Anewera

#419
erkenningsnummer p708816
MARCH 3, 2016 \ NEWSWEEKLY - € 0,75 \ ReAd MORe AT WWW.FlAndeRSTOdAY.eu
cuRRenT AFFAIRS \ p2
pOlITIcS \ p4
iNvesTOR CHaMPs
buSIneSS \ p6
InnOvATIOn \ p7
aLL iN THe FaMiLY
Nippon Shokubai has won
Flanders Investment & Trade’s
annual trophy for expanding its
factory in Antwerp province to its
largest outside of Japan
Ground-breaking research from
Leuven links immune response
to the make-up of the family,
with implications for improving
resistance to illness
\6
\7
educATIOn \ p9
ART & lIvIng \ p10
MY bROTHeR’s keePeR
Flemish director Felix
Van Groeningen’s
Sundance awardwinning film Belgica
opens in cinemas
this week
\ 14
A new era
© Morteza Nikoubazl/ZUMA Wire
Flanders gears up for business with a post-sanctions Iran
lee gillette
More articles by Lee \ flanderstoday.eu
The lifting of international sanctions on Iran has opened a
wealth of new trade opportunities, and Flemish officials and
companies are ready to do business in the world’s largest
untapped emerging market.
S
purred by the lifting of international sanctions on Iran,
Flanders’ international trade agency has reopened its
representation office in Tehran and will embark on a
major economic mission later this year.
Minister-president Geert Bourgeois, whose portfolio also
includes foreign policy, has hailed both developments. In a
press statement, he called Iran “a country with huge poten-
tial in the Middle East. For our Flemish ports and companies, including the maritime sector, the opening of the
Iranian market means new opportunities”.
Yes it does, agrees Kris Put from Flanders Investment &
Trade (FIT), who has just hired an Iranian to run the Tehran
office. But he cautions that creating those new opportunities will take time.
Having spent nearly five years in Iran, he saw sanctions take
their toll. “They became really strict in 2011, when governments banned more export goods and required specific
approval for most others.” Most importantly, he points out,
almost all bank transfers were frozen – and still are frozen.
“This made trade nearly impossible. Even eligible companies
didn’t bother trying.”
US pressure against doing any business with Iran was no
encouragement. Thus much of Iran’s formal economy came
to a standstill.
During these same years, despite a sanctions-induced brain
drain, the Iranian population under the age of 35 ballooned
to 70%. “They want jobs; they want to consume; they want a
future,” says Put. “You can’t stop demographic development;
that’s what the Iranian government is facing.”
That is Iran’s rationale for striking a deal with the international community, he explains. Sounds straightforward, but
continued on page 5
\ CURRENT AFFAIRS
NMBS tests free wi-fi on trains
belgian railway runs pilot wi-fi project on Ostend-eupen line
Alan Hope
Follow Alan on Twitter \ @AlanHopeFT
N
ational rail authority NMBS has begun a test project
on its Ostend-Eupen line to provide free wi-fi on
trains. The project will last three months, but the
provision of wi-fi on trains in general will have to wait until
2019.
Federal ministers for telecommunications (Alexander De
Croo) and mobility (Jacqueline Galant) joined NMBS chief
executive Jo Cornu for the inaugural run of one of the first
trains equipped with wi-fi. Two trains on the route will be
fitted; the wi-fi will be available in first and second class cars
during off-peak hours, but only in first class during peak
commuter hours.
“A data connection in the train is one way of allowing people
to be more productive, or to watch a Netflix film or a YouTube
video,” said NMBS commercial director Bart De Groote. “In
either case, they can make good use of their time, unlike in
the car.”
Depending on the results of the evaluation following the test,
the system will be extended to other routes in 2017. Cornu
asked De Croo to ensure that mobile operators cover the
entire rail network, so that the service could finally be available on all trains by 2019.
Whether the service will remain free at that point remains
to be seen. “This is a very big investment that we have to
find some way of making back,” De Groote said. Some European countries, including the Netherlands, Sweden and Italy,
already offer free wi-fi on all trains.
Passengers who make use of the new connection can offer
their opinion and impressions via email to [email protected].
Stuyven, Van Avermaet win as road race season kicks off
The cycle road racing season kicked off
last weekend, with wins for Greg Van
Avermaet and rising star Jasper Stuyven.
Lokeren’s Van Avermaet (pictured) took
the Omloop Het Nieuwsblad on Saturday, while Stuyven, from Leuven, won
Sunday’s Kuurne-Brussel-Kuurne.
Stuyven, from the Trek-Segafredo team,
held off Van Avermaet, local legend
Tom Boonen and world champion
Peter Sagan to win by 17 seconds. He
had crashed in the previous day’s race
and had to ride with bandaged hands
on Sunday.
The 23-year-old is seen as one of
© Courtesy De Standaard
Belgium’s most promising new talents.
He was the 2009 junior road world
champion, won the 2010 junior edition
of Paris-Roubaix and became a profes-
sional rider in 2014.
Van Avermaet came second in the
Omloop two years ago and has regularly
finished on the podium in major spring
races without claiming a win, but this
time he was able to keep his poise for
his first victory of the season, holding
off Sagan and Tiesj Benoot in a sprint
finish.
Meanwhile, Stig Broeckx was knocked
down by a medical motorbike during
the Kuurne-Brussel-Kuurne and was
taken to hospital with a fractured
collarbone and rib. \ Leo Cendrowicz
Motorist drives three kilometres on pre-metro lines
A man who drove his SUV into a tram
tunnel in Brussels and kept going for
three kilometres before becoming
trapped on the tram lines faces a hefty
bill for the recovery operation, a spokesperson for the Brussels public transport
authority MIVB said.
“We have an agreement with our insurance agency; anyone who holds up
transport has to pay compensation,”
said spokesperson Guy Sablon. “How
much exactly depends on the duration
of the problem and the type of transport
involved.”
The man, who is in his 60s, brought tram
services to a standstill on three lines for
several hours on Monday night when he
drove into the pre-metro tunnel near
the Albert station in Vorst, eventually
passing through four stations to finally
run aground in South Station. He subsequently failed an alcohol breath test.
Motorists occasionally enter a tram
tunnel by mistake, said Sablon, but
can usually exit quickly. “This is the
first time we’ve seen anything like this.
There’s no way he didn’t know he was
somewhere he didn’t belong.”
The car had to be removed by a special
tow vehicle intended for trams, and traffic on lines 3, 4 and 51 was suspended.
An inspection team checked the section
of the network concerned to ensure
that the Range Rover had not caused
damage to the tracks or other installations. The driver will be billed for the
© Bastien Nguyen/Twitter
entire operation.
“It’s fortunate that the car didn’t come
across a tram on its way,” Sablon said.
“Luckily, nobody was hurt.” (See poll,
p16) \ AH
March brings
electricity tax and
cheaper medications
A number of administrative changes come into
effect on 1 March. The charge known as the
Turteltaks comes into force in Flanders, adding
an estimated €100 to a normal household’s
annual electricity bill. The tax will be charged by
suppliers either in instalments or at the end of
the year.
Ecocheques can now be used for a wider range
of purchases including solar panels, high-yield
boilers, bicycles, energy meters and soot filters.
The price of various prescription medications
comes down by up to 54% in the case of antibiotics and 61% in the case of essential drugs. The
cost of generic medications is decreasing by 17%
to encourage their use.
Restrictive contracts applied by breweries to
pub managers will disappear under a new code
of conduct that gives managers more freedom to
decide which products they stock in addition to
the brewers’ own brands.
Construction workers now have to be registered on all sites where works have a value of
€500,000, down from €800,000 before. The measure is intended to combat the use of imported
foreign labour to avoid tax and social insurance.
The obligatory vaccination against rabies for dogs
is abolished. The obligation previously applied
to all parts of Belgium south of the Sambre and
Maas rivers, as well as campsites. Belgium has
been officially free of rabies since 2001.
Flemish public broadcaster VRT welcomes its
new managing director, Paul Lembrechts, a
trained veterinarian who comes to the company
from a career in banking. \ AH
457 million
27%
kilograms of waste per resident per
year by 2022, down from 157kg at
present, planned by Flemish environment minister Joke Schauvliege. Coastal towns will be allowed
more waste
\2
hectolitres of beer sold by AB InBev
in 2015. That’s the equivalent of
18.3 billion pintjes, or about 25 for
every man, woman and child on
the planet
ofspeedcamerasonFlanders’roads
are not working properly, mobility
minister Ben Weyts revealed in a
parliamentary answer
121
regional buses and 10 school buses
ordered by Flemish public transport authority De Lijn from coach
builder VDL of Roeselare, at a cost
of €27 million
officially recognised Syria fightersfrom Belgium, of whom 117 have
returned to Belgium. 197 came
out of Brussels and 195 from Flanders. Vilvoorde, long recognised as
having a problem, had 27
MARcH 3, 2016
week iN bRieF
Belgian
state
security
services performed their
job adequately in relation to
the terrorist attacks in Paris
last November, the I Committee, which oversees the intelligence services, has concluded.
The service did its job in collecting information on the terrorists
– all of them French nationals –
who had become known to the
Belgian services.
Last week saw 300 people take
part in a large-scale emergency
exercise in the new SchumanJosaphat tunnel in Brussels,
ahead of the tunnel’s opening in
April. The exercise took about
four hours and was done in the
presence of federal home affairs
minister Jan Jambon, Brussels
minister Cécile Jodogne and EU
director of security Ilkka Salmi.
The tunnel is monitored by a
control room and 170 cameras in
the Schuman station and tunnel.
The Dutch owners of the cargo
ship Flinterstar, which sank off
Zeebrugge last autumn, have
to pay the costs of the ship’s
salvage, the court of appeal in
Ghent has ruled. The shipping
company Flinter, of Barendrecht,
had invoked the maritime rule of
abandonment, where the owner
of a wreck can refuse all responsibility for salvage, but that was
contested by Belgium’s federal
minister for the North Sea, Bart
Tommelein.
The Flemish cancer fund Kom
op tegen Kanker has begun an
action to allow cancer patients
to carry on with their studies
without losing the child allowance. At present, older students
who sign up for fewer than 27
credits, or 17 hours per week, in
an academic year lose the right
to child allowance, even if their
studies have been interrupted by
illness and treatments.
FaCe OF FLaNdeRs
Brussels-City
council
has
approved works on the Stefania
tunnel, which closed in January for safety reasons. The works
involve replacing concrete in a
section 60 metres long and should
be finished by the end of May. The
Montgomery tunnel, meanwhile,
which links the end of the E40
with Montgomery square, is the
latest Brussels tunnel to close,
after a slab of concrete rose by
eight centimetres. The tunnel was
closed in both directions, and the
above-ground tram 81 diverted
to prevent further damage to the
tunnel on Montgomeryplein.
Flemish artist Wim Delvoye has
lost an action against the placing
of two wind turbines along the E40
and Brussels-Ghent railway line
at Melle in East Flanders, after a
decision by Flemish environment
minister Joke Schauvliege. The
minister was ruling on an objection to a permit granted by East
Flemish authorities. The location
is close to Delvoye’s home.
A director and psychiatrist of
an institution and seven police
officers, all involved in the 2010
death of Jonathan Jacobs, have
had their sentences confirmed
by a court in Antwerp. Jacobs
died in a Mortsel cell while
being restrained by police officers during a psychotic episode.
He had previously been refused
entry to a psychiatric hospital in
Boechout. The accused were tried
in absentia in May last year after
they failed to show. The police
officers were sentences to four
monthssuspendedforinvoluntary
manslaughter. The two officials of
the hospital were sentenced to six
months suspended for criminal
negligence.
The winter period for gas and
electricity, during which utility
companies may not cut off supply
for non-payment of bills, has been
extended until the end of March.
Normally the period ends on 1
March.
Staff at Delhaize and Albert
Heijn stores being closed by
owner Ahold Delhaize – created
through a merger last year –
have begun protests. Last week
saw actions at stores in Antwerp
Groenplaats, Turnhout and
Ghent Overpoort, each one nominated by the competition authorities for sale or closure in order to
approve the merger on competition grounds. Eight Albert Heijn
stores and an as-yet undisclosed
number of Delhaize franchises
must close.
