Posted on 07/29/2008 4:14:50 AM PDT by shrinkermd
Belgium is in danger of falling apart. For more than six months, the country has been unable to form a government that is able to unite the French-speaking Walloons (32% of the population) and Dutch-speaking Flemish (58%). The Belgian monarch, Albert II, is desperately trying to stop his subjects from breaking up the nation-state.
But perhaps we should all care at least a little, for what is happening in Belgium is unusual but not at all unique. The Czechs and Slovaks already parted ways, as did the different nations of Yugoslavia. Many Basques would like to break away from Spain, as would many Catalans. Corsicans would love to be rid of France, and many Scots of Britain. Then, of course, there is the Tibetan problem in China, the Chechen problem in Russia and so on. No doubt some of these peoples would be able to survive perfectly well on their own. But history does seem to suggest that the cumulative effect of states falling apart is seldom positive.
So the fate of Belgium should interest us all, especially those who wish the European Union well. For what is happening in Belgium now could end up happening on a continental scale. Why, for example, should the prosperous Germans continue to have their tax money pooled to assist the Greeks or the Portuguese? It is difficult to sustain any democratic system, whether on a national or European scale, without a sense of solidarity. It helps if this is based on something deeper than shared interests: a language, a sense of common history, pride in cultural achievements. The European identity is still far from solid.
(Excerpt) Read more at latimes.com ...
No seperate Emirate for the 10% Muslims?
Personally, I like it. The more the various members of the EU split into smaller factions, the sooner the EU itself will cease to exist! And then we will have one major tyranny eliminated on this Earth.
"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." - Manuel II Palelologus
A few hundred elitist politicians vs. the population which repeatedly rejected the EU?
More empirical refutation of the Obama Doctrine. In other words, how, exactly is this Bush’s fault.
They could have two separate parliaments with the monarch as head of state. The question would be how to work the military and treasury. Perhaps put both under the King with mandatory service and low national taxation with the rest of the treasury being provincial level.
And...to the list of run away States.. Texas... California, Arizona and New Mexico could form a Coaltion of States with a large Hispanic population wanting Spanish taught in their schools. So, yeah, the things happening in Belgium, might be of interest to English speaking citizens in the Southwest.
You don’t know the rules.
Rule #1 Everything is Bush’s fault.
Rule #2 If it is not Bush’s fault, refer to rule #1.
who cares?
Multi-ethnic empires never last long, but nations with a single ethnic group, single language, religion, etc. can last for many centuries, even (as in the case of the Jews) without a homeland. Yet the U.S. continues to allow Mexicans and various other Third-Worlders to pour into its territory. The Founding Fathers never envisioned a polyglot U.S., and believed that our population would remain predominantly Anglo-Saxon. They knew that our freedom was rooted in the peculiar history of the English people.
I guess I am officially uninterested in the fate of Belgium.
I’ve been freely offering the easy solution to this for some time. Give Wallonia to France and the Flanders to Holland. Done.
After working in both Ghent and Brussels for a few, I can say with certainty that the words “Belgian military” are a joke.
Even their military is unionized, and full of fat lifetime public employees who could not collectively defeat the Pennsylvania Boy Scouts.
I believe Monty Python had a game show in which contestants had to create a creative, insulting name for the Belgians. The winner declared, “I can’t think of anything more insulting than Belgian.”
"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." - Manuel II Palelologus
I’m interested - in so far as I want Belgium to break into its natural fragments and I want the EU to cease to exist as a political entity.
I also want Britain to break into its natural fragments, but that’s not an EU thing - more of a “I’m tired of paying for Scottish Welfare” thing :0)
“smaller factions”
Other than Italy breaking back apart, I don’t think there is much else that could realistically operate independently. The situation would just return back to a pre German Empire days when the smaller states got picked on and their domestic affairs meddled with by the larger states.
It is just morphing into the home of the New World Order.
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