"For Sale: Belgium, a Kingdom in three parts ... free premium: the king and his court (costs not included)."

http://news.aol.com/story/_a/someone-tries-to-sell-belgium-on-ebay/n20070918105009990030?cid=842

So who wants to buy Belgium? oh wait, e-Bay just withdraw the country. Darn! Apparently one could have had the European country for 10million Euro (about $14 millions) and the royal family for free (the small prints mention a $300 billion of national debt, by the way).

"The odd ad was posted by one disgruntled Belgian in protest at his country's political crisis which reached a 100-day landmark Tuesday with no end in sight to the squabbling between Flemish and Walloon politicians. "

I find the news timely (we just mentioned this in class yesterday and last week). Also, it would be interesting to see if this "stunt" has made Belgium more visible to the rest of U.S. Americans (yes, I know...I could not resist the Miss Teen Tenessee-ism, here), hence making e-Bay a learning system for a few days (?). Or as another question: who were the individuals who bid on the country? Did they know about Belgium before? Did they research about the country before bidding? Did e-Bay and Mr. Six provide links to informational resources? e-Bay does not identify the bidder who offered Euro 10million....which is when e-Bay decided that the joke had run its course and withdraw the country from the items for sale.

S.

p.s: I wonder if Mr. Six got the idea from "Magic Kingdom for Sale" by Terry Brooks. For those with a bit of extra reading time on their hands [sic!], this is a quick pleasant read in the fantasy sci-fi genre.