Talk:Brussels-Halle-Vilvoorde

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This article has been written with a remarkably neutral spirit. Congratulations to the author(s). Very funny to note that there still is no article on the French wikipedia about Bruxelles-Hal-Vilvorde, only a stub at http://fr.wikinations.be/Arrondissement_de_Bruxelles-Hal-Vilvorde ... --Pylambert 22:32, 28 July 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Image

The text of this article is good, but the image "Map of Brussels-Halle-Vilvoorde electoral district showing all municipalities with highlighted areas showing percentage of French-speaking residents" is not correct. 193.53.37.12 08:37, 17 August 2005 (UTC)

You're right: the author should have mentioned that it comes from a francophone party's site (Front démocratique des Francophones) and must be taken as the view of one side of the conflict. Let's add it. --Pylambert 08:46, 17 August 2005 (UTC)

Hello, this is the author here. I'm glad you found the article as impartial as possible - that was certainly my aim. I completely agree as regards the noting that the map does indeed come from a francophone website. The fact that the map represents statistical information had led me to conclude that it was indisputible. I realise I may have been a little hasty. Thanks for your help.

[edit] Some questions about facts & opinions

Dear, being a student from Canada, staying in Belgium for a semester only, I found quite some factual information (both on Wikipedia as elsewhere) that is squarely incompatibele with information I found here. Could you please clarify.

1. The articles says that six of these municipalities in Halle-Vilvorde had populations who were majority Francophone. This is only supported by one French-speaking political party (FDF). I did not find any independant sources for this. Even worse, most states that the six municipalities referred to only had between 30 and 50% French-speakers. What are your sources? 2. Some sources (Flemish) state that Waterloo and La Hulpe had between 30 - 50% Flemings, but were not included under the facilities arrangement, contrary to the legal provisions for that. 3. This article suggests that the linguistic facilities were instituted in order to "provide facilities for francophone residents". However, the legal texts I found give a very different picture: they were intended for ALL linguistic minority groups (above 30% of local population), including German speakers in Malmedy, and Dutch-speakers in many Walloon municipalities. This presentation as if facilities were to benefit "francophone residents" appears highly biased and francophile. 4. This articles pretends that "In Flanders in particular there has been a steady rise of the extreme-right since that time". However, the major extreme-right party in Flanders ('Vlaams Blok', now 'Vlaams belang') was only founded +/- 20 years after the instauration of linguistic facilities. On the other hand, the nationalistic French-speaking party ('FDF') was founded much earlier. Why only talks about Flemish extremism? And what about german-speakers? Are they happy? 5. This articles also fails to note that French-speakers in Flemish municipalities with linguistic facilities and the Flemings in Walloon with municipalities with linguistic facilities enjoy LESS political rights then those in the unilingual Flemish municipalities from Halle-Vilvoorde. As a result, certain French-speakers enjoy extra-territorial voting rights that the inhabitants from the municipalities with linguistic facilities do not enjoy. This means certain french-speakers have rights that Flemings never can enjoy! Isn't this ethnic discrimination? Thus racism? 6. The two 'main compromise solutions' proposed in this article do not remediate about this ethnic (or linguistic) discrimination! Why is this overlooked? 7. Even with a constitutional amendement on dual electoral disctricts, the first 'compromise' does still breach the equality provisions in both constitution and European and universal declarations and conventions on human rights. 8. the articles states that 'Spirit' would have been the only Flemish party opposed to the latest compromise proposals from Belgian prime minister verhofstadt. However, as far as I found out, many other flemish parties were against: CD&V, Vlaams-Blok (now Vlaams Belang), and N-VA. Groen! appears to be not pro, not contrary. That leaves only VLD and SP.A in favour. is the current presentation in the article not biased? 9. Even within the VLD and SP.A, several politicians have expressed their opposition to the 'compromise' (among othters Leo peeters and several other local majors in the SP.A and De Decker and Bouckaert in the VLD).

Moreover, this articles states that "A deal was struck, though it served largely Flemish interests.", however, I did not find any factual avidence for the latter claim.

Given all these remarks, this article appears rather biased and partisan, non-scientific.

Yours sincerely, Jason