Klaas
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Belgium is a fairly young country, quite unknown and with little influence on international politics. On the other hand we are very known for some of our export products, our cultural patrimonium and our capital Brussels where NATO resides and some important UN and EU buildings. Examples of our export products are french fries (which should be called belgian fries, we invented them
), chocolate and beer. Cultural examples are mediaval Bruges (many people from the US and Japan visit Bruges each year) and the Cathedral of Antwerp, one of the biggest and most beautiful Gothic buildings in the world.Nobody knowns us though, abroad they think half of the Belgian male population are child molesters (the Dutroux case), that we had a civil war between Flanders and Wallony, that our country is called Brussels and not Belgium, that we all speak French, that we have many political murders, etc. That's all funny but it's not true.
So this motivated me to tell you our history and add some things that live here in Belgium, like nationalism and our medieval past.
In 1815 Napoleon was defeated be the English, Dutch and German in the battle of Waterloo (Waterloo is a town close to Brussels). Until then our regions were part of France. After the battle the big countries decided to give our regions to the Dutch. This new country was called the United Provinces, under king Willem (now Belgium and The Netherlands).
King Willem was an enlightened king, founding public schools and universities, deviding church and state and making Dutch a more important language. The Flemish and Walloon bourgeois, nobility and church wasn't quite happy with these changes, and spontaneously they started a revolution after they went watching an opera (1830). The Dutch armies could have easily defeated us, but the powerful countries prevented this. They chose our side because Russia couldn't help the Dutch because they had problems in Poland, France thought they could get the Belgian regions back and the British to reduce the power the United Provinces had on the sea. So the French sent an army and the Dutch retreated.
So it was decided that Belgium became independant (for the second time, we were independant 30 years ago for about 2 years, until France invaded us). The function of our nation was being a buffer between France and Germany, so we were a neutral state, meaning that we are not allowed to attack anyone or chose sides, nor is any country allowed to attack us.
Because those were the days of restoration of the Ancien Régime we needed a king. A guy from Coburg in Germany was chosen and in 1831 we had our first retard on the throne: King Leopold I.
Troubles weren't over yet though, the Dutch came back with a huge army. They took a lot of our land and were allowed to keep it (pieces of Brabant, Limburg).
After that everything became peaceful. But we weren't such a nice country. Only the rich people and nobolity were in power. Two parties were formed: the Catholic and the Liberal. Voting was only allowed if you payed enough taxes, so poor people were never able to vote.
Politically there was a long fight constantly between the Catholics and Liberals. French was restored as official language, the Flemish were regarded as stupid farmers and the poor Walloons as dirty factory workers. But around 1880 the socialists finally founded a party and eventually things went a bit better for the poor Belgians.
In 1914 Germany sent us a nice letter: let us pass or we will kick your but. Since we were neutral we couldn't let them pass, so it was time for the Germans to kick buts here. The French however also wanted to kick our but, but they were a little smarter then the Germans not to attack a neutral state. Germany went over us like an invasion of the Huns, but on the Yser river they were stopped, because we were smart enough to flood the region so they couldn't pass. 95% of Belgium was taken, but we fought hard, and eventually in 1918 we broke through and kicked them back to Germany. Now, this is a war of which I can proudly say that we were the good guys. We were the only country that didn't send its soldiers to war as cannon meat. So many of our soldiers survided although they had to fight the hardest battles of all (Ypres Salient).
The 20s were great, every man gets a vote, the social situation gets better, etc. But at the beginning of the 30s everything went downwards (like everywhere in the world). Tons of people lost their jobs, fascism was coming popular more and more. In Wallony Rex was founded, the Belgian fascist party. They never got the power though, until Hitler decided to kick some Belgian but again. Our king Leopold III capitulated, and Belgium became German property in only 3 weeks.
We didn't suffer that much under the Germans though. The German military was in power for three years, which is a lot better then a civil government of fascists (the last year we had those crazy folk). We also collaborated en masse, economically in Flanders, and some politically in Wallony. Sounds bad, but it wasn't. We didn't starve during the winter because of this and we could use it as an excuse to hide Jews. Yep, we're very proud of the fact that only 20% of the Belgian Jews were killed and not more, there aren't many countries with such a low percentage.
