Stupidity transcends linguistic border

Neither French nor Flemish songs can be played in the Brussels Metro. The decision was taken by the transport service operator Stib, which since 2005 had been guided by the charts in deciding what music should be played in metro stations. Then complaints started rolling in from Flemish customers saying French songs were outnumbering Flemish ones. Stupidity knows no bounds, writes the liberal weekly Le Nouvel Observateur: "This linguistic war shows how deep the wounds from Belgium's identity crisis are. The example of the Brussels metro brings another fact to light: Not only the political class in Belgium is hit by the crisis, but also the population as a whole. What nonsense: one of the most internationally famous Belgians, Jacques Brel, has now fallen victim to this religious war. And Georges Brassens is not being censored for the contents of his songs, but because of the language he sings them in. Stupidity knows no limits, not even linguistic ones."

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