Belgium
Created | Updated Apr 21, 2002
A little country in western Europe.
Notable features include a long history of being occupied by foreign powers and being used as a battleground
for said powers. This not only has resulted in a country with three official languages (Dutch, French and German), but
also in a population that distrusts the government to an extreme degree.
In every day this results in official figures changing language with every paragraph in order to avoid to show
any preference and a level of corruption that is extreme: the GNP of Belgium is only 50% of it's estimated real
value, the rest is in the black economy.
The good points about living in Belgium are:
- good food
- good beer, altho a bit strange at times, for instance fruit beers are pretty popular, and one kind of beer is
brewed naturally, in the open air.
Bad points:
- people are pretty closed. They will help you if you're in trouble, but otherwise it's "my house, my castle"
- climate: rain.
- regular invasions. If not in times of war, then it's for tax-evasion (Dutch), recreation (Germans, Brits) or
on-their-way to buy canabis (French) :-).
Notable features include a long history of being occupied by foreign powers and being used as a battleground
for said powers. This not only has resulted in a country with three official languages (Dutch, French and German), but
also in a population that distrusts the government to an extreme degree.
In every day this results in official figures changing language with every paragraph in order to avoid to show
any preference and a level of corruption that is extreme: the GNP of Belgium is only 50% of it's estimated real
value, the rest is in the black economy.
The good points about living in Belgium are:
- good food
- good beer, altho a bit strange at times, for instance fruit beers are pretty popular, and one kind of beer is
brewed naturally, in the open air.
Bad points:
- people are pretty closed. They will help you if you're in trouble, but otherwise it's "my house, my castle"
- climate: rain.
- regular invasions. If not in times of war, then it's for tax-evasion (Dutch), recreation (Germans, Brits) or
on-their-way to buy canabis (French) :-).
