Ms. Gram started the session talking about her long journey, what she called “world trip”, as she had no fixed plan and she decides for her next destination just without any preparation. The trip has started from India about one year ago. She has been so far to India, Nepal, Thailand, Laos and then UAE, as her first Middle East destination. On reasons to visit Iran, Ms. Gram underlined that she has been curious about the country and was motivated by “extremely positive” feedbacks of different travelers she has met during her long trip, particularly hospitality of Iranians and the safety in the country. As a solo traveler who stays with different hosts, Aveline confirmed that this way of traveling makes you touch the real culture of a country, adding that her experience has been wonderful as people have been very kind and helpful to her. “I have to say it is not even 24 hours I have arrived in Tehran and the hospitality and openness of people is great,” she commended.
Noting the cultural aspects of Belgium, Ms. Gram underlined the differences between the main cultural communities: the Dutch-speaking Flemish and the French-speaking Walloons. Then Ms. Gram elaborated on the social behaviors of these two groups. She said: “French-speakers are so outgoing and social people, but Flemish people are a bit shy and prefer to stay home.” She underlined that her solo “world trip” has been helpful for her, as a Flemish, to get in touch with strange people and be more social.
As a food-lover, Aveline called Belgium “country of chocolate and fries” when talking about the most notable features of her country’s culture, she said that main dish in Belgium is affected by German culture and includes lots of potatoes and sausages. She also talked about one of the famous festivals of Belgium, The Flower Carpet that draws visitors from around the world every two years.
Moving to politics, Ms. Gram reaffirmed the tensions Brussels has been suffering from; “we broke the world record of being without a government for I think about 500 days; we didn’t have a government for one year and half and we have always this problem between the French parties and Flemish parties; and at this moment, the Flemish party which is the biggest party of Flanders, wants to split Belgium.”
“I think they want to make a confederate state to have autonomy in each part, like Switzerland, they also want to stop the kingdom; they think it would be more efficient to have autonomy and it is yet not clear if they want Belgium in form of two different countries or a con-federal country,” she said, underlining that the capital, Brussels, would be a problem at any case at it is technically the capital of Flanders but is home to majority of French speaking Belgians.
When asked on peace and tolerance, Ms. Gram highlighted the role of efforts to know nations, differences and similarities; “this helps to understand particular issues of a nation and to respect them; in my opinion this would be the best way to create peace.”
On refugee crisis and the way Belgium has deal with the issue after terrorist attacks, Aveline underlined that her country has been and is hosting refugees, yet the attacks affected the issue in terms of trusting the migrants fully. “the negative impact of the incidents was that people were more afraid and Belgium’s extremist party get popular and even Netherland politician Geert Wilders urged its leader for cooperation on refugee crisis,” she regretted.