Current Belgian Minister of Defense Pieter De Crem apparently stumbled into a Belgian bar in New York City on Monday evening with his entourage. Following his visit, bartender Nathalie Lubbe Bakker blogged about their visit (in Dutch), talking about how disgusted she was of how drunk De Crem was and how embarrassed she was about his behavior. Worst part, she wrote, was the fact that one of the politician’s advisers admitted to her that the meetings they were there for on taxpayer’s money were in fact canceled because the UN was meeting in Geneva (which is about 330 miles from Brussels). He reportedly told her they had decided to come to NY anyway despite being aware of the cancellation because the political situation here was ‘calm’ and that he’d ‘never visited the city anyway’.Bakker's blog post was apparently noticed in back in Belgum, and the good Minister had some 'splaining to do when he got home - which he was not at all happy about. (It appears he had the blogger sacked from her bar job in New York.)
It seems the Minister De Crem has not denied the event happened, or that his office called the bar's owner after the blog post got some attention. (As an aside, getting drunk in a bar in New York can be a career enhancer if you tell it right.)
The story here, though, is not a drunk Belgian. Or that politicians are pretty much scum the world over. The story here is that today anyone, with a keyboard and an Internet connection, can hold those in power accountable in ways that before were unthinkable. And those in power realize it. But instead of seeing this as an advance of participatory democracy, many politicians see it as something they cannot control and therefore a threat. Minister Pieter De Crem's reaction is fairly typical:
"I want to take this opportunity and use this non-event to signal a dangerous phenomenon in our society. We live in a time where everybody is free to publish whatever he or she wants on blogs at will without taking any responsibility. This exceeds mud-slinging. Together with you, other Parliament members and the government I find that it’s nearly impossible to defend yourself against this. Everyone of you is a potential victim. I would like to ask you to take a moment and think about this."Yes, Minister De Crem, freedom of speech is a "dangerous phenomenon in our society." It's supposed to be. It's there to keep folks like you scared straight, and always mindful of just who the hell you work for.
Hattip: Instapundit.
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