This first week of July I went to Tuscany by car, with family and friends. Starting from Brussels to go in the neighborhood of Lucca, you have to go down through Luxembourg, a bit of France, pass by Switzerland and go over the Alps, finally arriving in Italy.I don't know much about Switzerland, except that I went skiing there for the first time when I was twelve (a marvelous overnight trip by train through the mountains), that they have over-zealous custom officers, and that it's amazingly beautiful.
Also, it's a federal state - just like Belgium. They speak 3 languages, just like in Belgium. They also have bilingual areas. For all I know (I might be wrong), they don't fight about cultural differences, territory or language. They all feel Swiss, as far as I know.
Italy, this year was celebrating the 150th anniversary of its unification. Flags and celebrations everywhere! Wait, what? 150 year? So Belgium has existed longer than Italy? I never heard anyone saying that Italy wasn't a "real" country because its history was so short! Belgium will celebrate its 181 year of existence this 21th of July.
They have a region where people speak and learn German in Italy, too, by the way. I went there for two weeks, three years ago. These people feel Italian.
Exactly what is the problem here in Belgium that makes it so difficult to accept that we have three languages, cultural differences and still that it's possible to live together, to have a Belgian identity? I suspect it has nothing to do with culture or language.
We have Di Rupo who doesn't want to learn any other language...
ReplyDeleteAnd De Wever wants to capitalize on the number of votes he got. he doesn't want to make the same mistake as Leterme.
Now, while I was in Milan jus after the elections, an old Italian told me he did vote for Berlusconi because he was the richest one and sa such wouldn't try to spoil Italians. And, he said all the other candidates are worth nothing.
On the other side, history shows that some people in Italy did live under the dictatorship of the Borgia's for as long as 30 years. That peirod led to Michelangelo, da vinci, etc...In Switsserland they did live in peace for more than 500 years and it led to the well known 'coo coo clocks".
Mais bon, je suis d'accord avec toi, c'est lamentable. je crois juste que c'est la démocratie qui est mise à mal dans tous les pays.
Philippe, are you sure? The people in Sud-Tirol (Italy) are not equally rich as in Ost-Tirol (Austria)
ReplyDeleteThat's the only difference between a corrupt government as we have in Belgium. It's even the same organisation that's causing this, but to be sure, better don't give it name online
That's my experience... It is true that people from Süd-tyrol tend to be poorer, it might be because the region is more rural. The example of Switzerland was more striking to me - German speaking swiss are most probably richer than italian speaking ones. It's not really comparable to Belgium anyways. My point was, to me, language and culture seem not a good enough reason to provoke such a mess in a country, and these situations are findable in a lot of european countries. I want real problem solved (high taxes, government inefficiencies,etc.), not imaginary ones.
ReplyDeleteI'm not to big on conspiracy theories, but I'm ready to listen to it ;-)