Wikipedia:WikiProject Belgium

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Welcome to WikiProject Belgium! This group hopes to

  • improve articles related to Belgium.
  • create missing articles on various fields (history, geography, culture, music, people, organisations, ...).
  • If this project gains sufficient critical mass, the talk page could be an efficient way of contacting other Belgians (e.g. for local meetings).

The central place to talk about this project is this page's discussion page.

The parent of this project is WikiProject Countries.

We are currently looking for Belgians or other interested members!


Contents

[edit] Project News

[edit] Article improvement drive

List articles here that you think could be improved. If you're only reporting article problems (such as POV violations, unsourced biographical information etc.), list under "article problems".
I like the approach taken by Sport in the United Kingdom - eg. the sections on 'administration and funding' and the 'role of sport in British life'. Surely there's plenty that can be said about the general structure, governance and financing of sporting organisations in Belgium? I don't have much knowledge on the subject, however. --David Edgar 18:06, 18 October 2006 (UTC)
Apparently that's not easy to do with Excell...--Steven Fruitsmaak (Reply) 17:12, 6 November 2006 (UTC)
  • List of Prime Ministers of Belgium :it would be interesting to add the first language of these prime ministers. It would help to see the evolution of the political landscape in Belgium. There are two problems : 1. I don't know them all myself (I know Leburton was the last Frenchspeaking one) 2. This is sensitive (but it shouldn't be a taboo) and controversial (what is the definition of first language).Evilbu 19:58, 17 October 2006 (UTC)
Their first language? Why not their Province? --moyogo 18:29, 30 October 2006 (UTC)
Yeah great why not!?Evilbu 23:00, 30 October 2006 (UTC)
  • French fries : our national symbol deserves a typical picture IMHO, not a version from the Netherlands... ours could go in the Belgium section. Furthermore, the article needs thourough referencing; anyone has access to a book by Prof. Ilegems?--Steven Fruitsmaak (Reply) 15:38, 25 October 2006 (UTC)
  • Campine needs one of those nice maps to depict its location.
  • Escorte Royale Belge and Royal Palace Guard still refer to the Royal Escort and the Royal Palace Guard of Belgium as being units of the Belgian Gendarmerie, and both articles could use some improvement. Plus, I think that for the sake of linguistic neutrality the first article should be moved to "Royal Escort of Belgium". --Ganchelkas 16:36, 12 November 2006 (UTC)
  • Brussels-Halle-Vilvoorde still doesn't properly explain the only thing it really HAS TO EXPLAIN : what is going on! This is outrageous! I myself have been going through official documents, websites,etc... nobody bothers to explain what is really going on. And I know for sure that it's not just a weird electoral district, because the other two electoral districts in Brabant are involved as well!Evilbu 22:20, 17 November 2006 (UTC)
Take some time to read the first few lines of the seventh paragraph. As far as i know that is what is going on? (as in: that is why the flemish are so pissed over it) Fisheke 09:40, 18 November 2006 (UTC)
I know but that is still quite vague. Which Frenchspeaking candidates? From Brussels? From Walloon Brabant?How does it work?Evilbu 11:25, 18 November 2006 (UTC)
Nope, I still don't get it. This isn't just an electoral district comprised of parts of Flanders and Brussels, it's not really an electoral district in my opinion. There are numerous wierd things. One of them is that [2] this page on an official site adds up the votes in Leuven, Walloon Brabant and Brussels Halle Vilvoorde. Another thing is that according to this official page :[3] CDH got 53129 votes in BHV and just one seat, while ECOLO got 52295 votes in BHV and they did get two seats, which is more! So there is definitely some sort of tie between three "electoral districts"?Evilbu 20:31, 22 December 2006 (UTC)

Historically there used to be a tie between all electoral districts belonging to the same province (not just in the former province of Brabant). This system was called (in Dutch) "apparentering" and it worked in the following way. Seats were attributed per electoral district according to the number of votes obtained within the district according to the system "Dhondt". This calculation method is such that sometimes the last seat in a particular district does not get awarded because no party has a sufficient number of votes within the district in order to obtain it. Thererfore this last seat is transferred to "provincial level", and in order to attribute it to any given party, the "left over" votes that each party has obtained in the different districts belonging to the same province are put together on provincial level, the remaining seat is then awarded to the party that has the most votes. It was therefore possible that a party gained an extra seat in a district where it had less remaining votes than one of the other parties. This system was abandoned when the province as a whole became one electoral district. The only exceptions are the provinces of Vlaams Brabant and Brabant Wallon where the system still works although in a limited way. The old province of Brabant had 3 districts, Leuven (Flemish), Nivelles (Walloon) and BHV (Flemish and Brussels region). As a result of the "apparentering" system it sometimes happened that a Flemish party obtained the last seat in the Nivelles district (Wallonia), and vice versa. The last time this occured was with the election of Toon Van Overstraeten for the Volksunie (somewhere in the eigthties I believe). Since at that time members of the Federal Parlement automatically became members of the regional parliament as well this meant that a Fleming who hardly obtained any votes in Wallonia (a few hundred I believe), would be member of the Walloon regional parliament. This situation created an outrage amongst Walloon politicians and Van Overstraeten although duelly elected was refused entrance to the regional parliament. In order to avoid simular situations in the future it was then decided that in the province of Brabant "apparentering" would only work between either Leuven and BHV or Nivelles and BHV. Effectively this meant that Flemish parties choose to tie up Leuven & BHV and French speaking parties Nivelles & BHV. And this to my knowledge is how it still works today and why it is possible that Ecolo gets 2 seats in BHV with less votes than CDH, Ecolo probably taking the last remaining seat due to the fact that they have more remaining votes in the districts of BHV & Nivelles put together. Complicated? Indeed, but we live in a complicated country don't we! Boerkevitz 16:58, 9 March 2007 (UTC)


