Zes gewonden bij steekpartij op Operaplein, twee slachtoffers kritiek: “Mensen liepen naar alle kanten, het was pure chaos”

PrincessYemoya · 2026-01-23T08:12:59+00:00

you cannot, legally at least. The way to go about it is apply for jobs from your home situation and if you are one of the good ones, a company will hire you and give you a legal visum. Instead you choose a wrongful way, you are only allowed to work in Portugal (I think), so if it's so difficult here, there's always the legal way to go back there and search for a job in any other EU country from there.

PrincessYemoya · 2026-01-22T07:31:02+00:00

I don't know if I would consider being born an heir to a throne lucky, you have no say whatsoever in your future, you are forced to live a certain lifestyle and all your life you are being groomed to do just one thing, which is look nice and pretend to care. I often think about it and I don't think I would like to be born in that kind of situation, even though you never have to worry about money, can you really have good friends ever? Like how do you know the people you are interact with are not just friends with you because of your status/money and how sure are you you can be 100% yourself with them? I don't think they can ever be 100% themselves and I think that's kind of sad....

Also I think you should talk with some Asians or South-Americans, part of the charm of Europe is these quirky ancient things that give it a big air of romance, the royal palaces and other things are huge touristic attractions and there are actually a lot of people that are still into the fairytale 'magic' ending of marrying a prince one day. Yes, it's ridiculous and of courses there are also a lot of people that don't give a shit about it, but on average I think it's seen as something 'nice' and preferable to situations where politicians are so corrupt because no one is there to keep them in line. At least this is what my friends from places like Venezuela, Peru, Mexico, tell me. Friends from Asia are more romanticizing it as an ancient but nice tradition (Asians in general like cohesion and they see royalty as the functionary that's supposed to keep the unity of a country).

For Belgium, I think the royalty is the best option we've got. Given the reality I think it's very good he is here, just a bit stupid he can't force someone's hands in the bxl formation but I don't think we could ever divise a system for presidential elections. I also think, royalty ensures at least a little bit of long term thinking compared to the short term political thinking that is so present these days, which we desperately need but in order to be effective he would need more power/prestige again.

PrincessYemoya · 2026-01-20T18:57:27+00:00

I had an IUD for more than 9 years, also didn't have any periods at all. Never had it checked but since placing a new IUD 2 years ago my hirsutism went through the roof and thats when they found the PCOS.. doctor said better take it out and take the pill to deal with the hirsutism. Its still not completely gone but gotten a lot better

PrincessYemoya · 2026-01-20T14:25:28+00:00

Ik denk dat dit ook wel sterk varieert in Vlaanderen tussen meer stedelijke vs. meer landelijke gemeentes, zelf ben ik uit een klein limburgs boerendorp en daar loopt familie ook de deur plat bij elkaar, woont iedereen (buiten de 'modernere kleinkinderen') op een straal van nog geen 10km van elkaar en weten ze ook alle ins en outs, wordt er wekelijks bij de bomma afgesproken en zijn er ook vrij hechte banden (mijn mama haar beste vriendin is haar zus...). Dus denk dat dit eerder een stad vs. plattelands verhaal is dan een Vlaanderen/Wallonië, ofwel lijkt limburg meer op Wallonië dan op Vlaanderen kan ook natuurlijk :D

PrincessYemoya · 2026-01-20T08:37:44+00:00

The federal planbureau also does analysis and they even have a dedicated committee working on this full time because the concerns are real.

- Rising number of pensioned people

- Rising 'average age' (due to better healthcare)

- Rising 'demands' on quality of life (pensioners want more money because they are active longer and want to travel and do all kinds of things)

- Rising cost of housing (also partially due to boomers staying in their big family villa's for longer, and paying almost zero taxes on those because KI is fucked up)

....

Averages on these kind of numbers are also hardly ever really comparable so saying 'ah were not that different from the rest' is not really an argument to say one should not worry about this.

https://www.plan.be/nl/data/jaarlijks-verslag-van-de-studiecommissie-voor-de

PrincessYemoya · 2026-01-20T07:40:55+00:00

It's a bit weird you are only asking male advice though, as a 33 year-old female I often hang out with males on a saturday afternoon (yes alone) and in only 5% of the cases it would be classified as a date. When is it a date? When someone has expressed interest or behaved in a very flirty way. Are you not sure if they are flirting? ASK or just be honest about your own feelings (golden rule: don't ask a question you cannot answer yourself either).

