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SEPTEMBER 3, 2014 \ newsweekly - € 0,75 \ read more at www.flanderstoday.eu current affairs \ p2

politics \ p4

Flipping the switch

Environmental organisation says that public buildings could decrease energy use by 40% by shutting off unnecessary lighting

BUSiNESS \ p6

innovation \ p7

education \ p9

A feast of languages

Secondary schools in Flanders can now offer some classes in English, French and German as well as Dutch

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art & living \ p10

Design September

The best in international design descends on Brussels this month \ 10 © Courtesy Pcfruit

Putting fruit to the test A test centre in Limburg knows absolutely everything about Flanders’ fruit Alan Hope More articles by Alan \ flanderstoday.eu

After continuous rain for more than 24 hours, the sky dries up. The grower is in his orchard, happy that the raindrops are not hailstones and glad to see a break in the clouds.

Then his phone vibrates, and a text message tells him the sensors have indicated that the leaves on his pear trees are taking too long to dry, and he’s at risk of developing a fungal infection on his plants. Instead of relaxing under an emerging sun, he now has to get spraying.

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he grower is in the Haspengouw region of Limburg and Flemish Brabant, and the text message came from Pcfruit, a proefcentrum fruitteelt (test centre for fruit growing) in Sint-Truiden, in the heart of Flanders’ fruit country.

“We’re an independent institution that carries out all kinds of research into the different sorts of fruit grown in Flanders,” explains Dany Bylemans, the centre’s director general.

The types of fruit include the region’s massive harvests of pears and apples but also all kinds of berries, including

cherries. “There’s one sort of fruit not represented; we were recently asked to set up a knowledge centre for wine-growing,” he says.

Fruit contains components that can postpone degeneration associated with Alzheimer’s The news headlines in recent weeks have been about the effects on fruit growers – principally pear growers, as the apple crop is not yet ready to harvest – of the Russian boycott on European fruit exports. Belgium’s pear and apple crops are concentrated in Haspengouw, with some clusters

in West Flanders and a very important strawberry centre in Hoogstraten, Antwerp province, close to the Dutch border.

Why such a clear concentration of fruit growing in the area?

“There are various reasons,” Bylemans says. “I think soil conditions are very important; the soil retains water well but isn’t too heavy, because then it wouldn’t be well aerated.

There are also historical reasons, of course, leading to a clustering of supply and support industries and markets.”

PcFruit is a non-profit organisation, created from the fusion of three institutes: two in Sint-Truiden and one in nearby Tongeren, which joined last year. The combined institute is now the main centre of fruit research in Flanders.

“Part of our financing we earn in the open market, so we work for companies that develop products like crop protection, fertilisers, software, machinery – anything a company in fruit growing might need,” Bylemans explains. “We also sell a lot of fruit. We have 58 hectares of fruit growing here as part of our research, and anything we can sell we do. Finally, we offer individual advice to growers.”

The other half of their income comes from subsidies. The continued on page 5

\ CURRENT AFFAIRS

Turn off lights, says BBL

Switching lights off in public buildings could reduce electricity consumption by 40% Alan Hope Follow Alan on Twitter \ @AlanHopeFT

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emand for electricity this winter could be reduced by 800 megawatts just by turning off unnecessary lighting in schools, hospitals and office buildings, according to a study by the environmental organisation Bond Beter Leefmilieu (BBL).

The measure would ease the pressure on electricity networks which are now under threat of blackouts or brownouts – controlled power-cuts – this winter, as a result of the closure of the Doel 4 nuclear power station.

The power station was closed for repairs after what is being investigated as an act of sabotage and seems is likely to remain closed until at least the end of the year. The closure comes at a bad time for the power grid: Two other nuclear plants in Belgium have been shut down for two years because of defects discovered in their construction.

“More efficient lighting on a larger scale would allow a saving

Bruges police take man to court over mobile recording

© ingimage

of 40% in electricity consumption in 75% of buildings in the service sector,” the BBL report states. “That could amount to a saving of more than 800 mW in peak demand.”

New laws in Antwerp for letterboxes, begging

Two Bruges police officers have filed a criminal complaint against a man who filmed them with his phone as they interviewed a number of people on a bar terrace in the city, despite being asked to stop.

The man also uploaded the recording of the incident to YouTube, where the officers and patrons are clearly identifiable.

The officers consider the filming a breach of their privacy, according to Bruges chief of police Dirk Van Nuffel. Whenever images of any person – police or civilian – are put online, he said, the express permission of the person is required. “In this case, permission was not given and was in fact refused.”

The Privacy Commission offered the opinion that anyone has the right to refuse to be filmed in a public space, including the police. The member of the public who ignored a police instruction to stop filming could risk a fine, said spokesperson Eva Wiertz.

“If anyone is being filmed and asks the person filming to stop, it would be a breach of privacy to continue,” Wiertz said. “However, the public interest would also have to be taken into account together with the right to privacy. In the case of the filming of extreme police violence, for example, the right to privacy would be of lesser importance.”

Police do not have the power to demand photos or videos be deleted, and nothing may be seized without an order from a magistrate. \ AH

Antwerp city council has decided to put an end to residents giving a New Year’s tip to rubbish collectors. In Antwerp, as in Brussels and other Flemish cities, rubbish collectors tour their local area outside working hours to solicit tips at New Year.

That is no longer allowed in Antwerp, according to a new staff regulation.

The city council also approved changes to police regulations that impose fines on householders whose letterbox is broken or too full of old post. The ban on public drinking in force around De Coninckplein has been prolonged until 2015 and

extended to cover several neighbouring streets around Central Station. Police may now confiscate unopened cans or bottles found in the possession of offenders. Until now, only open containers could be seized.

According to the council, the measure has had the desired effect on the square but has also led to the behaviour moving to other streets in the area.

A ban on begging has also been extended to include shopping streets that tend to attract beggars, who deter shoppers, according to the city council.

The magistrates who sit on police courts and rule on traffic offences are not happy with the idea of Belgium following Russia’s example in the widespread use of “dashcams” – cameras installed on a car’s dashboard to record everything in the event of an accident. Last week, insurance company DVV Verzekeringen said it was interested in providing dashcams to some of its clients.

Russian insurers have started demanding use of the cameras among customers because of widespread insurance fraud, in which motorists fake accidents in an attempt to get insurance money. A dashcam provides evidence against fraudu-

of Flemings are not ready to replace their meat with insect protein, according to a poll by Ghent University. Only 3% are keen, while 16% said they were “somewhat open”

© Courtesy Quintezz

manipulated. It’s not the motorists’ job to start witch-hunts against each other.” \ AH

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lent claims.

But under strict Belgian privacy laws, the opposing party in an accident claim has to be informed that dashcam images exist, and the video can in no circumstances be uploaded to the internet, according to the Privacy Commission. Such video evidence can also only be used to corroborate the evidence in any action, such as that provided by witnesses.

“We remain dependent on the testimony of police experts who take measurements at the scene and carry out breath tests,” said Kathleen Stinckens of the Association of Police Magistrates. “We also have to recognise that dashcam images can be

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Finally, the new regulations oblige all business premises to have transparent windows. “The city often takes action against businesses that create nuisance,” a spokesperson told VRT. “We notice that these businesses often keep their doors locked during business hours and mask their windows. This makes it hard to check from the outside and hinders intervention by emergency services. Above all, it increases the feeling of insecurity.”

Window decorations are permitted, but must allow a clear view of the interior of the shop. \ AH

Magistrates against use of dashcams as evidence

6.2 million

people spent a day at the Flemish coast during the summer school holidays, with peaks around the public holidays on 21 July and 15 August

The further step of “relighting”, in which lighting systems are redesigned to make them more efficient, down to the type of bulbs used, could be achieved in two months and would result in power savings of 50 to 70%, the report says.

“Relighting is only a first step,” said spokesperson Sara Van Dyck. “We call on the Flemish and federal governments to develop a comprehensive emergency plan for energy efficiency. Measures to cut consumption can provide a solution in the short term but also offer a structural solution to security of supply in the longer term, as well as to the problems of climate change and a growing energy bill.”

The example of other countries shows that energy savings can be implemented quickly: After the Fukushima accident, Japan was able to make up for one-third of the lost electricity through measures to cut consumption.

2.06% investment in Flanders over the next five years by Telenet in “one of the best performing digital networks in the world” said senior VP Martine Tempels

drop in magazine sales in Flanders in the year to 1 July. Most losses: the teen magazine Joepie, which saw sales fall by more than 20%

Students enrolled in the International School of Leuven, up from 11 last year when the school for English-speaking primary and secondary students opened

SEPTEMBER 3, 2014

WEEK in brief

face of flanders

Flemish tennis pros Kirsten Flipkens and Yanina Wickmayer were out of the running before the first round of the US Open had finished last week. Flipkens, ranked 47th in the world, lost her first round match at Flushing Meadows 6-1, 7-5 against 13th seed Italian Sara Errani. Five years after reaching the US Open semi-finals, Wickmayer lost her first round match 6-3, 6-2 to Switzerland’s 17-year-old Belinda Bencic.

measures against kite surfers, including seizing the equipment of repeat offenders. Last year the governor introduced fines for kite surfers who went to sea in winds stronger than Beaufort force seven, endangering themselves and sometimes rescue services.

“Kite surfers who carry on going to sea even after a warning from police and a fine now face the risk of having their gear confiscated,” Decaluwé said.

A woman waiting on platform 9/10 at Mechelen,s train station was injured on Monday when she fell into a sinkhole two metres deep that opened up in the cement. She was taken to hospital with minor injuries. Heavy rainfall could have been the reason for the sinkhole, coupled with construction works at the station, authorities said.

Two out of three pig farmers in Flanders could go out of business if the European Commission does not take rapid measures to compensate them for the loss of income due to the Russian ban on imports from the EU, according to farming union ABS. While pear growers have been promised €6,440 per hectare for pears that are not harvested, pig farmers are still waiting for measures the commission promised it would announce on 28 August, the union said. Flanders has 4,300 pork-related businesses, employing more than 6,000 people.

For the first time in Belgium, there are more registered organ donors than registered nondonors, according to health insurer CM. Belgium operates an opt-out system; everyone is considered an organ donor unless they officially register otherwise. Residents may also register their explicit wishes to donate their organs, which overrules any objections by relatives in case of death. At the beginning of August, there were 186,053 registered non-donors and 197,577 registered donors.

Work is due to begin this week on renovations to Brussels North Station. The works involve closing the platforms adjoining metro station Rogier and Aarschotstraat and will be carried out in three phases, each lasting about a year, at a total cost of €30 million. The station is used by about 50,000 passengers a day, a figure expected to increase.

West Flanders governor Carl Decaluwé has threatened tougher

Bernard Wesphael, the former member of the Walloon parliament accused of killing his wife Véronique Pirotton in a hotel in Ostend last October, has been released by a court in Bruges to await his trial. Wesphael, one of the founders of the French-speaking green party Ecolo, withdrew from elections in May because he was on remand in prison.

Fair trade label Max Havelaar has changed its name to Fairtrade Belgium because people associate the name too closely with the coffee brand, the company said.