The court of appeal in Ghent has
refused to overturn a judgement
of a lower court, which rejected
a suit filed by victims of sexual
assault by clergy. The action
involved 36 victims of sexual
abuse who tried to hold the
Belgian bishops’ conference and
the Vatican responsible for what
they claimed was damages caused
by the cover-up of sexual abuse in
the church.
The new traffic plan for Ghent’s
city centre has been passed after a
marathon city council debate lasting eight hours. The plan divides
the city centre into six zones, with
the aim of diverting through traffic elsewhere. The dispute covered
the question of citizen participation, which opposition parties
CD&V and N-VA thought should
be in the form of a referendum.
Consumer affairs minister Kris
Peeters has announced the launch
of a one-stop shop for all victims
of scams and fraud, where they
can find advice while registering
their experience. The new reporting point does not investigate
individual cases.
\ meldpunt.belgie.be
OFFside
Hotel Mama
A judge in Kortrijk has confirmed what most mums
in Flanders knew already: Your mum must cater to all
your needs for free, even if you’re in your 20s.
The mum in question is Claudine Deprez from Menen,
West Flanders. She has three grown children, all of
whom live with her. Two of them kick in €250 a month
to help with costs, which is what you might expect
from working adults – the sum of €8.33 a day for gas,
electricity, water, food and drink, not to mention rent.
The third offspring, a man of 27, refuses to contribute,
even though he, like his siblings, has a full-time job.
Deprez, 53, hauled him up before the justice of the
peace, who ordered the delinquent son to leave Hotel
Mama within eight days. Deprez, soft hearted mother
that she is, could not bring herself to kick her chick out
of the nest. That was three years ago.
The son did leave the family home in the end, under
police escort, when an argument over money and
responsibilities got out of hand. Deprez tried again to
get an agreement, and the case came before the family
tribunal last week, which ruled that she had no right
© Tim de Waele/Corbis
Sven nys
He is the Mohammed Ali, Usain
Bolt and Eddy Merckx of cyclocross: Sven Nys so dominates his
sport that his name is now synonymous with it.
He has won countless baubles in
chaotic scrambles through the
grime, mostly in the uniquely
thick, muddy forest and fields
of Flanders. He still starts virtually every cyclo-cross race as the
favourite and has appeared on
podiums so often that it often
seems like this is more of a natural habitat than his own saddle.
Yet, this weekend, it comes to an
end. In a two-day cycling event
at the 23,000-seater Sportpaleis
called Merci Sven, he brings the
curtain down on his extraordinary
career. At the age of 39, he says
he’s had enough of the relentless
demands of the sport. (Although,
given that he rescinded a previous
plan to hang up his cycling shoes
in 2014, it might be worth checking back this time next year.)
Nys is known as the Cannibal
from Baal, or simply the General.
His roster of glory includes seven
World Cups, 46 World Cup races,
nine Belgian national championships, three national mountain
bike titles and over 150 competitive victories. Surprisingly, he
holds “only” two world championship titles (Sankt Wendel,
Germany in 2005 and Louisville,
Kentucky in 2013).
Cyclo-cross is a twisted, Bizarro
version of classic cycling: Riders
force their light mountain bikes
through thick mud, and when the
hills become too steep and the
mud too heavy, they dismount
and carry their bikes on their
shoulders.
Flanders looms over the sport –
14 of the 23 World Cup winners
have been from the region – and
Nys now leaves the field to fellow
Flemings like Kevin Pauwels, Bart
Aernouts, Klaas Vantornout, Rob
Peeters and Bart Wellens.
Nys began racing BMX bikes at
the age of eight, winning eight
national titles before switching
to cyclo-cross, where he turned
professional in 1998. He won
everything there was to win in
the sport and more, claiming the
Belgian Sports Personality of the
Year in 2006.
He will remain in cycling as
manager of the Telenet-Fidea
team and will incorporate the
professional team and different
development squads with the
Sven Nys Cycling Center, an offroad cycling experience centre he
plans to open soon in Baal, near
his home.
Last week, after his final race,
Nys was still saying his goodbyes,
tweeting: “Thanks everyone for
all these messages all those fine
words all those images and all
those warm hugs.”
\ Leo Cendrowicz
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.
© Ingimage
to charge her kids for living with her.
Although Deprez’s son is earning a salary, she cannot
impose a charge on him unless he has signed a contract,
said the judge. In the absence of such a contract, mum
walked away empty-handed. Caveat parens. \ AH
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 Mediahuis AdPro
cOnTRIbuTORS Rebecca Benoot, Bartosz
Brzeziński, Derek Blyth, Leo Cendrowicz,
Andy Furniere, Lee Gillette, Diana
Goodwin, Clodagh Kinsella, Catherine
Kosters, Toon Lambrechts, Ian Mundell,
Anja Otte, Tom Peeters, Senne Starckx,
Christophe Verbiest, Denzil Walton
geneRAl MAnAgeR Hans De Loore
publISHeR Mediahuis NV
edITORIAl AddReSS
Gossetlaan 30 - 1702 Groot-Bijgaarden
tel 02 467 23 06
[email protected]
SubScRIpTIOnS
tel 03 560 17 49
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or order online at www.flanderstoday.eu
AdveRTISIng
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veRAnTWOORdelIJKe uITgeveR
Hans De Loore
\3
\ POLITICS
5TH COLUMN
Agreeing on the
agreement
Flanders’ education minister,
Hilde Crevits (CD&V), rarely
getsangry.Butlastweek,shedid.
The reason was Open VLD party
president Gwendolyn Rutten’s
demand that an agreement
about the reform of secondary
education be amended. Rutten
wants to include pre-school
and primary education in the
master plan for reforms.
Many people agree with Rutten’s
arguments. Children have a
much better chance in the
education system if they start
off at the early age of three, for
instance. Also, many feel that
the age of 10 is too late to start
French classes.
So what upset Crevits so much?
Undoubtedly the reform agreement’s troubled history. It was
a compromise that was years
in the making. The education
sector has put in a huge amount
of effort and has been a strong
advocate of the agreement for a
long time.
Politically speaking, the agreement has had a bumpy ride.
Under the previous government of Flanders, N-VA party
president Bart De Wever – the
region’s most influential politician – stepped in at a late stage
to demand the reform be modified. He believed that it would
result in a sort of academic
dumbing
down,
putting
stronger students at a disadvantage.
That the agreement even exists
today, after De Wever’s intervention, is a small miracle. This
term, Crevits had hoped to get
the reform passed without too
much discussion – only to see
another party president step
in. Crevits rightly fears that this
may be the end of the agreement completely.
The
education
minister
reminded Rutten that she had
signed the coalition government agreement, which calls
for the vote. In doing this, she
hinted that Open VLD signed
the coalition agreement without negotiating it, joining the
Flemish government ranks at
the very last minute. The liberals are not even needed for a
majority in the Flemish parliament.
Some observers see Rutten’s
move as an attempt to grab
the limelight. Her party has
lost some of its edge ever since
N-VA became “more liberal
than the liberals” on economic
issues such as taxation, budget
and small government. Rutten’s
strong views on education, on
which the liberals have traditionally focused, would thus
serve to mark out the difference
between the two parties and
quiet any internal dissent.
Last week it was announced
that there is only one candidate to succeed Rutten as party
president of Open VLD: Rutten
herself. \ Anja Otte
\4
Gatz proposes Culture Bank
Flanders’ culture minister proposes alternatives to arts subsidies
Alan Hope
More articles by Alan \ flanderstoday.eu
F
lemish culture minister Sven Gatz has
announced plans to set up a Culture Bank,
through which the private sector would
be able to finance small-scale projects via
micro-credit and other loans. He also launched
the idea of a new art sale arrangement.
His proposal follows widespread concern
within the cultural sector at the government’s
cuts in subsidies, both to cultural organisations and individual artists and projects. Since
taking office in 2014, he has tried to temper
his announcements of reduced subsidies with
promises to look for alternative means of
financing.
Speaking on VRT radio, he described the new
White Paper as “a menu” resulting from his
department’s research, offering a selection of
possibilities. “We now have to choose something from the menu,” he said.
Culture minister Sven Gatz (second from left) on a visit to
Flanders’ Centre for Religious Art and Culture
One proposal involves extending the tax shelter system, already in place for film – where
investors gain tax advantages for every euro
invested – to stage productions such as theatre
and dance. Discussions are under way with the
federal government.
The Culture Bank would be similar to Cultuurinvest, a fund within the government’s PMV
investment company, which handles large-scale
projects. The Culture Bank, Gatz explained,
would offer interest-free loans of up to €7,000
for smaller projects and between €7,000 and
€100,000 at low interest for medium-sized
projects.
The minister also proposed adopting the KunstKoop system in operation in the Netherlands
since 1997, which encourages the sale of art.
The system allows buyers to purchase artworks
from museums on an instalment plan, at low or
zero rates of interest.
“Several hundred works by young artists are
sold in this way every year,” said Gatz. “That
helps the artists, and it also makes it possible for
young people who may not have much money to
buy original works of art.”
Unions go to Constitutional Court
over raising of retirement age
© Romainberth/Wikimedia
Leading figure in Buildings Agency
corruption trial gets 18 months
One of the main suspects in the corruption case involving the federal government’s Buildings Agency has been sentenced to 18 months in prison by the
Brussels Court of Appeal. Raphael Engels was given a two-year suspended
sentence last April and appealed.
The Court of Appeals earlier handed down tougher sentences to others
accused in the same case.
The Buildings Agency manages all of the real estate in the government’s
possession, as well as administers rented property. The case concerned
agency officials who used their position to demand kick-backs from private
sector contractors who carried out work on government buildings.
The contractor would inflate the price for the works, which would be
approved by agency officials. The surplus portion would then be paid back
to the official in question.
Officials, the original trial heard, also received gifts such as expensive meals,
holidays and works carried out for free on their own properties. Engels,
whose portfolio included the Brussels Justice Palace (pictured), was considered one of the key figures in what the lower court described as “a criminal
conspiracy” and “an institutionalised system of fraud and corruption”. He
was sentenced to 18 months without suspension and fined €200,000. \ AH
Belgium’s three main unions –
liberal ACLVB, Christian ACV
and socialist ABVV – are bringing a case before the Constitutional Court against raising the
minimum retirement age to 67
for employees, civil servants and
teaching staff.
According to the joint action,
the increase in the pension age
is “a substantial move backwards
from the right to social security as
guaranteed in the constitution”.
The new rules are also discriminatory, according to the unions,
because of their particular effect
on women. The retirement age for
women was previously 60, while
men retired at 65, which means
that men now have to work only
two years more than before, while
women’s work period is increased
by seven years.
“This measure was forced through
out of pure ideology, without any
analysis being done on either the
social security system or on the
people affected,” the unions argue.
“Alternatives such as extra financing, although proposed by the
expert commission, were never
taken into consideration.”
The new regulations not only
raised the standard pension age
© Ingimage
to 67, they also set a minimum
number of 42 years worked for
anyone wanting to take early
retirement. That is substantially
longer than the average 36.6 years
worked by women. “Discrimination in the workplace is being ratified by the pension regulations,”
the unions said. “Women get to
pay twice over.”
The unions are calling for a “serious and global approach” to
the pensions debate that “takes
account of the reality”. That
includes “a reasonable pension
age, decent pensions for everyone and extra financing for social
security.” \ AH
Brussels teams up with consultancy firms on new climate plan
The City of Brussels has announced a collaboration with local consultancy firms CO2logic
and Eco Res to create a new climate plan. The
goal is to make strides towards meeting the EU’s
energy and climate goals for 2030.
The companies will first analyse greenhouse gas
emissions; the plan drawn up on the basis of this
data will define a local energy and climate policy
to reduce emissions. The plan will also address
opportunities in the Brussels-Capital Region
to generate renewable energy. In addition, a
system will be developed to monitor the reduction of CO2 emissions through reduced energy
use and the production of renewable energy.