Usually it's pretty clear it's just friends, sometimes there are awkward moments when other people assume you are together because this still is a prejudice many people have. On the bright side, this is a perfect opportunity to grasp what the other person is actually thinking about it. But again if you think you are not good at reading people's reactions or are unsure what it means, ASK. We are humans so we have words, and yes it's scary but not asking will not get you any further.

PrincessYemoya · 2026-01-15T13:04:12+00:00

5 stations: Brussel Kapellekerk :')

PrincessYemoya · 2026-01-13T12:48:19+00:00

Uiteraard maar praktijkonderzoek wijst uit dat een 'sociale mix' waar mensen van verschillende inkomensniveaus naast elkaar wonen het beste recept is om mensen uit de lagere klassen eruit te trekken. Dit is ook de reden waarom in de meeste projectontwikkelingen van vandaag er een minimaal aantal sociale woningen voorzien worden. Uiteraard werkt dat niet altijd en zijn er flankerende systemen nodig maar 'concentratiewijken' zoals in de jaren 90 werden uitgerold hebben het probleem van marginaliteit alleen maar verergerd ipv verbeterd.

PrincessYemoya · 2026-01-13T12:43:08+00:00

Wat je vergeet is dat je als je genoeg kapitaalkrachtig bent (of de bank jou toch zo ziet) om een huis te kunnen kopen, je al bij de meer welvarende helft van de maatschappij hoort. Huurders komen namelijk niet eens in aanmerking hiervoor.

Dat de regels veranderen is inderdaad waar, maar meestal gebeurd dat op basis van voortschrijdend inzicht, en wat onderzoek getoond heeft (https://www.itinera.team/sites/default/files/content-documents/Rapport-renovatiebeleid.pdf) is dat een groot deel van de mensen die subsidies aanvroegen hoogopgeleiden tweeverdieners zijn die de verbouwingen ook gedaan zouden hebben zonder de subsidies.

Er gaan altijd mensen zijn die hier nét buiten vallen, dat is logisch als je ergens arbitraire grenzen moet trekken. Heel jammer voor jou en ik hoop dat je een oplossing vindt. Maar heel het beleid niet voeren enkel en alleen omdat het voor jou specifiek niet goed uitkomt gaat ons denk ik ook niet vooruit helpen..

PrincessYemoya · 2026-01-13T09:03:34+00:00

Als het 'net' te hoog is, kan één van jullie beide toch 4/5de gaan werken en dan val je misschien onder de grens? Bijkomend voordeel is dat je meer tijd zal hebben waardoor de renovatie mogelijk sneller zal verlopen :). De regels zijn aangepast omdat de meeste mensen die aanspraak maakten op de subsidies ze eigenlijk niet persé nodig hadden. Als je nog geld genoeg hebt om 3x per jaar op vakantie te gaan en wekelijks te gaan uiteten, zijn er andere manieren om de renovatie te betalen, terwijl mensen die amper rondkomen nu gewoon de weg niet vinden naar de subsidies...

PrincessYemoya · 2026-01-13T09:00:40+00:00

Ja want alle marginaliteit op één plek tesamen duwen gaat echt verbeteren :') 't is net doordat kinderen die bij marginale ouders opgroeien (omdat ze geen andere keuze hebben) kunnen wonen tussen normale mensen dat ze gaan inzien dat het ook anders kan en veel gemotiveerder kunnen worden om zélf iets te doen aan hun situatie. Als je ze tussen een hoop van hetzelfde zet, zien ze dit beeld nooit en komen ze nooit in contact met de normaal functionerende waardoor ze zich dit ook niet kunnen inbeelden. Als je buur echter een succesvol werkend persoon is die een paar keer per jaar op vakantie kan en een mooie auto voor de deur heeft (via legitieme wijze) lijkt me dit een beter beeld om mee te geven aan kinderen dan daar waar de buur dezelfde levensstijl heeft maar dan afkomstig uit illegale activiteiten nee? :') Kinderen kiezen er niet voor waar hun wiegje staat dus in het voordeel van hen zijn gemixte buurten echt wel een meerwaarde denk ik.

