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april 1, 2015 \ newsweekly - € 0,75 \ read more at www.flanderstoday.eu current affairs \ p2

politics \ p4

Ford aid requested

Federal work minister applies for EU funding to retrain workers made redundant by the closure of Ford Genk

BUSiNESS \ p6

The wisdom of 3D

education \ p9

art & living \ p10

Eggheads

Leuven’s Layerwise develops a new surgical implant that is making life a whole lot easier for dogs and their owners

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innovation \ p7

Looking for some fun this Easter weekend? Check out our guide to the best events for the holiday – and beyond

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Straight outta Limburg

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© Toon Aerts

A Flemish alt rock scene is flourishing where you’d least expect it Mark Andrews More articles by Mark \ flanderstoday.eu

Thanks to a couple of trailblazing frontrunners, a no-nonsense attitude and one key venue, Limburg has become the unlikely heart of Flemish alternative and punk rock music. Bands like The sha-la-lee’s and The Sore Losers respond to the stereotypes about their province with a middle-finger attitude and wild, blisteringly good music.

T

here are a number of associations that may spring to mind when you hear “Limburg” – bicycling, fresh fruit, the Kempen, the sticks. It’s probably the last place in Flanders you would expect to find a vibrant and diverse alternative music scene.

Well, think again. Something has been brewing in Limburg for quite some time now.

“I think what is typical of Limburg bands is that they are all unusual,” says Toon Aerts, the bass player of The shala-lee’s. “We’ve always had an underdog position. Ghent and Antwerp have had more sophisticated groups, but the real core of Flemish alternative music has always been in Limburg.”

The sha-la-lee’s are a proto-punk mix of garage and classic rock, in love with American bands like MC5, Roky Erickson and Grand Funk. They recorded their album on analogue tape and have a harmonica player as a member – wilfully unhip, very Limburg.

The foursome rent rehearsal space in Alken, just south of

Hasselt. It’s the converted garage of a former pub, located a stone’s throw from the Maes brewery. They find it funny that they’re drinking a crate of Jupiler during the interview.

In typical Limburg fashion, they are proud and dismissive of their province at the same time.

Their drummer is Dave Schroyen, one of the legendary figures of the province’s music scene. “I’ve played drums in every Limburg band there ever was,” he jokes, but it was as part of Evil Superstars with the now celebrated Mauro Pawlowski that he made his biggest splash.

The starting shot for alternative music in Limburg was heard in 1994, when Evil Superstars won Humo’s Rock Rally, Flanders’ foremost rock contest. For years, the band went neck-and-neck with dEUS. Still, Aerts says: “Evil Supercontinued on page 5

\ CURRENT AFFAIRS

Bomb in Leuven shuts down rail Dovo disarms Second World War bomb found during roadworks in Leuven Alan Hope Follow Alan on Twitter \ @AlanHopeFT

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ail traffic between Leuven and Brussels was seriously disrupted for several hours last Wednesday after an unexploded bomb from the Second World War was discovered by road workers in Eenmeilaan, near the provincial park domain in the Kessel-Lo district.

The closure of the line also affected trains to and from the eastern part of Flemish Brabant and Limburg. Bus traffic was also affected, with lines terminating at the Rector De Somerplein instead of the station, which was evacuated together with the Martelar-

enplein.

Police evacuated the area within a radius of 800 metres around the bomb. More than 200 residents were taken to the sports hall in the domain, where they were looked after by the Red Cross.

The Wilsele exit on the E14 was also closed.

The army’s bomb disposal squad, Dovo, attended the scene (pictured) and disarmed the bomb, declaring the area safe at around 16.00.

The bomb was a British munition weighing about 500 kilograms and containing 240kg of

© Courtesy VRT

explosives. It was found at a depth of three metres by construction workers. The bomb is thought to have been part of a bombard-

Charges dropped against Hasselt mayor and police chief A court in Hasselt has dropped charges against the city’s mayor, former police chief and municipal secretary in a case brought against them on the evidence of a whistle-blower.

The three were accused of falsifying documents. The court found that mayor Hilde Claes, police chief Michel Beckers and secretary Liesbeth Klaykens had not acted with criminal intent.

The complaint arose from a meeting to form the new municipal council in 2013. Municipal secretary Vera Vrancken left the meeting in protest, and a new secretary was appointed.

Vrancken complained that her departure was not included in the minutes of the session. The defence claimed it was a mere procedural error and not falsification of documents.

Vrancken, together with other council employees, had previously been sacked for their part in alleging serious claims

of corruption within the police zone Hasselt-ZonhovenDiepenbeek, known as Hazodi. The claims, made in 2011, have so far never led to formal charges, and the employees were reinstated.

Beckers was replaced as police chief and appointed as co-ordinator of operational policy last October – an appointment that led to protests from activists in Hazodi and from unions. Claes remains in office. “I hope the whistle-blowers can now accept the democratic decision of the rule of law, and that the police corps can focus 100% on its daily responsibilities,” she said.

“The crime is proven, and the evidence is all on the table,” Vrancken said after the verdict. “Yet the suspects are not being prosecuted. This is pure class justice. If the roles had been reversed, I would have been sentenced to 10 years.” \ AH

Grand Parade attracts nearly 20,000 people The organisers of Sunday’s Hart Boven Hard (HbH) demonstration in Brussels against the government’s cost-cutting policies have praised the 20,000 participants and onlookers who turned out despite severe weather.

HbH was launched last August by culture journalist Wouter Hillaert and publisher Hugo Franssen, who gathered together others from various sectors who were concerned that budget cuts introduced by the government of Flanders were not in the best interests of society.

The organisation issued a parallel September Declaration – the Flemish minister-president’s annual address to parliament. HbH’s primary concerns are environmental protection, economic equality, the creation of worthwhile jobs, fair taxation and an end to poverty.

According to Hillaert, 150 groups and associations announced their participation, including trade unions, development groups and associations of students and seniors. On Thursday, a group of marchers left Lillo in Antwerp province to

march to Antwerp, where they were joined by others to continue to Mechelen on Friday and Brussels on Saturday.

Another group came from Ostend, travelling by bicycle. \ AH

© Aurore Belot/Demotix/Corbis

About 20,000 people turned out to march or watch Hart Boven Hard’s Grand Parade on Sunday

€4,000

paid for the first strawberries of the season, bought by Delhaize. The money, plus a matching sum from the producers, goes to the nonprofit Pinocchio, which looks after young burn victims

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ment that took place in 1944.

According to Leuven mayor Louis Tobback, this is the fourth bomb from that period to have been discovered and will probably not be the last. Leuven is now and was then considered a strategic railway junction, he explained.

“The discovery of such a bomb is not unusual and disarming it was not difficult for Dovo,” a police spokesperson said. “Given the age of the munition, it was unlikely it would explode, but precautions were necessary because you can never be entirely sure.”

Antwerp detective arrested for money laundering A top Antwerp detective and a diamond dealer have been arrested on suspicion of money laundering, the city’s prosecutor has confirmed. The detective is the former head of the organised economic and financial crime unit of the Antwerp federal prosecutor’s office, at one time responsible for investigations into suspected fraud in the diamond sector.

His unit was responsible for solving the robbery of the century – the 2003 theft of at least €100 million in gems and cash from the Antwerp Diamond Center in the middle of the diamond quarter by a gang of Italian thieves. They had been resident in the neighbourhood preparing the heist for three years.

“There is currently no evidence that other police officials are involved in this case,” spokesperson Paul Van Tighelt said. “This is also not a blow in the fight against diamond fraud, as some have made out. The activities of the unit will continue as usual.”

The investigation started in January, triggered by a suspect financial transaction flagged by the financial institution concerned. The diamond dealer was later arrested and, during a search of his home at the weekend, a quantity of gold and diamonds, said to be worth half a million euros, was found.

The prosecutor’s office will be interested as to whether the dealer is in any way connected to the disappearance of at least €1.6 million in diamonds from police custody. Those diamonds were seized by Antwerp detectives in 2004 as part of a fraud investigation.

Four diamond companies were at that time accused of trading in €55 million worth of blood diamonds from Angola. Two of the companies were later excluded from the investigation, but they received diamonds of much lesser value back than had been seized. The companies accused the authorities of switching the stones and filed a complaint of theft. \ AH

64.3%

amateur theatre groups in Flanders, according to umbrella organisation Opendoek. The 1000th – Studio Bernadette in Antwerp – launched last week and won the prize of a video trailer for their first production

of Flanders’ motorways are rated normal or outstanding in a new report from the mobility ministry.

Only 14% are considered to be in a poor state. The figures are the best in 10 years

€479.7 million

watercourses in Flanders that fall under EU water purity laws, none of which received a rating better than “moderate” in the latest report from the Flemish Environment Agency

worth of drugs seized in the ports of Antwerp, Zeebrugge and Blankenberge in 2014, €123 million more than in 2013 but much less than in 2012, when the total ran to more than €1 billion

april 1, 2015

WEEK in brief Flemish historian Sophie De Schaepdrijver, an associate professor of history at Pennsylvania State University in the US, has been awarded this year’s History Prize by cultural organisation and publishers Davidsfonds. The First World War expert was chosen by a jury of academics, journalists and cultural workers. De Schaepdrijver has been involved in major commemorations in connection with the centenary of the war.

Steel wire manufacturer Bekaert of Zwevegem, West Flanders, has completed the takeover of the steel cord activities of Italian tyre maker Pirelli. The takeover contributes about €300 million a year to Bekaert’s turnover and is the largest in the company’s history.

The former mayor of Wielsbeke, West Flanders, has been found guilty of corruption, together with 10 other officials, politicians and business people, by the court of appeal in Ghent. The 11 men were accused of giving and taking bribes for provincial building contracts, including free meals and cash. Sentences range from one to 18 months, all suspended, with fines between €550 and €11,000.

A man who carried out a homophobic attack in a gay bar in central Brussels in 2011 has been sentenced to 300 hours of community service and fined €1,800. A waiter who stabbed the man three times during the attack was acquitted on grounds of self-defence. The man’s accomplice was sentenced to 100 hours.

Alpro, the manufacturer of soy and nut-based products, based in Wevelgem, West Flanders, has been ordered to change its packaging and website to remove any reference to “yoghurt”. Alpro makes a soy product, which it describes as a “vegetarian variant on yoghurt”.

face of flanders Ruling on a complaint brought by the Belgian dairy industry, the court of appeal in Brussels agreed that the term “yoghurt” referred to a dairy product and could not be used for non-dairy products.

An average two young people a month under the age of 18 are forced into marriages without their consent in Belgium, according to research by the International Centre for Reproductive Health at Ghent University. Ten such marriages, mainly young girls, were reported in Brussels in 2013. The phenomenon is most common among the Afghan and Roma communities. Forced marriage of minors is illegal in Belgium, with the government making opposition to the practice a major condition of its development relations.

Mieke Van Hecke, who retired last year as head of the Catholic schools network in Flanders, has been appointed the new chair of the Flemish Peace Institute, taking over from Nelly Maes. The institute is an independent research organisation that advises the Flemish parliament. Van Hecke (CD&V) is a former member of parliament.

