My Name Is Jasper

Come Join The Murder

I walk among the children of my fathers

The broken wings, betrayal's cost

They call to me but never touch my heart now

I am too far, and I'm too lost

So now I curse that raven's fire

You made me hate, you made me burn

He laughed aloud as he flew from Eden

You always knew, you never learn

Come Join The Murder – Kurt Sutter (286)

The Belgian flag is hanging lifeless from it's post in the Brussels airport. It is flanked by the European one, which shows the same lack of energy. Once a proud banner of European unity, now looks bleak. Has the light gone out of the stars covering its blue cloth? Have financial struggles for some of its member states drained its power? Is it sad about the polarized reaction to the waves of African and Middle-Eastern refugees hitting its southern shores?

Maybe it just because there is no wind inside this building. This very busy building. Brussels Airport is a European hub, and it is 2 days before Christmas eve. Thousands of people are either starting their trip home, or arriving. Julie and I are doing both at the same time I guess. For the second time in three years, she's accompanying me home to celebrate the holidays.

As we are waiting for our luggage to arrive on the carousel, I take another look at the Belgian Tricolour, or Brabant Tricolour as we Belgians would say.

"You know, that flag is technically hanging in the wrong direction." I tell Julie, trying to kill some time. What is taking so long? "Really?" Tired from the overnight flight, Julie is feigning interest to make me happy. She knows well enough I'm about to drop some trivia overkill on her. What a trooper, I should let her off easy. "According to our constitution the colors should be the other ay around. But we've done it 'wrong' since forever... I hope our bags arrive soon."

For those of you unaware what the Belgian Tricolour looks like: our flag has 3 horizontal stripes, similar to the French or Italian flags, that are black, yellow, and red. The three colors from the Coat of Arms of the Duchy of Brabant. However, in our constitution it is written that "The Belgian Nation choses as colours red, yellow, and black." (287)

You see the thing is, when we revolted against the Dutch in 1830, Belgian revolutionaries flew a flag that was inspired by the flag of the Brabant Revolution in 1789, when modern-day Belgium was occupied by the Austrians of the Habsburg Empire. Three horizontal stripes: Red on top, yellow in the middle, black in the bottom. However, eager to distance ourselves even more from the Netherlands (whose flag is red on top, white in the middle and blue below), by the end of the revolution the flag was turned by a quarter, creating the vertical stripes. (288)

Around the same time, people decided that for esthetical reasons, the darkest colour should be closest to the flag pole. No one ever made the effort to change the constitutions for it, so technically every Belgian flag you see is wrong...

Both armed insurrections, the first that created the very short-lived United States of Belgium in 1789, and the latter that created the Kingdom of Belgium in 1830, were the result of the treatment of Belgians as second class citizens, and progressive reforms that limited the power of the church and nobility. In both cases the powerful classes were able to fuel the grudge of the common people against the foreign oppressor, and as a result, stay in control. A number of prominent enlightened Belgians, like the founder of my Alma Mater Pierre-Théodore Verhaeghen, were so-called Orangists, people that supported the more liberal policies of the King of the Netherlands, William I Prince of Orange-Nassau.