Your support helps us to tell the story
From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.
At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.
The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.
Your support makes all the difference.
Grumbles about the facilities at the Sochi Winter Olympics have been well documented, but the delegation heading to Russia from Belgium had a particular concern: how would they make it through the fortnight without their beloved chocolates?
For a country with one of the biggest chocolate industries in the world and where the average person consumes 15lb of the stuff each year, a ban by Russian authorities on foreign imports of the sweet snack was serious business. “We wanted to bring chocolates to make life somewhat more comfortable during negotiations or talks,” Eddy De Smedt, from the Belgian Olympic Committee, told the national broadcaster VRT. “Initially, we received a ‘no’.” However, the delegation lobbied hard to get the Russians to accept that the chocolates were non-negotiable. Eventually they won them over.
Not all nations were so lucky in convincing the authorities to let their comfort foods in. According to VRT’s English-language Flanders News website, the Dutch were faced with having to spend the Games without their beef croquettes known as bitterballs, as they contained meat and were on Russia’s red list. But they found a solution, too: they have taken over a chef who is hoping to find the ingredients in Sochi and whip up close to 38,000 bitterballs for the Dutch team.
Join our commenting forum
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies
Comments