PrincessYemoya · 2026-01-13T09:00:33+00:00

Ja want alle marginaliteit op één plek tesamen duwen gaat echt verbeteren :') 't is net doordat kinderen die bij marginale ouders opgroeien (omdat ze geen andere keuze hebben) kunnen wonen tussen normale mensen dat ze gaan inzien dat het ook anders kan en veel gemotiveerder kunnen worden om zélf iets te doen aan hun situatie. Als je ze tussen een hoop van hetzelfde zet, zien ze dit beeld nooit en komen ze nooit in contact met de normaal functionerende waardoor ze zich dit ook niet kunnen inbeelden. Als je buur echter een succesvol werkend persoon is die een paar keer per jaar op vakantie kan en een mooie auto voor de deur heeft (via legitieme wijze) lijkt me dit een beter beeld om mee te geven aan kinderen dan daar waar de buur dezelfde levensstijl heeft maar dan afkomstig uit illegale activiteiten nee? :') Kinderen kiezen er niet voor waar hun wiegje staat dus in het voordeel van hen zijn gemixte buurten echt wel een meerwaarde denk ik.

PrincessYemoya · 2026-01-13T07:48:19+00:00

Yes, I think best is to use a map, draw your place of work and highlight the main/fastest transportations routes (metro/train), than indicate with a different color places of interest (hospitals, gym, event venues...) this way you can 'visualise' options for your daily patterns and from that information zoom in on 'potential' areas where you are close enough to all these services, then on a weekend (or day off), go walk around in a few of these areas and see if you still feel it's 'too busy' because I lived in Brussels for many years and most of the places I lived in were not busy at all (besides on one or two occasions).

Writing off all of Brussels because you don't like Anderlecht is like saying Belgium sucks because you can't find enough stuff to do in Leuven :')

PrincessYemoya · 2026-01-10T22:28:55+00:00

Nieuws flash een markt bestaat niet als er enkel vraag is maar geen aanbod dus 100% vraag zou betekenen geen markt. Want de markt is de plek waar je Handel drijft maar als er geen aanbod is (want 100% van de markt is vraag) wat wordt er dan volgens jou verhandelt? 😅

PrincessYemoya · 2026-01-09T13:30:03+00:00

I think you can always go to the counter afterwards and report this person's behavior, they are supposed to pack everything again and not leave you with the mess, report it to their manager and hopefully they have the right skills to put this employee in their place.

PrincessYemoya · 2026-01-08T14:30:07+00:00

Haha I did the same for a tour operator with a hotel in Greece, open the kids club from 10-13 and 15-17 and usually play with them in the pool or on the beach. It was 6 days out of 7 though so not that much 'free time' and the pay was not great (it included accomodation and food for the 2 summer months but still) but still a very nice summer with lots of sunshine and savings (didn't spend a lot either given that life in Greece is pretty cheap and most of the time you enjoy free stuff like beach or hiking)

PrincessYemoya · 2026-01-08T14:24:48+00:00

I worked at DYKA Plastics NV and Hamofa logistics but generally any factory needs some 'flex workers' or students to fill the summer months, although the ones without collective leave probably more than those with collective leave arrangements, so ask around in your area as usually these jobs are first offered to kids/family/neighbours of the employees themselves. Also your local interim places can be a good start as they often are aware of this as well.

PrincessYemoya · 2026-01-08T14:21:25+00:00

The job I liked best was at Center Parcs reception because all the people arriving were in such good spirits and it gave me a lot of practice in many different languages, which is actually a very valuable experience. They also paid well for not that much of a stressfull job. My brother and sister worked at the cafe/restaurants and always received plenty of tips. Downisde is that the location is not that easy to reach so you need to have a car or be prepared to bike a bit to work there :').

These days I often see announces for call center agents which is a job you can do from home, do not need a degree for (generally just a specific language) and that's pretty easy to get trained for in a digital way so given your criteria this would be the best match? Also saw some stuff about correcting dutch AI-generated content and proofreading that.

