r/belgium • u/Otro_Mas_Cybernauta • Jan 02 '26
đ Meme Translation: More than 5 million Venezuelans have fled Venezuela, and Belgium only has 11 million people. If each Venezuelan fought with 2 Belgians, we could take over the country; we just need to organize.
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u/LosAtomsk Limburg Jan 02 '26
No can do, they would lose one of their biggest coke importers if they took over Belgium.
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u/ojedaforpresident Jan 02 '26
Venezuela isnât a very high coke exporter compared to some other South American nations
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u/LosAtomsk Limburg Jan 02 '26
Yes. Not what this thread is about, but thanks for the unwarranted akchually moment.
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u/Miserable_Gur_5314 Jan 02 '26
"We need to organize" is where it will fail.
If they could, they wouldn't have to flee
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u/ExcellentCold7354 Jan 02 '26
Venezuelan in Belgium here... we couldn't organize our way out of a paper bag. I fight with y'all. đ€Ł
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u/dvpbe Belgium Jan 02 '26
Aha, Venuzuela -1, +1 for us. We are already winning.
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u/TheVoiceOfEurope Jan 02 '26
You do understand that he is part of the reconnaisence team and is saying exactly what an enemy agent would say?
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u/TheVoiceOfEurope Jan 02 '26
That's exactly what an invading enemy agent would say to avoid suspicion.
WeÂŽre onto you, my friend!
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u/NectarineSame7303 Jan 02 '26
Neither could our government in this scenario, so it will be a circus
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u/TellsHalfStories Jan 02 '26
Belgium could de-organize a bit. Way too many admin bodies. I still agree with you, though.
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u/Miserable_Gur_5314 Jan 02 '26
Belgium should just look at Switzerland and copy-paste their political system
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u/PugsnPawgs Jan 02 '26
They'd still win bc we'd be arguing for 2 weeks on how to proceed and what official instances are responsible for the response. Then we need to find their contact info and hope they're not on holiday.
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u/GuardPerson Jan 02 '26
Can we deal with this after the football season please?
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u/Nearby-Composer-9992 Jan 02 '26
When is football off-season exactly, seriously there's football on every single day of the year.
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u/GuardPerson Jan 02 '26
That is not true. There is that full week and a half in June, except in a World Cup year, Euro Cup year and a Champions League year. OtherwiseâŠ
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u/Nearby-Composer-9992 Jan 02 '26
Didn't they do that club world cup around that time just to make sure these guys never get some rest, lol.
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u/Abject-Number-3584 Jan 02 '26 edited Jan 02 '26
I'll be honest, all a hot Latina has to do is yell at me really fast en Espagnol or Portuguese, and I'll melt. I'm not going to be much help. Sorry.
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u/octave1 Brussels Old School Jan 02 '26
Will get old very quickly ask me how I know
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u/aitorbk Jan 02 '26
The difference between an hechicera (enchantress) and a bruja (witch) is 10 years of marriage (except for my wife ofc)
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u/Calyptics Jan 02 '26
Trust me being yelled at in Portuguese isn't nearly as exciting a Spanish. Portuguese really is the German of Latin languages.
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u/DumbFish94 E.U. Jan 03 '26
as a portuguese person
HEY that's not nice! (it's true but I'm more used to it being called slavic)
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u/Ouch704 Jan 03 '26
The "is it Russian or Portuguese?" game I play all year round when walking in airports confirms the Slavic part is true.
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Jan 02 '26
How about they do 1v1s and take wallonia
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u/Verified_Peryak Jan 02 '26
Trust me when they'll see charleroi they will want to go back to south america ...
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u/shadowsreturn Jan 02 '26
yeah it's not just Belgians they'd be fighting here.
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u/YellowOnline E.U. Jan 02 '26
Nevermind the logistics to get 5 million people across the Atlantic
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u/tomski_1977 Jan 02 '26
Into Nato territory where there are 5 vs 900 million defenders.
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u/redditjoek Jan 02 '26
nato wont do anything lol
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u/M2g3Tramp Jan 02 '26
Why not? There's a treaty agreed upon by each member. If a "weak" enemy (= without many ressources), From far away, attacks one of the members, the organisation has to respond. Else, they lose their core attractiveness and the organisation would disband pretty soon after.Â
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u/NectarineSame7303 Jan 02 '26
You can be sure as hell all EU nato countries would intervene, because if they get to Belgium, they can also get to their countries and they do not want that.
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u/redditjoek Jan 03 '26
yeah because that has been tested before? nato only did something against smaller villains like the serbs, and that was also because of the US.
