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april 22, 2015 \ newsweekly - € 0,75 \ read more at www.flanderstoday.eu current affairs \ p2

Mega merger

Three of Flanders’ major players in fruit and vegetable production are merging to create a world leader in the sector

politics \ p4

BUSiNESS \ p6

From A(ntwerp) to Z(onnebeke)

The Flanders Today guide to getting the most out of Heritage Day and its theme of family heirlooms

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innovation \ p7

education \ p9

art & living \ p10

Bozar’s big night

The annual Bozar Night features electronic music, technologically inspired art and exhibition interactions

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How can we help?

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© Dieter Telemans

Mechelen is reaching out to start-up entrepreneurs with foreign roots Linda A Thompson Follow Linda on Twitter @ThompsonBXL

The city of Mechelen and a non-profit organisation have joined forces to seek out businesses in the city owned by people with foreign roots and offer them help to flourish.

Three business owners told Flanders Today what they think of the service.

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etween August 2013 and June 2014, a public servant and a non-profit worker paid repeated, unannounced calls on dozens of night shops, snack bars and mom-and-pop stores in Mechelen.

They singled out those establishments that appeared to be run by people with foreign-sounding names, based on their storefronts or their entries in the national registry of enter-

prises. Though they switched between Dutch, English and French as necessary, their first question to the sometimes wary business owners was always the same: “How are you, and how can we help?”

Referring to Mechelen’s public servants, Lutgart Dusar, who masterminded the initiative, says: “No one had ever done that before – just engaged them in conversation like that.”

These visits were the result of a partnership between the city of Mechelen and ViaVia Tourism Academy, a non-profit organisation that works in sustainable tourism development. They were an integral part of a larger, two-year project financed with a grant from the European Social Fund.

The initiative Café Herman, the organisers say, was born from

a longstanding frustration among city services and associations for the self-employed that immigrant small-businesses owners were difficult to reach. They didn’t join trade committees, they said, didn’t make use of the city’s services for entrepreneurs and seldom participated in local trade initiatives.

“Everyone seemed resigned to the fact that immigrants were impossible to reach,” says Dusar, the ViaVia consultant who wrote and submitted the proposal for a European Social Fund grant in 2012. “I thought: Why not try a different approach?”

The idea behind Café Herman was to take the city’s patchwork of services and programmes for entrepreneurs to foreign small-business owners in the form of two real-life continued on page 5

\ CURRENT AFFAIRS

VUB dean quits over FB post Brussels professor Willem Elias steps down following criticism Andy Furniere More articles by Andy \ flanderstoday.eu

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rofessor Willem Elias of the Free University of Brussels (VUB) has announced that he is leaving his position as dean of the faculty of psychology and education sciences. He has been widely criticised for a Facebook post he wrote after the suicide of Flemish politician Steve Stevaert earlier this month.

Elias (pictured) wrote on Facebook about his sadness at the death of his friend Stevaert, a former SP.A minister and provincial governor, and accused the woman who filed rape charges against Stevaert of having his death

on her conscience.

Elias wrote: “you go to the police immediately after a rape, or at the most a day later.

Not after three years.” Referring to elements of the case, he wrote: “Victims who are driven home by the chauffeur are even more rare.”

His statements immediately led to protest.

Both the VUB and Elias himself apologised, but his reputation was seriously damaged.

After checking his Facebook account, VUB found that he had made similar comments after French politician Dominique StraussKahn was accused of rape.

The VUB said in a statement that Elias believes he is unable to remain in post as dean because of the controversy. “The fierce reactions on social media, which hit him hard emotionally, played a role in taking this decision,” said the university, adding that trivialising rape was “the last thing he wanted to do”.

In a letter to psychology students, Elias again apologised to his faculty, the VUB and the victims of sexual violence. He said his case was “a prime example of how the use of social media can go wrong”.

Train strike confirmed as ACV joins up Rail services across the country were expected to be severely disrupted onWednesday, 22 April, as the socialist trade union ACOD Spoor called a one-day strike. The action also has the backing of the Christian union ACV, though the union has not explicitly called its members out.

The strike, which was due to begin at 22.00 on Tuesday and end at 22.00 on Wednesday, is the latest protest against government austerity measures, particularly the decision not to apply the traditional annual indexation to salaries. This will mean a €30 million loss to rail authority staff, according to the unions.

Other contentious issues, such as retirement age for government employees and a proposal to oblige rail workers to provide a minimum service during strike actions, are due to come to the table soon.