A court in Switzerland has rejected an appeal by 11 parents of victims of the school bus crash in Sierre in 2012, in which 22 children from two Flemish schools died returning from a ski trip, to continue the investigation into the causes of the accident. A number of parents believe the driver may have been suicidal and caused the crash deliberately; they have set up a foundation to raise funds to carry on investigating. A Swiss judge ruled that further enquiry along those lines was impossible and closed the case, also rejecting a demand for an official reconstruction of the crash.

A number of petrol bombs, together with other material

OFFSIDE On the road Fancy a trip to Amsterdam? The good news: for four days this September, it will cost only €250 for accommodation and food.

The bad news: You have to cycle there, then turn around and cycle back.

The event is called BikeTour, and it’s organised by Dokters van de Wereld (DW), Doctors of the World, which is based in Amsterdam but also has a branch in Brussels. The money raised is used for projects run by DW in developing countries.

The money raised, by the way, will come from you. The entry fee of €250 covers your expenses –

intended to start fires, were discovered by students in the Royal Conservatory in the centre of Brussels last week, leading to an evacuation of the building. The origin of the material is not known, but no link has been found with an arson incident that took place in the building in January.

Renovation works on the Museum of Central Africa in Tervuren are on schedule to be completed by the summer of 2016, allowing the museum to re-open in the summer 2017, director Guido Gryseels said last week during a visit to the works by buildings minister Jan Jambon, science minister Elke Sleurs and Hervé Jamar of the National Lottery, which is providing the €33.5 million for the works.

Unions and employers have reached an agreement on changes to the rules regarding ecocheques to allow them to be used to buy second-hand goods such as clothing, furniture and books. The new list of permitted uses includes subscriptions to bike and car-sharing schemes, like Cambio and Villo!. The new rules come into force on 1 June.

Members of the public expecting a tax rebate this year are advised to be patient: The latest set of state reforms has made calculation of taxation more difficult, and rebates for anyone who paid too much in advanced payments will be delayed. It also means, however, that those who need to pay more will also receive the bill later than usual.

Roman, a five-year-old boy from Antwerp with hearing difficulties, will be able to have a cochlear implant operation, after viewers of VTM news raised the €20,000 needed in less than three hours last week. The operation is due to take place this week.

Michael De Cock Michael De Cock has had quite a week. No sooner had it been announced that he is to follow up Jan Goossens as the new director of the Royal Flemish Theatre (KVS) in Brussels, than he won Flanders’ Boekenleeuw prize for children’s literature.

De Cock was born in Mortsel, near Antwerp, in 1972 and went on to study Romance languages and literature at university. He then studied acting in Brussels and has been seen in TV series like Thuis, Spoed, Witse and Flikken. But he’s mostly known as a stage actor, producer and director.

About 10 years ago, he launched the theatre group DroomedarisRex, took up the pen and wrote several theatre pieces, for both adults and children. That led to the publication of a book, Op een onzeker uur (At an Uncertain Time) based on interviews with refugees and asylum-seekers, which in turn spun off into two more theatre productions.

In 2006, he was appointed direc-

© Courtesy ’t Arsenaal

tor of the theatre group ‘t Arsenaal in Mechelen, taking over from Guido Wevers.

Goossens, KVS’ leader for 15 years, leaves De Cock big shoes to fill. Under Goossens, the Flemish venue has become an invaluable part of Brussels’ multi-lingual and multi-cultural landscape, while simultaneously building up dynamic international relationships, particularly with the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

The programme for 2015-16 is already scheduled, so when De Cock begins the post this September, he’ll be looking ahead a year.

De Cock also continues to write children’s books, and his latest, Veldslag om een hart: Het verhaal van Helena (Battle For a Heart: Helena’s Story) won the Boekenleeuw prize last weekend for the best children’s book in Flanders.

The book, illustrated by Gerda Vandooven, is a version of the legend of Helen of Troy and the Trojan War. \ Alan Hope

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

WWW.DOKTERSVANDEWERELD.BE

© Courtesy Dokters van de Wereld

two days out and two days back – but each person who signs up commits to raising €1,000 for the charity. Since the return trip is 480 kilometres, that means raising just over €2 per km.

That money goes towards projects

such as helping undernourished children in Mali, improved health care for women and children in Congo and care for refugees in Syria, Jordan and Lebanon.

Last year, 110 cyclists took part and raised a total of €135,600.

“BikeTour is a win-win story,” said Pierre Verbeeren, directorgeneral of DW. “You’re cycling for your own health and for that of the women and children in our projects. And there’s the beautiful journey through the Low Countries in very agreeable company.”

For details on how to take part, or to simply make a contribution, visit the website. \ AH

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 The racism incident

Racism and ethnicity are touchy subjects everywhere, and Flanders is no different, as N-VA party president and Antwerp mayor Bart De Wever found out last week in an exchange that has come to be known as “the racism incident”.

After De Wever linked radicalisation to a “failed integration policy,” he was asked to clarify. In a TV interview, he stated that racism was not a cause but a result of “a number of negative perceptions and experiences”.

Racism, he continued, “is relative. It is often used as an excuse for personal failure. I have never heard immigrants of Asian descent complain about racism in Antwerp. I do not see them in the crime stats, either. I will not deny that racism exists, but negative experiences are equally real, especially with people of North African descent, more specifically Moroccan and Berber. These are very closed communities, mistrusting of government.”

The interview led to dozens of reactions from academics, anti-racism groups, individuals with Berber and Asian backgrounds, and – inevitably – political adversaries. All of them condemn De Wever’s statements as stereotyping and stigmatising, unfitting for a mayor, who should unite rather than divide.

Among the critics were the usual suspects: French speakers and those on the left, both of whom have suspected N-VA of covert racism for a long time. They see the party as a kind of repurposed version of Vlaams Belang, the farright nationalists with a longstanding history of xenophobia.

But N-VA’s coalition partners, CD&V and Open VLD, also joined in. “Liberals are against stereotyping”, Open VLD party president Gwendolyn Rutten said.

“De Wever stigmatises. We have to distance ourselves from that,” Koen Van den Heuvel, CD&V’s speaker, said in the Flemish parliament. His Open VLD counterpart, Bart Somers, mayor of Mechelen, did the same, in a debate where Geert Bourgeois (N-VA), minister-president of the government of Flanders, was questioned about his party leader’s views.

The next day, prime minister Charles Michel (MR) was confronted with the same debate in the federal parliament. Vice-prime minister Kris Peeters (CD&V), who has become N-VA’s toughest critic, joined in the debate: “Racism is racism. There is nothing relative about that.” \ Anja Otte

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Aid for Ford workers requested Kris Peeters asks for €6 million package from EU to retrain workers Derek Blyth More articles by Derek \ flanderstoday.eu

F

ederal employment minister Kris Peeters (CD&V) has applied to the European Commission for a €6.3 million aid package. Coupled with a €3.8 million package from the government of Flanders, the fund would be used to support several thousand former Ford employees and subcontractors hit by the closure of the Genk assembly line in 2014.

“The various governments in Belgium have done everything they can to provide the workers affected by the closure with training, create new jobs and make the Belgian economy and industry more competitive,” said Peeters.

The closure of the Limburg factory, announced in 2012, led to a total of 8,000 job losses up to the last day of operation last December, including

© Thierry Tronnel/Corbis

Unions gather for a special meeting at Ford Genk in October of 2012

about 4,000 who worked directly for the factory, and another 4,000 working for suppliers and others dependent on the factory.

“The closure of Ford Genk was a bombshell for

Limburg, Flanders and Belgium,” Peeters said.

“We want to help those who have lost their jobs to find new ones.”

The EU has a fund to support workers who have lost their jobs as a consequence of globalisation. The application to the European Commission will be handled by Peeters’ party comrade Marianne Thyssen, who serves as European Commissioner for Employment and Social Affairs.

Peeters wants to use the funds to sponsor job fairs and retraining courses and to support those who want to become self-employed.

“These measures will greatly improve the employment opportunities for hundreds of jobseekers,” he said.

Environment minister launches plan for more vegetable gardens

Brussels homeless policy now in force year-round

Flanders’ environment and agriculture minister, Joke Schauvliege, has launched a healthy eating campaign aimed at encouraging people to cultivate vegetables in their own gardens. The Gezond uit eigen Grond (Healthy From Your Own Garden) campaign provides advice on the right soil to grow vegetables, as well as tips on raising chickens.

Schauvliege said that the campaign responded to a growing awareness in Flanders of the need for sustainable living and healthy eating, as well as a shift towards vegetable gardens, allotments and communal gardens. “Those who grow their own vegetables and fruit tend to eat more vegetables and fruit,” she said. Moreover, they tend to get more daily exercise by looking after vegetable plots.

The aim of the initiative is to ensure that the crops are grown in healthy soil by alerting people to areas where the soil or groundwater is polluted. The website provides people with information on the state of the local soil before they start planting. It also provides advice on where to plant vegetables and fruit trees and what to feed chickens, as well as hints on preventing traffic pollution from harming homegrown food. \ DB

The Brussels-Capital Region is planning to extend its winter homeless policies to the whole of the year, housing minister Céline Fremault and Pascal Smet, responsible for the homeless, have announced.

This year’s winter shelter opened on 14 November with 10% more capacity, remains open until the end of March and took in 3,300 homeless people, operating at almost full capacity throughout.

“By increasing capacity by 10%, not a single homeless person was forced to spend the night on the street,” Smet said.

Under the new system, the former offices of Leefmilieu Brussel in Sint-Lambrechts-Woluwe will be converted into accommodation offering 150 places for families with children. Another 110 places will be available at Samu Social, and 48 places will be provided by nonprofits Ariane and Hoeksteen.

Fremault also announced the introduction of Housing First, which both ministers saw in action last week in London and The Hague.

The aim of that programme, which originated in the US, is to provide

Protest in Antwerp against mayor’s remarks about Berbers The Arab political activist Dyab Abou Jahjah led a demonstration outside Antwerp’s town hall calling on mayor Bart De Wever to apologise for negative comments he made about Moroccan Berbers.

About 150 protesters joined in the illegal sit-in on Grote Markt.

“Bart De Wever is targeting a single segment of the population,” said Abou Jahjah. “This is simply about 19th-century racism, and it shouldn’t be allowed to happen anymore. He should retract his comments or resign.”

The protesters represented several left-wing political groups, including Jahjah’s Movement X, ecological party Groen and socialists SP.A. Police cordoned off the area and noted the identities of participants, who face a possible fine for joining a demonstration that was organised without a permit.

The sit-in followed a debate in the Flemish parliament when De Wever, leader of the Flemish

© photo by Jonas Roosens/BELGA

nationalist party N-VA, was criticised for singling out Berbers as problematic migrants. De Wever made the comments earlier in the week in the TV programme Terzake. After referring to problems in the Moroccan community, he said: “Especially Berbers.

They form an extremely closed society, with a distrust of government.”

