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MARCH 18, 2015 \ newsweekly - € 0,75 \ rEad morE at www.flandErstoday.Eu currEnt affairs \ P2

Shaping artS policy

Flanders’ culture minister has launched a call for citizens to join a panel that will advise on arts policy \4

Politics \ P4

BusinEss \ P6

adopt-a-tree

innovation \ P7

Education \ P9

art & living \ P10

thoSe Scary SultanS

An orchard in West Flanders will care for your sapling into adulthood and invite you to pluck the fruits of its labour

Bozar exhibition beautifully portrays the centuries of fear and fascination surrounding the Ottomans

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Let the cycling games begin

© Belga

with no shortage of races or fans, cycling in flanders just gets more and more popular tom Peeters More articles by Tom \ flanderstoday.eu

Every year, when spring is just in the air, something extraordinary happens in the Flemish countryside. Dusty cobblestoned streets and narrow roads that wind around hilltops across the region fill with cyclists to compete in what is considered a “classic” race in this part of the world.

I

t seemed as if the sun waited for the start of the Flemish cycling season to make its first real appearance this year.

No wonder pro cyclists seemed happy and relaxed on Ghent’s Sint-Pietersplein when the season opener Omloop Het Nieuwsblad kicked off on the last day of February.

All the important races – from the Omloop and KuurneBrussels-Kuurne to Dwars Door Vlaanderen, E3 Harelbeke,

Ghent-Wevelgem and the Three Days of De Panne-Koksijde – lead up to the region’s most celebrated race, the one in which even non-fans take an interest: the Tour of Flanders, which traditionally takes place on Easter Sunday.

TV reporter Michel Wuyts cracked his usual jokes as he introduced the riders for the Omloop when they appeared on stage in Ghent to sign the start sheet.

The fans, meanwhile also seemed ready. A few days before the Omloop, the sponsoring newspaper Het Niewsblad promoted its cycling season guide by giving away a free Kwaremont beer with every newspaper.

The Kwaremont, for the uninitiated, is not just a tasty blonde beer, it’s also one of the most devilish climbs in the

Tour of Flanders. Riders have to complete it three times during their six-hour-plus performance.

Despite all the stories about wide-spread doping and the overkill of live cycling coverage on Flemish TV, the popularity of the sport continues to increase. For Walter Planckaert, team manager of Topsport Vlaanderen-Baloise and a former pro cyclist himself, this is explained simply by the sheer number of challenging races at this time of the year in Flanders.

“All over the world they refer to Flanders as the main cycling region,” says Planckaert, “since all of our races have spectacular routes through the very heart of the countryside.” Add to that no entrance fees for fans and pro cyclists who are far continued on page 5

\ CURRenT AFFAIRs

City buys Citroën building

Brussels region purchases former car showroom and offices for new modern art museum alan hope Follow Alan on Twitter \ @AlanHopeFT

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russels minister-president RudiVervoorthasannounced the signing of an agreement with Groupe PSA to buy the Citroën building overlooking IJzerplein in Brussels. The purchase brings the creation of a modern art museum in the capital one step closer.

The agreement itself does not solve the impasse between the Brussels-Capital Region and the federal government. The latter is insistent on returning the country’s modern art collection to the Royal Museums of Fine Arts complex. That would leave Vervoort with very little to populate the new museum

he wants to establish in the canal area as part of a local redevelopment.

Opinions also differ on the use of the Citroën building (pictured).

Last month a debate organised by green parties Groen and Ecolo saw proposals to turn the Art Deco site into an urban factory, an artists’ village of workshops and studios, a cultural centre with public space and a business centre incorporating an architecture school.

Question marks also hang over the suitability of the building as a museum. The five-storey glass façade, for example, is made of

single glazing, which is not sufficient for a museum interior and would require the permission of the federal monuments authority to renovate.

“With an enormous investment in sun blinds and climate control, that problem could be solved,” heritage consultant Leon Smets told Brussel Deze Week. “But that would be contrary to the whole gigantic display window concept of this glass and steel architecture.

It would require so much money one has to wonder if it would not be better to just build a whole new building altogether.”

© De standaard

Foundation to raise funds for more investigation into bus crash

More than 1,000 cameras on Brussels streets by end of year

Parents of some of the children who died in the school bus crash in Switzerland three years ago this month have created a foundation to raise money for further investigations into the accident.

“With the Stichting Busramp Sierre, we want to collect the funds needed for further independent research into the true facts behind the disaster,” said Paul Schilders of Lommel, whose son Luc, 11, died in the crash. “We will do our utmost to clarify the real causes [of the accident]. We want to ensure such a disaster never happens again, and we want action to be taken if it should turn out that there are failures in the certification of people involved in passenger transport.”

Children from two schools – in Lommel, Limburg,andinHeverlee,adistrictofLeuven – were returning home from a skiing holiday in March 2012 when their coach crashed in a tunnel in Sierre, in the Valais canton of Switzerland. The accident was the worst in Belgian history: 22 children aged 11 and 12 were killed, together with four members of school staff and two coach drivers.

The Swiss prosecutor in charge of the investigation, Olivier Elsig, concluded that the accident had been caused by a momentary lapse of attention by the younger of the two drivers, who was behind the wheel at the time. No blame could be attached for causing the accident, he said.

Some of the parents of the victims have

Streets across Brussels will be equipped with a further 300 security cameras by the end of this year, bringing the total to more than 1,000.

The number of cameras surveying the streets is up to the local districts to decide, and all but two – Oudergem and Watermaal-Bosvoorde – are adding cameras. Brussels-City currently has the most, with 230 now and 20 more to come, serving a resident population of nearly 170,500.

Molenbeek will have more than 200 by the end of the year, for a population of fewer than 95,000.

According to Molenbeek mayor Françoise Schepmans, public opposition to the cameras has almost disappeared. Ten years ago, she said, there were often complaints when a new camera was installed.

“Now people are almost begging for more,” she said.

Anderlecht is awaiting another 108 this year. “We need the cameras because there are so many metro stations in the municipality,” a spokesperson told De Standaard. “The area around the RSC Anderlecht football ground also requires extra attention.”

In Anderlecht, the new cameras will be placed on main roads, on squares and around South Station.

Among the installations is a new type of camera that can pan 360 degrees. \ AH

© POOl/Reuters/Corbis

A boy stands near the coffins of two of the victims of the bus crash in sierre during a ceremony at sintPieters church in leuven on 22 March, 2012

never been satisfied with that result, believing that the driver was taking medication for depression and may have driven the bus into the tunnel wall deliberately. Their suspicions led to them insisting on the removal of the names of both drivers from a monument in Switzerland to the victims.

The Swiss have closed the case, and the new foundation website speaks of “a number of crucial aspects such as the bizarre trajectory of the bus in the last metres and the use of anti-depressives by the driver, were not or were barely investigated by the Swiss authorities”.

Meanwhile in Switzerland, a memorial service took place last Friday, the third anniversary of the crash. A remembrance ceremony was also held in primary school ’t Stekske in Lommel, and at the Sint-Lambertus school in Heverlee. \ AH

€517,500

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investment approved by Flemish culture minister Sven Gatz for the renovation of the cinema and concert hall De Roma in Antwerp

KU Leuven’s ranking in the list of the world’s best universities, the only Belgian university in the top 100. Above 50th place, universities are ranked in groups of 10

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Security at construction sites questioned after two die in building collapse City authorities in Mechelen are looking into extra security measures at large construction sites after two young people died when a building due for demolition collapsed on them.

Four youngsters between 11 and 18 years old entered the site of a former factory and began driving around on forklifts, recording some of their antics to upload to Facebook. When one of the forklifts crashed into a pillar, part of the building came down, and two of them were killed. The two others survived because the truck they were in had a sturdier safety cage, which protected them from the falling rubble.

According to city councillor Marc Hendrickx, it remains unclear how the four gained access to the site. An investigating magistrate has been appointed to examine the circumstances of the accident.

“There are several such large construction projects in the Mechelen area, each on a former industrial site due to be demolished or rebuilt,” Hendrickx said. “We are doing everything we’re legally required to do, but it could be we need to look again with the contractors to see if we can take additional measures to make sure no-one can gain access to such sites.” \ AH

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alcohol content of a new Hoegaarden beer being developed

by Leuven-based AB InBev. The brewer also plans a new mini-crate of Jupiler and a new rum-flavoured beer called Cubanisto

candidates taking part in the Queen Elisabeth Music Competition for violin, which begins in May. Two entrants represent Flanders: Armenian-born Hrachya Avanesyan and Fien Van den Fonteyne

people in Ghent would not rent to someone named Mohammed, and three out of four would not rent to someone living on benefits, according to a study by UGent’s sociology department

march 18, 2015

WeeK in brief The federal government lowered the terrorism threat level from three to two last week. That means the threat is now seen as “average” rather than “serious”. The terrorism alert level was raised to three (out of four) on 16 January, following a major anti-terror operation in Verviers, Liège province, in which two armed men were killed. The heightened alert meant increased security for police and government buildings, as well as Jewish synagogues and schools.

Supermarket chain Delhaize has suspended the extra security measures introduced following the acid attack on a cleaning person in one of its Antwerp stores, after a man suspected of being the attacker was arrested in France. The suspect, revealed last week to be Jelle F, a 42-yearold lawyer from Amsterdam, is expected to be extradited shortly.

Flanders’ local observatories have reported a rush on the special sunglasses used to observe a solar eclipse, an event due to happen on Friday, 20 March.

Looking at the sun without protection could lead to severe damage to the eyes or even blindness, warn optometrists.

Four people on the island of Gran Canaria have been detained for questioning by local police investigating the death of West Flanders businessman Philippe Vandendorpe at the end of February. Vandendorpe died after consuming a drink spiked with a sedative. The drinks were served to Vandendorpe and a friend by two prostitutes, apparently with a view to knocking them out and robbing them. Instead both men became seriously ill and were rushed to hospital where Vandendorpe died. Police have arrested both women and two men: the bar owner and a local civil servant.

face of flanderS Municipal libraries are not about to close down en masse following the removal of the obligation for all town councils to provide library facilities, according to Luc Martens, chair of the Association of Flemish Cities and Municipalities. The government of Flanders passed a measure last week allowing local councils the freedom to set budget priorities for culture. Councils have, however, set out their policy plans for the rest of their term to 2018, Martens said. They also realise the importance of culture and libraries, with one-fifth of the populations using libraries. “You don’t just throw something like that on the scrap-heap,” he said.

The new Marks & Spencer store in Brussels will open in the new Guldenvlies complex on 7 May, the company announced. Marks & Spencer disappeared from the Brussels landscape 14 years ago when it closed its Nieuwstraat store after disappointing sales.

The company also confirmed that the store will include a food section.

The Flemish dredging group Jan De Nul has won a contract to lay 148 kilometres of cable under the North Sea to join up the offshore wind turbine park Race Bank, two offshore substations and coastal installations in the UK. The power produced will be enough to supply 400,000 homes. Jan De Nul’s cable installation ship Isaac Newton, with a capacity of 10,500 tonnes, will carry out the operation.

