Go Geert! Geert Van Istendael vermeld in de New York Times, haha.
Van Istendael surprised me when we spoke together at a Parisian-European literary festival by asserting that Europe, in order to work, has to become like Belgium. What he means by this, he explained in an e-mail message, is that Belgium has peacefully and successfully resolved what seemed an intractable conflict between Dutch-speaking and French-speaking communities. This has been done ”by democratic (i.e. legislative, parliamentary) means and by pacific means (i.e. marches, speeches, public discussions etc.). . . . Two people were killed, one French-speaking, one Flemish, in 172 years of argument and adjustment. . . .
”I never pretended that our solutions for the language problem were/are very elegant or highly intellectual or shining monuments of political thought. No, they are certainly not, but obviously, they are workable. That’s why South Africans and Palestinians visit Brussels: to study the rather Byzantine labyrinth of our language equilibria. Because the Belgian way of dealing with this type of cultural difference seems to be an antidote against civil war and the wholesale destruction of societal fibers.”
En gelijk heeft hij. Op het artikel gewezen via Rene zijn blog.