On a missiOn Under the sea i`m nOt a nUmber leuven celebrates its

#376
Erkenningsnummer P708816
april 15, 2015 \ newsweekly - € 0,75 \ read more at www.flanderstoday.eu
current affairs \ p2
politics \ p4
On a mission
Flanders and the Netherlands’
first joint trade mission will
find politicians and industry
leaders in Ghana and Senegal
next month
\6
BUSiNESS \ p6
Under the sea
A stunning new aquarium with
a huge diversity of salt
and freshwater fish and
colourful reefs is open
at Antwerp Zoo
\ 10
innovation \ p7
education \ p9
art & living \ p10
I’m not
a number
Mechelen’s Dossin museum and
Fort Breendonk host a double
exhibition that introduces
visitors to Belgium’s Holocaust
survivors
\ 11
The place
to beer
Leuven celebrates its role
within the world’s most
diverse beer-producing region
Alan Hope
More articles by Alan \ flanderstoday.eu
Consider the Leuven Beer Weekend the city’s claim to the
title of Flanders’ beer capital. For several weeks, both the
historic capital city and the province of Flemish Brabant are
the backdrop to a bustling, wide-ranging programme of beer
and brewing events the likes of which we’ve not seen before.
L
© Courtesy Visit Leuven
euven can rightly consider itself a beer city, if only by
virtue of being the home of the world’s largest brewer,
AB InBev. But, beginning on the last weekend of April,
the city aims to transform itself into a beer capital or, to use
the official slogan, “the place to beer”.
A month of beer-related activities in and around Leuven will
be bracketed by two major beer festivals. “The brewing tradition is alive here in Flemish Brabant unlike anywhere else in
the world,” states provincial deputy Monique Swinnen. “From
geuze to witbier, from pils to Special Belge – where else than
in Flemish Brabant can you find such a diversity of beers and
breweries?”
The month of events kicks off on 24 April with the Leuven
Beer Weekend, which includes the Zythos Beer Festival. The
weekend starts with Beer Talks in the STUK arts centre. Beer
sommelier Luc De Raedemaeker, the man behind the Brussels
Beer Challenge, presents talks by three beer experts: Ghent
University professor Denis De Keukeleire, a world authority
on hops; brewer Yvan De Baets of Brasserie de la Senne, one
of Brussels’ two local breweries; and Lorenzo Da Bove, a craft
brewer from Italy, one of the world’s most vibrant and innovative new beer markets.
The talks are in English, and entry is €20, but that’s offset by
some beer and snack pairings prepared by Koen Tossyn of
Leuven restaurant Luzine, formerly the home base of TV chef
Jeroen Meus.
The Beer Weekend also includes brewery visits. You can,
for instance, join a two-hour visit at AB InBev that includes
a beer-pouring course on Saturday and Sunday. The guided
tours are offered both in Dutch and English and cost €8.50.
The other breweries offering visits are smaller and more artisanal, and each has its own character. They include Domus in
the city centre, Hof Ten Dormaal in Tildonk, De Vlier in Holsbeek and De Kroon in Neerijse.
Other features of the Beer Weekend include special beer
menus at nine of the city’s top restaurants, an exhibition of
small and medium-sized breweries in Flemish Brabant as
well as pub tours. Also on the menu: bike visits to Hof Ten
continued on page 5
\ CURRENT AFFAIRS
Climate change plan for coast
Flooding De Panne and Nieuwpoort among proposals for future of Flemish coast
Derek Blyth
More articles by Derek \ flanderstoday.eu
T
he coastline between De Panne and Ostend could be
flooded by the year 2100 in response to rising sea levels,
according to a report by a team of Flemish architects.
This radical scenario is the most extreme of four options
proposed in a study called Metropolitan Coastline 2100.
The aim of the report was to suggest solutions to the predicted
one-metre rise in the sea level caused by climate change. The
report, which set out to “maximise the quality of life in the
regions affected”, was drawn up by architects working with
the Flemish departments of urban planning and public works
and the maritime services division.
The most controversial plan – known as the Bipole scenario
– would abandon the entire western coastal zone to the sea.
“There would no longer be any active investment in keeping out the sea or in urban development or the economy,”
the report said. “The western coast would be progressively
© Luna04/Wikimedia Commons
de-urbanised and restored to its natural state.”
The resorts of De Panne (pictured), Koksijde, Oostduinkerke,
Nieuwpoort and Middelkerke would gradually disappear into
the sea under that plan. “This looks like a boycott of the Westhoek,” said Ann Vanheste, mayor of De Panne. The governor of
West Flanders province, Carl Decaluwe, was also against the
plan to flood large areas. “The answer is to claim land from
the sea,” he told De Morgen.
The Zone scenario, meanwhile, would involve the construction of a defence wall along the entire coastline, with new
pipes to carry excess sea water inland to polder land. The
third option – the Archipelago – would leave the coast
untouched while using large inland areas of undeveloped
polder as catchment areas for flood water. And finally, the
Mosaic scenario involves the construction of an elaborate
network of canals to manage the water.
“We have to do something to allow nature to absorb the sea
water,” said Joachim Declerck, one of the architects involved
in compiling the report. “We can’t just keep on building.”
New York street to be named after Father Damien
A Flemish government initiative will
see a street in New York named after the
19th-century priest Joseph de Veuster, better
known as Father Damien, who is venerated
as a saint for his work in Hawaii’s leper
colony.
Born in Tremelo, Flemish Brabant, in 1840,
Father Damien is famous for having built a
school, medical clinic and fully functioning
communities out of the dilapidated infrastructure that was housing people suffering from leprosy. A peninsula on the Hawaiian island of Moloka’i was home to hundreds
with the disease in the 19th and into the 20th
century. Father Damien (pictured) died of
leprosy on Moloka’i aged 49 and was canonised in 2009.
Flemish minister-president Geert Bourgeois
will officially inaugurate Father Damien
Way on 11 May, the day after St Damien’s
feast day. The street name is an initiative of
the Flemish government, in collaboration
with the Archdiocese of New York and the
New York City Council.
East 33rd Street between 1st and 2nd
Avenue in the Murray Hill area of Manhattan is becoming Father Damien Way, which
is located near three major hospitals. One
of them is Bellevue Hospital Center, one of
the few hospitals in the country’s east coast
region that specialises in the treatment of
leprosy.
Statues of Father Damien are already present
at the US Capitol building in Washington DC
and in front of Hawaii’s State Senate building in Honolulu. Tremelo, meanwhile, main-
Four in 10 Brussels
residents annoyed
by noise
tains a Damien Museum, and Leuven, where
the priest is buried, runs the Damien documentation and information centre.
Invest road-toll income in roadworks, federation demands
The government should invest the income it
receives from a new road toll in new roads
and in maintenance, according to the three
regional Construction Federations in a joint
statement.
The toll comes into force next year and
applies to vehicles heavier than 3.5 tonnes.
The measure has provoked protests from the
retail sector as well as the transport industry. According to the construction industry,
the money raised should be reinvested in the
upkeep of existing roads and the construction of new roads.
Last week motoring organisation Touring
© Courtesy MPD01605/Wikimedia
warned that, at current rates of advance,
the “missing links” in the country’s road
4,720
2,289
calls to motoring organisation
Touring during the first week of the
Easter holiday because of car trouble – 14% more than last year and
the highest number in five years
\2
network will only be completed in 2070.
Touring drew up a list of weak spots, including tunnels under Schumanplein in Brussels
and Ter Kamerenbos, the Brussels Ring, the
A8 in Halle, the A12 Brussels-Antwerp and
the Oosterweel connection in Antwerp.
In 2002, a list of 201 of these spots was
released, and 37 projects have since been
completed. “There’s a lot of work to be done,”
commented Touring spokesperson Danny
Smagghe. “With 162 missing links to go at a
rate of three a year, we’ll get there by 2070.”
Flanders accounts for 63 of the missing links
and Brussels for 16. \ Alan Hope
About 40% of people living in the Brussels-Capital Region complain about noise
nuisance at home, according to the Health
Survey 2013 by the Scientific Institute for
Public Health, which questioned about
3,000 people.
Noise is the main factor in the category
of environmental factors that disturb
people at home. “People are not just
annoyed by the noise of traffic,” Rana
Charafeddine, co-author of the report,
told Brusselnieuws.be.
“The survey
shows that noise made by neighbours
is often also very disturbing.” Residents
also complained about vibrations (almost
20%), air pollution (more than 15%) and
bad smells (more than 10%) making life at
home less pleasant.
The main problem for inhabitants in their
broader living environment is the amount
of rubbish in the streets: 27% of respondents complained about this issue. The
amount of traffic also disturbs about a
quarter of people. Other major causes of
annoyance are vandalism and the speed
of traffic.
The Flemish ombudsman’s annual report
recently showed that noise is also a big
cause of annoyance in Flanders, with one
in four people living in Flanders disturbed
at night by traffic noise. \ Andy Furniere
commercially available breathalyzers are unreliable, according
to tests on 24 models carried out
by the Belgian Institute for Road
Safety
calls to the Taaltelefoon, the Flemish government’s language advice
hotline, in 2014, down from 5,005
the year before. Inquiries are also
accepted via the websites taaltelefoon.be and taaladvies.net
2,175
income generated so far from
tourism to the Westhoek area of
West Flanders associated with the
centenary of the start of the First
World War. Two-thirds came from
foreign tourists
cases of graffiti on trains in 2014,
twice as many as in 2010, at a cost
of €2.5 million to the rail authority NMBS. The new Desiro rolling
stock is a particular target
april 15, 2015
WEEK in brief
Alexander Kristoff became the
first Norwegian to win the
Tour of Flanders bike race on
Easter Sunday, just three days
after he won the Three-Day De
Panne-Koksijde. For the Tour,
Kristoff held off Dutchman Niki
Terpstra in a two-man sprint
finish after a brutal 264 kilometres. Lokeren’s Greg Van Avermaet of BMC, who came second
last year, took third place, seven
seconds behind Kristoff. Kristoff
then went on to win Flanders’
Scheldeprijs race on 8 April.
The government of Flanders
has decided to keep the post
of bouwmeester, or master
architect, according to an internal government document, De
Standaard reported last week.
Peter Swinnen was the region’s
official architect from 2010
until earlier this year, when the
government said the post would
be vacated and the responsibilities taken over by an advisory
board of experts. The advisory
board concept will be kept and
be under the authority of the
new master architect.
A deposit on drinks cans and
bottles could reduce the mountain of rubbish picked up along
the roads of Flanders by 5,600
tonnes a year, according to
figures from a study carried out
for Flemish environment minister Joke Schauvliege. The study
finds that the introduction of a
deposit of 10c to 50c would not
involve high costs as critics have
claimed, and clean-up costs
would be cut by €16 million.
The deposit would require new
machines to allow shoppers to
reclaim their deposit.
Legal experts have repeated
calls for a change to the law
on sexual abuse in Belgium,
after an Antwerp appeal court
last week said that a basketball
coach who secretly filmed girls
in the shower over the course
of two years had committed
no offence. Belgian law states
that an offense is committed in
face of flanders
the case of “sexual assault with
violence or threat of violence”
but that there was no violence or
threat since the victims – both
minors and legal adults – were
unaware of the recordings.
Cod stocks in the North Sea
will be biologically sound in five
years if current rates of recovery are maintained, according to the Institute for Agriculture and Fisheries Research.
Last year stocks stood at 68,000
tonnes, up from 21,000 tonnes
in 2006. Measures to preserve
stocks, such as strict quotas and
the closing of some spawning
grounds, have had the required
effect, the institute said.
