Following my ears

Twice today, while crossing the Parc du Cinquantenaire on my way to and from Scot- land House, I followed the sound of music to see what was happening.

The first time turned out to be a demonstration at Rond-Point Schuman, the heart of the EU quarter, against the application of the services directive (also known as the Bolkestein Directive) to the Belgian water industry.

It seems that today is international water day - not that that explains why they were playing Brazilian music...

The second was some sort of military ceremony being held on the sports ground of the Royal Military Academy, which is next to the Army Museum. I couldn't work out what was going on exactly but it was all good fun, involving waving swords around and marching up and down to some rousing brass-band music played by what looked like a naval band. (I don't think that is the Japanese flag, by the way, as it seems to have some sort of design in the middle.)