Dear friends,
Here I am again with some news for you. After the removal of my prostate gland in January which went well the year continued in a more settled way with my birthday on February 7, 66 years now, and the arrival of spring. But the end of COVID sadly was not sufficient for the start-up clients of microStart to fully recover, mainly because of the rise in energy prices. The climate crisis did nothing to help migrants who more often than not have to be considered climate migrants because they are fleeing from either a lack of or too much water with no perspective of surviving in their home region. SIREAS had to face the challenge. And then the wars, first in Ukraine and now Gaza. Followed by inflation. This being said, personnally speaking I have no right or reason to complain, and life in Belgium is definitely easier than in many other parts of the world. But I wonder how people who are less lucky then I make ends meet: each time I go to the supermarket to shop for some basics it costs me around 50 Euros, and there isn’t much in my little basket…..
You get the picture, given the overall situation I feel a bit lost. What should we do, what should we make of it all? Where is all this taking us ?
Well it’s not as if nice things didn’t happen at all, of course they do! Barbara and I spent two summer months in our paradise in the Dordogne where we shared many great moments with friends and family. As always, you are most welcome to come and see us next year. I always start working on the summer schedule in April, so the sooner we hear from you and your plans the better!
In September it was back to work with Board meetings, search for board membres or managing directors, Audit and Risk Committee meetings, General Assemblies for microStart, SIREAS, EMMI and others.
And there is another piece of good news! I put myself forward for a place on the Social Committee of NewB where I acted as member of the board before NewB was granted a banking licence which it sadly lost again later, not having succeeded in raising the level of own funds required by Belgian law. NewB was then taken over by VDK Bank, an ethical bank based in Flanders. New B now operates as a VDK agency in Brussels and Wallonia. NewB remains an ethical cooperative and I am happy to be part of the committee which will assure the members of the cooperative that its objective remains unchanged and that VdK respects these values.
Singing in a choir and playing tennis also continue to boost the morale! We have sung the Mozart Requiem several times in concert and are having a fifth go in April 2024 at the prestigious Flagey site (see enclosed link for bookings), sheer bliss! In parallel we are learning to sing the Verdi Requiem which I like less in that it’s more an opera than a requiem, to my mind. But whatever, singing really does a lot of good and the group is super nice. The same goes for tennis.
To conclude, I wish you all a wonderful end of year season and a great new year 2024 full of joy and plans !!
Big hug
Olivier, December 2023 and thanks to Barbara for the translation 😊😊😊
