people-from-antwerp

"The national culture of Belgium is a synthesis, if I may so call it, where one finds the genius of two races — the Romance and the Germanic — mingled, yet modified by the imprint of the distinctively Belgian. It is in that very receptivity — the fact that it has absorbed and unified the best elements of Latin and Teutonic civilization — that the originality of the Belgian national culture resides."

"He was later given charge of various districts on the island of Hawaii, and, animated with a burning zeal, his robust constitution allowed him to give full play to the impulses of his heart."

"With the developments attained by all branches of science in the course of the last century, the importance of archæological discoveries in that period, the progress of philology and palæography, the possibility of using means of rapid communication to obviate the difficulty of scattered material, hagiography could not but take a new orientation."

"My party has a vision and ideas for this society and people are free to join them. We have also become a very broad party. I refuse to accept that we have only a little discontent to offer. Vlaams Belang is a coherent body of visions of how society should be. And we have solutions for it too."

"But it is true that many people are dissatisfied and that is because there is something profoundly wrong with our society. Freedom and respect for cultural identity, these are themes that need to be translated politically. People now see that the health system is being abused to limit our freedom. We are developing a society in which many people no longer feel served by politics. It is our democratic right to act on that and tell those people that our program can help them escape that discontent."

"In the EU people think that everything revolves around money."

"Vlaams Belang has become a large party, and that is part of the game of democracy. If policymakers want to know how to organize democracy, then one has to listen to what the voter says and asks about it. Now we notice that people are actually doing the opposite. The vote of the voter is ignored for the sake of preserving power. The federal government does not have a majority in Flanders. Democracy is thus neutralized, not only through the cordon sanitaire, but also through the formation of a Vivaldi government. In such a case, Vlaams Belang should not wonder whether it will become a people's party. No, we are the only resistance."

"Despite the mutual criticism, let us form a Flemish front. Because slavishly and passively undergoing this Belgian torture is not an option. Only with a Flemish front can we realize our common Flemish goals."

"The French speakers always get their money's worth. Why? Because - unlike Flemish nationalists - they can put aside their ideological differences in order to defend their French-speaking interests."

"There is a reason why there is no more Inca culture: there are no more Incas. You need the bearer of a culture. If there are no Flemish, there will be no more Flemish culture."

"I am convinced that the Christian, the Flemish and if you want even the white should be a dominant factor in our society. Africa should be dominantly black to be african, Europe dominantly white to be European. That doesn't mean every European has to be white, there will always be some diversity."

"There is a fundamental problem with one placing the word of Allah above civil law, just as there is a problem with not recognizing the separation of church and state. I'm not going to be so naughty and say that a Muslim can never be Flemish, everyone has to decide that for themselves. But I think Islam is not compatible with our Flemish identity."

"Flanders is a land of cathedrals and belfries, not mosques and minarets. The Flemish identity is linked to democracy and Islam clashes with our idea of a democracy."

"Every woman in Flanders should have pepper spray in her handbag."

"I have no problem with that,” Van Grieken said. “Our freedom of expression is under pressure. We are no longer allowed to meet as we want. We are hardly allowed to share anything on social networks. This seems essential to me."

"We believe that there are only two sexes, men and women. It must be terrible for a man to be trapped in a woman’s body, but that does not mean that whoever defines himself as a woman, even if he is biologically a man, should go and shower with the women or play football with the women, That is a trend in society that my party does not agree with."

"When expressing sympathy for the family of a deceased person is also categorised as hate speech, there is clearly something wrong with the arbitrary censorship by multimedia giants such as Facebook, It is therefore urgent that national legislation puts a stop to the silencing of right-wing and nationalist politicians. Because when you can be removed from Facebook simply for expressing sympathy for someone, this has nothing to do with ‘hate speech’ or ‘protecting democracy’ anymore, but everything with pure dictatorial arbitrariness."

"Mr Elbers is 100% suited for the job. He has the right expertise to evaluate scenarios objectively. We have put him forward for his skills, i find it appalling that someone is now almost banned from the profession because he has a different political opinion. This is tending towards a transgender gestapo."

"I hope leftist teachers have stepped on their toes. I have a fundamental problem with teachers trying to impose their opinion. A teacher must be neutral."

"It was simply a call to teachers not to force their views on students. presenting the bill in 2024 only refers to an election victory for Vlaams Belang in the next elections. Of course we are not advocating a professional ban. Right-wing parties never do that, you only hear such things with left-wing parties. This is an intention process."

"I've always hated September 1. This was further encouraged by left-wing teachers and professors who try to incorporate their multicultural nonsense into their lessons. But put your best foot forward, I hope you find the courage to make the most of it. And in 2024 we will present the bill to all those left-wing teachers."

"Stop leftist language in our classroom."

"It is completely normal to invite a party that has won the elections. I was pleased with the invitation … I am not going to say it is unnatural. This is natural. What happened over the past 40 years was not democratic."

