The Chat of Ambassador
A Classical Concert at the Castle of Chimay (No.30)
20th of September 2013
Rush hour in the morning and evening is a nuisance for people commuting by car to their workplace in Brussels. More and more people arrive late at work because of unforeseen traffic jams due to accidents on traffic controls caused by road works and big events. In fact, traffic conditions in Brussels are getting worse year by year and the economic loss caused is not a trivial matter. Last month, a local newspaper reported that the estimated annual loss amounts to 511 million euro. According to this report, about half of the people working in Brussels (about 700.000 people) are commuting from outside the Brussels city area, amongst which 225.000 people are using a car. As there are about 400.000 cars running around the city of Brussels on a daily basis, it means that more than half of them are cars of commuters from the suburbs of Brussels. According to certain statistics, Brussels has extremely heavy traffic compared to other European cities with nearly the same population as Brussels and the annual time loss per driver is 82.7 hours. City officials rack their brains to solve this problem and are, at present, considering new tax measures such as a “driving tax” for drivers. Reportedly, the system that is up for discussion is the system wherein all cars would have to be equipped with GPS and the tax would be notified on a monthly basis to the driver after having checked the daily mileage (it has been already decided that this system will be introduced from 2016 onward for large trucks). It is said that the maximum would be 39 cent per km. Since the Belgian highways are free, I thought that Belgium was friendlier for drivers than Japan, but eventually the situation in Belgium will change too.
< Two Falsely Similar Courts of Audit >
Last week, members of the Surveillance Committee on Finances and Administration of the House of Representatives of Japan visited Brussels and exchanged opinions with the Belgian Court of Audit and the Committee on Budget and Finances of the Federal House of Representatives. In this context, I had the opportunity to meet twice with Mr Philippe Roland, President of the Court of Audit, but I was surprised that the function and role is very different from the Japanese Board of Audit. In terms of organization, more than 1200 staff members are posted under 3 auditors (of which one is the president) who are appointed by the cabinet, in the case of Japan. In the case of Belgium, there are 12 auditors (with about 550 staff members) appointed by the Federal House of Representatives. 6 of them are Dutch-speaking and 6 of them are French-speaking and they work independently from each other (except for federal cases).The significant difference between both countries’ organizations in terms of function and role is that, in the case of Belgium, the role of the Court of Audit consists in checking the government’s budget proposal in advance, denoting its opinion on problematic issues and submitting its report to the Federal House of Representatives. In the case of Japan, the Board of Audit basically checks the governmental budget afterwards and never checks it in advance. Worldwide, the case of Japan is common and the Court of Audit in Belgium seems to be a very rare case. When deliberating the budget in Parliament, the report submitted by the Court of Audit turns into a good reference book for questions of the politicians of the opposition, so it can be sometimes inconvenient for the government and the ruling party. Though the same Board of Audit, circumstances are very different from country to country.
< The Festival of Wallonia in Namur >
At the end of last week, the Festival of Wallonia took place in Namur (64 km southeast of Brussels: 108.950 inhabitants) and I attended as a member of the diplomatic corps (see “Ambassador’s Chat No. 17”). One event after the other continued from morning to evening, so everyone was exhausted at the end. First, the opening ceremony organized by the Mayor of Namur was held in the courtyard of the City Hall where Mayor Mr. Maxime Prevot delivered a speech of nearly 30 minutes about administrative policy. The mayor stressed the improvement of infrastructure development and public welfare in Namur which should be called the capital of Wallonia. At the end of the ceremony, we walked over to the office building of the Governor of Namur for a lunch organized by Provincial Governor Mr. Denis Mathen. Since I was seated at the same table as local members of parliament and university officials, I asked why the Festival of Wallonia took place on this day, but their answers were not to the point. I think that it is to commemorate an historical event of some kind, but it is strange that the local people do not know well why. A reception organized by Mr Rudy Demotte, Minister-President of Wallonia, took place in the afternoon. When I greeted Mr and Mrs Demotte at the receiving line, the Minister-President told me that his wife has a keen interest in Japan and Mrs Demotte herself asked me to attend an exhibition by one of her friends, a Japanese painter, in October. Finally, a concert and reception organized by Mr Patrick Dupriez, President of the Walloon Parliament, took place at the Opera House in the centre of town and a long day was over. Raining lightly all day intermittently, moving here and there around town was hard.