“When the mayor of Antwerp, the largest and most diverse city in Flanders, feels it necessary to stigmatise an entire segment of the population, you can’t just sit back and say nothing,” said Flemish MP Koen Van den Heuvel (CD&V). \ DB

© Kristof Van Accom/BELGA

A worker prepares a space for the homeless in Brussels

sustainable housing for homeless people without conditions such as alcohol or drug rehabilitation, but with strong support for those who want it.

This year, Fremault said, 47 people will be taken off the streets under the new system, which will be evaluated in 2016 before proceeding further. For the first part of the programme this year, a budget of €440,000 has been approved.

The new system will also involve compiling a database of homeless people in the region to assist in providing personalised support services. “Emergency accommodation alone, without the prospect of a change in their situation, is useless,” the two ministers said in a joint statement. \ Alan Hope

Parliamentary committee approves pension reforms A series of pension reforms have been approved by the parliamentary committee for social affairs. The changes to the law, which still have to be voted on in parliament, include the scrapping of the provision that civil servants could include study years in calculating their retirement age.

The new law also scraps the income ceiling for people who continue to work after they reach the retirement age of 65 (or who have worked for 45 years). This effectively means that income earned during retirement does not affect the amount of social security received.

Opposition parties criticised the new measures as amounting to “longer work for less money”. But the objections were rejected by federal pensions minister Daniel Bacquelaine. The government still has to push through controversial legislation that will skip the annual inflation-based wage rise this year.

The socialist trade union for public service workers has called a strike on 22 April in protest at government policies, including changes to the pension law. But the government insists the changes are essential to balance the welfare budget. \ DB

\ COVER STORY

april 1, 2015

Straight outta Limburg Bands’ take-no-prisoners approach earns them respect and fans

WWW.MUZIEKODROOM.BE

continued from page 1

stars were always more extreme than dEUS. So contrary, so eclectic, it’s always been like that in Limburg.”

Schroyen, 43, also played drums for Millionaire, another epochal Limburg band. He and fellow member Tim Vanhamel grew up on the same street in the small town of Zonhoven, north of Hasselt. Pawlowski is from Koersel, just 12 kilometres away. These are just a few of the tight connections in Limburg music, parts of the complex networks of line-ups and inspirations. “Everybody knows everybody,” says Aerts.

If Pawlowski and Vanhamel remain the two colossi bestriding the history of Limburg alternative music, Aerts says, then “Dave was pioneer, too.”

Schroyen has the modest air of someone who’s seen a lot. “I played in some bands that made a bit of a stir, maybe opened a few doors for some others,” he says. “When Evil Superstars did their thing, it proved you could do it right here in Limburg. We gave other bands confidence. Maybe they thought: ‘If those idiots can do it, so can we’.”

That’s certainly how Cedric Maes, singer and guitarist of The sha-la-lee’s, felt. “For people of my generation, those guys were heroes,” he says. “This was a band from our area that played big festivals and went on tour. Holy shit, we could go and do that, too.”

So he did, becoming something of a Limburg legend himself. For 15 years, Maes, 34, played in El Guapo Stuntteam (pictured on cover), possibly the wildest Flemish hard rock band ever. During their gigs, Maes’ brother, Christian – in character as Captain Catastrophe – would often set himself on fire. El Guapo are also responsible for one of the all-time greatest Flemish rock videos – the low-budget grindhouse extravaganza “Back From The Grave”, directed by none other than Aerts.

These connections between musicians of different generations is also very Limburg.

We’re on the outskirts, out in the country, like hillbillies “We support the younger bands if we can; they respect us,” says Schroyen. This is clear in Maes’ other, better-known band, The Sore Losers, a finalist in Humo’s Rock Rally in 2010. “The drummer’s only 23; he keeps me up to date. The whole band are hardcore Limburg,” says Maes.

Which begs the question: What’s softcore Limburg? “There is no softcore Limburg,” Schroyen replies dryly.

Facilitating these connections is a key part of the mission of Muziekodroom in Hasselt.

“Here the youngsters connect with each other, but they also connect to the older generation,” explains Raf Coenen, the club’s artistic director. “The most important role Muziekodroom has played in 20 years in this region is to create a home for young people who believe in rock’n’roll or electronic music or DJing, who can come together and grow professionally.”

It’s impossible to talk about music in

© Toon Aerts

Cedric Maes (far right) of The Sore Losers says bands like Evil Superstars were instrumental in giving local musicians the confidence to strike out themselves

Limburg and not salute Muziekodroom.

Coenen traces its history back to the Rock School, which Koen Vanduffel, the current manager, started in his back garden. A jazz drummer, he offered one-on-one lessons. It was Vanduffel who taught Schroyen how to drum.

Vanduffel had the name and a plan, but it wasn’t until 1997 that he moved into the current building in Hasselt. Rehearsal rooms were built first, and the first concerts followed in 1999. “There was an alternative music scene developing in Flanders,” says Coenen, “and in the slipstream of that came the success of venues like Muziekodroom and Democrazy in Ghent and De Kreun in Kortrijk.”

In 2007, Muziekodroom expand, adding the Main Hall. “There’s also The Café for smaller concerts, and we still have The Club, where it all started,” continues Coenen. “It’s the oldest room, but we still use it a lot; it has the best spirit in it. It has a real rock’n’roll vibe.”

About 280 bands and DJs perform at Muziekodroom ever year. “We are more and more profiling as a club that is investigating the underground within the European music scene, focussing mainly on guitar music with some independent electronica.”

But staging concerts is only half of Muziekodroom’s work. “We give a structure to the very unstructured world that is rock’n’roll,” explains Coenen, adding that they offer musicians and bands opportunities to rehearse, to take lessons and to network.

The Hasselt club currently has a handful of

artists in residence and it also organises the Maes Music Stage, a once-a-month concert that introduces three young Flemish bands to an audience – “bands that are releasing a first EP or just want to try out before they go and record,” says Coenen.

And every two years, Muziekodroom hosts Limbomania, a talent-scouting event for Limburg-connected bands. The winners get financial and promotional support from the club.

Muziekodroom is the largest, but not the only venue supporting bands and musicians in Limburg. While Muziekodroom is located outside the city centre, Coenen is pleased to see that the centre of Hasselt is changing. “Café Café has been organising a lot of concerts for young local bands,” he says.

“Exploring alternative music isn’t normally a Hasselt kind of thing.” He also names Cafe België and contemporary arts centre Z33 as actors in the scene.

Many of the seminal figures of the older generation, like Pawlowski, Vanhamel and Schroyen, have all moved to Antwerp.

Coenen hopes central city venues like Café Café will stop the exodus of the next generation. “I hope these small venues are creating a micro-culture, so young musicians and artists do not have to leave.”

Another key figure in Limburg music right now is Niels Hendrix from FONS Records.

Coenen can’t hide his admiration. “He’s a recording engineer. He does the mastering, the promo and the distribution – thumbs up to that guy. At Muziekodroom, we support

him all the way.”

So, why are there so many bands in Limburg?

“It’s so boring here,” Aerts, 37, says bluntly.

“When we were teenagers sitting here in the middle of nowhere with the urge to express ourselves, we had to invent our own scene. It was either that or become a junkie.”

Aerts also adds that the province has a lot of cheap spaces to rehearse, as well as a lot of fields – perfect for festivals. “We’ve had luck with those,” says Aerts, pointing to Pukkelpop, Blues Peer, Jazz Bilzen (the forerunner to Rock Werchter) and Rock Herk.

The sha-la-lee’s and Coenen agree that Limburg’s location on the fringe of Flanders and the disdain shown by many Flemings about its “slowness” has shaped the musical identity of the province. “We’re on the outskirts, out in the country, like hillbillies,” Schroyen says. “We didn’t get taken seriously, so our attitude was: “Fuck those guys in Brussels and Antwerp. I’ll kick your ass’.”

Maes puts it another way: “We always have to work a little harder. No journalist or record company is going to go to Limburg on a Saturday night to watch a band – even now.”

For Coenen, it’s the no-nonsense attitude that earns them respect from the rest of Flanders. “There isn’t a big city with big opportunities, a big audience or big money, but that has its advantages. In Limburg, you cut the crap.”

The sha-la-lee’s play an album release show on 11 April, 20.00 at Muziekodroom in Hasselt

\5

\ BUSINESS

week in business Air Brussels Airport The €75 million Connector gangway linking terminals A and B at Brussels Airport was inaugurated last week, saving passengers up to 10 minutes on their way to their boarding gates. The airport’s authorities also announced further investments of up to €1 billion by 2025.

Air VLM The Antwerp-based airline, the subject of a management buy-out last year, starts several news services on 23 April: Antwerp to Southampton, Hamburg to Rotterdam, London to Waterford (Ireland), Waterford to Birmingham and four destinations out of Liège: Avignon, Nice, Bologna and Venice. At present, VLM only flies to Geneva.

Beverages Tao The award-winning tea soft drink, developed by the Ternat-based Haelterman group, is to be exported to trendy outlets in New York, London and Dubai. Already widely distributed locally, Tao represents 10% of the company’s €120 million annual sales.

Gas Fluxys The country’s gas transport and management company is taking over Swedegas, its Swedish counterpart, in partnership with the Spanish Enagas. Swedegas operates 600 kilometres of pipelines and has an estimated value of €500 million.

Glass Meyvaert The Ghent-based glass engineering company has won a €7 million contract to supply the Louvre museum in Abu Dhabi, opening next year, with madeto-measure display cabinets.

Supermarkets Delhaize The Brussels-based supermarket chain, with extensive operations in the US, expects to redistribute up to 100% of its unsold foodstuffs to food banks and associations by 2020. Delhaize today supplies the equivalent of 200,000 meals a year to those in need.

Telecoms Base Mechelen-based cable operator Telenet and the French Altice telecoms group are in talks to take over Base, Belgium’s third largest mobile phone operator, owned by the Dutch KPN group.

\6

Two government quotas reached

Flemish government reaches staff quota targets for women and minorities Alan Hope More articles by Alan \ flanderstoday.eu

T

he government of Flanders has already achieved its 2015 targets for the number of civil servants with migrant backgrounds, as well as women in middle-management posts, according to figures released by the diversity service.

Government policy is to fill 33% of middle and senior management posts with women in 2015, as well as 4% of all jobs with people with a migrant background, and 3% with people with a disability or chronic illness.

The figure for people with a migrant background was already achieved at the end of 2014, when the percentage stood at 4.3%, up from 3.1% from a year before. At the same moment, the

© Courtesy N-VA

number of women occupying middle-management posts was 33.6%, up from 30.6% at the end of 2013.

“For those two target groups, the figures we

were aiming for have been reached a year early,” said diversity officer Alona Lyubayeva. “That is a positive result.”

The government has not yet reached its goal for staff with a disability and women in top functions. The number of women in top jobs at the end of 2014 stood at 24.4%, some distance behind the 2015 target figure of 33%. The proportion of jobs filled by people with a disability, meanwhile, actually fell from 1.4% at the end of 2013 to 1.3% at the end of 2014. The target figure is 3%.