The change coincides with news that Belgians are less familiar now with the concept of fair trade than they used to be. In 2012, 90% of people polled said they knew what fair trade entailed; in a new survey by the Trade for Development

Centre, only 85% recognised the idea. Six in 10 people bought fair trade coffee in the past year, 50% fruit and 47% chocolate.

Consumer rights organisation Dolor is contesting a new law that makes tax authorities immune to payment of court costs. The new law, introduced by the federal government in April, means anyone who contests a tax decision in court will have to pay the full cost of the action, even if they win. In most other legal cases, the loser pays some or all of the costs.

According to Dolor, the new law will discourage taxpayers from pursuing legal actions. Legal costs went up at the beginning of this year, when 21% VAT was applied.

Rik Schuysemans, one of the victims of flight MH17, downed by pro-Russian rebels in Ukraine in July, was buried last week in Lochristi, East Flanders. Schuysemans, a schoolteacher in Aalst, was the first of the six Belgian victims to be identified.

Property prices in Belgium will not see significant growth in the coming years, according to calculations made by property specialists Immotheker. The study was in response to a British report that showed more than 8% annual growth, meaning a baby born today in the UK was likely to pay more than three million pounds for an average home. In Belgium, with a mortgage rate so low it can only rise, banks less likely to make long-term loans and a reduction in the premium paid by the government to new buyers, prices will remain steady and may even decline. “The major price increases seen in the past are no more than a daydream now,” said John Romain of Immotheker.

OFFSIDE Black swan A black swan is a metaphor for something unexpected, extremely rare and hard to predict. The term comes from first-century Roman poet Juvenal, who described something as “rara avis in terris nigroque simillima cygno” or “a rare bird in the country, black and very much like a swan”.

An example is given to us this week in a form very much unlike a swan. The Barbastelle (Barbastella barbastellus) bat, with a small nose and big ears, considered extinct in Flanders, was seen fluttering in the region last week.

Joris Everaert, a volunteer with nature conservancy organisation Natuurpunt, picked up its call with his bat detector, on the edge

of a wood in the Waasland of East Flanders. The last one spotted in Flanders was in the winter of 20002001.

Ten of the 17 bat species still extant in Flanders are endangered; the barbastelle brings the total to 18.

But sometimes a black swan is just a black swan, like the one currently swimming in the waters of the Reien in Bruges (pictured). According to mayor Renaat Landuyt, the wild black swan has to go because it may be sick and could infect the local swans. The city’s standard procedure is to take birds thought to be sick to a bird shelter.

But the residents of Bruges are less than keen, among them N-VA senator Pol Van Den Driessche,

who is leading opposition to the move. “Even if the black swan is an exotic species, it presents no danger to the ecological system in the Reien,” he said. “Above all, it brings some literal and figurative colour to the waters”. A Facebook page in support of the black swan has gathered nearly 10,000 likes. / Alan Hope

© Jan Kerkhof

© Unizo

Charlotte Steel This column is usually taken up by the names of heads of industry, sports heroes, remarkable scientists and other prominent types. But sometimes it’s fitting to salute those who have simply done a good job, and that’s what the Unizo Job Student of the Year is all about.

This year’s winner is Charlotte Steel (pictured, left), nominated by the owners of De Pepermolen restaurant in Lissewege, a district of Bruges. Kevin and Joke Grymonpon (pictured at table) have worked with Steel, 20, for five summers now, as well as at weekends during the school year.

Their nomination praised her versatility and willingness to take on extra work. “Not only does she carry out her work in the restaurant competently, she also doesn’t hesitate to look after the children of the owners if needed,” her prize citation says.

Steel is also socially engaged.

After spending a month volunteering at an orphanage in Kenya this summer, she decided to donate one-quarter of her earnings to the project, as well as organising a benefit evening in Lissewege.

The Job Student of the Year, says Unizo, rewards working students and the employers who give them their chance. It also stresses the importance of job students – secondary school or higher education students who work during school breaks – to small businesses. Last year was a record year, with 456,930 job students active in Flanders at some point. They worked a total of nearly 9.9 million days, or an average of 22 days each.

According to figures for the first six months of this year, the number of job students increased by 8.7% compared to 2013, and 13.5% compared to 2012, itself a record year.

In 2012, the regulations governing student jobs was made more flexible. Students may now work 50 days throughout the year without losing their special status for tax and social security, rather than the previous two periods of 23 days maximum each.

Unizo now wants to make the system even more flexible, by changing the rule whereby two hours of work is counted as a full day against the total. \ Alan Hope

Flanders Today, a weekly English-language newspaper, is an initiative of the Flemish Region and is financially supported by the Flemish authorities.

The logo and the name Flanders Today belong to the Flemish Region (Benelux Beeldmerk nr 815.088). The editorial team of Flanders Today has full editorial autonomy regarding the content of the newspaper and is responsible for all content, as stipulated in the agreement between Corelio Publishing and the Flemish authorities.

Editor Lisa Bradshaw DEPUTY Editor Sally Tipper CONTRIBUTING Editor Alan Hope sub Editor Linda A Thompson SOCIAL MEDIA MANAGER Kelly Hendricks 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, Toon Lambrechts, Katrien Lindemans, Ian Mundell, Anja Otte, Tom Peeters, Senne Starckx, Georgio Valentino, Christophe Verbiest, Débora Votquenne, Denzil Walton General manager Hans De Loore Publisher Corelio Publishing NV

Editorial address Gossetlaan 30 - 1702 Groot-Bijgaarden tel 02 373 99 09 editorial@flanderstoday.eu subscriptions tel 02 467 25 03 subscriptions@flanderstoday.eu or order online at www.flanderstoday.eu Advertising 02 373 83 24 advertising@flanderstoday.eu Verantwoordelijke uitgever Hans De Loore

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\ POLITICS

5TH COLUMN Anja Otte More articles by Anja \ flanderstoday.eu

Policies first “Eerst de inhoud, dan de postjes.” It is one of those little phrases government negotiators repeat endlessly. First the policies, then the functions.

Negotiations should first be about policy. Only when that is settled can the ministerial posts be divided amongst the coalition partners.

This explains why Belgium is the only country in the EU that has not named its new representative for the European Commission, to the growing annoyance of commission president Jean-Claude Juncker.

In Belgium, the function is considered equal to a ministerial portfolio, so proposing a candidate can only happen when the new federal government is formed (and decides on its policies).

However, there is plenty of speculating as to who will be this country’s candidate.

In pole position we find Marianne Thyssen of CD&V. Having been a European MP since 1991, she is considered a top candidate. And, as the European Commission struggles with its gender balance, Juncker has promised heavier portfolios to women commissioners.

The Christian-democrats also consider this a reward for Thyssen, who took over the party presidency in 2008, when the party had steered into troubled waters with Yves Leterme as prime minister.

For all her qualities, though, Thyssen faces some fierce competition. The liberals, both Flemish and French speaking, believe they have a right to nominate one of their own as commissioner. With Kris Peeters, CD&V is set to have the new prime minister, even though it is not the largest party (which is N-VA), nor the largest political family (which is liberals). CD&V cannot claim both functions, the liberals say.

The French-speaking liberals MR hope to see Didier Reynders, former vice prime minister, in the new Commission. That would be an elegant way out for Reynders, a rival of the party’s new strong man Charles Michel.

Meanwhile, the parting commissioner, Karel De Gucht of Open VLD still believes in his chances. And if need be, Open VLD also has a female candidate: its president, Gwendolyn Rutten, who boasts some European experience of her own.

The bets are on: who will be Belgium’s next commissioner?

But first, of course, there is the matter of sorting the new federal government’s policies.

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Groen leader steps down

Wouter Van Besien will concentrate on his role in Flemish Parliament Derek Blyth More articles by Derek \ flanderstoday.eu

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outer Van Besien announced he is stepping down as the leader of the Flemish green party Groen as of 15 November.

Van Besien said he was proud of his achievements over the past five years as leader of the leftwing party concentrated on environmental and social issues.

Van Besien leaves the party with a record number of seats after last May’s elections. Groen saw its local mandates increase, as well as its seats in the Flemish and federal parliaments, where it gained one extra seat in the former and three in the latter.

Van Besien hoped that Groen would make up part of either the Flemish

or federal government coalitions, but it did not have enough seats to make it a contender. “That is of course a shame,” he said, “but I am terribly proud of where we stand now. The party is in robust health.”

Van Besien, who lives in Antwerp, said he wants to concentrate on his work as a member of the Flemish Parliament, particularly on issues such as the economy, the strengthening of democracy and Oosterweel, the name given to the works to be carried out on the Antwerp Ring. He has been Groen’s president since 2009, when he took over from Mieke Vogels; he entered the Flemish Parliament for the first time earlier this year.

Other party members were under-

Child care will get more expensive, says minister Child care will inevitably become more expensive because of cost-cutting measures being taken by the new government of Flanders, Flemish welfare minister Jo Vandeurzen told De Standaard. He explained that cost increases will be necessary to keep the sector functioning well, but also promised that fees will continue to be adapted to specific incomes.

The minister said it is too soon to give exact figures; negotiations will take place with sector federations to organise the cost-cutting measures as efficiently as possible.

The Gezinsbond (Family Union) told VRT news it hoped the government would

not increase the lowest fees currently being charged. “If the lowest fees are raised, we run the risk of hurting the most vulnerable families,” said Manu Keirse of Gezinsbond.

“We should also make sure that more families are not pushed into vulnerable situations.”

Opposition party Groen is against the proposed measure. “Child care is not a luxury product,” MP Elke Van den Brandt told VRT. “Making child care more expensive will hurt young families and single parents in particular. This measure could result in more parents staying home instead of going out to work.” / Andy Furniere

One in six municipalities can’t balance budget Some 57 Flemish municipalities could fail to balance their budgets, according to a report by Belfius bank. The new government of Flanders wants city and town councils to balance their books by 2019, but one in six will struggle to do so, the report says. The 57 municipalities at risk include the cities of Antwerp and Ghent.

The government had asked all 308 Flemish municipalities to submit a detailed long-term budget plan for the current six-year term, which runs until 2019. The municipalities on the danger list will have their finances closely monitored, said Rudi Hellebosch of the Flemish office of local administration.

“If it appears that their budget plans are unsustainable,” he

said, “the governor will suspend them and their financial sources will evaporate, forcing them to make changes.”

Ghent is currently running the biggest deficit, amounting to €60 per resident, followed by Antwerp, which has built up a negative balance of €47 per person.

But financial expert Jan Leroy, who works for the Flemish Association of Cities and Municipalities, says that it is wrong to single out “good” and “bad” municipalities. “One municipality might decide to invest in child care or a swimming pool, while the other one makes cuts,” he said. “The second one may be financially sound, but the residents of the first one may be happier.” \ DB

© Nicolas Maeterlinck/BELGA

“I am terribly proud of where we stand”: Wouter Van Besien led Groen for five years

standing, if disappointed, at his decision. “I had hoped that Wouter would continue,” said federal parliament fraction leader Kristof Calvo. “It’s really unfortunate because he makes our party better.”