The strike was called last month by ACOD. ACV would have preferred to stay at the negotiating table but said they had no option but to support the strike. ACV members are not being called out, but anyone who strikes “spontaneously” will be

© Courtesy belgischekunst.be

Consequences of dioxin crisis “worse than thought”

represented by the union, it said.

In Brussels, a joint union front representing MIVB public transport workers called on its members to join in with the strike on Wednesday. Pickets will be set up at all depots, but anyone wishing to work will be able to do so, the unions said. \ Alan Hope

Belgium’s 1999 dioxin crisis – when the toxic substance was found in the food chain – had more serious consequences for public health than was assumed, according to professor Nik Van Larebeke of Ghent University and the Free University of Brussels (VUB). Citing official Flemish health data, he told TV programme Terzake that the crisis led to health problems in more than 60,000 people.

In the spring of 1999, news broke that animal feedstock in Belgium had been contaminated with the chemical polychlorinated biphenyl (PCB). “I always said that the dioxin crisis was a disaster for public health,” said Van Larebeke, a specialist in the development mechanisms of cancers. The graveness of the situation was then – and continues to be

– minimised by a number of politicians, he said.

Van Larebeke admits that it is difficult to show a causal connection between one cancer case and the crisis. “But it seems evident to me that the dioxin crisis caused thousands of cases of grave diseases,” he stated.

According to his estimates, an average Fleming has 2.5% more chance of getting diabetes than before the dioxin crisis and 0.9% more chances of high blood pressure. Women, he said, have 1.8% more risk of cancer.

The researcher thinks the crisis led to at least 20,000 cancer cases among women, 22,000 more cases of diabetes and 24,000 additional cases of high blood pressure. \ AF

Red Cross recommends no change to blood donation policy There is as yet no convincing evidence that men who have sex with men pose a greater risk of transmitting HIV via blood donations, according to a report issued by Red Cross Flanders. However at the same time, more research is needed before a strong case can be made for removing the ban on giving blood.

Belgium currently operates a lifelong ban on blood donations from men who have ever had sex with other men (MSM). Scientists have always placed the emphasis on behav-

iour rather than identity and do not use terms like “homosexual” or “gay”. For example, men who might identify as gay but have never had sex with men and gay women are not banned from giving blood.

At the request of federal health minister Maggie De Block, the Red Cross carried out what it describes as the largest and most systematic review of the scientific evidence on this controversial question, going over nearly 19,000 journal articles from five scientific databases, looking for an answer to the

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to ban MSMs for life. Canada has a fiveyear exclusion from the time of last sexual contact, while Britain and Australia have a one-year ban. Some countries, such as Spain and Italy, have no exclusion at all.

The Red Cross said that, as its study does not provide proof of risks or a lack of a risk, it is unable to advise health minister De Block about maintaining the exclusion. “The final decision lies with the minister and the Health High Council,” it said. \ AH

€10,000

24.15%

of secondary school students concentrating on STEM subjects – science, technology, engineering and maths – are girls, up from 20.73% in 2008

question: “Is there a heightened risk of infections being transmitted via transfusion if MSM men in western countries are active blood donors?”

According to the Red Cross, only three articles suggested a link between MSM donations and HIV transmission but none showed that MSM blood is as safe as other donations, giving no support to the idea of changing the policy.

Belgium is one of the few western countries, together with the US and the Netherlands,

guided tours in Brussels in 2014, an increase of 3% on 2013. The number of people taking tours with officially recognised guides went up from 294,000 in 2011 to 343,300 last year

fine for the TV soap Thuis for product placement, when the name of a bridal gown brand was seen on four occasions and the logo of the shop was onscreen for 35 seconds

53,800

jobs available in Flanders at the end of March, according to VDAB. It takes an average of 42 days to fill a vacancy, with 10% taking more than three months, in particular technical and health-care jobs

building permits issued in 2014, for houses and apartments, a 10% increase on 2013 and the first time the number has topped 50,000 since 2008, according to figures from the economy ministry

april 22, 2015

WEEK in brief Four zebras escaped from a ranch in Vilvoorde last Friday, and two made it all the way to Brussels’ Buyssestraat before being tranquilised by police and returned.

“They broke through the fence and took off,” local resident Marc Luyckx told VTM News. “They’re wild animals; there’s nothing you can do to stop them. Luckily they didn’t cause an accident. Things could have ended very badly.”