A suspect was arrested last week
in connection with the diamond
robbery at Brussels Airport
in February of 2013. The man
had been arrested early in the
enquiry but later released. He
came to the attention of investigators again after his girlfriend’s
teenage daughter complained
to a youth worker that she had
been dragged out of bed on one
occasion and forced to unload
diamonds out of boxes.
The EU Commission has called
on the Belgian state to end
what it called a “secret protocol” allowing media groups to
avoid paying VAT on digital
news products such as website
subscriptions. The exemption
from 21% VAT cost the treasury
millions of euros, but the existence of the agreement between
the media groups and the
tax administration was never
revealed. The current finance
ministry said the government
would comply with the Commission’s order to scrap the agreement.
The traditional paper ticket for
five or 10 trips on the Brussels
public transport network MIVB
will disappear by this summer,
to be replaced by the electronic Mobib card, the author-
ity announced. At the same
time, the Mobib system will be
extended to include Flanders’
De Lijn network and train tickets. The old cardboard card still
accounts for 8.5% of journeys
with MIVB.
Fernand Koekelberg, former
commissioner of the federal
police, has been appointed as
contact person between the
police and the regions. Koekelberg is currently an adviser to
the police management committee after being sacked once for
alleged expenses abuses and
again when facing rape charges.
He was acquitted in the latter
case, and in both cases had his
dismissal overturned by the
Council of State.
A man who was paralysed from
the waist down in a bus accident in Thailand has launched a
new app giving information on
accessibility for wheelchair
users in five Flemish cities:
Antwerp, Bruges, Ghent, Hasselt
and Kortrijk. Michiel Desmet
said the lack of such “basic”
information in the 21st century
was “infuriating,” leading him
to create the app with the help
of four volunteers. The app, On
Wheels, received a subsidy of
€20,000 from the equal opportunities ministry.
Belgian defence forces will
shortly have a fourth arm to
add to land, sea and air. Defence
minister Steven Vandeput is
expected to announce the creation of a new national cybersecurity force, charged with the
protection of data traffic and the
prevention of and response to
cyber-attacks.
The city of Antwerp is expecting
20 ocean-going cruise ships in
2015, on top of 587 river cruises,
a city spokesperson said. Each
passenger spends an average of
€100 in the city, mostly on food,
drink and admission to museums or other tourist attractions.
told he was no longer required. He
was not told, however, where to
report for work next, so he stayed
home and continued to be paid.
In 2005, the city found out and,
understandably, decided to make
his situation permanent by sacking
him. It also demanded the repayment of €155,000 in salary.
Martens took his dismissal to the
Council of State and won. His
dismissal was illegal, and he must
be reinstated. He was, but was
promptly sacked again by the city
of Antwerp. He is now seeking not
only the overturning of that decision but also the salary to which
he was entitled between his first
The word “icon” is too often
bandied about in relation to TV
personalities, but Paula Sémer
has actually earned it. She was
one of the first women to present
TV programmes, and last week
she turned 90.
Sémer was born in Antwerp in
1925 and began working for the
city’s rationing department in
the last months of the Second
World War. She also worked for
a time for the national organisation for war veterans.
Not long after the end of the war,
she began acting in radio dramas
and hosting broadcasts on the
National Institute for the Radio
(NIR). She soon became a familiar voice to listeners in Flanders,
and when NIR started TV, she
made the transition, together
with (Tante) Terry Van Ginderen
and Nora Steyaert. She landed
a leading role in Flanders’ firstever TV drama, Drie dozijn rode
rozen (Three Dozen Red Roses).
She presented programmes for
women, one of them featuring
the first ever live birth on Flemish TV, with other controversies
including discussions of sexual-
ity in 1965. “We wanted to fight
for the rights of the father to be
allowed to be present at hospital births, something that was
permitted almost nowhere,” she
commented later.
Off screen she was active in
breaching the taboo around
breast cancer and worked to
have women allowed to sit the
exam to become a TV producer.
In 1989 she was named head of
science for the public broadcaster BRT (now VRT). Sémer
retired in 1990 but continued to
write and publish.
Sémer was one of the prime
movers behind the creation of
the Flemish Television Academy,
and in 2010, she won a lifetime
achievement award (pictured).
“Women these days are no
pushovers,” she said in a recent
radio interview. “I hear and read
things in interviews that make
me think, ‘well done’.” Not that
the lot of women cannot still be
improved: “I had such a great
professional life, but the fact
that I’m still hearing the same
complaints as I heard 50 years
ago makes me sad.” \ Alan Hope
Flanders Today, a weekly English-language newspaper, is an initiative of the Flemish
Region and is financially supported by the Flemish authorities.
OFFSIDE
It’s off to work we don’t go
An Antwerp man is taking the
city to court for six years in back
pay. An extraordinary case, especially when you consider that Dirk
Martens, the man in question,
had already stayed home for five
years collecting his salary from the
comfort of his armchair.
The legal parcours undergone by
Martens would require several law
degrees to follow, but we’ll try to
simplify it here.
In 1986, Martens (pictured), a theatre technician working for the
city, was seconded to the Echt
Antwaarps Theater to provide technical services, which he did conscientiously until 2000, when he was
Paula Sémer
© Bart Musschoot/VRT
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.
© Koen Fasseur/De Standaard
sacking in 2005 and his re-hiring
in 2011, a delay which was entirely
due to the wheels of justice turning
exceeding slow. The amount this
time: €122,000 (and change).
Martens has not, however, been
without employment: He had a
regular role in the TV comedy Chez
Bompa Lawijt, which ran for 60
episodes on VTM until 2012. Right
now he is between roles. \ 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 Corelio AdPro
Contributors Daan Bauwens, Rebecca
Benoot, Derek Blyth, Leo Cendrowicz, Katy
Desmond, Andy Furniere, Diana Goodwin,
Julie Kavanagh, Catherine Kosters, Toon
Lambrechts, Katrien Lindemans, Ian
Mundell, Anja Otte, Tom Peeters, Daniel
Shamaun, Senne Starckx, Christophe
Verbiest, Débora Votquenne, Denzil Walton
General manager Hans De Loore
Publisher Corelio Publishing NV
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Verantwoordelijke uitgever
Hans De Loore
\3
\ POLITICS
5TH COLUMN
Shaky progress report
Six months in, Belgium’s
federal government is mostly
known as a kibbelkabinet – the
squabbling cabinet.
Prime minister Charles Michel
tries to avoid getting caught
up in the many debates. The
image that sticks, however, is
that of a puppet on a string
– the real leader being N-VA
party president Bart De Wever.
Michel’s MR is the only Frenchspeaking party in the coalition,
which contributes strongly to
the image.
N-VA, too, is having some difficulties settling in. It is struggling with the power it holds
as the largest party and the
generosity towards smaller
coalition parties that implies.
Also, the “change” of N-VA’s
campaign slogan has yet to
materialise.
When the government was
formed, N-VA agreed to halt
its agenda of institutional
changes. Social and economic
changes,
however,
have
proved to be much harder
than expected. Lowering taxes
and stimulating the economy
is thwarted by the economic
downturn and resistance from
within the federal government.
And how can a party stand for
leaner government when it
holds the portfolios of internal
affairs and defence, scraping
for funds already?
The
Christian-democrats,
then. CD&V promised to
become “the government’s
social face”, which led them
to demand a tax shift, from
labour to capital. With a disapproving N-VA, and facing criticism from organisations traditionally associated with CD&V,
the party now faces opposition
from all sides.
The government of Flanders
gives rise to fewer emotions.
With cuts in welfare, culture
and education, however, it has
received plenty of criticism. De
Wever’s shadow hangs over the
debate in Flanders, too, as his
recent remarks on racism have
shown.
The Flemish government is
not immune from the federal
level, either: the recent federal
budget decision was quite
a blow, as the regions and
communities are now unexpectedly receiving €750 million
less in state funding. In Flanders, the situation was extra
painful, as the same parties
make up both the federal and
Flemish governments.
The setback, which understandably irritated ministerpresident Geert Bourgeois
(N-VA), was the result of the
sixth state reform, agreed on
during the previous term.
So while the federal ministers rejoiced at having an
easier than expected budget
control, they left their Flemish colleagues scrabbling for
change. \ Anja Otte
\4
Minister proposes improved
services for rape victims
As professor reprimanded, government discusses obstacles facing victims
Alan Hope
More articles by Alan \ flanderstoday.eu
T
he Free University of Brussels (VUB) has
reprimanded Willem Elias, philosophy
lecturer and dean of the psychology
faculty, for a Facebook post he made in the
immediate aftermath of the death of former
socialist politician Steve Stevaert.
Stevaert’s body was found in a canal near Hasselt
on the same day that he was informed by the
court that there was enough evidence to try
him on rape charges. A woman submitted the
complaint in 2013, saying that Stevaert – who
had been a minister and provincial governor
before leaving politics in 2009 – had raped her
in his office in 2010, but she was afraid to come
forward out of fear of losing her government job.
Elias, a friend of Stevaert, addressed his post to
“the woman who has this on her conscience. You
go to the police immediately after a rape, or at
the most a day later. Not after three years. And
victims who are driven home by the chauffeur
are even more rare,” he concluded, referring to
elements of the case.
VUB rector Paul De Knop described the message
as “inappropriate”. “Victims also need our
support,” he said. “This message does not represent the views of the university.”
After the post was picked up and widely
published in media across the country, the
university examined Elias’ past posts and discovered that this was not the first instance in which
he criticised women for reporting rape. He noted,
“The obstacles are substantial”
© Courtesy Het Nieuwsblad
for example, that the accusation of rape against
the French politician Dominique Strauss-Kahn
“wasn’t a problem for Louis XIV”.
The VUB issued a statement. “Rector Paul De
Knop has had a serious discussion with professor Willem Elias. The rector made his disapproval of his expressions on Facebook more than
clear and stressed how hurtful they were. Professor Elias accepted his responsibility and apologised sincerely to his faculty, to the university
and, above all, to the victims of sexual violence.”
“The last thing I want to do is minimise rape,”
Elias said in his own statement. “I apologise to
anyone who has been injured by my words.”
In related news, federal minister for equal opportunities Elke Sleurs called for more support for
victims of rape to make it easier for them to
report the crime. According to research, nine out
of 10 women who are raped in Belgium do not
file a report.
“The obstacles for victims are of course substantial,” Sleurs told VRT News, and “the figures are,
unfortunately, not good. Everyone does their
best, but the problem is a difficult one. I think we
need to better train police, psychologists, social
workers and doctors.”
Sleurs (pictured) proposed multi-disciplinary
support teams based on the model of the expertise centre at Ghent University, which holds
consultations specifically aimed at the victims
of sexual violence. “However, in practice, it isn’t
always simple,” she said. “If someone is raped in a
small town, how do you bring them into contact
with an expertise centre? These are matters we
are looking into. We want to figure out how to
bring help closer to the victims.”
The minister plans to produce an action plan by
the summer. Sleurs is also a member of the board
of VUB and was asked to react to the Elias statements. “I find that unfortunate, of course,” she
said. “That sort of stereotypical thinking lies deep
within our society, and it’s something we need to
work on. Any statements that result in victims
feeling discriminated against are to be deplored.”
Flemish government unveils action plan
to tackle radicalisation
The Flemish government has approved an 11-point
plan aimed at preventing young people from being
indoctrinated by radical ideologies. The government
began to evolve its strategy earlier this year following
terrorist attacks in Paris and a foiled terror attack on
Belgian soil.
