In Run Up to Elections, Belgian School Bans French Language

[Flagg]

IN RUN UP TO ELECTIONS, BELGIAN SCHOOL BANS FRENCH LANGUAGE
Received Sunday, 10 September 2006 07:24:00 GMT


MERCHTEM, Belgium, Sept 10, 2006 (AFP) - A month ahead of Belgium's local elections and amid strong support for the far right in the Flemish north, a school near Brussels has taken the unusual step of banning the use of French.
Dutch is obligatory under Flemish law, but the rule is being enforced with surprising zeal and the move has sent ripples through the community at a time of great tension between Belgium's French and Dutch speakers.
Students at the primary school in Merchtem can only speak Dutch in the classroom or the playground, and parents must do so too when they talk to staff -- or bring an interpreter.
"It's ridiculous. You can't stop a brother from speaking to his own sister in the playground," said one mother, -- bilingual but of Flemish origin and who gave her name as Veerle -- standing outside the school gate.
According to the town hall, only around eight percent of the 1,400 students in all of Merchtem's state schools come from families where Dutch is not, or rarely, spoken.
But that tiny minority is causing friction in Flanders.
Some here fear that people from Brussels -- a 90 percent French-speaking enclave in the Flemish part of the country -- are spreading slowly into the region; a phenomenon known locally as the "oil stain".

http://www.ttc.org/200609100724.k8a7obk22894.htm

[sybylla]

1. I have friends from Belgium - They say the tensions are strong

between the French and Flemish. There's a lot of pride in their heritage and a ton of in your face arrogance on both parts.

As far as I can tell, this will only fester into something big unless it's stopped soon.

[nealmhughes]

2. Hmmmm....how about English: it is basicly half-French and half-Dutch?

Some French (Latin crammed onto Frankish) and Western Germanic dialects (amazingly like Frisian which is a smaller variety of Dutch/Flemish) crammed together into modern English.

Sorry, but can a modern EU Belgium really worry about this? I would assume that it means a lot to them for nationalistic reasons, but any time a monolingual policy is implemented, the kids will wink and form their own patois or else speak the banned language out of spite. I don't blame them for wanting to thwart authority.

Baudoin or Baldwijn?

[Ignacio Upton]

6. Question: why does Belguim exist in the first place?

All I know about that country is it was part of the Netherlands until it declared independence in 1830, and about King Leopold and his genocide in the Congo. But...why wasn't the French-speaking portion not given to France, and why wasn't the Flemish/Dutch portion not kept with the Netherlands?

[nealmhughes]

8. To quote Queen Victoria: "Uncle Leopold deserves to be a king, too!"

Her mother was Leopold I's baby brother... It has to do with Franco-Dutch post-Napoleonic crap. Some Catholic/Protestant stuff, too.

All I remember from that was the "Uncle Leopold" quote and the fact that the UK and Belgium have an iron clad mutual defense treaty that guarantees the independence of Belgium from everyone who might have designs on it... That's why the UK went to war on Germany in WWI, the invasion of Belgium.

[nealmhughes]

9. To quote Queen Victoria: "Uncle Leopold deserves to be a king, too!"

Her mother was Leopold I's baby brother... It has to do with Franco-Dutch post-Napoleonic crap. Some Catholic/Protestant stuff, too.

All I remember from that was the "Uncle Leopold" quote and the fact that the UK and Belgium have an iron clad mutual defense treaty that guarantees the independence of Belgium from everyone who might have designs on it... That's why the UK went to war on Germany in WWI, the invasion of Belgium.

[estherc]

15. Her mother was Leopold I's baby brother...

I find this historical tidbit quite alarming.

[Kagemusha]

10. Er, Britain and Germany backed Belgium's territorial unity?

I heard Britain was quite aghast at Germany's invasion of Belgium in WWI in part because both countries were guarantors against France's encroachment upon the Low Countries back in 1830. Or something like that.

Wish I knew that part in more detail but, regardless, Belgium exists because attempts to run it over were reversed by two consecutive wars and, therefore, its territory is morally sacrosanct to Europeans.

[Ignacio Upton]

11. Germany did not exist as a country until the Franco-Prussian War

Maybe you're thinking of Prussia or Austria.

[Kagemusha]

12. Perhaps the book I read that from was confused.

Clearly, Britain's backing is the backing for Belgium that's lasted. There's been ties since the time of the Hundred Years' War with Britain often working with Flanders. (And France having no love for the Flemish as a result.)

[MrPrax]

3. More than just waffles

going on there...we rarely hear from good old Belgium...but they have been in the news lately:

Refresher from a recent LBN:

Belgian neo-Nazis in 'terror plot'

Belgian police yesterday arrested 17 alleged neo-Nazis, mostly serving soldiers, who were said to be planning to destabilise the country's institutions in a series of terrorist attacks. In simultaneous raids on five army barracks and 18 private addresses across the northern Flanders half of Belgium, police uncovered a homemade bomb and numerous weapons.

The raids by 150 police officers in East Flanders, Antwerp and Limburg were the most dramatic breakthrough in a two-year investigation into far-right activists allegedly operating inside the armed forces.
Guardian

Wonder what's up... :shrug:

(edit - to add the following coz I forgot my point - coz it's Sunday)

BTW it is a strange law due to the fact Brussels is also where NATO is HQ'ed as well as some of the EU Parliament...such chauvanism might not go down very well among EU members stationed there that might also have children in the school system.

[JVS]

4. Oh no it's the People's Front of Flanders!

[Tyrone Slothrop]

18. FUCK OFF!!!

We're the Flanderian People's Front.

Splitters...

[TreasonousBastard]

5. DEATH TO THE WALLOONS! Or we send...

them all to Quebec City.

I understand people being worried about losing their culture, but this shit is becoming far too common lately.

[tomreedtoon]

7. So they want them all to speak Belch?

Are you sure that this drive to make everyone speak Belch isn't a pilot project by Halliburton? Or Anheuser-Busch (or Bush)?

[lumpy]

13. LOLROTF !

STOP IT !

[Endangered Specie]

14. Ah, gross Nationalism, some lessons are never learned it seems...

[rodeodance]

16. I think identity politics such as this is an effect of globalism--a back-

lash. we see it in many countries.

[Doremus]

17. WTF is it with this surge of conservatism around the world?

Like a spreading cancer.

It's bizarre.

[davidinalameda]

19. damn Flanders