“Wouter wasn’t just a good party president,” said federal parliament member Stefaan Van Hecke. “He was a symbol of our party. Under his sails, we have grown and increased our membership.”

The party will appoint a new president at its conference on 15 November. Names being mentioned in the press include Calvo and member of the federal parliament Meyrem Almaci.

Defence calls for €7 billion more The federal ministry of defence has called on the government to increase its military spending by €157 million.

The defence budget currently represents 0.66% of gross domestic product, but has to rise to 0.7% to meet the country’s international obligations, the ministry said.

The military needs new fighter aircraft as well as frigates and minesweepers, according to the ministry. The total budget will have to be increased by €7 billion by 2030 to meet Belgium’s defence needs, it claimed.

A large part of the extra budget is required to phase out the country’s F-16 fighter jets and replace them

with the latest generation of aircraft.

The new jets are required if Belgium is to fulfil its obligations as a member of Nato, according to a defence spokesperson.

Critics said that the bill is too high at a time when deep cuts are being made. It looks increasingly likely that one defence contract will go ahead: negotiators working on the formation of a new federal government have announced that they plan to buy 40 new jets at a cost of €100 million per aircraft. The €4 billion order will not be placed until 2018, and existing jets will remain in service until 2023. \ DB

Pressure on negotiators to nominate European commissioner Kris Peeters (CD&V) and Charles Michel (MR), the negotiators working on the formation of a new Belgian government, have been ordered to put forward a candidate for European Commissioner this week.

The new president of the European Commission, Jean-Claude Juncker, made the call on Belgium to nominate its commissioner within three days during a summit in Brussels to appoint a new European Council president, to succeed Herman Van Rompuy, and a new EU foreign policy chief.

The federal government is responsible for nominating Belgium’s commissioner, but Peeters and Michel wanted to delay the decision until they had concluded the complex talks on forming a new government.

Outgoing Belgian prime minister Elio Di Rupo represented the country at the summit and told Juncker he was waiting for the formateurs to propose a candidate. The choice is a sensitive political decision that will affect other appointments in the new government.

© Thierry Tronnel/Corbis

Elio Di Rupo at the European Council summit with the prime ministers of Greece and Luxembourg

In a statement, Peeters and Michel said they took the ultimatum seriously but that Belgium was the only member state involved in forming a government. They said they would propose a candidate to the king on Thursday.

The main candidates are Marianne Thyssen of the Christian democrats (CD&V), Didier Reynders of the French-speaking liberals (MR) and Karel De Gucht of the Flemish liberals (Open VLD). Junckers has asked Belgium for a female candidate, which puts Thyssen in a strong position. \ DB

\ COVER STORY

SEPTEMBER 3, 2014

Putting fruit to the test

From disease research to establishing new markets, Pcfruit represents Flanders’ fruit industry continued from page 1

horticultural sector pays a subsidy for the maintenance of two test orchards, one for apples and pears and the other for berries. The province of Limburg pays an annual grant for ordinary working costs such as staff salaries.

“This year that’s gone up, thanks to the Salk funds, which designated certain sectors in Limburg for economic support in the wake of the closure of Ford Genk – construction, manufacturing and agriculture among them,” Bylemans explains.

Finally, Flemish, federal and European governments issue calls for tenders for research projects, among them agriculture, which PcFruit applies for and, given their highly specialised level of expertise, often wins.

We’re working on an initiative to help facilitate exports to areas other than Russia Among the projects in the latest annual report are trends in diseases affecting strawberries, remote sensing by drones to measure groundwater in orchards, battling the bug Pentatoma rifupes and control of the pear psylla pest (Cacopsylla pyricola) using natural predators like spiders.

Salk funding has represented a windfall for PcFruit. “We’re involved in other research projects under Salk,” says Bylemans. “For example, Flanders is one of the top areas in Europe for research into Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s. We know that fruit contains partic-

ular components that can postpone the degeneration associated with Alzheimer’s. The aim of this project is to talk to the medical world to find out if there is a consensus on these components and how they work.”

Then Pcfruit looks into what’s known about the make-up of the fruit – “if it makes a difference which type of fruit is used or which variety of a particular fruit,” continues Bylemans. “It might be that we can isolate one component that slows down degeneration in a particular variety of a particular fruit; it might be that we identify the mechanism, but it turns out you’d have to eat 18 kilograms of the fruit a day. And we’ll also look at how this component can be extracted and presented in a form the consumers can ingest every day, in a tea or a pill or whatever the case may be.”

Other areas of research are more familiar and longer term. Bylemans says the disappearance of large numbers of bees, for example, has been the cause of a great deal of uncertainty.

“We’ve seen the consequences, for example, during the blossoming season. We have a project looking at the secondary effects of insecticides. Earlier it was considered important only to know whether bees were being killed by insecticides, but now we know it’s also important to look at questions like whether insecticides can lead to lack of co-ordination, loss of activity or a diminishing ability to survive the winter.”

Bylemans himself is convinced that bee death is the consequence, he says, “of not one but a variety of factors at work: lack of food, monoculture, insecticides and their secondary effects, varroa mites and viruses. We need to have an integrated approach to the problem.”

There are no genetically modified organisms (GMOs) at all in any of

© Concentra

From left: Pcfruit director-general Dany Bylemans, chair of the board Marc Vandeput and Tessa De Baets, head of the aid to growers service

the varieties tested at PcFruit. The main reason, Bylemans explains, is that the European consumer in general is not in favour of GMOs, “so we have no interest in turning towards GMOs in the market conditions that exist at present.

If that situation should change, there would undoubtedly be some demand for us to become involved because the subject has enormous potential. But it’s the consumer who will ultimately make the decision.”

As for bad weather, like the hailstorms that ravaged orchards in May, Bylemans says that “that kind of thing can happen at any moment. That was an extreme case. We saw orchards where trees were ripped right out of the ground. At that point there are two options: You can take out hail insurance, or you can install hail nets. That’s something that’s been more common in the south of Europe for some time. It’s simple, but it’s pretty expensive.”

Also pointing to other European countries, Bylemans explains

that “in the north of Italy, France, Switzerland and Austria, they have a lot more light than we do. If you have too much shadow, your fruit are not going to colour well, and then the following year you’ll also have less blossom. We still have to complete our research into how certain techniques can be applied in our situation.”

On the Russian boycott, he believes it’s a question of one client, or one export market, becoming too important, making the sector vulnerable. “So we’re now working on an initiative to help facilitate exports to areas other than Russia.

There are commercial barriers to overcome, but there are also trade barriers. It can last several years before you manage to get around all those roadblocks.”

He gives as an example the centre’s work to create zones free of fire blight, a disease found in apples and pears; if growers want to export to certain Asian countries, the crop has to come from a fire blight-free zone.

The Waasland fruit-growing region

of East Flanders and Antwerp province is a fire blight-free zone, he points out, “and pears can be exported from there to China. In the rest of Flanders, there’s no such zone.” But this year’s hail storms had such an effect on that area that “there can be no exports to China this year. So we have to develop more fire blight-free zones.”

However Flemish or widespread the problem may be, he argues, there’s more than adequate justification for maintaining a centre concentrating on Flanders. “We’re in a position here to look at these questions purely from the point of view of Flemish circumstances,” he says.

Another example is Jonagold, the centre’s biggest apple variety.

“It was developed in the United States but under the conditions, it didn’t do well; it didn’t have a good colour, for instance. But under our conditions, it does very well. You need the right soil and climate for everything to come together. And that’s why it’s so essential to test locally.”

© Courtesy Pcfruit

© Courtesy Pcfruit

Pcfruit tests the effectiveness of natural predators, like spiders, to control fruit pests

A variety of factors can influence the colour of a pear, which in turn affects sales

\5

\ BUSINESS

week in business Bakery Ladurée The French pastry group known for its fluffy macarons is opening a store on the Grote Zavel in Brussels later this year.

Banking Degroof The privately-owned Brusselsbased investment and private banking institution is considering a merger with the local Petercam private bank. The new entity would manage €40 billion of deposits and employ 1,400. Degroof had been in talks earlier to acquire the local activities of the Swiss UBS bank but is believed to have been discouraged by the numerous disputes with tax authorities.

Bicycles Ridley Bikes Taiwan’s Ideal Bicycle Corporation and Limburg investment firm LRM have acquired stakes in the Beringen-based producer of high-end racing bikes that equips several professional teams.

Brewing Palm Palm brewery, based in Londerzeel, Flemish Brabant, with four production units in Flanders, is starting up a microbrewery in nearby events centre De Hoorn to experiment with more artisanal crafted beers. The company also recently launched the 8.5° oak-aged Cornet.

Football KV Kortrijk The middle-ranked first division club valued at €1.4 million has been put up for sale by the local Degrijse family. Analysts say that the club, which has no debt but does has difficulties keeping its best players year after year, should attract significant interest.

The owners have pledged not to sell to foreign investors.

Plastics Deceuninck The Roeselaere-based producer of PVC window frames and doors is investing €20 million to acquire the Pimas group, Turkey’s market leader. The move strengthens Deceuninck’s position in the area, including in Russia where Pimas operates a production unit in Rostov.

Meanwhile, the company will increase its capital by €50 million to finance its acquisition and fund further expansion.

Retail Scapino The 24 shoe stores located mainly in Flanders are to close following the sale of the chain by the Dutch Macintosh group to DFM Participaties. The outlets will reopen on 1 October as Fashion Market offering brand-name clothing.

\6

Pear growers receive subsidies Flanders’ pear growers get EU compensation for unpicked harvest Alan Hope More articles by Alan \ flanderstoday.eu

P

ear growers who do not harvest their crop this year can receive the equivalent of 16c a kilo in compensation from the EU. The aid amounts to €6,440 a hectare. The deadline for growers to apply for compensation was last week.

The government of Flanders had already advised growers not to harvest their pears; the EU agriculture commissioner approved the aid for two reasons: Russia’s boycott of fruit imports from the EU means a large proportion of exports will go unsold; the effect of the resulting glut of fruit would be to depress prices, which are already low.

In addition, growers have to pay the costs of picking fruit, and if the crop is unsold they have no way of making back that cost.

Pears are the main Belgian product affected by the embargo, which also affects apples, pork, beef, milk, cheese and poultry. Flanders exports 60% of its pear crop to Russia.

© courtesy www.limburg-actueel.be

Flanders has about 9,000 hectares of pear trees, 5,000 of them in Limburg, and Flemish agriculture minister Joke Schauvliege wants 2,000 hectares to remain unharvested. It remains unclear how many growers applied for aid from Europe, especially as the pear harvest had already started 10 days earlier.

This week it was announced that the compensa-

Brussels faces shortage of teachers as year begins A few days before the start of the new school year on 1 September, Dutch-speaking schools in Brussels were still looking for 65 teachers. The figures cover both primary and secondary education. Schools that didn’t manage to fill their vacancies by 1 September will have a big problem, according to Joachim Kelecom, director of the Royal Athenaeum in Ukkel.

