I participated in a discussion about financing development
co-operation this morning. Friends of Europe, an NGO close to the European
Commission, sponsored the discussion.
As it is often the case, these discussions are too ambitious
in terms of the scope and the number of speakers and too light when it comes to
depth and substance. The organisers tend to invite a large number of
panellists. That leaves little time for each one of them and even less for an
exchange with the participants. It would be much better to have just a couple
of keynote speakers, who could then speak extensively about their ideas and
experience.
I ended up talking to the fellow seated next to me. I found
out he has been in Belgium for about ten years, after fleeing civil conflict in
Chechnya. And also that he and his community feel much stressed after the
events of Boston. Many people look at
them now as potential terrorists. There is suspicion in the air. And all over
the place the secret polices have decided to spend a bit of their free time
monitoring these refugees. It is, he told me, as if they had found a pretty
good reason to keep themselves busy.
Well, image is everything, as some people like to say. But
image can be deeply unfair.