“The City of Brussels is already monitoring
current energy consumption and insulating
the buildings in the city,” said Ahmed El Ktibi,
Brussels’ environment alderman, in a statement. “I am looking forward to the results of
this study so that we can capitalise on new
alternatives to bolster our current efforts.”
Brussels-City mayor Yvan Mayeur said that he
was very much aware of the need to step up
the city’s efforts against climate change “The
reduction of greenhouse gas emissions was one
of the crucial factors in the decision to implement the pedestrian zone in the centre,” he
said. “Traffic accounts for some 25% of greenhouse gas emissions, so it is vital to reduce the
traffic pressure in our city as much as possible.”
\ Andy Furniere
\ COVER STORY
MARcH 3, 2016
A new era
Flemish international trade agency reopens office in Tehran
FlAndeRSInveSTMenTAndTRAde.cOM
continued from page 1
lifting sanctions, he says, is a threephase process plagued by “buts”.
Iran’s currency reserves abroad
are being released, but they won’t
amount to much. “Maybe $30
billion [€27 billion] will be left after
paying outstanding debts.”
Iran is free to export oil and gas,
but the sanctions-stunted industry desperately needs investments.
Mutual investment and bank
transfers are, in principal, permitted, but Western banks aren’t rushing in. “They’re negotiating with
Iranian banks but want to make
sure such activity really is legal and
that they won’t get fined by the US,”
Put explains.
Unlike the EU member states and
other countries, the US has made
scant changes to its sanctions.
American companies and banks
remain largely prohibited from
doing business with Iran. And since
the agreement provides for sanctions to be lifted only as Iran meets
conditions over eight to 10 years,
Put says, “changing US sanctions
will probably take that long”.
Thus the FIT official doesn’t expect
mind-blowing growth in Iran in the
coming years. “Maybe it’ll reach 4
or 5%,” he says. “It’s the world’s largest untapped emerging market, yes,
but there are huge question marks.
The economy and infrastructure
are broken; there’s no money to
restart the flow of oil and gas, and
oil is only $30 [€27] per barrel.”
Iran might not be a dream export
destination, but the nation learned
to make do with what it had. “Under
sanctions, Iranians managed to do
things on their own. They’re highly
skilled and didn’t stand still culturally or in their attitude,” he explains.
According to Put, Iran won’t focus
on importing finished products
but will instead strive to become a
major petrochemical hub in order
to diversify, produce more products and be a crucial link in the
product chain. “This, they hope,
will create jobs for their masses
of young people. They’ve seen
how China succeeded, and they
certainly won’t become another
Saudi Arabia,” he says, pointing to
the highly oil-based economy of
the Arab nation.
This limited focus could pair well
with what Flanders has to offer.
“We’re strong in machinery, especially specific parts, so a potential
project could be a joint venture
in, say, bus production: Flanders
exports parts and Iran assembles
and finishes the buses on its own
soil. This employs Iranians, creates
income, spending and consumption and drives the economy.”
How many Flemish industries
could work with Iran in this way?
Enough to require a deep breath
before listing them: “Construction,
automotive, logistics, food, maritime, textile machines, agriculture – Iran has four climates at the
© Gonzales Photo/Malthe Ivarsson/Corbis
Flanders’ strengths in many industrial areas, including machinery, automotive, logistics and maritime, will ensure the region new contracts in Iran
same time, all kinds of soils, ample
land and rain – and health care is
huge,” Put says. “The FIT office
continually receives enquiries for
hospitals and medical equipment,
which Flanders excels in.”
Flemish investors are likely to
find fairly liberal legislation but
also administrative hurdles and
corruption, which makes finding local partners crucial – but
not easy from afar. “Internet and
phone connections are outdated,
and forget video conferencing.”
All the more reason to go in person,
as investors will likely be well
received. “Flanders has always
had good relations with Iran, and
Iranians are very pro-Western.
While they did not openly express
joy at the lifting of sanctions, the
atmosphere is positive,” confirms
Put. “Daily life won’t change in
the short term, but it will improve
eventually. The question is how
much wealth will trickle down.”
Iranian food and pharmaceutical
companies weathered the sanctions well and have some cash
for local ventures. Others would
benefit from coming to Flanders.
“The petrochemical sector could
establish distribution offices and
ultimately build storage facilities
in Antwerp or Zeebrugge. Logically, this could become its European hub.”
“Some say we’re going too late
because Tehran is flooded by
missions now, but I think it’s just
right. By then, bank transfers will
kick in, and oil and gas will be
flowing, whereas now doing business is very difficult,” Put says.
“The mission will be multi-secto-
Under sanctions, Iranians managed
to do things on their own. They’re
highly skilled and didn’t stand still
In the coming years, Put believes,
trade between Flanders and Iran
could reach pre-sanctions levels.
Flanders is not starting from
scratch. FIT’s Tehran office had
actually been active before falling dormant last autumn. Now
that it’s been kick-started, it’s also
expanding, and expectations for
the FIT mission planned for later
this year are high.
© Transuniverse Forwarding
Transuniverse Forwarding CEO Frank Adins and the Iranian ambassador to Belgium, Mahmoud
Barimani, at the Iran-focused seminar the Ghent-based company recently organised
ral; companies not going are
already networking with those
that are, and lawyers and consultants are offering their services. It’s
only February, so there’s potential
for a huge mission.”
For companies entirely new to
Iran, he says, it’s too early to jump
in, “but two kinds of Flemish
companies are going in now – very
large companies and companies
that were active before sanctions”.
An example of the latter is Transuniverse Forwarding, based in
Wondelgem, a district of Ghent.
The company started in Iran in
1983 and expanded its way back to
Belgium, where it has 100 employees. It transports cargo all over the
continent and beyond.
Kevin Van Ongeval, who oversees
the company’s operations in the
Middle East, worked in Iran for
eight years and continues to travel
there a few times a year. “For us,
the lifting of sanctions is good; it
will mostly affect volume. Under
sanctions, we sent two or three
groupage trucks a week. This week
we’ve already sent 12. Imagine all
the other forwarding companies,
especially maritime. Their volume
will definitely increase.”
Last November, anticipating the
lifting of sanctions, Transuniverse hired new staff to deal with
Iranian administration and hosted
a Doing Business in Iran seminar. It
was attended by 150 of its customers, the East Flanders Chamber of
Commerce, the Brussels Chamber
of Commerce, KBC Bank, the Bar
Baran Iran international shipping
company and the Iranian ambassador to Belgium.
At the time, about 40 of the company’s 5,000 customers shipped to
Iran. “Now those 40 have become
60 or 70,” says Van Ongeval. “But
remember, the embargoes haven’t
really ended yet. It’s still not easy
to export to Iran.”
FAM sales manager Ludo Zaidi
agrees. Founded in 1980 in
Kontich, south of Antwerp, and
currently with 90 employees, FAM
was also active under sanctions.
It designs and manufactures
high-capacity slicing and dicing
machines for the food processing
industry – 80% for export.
“We’re fortunate to have an agent
with offices in Iran and Germany,
so most of our machines are
invoiced to his German company,”
explains Zaidi. “Other customers
pay via Dubai. Direct payments
are still difficult, if not impossible.”
Nevertheless, he says, “Our sales
have increased over the seven
years we’ve been in the Iranian
market, and we expect more business now. Last year I went to
Tehran once or twice; this year I’ll
go four times.”
FAM’s biggest competitor is American, which the sanctions prohibited from operating in Iran, so the
company has a real competitive
advantage. “Iran’s climate drives a
huge fruit and vegetable production sector, so the big difference for
us will be what Iranian companies
can do,” says Zaidi. “Our customers there will export again, so
we’ll sell our machines to Iranian
companies that export to other
Gulf states and beyond. Our Iran
agent says people are optimistic.”
So is Zaidi. “In 2015, we sold eight
machines in Iran. This year we’ve
already sold three.” He’ll try to add
to that in May when he attends the
23rd International Agricultural
Trade Fair in Tehran.
There’s a lot of talk about Iran’s
potential in the Middle East, but
Put doesn’t buy it. “I very much
doubt it’s a way into the Middle
East. It’s more a hub for nearby
former CIS countries [Commonwealth of Independent States] and
Central Asia,” Zaidi explains.
“Many Afghans speak Farsi; the
cultural and linguistic ties go in
that direction. So will trade. Sending goods to Asia will be faster
through Iran than through Turkey
or Georgia.”
\5
\ BUSINESS
week iN
bUsiNess
Baking Puratos
The producer of additives
and yeast for the baking and
food industries has received
a €40 million loan to expand
its research and development
activities at its headquarters
in Groot-Bijgaarden.
Banking KBC
Flanders’ largest financial
institution has signed a partnership agreement with the
US Techstars start-up accelerator to develop its Start-It
Fund for local entrepreneurs.
E-commerce Alibaba
The Chinese business-to-business and e-commerce group is
hiring some 100 local employees, who will go to China to
better understand the needs
of Chinese visitors to Europe.
Alibaba chair Jack Ma expects
to use his platform to sell
European luxury goods to the
Chinese.
Fashion Marie Jo
The Schellebelle-based producer of up-market lingerie
has plans to start a homeshopping activity modelled
on Tupperware parties. The
company will also create
experience centres for potential customers.
Freight
Ethiopian Airlines
The carrier has signed a
Memorandum of Understanding to develop its cargo and
freight activities at Brussels
Airport, with up to 28 flights a
week to Dubai, Shanghai and
Hong Kong. The service would
be operated for DHL Global
Forwarding. The airline transferred its activities from Brussels to Maastricht last year,
and local authorities hope to
win back the business.
Property Wiltcher’s
The prestigious building housing the Wiltcher’s hotel, previously known as the Conrad,
on Louizalaan in Brussels
is being sold for some €125
million by its owners, AG Real
Estate. The complex includes
8,000 square metres of office
space, 7,000 square metres
of shopping space and some
residential apartments.
Retail Ikea
The Swedish group has plans
to open a store in Kortrijk
in the coming years. The
company is also considering a second outlet north of
Antwerp as the one in Wilrijk
is south of the city.
\6
Nippon Shokubai and Volvo
Cars are investors of the year
FIT rewards job creators in Flanders’ chemical and car sectors
Alan Hope
More articles by Alan \ flanderstoday.eu
T
he Investment of the Year trophy has been
awarded to Nippon Shokubai, a Japanese
chemical company specialised in the
production of acrylic acid and super-absorbent
polymers, such as is used in disposable nappies
and sanitary and incontinence products. The
award is given annually by Flanders Investment
& Trade (FIT).
Nippon Shokubai announced plans for worldwide expansion in 2015, including a brand new
factory at its site in Zwijndrecht, Antwerp province. When completed in 2018, it will be the
company’s second-largest production facility in
the world. That involves an investment of €350
million and the creation of 70 jobs.
“This trophy emphasises the importance of
overseas investment for Flanders,” said minister-president Geert Bourgeois, present at the
award ceremony. “I sincerely congratulate
© De Standaard
Nippon Shokubai in Japan
Nippon Shokubai for their commitment here.”
Last year overseas investors supported 227
projects for a value of €2.7 billion, creating or
maintaining 4,350 jobs.
Volvo Cars in Ghent, meanwhile, won FIT’s Lifetime Achievement trophy. The company, which
was purchased by the Chinese holding company
Zhejiang Geely in 2010, celebrated its 50th anniversary in Flanders last June. It took the opportunity to announce an investment of €200
million over the coming three years in a new
modular assembly platform.
In its first year, 1965, the Ghent plant rolled
out 5,551 cars. By 2015, the annual output was
252,479. In February of 2015 the plant celebrated when it produced its 5,555,555th car. The
plant produces three models and employs 5,000
people.
“Volvo Cars proves that Flanders – and its
automotive sector in particular – continues to
demonstrate what a strong attraction it has for
overseas investors,” said FIT director-general
Claire Tillekaerts, “as a combination of a knowledge-driven economy and top geographical
location.”
