We have no patience for these pettinesses

Who cares what language they speak on Belgian trains?

Image taken from the Belgian Rail booking website at https://www.belgiantrain.be/. Tut, tut. His placard should not read “Keep on dancin’”, but rather “Blijf dansen” and (this is Brussels) “Continuez à danser”. Time for a complaint?

Read all about it:

https://www.rtbf.be/article/goeiedag-bonjour-l-annonce-bilingue-d-un-controleur-de-train-en-region-flamande-consideree-comme-illegale-11575567

The rules are clear: the transportation by rail must be announced in Belgium in accordance with the languages legislation: in French in Wallonia, in Dutch in Flanders and, in Brussels, a bilingual region, in both Dutch and French. The order is immaterial.

For those who don’t know, “good morning” is, in French, “bonjour” and in Dutch it is “goeiedag”. And, the Language Commission has, upon the complaint of a passenger near Vilvoorde, in the Flemish region of Belgium, ruled that the conductor of a train may not in that place greet his passengers with the expression “goeiedag, bonjour.”

Visitors to la Gare du Midi or het Zuidstation in Brussels will be aware that that is the starting point for Eurostar services to London and for Thalys services to Cologne. London is in the United Kingdom, an English-speaking country. And Cologne is in Germany, which is a German-speaking country. The interminable announcements for these trains are given, in Dutch, French, English and German.

The East Cantons of Belgium, which were given to it as reparations after World War I (and which it tried to flog back to the Weimar Republic, that is until international pressure forced Germany to guarantee its western borders, thus rendering the Belgian-Weimar negotiations somewhat désuètes, after which Germany nicked them anyway, along with the rest of Belgium from 1940 to 1944, when they returned heim ins Belgien, since when Belgium has no longer tried to verzilveren them other than through tax revenue) consist of three cantons:

Canton of Eupen

• Eupen: Eupen and Kettenis

• Kelmis (in French La Calamine): Kelmis, Neu-Moresnet and Hergenrath

• Moresnet: Lontzen and Walhorn

• Raeren: Raeren, Eynatten and Hauset

Canton of Sankt Vith

• Sankt Vith (in French Saint-Vith): Sankt Vith, Crombach, Lommersweiler, Schönberg and Recht

• Bütgenbach (in French Butgenbach): Bütgenbach and Elsenborn

• Büllingen (in French Bullange): Büllingen, Manderfeld and Rocherath

• Amel (in French Amblève): Amel, Herresbach, Heppenbach and Meyerode

• Burg-Reuland: Reuland and Thommen

Canton of Malmedy

• Malmedy: Malmedy, Bévercé and Bellevaux-Ligneuville

• Waimes (in German Weismes): Waimes, Faymonville and Robertville

However, of these three cantons, only two officially speak German—would you Adam and Eve it? Malmedy speaks French. They are all in a French-speaking province, that of Liège.

The East Cantons boast two railway stations: at Hergenrath (pronounced Her-ghen-raht) and at Eupen (pronounced Oy-pen). Nearby Welkenraedt looks Dutch-speaking, could possibly be German-speaking, but is in fact French-speaking.

So, what language do you think they speak on trains in the German-speaking area of Belgium? Well, these areas are in the province of Liège, and Liège is French-speaking, so they speak French. Welkenraedt is home to an American cemetery with 7,900 graves of soldiers who died in the Ardennes campaign of World War II. Perhaps they should speak English there. After all, they speak English and German at the Brussels Station where Thalys and Eurostar trains leave from. Because they go to places outside Belgium where they speak neither French nor Dutch. They speak German in Brussels, but not in Eupen.

The conductor who was chastised for greeting passengers in both Dutch and French whilst the train was in Flanders has expressed his exasperation. Many passengers on his trains come from neither Wallonia nor Flanders, and so they speak neither Dutch nor French as their native language. And he must keep an eye on the precise location of his train in deciding how he is to greet passengers, whose composition doesn’t change one iota as he crosses the boundary between one region and the other.

I personally think the passenger who complained was absolutely right. And I believe they should get a life.

On this day we remember the hundreds of thousands who perished 80 years ago as a result of the war crimes of the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom. We mourn day in, day out those mercilessly killed in Gaza and the West Bank by a murderous state regime.

We have no patience for these pettinesses.