Richard.Lewis's blog

Brussels April 9th

The group from Brussels that went to Detroit at the beginning of March formed a really excellent team of 14 people including myself. So much so that they are determined to stay together and meet from time to time  even when the German Marshall Fund project ends. What I tried to achieve in putting the team together was a balanced group representing as wide avariety of social services dealing with immigrants as possible. They included: Anne Dussart, a lawyer from Caritas, Stéphane van der Cruyssem, a housing specialist frolm the Foyer St Gilles, Theo Van Gasse, a senior police officer from the Brussels North force, Pascale Charhon from the European Network Against Racism, Stephanie Lemmens from the Cosmopolis Project at VUB which studies the Brussels region, Myriam Stoffen who works on the Zinneke Parade (a multicultural pageant), Corinne Torrekens who has just finished a PhD on Muslims in Brussels at ULB, Laurence Dufay and Geraldine Bruyneel both social workers, Karolien Ory who does street work with immigrant youth at Jeugd en Stad, Frederik Serroen from Citymined, a multicity renovation project and last but not least Nadia Boujade from the Centre Omar Khayam, not forgetting Hannelore Goeman who has just come to IES to do a doctorate on integration.

Brussels April 7th 2008

This was at least my fifth visit to Detroit so it was not exactly a surprise. However, it certainly was a shock to the twelve Belgians and one French woman who accompanied me on the visit, especially for those who had never previously been to the United States.

Europeans have this distorted vision of the US as a country flowing with milk and honey, inhabited by overcharged business people who, even if they don't live in skyscrapers, they certainly work in them.

First impressions of Detroit are of a wasted city with large open spaces because, apparently, noone can afford to build on them. The only exception to this is the waterfront area next to the Detroit River which has been much improved in recent years. Blighted by "white flight" with its public transport ripped out in favour of cars (what else in Motown?), aside vfrom a few public buildings such as the impressive Detroit Institute of Art, one wonders where the city has gone to. This impression is reinforced by a casual glance at the inner residential areas with their rundown housing (some burnt out by squatters) ande generally derelict air.
This, of course, is not news because it has ben well documented by Michael Moore. And to be fair, once you get to the further suburbs, Detroit "turns back into America" again.

Brussels Aoril 1st 2008

Those of you who have taken the trouble to consult this site will have despaired about seeing anything new on it. Your loyalty is appreciated. However, the visit to Detroit and, in my case, sojourns in San Francisco and New York, took time and energy and were spent literally and figuratively under the weather. So, I trust that I will be forgiven.

There will be a number of entries starting next week commenting on the seminar and environment in Detroit. But for this entry I will confine myself to saying something about entry into the United States.

This will be the last entry before departure to Detroit. Without promising further reflections on the spot, I can say that there will be considerable activity on this site following the seminar.

For today, I will confine myself to remarks about the developments in Turkey where there have been what have been described as "fresh looks of the Koran".

Before anyone says (rightly) that I am no Koranic expert, let me assure you that I am not attempting to say whether a re-interpretation is right or wrong. I will simply comment on the fact that these reflections are taking place at all.