However, Nordic Storm did write:
Given this very complex and seemingly unworkable situation, news media and talk on street are now openly speaking about the collapse of Belgium into two independent states within the EU or even alliance/incorporation of Wallonia into France and Flanders back into the Netherlands.
While I see how the FT article Jerome diaried could be construed as pushing an anti-EU/solidarity agenda, I see this current article as simply bringing this issue -- a real issue, not a pseudo-issue concocted out of thin air -- to the attention of New York Times readers. I don't see it as part of some neoliberal conspiracy to break up the E.U. into quibbling nationalist and classist factions.
The article makes the points:
There would be overwhelming local and international resistance to turning Brussels into the capital of a country called Flanders. The economies of the two regions are inextricably intertwined, and separation would be a fiscal nightmare.
The economies of the two regions are inextricably intertwined, and separation would be a fiscal nightmare.
That doesn't sound exactly like advocacy for the break-up of the country.
On the other hand, if the Vlaams Belang is as marginal and irrelevant as you imply it is, then it is a shame that the article did highlight them as it did. Statistical thinking will one day be as necessary for efficient citizenship as the ability to read or write.
How many people do you thinkk will make it past the headline, photos and the first 14 paraghraphs to
Certainly, there are reasons Belgium is likely to stay together, at least in the short term.
It's not advocacy. It's subliminal, maybe not even intentional. But just last Tuesday at one of the Lib Dem conference fringe events someone casually dropped "Belgium is breaking up" as if it were an established fact just because it was in the FT that morning. Oye, vatos, dees English sink todos mi ships, chinga sus madres, so escuche: el fleet es ahora refloated, OK? — The War Nerd
Whatever it is, it's certainly got people's attention.
As of 4:51 AM in New York (2007/9/22), the article is number 1 on the New York Times most emailed list. Statistical thinking will one day be as necessary for efficient citizenship as the ability to read or write.
