Can someone explain this to me? I saw these postcards in multiple places in Brussels today and I don’t understand the point. Is there some historical or cultural component I’m missing here? I know the US helped Belgium a lot after World War I, but honestly I still don’t get it. So thanks.
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Just random, probably for American tourists without taste for nice things.
Tourist thing to buy
While unrelated to the picture in question, it’s interesting that the phrase is used because there was a “United States of Belgium” or “United Belgian States” in the past.
It was a short lived republic in 1790 as part of an unsuccessful revolt against Joseph II of the Habsburg dynasty.
The more you know
The flag is upside down, which means they are in distress.
It’s probably from or derived from a brand: bshirt.rocks
They recreate clothes by adding a touch of humor and switching famous sayings around: back to the friture, god bless Belgium,…
This is brilliant: It can either be seen as a sign of resistance against the division of the country (flemish vs wallons) or as its contrary (confederalism, a little more like in the usa/Switzerland). This is an excellent piece of self criticism as well (very Belgian type of humor). The upside down flag also shows that there’s a problem. Very clever!
Edit : I found who’s behind this… Bshirt (a Belgian pride t-shirt company) : https://www.facebook.com/marketplace/item/3936056423184352/?ref=mini_shop_storefront&_rdr
Well if you look really close. But really really close. You can notice it’s a crappy design and a crappy idea.
This is unrelated but whenever I Google the consulate I type “Belgium in the USA” because thats the diplomatic missions web handle and google always suggests “is Belgium in the USA” which I think is funny