“The gap remains and, with the negative growth of 2014, is now even bigger,” Lyubayeva said. “It’s as if we’ve worked for two years for nothing.”

Drugs agency investigates Leuven needle-producer

1,000 new drones a month sold in Belgium

Belgium’s Federal Agency for Medicine and Health Projects (FAGG) has opened an investigation into injection needles produced by Leuven-based company Terumo after a Dutch TV station claimed that they contain harmful substances. The company sells more than 600 million hypodermic needles every year to hospitals and pharmaceutical companies worldwide.

Traces of epoxy glue used to fasten the metal needle inside its plastic casing were found in two types of needles. The Dutch news programme Dossier Een Vandaag reported that the glue doesn’t harden completely. The leaking glue can penetrate the reservoir that contains the medical fluid and enter the bloodstream of people who receive injections.

Whether the substance is harmful to human health is not yet known. However, one of the compounds found in the glue

They cost at least €800, and there are very few places they can be legally operated, but Belgians are still buying 1,000 to 2,000 new drones every month, according to market research carried out by Limburg drone importer Skyeye.

The numbers, in fact, “may be under-estimated,” Geert Nijst of Skyeye told De Tijd newspaper.

“A large portion of the sales take place online and are difficult to trace.”

Drones are remote-controlled aerial vehicles, originally developed for military use and now popular in many civilian applications, including photography, remote sensing and cartography. They are now on open sale, at electronics chain Media Markt among other outlets. “We’ve sold drones to estate agents, architects, security companies and even a golf club,” the chain's Jean Marc Dederen told De Tijd.

Belgium does not yet have a legal framework for the use of drones; for the time being, they are covered by a 1954 law on model aeroplanes. But the idea that

is bisphenol A, which is already suspected of causing damage to reproductive organs, metabolism and the immune system.

In the Dutch programme, an anonymous whistle-blower said the Flemish company has known about the problem for four years and never informed authorities. Terumo declared that it had examined the issue in 2012. “The results showed that, although fluid glue particles might invade the body, the number of these particles is far below the existing limits,” said Terumo spokesperson Geert Lambrechts. “That’s why we didn’t inform the authorities.”

According to the FAGG, companies like Terumo are obliged to report every incident. “If we discover that Terumo has ignored this rule, criminal law penalties will follow,” the agency said in a statement. \ Senne Starckx

Flanders has fewer on-site bakers than ever before There are fewer “warm bakers” in Flanders – those who bake their own products and sell them fresh on site – than there have ever been, according to the sector federation Bakkers Vlaanderen.

Flanders’ retail industry recognises a difference between a warme bakker, who bakes bread on the premises, and a koude bakker, who bakes bread which is then shipped off to shops.

In 1994, there were 4,000 warm bakers in Flanders; the figure has now dropped to 2,600, or 400 fewer than last year. Part of the problem is that the investment required for new businesses is prohibitive.

“Starting a warm bakery isn’t simple,” said Bruno Kuylen of Bakkers Vlaanderen. “The oven alone can cost €120,000, while the rest of the installations and equipment soon adds up to €300,000. And in times of crisis, bankers are not waving banknotes in our faces.”

The Flemish employment and training agency (VDAB) has registered 47 new bakers in training in the past year, and the craft is a perennial bottleneck trade, where the available positions far outweigh the number of applicants.

“The main reason is the lack of a supply of young people,” Kuylen said.

Aside from the costs of setting up in business, other discouraging factors are the difficult working hours – mainly nights and weekends – and the more extensive technical skill required. \ AH

© Courtesy Don McCullough/Wikimedia

owners can launch drones from their back gardens, said Peter Drieghe of Aerobertics, a specialised trader in Bruges, is a misconception. “The only place you can go with these models is a model aircraft flying zone set aside for the purpose.”

Federal mobility minister Jacqueline Galant is expected to announce new rules soon that would allow drones to be flown anywhere at a height of up to 90 metres by licensed professional operators. The issue of others using drones would be looked at later. \ AH

Villo! contract under investigation

by European Commission The European Commission is investigating a number of contracts between the Brussels-Capital Region and advertising company JC Decaux, including its rights to run the city’s bike-hire system Villo!.

The complaint was brought to the Commission by Clear Channel, JC Decaux’s main competitor in public advertising. In 2008, Decaux was given the exclusive right to operate the Villo! system, where it also places its advertising panels at 360 Villo! stations across the capital. The system is financed by user fees and advertising sold for the stations’ ad panels.

The contract with JC Decaux also included tax relief and rental conditions, which Clear Channel argues amount to illegal state aid and distortion of competition. A Commission spokesperson said that the rent and tax advantages had the appearance of “overcompensation”.

The Commission will also investigate an agreement for advertising hoardings signed with Brussels City in 1999. The contract stipulated that JC Decaux would decommission a number of hoardings by 2010. The company continued to use the hoardings after that date, however, but no longer paid tax or rent on them. \ AH

\ INNOVATION

april 1, 2015

Back up and running

week in innovation

3D printed implant developed by Layerwise helps dogs walk again Senne Starckx More articles by Senne \ flanderstoday.eu

WWW.LAYERWISE.COM

I

s there any sadder sight than a dog that’s limping and whining? Often the reason is cranial cruciate ligament disease, in which a dog’s rear knee ligaments are damaged – due to old age, injuries or a genetic disorder.

Traditionally, dogs get surgical treatment in which the damaged ligaments are repaired.

At first glance, that makes sense, but the healing process is difficult: Two weeks of no movement and six further weeks of limited movement. Anyone who owns a dog will realise what an atrocious situation that can be – for everyone involved.

Another, entirely new, approach is to get round the problem by leaving the ligaments untouched. Dogs are still laid on an operating table, but, instead of repairing the knee, the vet inserts a new one. Such high-tech implants are common these days in veterinary medicine.

The implant that’s placed in the lower hind paw isn’t exactly an artificial knee. It doesn’t replace the bone structure of the dog’s knee, rather it supports it. The implant reorganises the mechanical forces and creates dynamic stability during walking and running. By altering the orthopaedic dynamics, the damaged ligaments are not used, and the dog is relieved of its pain.

“After having been equipped with an implant, a dog’s total recovery time is six weeks,” says Rob Snoeijs, spokesperson for LayerWise, a University of Leuven spin-off that specialises in 3D printing.

3D printing is one of the most promising technologies for the future of industrial manufacturing. Whereas traditional production techniques are limited by the complexity of the design, for 3D printing the sky is the limit. By “growing” objects layer by layer, the most daunting shapes and designs are attainable.

Since the 1980s, the practice, also known as additive manufacturing, has had a firm foothold in Flanders. LayerWise, which was founded in 2008, is just one of the many small but highly ambitious companies transforming local expertise in 3D printing into commercial success.

The core business of LayerWise is “selective layer melting”, a practice in which metal powder is melted precisely where the design requires it.

By optimising this technique, the company has positioned itself among the elite producers of

LayerWise’s implant for dogs alters the orthopaedic dynamics and relieves the pain of ligament damage

medical implants. It has already shown off its expertise in the fabrication of prostheses and dental and jaw implants in human medicine.

That didn’t escape the notice of 3DSystems, an American pioneer in the 3D printing industry.

Our implant is universal; it doesn’t matter if it’s a Jack Russell or a Great Dane Last September, LayerWise was taken over by the corporation. Exact figures are still unknown; the purchase was followed by months of silence, leading to rumours that the Americans had bought LayerWise just to cut out a promising

Dr Ingrid Umbach works for Onafhankelijke Ziekenfondsen (OZ), the third largest health insurance fund in Belgium. In a recent study, OZ discovered that 20,000 of its members have not seen a doctor or dentist in five years

© Ingimage

Flemish environment minister Joke Schauvliege has set aside €300,000 for local climate initiatives. The support comes under the Covenant of Mayors, a European-wide initiative in which local authorities commit to emitting 20% less carbon dioxide by 2020. More than half of all Flemish cities and municipalities have signed the covenant. The Flemish government has allocated €300,000 a year to support “original climate projects at the local level”, according to an announcement by Schauvliege’s ministry. The budget will be allocated to 10 projects – two for each Flemish province. A 10-person jury will judge proposals.

Compulsory heart tests not a good idea

competitor. But that wasn’t the case, insists Snoeijs.

“It takes time to absorb such an operation,” he says. “Inside the 3DSystems group, LayerWise is now considered the hub for further development of everything within metal 3D printing. For example: Jonas Van Vaerenbergh, our co-founder, is now head of the metal printing division.”

That means that one of LayerWise’s missions is searching the market for new opportunities. After having invaded the human implants market, the company saw its way clear to enter animal medicine. In collaboration with Rita Leibinger, a German producer of animal implants, and Ghent University’s animal medicine division, it developed this new orthopaedic knee implant for dogs.

That LayerWise scored a bull’s-eye is illustrated by its success: 10,000 dogs are already fitted with the implant. “The big advantage is that our dog implant is universally applicable,” says Snoeijs.

“It doesn’t matter if it’s a Jack Russell or a Great Dane.”

Q&A

What was the focus of your study?

Our study was actually focused on our members’ sizeable use of medical care. That’s how we discovered that, in 2010, a considerable number of our two million members hadn’t applied for any refund of health costs. When we looked more closely at this statistic, we discovered that during a period of five years, more than 20,000 of our members hadn’t asked for a single euro back. That means that these people – one in 100 – hadn’t been to the doctor in five years.

Schauvliege commits to climate initiatives

These people must be as fit as a fiddle…

You might think that, but we don’t know for sure. So we wanted to know who those people are.

We discovered that these nonusers were more often men than women, and that a majority of them were living in Brussels.

Additionally, our study showed that their average age was 32 and that 59% were single. But the most striking result is that many of these people are self-employed: one in three.

Is it a problem that they’re not keen on doctors?

If these people never visit a doctor, it means they have no interest in prevention. That means no annual check at the dentist, no

vaccinations, no gynaecologist…

In the long run, this is harmful to their health.

What do you know about these people’s backgrounds?

Our study was anonymous, so we lack that kind of information.

But I think a broader sociological study would be interesting to find out exactly who these non-users are – and what their reasons are.

We also witnessed proportionally more risk of being a nonuser in other metropolitan areas such as Antwerp. However, since 2010, the number of consultations with GPs and specialists has risen every year by 4%. But this is partially due to the ageing of the population.

At the request of the government of Flanders, the Belgian Health Care Knowledge Centre (KCE) has released a report listing the pros and cons of systematic heart screenings for young people taking part in sports activities. The results show there is no convincing evidence that such a screening of 14to 34-year-olds would effectively save lives. The screenings, according to KCE, are not accurate enough. At least 25% of people with an increased risk of sudden heart failure would be missed. At the same time, compulsory screenings would result in many false positives, leading to unnecessary stress and medical exams. Such a measure, KCE also noted, would carry a considerable price tag.

Janssen launches EU Disease Lens platform Janssen Health Policy Centre, part of the Flemish drug company Janssen Pharmaceutica, has launched a “digital dashboard” to inform journalists, policymakers, health-care workers and the public about the most common diseases in Europe.