Belgium’s rail network is one of the safest in Europe, according to Luc Lallemand, CEO of the rail infrastructure company Infrabel, speaking last week to the federal parliament’s infrastructure committee. Lallemand was reporting on the implementation of recommendations made by the special commission on rail

safety set up after the Buizingen crash of 2010. Work on the automated braking system TBL1+ will be complete by the end of the year, he said, while the installation of the EU’s improved ETCS system is being carried out and will be complete by 2022.

A coach full of skiers from Flanders rode 680 kilometres out of its way last week after the driver keyed in the Spanish town of La Plagne into the GPS instead of the ski resort of the same name in the French Alps. Passengers said they thought the driver was trying to avoid French motorway tolls when he deviated from the normal Dijon-Lyon route. The bus company said the passengers didn’t mind losing a day of skiing.

“The atmosphere on the bus was good, and there was more than enough to drink,” a spokesperson said.

A police magistrate in Vilvoorde last week refused to pass sentence on a man in a wheelchair appearing before him because the man had no access to the court building without being carried in by others. Magistrate Luc Brewaeys said that not being able to attend one’s own trial unaided was a breach of the European treaty on human rights.

Kom op tegen kanker, the annual anti-cancer campaign run by public broadcaster VRT, has changed its name this year to Iedereen tegen kanker (Everyone Against Cancer) and has invited everyone to get involved in fundraising. Since everyone can get cancer, explained meteorologist and patron of the action Frank Deboosere, everyone should be involved in fighting it. The action, which runs from 30 March to 26 April, will aim to raise more than last year’s €20.6 million. About 41,000 people are diagnosed with cancer every year in Flanders.

offSide the curious incident of the dog in limburg What happened to Jagger?

Jagger, whose official name was Thendara Satisfaction, was an Irish setter – but not just any old Irish setter. At the start of the month, Jagger won a silver medal at Crufts, the prestigious dog show held in Birmingham, England. Just days after returning home to Tongeren, home of his owners Willem and Alexandra Lauwers, Jagger suddenly collapsed and died.

According to the vet, Jagger (pictured) had ingested blocks of meat adulterated with a poison used against snails. “Our dogs are world champions,” Willem Lauwers said. “But you don’t make friends in this world by being

© Dee Milligan-Bott

successful. If you want to have a go at me, then you smash my windows. You don’t kill our pet, surely?”

As the international media appeared on the Lauwers doorstep to explore the murky underbelly of the dog show world, Lauwers played down his accusations. “Hopefully, Jagger was just the wrong dog at the wrong place

at the wrong time,” he said. “We certainly don’t want our hobby to become grounds for suspicion.”

Mylee Thomas of Essex, owner of one of two Shetland sheepdogs also poisoned, is convinced that her dog was deliberately targeted. Her Myter Eye to Eye won first place. A winner from another category was also fed poison.

“The top dog and the top bitch were both taken ill minutes before they were due to compete,” Thomas told the Daily Mail. “You would have to know which dogs were which. I think it’s driven by jealousy.”

Jagger remains the only fatality to date. \ AH

© Tomas Vandecasteele/wikimedia

Kamagurka Most cartoonists never get to show their faces; who would ever know if they’d bumped into Charles Schultz or Bill Watterson in the street, or stepped on Marjane Satrapi’s toes in the tram?

Kamagurka is a little more visible than most, and in fact a documentary about him made for the VRT’s Koppen has just been awarded a prize in Amsterdam by the Stichting Verhalend Journalistiek – the Foundation for Narrative Journalism. In the film, Kamagurka travels to West Flanders to ask people how things are going for them. The film’s title, Oe ist?, means “How’s it going?” in the local dialect.

Luc Charles Zeebroek was born in 1956 in the coastal town of Nieuwpoort. He studied art in Bruges, then went on to the Fine Arts academy in Ghent, though he never graduated, having already found his path in life.

On an outing to Paris as a young teen, Zeebroek dropped in at the offices of Hara Kiri, the satirical magazine that would soon become Charlie Hebdo. It was the start of a relationship that saw him camp out at the magazine for several days every month.

The influence of the French media cartoon tradition – slap-

dash, scurrilous, ribald and raunchy – remained with him when he became the house cartoonist of Humo magazine in 1975, at the age of 18. Readers complained in droves, which only served to cement his image as a rebellious cult hero.

Now known by his pen name, Kamagurka, he still draws for Humo and has been voted Best Cartoonist in the magazine’s Pop Poll every year since 1978.

The name Kamagurka, he once explained, sounded like a judo term and was easy to pronounce.

A partnership with fellow cartoonist Herr Seele led to radio shows, TV programmes and the strip Cowboy Henk, for which Seele provided the drawings and Kamagurka the text. He’s also strayed into painting and theatre.

VRT’s documentary, which aired here last November, takes him back home to his roots in West Flanders and strips away the more manic aspects of his public persona. The film, said the Foundation for Narrative Journalism, “stayed with us because it was wonderfully told, informed the public on a major subject and allowed the universal meaning of a small message to come through”. \ Alan Hope

flanders today, a weekly English-language newspaper, is an initiative of the flemish region and is financially supported by the flemish authorities.

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

Editor Lisa Bradshaw dEPuty Editor Sally Tipper contriButing Editor Alan Hope suB Editor Linda A Thompson agEnda Robyn Boyle, Georgio Valentino art dirEctor Paul Van Dooren PrEPrEss Corelio AdPro contriButors Daan Bauwens, Rebecca Benoot, Derek Blyth, Leo Cendrowicz, Katy Desmond, Andy Furniere, Diana Goodwin, Julie Kavanagh, Catherine Kosters, Toon Lambrechts, Katrien Lindemans, Ian Mundell, Anja Otte, Tom Peeters, Daniel Shamaun, Senne Starckx, Christophe Verbiest, Débora Votquenne, Denzil Walton gEnEral managEr Hans De Loore PuBlishEr Corelio Publishing NV

Editorial addrEss Gossetlaan 30 - 1702 Groot-Bijgaarden tel 02 373 99 09 editorial@flanderstoday.eu suBscriPtions tel 03 560 17 49 subscriptions@flanderstoday.eu or order online at www.flanderstoday.eu advErtising 02 373 83 57 advertising@flanderstoday.eu vErantwoordElijKE uitgEvEr Hans De Loore

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\ POlITICs

5th coluMn An unusual proposal

The joint presidents of the French-speaking green party Ecolo have introduced a novel idea: why should their party not merge with Groen, the Flemish greens? “If we have one project, we should have one structure too,” they said last week.

It is one of the things that puzzles outsiders about Belgian politics: Why are there so many parties? Take the liberals: the Flemish liberals have their own party, Open VLD, their French speaking counterpart another, MR. Flemish Christian-democrats form CD&V, French-speaking Christian-democrats have their own CDH. There are two socialist parties, French-speaking PS and the much smaller Flemish SP.A. Even this is a simplification, as all these political families also have German-speaking counterparts.

The only parties that lack a related side across the language divide are the Flemish nationalists N-VA and the far-right Vlaams Belang. There is FDF, which defends French speakers’ interests, but they are antagonists rather than counterparts.

This multitude of parties is the result of more than 60 years of history, during which large traditional parties became federalised along with Belgium’s institutions. It also explains the often painstaking process of government formation, which involves coalition talks between four to eight parties.

Although the counterparts share ideologies, they often feel uncomfortable being associated with the other side. SP.A, for instance, often blames its lack of popular support on the confusion in voters’ minds between them and the much larger PS, which has an image in Flanders of being outdated, and even crooked. CD&V, too, prefers to remain at some distance from CDH, which it deems unpredictable.

The ecologists are an exception: In the federal Parliament they form one group with both Flemish and French speakers. This comes easier to the greens, as they care little about sensitive institutional matters and have a shared alternative and nonconformist status.

Sensibilities may differ, though: Ecolo is a tad more leftist than Groen. Also, its interests lie mostly in Brussels, with specific views on divisive regional issues such as flight routes.

Groen president Meyrem Almaci has welcomed co-operation, “much needed in these time of polarisation and conflict,” but has yet to accept the proposal. \ Anja Otte

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Union to strike on 22 April trains, post and schools will be affected by industrial action derek Blyth More articles by Derek \ flanderstoday.eu

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he socialist trade union for public sector workers, ACOD, has called for a general strike on Wednesday, 22 April. The action, which will affect rail, post, school and government offices across the entire country, is in protest at recent federal government policies.

The actions are in response to cost-cutting measures, including the change to rules on early retirement. The union is also protesting at a lack of investment in the public sector, which has led to a rise in work-related stress, said the union.

“This is not a political strike,” said ACOD chair Chris Reniers.

“We are calling on members to target the various governments as our employers”. She said that she hoped the other public sector trade unions would join the action.

VSOA, the liberal trade union for public sector workers, said this week that it will not join the strike.

The Christian trade union for

public sector workers, ACV, said it would decide before the end of March.

The federal minister for public services, Steven Vandeput, said that the reforms and austerity measures are necessary to ensure a balanced budget. But he insisted that he was open to constructive dialogue.

More protests this month In related news, 8,000 workers representing the country’s three largest unions demonstrated on Muntplein in central Brussels last week in protest at proposed pension reforms.

Union leaders said that further protests were planned this month to show their opposition to government measures such as forcing those who take early retirement when they become unemployed to continue searching for work. Public sector unions plan

© kristof Van Accom/BelGA

The socialist trade union for public sector workers will strike on 22 April

actions on 19 and 29 March involving demonstrations, leafleting and petitions.

The protestors are also upset at cuts in the public sector and the wage index freeze. They have called on the government to implement a so-called “tax shift” to move tax from labour to capital gains.

The Christian union held a further demonstration in Brussels’ main shopping street, Nieuwstraat, calling for an increase in spending power to reinvigorate the retail sector. But they criticised proposals for more student jobs and more flexible opening hours to allow Sunday shopping.

Flemish-Dutch culture committee collectively resigns

BOB drink-driving campaign under threat in Flanders

The Flemish-Dutch Cultural Treaty Committee, set up to promote cultural co-operation between Flanders and the Netherlands, has handed its collective resignation to the respective ministers – in the case of Flanders, to minister-president Geert Bourgeois. The announcement came from the committee’s chair, Maastricht mayor Onno Hoes.

The committee was initiated to implement the cultural co-operation treaty signed by the Netherlands and Flanders in 1995. Five representatives from Flanders and five from the Netherlands were charged with advising both governments on crossborder cultural activities.

Last year, however, there were few requests for the commit-

The annual drink-drive campaign BOB could be on the verge of disappearing. BOB – the notional designated driver who stays sober all evening to get his or her friends home safely – could be phased out in Flanders after a 20-year run.

Road safety is one of the matters that passed from being a federal responsibility to a regional one under the most recent state reforms. Flemish mobility minister Ben Weyts is reported to have contacted a number of advertising agencies to ask them to submit ideas for a new drink-driving campaign.

BOB is “a strong brand,” according to Weyts’ party colleague Jan Jambon, who as federal interior minister would have been in charge of the campaign without the reforms. “The Flemish region is organising a public tender, and I think the strength of the brand will be one of the criteria they will be judging.

I think anyone who wants to do better will have their work cut out for them.”

