HALF ART
CHRIS THURMAN: Brussels — home to human rights and cartoon strips
Microcommunities from Morocco, Turkey, Vietnam, Ghana and Poland exist in an area such as Ixelles
For some, Brussels is not a city but a metonym for an idea and an organisation: the EU. Brexiteers and other Eurosceptics complain about "the dictates of bureaucrats in Brussels" as a shorthand for unnecessary regulations or excessive concerns about human rights. For others, Brussels conjures associations of glamour and grandeur – although these recede into the background, overwhelmed by urban noise and clutter. Belgium’s capital is busy, bustling, hustling; its denizens are pragmatic rather than romantic. But Brussels is also arguably the best face of the new Europe. It is a place where cultural, racial, religious and linguistic diversity is taken for granted; first-and second-generation immigrants outnumber "Belgians". Microcommunities from Morocco, Turkey, Vietnam, Ghana and Poland exist in an area such as Ixelles. The glue that binds them is the French language (in fewer cases, Flemish Dutch), and a shared sense that Brussels is home.The diversification of "European" identity st...
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