What about Belgium ?

[Tchek]

You should ask the French.

The French are, mostly, strangely ignorant about Belgium; they just know belgium through a joke or two that they've heard and that's it.

Example: there is a French intellectual called Pierre-Yves Rougeyron, he talks about a lot of things:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zrXn...4tq#t=1h15m18s
Seriously, how can someone so "educated" say so much bullshit about Belgium?

"What defines Belgium is Speculoos and Djellaba", seriously, what an idiot. He raves on about Belgians as if they were some kind of inferior species devoid of any redeeming qualities.

This is incredibly ignorant. He doesn't even know that Flanders and Wallonia exist. "Nothing good ever came out of Belgium". Actually he doesn't even know what he is talking about.

[Tchek]

Nigel Farage does not think Belgium is a real Country!!

Nigel Farage is an idiot. Belgium might be a misconceived STATE, which might or might not exist in the future... but under a state there are various people, culture, history, all of which are very real, that's what Farage and most Brits don't understand (and the moron I talked about in the post above). Why? Because England is a well defined country, with natural borders (mostly the sea) so Brits don't make a difference between a "state" and a "nation"; that's why Belgium bugs them, they don't get that the belgian state and the nations living under, with cultures and languages shared with close neighbouring regions, don't necessarily correlate. Doesn't mean Belgium "doesn't exist".

[Dandelion]

I've read almost all the Bob et Bobette when I was a kid, I was a fan... I had a massive collection of it... didn't know the dude (Willy Vandersteen) was a massive Flemish nationalist back then; it shows because Flemish culture is very much present in it.

Not just any Flemish nationalist, but a stereotypical one at that (from a Walloon perspective at least). He collaborated with the Germans and managed to get out scot-free after the war! He used to draw cartoons under the pseudonym Kaproen for a nazi paper.







The art style is identical to what we know of him. How on Earth didn't they find him out after the War? I guess they didn't make a big deal out of it and swept it under the rug? He got very lucky then, because the Repression didn't take kindly on collabos.

[TheForeigner]

Belgium should be part of France or divided between France and Netherlands.

[Dandelion]

Nigel Farage is an idiot. Belgium might be a misconceived STATE, which might or might not exist in the future... but under a state there are various people, culture, history, all of which are very real, that's what Farage and most Brits don't understand (and the moron I talked about in the post above). Why? Because England is a well defined country, with natural borders (mostly the sea) so Brits don't make a difference between a "state" and a "nation"; that's why Belgium bugs them, they don't get that the belgian state and the nations living under, with cultures and languages shared with close neighbouring regions, don't necessarily correlate. Doesn't mean Belgium "doesn't exist".

People have been saying 'Belgium is bankrupt' since it's beginning. Truth of the matter is, it might keep existing centuries to come even. Belgium ending would be an abrupt process as the result of a huge crisis which many people think has happened before (like our government crisis, most notably). Now it's Wallonia vetoing CETA, but in that regard people from all over Europe often cheer on Wallonia (actually the PS/CdH) for having the balls.

I personally think we're losing potential jobs because of it though. But reading Dutch forums it's often 'hurray for the Walloons for having to balls of blocking this horrendous deal shoved down our throats', on Flemish forums it's not so enthusiastic.

[Dandelion]

It shows even more when you read the Dutch original versions!
For instance, in De Zwarte Madam, the evil "Dame en noir" is a Francophone:

Vandersteen is from a different era though. Francisation pressure on Dutch-speakers was far more present back in his time. Very dated. It's like Astérix Chez les Belges associating Francophone Belgians with Annie Cordy. That issue didn't age well, compared to Astérix Chez les Goths or Astérix en Corse, which remain more or less accurate to this day.

[crazyladybutterfly]

Belgium? you mean the islamic state of Belgium?

[Gold-Shekel]

Belgian people are level-headed, something which most Europeans aren't.