"What does Bart De Wever actually get when he repeatedly rules out a collaboration with Vlaams Belang? And in the same breath keep begging and begging at the Walloon Socialist Party? De Wever used to say that a vote for Vlaams Belang was a vote for the Walloon Socialist Party - but today the opposite is true. A vote for this New Flemish Allience and you will receive the Walloon Socialist party for free."

"Multiculturalism and diversity are admirable qualities for a democracy but can only apply if all parties are committed to an open society."

"I am astonished at what I consider to be the dangerous and irrational gut response from bleeding- heart rabbis, Jewish leaders and organizations blindly calling on governments to absorb en masse the so-called “Syrian refugees” and trivializing the Holocaust by comparing them to the Jews of Nazi Europe. The principal reason to deplore this approach is that the overwhelming majority originate from Muslim countries other than Syria, and an estimated 70 percent are men of military age. Thus it is evident that the majority of this “refugee” population is not traditional families seeking sanctuary, but men seeking economic enhancement."

"Major European countries already harboring a substantial Muslim fundamentalist population will be further weakened by the new “refugees” who, whether Shi’ite or Sunni, all share a common contempt for democracy, Western values, Christianity and above all are pathologically anti-Semitic. It would also be delusional to imagine that these migrants will be more effectively integrated than their predecessors who seek to create parallel societies within their host countries. In the absence of adequate screening, the “refugees” will undoubtedly continue to include jihadis, especially taking account of the Islamic State (IS) boasts that it has embedded thousands of fighters in the exodus."

"It will be the Jews who will initially bear the brunt of Islamic fundamentalist hatred. It is therefore utterly ironic that at a time when Jewish institutions and schools in Europe require military protection and many Jews are leaving the continent because of escalating anti-Semitism, we find Jews worldwide at the vanguard promoting a migration movement comprising primarily the bitterest anti-Semitic elements. Even more incredible is the almost universal inclination by Jewish leaders to make analogies between the status of the current Middle East refugees and Jews during the Holocaust."

"They will [refugees] augment and strengthen the swelling Muslim enclaves – 50 million already living in Europe – which seek to impose Sharia law. Bernard Lewis, the renowned Islamic scholar, has predicted that unless drastic steps are taken to stem this movement, the high birth rates of the migrant population will irreversibly transform the entire demography of the region and bring about a Muslim majority by the end of the century."

"From the least to the greatest right up to the King himself everyone is infected with insatiable greed."

"[Pelsaert laments] “the utter subjection and poverty of the common people-poverty so great and miserable that the life of the people can be depicted or accurately described only as the home of stark want and the dwelling place of bitter woe.” He continues: “There are three classes of people who are indeed nominally free, but whose status differs very little from voluntary slavery-workmen, peons or servants and shopkeepers. For the workmen there are two scourges, the first of which is low wages. Goldsmiths, painters (of cloth or chintz), embroiderers, carpet makers, cotton or silk weavers, black-smiths, copper-smiths, tailors, masons, builders, stone-cutters, a hundred crafts in all-any of these working from morning to night can earn only 5 or 6 tackas (tankahs), that is 4 or 5 strivers in wages. The second (scourge) is (the oppression of) the Governor, the nobles, the Diwan, the Kotwal, the Bakshi, and other royal officers. If any of these wants a workman, the man is not asked if he is willing to come, but is seized in the house or in the street, well beaten if he should dare to raise any objection, and in the evening paid half his wages, or nothing at all. From these facts the nature of their food can be easily inferred… For their monotonous daily food they have nothing but a little khichri… in the day time, they munch a little parched pulse or other grain, which they say suffices for their lean stomachs… Their houses are built of mud with thatched roofs. Furniture there is little or none, except some earthenware pots to hold water and for cooking… Their bedclothes are scanty, merely a sheet or perhaps two… this is sufficient in the hot weather, but the bitter cold nights are miserable indeed, and they try to keep warm over little cowdung fires… the smoke from these fires all over the city is so great that the eyes run, and the throat seems to be choked.”"

"“the ladies of our country should be able to realise from this description the good fortune of their birth, and the extent of their freedom when compared with the position of ladies like them in other lands.”"

"For this slack and lazy service the wages are paid by the Moguls only after large deductions, for most of the great lords reckon 40 days to the month, and pay from 3 to 4 rupees for that period; while wages are often left several months in arrears, and then paid in worn-out clothes or other things."

"Each night the Amir visits a particular wife, or mahal, and receives a very warm welcome from her and from the slaves (i.e. slave girls), who (are) dressed specially for the occasion… If it is the hot weather, they… rub his body with pounded sandalwood and rosewater. Fans are kept going steadily. Some of the slaves chafe the master’s hand and feet, some sit and sing, or play music and dance, or provide other recreation, the wife sitting near him all the time. Then if one of the pretty slave girls takes his fancy, he calls her to him and enjoys her, his wife not daring to show any signs of displeasure, but dissembling, though she will take it out on the slave girls later on."

