Loca Lingo Multicultural

when there is no money, there is imagination, creativity & dream, when there is no imagination & no more dreams, there is a problem…
I personally don’t need money. I hope I will never have problems.

Before traveling abroad (and especially Russia - a country where people sing and dance), you have to know about the local popular music (besides a basic knowledge of the language). Hereunder is a very famous Russian song you should definitely know by heart, in order to fully enjoy your (many) vodka shots, and (heavy) hangover the day after.

First, chose your music version, through either Youtube, Dailymotion or Metacafé.
Then, help yourself with the alphabet below, or go straight to the transliteration - try to learn this song with the real alphabet (anyway you’ll need to master it before your journey)…I you want to carry on your absorption of Russian culture, have a look to Катюша, Katyusha…

Still in our freaky Babel quest, enjoy this link…
For other related Babel towers…

The “tallest skyscraper” or “the everlost overbid of being considered as the tallest one” : after 5 years, you can be sure your glittering crown will have been shadowed… this is nice though, especially for building construction companies…

You might have read a few things about Belgium lately (except from the “Walloon” F1 Grand Prix or the “Walloon” Tennis champion)…
A burning topic, “a whole country in Western Europe in the brink of a civil war” - a new Sarajevo ?
This topic is a pretty hot cookie for international media, a way to describe a country being just without a government for three months now - not because there was a coup, but because the political parties who won the elections (proportional system) didn’t manage to agree on how to share the power, on a common program for the coming government.

Pretty much simplified, the ring is composed as follows :
- On one side ; Flemish - around 6 millions inhabitants, occupying the North of the country, now economically strong, aging & stable population. Their closest language is Dutch, a different culture (Protestants), Flemish (Roman Catholics) don’t feel familiar with.
- On the other one ; French speakers - around 4 millions, occupying the South, pretty high unemployment level (20%) now, young (but not well educated) population, which could have been a bargain for factories on a cheaper side of the world.

The problem :
A strong minority of Flemish is fed up with contributing to the National (Belgian) Social welfare. They’d like therefore to stop paying for “lazy” unemployed people in the South of the country. They’d like therefore to contribute less to the National Belgian “Project”, and moving from a federal system (Belgium is indeed a Federation), to a Confederal one (like Switzerland).

Ok then, if this is just a question of money, why hasn’t it already been settled for a long time ?

Brussels, the capital of Belgium, is a huge magnet for Multinational companies, creating wealth, attracting skilled workers from all Europe (and a lot from Flanders as well). It is a French speaking city, regionally independent, surrounded (like Lesotho with South Africa) by Flemish territory. As a reminder, the majority of the country is Flemish speaking, which makes it pretty odd.
If effective territorial separation shall be, the deal for the Flemish would be clearly less attractive without this city. Taxes would be paid where money has been created, and the economical imbalances might be more “subtle”… please refer to the map hereunder.

Dear Reader, this Belgian situation is not “new”.
For more than 100 years, this topic has been on the table. It is part of our Belgian history, day-to-day topics.
Would it be then a cultural problem, the economical discrepancies being just an excuse ?
Yes, it could be, up to a certain point, without any demonstrations on the street, no violence, no “cultural” crimes like we would see in other parts of the world, of Western Europe. Flemish are affluent, people eat here, justice is kind’ of working. Common people have something to lose, and it’s good like that.

This recalls me about this truth : the smaller the cultures who realize the globalization feature of our world, the more vehement they will become to keep their identity.
The more conflicting and less open to cultural differences the context is, the strongest will the injured party retaliate. In our Belgian case, this rule applies, but a real buffer exists : the majority of the population living on the region’s border, is able to speak the other’s language, even if they don’t especially want to… a sign of mutual respect you couldn’t find easily elsewhere.

The surrounding International press is currently blaming us cause this opens their own local and regional Pandora’s “stay on the side” boxes. The UK and Spain have indeed nothing to envy from us - there, they have ETA & IRA. They should clearly keep their lessons for themselves.
Here in Belgium, even if problems are not less serious, no need for such extremists - we can use our tongues and our ears, even nowadays, which is just a common Belgian crisis.

Splendid photo documentary in Black & White about life in China (60’s or nowadays ? No dates were provided) - in 3 parts : Survival, Relationships, Desire.

Frankly speaking, I couldn’t tell when these pictures have been taken. In (remote ?) parts of the country, this situation should be still on (not all cities look like Shanghai or Beijing). When taking a deeper look at some picture’s quality, the “60’s” or so could be a fair guess (to my opinion, there are several dates).

From this amazing EASTSOUTHWESTNORTH weblog you should definitely browse for interesting articles, pictures and videos.