Police in Belgium have agreed to stop using the word “gypsy” on official reports in response to a complaint lodged by the Minorities Forum and the Interfederal Centre for Equal Opportunities. According to Minorities Forum director Wouter Van Bellingen, using the word is a form of ethnic profiling, which classifies a person on the basis of appearance or conduct.

That is illegal in Belgium, he pointed out. The correct term to use is, he said, is “caravan resident”.

Brussels city council has announced that the part of the city bounded by the inner ring road will be declared a tourist zone, which will allow shops to be open on Sundays under certain conditions. Shops on Nieuwstraat, for example, will open on Sunday only once a month. The Brussels-Capital Region is expected to approve the measures this week and Brussels-City plans the first Sunday opening for 24 May, the weekend of the Brussels Jazz Marathon.

The captain and crew of the cargo ship Saga Frontier are responsible for the incident last week in which three dock workers died while cleaning out the hold of the ship in the Waasland harbour on the left bank of the Scheldt river. According to labour auditor Boudewijn Bracke, the manhole leading to the part of the hold concerned was opened on the day before the incident, implying that the necessary safety checks had been carried out

face of flanders and signalling to the local workers that passage was safe. Instead, the men were overcome by toxic fumes and died. Who exactly was responsible for opening the manhole is not known, but, according to Bracke, the ship’s captain, an Indian national, could be held liable.

a visit from the giants of Royal De Luxe this summer, led by Oma Reus (Giant Grandma). The French performance artists, famous for their gigantic lifelike creations, will be in the city for the fourth time, from 19 to 21 June, as part of the Zomer Van Antwerpen.

Prominent Vlaams Belang MP Filip Dewinter has been assigned round-the-clock protection after an armed and masked man appeared at his home in Antwerp and asked for his whereabouts last week. Dewinter is on holiday, but, according to reports, his daughter and her husband were in the house and were threatened with a gun. The man has not been traced.

Dewinter recently visited Syria to offer his support to president Assad in his fight against jihadists.

The Animal Rights Foundation plans to lodge an official objection to Ghent University’s plans to extend its animal testing centre after a petition on the group’s website was signed by more than 12,000 people. The extension would include new stalls for pigs and sheep to be used by cardiologists in training for practice. The group says 12,000 animals are used for testing in Belgium every year, among them rodents, dogs, pigs, sheep and horses. The university denied that it planned more facilities and pointed out that its animal accommodation for medical students is occupied only by mice.

Dock workers at the port of Antwerp have been receiving friend requests and odd questions from Facebook users posing as fellow dock workers, who may in fact be drugs smugglers. The workers report being asked detailed questions about their work and whether they would be willing to set containers aside.

The police have been informed and dockers warned to be on the lookout for unusual requests, according to terminal manager Dirk Schippers of the MSC PSA European Terminal.

Environment minister Joke Schauvliege is planning to introduce a flexible water tariff in Flanders, which would charge households that economise a lower tariff than heavy users. Such a system exists in some local areas, such as in Steenokkerzeel, Flemish Brabant. The minister also plans to scrap the zero-rated tariff on the first 15,000 litres used, as another means of encouraging economy.

After an absence of five years, Antwerp will once again receive

Sabam, the organisation that collects royalties for Belgian composers and performers, wants to stop webmasters from embedding YouTube videos, despite a European Court of Justice ruling that YouTube links do not incur royalty payments. According to Sabam, video clips posted to YouTube by artists are for the personal use of that website’s visitors only. Embedding a video on another page is a form of broadcasting, Sabam argues.

Belgium is one of the least religious countries in the world, according to a study carried out by WIN/ Gallup in 65 countries. In Belgium, 44% of the population describe themselves as religious, compared to a global figure of 63%. Another 18% are atheists, compared to 14% in Europe and 11% worldwide. The most religious country in the world is Thailand on 94%, and the least is Sweden, with only 19% describing themselves as religious.

OFFSIDE Has Van Buuren found its stolen paintings?

Barbara Sarafian The Best Actress in Flanders this year is Barbara Sarafian, for her roles in the First World War drama In Vlaamse velden, the comedy impressionist show Tegen de sterren op and the topical comedy Achter de feiten. The awards were announced at the annual Night of the Flemish Television Stars in De Panne last weekend.

The list of programmes for which she was nominated is a testament to Sarafian’s range, the names she had to beat a statement of her stature: Clara Cleymans and Ella Leyers, both also colleagues from Tegen de sterren op, and Ruth Beeckmans for tragi-comedy Amateurs, comedy drama Safety first and Vriendinnen, which followed the friendship of two women from the Liberation in 1945 to the current day.

