Talk:Municipalities with language facilities

message: I do think there's a lot of bias on those wiki pages and I'd lack to see less Flemish propaganda. However, I do not have enough time to take part to the editing of the pages. Is there anyway to alert a moderator? I think on such controversial/debated subjects as the linguistic and regional "problems" in Belgium, there's much need for a neutral moderator to overview the wiki pages. It is worth noting that the majority of contributors to wiki Belgium seem to be from the Flemish part of the country. The clear lack of neutrality comes, for example, in listing in this section (Municipalities with language facilities) a whole lot of the negative aspects of the "Actual implementation of language facilities" on the French-speaking side, without putting it into context at all ("In terms of local public services and communication, it seems that the Flemish municipalities with facilities have a correct bilingual communication", while "some Walloon municipalities with facilities appear monolingual in their general communication towards their inhabitants": it would be worth mentioning that some of those great Flemish municipalities which are so nicely multi-lingual are just on the outskirt of a multi-cultural capital with above 70% of French speakers and a good deal of other nationalities, the case of the monolingual Walloon municipalities being maybe a bit different). Even statements of facts can be very manipulative when they come out of context, and this is what propaganda can be all about!
Then there are simple wrong statements, with no referencing, such as "It is, however, worth noting that Le Soir (a French-language local Brussels newspaper) supports the demands of the militant Front des Francophones, as many of its editors live in the municipalities with facilities." The statement that Le Soir is a local Brussels newspaper is simply completely wrong, and nothing in this sentence is backed up by facts. Moreover, this sentence brings nothing to the wiki page but yet more Flemish bias.
I pointed this out, but there would be much more to discuss about. I do honestly think some of the wiki pages about Belgium lack greatly in quality simply because people cannot stay neutral and no one seems to be moderating the subject with care. A pity. Manoni (talk) 13:02, 25 November 2008 (UTC)
replies: text: about the lack of neutrality: I do not think there is lack of neutrality on this page. Honestly, this page (or wikipedia in general) can be quite different than what is read in international newspapers on these topics, but I think the bias is in those newspapers, not here. Remeber that the international reporters in Brussels tend to only follow the French as most of them are only fluent in French. 84.195.182.23 (talk) 18:14, 20 April 2010 (UTC)

text: Please, 81.88.110.49, if you're going to insult someone, don't hide behind an IP address; and BTW, your English isn't good enough to have spotted the incorrect modifier in the title.Laburke (talk) 02:06, 3 September 2010 (UTC)
thread_title:  Lack of neutrality 

message: I wonder whether the title "Municipalities in Wallonia belonging to the German speaking community with French-language facilities" shouldn't be replaced by "Municipalities in Wallonia belonging to the German language region with French-language facilities" ("German language region" comes from Art.4 of the Belgian Constitution: in Dutch "België omvat vier taalgebieden : het Nederlandse taalgebied, het Franse taalgebied, het tweetalige gebied Brussel-Hoofdstad en het Duitse taalgebied." or in French "La Belgique comprend quatre régions linguistiques : la région de langue française, la région de langue néerlandaise, la région bilingue de Bruxelles-Capitale et la région de langue allemande.") ??? -- Edcolins 17:46, 3 May 2004 (UTC)
replies: text: I think that would indeed be better, so no problem at all for me if changed. D.D. 20:28, 4 May 2004 (UTC)
replies: text:  That might be confusing.  te Belgian constitution has two different concepts: regions as one of the instituional levels (3) and linguistic areas (4 such areas). In the French version of the constitution, the same word is used for both (région), while the Ducth has two different words (gewesten (3) and 'taalgebieden', where the word 'taalgebied' translates in English in 'linguitic areas' or something like that. the word gebied translating in 'area', 'region' and 'territories'.
Moreover, as of today, altough many german-speakers (including theur minister-president) would like to obtain the regional institutions  (and thus seperate from Wallonia), maybe  using German language area  or German language territory  is more precise.  Just an idea.   --Rudi Dierick 14:55, 5 Dec 2004 (UTC)
replies: text:  Belgium is divided in 3 regions (Brussels, Flanders and Wallonia) and 3 communities (German speaking, French speaking and Dutch speaking).Julien Tuerlinckx 00:22, 12 Feb 2005 (UTC)
thread_title:  German speaking community vs German language region 

