1. Art and Diseño

#365
Erkenningsnummer P708816
january 28, 2015 \ newsweekly - € 0,75 \ rEad morE at www.flandErstoday.Eu
currEnt affairs \ P2
Mayor of the
world
Politics \ P6
BusinEss \ P8
innovation \ P9
Education \ P10
art & living \ P11
happy to be sad
flying high
Ghent mayor Daniel
Termont is one of three
finalists for London’s
World Mayor Prize
One Antwerp
entrepreneur is putting
soldier fly larvae to
good use eating up our
organic waste
The Dark Chambers exhibition at
the Dr Guislain Museum celebrates
the many sides of melancholy
\7
\9
\ 14
Feeling at
home, at
school
okan helps foreign
youngsters from different
backgrounds settle in
flanders
andy furniere
More articles by andy \ flanderstoday.eu
Adolescents who move to Flanders and don’t speak
Dutch can’t register in the secondary education system
until they’ve joined a special reception class. As the
classes are made up of youngsters from different cultural
backgrounds, staff have to come up with innovative ways
to introduce them to learning in Flanders. A new report
should help improve the system
W
hen children and teenagers arrive in Flanders
with no knowledge of Dutch, they and their
parents can find all the information they need
about the education system at their local integration
reception bureau. Consultants at these bureaus create
a profile of the youngsters on the basis of their cultural
background, experiences and academic level, and can then
find the most appropriate school for them.
Refugees sometimes suffer
from psychosocial
problems because of
traumatic experiences
© Courtesy sint-Guido Instituut
In primary education, newly arrived children are assigned
a place in the regular school system. They are then either
integrated into this class through extra support and flexible programmes or provided with an additional reception
programme in separate classes.
The situation is different for secondary education. “Schools
normally don’t accept the students because of their lack of
Dutch,” explains consultant Katja Van Raemdonck of the
City of Antwerp’s reception bureau. These pupils must first
continued on page 5
\ CurrenT aFFaIrs
Plagiarism verdict for Tuymans
antwerp artist will appeal court decision against his painted copy of a press photo
alan Hope
Follow alan on Twitter \ @alanHopeFT
F
lemish artist Luc Tuymans (pictured) has said he will
appeal a judgement against him in a case of plagiarism
filed by a photojournalist from De Standaard
newspaper. An Antwerp court ruled this week that Tuymans
had appropriated the intellectual property of photographer
Katrijn Van Giel for his painting “A Belgian Politician”.
The 2011 work was based on a photo of politician Jean-Marie
Dedecker taken by Van Giel for De Standaard a year earlier.
The painting is a rendition in oil of the photo, showing the
same unusual framing and particularities. Tuymans’ defence
argued that the painting is a parody of the original and so not
subject to copyright laws.
“The painting by Luc Tuymans is a representation of the press
photo by Katrijn Van Giel, neither more nor less,” the court
ruled. The court ordered Tuymans to refrain from making
further copies of the work at the risk of being fined €500,000
per copy, the sum for which Tuymans sold the painting to an
American couple in 2012.
© Courtesy Marcwathieu/wikimedia
Bomb threat shuts down
Brussels thoroughfare
Buildings in Brussels’ Regentschapsstraat, including the Justice
Palace, were evacuated last week
after a letter containing a bomb
threat was delivered to the Royal
Conservatory. Security levels were
high because the area is home to
not only the Justice Palace but also
the Great Synagogue of Europe.
The letter, delivered at about 11.00
on 20 January, contained threats
against those buildings specifically.
Both the synagogue and Justice
Palace are already under heightened security, including the
patrolling of military personnel.
The buildings were evacuated
and searched; 90 minutes later,
the alert was lifted as the letter
appeared to be a hoax. Police have
now launched an investigation to
find the sender.
In related news, the Flemish Parliament has introduced new security
measures to reflect the terrorist
threat level being raised from two
to three. The changes bring the
parliament in line with the measures taken in other government
buildings.
The new measures include clos-
The court rejected the parody defence, and Tuymans intends
to appeal the decision. “As with many contemporary artists,
each work by Luc Tuymans is based on an existing image,”
his lawyer explained. The artist’s works include paintings
based on photos of Condoleezza Rice and Patrice Lumumba,
among others.
“How can an artist call the world into question with his art if
he is not allowed to use images arising out of that world? This
judgement forbids a particular form of contemporary art and
removes the right of contemporary artists to express themselves,” Tuymans defence stated.
“It’s a pity Tuymans didn’t ask Van Giel’s permission to use her
image as the basis for his own work,” responded Pol Deltour,
national secretary of the Flemish Association of Journalists.
“Photojournalists are under heavy pressure these days and
are barely recompensed for the essential work they provide
to the news process.”
© Thierry roge/BelGa
ing the Loketten gallery other than
to organised groups. Members of
parliament are asked to wear their
badges visibly and to use the tunnel
to move from the office building on
Leuvensweg to the adjacent parliament building.
The federal police, meanwhile,
have announced that they will not
carry out drink-driving checks for
hours at a time in one location as
long as the terror alert stands at
three. The checks are not considered safe given that the latest
threats have identified the police
as a target. Unannounced spot
checks will continue to be carried
out. \ AH
OCMW to be scrapped after 2019 elections
Flanders’ OCMW – the Public Centre for Social
Welfare – is to be abolished in 2019. The proposal
comes from home affairs minister Liesbeth Homans
and has been approval by the Flemish Parliament.
The decision ends a 220-year period since the French
occupier removed authority for social welfare from
the church and installed the system of “bipolar”
local government, involving a separate administration for social matters.
Individual municipalities will take over welfare
services. “Overwhelming evidence has convinced
us that there is only one useful working model,
which will be applied with flexibility,” Homans told
De Standaard. “That consists of an integration into
the municipal administration, with a special social
committee to handle social aid cases.”
Services should become “more efficient and faster,
especially for the least advantaged,” Homans said.
“A number of people have always declined to consult
the OCMW because of the stigma attached. That will
now not be the case.”
The plan still has to receive the approval of the
federal government, but Homans is confident that
will be a formality. “There were agreements reached
during the federal government negotiations,” she
said. “They are also in the government accord. That
has to be implemented. I have every confidence it
will be.” \ AH
First “super truck” on Flemish roads
Brewer AB InBev and transport company Ninatrans
are the first in Flanders to receive a permit to deploy
a Longer and Heavier Truck –known in Dutch as an
ecocombi or “super truck”. The super trucks will
drive between the Ninatrans base in Leuven and the
port of Antwerp on a daily basis.
In the coming months, five other companies are
expected to receive permits. The government wants
to examine the advantages and disadvantages of
super trucks in terms of safety, mobility and the
environment. After two years, a special commission
will evaluate the system.
Super trucks can be up to 25.25 metres long instead
of the usual 16.5 metres, and can transport up to 60
tonnes instead of the normal 44 tonnes. “Two super
trucks can replace three regular trucks,” Benny
Smets, CEO of Ninatrans, told Het Nieuwsblad. “It is
not the purpose to transport more goods along the
route but to transport the same amount with fewer
trucks, which reduces traffic on roads.”
Although the ecocombi trucks are much bigger,
they consumer only a fraction more fuel than regular trucks, according to Smets, which will lead to a
reduction in carbon dioxide emissions.
In order to limit their impact on traffic, super trucks
are not allowed to drive through built-up areas or
to use routes heavy in pedestrian and cycle traffic.
They are also required to avoid certain crossroads
and roundabouts. \ Andy Furniere
5
1,56
13
44%
of train travellers had their tickets checked by an inspector during
a test by public transport group
TreinTramBus. The chances are
only one in three on a trip to or
from Brussels
\2
Flemish municipalities, 17 of them
in West Flanders, will receive
compensation for damage caused
during the heavy rainstorms of
July 2014, minister-president Geert
Bourgeois told parliament
accidents involving trams in Brussels in 2014, the highest number
for the past five years. Most accidents (1,503) involve cars, with
46 involving pedestrians and 16
involving cyclists
poplar trees to be felled in Leuven
along the banks of the LeuvenMechelen canal because of dangers
posed to passers-by. The wood will
be used to make bio-fuel
crash alarms – a warning that an
approaching aircraft is experiencing difficulties – registered at Brussels Airport in 2014, the lowest
number in 30 years. In all 13 cases,
aircraft were able to land without
incident
january 28, 2015
weeK in brief
Flemish tennis pro Yanina Wickmayer crashed out of the final
16 of the Australian Open after
losing 6-4 6-2 in the Rod Laver
Arena to the third seed, Romania’s
Simona Halep, on Sunday. Wickmayer, ranked 80th in the world,
has enjoyed a revival in form after
changing her training routine and
almost made a comeback in the
second set, breaking Halep’s serve.
But having won three previous
matches against the Romanian,
Wickmayer lost, missing out on a
place in the quarter-finals.
A team of students from the Groep
T industrial college in Leuven won
third place in the first edition of
the Abu Dhabi Solar Challenge,
a 1,200-kilometre race for solarpowered vehicles. Fifteen teams
from 10 countries took part in the
four-day event, which was won
by the team from the University
of Michigan in the US. Leuven’s
Punch Powertrain was, however,
the first four-wheeler to cross the
finish line.
The number of tourists visiting
the Westhoek area of Flanders
in 2014 passed all expectations
at 789,500, tourism organisation
Westtoer announced. The Westhoek, centred on the city of Ypres,
is the epicentre of First World War
tourism. The most popular single
site was Tyne Cot military cemetery in Zonnebeke, which attracted
nearly 650,000 visitors, an increase
of 80% on 2013’s figure. The In Flanders Fields museum in Ypres saw
65% more visitors, with 500,000.
A couple in Brussels were arrested
for being in possession of a large
amount of copper, suspected of
being stolen. Meanwhile, there
were 217 incidents of copper theft
from the railways last year, a sharp
drop compared to 2012, when there
were 1,362 cases. The national
action plan against copper thefts
came into force in mid-2013.
face of flanders
The Brussels commercial tribunal has found mobile phone operator Mobistar guilty of misleading advertising in relation to a
campaign in which the company
claimed to have the country’s
fastest 4G mobile data network.
The complaint was brought by
competitor Proximus. Mobistar
has cancelled the campaign but
intends to appeal.
Police in Bruges are on the lookout for information on the whereabouts of Matthew Webb, a 30-yearold British man who has been
missing since leaving the company
of friends in a café on the Grote
Markt on 21 January to return to
his hotel. Webb was in Bruges on a
business visit and was wearing blue
jeans, white trainers, a blue T-shirt
with a red stripe and a black woollen jacket. He has short, reddish
hair. Information to 0800 30300.
The government of Flanders
intends to go forward with plans
to introduce a new fast tram
line from Hasselt to Maastricht,
despite delays from the Dutch
authorities over their part of the
project, mobility minister Ben
Weyts told parliament last week.
The Dutch claim instabilities along
part of the route are responsible for
pushing up the price of the Spartacus project. They also have yet to
decide on the exact route and the
infrastructure required at stops.
“I’ve asked them to provide clarity as soon as possible,” Weyts said.
Police investigating the shootings
at the Jewish Museum in Brussels last May have issued a video
that they say shows a man alleged
to have been an accomplice of
Mehdi Nemmouche, the man
currently in custody for the attack,
in which four people died. The
video shows Nemmouche walking with the man in Brussels four
days after the attack. A day later, he
boarded a bus to Marseilles, where
he was arrested.
http://youtu.be/lvmHPk6ngsE
Two of the most successful shopping centres in the country, Waasland and Wijnegem, are up for
sale. Owners CBRE Global Investorsareselling50%oftheWijnegem
centre near Antwerp, and 100% of
Waasland in Sint-Niklaas. Together
the two centres are worth between
€600 and €700 million. Waasland
attracts 6.3 million visitors a year,
and Wijnegem nine million. Both
centres are fully occupied.