The main points in the plan involve effective
exchange of information, monitoring of online activity and support for local organisations. The plan
encourages closer contact with parents of young
people attracted by radical ideas and offers support
to vulnerable young people at an early stage.
The programme involves all government departments, with family and welfare minister Jo
Vandeurzen (pictured) playing a key role in supporting parents of vulnerable young people.
According to reports, two Belgian residents a week
leave to fight in Syria, most of them from Brussels
and Antwerp. Minister of the interior and integration, Liesbet Homans, who originally proposed the
plan, said “prevention is crucial in dealing with the
radicalisation process. We want to offer everyone
concerned – from local authorities to social workers
to teachers to parents – a maximum of support when
they are confronted with people who are at high risk
of becoming radicalised”.
Other elements in the plan include the creation of a
help desk run by the new family support organisations Huizen van het Kind. \ Derek Blyth
Flemish parliament launches YouTube
channel to connect with voters
The Flemish parliament has
launched a digital strategy that
will be “transparent, accessible,
open and social”, speaker Jan
Peumans has announced.
Alongside a revamped website, a
YouTube channel will broadcast
sittings of the parliament. Users
will be able to watch sittings
live, replay them later and share
them on social media. “The aim
of the website is to be userfriendly, accessible and easy to
share,” Peumans said.
The website was designed to
highlight the most soughtafter information, including
members of parliament, schedules of meetings and parliamentary documents. Each MP has
their own dedicated page with a
biography and a list of their initi-
atives, as well as a link to social
media feeds.
Peumans hopes the website will
make communication with citizens more effective. “A parliament is the heart of a democracy and so it has to provide
transparent information about
its representatives and the work
they perform,” he said. \ DB
\ www.vlaamsparlement.be
Flanders goes
to Council
of State over
Brussels’ radio
stations
The Flemish government is to bring a
case before the Council of State alleging that French-speaking radio stations
in Brussels are in breach of an agreement limiting the strength of the signal
they may broadcast, culture minister
Sven Gatz told the Flemish parliament.
The FM band in the capital is saturated,
and the difference in signal strength
means Flemish stations are being
drowned out in many parts of the Brussels region.
According to Gatz, the two communities had a gentleman’s agreement not to
allow one set of broadcasters to shout
louder than the other. In 2013, then
media minister Ingrid Lieten signed an
agreement with her French-speaking
Community counterpart to draw up a
plan for a fair division of radio frequencies – something that still has to be
done.
Last year, the French-speaking
Community decided unilaterally to
allow stations to increase their signal.
Gatz said he remained ready to discuss
the matter. “But at a certain point, even
problems that have dragged on for a
very long time, need to find a solution,”
he said. \ AH
\ COVER STORY
april 15, 2015
The place to beer
Leuven kicks off sprawling, month-long beer extravaganza
WWW.LEUVEN.BE/BEERCAPITAL
continued from page 1
Dormaal and De Kroon breweries and City Beer Golf, which
combines a round of city golf with
beer tasting.
Zythos Beer Festival is in many
ways the highlight of the year for
Belgian beer lovers, if only for its
sheer scope. Though beer festivals regularly take place across
the region, each with its own local
colour and specialist attractions,
Zythos is one of a kind.
With about 100 stands for breweries and beer firms (companies
that sell beer brewed for them)
and more than 500 beers to try,
this Leuven festival has it all.
It goes on for two days in the
vast, cavernous dankness of the
Brabanthal. This year, the glasses
have changed from 15cl to 10cl,
which allows you to sample more
beers than before, according to
Zythos chair Steven Crabbé.
Zythos is the Greek name for an
ancient, beer-like Egyptian beverage, as well as a variety of hop. It’s
also the name of the Belgian beer
consumers’ association, which has
been organising the festival every
year since 2004. The festival originally took place in Sint-Niklaas but
moved to Leuven in 2012 in order
to cater to the growing crowds.
“Every year, the Zythos Beer Festival attracts more than 15,000 visitors to Leuven from all over the
world, thanks to the selection of
more than 500 Belgian beers on
offer,” says Crabbé. “The personal
contact with the brewer is also
very important. I’m convinced
we can go on growing in many
different ways, not only in visitor
numbers but also in quality. We
still have a lot of work to do on the
whole beer experience, for example.”
Leuven Beer Month closes with
what may turn out to be the most
interesting event of all: the twoday Leuven Innovation Beer Festival, organised by brewer André
Janssens of Hof Ten Dormaal. The
remarkable thing about this festival is not only its content, but the
fact that it’s happening at all.
In January, Hof Ten Dormaal was
hit by a serious fire that destroyed
buildings, equipment and a large
© Marco Mertens
© Filip Claessen
The Leuven Beer Weekend programme includes pub and brewery tours, beer golf and a one-of-a-kind festival
part of the brewery’s product.
Barely three months later, when
most normal people would still be
hiding under the bed covers, Janssens is rebuilding his brewery –
with the help of many in the beer
world who rallied to the cause.
And he’s taking on side projects
like this.
“The 75 beers that will be presented
by 16 international brewers are
characterised by their craftsmanship but, more than anything, by
the innovative manner in which
they were brewed,” Janssens says.
“That innovation might be in the
ingredients, the techniques used,
the production process, the energy
used, the packaging or even the
origin of the recipe.”
The festival was deliberately kept
small-scale, he explains, and takes
place in the unique setting of De
Hoorn brewery – where Stella
Artois was originally brewed.
Local food producers will be on
hand to provide eats to go with
the drinks.
“And for those who want to learn
something in the process,” says
24-26 April
Janssens, “we plan a series of
interesting lectures on innovation
in the world of beer”.
Leuven Beer Weekend
Across Leuven
Doing Zythos
A selection of 500 beers (the full
list can be found on the festival’s website) is enough to make
the head of even the most experienced beer taster spin, so we
asked some old hands for tips on
how to get the best out of Zythos.
Joe Stange, author of Good Beer
Guide Belgium: “Ask other festival-goers what they’ve had that’s
great today. If their eyes light up
when they tell you, go find it. Start
with the lighter, less bitter stuff
and go up from there. Something
lighter might be the best beer at
the festival, but you’ll never know
it if you taste it after a barrel-aged
double whatsit. Then it will taste
like water.”
Paul Walsh, publisher of Belgian
Beer & Food magazine: “Go early
before the crowds arrive and
leave early; it can get messy. Don’t
be afraid to ask basic questions;
most beer brewers aren’t snobby.
Avoid the lure of the fast food
trucks outside; go and eat
in Leuven after.”
Sofie Vanrafelghem, beer
sommelier and author
of Bier: Vrouwen weten
waarom (Beer: Women
Know Why): “Zythos is a
great beer festival because
you can meet a lot of the
brewers. So definitely
ask a lot of questions,
even the stupid ones.
First, go exploring
without looking at
any list. Discovering a country without knowing where
to go and where the
hotspots are is so
much more fun, and
it’s the same with
beer. If you feel lost,
go to the little tent
in the centre. The
advisers can answer
any beer questions
but also recommend
beers to your taste.”
Kevin Desmet, Belgian Beer
Geek blogger: “Prepare a list
before you go. Check the beer
menu online and mark the
beers you want to taste. Take
some bottles of water with
you and drink enough water
between beers. Make good
use of public transport.
Zythos must be one of the
best accommodated festivals when it comes to
public transport. Have
fun and enjoy, but don’t
overanalyse the beers.”
Louis Zachert of
German beer blog
Hopophilia: “Try to
avoid the ‘big names’
– we all know who
they are. Be open to
new flavours. Let yourself be surprised by
brews you haven’t tried
before.”
\5
\ BUSINESS
week in
business
Brewing AB InBev
The federal competition
authorities have begun an
“informal investigation” into
the recent beer price increases
by AB InBev and its largest
competitor, Alken-Maes. The
authority is concerned by the
timing of the increases as well
as the similarity of justification: to be able to continue
investing in breweries and
products.
Business clubs
De Warande
The Brussels-based club
founded in 1988 to promote
Flanders’ business in Brussels is to open an affiliate in
Antwerp this summer in the
yacht club on the Scheldt’s
left bank. There are plans for a
new building on the site.
Energy Luminus
The local affiliate of Electricité
de France (EDF) is investing
up to €600 million to develop
its wind energy capacity in
Belgium over the next four
years. The company will build
100 additional onshore mills.
Finance ING
ING Belgium has renamed
its life assurance and asset
management wings as NN
Insurance and NN Investment Partners. The two divisions will also come under the
management of the Nationale
Nederlanden Group under an
agreement reached with the
EU Commission.
Food Vandemoortele
The Ghent-based frozen
food group has announced a
new bond issue, intended to
finance the takeover of the
Italian frozen food company
Lanterna-Agritech. Vandemoortele’s last issue was
in 2012, which raised €75
million. The Italian acquisition is thought to be only the
first of many.
Retail Talking French
The women’s fashion retailer
has been declared bankrupt
by the commercial tribunal
in Antwerp. The company’s 20
remaining stores have closed
and their 90 staff made redundant. TF attempted a capital
increase in December of €1.73
million. The year 2014 was,
according to retail federation
Comeos, the worst ever for the
retail trade in Belgium.
Technology
Technolink
The tech start-up in Bilzen,
Limburg, began trading last
week, a project of former
Flemish minister Johan Sauwens and two partners. Technolink manufactures a robot
capable of manufacturing
plastic parts.
\6
Joint African trade mission
Flanders and the Netherlands embark on first co-operative trade mission
Alan Hope
More articles by Alan \ flanderstoday.eu
T
he first operational joint economic
mission involving Flanders and the
Netherlands will take place from 31 May
to 5 June in Ghana and Senegal (pictured),
minister-president Geert Bourgeois announced
at the weekend. Flanders will be represented
by Flanders Investment & Trade (FIT),
accompanied by its Dutch counterpart, the
state service for Dutch enterprise (RON).
“FIT and RON will pull together to make this
mission a success for businesses in both Flanders and the Netherlands,” Bourgeois said. “The
co-operation is certain to open doors for the
maritime and dredging industries.”
Flanders and the Netherlands have been working towards greater co-operation in overseas missions since 2013, when former minis-
© Courtesy Maersk Line
ter-president Kris Peeters and Dutch prime
minister Mark Rutte travelled to the US. Last
autumn, Bourgeois renewed the contact, promising Rutte that he would organise a new joint
mission this year.
“We are neighbours and important trading part-
Unions fear job losses due to FedEx
takeover of TNT
Unions representing employees of
courier firm FedEx have warned that a
takeover of rival TNT could cost up to 400
jobs at the FedEx European headquarters
in Brussels. “As one competitor is taking
over another, and they both do the same
thing, they will be looking for synergies,”
said Hans Elsen of the union ACV. “In all
likelihood, depots will be merged and
couriers will cover both routes.”
An even greater concern to unions,
however, is FedEx’s decision to move its
headquarters to Amsterdam, where TNT
is based. “It’s scandalous that we had to
learn that from a press release,” Elsen
said. “I assume that local management
had only just found out themselves and
had to get something out quickly.”
Unions say they were not consulted,
although the so-called Renault law
makes this mandatory. FedEx is offering
€4.4 billion for the loss-making TNT, and
already has the approval of the largest
shareholder, PostNL which holds 14.7%
of the shares.
TNT, faced with competition from
© Courtesy Aradecki/Wikimedia
Germany’s DHL as well as the American UPS, has piled up €673 million in
debt over the last four years. TNT has a
network of 550 depots built around 19
hubs.