Whatever Flanders decides, the Brussels-Capital Region is determined to carry on with the BOB campaign, according to secretary of state for road safety Bianca Debaets.

The region would go ahead in co-operation with the Belgian Institute for Road Safety (BIVV), one of the co-owners of the BOB brand. “The BOB campaign has been around for 20 years, and the concept has proved its worth in Belgium,” said Debaets, “as well as in other countries, like Germany and the Netherlands. I think it’s important to create coherence and for all of us to move in the same direction.”

BOB was also defended by Bart Somers, mayor of Mechelen. “I would find it incomprehensible if the BOB campaigns, which save lives, were to vanish because of some discussion over divisions,” he said. \ AH

tee’s advice. At the same time, the committee has complained that its resources have been cut in half over the course of a decade, to the current €131,000 a year.

The treaty, which saw the creation of De Buren in Brussels and Flemish culture house De Brakke Grond in Amsterdam, will remain despite the committee’s resignation, though how each will be affected is as yet unclear.

Earlier this month, the Dutch youth orchestra Riccioti made a week-long tour through the Netherlands and Flanders to mark the 20th anniversary of the treaty. The festival Beste Buren is also currently taking place, an exchange of cultural talent between the two regions. \ Alan Hope

Culture minister launches citizens’ panel to shape art policy Flanders’ culture minister, Sven Gatz, plans to set up a citizens’ panel to shape arts policy across the region. The new plan, announced last week, has already received an enthusiastic response from the public.

Gatz (pictured) plans a panel of 150 people who will make recommendation on culture policies. “We are looking to set up a representative group comprising arts enthusiasts as well as ordinary members of the public.” The first meeting has already been scheduled for September.

The minister said that he was inspired by recent

citizens’ initiatives such as the G1000 meeting in 2011, which brought together 1,000 Belgians to discuss national politics. “The panel’s conclusions can be presented in debates in parliament and discussions in the media, as well as influencing the minister’s policy statements,” said the spokesperson.

The aim is to open up culture to everyone and ensure that cultural organisations reflect the needs of the citizen, Gatz’s cabinet explained.

Anyone can apply to take part in the panel; the final list of 150 members will be drawn up by an external organisation. \ DB

\ COVeR sTORy

march 18, 2015

Let the cycling games begin

flemish cycling has mass appeal, both inside and outside of the region

www.cyclinginflandErs.com

continued from page 1

more approachable than your typical big-contract football player, and the sport’s appeal becomes more obvious.

I’m at Hotel Weinebrugge with Planckaert, just outside Bruges, where the Topsport VlaanderenBaloise team is preparing for the opening weekend. Oliver Naesen, 24, and Bert Van Lerberghe, 22 – two cyclists who are both completing their first spring classic as pros – are here, too.

Both say competing in the Omloop (pictured on the cover) is a dream come true. As a teenager, Van Lerberghe, from Waregem in West Flanders, often cheered the pros on during local races, and the Omloop used to pass Naesen’s home village of Berlare in East Flanders.

We prepare our riders for life, not just for the race “A lot of youth races visit the same roads, so we are familiar with the obstacles on the route,” explains Naesen, who received a racing bike as a present from his dad in the same year Flanders’ cycling hero Tom Boonen won the World Cycling Championship, now almost 10 years ago. “The main difference will be the speed of the peloton. In youth categories, we were at the front or ahead of the pack; now our main objective will be following.”

Both say they learned a lot during

© TDwsport

© TDwsport

Both Bert Van lerberghe (left) and Oliver naesen say competing as pros in the Omloop Het nieuwsblad was a dream come true

their first months on the team.

“Never sit at the back of the peloton when you approach a hill,” says Van Lerberghe.

“And if you have to pee, wait until the peloton agrees to pee with you,” Naesen adds with a smile, “because doing it alone, you risk being left behind by the peloton.”

Both Van Lerberghe and Naesen hope to finish in the first peloton at the opening spring classic and perhaps even help team leader Edward Theuns towards a good performance.

Planckaert acknowledges that the gap between youth races and one with world-class riders such as

Boonen and British cyclist Bradley Wiggins is a big one. But for Planckaert, it’s a learning curve.

“They don’t have to perform immediately,” he says. “We are a ProContinental team [second international cycling division] and give our talents a few years to develop, preparing them for a possible transfer to a WorldTour team [ first division].”

Still, the Topsport VlaanderenBaloise team delivered an excellent performance last year, topping the ranking for both Pro-Continental teams and Pro-Continental riders, while six team members were able to sign contracts to join

© Tim de waele/ CORBIs

Fans can get close to road racers in a way that is rare in other sports – a factor behind cycling’s popularity

larger teams.

“Letting go of your biggest talents is not always easy for a team manager, but we get a lot of credit,” Planckaert says. “We can show our face everywhere, since we always try to ride an entertaining race and because our riders are very wellmannered.”

Tom Van Asbroeck is one of the riders Topsport VlaanderenBaloise lost to a Pro-Tour team, this time in the Netherlands. “His new team director told me he was surprised that Tom made a point of shaking his hand. I told him we prepare our riders for life, not just for the race.”

General manager Christophe Sercu adds that “giving young Flemish talents the chance to make their debut as pros and gradually develop has another important objective: We want to represent Flanders abroad as a quality cycling destination. I see a potential for growth there. ” It’s no coincidence then that the 24-rider strong squad, which includes a number of track specialists, completed a double race programme, with one team preparing the season in France and Spain and another in Qatar and Oman. “We are proud ambassadors of this cycling-crazy region in Europe,” says Sercu.

The main Topsport VlaanderenBaloise partners are the government of Flanders and the insurance group Baloise. This will mark the 21st consecutive year that the government has sponsored a cycling team, setting an example for other regions and projects such as Wallonie-Bruxelles and the new

Dutch Roompot team.

“Our main stakeholders share our goals: a good mix of sports results, TV publicity and a positive, credible image,” says Planckaert. “In Flanders there is no better way of getting your name out there than sponsoring a cycling team.

Research done by our sponsors proves that.”

Half of the team’s €3 million budget goes to fixed costs such as racing equipment, rolling stock, hotels, flight tickets and so on. There’s truly no comparison between present-day amenities for professional cyclists and those of yesteryear, says Planckaert.

He remembers, for instance, changing in cowsheds and dirty garages, asking people for water to wash with or even bringing his own from home in the 1970s and early ’80s.

“Now you know why we were called ‘convicts of the road’,” he smiles. “There’s a reason why my riders are so relaxed: Everything is done for them, and after the race they can shower on the luxurious team bus.”

“We really only have to focus on the race,” confirms Naesen, who used to be a full-time courier and says he has not once regretted his career switch. “In February, I was away from home for 20 days. I left with €50 in my wallet, and it was still there when I returned.”

“Wins are for later”

As he had hoped, Naesen finished the Omloop in the first peloton in 31st place, five minutes behind Brit Ian Stannard. “In the end, I couldn’t do much for Edward, who took 14th. We both sat à bloc,” he said after the race, using a term often heard after cycle races to describe having given your all.

A few days later, Naesen would pull off a top-10 spot in Wallonia’s first full-day race of the season, justifying his presence on the team roster of the Tour of Flanders. “That being a longer race with tougher and more international contenders, I will be happy just to avoid a DNF [did not finish] there,” he says. “A win can always come later in the year.”

Van Lerberghe, meanwhile, ended the Omloop in a second pack 10 minutes behind the winner. “I felt strong and, with a bit more luck, I would have been able to finish in that first peloton,” he says. “But because at a certain moment I had to dodge a rider in front of me, almost ending up in a creek, I was too far behind when the bunch started to break at the Taaienberg climb.”

He discovered in the process how an unexpected incident can lead to just the situation you were working hard to avoid. Another lesson learned.

\5

\ BUsIness

WeeK in buSineSS Banking nG The local affiliate of the Dutch financial institution is investing up to €1 billion over the next four years to renew its IT infrastructure.

Start-up sector presents De Croo with list of demands tech sector promising 10,000 new companies and 100,000 jobs alan hope More articles by Alan \ flanderstoday.eu

Biotech Galapagos The Mechelen-based biotechnology company is believed to be a potential target of a takeover bid by the US-based pharmaceutical AbbVie or Johnson & Johnson groups.

Shares in Galapagos have shot up some 50% since the beginning of the year, valuing the company at over €700 million.

Chemicals solvay The Brussels-based chemicals and plastics group has signed a partnership agreement with the Swiss 3A Composites developer of core materials and speciality foams used in the automobile and aviation industries, replacing structural parts with light-weight products.

Fast Food exki The Brussels-based healthy fast food chain recently inaugurated its second restaurant in New York and has plans to open a further 20 stores in the city over the next few years.

It also plans three outlets in Paris this year.

Property development Art & Build The Brussels-based firm has been selected for the development and project management of a €528 million hospital in Nantes, France. The new facility, slated for opening in 2023, will have 1,380 beds.

Retail H&M Home The Swedish apparel group is opening a home furnishings and decoration store in Ghent this week, as well as one in Bruges next month

waste management katoen natie The Antwerp-based port logistics group has acquired 75% of the shares of the Vilvoordebased Indaver waste management company for €416 million from the Dutch Delta firm.

\6

R

epresentatives from Belgium’s tech start-up sector have handed over a list of five demands to Alexander De Croo, the federal minister for the digital agenda. The sector believes its proposals will lead to the creation of 100,000 jobs in five years.

De Croo (pictured) was paying a visit to Tech Startup Day in Brussels, an annual trade fair featuring speakers, workshops and networking events. The five demands are outlined below.

1 The creation of a new type of company with limited liability to get start-ups through the early years, after which they could switch to one of the existing types of companies.

2 The creation of a new platform that would allow the consumer direct access to the products – including hardware and software – and services of the start-ups.

© Courtesy Alexanderdecroo.be

3 Efforts need to be made to motivate young people to learn both programming and enterprise, by instructing them in the possibilities offered by creating their own businesses, and how

to go about it.

4 The rules governing subsidies for companies in the tech sector and start-ups in particular have to be simplified.

5 Finally, the start-ups call for an increase in confidence and pride in Belgian entrepreneurs.

De Croo praised the sector for the creativity not only of its enterprise but also of its proposals for the future. The start-ups reckon the above five changes could see the creation of 10,000 new companies and 100,000 new jobs within five years.

De Croo promised to work together with the sector to achieve as much as possible. On 20 April he will publish the first version of his digital agenda, following a round of talks with the Digital Minds for Belgium task force, a group of entrepreneurs, CEOs, academics and venture capitalists recently established by his ministry.

Work starts on country’s largest wind turbine park

Students should learn about product placement, says researcher

Antwerp Port Authority has broken ground on what will be the largest onshore wind turbine park in Belgium. The park on the left bank of the river Scheldt will consist of 15 turbines in the first phase, enough to supply power to 35,000 households.

The park will grow to reach 40 or 50 turbines, the port authority said in a statement.

The starting shot was given on Sunday

by Flemish energy minister Annemie Turtelboom; Antwerp’s alderman for port affairs, Marc Van Peel; and Marc Van de Vijver, mayor of Beveren, East Flanders, where the park is located.

