LL-L "Travels" 2010.08.06 (11) [EN]

Sat Aug 7 04:41:05 UTC 2010

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*L O W L A N D S - L - 06 August 2010 - Volume 11
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From: Hellinckx Luc <luc.hellinckx at gmail.com>

Subject: LL-L "Travels"

Beste Paul,

You wrote:

From: Paul Finlow-Bates <wolf_thunder51 at yahoo.co.uk>

Subject: LL-L "Travels" 2010.08.05 (06) [EN]

From: Hellinckx Luc
<luc.hellinckx at gmail.com<http://uk.mc264.mail.yahoo.com/mc/compose?to=luc.hellinckx@gmail.com>
>

Subject: LL-L "Vexillology"

...At the border a big billboard said "Wilkommen im Land der Frühaufsteher":

In short: I didn't feel too welcome ;=)

Hi Luc,

I guess I am one so I'd feel fairly welcome!

Am sure you would ;=).

If we assume that rising time is symmetrically distributed around a certain
mean value, this means that half of the people get up early and half of them
late (locally speaking). If then, you're trying to promote your city,
count(r)y or region among foreigners you risk "losing" half of them. Maybe
more, maybe less, depending on how early the sample population you're
targeting gets up on average.

You can somewhat compare the Saxon campaign with sexist advertising, half of
the people halfheartedly likes it, half of them is annoyed. If you solve
half of a problem, but the other half gets twice as bad, you just shifted
the problem. This also translates politically...no need to give names...
;=)

But it's odd how it's seen as a virtue; there's a common saying:

 Early to bed,

 Early to rise,

 Makes a man healthy,

 Wealthy and wise.

But why?

I think this attitude may be inspired by a market situation. Farmers getting
up early, had all the time in the world to make deals with both fellow
merchants and customers...the ones who arrived late, had less choice. As a
seller, you had to take the little space that was left, and as a customer,
you had to make do with the leftovers that didn't get sold earlier on.

Ron suggested in a previous message that praise of early risers may have
something to do with a Protestant heritage in the North, and to a large
extent I think he's right. However within Northern Belgium, one notices that
folks in Western Flanders tend to get up earlier than those of Brabant or
Limburg. All provinces have a Catholic past though, and even today Western
Flanders is still more of a Catholic stronghold than the other regions.

Therefore I think the moral value of qualities, as perceived by a community,
may also reflect their usefulness within the considered physical
environment. Say, if you were a farmer, centuries ago, living under a
dike...with a sea behind your back, behaving nasty from time to time, I
guess you couldn't afford not to have a minimal dose of community spirit or
stay in bed when times got rough. I have the impression nature wasn't that
hostile inland. Especially if you owned a patch of fertile land in your own
little valley, pre-emptive planning and organising was less "de rigueur". So
people managed their time according to their personal wishes...which greatly
varied.

I'm sure there are sick, poor and stupid early risers, as well as rich, fit,
clever night-owls! It never made any sense to me.

Another thing that struck me while in the North is how early one is having
dinner. After 8.30 pm, it was often no longer possible to find a restaurant
that was still willing to serve food. Absolutely not the case in Belgium
(and most other places I've been to). Maybe people want to spend more time
drinking? Or is it because they have to get up early?

Outside major towns that was still quite common in Australia, at least up to
the end of the 20th C.  When I was working in Bolivia a lot of Australian
collegues commented on how hard it was to get into the South American habit
of eating so late.  There, you can have a hard time finding somewhere to
serve you *before* 8:30!

Spain also has this habit...maybe that's where we Belgians got it from btw
;=)

In the case of Spain, I find it logical to eat late at night, because in
summer that's the only time it's actually cool enough to enjoy your meal.

Kind greetings,

Luc Hellinckx, Halle, Belgium

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