Some Albert Heijn stores must
close, say competition authorities
Tourism in Flanders and Brussels
is good for 240,000 jobs
Ahold Delhaize, the merged supermarket chain made up of Albert
Heijn and Delhaize, must close eight stores in Belgium to meet the
demands of the Competition Authority, according to unions representing supermarket workers.
Ahold Delhaize plans to close eight Albert Heijn (AH) stores: Kiel,
Antwerp Groenplaats, Oudenaarde, Lokeren, Leuven, Boortmeerbeek, Turnhout and Ghent Overpoort. All eight stores, which employ
a total of 400 people, are under AH’s own management rather than
franchises. AH currently has 38 stores in Flanders and none in the rest
of the country.
Delhaize is also required to close some stores but has not yet made
public how many and which locations. According to a company
spokesperson, only a small number of franchises are concerned. “The
stores and their staff have been informed,” the spokesperson said.
The closure decisions have been reported to the Competition Authority, which will make a final decision on 17 March, three days after the
shareholders of AH and Delhaize have given their final word on the
merger. \ AH
The tourism sector in Flanders and
Brussels provided 240,000 jobs
and an economic value of €11.7
billion in 2014, according to new
figures from the Flemish government’s research department.
The jobs in the sector are split
roughly between 183,000 employees and 57,000 self-employed.
They also include a large number
of lower-skilled jobs, such as in
hotels and amusement parks. The
economic weight of the sector,
which represents about 4.5% of
the total GDP of the two regions,
includes the food and drinks
service industry, travel agencies
and cultural services.
Tourism is thus more significant
Support for SMEs to be
made simpler
New legislation on drones
is ready for review
Flemish
economy
minister Philippe Muyters has
announced a simplification of
the government’s support for
small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), starting in April.
The changes take place within
the SME portfolio, a set of measures intended to assist SMEs
with advice and coaching. The
portfolio, according to Muyters,
has become a victim of its own
success, with the addition over
the years of new measures so
that the system has lost sight of
its original aims – transparency
and ease of access.
“Entrepreneurs expect just
one thing from a government:
that they make it as simple as
possible to do business,” said
Muyters. The first change allows
businesses to decide for them-
Federal mobility minister Jacqueline Galant has completed preparations for
new legislation governing the use of drones. The original draft of Galant’s
proposal divided the drone sector into two fields: recreational and professional. After consultation with the European Commission, a new version
was drafted that divides the professional sector further into Class One and
Class Two.
Class One concerns drones weighing up to 150 kilograms, with a ceiling of
90 metres, either high-risk – flying over a crowd, for example – or low risk.
Pilots need to be over 18 and have a flying licence, and drones must be registered.
Class Two drones weigh less than five kilos and have a ceiling of 45 metres.
Pilots have to be 16 and have a flying certificate. These drones must also be
registered.
Recreational users – an estimated 1,000 to 2,000 drones are sold every month
in Belgium, according to Limburg importer Skyeye – do not need a flying
licence or registration. Their maximum flying height is set at 30 metres.
Two technical requirements from the original draft – the presence of a GPS
tracking system and signalling lights – have been dropped from the new
version. The latter measure was a guard against surreptitious use of drones,
such as to film people in private situations. However, Galant stressed that
privacy laws are sufficient to cover that area. “What goes on the ground,
goes in the air,” she said. Galant hopes to have the law in place before the
summer. \ AH
selves what kind of advice and
coaching they need. Small businesses can now call on support
from the government of 40% of
the cost of training or market
studies, for example, up to a
maximum of €10,000; mediumsized businesses receive 30% of
the cost up to a maximum of
€15,000.
Growth subsidies are also available for companies wishing to
innovate or go international.
The government support comes
to 50% of the cost, up to a maximum of €25,000. “This reform
gives the SME portfolio back its
original strength,” Muyters said.
“We want to encourage every
entrepreneur to invest in quality and reduce the barriers to
innovate for all companies with
potential for growth.” \ AH
© Milo-profi/Visit Flanders
economically than the food industry (2.5%), the chemical industry (2.9%) or the financial sector
(3.5%). The figures for Flanders
and Brussels are in line with other
countries that are not considered major summer tourist destinations. The Netherlands, for
instance, comes in at 4.6% and
Denmark at 5.2%. \ AH
\ INNOVATION
MARcH 3, 2016
In sickness and in health
groundbreaking Ku leuven discovery links immune systems and parenting
Andy Furniere
More articles by Andy \ flanderstoday.eu
R
aising a child can bring a couple closer
together in many ways – including one
way that’s only just been discovered by
researchers in Flanders.
Professor Adrian Liston and his team at the
University of Leuven found that the individual
immune systems of two parents living together
become very similar. The discovery – reported
in the journal Nature Immunology – opens up an
array of possibilities.
Every person has a different immune system
with a unique composition of certain types of
cells. “Some people have an immune system with
more types of cells that protect them against
viruses, while others’ immune systems make
them more resistant to bacteria,” explains Liston,
who is originally from Australia but has worked
in Leuven for seven years. He is also connected
to Flanders’ life sciences research institute VIB.
Supported by funding from the European
Research Council, Liston’s team spent about
four years examining the immune systems of 670
people, looking into the causes of the variation
in immune systems. They analysed the effects of
age, gender, obesity and depression.
Age was pinpointed as a crucial factor, in line
with the knowledge that the aging process
reduces the effect of vaccinations and resistance
to infections.
Couples living together
with a baby tend to
have a similar diet,
sleeping patterns and
levels of stress
The researchers also examined the effect of flu
vaccinations and gastroenteritis, or infectious
diarrhoea. The vaccinations were carried out by
the British Babraham Institute on 32 volunteers
in the UK. All other 638 test subjects were Flemish, with 24 of them providing insights into the
consequences of gastroenteritis.
“Flu vaccinations and gastroenteritis only had
a temporary effect,” says Liston. “After a few
months, the immune systems had bounced back
completely.”
The big surprise for the scientists came when
they looked at the immune profiles of 70 couples
raising a child together in the same household. It turned out that the pairs of parents had
Electric taxis hit
streets of Antwerp
Electric taxis hit the streets of
Antwerp last week. The taxis
– the first in Flanders – are
part of a pilot project by environmental organisation Bond
Beter Leefmilieu (BBL) and
national taxi association GTL.
The organisations are exploring the feasibility of making
the whole taxi sector in Flanders electric, including the
impact of the vehicles both
economically and ecologically. Experts in Antwerp will
map the practical obstacles
and the conditions needed to
operate the e-taxis. They hope
to expand the pilot project to
the entire region by the end of
the year.
Antidepressant
use still rising
© Ingimage
immune systems that were 50% more similar to
each other’s than to those of randomly selected
people. “Parenting seems to have an effect on
the immune system equal to that of 40 years of
aging,” says Liston.
The reasons for this partial synchronisation are
connected to the parents’ lifestyles, which are
attuned to each other. “Couples living together
with a baby tend to have a similar diet, sleeping
patterns and levels of stress,” explains Liston.
As they live together, couples are affected by
similar bacteria in the house and transmit
millions of bacteria through contact. For example, 80 million bacteria are transmitted through
a kiss on the lips. Raising children also involves
the changing of nappies, during which masses of
bacteria are transmitted.
A consequence of the adaptation of the immune
systems is that one parent can become more
susceptible to viruses or resistant to bacteria, or
vice versa. Two parents will thus get the same
diseases, as their vulnerabilities become similar.
According to Liston, the findings raise questions about the susceptibility to illness of elderly
people in care homes, who already have weakened immune systems because of their age. As
they live in similar conditions, it may well be
that they also become more vulnerable to the
same diseases, which means one disease can
severely affect a large number of people living in
the home.
“If so, it would be wise to protect these people
by preserving the diversity of immune systems,”
says Liston. “This could be achieved by helping
people to continue a similar way of life to what
they had before moving into the care home.”
He hopes to set up a project that investigates
this issue, which will become more important as
people live longer and fewer elderly people are
taken care of by family.
In general, Liston says, the study shows that
the immune system is much more flexible than
previously thought. “Which means we might be
able to influence it to a large extent,” he says.
About one-quarter of a person’s immune system
response is determined by their genes, and the
rest by environmental factors like living conditions. “If we can ascertain the exact effects of
different factors, we can use this knowledge
to boost patients’ resistance by precise adjustments in their diet, for example,” says Liston.
The importance of the immune system is increasingly being recognised, he says. “My team has
recently begun working with cancer and neuroscience experts, to find out if we can improve
cancer and multiple sclerosis therapies.”
His team also examines the cases of patients
who have a disease whose cause cannot be determined, to see if the root of the problem lies in
the immune system. “Like Dr House’s team,
but working in a less spectacular fashion,” says
Liston with a smile, referring to the medical
drama series House MD.
Some of his team’s results, however, are nothing
less than spectacular. They cured 12 members
of the same family of an unknown inflammatory disease that gave them horrible rashes by
discovering a defect in the immune system and
giving the patients a drug normally used against
arthritis.
Geothermal energy a reality as Mol dig exceeds expectations
The drilling for a geothermal energy study
carried out by the Flemish Institute for Technological Research (Vito) has delivered results that
far exceed what was expected.
Over the last several months, drilling at the
Balmatt site in Mol (pictured) has penetrated a
layer in the subsurface 3,610 metres deep that
contains hot water. Experts were tasked with
examining the water’s temperature and flow
rate to determine possibilities for the extraction of geothermal energy.
The water turns out to have a temperature of
138 degrees Celsius, 20 degrees higher than
the minimum temperature necessary for the
conversion of geothermal heat to electricity. A
week iN
iNNOvaTiON
minimum of 90 degrees Celsius is necessary to
use it for heating purposes. The flow rate of the
water is also better than expected.
Vito will now start drilling a second well, to test
the operations of a geothermal power plant. A
geothermal plant requires production wells to
pump hot water to the surface and injection
wells to dispose of cooled water. This second
well should be finished by the end of the year.
If the second drill is also successful, plans will be
made to carry out four additional drills. With six
wells, Vito can set up a geothermal power plant
that produces five megawatts of electricity.
The wells would produce enough heat for
900,000 homes in 45 municipalities in Antwerp
© Courtesy Vito
and Limburg provinces, as well as area industry.
Vito would offer residents of Dessel and Mol the
opportunity to heat their homes at a stable cost
of €120 per month for 20 years. \ AF
Despite
campaigns
to
discourage the excessive use
of antidepressants, prescriptions increased again last
year, according to figures
released by the Institute for
Pharmaco-Epidemiology in
Belgium. Last year, 314
million daily doses of antidepressants were sold across
the country, an increase of
2.7% on 2014 and 35% on
2005. Over the last 20 years,
the use of antidepressants in
Belgium has tripled. Antidepressants can be addictive
and have side effects such as
gastro-intestinal issues and
loss of libido, said the institute. Studies have also correlated the use of antidepressants with an increased
risk of suicidal behaviour in
young people. According to
the Superior Health Council,
doctors prescribe antidepressants too quickly and offer too
little in the way of follow-up.
Grant to chart spread
of infectious disease
Niel Hens, a statistics professor at Hasselt and Antwerp
universities, has received a
grant of €1.6 million from the
European Research Council to examine the spread
of infectious diseases. His
project,
Transdisciplinary
Research in Modelling Infectious Diseases, will be carried
out over the next five years.
Through the development of
new statistical and mathematical models, Hens hopes
to formulate answers to
fundamental epidemiological
questions. He will examine
whether schools should close
if an infectious disease starts
to spread from country to
country and if citizens should
stay at home to prevent an
epidemic from spreading. \ AF
\7
\ EDUCATION
MARcH 3, 2016
Nomads no longer
week iN
edUCaTiON
european project headed in limburg turns Roma victims into citizen
Senne Starckx
More articles by Senne \ flanderstoday.eu
J
ust as the indigenous people of the Arctic
don’t like to be called Eskimos, the Romani
people, who live scattered across Europe,
don’t like being referred to as gypsies. Still,
a European project that kicked off last month
carries the word in its tagline.
