Have you ever heard of the little village (or, as they say in Flanders:
gemeente) of
Gooik, in the Province of Flemish Brabant? I admit I hadn't till I saw its mayor on television. But I'm sure you're wondering why the heck I'm talking about some obscure bloke from the Flemish rural catholic countryside: "What the hell is funny about a casual mayor?". I'm going to explain myself, of course, as I always does. (If not, drop a comment for my lack of cohesion.)
If I come to talk about people in this blog, that's either because I like them, either because I don't like them, either because they make me laugh (precisely because I like them or not).
(Do you still copy? See what I mean? If not, so be it.)
Well, what was I saying anyway? Oh yes, that mayor (or
burgemeester) from Gooik. Well, guess what?
…
…
…
This is just a blank to give you time to have a think about it. I'm sure you can guess from the title: I've already written several articles that go in the same direction, making fun of a certain category of people. … No, it's not about
rednecks, French "Jackys", Walloon
barakîs and other Flemish
Johnny's en Marina's.
…
…
…
And now? Did you have enough time to think about it? Or do you need one more minute, or one more clue? … No, it would be too easy. But anyway, I'm gonna put an end to this long wait now, because I'm sure you've already looked at the picture below, haven't you yet? See, I told you!
Yeah, as you can see, this guy is part of the large community of man who are too scared of showing bald flesh on their skulls… His name is
Michel Doomst. He's thus the mayor of Gooik, as I said above. He's also a member of Parliament. His party is the
CD&V, the leading party in Flanders. The first time I saw him, it was of course on TV. The first thing that came across my mind was yelling: "COMBOVER!" Indeed, as you can see several threads of hair were combed towards his fronthead, giving him that ridiculous appearance. If I were living in this remote village of Gooik, I surely wouldn't vote for this man. If you drop an "o" in his name and add an "e" at the end of it, you have the word "domste", which means "silliest".
Quod erat demonstrandum. (Or if you just drop "st", you're left alone with someone called "Doom". A Doom that's not even a judge… What a pity. [Explanation for ignorants (if any): I'm cleverly referring, as an Easter Egg, to the brillant "
Who Framed Roger Rabbit" with
Christopher Lloyd playing a certain
Judge Doom.])
I know this is a shallow reason not to vote for him, but people voted for instance for the "beauty" (read: legs) of
Freya Vandenbossche, who was in charge of Treasury. Later, she stated in a newspaper that she was hopeless in maths and that she didn't understand anything to economics… That's a true story. We're governed by a bunch of incapable people – who have to rely on capable advisors. (Most of them work for the ministry of Education of the
Communauté française. The so-called programmes they came up with are too silly to be taken seriously.)
By the way, and before I go, this Michel Doomst appeared on TV because he was (and still is) an eager advocate of the so-called
splitsing van de kieskring Brussel-Halle-Vilvoorde. If you don't know what this awkward thing is, don't try to find out what it is: it's a symbollical division of a voting district around Brussels that is demanded by Flemish politicians. It appears that this division would cost several Flemish seats in the Parliament, but they don't seem to have noticed that… Anyway, that's an issue that they absolutely want to discuss as soon as the government is set. And for the record, the elections weren't taking place last sunday, but… nearly 90 days ago, on 10 July!!! … "At snail's pace", as they say.
PS. If you look at different pictures of Michel Doomst, you'll see that his combover's size changes from time to time. (And this reminds me of one of my former professors…)
