Belgian farmer accidentally moves French border

#1

Post by sleepyshift » Tue, May 04, 2021, 2:01 PM UTC

Belgian farmer accidentally moves French border
bbc.co.uk

Re: Belgian farmer accidentally moves French border

#2

Post by danlugo92 » Tue, May 04, 2021, 2:23 PM UTC

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

Re: Belgian farmer accidentally moves French border

#3

Post by nerbert » Tue, May 04, 2021, 2:25 PM UTC

danlugo92 wrote: post #2

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

Yeah it really shows how peace and nations working together can make stuff like that a non-issue. Everyone is so relaxed about it.

Re: Belgian farmer accidentally moves French border

#4

Post by leokennis » Tue, May 04, 2021, 2:25 PM UTC

This made me wonder...are (most) of the (undisputed) borders of the world actually stored somewhere? Or are some stones and posts still the "official" borders?

Re: Belgian farmer accidentally moves French border

#5

Post by kingkongjaffa » Tue, May 04, 2021, 2:28 PM UTC

Surely grounds for a full scale invasion!

Re: Belgian farmer accidentally moves French border

#6

Post by thedanbob » Tue, May 04, 2021, 2:29 PM UTC

Reminds me of the dispute between Canada and Denmark over Hans Island: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hans_Island#cite_ref-The_Post_...

Re: Belgian farmer accidentally moves French border

#7

Post by aetherspawn » Tue, May 04, 2021, 2:29 PM UTC

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 they offered to auction the neutral strip and its contents between us to the highest bidder.

Re: Belgian farmer accidentally moves French border

#8

Post by throwaway0a5e » Tue, May 04, 2021, 2:32 PM UTC

nerbert wrote: post #3

danlugo92 wrote: post #2

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

Yeah it really shows how peace and nations working together can make stuff like that a non-issue. Everyone is so relaxed about it.

Or more cynically, things only go smoothly when there's nothing at stake.

Re: Belgian farmer accidentally moves French border

#9

Post by Bayart » Tue, May 04, 2021, 2:32 PM UTC

We shall retaliate by symbolically pouring beer into the gutter and stepping on fried potato chips in front of the Belgian embassy.

(For the uninitiated https://www.wilsoncenter.org/publication/stabbing-oranges-an...)

Re: Belgian farmer accidentally moves French border

#10

Post by libertine » Tue, May 04, 2021, 2:33 PM UTC

leokennis wrote: post #4

This made me wonder...are (most) of the (undisputed) borders of the world actually stored somewhere? Or are some stones and posts still the "official" borders?

Here in Portugal we (and Spain) have landmarks that define the border, and there's a treaty signed in 1846 that states these landmarks should be maintained in cooperation between the two countries.

You can see some examples here, with the numbers and type of landmarks (apparently there are 1010 stone marks, other types of marks are wet marks for example, like rivers and lakes): https://pt.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lista_de_tro%C3%A7os_da_raia_(...