Political Retirement

Day 1,791, 05:02 • Published in Belgium Belgium • by Nohjis

Dear eBelgians,

At times I wonder if there are politicians who still stand for content. You have to ask yourself who the people who do have a project and goals to achieve you can identify with are. Politics to me is a tool to achieve a better society, a better way of organizing ourselves that can only happen by working on a common project for all. Individualism can never be a common project for it’s all about you giving up on your neighbour, it’s you giving up on your friends. So what is the positive message you wish to send to the world ? I do know mine, it’s one filled with working on realizing changes when people are brought together and manage to create an added value through their teamwork.

With calls for “change” around the world a great deal of politicians keep offering you the same dish. We seem to make a choice between eBelgian and eBelgian food and then eat the same thing for the next month. That message is only true in appearance. Some may not feel the actual changes that happened every month since I was born into this world. I blame not only those who didn’t manage to reach out, not only those who managed to show passion and drive. It’s often only those who do not wish to accept from the hands reached out to them who make it possible to feel completely excluded.

There are real people working to serve you that eBelgian food; some like it hot, others like it salty and yet others prefer to serve you desert. What all these passionate politicians agree on though is that the best food is served after it has been cooked with care. We may disagree on the way it is served, we may not like a part or all of what is in our dishes but you can hardly blame those people who you have asked to cook it and who in turn served exactly what was proposed. With this I wish to thank the different teams of passionate people I have had the honor of serving eBelgian food with. Different teams who managed to reach common goals, teams that by laying different accents have formed eBelgium to what it is today.

The tools laid out before us have been extremely generous over the past year with huge income and possibilities to spend it on value-added projects. While it may be difficult to accept, stretching out the help we can offer new people in achieving their goals will benefit the state a lot more then running the state into an abyss of “each on their own”. This is why some decide to step up, to serve others within the structures created or recreated since last december and this despite our at times very hostile opposition.

In that essence, I truly feel it has been a mistake to serve an elitist project over an inclusive project and allow it to be used as a symbol for those who breed on jealousy. Individualism and top end serving as soon as they became transparent is something I have fought sometimes from within and other times from the outside. The glorifying of individual values is after all most often what causes the demise of those of the political class. For if it’s individualism you seek, there is no need to participate in ePolitics.

It’s often far easier to stop excesses through evolution rather than stopping them through revolution. In revolution you meet eye to eye with your enemies often in grotesque public clashes which only remove focus from what is to be realized. In evolution you realize the soft changes through convincing others to believe in your project. While those who have followed the path of evolution, succeed in translating their values into policy, those who have chosen revolution have more often then not found themselves facing failure.

I wish to give thanks again to the people with whom I have served in several administrations side by side. Give thanks to those who have never ended to defend their values sometimes working hard behind the screens to bring you all the maximum of fun there is to be gotten out of playing politics, out of playing the economy and out of your role as a fighter. While I have been one of the motors for putting several ideas into place, they have only rarely sprung out of my own imagination. Together though, we have made it work.

For eBelgium,
Nohjis
Former President
Former Member of Congress
Former Minister of Finance
Former Minister of Foreign Affairs
Former Party President

A retirement article in honor of :
MaryamQ, ThomasRed, Cotarius, mittekemuis, el1temkd, Cooke4444, BrunoCND, Critically, GoopyPants, Olv007, Aldous Zamiatin, Procuste, Jofroi, tecuvo, djonydjo, Karakoran, SX80, Viridi, Lily Jayne Summers, NLSP, Requiem Domine, Helviro, Konrad Neumann, facebookator, McKitKat, Gyantse and Backwards.