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Belgian farmer accidentally moves French border

bbc.co.uk

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Re: Belgian farmer accidentally moves French border

#251

Post by peterburkimsher »

gumby wrote: post #52
317070 wrote: post #14

This is so ironic. There is already a movie (Rien a Declarer / Nothing to declare) whose main premise is a guy spending his nights slightly moving the border between France and Belgium: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q6MljTh0kws (This extract is French only unfortunately :( ) Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=piQPaxlZWu4 (With English subtitles) But, as someone who grew up less than 100 meters from this borde…

I have a friend who grew up in France (well, except for her kitchen which was in Belgium); she went to school in Belgium, crossing the border (which in those days had a gate) twice each day. I just imagine the guards opening the gate for a little girl with a school satchel. The bollards which held the gate are still there.

I grew up on the border of France and Switzerland. My dad worked at CERN in Switzerland, was paid in Swiss francs, and had Swiss health insurance. Houses were cheaper in France, so they live in the Pays de Gex and crossed the border every day.

I was born in Switzerland. I was smuggled to France when I was a few days old so my parents could take me home. I got a passport a few months later, with a baby photo. I went to school in Switzerland, 20 minutes from the house. I had to take my passport to school, though we had a "frontalier" card that we'd show in the car windscreen so we'd rarely be stopped by border guards. It was a Schengen external border until 2007, though!

There are many stories of people getting stuck at that border for forgetting their ID, or phones connecting to the wrong transmitter causing people to get 3000 EUR phone bills for roaming data. My first kiss was on that border though, so I have quite fond memories of it!

The problem of growing up there is that I can't be Swiss - my parents weren't resident. I can't be French either - I wasn't born there. So my passport is British by descent. Children cannot be British from me, because I wasn't born in the UK. If I wanted to continue living in Geneva, children would be stateless.

That started me on a long journey of trying to find a new country. I went off to university, and proceeded to live in the UK, USA, Switzerland, Taiwan, Canada, New Zealand, Japan, Korea, Austria, Netherlands, China, and India. In 2013 I decided that I wanted to move to New Zealand, but the process of moving here has been so slow (getting work experience in Taiwan, waiting 2 years for a case officer to evaluate my SMC visa, finding a new job that pays enough to satisfy Immigration), means that I only just got residency at age 31. (Children born in NZ can now be citizens, which will allow me to get married in future). Hopefully by age 36 I'll finally have a passport and a country to really call home.

Re: Belgian farmer accidentally moves French border

#252

Post by hunter-2 »

peterburkimsher wrote: post #251
gumby wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have a friend who grew up in France (well, except for her kitchen which was in Belgium); she went to school in Belgium, crossing the border (which in those days had a gate) twice each day. I just imagine the guards opening the gate for a little girl with a school satchel. The bollards which held the gate are still there.

I grew up on the border of France and Switzerland. My dad worked at CERN in Switzerland, was paid in Swiss francs, and had Swiss health insurance. Houses were cheaper in France, so they live in the Pays de Gex and crossed the border every day. I was born in Switzerland. I was smuggled to France when I was a few days old so my parents could take me home. I got a passport a few months later, with a baby photo. I went t…

Such a fascinating story! Thank you

Re: Belgian farmer accidentally moves French border

#253

Post by fogihujy »

aetherspawn wrote: post #7

A neighbor once moved the pegs marking our block a few meters so that he could move (and claim) the neutral strip. The most irritating thing, is that he more or less got away with it because he was old and persistent. In fact, he gradually built infrastructure on it, despite hundreds of complaints to the local council and authorities. In the end the council couldn't come up with a good way to settle the dispute, so t…

I'm in a similar situation with the local road council who are trying to move a road onto our land so that people can keep higher speeds in a specific corner. It's a very good idea to have documentarion for where the markers are once a neighbor is hell-bent on driving a bit faster with his tractor.

