Brake Down That Belgium!

[Wycoff]

Originally posted by EPW


Washington D.C. is governed by the EU?!

Yes, according to Ron Paul and Pat Robertson

[Straybow]

Originally posted by The Vagabond
It's Brussels that keeps Belgium from breaking up. It's a largely francophone city deep inside the Flemish territory. So go figure how to break this up. Breaking up Czechoslovakia was a piece of cake compared to that.

Deep inside?? The whole country is barely 100mi wide. On this map it looks like only a mile or two of Flemish land separates Brussels from Walloonish land.

[VetLegion]

No Belgians posted in this thread yet. I hope they're not already manning the stockades.

What I'd like to know is whether the intensity of these requests for breaking up Belgium is increasing, or is this just the usual political maneuvering.

[Zkribbler]

I think the U.S. should invade Belgium in order to ensure peace in the region.

[Riesstiu IV]

Originally posted by Cort Haus




Hate to break it to you, bud, but ...

oh never mind.

You know, I expected either a Australian or British poster to correct me on that. Looks like I was on the mark.

[LordShiva]

Originally posted by Riesstiu IV


You know, I expected either a Australian or British poster to correct me on that. Looks like I was on the mark.

@ your avatar

[Traianvs]

Originally posted by VetLegion
No Belgians posted in this thread yet. I hope they're not already manning the stockades.

What I'd like to know is whether the intensity of these requests for breaking up Belgium is increasing, or is this just the usual political maneuvering.

At the moment the intensity is not really increasing. In fact, there has been a breakthrough in the negotiations. There's now an agreement about immigration policy etc. At least that's something.

If you're talking about the general population I don't think much is changing now. A few months back it looked like tensions would rise sky high, but the momentum is gone.

In the end I don't think most people really want to break up, because that would entail horrid negotiating about a wide range of things, especially about Brussels and the boroughs around it. On top of that we don't have much to gain from separation anyway. Flanders extracts more wealth from our capital Brussels than we give away to the poor Wallonians anyway. That is something a lot of extremists here don't (want to) realize.

However, it's crystal clear that Belgium isn't going to last for all eternity. We never know what the future brings. Who knows how the globalized world and Europe will look like in 20-30 years. Impossible to predict.

[Traianvs]

Originally posted by Straybow
They will break up into a North Belgium and a South Belgium. The North Belgians will blocade access to Brussels, and the Brits and Yanks will have to airlift supplies in. Then the North Belgians will build a wall to keep the South Belgians out (or perhaps the North Belgians in). Then an American President will come over and say "Ich bin ein Brussel Sprout." Another President will say, "Tear down this wall and open the space up for an airy feel."

*Disclaimer I am not a nationalist, just being devil's advocate here*

Oh and btw:
If the Walloonies would only try to learn Dutch and use it, a lot of tensions would disappear. But they stubbornly refuse to do this. I know very few French-speaking Belgians who can speak Dutch, but the Dutch all speak French. Okay not everyone speaks it very well, but the difference is that we try and succeed in learning it.

Whenever I go to Brussels (80% French, 20% Dutch), and I enter a shop I try to speak Dutch first. Never am I served in my own language, so in the end I end up speaking French all the time. Okay it's not much of a big deal for me because I know the language, but time and time again it's a sign of disrespect. Some of them don't even know/want to say Hello in Dutch. FFS!

Also, the cliché of lazy Walloons is not entirely true of course, but if you know that a lot of enterprises in Flanders need employees, and they have to fill in these vacancies with French (as in people from France) people when there are loads of unemployed Walloons doing nothing and just getting money from the state, then you might understand why we get irritated at times.

Next thing the might want to try and avoid, is the many scandals of government officials in Wallonia who can't refrain themselves from embezzling money with their grubby hands. Every odd month or so a new scandal emerges. Okay I'm sure that happens in Flanders as well, but certainly not to that extent. The clientism is still going strong there.

And another thing is that they always hijack negotiations. In the end they have nothing. We have all the money and we have more people. Still though, we end up yielding to their demands. Okay this is a bit biased from my part, but it really feels that way. I understand they want to accomplish some things as well, but they don't want anything to change. They don't seem to realize that it's only in their best interest that things change. With their crappy governing Wallonia will probably stay an industrial wasteland for decades.

Bleh, enough ranting for now

[alva]

This thread was so funny until traianvs decided to spoil it all.

[Traianvs]

Can't help it. If I see a thread on this I just have to post there! Feel free to refute my clichés

[Straybow]

Originally posted by Traianvs
However, it's crystal clear that Belgium isn't going to last for all eternity. We never know what the future brings. Who knows how the globalized world and Europe will look like in 20-30 years. Impossible to predict.

Decades after North Belgium and South Belgium tear down the wall and build a nice topiary garden instead, the EU collapses into a mass of warring city-states. Everybody knows this is going to happen.

Of course, many will have been taken over by Muslim fundamentalists, and the ever-contentious Sunni-Shia conflict spreads to Europe.

In the Former City-States of Belgium they will be fighting over the most important part of Belgian heritage: the waffle. No longer content to let the world call them Belgian waffles, the city-states of Brussels, Antwerp, Liege, and Gent each filed suits in the World Court to claim the waffle.

Antwerp, Liege, and Gent also sued the Court to remove the venue from Brussels to Klagenfurt, the last city-state in Europe believed to be waffle-neutral. The Court refused to change venue, leading to a series of raids and aborted seiges. Tripwire treaties with Linz and other chocolate production centers caused escalation of the conflict into other parts of Europe, in turn triggering tripwire treaties among sausage producing cities.

[LordShiva]

If Flemish is teh same as Dutch, why are teh words on, e.g. yogurt cartons (next to teh little Belgian flag and teh little Dutch flag) so different? Neither is in French, BTW.

[Dinner]

Originally posted by LordShiva
Brussels: Wallonia's Kaliningrad^TM

It's real name is Konigsberg. Don't use the names of the Russian barbarians.

[LordShiva]

Russia
Serb
Happy Putin

[Ecthy]

Germany will take care of this.