LL-L "Language politics" 2009.09.05 (02) [EN]

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L O W L A N D S - L - 05 September 2009 - Volume 02
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From: Roger Thijs, Euro-Support, Inc. <roger.thijs at euro-support.be>
Subject: LL-L Language Politics

 1 - On September the 1th the new schoolyear started over here and language
is a recurring issue in this multilingual country, especially in the school
system.
In the sixties the "*liberté du père de famille*" was a big issue in the
Brussels area. For protecting the Flemish culture there was a legislation
keeping Flemish kids in Dutch-language schools in Brussels. This was a hot
issue for the French, defending the fathers' freedom to drain his Flemish
kids to French schools, leading to a practical frenchisation of Brussels.
The Flemish gave up the formal restriction as part of one of the political
deals in the seventies..
Actually the situation has been reversed. While the Dutch speakers are
momentarily just about 10 percent of the Brussels region, they get 20
percent of the kids in their schools in Brussels. Most of the kids have no
basics of Dutch, and this challenges the quality of the Flemish school
system.
New rules require kids to have been for 1 year in a Flemish kindergarten for
being allowed to Flemish primary schools in Brussels, starting January 2010.
http://www.euro-support.be/tmp/edu/kleuter.pdf

The problem exceeds Brussels though. Also in other areas there are problems
with drain of kids from areas from over the language border towards Belgian
Dutch-language schools. Add to that the kids from immigrants, it often
becomes a difficult issue to solve for the schools.
As e.g. for Spiere-Helkijn at the language border:
http://www.euro-support.be/tmp/edu/sph2008.pdf
or at the South of West-Flanders:
http://www.euro-support.be/tmp/edu/wvl.pdf
For the problems in the area ("rand") around Brussels:
http://www.euro-support.be/tmp/edu/nlrand.pdf

Not all current issues around primary schools have to do with language
though. A hot issue are also Freinet schools and Freinet methodologies:
http://www.euro-support.be/tmp/edu/freinet.pdf
http://www.euro-support.be/tmp/edu/frtielt.pdf
more about Freinet at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freinet
or http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freinet-Pädagogik<http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freinet-P%C3%A4dagogik>

2. There is also a strong marketing afford towards adults, for them to lean
Dutch:
http://www.euro-support.be/tmp/edu/volw.pdf
I live in Steenokkerzeel, close to Brussels, and I get regularily publicity
in my mailbox, yesterday a trilingual one from the municipality:
http://www.euro-support.be/tmp/edu/steen.jpg

More about Dutch for adults at:
http://www.cvovilvoorde.be/index.php?content=talen&selection=N&recordID=236&display=E
http://www.cbehalle-vilvoorde.be/
http://www.huisvlaamsbrabant.be/

3. One of the traditional political events, the first Sunday of September,
since about 30 years,  is a hiking/biking tour in the ring of Flemish
municipalities around Brussels:
http://www.de-gordel.be/
http://www.euro-support.be/tmp/edu/gordel.pdf (5 Mb)
Last year the French started with a, still modest, counter-event, at the
very same day, at the inside of the borders of the Brussels region:
http://www.la-bretelle.be/
It is better they focus on that and stop spreading pushpins on the Flemish
biking routes.
"*Gordel*" in Dutch = belt ("riem" in my Limburgish)
"*Bretelle*(s)" in French = suspenders ("pertelle" in my Limburgish)
"Bretelle" is a kind of a carnival opposite to "gordel".
The political opposite term to the Flemish "gordel", encircling and
containing the Brussels belly, is "*carcan*", straitjacket, in French.
More official terms are "*rand*" in Dutch and "*périphérie*" in French.
Often these terms are used restrictively to just 6 Flemish villages around
Brussels, with a protection status (called "faciliteiten" "facilités") for
the French speakers.

4. Racism
The interim agency Adecco is under attack, since they marked local Belgian
candidates, read "non-immigrants", as BBB.
*BBB* stands for *Blanc Bleu Belge* a Belgian pure race of cattle.
http://www.hln.be/hln/nl/957/Belgie/article/detail/988372/2009/09/04/Adecco-voor-burgerlijke-rechtbank-na-incident-over-taalgebruik.dhtml

5. The need of Brussels to expand.

5.1. Politically from the French side, there are movements to expand the
bilingual (read mainly French) territorial zone of Brussels.
On a map the targetted area can be found at:
http://www.carrefour.be/representation.htm
I'm sure the French presence in Steenokkerzeel is much higher than shown on
that map. I guess they vote less for French-language political parties over
here and so they are less visible politically.

5.2 Businesswise some are launching the *BMR* economical region.
BMR is intended to stand for Brussels Metropolotan Region.
http://www.euro-support.be/tmp/edu/bmr1.pdf
http://www.euro-support.be/tmp/edu/bmr2.pdf
An unfortunate choice of a name since in Dutch it stands for "*bof, mazelen
en rodehond*". (mumps  measles  rubella (German measlles)). cf.
http://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/BMR

I was invited to join them in LinkedIn and have sent this to their group
environment on LinkedIn.

** quote myself:
Subject: Brussels Metropolitan Region, DS 20090801

1 - There are a lot of good things in the project. Many big towns have to
face with an economic hinterland that extends over the border of the state.
See how NY and NJ tackle several issues of logistics through the port
authority: http://www.panynj.gov/ . It is essential that this kind of
collaboration is focused on the real issues and avoids fueling nationalistic
feelings. The concept of Lille-métropole would not work, if behind the
curtain France would agitate for incorporating Roeselare, Kortrijk and
Mouscron within its national borders.