Sarafian, who turned 47 last week, was born in Ghent and first appeared in the media on radio comedy programmes, on Studio Brussel and Radio 1. She remained with comedy when she made the transition to TV in 1998 in Alles kan beter, starring Mark Uytterhoeven, who

© Michiel Hendryckx/Wikimedia

picked up a Lifetime Achievement award at the Flemish Stars.

Dramatic roles soon followed, and she was seen all over the telly: Witse, Aspe, Sedes & Belli and Zone stad. Her international breakthrough came in 2008 with the role of Matty in Aanrijding in Moscou, set in the neighbourhood of the same name in Ghent – nothing to do with the Russian capital, though it did reap her three Best Actress awards at film festivals in Palic in Serbia, Minsk in Belarus and Gyo˝r in Hungary.

The film itself won three awards at Cannes.

Since then she’s been a regular on the big screen, with stand-out roles in Zot van A by Jan Verheyen and Rundskop by Michaël R Roskam, and also on TV in Dubbelleven and De ronde, as well as In Vlaamse velden. She appears on Tegen de sterren op, meanwhile, mimicking personalities like Axelle Red, Justine Hénin (a merciless imitation), Goedele Liekens and Louis Tobback.

“I'm deliriously happy,” she said on receiving the award, clearly unprepared to have won it.

“Third time lucky, they say.”

www.museumvanbuuren.be

Art robberies always make for good adventures, whether it’s The Maltese Falcon or Indiana Jones, so it’s exciting to imagine what is going on behind the walls of the Van Buuren Museum in Brussels, where the denouement of a story that began nearly two years ago is being played out.

At the end of a Tuesday afternoon in the summer of 2013, thieves entered the museum by a back door and made off with 10 minor works and two more important paintings: “Shrimps and Shells”

by James Ensor and “De Denkster” (“Woman Thinking”) by Dutch painter Kees Van Dongen (pictured). The Van Dongen alone was valued at €1.2 million.

Neither the thieves nor the paint-

ings ever showed up – until now.

Reports leaked last week that the museum’s insurance company was in talks with person or persons unknown with a view to having the paintings returned on payment of some kind of ransom.

The Brussels prosecutor’s office said that “it would be irresponsible, given the … interests of the investigation, to make this information known”.

The Van Buuren museum in the Ukkel commune is housed in the former home of David Van Buuren, a banker and collector, and his wife, Alice, who bequeathed the house to the state in 1975. Among others, the collection contains works by Pieter Bruegel the Elder, Van Gogh and Rik Wouters as well as an extensive collection of paintings by Gustave Van de Woestyne.

In the meantime, the museum last week won a Europa Nostra award for conservation for its impeccable gardens, which are also open to the public. \ AH

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

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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 Iron Lady

For the last year, the nickname Iron Lady – a UK import – was borne solely

by Liesbeth Homans (N-VA), Flemish minister of internal affairs and housing. Recently though, an equally up-front female politician has made headlines: Zuhal Demir (also N-VA), Antwerp district mayor and federal MP. That her last name translates from Turkish as “steel” only adds to Demir’s image as the new Iron Lady of Flanders.

Demir was born in Genk to a family of Turkish-Kurdish immigrants. Although she often refers to her background (calling the neighbourhood she grew up in a “ghetto”), it has never hindered her ambitions.

When a weekly described her as an influential allochtoon – the Dutch term used for people with immigrant roots – she objected, calling herself “a former allochtoon”.

Like Homans, Demir worked herself up through ambition and talent. This is the road anyone disadvantaged should follow, rather than expect others to take of them, she has been known to say. She says that she has never experienced racism, so therefore has little sympathy for people who complain about discrimination.

Aside from a saucy photo shoot in the federal parliament for P Magazine, Demir’s views were bound to get her noticed. She has become her party’s number one spokesperson for criticising excesses of the welfare state.

Demir strongly believes that unemployment benefits should be limited in time. “If the unemployed notice they can no longer pay their bills, they will try harder,” she said.

Her “anti-social” remarks infuriated coalition partner CD&V, who pointed out that this was not part of the government agreement.

Last week, Demir lashed out again. The unemployment agency overpaid benefits in the amount of €291 million, and she blamed the unions, which, in many cases, are responsible for paying out benefits.

