Belgium To Get Gay Prime Minister. His biggest problem isn't that he's gay. He doesn't speak Dutch.

WillParkinson

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Fri Dec-02-11 04:16 PM
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Belgium To Get Gay Prime Minister. His biggest problem isn't that he's gay. He doesn't speak Dutch.

Belgium To Get Gay Prime Minister

Belgium's national election was last summer, but it was only this week that the European debt crisis finally forced the formation of a coalition government. And leading that coalition will be the quietly gay head of the Socialist Party, Elio Di Rupo. In 1996 journalists demanded to know if Di Rupo was gay. His famed response: "Yeah. So?"

Judging by media reports, the real problem Di Rupo will face is that he doesn't speak Dutch.

http://joemygod.blogspot.com/2011/12/belgium-to-get-gay-prime-minister.html

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Drale

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Fri Dec-02-11 04:21 PM
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1. Hitler spoke terrible german

and look what he did. Not that I'm comparing anyone to Hitler, but the point is that you don't necessary have to speak the language.

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MNBrewer

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Fri Dec-02-11 04:24 PM
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2. I bet he spoke pretty good Austrian, though.

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JackintheGreen

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Fri Dec-02-11 05:18 PM
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3. A better example would be Deve Gowda of India

Edited on Fri Dec-02-11 05:26 PM by JackintheGreen

He comes from the Kanada-speaking south and served as PM of India from 1996-1997 but doesn't speak a word of Hindi. Nevertheless, if memory serves he gave at least one speech in Hindi, either memorizing it or transliterating it into Kannada characters.

(*on edit...I originally wrote this in error about former President Abdul Kalam. Clearly memory did not serve in that case, but it came back to me in a sudden flash)

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joeybee12

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Fri Dec-02-11 05:37 PM
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4. Belgium is pretty much Dutch in the north, French-speaking in the south...

Brussels is in the middle, and there's a big mix of both there.

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