No, there is no such right. We have checked into it. There is nothing about the French language essential to your humanity, therefore it cannot be claimed as a necessary complement of humanity. Perhaps like you, many of us maintain our humanity intact without the benefit of French. All of which is a cockeyed lead-in to the below report.

BELGIAN TOWN BANS SCHOOL FRENCH

September 1, 2006 (BBC) - [The mayor of Merchtem, Belgium] Eddie de Block said the ban, introduced on Monday, would help all non-Dutch speakers integrate in the Flemish town near Brussels.

"What we want is to teach children to speak Dutch," Mr de Block told the BBC News website.

"It's not a great problem," he said, adding that only about 8% of some 1,400 pupils in the town's four schools spoke languages other than Dutch.

The mayor dismissed suggestions that the ban violated human rights, saying the schools were being funded by Flemish communities who were responsible for safeguarding the Dutch language.

No one believes French is a human right. But someone apparently considers a citizen's preferred tongue, whatever it is, to be an exertable right on the community. This sounds innocent enough -- except that behind this pretty principle is an enormous imposition of bilingual regulations, oversights, costs, and public materials such as duplicative paperwork for regulations, compliance, budgets, and requisitions. Now multiply that by the number of variant tongues in cacophonous Europa and not only the costs but the practicality of the principle becomes overwhelming. Imagine three or four or twenty signs (the number of officially recognized EU languages) for a street name.

Belgian communities agglutinate by language, a common cultural practice. When there is a migration from one into another, there is friction.

Many French speakers have been moving into the Dutch-speaking suburbs in the last few years - and the Flemish parties are determined not to lose control.

"It bothers me as a Flemish person that people who come and live here don't want to adapt," says an elderly resident of the town of Vilvoorde. "Immigrants have to learn our language, but the French don't. What does that tell you?"

Cultures survive when they thrive. For French as a cultural appurtenance to survive, France, the Francophonie -- the things for which French is essential to success -- must thrive.

Spent cultures cannot extend themselves into perpetuity by fiat. Dutch and French in Merchtem will succeed or fail on their contributions to the weal and not ginned-up municipal ordinances or fabulous rights.

PFFT (What is this?): Life, liberty, and estate 5 | And French 0 | Rayonnement français 0

I just can't grasp the Belgian identity. Were I to live in a bilingual country, it'd bother me a lot not speaking both languages - and I actually lived in such a country. That you'd find so many people arguing in order not to have to learn the other language tells a lot about how loose their national identity is. Sad indeed.

Bonjour,

Tout le monde sait en Europe que le destin prochain de la Wallonie est d' intégrer la France ( suivant le désir du mouvement dit RATACHISTE ).
Les persécutions flamandes sont de plus en plus intolérables aux Belges francophones...
La France sera alors plus grande et plus forte !
C' est bien ce que vous voulez , chers amis de Pave ?

Good luck to your contry in Irak , dear Milton !!!!

M. Goldsoundz,

A hotly debated question in Belgium today is, what's the point of Belgium? What indeed when regional autonomy appears to be a prelude to regional secession.

M. AB/AY,

Ah, yes. But will a bigger France be a greater France?

Regards all,
DGB

Bonjour,

Pour le Texas cela ne marche pas , en effet le "Texas is bigger than France" n' empêche pas le Texas d' accoucher d' une suite d' abrutis finis...

Mais justement la France n 'est pas le Texas...

Good luck to your country in Irak , dear Milton !!