Subject: »NEWS AROUND THE WORLD

0,1%, maximum.

I don't understand your question, what do you mean?

so where is this problem going ? How it can end ?

he wanted to ask if people want dividing your country or just politicians want it.
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The V-parties (V standing for the Dutch name of Flanders, these are 2 nationalist parties (1 far-right and 1 conservative party) and 1 seat of a little party (conservative liberals) that wants a great autonomy for Flanders, with independence if it is necessary) have 40 seats in the Chamber of Representatives. In total, the Flemish parties have 88 seats, the Walloon parties have 62 seats (so a total of 150 seats).

However, this doesn't mean that 45% (40/88) of the Flemish want independence. I think it's about 25% only. In Wallonia, I think only a few percentages would want to separate Belgium. There is no party elected in Wallonia that wants to split Belgium.

I believe it is an evolution. 'We' started Belgium in 1830 with a unitary Francophone state. At the end of the 19th century, the Flemish demanded the Dutch to be an official language of Belgium. In 1962, the language border was created (the border between Dutch-speaking Flanders, French-speaking Wallonia and bilingual (both Dutch as French) Brussels. From 1970 to 2003, there have been 5 state reforms, in which the regions got more and more 'power' (for instance, education etc. is now being handled on regional level and not on national level, there is the Flemish school system and there is the Walloon school system). Now, 8 parties (all parties excluding the three parties mentioned in the previous text) have negotiated a new government reform, with more autonomy for Flanders (but not enough for me).

So I believe, in a 15 to 25 years, Belgium will be superfluous. You'll have the Flemish democracy and above the European Union (which should change too, it must become democratic). Belgium as level between Flanders and Europe will be unnecessary, and will be abolished. So it's a long term project.

Although I do not use Wikipedia as a serious source, this gives a short introduction in how the federal state of Belgium was formed out of the unitary state of Belgium.
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thanks....

It is crazy and i do not understand, that so small country have this situation and you use to much ​​languages. What languages do you know and whitch language do you use? Peoples living in north part Belgium understand people living in south? We have same language, only somebody living in south part speaking hungarian and slovak.

Look, it's simple: we have a border to the Netherlands in the north, so the north of Belgium speaks Dutch. We have a border to Germany in the east, so the east of Belgium speaks German. We have a border to France in the south, so the south of Belgium speaks French.

I speak Dutch (mother language), French and English quite fluently. I understand German (because it's similar to Dutch), but I don't speak it very well. All the kids in Flanders (north) learn Dutch (obviously), French and English.

I understand the people from the south, but a lot of people from the south don't understand me. This is because in Flanders (north), French (the language of the south) is obligatory as second language. In Wallonia (south), Dutch (the language of the north) is not obligatory as second language (they can chose for English instead of Dutch). The knowledge of the Dutch language in Wallonia is really poor. This frustrates a lot of the Flemish, because they feel like the Wallonians refuse the learn the language of Flanders, and therefore the language of the majority in Belgium (there are about 6,5 million Flemish on a population of 11 million).

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Our future prime minister even doesn't speak Dutch properly. It's really, really bad. I would never accept (as Flemish party) such a man as the prime minister. A prime minister must speak all the languages quite fluently, so Dutch, French and German.

Belgium was made in 1830, after the revolt against the Dutch rule here. It started in Brussels and Liège. It was started by the Francophones (Belgium was unilingual French until the end of the 19th century!). It was more than pure lingual, it was also because of religion (Belgium + South of the Netherland) were catholic, the North was protestant. It was a historic mistake in my opinion. Flanders and the Netherlands are one historic nation, but because of the history, the unification of those two regions is not desirable anymore. Why was it made? Because the Walloons said the Dutch was a language of the farmers, it was not as stylish as their French. French arrogance is what I call that. Of course, that has changed now, but in my opinion, there is still some arrogance left, I feel like they still think they know better than those Dutch-speaking Flemish. However, we managed to go from a very poor region to a very rich one, and Wallonia went the opposite way.

So this is basically Belgium: (click on it to enlarge)

[url=http://img31.imageshack.us/img31/7694/languagesinbelgium.jpg][/url]

Same here.. I don't like the French speaking part of my country too much either :P

Looking at that map I see I didn't realize that Belgium and Switzerland are actually quite similar. However, noone here wants a secession, we get on pretty well ;)

The difference is that Switzerland is a nice example of how communities can work together. The German community is by far the biggest there (over 60% I though), but they didn't force the French-speaking or the Italian-speaking people to use only German. And I adore your country for its democratic history. It's fantastic.

In Belgium, the minority of French-speaking people forced the majority of Dutch-speaking people to use French only (because the French were the rich elite, and the Flemish people were very, very poor back then and had no political power at all). Belgium started in 1830, I hope it won't 'celebrate' its 200th birthday. If it does, I'll hang a black flag out of my window. A day of national mourning.
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Oh come on you pansy. Flemish people always had power, they only spoke French but they were Flemish.

And I can understand why immigrants and Walloons do not learn dutch (however I think they are too fast in their judging and must change). A lot of people in our part think they speak 'standard' dutch but they don't. But because they think what they speak is correct they refuse to alter their vocab and grammar consequently they are incomprehensible. And yes I know my city is the biggest sinner but hey we create the biggest part of the wealth so ;) (at least the others think that we ,from Antwerp, are arrogant in fact they are just plain farmers ;) )

Rubinho: did i get all the prejudices right in my last sentences ;)?


But Rubinho is right when he says that it frustrating that some people in charge (i don't care if a baker in some small town can't speak dutch fluently) are not able to build proper sentences. I do not expect a level similar to native speakers or without accent. I think it is just reasonable that such a person can express himself quite fluently. Minor mistakes allowed =p

It was started by the Francophones (Belgium was unilingual French until the end of the 19th century!). It was more than pure lingual, it was also because of religion (Belgium + South of the Netherland) were catholic, the North was protestant.

Isn't it fair to say that also the way how the French speaking people where treated by the Dutch, has something to do with the reasons for revolt?