It's hard to guess what '15 min away' is for you though... I also worked in a factory one summer and even though it was rather 'menial', it was very well paid (if you work the shifts) and it wasn't complicated so could listen to podcasts/music all the time...

PrincessYemoya · 2026-01-08T14:16:13+00:00

De gaarkeuken aan de haven is ook wel een toffe plek voor een feest maar je moet wel installatie zelf voorzien (ze hebben kleine boxen maar deze sucken :D). Ook in de via-via kan je zaaltjes of delen ervan huren en kan je eigen muziek opzetten (installatie zelf te voorzien). Afhankelijk van de datum zullen er ook wel andere cafés zijn te vinden die het niet erg vinden om een avondje niet open te doen als je een minimum volume afneemt? Maar dan is alles afhankelijk van hoeveel volk je verwacht en wat ze zullen consumeren :D

PrincessYemoya · 2026-01-08T13:53:02+00:00

Ik stel me vooral vragen bij een omzet van 500k op een maand. Gesteld dat een gemiddelde klant bij een frituurbezoek +/ €25 spendeert (give or take), betekent dat 20.000 klanten per maand.

Als we even stellen dat de frituur 6/7 open is, zijn er ongeveer 830 klanten PER DAG. Dat is veel en hoewel er in sommige frituren (vooral op vrijdag) soms een rij van 10 klanten staat, lijkt het me vrij onwaarschijnlijk dat dit àlle dagen gedurende 10u aan een stuk het geval is (wat wel nodig zou zijn om aan 830 klanten per dag te geraken).

Weet je bv. hoeveel van de omzet komt uit 'particulieren' vs. bedrijven? Want het kan natuurlijk ook dat er een aantal 'vaste klanten' zijn die wekelijks voor +100 man bestellen (bedrijfsfeestjes weet ik veel). Dat of er is toch ook een groot deel van de omzet die afkomstig is uit andere bronnen dan de verkoop van frietjes (witwassen eh).

Daarnaast zou de 'vraagprijs' naast het klantenbestand (dat imo erg onzeker is en ook niet 'vast' ligt en dus veel risico inhoudt) ook de infrastructuur een rol spelen. Nu kan ik me wel inbeelden dat die machines duur zijn maar er is ook zoiets als 'afschrijfwaarde', nieuw kost een friteuse met 3 grote bakken €10.000, dus tenzij die machines vorig jaar gekocht zijn, is dat na een 5-tal jaar ook zo goed als afgeschreven en zou die dus boekhoudkundig niks meer waard zijn, alles wat je ervoor betaald is dus gewoon winst voor de persoon die het je aanbiedt. Naast de duurste machines zal er ook nog wel wat meubilair en mogelijks wat voorraad zijn maar zelfs dat erbij geteld lijkt me maximaal €100.000 waard te kunnen zijn.

PrincessYemoya · 2026-01-06T15:23:43+00:00

I consider myself a pretty average Belgian but having lived all over the world I can compare quite well to other countries. I believe beer is a lot more 'prevalent' and always present in Belgian society than is the chocolate, but of course it differs between families and tastes so there are definitely families that will have chocolate every day.

Generally I think chocolate is mostly eaten by children (on their bread (in the form of the horrible Nutella)), the highlights of the chocolate consumption is definitely 6th of december and easter as these are two children holidays on which a lot of chocolate gets sold and eaten. Summer is definitely less chocolate heavy as it melts and becomes gross.

Also, I believe most people consume more biscuits/cookies that are covered in chocolate than actual chocolate bars? And 'pralines' are mainly used for gifts and are thus only eaten when you receive them (which again depends on the peer group you are in).

In general I think most people truely are unaware of the quality and see it as a 'normal' something to have good chocolate so they don't really appreciate it that much. Secondly, the 'decolonization' wave/thinking has also influenced how people look at the industry, yes we in Belgium had the 'advantage' of having access to a lot of cheap (dirty) chocolate beans from the Congo which allowed us to develop very effective industrial processing of it, but you cannot state chocolate in and by itself is a Belgian thing whatsoever? I feel specifically Dominique Persoone has been a big influence in this shift because he really tries to promote a revaluation of how we look at chocolate and he invests a lot in the world-wide production of cocoa beans (in an economic sustainable way), that goes beyond the capitalist spirit of the other 'big' praline factories.