FedEx has declined to comment on the
union’s allegations but promised it would
try to avoid “substantial job losses”.
The TNT sorting centre in Liège, which
employs 1,500 staff, will be maintained,
the company said.
At the same time, FedEx will be looking
for a buyer for TNT Aviation, also based
in Liège. FedEx is a US company and is
not by law allowed to own a European
airline. \ AH
Municipalities take legal steps
against intercommunal taxation
The Association of Flemish Cities and
Municipalities (VVSG) is to bring a legal
action before the Constitutional Court
over new rules by the federal government on the taxation of intercommunales. These are public utilities, such as
energy distributor Eandis, that are run
by municipal authorities in partnership,
sometimes with additional private sector
partners.
Last week Eandis said it would pass the
cost of extra taxation on to its clients, to
the tune of €10 per electricity client and
€20 per gas client. Since 1 January, the
intercommunales have been subject to
corporation tax. According to an internal financial report produced by Eandis,
their tax bill for 2015 will come to €104.6
million. Eandis, which is active in 80% of
Flemish municipalities, plans to make
the customer pay.
According to VREG, the average electricity bill for a household consuming 3,500
© Courtesy Het Nieuwsblad
kilowatt hours will go up by €53 to €684
for the year.
VVSG is calling on the federal government to review the tax measures, director Marc Suykens said, or face a challenge
before the Constitutional Court by about
25 intercommunales. The organisation
considers public service providers to be
unlike private companies and argues
that they should not be taxed in the same
way. “You have to take into account that
the public sector has a public mission to
carry out,” Suykens said. \ AH
ners,” Bourgeois said. “A joint mission improves
the chances of Dutch and Flemish enterprises
overseas.” The pair will organise another trade
mission later this year, Bourgeois said.
FIT has been working on a programme to allow
companies to make the most of the growth
potential of the two African countries on the
itinerary. So far 48 companies have signed up,
mainly active in agriculture, transport and
logistics and infrastructure.
“The aim is to go after opportunities for Flemish
businesses in countries with a developing economy,” Bourgeois explained. “The success of such
missions shows the growing importance of the
African market for Flemish business.” FIT will
also organise a mission to Ethiopia, Kenya and
Rwanda this year, he said.
Minister plans cuts
in green subsidies
for business
The government of Flanders has cut the budget for ecopremiums – financial support for environmentally friendly
business investments – De Tijd reports. The budget for
2014 amounted to more than €40 million; this year the
figure has dropped to €10 million.
Last year’s total was also down from the previous year: In
2013, there were 822 applications funded, totalling more
than €51 million. In 2014, 856 projects were funded for
a lesser amount. Nine out of 10 of the premiums went
to small and medium-sized businesses, which in turn
invested €200 million for the €40 million in premiums,
according to figures obtained by N-VA deputy Matthias
Diependaele from economy minister Philippe Muyters.
“It’s the government’s responsibility to work as efficiently
as possible with taxpayers’ money,” Diependaele said. “The
government has made its criteria more selective so that
the premium has more of a stimulus effect.”
Unizo, the organisation that represents the self-employed,
called on the government not to use the premium as a
means of saving money. “Some technologies still require
a push from the government to convince companies to
invest,” spokesperson Piet Vanden Abeele said.
The new list of technologies supported by the premium –
areas such as geothermal energy, heat pumps or hydrogenpowered engines – covers only 30 fields, compared to 150
previously. \ AH
Delhaize launches
payments by smartphone
Supermarket chain Delhaize has launched payments by
smartphone, using the Bancontact app, the company
announced. The system currently can only be used in one
store – the Karreveld location in the Brussels commune of
Molenbeek. Delhaize promises to have the system in operation in 15 stores by the end of the year.
The customer will be able to scan a QR code on the store’s
self-scanner and enter a pin code to pay for groceries.
The advantage, according to payment systems company
Worldline, is that the app can be configured to offer other
facilities such as a loyalty card or personalised discount
coupons. Worldline says the system is as secure as using
a debit card.
Colruyt introduced mobile payments in January, and
customers can pay with their phone in 350 stores. In both
cases, purchase price is kept at a maximum of €250 per
use.
Carrefour, meanwhile, said it was waiting for the European launch of Apple and Samsung’s payment systems
before moving to smartphone purchases. \ AH
\ INNOVATION
april 15, 2015
Uncovering Antwerp’s past
Surveys reveal medieval “Beer Gates”, where Napoleon entered the city
Bartosz Brzezinski
More articles by Bartosz \ flanderstoday.eu
F
or 200 years, they remained
hidden beneath the Scheldt
quays, just outside the
commercial centre of Antwerp.
But last month, archaeologists
unearthed what they believe to be
the medieval gates through which
Napoleon Bonaparte made his
entrance into the city in 1803.
By projecting historical maps on
to current city plans, the archaeologists were able to estimate the
location of the old harbour. After
the cobblestone pavement was
stripped, a crane moved in to help
dig through the top layers of soil.
For the finer work, the archaeologists and students used trowels and
picks.
Rather than full-scale archaeological excavations, however, these are
surveys, or sounding pits, explains
archaeologist Karen Minsaer, who
is heading up the project. “We are
trying to gain information on the
exact location, preservation and
quality of the masonry,” she explains.
© City of Antwerp archaeology service
Archaeologists next to the remains of Antwerp’s Beer Gate
If you build
something new,
you have to
show respect
for the old
“The surveys were prompted by the
city’s plans to renovate the area.”
The team found medieval quay walls
and the remains of two 14th-century
“Beer Gates” – where brews from
trading ships made their way into
Antwerp. In other locations, archaeologists unearthed fortifications
from the 19th century and remnants
of a Roman settlement.
But the twin gates have garnered
much of the local attention. In
an early 19th-century painting by
Mattheus Ignatius van Bree, Napoleon Bonaparte is shown entering
Antwerp by boat through one of
the gates, accompanied by his wife,
Joséphine, and a cohort of soldiers
and servants.
“We believe he arrived through the
smaller of the two,” Minsaer says,
pointing to an opening in the brick
walls about two-and-a-half metres
wide. Only the very base of the gate
remains.
Napoleon, who affectionately
referred to Antwerp as “a pistol
pointed at the heart of England”,
came with the intention to turn the
city into his empire’s most important military port.
“He thought Antwerp old-fashioned
and wanted to modernise the city
and the harbour,” explains Minsaer.
Under his order, new docks were
built and fortifications erected.
The old quay walls and Beer Gates
became their foundation.
But 80 years after Napoleon’s reign
ended, the defensive walls were
torn down, the quays straightened
and the canals filled in. “The new
harbour took the form we know
today, with the remains of the Beer
Gates buried beneath,” says Minsaer.
Over time, as the port moved north,
the Scheldt quays lost most of their
former glory, with large tracts now
in complete disarray. Where trading
ships once moored to unload cargo
from northern Europe, Africa and
Asia, there is now a ragged car park
with occasional locals passing by.
Under alderman Rob Van de Velde,
the city is hoping to breathe some
life into the area by creating additional parking space to ease congestion in the city centre and raising
the quay walls to prevent flooding. Changes to the landscape are
coming, but for Minsaer the Scheldt
Quays Master Plan is still a work in
progress.
“It’s not yet clear what the city
intends to do here, so our team’s
advice will be to integrate these
gates into any future concept,” she
says. “If you build something new,
you have to show respect for the
old.”
At a press conference last month,
Van de Velde hinted at the need to
balance the city’s commercial interests and environmental concerns
with the preservation of its historical legacy. He called the surveys “a
fascinating glimpse of where the
city’s DNA comes from”.
Vincent Verbruggen, one of his
assistants, however, said: “Since the
planned parking lot will be overground, I don’t think it would be
possible to keep the sites exposed
to the public.”
Verbruggen also speculated that
the findings would likely not end up
as museum pieces, as they cannot
be transported easily. For now, the
archaeologists will have to refill the
pits and return the brick pavement
to how it was, before a number of
public events begin in the area this
month.
Until final plans are drawn
up, it remains to be seen if the
14th-century gates will ever see the
light of day again.
Q&A
Bart Van der Bruggen is a professor in sustainable engineering at KU Leuven. Together
with the Tshwane University of Technology
in Pretoria, he has built a sustainable water
purification plant in South Africa
Is access to drinking water problematic in
South Africa?
South Africa is a country with two faces. The
large cities, especially in the western part of the
country, have good infrastructure. But in more
rural parts of South Africa, the supply of drinking water is often inadequate. I admit that the
situation is worse in many other African countries, but that’s also the reason we chose to realise this pilot project in South Africa. Thanks to
the country’s leading role in terms of infrastructure, we could rely on existing expertise.
But in the long term, our goal is to export the
technology to countries north of South Africa.
What makes the plant sustainable?
The plant relies on the process of gravitational
filtration, in which the force of gravity is used
to push water through a series of filtering
membranes. You could compare it with a coffee
percolator, but the membranes are not so easy
to find and install. But this process means that
the plant doesn’t need external energy, and it
doesn’t produce any waste material.
In Durban, there have already been some similar projects, but these didn’t go beyond the
demonstration phase. But the true innovation
here lies in the integration of water management into the local communities that use it.
The local people decide on the maintenance,
use and financial aspects of the plant. Users
also have to pay a small fee. A free system
doesn’t work, as it leads to abuse.
Your actual field of research is separation
technology. How did you get involved in
this project?
Separation technology also includes physicochemical separations in water, which can be
applied in drinking water, waste water, etc. I
KU Leuven researchers Patricia Luis (left) and Bart Van Der Bruggen
consider a development context to be an essential part of any academic’s work, but it comes in
second to economic profit in science and technology these days. As a member of the Flemish Interuniversity Council, I’m also involved
in similar projects in Tanzania, Uganda and
Ethiopia. \ Interview by Senne Starckx
week in
innovation
Flemish company to
produce robot butlers
The company that developed
the software for the humanoid care robot Zora plans to
expand its activities outside
the care sector. It will also
move its base and plans to
build its own production
facility. The Limburg regional
investment agency LRM
has allocated extra financing to QBMT to speed up its
development. As a result,
it’s moving its headquarters
from Ostend to BioVille, the
incubator and accelerator for
care and biotechnology at
Hasselt University’s Diepenbeek campus, where it plans
to hire 50 extra staff. So far, 63
robots have been sold to rest
homes, hospitals and schools.
“We envision our robot functioning in a domestic environment, too,” Fabrice Goffin,
QBMT managing director,
said.
Research group to
improve elderly care
A research group has been
set up at the Free University
of Brussels (VUB) to improve
care for elderly people in
their own homes. D-Scope
unites VUB researchers with
scientists from the universities of Antwerp, Leuven and
Maastricht and the University College of Ghent. The aim
is to enable elderly people to
stay at home longer, in a more
independent way. Their quality of life should thus increase,
resulting in lower costs for
society. D-Scope will involve
elderly people and their
carers in the project, to make
sure their day-to-day experience is taken into account.
The project’s first report is
expected in September.
Flatworms track
carcinogens
PhD student An-Sofie Stevens
of Hasselt University (UHasselt) has developed a fast and
cheap test to detect carcinogenic substances using
the stem cells of flatworms.
Carcinogenic substances are
currently tested on rodents;
this test could lead to a reduction in the use of animals.
Stevens focused on a test
using flatworms, developed by
teams at UHasselt and Ghent
University. “Flatworms are
unique organisms for cancer
research because they have
a large number of stem cells
that are accessible,” she said.
