As a Fleming working in Wallonia I simply can’t match the ethnic demagogy of media and politicians to reality. Every day I am confronted with the undeniable truth that we are all the same. The problem of this observation is that it has become dangerous to say so in public. And that’s wrong.
Last weekend I participated in de Gordel, an annual cycling and walking event in the Flemish speaking communities that form a belt (literally translated: ‘gordel’) around Brussels. Although I live in that area it was the first time I participated. What I experienced in the fine weather was a nice walk and the cosy activity of a well organised event. Until…
At first I was not bothered by the Flemish lions and stickers with political statements. But then I noticed there were actually people assigned to tag all participants with a Flemish lion. That is when I got suspicious. It took me few moments and a pinch in the arm to realize what is going on here.
Explosive Blues
As Belgian government talks break down for the umpteenth time, politicians and media take every opportunity to provoke an unnatural division between Flemings and Walloons. To cut this one short: this is downright disgusting and dangerous. But before I continue my alarming analysis, let me get this straight: the issues on the table of the government talks are real issues and they should be solved. The inequalities in financial matters, the division of responsibilities and the equal distribution of voting circles need to be addressed and solved. No question about that.
However, what is unacceptable is the fact that these matters of government accounting and sound governance are thrown into the emotional arena of identity. There is no better way for administrative and geographical problems to get stuck. And pouring an emotional sauce of identity over such topics makes them explosive.
Categorizing
The way these issues are presented to the general public is through rude categorizing and hotel journalism (a term originally coined by British journalist Robert Fisk during the Iraq War to describe literally reporting from one’s hotel room without interviews or first hand experience of events).
Categorizing is necessary for human beings in order to make sense of the world. Politicians and media know this like no other. They make use of our craving to simplify reality by providing categories. That’s only natural.
But is becomes dangerous when the categories become definitive boundaries. And it gets pathological when we see how Belgian media and politicians are tricking us into thinking that we have a Flemish or a Walloon identity. We don’t.
Instead of Flemish lions and Walloon roosters, we may have to prepare for black swans. Here is why:
- Projecting geographical issues and issues of government accounting onto language categories is wrong;
- Making Flemings and Walloons believe that we are different based on the language we speak is wrong;
- Faking a Flemish or a Walloon identity based on demeaning stereotyping is dangerous, as many a survivor of a civil war or genocide will tell you;
- Amplifying these fake identities through the extensive use of media and events like de Gordel is demagogy.
Deliberately mixing up explosive ingredients and continuing to expect normal results is insane. We’d better prepare for the highly improbable. The equation is a simple one really:
Radical Flemish Lion + Radical Walloon Rooster = Explosive Black Swan
We Are All The Same
The truth is that Flemings and Walloons are the same. Using language as a categorizing mechanism to separate Flemings from Walloons makes ab-so-lu-te-ly no sense. Yet, it takes an outsider’s perspective to discover that. Just look at the evidence from Geert Hofstede’s research on culture or at this video of Richard Hill, the author of The Art of Being Belgian
Unlike the polarizing hotel journalism we have gotten numbed by, Hill’s book presents real life examples of the fact that we are a “nation divided by a common culture“. To take two simple examples:
1. Half of the Flemings have a French sounding family name and half of the Walloons have a Dutch sounding family name. Separation by means of language in order to determine a separate cultural heritage makes no sense in this case. Still, we witness it every day;
2. By any cultural index and measure, the Walloons could not be further from the French; and the Flemmings could not be further from the Dutch. Like it or not, when we put the cultural index of Flemmings and Walloons next to each other, we discover that we are the same.
In short, Jacques Brel was right when he said:
La Belgique, c’est un terrain vague, où les minorités se disputent au nom de deux cultures qui n’existent plus.
My Vote You Have Not
Although voting is mandatory in Belgium at every election, I did not attend the ballot last time because I refuse to take part in this demagogy. Voting in any democracy is a powerless act of last resort. A vote is the poorest and most abused form of expression in a democracy. Sadly, Belgium is a striking example of that.