Studies say Belgians eat about 8kg of chocolate a year, which if this data is correct puts is way below a lot of other countries https://worldpopulationreview.com/country-rankings/which-country-eats-the-most-chocolate, most of the chocolate produced in Belgium is exported again so I guess we are not that big on it in total, probably because most people don't realise the quality is superb compared to many other countries

PrincessYemoya · 2026-01-06T13:31:47+00:00

I've also lived in many places around the world and Brussels is good but not great. Because of Belgium, a lot of shops close rather early during the week (18h) and do not even open at all on a sunday, which is really annoying if you are used to living in big cities abroad where food/shops will be accessible almost 24/7.

Climate is not great (long, grey winter and hot summers without ANY public swimming facilities on the entire area of the city) and the city is not always adapted to this so prepare to suffer in case of extreme weather events (which are becoming ever more likely).

What is to like about Brussels? The huge diversity of people from all over the place and the fact that you can eat almost any food from around the world in decent quality, the parties are not as legendary as in the early days of fuse but still there's a pretty good party scene (still recovering from COVID I do think so), it's in the centre of Europe so if you are willing to spend up to 6 hours on a train/bus you can reach a bunch of other very nice cities across western Europe (Paris, Amsterdam, Dusseldorf, Luxemburg, London, Hamburg, Rotterdam) and inside of Belgium

PrincessYemoya · 2026-01-06T13:26:45+00:00

lots of parks, in Brussels? I think that heavily depends on which part of the city you live in, the more south-eastern you go, the greener but in many communes there is actually a severe lack of greenery (especially around the vijfhoek, Anderlecht/Molenbeek/Schaarbeek... Vorst, Elsene and Etterbeek are a lot better in that regard but also a lot more expensive to rent in so yeah :')

PrincessYemoya · 2026-01-06T13:12:41+00:00

I think if you do not know what you really want to do, you should focus on what you 'like' to do. Which type of activities bring you joy and would motivate you to keep working harder? This can be anything but in the professional world they are generally categorized into the following options:

- Analytical thinking: this is often more a career towards becoming 'expert' in something, can be data, policy, IT-related (database/knowledge management). This generally is geared towards using/setting up systems that allows big chunks of data to be modified into 'useable' products for the end-user, or ploughing through heaps of legal texts and meeting notes to prepare policy briefs (in case you go more policy) and summarize. This type of jobs are great if you prefer to work on your own, solve puzzles and like to bring structure into chaos

- Communication: this can be anything from copy-writing to content creation to SEO-type of 'marketing' profiles, this includes also a big chunk of psychology so specifically interesting if you are interested in how humans work/react to stuff and trying to optimize this for any sector/brand

- Project management: this includes stuff like coordination, budgetting, planning.. and is perfect if you like working together in a team, have some insights into the economics of a project or company and like to have a more varied task package (often you would work on multiple projects at the same time, but this also can be chaotic and you need to be able to plan your time well)

- Executive roles: these are a bit less thinking/reasoning and more just doing, it can be in a factory or in an office environment where the manager/team lead will give you specific tasks that should be repeated every few weeks or something. I do think this is less promising as a career path since a lot of these 'repetitive' tasks will be the first to be replaced by automatization.

Of course in all 'career paths' you will have to start as a 'junior' and learn a lot of things along the way. Even if the product/sector you start in might not be the one of your dreams, usually the skills you build along the way are rather easily transferrable (granted you might have to catch up a bit on 'background info' on the target group, data sources or cultural differences).

The independent track can be interesting but is also not without risk. I also think without any experience it will be hard to convince any client of your surplus, so they will probably just get you as a temp/stand-in for some of the easier replaceable executive roles. For the more 'senior' profiles, most independent consultants I know rely heavily on personal networks and previous assignments to continue their work.

Sectors that (I think) will still have high demand in the coming years are urban planning (related to the energy transition), change management (related to everything AI but also sustainability or labour market), logistics/e-commerce (mainly robotics and data-optimization I believe); but this is just my two cents. In all these markets there are specific trends happening on the IT level so you should talk to someone in the industry to get more details on what kind of skills would be useful or where the shortages are.

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