The goal of the EU Disease Lens is to provide clear and accurate information about disease statistics, history and latest treatments. The site covers 28 diseases, including diabetes, HIV, schizophrenia, depression, Alzheimer’s and cancer. The information is gathered from reliable and publicly available sources such as the World Health Organization and the European Commission. \ SS

\ Interview by Senne Starckx

\7

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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

\ EDUCATION

april 1, 2015

Designing tomorrow’s city

Winners of Flanders’ Sci-Tech Challenge head to final in Bucharest

E

These are not futuristic or mind-boggling technologies, but they work The Sci-Tech Challenge is for secondary school students aged between 15 and 18 and includes a 24-hour contest between teams of students from different schools.

The initiative is held in nine European countries and consists of two legs: one national (or regional) contest and one final round.

The Flemish leg took place on 4 March in the Havencentrum, the port of Antwerp’s visitor centre in Lillo. Soon after they arrived, the 100 or so participating students received their assignment: design the city of the tomorrow.

But before they could even think of drawing futuristic skylines, they were given a number of constraints: the city had to be sustainable, environmentally friendly and agreeable to live in.

Young mathematicians shine in contest Every year, the Vlaamse Olympiade Vereniging (VOV), a Flemish organisation that reveals and encourages hidden talents in youngsters in Flanders, organises a maths quiz. For this year’s edition, VOV joined forces with Pangea, an umbrella organisation that holds maths contests in 16 countries in Europe, reaching 400,000 students every year.

Last week, more than 1,000 secondary school pupils enlisted in the first leg of the eighth edition of the Pangea Maths Quiz, held at their own schools. The 200 runners-up secured a ticket for the final, which was held on Saturday at Antwerp University.

Senne Starckx More articles by Senne \ flanderstoday.eu

conomies that rely heavily on high-tech, knowledgedriven industries to secure their prosperity are constantly dealing with the problem of succession. Flanders is no exception. Will the region produce enough scientists and engineers to keep it at the forefront of innovation?

Everything starts with education.

In order to encourage students to choose a STEM discipline in higher education (science, technology, engineering and maths), several public and private initiatives have been launched in recent years. One is the European SciTech Challenge, organised by oil and gas multinational ExxonMobile, which maintains an oil refinery in the port of Antwerp.

week in education

Half of Flemish students have a job The winning team, from schools in Antwerp province and Flemish Brabant

At the end of the day, the work of one team stood out above all the others. Six students, from schools in the provinces of Antwerp and Flemish Brabant, designed a city with loads of green space and little traffic.

Their design focused on more breathing room by providing several parks and playgrounds.

Also central was an entirely pedestrian city centre. Strong public transport, fewer polluting vehicles and an excellent bicycle infrastructure provided the finishing touches.

The jury, formed by experts from ExxonMobile, described the winning design as “the most efficient and best developed idea, and hence the most realistic”.

According to winning team member Laurens Van Praet, a student from OLV Pulhof in Antwerp, the idea was to develop a realistic solution for a sustainable city, not an ideal design that wouldn’t be feasible.

“From the moment we put our heads together, we realised there was no miracle solution,” he says.

“That’s why we used different existing technologies: green highrise blocks, district heating, parkand-ride facilities… These are not

futuristic and surely not mindboggling, but they work.”

The crucial test is still to come: From 21 to 23 April, Laurens and his teammates will cross swords with the other eight national winners during the European final in Bucharest. Laurens thinks that the chance to win (again) depends on the final assignment.

“In the local contest, we had to deal with a very concrete and tangible question. That was clearly in line with our talents. We were able to give clear answers and present a very comprehensible design.”

For the six students, participation in the final is an award in itself.

“For winning the local contest, we received cinema tickets each and a leather-bound portfolio,” says Laurens. “But for us, the first prize is the trip to Bucharest and the fact that we’ll be defending Flanders’ honour there.”

According to Betty Coenen, a teacher at Don Bosco secondary school in Haacht, who accompanied 30 students to the Flemish contest, the Sci-Tech Challenge is a good addition to the lessons at school.

“For their final project, my students are working on the subject of energy,” she says. “The challenge is

a unique opportunity to shed light on that issue in a different way.

The have the advantage of meeting external experts from industry.

These youngsters will soon have to make some important decisions that will shape their future. What do I want to study? What are my chances on the labour market?

And what capabilities do I need?

Those issues all came up during the contest.”

Apart from their teachers, the students were helped by experts from ExxonMobil. For the corporation, the contest, by which it hopes to reach thousands of European students, is an important investment in the future.

“Because of the emphasis on teamwork, the students learn how to work with people they don’t know and generate ideas within a short period of time,” explains Joost Van Roost, head of the multinational’s Benelux branch.

The Sci-Tech Challenge, he continues, “gives students the chance to acquire insight into the importance of science, technology and maths today, and how these skills can be applied in enterprising ways to tackle the challenges of tomorrow”.

Repeat pre-school year rather than primary, says researcher According to Machteld Vandecandelaere, a researcher at the University of Leuven, repeating the first year of the primary school has more farreaching consequences than staying one more year in nursery school. For her PhD, which she defended last week, Vandecandelaere followed 6,000 Flemish children from their enrolment in the third (and last) year of nursery school to the sixth (last) year of primary school.

About one in 20 pre-schoolers who are “not ready” for primary school, said Vandecandelaere, repeat their final year in Flanders. But many move on without really being ready, and two-thirds of those children have to repeat at

© Courtesy Klaas Verdru

least one year of primary school, which is stigmatising to the students, she said.

“Repeating a year in pre-school is much better perceived than repeating the first year of primary school,” explained Vandecandelaere.

“In the latter case, the intelligence of the child is often called into question, while it’s simply a case of the child just not being ready yet.”

Repeating the final year of nursery school can, then, offer a serious boost to self-confidence later on. “These children are just considered the oldest in their class. They have already acquired certain skills. While in primary school, repeaters are often saddled with lower expectations, which in turn can lead to lower grades. It’s a selffulfilling prophecy.” \ Senne Starckx

More than half of all students in secondary and higher education in Flanders (53.6%) have a job, according to the Youth Research Platform (JOP), a Flemish government agency that brings together researchers from Ghent University, the University of Leuven and the Free University of Brussels (VUB).

While JOP found that most of the students’ work fell in the summer holidays, it also noted that when students move into higher education, their hours worked outside the summer increased, even as their summer hours remained the same. The study also revealed that more female students have jobs: 56.7% compared to 51.6% of males. Girls also tend to work more hours during the school year than boys.

Operation Tarra to reduce red tape Education minister Hilde Crevits has launched Operation Tarra to reduce administrative requirements in education. The scrapping of the spring warning letter sent to parents of regular truants is the first effect felt by teachers. The letter was meant to point out to parents that they risk losing study subsidies for children who are too often absent from school without cause. A year ago, nearly 11,000 such letters were mailed to parents. “A lot of them, however, weren’t valid because they are also sent to, for example, parents of longterm sick children,” Crevits told public broadcaster VRT. Dropping the letter is one of the first of 11 measures meant to reduce red tape for teachers and other staff.

\9

\ LIVING

week in activities Hakendover Horse Procession According to legend, the church in Hakendover was founded in AD 690, making this year the village’s 1325th birthday. The historic procession includes a re-enactment of the founding, as depicted on the altar retable in the church, and the sight of hundreds of horseback riders circling the procession at a gallop. 6 April, 10.00-13.00; Processieweg, Hakendover (Flemish Brabant); free \ www.pp-h.be

Children’s Festival For two weeks during the Easter holidays, activities for kids age one to 14 are organised at various locations in Ostend, including the library, the aquarium and several museums. Workshops, water sports, cooking and more. 4-19 April \ www.springtij-oostende.be

Lambic brewery tour Every first Saturday of the month, you can learn about spontaneous fermentation and the making of traditional lambic and geuze during guided tours in English at the brewery museum of Oud Beersel. Fee includes tasting and a souvenir glass. 5 April 12.15, Laarheidestraat 230, Beersel; €7 \ www.degeuzenvanoudbeersel.be

Family Days at Horst Castle For three Sundays in April, Flemish heritage site Horst Castle celebrates the arrival of spring with a family festival.

Sword-fighting demonstrations, medieval dance workshops, storytelling, face painting, guided castle tours and more. 5, 12 & 19 April 10.0017.00, Horststraat 28, Holsbeek; €8 \ www.kasteelvanhorst.be

Cherry Blossom Festival Every year, the blooming of the cherry trees in Hasselt’s Japanese Garden heralds the arrival of spring. This year, the garden is also celebrating the 30th anniversary of Hasselt’s sister-city partnership with Itami, Japan. 5 April 11.0018.00; Gouverneur Verwilghensingel 23, Hasselt; free \ www.tinyurl.com/japansetuin

Scheldt Happening Discover the many facets of the Scheldt river valley, stretching from Wetteren to Kruibeke, during a day of boat tours, bike rides, guided hikes and cultural activities to kick off the 2015 tourist season. Most activities are free of charge; boat tours on the river cost €2. 6 April 10.0018.00 \ www.scheldehappening.be

\ 10

Oh, to be an Egg Prince

The Flanders Today guide to Easter weekend – and beyond Sally Tipper More articles by Sally \ flanderstoday.eu

T

he clocks are going forward, the fields are full of gambolling lambs and the markets are brimming with daffodils – Easter must be upon us. With a long weekend and two weeks of school holidays to fill, here are a few ideas for how to spend your time.

Go green: Connecterra Next weekend is the first birthday of Connecterra in Maasmechelen, the newest gateway to the Hoge Kempen National Park. To celebrate, they’re holding a free open day full of activities for the whole family on Easter Sunday. There’ll be a visit from the Easter bunny with a basket full of chocolate eggs, guided tours led by park rangers and a special Taste Walk. \ WWW.CONNECTERRA.BE

Where are those eggs: Across Brussels and Flanders If you were too late to sign up for the big Easter egg hunt at Brussels leisure park Bruparck, try asking at your town hall – municipalities often organise smaller events that you might not see advertised elsewhere. \ WWW.BRUPARCK.COM

DIY eggs: Chocolates Made by Me If you don’t fancy what the Easter bunny has to offer, you could always make your own. At Chocolates Made by Me’s three-hour Easter workshop in Oostkamp, near Bruges, you can create personalised eggs, pralines and truffles with more than 50 recipes and toppings. Private and group classes are available, and children are welcome. \ WWW.CHOCOLATESMADEBYME.BE

Egg royalty: Golden Egg Festival Kruishoutem in East Flanders is known for its eggs – back in the day it was a leader in the industry and the centre of Europe’s egg economy. Its egg market is no more, but every year it celebrates with the Golden Egg Festival. This year, festivities kick off on Good Friday with a party featuring a light show, DJ, and cocktail, jenever and champagne bar.

