The 10 Commandments Of A Belgian Employee At The End Of The 19th Century

I've been reading this really interesting book, La vie quotidienne en Belgique sous le règne de Léopold II (1865-1909) by Georges-H. Dumont, for research purposes, when I fell on this little tidbit I thought you guys might enjoy.

Belgian miners circa 1900. They were considered
inferior because they worked with their hands
and in the bowels of the earth.

Particularly for those of you who want to spot the differences (where have we improved in over 100 years), and the similarities (I assure you, some things never seem to change).
So, here goes:

1. Respect of God, cleanliness and punctuality are the rules of a well-ordered house.
2. As of now, the personnel will have to be present from 6 am to 6 pm. Sunday is reserved for religious service. Every morning, everyone has to say prayers in the principal's office.
3. Everyone has to do overtime if management deems it useful.
4. The oldest employee is in charge of the premises' cleanliness. The youngest must show up at his place, 40 minutes before prayer time, and are also at his disposition at the end of the day.
5. The clothing has to be simple. The staff cannot wear light colors, and must ware appropriate stockings. It is forbidden to wear rubber boots and fur coats inside the offices, due to the presence of furnaces and kilns. Exceptions in case of bad weather: scarves and hats. We also recommend everyone bring, during wintertime, four pounds of coal.
6. It is forbidden to talk during office times. An employee who smokes cigars, takes alcoholic drinks, goes to billiards rooms or attends political meets will be considered suspect with respect to his honor, his honesty, and his propriety.
7. It is permitted to take some sustenance between 11h30 and noon. However, work cannot be interrupted.
8. Employees have to show modesty and respect before clients, management and representatives of the press.
9. Each staff member has the duty to keep good care of his own health. In case of illness, a salary will not be paid. We recommend everyone to save a good part of his pay so that, in case of inability to work, and in his old age, he will not be dependent on the community's goodwill.
10. And to finish this, we would like to draw your attention to the generosity of these new rules. We expect from it a considerable increase in work.

Lovely, isn't it? And one of the many reasons I do not wish to travel back in time... What are your thoughts?

The rules were translated from the Règlement de bureaux et chancelleries (private collection), or the rules the poorly-paid
office and chancellery employees had to follow. As you can see, as stringent as the rules a "lower" miner had to follow, so
no reason for them to feel superior. Yet superior they did feel.

Three Fun Facts About The Battle Of Waterloo

The Battle of Waterloo

Two hundred years ago, this day, the Emperor Napoleon suffered a devastating loss against the Anglo-Prussio-Dutch-Hanoverian-Nassau-Brunswick armies (quite a mouthful, eh? But Napoleon wasn't a favorite among  non-French people...not that he was always a favorite amongst the French themselves either). The battle took place in Waterloo, a town just south of Brussels, in the then United Kingdom of the Netherlands.

In any case, I have a friend who's worked for a number of years at the Wellington Museum in Waterloo who knows quite a few interesting tidbits about the battle itself, and related facts. So, without further ado, here they are:

A Few Basic Facts On Belgium

The purpose of this blog is for me to:

1. Learn more about Belgium - having gone to a European school for my elementary and secondary education, then to an American school for my university studies, I'm afraid I really don't know much about it and how it's run.
2. Learn more about Europe - Belgium being one of its original founders, I think it would be hard to address one without addressing the other.
3. Try to make sense of the politics, laws, and other intricacies that inevitably come with a country, and Belgium is quite the Gordian Knot in that sector (it is well known, for example, for its strikes and misfiling papers, tactics which worked quite well during the German occupation in WWII).

So before I delve into anything more complicated, I figured I'd give a few quick facts about Belgium...

Belgium and its regions:

I think that's about it for now. We'll dive into more details in another post!

Sources:
List of countries and dependencies by area
The World Factbook - CIA