The PAL project, worth €1.27 million, has several
goals, the main one of which is “anti-gypsyism”:
combating discrimination of Roma people in
education and employment.
Though it’s not general knowledge, but the
people who suffered the most in the Holocaust after Jewish people were the Romani.
Because history is written by the victorious and
the Romani have never been tied to one country, their genocide has never been properly
acknowledged.
In Flanders the Romani – or Sinti – are no longer
identified as travelling nomads. Estimations of
the number of Romani living in Belgium vary
between 20,000 and 40,000. Ghent, for example,
has a large community, and while these people
are no longer nomadic, their housing conditions are generally poor.
In most cases, Romani live permanently in caravan parks or in neglected neighbourhoods. The
situation in other countries is not much better.
And in southern and eastern Europe, Romani
people also face racism.
“Romani children and youngsters don’t tend
to stay at the same school for long,” says Valère
Awouters, project leader at ed+ict, a research
unit in the teacher training department at the
University Colleges Leuven-Limburg (UCLL).
“That makes it difficult for schools to arrange
proper education for them.”
Ed+ict is leading the European project – the
largest the unit has ever been involved in –
which unites similar research groups from the
Czech Republic, Greece, Slovenia, Romania,
Spain, Hungary and France. “The overall goal is
to improve the situation of Romani,” says Awouters. “We will investigate how we can address
promotion of Roma integration and how we can
support the implementation of national Roma
inclusion strategies or integrated sets of policy
measures.”
So how will Awouters, his colleagues and his
foreign partners proceed, in the hope of doing
better than existing national policies? “We want
© Kevin Van den Panhuyzen/Demotix/Corbis
Romani people were among those evicted from a church in Brussels where they had been living two years ago
to realise our goals through promoting common
democratic values, strengthening fundamental
rights and consolidating the rule of law,” he says.
That final point, he continues, “is particularly important in countries like Hungary and
Romania, where we need to pay special attention to combating discrimination and racism,
and to promoting tolerance and multicultural
awareness.” Because education and employment are considered the most important levers
for successful integration, PAL’s activities will
target these two areas.
These are all nice words, but will they make
a difference on the ground? What concrete
measures will help Romani youngsters who are
struggling with a lack of educational opportunities? “We will develop a specific programme for
‘second chance’ education,” says Awouters. “We
will also launch a campaign among the Romani
community spreading the message that it’s
never too late to benefit from education.”
Because ed+ict’s core business is the deployment of digital media and gaming in education,
the education section of the PAL project will
have a strong online focus. Online courses will
be set up for teachers in participating countries
to offer them a crash course in Romani culture,
and schools will receive extra resources that
they can use to deal with students. “Schools will
host, for example, group building days in which
the focus is heavily on socialisation.”
The PAL project should reach 4,000 Romani
teenagers, children and young mothers and
700 Romani teachers and trainers, as well as
200 non-Romani trainers. Collaboration with
a large number of local NGOs is also on the
agenda.
After education, of course, comes employment. What incentives can help the Romani
people find work? “We must consider specific
and adapted employment,” says Awouters,
“combined with a campaign aimed at employers to increase equal opportunities.”
PAL will be accompanied by newsletters,
brochures, posters and other promotion material. “We will organise a number of information days and roundtable sessions, to bring all
the partners together. Just like we did at our
kick-off meeting last month at our campus in
Diepenbeek.”
For his PhD in sports sciences, Jotie De Meyer investigated the effect
of teaching methods in physical education on the motivation of
secondary school students.
So, what did you learn?
I focused on the more negative
aspects of teachers’ methods: how
Ghent University has set
up the Ayrton Senna chair,
named after the Brazilian
three-time Formula 1 driver
who was killed during a race
in 1994. During his career,
Senna wanted to support the
development of Brazilian children, and his sister Viviane, a
psychologist, established the
Instituto Ayrton Senna, a nonprofit that supports education
policy. Ghent scientists will
examine the social-emotional
skills of children and young
adults and analyse how individual differences like personality, self-esteem and cognitive functioning can best be
measured in a school context.
They aim to get a better view
of the factors that influence
children’s development.
New VUB rector
will be a woman
Q&a
Why did you choose this
research subject?
I find it unfortunate when students
are not motivated to join in PE
lessons, as bad experiences at
school can increase the likelihood
that they will be less physically
active as adults. One factor that
has a significant impact on motivation is the way their teachers
act. It was important to get a better
understanding of how a teacher’s
motivational style affects the motivation of the students in PE.
UGent to work with
Ayrton Senna institute
psychological freedom. Teachers
can enhance this autonomy satisfaction by taking pupils’ perspectives into account, providing
meaningful choices and encouraging initiative.
they exert pressure on pupils and
how that influences their pupils’
motivation. We found that pupils
in general report their teachers as
only being a little controlling. This
was also confirmed in our observations of PE lessons. However,
when teachers did put pressure
on students, they perceived their
teachers as more controlling and
they also reported that they were
less motivated to take part.
Your advice is that “autonomy
support” yields better results
than pressure. How does this
work?
The concept of autonomy is
central in SDT, or Self Determination Theory. A student’s need for
autonomy is satisfied when they
experience a sense of volition and
Would it help if teachers stopped
forcing pupils onto gym equipment?
It’s true that the subject of the
lesson is another important factor
for motivation. However, I think
it’s not preferable to always let
students choose what they do in
the lessons. The PE teacher needs
to bring students into contact with
a wide range of activities that are
all part of our movement culture.
Students are definitely interested
in more than just football!
The two candidates to succeed
Paul De Knop as rector of
the Free University of Brussels (VUB) are both women:
computer scientist Viviane
Jonckers and communication sciences professor Caroline Pauwels. One of them
will, from September, be
the second female rector of
a Flemish university – after
Anne De Paepe of Ghent
University – and only the third
woman ever to hold the post at
a Flemish university. Jonckers,
vice-rector of student policy,
wants to focus on the democratisation and internationalisation of education. Pauwels
is a professor and director of
the research centre iMindsSMIT, which specialises in the
study of media and communication technologies. One
of her goals would be dealing
with the excessive pressure on
researchers to publish.
Debate on education
reform re-opens
In an interview in De Morgen,
Open VLD president Gwendolyn Rutten announced
that she wants to re-open
the discussion on the Flemish government’s Master Plan
for the reform of secondary
education. Education minister Hilde Crevits (CD&V)
and minister-president Geert
Bourgeois (N-VA) responded
by saying that the plan has
already been integrated into
the government agreement
and will be carried out as it
is. The reform has been the
focus of a years-long debate.
The government essentially
wants to break down the divisions between general (ASO),
technical (TSO) and professional education (BSO) and
give students more time to
choose which track to follow.
\ Andy Furniere
\ Interview by SS
\9
\ LIVING
week iN
aCTiviTies
Medieval Breakfast
and Treasure Hunt
Kids and their parents are
invited to enjoy a breakfast from days of yore in a
genuine castle. Afterwards,
there’s a treasure hunt for the
kids, in which they can try
to discover the identity of a
mysterious burglar. (Treasure hunt can be done without breakfast.) Reservations
required for breakfast only
on 03 310 05 14 or toerisme@
malle.be. 6 March 8.30-18.00,
Kasteel de Renesse, Lierselei
30, Malle (Antwerp province);
€10-€15
\ toerisme-malle.be
Food Truck Festival
The historic Felix Warehouse
in Antwerp is the setting
for an all-day foodie festival, with artisanal products, speciality foods and the
chance to cheer on participants in the Urban Trail run.
6 March 10.00-20.00; Felix
Pakhuis, Godefriduskaai 30,
Antwerp; free entry
\ felixpakhuis.nu
Storytelling Walks
Two walks are offered: one
with “scary stories” for adults
and a fun walk for kids with
stories about nature. Both
take place around Schulensmeer Lake, a beautiful
nature preserve that’s home
to waterfowl and migratory
birds. 6 March 14.00-16.00;
Schulensmeer Visitors Centre;
Demerstraat 60, Lummen
(Limburg); free
\ schulensmeer.be
Sewer Tour
Take a free tour of the sewer
network underneath Brussels on the first Saturday of
each month. Learn about the
important role that 400 kilometres of tunnels and the
Zenne river play in the functioning of the city. 5 March
13.30, Sewer Museum, Octrooipaviljoen,
Anderlechtse
Poort, Brussels; free
\ museumvandestadbrussel.be
Golden Years
Retro Fair
If you love the 1940s, ’50s and
’60s, and especially American
music from those decades,
you won’t want to miss this
chance to see and purchase
a wide selection of vintage
jukeboxes, records, clothing
and collectibles from international dealers. 5-6 March
10.00-17.30, Oktoberhallen,
Schrovestraat 18, Wieze; €7
\ golden-years.be
\ 10
Pobody’s nerfect
Muntpunt encourages visitors to talk mental health
Sally Tipper
Follow Sally on Twitter \ @sallybtipper
MunTpunT.be
I
mperfection is the name of the game at the
Muntpunt library and community centre,
as it looks to raise awareness of mental
health issues. Perfect People Have No Stories
is a month-long campaign to help chip away
at the stigma of talking about mental health,
as well as to make people aware of local
sources of support.
“We’re an information centre: We don’t have
all the answers ourselves, so our job is to point
people in the direction of places that can help,”
explains spokesperson Eva Drees. “In this case
it’s with mental health, but it could be on any
topic.”
The Flemish centre in the heart of Brussels is
working with a dozen partners with specialist
knowledge in the mental health field. Muntpunt’s programmes always start with the
partner organisations, Drees explains. “We
talk to them to find out what they think is a
good story to tell, what hasn’t been sufficiently
highlighted elsewhere; then we look at the
best way to present it.”
Perfect People kicks off with an exhibition,
Fruitful and Fragile Minds, followed by a talk by
psychiatrist Erik Thys on the link between art
and mental vulnerability on the opening night.
Over the following weeks, the programme
takes in a variety of events for adults and children. Most are in Dutch but some requiring no
language at all, such as a concert called The
Sound of Madness, performed in the lobby by
next-door neighbour De Munt.
Fruitful and Fragile Minds features portraits by
artists who are linked to psychiatry. They don’t
necessarily all have mental health issues, but
they have a connection, whether through
family members or through having worked
in mental health care. “It shows other people
who have experienced problems, and you
can empathise and feel connected,” explains
Drees.
Drees’ favourite event is the Living Library, in
which visitors get to know not characters in
books but real-life humans, who share their
stories in one-to-one sessions. “It’s a group
of average people who have volunteered to
tell their own stories,” she explains. “You can
© Jean-Marie Mortier
From the Fragile Minds exhibition at Muntpunt
ask questions and elaborate on the parts that
interest you.”
Living Library is organised by VVGG, the
Flemish association for mental health, which
has tried and tested the project before in various libraries. “It’s not rehearsed, so it’s told in
a different way each time,” says Drees. “They
react to the person who’s sitting with them and
go with whatever questions they ask them.”
The idea of the campaign, she says, is to remind
people that imperfection doesn’t have to be a
bad thing. “We want to show people that they
don’t have to be the perfect mum, the perfect
husband, the perfect career woman … to
show them there are other people experiencing problems, and that it’s OK to talk about it.”
During Perfect People, the librarians play their
part by picking a selection of relevant texts to
provide background reading for those inter-
ested in going a bit deeper.
Psychiatrists will put visitors through a
“normality test”, children can join in a chooseyour-own-adventure game based on being
open about your emotions, people who care
for others with mental illnesses will take part
in a conversation table, and a lecture by Flemish author Diana Koster will expound her
theory that perfect parents don’t exist.
Finally, Flemish novelist Saskia de Coster will
talk about creating empathy and how literature can be a form of therapy.
2-26 March
Muntpunt
Munt 6, Brussels
biTe
Ten tips to get your daily dose of veggies
The Flemish agricultural marketing board Vlam has issued a list of
tips to help you achieve the daily
target of 300 grams of vegetables
recommended by nutritionists.
That doesn’t sound like much and
yet only 38% of people in Flanders
eat that much veggies daily.