“Carcinogenic
substances
influence the division of stem
cells, which results in a change
that quickly demonstrates
whether the substances are
carcinogenic.” \ Andy Furniere
\7
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\ EDUCATION
april 15, 2015
Contractual obligations
Ghent University temporary contracts could take millions to settle
Débora Votquenne
More articles by Débora \ flanderstoday.eu
I
s Ghent University facing
bankruptcy? The latest edition
of the university’s student
magazine Schamper leads with an
article about years of contractual
mismanagement, and says that
rectifying the situation could end
up costing the university more
than €100 million.
Bankruptcy is maybe an exaggeration, others say. But the university is in the middle of a situation
wherein it has to make amends to
about 1,700 employees who were
entitled to permanent contracts
but were instead given temporary
contracts that were repeatedly
extended. In the Schamper article,
employees complain that, despite
their repeated requests, nothing
has been done about the situation.
Pauline, one of the employees
quoted, says she has been working
for more than 10 years from one
contract to another, while Eva had
to leave her job after 13 years of
consecutive short-term contracts.
That left her without any certainty
© Courtesy UGent
about her severance pay.
Not only is this causing frustration
for the employees involved, it’s not
in line with Belgian labour legislation. According to a 1978 law, this
type of temporary contract must
be extended indefinitely after two
years.
The employees who were denied
permanent contracts also missed
out on considerable retirement
benefits, which have been granted
since 2000 to staff with a permanent contract. This distinction is at
odds with the anti-discrimination
law, which has been in place since
2003, because people performing the same jobs are being given
different pay and different rights.
Some of the people involved have
already been to court and successfully claimed their benefits.
The people concerned are mostly
scientific or administrative technical staff. The scientific staff in
particular depend on concrete
projects as well as public and
private funding. This could explain
to some extent the temporary
character of their contracts.
UGent is not contesting the allegations. The university’s press
officer, Stephanie Lenoir, says in
De Standaard that they are looking for a solution. “The negotiations are ongoing,” she says “but
obviously this will be an expensive
matter.”
She also explains that if they
continue to work out the current
proposition, meaning they would
deal with the claims retroactively,
“we are possibly talking about €120
million, an amount the university
hasn’t got lying around.” Moreover,
like other universities, UGent faces
severe cutbacks in government
funding; in its case, €14 million.
Poverty study hopes to increase parental involvement in schools
In Brussels, where one in five young people end
their secondary education without obtaining a
diploma, dropping out has long been linked to
poverty. A new study should help improve this
troubling record by increasing parental involvement in schools.
“Because of their own difficult socio-economic
situation, the parents often can’t find a way to
help their children, or don’t always have the skills
to take the necessary steps,” explains Bart Peeters,
head of the Brussels Platform against Poverty, the
organisation leading the project. “We want to find
ways to strengthen the contact between parents
and schools.”
Alongside the Brussels Education Centre, the
platform will bring together families, teachers
and directors from five Dutch-speaking primary
and secondary schools in the municipalities of
Brussels-City and Sint-Pieters-Woluwe.
“We talked with each of the groups separately
about what they see as possible solutions,” says
Peeters. “Together, we will decide which ones can
be implemented the most easily and will lead to
concrete projects that help children remain in
school.”
Although Peeters says it’s too early to speak of
results, he points to a pilot project the platform
and its member association Vrienden van het
Huizeke have been running in one of the schools.
“We have a social worker at Sint-Joris primary
school who has lived in poverty for much of her
own life,” he explains. “She gives advice to the
parents and helps them with making phone calls
and filling out forms. Parents find it much easier
to talk to her and end up taking the initiative
themselves.”
Peeters and the organisation are scheduled to
present their findings by October. The study does
© Ingimage
not focus on the financial aspects of poverty, but
aims to go beyond that, he explains.
“Being poor means being excluded; that exclusion makes you doubt yourself and makes you
lose trust in other people, even the organisations
that are designed to help you,” Peeters says. “Ultimately, it’s about building a bridge between two
worlds that are having difficulty understanding
each other.” \ Bartosz Brzezinski
Q&A
Wilfried Decoo is an emeritus professor in linguistics at Antwerp
University. One of his key interests is plagiarism.
When did you become interested
in this issue?
In 1997, I was asked to give advice
related to an award Antwerp
University wanted to give to honour
a PhD student. I soon discovered
that the major part of the student’s
thesis was plagiarised. The author
hadn’t done any of their own
research, with the consequence
that the thesis could have been written in about six weeks. I started to
study the phenomenon thoroughly,
which culminated in my book on
the subject, which I published in
2002: Crisis on Campus: Confronting
Academic Misconduct.
Isn’t there a grey area between
plagiarised and original work?
Sometimes plagiarism is patently
obvious, such as when entire paragraphs are copied without any reference. But in most cases the perpetrator isn’t so naive. Often they
deliberately seek out that grey area.
Students can be inspired by numerous sources, sneak sentences in
here and there and mingle them
with their own words. The result
is an amalgam that’s very hard to
unravel. In time, students become
skilled at producing such mingled
texts.
How can teachers recognise
plagiarism?
In general, when a student delivers a “perfect” text – of a much
higher quality than the teacher
from Germany or the UK. Interferences from these languages are
often easy to recognise. For example, a Flemish student could betray
themselves due to the automatic
spelling and grammar checker
on the computer of an unknown
English-speaking student.
had expected – it often concerns a
direct copy of an external, qualitative source. Conversely, a text that
contains errors and deviations that
are normally not found in a Flemish context is also often of dubious
origins.
A lot of “French” educational material is on non-francophone websites,
How hard is it to find irrefutable
proof of plagiarism?
Before you penalise a student, you
have to be 100% sure that they
have indeed committed plagiarism.
There are some tricks. Teachers can
search online for a certain passage
of words between quotation marks,
so they can find those words in their
precise order. If they’re lucky, the
student has even copied the spelling
mistakes, by which the teacher can
find the original source more easily.
week in
education
Thomas More best
for teacher training
The best new secondary school
teachers in Flanders come
from Thomas More University
College in Mechelen, according to the government of Flanders’ visitation commission.
The commission evaluated
secondary education teacher
training programmes in 16
Flemish university colleges.
The Thomas More degree
at the Mechelen campus
received the best scores.
Currently, about 350 students
are registered for the degree.
The commission evaluated
the schools on the intended
final level, the education
process and the final level.
Thomas More Mechelen was
the only institute to be rated
“good” on all criteria.
Bpost fund
battles illiteracy
The King Boudewijn Foundation has launched a call for
projects that encourage children in single-parent families to read and parents to
be involved in the effort. The
foundation manages Bpost’s
Postal Fund for Literacy. The
call focuses on single-parent
homes because they make
up a significant part of socioeconomically
vulnerable
families. The goal is to prevent
illiteracy being passed on
from parents to children. A
study by the federal agency for
childcare benefits estimated
in 2008 that more than 20% of
Belgian families were singleparent families. The funding
is meant to help children aged
up to six, and applications are
being accepted until 28 April.
Historical figures
teach children French
Children can now prepare their
first French lessons using the
new mobile application BJR
BXL, short for Bonjour Bruxelles (Hello Brussels). Flemish publisher Die Keure developed the educational app with
the support of the Flanders
Audiovisual Fund. The digital
lessons are meant to help children move smoothly into their
first French lessons in the
third year of primary school.
BJR BXL teaches children how
to introduce themselves and
provides basic vocabulary and
phrases around themes like
family, colours, transport and
hobbies. Anatomist Andreas
Vesalius, architect Victor
Horta, King Boudewijn and
cycling legend Eddy Merckx
each show children the Brussels of their respective historical period through images
and animations in French.
\ Andy Furniere
\ Interview by Senne Starckx
\9
\ LIVING
week in
activities
Historic Veurne,
1914-1918
Take a living theatre walk
through the city and learn
about life during wartime
100 years ago. Re-enactor
village, live entertainment
and reduced admission to
the Free Fatherland experience centre all day. A military
tattoo will round out the evening at 20.00. 18 April, starting
at 13.30; Veurne town centre
\ www.vrijvaderland.be
Food Farm Fiesta
A food festival with food
trucks, top chefs, cocktails
and whisky tasting. Also workshops for kids, foot massage,
barber shop and more in a
relaxed, retro atmosphere.
17-19 April; Driespoort Shopping, Gaversesteenweg 54,
Deinze; free entry
\ www.foodfarm.be
Lochristi flower
market
Annual market with flowers,
plants, farm equipment and
local specialities for sale. Pony
rides, sheep shearing, bouncy
castles and face painting for
kids. 18 April, 10.00-18.00;
Lochristi town centre; free
\ www.bloemenmarktlochristi.be
Start to Golf
More than 40 golf clubs all
over Flanders will open their
doors to non-members and
offer free introductory golfing
lessons. Find a club near you
and register online. 19 April;
various locations; free
\ www.starttogolf.be
Tulip picking
At 10.00 the tulip field in
Berendrecht will open to the
public and everyone can pick
10 tulips for free. Afterwards,
enjoy the picnic meadow
with its hammocks and lawn
chairs, listen to live music,
join in a free workshop or take
a guided nature walk. 19 April,
10.00-18.00; Antwerpsebaan,
Berendrecht; free
\ www.tulpenpluk.be
Mattentaart walk
This year, the annual walking event coincides with
the opening of the tourist
season in Geraardsbergen
and Mattentaart Day. Walkers
can choose between several
routes from 6 to 42km, and
everyone gets free coffee and
mattentaarten.
Entertainment, flea market and more.
19 April, 7.00-15.00; Koninklijk
Atheneum, Papiermolenstraat
103, Geraardsbergen; €2
\ www.padstappers.be
\ 10
Tales from the reef
Antwerp Zoo opens refurbished aquarium for fish from around the world
Daniel Shamaun
More articles by Daniel \ flanderstoday.eu
WWW.ZOOANTWERPEN.BE
A
fter two years of hard work,
Antwerp Zoo has finished
refurbishing its aquarium,
with the new addition of one
of the largest reef aquariums in
Europe.
As you enter the building there
are octopuses and newly bred
seahorses at the entrance, eight
freshwater tanks to the right, and
eight saltwater tanks to the left
containing a huge diversity of fish.
The tanks replicate environments
from all around the world, to keep
the fish healthy and correctly
separated. They lead your eye to
the back wall, which is an observation window into the colourful
reef environment.
The reef tank contains roughly
4,000 vibrant tropical fish, including the clownfish made famous
by Finding Nemo. The backdrop
is formed of 20 tonnes of Indonesian and Turkish moonstone, with
a shipwreck theme, on which the
corals grow. The corals were all
sourced from other aquariums,
and Antwerp Zoo hopes to use this
as a seed with which to grow and
research its own corals.
© Jonas Verhulst/Zoo Antwerpen
tell.” Without proper exposure to
the public, ecological issues often
get swept under the carpet.
The design of the aquarium gives
visitors an experience that comes
People are familiar with elephants
and sharks, but this is a very
interesting story to tell
Spokesperson Ilse Segers says:
“It’s important to give attention
to the unknown. People are familiar with elephants and sharks, but
this is a very interesting story to
as close to coral diving as possible without getting wet. The tank’s
observation window – 8 metres
wide, 4m tall and 13cm thick
– was imported from Houston
harbour in the US.
“We had to make a hole in the wall
to get it in,” says Segers. It’s made
of an acrylic glass that’s just as
clear but more flexible than standard glass. This means they were
able to have a curved wall, allowing visitors to feel completely
surrounded by the reef environment when they get close enough.