On Sunday, the Egg Queen, Prince and Princess will be crowned, and on Monday there’s a free breakfast, fun and games in the street, live music, fireworks and the traditional egg throw-

ing. Eight-hundred chocolate eggs are attached to tiny colourful parachutes and launched from the clock tower; catch the Golden Egg and you’ll be €125 richer. \ WWW.GULDENEIFEESTEN.BE

Time for reflection: Holy Week events Should you rather spend your Easter in a more spiritual setting, there’s a traditional programme of Holy Week events at St Andrew’s Church of Scotland in Brussels, with Sunday services at 8.30 and 11.00 and an Easter breakfast at 9.00. The International Protestant Church of Brussels also welcomes people to its Easter Sunday Communion Worship at 11.15. All services are in English.

\ WWW.CHURCHOFSCOTLAND.BE \ WWW.IPCBRUSSELS.ORG

Also in Brussels, evangelical organisation OM Belgium hosts a free Stations of the Cross exhibition featuring 16 interactive stations that explore what happened during Christ’s last hours on earth, through music, art, dance, video, photography and drama. Artists and organisers will be available for discussion, and guided tours are

BITE Taste Caravan From late March through November, you can find the Taste Caravan at a series of events across Flanders. On board will be experts from a range of culinary worlds, offering a varied programme of activities – from courses and workshops in edible gardening to demonstrations on the culinary uses of herbs, edible flowers and even weeds, plus information on Flanders’ many “forgotten” vegetables. Of course there will be plenty of opportunities for tastings, too, with a special focus on fruit and veggie smoothies and Spanish tapas.

The Taste Caravan is an initiative of Landelijke Gilden, which aims to draw people from across the region to the countryside. Different experts will join the caravan at various stops along its tour to offer tastings and hand out recipe cards.

Its experts include herbalists, tapas specialists and jam makers.

Madam Confituur, as the name gives away, will tell you everything there is to know about jam,

offered. At the Evangelical Church of Ukkel, Brussels, from 2 to 4 April

\ WWW.BE.OM.ORG

An opera-like masterpiece: St Matthew Passion Bach’s St Matthew Passion, widely regarded as one of the masterpieces of classical sacred music, is a traditional part of Easter worship, presenting the story of the crucifixion. This opera-like work, with its text, singing and dramatic elements, has been performed in Brussels on Good Friday since 2012

by Holy Trinity Pro-Cathedral. Reserve a free place online or support this and future performances by sponsoring one of the priority seats. \ WWW.PASSIONTOPERFORM.EU

Sweet prizes: BELvue Museum Of course, it’s not just Easter weekend, it’s also the start of two weeks of school holidays. Brussels’ BELvue Museum is hosting a fortnight of activities for kids, including hands-on detective and spy games for kids aged four to 12. And on Easter Sunday and Monday, there’s an egg hunt featuring fiendish clues that will lead to sweet, sweet prizes. \ WWW.BELVUE.BE

WWW.LANDELIJKEGILDEN.BE

jellies and marmalades, such as the five golden rules to making jam and what do when the fruit just won’t set. These and other questions will be addressed during Madam Confituur’s demonstrations, after which the audience will be invited to taste the results.

And forget the classics, for there will be more exciting flavour combinations to try, including pumpkin jam, orange jelly with lemon thyme, pear jam with ginger and the oh-so-daring

endive jam with a touch of balsamic vinegar and black pepper.

The Aarde-nd-werk workshops feature Christel Van Vooren, owner of the organic herb farm and distillery Netelvuur, which transforms its homegrown herbs into natural, healing products like aromatherapy oils and homeopathic drugs.

Van Vooren will demonstrate how to make a range of products using ingredients straight out of the garden, such as pesto and gremolata, fresh flower tea, honey mustard from the beehive, curries, Carmelite water from the herb garden and even “instant” soup. You can also learn how to whip up a superfood smoothie and sweetand-sour condiments like chutney, pickles and ketchup.

Finally, learn how to make 10 different delicious Spanish tapas. Made using as many fresh ingredients from the garden as possible, these tapas add up to a complete meal, worthy of serving to any number of dinner party guests. \ Robyn Boyle

april 1, 2015

City outside the city

An exhibition at Antwerp’s deSingel rethinks the meaning of urban Tom Peeters More articles by Tom \ flanderstoday.eu

WWW.VAI.BE

T

he key to smart city development lies not in our inner cities but just outside the city, says Christoph Grafe, co-curator of the exhibition StadBuitenStad (City Outside the City). “We need to infuse the 20th-century city belt with a more urban character,” he says.

In the first place, he is talking about Antwerp, which is expecting a growth in population of about 100,000 people in the next 30 years. “But a lot of other cities, like Ghent, and many French, German, Dutch and Scandinavian cities of the same size, are facing the same challenges,” explains Grafe, who is also the director of Flanders Architecture Institute, responsible for the exhibition.

All these cities are growing because of a recent urban renaissance: People are choosing to live in cities again after a long period of decline and suburbanisation. But since the capacity of inner cities is limited, Grafe and the other curators – Michiel Dehaene of Ghent University, former city architect Kristiaan Borret and the Flemish-Dutch curator Jean Bernard Koeman – are trying to shift focus to these districts outside the city centre, but closer than the outskirts.

“In these heterogeneous spaces you can still develop a balanced spectrum of housing, since most of the cities mentioned above are small enough to be manageable,” says Grafe. He means you can still implement a new urban vision here, in a way you cannot in larger cities.

Grafe heard a lot about this recently at a development fair in Cannes when talking to peers, all specialists in urban planning and architecture. “Of course, my colleagues could just design the plans for new buildings to meet our future housing needs, but it’s a far better idea if you can do that within an integrated plan that enhances the quality of life in this edgeland. In Antwerp we’re talking about the areas around the 20th-century city belt.”

Work spaces have been moving out of the city for a long time, he explains, meaning there’s a reliance on individual rather than on public transport, leading to major mobility problems.

“We have to think about how these areas where people go to work can be integrated into the city again, nearer to residential buildings and surrounded by green, good schools, a better public transport system and possibilities for entertainment.”

To create awareness among the locals, Grafe and his fellow curators have produced an eye-catching exhibition. One of the highlights is a selection of night-time

pictures in which the young German photographer Fabian Schröder, who studied in Antwerp, stresses the fragmentary character of this edgeland: there’s terraced housing next to apartments, business districts next to residential housing, schools and university complexes…

We have to think about how these areas where people go to work can be integrated into the city again Capturing the point where all these functions meet, but from a higher vantage point – a crane – Schröder’s images are extremely familiar, especially for people living in Antwerp, but at the same time they are totally alien.

“They display the physical proximity of this archipelago of different areas and functions the city has outside its centre,” Grafe explains.

“We felt that was a fantastic mirror for people who know Antwerp very well – to see their city in a brand

new light and perspective but also for people who are not familiar with Antwerp at all, because they could recognise a situation they might know from their own cities, since the images are both particular and universal.”

The image of the ski slope at the Ruggeveldpark in Deurne is the most dramatic. “It’s also symptomatic and typifies the specific qualities of the edge of the city,” says Grafe. “You could never have a ski slope in the inner city.” This visual travelogue, as he calls it, may help reinvent what the city stands for and what is “urban”.

How architecture can make a difference is illustrated by the Labo XX project, an initiative by the city of Antwerp’s planning authorities. “They commissioned four high-profile architecture firms to submit proposals, and all thought up experiments about dealing with mobility, integrating collective life into urban spaces and a bottomup financing system for large-scale housing schemes.”

Along with Labo XX’s more abstract proposals, the curators have built a wooden structure in the middle of the exhibition room, evoking this new city outside the city. “It carries a huge number of images of what the future city could be,” explains Grafe.

Some of the images illustrate historical housing schemes “that may become worth looking at again,” he continues. “Often these are alternatives to the free-standing house in the suburbs, some-

© photos: Fabian Schröder & Jean Bernard Koeman

“You could never have a ski slope in the inner city”: the Ruggeveldpark in Deurne; a residential street in Merksem, part of Antwerp’s “edgeland”

times sharing a garden, a courtyard building or even a villa.”

Reference is even made to the typical Flemish begijnhof.

Other suggestions include connecting the outlying areas of the city with each other (and not just with the city centre) through public transport and making the green landscape a real public domain again.

“In the past, gardens at the edge of the city were used more actively than today, partly for growing food but also for entertainment and culture, like the pleasure parks in 18th-century London.

London’s suburbs, known as Metroland, are also a reference. “In the 1920s and ’30s, underground stations were developed not just

Until 7 June

as transport hubs but as small city centres and markers in the urban landscape, surrounded by a parade of shops, bars, parish halls, even churches and cinemas.

“Living in a truly urban environment gives people the impression they’re not living in a suburb anymore, where they have to use their car all the time, with all the limitations this car-bound lifestyle produces.”

The displayed mosaic of images triggers the imagination as to what our cities could be in the future by referring to what they were in the past, not limiting challenges to physical changes, but also illustrating the social aspect.

deSingel

Desguinlei 25, Antwerp

\ 11

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april 1, 2015

An uncensored version of reality Flemish artist Peter Buggenhout’s first solo show addresses the randomness of life Tom Peeters More articles by Tom \ flanderstoday.eu

WWW.MLEUVEN.BE

“L

ook out the window,” says Peter Buggenhout, standing in a top-floor room of Leuven’s M Museum, where his first major solo exhibition in Belgium is running.

The view over the city illustrates the point he had been trying to make: It mixes all types of eras, styles and individual tastes under no particular guiding principle.

“Everything is squeezed together – walls, roofs, terraces – not following any preconceived plan,” the Ghent-based artist explains.

“That’s how our world is, and that’s exactly how I build sculptures and exhibitions.”

Buggenhout has had the wind in his sails in recent years. Though he first began working as an artist 15 years ago, it was only after the beginning of the global economic crisis in 2008 that galleries and museums began to take an interest in his work. He saw a shift in vision in the arts that began to embrace a lack of structure, “as if people more easily accepted that they didn’t have to understand the world around them”.

Some 30 sculptures are displayed in the M Museum show. The oldest date from the late 1990s, when Buggenhout started to put together sculptural constructions with what he calls “abject” material – everyday objects removed from their original context. Positioned on plinths or encased behind glass, some of these sculptures are small, while others fill entire rooms.

In his studio, Buggenhout (pictured right) and his assistants are a bit like Jerom, the popular, beefy character in the Flemish comic book series Suske en Wiske, the artist says. “Sometimes, when standing in between forklifts and scaffolding, it’s insane.

Museum staff are often flabbergasted when I arrive with the cut-up parts of my giant works of debris. When they are spread out on the floor, they don’t have a clue how I will piece them back

© Dirk Pauwels

Unclassifiable: Peter Buggenhout wants his work to reflect the chaos in the world

together. But again, none of this is more insane than the reality we live in.”

Buggenhout, 52, started out as a painter. But after a while, he became convinced that the medium didn’t allow him to really nail down the world around him; he felt limited by the painter’s

to admit the overall picture doesn’t resemble anything else.”