In 1944 the US and mainly Canada freed us. Now the war was over we searched for other things to complain about, like socialism, nationalism, communism, etc. Nothing much happened from those years until now, except maybe that we founded the Benelux with The Netherlands and Luxemburg, which was the beginning of the European Union and the Congo got its liberty in '62-'63.
This is the Belgian history taught to us in school. Sadly, many things aren't said. For example that king Leopold II killed 2 million Africans while Congo was still his private property or that a politician was killed a few days after screaming 'Vive la république' in parlament.
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My political stance is comparable to Adam's.
Europe is a different case though, here you also have the big two: right or left wing, and then sub wings like central-right/left, radical/extreme right/left, etc. I belong nowhere I think, I have my own ideology and don't want to follow one of a party blindly. I am a member of a political party though, N-VA (Nieuwe Vlaams Alliantie, New Flemish Alliance). By the media and the other 90% ignorant people in my country N-VA is defined as right to even extreme right. Personally I think they are rather left.
Why they are considered right is because they are nationalists, and nationalism here equals everything that's bad for the ignorant people who don't know a thing about history or how to interprete the media. Nationalism in Spain on the other hand is considered left, so please explain me the difference
Anyway, I'll post another topic on this since I would go quite OT here, so check for the topic on Belgian history (Tim requested me to post this a while ago when I explained him our history).
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So-called open minded people
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Well I'm sure she likes me
What I've noticed during my exploration of the female population is how harsh and sometimes evil they can be towards eachother or men they don't like. It seems to me that women bear grudges a lot longer then men, men are more the type to solve a fight quickly (sometimes by acting like a tough guy or fighting, which isn't good either), while women seem like they solve it quickly but in reality do things behind your back. ...if you know what I mean
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I got 138, and I'm supposed to be a visual mathematician. Hmm I hate maths anyway
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Yep, for large groups I don't know I can feel uncomfortable sometimes, but sometimes I like it too.
Well DA I'm not sure they're referring to attention from girls, I'm sure everyone likes that
Situations I don't like are those of which you know beforehand that you'll make a fool of yourself, or having to hang around with people I don't like.
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First rule of political science:
statistics don't always equal reality.
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Spanish Netherlands the Netherlands? OMG what a huge mistake, Belgian and Dutch historians would be really offended if they ever read that. Trash those Osprey books immediatly Wijit
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I'm most proud of winning a contest to draw an anti-drugs logo, back when I was 13. The price was a bunch of books and a stickers made of the logo, published for the whole province. Well, after that my drawing skills went completely backwards
I also won the European Mapper 2000 contest for AoK (map design contest), receiving a MS Sidewinder and a games (the latter I never received).
I got the AoM Alpha
And I won some end-years contest at school, you head to guess the width of a tree (pretty stupid
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reading books for college = leisure
Domestic services and genders
De Leeuw Van Vlaanderen (The Lion of Flanders)
Othello
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As kor said, in Belgium you are required to vote if you're 18 or older. If you don't you'll be fined and in some cases you can loose your civil rights (eg. people who didn't vote for 20 years).
We have 4 different elections I think, but half of them happen on the same day:
- local elections (for those who will sit in the town council)
- senate (national) and parliamentary (provincial) elections
- federal elections (for our three states: Brussels, Wallony and Flanders)
- European elections (national)
There are also referenda, but those are usually local and you're not required to vote (duh).
The system to get people to vote for your party is based on which election it is, sometimes local, sometimes federal, sometimes national (centralized). You'll see pamphlets hanging in the streets, but only where allowed, and those who want to be elected sometimes give you a folder and speak on certain fixed occasions. The rules are pretty strict so every party has equal chances. An example are the pamphlets: there are big boards where a party can place posters, but the board is divided in equal parts, for each party. Next to that you can also put a poster in on your own private property of the party you're member of. Parties or people breaking this rule will be fined. You also get free screen time on the public tv, each party a 5-10 mins, and you can speak in political debates, again each party is represented, even the smallest ones.
Anyway, our system is pretty democratic, every party has virtually the same chance, no matter how much money they have.
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Looks really amazing! Great work Poya and Jan!
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It's one of the few games that runs well on my pc
My specialty is a bit of everything, depending on which map. Usually engineer, but soldier with flamethrower is pretty cool of you have to capture or defend spawn points.
