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Politics : Dutch Central Bank Sale Announcement Imminent? -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: sea_urchin who wrote (22431)	2/24/2005 5:18:07 AM
From: GUSTAVE JAEGER	Respond to of 81056

Re: Indeed, they think that the world will be saved if America becomes more like Europe, whereas I think that Europe will be saved only if it becomes more like America. But that is an opinion which no one in Europe is allowed to have. Those who do, get peed upon. Europe saved... from what? Anyway, I don't know that Dr Paul Belien.... yet I'll be looking for his forthcoming book, A Throne in Brussels on the "Belgianisation" of Europe (Imprint Academic, May 2005).

To: sea_urchin who wrote (22431)	2/24/2005 5:56:37 AM
From: GUSTAVE JAEGER	Respond to of 81056

Britain, the Saxe-Coburgs and the Belgianisation of Europe Paul Belien 350 pages £25.00/$49.90 184540033X (cloth) May 2005 If Crown Princess Charlotte had not died in childbirth in 1817, she and her husband, Leopold of Saxe-Coburg, would have succeeded to the British throne. But instead the great powers installed Leopold as king of Belgium — a new, artificial state inhabited by Catholic Dutch in the North, and French-speaking Walloons in the South. Belgium is sometimes compared to multilingual Switzerland, but whereas Switzerland grew organically, gradually creating a Swiss national consciousness, Belgium is an artificial state, in which two peoples were forced to live together and where no Belgian national consciousness developed. It could fall apart in the next ten years. Paul Belien argues that the pan-European super-state currently in the making will resemble a ‘Greater-Belgium’ rather than a ‘Greater-Switzerland’, since Europe will also be an artificial construct. Belgium has infected EU political attitudes and acts as a model for the EU — a failed attempt to ‘construct a nation’ out of different peoples with separate languages and traditions. To learn what the EU as a single state might be like, take up this highly readable mix of history, analysis and warning. You'll never feel the same about Belgium again. imprint.co.uk I disagree with Judeofascist Paul Belien on the following: "Belgium has infected EU political attitudes and acts as a model for the EU — a failed attempt to ‘construct a nation’ out of different peoples with separate languages and traditions." As far as I'm concerned, I don't think the EU endeavor aims at "constructing a nation". As I said (), the proper model for Europe is the United Nations. Indeed, the key difference between Belgium and Europe as a whole is that, although Flanders and Flemish nationalists can safely entertain the notion of an "independent Flanders", self-sufficient and well-off, France, Germany, Italy and the other major EU members perfectly know that, individually, none of them is a match for the 21st-century powers --China, the US, the Arab world, Latin America... Indeed, it's easy for Belgians, particularly Dutch-speaking Belgians to fancy themselves as an independent, self-ruled region WITHIN Europe because Belgium --and Flanders is part of Belgium-- has always been a third-class (second-class at best) power that never sought to challenge the powers-that-be on the world stage... However, France and Germany, to name but the two of them, must have higher ambitions for themselves and for Europe. France alone can't afford to scale her geopolitical hubris down to the petty, miserly frame of mind of a Flemish used-car seller.... Unlike Belgium, France and Germany don't wait for US and Israeli investors to set up turnkey-assembly-lines to provide jobs to French and German workers and outlets for US products. France and Germany seek to develop Europe's own industries --ESA, Airbus, Daimler, Renault-Nissan, etc. For that matter, when asked about future relations between the republic of Flanders and Wallonia, even Vlaams Belang* leaders point to the EU as a due conduit to funnel (financial) assistance to cash-strapped Wallonia.... Gus (*) Message 19731984