Sigh...

It’s grey. All around. Grey and cold.

This time of the year is traditionnally known as the “Saints of Ice”, and it’s always cold like this. It doesn’t have to be rainy and windy, though. But it is. Maybe to spite this little portion of the world, or just maybe because this is Belgium and that Belgian weather is ruled by the whims of clouds. It doesn’t help one to feel enthusiastic about things.

Say, I’m not even happy that it’s likely Belgium will survive this day and that it looks like we won’t have to go to the polls before summer. The government may well not fall upon its failure to resolve the ridiculous issue of BHV (no, this isn’t the name of a supermarket company, it’s the nickname of the Brussels-Hal-Vilvoorde issue). I think the far right, fascist and racist party called Vlaam Belang (by the way, nice usurpating of a concept which means “Flemish Interests”, call your party like that, and the unfortunately-not-giffted-with-the-minimums-of-a-brain-who-are-more-numerous-than-you-might-think will automatically listen when you start spewing your hatred and your racism and your lies, just because they hear the magic words) must be fuming. Not to mention the CD&V, our so niiiiiice, not greedy, not go-getting AT ALL political party. They must be ready to throw a fit by now.

I don’t know what I despise most: a racist, far right, fascist, nazi-nostalgic party, or a so-called “democratic” and “christian” party that keeps barking as loud as it can, cavorting behind the fascists and racists in order to win more votes and come back to power.

I so enjoy watching these greedy bastards playing with people’s kinder and nicer instincts. Dangling phony messages of doom, threat, unfairness--maybe I should be fair as well, and admit that I also love the people ready to listen to whatever low-level propaganda and follow blindly whoever howls the loudest--and suptters the most, don’t we all love the traces of drool trickling down the chin of a raving extremist?

Perhaps I should also mention my undying admiration for the Flemish media and the rest of the Flemish political parties, which have ALL the same, single voice, which ALL play and push on the button of "we're the Walloons' victims, they're so bad people, they steal from us, and they refuse to assimilate and speak our language." The media, especially, deserve all the praise I'm capable to give for their precious help they're giving to the far-right, racist and facist party with their obsessive need to dangle those issues in front of the public's nose--with their turning insignificant issues into matters of state while the true social and economical problems aren't addressed. It's so easy, so rewarding to contribute to the rise of the far-right. I hope they're all proud. I hope they'll still be proud on the day when a fascist, racist and nazi nostalgic party is in power on the Flemish side. I know I'll be asking for political asylum in France on that day.

One day, maybe, I’ll gather enough energy to review the whys and wherefores of the Flemsih obsessions and fantasies toward the French-speaking part of the country. Maybe I’ll take the time to explain calmly that, while the Flemish people were suffering under the whip of the rich, French-speaking bourgeoisie (we’re talking 19th and early 20th century here), the Walloon people (who at the time were NOT speaking French but the various Walloon dialects, depending on the region where they lived), were ALSO suffering under the whip of a rich, French-speaking bourgeoisie.

Will the Flemish part of Belgium one day realize that its own bourgeoisie used the French language as a way of social distinction between classes, just as it was the case on the Walloon side, and that if the Flemish children of those days were forced to speak French, the ones forcing them to do so were THEIR OWN. Not the Walloon people. As the whims of history go, the Walloon dialects all but disappeared, and French became the unique tongue spoken here.

If I could speak candidly to a Flemish politic or journalist, I would tell him this: really, people, instead of blaming all the suffering of the times, all the feelings of inferiority of the times, the arrogance of the bourgeoisie of the times on the French language, why don’t you get real, get yourselves a brain, think, and place the blame where it should be: on the shoulders of your OWN bourgeoisie, and leave this country alone? And, while you’re at it, please, keep your obsessive needs for revenge for your own companies and bourgeoisie, for your parents and grandparents who punished you and bawled out on you.

The future looks dreary enough as it is, we don’t need to have far-right nationalists and fascists in power to add to the fun.