The city of Ghent will be home to
Flanders’ first natural graveyard, alderwoman Sofie Bracke
has promised. At present, natural
graveyards, where the remains of
the deceased are allowed to decompose naturally without embalming
and without a coffin, are not legal
in Belgium. Environment minister
Joke Schauvliege is working on a
new law to make it possible. Bracke
said she was currently looking for
a location in the city. “A natural
graveyard is more beautiful if it can
be in an existing forest with its own
history and with trees of a certain
age,” she told Metro newspaper.
The British Federation of Small
Businesses has called on the British government to take action
against AB InBev, the world’s
largest brewer, based in Leuven.
AB InBev is accused of applying
payment terms that force small
suppliers to wait four months
for payment. British secretary of
economic affairs, Matt Hancock,
has described the terms as “unacceptable,” with companies experiencing cash flow problems, unable
to pay VAT bills and forced to
turn down work. AB InBev issued
a statement defending its practices. “Payment terms … are influenced by prices, quality, the size of
the supplier, the type of product
or service and the volume of the
contract,” the statement reads.
offside
food for thought
Flanders now has a new foodie phenomenon: the
doggy bag. Some weeks ago, we reported here
that consumer organisation Test-Aankoop
was running a poll on what to call
what in English is known as
a doggy bag – when
your server
wraps up any
leftover food
on your plate
and sends it
home with you.
Six names were
proposed; the winner
was restorestje, made
up of resto (restaurant)
and rest (remainder) and the
ubiquitous diminutive ending.
If our canine friends are out of the
room, it has to be explained that the
restorestje has nothing to do with provid-
ing your dog with a meal: That part of the name in
English was originally meant to protect the
patron from feeling embarrassed about
taking home the leftovers.
In Test-Aankoop’s eyes, the project is a
means to combat food waste. Flanders throws away about 66,000
tonnes of perfectly edible
food every year, and any
initiative to reduce that
amount is welcome.
So it is that the city of
Ghent will dole out 5,000
restorestje boxes – which can
go in fridge, microwave or freezer
– to the 46 restaurants that signed
up. Restaurants taking part will have a
sticker in the window and be featured on a
nt
Ge
map. Test-Aankoop is working now to recruit
d
a
t
s
sy
more restaurants to the cause, in- and outside of
te
ur
Co
Ghent. \ Alan Hope
©
© rob stevens/kuleuven
yvo nuyens
Yvo Nuyens, who lectured in
medical sociology at the University of Leuven and who served
as programme director for the
World Health Organisation
(WHO), has died in hospital in
Antwerp from complications
following a heart attack. He was
74.
Nuyens’ name is regularly
coupled with the word “flamboyant” thanks to his colourful style and his use of comedy
in the lecture hall. He had been
made a professor at the age of
only 29, which helped him, he
said in an interview in 2008, not
to take himself too seriously.
“I’m not the Oracle of Delphi,
you know,” he said. “Humour
was my survival mechanism, for
example, when I was catapulted
into a professorship in my 20s
and thrown into an auditorium
– let’s call it a lions’ den – in front
of a thousand students, most of
whom were hardly five years
younger than me. I used simple
tricks: pink socks, standing on
top of the lectern, jokes about
Limburgers. I still come across
students from those times today,
and they all remember those
amusing details.”
Far from being a clown, however,
Nuyens’ experience travel-
ling the world to study healthcare systems for WHO made
him an informed critic, and he
remained a critic back home.
In 2013 he published, with journalist and politician Hugo De
Ridder, the book Dokter, ik heb
ook iets te zeggen (Doctor, I Also
Have Something to Say) about
the way patients were treated
by the health-care system, in
particular by hospital doctors.
That led to the creation of the
Kievit Group, a think-tank of
health-care experts devoted to
bringing about changes in the
system. Nuyens, by now returned
to live in Belgium after his years
with WHO, was a key adviser
to Flemish welfare minister Jo
Vandeurzen – who happens to
be a Limburger.
“According to several studies,
Belgians should be happy with
their health care,” Nuyens said
in another interview last year.
“But that sometimes has more
to do with the questions asked
than with the reality. Take, for
instance, the growing social
health gap. People who are less
educated are not only more
often sick, they also have a lower
life expectancy. That’s a scandal
for our welfare system.”
\ Alan Hope
flanders today, a weekly English-language newspaper, is an initiative of the flemish
region and is financially supported by the flemish authorities.
The logo and the name Flanders Today belong to the Flemish Region (Benelux Beeldmerk nr
815.088). The editorial team of Flanders Today has full editorial autonomy regarding the content
of the newspaper and is responsible for all content, as stipulated in the agreement between
Corelio Publishing and the Flemish authorities.
Editor Lisa Bradshaw
dEPuty Editor Sally Tipper
contriButing Editor Alan Hope
suB Editor Linda A Thompson
agEnda Robyn Boyle, Georgio Valentino
art dirEctor Paul Van Dooren
PrEPrEss Corelio AdPro
contriButors Daan Bauwens, Rebecca
Benoot, Derek Blyth, Leo Cendrowicz, Katy
Desmond, Andy Furniere, Diana Goodwin,
Julie Kavanagh, Catherine Kosters, Toon
Lambrechts, Katrien Lindemans, Ian
Mundell, Anja Otte, Tom Peeters, Daniel
Shamaun, Senne Starckx, Christophe
Verbiest, Débora Votquenne, Denzil Walton
gEnEral managEr Hans De Loore
PuBlisHEr Corelio Publishing NV
Editorial addrEss
Gossetlaan 30 - 1702 Groot-Bijgaarden
tel 02 373 99 09
[email protected]
suBscriPtions
tel 03 560 17 49
[email protected]
or order online at www.flanderstoday.eu
advErtising
02 373 83 57
[email protected]
vErantwoordElijkE uitgEvEr
Hans De Loore
\3
STILL 25.000 SEATS TO
EUROPE LEFT AT €69*
RETURN THIS SUMMER.
With Brussels Airlines, you can now book a return flight
to Europe, taxes included, at €69* in Check&Go.
There are still 25,000 seats available at this fare for travel
this summer, so no time to lose!
* Fare subject to availability and conditions.
Book by 31 January 2015
on brusselsairlines.com
or your travel agency.
\ COVer sTOry
january 28, 2015
Feeling at home, at school
new report should improve integration system
continued from page 1
take part in reception classes, known in
Dutchasonthaalklasvooranderstaligenieuwkomers, or Okan.
“We help to find them a place in an Okan,
where a personalised study programme will
mainstream them as soon as possible,” Van
Raemdonck says. This programme is only
available to youngsters who have been in
Flanders for less than a year and generally
lasts one academic year, though extensions
are possible.
According to the Flemish Agency for Education Services, the number of Okan students
doubled from 1,592 to 3,120 in the years
between 2007 and 2012. Antwerp province received the most students: 1,250 in
the 2011-12 school year, or 40% of the total
number that year.
One of the Okans in Antwerp, Stedelijk
Lyceum Offerande in the Kiel neighbourhood, recently attracted media attention
© Photos courtesy sint-Guido Instituut
Okan students take trips around Flanders to get to know the region better
Students are
often sad to leave
because they feel
lonely outside our
environment
with a special project that combats the issue
of unauthorised absences while also helping
students who live in poverty.
If students attend every class and arrive
on time, they earn a Marco coin – named
because this Okan was previously called
Marco Polo. With these coins, students can
pay for school materials or clothing at a little
second-hand shop in the school.
“A considerable number of our students,
especially asylum-seekers, miss classes
when they have an appointment with a
social aid agency or lawyer, and they are
unexcused absences when they forget to
bring the legal certificate,” explains co-ordinator Joris Verlinden. “Refugees also sometimes suffer from psychosocial problems
because of traumatic experiences, which
makes it difficult for them to come to school
on a regular basis.”
Students also sometimes have to help family
members who don’t speak any Dutch with
administrative matters.
The initiative also helps students in poverty
by providing cheap school materials and
clothing – especially important in winter.
“Paying for stuff in the shop with the coins
they’ve earned also gives them a sense of
pride,” says Verlinden.
He notes that the school sometimes offers
something for free “in urgent cases”. The
shop is run by students on a transition
programme that prepares Okan students for
further studies related to the retail sector.
The Marco coin initiative is one example of
the innovation required by Okan teachers to
deal with their complex groups of students.
Pupils cannot just be put in classes according to their age; they are mostly assembled in
groups with similar academic abilities.
While some are unable to read or write in
their own languages, others have received
high-quality education in their home countries. Stedelijk Lyceum Offerande is home to
12 classes of on average 10 students. Those
who cannot read receive lessons in smaller
groups.
The teachers don’t work towards concrete
requirements for pupils to move on to the
next level, as they do in the regular education system. Their aim is to achieve ontwikkelingsdoelen, or development goals, which are
primarily related to the Dutch language but
also concern ICT, mathematics and social
skills. These goals are meant to not only help
pupils communicate in Dutch but also to
adapt to Flemish society.
To reach these goals, the Okan teams often
set up special projects. The Stedelijk Lyceum
Offerande, for example, organises plays and
a social project in which the pupils help
youngsters with a disability.
In the Sint-Guido-Instituut Okan in the Brussels district of Anderlecht, which has about
80 students, the staff have set up cooking
workshops, fashion shows, city walks, visits
to museums and mock political elections.
“We always devote attention to youngsters’
specific talents,” says Els Delaere, continuation co-ordinator at the Sint-GuidoInstituut. She mainly helps pupils with their
choice of a future school career in the regular
system and follows up their situation for six
years – but most intensively during the first
year after they leave the Okan.
To get a concrete idea of the study disciplines
in regular education, Okan students do regular snuffelstages, or exploration internships.
This means they follow lessons in a regular
class for a week, to examine whether this
would be the right option for them after
Okan.
After one academic year, the continuation
co-ordinator suggests a certain study discipline in regular secondary education or
adult education, employment training or a
prolonged stay at Okan.
Integration into regular classes does not
always go smoothly. Part of the problem,
according to Delaere, is that pupils don’t
always get enough time to adapt to the new
environment.
“In schools where teachers have little experience with students who speak a foreign
language, the students don’t always manage
to overcome their shyness at speaking Dutch
in class,” she explains. “Unlike experienced
Okan staff, other
teachers are often not familiar with the
emotional problems of students who risk
losing the roof over their head or being sent
back to their country of origin.”
Delaere also points out that Okan offers
the youngsters a secure place among peers,
while they are often considered “different”
in regular schools. “Students are often sad
when they leave Okan, even if only for a holiday, because they feel lonely outside our
environment,” she says.
To give Okan pupils more confidence in
their futures and to improve the reputation of the Okan system, Delaere has set up a
poster project using role models. The posters
feature former students who have achieved a
diploma in subjects such as pharmacy, civil
engineering and interpreting.
She also involves former students in improving the communication with parents of
current students by providing translations of
essential information. “For example, former
students translate the students’ school
reports into about 30 languages,” she says.
Despite all the work done at Okan schools,
there is still a considerable number of
students who cannot find their place in
Flemish society. In particular, the older
group of 16- to 18-year-old newcomers
have difficulties building a future in Flan-
a new campaign featuring former Okan students gives
current students hope for the future
ders, which is why the government of Flanders has asked the Centre for Language and
Education (CTO) to look for ways to improve
the Okan programme for this target group.
Their research was recently published. “One
of our major findings is that too many Okan
students are referred to professional secondary education only on the basis of their
language skills,” says CTO researcher Liesbeth De Bruyne.
According to the report, there is not enough
attention paid to students’ other competences, which may make them more suited to
other study tracks. The researchers suggest
introducing a portfolio that lists students’
skills, sort of like a CV.
To further answer the needs of newcomers ,
the report suggests adjusting teacher training in higher education. “Teaching studies
could be extended, with courses in how to
teach Okan students specifically or in how
to deal with diversity in the classroom in
general,” explains De Bruyne. “The current
system relies too much on the willingness of
teachers to take extra training voluntarily.”
According to the report, one negative consequence of the flexible regulation concerning
the development goals is that many newly
qualified teachers lack a clear foundation
and have to find out too much for themselves. More extensive education and training could help improve this situation, as
could more exchange of knowledge between
Okan staff.