Re: Belgian farmer accidentally moves French border

#254

Post by shdon »

foepys wrote: post #128
yalogin wrote: post #83

It looks like the farmer's land spreads across the border. How is that possible? Or at the very least his land goes all the way to the border line. Either way, in today's age when the line can digitally recorded, why do we need the stone? Both countries know where the line goes through. Could they not just ignore that one stone and let the farmer do his work? I was hoping they would just ignore it, instead I see that…

> How is that possible? May I introduce you to the town of Baarle-Hertog? A town that is not only split between the Netherlands and Belgium but inside the Netherlands with Belgium owning most of the town with Dutch fragments inside it. Some houses have a Dutch as well as a Belgian address. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baarle-Hertog

The town itself is called Baarle, the Dutch part is part of a municipality called Baarle-Nassau (a little under 7000 inhabitants) and the Belgian part is part of a municipality called Baarle-Hertog (a little under 3000 inhabitants). Both municipalities also contain some smaller villages, which do not have the same border situation going on - that is entirely in the town of Baarle.

Re: Belgian farmer accidentally moves French border

#255

Post by nitendoraku »

peterburkimsher wrote: post #251
gumby wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have a friend who grew up in France (well, except for her kitchen which was in Belgium); she went to school in Belgium, crossing the border (which in those days had a gate) twice each day. I just imagine the guards opening the gate for a little girl with a school satchel. The bollards which held the gate are still there.

I grew up on the border of France and Switzerland. My dad worked at CERN in Switzerland, was paid in Swiss francs, and had Swiss health insurance. Houses were cheaper in France, so they live in the Pays de Gex and crossed the border every day. I was born in Switzerland. I was smuggled to France when I was a few days old so my parents could take me home. I got a passport a few months later, with a baby photo. I went t…

Presumably if you didn't achieve residency elsewhere any potential wife would have some status which could be passed onto the kids?

Re: Belgian farmer accidentally moves French border

#256

Post by Nitramp »

My father related this story of a German farmer in the northwest of Germany, who it turned out, was Dutch. Apparently somebody incorrectly mapped the border line of 1648 after the 30 years war, and so this family had (barely) lived in the Netherlands ever since, without knowing it, despite considering themselves German citizens.

I don't remember how this was resolved. I guess it thankfully just doesn't matter that much anymore, these days.

Re: Belgian farmer accidentally moves French border

#257

Post by csunbird »

Bayart wrote: post #217
csunbird wrote: post #97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Österreich - The Eastern Empire (my limited german) Ost - East Öster - To the east, easter - relative to something Reich - Empire

Reich has a broader meaning, similar to "realm" in English.

I thought “Empire” translation would suit here, although I am not a native speaker. Realm should fit as well.

Re: Belgian farmer accidentally moves French border

#258

Post by Faaak »

lenkite wrote: post #40
danlugo92 wrote: post #2

I wish that one day all borders in the world were like this.

Yes, let a hundred such farmers do this and claim several square kilometres of territory. After all this farmer did and got away scot-free. Thus more people can do it. Frankly, if he doesn't get rapped on the knuckles it's a guarantee that other folks will try the same thing. Borders should be changed via treaty and diplomacy not by some un-educated moron deciding to take matters into his own hands. That only encoura…

You're the exact justification of why we can't have borders like this: because there will always be someone who knows better and wishes harm on others.

Re: Belgian farmer accidentally moves French border

#260

Post by peterburkimsher »

nitendoraku wrote: post #255
peterburkimsher wrote: post #251

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I grew up on the border of France and Switzerland. My dad worked at CERN in Switzerland, was paid in Swiss francs, and had Swiss health insurance. Houses were cheaper in France, so they live in the Pays de Gex and crossed the border every day. I was born in Switzerland. I was smuggled to France when I was a few days old so my parents could take me home. I got a passport a few months later, with a baby photo. I went t…

Presumably if you didn't achieve residency elsewhere any potential wife would have some status which could be passed onto the kids?

Not if she's in the same situation, like most classmates and other Geneva people.

What if my temporary work visa gets denied? If I had a family, I could end up unemployed, deported, and separated from wife and kids. Those kids would grow up without a father around, increasing their chances of divorce. It would be disastrous.

Would I rather choose a wife based on her nationality, or go through the long, gruelling process of trying to earn it? My girlfriend is from Taiwan, and despite its many flaws, the Immigration system is really my only hope for getting the prerequisites to start a family.

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