  • Suikerboon needs a decent reference explaining the tradition. I had previously included a page at suite101.com but this is now blacklisted... the Dutch article doesn't have any sources listed either. --David Edgar 17:06, 20 November 2006 (UTC)
  • History of Belgium - I think this article should be thoroughly reorganised. It has too many subsections and "see also"s and it should get a real references section. For instance, the sections "After WWII" and "Post-war economic growth" should be merged and a new section on the more recent history of Belgium should be created. I also think this article is divided by subject too much rather than chronologically. And many sections should be expanded as well.--Ganchelkas 17:19, 3 December 2006 (UTC)
  • Our only related featured article, Belgium, lacks inline citation to the point that it's featured status could be removed! Save it by helping with citation! Also, the constant editing calls for a review.--Steven Fruitsmaak (Reply) 13:24, 31 December 2006 (UTC)
    • It is currently under [|review]! Please check this out! The Belgium article should be improved as fast as possible! Vb 11:29, 23 April 2007 (UTC)
  • Wallonia, and the French Community of Belgium fairly low-quality. Compare with their versions on the French wikipedia, which are much better developed.-Oreo Priest 23:17, 28 September 2007 (UTC)
    • I did remove the stat <= Leuven university / % of different languages spoken in Wallonia.

The reasons are:

-The particularity to appear poorly in the enquiry made by ONE (and far from neutral) institution about languages claimed NOT to be used in Wallonia is not of first importance to the definition itself of the concept. (As we don't fill definitions pages of countries/regions with the % of all the the langages of the world weakly spoken in those countries/regions).
-The fact that this is certainly an interesting local research, but not more than thousands of others which do not appear in the definition itself of the of concept, PLUS the fact that this results reappear on others more important level concepts page than the research itself (like Belgium), looks to be a choice to give to that research an importance not neutral but or affectively biased or of local politics manipulation aim.
-And finally, this bias being voluntary or not, it does now build reality, as it is among those used to make pressure on the political structure of that country.
(Reading myself, and due to the manipulative choice to put specifically that information here and instead of another, I even wonder if I shouldn't do the same for those stat in the "Belgium" definition. But I am a wallon representative, so if I feel free to speak for wallons, French speaking are not alone in Belgium. So what does the others think about it?) -Brillen Otarie 1:29, 4 October 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Article problems

List here if you're only reporting a problem; articles should be listed under "improvement" as much as possible.
  • Category:Belgian_Freemasons lists a lot of politicians without providing sources; this should be cleaned out immediately.--Steven Fruitsmaak (Reply) 14:57, 17 November 2006 (UTC)
I've cleaned it up, if any one has proof consider adding the info back again.--Steven Fruitsmaak (Reply) 17:39, 14 December 2006 (UTC)
  • Belgium has big problems. Please have a look at the discussion. Vb

[edit] Article creation drive

  • You can add links in the normal Wikipedia way (using [[ and ]]), or you can use the Belg and Belg2 templates (that put these handy links to the wikipedias in other languages behind the article title).
  • Anyone can bold articles that they consider high priority!
  • If you translate an article, first read Wikipedia:Translation#Instructions.
  • A bluelinked "striked" title (like this) means that the article has been checked for spelling and grammar. Please check articles that haven't been striked yet.

Pending tasks for WikiProject Belgium:

 edit - history - watch - purge


[edit] Stub sorting

  • Please use the most specific stub tag possible.
  • Propose new stub categories according to guidelines. All new stub types should be proposed at WP:WSS/P before creation. Otherwise, these may need to be re-named, modified, or deleted, because they may mess up the hierarchy of stub types.

Category:Belgium stubs looks like it could use some stub category diffusion... I've created Template:Belgium-sport-stub, but we could definitely use others like Template:Belgium-song-stub and others about music, etc.--Steven Fruitsmaak (Reply) 13:55, 5 October 2006 (UTC)

I've proposed new stubs and categories here: all ideas welcome!--Steven Fruitsmaak (Reply) 18:01, 6 November 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Pages of interest

[edit] Watchlist must-haves

Some high-profile articles related to Belgium that have been repeatedly vandalised (the typical insert-a-not-so-funny-joke vandalism).