The researchers also ascertained a lack of
contact between the different groups who
come into contact with Okan students –
like social aid agencies, pupil support agencies and Okan staff – so they organised regular meetings where experiences could be
exchanged.
To make sure that students are not confused
by the various advice and demands of several
organisations, the CTO report recommends
linking them with a single contact person
who follows up their situation during their
entire education – preferably someone from
integration services.
Another recommendation is to improve
the collaboration of Okan with the Flemish
public employment agency VDAB, to streamline the future integration of students on the
labour market. “VDAB could, for example,
organise a series of workshops on bottleneck
professions,” says De Bruyne.
There should also be more co-operation with
organisations that provide leisure activities,
as well, notes De Bruyne, since such activities bring Okan students out of their usual
environment. “Schools that have a close relationship with the local community, known as
broad schools, are an ideal way to reduce the
social isolation of Okan students,” she says.
In recent months, the CTO has started a
large-scale, three-year research project
at the request of the government of Flanders. Researchers are working with experts
from the universities of Antwerp, Ghent and
Leuven to map the entire reception education system – analysing the structural organisation, teaching methods and financial
means of Okans in both primary and secondary education.
The researchers will also follow up the situation of certain Okan students over three
years to examine how successfully they are
able to integrate into the regular school
system and into society in general.
\5
\ POlITICs
5th colUMn
Deficit dynamics
Budgetalert,onceagain.Prime
minister Charles Michel (MR)
last week announced that this
country’s budget deficit for
2014 will likely be higher than
expected: 3.3% rather than the
2.9% that was forecast.
That may sound like a minor
difference, but as the EU sets
the limit at 3%, it is anything
but. If Belgium does not
stick to the 3% limit, it faces
stricter European scrutiny. As
has become customary, the
announcement was an occasion for a round of scapegoating. Michel pointed the finger
at the regions and communities, which, unlike the federal
state, have not met their
targets. The prime minister’s
message was particularly
uncomfortable for his coalition partners N-VA, CD&V
and Open VLD, who between
them also form the Flemish
government coalition.
Flemish budget minister
Annemie Turtelboom (Open
VLD) was in for a particularly rough ride, as she had to
explain the Flemish deficit of
more than €800 million – or
rather €500 million, one day
and some creative accounting later.
The explanation came as no
surprise. The deficit resulted
from an EU rule that major
investments, such as road
or education infrastructure,
have to be included in the
budget as a whole, rather than
spread out over several years.
Minister-president
Geert
Bourgeois’ N-VA is not amused
at this situation nor at Turtelboom’s handling of it. It is
particularly painful as Flanders has always prided itself
on its budgetary orthodoxy,
calling itself “the best pupil in
class”.
To add insult to injury, Guy
Vanhengel (Open VLD),
budget minister of the Brussels-Capital Region government, boasted about his
own clean sheet. This was
again annoying to N-VA, the
nationalists who still gnash
their teeth at the generous
treatment the capital region
received – at the expense of
Flanders – in the last state
reform.
With all this discord between
different governments and
parties, one would almost
forget that there is an opposition to hold the respective
governments
responsible.
The federal government now
hopes for some clemency on
the part of Europe because
of some “structural interventions”.
With Michel blaming the
regions, Brussels pointing to
Flanders and N-VA annoyed at
the liberals Turtelboom and
Vanhengel, one thing Belgium
cannot present, however, is a
united front. \ Anja Otte
\6
Belgian pavilion unveiled
trade minister presents Belgium’s design for Expo milan 2015
derek Blyth
More articles by Derek \ flanderstoday.eu
F
ederal foreign trade minister
Kris
Peeters
unveiled
the design of the Belgian
pavilion at the forthcoming Expo
Milan 2015 last week, precisely 100
days before the exhibition is due to
begin.
The Belgian pavilion in Milan was
designed by Patrick Genard, a
Belgian architect based in Barcelona, while the scenography is
the work of Marc Belderbos, who
lectures in the architecture department of the University of Leuven.
The pavilion aims “to combine a
Belgian identity with the exhibition’s themes of sustainability and
technological innovation,” said
Peeters’ office.
The expo is being held from 1
May to 31 October under the
slogan “Feeding the planet, energy
for life”. It will look at the links
between technology, innovation,
creativity, food and nutrition.
Belgium's pavilion is modeled on
a small city, with green spaces
separating
“neighbourhoods"
and featuring transport stations,
bodies of water and a city centre. It
will be an example of urban planning, including information on
energy demands, use of materials
and water consumption.
The design is a rounded atrium
enclosing the city centre, with a
wooden-enclosed farm, showcasing Belgium's agricultural sector,
jutting off from it (pictured). The
pavilion will also include a restaurant and chocolate showcase.
Peeters was accompanied in the
presentation by fellow Christiandemocrat Leo Delcroix, who has
been put in charge of Belgium’s
pavilion for the second time.
Delcroix also held the post in 2012
for the Shanghai Expo, where
Belgium closed the event with a
profit for the first time since Brussels hosted the World Fair in 1958.
Delcroix, however, came under
scrutiny by Belgium’s Court of
Auditors for the financial organisation of the Shanghai pavilion,
which the court said suffered a lack
of transparency in the books and
several oral agreements made with
sponsors that were never formalised via contracts. Delcroix said at
the time that several of the accusations were regarding demands that
were “simply unrealistic”.
Some 145 countries are due to take
part in the Milan Expo, which is
expected to attract 20 million visitors and create 70,000 temporary
jobs.
City of Antwerp refuses permit
for anti-Islam march
About 6,000 to lose
unemployment benefits
Antwerp mayor Bart De Wever
rejected a request by the Flemish anti-Islam movement Pegida
Vlaanderen ( formerly called
Vlativa) to stage a march planned
for last Monday. A counter demonstration by the organisation Hart
boven hard was also banned.
The new Flemish anti-Islam
organisation, inspired by Germany’s Pegida, applied for a permit
to hold a march on 26 January in
protest at what it sees as the growing influence of Islam in Belgium.
But police advised the mayor to
ban the march due to the heightened terror threat, following
the shooting of two terrorists in
Verviers earlier this month. “In the
current context, both demonstrations pose a risk to public safety
and would require a large police
presence,” the mayor’s office said
Some 6,000 people in Brussels and
Flanders are due to be cut off from
unemployment benefits later this
month as a change in the inschakelingsuitkering, or activation benefits, comes into effect.
The activation allowance, previously known as wachtuitkering,
or waiting benefits, covered those
who did not qualify for regular
unemployment benefits because
they had not worked long enough
in the country. This included
students graduating from secondary school or higher education
who had not yet found a job.
The previous federal government
put a time limit of three years on
the allowance, to encourage people
to actively look for work. Now the
allowance will be scrapped entirely.
Jef Maes of the socialist union
ABVV argued that the new rules
in a statement. “This is why the
police advised against allowing
the demonstrations to take place,
and the mayor has followed that
advice.”
The two organisations insist that
the demonstrations will go ahead
at some time in the future. “Even
if the demonstration doesn’t take
place until the terror alert threat
has been lowered, we intend to
protest,” said Wim Van Rooy of
Pegida Vlaanderen in an interview
with VRT.
Meanwhile, Hart boven hard
called on its supporters to protest
using social media platforms on
Monday. “We remain concerned
about a movement that calls into
question our inter-cultural society,” the organisation said. It plans
a march in Brussels on 29 March,
according to its website. \ DB
© ingimage
are unfair because there is no work
to be found in some parts of the
country, particularly for people
with few qualifications. “I’m talking about the big cities in Flanders,
like Ghent and Antwerp, along with
Liège and Hainaut in Wallonia,” he
told VRT radio.
Most of the people affected by the
new ruling live in Wallonia, where
some 14,000 are due to lose the
benefits, compared to about 3,000
in Flanders and 3,000 in Brussels.
\ DB
Residents who fight in Syria
could lose asylum status
Government to use supermarket
data to determine price index
Theo Francken, the state secretary for asylum and migration,
will table a bill in parliament this
week aimed at preventing potential terrorists returning to Belgium
from Syria.
Francken (N-VA) wants to remove
the right to return from those who
had earlier been granted asylum
status. The decision to ban those
granted asylum would be made by
the Commission for Refugees and
Stateless People.
Francken also said that he wants
to get tough on asylum-seekers
who cause disruption in reception centres. He says their application could be rejected if they cause
serious trouble while waiting to be
processed.
The federal government will this
month begin using scanner data
provided by supermarkets to help
calculate the consumer price
index, Kris Peeters, the minister
for economy and consumer affairs,
has announced.
The use of data direct from checkouts will help avoid the inaccuracies involved in other methods
of gathering price information,
Peeters’ office said in a statement.
The prices will also be updated in
real time.
The data will be provided by the
three largest supermarket chains
– Delhaize, Carrefour and Colruyt
– and will cover nine products
that together make up 3% of the
basket of goods used to calculate
© blg/Het nieuwsblad
“We are going to make it possible to remove asylum status from
people who disrupt public order or
become a threat to national security,” he said at N-VA’s New Year
gathering last weekend. “These
people would then be here illegally
and should not be allowed back
into the Schengen zone.” \ DB
the index: rice, flour, pasta, baked
goods, whole, semi-skimmed and
skimmed milk, cheese, eggs and
sugar. Starting in 2016, the system
will be extended to use scanner
data for goods representing 24.5%
of the basket.
Information will still be gathered
from other sales points, including
low-price supermarkets and independent retailers. In those cases,
the statistics department will
continue to use existing methods
of information gathering.
“This new manner of working will
provide us with an index based on
objective, real and reliable source
material for the calculation of the
evolution of consumer prices,”
Peeters said. \ AH
january 28, 2015
“Built on goodwill”
ghent mayor gives locals big responsibilities and even bigger sense of community
daan Bauwens
More articles by Daan \ flanderstoday.eu
Ghent mayor Daniël Termont’s
efforts to make his city a more
sustainable and healthy one
have earned him plaudits from a
London think thank in the form of
a nomination for the 2014 World
Mayor Prize. Still, trailblazing
policy efforts aside, Termont says
his biggest contribution to the city
has been a psychological one
E
ver since Lonely Planet
discovered the capital of
East Flanders in 2009, there’s
no travel guide that hasn’t added
Ghent to its list of favourites. The
city’s international reputation
might soon receive an additional
boost, but this time not for its
merits as a travel destination.
Ghent’s Daniël Termont has made
it to the final round of the 2014
World Mayor Prize, awarded every
other year to an outstanding mayor
anywhere in the world by the
London-based City Mayors Foundation, an international think tank
dedicated to local government.
Termont himself isn’t exactly sure
why he is in the final three vying
for the prize, whittled down from
a shortlist of 26 mayors worldwide. “What I know is that the
City Mayor Foundation applauds
my approach to intra-European
migration, urban development
and international development
plans,” he says.
www.worldmayor.com
the sharing economy is booming
in this city.”
Among other priorities, Termont’s
policy vision is based on sharing
responsibilities with inhabitants.
“Big responsibilities,” he emphasises. He gives the example of a
medieval abbey in the heart of
the city. “It’s beautiful and interesting, but we don’t have the time
nor people to develop the site.
The neighbourhood committee
suggested opening it on weekends
and serving coffee to visitors. We
agreed, handed them the key to the
site and took care of the needed
subsidies.”
And Termont says similar project
are mushrooming across the city.
“People can take initiative; they
don’t have to wait for elections to
cast a vote on how they want to see
the city changed. Plus, projects like
these bring neighbourhoods closer
together.”
Termont also wants to stay as
close to residents as possible, and
he means it. He says his office
answers every email he gets within
10 minutes and, when invited
to neighbourhood parties, he
does whatever he can to make an
appearance. “I can’t attend them
all, but, believe me, I attend an
awful lot,” he says. “Citizens need
to have the feeling that the door
to the city hall is always open, that
we’re close and approachable.”
But all that glitters is not gold.