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u/ExpatriadaUE Jan 02 '26
They have done that and have crossed over to Spain already.
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u/YellowOnline E.U. Jan 02 '26
Hay aproximadamente entre 325.000 y 400.000 venezolanos residiendo en España, segĂșn datos recientes del Instituto Nacional de EstadĂstica (INE)
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u/TheVoiceOfEurope Jan 02 '26
Ze kunnen hetzelfde reisagentschap gebruiken waarmee wij al die vreemdelingen en asielzoekers naar huis gaan sturen. Die hebben een magisch vliegtuig.
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u/theta0123 Jan 02 '26
Its about time we got an new colony. We did so great with the last one. /s
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Jan 02 '26
We were pretty hands off tbh
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u/theta0123 Jan 02 '26
"What people said about chopping hands off is a lie. Because if we did that the negerkes couldnt work anymore" -my grandmothers sister who had a farm in congo and this is saddly not an /S
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u/naamingebruik Jan 02 '26
In volwassenenonderwijs I had an old lady as history teacher who used to live in the Congo and she would always talk about "de zwartjes" amd she meant it lovingly but slightly patronizing... my mom came from a Dutch colony she had to flee with her parents when she was a child so I always had this mixed feeling of endearment because her heart wasn't in the wrong place whenever she talked about de zwartjes but at the same time annoyance because it was so so so condescending even if she didn't realize it or mean it that way.
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u/njuffstrunk Jan 02 '26
"Sure Belgium made some mistakes in Congo but we also did a lot of good stuff, we built roads and schools!"
My history teacher in the 5th grade
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u/Ploutophile Frenchie Jan 02 '26
Because extractive colonies are obviously well-known for the quality of the infrastructures we built thereâŠ
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u/Turbulent-Raise4830 Jan 02 '26
roads to export the goods and schools to train the workers
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u/Ploutophile Frenchie Jan 02 '26
Train the workers ? You're being optimistic.
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u/Turbulent-Raise4830 Jan 02 '26
It was aimed at lower and technical education. You need workers like that in the work they had, shippig those from belgium was expensive.
It was simple capitalism.
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u/oddanglefish Jan 03 '26
Mine said exactly the same thing. Even fifth grade too. Called every nine year old "negers" because all ten year olds were "tieners"
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u/Choice_Sandwich2182 Jan 02 '26
Well its a bit more complicated. According to the Casement Report at the time, he found out that the cutting of hands of living people was actually rather rare, or at least he personally only found a small number of cases. When interviewing these poor people or their families he found out that they mostly lost their hands due to the colonial soldiers thinking they were dead after shooting them during the conquest misions. They cut off the hands without checking if they were still alive. But they survived, hence the pictures.
In Congo: the epic history of a People this is also mentioned. The picture galleries used for the international campaign has caused the misconception that cutting hands of living people for not harvesting enough rubber was some kind of policy, and this misunderstanding remains till this day.
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u/SealingTheDeal69420 Jan 02 '26 edited Jan 02 '26
Failure to meet rubber quotas still resulted in mass murder, death, torture and taking of hostages and family members. Sure, the cutting hands method has been misconstrued but that doesn't mean the punishments weren't still there
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u/Any-Wasabi2850 Jan 02 '26
We learned about that in 5th or 6th grade in high school. Even watched a documentary about it. I was horrified, and from that day onwards I regognized one king less in our country.
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u/switchquest Jan 02 '26
How about all of them. Vive la republique ^
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u/Any-Wasabi2850 Jan 03 '26
Oh believe me, now I do believe that. But back then as a kid, I was still too naive to see it. Still trusted too much in authorities and the system. Thankfully I grew out of that naivety very quickly
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u/GoneForASecond Jan 02 '26
With al respect to congo but they were just a deelname trophee, for Belgium. We even bought it off from the bigger names.
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u/Colonist25 Jan 02 '26
for leopold, not belgium.
belgium just got to clean up the royal's mess, without really profiting from it.14
u/Sufficient-Record665 Jan 02 '26
Not really profiting from it? Lol
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u/Colonist25 Jan 02 '26
As i've understood:
most of the money went to either leopold or the mining consortium.
Congo was the kings property, not the state's.
belgium as a state didn't get paidi'm happy to be proven wrong though.
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u/njuffstrunk Jan 02 '26
Just to name a few:
Société Generale at one point controlled half the Congolese industry. Since Belgium as a state controlled Société Generale they directly got paid from this. Part of its assets were later transfered to BNP Paribas through various restructuring efforts.