“It’s very difficult to get children back into the school structure if you have to send them home early or leave them for some time in the general study room on the first day,” he said. “The teacher who eventually takes on the job has also missed the start, so this situation should really be avoided.”

Tthe Council of State, meanwhile, rejected former Flemish education minister Pascal Smet’s plan to attract teachers from other sectors. According to the plan, people moving into teaching from the private sector would be

allowed to keep seniority rights and thus would not have to begin teaching at a starter’s wage.

The Council of State, however, ruled that this is discriminatory and judicially problematic because those who transferred from the private sector earlier would not be given this advantage.

Flanders’ new education minister, Hilde Crevits, told De Standaard that she would not scrap the plan but would make adjustments. “We have to make sure we don’t create any inequality,” she said. / Andy Furniere

tion measure for unharvested fruit has taken 828 hectares of fruit out of the market, far from the 2,000 hectares the government had hoped for.

Growers have been given permission to use ethephon, a plant growth regulator, which will cause pears to fall from the trees. The use of ethephon is authorised by the Food Safety Agency in strictly limited circumstances because of its risks. “It can cause burns in users, and there are risks to inhaling it,” said University of Leuven toxicologist Jan Tytgat. “Growers have to take sufficient precautions.”

Meanwhile, apple growers are waiting to see whether they will be offered EU aid. Normally, Flanders’ pear harvest would be carried out by temporary workers, many of them from Poland.

The fear is that if the pear harvest turns out to be severely limited, pickers may move on to the north of France to work on the grape harvest there, just in time to leave apple growers short of labourers.

Transport ministry blocks subsidy for airlines, rail freight The federal transport mobility ministry has budget problems and is unable to pay expected subsidies to a number of companies, including rail freight company NMBS Logistics and Brussels Airlines.

The package of subsidies concerned comes to €64 million.

The three Belgian airlines are due €19 million, including €15 for Brussels Airlines, while Thomas Cook and Jetairfly share the rest.

Air traffic controllers Belgocontrol are expecting €20 million, and NMBS Logistics €25 million.

But the administration does not have the funds to pay out, transport minister Catherine Fonck has been informed. The airlines’ subsidies were intended to be compensated in the budget by income from elsewhere, including fees for motor vehicle licence

© Courtesy Mopje18/Wikimedia

plates. That income has not been sufficient, however, to cover the subsidies as intended.

Fonck said the subsidies were critical for the recipients and promised to do everything possible. “The government’s decision [to award the subsidies] was clear, and I will see to it that the promised subsidies are paid out to the airlines.” \ AH

Football Association scrutinises World Cup expenses Red Devils team manager Nicolas Cornu has been dismissed after being blamed for the failure to cancel reservations worth €300,000 during the World Cup in Brazil. The reservations were made for footballers’ families at an expensive hotel, but it was later decided to cancel them for budget reasons. The cancellation wasn’t made, and the Football Union had to pay for the unused accommodation.

Red Devils coach Marc Wilmots had demanded a thorough enquiry into allegations of finan-

cial mismanagement by senior members of the Royal Belgian Football Association (RBFA).

Steven Martens, CEO of RBFA, said he knew nothing about the hotel problem. “The question has to be seen in a wider context,” he commented. The World Cup brought the RBFA some €12 million in income, he noted, but the costs of taking part, including player and staff salaries and travel expenses, easily account for €10 million. Any suggestion that money was wasted needed to be taken extremely seriously, he said.

Martens (pictured) and his directors are also under fire from the RBFA board for claiming a performance-related bonus of up to €75,000 each, which they argue is written into their contracts.

Martens complained that the two matters are being seen as aspects of the same problem.

“It hurts to think we’ve systematically made a profit the last three years and increased our budgets, but then one mistake is made and all of that is forgotten,” he said. “It’s clear a mistake was made with the hotel bill, and I’m not at all happy about that. … but to claim now that we’re unprofessional – that’s a step too far,” he said. \ AH

\ INNOVATION

SEPTEMBER 3, 2014

Ten years of innovative radio FM Brussel is celebrating with concerts and a pledge of extra news Débora Votquenne More articles by Débora \ flanderstoday.eu

WWW.FMBRUSSEL.BE

If you live in the Brussels area and attend the odd festival or apéro urbain, you must have seen it: FM Brussel’s bright red bus.

It’s been quite a summer for the radio crew, as they celebrate the station’s 10th anniversary. The highlight of the festivities is on 6 September, with the 10 Years 1 Love party. But, with so much competition, how has the city radio station managed to build up such an enviable reputation?

I

t is in the Flagey building in the Brussels district of Elsene that I meet two of the founding fathers of city radio station FM Brussel. The building – known as “the house of radio” – was one of the first broadcasting buildings in Europe, hosting the National Institute for Radio Broadcasting since the 1930s. So it’s an ideal spot for a Brussels radio station to be headquartered.

From the fourth floor, FM Brussel has a grand view of Flageyplein. Even though it’s pouring with rain, the radio makers see a sparkling, lively and fascinating Brussels out there. One thing is for sure: These people genuinely love their city.

“Working with people who are truly passionate about Brussels is one of our biggest assets,” editorin-chief and programming director Jeroen Roppe explains. “The people we hire have what we call a ‘thing for Brussels’. They understand the city, and they care about it. Our people come from all over Flanders, but at some point they all fell in love with this city. Many of them finished their education here and just didn’t go home afterwards.”

That’s certainly the case for Koen Verbert, the station’s business administrator. He is from Antwerp but couldn’t let go of the capital. Verbert was one of the initiators of FM Brussel when it was still a student radio linked to

We genuinely bring life in the streets of Brussels to the radio the RITS school of arts.

“In 2004 FM Brussel went from being student radio to a real city radio station,” he says. “We moved to a bigger place and started to attract more employees, freelancers and volunteers. It became professional.”

A proper Flemish urban radio station was born. The station would become a reference for the Dutch-speaking population in

going out there in the city.”

That they have a nose to sniff out the next big thing was proved when they became the first Flemish radio to programme the now world-famous Brussels ket Stromae’s first tunes.

Another asset is without doubt the station’s flashy red doubledecker bus, riding around Brussels and giving you a pretty good indication of where the party

© Photos courtesy FM Brussel

Brussels’ own international superstar Stromae at one of FM Brussel’s events

is. “Obviously it’s been a great promotional trump card,” says Verbert, “giving us more visibility and recognition. It helps us to build a bridge to the people out there.”

But it’s not just a painted red bus; it’s a complete radio studio on wheels. “Our double-decker allows us to broadcast from almost anywhere we want – not just festivals; it also enables us to get closer to the news.”

Because it’s not all partying at FM Brussel: Reporting news is high on management’s agenda.

Roppe: “News is one of our key programmes. In September we will increase our city news bulletins. FM Brussel has to be the reference for trustworthy news about Brussels. And to be honest, we are the best placed to do it.”

Verbert and Roppe agree that national Flemish media and their audience often don’t understand

Online education comes to Flanders

Students at Ghent University with entrepreneurial ambitions will soon be able to receive lessons from international experts through Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs): interactive webbased lessons. The Lean Launchpad course, delivered by American universities Berkeley and Stanford, will provide added value for Ghent students following the entrepreneurship course Durf starten (Dare to Start). The Flemish digital research centre iMinds will use the same MOOC as part of its student entrepreneurship programme. Students will follow the lessons, which include videos on YouTube and Vimeo, as preparation for the classroom-based part of the course. On the online platform, students can write about their experiences so mentors can follow their progress and give comments.

Euthanasia cases nearly double

FM Brussel’s red double-decker is always in attendance

the capital and reach out to other communities through its multilingual programming.

Unlike many other regional media, FM Brussel managed to become a strong brand, with plenty of street cred. Doing so in a capital hosting such a cosmopolitan, young population and having to compete with the national stations like Studio Brussel, has been seen as remarkable.

“We can make the difference because we genuinely bring life in the streets of Brussels to the radio,” Roppe explains. “Bringing the Brussels buzz to the airwaves is the common thread in our whole programming strategy.”

Those who tune in to FM Brussel during the day might not hear the difference, but at night the station claims its niche by giving airtime to the city’s hottest DJs, known from venues like Ancienne Belgique and Botanique.

“You’ll hear world music, hiphop, reggae, house, electro...” says Roppe, “whatever gets people

week in innovation

what is happening in the capital. “Even the most respected media often report on Brussels completely wrong.”

Roppe sees it as a mission to counter this trend, and he has a particular strategy to reach his goal: “We have ambassadors,” he says, smiling. “Mostly young people come here to learn the trade, and when they’re ready, they move on, often to the national media. I don’t see their leaving as being a loss. On the contrary, they are all Brussels-lovers, spread out over news desks all over Flanders, telling our story as it should be: factual and without prejudice.”

If you want to see for yourself what this metropolitan radio is really about, join the party on 6 September at Flageyplein. Who knows, you might even find yourself dancing beside the – yet to be discovered – next big thing.

According to a report by the Federal Monitoring and Evaluation commission, the number of annual notifications of euthanasia in Belgium has nearly doubled since 2010. There were 1,807 cases reported in 2013, 375 more than the year before and almost double the 953 reported in 2010. The commission explains this evolution through the increasing distribution of information on decision-making in the last phase of life among the public and doctors. There were no euthanasia cases reported for patients under 30 in 2012 and 2013. In 65% of cases, the patient was aged between 40 and 79. Another third were 80 or older.

Remarkable find at Leuven dig in Turkey University of Leuven archaeologists working on the Sagalassos site in south-western Turkey have uncovered a large Roman building containing everyday articles that appear to be untouched since they were used around the year 200.

The discovery sheds new light on social life in classical antiquity, according to the archaeologists. It is in the former Roman province of Pisidia, close to what is now the city of Antalya in south-western Turkey. In three rooms, archaeologists found objects such as spoons, jugs, cups, oil lamps and ceramic tableware.

Much of the tableware is still intact, often with the remains of food still inside. \ Andy Furniere

\7

NEWS FOR EXPATS DAILY NEWSLETTER YOUR DAILY DOSE OF NEWS ON BRUSSELS AND BELGIUM

SUBSCRIBE NOW FOR FREE Register now at www.thebulletin.be or mail “NEWSLETTER” to subscribe@thebulletin.be

\ EDUCATION

SEPTEMBER 3, 2014

Thinking outside the cube

E-Cube is testing ground for research into energy-efficient buildings Andy Furniere More articles by Andy \ flanderstoday.eu

WWW.GREENBRIDGE.BE

A

fter winning an award at the prestigious Solar Decathlon student competition in 2011, the modular E-Cube building has now been realised in Ostend at the Greenbridge Science Park, part of Ghent University (UGent). The E-Cube will serve as a lab to test innovations in energy-efficient construction.

E-Cube will officially open at a ceremony on 9 September. From then on, it will be used for UGent research into new building and installation concepts. The applications that will be tested there are designed to be integrated into the energy-efficient buildings of the future.

According to UGent, its researchers will use the E-Cube to test the interaction of systems to create energy – like heat pumps and solar panels – with a smart grid, an electricity network that synchronises the production and consumption of sustainable energy.

