Sarkozy: Let's Annex Flanders

From the desk of The Brussels Journal on Mon, 2007-09-17 11:36

A quote from the Belgian satirical weekly Père Ubu, 13 September 2007:

Sarkozy: "Belgium is set to fall apart?"

Fillon [The French PM]: "Almost, Mr President, only a little thread keeps it together!"

Sarkozy: "And what do you propose, my dear Fillon?"

Fillon: "Well, France could annex Wallonia…"

Sarkozy: "Wallonia?! What do you mean?"

Fillon: "They speak French, they have a Marshall plan that will make them rich and prosperous…”"

Sarkozy: "I will tell you: the Flemish can sing the Marseillaise and they are hardworking people! They should be included in France! They will teach the French…"

Sarkozy: "… to work harder in order to earn more! The only problem will be to persuade the French to learn Flemish [Dutch]. But I am sure they are intellectually capable of it."

[Closing frame, set in 2012: Walloon politicians are still struggling for linguistic privileges, but this time in The Netherlands.]

@ Amsterdamsky

Submitted by traveller on Tue, 2007-09-18 09:34.

I know the flemish, american(US) and indian workers. The flemish worker beats anybody in the world without fail.
He is the culmination of a certain work culture and intelligent use of brains and strength.
I am not alone in this, a Swiss large engineering company will always ask their flemish subcontractors first, no matter if they are more expensive, they will take them anytime they have free capacity.
My own experience is very plain: compared with germans(themselves no slouches at work), my flemish workers achieved 60% higher productivity in exactly the same circumstances.
My flemish workers beat the koreans and the japanese in all respects and the americans didn't even come close.
Why do you think Rotterdam with a vastly superior port-infrastructure does not even come close to Antwerp in the handling of miscellaneous cargo?(stukgoed) which is the most difficult part of port-handling.
There is only one area in Europe which has the same spirit and that is Lombardia in Italy, and this is through the whole history since the Middle Ages. People who dream about egalitarian systems should start to study the "why" of those ethnic differences.