The decision to build the turbine park was taken in 2011 in an agreement between the port authority and the Linkerscheldeoever company to form a temporary consortium. The first permits were granted in 2013, following discussions with the airspace and aviation authorities. The construction contract went to Siemens, and

PhD researcher Yann Verhellen of Antwerp University has called on policymakers to develop educational projects that focus on product placement to raise awareness of the advertisement technique among young people.

Product placement is the indirect promotion of branded goods and services by integrating them in TV programmes, movies or other media.

Verhellen examined how product placement can be used effectively in various online and offline media. He analysed the effect of combining product placements with other forms of advertising in cinemas, on YouTube and in TV broadcasts.

One of his first conclusions is that product placement works well if it is combined with very short messages, just before a TV programme. “It usually has a connection to the story or the action in the TV programme,” he said.

The way the placement is carried out plays a role as well. “It costs a lot of money to prominently showcase a brand,” said Verhellen, “but that is not always the best method”. For famous brands, this strategy actually works against it because viewers have the feeling that their viewing activity is interrupted. For lesser known brands, the strategy works better because it is conceived as a new experience.

Verhellen also pointed to the social responsibility to protect youngsters.

A study among teenagers, he said, demonstrated that 31% didn’t recognise sophisticated combinations of product placement and other forms of advertisement as convincing communication techniques, while they were in fact very much influenced by them. “Policymakers should develop educational kits specifically focused on this issue,” he said. \ Andy Furniere

work started at the end of last year on the foundations for the first 15 turbines.

“With this project we are taking an important step towards the EU target of 13% of energy consumption from renewable sources by 2020,” Turtelboom said.

The turbines are 115 metres from ground to axle, with a rotor diameter of 113m. Each 3-megawatt turbine is equipped with a heating system to prevent the formation of ice on the rotors in cold weather.

The income from the energy generated by the turbines will be invested by the port authority in energy-saving projects and the co-financing of innovative energy concepts. “So we can all make a contribution to the creation of a low-energy port for the 21st century,” Van Peel said.

The 15 turbines will be delivered in October. The cost of the first phase is €70 million. \ AH

Torfs wins Best Employer award for sixth time Shoe-shop chain Schoenen Torfs has once again been named Best Employer in Belgium in the category of 500 or more employees. The annual award is organised by Vlerick Business School in conjunction with Jobat and the Great Place to Work Institute Belgium.

This is the sixth year that Torfs, named after CEO and founder Wouter Torfs, has won over the award’s 13-year history. The shoe store chain, based in Sint-Niklaas, has more than 80 outlets in Brussels and Flanders.

Torfs is well-known throughout the retail industry for its people-oriented policies, including ongoing training for shop staff. According to Torfs’ philosophy, the quickest way to customer satisfaction is to present them with a model of staff satisfaction.

“Torfs constantly strives to satisfy both its customers and its employees and feels that the two go hand in hand,” commented Dirk Buyens,

Torfs is well-known throughout the retail industry for its staff satisfaction ratings

professor of human resources management at Vlerick. “The company calls this ‘360 degree consideration’. This year, the focus was mainly on leadership.”

The award is given on the basis of a poll of employees regarding their confidence in management, their pride in their achievements

and their satisfaction with their workplace.

Vlerick also carries out its own analysis of each company’s human resources policies.

Following Torfs in the top three this year are employment agency Accent Jobs and fast-food chain McDonald’s Belgium.

In the category of businesses with fewer than 500 employees, the award for best employer went to EASI, a developer of business software and apps, with offices in Nivelles and Leuven.

EASI also made the top five last year.

This year EASI came in ahead of the previous winner, business consultancy AE in Leuven, and productivity and time efficiency consultant Protime, based in Aartselaar. “EASI offers its employees the chance to become shareholders in the company,” said professor Buyens. “Not only does this create a greater sense of commitment within the company, it also strengthens mutual relationships over the long term.” \ AH

\ InnOVATIOn

march 18, 2015

In search of dark matter

WeeK in innovation

flemish scientist Petra van mulders leads new adventure at cern senne starckx More articles by senne \ flanderstoday.eu

httP://homE.wEB.cErn.ch

I

n the autumn of 2012, a few months after the Higgs particle was finally discovered at the European Laboratory for Nuclear Research (Cern), the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) – the most powerful particle accelerator in the world – went into hibernation.

Since then, the LHC, which sits in a 27-kilometre tunnel underneath Geneva, has had a serious upgrade: Its superconducting cables were improved so they can carry current up to 11,000 amperes, and its magnets were reinforced so they can transform that huge electrical power into a super-strong magnetic field.

While the Higgs particle was discovered in particle collisions with an energy of eight teraelectronvolt (TeV), the LHC’s collision energy has now been increased to 13 TeV. One TeV corresponds to the energy of a mosquito in flight.

That’s nothing, of course, until you realise that this energy is crammed into a space that’s a million times smaller than the mosquito.

This energy, by which billions of protons are smashed against each other in the LHC, is the same as that which existed a few moments after the Big Bang. The enlarged “energy window” enables physicists to get closer to the very moment of the birth of the universe – to approximately 0.00000000000001 seconds after the Big Bang.

But for the several thousands of physicists working at Cern, the institute that oversees the LHC, these huge collision energies mean that it’s more likely to produce exotic particles than ever before.

One of Cern’s regulars is Petra Van Mulders, a Flemish physicist attached to the Free University of Brussels (VUB) and a postdoctoral researcher of the Research Foundation Flanders.

Last summer, Van Mulders, who’s only 30, was appointed as the leader of an 80-strong team – making her one of the youngest executives ever at Cern. It’s her mission to optimise the identification of the b quark, a massive elementary particle that was discovered in the 1970s.

“The b quark is well understood, but the problem is that we can’t say for certain that we’re dealing with a b quark in the detector or not,” she explains. “These particles don’t carry nametags, so we have to study their properties to develop

© Jimmy kets

Petra Van Mulders and her team are chasing new particles and other discoveries at Cern in Geneva

better identification methods. You can compare it with anthropology, where external features are often insufficient to identify a human fossil.”

Of course, Van Mulders hopes the LHC will shed light on unknown territories in particle physics.

“New physics phenomena can appear in two ways in the LHC,” she says. “Either we discover one or more new particles, or we see deviations from what is expected from the Standard Model of particle physics – the theory that unites all forces of nature, except gravity.”

The precise reconstruction and identification of the b quark, she continues “is crucial for searches for new physics beyond the Standard Model, since the new particles are unstable and will decay to the Standard Model particles”.

Some of these new particles the LHC is aiming for are dark matter particles. Van Mulders: “The Standard Model and its particles only explain 5% of the total amount of matter and energy in the universe. By chasing new particles, we are trying to understand the remaining 95%, which consists of dark matter and dark energy.

“From the movement of stars and galaxies, we know there is much more matter present in the universe than could be explained by atoms

or visible matter. So we are certain that other massive particles must exist.”

But if the Standard Model can’t say anything about dark matter, where do these mysterious particles fit in? “The larger energy window will shed light on some of the Standard Model extensions,” she explains. “The most popular theories beyond the Standard Model include another symmetry of nature, so-called supersymmetry.

In most supersymmetric theories, a dark matter candidate is present. Therefore, researchers focus on these theories, searching for signs of new physics phenomena.”

While experimental physicists like Van Mulders love the LHC for its colossal particle-creating power, theoretical physicists fear the machine for its merciless debunking of their hypotheses.

“It’s hard to tell whether or not we will unravel the true nature of dark matter at the LHC,” says Van Mulders.

However, one thing is certain: “Even in the absence of a discovery, we will learn a lot about what the possible extensions of the Standard Model should look like. Many theories will be either excluded or severely constrained.”

Q&a Mieke Uyttendaele is a professor of food safety and security at Ghent University. She is one of the co-ordinators of European Veg-i-Trade, which looked at the impact of climate change on fruits and vegetables What impact will climate change have on food security?

Because of global warming, periods of heavy rain will become more and more frequent; we can already see that happening now. As a consequence, fields will become more vulnerable to flooding. Since the Veg-i-Trade project took off in 2010, experimental fields in two partner countries, Brazil and Spain, have been hit by flooding.

On the lettuce that was growing in these fields we found an increased concentration of faecal bacteria like E. coli and salmonella – germs that can cause serious food poisoning. However, three weeks after the flooding, the contamination was gone. This was probably due to the

in turn lead to a faster breakdown of the residues of these chemicals.

So everything’s connected. The impact of climate change on our food security will often depend on the local balance between positive and negative effects.

sunny weather and the high dose of natural ultraviolet light, which kills germs.

So warmer temperatures are a good thing for food security?

Not necessarily. Particular bacteria – salmonella and campylobacter, for example – show seasondependent peaks. When summer is in the air, we observe more cases of food poisoning. This is due to the heating of the surface water and an increased activity in nature.

Vermin, wild birds, cattle grazing… all these factors contribute to a higher risk of food contamination by animals that carry pathogenic germs.

A modified local climate can also

lead to the introduction of new insects, or the extension of the activity of existing pests, fungi and plant diseases. Because of this, farmers have to use more pesticides. But higher temperatures will

Are some fruits and vegetables more vulnerable than others?

In general, leafy vegetables and fruits with a soft skin, like tomatoes and peppers, are the most sensitive to climate change. These crops need a lot of water and are quite susceptible to infections from bacteria and fungi. Bulbous plants, like onions, and stem and stalk vegetables such as leeks and carrots are less vulnerable. These crops have a harder surface, and they carry antimicrobial substances that form a natural defence against germs. \ interview by SS

Chemists retrieve rare earths from lamps Chemists from the University of Leuven have developed a new method to retrieve the metals europium and yttrium from discarded fluorescent and energy-saving lamps.

The rare earth elements are used in red lamp phosphor, a substance that transforms ultraviolet light into red light and is used in TV screens and fluorescent lamps. Until now, recycling processes mostly focused on removing the poisonous mercury from discarded fluorescent and energy saving lamps because the recuperation of europium and yttrium was so complex and expensive. The researchers worked with an organic solvent that consists of ions, or electrically charged particles.

number of dieticians doubles in four years

The number of dieticians working in Belgium has more than doubled in four years, public broadcaster VRT has reported. There are now 4,500 registered dieticians, compared to 2,000 in 2011. According to the Flemish Professional Association of Food Experts and Dieticians, this is in direct correlation with the increase in people with weight problems. Dieticians work with patients on their nutritional habits and in the treatment of certain diseases, like cancer and diabetes. People are also consulting dieticians more often for food allergies.

Following the trend, more students are choosing to study to become dieticians.

Flemish children are afraid of traffic

Eight out of 10 children between the ages of six and 14 consider traffic dangerous, while nearly half (46%) are scared of getting hurt on the road. The figures are the result of a survey by TV channel VTM and the Institute for Mobility at Hasselt University.

It asked 5,510 children and 13,482 parents about their perception of how children and adults behave in traffic, their experience on Flanders’ roads, and how much road safety was discussed at home and school. Most (83%) parents also think traffic is dangerous for young children.

Half think their child is too quickly distracted, and two out of three feel their child can’t accurately estimate the dangers of traffic. Most parents (79%) and children (69%) feel there should be more attention given to road safety at school. \ AF

\7

OFFER THE WORLD TO EVERY BELGIAN, AND BELGIUM TO THE WORLD.

