Hopefully belgium does the same but i doubt it. People are generally morons here.
We should save Taiwan and nuke Antwerp.
Yes, i feel more affinity with Taiwan too than with Antwerp.
Flemish independence frightens me a bit. I would almost always vote no, not because i'm exactly opposed to Flemish independence, but because Flanders is ethically and morally going to be an absolute sh**t country, because Flemish working class people are very intolerant, while the Flemish higher middle class, elderly and elites are very image-conscious and relatively traditional. I think the problem with the Flemish higher class is: "keeping up appearances". One of the reasons why our mental health is terrible and more than 50% of college + university going students suffer from a mental health disorder (we are in the majority) and why Flanders has one of the highest suicide and bullying rates in Europe. On top of that, our people are also quite introverted, not to an extreme sense, but when discussing sensible matters we are, and we are very closed. And it doesn't help that mental health institutions also work in quite a traditional sense, and are not accessible, so are our mental health first access lines and emergency numbers which are more out of reach for the majority of us. If you call 10 times, the likeliest thing to happen is that 10 times no-one will pick up the phone, and i've been in such a situation (and there are articles and one documentary episode dedicated to that). Earlier this month, we also had the case where someone was seen as a terrorist threat, while his entire entourage has repeatedly said, they asked for psychiatric help, while people in psychiatries said there was no place for him since he got 18 years old and no reason for him to be taken inpatient.
I'm very grateful we have Walloons to steer our political debate less to the right.
It also feels so wrong that in general, most people feel morally superior to Walloons and always think Flanders should come first because of financial matters.
We also are in some sense already separated due to the confederal state. And there is a language and culture barrier, so I get why some people feel no real affinity to Walloons, so do I, but it's mostly the language barrier, and it sucks so much because it is hard to learn french (it's a different language family). It feels we're separated to such an extent already. I never have to be in Wallonia for some reason, so.. if i'm there, it's basically travelling to a foreign country. It really sucks there is that language barrier. It really sucks. All my experiences with Walloons i had in my life were so good. One Walloon woman helped me so much when as a kid i went with my bike to wallonia and overestimated my own capabilities (when I got a hunger knock), and i couldn't ride my bike to my home as it was still multiple tens of km (and the hunger knock was there already for a while) and she basically did a lot at the time. I mean all of those experiences with every walloon is great, and i really felt sorry for the flood disaster this summer.
I think that ride with my bike was in 2011. I went from Oudenaarde to Tournai via the Schelde and rode Mont St Aubert, than I went to Brunehaut and than returned through Antoing but I got the hunger knock there somewhere, and i rode to some town north of Tournai, i think it was Mourcourt.
It's a beautiful region, but I did that, because I complained a lot i never saw something different in my life, always the same streets, always the same houses, so i'd like to explore, so I made multiple cycling rides, to explore, not because I'm good in cycling, and I always went south (mostly). Over time, i learned to drive in "circles" so when something happens i'm closer to home, but that causes me to not go further than i want to, and explore new territories i haven't seen.
Also Mont St Aubert was relatively close to where I lived, but unusual, since it's a much longer climb than any of the hills closer at home (which are short, but tough, sometimes covered with cobblestones). Mont St Aubert is much longer and the closest thing to a mountain close to home. (it's called cote de la croix jubaru)
Wow i just read that it is number 731 in hardest climbs of the world with a bicycle... That's weird since i did this at the age of 15 and barely even rode a bike at the time.
