I have several times had the occasion to say positive things here about my adopted home country. It's true that the adoption was born of necessity, for if I had the choice I would never have picked Belgium. But that's where the founders of the European Union decided to place their administrative capital, so Belgium it had to be.
Still, although the country has its defects, I have learned to grow fond of the place. Geographically, it's very much in the centre of things. You can go almost anywhere in Europe and beyond without too much trouble. It's also just the right size for anyone who wishes to explore the entire country - and there are quite a few pretty places to visit. It's not so small that you've seen it all within a few months, but neither is it an overwhelming size.
My impression of the Belgians is that they are in general an easy-going people, who are not too pretentious and are in fact a bit conscious of their presumed limitations. Being situated as it is close to various different countries, having accepted a substantial number of immigrants of many nationalities, and the fact that it hosts various international institutions and organisations, Belgium is also the home of a great mix of expatriates, who have settled down remarkably well. As I said, there are defects (never-ending roadworks all over the place, right of way for traffic barging in from side roads) but still, overall, it's a pleasant enough place to live in.
One very interesting aspect of living in Belgium is the language factor. The train I take each morning begins its journey in French-speaking Wallonia, crosses a narrow strip of Flemish, Dutch speaking, territory, and enters bilingual Brussels, where everybody goes to their workplaces or classes. On the train, it's quite normal to have six people sitting in close proximity reading material in six different languages. Or to listen to several different conversations in as many different languages.
It's an interesting aspect, but unfortunately, the Belgians have managed to turn it into a huge problem. Belgium is not really one country. It's an uneasy union between two countries, and from my detached point of view the main cause of the unease is language. It's like a marriage where the partners speak different languages, with both sides taking pride in only speaking their own language, even though with a small effort they could very well speak their partner's language. The marriage is held together by their child, Brussels, which is in fact bilingual.
Some time in the sixties or thereabouts, Belgium became a federal state, consisting of the three regions Wallonia, Flanders and Brussels region. Each region has its own regional government, whose responsibilities include - and this, as I see it, is what resulted in the present shambles - linguistic matters. For political reasons, being the national capital Brussels is officially bilingual, even though the vast majority of its residents are French-speaking. But both Wallonia and Flanders are strictly monolingual, to the point of extremism. All administrative documentation is only written strictly in the region's language. Any signage has to be strictly in the region's language. If by mistake a sign is displayed in two languages, the 'offending' linguistic version is either covered or vandalised. In the seventies, an entire town - Louvain-la-neuve - was constructed in Wallonia to take up French-speaking students who used to attend the Catholic University of Leuven, whose Flemish-speaking majority insisted that it should remain an exclusively Flemish-speaking university. Tourist information booklets in Mechelen are provided in Dutch, English, German and Spanish, but not in French. And so it goes on.
You have an entire country that is split into two halves that officially do not have the means to communicate with each other. And both sides' politicians exacerbate the situation by enacting rules that are ever more intolerant of the 'offending' language. Commercial outlets, ever the pragmatists, do their best to cater to their clients in their preferred language, but under strict supervision by vigilant authorities lest they do not use the official regional language as their default.
This is clearly a ridiculous situation, and is literally tearing the country apart. It took them more than six months after general elections to be able to form a national government, amid much bickering and reciprocal acrimony.
In the meantime, the obvious solution is there for all to see. It's in Brussels. The Brussels population speaks French. There's no doubt about this. And yet, all written and verbal official communications are provided in French AND in Dutch, for the benefit of the Dutch speaking minority. I don't see any reason why this system cannot be applied for the whole country. Neither language will be threatened by this measure. Anyone will remain perfectly entitled to speak in their preferred tongue, without the present intense paranoia and intolerance. It would be compulsory for anyone seeking a decent job to be knowledgeable in both main languages of the country. It would also effectively enable all Belgians to speak to each other.
The federal government should take this crucial matter of national interest within its responsibility. Go on Belgians. Give up some of your linguistic pride, and both you as individuals and your country will make huge gains. Your languages are too strongly integrated into your communities for them to be in any danger. You have a lovely country. There really is no need to allow it to disintegrate.
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