The Californian Republic?
As you won't read in the papers or hear in the broadcast media here-- both of which normally cover only two foreign countries, Israel and Iraq-- bilingual, civilized Belgium is close to splitting apart over the language issue.
Because it's never just a language issue, is it? Languages have different cultures and usually different ethnic groups. The populations tend to grow at different speeds. All the differences create tensions in every multilingual country.
Even if everyone goes on speaking English, as I expect, I've often wondered how long it will be before the U.S. breaks apart. Its regions are so different from each other.
California is "diverse" out the wazoo, multiracial couples are common, no group is a majority; but once I drove slowly across the U.S. through the midwest and Rockies, and for six weeks didn't see anyone who wasn't white. I have a sister-in-law in Oregon to whom recycling is a fervent religious belief; she thinks everyone south of the Mason-Dixon line is forcément a redneck. In the South, it's taken for granted that much of the East and West coast are inhabited by people who are Not Like Us. In large swathes of the U.S., it matters more that the President is a churchgoer and good old boy than it does if he knows anything about the foreign country he wants to invade. ("Our army kin whup their army!") In a lot of other places, to act dumb, you just put on a Southern accent. Sometimes I think all our country has in common is American Idol.
I think it's just a matter of time.














