Culture clash may break up Belgium

financialtimes.com ^ | Sarah Laitner

[DoughtyOne]

Could you please clarify? Was that country or county?

[PatriotCJC]

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-630703125726810554

[Altura Ct.]

Country as in the USA.

[Paladin2]

It’s not just the young ones. (Please don’t make me explain this comment ;-))

[DoughtyOne]

Just teasing, because county is so much more personal. When it happens in your neighborhood, it’s real.

[patj]

But they also gave the world French fries.

For shame, it's pomme frites.

[SergeiRachmaninov]

Belgium, Canada.. what is it with these Frenchies?

Fractured multilingual cultures....coming soon to a country near you!

[SergeiRachmaninov]

(Didn’t mean to crib your line...GMTA.)

[Altura Ct.]

I’m a little slow on the uptake sometimes. :)

[Altura Ct.]

...GMTA

Indeed!

[DoughtyOne]

Oh not at all... you’re fine. We agree. You take care.

[colorado tanker]

Belgium never made much sense to me as nation-state. Belgium and the Netherlands were cobbled together during the Middle Ages and then fell into lap of the Hapsburgs, who through incompetent, heavy-handed government ignited a revolt by the Dutch. Belgium is just the bit the Hapsburgs managed to hold onto after the Dutch revolt.

[rllngrk33]

Belgium, Canada.. what is it with these Frenchies?

It seems that wherever the French have been, they've left a mess of some sort. (e.g. Quebec, Vietnam, Haiti, Mexico, France, etc.)

[Verginius Rufus]

After the Napoleonic wars, Belgium was given to the Netherlands to try to create a stronger country on France's border, but within 15 years the Belgians became so dissatisfied that they rebelled against Dutch rule and managed to become an independent country.

The most famous Belgian was Hercule Poirot, and he never really existed...just a figment of Agatha Christie's imagination. The famous historian Henri Pirenne (1862-1935) was Belgian. Other than that they've given the world Belgian waffles, Belgian endive, and Brussels sprouts.

[monday]

“But they also gave the world French fries.”

..but ruin them by eating them with mayonnaise, so what do they know?

[Jedi Master Pikachu]

They eat them with mayonnaise? That does seem disgusting.

[colorado tanker]

Belgian waffles, Belgian endive, and Brussels sprouts

I like all three!

[Heatseeker]

Breaking up isn’t always a bad thing: the Czechs and Slovaks had a pretty amicable divorce.

[Gritty]

All these words about the troubles in Belgium and not a word about their large and growing Muslim population?

The threat isn't balkanization. The threat is Sharia!

[steveyp]

I don’t believe Belgium exists. I know I’ve seen proof of that somewhere on the net...