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Politics : Formerly About Advanced Micro Devices -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: GUSTAVE JAEGER who wrote (340624)	6/18/2007 4:37:07 PM
From: tejek	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 1571725

Re: I am surprised that Belgians are not widely bilingual. Are you also surprised that Anglos living in California, Texas, New Mexico, Alabama, Florida, Arkansas, etc, are not widely fluent in Spanish? There are currently about 60 million Hispanic Americans --a sizable constituency-- but how many US politicians can speak Spanish? Of all GOP and Democrat candidates running to win their party nomination for the next presidential election (in 2008), how many are fluent in Spanish? Please.......to compare the US to Belgium is ridiculous. The influx of Spanish speakers in large numbers is relatively new in American history and they are scattered throughout the US and not in one particular section of the country. Belgium has been independent since 1830. At the time of its independence, the country was split between two main languages: Dutch and French. You mean in nearly 180 years no one ever thought to make the learning of Dutch and French mandatory for everyone like Switzerland? Re: Are signs in Wallonia in French and Dutch or just French? There are in French only. The problem, however, lies with the so-called Brussels' periphery and its contentious, bilingual suburbs. Most of them used to have both a Dutch and a French toponym: Grand Bigard/Grootbijgaarden; La Hulpe/Terhulpen; Crainhem/Kraainem; Rhode-Saint-Genèse/Sint-Genesius-Rhode; Louvain/Leuven; etc. No longer? Re: Is Flanders pulling a Quebec? Periodically threatening secession in order to gain more power for the home provinces? In a sense, yes. But the difference with Québec is that, over here, Flemings are already the majority --demographically hence politically-- at the federal/national level! That's why there hasn't been a Francophone Prime Minister for the past 40 years!! Flemings want to have it both ways: running the show in Flanders and over Belgium (including Brussels and Wallonia) as a whole.... Not a surprise......but its seems like they are running the show, and yet, they do not sound happy.