The floor-to-ceiling interior decoration combines modern lighting
and technology with the original
classical elements of the building,
which dates back to 1911. “Since
this is one of the oldest zoos in
Europe, we wanted to work with
new techniques, but with respect
for the past,” says Segers.
It makes being in the aquarium
BITE
Flanders’ Pride highlights world-class ingredients
Some say that the Flemish are not a
proud people, but that they should
be. I have also often wondered why
some of my adopted countrymen
seem so modest, reluctant even,
when it comes to promoting themselves and their goods. But that’s
all changing, thanks to a number
of government-backed initiatives
aimed at showing off Flanders’ best
side.
One such initiative is Flanders’
Pride, a series of online videos that
puts Flemish agriculture in the
spotlight. In addition to informing
people about the different agricultural sectors, the films also highlight Flanders’ culinary heritage
by providing a few simple recipes
using some of the region’s most
basic – yet versatile – products.
Flemish chef Gert De Mangeleer of
Bruges’ three-Michelin-star restaurant Hertog Jan is on board to
demonstrate how to quickly and
easily prepare these dishes. “I really
enjoy being able to tell our guests
that certain products come from
local, small-scale suppliers,” says
De Mangeleer. “The idea that I want
to convey is that people should look
for local and organic products. It
doesn’t always have to come from
far away to be special. There is so
much beauty around us, but we
hardly realise it.”
The first video, simply called Pigs,
was released in 2013, followed by
The Egg a year later. This year, Flanders’ Pride presented Milk during
the international fair Agriflanders.
In the film, De Mangeleer makes
three very different Flemish dishes
with milk as the common denominator: smoked eel with velouté
of Jerusalem artichoke, buttermilk mashed potatoes with North
Sea shrimp, and rice pudding. The
cooking fragments are peppered
with glimpses of life behind the
scenes of a Flemish dairy farm.
And the tasty dishes are a breeze to
make at home.
The Egg is perhaps more entertaining, thanks to its extensive footage
of fluffy just-hatched chicks. With
its 224 poultry holdings, Flanders
has about 9.5 million laying hens,
for a total industry value of about
feel like walking down a corridor in mythical Atlantis; this
effect is made stronger by the fact
that all the tanks are set into the
walls underneath rows of arches,
making them very window-like.
It’s even possible to book a corporate dinner in the aquarium.
But it’s not just the face of the
aquarium that looks good. All
the seahorses and freshwater fish
that are visible were bred at the
aquarium, and the parent fish are
protected and nurtured behind
the scenes. The Royal Zoological
Society of Antwerp has a number
of projects in the field around the
world that are aimed at helping
animals and humans to co-exist
in better harmony.
WWW.VLAANDERENS-TROTS.BE
€110 million.
While the sector may be a small
subdivision of Flanders’ agriculture and horticulture industry, it
provides every Belgian with one egg
a day. And eggs are indispensable in
the kitchen. Every year the average
Belgian consumes 73 eggs at home.
Add to that consumption at restaurants and in processed food, and
you arrive at a total consumption of
about 230 eggs per person per year.
Of all the dishes prepared by De
Mangeleer in these documentaries,
there is one in particular that tickled my fancy: fried egg yolk with
smoked herring eggs. Handled with
care, the yolk of a fresh egg is first
breaded in panko, then fried to a
light crisp while the golden centre
remains soft and runny. Topped
with a spoonful of smoky, salty fish
eggs, the dish provides a tantalising
flavour and texture combination.
\ Robyn Boyle
april 15, 2015
Humanity restored
Double exhibition puts faces to Belgium’s liberated death camp prisoners
Alan Hope
More articles by Alan \ flanderstoday.eu
WWW.KAZERNEDOSSIN.EU
WWW.BREENDONK.BE
A double exhibition in Mechelen
and Willebroek focuses on
portraits of Belgians who were
freed from Nazi death camps
after the Second World War.
T
he liberation of the
surviving prisoners held
in the Nazi death camps
at the end of the Second World
War is the subject of a double
exhibition at the Dossin museum
in Mechelen and Fort Breendonk
memorial in Willebroek, near
Antwerp.
The Memorial, Museum and Documentation Centre on Holocaust
and Human Rights, better known
as the Dossin museum, faces the
former military barracks that
were used during the Occupation
as a transit and detention centre
for Jews and others destined for
concentration camps, particularly
Auschwitz.
Almost 26,000 people passed
through the barracks – 25,482
Jews and 352 Gypsies, including
5,430 children. Only 1,276 lived
until the end of the war.
Fort Breendonk, 20 kilometres south of Antwerp and built
between 1909 and 1914, served
as a labour and transit camp and
is now a national memorial. The
first prisoners arrived in September of 1940. During the course of
the war, there were between 20
and 600 prisoners present at any
one time, mainly those working
in the black market, smugglers,
Jews and others who broke antiSemitic laws.
About 3,600 people passed
through the Fort Breendonck
camp; 1,733 survived the war,
while about 300 were murdered
in the camp itself. The camp was
given back their faces. That corresponds perfectly with the main
mission of the Dossin museum: to
place the victims once more in the
midst of life.”
At Breendonk, meanwhile, the
liberation narrative is that of
Paul Lévy, the former head of
the Belgian Radio News Service
turned war correspondent, who
followed in the wake of the Allied
The horrors are brought into the
light and documented in full
liberated in September of 1944.
The exhibition at Dossin concerns
Paul van Zeeland, the Belgian
high commissioner for repatriation, who was sent to the Buchenwald concentration camp near
Weimar, Germany, in the spring
of 1945 – exactly 70 years ago – to
help bring his compatriots home.
“The main focus of this exhibition
is without a doubt the portraits
of the liberated Belgians,”
explains Dorien Styven, one of
the researchers at Dossin. “After
months of research, we were able
to identify about 60 Belgians and
reconstruct their life stories. The
prisoners, who had been but a
number in Buchenwald, were
troops who liberated camp after
camp on their way to take Berlin.
Lévy had himself been imprisoned
in Breendonk in 1940 and ’41,
though he was not deported. He
later reported on the conditions
inflicted in the camp by the liberated Belgians of the resistance on
suspected collaborators. Both he
and van Zeeland, in their different
capacities, were there to act as the
first public witnesses of the atrocities that had taken place, but also
the ray of hope that liberation had
brought.
“The exhibition shows not only
the passage through a desolate Germany, but also the life in
the camps of the victims – their
suffering, their liberation and
their repatriation,” says Herman
Van Goethem, director-general of
the Dossin museum. “The horrors
are brought into the light and
documented in full; instruments
of torture are shown in public; the
dead are photographed.”
The purpose of the van Zeeland
exhibition, too, is to restore to the
inmates some semblance of the
humanity that had been stripped
from them. Dossin’s research
centre identified 60 Belgian prisoners in Buchenwald, and the
museum’s collection of documents and other artefacts has
allowed each of them – once
merely a number in some ghastly
administrative system – to regain
a face and a life story.
“They are exhibitions in their own
right, but this is a unique chance
to look at the same period from
two points of view,” says Herbart
Beyers, events co-ordinator at
Breendonk. “The co-operation was
enriching for us, too. We already
had a pretty broad picture of the
whole story, but we were able to
get several unique pieces on loan,
which provided a fine addition to
our own collection.”
The double exhibition is an initiative of the two participating
museums as well as Cegesoma,
the Brussels centre for historical
research and documentation on
war and contemporary society.
\ 11
WASHINGTON
With smooth connections to more
than 50 US destinations.
brusselsairlines.com
or at your travel agency.
WE GO
THE EXTRA
SMILE.
\ ARTS
april 15, 2015
Uniting through disaster
Dancer Seppe Baeyens tests ability of survivors to unite in choreography debut
Tom Peeters
More articles by Tom \ flanderstoday.eu
Flemish dancer Seppe Baeyens
explores the redemptive power
of catastrophe and what happens
after things fall apart in his
choreography debut Tornar, which
features a motley crew of young
and old, pros and amateurs
A
ceiling fan whirs overhead.
The music is dark, and the
atmosphere apocalyptic. A
devastating storm has just taken
place. A few kids and teenagers,
three adults and a 92-year-old
man are the sole survivors and are
slowly waking up to the nightmare
around them.
Will these people – a mix of ages,
sexes and cultures, strangers to
each other until that very moment
– be able to come together as a
community?
That’s the central question Seppe
Baeyens asks in his first full dance
production, Tornar. After a career
as a dancer that saw him perform
with numerous local theatre and
dance companies like Fabuleus,
Kopergietery and Kabinet K, Baeyens has now taken the choreographer’s seat.
The 34-year-old spent a lot of time
selecting the right mix of people
for Tornar. He organised workshops until he felt his group of
dancers was diverse enough to
represent society at large. He ultimately settled on four children,
two teenagers, three professional
dancers, a pensioner and a musician.
“Working with a cross-section of
society makes it easier to reach
an intergenerational audience as
well,” he says during a break from
rehearsals.
We’re at the Ultima Vez dance
studios in the Brussels commune
of Sint-Jans-Molenbeek, where
Baeyens is producing Tornar
under the artistic supervision of
acclaimed Flemish choreographer
Wim Vandekeybus and with the
support of the European network
Life Long Burning, which supports
young dancers and performers.
“Wim is an icon, but passing on
his expertise to the younger generation is essential to him,” Baeyens
says. This kind of knowledge-sharing makes even more sense when
veteran artist and protégé share
similar ideas about educational
goals and working with local partners and different age groups, like
Baeyens and Vandekeybus do.
Tornadoes typically destroy everything in their path, but in Baeyens’
choreography they represent a
new beginning. “Some people are
lost,” he explains. “The ones who
stay behind have to reorient themselves, and then you get what you
often notice in our society: You
need a disaster to strengthen solidarity between neighbours.”
When do you really get to know
these people? he asks. “When
there’s flooding in the street. We
need an external enemy to bring
down the walls between us.”
The Flemish choreographer took
this “get to know thy neighbours”
motto pretty literally. Leon Gyselynck, who plays the nonagenarian, lives just opposite the Ultima
Vez workshop in Molenbeek. If
you had told him a few months
ago that he’d soon be making his
debut as a dancer, he would have
laughed in your face, Baeyens says.
But from the moment he met the
retired butcher, Baeyens thought
he might make an interesting
cast member. So he asked him to
attend a workshop he organised
as part of an intergenerational
research project at Ultima Vez last
year.
“On the first day, he only stayed
for an hour,” Baeyens says. “On
the second day, he hung around
for almost three hours, and on the
third day he wore his jogging suit
and said: ‘I’m in.’ He must have
felt at ease, surrounded by a lot of
other non-professionals. We never
gave him the impression he had to
play someone else.”
Because every single dancer can
add his or her own colour, they
seem to all feel connected on
stage. In the aftermath of the
storm, 18-year-old non-professional dancer Bassam Nakhel, for
instance, protects and assumes
responsibility for two children,
while professional Mike van Alfen
takes the helm with his natural,
mature presence as he circles the
stage.
“People warned me before I
started working with children and
youth: ‘You have to take care of
them’,” says Baeyens. “But I always
believed that ultimately they will
take care of each other, as long
as you don’t give them too many
rules.”
WWW.BRONKS.BE
© Danny Willems
Dancer-turned-choreographer Seppe Baeyens wanted his cast of dancers to reflect the diversity of society
Baeyens’ own experiences with
hierarchical power structures are
a case in point. As a teenager, he
got himself expelled from the
Sint-Jozefs College in Aarschot.
