This is going to be my last column about Belgium as the "Festival of Understanding at Corwra" is over. I wish I could have made it to Cowra to see the parade and everything else. It must have been a lot of work to set up the festival. I guess the committee deserves a big thank you - also from all people in Belgium because they gave the country a chance to show off its best points. Belgium needs to repair its reputation because a handful of child molesters ruined it during the past months.

As I had already written last week, I've almost run out of interesting topics about Belgium. I've covered about everything that seems interesting and important to me. However as I'm only 21 years old, I might miss a lot of topics which are interesting for other (older) people. There are still lots of other things to discover in Belgium - probably a lot of things of which I don't even know that they exist.

There is one very important institution in Belgium that I haven't talked about yet: The Belgian Monarchy. I probably forgot about it because it is one of the things that we take for granted here in Belgium. My sincerest apologies leaving it out until the end.

Belgium has a hereditary constitutional monarchy. Since a recent constitutional reform, the throne is accessible to male and female members of the Royal Family. King Albert, the 6th Belgian King, ascended to the throne of Belgium on 9th August 1993. I still remember July 31, 1993 when I was in Australia and my host-father told me that the Belgian King Baudouin, who had reigned for 42 years, died of heart failure. This had shocked me very deeply as well as the rest of the Belgians. H.M. King Albert I has been married to Donna Paola Ruffo di Calabria since July 2, 1959. They have 3 children. During the last couple of months and weeks, the King has taken great interest in the fate of missing and molested children. The Belgian people respects him for this even more.

This is an official description of the function of the King as provided by the Federal Information Service (Copyright © 1995-1997 Embassy of Belgium): "The King is the head of the state. According to the Constitution, the person of the King has immunity: his ministers are liable for him before Parliament. Not a single deed by the King can have any consequence without its being countersigned by a minister. This provision places the King above religions and ideologies, above political persuasions and debates, and above economic interest. At the same time the King is the guardian of the country's unity and independence.

The Belgian culture has been influenced by many different people and powers. During the different centuries, the Romans, the Francs, the French, the Spanish, the Dutch and the Germans ruled Belgium. Belgium is still a young country as it was only founded in 1830. Belgium was the scene of many wars: Napoleon's Waterloo, Australian soldiers fighting in Ypres during World War I, the Battle of the Ardennes in 1944-45,... All this inspite of a peace-loving population of 10 million inhabitants today.

After World War II, Belgium was very active in reconciling the different people and creating the European Union. It hosts many international organisations and institutions, such as the European headquarters of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), the Supreme Headquarters of the Allied Powers in Europe (SHAPE).

More interesting details about Belgium can be found on the Internet or through the Belgian Embassy and your travel agent. Here are an Internet addresses of the Belgian Embassy in the USA which I can only recommend. They provide a lot of information in one single place <http://www.belgium-emb.org/usa/>

If you are planning a trip to Belgium, or you need to get some more information about it for a school assignement, don't hesitate to contact me on the Internet at or on the World Wide Web at <http://www.euregio.net/joe/column/>.

It has been a pleasure and a honor for me to write about my home country for the Festival of Understand and The Cowra Guardian. I hope you weren't too bored by my column during the past 6 weeks. I've tried to give you an accurate view about Belgium, its people, its lifestyle and traditions and also its national food and beverages, also known as beer.

However, your main impression about Belgium shouldn't be that we are all addicted to beer and "Belgian Fries". When you make it to Belgium one day, make sure to drop by for a stubbie or two. If I can make it, I'll visit Cowra this summer (this winter - from an Australian viewpoint).

Take care. And a last time: "That's all folks!"

Joe Buff