Medic is nice too, your health is pretty high and you can easily heal yourself.
You shouldn't play me then DKATyler, I usually end up in the top 3 after a campaign
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Enemy territory is a free multiplayer FPS based on RTCW. It's pretty cool, not just shooting and jumping around.
There are 2 teams: Axis or Allies. Axis are usually on defence and Allies on offence. Usually you have to complete one or more objectives in a map. An example is stealing a tank from the Axis, escorting it to the bank, blowing up the doors of the bank, getting the gold and escorting the truck to your original base.
In the game there are several classes:
- soldier (heavy weapon class: panzerfaust, flamethrower, portable machinegun, mortar)
- medic (low on ammo, can revive killed team mates and drop med packs)
- engineer (can place landmines, repair/build stuff, place dynamite, has gun that can shoot grenades or just the standard MP 40/Thompson)
- covert ops (can steal an enemy uniform, can have a sniper rifle or a silenced one, can spot mines, has a satchel to blow up stuff like command posts)
- field ops (can call in artillery support by watching through his binoculars, call in an air strike by throwing some kind of grenade and can drop ammo packs)
Next to that you can also gain experience. You do this in 3 ways:
- killing enemies with your light weapons (mp 40, thompson, grenade or for example a sniper rifle used not for sniping)
- getting hit or hitting enemies without getting killed and walking around a lot
- doing stuff that's unique to your class (sniping, building stuff, healing people, killing enemies with an air strike, etc)
The advantage of gaining experience is that you go higher in rank and become a lot more powerful. Examples are starting with more ammo or health, being able to spot landmines of you're close to them, longer artillery support, reviving team mates so they are at full health instead of half, etc).
Pretty cool game imo, especially if you're getting used to it. If you ever feel like playing it be sure to join a 3-6 map campaign with 12-20 players max on it, more will become unplayable in most cases.
Oh, and my nick on there is rod, if you ever want to play me
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Which ones?
Well I like Enemy Territory quite a lot. It's a free multi FPS based on RTCW, and a quite tactical one. Anyway, see new topic for more info
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friendship
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Lol, voting incorrectly out of protest on extreme right is very popular here in Belgium (in 25 years our extreme-right party Vlaams Blok went from 0 to 18% of the votes, which is an enormous amount since the largest party here gets 23%).
In Belgium if you're 18 you are forced to vote, if you don't you have to pay a very big fine and in the worst case you loose your civil rights. Too bad many people want to get rid of this system, but I think it's one of the few things that prevent our politics going too bad.
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Never had that with my LCD Bobby
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Very well said Enarwaen!
A fine example would be France in this case. A few years back during the first rounds of the elections for the president the whole world was shocked that extreme-right leader Le Pen ended second, thus leavin the people only a choice between the two biggest retards in French politics for the second round: Chiraq and Le Pen.
The reason was very obvious why Le Pen ended second, only very little people actually voted during the first round.
Anyway, this was extremely shocking to me, having the choice between an extremist and a corrupt politician as president. So that's what happens if you think politics aren't important, and in this case France was pretty lucky, but Italy and Germany weren't during the interbellum.
As I see things evolving now I'm sure those situations we had in Europe with fascist regimes is still a reality for the future. This time it won't be fascist, maybe not extreme right, but extremely corrupt and/or bad politicians. These days people either aren't interested in politics, and many who are just look at the surface, they think it's more important that a politician has a good appearance on tv instead of a good policy. It might not harm us yet, but it will for sure in the future and then everything will be too late
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I can asure you that we have the same situation in Belgium, and I think that's the case in most Western countries. Really sad, but most people aren't interested in politics
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I don't know so I'll guess
is it from during the second WW (or a little before)?
Could be Churchill or maybe Goebels, they always came up with nice quotes
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I don't think some people from Hollywood would solve this, especially not since the fanatics at both sides are very anti-Hollywood (people from Hamas or Orthodox Jews for example).
they did a survey in a school and asked several 8year old children (both girls and boys) and they stated "yes i want to be a martyr - because then i can go to paradise!"You would be surprised if you had a look at other cultures. Afaik abusing the naive minds of children is common to most societies, ranging from Jewish, Muslim to communist or capitalist societies.