© Hergé / Moulinsart 2015

It is the smallest countries that produce the greatest travellers. For example, there’s Tintin: the most famous reporter in the world, a Belgian and above all, an exceptional host. As a tribute to this globetrotter, Brussels Airlines is launching “Rackham”, a beautiful Airbus wrapped in the colourful style of Tintin. May we always remember the adventurer that lives deep within us.

\ eDUCATIOn

march 18, 2015

The power of persuasion

WeeK in education

Pioneering initiatives convince schools of importance of debating andy furniere More articles by Andy \ flanderstoday.eu

www.dEBatwEdstrijd.BE

W

hile debating skills are widely promoted in schools in the UK and the US, this is not yet the case in Flanders.

Flemish not-for-profit organisations and certain schools hope to expand debating culture in the region by organising competitions and establishing a Flemish debating expertise centre.

On Saturday, at the Brussels Parliament, 12 students from the third grade of secondary education competed with words just as seasoned politicians do there. They were the six teams of students who made it to the regional final of the Flemish humanist debating competition.

The contest was organised primarily by the humanist youth organisation Hujo, deMens.nu, the umbrella organisation of humanist associations in Flanders and Brussels, and DigiMores, which unites teachers of ethics lessons from all education networks. Qualifying rounds were set up in Limburg, Antwerp province, East and West Flanders and Brussels.

In January, about 25 teams of three students assembled in Bruges’ Royal Athenaeum for a similar debating contest. The Athenaeum organised the competition with the Royal Athenaeum of Tervuren, inspired by the Junior Chamber International’s Debating Cup, which is no longer held.

An open-minded attitude is essential if students are to play a positive role in a democratic society In the contests, students have to argue in favour of or against a given statement, on topics that mostly relate to situations that are high on the social agenda. Students may have to formulate their opinion on efforts to re-integrate former jihad fighters in society, or on subsidies for the cultural sector in times of economic crisis.

Students are judged on the structure of their argument, their rhetorical skills and their knowl-

© Courtesy Hujo vzw

The Brussels qualifying round for the humanist debating contest

edge of the topic.

Gradually, the contests are convincing schools about the importance of teaching students to argue in a skilful way. Veerle Maniquet, Dutch teacher at the Royal Athenaeum of Tervuren, prepares the participating groups by giving workshops.

“Debating is already part of teaching activities, but not all teachers are able to integrate it into their lessons in an effective way,” she says. Debating can be part of Dutch, history, social understanding and ethics lessons.

Maniquet points out that British research highlights the advantages of debating for students. “It shows that debating helps to develop communicative skills, to increase self-confidence and to take on ambitious higher education studies,” she says. “Because they have to examine topics from different angles, youngsters get a more nuanced view about important social themes. Such an open attitude is essential if they are to play a positive role in a democratic society.”

According to Eline Lowier, co-ordinator of the humanist debating competition, debating exercises also help students to reflect more critically on statements made in the media. “With skills acquired through debating, youngsters also become more conscious of the consequences of

their own statements on social media,” she says.

Serge Goussaert, who co-ordinated the Junior Chamber’s Debating Cup, is convinced that debating skills improve the quality of both personal and professional lives. “If people are able to voice their opinion in a good way, this prevents a lot of frustration,” he says. “The skills can also be very useful during job applications and can help people to participate in the decision-making process at work.”

Goussaert is currently striving to reintroduce debating activities in the Chamber’s work and hopes the Debating Cup can be revived. According to Lowier, Hujo is considering setting up debating clubs, where people can practise their skills.

Dicky Antoine of the Royal Athenaeum of Bruges also has ambitious plans. “We are joining forces with different partners to found a Flemish debating expertise centre this year,” he says. The centre will be the Flemish counterpart of the Dutch Debate Institute, which provides expertise to Flemish initiatives. He also hopes to establish a debating contest with participants from Flanders and the Netherlands.

Those in Brussels who wish to try debating can visit the free Brussels Debaters club, which holds training and debates in English.

guidance from us, but not fulltime.

Babs Goethals of training centre Arktos co-ordinates the Plus project in Lier, which works to reduce the number of young people leaving school without a diploma

How do you provide guidance to individual pupils?

The pupils are often no longer

Many students at Dutchspeaking universities and colleges in Brussels prefer to live in Leuven, according to TV Brussel. At Odisee University College, more than one in three students who rent a student room do so in Leuven, while at the Luca School of Arts, one in five prefer to live in Leuven.

For students at Dutch-speaking institutions in Brussels, Leuven is the second-most popular city to live in outside of Brussels. According to the report, students choose Leuven for its more studentfriendly atmosphere and the feeling that it is safer.

Religion classes no longer obligatory

Q&a What led to the launch of the Plus project?

We have noticed that there’s a need for extra support for secondary school students, teachers and school staff to prevent the escalation of problems at school.

Arktos has been working for six years to help pupils with behavioural problems to integrate, but we could no longer carry out this project alone. We joined forces with different partners to create a more powerful team that should improve the results.

Brussels students choose to live in leuven

motivated to go to school, have difficulty following the rules or have problems dealing with academic pressure. We’ve received 32 requests for help since we began in November and currently work with about 10 youngsters a day. We work full-time with individual pupils outside of school for two-week periods.

In the morning, we help them with school tasks, so they don’t fall behind. In the afternoon, we try to provide valuable insights about life through workshops. We show the necessity of rules, boost their self-confidence and teach them to work in a result-oriented manner. For example, we give

cooking or woodworking lessons, like some pupils have at school, and demonstrate the right way of working and behaving. After two weeks, students can still receive

Do you also help in the classroom?

We sometimes help class groups, in both secondary and primary education, when there is a particularly disorderly class, for example. We try to match student participation with the expectations of teachers by leading discussions on the problems and reflecting on possible solutions. We also provide training to school staff on things such as how to deal with conflict situations. In cases of specific conflicts between a teacher and student, we try to restore the relationship by organising meetings at which they talk over the issues. \ Interview by AF

Belgium’s Constitutional Court has ruled that children should not be required to take religious or ethics lessons in primary and secondary schools. Parents can now request that their children do not participate. A year ago, a Brussels couple took the issue of obligatory lessons in religion to the Constitutional Court, claiming that it constituted a violation of religious freedom in schools.

The Constitutional Court supported the claim. Previously, primary and secondary pupils had to choose which religion to study; students could also choose an ethics class instead. In Flanders, parents can request that their children not follow such a course, but they must provide detailed reasons. The ruling also states that the obligation to explain the reason conflicts with the European Convention on Human Rights.

Gender action plan not yet delivering

The gender action plan launched by the University of Leuven (KU Leuven) last year is not yet having any effect on the number of female staff. The proportion of women among the newly appointed academic staff actually decreased from 40% to 35%, according to vicerector Katlijn Malfliet in the student newspaper Veto. The goal was to see women take up half of KU Leuven’s new appointments, leading to a 30% ratio of female professors in 10 years. KU Leuven trained department heads in gender-neutral staff policies and set them to work on new selection procedures. Malfliet said gender representatives still had to be assigned to the bio-engineering and architecture faculties. \ AF

\9

\ lIVInG

WeeK in activitieS kuringen horse market The tradition of an annual horse market here goes back to the year 977. Horses are still bought and traded at the market, along with a gypsy horse show, Belgian draft horse demos, a carousel, live music, line dancing and more. 21 March; Prinsenhofweg, Kuringen (Hasselt); free \ www.paardenmarktkuringen.be

leuven winks The city reveals its cultural side during a day of guided tours and open houses.

In the morning, choose between small group tours of the Stella Artois brewery or M Museum, among others. In the afternoon, museums and cultural sites offer activities and musical performances. Registration required. 22 March, 10.0018.00; across Leuven; €10 \ www.knipoogdag.be

solar eclipse On the morning of 20 March, Belgium will experience a partial eclipse of the sun and all of Flanders’ public observatories will hold special viewings. In Antwerp, watch from the roof of the MAS. See website for locations and tips on how to safely observe an eclipse.

20 March, 9.00-12.00; free \ www.eclips2015.be

Regional specialities walk A guided 8km walk through the Faluintjes countryside, an agricultural area east of Aalst. Along the way there will be stops for local food and drink. Afterwards, enjoy a traditional dish of hop shoots with poached eggs. 22 March, depart 13.0015.00; Trefcentrum Moorsel, Bergsken 1, Aalst; €5 for walk with three tastings (€8 for meal) \ www.faluintjes-pikkeling.be

45th annual Brabant bee market The afternoon begins with a plant exchange where nothing is sold, only traded or given away. Then the public auction begins, including bees and beehives.

Refreshments and vendors of beekeeping supplies on hand. Those who wish to bid on bees must register in advance. 22 March, 14.0018.00; Meubelen Verhaegen, Grote Baan 115, Betekom; free \ www.isabovzw.com

\ 10

Down on the farm

the annual night of history brings flemish agriculture to life diana goodwin More articles by Diana \ flanderstoday.eu

www.davidsfonds.BE

O

n 24 March, the annual Nacht van de geschiedenis, or Night of History, will bring together historians, local experts and the public across Flanders to learn about and celebrate our common past. The focus this year is on agriculture and fisheries – a wideranging theme that also encompasses activities like beekeeping, dairy farming and viticulture.

The event is sponsored by Flemish cultural organisation Davidsfonds, with various local chapters offering activities around the history of their respective areas. A number of these tend towards the prosaic, with dozens of lectures about “the history of farming in our village” and guided tours of a local farm. But many others offer unique experiences or present history in a surprising way.

For instance, in Izenberge, West Flanders, chef Peter Dieryck will prepare a First World Warera meal, while a historian from the Centre for Agrarian History explains how certain crops were saved by farmers and how they were prepared during the war.

In Roosdaal, Flemish Brabant, a performance

by Walter Evenepoel in music and spoken word evokes the hardships endured by farmers during the Napoleonic wars, when farm buildings and crops were requisitioned by French soldiers.

The night isn’t just about Flanders’ agricultural past, however; it’s also dedicated to the present and future of farming. In Ichtegem, West Flanders, the latest technologies used by modern farmers, like computer-driven sprayers, will be explained. In Hamme, East Flanders, René Custers from the Flemish Institute for Biotechnology will talk about the pros and cons of genetically modified organisms.

There will also be opportunities to experience, if just for a few hours, the life of a Flemish farmer.

In Stevoort, Limburg, the Farmer for One Night programme combines real-life stories, tips on agricultural practices and a visit to a distillery, ending with en boerenhap en een stevige slok (a farmer’s snack and a stiff drink).

In Wambeek, Flemish Brabant, watch a video montage about farming in the 1960s and ’70s, hear stories about farm life and finish with a

© Courtesy Davidsfonds

tasting of local specialities from a nearby farm and brewery.

For those interested in a particular crop, there are presentations about witloof farming in Flemish Brabant, and on the history of the flax industry in West Flanders. Visit a fruit farmer and an auction house in the orchards of Haspengouw in Limburg. In Lier, Antwerp province, take a tour of the greenhouses of Paul Vercammen’s asparagus farm, one of only five in Flanders.

