After some months of filling this place by criticizing, mocking and provoking our Belgian fellows, I have to admit that I now truly feel sorry for them. Not for the crap with which I tend to fill this space –since it is probably hardly read by them at all- and it is all to be taken with a laugh and some grains of salt, but for the events that recently took place and shocked the country. Wallonia had her own version of the Haiti earthquakes and Flanders was horrified by several murders and the confessions of a cold-blooded serial killer.

The serene peace that had come over Leuven during the Christmas holidays and the study period lulled me smoothly asleep, as I firmly believed in the comforting illusion that though Belgium might be a boring grey country, with long and for a change snowy winters, it at least is a safe one. However, after the first headlines on a double murder on a young couple – which the murderer tried to hide by setting the boy’s car on fire to erase the traces - I felt as if being in America –sorry American readers, but this is little Belgium, where nothing ever happens. Stories like these we only know from scary programs such as ‘Murder Investigation’ on Discovery Channel, where solved murder cases are reconstructed. So I couldn’t believe it.
Until those first headlines, the scope of my interest did not go beyond my upcoming exams, the number of pages I still had to study, and how to lay my hand on notes from classes I had missed. The second cluster of worries was how to please Belgian boyfriend B. with enough attention, and to show up long enough and on time at family and friends’ Christmas and New Year’s parties. Yes, I become sort of a temporary social autist when it comes down to exams and the horrible study period that precedes it, but after the first bits and pieces of that terrible news I could no longer shut my eyes to the outside world. Neither could the Belgians.
Only after several days of speculation in the dark, the neighbour of the murdered girl was being put in detention as suspect. He was heavily interrogated and only a few days later he confessed to the double murder –with vague motives of being bullied by the girl’s boyfriend. After more interrogations he confessed the murder of another girl – a cased that had been unsolved since 2007. When five sexual assaults and rapes in the town of Hasselt were confessed next to the statement that he had tried to rape his neighbour girl after having shot her boyfriend, the bullying motive –though unreal it already seemed – lost all credibility and instead the picture of a frustrated sexual pervert rose, as all of his (known) victims are – except for the boyfriend - young females. Currently unsolved cases in different parts of Belgium and border regions in Holland and Germany are examined for possible links with this murderer.
Generally Belgians are so used to the ever-present political power plays and sudden power shifts that they don’t really care anymore and would certainly not leave their sleep for it. This however was a different story, as, according to a commentator in a big national newspaper, this double murder case touched the heart and essence of Flanders and being Flemish. This guy turned out not to be a poor marginal nutcase as the other famous Belgian raper and killer Dutroux had been, but instead and shockingly he could have been anybody’s neighbour. This murderer led a decent life and was the perfect example of a good Flemish citizen. He studied in Leuven, fell in love there, built a house with his girlfriend, got two kids and participated in social activities. He had a regular job as teacher in a secondary school and was the kind of type you would trust to bring your daughter home late. His mother never wants to see him anymore.
This story only disappeared from the headlines when the horrible news of the earthquakes in Haiti came in and started to dominate the news. Only a few days later however, Belgium got another shock and had to deal with its own small Haiti as suddenly after a gas explosion an entire appartmentbuilding in the centre of Liege collapsed in the early morning, with a number of 13 deaths at least. The weekend before the disaster a call had been made from inside the building that there was a smell of gas. It was checked, but nothing irregular had been found. I don’t know whether the caller survived the collapse of the building.
And here I am, still safe in Leuven, following the news with both loathing and surprise, but above all hoping for positive exam results and looking forward to spending quality time with my boyfriend, friends and family. I hope to have an enjoyable last semester of student life and hope that nothing bad would happen to my loved ones or myself. The world could shake and turn around and we do care, but we keep a distance only until it affects someone close. Poor little Belgium. Poor little world. Poor little us. |