Political Crisis

[franceslievens]

On day 101 Ingrid Robeyns writes a great analysis of the current Belgian crisis on Crooked Timber. It's also a must-read for anyone who doesn't understand what's going on here and wonders if we've all gone raving mad. She sums up 16 elements of the Belgian cocktail. As a teaser from #14 Divided Media:

"This fact of divided media has international implications, since there is every reason to think (as Van Parijs also argues) that the international arena gets its information on Belgium through the Francophone media, not through the Flemish media. The logical consequence would be that the reporting on Belgium in the international media is very prone to be as biased as the francophone press – very biased, that is (it wouldn’t be any better if they would only read the Flemish press, though)."

Since I'm too lazy and tired of it all to keep explaining the Belgian situation to foreigners I'm considering printing Ingrid's text on leaflets and handing the out whenever I'm abroad.

Comments

[frenchani.livejournal.com]

Wow she got it covered indeed!

Such a small country and yet such a big crisis.

PS: You must have seen it already but I just read the ad that the guy (Gerrit Six) who was selling Belgium on ebay used: «À vendre: Belgique, royaume en trois morceaux ... cadeau gratuit: le roi et sa cour (coûts non compris)». He also said that shipping was free but buying implied paying the debt. At least you still have the sense of humour!


But they have removed the ad now...

http://www.liberation.fr/actualite/monde/279483.FR.php

[frances-lievens.livejournal.com]

I didn't read the actual ad, but had heard about it. It is quite funny indeed. If we've lost our country we should at least be able to joke about it.

Does this mean I will be stateless? Should I start applying for asylum?