The unions reacted furiously, saying that they may pay out the benefits, but they are not responsible for granting them or checking up on them, both of which are the government’s job.

Her critics see Demir’s statements as yet another attempt

by N-VA to curtail the unions.

Demir is not bothered. With the N-VA president applauding her words, she can be sure that her party will not overlook her again when it comes to appointing cabinet ministers. \ Anja Otte

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White House praises Brussels Airlines for Ebola approach

Airline continued critical flights to West Africa as others pulled out Derek Blyth More articles by Derek \ flanderstoday.eu

T

he White House has praised Brussels Airlines for its leading role in the international response to the Ebola outbreak, De Morgen reports. Heather Higginbottom, the deputy secretary of state for foreign affairs, thanked Belgium’s international development minister, Alexander De Croo, during a private meeting in Washington last week.

She praised the Brussels-based airline for continuing its scheduled flights to countries in West Africa hit by the Ebola virus, when other carriers had cancelled their flights. At one point,

Brussels Airlines was the only commercial operator flying to Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone.

The scheduled flights played a key role in delivering essential medical supplies and international aid at a time when those countries were at risk of becoming cut off from the world.

Higginbottom, who led the US Ebola programme, also praised the Belgian medical team Artsen Zonder Grenzen (Doctors without Borders), which sent doctors to the affected countries.

The Belgian government agreed during the crisis to put aside almost €40 million to tackle the epidemic. It also set up a field hospital in Guinea.

Benefits for unemployed caregivers extended Unemployed people who are caring for sick or elderly family members are now entitled to 48 months of benefits without having to prove they are available for work, federal labour minister Kris Peeters has decided.

Caregivers will now need to provide a certificate attesting to the condition of the person for whom they are caring, which will be renewable up to a maximum of 48 months. The previous limit was 36 months.

Under the new rules, those who are employed will also be able to claim up to 48 months of time off work to care for a close relative. Caregivers receive an allowance of €266 a month. “I have always expressed my admiration for those who commit to caring for others,” Peeters said in a statement.

The requirement of a medical certificate is new and prevents those who simply want to stay home and look after a small

child, for instance, from claiming unemployment benefits – as they could previously.

Last year, there were some 7,000 caregivers receiving unemployment benefits, although figures on exactly how many of those were cases of severe illness is not known.

The new rules require proof of “severe illness” of a child under 21 or a relative to the second degree, or palliative care, which has a lower time limit. \ Alan Hope

Almost €300 million in unemployment benefits paid out in error Federal employment service RVA is trying to claim back €291 million in unemployment benefits paid in error last year. RVA’s annual report reveals that people are sometimes paid unemployment benefit when they are also receiving sickness benefits because of a long-term illness.

RVA is responsible for setting the level of sickness benefits, but payments are made by unions or the Hulpkas voor Werklozen. Federal MP Zuhal Demir (N-VA) said the system is to blame for being too complicated. “The bill keeps on rising, and this at a time when every department is having to fight

for money,” she said.

Demir said it would be more efficient to create a single body to carry out checks and pay out benefits. RVA argued that the amount to be reclaimed amounted to just 1.27% of its total budget and that checks have become stricter in recent years, which is how the overpayment was discovered.

“But it’s very hard to get the money back due to administrative complexity and because some people are very reluctant to comply,” a spokesperson said. \ DB

© Courtesy Artsen Zonder Grenzen

Drop in homeowner applications for energy-efficiency subsidies The number of people applying for government subsidies to improve the energy efficiency of their homes dropped by 32% last year compared to the year before. The biggest downturn was reported in grants to insulate roofs, which fell by 43%.

The figures were released by Flemish energy minister Annemie Turtelboom in response to a parliamentary question tabled by Robrecht Bothuyne. “Many houses in Flanders are still a long way from being energy efficient,” Bothuyne said. “More than one-quarter of all houses still need roof insulation, while half don’t have any cavity wall insulation”.

Bothuyne suggested the figures had fallen because those with an interest in making their homes greener had already done so, but the majority of homeowners don’t realise how much energy – and money – they can save through improvements. “It’s those people we need to try to reach,” he said.

Turtelboom, meanwhile, told the Flemish parliament that she planned to simplify the system for claiming grants. \ DB

De Croo defends global women’s and gay rights in UN speech Belgium’s international development minister, Alexander De Croo, defended the rights of women, gays, lesbians and transgender people in a speech at the United Nations in New York last week.