People don’t have to wait for
elections to cast a vote on how
they want to see the city change
Termont thinks his World Mayor
nomination sprang not only from
the policies he has adopted, but
from the international exposure
the city has been getting as of
late. “Ghent is a pioneer in many
fields,” he says. “It was the first
in Europe to ban cars from most
of the centre, the first to sign the
climate-neutral covenant. I am
invited to congresses around the
world to talk about those moves.
We’re quite visible on the international stage.”
Termont says one of his own greatest contributions to the city has
been a psychological one. “I have
given people a sense of pride in
their city,” he says, “and, more than
ever before, Ghent is built on goodwill. There’s togetherness. I motivate people to work together, to
organise more parties and celebrations. More contact leads to a
strong social life; it fosters innovation and creativity. No wonder
Poverty looms beneath the surface
of the historical centre’s splendour. According to stats from the
OCMW social aid agency, Ghent
has the highest poverty rate in the
country, with one in five children
growing up below the poverty line.
Moreover, the rate is rising.
“I cannot do anything about the
increase because it’s a global
trend,” Termont says. “The poor get
poorer and the rich richer. But our
high poverty rate can be explained.
We have always had socialists in
the city council, who wanted to
take care of the underprivileged.
Consequently, Ghent has the highest percentage of social housing units in Belgium – more than
13%. This high percentage of social
housing, quite logically, attracts
people with a low income or on
unemployment benefits.”
Termont points out that the city
has faced other demographic challenges since he was elected. “In
© Courtesy stad Gent
Daniël Termont is one of three finalists vying for the world Mayor Prize, awarded every other year to an outstanding mayor anywhere in the world
the last eight years, approximately
25,000 Eastern Europeans – mostly
unemployed Roma – migrated to
our city,” he says. “Those people
have the right to come here; we’re
all fortune-seekers.”
Still, he says, the city has reached
a pivotal moment. “There is no
space left for decent housing or
proper schooling,” he admits. “We
cannot offer any quality of life
to new arrivals. But we have no
instruments at hand to stop the
flow. Recently, this city council
started social economy projects
in Bulgaria, in the four villages
where most of our immigrants
come from. Creating jobs at home,
we want to discourage them from
coming here.”
Ghent’s increasing popularity
among other population groups
has also come at a cost. As its
trendy reputation has led to the
gentrification of local neighbourhoods, house prices have more
than doubled over the last decade.
The result has been that average
young families can’t afford to buy a
house and have moved away from
the city centre.
At the same time, the city centre is
becoming a tourist trap of sorts. Is
the mayor concerned that his city
will soon resemble a cultural Disneyland, in the image of Bruges,
where tourists have been known
to ask when the gates to the park
will be closed?
While Termont says he can’t do
anything about the rising house
prices, he firmly disagrees that
Ghent will ever turn into another
Bruges. “Ghent could never turn
into a museum,” he says. “Look
around you; this office has been
the office of the mayor for the last
four centuries. In Bruges, it would
have been turned into a museum
by now. Here, we still live and work
in our monuments.”
The World Mayor Prize will be
announced on 3 February
\7
\ BusIness
weeK in
bUsiness
Banking Degroof
The country’s largest private
banking group has signed a
letter of intent to merge with
its smaller competitor Petercam. The deal is expected to
be finalised in the second half
of this year.
express delivery
DHl Parcel
The local affiliate of the
German courier and parcel
delivery company is launching an e-commerce delivery service. The new venture,
which includes opening up to
1,600 outlets this year to back
up the system, will be in direct
competition with Bpost and
Kiala, an affiliate of UPS.
Fast food McDonald’s
The US-based fast food chain
plans to open three more
outlets in Flanders this year,
in Groot-Bijgaarden, Antwerp
and Mol. The outlets are part
of the chain’s €18 million
investment programme that
includes hiring up to 375
employees in 2015.
Food Vandemoortele
The Ghent-based manufacturer of food products ranging from margarine to frozen
bakery has acquire the Italian
Lanterna Agritech Group, the
country’s leading producer of
frozen bread, with production
units in Genoa, Ravenna and
Padua.
Gaming Casinos
The government has approved
plans for the opening of the
country’s 10th casino, in
Antwerp. Up to five development bids have already been
received by city authorities.
retail aveve
The Leuven-based gardening and agriculture products
retailer, with sales of over €1.2
billion annually, has taken over
the Dutch Arie Blok animal
feed distribution group and
producer of 200,000 tonnes a
year of preparations for pets.
retail H&M
The Swedish apparel group
plans to open H&M Home
outlets in Ghent and Bruges
within the next two months,
featuring interior decoration items. Further openings
in Brussels and Antwerp are
slated for later.
steel Ghent
The Port of Ghent authority is
investing €9 million to build
a quay next to the ArcelorMittal steel works to handle
steel scrap and slag from the
blast furnaces. The investment
comes in addition to the €90
million that ArcelorMittal has
earmarked for its Ghent plant
this year.
\8
Asylum seekers have 90% more
chance of work in Flanders
study points to region’s “urban character” and integration policies
alan Hope
More articles by alan \ flanderstoday.eu
A
sylum-seekers who come to live in
Flanders have a 90% better chance of
finding work than those who live in
Brussels or Wallonia, according to a major
study carried out for the federal migration
centre. The study examined the cases of 70,000
asylum-seekers who came to Belgium between
2000 and 2010.
According to the study, one explanation is that
economic circumstances in Flanders are more
beneficial towards job-seekers in general. In
addition, Flanders’ more urban character –
a larger proportion of the population lives in
town and cities – makes it easier for them to
find work.
At the same time, the regions show differences
in their integration policies. Integration measures, including language lessons and social
© Courtesy radio 1
orientation, have been compulsory for migrants
to Flanders since 2004, whereas in Wallonia the
measures have been in place only since 2009 and
on a voluntary basis.
The figures for asylum-seekers reflect the case
for other migrants. Even for native Belgians,
Flanders offers 50% more chance of finding
work than Wallonia, pointed out lead researcher
Johan Wets of the Leuven labour research institute HIVA.
Of those who arrived in Flanders between 2003
and 2006, 57% started off living on benefits. Four
years later that number more than halved, while
the number of employed went up from 19% to
55%. “They find their way to the labour market,
but it happens very slowly, and their position is
vulnerable,” Wets said.
According to previous research, refugees and
asylum-seekers tend to be steered toward
jobs that require little experience and fewer
language skills such as gardening, waste industries and cleaning.
Limburg pears being smuggled BSO diploma an advantage on
labour market, says SSL
into Russia despite ban
The Russian ban on EU exports of
a variety of agricultural products is
being widely evaded, according to
reports, via routes through Belarus and Kazakhstan. This includes
Limburg pears being found in
Russia, despite the ban.
According to the Belgian Fruit
Auction in Sint-Truiden, the
majority of local growers have
nothing to do with the smuggling of their fruit. Flanders’ fruit
growers, concentrated largely in
Limburg, were among those hardest hit when Russia imposed its
ban last August. The EU paid growers a premium not to harvest their
crops of apples and pears, so as not
to flood the market and depress
prices.
The Fruit Auction has confirmed
that lorries from Russia and its
neighbouring states are being
loaded daily in Limburg. According to investigators, the shipments
arrive at their original destination,
such as Belarus, where their certificate of origin is changed to allow
them to cross the Russian border.
“The pears that are supposed
to go to Belarus or Kazakhstan
are checked by the federal food
agency, which issues the necessary papers,” said exporter Geert
Schoofs. “Everything that leaves
here is perfectly in order with
the rules. It could be that certain
clients in other countries are
attempting to benefit from the
situation.”
Bart Wijgaerts of the Haspengouw
Auction commented that growers
in Limburg are not taking part in
the practice themselves. “All we
know is that the boycott continues to weigh heavily on our business. It concerns us that a false
impression is being created that
people here are working around
the boycott and making a fortune.
Nothing could be further from the
truth.” \ AH
Students graduating from secondary education with a diploma in
professional education (BSO) are
finding jobs faster than those with
other kinds of diplomas, according to the Steunpunt Studie- en
Schoolloopbanen (SSL), or the
Policy Research Centre for Educational and School Careers.
SSL
researchers
compared
employment upon students’
entry onto the labour market in
several European countries. A
professional-oriented study track
guaranteed a relatively smooth
transition from school to work,
according to the study. Graduates
with a BSO diploma found jobs
faster than those who entered the
labour market without a diploma
but also than those from other
study disciplines in secondary
and higher education.
The study also showed, however,
that those with a diploma in
general education (ASO) stay in
their jobs for longer periods of
time. A possible explanation, SSL
researcher Jeroen Lavrijsen told
jobat.be, is that a BSO programme
in Flanders has a very specific
character, and graduates often
lack certain general skills.
“BSO graduates are, therefore,
less employable if new technology is introduced and they have
to follow extra training, for example,” said Lavrijsen. He pointed
out the advantages of the Scandinavian system, where students
choose between general and
professional education at a later
age – 16 as opposed to 14 in Flanders. BSO students there can also
choose programmes from ASO.
Lavrijsen thinks there should be
a revaluation of the BSO diploma,
which is now too often seen, he
said, as an option for those who
can’t keep up in ASO.
\ Andy Furniere
Muyters and social partners agree on employment target groups
The Flemish social partners – government,
trade unions and employers – are ready to sign
an agreement on a reform of employment target
groups, namely young people, the over-55s and
people with a handicap.
Last week the government of Flanders approved
a proposal by labour minister Philippe Muyters;
the other two partners have until March to
provide responses. “I’m happy to give them that
time,” Muyters said in a statement.
The target group policy is part of the overall labour
market policy and gives special consideration to
those groups who have difficulty finding jobs. In
its governing accord, the new government made
it clear it wanted to see the policy simplified and
restricted to those three main groups.
The young people group is limited to those under
25 earning less than €2,300 a month gross, in one
of two groups: those who left secondary school
without a diploma, and those who have a secondary school diploma but no higher education.
Employers who take on young people answering this description will receive a discount on the
social security charges they have to pay, amounting to €1,150 a quarter for the first year, €1,000 a
quarter in the second year and €400 a quarter in
the third and final year.
For older employees, the discount is available for
both new hires and for retaining existing employees and is split into two groups: those aged 55 to
59 and those over 60. For new hires in the younger
group the discount amounts to €1,150 a quarter
for the first two years and €600 a quarter thereafter until the legal retirement age.
For the older group, the sums are €1,500 and
€1,150 a quarter. For employees who are already
employed, the employer discount is €600 and
€1,150 a quarter for as long as they remain in
work until the legal retirement age.
For people with a work handicap – the sort of
condition that makes finding or keeping a job
difficult or impossible – the situation under
the present Flemish Support Premium remains
unchanged.
“Young people need to find jobs as early as possible,” Muyters (N-VA) said. “The longer they wait
before finding their first job, the more difficult it
becomes to find anything. In addition, we have
chosen the over-55s because all of us will have to
continue to work longer if we want to keep the
social security system operating.”
Assuming the social partners agree in March, the
new rules could become law in the summer, to
come into force on 1 January, 2016. \ AH
\ eDuCaTIOn
january 28, 2015
Lord of the flies
weeK in
innovation
flemish entrepreneur turns organic waste into something useful
débora votquenne
More articles by Débora \ flanderstoday.eu
www.milliBEtEr.BE
S
upermarkets have to deal
with hundreds of kilos of
unsold organic waste each
day, and it’s costing them a fortune
to get rid of it. In the meantime,
in Aartselaar, Antwerp province,
Johan Jacobs keeps thousands of
hungry fly larvae, all dreaming of
rotten tomatoes and salads.
The supermarket brings its unsold
food to Jacobs’ company, Millibeter,
where Jacobs gives the food to his
larvae. Once they are big enough,
he sells them to a company that
uses them to make things such as
industrial cleaning products.
At first, Jacobs’ career offered a
completely different perspective.
He graduated with a Master’s in
international politics and was a
diplomat for about 10 years. Going
from diplomacy to organic waste
management is a rather unlikely
career move, you might think.
“When I was working in Morocco
as a diplomat, I was looking into
alternative agricultural techniques,” Jacobs explains. “That’s
where I learned about the role flies
can play in dealing with our waste
problem.”
