Will you participate in the national brainstorm for possibility of reform

18 comments

1. I believe it is actually only open for 6 weeks (June 5th).

   Despite some of the sour reactions, I think this is actually a pretty positive initiative. In the past 50 years, very major decisions in Belgium have been taken by parties without much dialogue with the people. Even if you believe that this is the way forward and that people aren’t capable of making conscious decisions like this, opening a dialogue is beneficial enough to make people interested in our democracy instead of the complete apathy we have now. Most countries nowadays have such a survey/opinion platform with a treshold above which it has to be discussed in parliament, and they are all received very well.

   That said, I wish they had actually included a proper survey instead of letting everyone write entire essays for every question. They say the answers will be bundled through ‘semantic analysis’ (i.e. NLP and some data mining), but I doubt this will give a very conclusive insight in what people think. I filled in some of the important questions but doing it properly would probably take me hours.

   But I guess they purposely didn’t include specific questions because NVA and VB freaked out that people would likely be in support of a return to a unitary Belgium:

   >Het idee dat een staatshervorming even mogelijk een overheveling van regionaal naar federaal kan betekenen is taboe. Daar hoort de burger niet over ondervraagd te worden. De burger hoort niet te weten dat die mogelijkheid bestaat. ([source](https://www.dewereldmorgen.be/artikel/2021/09/08/waarom-de-n-va-groot-gelijk-heeft-om-te-panikeren-voor-een-burgerbevraging-over-de-belgische-staatsstructuur/))

2. The state asks your input.

   It does not do that all that many times.

   You generally mope and complain and feel not listened to. Mostly, you’re right.

   Now that you’re being challenged for input, don’t go whining about how it’s bullshit or it doesn’t work or any other excuse you can produce. Go there, make suggestions.

   I once wrote Bart De Wever, for the first world-record of the government formation and I showed him a picture of the 5th Solvay Convention in Brussels in 1927, a picture that showed the highest concentration of IQ per square meter on planet Earth that day. “What great project are we engaging in that is on this level?”

   The answer I got back, and I was amazed that I even got an answer back, was that this conference most assuredly had taken place in French… I shit you not, that was the answer.

   Go to the web site, make suggestions. It’s incumbent on us to try and help make this a better country for all of us.

3. [deleted]

4. Wasn’t aware of this, will go all in.
   If there’s a suggestion box, be prepared for dictator /u/MrPollyParrot

5. Hadn’t heard of it yet. I’ll have to look into it.

6. As if they care

7. You have to log in using eID / tokens, so participation is definitely not anonymous.

   If they want my opinion, they can get it through an anonymous referendum ballot.

8. After using ItsMe to log in 3 times to answer I’m done for now.

   Each time it ends up bringing me back to main screen and when I choose a theme, I have to log in, which brings me back to main screen,…

   I’m unable to participate.

   Edit: Fixed now, I was able to participate.

9. Edit: I took another look at the website and deem my comment no longer valid.

10. THey should communicate more about it

11. I think the premise is amazing and the whiny response by nva shows exactly why they came up with it in the first place: take away their power of confederalisme.
    Confederalisme is still their goal so if you can pole and possibly change the public perception on this topic you take away their power.

12. If “brainstorming” means the same thing here as it means at work, then the following will happen:

    1. They ask for the opinions of the plebs.
    2. The government (i.e. the management in companies) highlight some nice and uncontroversial ideas, and explain from their ivory tower perspective why those ideas are not feasible.
    3. They proceed to implement the ideas that they already had from the start, and none of the plebs’ ideas are ever actually followed up on.
    4. A couple of people from the plebs will be publicly praised for providing “great ideas”. Those ideas are the ones that the elite were already planning to implement from the get-go; this is just their way of giving the plebs credit.

    This thing tends to be nothing but window dressing. Sad thing is, people know very well when they are not being listened to, so a brainstorming session can actually make people feel even more alienated from their management/government than they already are.

    I’d be more than happy to be pleasantly surprised though.

13. Commenting to check later.

14. I don’t see the point, when we can’t give any input on matters that are actually important. Seems like a waste of money to me

15. Already participated but the way your opinion is requested makes it feel like there’s no way to work with the input.

16. I think it’s funny how Flanders managed to annex Jette and Koekelberg if you look at the silhouettes. Did nobody realize that when they were creating art for the survey?

17. These questions are above my paygrade. I’m disabled and just trying to get through the day and I’m not even managing that. Just had a seizure at the physiotherapist. The second one today. I don’t have any energy left to even think about what to eat. My entire week has been nothing but doctors appointments and treatment. So I’m gonna leave the more high level thinking to other people. Please excuse me that I don’t have the energy for this.

18. Just make brussels independent. Tired of flemish and waloon politician who never lived here decide about the place. Let them deal with the circus they call belgian politics. Brussels should govern itself and be deserving to be called the capital of europe.