Ionarts ♥ Belgium

The modern country of Belgium was founded 175 years ago this year. To celebrate the anniversary, the newspaper La Libre Belgique is sponsoring a photography contest, to determine the 20 photos "best illustrating Belgium." Any frame format, color or black/white, but "no photoshopping," please. Entries must be received by May 4 (at lalibre@saipm.com), and the prizes will be awarded in the newspaper's May 11 edition. I'll update you then.

There is an interesting article on this Belgian anniversary (Belgium celebrates with a feeling the party's over, March 12) by David Rennie in The Telegraph, which you also might want to read:

Belgium is 175 years old this year, and it is throwing itself a birthday party in the form of a 12-month festival of national pride [called, strangely, Made in Belgium]. To outsiders, 175 might seem an odd anniversary. Not to Belgians. As the country's French and Dutch speaking regions feud, many Belgians fear that their country will not exist in a few decades. Belgium might not be around for its 200th birthday.

Will Belgium split into two new countries of Wallonia and Flanders? And where would the German speakers end up? Is there enough of a shared national identity to keep that from happening? Only time will tell.