How Belgians Agree to Differ - NYTimes.com
▻http://www.nytimes.com/2014/05/19/opinion/how-belgians-agree-to-differ.html?smid=tw-share&_r=0
One characteristic that both Flemings and Walloons share is a penchant for striking “Belgian compromises,” a form of settlement by which all sides concede something in return for something else, creating a complex web of gains and losses in which there is neither victor nor vanquished. Although this political art form has enjoyed less success in recent years, it has ensured that this conflict of more than a century has never erupted into violence. Come Election Day, this Belgian, for one, will use his ballot not only as a small squirt of glue to help hold Belgium together, but also as a vote of confidence in its multicultural future and capacity for tolerance.