The former American Ambassador to Belgium made my weekend with a great interview. “The biggest risk in Belgium is cholesterol” and “It’s failed journalism, not failed state.” Hilarious that he was talking to a typical example of negative journalism. In the same weekend we lost the finals of the Davis Cup which would be celebrated in any other country. In this country the reporter said: “Tomorrow we will wake up with a bad hangover”. Seriously???

29/11/15 – Speaking in the VRT’s Sunday’s TV show “De Zevende Dag”, the former American ambassador to Belgium, Howard Gutman, discussed the issue about whether or not Belgium could be called “a failed state” as some foreign media are doing. “Belgium is the 14th safest country in the world. If it would be a failed state, then the U.S. would be Afghanistan”, Gutman said. Still, it seems Belgium’s image abroad has been seriously dented in the aftermath of the Paris terror attacks: “The only failure Belgium has had, is that it let others control the message.” (interview Tim Pauwels)

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