Visitors to the exhibition may find the leftover materials Buggenhout uses awkward, or even repelling, but to the artist they represent reality – nothing more, nothing less. The Mont Ventoux series, for instance, uses

I want to catch the whole world and pack it into a chunk of material perspective, framework and figurative format.

He once took a workshop at a local art academy, he says. When his teacher, the late sculptor Pieter Vanneste, asked him to create something with the chunk of clay in front of him, Buggenhout just couldn’t.

“I sat and stared at it,” he recalls.

“Looking back, I always had difficulties with the idea of recreating something. I just thought it lacked inspiration. But back then I didn’t know yet that I could also make something that didn’t exist. One thing all my works have in common is that I make sure that people have

cow and horse intestines, while works in The Blind Leading the Blind series are covered with dust that neuter any symbolic value.

The more colourful Gorgo series incorporates pigeon blood and horsehair, and the recent series On Hold remodels wooden structures and even bouncy castles.

The titles of the series hold the key to the artist’s motives. Standing atop the Mont Ventoux in France, 14th-century Italian humanist Petrarca, notes Buggenhout, ushered in the Renaissance era when he claimed that the world around him was perfectly manage-

able and classifiable. “But he forgot that he was standing on this colossal rock, which of course he couldn’t see and classify,” says the artist.

The Blind Leading the Blind (pictured) borrows its title from the 1568 Brueghel painting that evokes the biblical parable. “Just like all of us, these blind people don’t know where they came from or where they are going to.”

Life for them, he says, “is like a bowl of spaghetti,” twisting and turning, “with no set goal. There are always modifications and adjustments”.

The Gorgo series, meanwhile, refers to the Medusa of Greek mythology who turned everyone who crossed her into stone.

Except Perseus that is, who was smart enough to look at the Medusa through his mirrored shield.

“I’m offering reality directly – no mirrors here,” explains Buggenhout. “It’s our hideous reality that has the ability to turn people to stone, really. Building this fort of symbols around us so we don’t

Until 31 May

have to look reality in the eye has become our main defence.”

Of late, the artist has begun using more colour in his palette.

“Honestly, I’m also a cheerful boy,” he smiles. He says it’s still too early to distil a message from his use of colourful discarded bouncy castles in On Hold, but he is perfectly clear about one thing: “I want to catch the whole world and pack it into a chunk of material.”

The title of the accompanying catalogue is We did it before, we will do it again. “I am pretty sure in a thousand years’ time, we will still make love and make war and lump everything together.”

Visitors may discern some parallels between Buggenhout’s installations and the more vulnerable sculptures of his wife, renowned Flemish artist Berlinde De Bruyckere, especially in the use of materials. “But there is no pattern behind it,” confirms Buggenhout.

“We both have our careers. Sometimes our work meets halfway, but sometimes we run away from each other’s ideas. The one big advantage is that by communicating a lot, we throw out the crap sooner.”

We did it before, we will do it again is published in English by Jnf Editions

© Christophe Vander Eecken

M Museum

L Vanderkelenstraat 28, Leuven

More visual arts this month David Claerbout If you’re at M Museum for the Buggenhout show, you might as well sit down to watch two early video installations by Flemish visual artist David Claerbout. Both illustrate how his work explores the borders between photography and film. Watching the wind play with a big green tree and children’s antics on a playground in the 1930s is the perfect antidote to Buggenhout’s in-your-face sculptures. Claerbout isn’t trying to summarise the world;

he’s transcending a moment and trying to capture the passage of time. Until 24 May at M Museum, L Vanderkelenstraat 28, Leuven \ www.mleuven.be

Jeffrey Silverthorne: The Precision of Silence American photographer Jeffrey Silverthorne has a soft spot for people on the margins of society. This show in Antwerp offers a visual record of his encounters with transvestites, inmates and psychiat-

ric patients. By confronting us with their naked bodies and emotions, Silverthorne unmasks the hidden desires and obsessions we all have deep down inside. “His entire oeuvre centres on the drama of death and humans striving to cope with their own mortality,” said French museum director François Cheval, who co-curated the show, the first-ever retrospective of Silverthorne’s work. Also on show are Polaroids, studio shots and photo collages. Until 7 June at FotoMuseum, Waalsekaai 47, Antwerp \ www.fotomuseum.be

\ 13

\ ARTS

week in arts & CULTURE Jean Paul Gaultier designs Manneken Pis costume

French fashion designer Jean Paul Gaultier is designing a costume for Manneken Pis, to be unveiled on 30 April, the kick-off of Brussels’ gay pride festival. Gaultier, 63, will be in attendance on the day for the unveiling of his haute couture outfit. He is expected to take part in a “mini-pride parade” from City Hall to Manneken Pis, arriving at about 20.00. The official Pride parade, in which 100,000 people are expected to take part, takes place on 16 May. This is the 20th edition of the festival, now known as Pride.BE, which celebrates gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender identities. Aside from the parades, the festival plays host to parties and other social and cultural activities. \ www.pride.be

Vote for bands to perform at Iris Festival Members of the public are invited to vote for bands to join the headliners for Brussels annual Irisfeest, or Iris Festival, which takes place on 9 and 10 May. More than 60 groups applied for consideration, and they were whittled down to 20 by a jury. Visitor to the festival’s website can vote once per day for one band they hope to see at the main concert on 10 May on an outdoor stage on Paleizenplein, next to Warandepark. The votes, collected until 19 April, will be combined with scores from the jury to decide the three winners. The winners will play the stage that day between the headliners, who include Brussels soul singer Sarah Carlier and French ska band Babylon Circus. \ www.irisfeest.be

Jewish Museum wins Visit Brussels Award The Jewish Museum of Belgium in Brussels has been given this year’s Visit Brussels Award for tourist attractions and initiatives.

The museum was closed for several months last year following a shooting in which four people died. The award is a recognition of the courage of the staff, two of whose colleagues were among the dead, in re-opening the museum. Other awards went to the Parcours d’Artistes in Sint-Gillis, the new food truck festival and the veteran Brussels Jazz Marathon. \ www.new.mjb-jmb.org

\ 14

For the sake of argument New play tackles religion, speaking out and the destiny of Club Brugge Débora Votquenne More articles by Débora \ flanderstoday.eu

WWW.LAZARUSVZW.BE

I

f you want to make a convincing point, you need some solid arguments. Because using arguments is a good thing, right?

Arguments suggest something rational and objective.

Or do they?

The title of theatre collective Lazarus’ latest play, Met argumenten kan je iedereen overtuigen (Everyone Can be Convinced by Arguments), makes you wonder: Is a good argument really always the decisive factor?

“The title gives a pretty clear idea of what the play is about,” Günther Lesage tells me. “You can find arguments to back up almost any belief. There are arguments that plead for the belief in a monotheistic religion, for instance. But if you choose to be a creationist, there are plenty of arguments to build a strong case for that, too.”

Flemish film, TV and stage actors Koen De Graeve (left) and Günther Lesage want you to start listening

“Dawkins is a British biologist, and he claims that it’s most unlikely there is something like a ‘supernational creator’. Hence, believing in a personal god is no more than

You can find arguments to back up almost any belief Lesage (right in photo) and Koen De Graeve, the only two actors in the play, have been digging into the matter for months, trying to find out what kind of discussions religion and beliefs trigger.

“One of the books that attracted our attention was the bestseller The God Delusion by Richard Dawkins,” Lesage explains.

a delusion because most evidence is against it. And that’s the interesting part. You can’t prove there is no God any more than you can prove that there is.”

If you’re worried that Met argumenten might be too highbrow, you shouldn’t be. Not only is there humour – not so surprising, given the pair are part of the team

behind the Emmy award-winning TV comedy Wat als? – but it has a lot of common wisdom to it as well. Lesage: “We spent a lot of time on the streets preparing the play, asking people to explain their beliefs.”

By asking certain questions, the actors wanted to get a clear idea of the things people have faith in, their religion and what they rely on or are guided by. “We asked them questions like what is God, what’s the universe, what happens after you die, what is the purpose of us being here? We even asked more down-to-earth questions like whether Club Brugge will become champions of Belgium.”

The answers they received

Until 6 June

provided the material for the piece. “All this research fed our own discussions, which led eventually to our play,” Lesage explains.

They had to make some tough choices in order to narrow down the topic. “We focused on the strongest stories you can tell today – stories that are inspired by what is happening in the world, what we see on TV. These stories can be linked to fundamentalism, when we see news reports on Islamic State, for example, but they can also be about other religions or supernatural powers or science.”

Even if it is done in a tonguein-cheek way, these are not easy discussions to conduct. “And that’s a pity,” Lesage says. “The point is that people should start to communicate with each other again. Even if it’s about sensitive issues. Things have become so complex when they shouldn’t be.”

You can see Met argumenten as a plea for people to be genuinely interested in each other’s beliefs.

“What we’re trying to accomplish is to enforce people’s ability to discuss this kind of issue and be curious about what others believe.”

Met argumenten is a play about putting things back into perspective, about not shutting up and daring to speak out. It is also about how ridiculous fighting over religion and beliefs can be.

Across Flanders

Exhibition explores flight, from flying carpets to drones WWW.VILLAEMPAIN.COM

Artists have been quick to make the connection between drones, the remote-controlled flying machines that haunt the skies of the Middle East, and the flying carpets in tales dating back to the Arabian Nights. Taking this work as a starting point, the Boghossian Foundation in Brussels has put together Heaven and Hell: From Magic Carpets to Drones, a wide-ranging exhibition that explores the fascination of flight, the fear of surveillance and a number of related themes that resonate in Eastern and Western cultures.

Visitors are under surveillance from the start, with “Drone #8” by German artist Björn Schülke, suspended from the ceiling of the entry hall in the Villa Empain, the beautiful Art Deco building that is the foundation’s home. It rotates slowly, beaming pictures to a video screen below. Nearby is “Rising Carpet”

by French artist Moussa Sarr, a combination of drone and prayer mat that unites the two main themes of the exhibition.

Naturally the connection feels strongest in artists from the East. Farhad Moshiri from Iran has cut outlines of a fighter jet from a stack of Persian carpets, connecting the business of conflict and the business of cultural heritage,

© Courtesy Galerie Paris-Beijing

Chinese artist Li Wei’s “Beyond Gravity #6”

while Mahwish Chishty paints drones in the bright colours of traditional Pakistani miniatures, covering them with intricate patterns

Until 6 September

and shapes.

Artists from outside conflict zones use drones in a more playful way, without losing sight of the darker implications. American artist Addie Wagenknecht, for instance, has a drone flopping and floundering in a pool of black pigment, creating a series of oily action paintings. Japanese performers Eleven Play dance with drones, while the Italian collective IOCOSE imagine “Drone Selfies” from a future where the machines have retired.

The carpet theme stretches from a 16th-century Persian miniature through popular book illustrations to film posters for The Thief of Bagdad.

Artistic reworkings include digital carpets by Samuel Rousseau and Macoto Murayama, and Pravdoliub Ivanov’s “Fairy Tale Device Crashed”, a flying carpet shattering against a wall.