"[But ultimately the brunt of all such riots was borne by the Hindus. For instance, this is how Pelsaert describes the situation prevalent in the time of Jahangir (1605-27) during Muharram.] “The outcry (of mourning) lasts till the first quarter of the day; the coffins (Tazias) are brought to the river, and if the two parties meet carrying their biers (it is worse on that day), and one will not give place to the other, then if they are evenly matched, they may kill each other as if they were enemies at open war, for they run with naked swords like madmen. No Hindu can venture into the streets before midday, for even if they should escape with their life, at the least their arms and legs would be broken to pieces…”"

"Peons or servants are exceedingly numerous in this country... for every one-be he mounted soldier, merchant or king’s official-keeps as many as his position and circumstances permit. Outside the house, they serve for display, running continually before their master’s horse; inside, they do the work of the house, each knowing his duty..."

"The common people (live in) poverty so great and miserable that the life of the people can be depicted or accurately described only as the home of stark want and the dwelling place of bitter woe… their houses are built of mud with thatched roofs. Furniture there is little or none, except some earthenware pots to hold water and for cooking…"

"Prior to any generalization about literature, literary texts have to be read, and the possibility of reading can never be taken for granted. It is an act of understanding that can never be observed, nor in any way prescribed or verified."

"It is evident that thought is also necessary for action. But the Church has for centuries ... focused on orthodoxy and left orthopraxis in the hands of nonmembers and nonbelievers."

"As a trader you often walk on the blade. Be careful and don't step off."

"As for myself, I confess to a preference for clear-cut situations, for radical and even extreme positions. But I also feel a secret and very strong attraction to ambiguous situations... for example, that hovering moment when it is no longer day and not yet night, the shades of emotion between indifference and friendship... (they) are so fascinating because they are so indefinable. That which is pure transition, is all the more appealing to the mind because of its elusiveness. It is the same in the cases of Mondrian, Kandinsky and the Cubists: abstraction and figuration have a common frontier in their work that is so tenuous that we often do not know which side we are on. It is this ambiguity that imports a rare poetic charm to their paintings. Artists like Klee, Miro and Dubuffet have also pitched their tents on this borderline and constantly travel from one side tot the other."

"In very other period of art history, the idea itself –the what – had been primary. Today the idea matters less than the way it is arrived at; it is the how that makes the work. This word brings us again face to face with the theme and its infinite variations. It is no longer a matter of knowing, of possessing the truth, but of approaching it... knowing that the road is long, knowing that the road does not end, knowing that the road is the end in itself."

"But who does not see that the work goes beyond the one who created it? It marches before him and he will never again be able to catch up with it, it soon leaves his orbit, it will soon belong to another, since he, more quickly than his work, changes and becomes deformed, since before his work dies, he dies."

"For if art, like religion, belongs to no country, it is perhaps itself the only country and the only true religion. Only those hear its call who have that siren’s song within them. The inner riches of the eyes bring out the secret virtues of the work, and little by little they begin to speak... Every artist, every work of every artist, establishes, in his or its own absolutely inaccessible way, this contact of the spirit with the spirit. Provided of course, that the viewer is in 'a state of grace'."

"In 1936, when the last issue of 'Abstraction-Création' appeared, Europe was in a deep slump. Hitlerism was rampant in Germany and many artists had already fled there... There were evil portents on the horizon; night was about to descend over Europe. It was at that moment that America took up the case of abstract art. The association of 'American Abstract Artists' was founded that year, and it was also in 1936 that the exhibition Cubism and Abstract Art was held at the Museum of Modern Art in New York... At about this time a flood of refugees – artists, intellectuals, and men of science – began to pour into the United States."

"When I came back to Paris in 1931, after a long convalescence in the South, the 'Abstraction-Création' group had just be founded. Vantongerloo had been given our mailing list. At the same time I learned of Van Doesburg's death in Davos. The first issue of 'Abstraction-Création' came off the press just a year later, printed in the same dusty small shop that had brought out 'Cercle et Carré' and where I had earned a meagre living as a non-union proof-reader and make-up man. 'Abstraction-Création' had a much wider influence than its predecessor. From 1932 to 1936 an annual cahier presented reproductions and statements by painters."

"To me, the circle and the square where the sky and the earth, as symbolized by the ancient Oriental religions; they formed a kind of rudimentary alphabet by means of which everything could be expressed with the most limited means. They evoked prehistoric runes and the early I-Ching, or Book of Changes."

"The 'Cercle et Carré' group owes its existence to my encounter with the Uruguayan painter Torrès-Gracia in 1929... However difficult our relationship, his obstinacy matching my patience, this unholy team of fire and water was bound to produce something. Towards the end of the year, after consulting sundry artists, including Arp, Mondrian, and Van Doesburg, we drew up the program for a new group and launched a magazine which was be called 'Cercle et Carré'."

"Kandinsky in Munich uttered the well known words: 'Everything is permitted!' In 1961; we still live by this heritage, which in truth is inexhaustible."

"In 1956 I was granted the biggest reward of my career: my wife, Josée Jongen."