Martin wrote on Mon, 01 Oct 2007 13:51:08 +0200:
and Spain. --
??>>>>
??>>>> Except that Belgium was only artificially invented a
??>>>> mere160 years ago,
??>> and
??>>>> that only after much shuffling. It's not and never has
??>>>> been a sensible natural, linguistic, historical or
??>>>> political entity. I'm surprised it's still there.
M> Whatever you mean by "sensible geographically". Belgium is
M> more sensible geographically, at least it isn't divided by a
M> sea. It's very clear that nobody in Belgium wants to be
M> annexed by an adjacent country, no matter how sensible you
M> might think it is. The situation is more analogous to the
M> breakup of the Ottoman, Austrian and Soviet empires.
I haven't really been following this discussion but is it not
true that Belgium arose because the Southern Netherlands were
dissatisfied and felt oppressed by Northern government? It had
no more *geographic* logic than that I seem to remember. It
wasn't racial or religious discontent was it? Thus I can see
that giving a piece back to Holland as outsiders suggest might
not be popular. I'm not all that enthusiastic about a
proliferation of small countries but it seems the only way to go
at the moment....look at the Balkans.
James Silverton
Potomac, Maryland
E-mail, with obvious alterations:
not.jim.silverton.at.verizon.not
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