Famous Belgians - a parlour game

This was a ‘parlour game’ we played (on a train) years ago – but back to that later.

This month the Brussels Bulleting celebrated its fiftieth anniversary as an English language newspaper in Brussels.  Actually the celebrations were premature – it stopped doing a printed version several months ago (my subscription was refunded) but every so often they produce a special print issue. So this month, to celebrate their fiftieth anniversary, they produced a special issue – which included a list of Belgium’s fifty most famous people (as  per the number of hits in a selected number of foreign news media).  Top of the list were Kim Clijsters and Justine Henin (two female tennis players), third was Jacques Rogge (Chairman of the International Olympic Committee).  Elsewhere in the top ten were four fashion designers (I recognise none of their names), Jacques Brel (they didn’t specify living Belgians), Herman van Rompuy (the President of the European Council) and the Dardenne Brothers (film directors, whose names - as a self proclaimed film buff - I am embarassed not to recognise).  So I would have got four out of ten.

A few years ago I played this game with a British friend travelling on a train from Brussels to Luxembourg. In that (two hour or so) journey we arrived at about five: Plastic Bertrand (we are both of that generation and he was in the BB's top fifty), Eddie Merckx and Hergé  - author of Tin Tin - (both in the top fifty), Jacques Brel (though neither of us could sing one of his songs) and Magritte (curiously not in today’s top 50 listings).  We were both quite embarrassed by this - as we prided ourselves on being internationalists, yet could only name a few famous people from a neighbouring country.  Jacques Brel and Eddie Merckx have tube/tram stops named after them. Sadly not Hergé  or Magritte (though Magritte has his own museum in the centre of the city ). As for Bertrand- well a young Belgian friend said 'if he had his own metro stop the commuters might be obliged to listen that bloody song, morning and night'. Fair do's - the novelty does wear off after a (short) while.  

 

So here’s a little parlour game – in three rounds (they get harder).  It is best played on long journeys

How many famous French, Spanish, Germans and Italians can you name?  (I hope you can make 10-15 within the hour – unless you have a close link with any of those countries- in which case double it). When I tried this the French 'won' and the Spanish came last

How many Swedes, Dutch, Danes, Portugese, Czechs and Poles can you name? (If you get to five you’re doing quite well).

Round three- how many Finns, Romanians, Estonians, Latvians, Lithuanians, Bulgarians, Slovakians, Slovenians or Maltese can you name (more than two – under the same rules - and my hat off to you!).
Finns aside (I used to be a big athletics fan whne they were good) I can't name anyone from these countries.  Shame on me!

 
Ok  I haven’t covered the entire EU – but my point is clear – we still know so little about each other's  cultures. It's interesting to see which countries pack the 'highest cultural muscle' (proportionate to their size, population etc...). Still so much to learn.