
Belgium, Netherlands to exchange territory - e15ctr0n
http://bigstory.ap.org/article/bfa0fa64233d4d19b6ff1b614e1693cd/belgium-netherlands-exchange-territory-without-fight
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jeroen94704
FTA: "He highlighted how complicated history has woven the borders in the area
close to where Belgium, the Netherlands and Germany touch, leaving enclaves
and strangely twisted borders"

Hah, that's one way to describe it. There are pieces of the Netherlands inside
pieces of Belgium inside the Netherlands, e.g.:
[https://www.google.com/maps/place/51%C2%B026'55.8%22N+4%C2%B...](https://www.google.com/maps/place/51%C2%B026'55.8%22N+4%C2%B056'30.8%22E/@51.4488293,4.9396925,17z/data=!3m1!4b1!4m2!3m1!1s0x0:0x0)

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Retric
I think that map should be part of every intro CS course. It's a great intro
to a world where no you can't just use a bit to store gender. And names, yea
lets not talk about names.

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ue_
>no you can't just use a bit to store gender.

Why not? The bit can store male/female and you can leave it NULL for "prefer
not to say".

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Retric
A bit does not get 3 values.

[https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bit](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bit)

~~~
ue_
True, though within a database you can leave a field as NULL.

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gk1
I think this is it:
[https://www.google.com/maps/place/Vise,+Belgium/@50.8039738,...](https://www.google.com/maps/place/Vise,+Belgium/@50.8039738,5.684823,1758m/data=!3m1!1e3!4m2!3m1!1s0x47c0ee6427760e23:0x40099ab2f4d7200)

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DonaldFisk
I passed that place once, when walking from Petit Lanaye along the Rue
Collinet to Maastricht. Normally, when you cross an international border,
there's usually a checkpoint, or at the very least a sign. There was no sign.
I only realized I'd crossed into the Netherlands when I heard people speaking
in Dutch. The only indication of country around there seems to be the language
spoken by the inhabitants, and the parcel of land being given up by Belgium is
uninhabited.

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StavrosK
There are no borders in the Schengen area, though.

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Someone
Here, that is a bit older. Border controls within the Benelux were abolished
in 1970 ([http://www.britannica.com/topic/Benelux-Economic-
Union](http://www.britannica.com/topic/Benelux-Economic-Union))

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runarb
Sounds to me that more effective police cooperation could be good to.

For example here in Norway we have, as I understand it, bilateral agreements
that allows police officers from the other Scandinavian countries to enter
Norway for search end rescue, and in some other cases if it is an ongoing
situation. They may also request limited police authority in Norway by calling
the local head of police (a relative quick and informal process).

~~~
hsivonen
Finland and Sweden also adjust the border between them every 25 years without
drama.

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ozim
Something for developers that have to deal with post codes addresses and this
kind of stuff: even borders in stable regions can change.

~~~
Freak_NL
This seems to concern a small unpopulated peninsula with no buildings at all,
so no problem in this case.

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Cyberdog
This kind of sounds like Northwest Angle [1], which, as an American, I think
looks pretty ridiculous on our maps and we should probably just give it to
Canada in exchange for some oil or something.

1:
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northwest_Angle](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northwest_Angle)

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intopieces
I'd agree were it not for this:

>Seventy percent of the land of the Angle is held in trust by the Red Lake
Indian Reservation (Ojibwa).

It sounds like 70% of the land is not the U.S. Government's to give.

~~~
avar
The Indian reservations belong to the US. If that wasn't the case and they
were sovereign states nevermind giving them to Canada, couldn't they raise
their own armies or build a Russian military base on their land?

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intopieces
>The Indian reservations belong to the US.

Notice how carefully I worded my comment:

>70% of the land is not the U.S. Government's _to give._

"The federal Indian trust responsibility is [...] a legally enforceable
fiduciary obligation on the part of the United States to protect tribal treaty
rights, lands, assets, and resources." [0]

The questions of armies and building bases I'm not sure have been raised, so
the legal precedents might not exist. Sufficed to say, however, that the GP's
hypothetical sale to Canada would be wholly infeasible in light of the
treaties between the sovereign tribes and the US, as well as the legal
complexities those entail.

[0][http://www.bia.gov/FAQs/](http://www.bia.gov/FAQs/)

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rrss1122
The questions have been raised. They are actually covered in the FAQ you
linked to:

"Limitations on inherent tribal powers of self-government are few, but do
include the same limitations applicable to states, e.g., neither tribes nor
states have the power to make war, engage in foreign relations, or print and
issue currency."

I'm not sure if this would prohibit raising an army per se, but what good is
raising an army if you don't have the power to make war? Building bases is
wholly out of the question, though, since that would involve engaging in
foreign relations.

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joncp
And then there are the Norwegians:
[http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/norway/1205...](http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/norway/12055542/Norway-
launches-campaign-to-give-Finland-a-mountain.html)

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davidw
I'd thought it might be this mess, initially:

[https://www.google.com/maps/place/Belgium/@51.4409147,4.9327...](https://www.google.com/maps/place/Belgium/@51.4409147,4.9327632,15.25z/data=!4m2!3m1!1s0x47c17d64edf39797:0x47ebf2b439e60ff2)

But it's somewhere else.

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Luc
There's another enclave inside Flanders that causes Belgian politicians a lot
more headaches, hehe.

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dogma1138
And here i thought they going to fix that town that is cut in half where
people had to move their front door to be in the "right" country again....
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baarle-
Nassau](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baarle-Nassau)

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technimad
The fact that The Netherlands and about half of Belgium share the same
language, Dutch, also helps. These two countries separated only about 150
years ago. (The other half of Belgium speaks French, the rest German and
Belgium is the biggest mistake in the universe)

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phicoh
Belgium and The Netherlands were not one country since 1579
([https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Union_of_Arras](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Union_of_Arras))
except for the period between 1815 and 1830.

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moonfern
"Belgium" was occupied since 1579 (till 1815 or 1830 for a then small elite
minority), the "Netherlands" fought another 80 years to liberate themselves. "
" Because Spanish (Habsburg) territory at that time, known as the lowlands.

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billpg
I think Belgium got the poor end of the deal.

[https://goo.gl/maps/byhcGJeHsKS2](https://goo.gl/maps/byhcGJeHsKS2)

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sjclemmy
I'm in Eijsden at the moment! I have family who live here, and we often walk
down there and have lunch by the Meuse / Maas. It's quite a surprise to see it
on HN.

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teddyh
No map. Of course.

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anigbrowl
Don't know why you were downvoted. It's absurd to include 5 photos with the
article, but not a simple plan view of the territory.

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teddyh
It’s the journalists who go for the human interest angle instead of any petty
details. It’s like when camera people at conferences exclusively show the
presenter instead of the slides they are talking about (and/or pointing at),
since it’s more interesting to show a person than some boring slides. The end
result is that those who actually want to know any useful details won’t get
any.