Fortunately, one of his teachers
had already introduced the young
Baeyens to the world of dance
when he invited Leuven choreographer Karlon Fonteyn into the
classroom for a special project.
“At first, I was only interested in
it because it got you out of class,”
he says, “but I soon discovered a
language in which I could express
myself.”
The episode helped Baeyens realise that traditional hierarchical student-teacher relationships
weren’t for him. “Up to this day,
I believe that there is something
very precious in the frankness of
children and that we can learn
something from them.”
Aside from a couple of work-
shops he took with star choreographer Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui
and Ultima Vez, Baeyens never
followed formal dance classes. He
developed his skills on the job, and
looking to professionals and nonprofessionals has been a through
line in his career. “I’m an autodidact, and I consider that my
biggest strength. It forces me to
keep things open – to trust my gut
feeling rather than the technical
background I lack.”
Baeyens recognises the same
uninterrupted mind-set in children and non-professional dancers. “Their spontaneity and energy
make up for any lack of formal
dance training,” he says. “Just like
I was introduced to dance accidentally, I want to engage people
who are not familiar with it. Look
17-18 April
at Leon and how he developed.
He would have never auditioned;
it was only by being in a performance that he acquired a taste for
it.”
One of the biggest challenges
for the choreographer has been
to keep this spontaneity going
throughout the creation process.
“I need all the differences that
are within my cast, all their typical characteristics,” he says. “But
now that the premiere is nearing,
the younger kids especially are
getting a bit more nervous, and
it’s a constant struggle between
keeping doors open and providing
a structure they can hold on to. It’s
always a risk; but I like to jump.”
Tornar premieres in Brussels before
moving to Antwerp and Ghent
Bronks
Varkensmarkt 15-17, Brussels
More performance this month
Last Call
Braakland/ZheBilding
HETPALEIS
First, there was Dansen
Drinken
Betalen
(Dancing Drinking Paying), a play
about a young girl wandering
through the city streets, from
the Leuven theatre company
Braakland/ZheBilding. Then
there was Dansen Drinken
Betalen – (Almost) The Movie,
the adaptation of the same
story into a graphic novel by
Antwerp artist Philip Paquet.
Projected on to a big screen
with live music and storytell-
ing (pictured), these performances are the last leg of
this fine collaboration. And
there’s an English-language
version, dubbed Last Call.
28 April (in English), 29 April
to 3 May (in Dutch) at OPEK,
Vaartkom 4, Leuven
WIN TICKETS TO LAST CALL!
To win a pair of tickets to see
the English-language Last Call
on 28 April in Leuven, send
an email by 19 April to [email protected]
with
“Last Call” in the subject line.
Winners will be notified the
next day
We Want More
Tristero &
Transquinquennal
In this collaborative effort
between
Brussels
theatre
companies
Tristero
and
Transquinquennal,
questions
are raised about the battlefield
at micro and macro levels, and
this without temporal or spatial
limitations. The urge to always be
strongest, to overcome, to write
and rewrite history for posterity
is everywhere they say – also on
stage. 23-25 April, Kaaitheater,
Sainctelettesquare 20, Brussels
\ 13
\ ARTS
week in arts
& CULTURE
The Missing
nominated for
three Baftas
The
British-Flemish
co-production The Missing has been nominated for
three Bafta awards, including Best Actor ( James
Nesbitt), Best Supporting
Actor (Ken Stott) and Best
Drama Series. The BBC TV
series was shot entirely in
Belgium and also features
Flemish actors, including
Titus De Voogdt (22 Mei)
and Hilde Heijnen (Parade’s
End). Co-produced by the
Brussels-based Czar, the
eight-part series is about a
British couple whose fiveyear-old son goes missing
while the family is on holiday in France. The production was supported by the
Belgian Tax Shelter for filmmaking and the Screen Flanders fund. The Baftas are
Britain’s annual awards for
film and television, and the
TV awards ceremony will be
held on 26 April. The Missing
will air on Eén starting on 21
April.
E-books slowly
gaining in popularity
Slowly but surely, e-books in
Dutch are gaining in popularity, according to figures
released by the Dutch
book distributor Centraal
Boekhuis.
Approximately
5.2% of Dutch-language
books sold are e-books. One
year ago, that number was
4%. Borrowing digital books
from libraries is also more
popular than a year ago, up
to 300,000 in the first quarter of this year from 100,000
last year. Fiction remains
the most popular genre for
Dutch-language e-books.
5,000 sign up for
K3 talent show
More than 5,000 women
have signed up to be considered as members of the new
K3 pop group. Last month,
the Flemish trio of singers,
who appeal to young girls
and have become an institution in Flanders, announced
their retirement. At the same
time, they revealed that a
reality talent show would
decide the three members
of a whole new K3, a group
founded by executives at
kids’ TV and stage production house Studio 100. Interested singers who are 18
years or older can still sign
up at the Studio 100 website
until 30 April. The TV show
K3 zoekt K3 will air in the
autumn.
\ www.studio100.be
\ 14
Victorian meets modern
Ghent exhibition pays tribute to early photography pioneer
Vanessa Rombaut
More articles by Vanessa \ flanderstoday.eu
N
ineteenth-century British
photographer
Julia
Margaret Cameron created
singular portraits that bucked
conventional trends and focused
on the emotionally resonant
aspects of her sitters. The Museum
of Fine Arts in Ghent is hosting
an exhibition to celebrate the
bicentenary of her birth and the
150-year anniversary of her first
exhibition of work.
Though she began her photographic career late, at the age of
48 when she received a camera as
a gift, Cameron is today considered one of the most important and
innovative photographers of the
19th century. She has been hailed as
a pioneer of soft-focus photography
and other experimental techniques
such as negative scratching and the
use of multiple negatives to form a
single picture.
The daughter of British and French
colonialists in Calcutta – her
mother was aristocracy – Cameron
eventually left her native India with
her husband for London. Her sister
was connected to Holland House,
where an artistic salon brought
Cameron into contact with important figures of the day, including scientist Charles Darwin, poet
Alfred Lord Tennyson, painter
George Frederic Watts and playwright Henry Taylor, all of whom
would become her photographic
subjects in the 1860s and ’70s.
The Ghent exhibition follows
Cameron’s short 11-year career,
during which she produced an
impressive number of portraits.
Largely borrowed from the Victoria and Albert Museum, they show
her subjects in profile, with strong
directional lighting in front of
dramatic, black backdrops, which
gives the sense of the subjects floating out of the darkness.
Cameron also photographed
women, though she posed them as
famous religious or literary characters such as Hypatia, the fourthcentury Greek philosopher. One of
the few exceptions to sit as herself
was Cameron’s niece, Julia Jackson, the mother of author Virginia
Woolf, whose arresting gaze halts
you as you enter the exhibition.
Although this exhibition captures
Cameron’s modernity, her Victorian ideals are plainly on view in the
section titled “Madonna Groups”.
This selection highlights the significance of biblical themes, especially the Christ and Madonna, and
highlights Cameron’s belief that
art should be morally uplifting and
instructive.
However, the photography still
relies on key experimental techniques such as soft focus and negative scratches to achieve specific
effects. Cameron was criticised
widely for these formal experiments, but she still had her supporters, according to British contemporary and author Anne Thackeray
Ritchie.
“It is, perhaps, no disparagement to
Mrs Cameron to say that she is not
a popular artist … People like clear,
hard outlines, and have a fancy to
see themselves and their friends as
if through opera glasses,” she once
wrote. “These things Mrs Cameron’s public may not find, but in
their stead are very wonderful and
charming sights and suggestions.”
The most telling section of the
Ghent exhibition is “Her Mistakes
were her Successes”. In the photograph “La Madonna Vigilante/
© Victoria and Albert Museum, London
Julia Margaret Cameron’s photo “St Cecilia, after the manner of Raphael”, 1865
Watch without ceasing” Cameron
attempts to fix a fault on the negative by scratching the emulsion.
The result is a black halo over the
Madonna. With “Daughters of Jerusalem”, she blends two negatives
into a single photo.
Although these experiments are
rudimentary, they highlight the
tenacity that Cameron possessed
to pursue an experimental form at
a time when photography wasn’t
considered art, and the practice
was circumscribed by rigid rules.
“When coming to something
which, to my eye, was very beautiful,” Cameron wrote in 1874, “I
stopped there instead of screwing on the lens to the more definite focus which all other photographers insisted upon.”
Cameron moved back to India with
her family in 1875. She continued to
take photos there, but she died four
years later at the age of 63, her work
unappreciated at the time.
Mooov Film Festival brings the world to Flanders
The last few months of local news – military
patrolling the streets, women afraid to report
rape, the environment vs urban sprawl – proves
that the world’s problems are Belgium’s problems, too. That’s why you’ll find more and more
local productions mixed in with the world
cinema of the annual Mooov Film Festival,
which is based in Turnhout and Bruges but also
features a select programme in other towns
across the region.
Mooov features a wide variety of movies with
a specific social relevance, such as the place
of women in the world, the effects of poverty
and ecological concerns. Although some of
the themes are classic social justice material,
Mooov also brings contemporary issues to the
fore, this year with a selection of films by Israeli
directors, most of whom took part in a collective condemnation last year of the attacks on
Gaza and its related media propaganda.
One of the most outstanding of these is Nadav
Lapid’s The Kindergarten Teacher, which has
both disturbed and delighted critics with its
story of a teacher who becomes obsessed with
a five-year-old poetic prodigy. Aside from a
treatise on complex emotional relationships, it
highlights the country’s systematic abandonment of cultural and artistic affiliations.
Interestingly, many of the films in the Israeli
cycle correspond with the films from the selection on women’s issues. Self Made by Shira
Geffen finds two women – one Israeli, the other
Palestinian – criss-crossing each other’s lives in
quirky ways until they quite literally, through
a checkpoint mix-up, get sent to the other’s
homes (and realities).
Also highly recommended is Ronit and Shlomi
Elkabetz’s Gett: The Trial of Viviane Amsalem, not only for its social relevance as we see
a woman struggling to get a divorce from her
husband without his consent, but also for its
WWW.MOOOV.BE
setting. The entire film is shot within the bare,
grey walls of an Israeli Rabbinic courtroom. Its
true-life absurdity is as much laugh-out-loud
funny as it is psychologically unbearable.
From Belgium, meanwhile, is Thierry Michel’s
new documentary De man die vrouwen repareert (The Man Who Mends Women), a chronicle of the life and work of gynaecologist Denis
Mukwege, who has for decades been fighting
against sexual violence afflicted on women in
the Congo (pictured). Patience, Patience… by
Hadja Lahbib, meanwhile, takes place closer to
home, as older Moroccan migrant women in
Brussels tell their stories of trying to fit in in a
new country while also asserting their rights at
home.
The festival also features the fun project My Life
in Mooovies in Bruges, where famous locals –
generally writers and actors – talk about and
show fragments from films that have most
affected them. \ Lisa Bradshaw
21 April to 5 May
Across Flanders
\ AGENDA
april 15, 2015
Double your pleasure
A Balkan Story of Cinema & Music
23 April, 19.30
Bozar, Brussels
www.balkantrafik. com
www.bsff.be
T
wo strong festivals are partially joining
forces this year, as the music fest
Balkan Trafik and the Brussels Short
Film Festival share an opening night at Bozar.
First check out screenings of a group of films
between nine and 30 minutes long from Serbia,
Bulgaria, Greece, Bosnia and Herzegovina and
Albania. Then head to the music, where you’ll
find Odessalavie, a klezmer band that’s far from
kosher (pictured), and the Fanouris Trikilis Trio,
which combines rebetiko (Greek folk music)
with choreography.
