Flanders Declares Independence from Belgium

In the northern part of Belgium, Flanders, folks speak Dutch which they call Flemish. Confusing? It gets worse. They have long had an open conflict with the Walloons of southern Belgium. The Walloons speak French. Okay, so we have Walloons fighting the Flemish who really are French and Dutch. Well, not exactly. Anyway, that's a simplification of it.

This week Belgian TV ran a "mockumentary" saying that Flanders had become independent. They had real politicians and real journalists reporting like it had really happened - a lot like "War of the Worlds" by Orson Welles. Cool! That would be like a TV show reporting that Florida had declared independence, because it has a Hispanic majority in the southern part of the state. Or, that South Louisiana had declared independence to form the New Acadian Republic.