RvW 
Level 54
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I'm afraid I'll have to disagree with Moros here; in my opinion Flanders and the Netherlands have a language in common, but are (relatively speaking of course) wildly different on many other aspects. Flemish Belgians are much more alike to Walloon Belgians than they are to Dutch people if you ask me.
### About the languages of Belgium
One of the reasons for the recent political issues was in fact the language divide. (In order to stay within the maximum post length, and not bore you to dead, I'll have to over-simplify!) Belgium is divided into electoral districts. The political parties are associated with either Flanders or Walloon. One of the electoral district (called "BHV" for Brussels, Halle, Vilvoorde, the names of the three main cities in it) effectively crosses the language border because it includes the bilingual Brussels. Therefore people living in BHV are in the unique situation of getting to vote on either a Flemish or a Walloon party. *But*, that means Walloon people who live *in* BHV, but *outside* of Brussels (an area which is *not* bilingual, it's Flemish) get to vote on Walloon parties. To understand why that's a problem, you have to know Walloon people living in a Flemish district can only vote for Flemish parties, and likewise, Flemish people living in a Walloon district can only vote for Walloon parties. This situation is considered unfair by the Flemish. Yes, this was a *major* issue, to the point where Dutch newspapers would talk about "BHV", considering its meaning common knowledge.
### About splitting up Belgium
Please note this is considered an internal matter; outsiders are not supposed to get involved. Because I know how sensitive this issue is for Belgians, I'll only explain what's going on (sticking to facts), and try my best to refrain from giving an opinion about it.
In the past, it was considered taboo to even mention the possibility of splitting Belgium up into two or more countries. Since the last elections, the issue turned from "taboo" into "we can talk about it" (as Belgians among themselves, it's still appreciated if foreigners (especially Dutchmen with little clue what the issue really is and absolutely zero sensitivity about it) keep their mouth shut).
Now, there are a number of sub-problems to "splitting up the country". For one: what happens to Brussels? When Czechoslovakia broke apart, it was clear that Prague was right in the middle of the new Czech Republic. However, Brussels is right on top of the language line; splitting the country by the language divide gives no clue at all about "who should get Brussels".
Even if an agreement could be reached, there is no reason why a freshly-independent Walloon would have to merge into France. Some Belgian (but: Flemish!) friends of mine have assured me that would probably happen and actually work out though. Neither is there a reason why a freshly-independent Flanders would have to merge with the Netherlands. Those same Flemish friends, to put it mildly, would not be in favour of that and do not expect it to work out, at all. Breaking my no-opinion rule here, I agree with them; the cultural differences are remarkably big.
<lame joke>The only benefit I see of merging Flanders and the Netherlands is the name of the Dutch province "Noord-Brabant" making sense for the first time since 1830.</lame joke>
Interestingly, a remarkably elegant solution for Brussels might actually exist: if Belgium would split up (or even if it doesn't), Brussels could be made the capital city of the European Union. Think about it, there is no way in hell the Germans will ever agree to letting Paris become the capital of Europe and the French will never agree to Berlin. If England ever joins up, they'll never support either (and neither will the French or Germans accept London). Brussels (especially an independent Brussels??) would be a perfect candidate for a "European Washington DC".
Of course, this whole paragraph is extremely Western Europe centric; I've never talked about this with people from the Eastern part of Europe.
Regarding that whole "Greater Netherlands" thing, I'm hesitant to believe that Wikipedia article; it flat out contradicts everything I've ever been told by any Belgium person I've discussed this with, and doing so while citing only a single (dead link!) source.
Also, that "Greater Dutch organisations" list smells, badly! The first entry on the list is the Dutch borderline-racist, islamophobic political party. I've never heard of the second organisation, and the third is the reincarnation of the Flemish racist party. Yes, I'm flat-out calling their predecessors a racist party; "Vlaams Blok" ("Flemish Block", they even share the same "VB" abbreviation with "Vlaams Belang") disbanded after having been *convicted* for racism. After which they changed their programme just enough to not get convicted again, but publicly stating they did not change ideology.
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|> Especially since the 2007–2011 Belgian political crisis, when Belgium had no government for 541 days (world record)!
Neah, they had a government, five of them even. You see, Belgium has seven national governments: one for each of the three language regions (Dutch, French and German), one for each of the three major regions (Flanders, Walloon and Brussels) and a federal one. For efficiency, the Dutch-language and Flemish-region governments were merged into one, bringing the total down to six. A while ago someone worked out an example of (I think it was) a German-speaking family living in the Brussels region. They rely on four of those governments for their various needs.
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|> the word you are looking for is 'scottish'.
I'm reasonably sure every country makes jokes about their neighbours. If you tell a Belgian a good "Scottish joke" he can simply replace the Scot by a Dutchman and he has a Dutch joke. Similarly, any Belgian joke can be told by a Norwegian if you substitute a Swede for the Belgian. Of course, if you want the Swede to *tell* it, you swap the Belgian for a Fin. (Sorry, those are all the examples I know top-of-my-head, but I'm sure you get the idea.)
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|> marijuana, clogs, brothels and windmills are the most significant characteristics of the netherlands, or holland as we sometimes call it. how accurate is this? does life in the netherlands revolve around these things?
Only when you're showing around tourists. ;)
In most countries it's perfectly legal to drink alcohol, as long as you stay within some restrictions: no drinking and driving, age limits, things like that. However, by any realistic definition, alcohol is a drug: it's addictive, changes your perception and just generally messes up your body. The reason it's still legal is quite simply that it's too ubiquitous to prohibit (the USA tried with Prohibition, but that didn't exactly work).
Now, it seems there is also a lot of demand for marijuana and simply declaring it to be illegal will not make people stop using it. Also, if it's illegal, it's impossible to control. So Dutch drug policy makes certain kinds of drugs (called "soft drugs") legal, while at the same time putting extra high fines and jail sentences on production and sale of "hard drugs" (the "really bad stuff" such as cocaine). In other countries, after you've (illegally) tried marijuana, you'll try the next kind and the next, until you end up getting addicted to cocaine. In the Netherlands you legally try marijuana, but then there's still a "threshold" before you start experimenting with even worse crap. Also, just because you know how to get marijuana doesn't mean you know where to get hard drugs (only very few coffeeshops can provide you with those, because they're not allowed to and are very strictly checked). Yes, Dutch policemen can go into a coffeeshops to verify they follow the law, because coffeeshops are legal (and the sale of soft drugs is legal), there is no need for the police to pretend they don't know what's going on and can simply enter and ensure the law is obeyed.
Prostitution works according to a similar idea: all prostitutes in the Netherlands are technically classified as independent entrepreneurs, in order to prevent exploitation and human trafficking. I know far fewer details here than about drug policy, but I do know this. Is it perfect? No, unfortunately not, there's still a lot of crime going on there. But is it a better system than most other countries use - declare it illegal, pretend the problem doesn't exist and end up not even knowing how big the problem is in the first place, or being able to do much about it (because the police can't get involved without arresting everyone alike)? Yes, it really is.
The clogs and the windmills are just a tourist attraction. Yes, once upon a time we actually used them, but nowadays 99.all% of Dutch adults do not own a pair of clogs (I say adults, because some people think it's cute to give a pair of clogs to babies and small children). Especially the windmills are in fact an important part of our history though; they were used to drain the water out of lakes, creating "polders" (land reclaimed from the water). We still need to keep our polders dry of course, but today we simply use electric pumps.
If you're looking for a more realistic symbol of the Netherlands, I propose the bike!
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