The film festival then continues, going beyond
the borders of the Balkans, with shorts from the
four corners of the world screened over 11 days.
Latvia, Germany and Latin America are particularly well represented, and there’s also room for
trash and experimental cinema. Special attention is being paid to the work of film school
students, since they might be the next David
Lynch or Lars von Trier.
All in all, you can enjoy 300 shorts from 45 countries, spread out over 107 screenings of more or
less 90 minutes. A marquee tent on Fernand
Cocqplein in Elsene is the place to hob-nob with
directors and have a drink, while screenings
take place in Bozar and several other venues
across town.
The four-day Balkan Trafik, exclusively at Bozar,
is shorter but equally interesting: The main
attraction of this edition is Goran Bregovic, who
became famous with his soundtracks for films
by Emir Kusturica and is one of the most prominent contemporary composers and bandleaders from the Balkans.
If you like your music more traditional, the Folk
Ensemble Lunxhëria are a must with their polyphonic songs and traditional dances from the
south of Albania. But Balkan Trafik also deals
in soul from Sarajevo (Divanhana), dub step
from Bulgaria (Oratnitza) and brass from Serbia
(Kristijan Azirovic’ Orchestra), to name but a
few. \ Christophe Verbiest
EXHIBITION
Armwoede Festival
Welcome to the Future
Inspired by the financial crisis
( from which we have yet to
recover), Brussels theatre KVS
launched its Armwoede/Pauvérité/Powerty project in 2010. The
idea is simple: invite economists,
social workers and philosophers to
join artists and citizens in a monthlong multidisciplinary exchange
of ideas on poverty. This edition
KVS, Brussels
WWW.KVS.BE
focuses on the concept of work.
There are discussions, a design
market and the premiere of Guy
Dermul’s latest stage production,
Le Doute, Le Travail et La Tendresse
(Doubt, Work and Tenderness),
which documents the vulnerability of youth in today’s cutthroat
corporate world. \ Georgio Valentino
Until 26 April
The Brussels Center for Digital
Cultures and Technology joins
forces with the Flemish Centre
of Expertise in Digital Heritage
to present a unique retrospective
featuring 50 digital works of art
from the 1990s, the first generation of new media. The themes that
absorbed these pioneering artists
were, unsurprisingly, the untapped
Brussels
Fred Hersch: The American jazz magician shows in a
solo concert why Vanity Fair
described him as “the most
arrestingly innovative pianist
in jazz over the last decade”.
22 April, 20.00, Bozar, Ravensteinstraat 23
\ www.bozar.be
PERFORMANCE
Heist-op-denBerg (Antwerp)
Buffa: Laika and Muziektheater Transparant perform
a contemporary adaptation
of Mozart’s Don Giovanni in
a highly imaginative production about the power of subtle
longing. 15-17 April, 19.00, CC
Zwaneberg, Cultuurplein 1
\ www.transparant.be
VISUAL ARTS
PERFORMANCE
Until 26 April
CONCERT
Brussels
iMAL, Brussels
WWW.IMAL.ORG
potential and uncertain future of
their brave new digital world. Their
masterpieces were created during
a brief period in which digital
design capabilities surpassed the
endless distribution possibilities
of today’s internet. Thus they are
preserved on CD-ROMs and floppy
disks, which now require vintage
hardware to access. \ GV
Critique-Crisis-Desire:
Art in Europe since 1945:
Selection of works that best
express freedom and how it
has been interpreted, understood and defended in art
since the end of the Second
World War. Until 19 July,
Royal Museums of Fine Arts,
Regentschapsstraat 3
\ www.fine-arts-museum.be
MUSIC FESTIVAL
Brussels
Stoemp! 2015: The series of
intimate acoustic concerts in
10 of the city’s cosiest cafes is
back, with a diverse selection
of pop and rock musicians and
bands. Until 27 May, across
Brussels
\ www.stoemplive.be
FAMILY
MUSIC FESTIVAL
EVENT
More Music Festival
Record Store Day
15-18 April
From their huge summertime
Cactus Festival to their rich
programme of club concerts
throughout the year, the promoters at Cactus Muziek have established a reputation for bringing top-shelf international pop
and rock to out-of-the-way
Bruges. Their main spring event
is More Music, a four-day festival in collaboration with the city’s
cultural ziggurat Concertgebouw.
The event uses every nook and
cranny of the impressive building
for performance and exhibition.
This edition’s highlights include
German indie luminaries The
Notwist and Flemish alternative
rock mainstay Mauro Pawlowski
(pictured). \ GV
Concertgebouw, Bruges
WWW.MOREMUSICFESTIVAL.BE
18 April
A global celebration of vinyl culture
and an exercise in corporate sponsorship… one must take the rough
with the smooth on Record Store
Day. The annual worldwide event
was launched nearly a decade ago in
San Francisco in an effort to boost
flagging sales by teasing exclusive,
limited-edition records and staging
concerts in shops. There are events
in vinyl shops across Flanders, but
the biggest is the pop-up record
store The Dusty Needle in Ghent’s
Vooruit. Isolde Lasoen (pictured),
The Bony King of Nowhere and
Meuris are among the bigger names
playing there. Among this year’s
sought-after goodies is an orangecoloured LP by Los Angeles Afropop
group Fool’s Gold. \ GV
Brussels
Across Belgium
WWW.RECORDSTOREDAY.BE
Hopla!: Annual circus arts
festival that brings together
circus schools and professional companies keen to
introduce the public to a mixed
bag of acrobatics, balancing
acts, juggling skills, trapeze
manoeuvres and more. Until
19 April, Sint-Katelijneplein
\ www.hopla-cirk.be
FILM
Leuven
Mamma Irma: Screening of
the film in the presence of the
director, Remo Perrotti, offering a confronting glimpse into
the reality faced by a generation of Italian immigrants to
Flanders, followed by a party.
18 April, 19.30, Het Depot,
Martelarenplein 12
\ www.hetdepot.be
\ 15
\ BACKPAGE
april 15, 2015
Talking Dutch
If it’s snowing, it must be summer
In response to: Street in New York to be named after Father
Damien
Mike O’Connell
Lepra, the leprosy mission, was my Ma’s ‘favourite’ charity.
It’s not a popular one but does great work.
Derek Blyth
More articles by Derek \ flanderstoday.eu
N
o one can deny that we get
some dismal and depressing
weather here in Belgium.
Only last week, a weather report
carried the grim news Niks lente, het
lijkt herfst en dat blijft ook zo – No
sign of spring, it looks like autumn
and it’s going to stay that way.
But at least we now have weather
websites to warn us about what to
expect. One of the best is the Dutch
site Buienradar. You can turn to that
before you leave the house to check
whether to take an umbrella. Or
wear shorts. Or both.
The site uses radar to track the rain
as it moves across the Low Countries, so you might spot, for example, a brief window of opportunity between 11.05 and 11.10 when
you might just be able to dash out
to Colruyt between two massive
downpours.
Sometimes the forecasters have
some exciting news they want to
tell you about. Tot 10.30 is het droog!
– It’s going to stay dry until 10.30!
they exclaim, as if they are reporting a rare meteorological event
that might not happen again for a
century.
Another site that can be quite helpful in planning your life is Meteovista. Particularly useful is the
CONNECT WITH US
In response to: Leuven pulls out all the beer stops with tours and
festival
Paul Blower
If it’s as good as the Brussels brewers weekend in early September I will be there?
USA Field Hockey @USAFieldHockey
JHP U-17 and U-19 athletes and staff make a pit stop to snap a
selfie at Brussels’ famous Atomium structure.
© Courtesy Buienradar
section called Activiteitenweer –
weather activities. This lists various pastimes you might want to do
in Belgium if the weather permits –
Fietsen – cycling; Kamperen – camping; Strand – beach; Korte rokjes –
short skirts.
Alongside each activity is a weercijfer – a weather number, which
rates activities on a scale of one to
10. Wanneer bijvoorbeeld wind en
regen een negatieve invloed hebben
gaan er punten af – when, for example, the wind and rain are going to
have a negative effect, points are
deducted. De minimale score is een
1 – The lowest score is one.
I checked the site recently when
some friends were visiting – Er
komen geregeld buien voor en daarbij staat een stevige westerwind – We
can expect regular showers with a
strong westerly wind, it said.
The activiteitenweer chart listed the
options. Barbecue: one. Strand: one.
Camping out of the question.
But there was a hint of hope. Fietsen: four. We could go cycling
even if there was a howling gale, it
suggested. Wandelen: six. A walk in
the countryside was still an option,
I was pleased to see, though it
seemed we would end up soaked to
the skin. Best of all, Voetbal – football, scored an eight. Despite the
heavy rain. And the icy blast.
But short skirts were definitely not
a good idea.
Tweet us your thoughts @FlandersToday
Poll
a. Neighbours: their TVs, their fights, their midnight karaoke...
50%
b. People leaving bars and smoking on the pavement outside till all hours
25%
c. I'm one of the 25%: Traffic
25%
fold: music, fights, kids. Living on
top of each other, there’s little we
can do to escape. There’s some
small consolation in reminding
ourselves that we are neighbours,
too, so maybe we’re annoying them
as much as they’re annoying us.
The rest were divided, some agreeing with the Flemish ombudsman
whose report reveals that one in
four people are bothered by nighttime traffic noise. One in four
agreed with that. The same figure
blamed smokers or noisy revellers outside pubs. Some municipalities have already taken action
against that problem. Others may
be pressed to follow.
\ Next week's question:
The construction industry has called for the income from a new road toll to be spent on road building and maintenance (see p2). Do you agree?
Log on to the Flanders Today website at www.flanderstoday.eu and click on VOTE!
\ 16
Paulo Vitor @PVDDR
About to leave for a day in Bruges with some CFB guys! Should
be fun, I’ve heard a lot of great things about the city. Flying to
Krakow tmrw
Beer-Ritz Leeds @BeerRitzLeeds
#beeroftheday Duchesse de Bourgogne. Truly one of a kind
Flanders Red that tends to split opinion. It's not for everyone
but we love it!
In response to: Flemish government unveils action plan to tackle
radicalisation
Shirley Foxcastle
I wish the UK Government were as proactive.
LIKE US
facebook.com/flanderstoday
the last word
One in four people in Flanders is bothered by traffic noise at night. What noise
keeps you awake at night?
This week’s poll wasn’t a question of opinion, so anything goes.
Most people living in a city, or even
in the centre of any sizable town,
will most likely have had to suffer
all three of our alternatives at one
time or another.
Most of you opted for neighbours, whose problems are mani-
VoiceS of
flanders today
Motor madness
Chime for a change
“The message should stress that
the film is fiction and that it’s not
legal to practise stunts like that
on the open road.”
“I wanted to bring that huge
instrument, that you normally
only hear outside in the city, into
people’s living rooms.”
Benoit Godart
of the Belgian
Institute for Road Safety wants
cinemas to broadcast a safety
message before screenings of Fast &
Furious 7
Lorenz Meulebroek, a student at
the carillon school in Mechelen,
appeared with his portable carillon
on last week’s Belgium’s Got Talent
Never too late
“I want to make more time for my
family. For my children, but most
of all for my wife.”
Singer Will Tura, 74, is to ease off on
his busy schedule after 58 years on
stage
Money money money
“Financial education needs to
focus more on the concrete
knowledge that young people
must have as adults.”
A spokesperson for the education
ministry on news that one in 10
Flemings aged 16 to 18 already has
some kind of debt
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