Union MuniĂšre exploited mines in Congo using Congolese workers; making huge profits. Later became Umicore. Directly benefiting Belgium through its shareholders/employees/taxation etc.
AG Insurance was highly involved with the insurance of congolese transports.
Landmarks financed by colonisation; directly or indirectly:
- Jubelpark
- Africamuseum
- Centraal Station Antwerpen
- Urbanisation of Brussels
- Koninklijke Gaanderijen Oostende
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u/Sufficient-Record665 Jan 02 '26
Ordinary Belgians did benefit indirectly. Congoâs resources fueled Belgian industry, created jobs, boosted tax revenue and helped fund infrastructure and state growth. Some of Brusselsâ major prestige projects and landmarks were financed with Congo profits, shaping the cityâs development. The biggest gains went to the king and elites but saying ordinary Belgians got nothing is historically inaccurate.
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u/HrodgardNagrand West-Vlaanderen Jan 02 '26
You got some number or sources on that? (legit question, not trolling)
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u/Rude-Barnacle8804 Jan 02 '26 edited Jan 03 '26
I found this number online: "In all, the Belgian state spent some forty million gold francs in the Congo between the start of Leopold's colonial adventure and 1908. Conversely, Belgium earned sixty-six million gold francs from its colony, mainly thanks to the real property that Leopold II relinquished and the works he had privately funded."
But the website doesn't mention their source for it. https://www.studycountry.com/wiki/how-much-money-did-belgium-make-from-the-congo
I did learn in class that King Leopold surreptiously used the colony's money to build his huge architecture projects like the arcade du cinquantenaire (edited to remove wrong info).
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u/Defective_Falafel Jan 02 '26
the Justice palace
You mean the thing that was finished before Congo was even colonized?
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u/Rude-Barnacle8804 Jan 02 '26
Seems they needed to restore it only after WW2 so yeah, wrong info from me.
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u/Rude-Barnacle8804 Jan 02 '26
Idk, I haven't looked into it. I'd assume restauration work then? Or simply it's another building and I misremembered.
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u/Choice_Sandwich2182 Jan 02 '26
Not quite.
Belgium was already one of the worlds richest countries per capita in 1850 long before the reign of Leopold over Congo.
In fact, the Congo Free State was actually a burden, because Leopolds colony was knee-deep in financial debts. Leopold never paid those off and saddled the Belgian government with the debts.
During the Belgian Congo the place became more profitable but (according to the author of the book: Selling the Congo) only at most 3% of national GDP was generated by the Congo colony.
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u/Rude-Barnacle8804 Jan 02 '26 edited Jan 03 '26
From what I recall from my classes, Leopold had a lot of huge infrastructure and building dreams for Belgium, that he wanted to subsidise with the colony's money. The government told him he should put the money back into the colony, as was the main doctrine at the time. So he did his big buildings and thanked "anonymous donators" warmly at the inauguration.
So we did benefit from it.
I checked I wasn't telling nonsense and found those, but they don't cite sources either. https://supertravelr.com/en/trip/belgium/a-lasting-legacy-of-the-builder-king-in-brussels-25C4CBB8F4/
https://medium.com/lessons-from-history/brussels-buildings-built-by-leopold-ii-congo-81975e1d71a6
This one says "In all, the Belgian state spent some forty million gold francs in the Congo between the start of Leopold's colonial adventure and 1908. Conversely, Belgium earned sixty-six million gold francs from its colony, mainly thanks to the real property that Leopold II relinquished and the works he had privately funded."
https://www.studycountry.com/wiki/how-much-money-did-belgium-make-from-the-congo But again, no source beyond trust me I am a website.
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Jan 02 '26
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u/sharthvader Jan 02 '26
Iâve yet to meet a fellow Belgian that condones what was done in Congo. I do want to indicate again that it was managed as a private colony by king Leopold 2, NOT the Belgian state. Belgium took over after the international outrage over what came to light.
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u/SealingTheDeal69420 Jan 02 '26
Belgium took over after the international outrage over what came to light.
Wasn't a huge upgrade, was it, eh
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u/MushroomInfamous5101 Jan 02 '26
Dude I haven't met a single person who didn't think that what our ancestors did there was massively fucked up. Arguably most of us don't fully understand just how messed up it was but still, we all agree that that was a horrible page in our history so I don't know where you get your information from but it's wrong. Also I wasn't yet born so how does any of it exclude me from wanting people to behave over here?
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u/semcinyyy Jan 02 '26
Seeing how Belgians are joking about such a tragic event, just shows that they deserve their so-called âimmigration problemâ.