message: Karel Anthonissen replaced 'Their official denomination is 'municipalities with a special status'.' by 'They are so-called 'municipalities with a special status'.' I don't understand why: this is the official denomination, the expression "communes à facilités" does not exist in legal texts.
There are several official denominations: 'communes dotées d'un régime spécial en vue de la protection de leurs minorités' (communes that have been given a special regime in view of the protection of their minorities) or 'communes à régime spécial', divided into 2 categories, 'communes périphériques' (around Brussels) and 'communes de la frontière linguistique' (see: '18 JUILLET 1966. - Lois sur l'emploi des langues en matière administrative'). The other original law on this matter ('30 JUILLET 1963. - Loi concernant le régime linguistique dans l'enseignement') also refers to 'communes dotées d'un régime spécial en vue de la protection de leurs minorités'. For the rest, his modifications indeed neutralize the previous excesses of a Flemish nationalist, 'Rudi Dierick', about whom I think it would be wise to look at all his modifications on wikipedia, he seems obsessed by his Flemish nationalism and by his opposition against Turkey becoming a EU member, and his 'contributions' are mostly non-neutral. --Pylambert 10:58, 7 August 2005 (UTC)
replies: text: Thank you for your observation. I can answer your question: the only reason for that particular change was that http://www.juridat.be/cgi_loi/legislation.pl only gives general acces to Belgian legislation, which is of no direct use to readers. It is nevertheless possible to make a more concrete link, for example the Law of July 18, 1966:  in Dutch or in French.  But even these are not very usefull to English readers.  Karel Anthonissen 14:46, 17 March 2006 (UTC)
thread_title:  official denomination 

message: Some of the English language here needs to be cleaned-up by a native speaker.  —Preceding unsigned comment added by 80.189.103.145 (talk) 10:00, 31 May 2010 (UTC)
thread_title: remadiate about the boycot

message: Please, I beg of you, don't use the English Wikipedia to play out your internecine squabbles. Also, you might rate the importance of this article as being high, but do you really want the rest of the world to know how high you rate an article such as this? Ah, but perhaps they should know.  By the way, a native English speaker might get a laugh out of the title. It's akin to saying, Cities with toilet facilities. The usual meanings of facility do not have the same connotation as facilité nor faciliteit. I suggest, Belgian cities with a choice of language, if you insist on even having this article. Affectionately,Laburke (talk) 01:50, 3 September 2010 (UTC)
thread_title:  Stop it, Belgians!!! 

message: I've removed an old neutrality tag from this page that appears to have no active discussion per the instructions at Template:POV:
::This template is not meant to be a permanent resident on any article. Remove this template whenever:
::#There is consensus on the talkpage or the NPOV Noticeboard that the issue has been resolved
::#It is not clear what the neutrality issue is, and no satisfactory explanation has been given
::#In the absence of any discussion, or if the discussion has become dormant.
Since there's no evidence of ongoing discussion, I'm removing the tag for now. If discussion is continuing and I've failed to see it, however, please feel free to restore the template and continue to address the issues. Thanks to everybody working on this one! -- Khazar2 (talk) 01:51, 22 June 2013 (UTC)
thread_title:  removing POV tag with no active discussion per [[Template:POV]] 

message: This article seems to imply that language facilities is simply the easing up on language restrictions. As in 'the official language of Mouscron is French, but since it's a municipality with language facilities the Walloon government and the city council can't say that only French can be used.'
This is a wrong depiction of the facts. In municipalities with language facilities the municipality is obligated to provide certain services to the designated linguistic group.--Wester (talk) 13:24, 13 March 2014 (UTC)
thread_title:  easing up on language restrictions? 

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thread_title:  External links modified