Wallonia must be part of FRANCE

GarotaDeIpanema   Wednesday, January 26, 2005, 10:13 GMT
Nope. They must learn English to communicate. Therefore, they find this forum very useful.
Tiste   Wednesday, January 26, 2005, 12:16 GMT
2 hombre que tiene hambre del su,

We Flemish understand French , but the Walloon ( usually ) don't know Flemish.
5318008   Wednesday, January 26, 2005, 12:47 GMT
Yes, but have you ever typed my name on a calculator and then turned it upside down?
Fredrik from Norway   Wednesday, January 26, 2005, 17:21 GMT
I just love all the idiotics of Belgian life. I read that when they built Louvain-la-neuve university, they had to make the town hilly (the site was originally flat) so that the Walloon university town would be just as cozy as the Flemish one!

It seems that everybody is avoiding a topic I posed: Many originally Flemish people turned French in order to climb the social ladder in the past, because French was the sole key to academics, business, politics, military and so on...
During WW1, monolingual Walloon officers commanded Flemish soldiers, who did not understand at all what their superiors where saying!!!
Fredrik from Norway   Wednesday, January 26, 2005, 17:25 GMT
The use of a language incomprehensible to the soldiers was also the case in the Norwegian army in 17th and 18th century, but then during the 18th century they canged it, from German (lots of officers were German) to Danish (Norway was in a union with Denmark and Norwegians understand Danish).
kenny   Wednesday, January 26, 2005, 18:07 GMT
@ GarotaDeIpanema

"Nope. They must learn English to communicate. Therefore, they find this forum very useful. "

This forum isn't usefull for me at all!!! On this forum I only hear complaining people and hatefull posts! The reason I came on this forum is because I don't like other people talk about my region (in bad ways) ! (meant on Pierre, Louvain-La-Neuve, people who think their superior!)

@ 5318008

Impressive: Boobies , what an old joke :-s .

@ Greg

Woow that's impressive !
"Flanders or Netherlands just don't measure up to that reality... "
Never heard of this:
France - Germany - Belgium ??????????? Belgium is a good ally of France you know that, even of Germany! Read your newspaper, learn history, etc. before posting stupid things that aren't true at all !
BelgianQueen   Thursday, January 27, 2005, 07:45 GMT
Long Live My Belgium and my BELGIAN castle
lurini   Thursday, January 27, 2005, 15:24 GMT
Tiste, you are wrong. Most flemish are not bilingual!!
They can just jabber few french words. They can't have a true conversation in french, but they always assert to be bilingual.
The walloons don't speak flemish, but the flemish don't speak french too (except some old flemish). Many young flemish are unable to speak another language than flemish today.

Above all, as soon as a flemish has an impotant job he take on only flemish employees.
Tiste   Thursday, January 27, 2005, 17:21 GMT
lurini ,

What you're saying is not true ! we are bilingual , and we speak English too!
Tiste   Thursday, January 27, 2005, 17:28 GMT
This topic should end right here !
I am leaving the scene !

Ps:Wanna know another thing , LURINI ? I'M ONLY 15 years old ! Yeah that's right , 15 ! And so is Kenny , we're at the same school ! ( you can see we're bilingual allright ... )

Ever heard a 15 year old use such " big" words ? don't think so ...
( I'm leaving , because whenever I say something in the future , I won't be taken seriously no more because of my age )
Kenny   Friday, January 28, 2005, 21:17 GMT
Unbelievable !!!!

People think their smart!

Never heard that we Flemish boys/girls have to learn French/Dutch/English and German or Spanish at school?

I'm almost 16, within 9 days :-)

Like Tiste said

"This topic should end right here !
I am leaving the scene ! "

The same thing for me !

See ya !
?   Friday, January 28, 2005, 22:10 GMT
le vent souffle toujours sur les plaines de la Flandre occidentale ...
ketje   Saturday, January 29, 2005, 15:32 GMT
It' s quite funny and sad at the same time to read this discussion. I am a flemish person living in Brussels and I was raised in one of the communes around Brussels were lots of french speaking people are living (actually Jacques Brel lived there for some time). If you read these messages you would think we' re fighting everyday, but the reality is quite different. Actually life is quite good around here, as well for the flemish as the walloon.
It 's true that older people feel very strong about their flemish identity. They, or their parents (for my example: my grandparents) were forced to speak french. But things are quite different now. I think now the flemish urge to seperate has more to do with money and politics than with language or cultural differences. Flanders is right wing, while Walloon left wing. Lots of money goes from Flanders to Walloon in a period where the whole of Europe is becoming more and more right and selfcentered.
I hate to read stupid stuff like " all Flemish are fascists", it' s a typical argument used by walloon media to not have to listen to criticism from the other side of the language border. I would like to point out that a lot of people vote for the extreme right party because they don' t feel represented by other parties(especially in crime related topics), not necessarry because they are racists or fascists. And the last elections there was also a big rise in Walloon of the extreme right, I hope they will not make the same mistake as we in Flanders, thinking it would just go away. And in Brussels a very big part of the population voting for the Vlaams Belang are french speaking people, feeling that this is the only party making an issue of the problems of certain ghetto areas in Brussels.
Brussels is in reality mainly french speaking, but there are now so many european citizens that you can hear a lot other languages on the street, not to speak of the huge amount of Arabic that is spoken and the massive amount of flemish people working there. Most people speak more than one language and it is certainly a multilingual city.
Belgium is complicated, that 's a fact and yes, it is dying, but this is a good thing for the Flemish and the Walloon, but not for Brussels, which is the poorest region with the biggest problems in housing, unemployment, crime, having to provide a huge infrastructure for all the people that use its functions, yet not being able to raise taxes for this, since most of these people are commuteers and are living in Flanders or Walloon, or European functionaires, who don't have to pay taxes. Most of the jobs available in Brussels, mostly related to administration, are not suited for the large immigrant communities living there, which makes unemployment in certain areas rise to 50%, with a population that is young, thirdgeneration immigrant and without future.
The real issue in Belgium should not be how to divide the country, but how to solve the timebomb at its center. I lived in other european capitals, but I never felt the same tension and problems as here.