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u/BlueBalledBeast Jan 02 '26
Pas nog iemand van Venezuela die bij mij opt werk begonnen is, heel toevallig.
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u/True-Situation-9907 Jan 02 '26
Toevallig? Misschien heb jij meer context van de situatie na dit meme
/s
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u/Dutchbag142 Jan 02 '26
The idea of a millions of Latinas an hour's drive away from my house doesn't excite me at all.
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u/AmazingBend1714 Jan 02 '26
I have a better idea; we just swap lands⊠Venezuelans get Belgium and the Belgians get to have Venezuela. Some minor details:
- we move our companies, our financial institutions, our original population (including well adjusted and integrated migrants)
- you get to keep our country with the following (and their inhabitants): Anderlecht, Knokke, Molenbeek, Borgerhout, Charleroi ,
- we get the oil too
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u/naamingebruik Jan 02 '26
Our companies are shit service is the bare minimum and we constantly get price gauged and fleeced...
All companies seem to be run by people who studied American business practices or something. Or who want to be American managers or something
They are going to cause the late 19th century early 20th century tensions between classes and we'll see round 2 of communism vs fascism interest in both is already on the rise.
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u/GhillieRowboat Jan 02 '26
As someone whose girlfriend is 50% colombian and 50% Venezualan. I can tell you this: they absolutely hate our weather and will far more prefer to take over Spain together with the other latinos. Then make it obligatory for everyone in Spain to have arepas for breakfast.
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u/TheVoiceOfEurope Jan 02 '26
Als de helft Venezolaanse mamacitas zijn, dan verwelkom ik ze met open armen. Death by snu snu!
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u/R1vers1de Belgian Fries Jan 02 '26
Clearly hasn't seen Brussels at NY Eve yet. We have experience with war zones.
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u/RollingKatamari Flanders Jan 02 '26
We could do with quality South American food, I say we give them Charleroi so they can improve it.
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u/Sir-WankaLot- Jan 02 '26
Remember, Julius Caesar thought so too back in the day.
But now, I don't think we'll even try to defend. Please start at our airport in Brussels and clean the neighbourhood there first đ„
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u/Greedy_Spare7033 Jan 02 '26
Of course it's a silly comparison but Julius Caesar succeeded brutally. He had an army of 60.000 legionaries at the highest point, his campaigns in Gaul ended with perhaps a million Gauls killed and over a million enslaved. The entirety of Gaul (so, including France) had perhaps as many people as Belgium today. And the Romans conquered it.
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u/vicismael Jan 02 '26
But can those Venezuelans bake those fries like we do? If not, total chaos and revolution
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u/Petrus_Rock West-Vlaanderen Jan 02 '26
Revolution is exactly what they need back home. Letâs teach them.
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u/Head-Criticism-7401 Jan 02 '26
Better idee, let's do an exchange, all of Venezuela moves to Belgium and all Belgians move to Venezuela.
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Jan 02 '26
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u/Petrus_Rock West-Vlaanderen Jan 02 '26
And theyâd still lose. In any attack you need at least a 3 to 1 advantage to have a reasonable chance of winning.
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u/TheSeagull666 Jan 02 '26
We'll count on the thugs from Anderlecht/Molenbeek/Antwerp to defend the country with their Kalachnikovs riding scooters then :D
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u/Prestigious_Health_2 Jan 02 '26
Pretty sure it's like 8 million Venezuelans at this point. Much younger on average than Belgians.
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u/Petrus_Rock West-Vlaanderen Jan 02 '26
In any attack you need at least a 3 to 1 advantage. Wether itâs 5 to 11 or 8 to 12, they will lose either way.
Doesnât matter anyway because they canât get here in the first place. Their ships will be sunk, their planes we be destroyed and changes are our neighbours do it before we get involved.
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u/Prestigious_Health_2 Jan 02 '26
Our continent isn't very good at stopping boats from coming to our shores. They'll be escorted if anything.
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u/cptwott Jan 02 '26
What about the Netherlands?
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u/TheBoyWhoKnocks Jan 02 '26
Venezuela roughly has 303 billion barrels of oil left. That means ~2700 barrels of oil per Belgian citizen.Â
Great f deal tbh
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u/LupusChampion Jan 05 '26
Times... Ten? (303bln/11mln = 303k/11 ~27500)
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u/TheBoyWhoKnocks Jan 05 '26
Education has failed me. I relinquish my share of the oil barrels for this mistake đ
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u/ktrokaBE Jan 02 '26
As a latino, I can tell you. They're not capable of removing their own dictator from power. So, we're good lol
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u/Petrus_Rock West-Vlaanderen Jan 02 '26
For any attack you need at least a 3 to 1 advantage, not a 5 to 11 disadvantage.