Although the flies weren’t a suitable solution for the Moroccan situation, Jacobs couldn’t let go of the
idea. So in 2012, he decided to come
back to Belgium, quit his job and
start a colony of flies at his home in
Antwerp.
More than four in 10 Flemings (42%) are dissatisfied
with their sleep patterns and
30% feel they have sleep disorders, according to a survey by
the Christian Mutuality (CM)
among 3,300 of its members.
More than one in four said
they had trouble concentrating during the day, and 13%
often feel tired when driving.
Of the respondents who said
they were dissatisfied with
their sleep, 74% often feel
tired for the whole day. This
lack of sleep leads to tiredness, concentration problems
and irritability and makes
people less resistant to illness.
CM’s Slaapwel platform aims
to clear up some sleep myths
and provide advice.
\ www.cm.be/slaapwel
“Makerspace” opens
at Diepenbeek’s
tech centre
© Didier Descouens
The larvae of the black soldier fly eats up household waste and produces valuable fertiliser in the process
compared to the amount of food
supermarkets throw away. So the
idea is to scale up.
In a room where the temperature
is kept at an average of 27°C, Jacobs
keeps a colony of black soldier flies
in boxes. “This is where the whole
process starts,” he says. “We could
have used the bottle fly or housefly
for this project, but with the black
soldier fly there is no risk to humans
Our generation can’t say they
weren’t aware the environment
was in such bad shape
It took some time to get funding to
finance the project. But after about
two years, Jacobs moved his colony
of flies from his home to a bigger
space in Aartselaar. “We are now
in the pilot phase,” he says. “Once
we pass this stage, we’ll go on the
market.”
Today Millibeter grows about a
million larvae a week, enough to
process hundreds of kilos of organic
waste each day. That’s nothing
Flemings have
trouble sleeping
or animals if they get loose.”
Unlike the black soldier fly, the
bottle fly is known for being a transmitter of bacteria. Moreover, this
type of fly would never survive our
cold temperatures.
The flies lay their eggs in the grow
boxes. Jacobs harvests the eggs and
puts them in an incubator so they
grow into larvae. Once they’re big
enough, they’re fed the organic
waste. “This is the last phase for
them,” Jacobs says. “Once they’re
big enough, they go into this big
strainer to separate them from the
composted waste.
“It hasn’t been easy to find suitable machinery to process all this,”
he says. “The things we need may
already exist but are obviously not
used for the same purposes. So we
need to convince the supplier of
those industrial machines to sell
it to us.” But some parts could not
be bought anywhere. “The incubator boxes, for example, were handmade. Actually, they’re produced to
be used in cafes or restaurants, but
with minor adjustments, we were
able to customise them and use
them to grow our larvae.”
In the meantime, the larvae are
separated from the composted
organic waste. “The next step is to
freeze the larvae, so our partner
can pick them up and use them to
produce industrial cleaning products or fish food,” Jacobs explains.
“The filtered compost will then be
used as high quality fertiliser.”
Nothing goes to waste, and low
quality products are turned into
high quality feedstock. “We sense
that the world is ready for this kind
of innovation,” says Jacobs. “There
is a lot of interest in our project,
not only from businesses but also
from the government.” This doesn't
surprise Jacobs: “Our waste problem is imminent. Something has to
be done, and once Millibeter is fully
operational, we could very well be
part of the solution.”
At Millibeter they are rounding
up their R&D phase, and once all
bottlenecks have been identified,
they can scale up the project, draw
up a detailed business plan and
present it to their investors and
partners. But as there are supermarkets already involved, Jacobs is
not expecting too many problems
on that side.
As he concludes the tour of the
company, one question remains
unanswered: How do you go from a
being diplomat to being a pioneer
in organic waste management? “It’s
a matter of taking one’s responsibility,” Jacobs explains. “I have two
small children and they deserve
a beautiful and healthy future. A
clean environment is part of that.
Our generation can’t say they
weren’t aware our environment
was in such a bad shape. So I am
taking my responsibility and trying
to do something about it.”
Google names Aristoco one of world’s most promising startups
www.cuBigo.com
The CEO of tech company Aristoco, Geert Houben,
has become the first Belgian ever to be invited by
ICT giant Google to participate in its prestigious
boot camp BlackBox Connect.
Google has ranked Aristoco among the 15 most
promising startup projects in the world based
on its application Cubigo. Aristoco, located in
Diepenbeek, Limburg, is a spin-off of Hasselt
University.
Cubigo (pictured) is a user-friendly platform for
people who need care, such as the elderly or handicapped. The technology has a number of appli-
cations for use at home, like starting up a video
conversation with a doctor or ordering a meal.
Thanks to the innovation, Houben is part of a
select group of entrepreneurs invited to take part
in BlackBox Connect. The two-week boot camp
for non-US technology startups takes place next
month in Silicon Valley in the US state of California, the heart of the global ICT sector.
“It is a major opportunity to speed up the launch
of Cubigo in the US and elsewhere,” said Houben.
Cubigo has already won awards in Belgium and
the Netherlands. \ Andy Furniere
Hasselt University (UHasselt)
and PXL University College
have opened the Makerspace
at the Technology Centre in
Diepenbeek. Makerspace is
a multidisciplinary tech lab
open to students, staff and the
public, who can experiment
with a 3D printer and laser
cutter or follow a technology
workshop. “Through initiatives like Makerspace, we want
to encourage more youngsters
to choose the STEM studies and thus strengthen the
Flemish knowledge economy,”
said UHasselt rector Luc De
Schepper. Makerspace, which
received a Flemish government subsidy of €100,000,
should also allow more collaboration between the institutions and across disciplines.
Trapped ions
cause batteries
to lose power
Although batteries are becoming more powerful, they lose
their effectiveness when they
are constantly recharged.
This is a major reason why
more people aren’t buying
electric cars. Researchers at
Antwerp University and the
Collège de France in Paris
have pinpointed the reason in
the journal Nature Materials.
They examined the newest
range of batteries, which work
on the basis of lithium-rich
layered oxides, and saw how
metal ions “jumped” back
and forth between the layers
of metal and the layers of lithium. In the process of charging and discharging, these
ions are sometimes trapped
in the “cavities in between”,
and there are thus fewer “free”
metal ions available as the
battery ages. \ AF
\9
\ lIVInG
weeK in
edUcation
universities may
cut programmes
Flanders’ universities must
cut their offer of programmes,
according to the Flemish
government, which could lead
to students having to travel to a
different province to find their
course of choice. The suggestion is part of efforts to cut
the higher education budget.
Flemish education minister
Hilde Crevits said universities
had already, through the Flemish Inter-University Council, released a broad proposal
noting three possibilities.
According to De Standaard,
the options are: unite small
groups of students following similar courses; increase
collaboration between institutions and with institutions
outside the region for specialised study programmes;
and reduce the number of
programmes on offer.
school adds courses
to help staff port
The
Royal
Athenaeum
in Antwerp is adding a
programme on international
transport and logistics to
address the large number of
vacancies at the city’s port
and high youth unemployment. The secondary school’s
new programme is the result
of a collaboration with the
AP University College, job
and education contact point
Talentenstroom,
training
fund Logos and the Centre for
Adult Education in Antwerp.
The new course is meant for
new secondary school graduates as well as those enrolled
in higher education looking to
change disciplines and young
adults in general with a strong
interest in the port sector.
ua leads european
research network
Antwerp University (UA)
is one of the driving forces
behind the new Young European Research Universities
Network (Yerun), which unites
a group of young universities to encourage collaboration and mobility among
students and staff. Yerun
brings together 18 universities from 12 EU countries.
The Dutch University of Maastricht and the Spanish Autonomous University of Madrid
join UA as the co-founders.
All member universities were
launched less than 50 years ago
and belong to the best universities worldwide for their age
category, according to the QS
Top 50 Under 50-ranking. UA,
which ranked in 14th on the
most recent list, is the only
Belgian university in the new
network, which will make it
easier for staff and students
to work or study at one of the
partner institutions. \ AF
\ 10
Higher education starts early
sixth-year students can now study part-time at a university college
andy furniere
More articles by andy \ flanderstoday.eu
S
tarting in March, finalyear students in secondary
education
can
follow
a course in developmental
psychology from the teacher
training programme at Karel
de Grote University College in
Antwerp.
Since the last academic year,
these students have also been
able to take courses in web technology or network architecture
from the applied informatics
study programme. Last year’s trial
initiative was called Informatica
Vooraf, or Informatics in Advance.
Pupils take certain lessons at the
university college on Wednesday afternoons, but most of the
lessons can be followed online.
© Courtesy karel de Grote university College
If they pass, they are granted
an exemption for these courses
in the first year of their Bachelor’s degree. The exemptions are
not linked exclusively to Karel de
Grote but are valid at all Flemish
university colleges.
According to Inge Lories, spokesperson for Karel de Grote, 21
secondary school pupils regis-
teredlastyearfortheappliedinformatics courses (pictured). “Thirteen of them got an exemption for
their higher education study and
six received a half exemption,” she
told Gazet van Antwerpen. “So the
pass rate is quite high.” Fourteen
of the students went on to register
for the Bachelor’s degree at Karel
de Grote.
According to Het Belang van
Limburg, PXL University College
in Hasselt is also looking into
the possibility of inviting finalyear secondary school students
to participate. “The legislation
concerning higher education
allows students from secondary education to achieve up to 10
study points in higher education,”
explained Heidi Croes, director
of education at PXL. “We want
to provide this opportunity on a
large scale but are still examining
how best to implement it.”
Secondary school pupils have to
pay a registration fee for higher
education courses, but these are
limited by law to €58 plus €0.70
per study point they earn.
Building sector wants own school to train future workers
To boost the teaching of construction in Brussels, the sector federation is planning to build a specialised new school, according to
brusselsnieuws.be. The building
sector has been investing heavily
in construction education in the
capital to resolve the shortage of
qualified workers.
“The return on investment in
Brussels has been very low,” says
Bruno Vandenwijngaert, directorgeneral of the Fund for Vocational
Training in the Construction
Industry. According to Vandenwijngaert, the offer of study
programmes is too fragmented,
with the result that the financial
means are also fragmented. “The
material is not representative of
today’s innovative techniques,” he
says.
As a result, study programmes
attract few students, many of
whom quit before graduating. In
2011, only 76 students in Brussels
completed a construction degree.
What’s more, only a fraction of
© Courtesy Fédération Vaudoise des entrepreneurs
these graduates go on to work
in construction. “After a year,
only 3.9% of them work in the
construction business,” says
Jean-Christophe Vanderhaegen,
director-general of the Brussels
Construction Confederation. “But
there are many vacancies, most of
which are filled by people without
a diploma.”
To improve this situation, Vander-
haegen and Vandenwijngaert have
introduced the German system
of alternating learning. In the
system, pupils aged from 15 to 18
spend one day a week at school
and four days at a business, while
receiving a salary.
According to Vandenwijngaert,
the programme is different from
the Belgian “learning contract”
because the work is specific to
what the student really wants to
do and because the enterprises
are better prepared to train the
youngsters.
The construction federation established a trial project involving
large enterprises, where a mentor
was trained to work with youngsters. Fifteen students were able to
work with the newest techniques
and learned about things such as
safety skills.
The five participating sixth-year
students all decided to continue
with a specialisation year in
construction education. This year,
about 90 students are expected to
take part.
The federation is also looking for
land and investment to build a
prestigious specialised school in
Brussels. The inspiration for the
project is a school established
by the Swiss construction sector
(pictured), according to Vanderhaegen a state-of-the-art school
where about 3,000 students can
study all areas of construction. \ AF
Q&a
PXL University College student Wendy Mellaerts won a Foundation
Against Cancer thesis prize for her work on visual art therapy in palliative care
What is visual arts therapy?
It’s a kind of therapy that helps
people to deal with psychological
problems by creating something.