[edit] Project banner

Flag of Belgium This page relates to the WikiProject Belgium, a project to create and improve Belgium-related Wikipedia articles. If you would like to participate, you can join the project, and help with our open tasks.

Flag of the Flemish Community and the Flemish Region

Flag of the French Community and the Walloon Region

Flag of the Brussels-Capital Region

Flag of the German-speaking community

Talk pages related to this WikiProject can be tagged with {{WPBelgium}} in order to let people know we exist, so that they can contact us when needed. Note: this banner should not be substituted.

[edit] Project barnstar

...maybe some day...

[edit] Project trophies

List here any newly created articles or media that can be somehow credited to this project (e.g. because a participant created it from the article improvement drive).

[edit] Participants

This is just an informal headcount and directory; no strings attached! Anyone interested can list himself/herself (or others) here alphabetically (there's no leader).

User name Languages Location Interests
-Casualty- nl, fr, en-3
Belgian man nl, en-2, fr-2, als-1, by-1, ca-1, de-1, es-1, it-1, ... Ghent Main: Languages, Oceania, Cars, Flanders, Wallonia
BertK nl, en-4, li-4, fr-3, de-2 near Leuven Music, History, Computer science, Telecommunication,...
Blakewiki nl, vls, en-5, de-2, fr-3, la-2, en-me-2, got-1, mnl-3 Leuven and Ostend Linguistics, Literature, Arts, History, Politics
Buster7 en-5, nl-2 Chicago/USA Flemish/Dutch, Belgium/Low Countries
Dave Black en, nl-2, de-2, es-2 Bremen Brussels, Flemish/Dutch, Flanders, Antwerp, Low Countries
David Descamps fr, en-3, nl-1 Tournai, Low Countries Low Countries, History, Tournai, Politics, Conservatism, ...
David Edgar en, fr-1, de-1 Brussels
Dimitri Neyt nl, en-3, fr-2, la-2 ... Berlare, East Flanders History, geography, geofiction, art, culture, politics, United States...
Evilbu nl, en-2, fr-1,de-0 near Ghent Mathematics, history, anime, Flanders and politics
Fisheke nl, en-4, fr-3, de-2, it-1 Leuven and Antwerp Engineering,...
Fram nl Comics, ...
Ganchelkas nl, en-2 Politics, History, ...
Jrenier fr, en, nl-1 Liège
Lesgles en, fr-3, ru-3, nl-2, es-1, de-1, it-1 United States language (Belgian French), literature, history
LimoWreck nl, en, fr, vls, de-1 (and reading many others) both West Flanders & Ghent Category:Cities and towns in Belgium, sports (other interests less Belgium-specific)
LHOON nl, en-4, fr-4, it-3, de-2, sv-1,... Trains and other public transport,...
Lord Snoeckx nl, en-4, fr-4, de-2, it-1 Berchem, Antwerpen Linguistics, Politics, Literature, Language, ...
LucVerhelst nl, en-3, fr-2, de-1, es-1, af-1 Berchem, Antwerp Politics, ...
Mamour fr, en-4, sv-3, nl-2 Computer science, bioinformatics
Moyogo fr, en-4, nl-1 Low Countries Low Countries
Oreo Priest en, fr-3, de-1 Expat living in Brussels Conspicuous absences in coverage
User:Paularblaster en, nl-3, fr-2 Dilbeek History, Literature, Religion
pdehaye nl-1,en-4,fr-N Oxford
peterdjones nl-1,en-6,fr-2 Sussex Brussels Belgian beer, Music
Pvosta nl,en-3,fr-1,de-2 Malle History, Economy, Politics, Flanders, Wallonia, Science, Medicine
Riki nl, en-4, fr-4, de-1 Brussels Politics, Music, Films
Sandra 1977 nl, en-4, fr-3, de-1,... Antwerpen Music, sports (figure skating),...
Steven Fruitsmaak nl, en-3, fr-2, es-2, de-1,... Leuven Medicine, Music, ...
Targeman fr,en,pl-4,es-3,de-2, basics of several other languages. Mijn Nederlands sucks though :( Brussels Places in Brussels, History, Linguistics, Architecture, & many others...
Yvesb fr, en-3 Brussels
Angus McLellan en, fr-3, nl-1
Triwbe en,fr-3,nl-1,de-1,lb-1 Brussels Places in Belgium, EU, others...
Mapar007 nl,fr-4,en-3,it-1,qya-1,la-2,... Mechelen Linguistics, Mathematics, History


This user is a member of WikiProject Belgium.

If you want to identify yourself as a member of this project on your userpage, you can use this userbox template. Use the notation {{User WPBelgium}}.

This user is a member of WikiProject Belgium.

This is an alternative userbox: {{Wikipedia:WikiProject Belgium/Userbox2}}.

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