The EU’s 29 (Not 27) Members

From the desk of The Brussels Journal on Mon, 2008-01-21 12:39

A quote from the Economist’s blog, 21 Januari 2008

A highlight of the [European Year of Intercultural Dialogue] involves national projects from each of the 27 member countries of the EU, examining linguistic and cultural diversity. Oddly, DPA has noticed, there are 29 of these projects. Why 29? It seems that 26 member nations each contributed one project each. And the last, Belgium, contributed three, entirely separate projects: one from the French-speaking community of Belgium, one from Flemish Dutch-speaking Belgium, and even one from the tiny German-speaking minority that lives in its own enclave in the east of Belgium.

"Intercultural dialogue" is

Submitted by Monarchist on Mon, 2008-01-21 16:12.

"Intercultural dialogue" is just a code word, almost everything coming from their mouths are code words. They never say what they really want to achieve.

US-Europe year

Submitted by Yitzhak on Mon, 2008-01-21 15:55.

I say there should be Trans-Atlantic year of inter-cultural dialogue……..more understanding between US and Europe is needed right now.

Latin civilization

Submitted by Yitzhak on Mon, 2008-01-21 15:48.

 

Inter-cultural dialogue can be very helpful. There are great cultural differences between especially Italy, Spain, France on one hand and Nordic Nations on the other side. I am not sure if Latin civilization exists in Belgium or in Nordic countries……I am also not sure if European civilization can be described as Latin civilization……

Oneliner

Submitted by marcfrans on Mon, 2008-01-21 15:29.

Monarchist got his oneliner on the page.  But, what would be so wrong, in principle, with the idea of promoting "intercultural dialogue" in Europe?  And the really funnny question is: how does one become a "traitor" to an imaginary civilisation?   And, even if one were to asssume the existence of that civilisation in the brain of its 'great conceptualiser', what would be the 'raison d'etre' of that undemocratic civilisation?  What is so bad about being a traitor to an authoritarian concept?  It could be a badge of honor as opposed to a 'smudge'!

The point of the article was to emphasize that Belgium has (at least) 3 cultures.  It was not to fire futile missiles at imaginary ghosts.

European Year of

Submitted by Monarchist on Mon, 2008-01-21 14:02.

European Year of Intercultural Dialogue? Those bureaucrats deserve a bullet because they are traitors of Latin civilization.  This is even worse than betrayal of a country.