It can consist of drawing, painting,
clay modelling or another kind of
handicraft. This way, people can
express emotions that are difficult
to formulate in words. I noticed
during my internship in the palliative care sector that it also helps
patients to leave their sickness
behind for a while and concentrate
on something positive. Another
advantage is that the art increases
patients’ self-esteem and provides
images of defining moments in
a person’s life. Many patients in
palliative care feel the need to evaluate their lives.
them with the opportunity to give
a gift to their loved ones.
What sort of art did you create
with patients?
It always depends on their interests and physical capacities. One
woman who was in a very weak
condition was very happy because
she could make a Christmas card
with her favourite colours as a gift
for her family. I also introduced the
“emotion circle”, which patients
could fill with different colours,
with each colour referring to a
certain emotion they felt at that
moment. This also provided carers
with an insight into the patient’s
emotional state. Another concept
is the “life line”, which features
Is visual art therapy already part
of palliative care in Flanders?
Not particularly. Through a survey,
I found that most staff members
in Flanders’ palliative care sector
were unable to explain exactly
what visual art therapy entails.
It is mostly seen as just a way to
offer patients some distraction or
as therapy for children. Initiatives
are necessary to ensure that visual
art therapy becomes integrated
into palliative care in Flanders, as
is already the case in many AngloSaxon countries. \ interview by AF
january 28, 2015
Au naturel
weeK in
activities
ghent shop introduces wine drinkers to a different kind of taste
lisa Bradshaw
More articles by lisa \ flanderstoday.eu
www.atastEaffair.com
W
ine shops and their
knowledgeable staff are
a dime a dozen in a foodloving region like Flanders. It takes
something different to stand out
in the crowd. And A Taste Affair is
something different.
This was immediately apparent
during a recent wine tasting in
their shop. I knew the wines were
organic, but that didn’t explain
it. There was a sharpness to them
that went beyond a high level of
tannin. They were certainly acidic,
but they were slightly sour as well,
sort of like cracking open your first
gueuze beer when you’ve only ever
drunk lager.
The wines are not “organic”, I was
soon corrected. “They are natural.”
Splitting hairs, you might think,
but in fact, there’s something to
the method A Taste Affair has
embraced. The importer, which
recently opened a retail shop on its
site in the Dampoort area of Ghent,
only deals in what they call natural wines – wines that are not only
made from organic grapes but that
contain no additives.
It turns out that when we consumers buy wines marked “organic”,
this only ensures that the grapes
used to make the wine are organic.
Other ingredients and additives do
not have to be organic for the wine
to get the organic label.
But at A Taste Affair, there are no
additives in the wine, organic or
otherwise. “The problem with
the organic label,” says Anneleen
Baetens, one of the 10 people
co-operating to run A Taste Affair,
“is that, legally, it’s all about the
vineyard. What you do after the
vineyard, in the cellar, doesn’t
matter.”
So organic wines can be just as full
of colorants, taste enhancers, yeast
and sulphites as regular old wine.
a Taste affair sells only “natural wines” – organic and no additives
Sulphur dioxide is used in pretty
much every wine you buy; it’s the
additive that controls fermentation in the winemaking process
and prevents oxidation thereafter.
The wines at A Taste Affair contain
very little – and in some cases no –
added sulpher. “Sulphur and yeast
are both naturally present in the
grape,” explains Baetens. “They are
part of the natural fermentation
process, which happens by itself. So
we go one step further than organic
and only work with producers who
add nothing to their wines. We just
want the grapes.”
But fermenting is a tricky business and one that large-scale wine
producers cannot leave to chance.
“The risks are much bigger with
natural winemaking,” confirms
Baetens, “because something can
easily go wrong. The wine goes its
own way; you don’t have much
control over it.”
That’s why the importer, which
supplies restaurants and retail
outlets across Belgium, has spent
bite
traditional alsace fortnight
French cuisine may have a reputation for being
heavy,withallitsbutterandcheese,buttheAlsace
region adds new meaning to the word by adding
things like meat and potatoes to the mix. What
you end up with is a sumptuous hybrid cuisine all
its own, with perfectly blended French-German
fare that includes dishes such as flammeküche,
a savoury bacon and onion tart, and choucroute
royale, a combination of sauerkraut and loads of
different types of meat, mostly pork.
This is the sixth consecutive year that the Traditional Alsace Fortnight has come to Brussels,
and it tends to attract a lot of visitors. The six
emblematic Brussels restaurants taking part are
all located around the Grote Markt: Les Chapeliers, ’T Kelderke, L’Estaminet du Kelderke, La
Rose Blanche, La Brouette and La Taverne du
Passage.
The menus vary, but some typical dishes, aside
from those mentioned above, include: head
cheese, samosas stuffed with sauerkraut, prawns
and ginger, pea soup with smoked sausage, duck
breastwithcaramelisedgingerbread,redcabbage
with chestnuts, ragout of pork cheeks with Pinot
Noir (the Alsace region is also very well known
for its wine), perch fillet with sauerkraut and
juniper berries and Munster cheese pie.
Finally, an Alsatian wouldn’t let you go home
without first having dessert, and these Brussels
restaurants are no different. They offer homemade blueberry cake and Alsatian-style apple pie
served with Kirsch, a type of black morello cherry
brandy, or a variety of sorbets.
Orchestrating the whole event is Michelinstar chef Michel Husser of Le Cerf restaurant in
Marlenheim, Alsace. Like every year, Husser will
rotate between the kitchens of the Brussels chefs
and reveal to them what makes Alsatian cuisine
so unique.
The Traditional Alsace Fortnight, which kicks off
on 30 January, is an initiative of the Association
for the Promotion of Alsace together with Brus-
its two-and-a-half years since
launching working hard to make
contacts. Small producers of natural wine can be difficult to find. If
there are few producers of such
natural wine, there are also few
importers willing to buy it from
you. But once the Ghent importer
found a few, word of mouth spread.
Now that there is a shop, A Taste
Affair is hosting more tastings to
introduce its special product to the
public. An event on 1 March will
feature live music and a reading by
Flemish author Kristien Hemmerechts. Customers can also order all
their wines and other products
online.
The business definitely has its
work cut out for it because most
customers will have never tasted
wine like this. “If you are not used
to it, it’s a little strange because we
are used to wines that go down
easy,” admits Baetens. “Natural
wines have more complexity, and
the acidity is usually higher. With
classic wine, there is often a wood
flavour added, and you taste the
wood rather than the grape. With
natural wines, you taste the grapes.
It’s like drinking grapes.”
This all sounds rather expensive,
but in fact you can get a bottle of
natural wine for as little as €8. If
you have a budget and a menu, the
friendly staff can help you out with
suggestions. Since opening the
shop, A Taste Affair has expanded
into other products, specialising in
raw and organic foods and drinks,
including beer, crackers, honey,
coffee and tea.
A Taste Affair is offering Flanders
Today readers a 5% discount for
in-store or online orders (with free
home delivery) of at least €100. Just
mention code FT2015. Offer is valid
until 28 February
www.Promotion-alsacE.org
Viking Festival
Organised in conjunction
with the exhibition Vikings! at
the Gallo-Roman Museum in
Tongeren (see p15), a weekend
of related events includes a
torchlight Viking procession,
a Viking market, a Viking fashion show and Viking fighting
demonstrations. 30 January to
1 February; free
\ www.vikingfestival.be
Dubieus Design
Indoor market for secondhand and vintage furniture, home accessories and
collectibles from the 1950s
to the present day. Come to
the preview on Friday night
to have your treasures valued
by a professional appraiser.
30-31 January, Designcenter
De Winkelhaak, Lange Winkelhaakstraat 26, Antwerp;
preview €5; market free
\ www.dubieusdesign.be
spring-sprong Festival
Kids got too much energy
from being stuck indoors?
Send them to this fun event,
with 1,000 square metres of
bouncy castles. Two sessions,
10.00-13.00 and 14.00-17.00.
Open to kids aged three to 14.
Older children can compete
in Saturday evening games. 31
January & 1 February, Sporthal
IHAM, Bautersemstraat 59,
Mechelen; €5
\ www.moedigenvrij.be
antwerp Pateekes week
A city-wide celebration of
pastries and cakes! Pick up a
“pateekes pass” for €10 in one
of the participating local craft
bakeries and enjoy a sweet
treat in each location at a
special price. 31 January to 11
February, across Antwerp
\ www.antwerpenkoekenstad.be/pateekesweek
superbowl lXIX
Are you a fan of American
football? Then you won’t want
to miss the biggest game of
the year, between the New
England Patriots and the
Seattle Seahawks. Watch it in
Leuven with hot dogs and bigmatch atmosphere. 1 February, 20.30, De Kemel, Oude
Markt 23, Leuven, free
\ www.tinyurl.com/
superbowl-leuven
Geutelingen Festival
sels hotel and restaurant group Accueil et Tradition. The organisers spent plenty of time scouring
Alsace in search of the region’s best products to
bring to Brussels for the event.
Those lucky enough to get a reservation at one
of the restaurants can indulge to their heart’s
content knowing that for every Alsatian dish or
bottle of wine ordered during the fortnight, €1
will be donated to Nativitas, an humanitarian
association in Brussels. \ Robyn Boyle
A geuteling, a kind of pancake
baked in a wood-fired oven, is
a traditional speciality from
the Flemish Ardennes. During
this annual month-long
festival, the oven museum
in Brakel-Elst will be turning out freshly baked cakes,
while guides explain the
history behind them. Until 22
February, Ommegangstraat 3,
Brakel-Elst (East Flanders)
\ www.geutelingen.be
\ 11
Your dailY news
Sign up now for our
daily and weekly
newsletters with local
headlines, events and
features, tailor-made for
expats in Belgium
Subscribe for free at
www.thebulletin.be
\ arTs
january 28, 2015
The truth in-between
timeless themes are set in contemporary syria in new book by jeroen theunissen
Rebecca Benoot
More articles by rebecca \ flanderstoday.eu
WWW.JEROENTHEUNISSEN.BE
A
fter excursions into poetry
and short stories, Jeroen
Theunissen’s fifth novel
offers a prime example of what
the Ghent-born writer does best –
exploring timeless topics against
the backdrop of contemporary
settings.
Although he teaches cultural
history at the RITS film school in
Brussels, Theunissen considers
himself an author first. “A novel
requires more time and determination than poetry or any other
genre,” he says. “I try to stay close
to current events in my novels, but
I also try to add an extra layer to
the facts at hand.”
His new novel, Onschuld (Innocence), revolves around the
fictional character of Manuel
Horst, a young war photographer
who is kidnapped while on assignment in Syria. After he’s released,
Horst learns that his estranged
father, a renowned psychiatrist,
has died.
On his way home, he meets a pregnant Syrian refugee, Nada, who
accompanies him to Belgium.
Together they try to rebuild their
lives, but he quickly starts to realise that nothing is what it seems.
Is Nada’s story true? Did his father
come looking for him? And for the
reader: Was his time in captivity as
uneventful as he claims?
“I wanted to find out if it was
already possible to write a novel
dealing with the war in Syria,” says
Theunissen, 37. “It’s a subject we
read about and see on the news,
but I think we can never fully grasp
its severity. It had to be a novel that
added something to the topic on a
literary level because I approach
it from a different, non-journalistic angle that slightly alters reality.”
© koen Broos
The result of that effort is a philosophical account of the fine line
between right and wrong and guilt
and innocence, one that has the
intangible truth suspended somewhere in between.
A troubled father-son relationship is at the centre of Onschuld. In
banishing his father from his life,
Horst also seems to have destroyed
a vital part of himself.
“The novel isn’t really about what
happened to Horst in Syria, but
I use those events as a catalyst
to resolve his twisted relationship with his father,” Theunissen
explains. “He is forced to delve into
his father’s past and get to know
him from another angle, and, by
doing this, he also comes to terms
inflict on local populations. “The
novel portrays people who are
traumatised on a daily basis, and
We read about it and see on
the news, but I think we can
never fully grasp its severity
with his own inner turmoil.”
Theunissen (pictured) also wanted
to depict the destruction that wars
one of these traumas in this case
is the war,” he says. “It’s about how
people use and abuse each other
to deal with their own past. Even
when the horror is over, the scars
are still tangible, both globally and
on a personal level.”