For those who like a drink with their history – and who doesn’t – “beer professor” Denis de Keukeleire will talk about the cultivation of hops, along with a tasting of hoppy beers paired with cheeses, in Aalst. For those who prefer grape to grain, historian Bart Minnen will reveal the secrets of wine-making in Hageland. Afterwards, learn a few drinking songs at a performance by Canticum Novum and put your new knowledge to the test during a wine reception.

Home gardeners haven’t been forgotten, either.

At Tongerlo Abbey, near Antwerp, Wim Lybaert, host of the popular TV programme De moestuin volgens Wim, will talk about the history of certain vegetables and share tips on how to grow them.

There are several presentations on “forgotten vegetables”, old varieties that are making a comeback. In Destelbergen, East Flanders, “plant whisperer” Raf Willaert will talk about the health benefits of herbs and plants.

Other highlights include a programme about Flemish artist Alfred Ost, who painted scenes of rural life between 1910 and 1945 (in Reet, Antwerp province), a visit to a private collection of old-timer tractors and motors (in Westvleteren, West Flanders) and a lecture on the history of frietkot culture – including everything you ever wanted to know about Belgian fries – followed by a tasting (in Kuurne, West Flanders).

With almost 250 events, there’s something happening in every corner of Flanders. Some activities require a fee or advance registration.

bite your own fruit tree I can’t keep a houseplant alive. And yet I very much romanticise the idea of having a bunch of fruit trees out back, drooping with fresh produce ripe for the picking. In fact, I’d probably have an orchard already if it weren’t for all the knowledge and maintenance required, from planting and pollinating to pruning and spraying.

That’s why this recent initiative from a generations-old family fruit farm in West Flanders caught my eye: Fruit farmers Els Lambrecht and Arne Baart are offering space in their orchard in Sint Eloois-Vijve (part of Waregem) to the general public.

For €25 a year, plus a one-off registration fee of €5, your very own sapling will be invited to put down roots among rows of already boun-

tiful trees. And the best part is the farmers will take care of it yearround. That leaves the fun part for you, including christening the tree with a personalised nameplate and, come autumn, plucking baskets of the fruit for your own consumption.

You have until the end of March to order a tree. This year the designated planting days fall on 6 and 11 April, when there will be a lot more than just tree planting going on.

www.mijnfruitBoom.BE

Expect a festive family atmosphere complete with workshops for building birdhouses and insect hotels, children’s theatre and tastings.

Before ordering a tree, you’ll have to decide on one of four types: Golden (sweet apple), Jonagold (sweet, juicy apple), Elstar (slightly sour apple) or Conference (pear). After the official planting day, you’ll receive an invitation to more events on the farm throughout the year, such as

a spring picnic under the blossoming trees, an autumn walk or a fruitpicking demonstration.

During the harvest period, somewhere in September or October, you’ll get a message when it’s time to come and enjoy the fruits of another’s labour. And because the first year in the life of a fledgling fruit tree is not guaranteed to be productive, the farm will at the very least send you home with a box of freshly pressed apple juice and three kilograms of fruit from another tree.

At the end of the year, you’ll be given the option to extend your tree adoption for another year. A fruit tree with a name on it, now that would make a memorable gift for a special birthday, communion, wedding, mother’s day… \ Robyn Boyle

march 18, 2015

Calling all foodies

Entrepreneurs are looking for ideas for a sustainable Brussels food scene alan hope More articles by Alan \ flanderstoday.eu

www.crEativity.BrussEls

W

hat will the Brussels food scene look like in 2025? If you have an interesting, innovative answer to that question, the non-profit Creativity for Brussels wants to hear from you.

Brussels Urban Food is the theme of a new campaign aimed at tapping into the hive mind of the capital in what Jean-Patrick Scheepers, the man behind the initiative, calls “urban brainstorming”.

Here’s how it works: you send in your idea to their website before 31 May. Then the process of drawing up a longlist of applications begins – about 20 or 30 of them.

“First we’ll weed out everyone who doesn’t fit the submissions criteria,” says Scheepers, a Brussels entrepreneur. “Then we’ll see how many we still have, and I will set up a committee to look into whether the innovation criteria are being met.”

He’s not trying to be harsh, but he’s “afraid we might receive lots of submissions for repeats of existing projects, and we are looking for new ideas. So we’ll check to make sure that the projects we put before the public are new”.

I’m hoping it will give rise to some interesting initiatives to make our lives better

© stampMedia

Brussels Urban Food founders say that most existing initiatives, like this city farm in Turnhout, operate like little islands

Other than being original, your idea has to be applicable to the Brussels-Capital Region, be sustainable and have something to do with the issue of food.

But don’t think this is the way to get your restaurant off the ground. “When we talk about ‘food’, it’s about production, transportation, consumption – not restaurants in particular,” Scheepers explains. “But in the first stage, we’re looking to see whether an idea is viable or not. Of course, if your idea is to say everybody should eat for free in 10 years … well, it’s a nice idea, but it’s never going to happen.”

Feasibility is another factor the jury will keep in mind, Scheepers says. “Is it too utopic? It

also has to be sustainable,” he adds. “If your idea depends on everyone eating bananas or basil from Vietnam, then that’s not really sustainable.”

Depending on how many applications are received, the list will be whittled down to about 30. “For the moment, we have a lot of people requesting information sheets, so we probably will have too many projects,” Scheepers says.

From 20 June to 15 July, members of the public can vote for their favourite project on MyMicroinvest.com, an online crowdfunding platform that will help the winners raise financing for their projects. Points will also be determined by a professional jury and three finalists nominated.

The company is different from other crowdfunding platforms like Kickstarter, explains Gilles van der Meerschen from MyMicroinvest, because of the way it combines funding from members of the public willing to invest

€100 or more with investment from professional and institutional investors.

In return for investment, MyMicroinvest takes an equity share in the start-ups it funds, unlike other platforms that offer, say, a subscription to a new magazine or the CD produced by an up-and-coming band.

“Our funders do actually take shares in the company they’re investing in,” Van der Meerschen explains. “That’s the major difference.

The other difference is that we’re the first platform to be fully regulated by the FSMA, which is the financial market regulator in Belgium.”

His own research, however, shows five of the top areas for this sort of funding, and none of them involves the food industry. They are science and R&D, the environment, IT and communications, e-commerce and social entrepreneurship.

But aspects of the food landscape could come under the definition of social entre-

Students map accessibility of public spaces www.onwhEElsaPP.com

Two thousand university-college students in five Flemish cities took to the streets last week to map the accessibility of public spaces for wheelchair users. The data will be used for the development of a mobile application, according to the non-profit On Wheels.

The students examined accessibility in about 12,000 public places such as government buildings and restaurants in Antwerp, Eeklo, Ghent, Hasselt and Kortrijk. The

© Courtesy Handicare

students examined three specific aspects of accessibility.

They checked entrances to facilities, including the width and the

presence of stairs. Inside, they looked at the width of the passageways and the ability to turn around in a wheelchair. Finally, students checked whether the toilets were accessible and adapted to the needs of wheelchair users.

The data will be integrated into the app On Wheels, which will provide users with specific information on the accessibility of public spaces.

The city of Ghent is also a partner in the project. \ Andy Furniere

preneurship, van der Meerschen says. “It’s a niche at the moment, but I’m hoping this campaign will give rise to some interesting initiatives to make our lives better. There are all sorts of initiatives coming out right now all over the place, such as people growing food on top of buildings, but they’re all working on their own. This is why we need to bring them to another level.”

Helping them along the way will be four Urban Food ambassadors: Maxime Everaert, owner of organic eatery Yeti; Agnès Bonfond, developer of the Sophie a soif range of drinks; urban farmer Gaël Loicq and Carlo de Pascale, who teaches cookery classes.

The three finalists will see their projects exhibited at the BIP information centre on Koningstraat in July and August, then during the Eat! Brussels festival in September, and finally at Brussels Week during the Expo Milano in Italy in late September, where the winner will be announced.

aMbaSSadorS’ hopeS for bruSSelS urban food What sort of initiatives do the ambassadors hope to see come out of the urban brainstorming?

“Real solutions for local eating in and around the city on a large scale.”

Carlo de Pascale

“Anything that’s beautiful, good, simple and authentic.”

Drinks developer Agnès Bonfond

“Real concepts thought through by people passionate about sustainable food. Ideas that make me dream.”

Maxime Everaert

“Innovative projects I would never have thought of.”

Urban farmer Gaël Loicq

\ 11

Your dailY news

Sign up now for our daily and weekly newsletters with local headlines, events and features, tailor-made for expats in Belgium Subscribe for free at www.thebulletin.be

\ ARTs

march 18, 2015

Urban encounters

festival invites visitors to discover heartbeat of multilingual Brussels sally tipper More articles by sally \ flanderstoday.eu

www.PassaPorta.BE

The biennial Passa Porta festival returns to the capital next week with a sprawling programme that includes established and lesser-known writers, endurance storytelling and even a yoga session. The festival’s director says the event is as much about discovering the city as it is new authors.

A

t the end of the month, international literature house Passa Porta hosts the fifth edition of its eponymous biennial festival. The philosophy behind the event is to offer top quality writing in numerous languages, opening up the world of literature to Brussels’ multicultural, international audience.

Passa Porta’s roots go back to 1998, to Het Beschrijf, a centre for Flemish literature. Festival director Ilke Froyen takes up the story.

“We wanted to put literature on the stage,” she explains. “We held a festival that year, but we needed structure and wanted to breathe more life into it, so that it wasn’t just a one-shot thing. We were more ambitious and wanted a proper international house that was fit for Brussels.”

The organisers worked with both the Flemish and francophone governments, and, in 2004, Passa Porta was born – a centre to support authors in their work and a means of bringing that work to an audience, alongside a multilingual bookshop. The first Passa Porta

© Joost van den Broek

Acclaimed British author Ian Mcewan is one of the biggest names on the Passa Porta bill

© luc Vleminckx

Dutch writer Arnon Grunberg at the 2013 edition, simultaneously translated into French and english

festival was held three years later.

“Passa Porta was designed as a showcase of international literature, and the festival reflects our philosophy,” says Froyen. “It’s a passport to world literature and a meeting ground for people from around the country, whatever language they speak. Brussels is really the only place we could be.”

People are intrigued, she continues, “by the diversity and all the languages used in this city; it’s a gathering of a very mixed audience. During the festival, texts will be translated and projected in various languages. It’s an opportunity for people to feel the heartbeat of the city.”

This year’s theme is Now and Then,

encompassing ideas such as the author as time traveller, and why story time equals quality time.

With this theme in mind, the programme takes established and lesser-known writers and places them in a variety of imaginative contexts.

There are traditional talks and readings, but also a literary walk, a yoga-and-poetry session, an endurance reading event, a poetry slam and live drawing by graphic artists.

“We’ve chosen interesting writers and looked at presenting their work in a playful way, in different places, giving people a chance to discover the city as well as new authors,” explains Froyen. “We’ve

got two events in a laundrette – you might consider time spent doing the laundry to be lost, but we’ve got authors using that time to read out 30-minute texts, the duration of a wash cycle.

