A long article explaining why Belgium is a perversion and the world would be better off without it

Belgium is an abnormality. It is a state with two major linguistic groups where the Dutch-speaking majority forms the Flemish nation, but where the French-speaking Walloons do not regard themselves as a nation in their own right but rather as a part of the French nation and consequently a national minority within Belgium. If Belgium fitted the normal patterns, it would have developed in either of two directions: Belgium could have become the nation-state of its Flemish majority, or the Flemings and the Walloons could have become subnations of a Belgian nation. Neither is the case.

A quote from Vincent De Roeck at his blog, 25 August 2007
 
Belgium currently faces a very serious existential crisis. Some even dare to speak of the possibility of a complete crackdown of the homeland of both, the European Union and NATO.  […] [I]f such a crisis as Belgium is facing today, would have occurred in the nineties, the Belgian monetary system would have simply collapsed. The Belgian franc would have suffered tremendous losses in value, especially in such a vibrant and ever-changing marketplace as the one whereon foreign currencies are traded.

A quote from Paul Gottfried at Taki’s website, 27 August 2007
 
A demonstration against the “Islamicization of Europe” scheduled to take place in Brussels on September 11, 2007 and put together by the umbrella organization Pax Europa has been prohibited by the socialist mayor Freddy Thielemans. […] The anti-Flemish Fleming and Islamophile mayor of Brussels has just walked into a nasty trap; and it is one toward which equally reckless European and American multiculturalists may be pulled. He has gone a tad too far to curry favors with Islamicist and not merely Muslim voters; and he may reap the whirlwind for his stupidity. A tipping point comes when the populace has had enough of government-mandated cultural enrichment; and when it starts to protest. […] As Sophocles put it, “Hubris timoresetai [pride will be avenged].” Or is it cowardly deceit that will be the cause of Thielemans’ undoing?

The reader could never guess it: this writer was recruited to cover the central and eastern part of Europe. Therefore, it might seem odd that the author regularly dissects another topic. The motive is the frightening crumble of the resolve to prevail of economically advanced and politically democratic entities that were, when the geographic term still applied, referred to as the “West”.

A quote from Alexander Solzhenitsyn’s Gulag Archipelago

And how we burned in the camps later, thinking: What would things have been like if every Security operative, when he went out at night to make an arrest, had been uncertain whether he would return alive and had to say good-bye to his family? Or if, during periods of mass arrests, as for example in Leningrad, when they arrested a quarter of the entire city, people had not simply sat there in their lairs, paling with terror at every bang of the downstairs door and at every step on the staircase, but had understood they had nothing left to lose and had boldly set up in the downstairs hall an ambush of half a dozen people with axes, hammers, pokers, or whatever else was at hand? [...] The Organs would very quickly have suffered a shortage of officers and transport and, notwithstanding all of Stalin’s thirst, the cursed machine would have ground to a halt! If...if... We didn’t love freedom enough. And even more – we had no awareness of the real situation. [...] We purely and simply deserved everything that happened afterward.

Upon approaching its 175th anniversary, Belgium was finding it increasingly difficult to maintain the image of a normal liberal democratic nation-state, governed by consent of the people. At the heart of its hybrid, unrepresentative and largely unaccountable regime is a democracy deficit that is there for the whole world to see. The Belgian politicians do not seem to care, however. Despite its failings, the authorities in Brussels continue to propagate the ‘Belgian federal model,’ which, according to Crown Prince Philippe, ‘can be an inspiration for the European Union.’ [Crown Prince Philippe in De Standaard, 19 May 2001] The heir to the Belgian throne perceived the striking parallels between Belgium and Europe as an artificial state in the making. Like him, many members of the Belgian political class feel perfectly at home in the European institutions. Familiar with Belgium, the ‘discontinuity perpetuating itself in a permanent state of constitutional reform,’ [Prof. Roger Lallemand, La Belgique, pays d’incertitude, Brussels, 1998] they function better than anyone else in a scenario that is constantly changing. ‘There are all kinds of interesting parallels between Belgium and Europe,’ Belgian Prime Minister Guy Verhofstadt said: ‘Belgium is the laboratory of European unification. Foreign politicians watch our country with particular interest because it can teach them something about the feasibility of the European project.’ [Verhofstadt in Humo, 29 July 2003]

A quote from Jean-Claude Juncker, Prime Minister of Luxemburg, in the Walloon newpaper Le Soir, 25 August 2007
 
Europe is characterized by problems of cohabitation. The European credibility of Belgium is at risk if the country does not get its act together. I have discussed the situation with the Germans, the French and others, and nobody outside Belgium can imagine a divided Belgium! [...] Though I do not wish to mingle in the debate between the Belgians, I sympathize with the Walloons and Francophones in their reaction to the Flemish demands. But Belgium has got to pull itself together. For outsiders it must present the image of a country that is as united as can be. It must know that others are watching how it solves its problem.

A quote from Khaleb Diab in The Guardian, 24 August 2007
 
Well, the Flemish far right are all for separation. The anti-immigrant pro-independence Vlaams Belang’s strongman Filip Dewinter has called on the Flemish parliament to open the floor to discussions over independence. “Flanders must bare its teeth. The Flemish parliament must declare, without further federal negotiations, its autonomy and present it to the Flemish public in a referendum,” the extremist wrote on his website. It should be noted that the Flemish independence movement is not just a far-right phenomenon, but it is largely a conservative one. […]

A quote from Baron Bodissey at the Gates of Vienna blog, 24 August 2007
 
As Mr. Belien points out, if Belgium fractures, the resulting seismic shock will spread far beyond Brabant and the Netherlands. If Flanders and Wallonia can no longer make a go of their relationship, what of the much larger polygamous marriage that is the European Union? Finland and Portugal have far less in common than do the two major components of Belgium.

A quote from Lemuel Calhoon at his blog, 23 August 2007
 
The origin of the crisis which is tearing Belgium apart is centered on the unwillingness of the productive to have their wealth taken and redistributed to the non productive. As the demographic crisis worsens these kind of tensions will only grow more severe.