Taking nationalism too far.

Some of my readers might wonder whether I am guilty of doing just that: taking nationalism too far. When I first started using the alias ‘littlebelgianwriter’ I just wanted to point out that I am Belgian as opposed to any other country in the world.
Nowadays I am not so sure. Frequently I find myself blogging on Belgian matters and to tell you the truth, that is also the reason why I created this blogspot. While writing on Belgium and Belgian matters in particular I do want to make sure that I do not take nationalism too far.

Some of you might wonder what nationalism means to me. Nationalism can be about one’s feelings for a country, a culture of a language. Nationalism can also have its roots in the fact that one ethnic group is being discriminated against. I guess that is where Irish nationalism and Flemish nationalism originated from. Sometimes nationalism is needed to secure human rights. Once those rights are well established, in my view, there is no use in taking nationalism any further.

When taken further, once healthy nationalism may lead to discrimination and the violation of basic human rights of other ethnic groups in society. In other words, the victim becomes a culprit himself.

In my view and experience this is now happening at times in contemporary Belgium where once Flemish nationalists rightly so fought to establish educational and cultural rights. In my view those rights have been long established. Taking nationalism any further in contemporary Flanders in my view may lead to the discrimination of other ethnicities.

Nowadays I feel they are taking nationalism one step too far. Born out of a Dutch speaking mother and a French speaking father, I do not want to take nationalism too far. To me all Belgians are equal. I do not care whether they speak Dutch, French or German. I now call myself a Belgian because I do not want to take nationalism too far.

All cats will have to be neutered by law in Belgium by September 2014

When I first learned about this, it made a lot of sense to me. I had recently become a cat owner due to the fact that someone gave her 2 cats away because she no longer was able to keep them herself. At that time I had been looking for a cat because I wanted one to catch mice in my garden. I was surprised how easy it was to become a cat owner: there seemed to be litters everywhere and animal shelters seemed to be full of cats. I also learned that a lot of cats in shelters ended up dead or euthanized because there were no suitable owners to be found. That said I still am glad that I got my cats straight from the owner and that I opted for both cats instead of the one I first had wanted.

As soon as the cats were effectively in my home it suddenly dawned on me how many cats there were in my neighbourhood and in my own backyard for that matter. Most of them belong to dedicated owners but some clearly were strays. Needless to say what happens if/ when stray cats start breeding: there are even more stray cats and not nearly enough prospective cat owners around to feed them. That means that every year more cats will end up in shelters and possibly euthanized if no owner or prospective owner turns up.
Therefore I found it plausible at first when I learned that stray cats and cats in shelters were going to be neutered before they would be given to new owners. That way the number of stray cats would be reduced because they no longer would be able to procreate in the wild and unattended for.

In a second phase private cat owners who want to sell or give away their cats to someone else will be required to have the cats neutered before they are sold or given away. This I also am able to understand somewhat because that way when the new owner is not able to look after the cats properly at least the cats will not end up with litter and unattended for.

Further down the line of the law is also stated that its goal is that in the end all cats would become neutered. That is the bit that makes no sense to me. If all cats are going to be neutered how on Earth will cats be able to procreate? If cats are no longer able to procreate there will be a moment where there are no longer any cats.
Wait a minute! There is one thing I did not read in this law. Commercial kennels and cat breeders were not mentioned in this law. This means that they still will be able to breed cats. To my knowledge cats bred in kennels by professional breeders are pedigree cats. Why does this make me think of Harry Potter and Slytherin were no mudbloods are allowed and only those of pure blood are?
Why are some cats more equal than others?