Fill half of your plate. Whatever
else you’re eating, if half the plate is
filled with vegetables, you’re hitting
about two-thirds of your daily
target.
Any time is veggie time. There’s no
reason veggies have to be confined
to the main meal. Vegetables in
an omelette for breakfast. Salad at
lunchtime and a cup of (real) soup
in the afternoon. Snack veggies in
front of the TV.
Be prepared. Draw up a menu for
the week and buy everything ahead
of time. Make a big pot of soup and
freeze daily portions. Prepared and
even frozen vegetables are fine if
they make things easier.
Eating out. Visit a vegetarian
restaurant once in a while or go
for the veggie options at Asian or
Indian restaurants. If your eatery
has a soup or salad bar, bulk up
with those before ordering your
main course.
Veggies go with everything. Pasta
and vegetables is a marriage made
in heaven. Pizza can always use
another topping. Bolognese with
carrots, mushrooms or red peppers
will give purists a heart attack, but
you’ll be more likely to avoid one.
Keep it up. Going from nothing to
300g a day is a challenge, but eating
vegetables all through the day will
help ease the burden. The new way
© Ingimage
of eating will rapidly become a lifestyle pattern.
Everything counts. Frozen vegetables count. So do vegetables in
vlAM.be
bottles or cans, cartons of passata,
soup and deli dishes like grilled
aubergine. (Potatoes don’t count.)
Share and share alike. Running
out of ideas? Swap tips with family
and friends. There are a million and
one websites out there full of ideas,
with lekkervanbijons.be just one of
them.
Shop smart. Prices plunge when
the market is about to close. Ethnic
grocers are often the best place to
buy if you don’t mind the odd bendy
cucumber. Foods in season are
almost always cheaper than asparagus from Peru.
Don’t beat yourself up. So you
missed the 300g target. You still did
better than you used to. Tomorrow
is another day. \ Alan Hope
MARcH 3, 2016
“I fell in love with England”
Tom Michiels on the cotswolds, life as a paramedic and going home again
Sally Tipper
Follow Sally on Twitter \ @sallybtipper
In the first instalment of our new
series on Flemish people living
and working in the UK, we talk
to Tom Michiels, a marketer who
made a drastic career change.
A
fter moving from Flanders
to the UK as a teenager in
the 1980s, Tom Michiels
made another big life change
when, 17 years ago, he ditched
a career in marketing to train as
a paramedic. He’s never looked
back.
“I’d been working in marketing
for a few years,” recalls Michiels,
45. “I didn’t enjoy it but I’d found
myself on a certain path: You
couple are now married and live
in Farnborough, a town in Hampshire in southern England.
Eight years ago, Heidi left her own
marketing job to work for the British Board of Film Classification.
“Movies are one of the things that
brought us together,” Michiels
says. “We’re very lucky that we
both get to do jobs we love. I think
back to my old job; how I could
still be commuting every day to
London, doing work I don’t enjoy.
Thankfully, I got out of it and now
do something I love.”
His new life as a paramedic is
never dull, he says. Every day is
different, every callout is different;
At the end of my first shift, I wanted
to go out with the next crew and do
it all over again
study subjects you’re good at, you
go to university and, before you
know it, you’re 24, and you’ve got a
job in something you didn’t really
plan on.”
By the end, he says, he found
himself dreading going to work
each morning. “I was forever turning up late, and it really showed
that I wasn’t enjoying it,” he says.
“My girlfriend, Heidi, asked me
what I wanted to do instead, and I
said I quite fancied driving ambulances, without really thinking
about it. She told me I should just
do it, so I moved in with her while
I did my training.”
That was back in 1999, and he
never moved out again. The
even one chest pain is different
to another chest pain. Michiels
started when he was 28 and was
hooked immediately. “At the end
of 12 hours on my first shift, I
wanted to go out with the next
crew and do it all over again,” he
says. “Seventeen years later, I still
get that adrenaline rush.”
He’s proud to be one of the 1.7
million people employed by the
NHS, the UK’s publicly funded
health-care system. “I’m a staunch
supporter of the NHS,” he says. “It’s
an amazing organisation. There’s
a real camaraderie among the
staff, a feeling of everyone working towards the same goals.”
And it’s a far cry from his previ-
© Courtesy Tom Michiels
From marketing to saving lives: Leuvenaar Tom Michiels works for the UK’s NHS
ous job, where his last marketing account was for a cigarette
company. “My wife told me I
would burn in hell for all eternity for that, so this is like a little
bit of payback,” he says, laughing.
“I hope after 17 years as a paramedic, I’m starting to make up
for it.”
Michiels was born in Leuven,
and his father’s career in the
Belgian air force meant the family
moved around a lot. In 1985, they
decamped to England, to officers’
quarters in the Cotswolds, a part
of southern England designated
as an area of outstanding natural
beauty.
It was a change that the 14-yearold Tom welcomed. He’d been
moved ahead a grade at school
a few years previously and was
starting to fall behind his older
classmates, so he leapt at the
chance of a new start.
“I was very excited to be moving,”
he says. “I still remember the
difference between grey, cloudy
Belgium and the lush green grass
and the hedgerows and trees and
blue sky of the Cotswolds. I fell in
love with England straight away.”
The family have spread out since
then. After his mother died, his
father remarried and moved
to Yorkshire. One of Michiels’
brothers lives in Warrington,
near Manchester; the other has
returned to Flanders.
“I love going back to Leuven,”
Michiels says. “It’s a bit of a
dilemma when you visit your
home country because you
want to visit all your friends and
family, which is great, but I also
really look forward to sitting on
a terrace and watching the world
go by – sipping a nice beer and
eating some frites. You can’t really
do that in a pub in England.”
He keeps an eye on the Flemish
papers and listens to public broadcaster VRT from time to time,
to keep up with local news. And
recently, he says, patients have
begun asking him about terrorism in Brussels when they find out
where he comes from. “But I can’t
really comment on that,” he says.
“I’m not that interested in what’s
going on there politically, and I
don’t think many Belgians are that
politically inclined, to be honest.”
He does, though, admit to wallowing in nostalgia occasionally,
watching TV programmes from
his childhood or listening to
Flemish music. “I’m very proud
of my heritage, and I enjoy going
home,” he says. “Despite its idiosyncrasies and its problems, I still
love it.”
50 weekends in Flanders: A Bruges city break
TInYuRl.cOM/50WeeKendS
Flanders Today has launched an e-book
with ideas for how to spend a year’s worth
of weekends. Visit our website to get your
free copy of 50 Weekends in Flanders. We’ll
also print one of our suggestions every week
here, too.
Bruges is a beautiful old city with sleepy
canals, ancient brick churches and outstanding art. But it can get very crowded with
tourists, especially at weekends. You sometimes need to head away from the busy
streets to find the hideaways that make this
town unique.
\ brugge.be
Walk around the CITY RAMPARTS
Not many tourists visit the ramparts, so this
is where you find locals walking their dogs
and kids riding their bikes to school. Starting
in front of the railway station, you can walk
around the entire town in a couple of hours,
passing ancient city gates, landscaped parks
and even a cluster of windmills.
Browse at ROMBAUX
This beautiful family shop located in an old
townhouse is a reminder of the days before
the internet killed off the music store. It is
worth going inside just to wander through
the labyrinth of small rooms with their
original mosaic floors, stained glass and
wood panelling. Run by the same family for
three generations, Rombaux (pictured) is
crammed with every imaginable genre, from
rare classical composers to new Flemish
folk. Shopping here is so much richer than
clicking on a basket icon.
\ rombaux.be
Nibble at BOOKS & BRUNCH
Tabitha Ackaert and Jos Deroo have created
Stay at NUIT BLANCHE
Artist David de Graef has created a fabulous B&B in a historic Bruges townhouse.
Belgian royal couple Albert and Paola stayed
here after they married in 1959. The two
guest rooms are designed in the style of a Jan
van Eyck painting with old stone fireplaces,
stained-glass windows and huge oak beds.
The rooms look out on a medieval walled
garden and a little canal.
© Photo courtesy Rombaux
\ bb-nuitblanche.com
a cool second-hand bookstore where they
also serve healthy food and good coffee.
You’ll find interesting books on pale green
shelves, including an assortment of English
novels in an upstairs room. The friendly
owners have also created a little playroom
at the back with cute toadstool chairs. Their
choice of indie rock is just right to complete
the mood.
\ booksandbrunch.be
Dine at DE SCHAAR
This is a comforting little bistro with a lovely
canalside location. It’s beyond the reach of
most tourists, so it has retained a certain
local charm. Most of the cooking involves
grilled meat or fish. When the sun shines,
the waterfront terrace fills up quickly.
\ Derek Blyth
\ bistrodeschaar.be
\ 11
Hey you.
Yes, you, with the smartphone.
There is an app for Flanders Today, you know, which makes it super easy
to keep up with daily news and features anywhere at any time on your
smartphone or tablet
There are 2 easy ways to download the app: visit www.fl
www.flanderstoday.eu
anderstoday.eu
and click on “Download the Flanders Today app” or go straight to your app
store – Android or iOS, makes no diff
difference
erence
CHECK OUT OUR COOL-LOOKING,
EASY TO MANOEUVRE APP HOMEPAGE
CTLY
THE LEFT SIDE TAKES YOU DIRE
ION
ECT
S
E
TO TH
D
TE
ES
R
E
NT
EI
R
’
YOU
IN
D
LOA
N
W
N DO
U CA
O
Y
T
E THA
NT ISSU
I
R
P
Y
L
K
E
THE RIGHT SIDE IS A PDF OF OUR WE
U GO DIRECTLY TO A SECTION, AR
IF YO
TICLE
S LOO
K LI
KE T
HIS
If you download the pdf, it looks just like the paper you’re holding
in your hand (but your fingers
fingers won’t get all black)
Did we mention that the Flanders Today app is free?
It’s free.
The Bulletin and ING Belgium invite you to a seminar on
PROPERTY
TODAY
• Wout Vermeeren,
Director, domoXim Real Estate,
“The changing role of the real estate
agent”
• Alexis Lemmerling,
notary, Berquin,
“An update on recent legislative
changes”
March 8, 2016
ING Head Office – Marnix. Entrance via
Rue de Trône, 1 – 1000 Brussels
(nearest subway station: Trône)
• Registrations from 17h30
• Seminar starts at 18h00 sharp
• Dave Deruytter,
Head of Expatriates & non-residents,
ING Belgium,
“Finance and insure a purchase in
Belgium – How about taxation”
Vastgoed - Immo -Real Estate
www.domoXim.be
FREE ENTRY • Register before March 5 at www.xpats.com/realestate
\ ARTS
MARcH 3, 2016
week iN aRTs
& CULTURe
American conductor to
lead national orchestra
The American Hugh Wolff has
been named the new head
conductor of the Belgian
National Orchestra starting
next year. Wolff, who takes over
from Andrey Boreyko, comes to
Brussels from Frankfurt, where
he has been head conductor of the symphony orchestra since 1997. He was previously musical director of the
Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra
in Minnesota and has served as
guest conductor for orchestras
across the world, including the
UK, Japan and Australia. Wolff
was born to American parents
in Paris and grew up in Washington, DC, and London. He
studied piano and composition, learning conducting at
Harvard. He is known for his
creative programming, placing very different and challenging works alongside each
other, and also for his passion
in getting young people into
the concert hall.
© Koen Broos
Where are we now?
Theatre collective tg STAn break fourth wall to ask the big questions
bjorn gabriels
More articles by Bjorn \ flanderstoday.eu
Only the core members of Flemish
theatre group tg STAN are on the
stage – for the first time in 10
years – for Wat/nu, a play of two
halves.
T
he four core actors of theatre
company tg STAN are all on
stage in Antwerp’s Monty
theatre as the audience starts
piling in. They smoke as they point
out some of the last empty seats at
the opening performance of Wat/
nu (What/Now), the first play in
which the four of them – Jolente
De Keersmaecker, Sara De Roo,
Damiaan De Schrijver and Frank
Vercruysse – perform together,
without guest actors, since of/niet
(or/not) 10 years ago.