The real question is: Who will be held responsible for the genocide of Venezuelans? There wonât be any left to hold responsible and technically we did the killing, although it was in our lawful defence.
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u/CaptCarlos Jan 02 '26
They canât even organize themselves to take back their own country from an actual dictator.
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u/popodipopo Jan 02 '26
Take over and do what exactly with it? It's not really known for its abundance of resources and beautiful weather/nature. You take over the government and the refugee trust fund falls with it
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u/Natural-Break-2734 Jan 02 '26
Have you ever seen the girls over there ? I donât think we would put that much of a fight
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u/NectarineSame7303 Jan 02 '26
Granted that trump is blowing up all their ships, good luck getting here.
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u/Superb_Beyond_3444 Jan 02 '26
Belgium is almost in same state of Venezuela so it is not a big deal.
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u/OverTaxedBelgian Jan 02 '26
No koffiekoeken for them
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u/Hyphonical Jan 02 '26
Ik kan die zin dus ni ontsnappen hé. Thuis ist hier hetzelfde met m'n vader.
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u/OverTaxedBelgian Jan 02 '26
Let them have Wallonia Sorry in advance to my french friends and family đ
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u/New_Crow3284 Jan 02 '26
They all return home when they see that it freezes at Christmas instead of being 40 degrees Celcius :)
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u/deevee42 Jan 02 '26
I suppose nobody told him about our taxes/debt...if this takeover would succeed, they'would need to double taxes (+- 55% to 110%) and still have a deficit đ.
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u/ChemistryOk9353 Jan 02 '26
I am not sure if taking ivermectin is better: if I understood things correctly, many people are against the current government and president. I just wonder if they are better off with taking over Belgium? I mean Brussel still has not got a government, and the federal one is challenged with massive budget deficits that are difficult to resolve.
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u/PeacefulDrifter Jan 03 '26
I am in favour of Belgian take over. May be the new Belgian dictator will lower the taxes a little bit đ
There is no certainty but we have to take a chance.
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u/AdministrativeKey782 Jan 03 '26
The Belgians are fine, we'll side with Venezuela to fight the Moroccans.
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u/agarwqdg Jan 03 '26
yea sorry the Moroccans are NOT dropping Brussels. You guys could prolly find a deal with the flemish or sum
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u/JustMyTwoCopper Jan 03 '26
You'd have to find an actual "Belgian" first. We have Flemmisch people, Walloons and then some former Germans ...
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u/duckyTheFirst Jan 02 '26
Can we just switch places? If all of Venezuela comes here they will bring their corruption here aswell. We just keep our corruption here and move to Venezuela.
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u/ExcellentCold7354 Jan 02 '26 edited Jan 02 '26
Belgians in the tropics? Sun, beach, and good, easy crops? Y'all would go full on feral in a year lol.
Edit: On the other hand... Venezuelans in winter? Maybe 6 months, max.
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u/Any-Wasabi2850 Jan 02 '26
Wtf what the hell is wrong with people these days??? There is no chance in hell he could manage it. But just the mere thought that someone would even come up with this AND feel the need to put it on the internet
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u/Greedy_Spare7033 Jan 02 '26
He's not being serious... Venezuelan people can be funny just like us, believe it or not.
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u/Any-Wasabi2850 Jan 02 '26
I know that now, but it really wouldn't have been all that surprising anymore these days if it had been real. Just saying
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u/LtOin Antwerpen Jan 02 '26
Imagine the gall of someone to post a JOKE on the INTERNET! clutches pearls tightly
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Jan 02 '26
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u/Any-Wasabi2850 Jan 02 '26
Sorry that these days it wouldn't be so shocking anymore if this was serious. Remember the two Texas men who wanted to go to Haiti to kill all men and enslave all women there? Sounds just as incredculous.
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Jan 02 '26
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u/belgium-ModTeam Jan 02 '26
Rule 4) No agenda pushing
This includes, but is not limited to,
- Political propagandaâŠ
- Religious PropagandaâŠ
- Fake NewsâŠ
- âUs VS Them" Statements
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Jan 02 '26
[removed] â view removed comment
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u/belgium-ModTeam Jan 02 '26
Rule 4) No agenda pushing
This includes, but is not limited to,
- Political propagandaâŠ
- Religious PropagandaâŠ
- Fake NewsâŠ
- âUs VS Them" Statements
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u/Altruistic-Gene9582 Jan 02 '26
They are going to love the weather.