Uncle Filip Wants You!

 "11 juli moet de Vlaamse onafhankelijkheidsdag worden zoals de ’4th of July’ voor de Amerikanen Independence Day is", zei VB-kopstuk Filip Dewinter.


Or, in English,


"July 11th needs/ought/must to be become Flemish Independence Day, like the '4th of July' is American Independence Day," said VB-leader Filip Dewinter.


Ummm...yeah. Why can't Jon Stewart speak Flemish!


For those of you who are not aware of the current (perennial) Belgian political situation, we are looking at 400 days coming up around the corner for a country without, (apathetic drum roll, please) a government. Longer than Iraq, the former Guinness book of stalemate-gridlock-impasse Records holder for a government-less nation, by quite a bit.


"What is a nation?" asks a soon-to-be drunken pub patron, John Wyse, to Leopold Bloom in Ulysses in the "Irish" nationalistically laden chapter of "Cyclops." 


"A nation is the same people living in the same place." Bloom tells us.


...lots of ale-fueled laughter...


"Or also living in different places." he adds...


...more hops and barley-scented guffaws...


But, what, indeed, is a nation? Lest poor Filip need a history lesson, the 4th of July is just a little bit more than not wanting to be associated with the French-speaking Walloons and to preserve a pure, Flemish state. There was this small thing about international armies, new constitutions based upon revolutionary philosophical systems, taxation without representation, and a few other slight variations, but let's not haggle over the details...today at least (Guldensporenslag comparisons, which granted was no slouch of an event, will have to wait til another day).


But, to return to the question, what is a nation? Is Belgium a nation? Is Flanders a nation, worthy of an "Independence Day?" To become the 194th nation, following in the heels of South Sudan. Oh, wait, there was a war there and 2 million people died, starvation, genocide, never mind.


Elio Di Rupo, the French-speaking elected leader of the coalition-less coalition-run parliament, issued a referendum, the latest one to be shut down, that apparently threatens the sovereign, Flemish-speaking nation of ... Flanders? But, there is a French-speaking Flandres in France, and some Dutch is spoken in Holland, and there is this guy on The Simpsons, ..., but is it a country, a nation? 


Dewinter and Bart De Wever (political leader of a somewhat less Flemish-nationalist party) seem to think so. Though, in a recent poll, only 8% of the Belgian youth agrees that the end of Belgium is necessary. So, is it a nation or isn't it? I remember being in Normandy many years ago on July 14th, Bastille Day. Kind of like, you know, "the 4th of July is American Independence Day," there is this big day in France, but there was something odd. No French flags to be see. The Normans weren't so keen on being French, but there was no talk of a succession of Normandy, at least not that I was aware of. They were still French, sort of.


Will we see yellow flags waving proudly with the black Flemish Leeuw (lion) on July 11th next year? Fireworks? Hot dogs and parades? A hearkening back to a war, whose first shot, was, like the later American Civil War, "heard 'round the world?" Probably not more than today, and in the last instance, definitely not. Flags are already waving this year at the more "Flemish" establishments (brown cafes), hot dogs are to be had at the train station any day, and fireworks are best left to the Americans, Chinese, and Italians for the time being.


HOWEVER, it does raise the interesting question that Joyce posed to us.


What is a nation????