The E-Cube in Ostend will be officially opened on 9 September

with the unpredictability of natural resources.

UGent researchers will also exam-

The project started as research for a thesis but took on unexpectedly large proportions E-Cube itself is a zero-energy building. On sunny days, the solar panels will produce sufficient energy to cover the complete demand and will even create a surplus, which will be transferred to the smart grid and provide energy to other buildings in the park.

Any shortage of energy from solar panels will be compensated by energy generated from small wind turbines next to E-Cube. By guiding energy streams in this way, the system will deal intelligently

ine how airtight and waterproof the building components are.

Sensors integrated into the modular wall constructions will help them determine how to react best to humid and warm conditions.

The E-Cube is part of a broader expansion of the research infrastructure at the Greenbridge incubator to improve the link between enterprises and knowledge institutions based there. For the construction of the E-Cube, UGent received financial support from

the European Regional Development Fund, the Flemish government’s Enterprise Agency and the province of West Flanders.

Flemish architect Toon Vermeir, who provided advice during the construction of the E-Cube, will speak at the opening ceremony.

Vermeir is an expert on the E-Cube; he helped develop it as one of the six members of the UGent student team that entered it in 2011’s Solar Decathlon contest in Washington, DC. The Solar Decathlon is a competition for students organised by the US department of energy to develop ideas for cost-effective, energy-efficient and visually appealing solar-powered houses.

“The project started as research for a thesis but took on unexpectedly large proportions,” says Vermeir.

Originally, the students submitted a project proposal simply as a test case for future participation in the European version of

the contest, but their submission was accepted. The students were the first Flemish team to ever be accepted into the competition and the only European participants in 2011.

After building and presenting the E-Cube in Washington, the students won the award for most affordable concept. “Making the building project financially feasible was our main focus, instead of opting for high-tech energy solutions like many other participants did,” Vermeir explains.

The affordability was achieved mainly by conceiving the building as a do-it-yourself kit with modular parts, which can be put together by anyone, without special expertise or equipment.

“To keep costs as low as possible, we did not include any unnecessary trimmings and only integrated fairly standard technology,” says Vermeir.

The E-Cube included solar panels and a heat pump in combination with an intelligent electricity system. Thorough insulation made sure no energy was lost through escaping heat.

To prove the concept’s financial feasibility, Vermeir has gone a step further and developed a new building based on the same principles. The building will not be a test lab but a home for Vermeir and his girlfriend in the Ghent district of Sint-Amandsberg. The couple will move in at the end of September.

“For my house, I improved the living quality aspects by adjusting the lighting and acoustics, while keeping the interior decoration basic,” he explains. “I want to show that the principles on which the E-Cube was based make it possible not only to create energy-efficient and affordable buildings but also to build nice homes to live in.”

Secondary schools to offer courses in other languages www.ond.vlaanderen.be/clil

O

n 1 September, 25 secondary schools in Flanders began offering some courses in a language other than Dutch. Education magazine Klasse estimates that about 1,780 students will be able to choose whether they follow these courses in Dutch, English, French or German.

This new situation is the result of a decree, approved by the government of Flanders last year, which allows secondary schools to teach up to 20% of courses in one of these three approved foreign languages.

This so-called Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) project should prepare pupils better for their “multilingual future”, according to the government. School administrators can decide themselves if their school will offer such a course, and pupils are not obliged to take part.

The 25 schools received permission for their request on condition that the appointed CLIL

© ingimage

teachers have a mastery of the language in which the subject is given. This means they have to demonstrate C1 level competency requirements as set by the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages.

“C1 is a high level of language proficiency,” Nathalie De Bleeckere of the Flemish government’s education department told Klasse. “CLIL is

more than giving a course in another tongue.

The teachers have to use original texts written in the teaching language. They have to help the students to think in the teaching language and they have to work on the intercultural competences of students.”

The courses for which the 25 schools have opted to teach in another language (mostly French or English) are very diverse and are spread across three years of secondary education. The geographic spread of the CLIL schools is also broad, which, De Bleeckere said, suggests that the CLIL offer will increase gradually.

“This is important because we need to catch up with other countries,” she said. “Because of the language legislation, it was impossible to provide CLIL previously, but the new decree has changed this. If CLIL courses are correctly administered, they definitely offer added value for students.” \ AF

week in education Parents worried by school costs

Parents of pupils in Flanders are demanding more transparency over the costs of sending children to school, accusing some schools of keeping costs artificially high.

The new school term began on Monday, and the education magazine Klasse has published the results of a survey in which 200 parents kept a journal of costs over the past year. Primary schools in Flanders operate on a system of maximum costs: The amount any parent will be asked to pay for schoolrelated activities is capped each year by the government, which has led some schools to complain that they have to cancel activities. No capping system is in place for secondary schools.

Rising aggression in schools, agency says The number of reports of “unwanted behaviour” between students has increased dramatically in just a year, according to the Support Centre for Unwanted Behaviour at School. While there were 55 cases reported in the academic year 20112012, the number rose to 79 the year after. The figures were assembled at the request of the Flemish government’s education department. “Each year we receive more reports of students getting into conflicts with each other – mostly verbal but also physical,” the centre’s Antje Ketelers told De Standaard. “Conflicts also escalate more than before.”

All pupils tested after primary school All primary school pupils in Flanders will be tested on general knowledge at the end of their final year, according to the new Flemish government agreement. The test is being introduced because of concerns from the secondary education sector that the knowledge of pupils coming from primary education is insufficient. Currently, all the school networks have their own tests, which are used by nearly all the schools on a voluntary basis. These tests will be used to develop the basis for a general, obligatory test. Networks have expressed the fear that the test will become a central exam that could lead to the development of a ranking of “good” and “bad” schools and force schools to work towards the test. \ AF

\9

\ LIVING

week in activities Comics Festival Weekend celebration of comic strips and albums, with book signings, lectures, exhibitions and more. Don’t miss the comic character balloon parade on Saturday and the Tintin Magazine Rally featuring classic cars from the stories on Sunday. 5-7 September, Warande Park, Brussels; free \ WWW.TINYURL.COM/BRUSSELS-COMIC-FESTIVAL

Peace Festival One of Europe’s largest hot air balloon festivals takes place right here in Sint-Niklaas, plus four outdoor stages with continuous live music.

Also: Fireworks with music on Saturday night, plus classic car parade and Second World War commemoration on Sunday. 5-7 September; free. \ WWW.VREDEFEESTEN.BE

Prinsenhof Festival Cultural festival in one of Ghent’s most historical neighbourhoods. On Saturday, there’s a guided storytelling walk, a barbecue and an evening folk music-anddance party. “Music-Neighbourhood-Space” is a series of concerts in intimate spaces on Saturday and Sunday evenings. 5-7 September, Prinsenhofplein, Ghent; free, tickets for concert series €12 \ WWW.PRINSENHOF-GENT.BE

Toekoer Festival Family festival with storytellers, choral groups, musical ensembles, puppetry, street theatre and children’s activities. 7 September 13.00-18.00, Herkenrode Abbey, Herkenrodeabdij 4, Kuringen (Hasselt); free or cheap \ WWW.TOEKOERFESTIVAL.BE

Belgian Beer Weekend The Grote Markt in Brussels is the setting for the city’s biggest beer festival with dozens of Belgian breweries showcasing their wares. All six Belgian Trappists will be present, including the elusive Westvleteren. 5-7 September; free entry \ WWW.BELGIANBREWERS.BE

Gitanneskesfoor Three days of concerts, street theatre, circus acts, burlesque, belly dance and more. Festival camping available, or buy a day ticket at the door. 5-7 September, Witputstraat, Herselt (Antwerp province); €10-€15 \ WWW.GITANNEKESFOOR.BE

\ 10

Unsung heroes

Design September shows modern face of design in Brussels Georgio Valentino More articles by Georgio \ flanderstoday.eu

www.designseptember.be

Y

es, summer’s almost gone but the annual Design September festival in Brussels is consolation for dozens of participating designers and thousands of design-loving visitors. Now in its eighth edition, the monthlong, city-wide programme has something for everyone: exhibitions, conferences, pop-up stores, studio open-houses, a design market and more. Crammed into September’s 30 days are over 100 events all celebrating the designer, unsung hero of modern life.

For the uninitiated, design is where form meets function. We’re talking architecture, furniture, graphics, textiles and industrial design.

As grandiose as it sounds, design is the better part of our everyday interface with the spaces and objects around us. Although less glamorous, designers are far more influential in our lives than their fine-art counterparts. Good art might have an effect on us, but good design helps us get on in the world long after we leave the museum.

Brussels is the perfect city to host the event too. “There are many wonderful designers, manufacturers and design brands in Belgium,” says Design September art director Delphine Vercauteren. “With several international design events, museums and internationally respected schools, this small country is a bona fide design hotspot.”

Vera Vermeersch, whose work is showing in the Design September exhibition Intersections#3, has done her part to put Belgium on the design map. The veteran Flemish designer established her textile studio in Ghent in the mid-1980s and has been innovating ever since.

If that name sounds familiar even to a design dodo, that’s because Vermeersch is a member of one of Flanders’ most prolific artistic families. Her father, celebrated ceramicist José Vermeersch, has inspired two generations of Vermeersches (and counting) to follow in his footsteps. Among them are Vera, Rik, Pieter, Lowie and Robin, all fixtures in the Flemish art world.

With her father’s artist friends about the house and family members launching artistic careers of their own, Vermeersch’s upbringing could only fascinate and encourage her. “Of course

Lucie Koldova appears at Flagey on 16 september

growing up in an artistic family influenced me,” Vermeersch says, “not least by showing me how endless the possibilities are. Everyone was busy exploring a different artistic discipline.”

As keen as she was to get exploring herself, she wasn’t sure which of these disciplines to choose.

She just knew that she wanted to be an artist.

So a young Vermeersch studied art history and eventually, only after graduation, dipped her toe in the waters of tapestry restoration. Realising her passion, she became a dyed-in-the-wool weaver.

“Textiles and threads had always fascinated me,” she says. “That passion has been le fil rouge dans ma vie, as they say.”

That’s where family ties once more came in handy. “Let’s say my name didn’t close any doors,” she laughs. Above all, Vermeersch says, the clan was the perfect support system for an aspiring artist. “My first carpets were bought by my father and brother, and then by family friends, who were also artists. From there, word spread.”

Her family and friends’ early patronage afforded Vermeersch the liberty to experiment in her chosen field. She quickly shifted her focus from the restoration of historic Gobelin tapestries

to the innovation of contemporary techniques, including her signature style of hand-tufting. Vermeersch describes this method, which permits blending of different materials and colours, as “painting with wool.”

Her hand-tufted carpets are often the product of collaborations with other artists and designers from around the world. Indeed, they are frequently three-dimensional “translations” of conceptual designs or existing two-dimensional paintings. Vermeersch’s contribution to Design September includes hand-tufted riffs on Roger Raveel, Fred Bervoets, Michel Buylen and Kristof Van Gestel.

