Thanks. It's a bad situation. I hope cooler heads prevail.

Post #408,934 by Another Scott 3/23/16 9:19:08 PM 3/23/16 9:19:08 PM Reply	Thanks. It's a bad situation. I hope cooler heads prevail.
Post #408,935 by a6l6e6x 3/23/16 9:41:28 PM 3/23/16 9:41:28 PM Reply	Dittos! That corroborates some of what I've read elsewhere. But, your comments are more explicit. Three official languages for Belgium can't help either. Alex "There is a cult of ignorance in the United States, and there has always been. The strain of anti-intellectualism has been a constant thread winding its way through our political and cultural life, nurtured by the false notion that democracy means that "my ignorance is just as good as your knowledge." -- Isaac Asimov
Post #408,939 by scoenye 3/24/16 12:16:08 AM 3/24/16 12:16:08 AM Reply	That is not the half of it The Germans are along for the ride this time. Unless you go to the East cantons, you will not hear a word of German out of anyone in official capacity. For the rest, it is a now almost absolute refusal to cooperate with the other side that is driving things (sounds familiar?). For some time, nothing moved without tit-for-tat compensation and now, things are almost completely stuck. Brussels is a mostly French speaking blob squarely inside Flanders. Officially bilingual, on the ground it is hard to find enough qualified Flemish speakers to fill certain positions. That leaves both the local police force and the judiciary with big problems. Brussels, the district, is perennially cash strapped due to the large contingent of impoverished residents. Flanders is the richest state, but there is a refusal to help out financially beyond what it is obliged to do. The nationalists are in charge and their biggest fear is the expansion of the French speaking "oil slick" beyond its current borders. (The overall result of 50+ years of this is that Belgian governance structures most closely resemble a plate of spaghetti. The jurisdictional clusterfsck mentioned on the various news shows over the last week or so is also an outcome of this because Brussels is internally divided along language lines as well.)
Post #408,940 by pwhysall 3/24/16 3:09:40 AM 3/24/16 3:09:40 AM Reply	We should invade and that'd sort it out. Some speak Flemish, some speak Dutch, some speak French, some speak German, but all those motherfuckers speak English. And then all these daft-arse factions could unite in hating the big bad Englishman. Plus it'd only take a day or two. Belgium's only about the size of Yorkshire. We've kept the Tykes in line for a thousand years; Johnny Foreigner in La Belgique shouldn't pose a problem.
Post #408,941 by scoenye 3/24/16 7:57:22 AM 3/24/16 7:57:22 AM Reply	A day or two? You guys are slow...
Post #408,944 by a6l6e6x 3/24/16 9:00:28 AM 3/24/16 9:00:28 AM Reply	:-)! Alex "There is a cult of ignorance in the United States, and there has always been. The strain of anti-intellectualism has been a constant thread winding its way through our political and cultural life, nurtured by the false notion that democracy means that "my ignorance is just as good as your knowledge." -- Isaac Asimov
Post #408,949 by pwhysall 3/25/16 3:14:29 AM 3/25/16 3:14:29 AM Reply	We'd have to teach you how to queue.
Post #408,970 by boxley 3/26/16 6:40:42 PM 3/26/16 6:40:42 PM Reply	Brolly's to instep? always look out for number one and don't step in number two
Post #408,945 by a6l6e6x 3/24/16 9:25:54 AM 3/24/16 9:25:54 AM Reply	Reminds me of my last hotel breakfast in Brussels. Two businessmen were having a conversation in English at an adjoining table. I glanced at them and was spotted doing so. They immediately switched to a Germanic language. This is where you talk about the meaning of bilingual and polyglot and ask the question "What do you call a person who only speaks one language?" The answer is an American. :) My Ukrainian, which never developed past a child's level, is extremely rusty. Alex "There is a cult of ignorance in the United States, and there has always been. The strain of anti-intellectualism has been a constant thread winding its way through our political and cultural life, nurtured by the false notion that democracy means that "my ignorance is just as good as your knowledge." -- Isaac Asimov

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