Good afternoon!
Today, I draw your attention to an article in The Brussels Times about that old chestnut (or maybe I should say châtaigne or kastanje): the language laws in Belgium. More specifically, the absurdity of the situation in a modern 21st-century democracy.
A few months ago, a train conductor became the subject of an investigation by the Permanent Committee on Language Monitoring after a complaint by a passenger, who felt that the conductor had broken the rules when greeting passengers in both Dutch and French while the train was just a few minutes outside Brussels. According to Belgium's language rules, he should have spoken exclusively in Dutch on the part of the route where he was at the time – as the train was still in Flanders.
Look, we all know, historically, why these laws were enacted in the complicated country that is Belgium, and that language is increasingly wrapped up in identity. But seriously? Is this the behaviour of the official bodies of a progressive, forward-looking country? Surely our identities are not so fragile as to be threatened on a daily basis by someone greeting passengers on a train hurtling towards the multicultural capital city in the two main official Belgian languages?
And that's the point – he didn't just use one language, he used both. He was being inclusive in the strictest sense of the word. The train has passengers from both language communities on board, never mind tourists. Can the authorities not see that, in this day and age, no matter what the law, it just makes the whole country look ridiculous? Not one community, but the whole country. Can pragmatism not trump the letter of the law?
In the words of Rodney King; "Can't we all just get along?"
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