The Intersections#3 exhibition also showcases pieces by two other Flemish artists working with different elemental materials. Woodworker Kaspar Hamacher philosophises with a chainsaw with minimalist, forward-looking furniture whose natural roots are evident all the same.

The work of ceramicist Hugo Meert is a more polished affair. His tableware is sophisticated, smooth and even ironic.

Vermeersch, Hamacher and Meert share little on the level of technique, but taken together the trio show the contemporary face of design. Cloth, wood and clay were once used for bare subsistence; now these age-old materials are deployed in the name of a bold, modern aesthetic.

The exhibition is hosted inside the ultimate symbol of modern Belgian design: the Atomium.

It’s the third consecutive year that the venue is participating in Design September, showing just how well established the festival is in the capital.

Other Design September events are scattered across the city. Most are exhibitions hosted in galleries, shops and artist studios. Chances are you’ll get to meet the designers themselves.

One of the festival’s bigger events is the Design Market, dedicated to furniture and decoration from the mid- to late-20th century. International dealers, collectors and amateurs converge at Tour & Taxis for a weekend in the middle of the month for what has become one of Belgium’s biggest vintage design events.

9-30 September

BITE Cheese and biscuits Order a coffee in just about any cafe in Flanders, and you’re bound to get a biscuit with it. This tradition must be deeply rooted in Flemish culture, because this is just as likely to happen when you sit down for coffee in a friend’s living room.

Coffee and biscuits, it seems, are an inseparable duo.

But what about other pairings? Is it possible to enjoy a sweet biscuit with something savoury, like cheese, for example? The answer is a resounding “yes”, if you ask Biscuiterie Destrooper, maker of the famous Flemish biscuits since 1886.

Cheese doesn’t always have to come served on a plain cracker, just as biscuits need not be limited to a sidekick for a cup of coffee. To prove this, Destrooper last year launched an initiative to find out which

flavours went best with which cookies and, in so doing, came up with a number of surprising recipes, which it shares on its website (also in English).

The art of combining sweet with savoury may be a hot trend in the culinary world, but it still requires a bit of a stretch to open the mind to chocolate-enrobed cinnamon biscuits with goat cheese and roasted pepper. But that’s not all: Destrooper suggests putting blue-veined cheese and fig jam on their famous butter waffles.

Across Brussels

WWW.DESTROOPER.BE

Or their cashew and orange thins under a slice of ripe brie with marmalade and a few mint leaves.

Other recipes see apple thins pairing with foie gras and balsamic cream, while cured ham and mozzarella dress up the classic almond thins, and ginger thins get covered in smoked salmon, sour cream and lumpfish roe.

How did the biscuit maker come up with such daring combinations?

It took its assortment of cookies to a group of scientists at the Univer-

sity of Leuven. There they used a device that couples a gas chromatograph to a mass spectrometer in order to measure aroma molecules in food and drink. Products that have certain aromas in common are known to pair well, and these appear together in a foodpairing tree.

After analysis of the flavours in the Destrooper almond thins, butter waffles and chocolate cinnamon biscuits, three scientific foodpairing trees emerged, each with its own surprising taste allies like mushrooms, ginger and caviar.

Next time I spot the famous blueand-white box, I’ll be sure to pick one up. And not to serve at tea time either, but as an aperitif. \ Robyn Boyle

SEPTEMBER 3, 2014

Flanders off the beaten path Protestant enclaves and bygone shipyards: The secrets of East Flanders Toon Lambrechts More articles by Toon \ flanderstoday.eu

The rich heritage of Flanders has left many traces behind. Some are touristic highlights, others remain virtually unknown. Flanders Today went in search of its quirkiest historical spots for our five-part series, Flanders off the beaten path. This week we visit the province of East Flanders, unearthing forgotten tales of Protestant enclaves, bygone shipyards and villages washed away

rigour as Protestant churches in the Netherlands. Behind the church lies the small cemetery with the memorial plaque. The branches of a giant weeping beech cast shadows over the site. A remarkable number of people buried here have the Blommaert surname and are likely descendants of the Geuzen leader who ignited the 16th-century rebellion.

Temse: Last symbol of a once-great industry

I

n the rolling hills of the Flemish Ardennes lies the village of Korsele. As Flanders’ oldest Protestant community, with roots going centuries back, it’s a hamlet with an intriguing backstory.

Situated in one of the most beautiful landscapes in the region, Korsele is part of the municipality of Horebeke, not far from Oudenaarde in East Flanders. Amidst the panoramic views, green meadows and forests in the distance, there are few physical traces that point to the area’s turbulent past.

As a predominantly Protestant village, Korsele exudes a slightly different atmosphere than the villages surrounding it. For more than 400 years, it has managed to stand its ground in a largely Catholic country.

During the 16th and 17th centuries, religious wars between Catholics and Protestants ravaged half of Europe. The Low Countries fell under the authority of the Spanish royal family, which was fervently Catholic. But the various Protestant movements had a strong following in Flanders and the Netherlands.

Revolts spread like wildfire across the region, and the Eighty Years’ War broke out.

The battle between the Spanish and the Geuzen, the adopted moniker of the Protestant rebels, led to the loss of many lives.

One of the foremost Geuzen leaders was Jacob Blommaert. Together with his men, he made the lives of the Spanish troops in the area miserable. In 1572, they even succeeded in briefly occupying the city of Oudenaarde.

For the next six weeks, a Protestant government ruled the city, until the Spanish Duke of Alva regained control of Oudenaarde. Blommaert was killed not long after that, but his soldiers continued to fight against the Spaniards in the woods around Korsele.

The Protestant community of Korsele is a testament to that struggle. The enclave’s survival is itself nothing short of a miracle.

For a long time, money, books and preachers had to be smuggled in from the northern Netherlands. After the Eighty Years’ War, religious tensions calmed, but Protestantism continued to be viewed with suspicion in Flanders, so believers could only worship

© Toon Lambrechts

The back of Korsele’s church is the burial place of dozens of Protestant stalwarts

© Toon Lambrechts

Temse’s majestic crane, a protected monument, is the last remaining vestige of a once-thriving shipbuilding industry

in secret.

That is why Korsele’s first church, today a community hall, looks like a simple farm.

It’s only since the 1781 tolerance edict that Protestants were able to openly profess their religion and that the present-day church was built.

But the hostility from a nearly entirely Catholic region persisted. Over the next centuries, all the other Protestant communities in Flanders eventually disappeared.

In 1815, the European powers merged what are now the Netherlands, Belgium and Luxembourg into the United Kingdom of the Netherlands. That was good news for

Korsele, since King Willem I was himself Protestant.

Today, a stone plaque offering thanks to the king for his support can be found at the cemetery of the local church – a type of monument rare in the rest of Belgium. The cemetery itself was created with the support of Willem.

Korsele is today the only remaining Protestant community in the Flemish countryside. The village is sometimes referred to as Geuzenhoek or “Geuzen corner”, an obvious reference to its past as a Protestant stronghold.

The church of Korsele is built with the same

Posh new houses today line the Scheldt river in Temse, East Flanders, which lies right on the border with southern Antwerp province.

Only a proud crane and a couple of street names point to the town’s bygone shipbuilding industry. Together with the mine closures, the shutdown of the Boel shipyard was one of the major social conflicts in Flanders’ post-war history.

Located on the banks of the Scheldt river, the peaceful village of Temse used to be known primarily for its basket weavers. In 1829, a local carpenter by the name of Bernard Boel built a shipyard that marked the modest beginning of the local shipping industry.

In the first few decades, the shipyard mostly produced small wooden boats. But when it came into the hands of third-generation owners Cesar and Frans Boel, a period of unprecedented growth followed for the company.

The Boels launched production of iron ships and also built the ships for the national shipping line to the then colony of Congo. After the Second World War, Boelwerf grew into a global player, so that by 1979 more than 3,000 people worked for the company in Temse.

But during the 1980s, things quickly went downhill for Boelwerf. Outsourcing, a building economic crisis and the beginning of globalisation caused hard times for major industrial sectors such as shipbuilding. Flanders’ long-standing social model of lifetime job security – and hence, peace of mind – among the working classes fell apart.

From the early 1980s until the shipyard’s final closure in 1996, ships were occupied in union protest actions, and a series of endless strikes and restructurings followed. Eventually, Boelwerf grew into a symbol for the decline of traditional industries in Flanders.

Now the once-imposing shipyard has been transformed into a residential area and business park. A lonely giant crane, now a protected monument, is the only lasting reminder of Temse’s industrial past.

The submerged villages of Meetjesland At the northern end of East Flanders, the many rivers and creeks in the Meetjesland region constitute a major local tourist attraction. But this area used to have a troubled relationship with all that water surrounding it.

Sint-Laureins, a town close to the Dutch border, is just the place to go to if you’re looking for open landscapes and fresh air. The local

polders are interspersed with large pools of water with names like Boeren Creek, Bentille Creek and Oostpolder Creek.

A beautiful nature area surrounded by trees, one of the smaller creeks in Sint-Laureins is the Roeselare Creek. Here, rare plants grow, such as the marsh fern and crested buckler fern. It’s pretty hard to imagine, but what is now a pool of water was

once a whole village.

It was named Roeselare after its founder, Gozewijn of Roeselare.

During the Middle Ages, Roeselare’s rich peat farmland and salt production were the sources of prosperity.

But disaster descended during the 14th century when major floods affected the entire area. The 1377 and 1404 floods were especially devastating, and entire areas

became uninhabitable for a long time.

Neglected levees – a result of political wrangling – made digging a dangerous undertaking, and the salt from sea water damaged agricultural lands. Most of the submerged villages were rebuilt later, but Roeselare didn’t survive.

It was one of many villages wiped off the map by the forceful floods.

© ingimage

\ 11

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\ LIVING

SEPTEMBER 3, 2014

Hometown boys

Maaseik gives the Van Eyck brothers a belated homecoming Diana Goodwin More articles by Diana \ flanderstoday.eu

www.vaneyckmaaseik.be

V

ery little is known about the early life of the prolific Flemish Primitive Jan van Eyck, one of the 15th century’s most innovative and influential painters, responsible for such luminary works as “The Adoration of the Mystic Lamb” (otherwise known as the Ghent Altarpiece) and “The Arnolfini Portrait”, which hangs in London’s National Gallery.

As little as is known about him, even less is known about his brother, Hubert, who worked together with him. Today, most historians accept Maaseik, on the eastern tip of Limburg just over the border from the Netherlands, as the probable birthplace of the van Eycks, despite rival claims from other towns and a lack of conclusive evidence one way or another.

But in the 19th century, Maaseik had already claimed the van Eyck brothers as their own.

Myriam Giebens, alderwoman for culture in Maaseik, says history is on their side “because of that book from 1604 by Karel van Mander, which has always been in the city’s possession,” she says. “There it is stated very clearly that the brothers van Eyck were originally from Maaseik.”

The book in question, the Schilder-Boeck, or Painter Book, was an early source of information on the lives of Netherlandish painters.

An original 17th-century copy is still in the collection of Maaseik’s city library.

