Belgium long ago abandoned all hope of being a presence on the world stage and gave itself over to the pleasures of alcohol, chocolate, sex and seafood. To this day, it remains a nation untouched by nutrition. These are ideas worth fighting for.
In its almost total lack of ambition, in its unrelenting sense of existential dread, in its drunkenness and in its gluttony, Belgium is the most inspiring of nations. If the Belgians have tired of being Belgian, it is up to us to take their place. If Belgium will not be Belgium, it is up to Australia to be Belgium.
Thursday, September 27, 2007
Ouch
Belgium as seen from Australia,
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4 comments:
Elaib
Do you perchance have an English version of a document called “Manifest voor een zelfstandig Vlaanderen in Europa”or summarized in English? Having set a bit of a hare running, I see my article got 880+ reads on Brussels Journal and a whole lot more via Umbrellog, so if I do a follow up I had better firm up my facts! I can do a bit of Nederlands but something like that is a bit too much!
Michael Greaves [AKA "The Huntsman"!] (Shall we exchange email addresses? For my blog I operate on TheHuntsman2007@gmail.com.
Regards M
What a totally unfair account of Belgium. It is certainly unfair to Flanders, which is a wealthy and hard working community, and is probably unfair to Wallonia as well. People all over the world enjoy sex, good food and alcohol. The people who are most opposed to these pleasures are the Islamic fanatics.
It is indeed unfair, but stereotypes are by their nature unfair. That being said it is also funny. I live here in Belgium, and my friends from both sides of the cultural/linguistic divide would agree that the country is, especially when dealing with the governments, absurd.
The Aussies, or Brits, calling the Belgians drunkards are a bad case of pot and kettle.
However they're right about the food....
verification word blaseum - a museum for blasé bloggers?
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