“We’ve got an event featuring books that have been forbidden at one time or another, or you can go on a bus tour and discover Brussels through fun literary performances,” Froyen continues. “Literature is often considered a high art form. At Passa Porta, we’re focused on quality writing, but we want to offer it in different forms. High art doesn’t have to be inaccessible.”

26-29 march

When it comes to Flemish writers making it abroad, or foreign authors becoming known in Flanders, translation is a big issue. This is something Froyen and the festival team hope to chip away at.

“If you read in English or French, you might be familiar with the work of Russian writers, for example, but they might not be so frequently translated into Dutch.

Our aim is really to provide people with discoveries, to give them access to great literature through translation.”

New this year is a children’s segment of the festival. A highlight is the Long Night of the Short Story at Flagey, in which local and international writers play with the festival theme of Time. Simultaneously at kids’ theatre Bronks, a parallel event for younger readers offers bedtime stories in Dutch, French, Arabic and Turkish.

On Sunday, a huge programme of events is on offer around Brussels, and readers can design their own parcours depending on their interests. That evening, the famous British novelist Ian McEwan (Amsterdam, Atonement) closes the event.

His latest book, The Children Act, is a study of moral and ethical dilemmas that revolves around a High Court judge and her encounter with an extraordinary boy. He’ll be talking to Flemish journalist Annelies Beck about his work and the times in which we live.

Looking ahead, what are Passa Porta’s goals? “If we can continue doing the work we do, that would be good,” says Froyen. “During this festival, we’ll be meeting colleagues from other European festivals and exploring future collaborations.

Through our writers-in-residence and other projects, we’re interested in supporting the whole writing process, not just the end result.”

She laughs when asked about her own dream festival line-up; the wish-list is too long. “I’d like to bring in more writers from outside Europe, but it’s difficult,” she says.

Across Brussels

paSSa porta in engliSh Passa Porta is a multilingual festival. Along with events in Dutch and French are others in Portuguese, German, Spanish, Arabic, Turkish and Chinese, and some in complete silence. We’ve picked out the English-language highlights (on 29 March unless otherwise stated).

•

Kevin Barry and Michel Faber are among the writers taking part in the Long Night of the Short Story, with work set to music (in English, Dutch and French).

28 March at Flagey Brazilian writer Luanda Casella reads her work in an endurance storytelling event. At Ancienne Belgique Comic artists harness the public’s imagination over a

• •

creative lunch (in English, Dutch and French). At Greenwich Authors Jirˇí Hájícˇek of the Czech Republic and Dan Lungu from Romania discuss Communism. At deBuren Syrian-Palestinian poet Ghayath Almadhoun talks about writing in exile in the wake of the Arab Spring. At Ritscafé Swiss writer Arno Camenisch and Spanish author Ricardo Menéndez Salmón discuss the art of speeding up and slowing down time in literature. At Bozar Valeria Luiselli reads from books that were once banned in the West. At Goupil Le Fol Meg Rosoff, winner of the Guardian Children’s Fiction

• • •

• •

Prize, talks about the past, the future and in between, followed by a premiere of the film version of her novel, How I Live Now (in English and Dutch). At Bronks There’sachancetohearfromRussianwriterLudmilla Petrushevskayais, whose work was banned under the Soviet regime (in English and Russian). At Bozar American author Jenny Offill talks about her bestselling novel, Dept of Speculation, shortlisted for this year’s Folio Prize, and about life choices, love and the power of literature. At De Markten Celebrated British author Ian McEwan closes the festival in conversation with Annelies Beck. At Bozar

•

•

•

\ 13

\ ARTs

WeeK in artS & culture David Van Reybrouck car-jacked in Brussels David Van Reybrouck, the Flemish author of the widely regarded history book Congo and founder of the G1000 popular democracy movement, was slightly injured when he was car-jacked in Brussels last weekend. Van Reybrouck and a friend were loading suitcases into his car in the Anderlecht district when they were attacked by four men demanding money.

When they said they had none, the men took the keys of Van Reybrouck’s car and made off. The four remain at large.

Dimitri Verhulst surprises train passengers Flemish author Dimitri Verhulst, author of such critically acclaimed work as De helaasheid der dingen (The Misfortunates) and De intrede van Christus in Brussel (Entry of Christ into Brussels), closed out the region’s Book Week on Sunday by surprising passengers on a train from Amsterdam to Roosendaal in the Netherlands. The country shares Book Week with Flanders, and Verhulst was Flanders’ host author this year. Passengers who bought the author’s new book, De zomer hou je ook niet tegen (The Summer Won’t Stop You Either), could ride the train for free all day yesterday. Verhulst made an appearance on the train to do a reading, sign autographs and give a shout out to train conductors, who, he says, are “treated like garbage”.

Ilja leonard Pfeijffer wins Inktaap prize

Dutch poet and author Ilja Leonard Pfeijffer has won De Inktaap prize for Dutchlanguage literature. His novel La superba was chosen as 2014’s best book by 1,250 pupils aged 15 to 18 from Flanders, the Netherlands, Suriname and Curaçao. Pfeijffer’s book is set in the seedier quarters of Genoa, telling the taleofayoungmanwhoinadvertently touches a human leg he finds in a dark street and later tries to dispose of it. Eventually he discovers to whom the leg belongs, along with a number of Genoa’s prostitutes, barflies and misfits. La Superba, also the winner of last year’s Libris Literature Prize, “forces the reader to reflect,” said one of the students involved in De Inktaap. “While you’re reading it, you question not just the world but also yourself.” \ www.inKtaPP.org

\ 14

Them and us

ottoman art show explores fear and loathing in renaissance Europe diana goodwin More articles by Diana \ flanderstoday.eu

www.BoZar.BE

The Bozar exhibition The Sultan’s World looks at the depiction and perception of the Ottomans in Europe, from the Fall of Constantinople to the Peace of Zsitvatorok.

T

he Ottomans have long held a special place in the European imagination. Subjects of fear, fascination, anxiety, admiration, respect and contempt at various times, and sometimes simultaneously, the Turk entered the European consciousness in the late Middle Ages and never left.

A groundbreaking exhibition at Bozar in Brussels investigates and illustrates the many ways in which the Ottoman East was perceived and portrayed by the West during the Renaissance.

That very dichotomy between East and West, Ottoman and European, Muslim and Christian, is shown to be a construct of politics and visual polemics going back hundreds of years.

That distance has less to do with the world outside than with the world inside our minds The period covered is bookended by two historical events: the Fall of Constantinople to the Ottomans in 1453 and the Peace of Zsitvatorok in 1606. The former marked the beginning of greater Europe’s awareness of the Turkish juggernaut as a military threat. The latter signalled a détente in the long-running conflict between the Sultans and the Hapsburgs, and the first formal recognition by each political power of the enemy as a diplomatic equal.

The Sultan’s World: The Ottoman Orient in Renaissance Art traces the evolution of Europe’s perception and understanding of the Turks over this roughly 150-year period, from the first wildly speculative imaginings to eventual appropriation of Ottoman culture in border lands like Hungary and Poland.

“This exhibition is innovative in that it includes not just the usual suspects – Italy, Germany, the Netherlands – but also the countries of EastCentral Europe,” explains Guido Messling, one of the exhibition’s three curators.

That shift in perspective, getting away from placing the countries of “Western” Europe front and centre and moving towards seeing the whole of Europe as a contested battleground, results in the realisation that the region usually referred to as Eastern Europe was in fact central to this conflict.

Hence the deliberate use of “East-Central Europe” to refer to the countries of the former Soviet bloc.

A key partner in the exhibition is the Krakow National Museum, which will host The Sultan’s World after it leaves Brussels. Co-curator Michal Dziewulski from Krakow explains the importance of the Ottoman Empire to Polish culture. “Poland was the only country at the time, in the 16th century, that was at peace with the Ottomans,” he says. “So the influence of the Ottomans is quite different in Poland.

There’s a lot of assimilation.”

One of the paradoxes of East-West relations suggested by the exhibition is the way identity is shaped in relation to an “other”. The Turk, portrayed as exotic, dangerous or just plain different, helped to confirm ideas of an opposed European identity. And yet the Ottomans saw them-

© Collection Bayerische staatsgemäldesammlungen, München

Portrait of sultan Bajezid I by Paolo Veronese

selves as heirs to the Byzantine Empire with equal right to rule in Europe.

Co-curator Robert Born of the University of Leipzig sees the admission of Croatia and other Balkan states to the European Union as an opportunity to re-examine Western Europe’s historical relationship to the Ottomans.

“The new members of the EU were formerly part of the Ottoman Empire,” he explains, “areas that felt the impact of not only conflict but also of long periods of peace.” The border regions of the Ottoman Empire were multinational, multi-confessional and multi-ethnic, just like the evolving Europe of today.

The Sultan’s World contains a breathtaking variety of objects from more than 50 institutions across Europe: paintings, tapestries, ceramics, metalwork, scientific instruments, weapons, textiles, books and prints. It’s organised thematically, starting with depictions of historical events, and covering exoticism as visual metaphor, travels by diplomats, merchants and artists, portraits of the sultans and assimilation in courtly culture.

Over time, imaginative and fantastic depictions of the Turk gave way to more and more realistic portrayals based on first-hand observation.

Equally fascinating is the way in which the Sultans were active collaborators in the creation and dissemination of their own likenesses.

In 1479, for instance, Mehmet II, conqueror of Constantinople, asked the Signoria of Venice to

send their best painter. Gentile Bellini, the official portraitist of the Doges, travelled to the Ottoman court and produced a refined and elegant painting, on view at Bozar.

The sultan is depicted in three-quarter view, regal and aloof, gazing into the distance. He is seated beneath a delicately carved archway, behind a parapet covered with a richly jewelled textile. He is at once a foreign potentate and a Renaissance prince.

Turkish novelist Elif Shafak has contributed personal commentary on selected pieces in the exhibition, which can be heard on the audio guide or read in the gallery booklet. She writes: “The works of Renaissance artists is a wonderful place to start rethinking the distance between ‘us’ and ‘them’. As this exhibition so beautifully demonstrates, that distance has less to do with the world outside than with the world inside our minds.”

“In the end,” says Bozar director Paul Dujardin, “there is not so big a difference between ‘them’ and ‘us’.”

Yet those small differences can be a source of attraction and fascination, as well as fear and loathing. In the end, it is the attraction that holds the most power here, as the beauty of the Other overcomes fear.

until 31 may Bozar

Ravensteinstraat 23, Brussels

\ AGenDA

march 18, 2015

Poetry gone wild

concert

Rotspaleis 20-21 march

L

Brussels Vicente Amigo: The Flamenco guitar master, who learned his fast finger style from El Tomate and Manolo Sanlucar, promotes his latest album, Tierra, with cajón, voice and guitar accompaniment. 21 March 20.15, Flagey, Heilig Kruisplein

sportpaleis, Antwerp www.rotsPalEis.BE

ate last year, literary event organiser Behoud de Begeerte celebrated its 30th anniversary with an exhibition and a new book, which sketched the expanding role of performance in Dutch and Flemish literature over the last couple of decades.

One of the pioneers of contemporary poetry evenings and other events that yank writers from behind their desks and hoist them onto the stage, Behoud de Begeerte continues to advocate a literature that can be savoured in the presence of large audiences in a multimedia setting.