I've also seen a nice documentary here showing someting completely different. It was about a Palestenian town in the Israel region. In the 70s a woman from that town had enough of the Palestenians just accepting how the rich Jewish farmers treated them and how discriminating they were towards women in their Muslim religion. Eventually she was caught by the Jewish army and ended in prison for several years, without a fair trial. They claimed she was a terrorist, but she never ever used any weapon before, she only organized peaceful manifestations and made her townsfolk realise how they are treated.
So here you have the story someone who is not a fanatic Muslim.
The things is, we're usually only looking to terrorists like Hamas. But not all Palestenians are like that, only few are. This hasn't got much to do with religion either, but with nationality. As you might now, there are also quite a few Christian Palestines also fighting for their cause, but usually on a peaceful manner.
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Nah, it's because of quickly switching between both. If I haven't used my lappy for an hour and use the CRT I don't notice the flashing.
Btw, another example is when you see a CRT on tv, if it would flash like that while working on it you would turn blind instantly.
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It sais 100Mbps, so yep, that will be bits and not bytes
Belgium #2
in Hall of Intellectuals
Posted
Something that causes most troubles in Belgium is nationalism. Me being a nationalist likes talking about it, although nobody is interested. But hey, it's Tim's idea, so complain to him if I'm boring everyone here
Belgium isn't a real country. We are not one people, we don't have any national feelings whatsoever (except some fanatics). We are a collection of many medieval counties, we speak 3 languages here officially, we're a federal state, we like to laugh with ourselves, we think our country is stupid compared to others, etc.
There are 3 federal regions in Belgium: Flanders, Brussels and Wallony.
Flanders: north of Belgium, 40% of the land, 60% of the population, Dutch is the official language
Brussels: middle of Belgium, in Flanders. 5% of the land, 10% of the population, Dutch and French are the official languages
Wallony: south of Belgium, 55% of the land, 30% of the population, French and German (only 1% though) are the official languages.
There are some people who aren't happy with this system, and I'm one of them. I'm a Flemish nationalist, and our goal is independance for Flanders, Brussels and Wallony.
Why? Pretty simple: economicly and socially Flanders is doing really good and Wallony extremely bad, it's like black and white. Wallony gets 40% of the national money, Flanders 60%. Of the 40% for Wallony 15% is wasted because of their corrupt politicians and no infrastructure.
Another problem is that if we vote during national elections you can only vote for someone of your region. So, Flemish ministers governing Belgium are not chosen by the Walloons, and vice versa. So this system isn't democratic at all, especially not that there are Walloon ministers with 40% less votes then their Flemish equals.
The goal of my party, N-VA, is to make us politically independent of eachother. Because of this we think we can help eachother more easily, and make the situation in Wallony a lot better.
This sounds all very beautiful, but despite these facts N-VA is a very small party and hated by everyone. So, why is nationalism considered so bad around here?
Pretty easy: WW2. Before the second world war the situation was quite different here. Flanders was really poor, Dutch wasn't considered as an official language and only rich French-speaking Flemish could get into politics. When Hitler invaded us he promised Flemish independance, so many of us collaborated. Mind you, we didn't choose sides for Hitler, politically we never collaborated, while the Walloons did (Rex, fascist Walloon party).
After the war we had an add situation here. People choose two camps: black or white. The whites are those who didn't collaborated and the black who did. In reality the whites were mostly collaborators who did choose Hitler's side, and the black were people who either collaborated economicly or didn't do anything wrong but were the enemy of some whites.
Many of those blacks were Flemish nationalists. The blacks were hated by everyone and many have been killed without a trial. Even my grandfather who was considered black would have been killed if he left Germany earlier. The funny thing is, he collaborated economicly (he worked for the Germans while not being forced), but during the war 8 people were hidden here, of which 2 Jews and the rest people who were forced to work in Germany. He also used his position to get food for everyone living here. So, what was wrong with that?
Now, to get back to the point, nationalism is considered bad here because people always associate it with fascism and collaboration. People who do this only know school history, not the reality. Funny is that in school everyone always called me a Nazi while in college the professors prove me right.
Anyway, that's the tip of the iceberg of our nationalism. There are many other things to tell, like facilility towns, priest Daans, the Fronters, etc. If you're interested I can explain some more about it, but for now I'm keeping it a bit short