Laisez-farie is a term used to describe a policy of allowing events to take their own course. The term is a French phrase literally meaning "let do". In Brussels you have the feeling it is much more that this, it is a stigma in many people. It is a way of life. They just don't care....
They see someone peeing in the metro, they keep walking.
They see some pickpoket in Montgomery....they don't say anything.
They see someone smoking in a public metro station, no one says anything
And the same type of examples apply to many services. You surely can provide more examples than myself.
But here is a good one I had the oportunity to see last week: Look at the picture an guess...
It is a car upsde down, after an accident, in the middle of the lane that enters in the Shuman tunnels from the Leuven road.
None of the cars on the right stopped to check, signal the accident (and avoid another one), or just see if they could help.
Is there a better example of this philosopy? (Laissez-faire)
I showed this to a beilgian friend and he was not surprised....he said "people have been educated here not to look to the bad things of others....it is not good catholic eduation to face that, it is better to avoid reality than see its darkness"
I could not belive what he was saying, and I don't see the relationship with religion, however I see the LINKS of this philosopny and service in this city.
"it is not good catholic eduation to face that, it is better to avoid reality than see its darkness"
ReplyDeleteI guess they missed the parable of "The Good Samaritan".
I'm Belgian. One of the bad ones, that don't like their country too much (in spite of the beer, chocolate, Tintin, Manneken Pis, Jacques Brel and Johnny Halliday).
ReplyDeleteHowever much I might (consciously) repeat to myself (ad nauseam) "I don't care, it's not my problem, etc. etc." there is something in me, some ¿interior? "thang" that, almost always (if not ALWAYS) makes me "intervene". Oh, I remember that one night, very late in the evening, on an almost empty train coach, when two Belgian (paracommando types) threatened a lone black, visibly afraid. I didn't intervene. Fear. I ain't no hero. But usually ...I intervene. In some way...
Would this be the American influence? Mr. Doogood?
Pablo