Maaseik’s claim to be the birthplace of Jan van Eyck is further supported by his daughter Livina’s entry to the city’s convent of St Agnes a few years after the painter’s death, suggesting that the family retained ties with the city even after years of living in Bruges.

Starting this week, Maaseik will give the two painters a year-long festive homecoming, punctuated by many commemorative events and exhibitions.

Aside from being a celebration of the van Eycks and the city’s history, Maaseik’s Van Eyck Year is meant to be a stimulus for new creative and community projects. Several local artists will show new works based on the work of Jan van Eyck, and “The Adoration of the Mystic Lamb” in particular.

For Van Eyck onder de loep (Van Eyck Under the Microscope), Flemish artist Marieta Bruekers has created three-dimensional realisations of the precious gems depicted in the altarpiece. Turnhout artist Bie Flameng will show drawings and graphic works inspired by van Eyck, and an installation piece by Maas-

The 1864 dedication ceremony for the monumental van Eyck statues will form the centrepiece of the opening festival

eik-born artist Frans Slangen will explore the idea of the “unfinished past” as well as the “Mystic Lamb”.

A craze for erecting statues of prominent historical or mythical figures swept Europe and America in the mid-19th century, and Belgium was no exception. In the newly created state, these statues enshrined local heroes, who embodied a nascent national identity and served as focal points for civic pride.

Great men and women from the past depicted in bronze, stone and marble began appearing in cities across Flanders. In Limburg province, Tongeren chose Gallic warlord Ambiorix, who fought and defeated a Roman legion in the time of Julius Caesar, to grace the central square. And in Maaseik, then a small city on the Meuse river, local leaders chose to honour 15th-century painters Jan and Hubert van Eyck.

The dedication of the monumental statue,

sculpted in marble by Leopold Wiener, in the centre of Maaseik’s Markt on 5 September 1864, was a grand event attended by King Leopold I, the governor, the mayor and other prominent citizens.

The 150-year anniversary of the statue’s unveiling will be the highlight of the Folk Festival on Maaseik’s central Markt on 7 september which will kick off the Van Eyck Year.

The centrepiece of the festival is a re-enactment of the dedication ceremony, with the Markt decorated to look as it did 150 years ago and costumed actors standing in for the main players. Musicians will provide appropriate fanfare and the “mayor” will give a speech based on the actual 1854 dedication speech.

The programme for the Van Eyck Year also includes readings, lectures, concerts and publications. Local historian Wim Lemmens will talk about his book De gebroeders van Eyck: Een geschiedenis rondom een monument (The Brothers van Eyck: History of a Monu-

ment), which deals with contemporary politics and social developments at the time of the statue’s unveiling.

An exhibition about Livina and the Sisters of St Agnes will be another focal point of Maaseik’s Van Eyck Year. Livina van Eyck: Een verborgen leven (A Hidden Life) will assemble, for the first time, objects and manuscripts from the convent.

Wim Corstjens, the chief organiser behind Maaseik’s Van Eyck Year, says that the city is ready to take its rightful place as one of Belgium’s so-called “Van Eyck cities”, along with Bruges and Ghent – places more famously associated with the life and work of the painters.

After all, the residents of Maaseik have long thought of Jan and Hubert as their most prominent fellow citizens, standing proudly in the centre of town, for 150 years. It’s time the rest of the world got to know the birthplace of these masters of Netherlandish art.

Leuven welcomes Flanders’ first sun-powered tourist train www.zonnetrein.be

V

isitors to Leuven can now tour the highlights of the capital of Flemish Brabant by car without guilttripping over the greenhouse gases released in the process. They can simply hop on the sun-powered Zonnetrein, or Sun Train, which was launched last month and indeed looks like a train by virtue of its separate carriages. This makes Leuven the first Flemish city to offer a solar-powered tourist vehicle.

“It was after a ride on the electric train at Puyenbroeck Provincial Domain that we got the idea to develop an ecological tour that would connect our city heritage,” explains Koen Van Cauwenberge of V-Tax, the Ghent-based company behind the train. “We approached different cities, and Leuven

was the first to jump on board.”

Tourists can now also visit sites located a bit outside the city such as the Park Abbey in the Heverlee district, a real gem with a countryside feel situated just beyond the city’s ring road. With stops at the Unesco-protected Groot Begijnhof, the Stella Artois brewery and the central Monseigneur Ladeuze Square, where the University Library is located, the one-hour tour connects the main attractions of the student city.

The tour is narrated in Dutch, English and French, costs €10 per person and – important detail – keeps you dry when the sun decides to take a vacation of its own. \ Tom Peeters

© Courtesy Zonnetrein

\ 13

\ ARTS

week in arts & CULTURE Antwerp Central among world’s most beautiful stations

Antwerp Central is at the top of a list of 12 of the world’s most beautiful railway stations on the New Yorkbased news website Mashable. “This monstrous railway station features four separate levels of trains,” the article reads. “Its beauty is so unique, experts have difficulty assigning it an architectural style.”

Antwerp’s station was built between 1895 and 1905 with a liberal use of iron and glass.

Also on Mashable’s list of 12 are St Pancras railway station in London, Komsomolskya metro station in Moscow and the Liège-Guillemins train station in Belgium.

Jan Fabre publishes Nachtboek Dagboek literally translates to “day book” but is the Dutch word for “diary”. It’s no surprise that enfant terrible Jan Fabre calls his a nachtboek (night book). It’s the title of his new book, which relates the exciting and triumphant performing arts scene in Flanders in the 1980s – a scene that spilled into the rest of Europe and became known as the Flemish Wave. Together with other artists such as Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker and Alain Platel, Fabre took local performing arts from the traditional to the cutting edge. He relates his experiences as well as his personal desperation to translate his never-ending thoughts to the stage – which kept him up at night. Nachtboek: 19851991 (in Dutch) releases on 15 September. It is published by De Bezige Bij and retails for €22.50.

Fireworks contests bring crowds to coast Fireworks producer L’Etincelle of Huy in Wallonia has won this year’s Belgian Championship Fireworks display in Ostend. The company won both the jury prize and the public prize. The event, which took place weekly from 14 July to 18 August, brought some 1,000 visitors out for each display. The jury considers tempo, originality, music and use of colour when judging the displays. Knokke-Heist’s International Fireworks Festival, meanwhile, was won

by England for its impressive pyrotechnic aspects, vivid colours and composition. That annual competition takes place over four weeks every August, and this year saw England competing against Italy, Slovenia and the Czech Republic.

Fighting the inner demons Stan Lauryssen’s new book explores the breakdown of an acting legend Alan Hope More articles by Alan \ flanderstoday.eu

O

ne evening in February 1970, a production of Shakespeare’s King John in the Bourla theatre in Antwerp was interrupted when the lead actor stepped upstage and out of character. Lighting a cigarette, he berated the audience for sitting there comfortably in their finery, while outside, police clashed with striking miners. He turned his back on the production and walked out of the theatre to join the strikers.

That actor was Julien Schoenaerts, and that performance was the beginning of his descent into madness.

In the audience that night was a young journalist, Stan Lauryssens, who worked for De Nieuwe Gazet. Over the next few years, Lauryssens went on to interview people who spent the last days of the Second World War in a bunker with Hitler.

Lauryssens then became a notorious art fraud who once tried to sell a statue in London to six different dealers at one time. He also became a successful fiction writer, winning the Hercule Poirot Prize for his first thriller Zwarte sneeuw (Black Snow) in 2002.

Lauryssens’ latest book is Schoenaerts, which he describes as “not a biography but a period piece”.

It explores the four years that followed the actor’s decision to desert that Antwerp stage, the problems of which the book attributes to treatments in psychiatric institutions.

Today, Julien is best known as the father of breakout actor Matthias Schoenaerts, one of a handful of Flemish actors to act in multiple languages in multiple countries, including the US

and Britain. But in his day, Julien was regarded as one of the finest actors in the Dutch language, both on stage and screen. He was born in Eigenbilzen, Limburg, in 1925 and studied theatre in Antwerp under legendary playwright Herman Teirlinck at the institution that would later bear his name.

The consequences of Schoenaerts’ stage rebellion were swift.

“You have to understand that at the time Belgium was a dead country; the coal miners were on strike, and, as a result, everything was closed down,” Lauryssens explains. “He left Antwerp and went to Limburg to join the striking coal miners.”

Schoenaerts took all his money with him and threw it away like confetti as a gift to the strikers. On one occasion, he also went up to a police officer and put a flower into the barrel of his gun. “It was the time of flower power, of course, and he’d seen that on the television,” the author explains. “Then he was arrested, and when he came before the judge, he started singing silly songs. They said he was mad, locked him up for three months and gave him electroshocks.”

While he was in an institution, the city of Antwerp arranged for Schoenaerts to be honoured with his own theatre, the Ringtheater, now the workshop of artist Jan Fabre.

When he got out, he returned to the stage, and in prose that reads more like a

© Dirk Melkebeek

Stan Lauryssens took a break from writing thrillers to pen Schoenaerts

\ 14

www.stanlauryssens.be

Julien Schoenaerts in 1955

thriller than a biography, Lauryssens describes his increasingly erratic behaviour, including a mysterious fire that remains unexplained to this day, and about which it would be spoilerish to say more here.

You didn’t understand a word of it, but everyone in the audience was spellbound.

In reality, they were looking madness in the eye “He was a manic depressive, even before,” notes Lauryssens. “But he came out of the psychiatric ward a full-blown psychotic. He was in and out, three months here, six months there – long periods of time. And after that he never acted in plays again.”

Schoenaerts’ illness made theatre performances increasingly difficult. “If you’re in a play by Shakespeare, you don’t know the whole play by heart,” Lauryssens explains. “You know your own lines, and you listen for cues from the other actors. But when he came out of the psychiatric ward, he didn’t do that anymore. He mixed up his

lines and the lines of others; he changed his lines so nobody could pick up on their cues anymore.”

That led him into monologues instead, such as the Apology of Socrates, a two-hour one-man show by Plato, which Schoenaerts performed more than 2,500 times. Lauryssens saw the piece more than once. “You went into a sort of trance almost; you didn’t understand a word of it, but everyone in the audience was spellbound,” he says. “And if you asked him: ‘What is the play about?’, he said he didn’t know. People were happy just looking at him. In reality, they were looking madness in the eye. You’ve seen One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. You remember Jack Nicholson. That was Schoenaerts.”

That was an observation also made by Bruno Schoenaerts, Julien’s eldest son, now a respected Antwerp lawyer and one of the many friends, relations and acquaintances Lauryssens interviewed for the book. He is Matthias’ older brother by 23 years. But when their father could no longer take care of himself in 2002, he moved in with the younger son, then an Antwerp acting student. Julien died in 2006.

“I remember that period as being not the most pleasant of my life,” Bruno recently told the Gazet Van Antwerpen. “Of course I will read the book [but] it will be difficult, given the number of troubled memories associated with the period. For many people, my father is a mythical genius, but I was experiencing him as a human being from a front-row seat. He was indeed a genius as an actor, but manic-depressive as a man.

The combination meant he was at times downright dangerous.”

