Flanders today Free weekly!
OCTOBER 29 2008
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N°53
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I N D E P E N D E N T N E W S W ee k l y
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Masarat Palestine Festival, p.9
www . f l a nderstod a y . E U Erkenningsnummer P708816 Jimmy Kets
Looking for America Flemish photographers return again and again to capture the essence of a country Lisa Bradshaw his week, newspapers across the world all have one topic in common: The American presidential election. It’s an
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exciting one for many reasons: an end to the Bush administration, in any case, but also a chance for the American people to show the world they are choosing another direction – for themselves and for
the rest of us, all too often affected by the decisions and strategies of the world’s most powerful country. And of course, Americans may very well elect the first-ever black
president. Regardless of what Barack Obama actually means when he constantly invokes the word “change”, that in itself is one big change for a western country that, only 40 years ago, saw the
assassination of African American leaders and horrifying lynching of average black people – the same decade Obama was born. Continued on page 4
Tax computer project is “a failure” System “chaotic” despite €700 million investment Alan Hope he computer system in use at the finance ministry is so ill-adapted to requirements it may need to be scrapped, despite investments of at least €700 million, according to an article in Knack magazine last week. The report details how other countries in the OECD are now refusing to deal with tax and other financial information delivered by the Belgian government because – as recently as May this year – they are still being delivered on paper. At the same time, data passed to Belgium by other
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Living
Interview
Our castle series ends with one of the biggest and brightest: Sterckshof Castle in Deurne is home to the silver museum and part of the magnificent Rivierenhof Park.
You can’t walk across the street anymore without bumping into a “lifestyle shop”. Stéphanie Duval takes a look at the fad, which continues to gain ground in Flanders.
Journalist Douglas De Coninck puts his reputation – and sometimes his personal safety – on the line in his investigative reports for De Morgen. We find out how he gets the stories.
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Feature 1, 4-5
News 3, 7
Business 8
Arts 9
Active 10-11
Living 13
OECD countries is printed out, sorted by hand and then packed up to be sent to regional offices. The exchange of data is crucial in the fight against tax fraud and money laundering. Belgium has close cooperation with eight other European countries, yet the system is hardly able to process the information it receives. In addition, because the information provided by Belgium is of such poor quality, some countries are refusing to cooperate at all. Because of these two factors, Flemish Continued on page 7 Agenda 14-15
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