A new enterprise has taken Behoud de Begeerte’s ideas and scaled them up a notch – all the way to the Sportpaleis. Poetry event Rotspaleis sold out, so they quickly added another evening. Quite a feat for such an event, on its maiden voyage.

Not that it’s a sit-in-your-seat kind of affair, notes organiser Geert Briers, so far fewer are being let

in than the Sportpaleis’ 23,000 capacity. Briers is a former events manager for Boek.be, the agency behind Antwerp’s annual Boekenbeurs and literary festival Mind the Book. He is now marketing manager for children’s book publisher Ballon Media. And he is also a poet.

Briers will be among the performers, as will be Belgium’s first Poet Laureate, Charles Ducal (pictured), current and former Antwerp city poets Stijn Vranken and Peter Holvoet-Hanssen, the Herman De Coninck Prize audience award winner Maud Vanhauwaert and many others. The jam-packed evening will be hosted by singer Rick de Leeuw, who is also known to dabble in poetry.

Rotspaleis, which will be set up so visitors can wander about, discovering multiple stages and activities, also features dance, cartoonists and musical guests such as Tom Pintens and Dez Mona. Filmmaker Adil El Arbi is on hand, as is

\ www.flagey.be

Ghent

© Dirk waem / BelGA

psychotherapist and best-selling author Dirk De Wachter.

The second evening, by the way, takes place on 21 March, Unesco’s World Poetry Day. \ Bjorn Gabriels

claSSical

lionel richie

tchaikovsky festival

sportpaleis, Antwerp www.sPortPalEis.BE

One of the best-selling pop artists of all time is coming to Antwerp. American singer Lionel Richie got his start in the ’70s Motown group The Commodores but didn’t become a household name until the following decade, when he split to pilot his own ship. The rest is history. Richie practically owned the 1980s with chart-topping party hits like “All Night Long” and “Dancing on the Ceiling” as well as saccharine ballads like “Hello”. Now he promises to take us back to those neon years with a show called All the Hits All Night Long.

20-22 march

\ www.handelsbeurs.be

claSSical Ghent

concert 19 march, 20.30

Savina Yannatou: The Greek singer and her band, Primavera en Salonico, perform songs from early 20th-century Thessaloniki, which reflect the city’s melting pot of ethnicities. 24 March 20.15, Handelsbeurs, Kouter 29

Bozar, Brussels www.BoZar.BE

Composer Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky put Russia on the musical map in the 19th century and, in the process, created some of the most enduring works in the entire classical songbook. The National Orchestra of Belgium, its Russian-born musical director Andrey Boreyko and guest Ukrainian-Israeli violinist Vadim Gluzman (pictured) pay tribute with a four-day festival spanning two countries and featuring Tchaikovsky’s famous Sixth Symphony. There’s an evening show on Friday and a matinee on Sunday afternoon. In between, on Saturday, the orchestra plays a one-night stand at CC Hasselt.

Shelter: Classical meets pop in this oratorio about the various meanings of the word “shelter”, with a score written for the voices of Oslo’s Trio Mediaeval and set to a film by New York director Bill Morrison. 24 March 20.00, De Bijloke, Jozef Kluyskensstraat 2 \ www.debijloke.be

perforMance Ghent It's a kind of magic: The final two parts of an exhibition in six acts, featuring American Ryan Rivadeneyra (19 March) and Belgians Sarah & Charles (25 March), artists invited to turn the stage into a magical arena by inviting the public into their creative space. 19 & 25 March 20.00, Het Paviljoen, Louis Pasteurlaan 2 \ www.paviljoen.org

\ Georgio Valentino

\ GV

viSual artS

feStival

fair

Ghent

millenium film festival 20-28 march The annual Millenium festival has been shining a spotlight on politically engaged documentaries from around the world since 2009. At the top of the marquee this year is The Yes Men Are Revolting (pictured), which follows the eponymous American activists-cum-pranksters in their quest to publicly shame the corporate world into

Across Brussels www.fEstivalmillEnium.org

environmental action. Other activitiesincludemasterclasses,conferences, a cycle of Latvian films and a retrospective programme devoted to Israeli dissident Amos Gitai. A veteran filmmaker and former IDF conscript, Gitai’s ambivalent treatment of Israel’s history has earned him plaudits abroad and hostility at home. \ GV

Eurantica 20-29 march Brussels’ biggest fine art and antiques fair attracts dealers from more than 100 Belgian and international galleries for a fortnight of browsing and buying. It’s a collector’s dream, with pieces from East to West and from antiquity to the modern period. This year’s theme – the portrait – is appropriately universal. Each culture and each historical era has its own style of representing the human face and so each portrait is a kind of sociological Rosetta Stone, revealing fundamental philosophical attitudes. Eurantica observes the theme with an exhibition of contemporary portraits by Brussels-based photographer AnneCatherine Chevalier. \ GV

Brussels expo www.Eurantica.BE

Julia Margaret Cameron: One of the most innovative photographers of the 19th century, best known for her powerful portraits of friends, relatives and servants and for her unconventional approach. Until 14 June, Museum of Fine Arts, Fernand Scribedreef 1 \ www.mskgent.be

talK Brussels Antonio Nieto-Rodriguez on being focused: Professor of strategy and author of the book The Focused Organization, Nieto-Rodriguez shares his insights into how we can waste less time and create more focused organisations (in English). 19 March 19.3023.00 \ www.fullcircle.eu

© Daniel walbidi/eurantica

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\ BACkPAGe

march 18, 2015

Talking Dutch single lonely cactus seeks love derek Blyth More articles by Derek \ flanderstoday.eu

A

ccording to an article in De Standaard’s weekend magazine, a new planetenasiel has opened in Antwerp. But what, I wondered, is a plant asylum?

It slowly became clear as I read the article. In mei 2014 startte een viertal vrijwilligers het Plantenasiel Antwerpen op – In May 2014, a group of four volunteers started up the Antwerp Plant Asylum, it said.

Het simpele idee haalden de Antwerpenaren bij een gelijkaardig initiatief in Amsterdam – The Antwerp group copied a similar idea in Amsterdam. Mensen die hun planten kwijt willen, nemen contact op met het Plantenasiel – People who wanted to get rid of their plants could get in touch with the Plant Asylum.

Here’s how it works. Let’s say you have a wilting yucca that no longer looks good in your apartment. You post a photo on the Plant Asylum’s Facebook page. Other people register their interest in acquiring the plant.

And finally your yucca finds a new home on a windowsill in Wilrijk.

It sounds a bit like a dating site for plants. And, like many dating sites, the plant asylum has turned out to be an instant success. In minder dan een jaar tijd wisselden onder de 4.000 leden al zo’n 400 planten van eigenaar – In less than a year, 400 plants have been exchanged between the 4,000 members.

The latest posting shows a melancholy agave americana marginata looking for a new home. But it comes with a warning: Neemt veel plaats in en heeft vlijmscherpte punten die een gevaar kunnen vormen voor kinderen en huisdieren – It takes up a lot of space and has razor-sharp needles that could be dangerous to children and pets. Ouch!

CONNECT WITH US

www.facEBooK.com/PlantEnasiElantwErPEn

There is a serious goal behind this plant-swapping scheme, explains Robby Decorte, one of the founders.

“We willen op een positieve manier bijdragen aan de wereld en iets doen tegen de wegwerpmaatschappij waarin we leven” – “We want to make a positive contribution to the world and do something to persuade people to change their throw-away mentality.”

The project has been so successful that the organisers are now swamped with plants. “Nu zetten wij alle opgehaalde planten eerst bij ons thuis” – “For the moment, we have to store all the plants we get in our house,” said Decorte. “Soms staan hier 150 planten tegelijk” – “Sometimes we have 150 plants here at one time. “Ik kon mijn televisie alleen nog tussen de bladeren door zien” – “I have to watch television through the leaves.”

So if you want to share your life with a lonely prickly cactus, you know who to contact.

In response to: Talking Dutch: don’t mess with Blankenberge Alba Longa Actually, Blankenberge should be honoured because the beaches in Albania are absolutely stunning. Maybe Tom Waes should revisit his travel notes.

Michael Shermer @michaelshermer Thank you TEDx Ghent for the warm reception, literally and figuratively...

Matthew Dalton @DJMatthewDalton I took my kid to a US hospital for a minor ailment, stayed one hour, cost $1400. Took other kid to Brussels hospital, 2 hours, cost €46.

In response to: Offside: Armchair athletes Tim Hodgetts Just when I thought it couldn’t get more exciting here!

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the laSt Word aB outBev

should tanning salons be banned in Belgium because of their lax attitudes towards regulations and cancer risk? a. No, that’s too extreme. Lots of things cause cancer that aren’t illegal. Let consumers decide for themselves

8% b. The government should step up inspections, and salons that fail them more than once should be shut down

54% c. Yes. People who choose beauty over safety need to be protected from themselves. And imagine the amount of electricity we’ll save

38% their flouting of safety regulations put people at an increased risk of cancer.

Flanders Today readers appear to have little sympathy for tanning salon operators. While the majority thinks the inspections process should be improved and repeat

\ next week's question:

offenders shut down, nearly one in four of you would be happy to see the lot of them disappear entirely.

Perhaps you’re tired of seeing them sprout up: Belgium, it seems, is a leader in Europe in the use of sunbeds.

A court has ruled that parents can decide to withdraw their children from religion and ethics classes at school.

What do you think?

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

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In response to: Government strikes deal to keep older workers in employment Ian Whitehead Yes, fully agree with ‘Groen.’ A couple of years ago I applied for a job and at the interview was told I do not have many work years ahead of me.

In response to: Lessons in religion no longer obligatory in Belgium Dafri Fridah Mmhhh.. The world is really changing... A free world

Poll

The Foundation Against Cancer called on the federal government to ban tanning salons earlier this month, after figures revealed that only three salons out of 58 passed inspection last year. While tanning salon operators described the call “drastic”, the foundation said that

voiceS of flanderS today

“They’re losing touch with their home market. If you go past a terrace on a sunny day, you’ll see young people drinking Hopus, Duvel and things like that – beer with character. Belgians have had enough of sweet, watery drinks.”

Jan Rumes, chair of beer association Zythos, on announcement of new beers from AB InBev flavoured with lemonade, fruit and rum

cash for scrap

“Our country should never have given in. Last year France itself brought out a coin 70 years after the Normandy landings, but the Germans never complained about that.”

Manuela Wintermans, union representativeattheRoyalMint,where 178,000 new €2 coins commemorating the Battle of Waterloo will be destroyed after complaints from the French government

offline

“We have to make sure that we don’t leave people behind.

Services are rapidly becoming more digital. More and more services are now only available online. Not a bad thing in itself, but we need to make sure we bring people along with us.”

Ilse Mariën of the Free University of Brussels (VUB) found that 47% of Belgians have lower than average internet skills, and 10% have never been online

feathered fiends

“I’m not going to be dictated to by a bunch of birds.”

Actor-turned-director Filip Peeters was filming a romantic comedy at Planckendael animal park, but his set was continually interrupted by squawking parrots

[B\C