These gestures won’t be the only
ones to break the fourth wall this
evening. As is customary with tg
STAN, the actors continuously
caress the fourth wall – the imaginary wall that separates the audience from the stage – fiddling with
the illusory divide, and sometimes
shattering it head-on.
In accordance with the title, the
opening line spells out what is at
stake: “Where are we?” All four
actors find themselves on the front
edge of the stage, barely lit, their
voices gradually rising in volume.
Three of them perform tg STAN’s
version of Sleep My Baby Sleep by
celebrated Norwegian writer and
dramatist Jon Fosse. The sparsely
chiselled dialogues that delve for
meaning beyond instantaneous
communication while simultaneously pulling the ground from
under our certainties demonstrate why Fosse is often referred
to as the Samuel Beckett of the
21st century.
“Fosse’s Sleep My Baby Sleep is very
dear to us,” De Keersmaecker tells
me. “It’s a little abstract painting
with three figures floating between
words and silences. It’s about three
players standing there, in that
space, at that point in time. There’s
no story; it’s a state of mind.”
When they were going through
texts for the production, she says,
“the four of us all wanted to do
Fosse’s tender little gem, which
shows the extraordinarily vulnerability of man”.
When the voice of De Roo, a
miming presence until now, enters
the interplay, the grim comedy A
Piece of Plastic by German playwright Marius von Mayenburg
kicks off. Discovered by De Roo
last summer in Berlin, the second
part of Wat/nu has the same pipers
STAn.be
together on stage again, but it was
equally marked by tragic events in
2015: from the attack at the Charlie Hebdo offices in January to the
terrorism in Paris in November.
“We had a lot of texts to choose
from, but we didn’t know what to
do,” says De Keersmaecker. “We
asked ourselves what words still
meant, and if or how we should
act. Is the photo in which Chinese
artist Ai Weiwei poses as the
drowned refugee boy a form of
exploitation?
“We felt the need to reflect on
everything that happened and
decided to pick a text that accurately and sometimes painfully
deals with first-world dilemmas
that pale before the tragedies
around us.”
In tg STAN’s rendition of A Piece
of Plastic, the marriage between
artist assistant Ulrike (De Roo)
We decided to pick a text that deals
with first-world dilemmas that pale
before the tragedies around us
playing a different tune.
“A Piece of Plastic shows a different side of us,” explains De Keersmaecker. “The first part of Wat/
nu is intimate and fragile, and the
latter is about us playing, sketching figures.”
Wat/nu grew out of the questions
about what would happen when
only the four core players appeared
and surgeon Michael (Vercruysse)
seems to be in shreds. Aren’t all
bourgeois marriages in film, theatre and literature a sham, ever
since the term “bourgeois” came
into vogue? Or does there still
linger a profound mutual under-
until 2 April (in dutch)
standing, if only they would stop
their preposterous balancing act
on the tightrope between their
supposedly politically correct
tolerance and their patronising
vulgarity?
The couple hire domestic worker
Jessica (De Keersmaecker) to
do the housekeeping and help
them with their 12-year-old son,
Vincent. The latter is played by De
Schrijver, who has a dual role as the
conceptual artist Haulupa. As an
actor whose posture and gesture
is inherently humorous, while also
adept at the bombast of artistic
lingo, De Schrijver’s double act is
almost a guarantee of comedy.
Even though the audience has a
good many laughs – both with the
more facile aspects of a derailing
family satire and, somewhat more
timidly, with the jokes that poke
fun at the so-called broadmindedness – essentially there’s no comic
relief. “Humour often makes the
tragedy more intense, and vice
versa,” says De Keersmaecker.
Like Wat/nu itself, Jessica, who
becomes the hub of the play, and
Haulupa work towards a rockbottom situation, the absolute
zero of performance art. Are they
demolishing to reconstruct? In
the opening act, Fosse’s distilled
lines deconstruct the stage, and
the life that haunts it, to their core
elements: “We are here.” In these
fleeting moments, the nucleus of
tg STAN finds partial answers to
their big questions, which are also
ours.
Across Brussels, Flanders
and the Netherlands
New gorilla arrives
at Antwerp Zoo
Six weeks after the death of
gorilla Kumba, the Antwerp
Zoo last week welcomed
Matadi, a 12-year-old silverback from Howletts Wild
Animal Park in Canterbury, the
UK. Matadi is being introduced
to the zoo’s band of four female
gorillas visually, from behind a
barrier. He will then be placed
in a space with each of the four
females in turn before joining the group. “Matadi is very
social and curious, and he likes
to be the centre of attention,”
said zoo co-ordinator Sarah
Lafaut. “He has long arms,
which gives him an impressive
appearance. He’s not yet fully
grown, but we expect him to
become an even more handsome, more imposing silverback than Kumba was.”
Fast Forward
theatre company
to launch choir
The incredibly successful yearlong tour of Gelukkig zijn by
theatre company Fast Forward
has come to an end, but a
choir will remain as part of
the company, artistic directors
have announced. Fast Forward
stages productions for those
who speak Dutch as a second
language, and Gelukkig zijn was
also performed by newcomers
to Flanders, including many
asylum-seekers. The musical
peppered with Flemish classic songs appealed to sell-out
crowds across the region and
in Brussels. The artistic directors want to continue the
momentum by establishing an
in-house choir and are holding
auditions in the autumn.
\ 13
\ ARTS
Party on
bars and brotherhood meet in new Flemish movie belgica
Ian Mundell
follow Ian on Twitter \ @IanMundell
belgIcAdeFIlM.be
Flemish director Felix Van
Groeningen’s new film evolved
from being a microcosm of Belgian
society to following the changing
relationship between two brothers
as they open a music club where
anything goes.
B
ars are never far away in
Felix Van Groeningen’s
films. His debut, Steve +
Sky, is set in a bar. There is a bar
in Dagen zonder lief (With Friends
Like These) and a lot of bars in
De helaasheid der dingen (The
Misfortunates), the epic of booze
and bad behaviour that made his
name as a director.
“I grew up in a bar,” he explains. “I
started working in one when I was
16, and I had great times there, but
then I also realised that I wanted to
do something else with my life. But
it’s what I know, and you always
go back to those things, I guess,
although in different forms.”
The form in Belgica, which opens
this week, is the dream of two
brothers to turn a run-down
neighbourhood bar in Ghent into
a hip music venue. But they also
want it to be a refuge, a Noah’s Ark
for anyone seeking to escape the
grind of everyday life. All will be
welcome, and the community will
make the rules. But the success
they strive for makes this ideal
hard to sustain.
When Van Groeningen and
co-writer Arne Sierens chose
Belgica as the name for the bar,
they were thinking of making it a
miniature of Belgian society, and
the story a metaphor for the country. But this idea receded as they
wrote and became more interested in the relationship between
the brothers.
The idealism that remains in the
story is more to do with the bars
of Van Groeningen’s youth than the
present state of the nation. “We
were naive, in a way, and indeed
very hopeful, and we had these
utopian ideals,” he recalls. “I don’t
© Thomas Dhanens
Two brothers turn a neighbourhood bar into a wild music club in Felix Van Groeningen’s new movie Belgica
think we ever said it should be
Noah’s Ark, but in a sense it felt like
we weren’t really a part of society.
And because of that, we had the
privilege to think that way.”
loyalty and his own survival. But
it is also present in the struggle
between husband and wife in The
Broken Circle Breakdown, a film
that earned Van Groeningen an
I only realised while we were shooting
that it felt nostalgic to me, even if it’s
not nostalgic in the film
The forces at work in families are
also a recurrent theme in Van
Groeningen’s work. This comes
through most strongly in De
helaasheid der dingen, in which a
boy has to choose between family
Oscar nomination in 2014.
Here, it is the younger brother, Jo
(Stef Aerts), who is running Belgica
when his older brother Frank (Tom
Vermeir) decides that he will lend
a hand. Initially wary, Jo finds that
Frank supports his plan to expand
the bar into a vacant building next
door. He also has the contacts to
bring in musicians and the energy
to transform the bar into a rolling
party.
But there is also something selfdestructive about Frank’s personality, all too eager for sex, drugs
and rock’n’roll.
The initial idea of a good brother
and a bad brother became more
complex as Van Groeningen and
Sierens asked questions about
their characters. What drives the
self-destructive side of Frank?
How does it relate to his home life,
his wife and child? What does he
really need from Jo, and vice versa?
“All of those things were interesting and what we struggled most
with,” Van Groeningen says. “But
they were also really fulfilling to
work on, to see how we could
make that dynamic more interesting, layered and moving.”
The story of the brothers was also
a useful distancing device, allowing Van Groeningen to make a
film inspired by his father’s bar,
the Charlatan in Ghent, without
being specific. “I could add images
that were really important for me,
that were exciting to me or that I
thought could help to depict this
place,” he says.
Although his intention was not to
be nostalgic about the bar, staging
these scenes hit home. “I only realised while we were shooting them
that they felt nostalgic to me, even
if they’re not nostalgic in the film.”
In all, he shot some 130 hours of
film, nearly three times more than
usual. This in turn meant a long
editing process, even though the
structure is simpler than his last
two films.
“What I realised in editing is that
the film kept on getting better with
little nuances that always drew you
back to what was going on between
those two brothers.”
Belgica had its world premiere
at the Sundance Film Festival in
January, where Van Groeningen
won the award for best director in
the world cinema drama category.
While he was pleased with the
boost this will give the film, which
was subsequently bought by Netflix for streaming around the world,
the rest remains unclear. “What it
means for me as a director, I don’t
know.”
He has already made the jump to
America, and, if all goes to plan,
he will shoot his English-language
debut there this year. Beautiful
Boy, adapted from books by David
and Nic Sheff, offers a father-andson perspective on the son’s struggle with addiction.
“It has the things I respond to,”
Van Groeningen says. “It’s very
life-affirming, but also doesn't shy
away from the dark side of life. It
goes really deep, but it’s beautiful.”
beLgiCa: THe sOULwax baNdsTaNd
© Courtesy Kinepolis
Director Felix Van Groeningen (left) on set
\ 14
The 15 bands on Belgica’s soundtrack, and on stage
in the bar, were all created by Stephen and David
Dewaele, otherwise known as Soulwax. “They cast all
the musicians, they proposed styling, they made up
names for bands that became part of the script,” says
Van Groeningen. “Sometimes they slipped into my
territory, you could say, but in a good way.”
These bands – from pop and electronica to blues,
hardcore and psychobilly – sometimes seem to be
versions of actual Flemish acts, but Van Groeningen
warns against trying to decode them. “Nothing is
literal or based on existing people,” he says. “But they
are so typical that they could be a lot of people.”
Music fans will see some familiar faces, albeit in
different contexts. Behind the indie rock of The Shitz
you can see members of synthpop group Hong Kong
Dong, for instance, while Kenji Minogue appear as
Erasmus. Dressed in glittering chainmail and apparently bald, they belt out the song Ti recordi di me? in
Italian. This translates as Do you remember me? or Ken
je me nog? in Dutch, which in their usual West Flemish
accents would lead back to... Kenji Minogue.
And of course there is a lot of Soulwax. “The girls who
are in white [White Virgins] are like a female version
of Soulwax six years ago, and The Shitz are like Soulwax 10 years ago,” Van Groeningen says. “So it’s like
different parts of their identity, but also in a different
form.”
\ AGENDA
MARcH 3, 2016
Tales of the city
PeRFORMaNCe
Mind the Book
8-13 March
Antwerp
Brula’Pen: Slam poetry
and stand-up comedy by
young Flemish talent, featuring Kamal Kharmach, Mon,
Nathan Hallemans, Samira
Saleh, MC Jasper Posson and
more (in Dutch). 4 March
20.00, Rataplan, Wijnegemstraat 27
Vooruit and other venues in Ghent
MIndTHebOOK.be
T
he annual Mind the Book festival for
readers and writers, which alternates
between Ghent and Antwerp, is one of
those rare occasions when Dutch and English
mingle beautifully, giving everyone a chance
to hobnob in a great meeting of local and
international minds.
