"Brussels is a graveyard of living beings"

Belgium shut down all schools on the 23rd of November. The decision was made by our Prime Minister, Charles Michel. I was happy about it at first because it meant I didn't have to finish my math homework, but then, I realised it wasn't right at all.

The numerous measures taken over the past few days have made fear grow in our hearts. We often hear Charles Michel saying that the threat is "imminent". The threat of what, terrorism? The fact is that we have no idea of what is going on in this country. Belgian police authorities say it’s for our own safety that we don’t know anything yet, but is it really if we are too scared to leave our house?

The terrorists attacked Paris, aiming to destroy our culture and our way of life. They haven't attacked Brussels yet but we are doing the job for them anyway: we are destroying our lifestyle right now by shutting everything down.

The problem is that the government is doing this because they don’t know what else to do. Yesterday on the Belgian talk show "C'est pas tous les jours dimanche", the president and spokesman of the Free Union of the Public and Police Function, Vincent Gilles, admitted that they don’t know what the security level 4/4 means. This is because the government created the different levels of security without saying which necessary measures had to be taken, and where. 
I agree with the fact that we are “better safe than sorry”, but only to certain extent; we shouldn't just be safe, we should also feel safe and yet all these measures to the continuous “imminent threat” just make us feel scared.

by Sarah Mignot