Oscar van den Boogaard on a lack of national identity among Belgians

The Dutch writer Oscar van den Boogaard considers that "Belgians have too little national conscience, and even less national pride. Their natural landscape has been fragmented and covered with buildings, their architectural gems discarded. Incapable of opposing this as a united force they stand by and watch, heavy-hearted. Belgium is a small version of Europe: a collection of very different individuals, foreign to one another, whose individuality is not attached to the yoke of a common culture or history. The Dutch are so Dutch, the Germans so German, the French so French: they should thus detach themselves as soon as possible form their national identity to become real Europeans. Belgians, however, have an even and free nature. A Belgian can be anyone."

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