Taking place in Ghent’s temple to culture,
Vooruit, and other locations across the city,
there is a book market and a quirky food menu
that serves up dishes straight out of great literature. But it’s the speakers, of course, that get you
through the door.
There are several options in English, including a talk with Kiev-born Katja Petrowskaja
(pictured), whose moving autobiographical
novel Maybe Esther follows the fragmented
history of both her own family and eastern
Europe.
If the situation in Greece continues to perplex
you, tune in to British writer and activist Kevin
Ovenden’s talk about his new book Syriza: Inside
the Labyrinth, following the rise of Greece’s
ruling party. Also in English is an interview with
American political analyst Robert D Kaplan
about his new book In Europe’s Shadow: Two
Cold Wars and a Thirty-Year Journey Through
Romania and Beyond.
For a more playful and interactive side of the
festival, head to Ghent’s central library, where
you’ll meet “living books”, humans playing the
role of a specific book. Pick one to “check out”
and hear them read aloud just to you. One of
them recites Virginia Woolf.
The notion of a city, meanwhile, is often close
at hand in the more local activities. Central to
that is an installation by Ghent-based multidisciplinary artist Elly Van Eeghem. Barrière
\ rataplanvzw.be
Brussels
© Heike Steinweg
is the result of a study of the city of Montreal.
You’ll discover how it is – or isn’t – dealing with
its language divide, as well as the building of a
fence separating a working-class neighbourhood from a new, posh housing development.
\ Lisa Bradshaw
visUaL aRTs
PHOTOgRaPHY
On Ice
decamerone
5-6 March
For those who have always
dreamed of combining contemporary art and ice-skating, Ghent
alternative arts associations
Campo and Nein join forces to
present this exhibition on ice.
Twenty-five young Flemish artists
from across the disciplinary spectrum were invited to create a sitespecific work tailored to the gleaming 3,000 square-metre surface of
the city’s popular Kristallijn skating rink. The results will be exhibited over the course of the weekend for audiences young and old.
Saturday night, with its figure skating demonstration and DJ sets, is
for adults, while Sunday afternoon’s circus programme is for
families. \ Georgio Valentino
Kristallijn, Ghent
cAMpO.nu
© Marlies DC
FesTivaL
Offscreen Film Festival
2-20 March
Belgium has more than its fair share
of film festivals but Offscreen offers
something different. This annual
get-together of film buffs celebrates
the movies that don’t necessarily
get all the prizes. Indeed, there are
no prizes to be had at Offscreen. It’s
rather a pure showcase for outsider
cinema from yesterday and today.
We’re talking avant-garde but also
Across Brussels
OFFScReen.be
B-movies, cult, camp, trash and
exploitation flicks. The festival
opens with Lucile Hadzihalilovic’s
new film Evolution (pictured), with
an introduction by the French director herself, and closes with British
director Ben Wheatley’s adaptation of JG Ballard’s dystopian 1975
sci-fi novel High-Rise, starring Tom
Hiddleston. \ GV
until 31 May
Brussels
Across Hasselt
lIeSJeReYSKenS.cOM
From Floris to Rubens
Master Drawings: 90 works
from the golden age of Dutch
draughtsmanship,
featuring a multitude of 16thand 17th-century artists.
Sketches, paintings, stained
glass and tapestries, all from
a private collection and most
of which have never been
exhibited before. Until 15 May,
Royal Museums of Fine Arts of
Belgium, Regentschapsstraat 3
\ fine-arts-museum.be
FesTivaL
Antwerp
Amazigh Festival: Celebration of Berber culture, featuring music, workshops, readings and food. 4 March 18.30,
De Roma, Turnhoutsebaan
286, and other venues across
Borgerhout
\ deroma.be
FiLM
eveNT
Brussels
Museum night Fever
This annual, city-wide arts festival
plants youth culture in the hallowed
halls of Brussels’ most prestigious
museums. Now in its ninth edition,
Museum Night Fever boasts 24
participating institutions, from
predictably contemporary venues
like Bozar and Wiels to unexpectedly swinging destinations like
the Royal Museum of the Armed
\ bozar.be
visUaL aRTs
Contemporary Flemish fashion
photographer Liesje Reyskens
presents an open-air exhibition
of stories inspired by Giovanni
Boccaccio’s ribald (and timeless) 14th-century anthology The
Decameron. Reyskens’ tableaux
depict contemporary life in all its
technological wonder, but, like the
Renaissance Italian chronicler, she
shines a spotlight on the role played
by primitive passion and jealousy
in bringing lovers together – and
driving them apart. The largescale photographs are exhibited
in 10 public spaces across Hasselt,
including City Hall and the tourist office. Each location contains
hidden letters that combine to
unlock a special prize. \ GV
5 March, 19.00
Sad Songs from the Heart
of Europe: Finnish playwright and director Kristian
Smed’s monologue is based
on Dostoyevsky’s Crime and
Punishment, a metaphor for
the redistribution of wealth
in Europe. (In Finnish, with
English surtitles) 8-9 March
20.30, Bozar, Ravensteinstraat
23
Across Brussels
MuSeuMnIgHTFeveR.be
Forces. There are even some truly
niche locations (see the Belgian
Museum of Freemasonry). All have
partnered with young artists to
provide a late night of fresh, multidisciplinary creation around their
permanent collections. Brussels
transport authority MIVB provides
a free shuttle between venues for
wristband-holders. \ GV
The Land of the Enlightened: Premiere of Flemish
filmmaker Pieter-Jan De Pue’s
debut, shot over seven years
in Afghanistan, revealing the
resilience of a country through
the eyes of its children. Shown
in the presence of the director.
(Dutch and French subtitles)
6 March 20.00, Bozar, Ravensteinstraat 23
\ bozar.be
FaiR
Mechelen
Eurantica Fine Art Fair:
Annual fine art and antiques
fair moves from Brussels to
Mechelen, with a special focus
on 20th-century art and nonEuropean art and archaeology. 5-13 March, Nekkerhal,
Plattebeekstraat 1
\ eurantica.be
\ 15
\ BACKPAGE
MARcH 3, 2016
Talking Dutch
The red tape blues
derek blyth
More articles by Derek \ flanderstoday.eu
M
ost people would agree
that bureaucracy in
this country can be
Kafkaesque. But there’s good
news: Radio 1 host Jan Hautekiet
has launched a campaign called
Komaf met Kafka – Kick out
Kafka.
It started a few weeks ago with
ads in the Flemish press, and
there’s also a website with a video
in which a poor guy called Frans
struggles to buy a train ticket.
In 2013 planden mijn vrouw en ik
een reis per trein naar Metz – In
2013, my wife and I planned a train
trip to Metz, begins Het verhaal van
Frans – Frans’ tale.
De tickets kochten we online, d’as
lekker gemakkelijk – We bought
the tickets online because that’s
super easy.
Not so fast! Tickets voor buitenlandse reizen – tickets for travel
abroad dienen persoonlijk te
worden afgehaald in het station –
have to be collected in person at
the station.
But Frans wasn’t going to give up
without a fight. Ik dus ’s morgens
met mijn fietske naar het station
van Mechelen – I hopped on my
bike next morning and cycled to
CONNECT WITH US
Mechelen station.
Where there was a surprise waiting for him. Daar hing een briefje
aan het loket ‘internationale reizen’
– There was a notice attached to
the international travel counter.
Sorry, it said, Loket open van 14 tot
17u – Counter open from 14.00 to
17.00. Excuses voor het ongemak –
Apologies for the inconvenience.
Some people would have lost their
cool, but not Frans. Ik dus terug
naar huis – So I went back home.
En om 15 uur terug naar het station
– And went back to the station at
15.00.
Blijkt dat het loket ‘internationale reizen’ nog altijd gesloten is! –
TInYuRl.cOM/KOMAFMeTKAFKA
It seemed that the international
travel counter was still closed!
Ik begin stilaan mijn geduld te
verliezen – I was gradually losing
my cool. (And who can blame
him?)
Aanschuiven aan loket 1 dan maar
– So he waits at counter 1. Internationale treintickets moet u afhalen aan loket 7 – You have to collect
international train tickets at counter 7, he is told.
He heads to counter 7. Uw tickets liggen inderdaad hier klaar,
meneer – No problem, your tickets are ready for you, sir. But Frans
is confused. Zeg, waarom is het
loket voor de internationale tickets
nog gesloten – Tell me, why is the
counter for international tickets
still closed?
Dat loket gaat niet meer open – that
counter isn’t open any more, want
het stationsgebouw wordt volledig
verbouwd – because the building
being rebuilt. En waarom hangt dat
bordje daar dan nog? – and so why
is that sign still hanging there?
De persoon die dat moet verwijderen is met ziekteverlof – the
person whose job it is to take it
down is on sick leave.
Kafka would have been proud.
Tweet us your thoughts @FlandersToday
Poll
a. Yes. Resources are limited and need to go where they’ll do most good, not to people who don’t even try
to help themselves
42%
b. No, it’s too slippery a slope. Now it’s smoking, but then it could be drinking, eating too much or running
with scissors
58%
patients if said patients continue
to smoke. The drug costs up to
€30,000 a year.
It’s a close race in our poll this week,
with a large minority finding such
a move justified. Why should society pay so much money for someone who is not doing the one thing
that could improve their health?
Everyone knows that prevention is
better than cure.
\ next week's question:
Slightly more, however, consider
this a case of the state policing
areas it was never meant to police.
Even if this is an extreme case, how
long until Riziv turns its attention
to other habits, such as overeating and heart disease medication?
It’s impossible to keep track of
patients’ every move.
A man who accidentally drove into a pre-metro tunnel in Brussels and had to be rescued by authorities faces a
hefty bill. But should he have to pay? (see p2)
Log in to the Flanders Today website at www.flanderstoday.eu and click on VOTE!
\ 16
In response to: Motorist drives three kilometres on pre-metro lines
Tom Brosens: Yes. His mind said: when there is a way into a
tunnel, there is also a way out. #onlyhappensinbelgium
In response to: NMBS to launch wi-fi pilot project on OstendEupen line
Howie Tiernan: Good idea.
In response to: Talking Dutch: The red tape blues
Maroun Kaye: I sent them an email about that train ticket
system, they said they’re working on another work method like
the one they use in France, and that they’ll roll it out this year.
Carly @carlyrigley
Yesterday I celebrated my 30th birthday in beautiful Bruges.
We woke to snow and a Champagne…
Karel Op ’t Eynde @karelopteynde
Looking at my own art that’s being shown in the museum M
in Leuven.
inês @bangerzcats
I really miss living in Brussels.
LIKE US
facebook.com/flanderstoday
THe LasT wORd
do you think that the reimbursement of certain medical treatments should
depend on a patient's health-related habits?
Should reimbursement of expensive drugs be linked to patients’
lifestyle and habits? It’s a question
that has popped up more and more
in international media as medical
costs continue to increase.
Belgium’s medical insurance
agency Riziv has decided that
mutualities are allowed to withhold reimbursement of the drug
Ofev for pulmonary fibrosis
vOiCes OF
FLaNdeRs TOdaY
Free delivery
“She said she was about to give
birth. I put some advertising
panels round her, a customer
helped with the delivery, and
nine minutes later, the emergency services were there.”
A child born in the Adam Food
restaurant near Brussels’ West
Station at the weekend may eat free
for life, owner Nawfal Ben Messaoud
promised
never too late
“We won’t make our silver anniversary, but I’d still like to reach
100 with her next to me.”
Gilbert Van Cleemput, 93, married
Godelieve, the woman who has been
his neighbour for 40 years
leap year
“It’s unique, something people
are interested in finding out
about. It’s cool to be a bit different.”
Brendan from Ronse celebrated his
fourth official birthday this week, on
29 February
paper chase
“This is a time-wasting exercise
that would deliver an unreadable report.”
Brecht, Antwerp province, was one of
197 municipalities out of 308 in Flanders that ignored or refused a request
from Het Nieuwsblad for the minutes
of the last meeting of the college of
aldermen, a document that must be
provided by law
[A\T