Onschuld is a short novel but
weighty because of its scope and
themes. Theunissen is an ambitious author who likes to tackle
major, universal themes in his
work. “I don’t want to write simply
about the relationships of the
suburban middle class; I find that
a bit limiting,” he says. “I think
literature should be just that little
bit extra. I write novels about the
here and now, so certain topics
and criticism are inevitable. With
something like the war in Syria, the
media creates an image of these
events that becomes part of our
daily lives. So it can’t be ignored.”
Onschuld is a real page-turner
nonetheless, a novel that you’re
unable to put down and leaves
you groping for answers. “Because
there are a lot of themes, some
of which are quite heavy I admit,
I wanted to pick up the pace and
blow the reader away,” Theunissen says. “So, at the end of the ride,
they’d wonder how it all swept over
them so quickly.”
And wonder you will, because
Onschuld is a whirlwind tale about
love, truth and betrayal. It details
one man’s winding journey for
redemption, while at the same
time holding up a mirror to our
disconnected and tormented society.
With an ingeniously constructed
novel that will make you ponder
your place in the world, Theunissen illustrates that there are multiple sides to each story.
Onschuld is published by De Bezige
Bij in Dutch
More fresh fiction
veertig jaar liefde
(forty years of love)
zoutkrabber expedities
(salt-scratching Expeditions)
Jan van Loy • De Bezige Bij
Peter Holvoet-Hanssen
• Prometheus
Jan Van Loy’s new novel consists
of a collection of letters that the
main character, Henri, wrote
before, after and during the
Second World War to the daughter he never met. Henri lived no
ordinary life, though; he worked
in a wide variety of jobs and lived
his share of adventures over a
period spanning nearly four
decades. Faster than a high-speed
train, Van Loy’s book offers an
intoxicating mix of war story, spy
thriller, family chronicle and
plain old-fashioned fun. This is
literary entertainment at its
finest.
Peter Holvoet-Hanssen, naval
enthusiast and former Antwerp
city poet, has written a two-part
tale, one that fits together like
the two sides of a shell. Linking
a real-life and an inner voyage,
he tells the tales of Leen Pul,
whose wartime story is based
on the memories of her friend,
and the recent, smouldering
love affair between loner and
sea lover Finbar and the socially
conscious Louise, two opposites
who drift towards each other.
The odd combination makes for
an endearing and quirky novel as
whimsical as the author himself.
Poppy, Eddie en manon
Herman Brusselmans
• Prometheus
Poppy, Eddie en Manon isn’t your
typical crass and laddish Brusselmans book. Instead, it’s a love
story and a sequel to Poppy en
Eddie, the 2014 novel that told the
loving tale of his ex-wife, who was
diagnosed with cancer, and their
dog Eddie. Manon (a pseudonym
for another Brusselmans ex) now
joins the two in this oddly tender
and slightly absurd but very hopeful semi-autobiographical novel.
Sfinx zonder gezicht
(sphinx without a face)
Bavo D’Hooge • Houtekiet
Prolific Flemish author Bavo
D’Hooge published no less than
eight books in 2014. Some were
for young adults but most were
thrillers, the genre in which the
writer excels. After winning the
coveted Hercule Poirot prize in
2013, D’Hooge began writing an
ambitious series devoted to the
undercover cop William Cardon,
with Sfinx zonder gezicht the first
in that instalment. Cardon has to
be someone else every week, and
he can have no attachments –
and no mercy. His initial assignment is to solve a murder at the
Belgian embassy in Paris, but it
soon becomes clear that he isn’t
the only one with secrets.
\ 13
\ arTs
weeK in arts
& cUltUre
Cello added to Queen
elisabeth Competition
The Queen Elisabeth Competition, the prestigious annual
event in Brussels for pianists,
singers and violinists in alternate years, is adding cellists
to its roster in 2017. The cello,
the organisation said, is hugely
popular internationally, but
there is no major international
competition for the instrument. “This is an historic step
that reminds us of the friendship between Queen Elisabeth
of Belgium and Pablo Casals,”
said the organisation, referring
to the late Spanish cellist. “On
top of that, the rich cello repertory will prove a major addition to the other instruments.”
The first cello competition will
be in May 2017, the year of the
competition’s 80th anniversary.
In the meantime, this year’s
competition is for violinists,
with piano following in 2016.
Opera launches
artistic Babysitter
project
Opera/Ballet Vlaanderen has
collaborated with babysitting organisation Sloebersit to
launch The Artistic Babysitter.
From now on, if you buy a ticket
to one of the company’s opera
or ballet performances online,
you will automatically receive
an email inviting you to take
part in the programme that lets
you drop off your child at the
home of a pre-approved babysitter, who who will involve him
or her in various creative activities. Every Artistic Babysitter
has some kind of talent such
as music, theatre or drawing.
Babysitters are recommended
to parents based on what kind
of activity is preferred and the
age of the child. Parents pay the
going rate of €4 per hour for the
babysitter. Sloebersit currently
lists 300 Artistic Babysitters
across Flanders.
\ www.sloEBErsit.BE
Peter Goossens
makes new pistolet
If you’ve never felt your wallet
was thick enough to offer
your custom to Peter Goossens’
three-Michelin-star
Hof van Cleve restaurant in
Kruishoutem, perhaps you’d
fancy eating a sandwich developed by the chef for the Brussels
deli and eatery Pistolet Original. Pistolet Original, located
on Joseph Stevensstraat in the
Zavel, is known for its pistolet
sandwiches filled abundantly
with fresh ingredients. Goossens’ specially designed pistolet contains smoked mackerel, Greek yoghurt, caviar
and candied tomatoes, among
other ingredients. The pistolet
will be available at the deli from
2 February until the end of the
summer for €9.
\ 14
Celebrating the blues
Exhibition traces melancholy in art, from the symbolist to the abstract
christophe verbiest
More articles by Christophe \ flanderstoday.eu
www.musEumdrguislain.BE
A new exhibition at the Dr Guislain
Museum in Ghent serves as a
showcase for how feelings of
melancholy are translated into
art, proving in the process that
paintings inspired by sadness
aren’t always sad
M
elancholy is associated
with black bile, but it
has also produced an
endless amount of great artworks.
“All melancholics are geniuses,”
Aristotle wrote some 24 centuries
ago. Though that’s perhaps a bit of
an exaggeration, history has proven
him mostly right; melancholia has
produced great art, be it books,
film or music.
Melancholy has also been a
great source of inspiration for
the visual arts, as the exhibition
Dark Chambers: On Melancholy
and Depression proves.
Ghent’s Dr Guislain Museum
had good reason to mount this
show. Depression is mostly talked
about in negative terms today, but
“melancholia” has been a state of
being with a positive connotation
for centuries. It’s been around since
the Greek physician Hippocrates
characterised it as one of the four
temperaments, which were each
linked to a bodily fluid.
For the sad and moody temperament, that was black bile, which
translates as melancholia in
Greek.
Aristotle believed melancholics
were both intelligent and sensitive. These days, “depressed
people are relegated to doctors’
surgeries and hospitals,” note
the Dark Chambers curators in
the exhibition catalogue. They
go on to quote Swedish professor Karin Johannisson, author
of the study Melancholy Rooms,
who said that “melancholy is the
opposite of what is expected of
the modern ego: strength and
health, control and enthusiasm,
living in the here and now”.
© Galerie De Zwarte Panter
Flemish artist jan Cox's 1944 self-portrait
The exhibition serves as a showcase
for how melancholic feelings can
be translated into art first and foremost. And those representations
can be quite diverse, it turns out.
© Fondation Francès, senlis
Irène scene from Dutch photographer erwin Olaf’s 2007 Grief series
You might associate melancholia
with gloomy images, but there are
many other ways to visualise the
feeling.
One of the most striking early examplesinthisexhibitionis“Melencolia
I”, an etching of a brooding artist by
German Albrecht Dürer in the early
16th century. Or take the portrait
of St Jerome, which may or may not
have been painted by Flemish artist
Quentin Metsys (its origins remain
unclear): the priest, his left index
finger resting on a skull, seems to
be in a state of acedia (now referred
to as burnout).
It’s only in the second half of the
19th century, when the seeds
of modern art start germinating, that artists try to capture
the melancholic feeling in how
they paint and draw. A striking illustration of that evolution
is “Meditation”, a particularly
gloomy drawing by the Brussels
symbolist Xavier Mellery, whose
oeuvre is steeped in melancholy.
The same goes for “Jeune femme
de dos assise sur un tabouret”
(Young Woman Sitting on a
Stool), a painting by his Ostend
colleague Léon Spilliaert.
Twenty-first century works
comprise more or less half of
Dark Chambers, and, instead
of showing as many different
contemporary artists as possible, the curators have opted
to present multiple works by a
smaller group of artists.
Among the most impressive
modern artworks in the show are
those by Tinus Vermeersch. His
desolate landscapes, devoid of
human life, painted and drawn in
muted browns, greens and greys,
seem to portend disaster, though
it’s unclear what that calamity will
be. Vermeersch, who turns 40 next
year, is indisputably one of Flanders’ most promising lesser-known
artists, and his works here beg the
question if it isn’t time for a solo
exhibition.
Melancholy is the
opposite of what
is expected of
the modern ego
Vermeersch shares a certain colour
sensibility with Marc Vanderleenen, though that’s where the
parallel begins and ends. The latter
has been dubbed the most pessimistic painter of his generation
and a dark, yet witty work like
“Man Falling Forward” shows why.
A similar combination of humour
and melancholy can be found in
Ruben Kindermans’ “Playing”, in
which the video artist performs
seemingly useless actions.
The Dark Chambers curators
focused on a very specific part
of the oeuvre of the rising Polish
artist Wilhelm Sasnal: paintings inspired by rock bands like
Sonic Youth and Einstürzende
Neubauten. The melancholy in
these works mainly stems from
the colours, or the lack thereof.
Also included are three pieces
from the complex, extended
until 31 may
series Drawings of Old Trees that
landed Flemish artist Patrick
Van Caeckenbergh an invitation
to the Venice Biennale two years
ago.
But the most impressive – and
most melancholic – work in
Dark Chambers is “Zeeberg” (Sea
Mountain), a recent painting by
Thierry De Cordier. It looks like
a black mountain shrouded in
clouds, but it’s actually a sea,
painted as a looming force. It
seems overpowering at first, but
when you stare at it for a while,
the image begins to shift and
reveals its hidden vulnerability.
The works included in this exhibition are quite diverse – from the
monumental, brightly coloured
painting “Sinn bleibt Viech” by
German artist Jonas Burgert, to the
circumspect abstraction of Karel
Dierickx, and from Marie-Françoise Plissar’s black-and-white
nightscape of a rundown Brussels building to Gilbert Fastenaekens’ photos of post-industrial landscapes and sculptures by Juan
Muñoz.
Still, they all seem to share one
trait: They hint at a void that
can’t be filled. Melancholia, after
all, is a mourning for a loss or the
pain that stems from longing for
something that is unattainable. It
can come as a chilly feeling when
you’re alone in a dark room, but,
as Dark Chambers shows, drinking in other people’s melancholia
can have a soothing effect.
Or, in the words of Joni Mitchell:
“There’s comfort in melancholy.”
Dr Guislain Museum
J Guislainstraat 43, Ghent
\ aGenDa
january 28, 2015
A kinder, gentler Scandinavian
classical
Vikings!
until 15 march
V
ikings! begins in a dark
room with 10 giant screens
on which images of daily
life among the Norsemen create a
video collage. Missing are scenes
of hirsute savages in horned
helmets wielding maces and
rough-hewn shields. Instead, the
viewer is shown craftsmen at the
forge or carving wood, women
grinding grain and spinning wool,
children at play and a peaceful,
agrarian society.
The exhibition, now on view at
the Gallo-Roman Museum in
Tongeren, makes it clear from the
outset that its aim is to dispel any
cartoonish misconceptions you
may have about who the Vikings
© statens Historiska Museum
a pendant based on
Thor’s hammer from
the Vikings! exhibition
Gallo-roman Museum, Tongeren
www.galloromEinsmusEum.BE
were and to show instead a diverse,
sophisticated people with a rich
material culture.
