I am actually quite fond of Belgium. Trips to Ypres, Brugge, Brussels reinforce that. However, I have just done a bit of quick research into Belgium's contributions to the world.
They include such greats as Chocolate, Beer, Cheese and of course, the Brussel Sprout! But most notable of all is the country's influence in 'Comic Strips' and the production of the 'Waffle'. Kind of says it all really!
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'Belgium is famous for 2 things. Chocolate and child sex crime. And they only invented the chocolate to get to the kids'
If you want an insight into Belgium watch that film, it is a very weird place full of very weird people especially in the more rural parts
On one particular occasion one of the girls who I worked with was sent out to the aircraft pan to 'meet' and 'clear' a Belgian Air Force jet and its pilot. When she came back in to the office, our Sgt said to her "was he a Walloon"? (Bearing in mind that Wallonia is a region of Belgium). To which she replied "I don't know if he was well hung Sarge!? I didn't ask him!!"
Priceless. Still brings a smile to my face now.
There are loads of good things about Belgium, and loads of good people.
● Roller skates
● Praline
● Asphalt
● Chicory
● The World Wide Web (everyone knows about Tim Berners-Lee but how many know of the role played by Robert Cailliau?)
● Saxophone
● JPEG conversion (with this there's be no digital cameras)
● The Mercator projection
● The contraceptive pill (invented by a certain Mr Peeters!)
● La Jamais Contente (the first car to travel at over 100km)
● The first commercial scale generator - The Gramme Ring
● Bakelite (the first synthetic plastic that could be made on a commercial scale)
● Index card
● Brussels Sprouts
● Cell division
● Loads of pharmaceuticals
● Surrealism (pioneered by Delvaux, Ensor & Magrritte and continued today by Duchatelet and Meire)
This is not too far fetched, as theories go
It undoubtedly has some very beautiful but very stereotypical European towns and cities (type of place where cheese and ham sandwiches are served for breakfast), and it almost goes without saying, the country has always been a battleground and we have many, many of our forefathers resting there.
You need to go to the backwaters to understand where I'm coming from when I say the belgians generally walk around with a slightly bewildered look on their faces most of the time. When midnight strikes they can be properly unpredictable
Adrian Carton de Wiart (only foreign VC holder)
and ... Tintin !
Oh, and Vaudrée, a bar in Liège which sells 1,000 different beers.