[quote] A nation divided - Belgium’s identity crisis
y Bruno Waterfield in Vilvoorde
Last Updated: 2:30am BST 18/09/2007
Beer, the national dish of “moules et frites” or “mosselen met frieten” and a pervasive cynicism with politicians are all that holds Belgium together after 100 days without government.
Despite increasingly desperate calls by Belgium’s King Albert for national unity, the federal state has hit its worst crisis for 177 years after national elections on June 10 failed to produce a government and coalition talks descended into ugly squabbling between francophone Walloons and the Dutch-speaking Flemish.
Freddy van Hoevelen, lives in the Flemish Brabant town of Vilvoorde, where legal battles and bitter rows over whether the Dutch-speaking municipality should be autonomous from a Walloon electoral constituency, are at the heart of Belgian’s political deadlock.
advertisement
The 39-year old Flemish IT consultant has had enough. “The Belgian franc is gone. Our football team never wins anything anymore. The monarchy cannot even appeal to the politicians to stick together. It is time for us to get a divorce,” he said.
“With the best will in the world, you can not build a country on a shared taste for mussels, chips and beer - no matter how tasty.” Telegraph.co.uk[/quote]
It’s all about money … transfers of millions, billions from Flanders to Wallony … Most Flemish have no problem with an independent state, the only problem is how to position Brussels … it’s basically landlocked in Flanders but has a majority of French speaking Bourgeois …
Wallony is in fact bankrupt, won’t control spending money on social security, has a major unemployment problem and is a socialist bastion … because it receives the money from Flanders anyway …
I sail on the weekends with a Flemish guy. He complain to no end about the waloons. Basically he said that they way the power is split between to Walloons and the Flemish mean that the Walloons get a free ride. The King has no power to do anything anyway. Apparently the princess doesn’t speak Flemish very well either.
Up until WWII the bourgeois spoke only French, even in the traditional industries the upper management spoke mostly French, way into the 80’s … that’s why in places like Congo (ex-Belgian colony) people speak French and not Dutch …
This included politicians …
Some claim that Wallony was the savior of Belgium during the industrial revolution and until somewhere end of the sixties, sure lot’s of Flemish went to work in the mines and steel industry over there but who else would have gone … in fact the Flemish kept these industries going …
Early sixties the Flemish stayed in Flanders to work and the Wallons started importing Italians, later on Moroccans and other North Africans … until the forgeries, steel smelters and coal mines started to lose money and the Belgian government had to put loads of tax money in the industry to keep them alive … They never invested in renewing the machinery …
Up until today tax money is flowing to Wallony to keep it going …
Since late 1990 they started to rejuvenate the steel industire and are trying to be competitive through use of modern smelting technology … they have some hi-tech aviation companies now and probably will start doing better in high tech but they don’t have the competent workforce … most of it was started with … subsidies, i.e. tax money
Since Belgium became a federal state money from Flanders is flowing to Brussels and Wallony … lot’s of money, money Flanders could use to invest in its own industries and infrastructure …
I line Truffels from Gent. Would that be Wallon or Flamen?
Ah come on… don’t give up being Belgium. Good beer and Truffels and cake and hot chicks, what do you need more. Really, a state is just a tool to keep society running. Carry on.
Otherwise get a Taiwanese management, they keep the thing up as one gigantic online cake and truffel factory.
Just the language differences. I read that a young boy, a child, didn’t get help in a hospital because he couldn’t speak French. Doctors didn’t want to help that helpless boy because of political reasons. Doctors, the people who should place their integrity above anything! This, and this whole problem, reminds me of the time I lived in Brussels, as a student. In the mornings I used to go to the bakery to buy bread. There in the bakery, worked a woman, she never spoke a word when I bought bread from her, she would just look at me with a disgusting face. Just because I couldn’t speak French, but only Dutch. After some time I just felt disgusted by her and couldn’t go back anymore.
Isn’t it pathetic that the language you speak is already enough to create this kind of hostility? I didn’t even understand it at that time, I was just a young student.
Woman, if you’re reading this: I remember you… and your disgusting face… for more than ten years now…
The flaws of multiculturism. I would recommend the government impose 1 official language that must be used in public. People can speak whatever they want to speak at home.
