Crackpot Belgian: “I Love It Because I Am Not Proud of It”

From the desk of The Brussels Journal on Sat, 2007-10-13 07:06

A quote from a pro-Belgian Antwerp bar owner on CafeBabel.com, 9 October 2007

This is the only country in the world that has no proud identity nor any sense of chauvinism. That’s also why I like it! Look at the French and the Germans, so proud of themselves. We are the exact opposite. This flag doesn’t provoke any feeling in me, except a short sharp slap in the face for the extremist minority who wants to separate people who have never had a problem among themselves.

@ Armor

Submitted by Atlanticist911 on Tue, 2007-10-16 10:41.

But you did find it interesting and thought provoking,right? At least,I hope that was the case.

@Atlanticist

Submitted by Armor on Tue, 2007-10-16 10:27.

Your link is to an article about Greenland, its reserves of oil, minerals and hydroelectric power, and possible political independence.

When a small nation or group of people seeks independence from a larger one, you find similarities between different places like Tibet (a brutal case), Czechoslovakia, Quebec, Belgium, Scotland... (and Brittany!). If you understand what is happening in one place, it gives you an insight into a vaguely similar situation at the other end of the globe.

But what makes the case of Greenland special is that they are less than 60,000 people on a huge territory. I don't know if I can draw any lesson from their example!

(lack of) national pride

Submitted by Armor on Mon, 2007-10-15 23:27.

Crackpot-Belgian said: "Look at the French and the Germans, so proud of themselves."

- On French TV (before I threw my TV set away), I used to see interviews of annoying naive young Germans who said that they did not feel proud at all to be Germans. They probably thought their position would be shocking to other Europeans. Officially, the Germans are not proud of themselves !

- In France, as in Belgium, there is a state, but not really a nation. The French flag is mainly a symbol of the French state and its administration. I don't think people like it very much.

Re: Pathetic

Submitted by atheling on Sun, 2007-10-14 19:15.

"Amazing (or maybe not) how all these people who think of themselves as original and unconventional end up copying the same clichés off each other."

Exactly.  They are, as Jefferson put it, among the "great herd of noncomformists".

Meaning of those flags

Submitted by HenrikRClausen on Sun, 2007-10-14 08:03.

The flags were mentioned somewhere in Danish media yesterday. It's said that 30.000 Belgian flags have been sold recently.

I noticed them also hanging from the balconies of Brussels, and wondered what exactly they might mean. Perhaps something like:

Don't like working

HATE TAKING RISKS

Please save Belgium...

 

I could imagine a cartoon in a (Flemish) newspaper with this text on all the flags to explain the symbolism :)

 

Pathetic

Submitted by Aisling on Sat, 2007-10-13 14:19.

Amazing (or maybe not) how all these people who think of themselves as original and unconventional end up copying the same clichés off each other.

Given that certain parts of Antwerp are wall-to-wall trendies, I'm sure our hero has worked out that his business is not exactly going to suffer from his rejection of the "extremist minority". Just wonder whether he's display the Belgian flag so unhesitatingly if he thought his customers might desert him for doing so ...