< Meeting with Two Provincial Governors >
The other day, I met with Mr Jan Briers, Governor of East Flanders and had the opportunity to talk about the relationship between Japan and the province of East Flanders. Last May, when I paid an official visit to the provincial capital Ghent as a new Ambassador, I was not able to meet him because he was very busy dealing with a serious train accident, just after he was appointed governor (see Ambassador Chat No. 18). Therefore, this time, we met 4 months later upon proposal from the governor. The province of East Flanders spreads out to the northwest of Brussels and is economically the most active region in Belgium. About 17 Japanese companies as well, starting with a company related to Honda Motor Co., Ltd., are active here. On this day, the governor brought me a list of Belgian companies having a business relationship with Japan. More than 100 companies were listed and I was surprised at this number. I felt as though I caught a glimpse of the surprising depth of the economic relations between Japan and Belgium.
About two weeks earlier, I had met with Mr Herman Reynders, Governor of Limburg. When I visited the provincial capital Hasselt (90 km northeast of Brussels), I was welcomed in the residence of the governor. It is a magnificent residence, designated a historic building, with a large garden. The governor is tall and seemed like a sportsman to me, so I found out later that he used to be a basketball player. As nearly 4 years have passed since he became governor, he is probably at the top of his game now. Limburg borders on the Netherlands and there is even a province with the same name in the Netherlands. When Belgium became independent from the Netherlands in 1830, Limburg, which was one area, was divided into two. It is quite a complicated history.
< The Castle of Chimay and the Castle of Corroy >
Last weekend in the evening, I was invited to a concert followed by a dinner at the Castle of Chimay, which is one of Belgium’s most famous castles (116km directly to the south of Brussels, near the border of France) where I was able to catch a glimpse of part of the life of the Belgian “high society”. A few months ago I got acquainted with the lord and lady of this castle (a couple with the title of Prince and Princess) and I was invited as the only Japanese person to the event of that evening. In total more than 130 people were invited and many of them had noble titles, among which even members from the Belgian Royal Family. This castle, which is said to date back to the 11th century, has an Opera House (built in 1863) where often prominent national and international musicians are invited for performance. I was invited to a balcony seat in the front, with the lord of the castle’s family and people from the Royal Family to my left and right. For about 1 hour I could enjoy the beautiful voice of a female opera singer who came from Bulgaria. The waiters at the dinner after the concert were dressed in historical costumes, so the evening was reminiscent of the life of royalty and nobility in the 18th century. The guests as well had to attend in a black tie for the men and a long dress for the women, so inside the castle it was somewhat a “different world”. It was past midnight when the dinner was over, so it was already 2AM when I got home. As I am used to going to bed early and getting up early, it was a bit tough.
Moreover, the evening before, I had visited Corroy-le-Chateau, a castle that conveys the atmosphere of the Middle Ages, with a group of culture aficionados. The castle is located about 50km to the south of Brussels and the lord of the castle is Marquis de Trazegnies, who is still living in this secluded castle. There are two types of castles in Europe: one type is the castle that was built from the Middle Ages on up to early modern times, that is surrounded by thick, robust walls in preparation of battle and has several donjons. One more type, on the other hand, is the castle that was built in the early modern period on level ground as the living quarters of the castle lord, conveying an elegant appearance up to this day. The majority of the castles in the Loire region in France are this kind of castle. Corroy-le-Chateau is representative of the former type, having been built in the 13th century. Part of the wall in the chapel on the castle grounds is a revolving door, making it possible to escape secretly when there was an attack by the enemy during the service. It reminded me of the Ninja House in Japan.