Politics in Flanders, language and culture June 11, 2009
Posted by claudio in Uncategorized.trackback
Just a small remark about something that got my attention on a pro-indepence post of Martijn on planet grep (in response to Wouter):
Cultural differences do exist. Wallonia is French, therefore latin culture. Flanders is Dutch, therefore Germanic. If you’ve ever even remotely looked at history, you won’t be able to deny there are huge differences between these two. Not all are better in Germanic cultures (pace of life eg), but the differences are clear.
Putting my linguist and culture scientist hat on, I can say that imagined north-south comparisons are very common and specifically very relative. Yes, within Belgium the South is Latin, warmer and bon-vivant. The North is Germanic, reserved and more intellectual. Looking how the dutch-speaking Netherlands (that used to be one region with Belgium in the past) looks at the north of Belgium (Flanders) is kind of funny. You get it: dutch-speaking (northern) Belgians are more Latin, warmer and bon-vivant. They like to party and eat. They are not like the North (the Netherlands): protestant, laborious and more reserved, and so on and on.
You can make the same exercise within Italy, between North en South Europe, within Spain, with Spain and Latin-America and so on. You’ll get tired of finding examples on all possible scales. And guess what, if Belgium was split, we would find differences with the more peripheral provinces (as they really are present today, e.g. in jokes). By the way, the name of the game is stereotype.
PS: If you want to read more about it, I suggest to have a look at the work of Dutch literary scientist J. Leersen.
PS2: maybe an important addition: stereotypes are instable and change through time. Not so long ago Flanders was the romantic region in the Belgian imaginery.
+1
yes ! an intelligent answer.
If it’s all about stereotypes, how do you explain the difference in the result of the elections between North and South? And what about the media? Try to compare a few Flemish and Walloon newspapers. Even “Metro”, the only big newspaper I know that exists in both Dutch and French, has completely different content in its Dutch and French edition.
I life in Brussels and I work with French speaking people every day without problems. Belgium doesn’t have to split for me, but I’m convinced that things have to change because Belgium is really broken right.
Because politicians create a political apartheid system. I don’t know if it was by accident (stupidity?) of by design. In Belgium you can describe the “other side” as the devil him self -what happens in Flanders and Wallonia every day- and get politically away with it. Why? Because people on the north can not vote for NATIONAL politicians from the south and the other way around. It’s a self-fulfilling prophecy. And a sad one.
@Claudio: your argument about politicians only explains the result of the elections.
Can we now please have your argument about the media? Please explain it because you seem to be someone with all the answers.
Sorry for the sarcasm. But seriously, when you blame it on “the politicians”, you are doing it yourself: describing the “other side” as the devil. Politicians are people too.
@Amadee
Funny you mention it. In the past I wrote a master thesis on discourse analysis of the Flemish “quality press”. I find the subject fascinating.
However, this is kind of long and rather off topic for a comment on a tech blog. Media is extremely important in the creation/distribution of stereotypes and in the naturalization and legitimization of ideology. In the actual Belgian context, this is a very valid field of study.
I haven’t studied the importance of differences between Flemish and Walloon media, but just by having a quick look I fail to see a Germanic or Latin “Volksgeist”. Au contraire, I see a lot of similarities in idealogical content and style. The consistent use of “De Wever extremist” and “Milquet, Madame-Non” are good examples of identical nationalist character murders.
About politicians, I am not talking about an abstract generic sociological class, but about people with known names and history. Being very recent history (start after “Leuven Vlaams”, it’s pretty easy to identify the participants in the creation of the present Belgian state architecture (which is not organic but a result of rather recent decisions).
Greetings,
C.