Schoenaerts is published in Dutch

by Manteau/WPG and will be released on 25 September

\ AGENDA

SEPTEMBER 3, 2014

All together now…

The Singing Brussels Celebration Bozar, Brussels

12-14 September

www.bozar.be

“B

ozar starts the new season with a song on its lips.” The catch phrase of Singing Brussels is too good not to be quoted. Next weekend, Brussels’ centre of fine arts kicks off its concert season with an avalanche of song. Some 50 choirs will perform in nine spaces throughout the labyrinthine art temple.

You might assume they’re classical – the main focus of Bozar’s music programming is classical – but they’re not. We are promised the whole musical spectrum: jazz, pop, world, gospel and, of course, classical (and there’s a lot of differ-

ent branches in that one).

Some of the ensembles are professional, like the world-famous The Tallis Scholars from Cambridge, under the direction of Peter Phillips for more than 40 years. Or upcoming but already internationally acclaimed VOCES8 (pictured); they croon polyphonic renaissance as easily as Emeli Sandé’s “Where I Sleep”. On Sunday, VOCES8 presents a sing-along concert.

But a majority of the choirs are non-professional, with people, young and old, who just love to sing. A variety of cultural communities are present, so you can enjoy Turkish love songs, African gospel

VISUAL ARTS Schoten (Antwerp province) Aamad: Collection of works

by Antwerp-based artist Manisha Patawari, featuring paintings with the theme aamad, the Persian word for “entry”.

Proceeds from exhibition sales go to charity. 6-7 September 11.00-18.00, Schoten Castle, Kasteeldreef 61 www.facebook.com/artmanisha

Ghent

chants and mesmerising Arab tunes.

There’s even the I Can’t Sing Choir, which is out to prove that everyone can sing, it’s just a matter of learning a few tricks. You can sign up for their workshop – or one of

many more on offer during Singing Brussels.

The ambition of the event is to get the whole town singing, but if you just want to go and listen, that’s fine, too, of course.

Those Days of Jazz in Belgium: Collection of jazz artefacts and memorabilia of legendary Belgian jazz musicians from the period 1929 to 1993, featuring instruments, posters, signed photographs, books, records and more. Until 11 September at Zebrastraat, Zebrastraat 32 www.zebrastraat.be

\ Christophe Verbiest

EVENT

LITERATURE

PERFORMANCE

Helen Grant

Daphne

6-7 September

Waterstones, Brussels & Treasure Trove Books, Tervuren www.waterstonesbru.blogspot.be www.treasuretrove.be

The London-born Helen Grant spent several years living in Tervuren and set the first book of her Flanders-inspired Forbidden Spaces trilogy, Silent Saturday, there. The author of young-adult fiction has now relocated to Scotland, but her head is still in Flanders; this week sees her launching Demons of Ghent in Belgium.

It finds the teen Veerle De Keyser trying to settle into a new life in Ghent after the traumatic events of Silent Saturday. Shadows of the past return with the ancient city’s landmarks forming the perfect backdrop. / Tom Peeters

9-30 September This collaboration between the German conductor Lothar Koenigs, the De Munt Symphonic Orchestra and the Flemish director Guy Joosten is a contemporary take on the metamorphosis of the nymph Daphne, as described by the Roman poet Ovid and turned into an opera by Richard Strauss. The gorgeous young lady is loved by both the simple shepherd, Leukippos (performed by Ameri-

Sint-Martens-Latem

De Munt, Brussels www.demunt.be

can tenor Eric Cutler), and the god Apollo (Danish tenor Peter Lodahl).

If you don’t know the story, we won’t spoil it for you, but let’s just say that the jealous god doesn’t do well with rivalry. The story is intact, but Joosten is forever modern: He has reinvented Daphne as “an ecologicallyinspired ‘hipster’ on the fringes of the mainstream against a hard economic reality”. / TP

Tuinfeest (Garden Party): Annual buffet and charity auction in support of Museum Dhondt-Dhaenens, an opportunity to bid on works of art that have been gifted to the museum by galleries, artists and collectors. 6 September 18.00, Museum Dhondt-Dhaenens, Museumlaan 14 www.museumdd.be

LITERATURE Brussels Architecture of the Buddhist World: Award-winning author and architect Vikram Lall discusses the evolution of ideas and practices that led to the creation of diverse sacred sites and buildings throughout Southeast Asia (in English), followed by a reception and book signing of The Golden Lands. 9 September 20.00, CIVA, Kluisstraat 55 www.civa.be

© Hofmann/De Munt

VISUAL ARTS

CONCERT

Adriaan Verwée

Adam Cohen

Until 2 November At last week’s opening night of Adriaan Verwée’s first solo show, the Ghent artist said he was questioning the definition of an artwork. Throughout the three rooms, containing both older and new work, you can feel him struggling with the question: When in the process of making a sculpture does it becomes a museum piece?

His architectural installations made of wood or plaster give the illusion of still being constructed.

There’s a frame on a chair, forever waiting to be hung up. The wooden desk he used to work on is now “demounted” on the museum floor. Photographs document his relationship with space and emptiness. / TP

Museum M, Leuven www.mleuven.be

11-12 October

get tic

kets n ow

Botanique, Brussels & Het Depot, Leuven www.botanique.be

This month will see the release of Popular Problems, the great Leonard Cohen’s 13th studio album, released two days before his 80th birthday (on 21 September).

Described as “an astonished lover rocking to the human condition”, he explores territory that his son, Adam Cohen, has also been dealing with throughout his career.

Adam (pictured) released his eponymous debut in 1998, but it was only two years ago, with Like A Man, that he was really able to step out of his father’s shadow – apparently by accepting it. He plays two local shows in support of his new album We Go Home, releasing on 15 September (three days before he turns 42.) / TP

www.hetdepot.be

PARTY Antwerp Laundry Day: Annual electronic music festival, featuring hundreds of DJs covering a broad range of styles, including urban, drum&bass, dubstep, hard dance, pop, disco, funk and soul. 6 September 13.0000.00, Nieuw Zuid, Ledeganckkaai www.laundryday.be

CONCERT

get tic

kets n

ow

Brussels James Taylor Band: Tickets are going fast for a chance to see the American folk legend live, performing classics from his repertoire, including “Fire and Rain”, “Country Road” and “Sweet Baby James”. 19 September 20.00, Koninklijk Circus, Onderrichtstraat 81 www.cirque-royal.org

\ 15

\ BACKPAGE

SEPTEMBER 3, 2014

Talking Dutch The Flemish Augustus Derek Blyth More articles by Derek \ flanderstoday.eu

I

may be wrong about this, but I think the new government is basing some of its policies on a Roman Emperor who died 2,000 years ago.

The thought came to me after reading a recent article by the Flemish nationalist leader Bart De Wever in which he talked about the 2,000th anniversary of the death of Emperor Augustus.

Sic transit gloria mundi – look at how worldly glory fades, wrote De Wever (who happens to be strong in Latin). He was describing his feelings on seeing Augustus’ mausoleum in Rome mouldering behind temporary fencing.

Het leek meer op een grote storthoop dan op de laatste rustplaats van de man die er zich op zijn sterfbed op kon beroepen Rome te hebben gevonden in tichelsteen om het achter te laten in marmer – it looked more like a big rubbish dump than the final resting place of the man who boasted on his deathbed that he found Rome built of bricks and left it cloaked in marble.

De Wever proceeded to describe the progressive policies that Augustus (pictured) implemented during his long rule – bouwde hij een moderne bureaucratie uit die in staat was om doeltreffend en rechtvaardig te besturen – he created a modern bureaucracy based on efficiency and justice; zorgde hij voor een klimaat van rechtszekerheid voor de burgers – he created a climate that gave citizens a sense of legal certainty.

Further, Augustus investeerde in de ontwikkeling van brandweer- en politiediensten – invested in the fire and police service, in de uitbouw van postnetwerk – in the development of a postal system, in de verbetering van het wegennet – in improvements to the road network, in stadsontwikkeling – in town planning.

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And zag hij toe op de financiële gezondheid van het staatsapparaat – he ensured that the state administration was financially sound; bestreed hij corruptie in het bestuur van de provincies – he tackled corruption in the provincial administrations.

As leader of the N-VA, the largest party in the country, De Wever is now deeply involved in setting out government policy. And when you look at the proposals that have been put forward, you can’t help noticing there is a determination to create a modern and efficient administration, a desire to tackle corruption and an overwhelming passion to restore the finances to a sound footing.

Wie deed het daarna ooit beter? – who after that ever did any better? De Wever asked at the end of his article.

He was looking back to an emperor who lived 2,000 years ago. But maybe he’s also hoping that people would one day see him as the Flemish Augustus.

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Poll

a. Of course. Why harvest fruit you cannot sell? It’s a waste of money and could put small farmers out of business

10% b. Of course not. They don’t know yet what the market of the next few months will bring. Have faith and pick your pears

40% c. Food should never be wasted. Farmers should get government subsidies so they can give the crops to needy families

50% So what should be done? Give out unsold pears to those who need it and let the taxpayer foot the bill, half of you thought. It’s a generous idea, but complicated. Distribution would be a problem, as food banks don’t generally stock fresh produce.

And it’s possible that giving away fruit would stop families from buying other fruits, disrupting the

market.

The pear growers are mixing the other two options, which the other half of you thought was more sensible. Farmers are allowing some of their crops to go unplucked and receiving EU subsidies for it, while picking the rest. The farmers don’t go out of business, and the market only registers a blip.

\ Next week's question: Police in Bruges are taking a man to court for filming them with his mobile phone as they questioned patrons at a bar, claiming breach of privacy (see p2). What do you think?

Log on to the Flanders Today website at www.flanderstoday.eu and click VOTE

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Tim De Coninck @a_cup_of_t In response to: Flanders has a new whisky @flanderstoday @CTillekaerts and i tasted it! And i got myself bottle 90 from barrel 1! :) #whisky

Franco @sausagemaking Found a decent spot to watch the match in Brussels @Carla_ Kompany @VincentKompany pic.twitter.com/cdma4ilrkN

Jason Byrne @JasonByrnePhD Blown away by the eye-opening message of the #PlasticGarbageProject at Design Museum Ghent. http://www.plasticgarbageproject.org pic.twitter.com/TtfXnZuw2A

opening ceremony @openingceremony How we turned Antwerp’s topography into an intricately patterned jacquard http://ow.ly/ATeAJ

We Outspoken Leuven, Belgium that was awesome thank you! Tomorrow we play in Paris! – with Loyanne Eliana.

In response to: Flanders off the beaten path, the secrets of Flemish Brabant Mark Alexander: Kiezegem was of course the birthplace of Eddy Merckx, a distant relative of Gaston.

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the last word

Should fruit growers leave pears to rot and fall off the trees rather than paying for a harvest they cannot sell?

The Russian import ban on many products from the EU has hit Flanders hard: Much of its pork products and a whopping 60% of its pear harvest goes to the country. Flemish minister-president Geert Bourgeois advised the pear farmers of Limburg to leave their crops unpicked, which bothered some consumers as it meant a waste of edible food.

VoiceS of flanders today

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