collection of very different individuals, foreign to one another, whose individuality is not attached to the yoke of a common culture or history. The Dutch are so Dutch, the Germans so German, the French so French: they should thus detach themselves as soon as possible form their national identity to become real Europeans. Belgians, however, have an even and free nature. A Belgian can be anyone."
» full article (external link, French)
More from the press review on the subject » Politics, » Belgium, » Europe
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