This year Belgium is celebrating its 175th year. It has a population of 10.3 million and is slightly bigger than Wales.
Through consititutional reforms from 1970 to 1993, Belgium has become a federal state. There are 3 regions - Flanders, Wallonia and Brussels. Flanders, in the north, is Dutch-speaking and has about 58% of the population. Brussels is near the centre of the country, but entirely surrounded by Flanders. Officially it is bi-lingual but in practice most of the population speak French. 9% of the population live here. Wallonia, in the south, has the remaining 33% of the population. It is mainly French-speaking, but one province includes Belgium's third official language group - the German speakers, who make up about 0.007% of the total population. Flanders and Wallonia have 5 provinces each. (The Flemish provinces are West Flanders, East Flanders, Antwerp, Limburg and Flemish Brabant. The Walloon provinces are Liège, Luxembourg - not the country, Namur, Hainaut and Walloon Brabant.)
The names of many of the cities are different in French and Dutch. I remember one time setting out for Wallonia in the Transit van. We had directions which had been written out by a Dutch colleague. Somewhere around Brussels we got completely lost when all the signs for Liège disappeared. It was sometime later that we discovered Luik, which was on the boards, was the Flemish name for the same place.
It has been said that Belgium has only 2 problems - the Flemish and the Walloons. Many people believe that the country is well on its way to disintegration. The autonomy of the 2 parts is increasing and there are no longer any national political parties. Some say that the problem of what to do about Brussels is the only reason that separation has not happened already.
There are jokes about the only famous Belgian being fictional - a bald-headed detective. In fact this is not true. Many famous artists were from Belgium or the area that is now Belgium - they include Rubens, van Dyck, van Eyck, Brueghel, Magritte and Delvaux. Other famous Belgians include Hergé, Mercator, Eddy Merckx, Georges Simenon and Victor Horta. Marc Dutroux also has a certain infamy.