The map of the region, focused for, is a monster: It includes Bever and
Hélecine, but excludes Soignies-Enghien, Ninove, Aalst, Mechelen, Leuven.
Even Tervuren is not included. Public authority wise it is also very
heterogeneous: the Brussels region has a government, the province of Walloon
Brabant has also one. But what about Halle-Vilvoorde? The Flemish
government? But in the latter case: why limit to Halle-Vilvoorde?

2 - Typical for the BMR region are linguistic issues. History shows that
bilingual situations are only temporarily, and the strongest language will
win at the end. The weapons in Brussels are not equal: the French generally
stay monolingual, while the Flemish are proud of the quality of the level
pupils get for French in Flemish schools. Why would the French learn Dutch,
as long as the Flemish speak French fairly well. It is a waste of time for
them, at a moment all business is living "lean", with focus on "added value"
and clearly avoiding waste. As in so many battles the Flemish are losers at
the end. After July 11 came Mons-en-Pévèle and Athis-sur-Orge.

The Flemish politicians desperately try to protect the culture by clumsy
legislation, which can easily be challenged in courts. Laws protecting
Indian territories discriminate Caucasian Anglo-Saxons and may be reversed
by the Supreme Court. The French behave much more consistently with their
language identity and do not need that kind of silly legislation.

There clearly is a contradiction in behavior. While the burgomasters of the
municipalities in HV try to force an increased use of Dutch, business people
in this area behave completely bilingual. Compare the Makro in Machelen
(completely bilingual) with the Makro in Alleur. The latter is "French-only"
although a large part of its customers come from the South of Belgian
Limburg. It is even not exceptional to see vans from Limburgish
municipalities and OCMWs parked in Alleur.

Regions try to define their identity, for Nord-Pas-de-Calais some people
find it in history and identify themselves with the former Southern
Netherlands, without much of linguistic elements in the picture (except
perhaps for a "chti"-hype for the moment, but the "potje vleesch" I got
recently in the Hazebrouck area had some fish in the jelly). Belgian
Flanders on the contrary clearly has a linguistic identity. The issue, to
face with politically, will be: does the definition of BMR means an
extension of official bilingualism? If so, the Flemish may fear they will
loose at the end.

This continued bilingualism of Flanders is not maintained in Brussels. Yes
official indications are in both national languages. Yes, public offices,
organized internally in complete "apartheid", often have a bilingual front.
But when doing shopping downtown, it is very exceptional to be served in
Dutch. In the Schuman area the service is often bilingual though, but
bilingual French-English. Whether you speak Dutch, Khoisan or Cherokee, you
most probably will be served in English.

3 - As a result Flemish people from the Brussels suburbs are drained to
Flemish towns for their shopping and inversely, since the Flemish hardly
shop downtown Brussels, there is no need downtown for setting up some
servicing in their language. The spiral is draining downwards.

Also the communications to Brussels are very poor. There is basically a very
good infrastructure but it is extremely poorly managed. I live in
Steenokkerzeel and since Brussels airport could very well function as a hub
towards Brussels, everything is done for keeping us peasants of
Steenokkerzeel away. Turning half a circle around the airport (1000m in
straight line) with De Lijn costs 2.7 euro per person (They managed to get 3
zones squeezed in between Steenokkerzeel and Zaventem). Crossing the bridge
over the Ring towards Brussels with the STIB costs 4 euro (3 euro when
prepaid). A family of 4 doing some shopping in the Brussels Capital Region
will already pay 4 x 5.7 = 22.8 euro, and the same amount of 22.8 euro back,
for a trip just to the area of the Nato buildings in Evere. One can risk
some parking fines for these amounts.

I complained about this just before the regional elections, and got some
feed-back from the municipal authorities of Steenokkerzeel. Those people are
very proud they could arrange for some more school busses to Vilvoorde. This
basically illustrates another particularity of Brussels. Contrary to most
towns, draining pupils from a large area to centralized middle schools, this
does not work for Brussels in relation with the Flemish villages around.
Kids over here in Steenokkerzeel go to school in Vilvoorde, Mechelen,
Leuven, virtually not to Brussels. It is clearly a missed opportunity for
the development of Flemish schools in Brussels. It is also a missed
opportunity for the commercial development in Brussels, missing shopping by
the parents in the area around the school and missing the kids, when grown
up, returning for shopping in an area they are familiar with.

4 - There is hope though. Many here in Steenokkerzeel speak French at home
and at shops offering bilingual service (as e.g. our Post Office), but are
sufficiently bilingual for integrating in the local society. I'm sure most
of them do not vote UDF nor FDF (but eventually still for Louis Michel,
since they like the guy, who doesn't?). I'm sure acceptance of the
structures of this country is growing. The situation in Voeren is
stabilized. The municipalities of the "périphérie" remain a poisonous issue.
It would be a good thing if that burden against benevolent collaboration
could be solved in one or another way (The BVH split is just a fetish issue,
hardly touching anyone).

5 - I hope the BMR develops in an area with concentric circles rather than
as a paste-up of some administrative territories with freakish borders. A
first challenge could be to get a shared rating system for the public
transportation companies, with tariffs defined in concentric areas, as
generally is done for most metropolitan areas in the world
(e.g. for Hamburg, see:
http://www.hvv.de/pdf/fahrplaene/tarifplaene/Tarifplan_Gesamt.pdf ).

** end quote

Regards,
Roger

•

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