Created in co-operation with The
Swedish History Museum, Vikings!
contains hundreds of original artefacts, from tools to jewellery to,
yes, weapons. Interactive screens
and extensive info panels place the
objects in their social and historical context.
A particular emphasis is given to
the role of women in Viking society. They are shown to have played
an important role in the running of
the farm and to have literally held
the keys to the household.
Sections of the exhibition also deal
with religious beliefs, agricultural
practices,
what Vikings
ate and wore,
their skill at
metalwork, their
shipbuilding prowess and their extensive
trade contacts. Recreations and replicas help
to complete the
picture.
Of course, the
Vikings’ reputation as fierce
and
sometimes ruthless
warriors was well
deserved. While acknowledging their many incursions into
neighbouring
lands from their
homeland in Scandinavia, the exhibition suggests that the
pillaging and plundering
usually only occurred after
peaceful attempts to expand
their territory had failed.
Whetherornotthere
is any evidence to
support this view,
it’s characteristic
of an overall strategy to rehabilitate
the Vikings’ bloodthirsty reputation. In
this, Vikings! is certainly successful. \ Diana Goodwin
concert
visUal arts
Ennio morricone
Emilio lopez-menchero and Esther ferrer
3 february, 20.00
Paleis 12, Brussels
www.Palais12.com
After several announcements and
postponements due to health
concerns, the legendary 86-yearold soundtrack composer Ennio
Morricone is finally bound for
Brussels to perform his best-loved
themes with a 200-strong orchestra. The Italian maestro earned
his reputation scoring spaghetti
westerns in the 1960s, then went
on to become the most famous
soundtrack composer of all time
(sorry, John Williams). Among
Morricone’s more than 500 works
are the instantly recognisable
themes of Once Upon a Time in
the West, The Untouchables, Days
of Heaven and The Good, The Bad
and the Ugly. This one is not to be
missed. \ Georgio Valentino
until 29 march
Mol-born, Brussels-based artist
Emilio Lopez-Menchero has been
perplexing the public for years with
his installation-performance art
interventions, most notably a Cold
War-style checkpoint erected in
2010 between the capital’s gentrified Dansaertstraat district and
neighbouring (and largely immigrant) Molenbeek. This Centrale
exhibition sees Lopez-Menchero
begin an artistic dialogue with
Spanish artist Esther Ferrer. The
two share more than Iberian roots;
both insist that contemporary art
must be socially engaged. Together
they tackle controversial issues of
identity and freedom through the
spectrum of artistic media, from
painting to performance. \ GV
Centrale, Brussels
www.cEntralE-art.BE
© “Trying to be Frida” /
sophie Bibet & emilio lopez-Menchero
international Holocaust remembrance day
In the dead of January, the openair summer festival is both distant
memory and vague prophecy. Ostend’s forward-thinking
arts association Kunstvaarders
proposes a weather-appropriate
alternative. The inaugural edition
of Chambres d’O puts music, theatre, dance, literature and the visual
arts in cosy living rooms across the
city and invites you to meet not just
the artists but the townsfolk who
host them. It’s a sprawling affair
that features over a dozen performances, including several offerings
for the kids. Local cultural centre
Vrijstaat O serves as festival hub and
exhibition space showcasing recycled lamp art by creative collective
Onbetaalbaar. Let there be light. \ GV
www.kunstvaardErs.BE
On 27 January, 1945, the Red Army,
on its march toward Berlin, liberated the survivors of a thenunknown Nazi extermination
camp with a name now synonymous with genocide: Auschwitz.
This year marks the 70th anniversary of the event, a day sanctified by the United Nations as
International Holocaust Remem-
perforMance
antwerp/Brussels
Shappi Khorsandi: Standup by the Iranian-born British comedian known for her
razor-sharp wit and mischievous delivery (in English). 30
January 20.00, Zuiderpershuis,
Antwerp; 31 January 20.45,
Bozar, Brussels
\ www.livecomedy.be
Ghent
Adela Campallo: Performance
by the Spanish flamenco
dancer who got her start at age
nine with her family’s Seville
ensemble La Familla Campallo,
and since 2002 stars as soloist
with Antonio Canales. 6 February 20.15, Handelsbeurs, Kouter
29
Bruges
chambres d’o
27 january
\ www.concertgebouw.be
visUal arts
event
across Ostend
Bach Academie: The fifth
edition of this multifaceted
Bach festival is themed Ode to
Death and features renditions
of JS Bach’s work by Philippe
Herreweghe and his Collegium Vocale, funeral music by
rising stars Vox Luminis and
performances by top soloists,
in addition to an exhibition, a
lecture by Christoph Wolff (in
English) and the Lamentarium, an annual walk filled with
poetry and music. 28-31 January, Concertgebouw, 't Zand 34
\ www.handelsbeurs.be
festival
31 january & 1 february
Bruges
kazerne Dossin, Mechelen
www.kazErnEdossin.Eu
brance Day. Mechelen’s Kazerne
Dossin Holocaust and human
rights museum observes the anniversary by offering free entry,
extended hours and a special
evening programme that includes
a UN-sponsored testimonial reel
and the opening of an exhibition
of art by Holocaust refugee Osias
Hofstätter. \ GV
Right, Before I Die: A project
by American artist Andrew
George in collaboration with
Providence Holy Cross Medical Center in California, resulting in a portrait series featuring
20 terminally ill patients and
their views on death and dying.
Until 28 May, Sint-Jans Hospital,
Mariastraat 38
\ www.museabrugge.be
festival
across Flanders
Poëzieweek: This year’s annual
Poetry Week is themed love and
features a wide range of poetryrelated activities around every
corner, from schools, libraries and book shops to theatres, concert halls and cultural
centres. 29 January to 4 February, across Flanders
\ www.poezieweek.com
literatUre
Brussels
André Brink: The legendary
South-African author (A Dry
White Season) speaks with KU
Leuven professor Ludo Teeuwen about his life and work
(in English), followed by a
book signing. 5 February 19.00,
Bozar, Ravensteinstraat 23
\ www.bozar.be
© Marc Vandecasteele
© Courtesy kazerne Dossin
\ 15
\ BaCkPaGe
january 28, 2015
Talking Dutch
when you can’t see the trees for the signs
derek Blyth
More articles by Derek \ flanderstoday.eu
I
t’s not difficult to get lost in this
region. Sometimes there are
no signs at all. At other times
there are far too many, according
to a road traffic expert.
Onze Vlaamse wegen staan dicht
bezaaid met borden die de weg
aangeven naar toeristische trekpleisters, campings, restaurants,
handelszaken,
industriezones
en andere locaties – Our Flemish roads are saturated with signs
pointing the way to tourist attractions, campsites, restaurants, businesses, industrial zones and other
places.
But this is not necessarily a good
thing for road safety, according to
Antwerp lecturer Joris Willems in
De Morgen. Ongeveer de helft van
alle borden kan weg – We could
get rid of about half of the signs,
he says, which would save taxpayers at least €16 million a year.
It could also save us from a few
bumps – Op veel plaatsen schieten de borden hun doel daardoor
helemaal voorbij en komt zelfs de
verkeersveiligheid in het gedrang
– In many places the signs serve
no purpose whatsoever and sometimes even represent a danger.
Willems thinks that less is more.
CONNECT WITH US
© Hannes De Geest/Flickr
“Hoe meer verkeersborden er
staan, hoe minder de waarde van
een individueel bord” – “The more
signs you have, the less useful each
one is,” he explains. “Daardoor
wordt belangrijke informatie
minder belangrijk, en gaat uiteindelijk zelfs de minder belangrijk
informatie volledig verloren” –
“This means that important information becomes less important,
and less important information is
simply lost altogether.”
The number of signs is indeed
staggering – Meer dan 1,6 miljoen
verkeersborden en -lichten staan
er in Vlaanderen – There are more
than 1.6 million traffic signs and
traffic lights in Flanders, according to a survey by the verkeersbordendatabank – the traffic sign
data bank.
The town of Vilvoorde heads the
list in terms of sign density, with
a staggering 1,500 squeezed into
each square kilometre of municipal territory. Ghent, by contrast,
manages to survive with just 500
signs per square kilometre.
Now the road traffic authority has
realised that signs are not always
effective. Het is soms moeilijk om
door het bos de bomen te zien –
It’s sometimes difficult to see the
trees for the wood, they argue on
their website.
So they are planning to chop down
the signs that don’t serve any
purpose. Op die manier kunnen de
overgebleven borden hun signalisatiefunctie optimaal uitoefenen
en creëren we een overzichtelijk
en veilig wegbeeld – By so doing,
the signs that are left will be able
to perform their role of guiding
people, and we will have a clearer
and safer road environment.
You should then be able to see the
trees, but not the accidents.
Tweet us your thoughts @FlandersToday
Poll
a. Good idea. The danger is on our doorstep, and a direct response is required. I feel safer
33%
b. Good idea, but I don’t like to see it and hope they’re gone in a month, as promised
33%
c. Bad idea. The terrorists have reached their goal already – forcing us to live in fear
33%
embassies. One in three feel safer
as a result; one in three hope the
measure is temporary – although
a permanent military presence
on the streets is a feature in other
European capitals, and not many
eyebrows are raised.
In the meantime, police are stopping school patrols and clos-
\ next week's question:
ing police stations because of the
threat. So perhaps you feel that
maybe the military is the only
protection we have.
The other one in three think this
is a bad idea because it’s giving in
to the terrorists’ primary aim: to
instil fear in the population.
Antwerp artist Luc Tuymans has been found guilty of plagiarism for copying a press photo to create a painting,
but he plans to appeal. What do you think?
Log in to the Flanders Today website at www.flanderstoday.eu and click on VOTE!
\ 16
Elimane Coulibaly @EliCoulibaly
No Points From Ghent , congratulations to Ghent Football =
Fair Play Football = not war Football = no hate @Standard_
RSCL @kvoostende
In response to: Wickmayer makes fourth round in Australian
Open
George Caraman @GCaraman
@flanderstoday next opponent @simona_halep
Andrew Stroehlein @astroehlein
Why doesn't anyone just open a café or deli or restaurant in
#Brussels? Why is everything a “new concept”?
Manuel De La Mare @ManuelDeLaMare
Flying to brussel, and tonight @versuz hasselt, so happy to be
back!
In response to: Exhibition celebrates giants of Belgian sport
Joe Mares
Two real champions
Hozier
Brussels, you are a pretty thing.
LIKE US
facebook.com/flanderstoday
the last word
what do you think of soldiers being deployed to the streets of antwerp and
Brussels amid fears of terrorist attacks?
An unprecedented result this week:
equal thirds for each of the three
options. Two of the responses are
somewhat related, however, so it’s
hard to say that our readers are
evenly divided.
Most of you think it’s a good idea
for soldiers to be deployed in sensitive areas such as synagogues or
voices of
flanders today
End of an era
“It’s unbelievable how things
have changed in 30 years. Brussels is now a bustling, cultural
city. Back then things were different. We were the place to be,
because there was nothing else.”
Culture programmer Niklaas Van
den Abeele recalls the early days of
the VUB’s KultuurKaffee, which held
its final party at the weekend
in balance
“When I started arguing cases 42
years ago, there were only men
walking around in the courthouse. Now the magistrature has
become a largely female profession.”
Veteran lawyer Jef Vermassen on
the statistic released this week
that shows that women are in the
majority in the legal profession
new neighbours
“They’re friendly people. A little
remote, but friendly. Every day
they brought us coffee and
biscuits. They were obviously
pleased we were here.”
A Belgian paratrooper stationed
outside a Jewish school in Antwerp
rhyme sublime
“It’s a very unfashionable
genre. It’s thoughtful and slow;
it responds in no way to the
contemporary requirements of
entertainment. There’s little or
no place in our society for such a
vulnerable art.”
Peter Verhelst, one of the nominees
for this year’s Herman De Coninck
prize for poetry
[A\P