Flanders is represented by Panamarenko, a drone builder long before they hit the news.

The exhibition has a generous selection of his work dating back to 1979, including plans for a flying carpet. \ Ian Mundell

Villa Empain

Franklin Rooseveltlaan 67, Brussels

\ AGENDA

april 1, 2015

For she had eyes and chose me

Othello Until 11 April

I

raqi-born theatre director Mokhallad Rasem has made a name for himself with unusual readings of Shakespeare, bringing a Middle Eastern perspective to the love story in Romeo and Juliet and the father-son relationship in Hamlet. Now he turns his attention to Othello, Shakespeare’s tale of a Moorish general driven to suspect his white wife of infidelity through insinuations made by his jealous deputy, Iago.

Rather than focus on race, which usually looms large in productions of Othello, Rasem has picked out a theme with particular resonance in Middle Eastern culture. “Virginity is still an important issue in

CONCERT Antwerp Kate Tempest: The London rapper and spoken-word artist performs songs from her debut album, Everybody Down. For fans of The Streets, Roots Manuva or Lauryn Hill.

11 April, 19.30, Trix Club, Noordersingel 28

Across Flanders WWW.TONEELHUIS.BE

the Arab world,” he explains. “A woman must be a virgin when she marries. This principle is based on a certain ideal of female beauty and purity. And of course it has to do with the man’s possessiveness, his desire for exclusivity: The woman is mine alone, nobody else will touch her. That is a very traditional way of thinking, and it still has a huge impact.”

In Rasem’s version of the play, a production by Antwerp’s Toneelhuis, this concern dominates the triangular relationship between Othello, Desdemona and Iago. The two men see different things when they look at Desdemona's body – images that have more to do with

\ www.trixonline.be get tic

Brussels

© Kurt Van der Elst

their own obsessions than with her personally. What, then, do we see of her? And what about her voice and her story?

As with his previous productions for Toneelhuis, Rasem uses a montage of texts, images and

music to create a contemporary fable, in which the physical presence of the performers becomes more important than the story.

Creative and challenging, this is no place for a Shakespeare purist. \ Ian Mundell

CONCERT

ACTIVITY

Amatorski

De Ronde in Oudenaarde

2 April, 20.00 Flemish pop-rock band Amatorski fuse catchy melodies and effect-laden soundscapes to create experimental music without all the baggage. It’s a winning formula: The quartet followed up their 2010 radio hit “Come Home” with a debut album, a multime-

Het Depot, Leuven WWW.HETDEPOT.BE

dia project called Deleting Borders and soundtrack work for Dutch television, in addition to a lot of festival appearances. Their second album, From Clay to Figures, was lauded by the national upon its release last year. \ Georgio Valentino

5 April, 11.00

EVENT

Larry Sultan

Floralia Brussels SMAK, Ghent WWW.SMAK.BE

Ghent’s museum for contemporary art and Germany’s Kunstmuseum Bonn join forces to pay tribute to one of contemporary photography’s pioneers with simultaneous retrospectives. The late American artist Larry Sultan began pushing the boundaries of the medium in the 1970s, not by experimenting within the frame but by posing larger, conceptual questions about authorship and spectatorship. Among the series on show are Evidence, his influential collaboration with Mike Mandel in which they appropriate institutional photographs from the worlds of science, industry and law and present them without commentary, and Pictures From Home, which illustrates Sultan’s obsession with photographing his parents and family home (pictured). \ GV

3 April to 3 May Floralia Brussels combines the best of Dutch horticulture and Flemish architecture. The annual flower exhibition is held in the 19th-century garden and greenhouses of GrootBijgaarden castle, just outside Brussels’ city limits. Floralia’s team of Dutch tulip specialists joined forces with the house gardeners to

Supertramp: Founder of the legendary 1970s band, Rick Davies (vocals and piano), accompanied by original members John Anthony Helliwell and Bob Siebenberg, takes the audience back in time with sing-along classics like “Bloody Well Right”, “Give a Little Bit” and “Take the Long Way Home”. 9 December, 20.00, Paleis 12, Brussels Expo \ www.palais12.com

Grote Markt, Oudenaarde WWW.DERONDEINOUDENAARDE.BE

For the fourth year in a row, the Ronde van Vlaanderen, or Tour of Flanders, is hosted in the East Flemish town of Oudenaarde.

The public is invited to cheer on their favourite in the region’s biggest professional cycling event.

Competitors explode in two heats from the starting line on the Grote Markt and return via Minderbroedersstraat in the afternoon.

The party rages all day long with folk giants, street theatre and the Chasse Patate bike orchestra, a sextet on two wheels that supplies the soundtrack and slapstick comedy. And you can follow the action on big screens through town. \ GV

VISUAL ARTS Until 24 May

kets n ow

VISUAL ARTS Hasselt

Konstantin Grcic: Panorama: The German designer’s largest solo exhibition to date, featuring several largescale installations rendering his personal visions for life in the future – a home interior, a design studio, an urban environment – with, as highlight, a 30-metre panorama depicting an architectural landscape of the future. Until 24 May, Z33, Zuivelmarkt 33 \ www.z33.be

FESTIVAL Brussels Bifff: Annual Brussels International Fantastic Film Festival, featuring more than 150 films from the sci-fi, fantasy and horror genres, in addition to body painting, the Vampire Ball and the ever-wondrous Zombie Parade. 7-19 April, Bozar, Ravensteinstraat 23 \ www.bifff.net

Groot-Bijgaarden Castle WWW.FLORALIA-BRUSSELS.BE

plant over a million bulbs across the property’s 14 hectares. The result is a blooming masterpiece of floriculture, with nearly every spring variety represented. In the greenhouses you’ll discover the latest trends in flower arranging. This exhibition is comprised of 150 pieces by the freshest designers. \ GV

Turnhout Rockin’ Around Turnhout: Annual rock’n’roll and rockabilly festival. 3-6 April, de Warande, Warandestraat 42

\ www.rockinaroundturnhout.be

MARKET Ghent Rommelmarkt: Second edition of the flea market in the covered hall filled with food, drink, music and entertainment for kids. 5-6 April, 11.00-18.00, Kerk Gent, Kerkstraat 24 \ www.kerkgent.be

© “Dad on Bed” from Pictures From Home

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\ BACKPAGE

april 1, 2015

Talking Dutch Care for another helping of pan-fried potato peel?

Berlaymonster @Berlaymonster .@NoelGallagher’s Brussels travelogue. Good thing he didn’t go to Bruges eh? Phew. http://www.noelgallagher.com/news

Derek Blyth More articles by Derek \ flanderstoday.eu

I

always thought the city was where the smart cooking happened, while the countryside was where you went for a plate of meat with boiled potatoes. But how wrong I was.

It seems that the farming women of Flanders are currently cooking the most experimental dishes in the land. The Boerinnenbond – Women Farmers’ Association – has just published a book called No Waste Cooking: Van aardappelschil tot wortelloof – From Potato Peelings to Carrot Leaves.

According to the blurb, the book bundelt ‘afvalgerechten’ die voedselverspilling moeten tegengaan – is a collection of “waste recipes” to help stop food being thrown away. Want met het juiste recept is groenteafval best lekker – because with the right recipe, vegetable waste is really tasty.

Here is an example of the sort of meal that the Flemish farmers have in mind. Een voorgerechtje met chips van aardappelschillen en guacamole van broccolistelen – a starter of crisps made from potato peelings and broccolistem guacamole; gevolgd door soep van wortelloof – followed

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by a soup made from carrot tops; als hoofdgerecht gegrild vlees in combinatie met zoetzure bloemkoolbladeren – a main course of grilled meat combined with sweet and sour cauliflower leaves; en als afsluiter een dessertje op basis van appelschillen – ending with a dessert based on apple peelings.

The aim of the recipe book is to persuade consumers to cut down on the amount of food we throw into the bin. In tijden van voedselschaarste wisten onze voorouders maar al te goed wat er allemaal mee in de kookpotten kon – during times when food was

scarce, our grandparents knew all too well what they could put in the cook pot.

Now it’s different. Een gemiddeld huishouden verspilt gemiddeld 36 tot 55 kg per jaar – an average household throws out 36 to 55 kilograms every year. Dat is een verspilling van 94.000 tot 127.000 ton voedsel per jaar in Vlaanderen – that is the equivalent of 94,000 to 127,000 tonnes of food thrown away every year in Flanders, het equivalent van 19.000 voetbalvelden – the equivalent of 19,000 football pitches.

But you still have to be careful what you put in the pot. “Sommige groenten zijn echt flauw van smaak en hebben we flink bijgekruid” – Some vegetables don’t have much taste so we have to add quite a lot of herbs, said one cook.

Van het wortelloof zijn de blaadjes ideaal voor een pesto, maar smaken de takjes dan weer ongelooflijk bitter – the leafy parts of the carrot tops are perfect for making a pesto, but the stems have a horrible bitter taste.

So some things really do have to go in the bin. But not those tasty potato peelings.

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Poll

a. Yes. Drugs companies care about the bottom line first and foremost and cannot be trusted to provide impartial information

73% b. No. I’d rather go to my doctor armed with information and questions than rely solely on him/her to tell me what to take

27% communication of health-care topics, argue that, while threequarters of people research healthcare information online, drugs advertising information is confusing, at best.

A minority of about one in four of you, though, would like to be armed with information rather than rely solely on your physi-

cian’s opinion. And the fact indeed remains: While advertising of pharmaceuticals is strictly regulated, other sources are not.

For its part, Metaforum stated that the government itself should distribute reliable and understandable health information and create a quality label for websites with health-related topics.

\ Next week's question: Half of all secondary and higher education students have a job, according to the Youth Research Platform. Is this a good thing?

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

\ 16

Kofi Annan @KofiAnnan Tomorrow I will be in Brussels to celebrate @hrw’s Voices For #Justice and reaffirm the value of #HumanRights Oliver Heinz @oliheinz Here we go! #engageug is underway. @theoheselmans is opening the keynote in the fantastic Aula in Ghent In response to: Antwerp and Rotterdam mayors debate radicalisation

Larry Moffett If the government had adopted different education and employment policies, he wouldn’t be the mayor of a city where thousands of young people are throwing away their lives.

In response to: Ban ads for drugs, say KU Leuven researchers

Beth Notman Too many doctors in this country (and many others) hand out prescriptions without fully explaining side effects.

In response to: Janssen launches EU Disease Lens platform

Ke Gross

Someone should make this for the US... by state... very interesting.

In response to: Face of Flanders: K3

Rikke Dakin It’s probably time for them to draw their pensions

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the last word

Do you agree with the report by KU Leuven professors calling for a ban on advertising for prescription drugs?

Our readers have a poor opinion of the pharmaceutical industry, or the advertising industry, or perhaps both, when they agree that there ought to be a ban on advertising for prescription drugs, as proposed by a group of researchers from the University of Leuven.

The researchers, united in the Metaforum association to improve

VoiceS of flanders today

End of the road

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Eighteen-year-old Niel Sagaert from Harelbeke, West Flanders, is besotted by the stock market

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