De Croo (Open VLD) was speaking to the UN’s Commission on Population and Development, which is currently chaired by Belgium. The minister said that women had a right to education, along with a right not to be forced into marriage. He also insisted that young women had a right to take responsibility for their sexual and reproductive health.

“More than half of the world’s population is women, yet women are fighting all over the world for their basic rights,” he said.

He told the committee that Belgian schools served as an example by offering sexual educa-

© alexanderdecroo.be

Alexander De Croo at the meeting of the UN’s Commission on Population and Development in New York

tion to students as well as free contraceptives. This helped to give the country one of the world’s lowest levels of teenage pregnancies and a low infant mortality rate. “Young people

need access to information to make informed choices,” he said.

De Croo also held Belgium up as an example to follow in protecting the rights of gays, lesbians, bisexuals and transgender (LGBT) people.

He pointed out that Belgium was one of the first countries in the world, along with the Netherlands, to legalise marriage for same-sex couples.

“Discrimination against LGBTs has far-reaching repercussions,” he said. “How can we ever achieve efficient sexual health policies when certain groups are deliberately excluded from society?”

De Croo is pushing for sexual and reproductive health rights to be incorporated into the UN’s new Sustainable Development Goals, which will replace the Millennium Goals when they expire at the end of this year. \ DB

\ COVER STORY

april 22, 2015

How can we help?

City offers local knowledge, language lessons and old-fashioned friendliness continued from page 1

humans – Thomas Rottiers and Ine Van der Stock.

“Cities often seem to think: ‘We’re in the office. If you want what we’re offering, come here,” says Dorien De Troy from ViaVia, who took over the project from Van der Stock last August. Café Herman turned that idea on its head, she says. “We hit the streets.”

Afrah Happinez was one of the small businesses that Rottiers and Van der Stock called on multiple times. A three-year-old hair saloncum-catering enterprise, it’s run by two sisters with Moroccan roots who moved to Flanders from the Netherlands 10 years ago.

Zeinab Rerhioui, 24, and her sister Hajar, 28, were in the process of looking for a bigger store when Rottiers visited them in 2013. He was the one who encouraged them to not just look at establishments advertised on the private market but also to sign up for the city’s database of vacant retail spaces.

Although Zeinab didn’t choose one of those locations, she appreciated the information. “I visited a lot of buildings that they told me about.

They really helped me a lot with that,” she says.

Rottiers also gave them a heads-up that the city’s massive Hanswijkcavalcade would pass right in front of their door. Organised every 25 years, this historical parade drew 55,000 visitors in 2013.

“If they hadn’t told us, we would have simply been closed because that was a Sunday,” Rerhioui says.

© Dieter Telemans

Tenzin Phuntsok (left) of Akira Sushi shows off a wall decoration made for him by local university college students - a Tibetan take on Mechelen’s cityscape

According to a 2014 report co-authored by Flemish employers’ organisation Unizo, 30% of new businesses in Belgium flounder within the first five years. Given that the Flemish government’s own 2014 Stadmonitor shows that, out

If we ever need something, we have Thomas’ number. He said we could always contact him “We were able to be prepared thanks to them – so we weren’t there with 50 cupcakes, but with 500 cupcakes.”

A 2013 report from RSZ, the state institute for health insurance for the self-employed, shows that one in five new small businesses are now opened by a foreigner.

That same report reveals that the number of non-Belgian entrepreneurs shot up by 21% between 2009 and 2013.

A project like Café Herman raises questions about the best way to support this growing group of immigrant start-ups across Flanders and the extent to which cities could – or should – assist these new entrepreneurs.

Though no recent data exists on start-up entrepreneurs’ survival rates according to nationality, starting and keeping a new businesses open is hard – foreigner or not.

of 13 key Flemish cities, start-up businesses in Mechelen have the lowest success rate, the city’s desire to better assist immigrant entrepreneurs makes sense.

“We need to reach them because it’s very important for a city and for its economic fabric to have strong entrepreneurs,” explains De Troy. “And it’s important for them because they’re better off when they’re united.”

Tenzin Phuntsok, 41, is one of those Mechelen entrepreneurs with the statistical odds stacked against him. He welcomed Rottiers with open arms into the sushi restaurant he opened with two friends on the city’s scenic Veemarkt two years ago.

Yet when pressed on what he got out of those visits, Phuntsok haltingly admits that they were more friendly than economically useful.

“We know what to do; we know how to do it. We know all those

things,” he says. “We never asked them for anything because we don’t need anything.”

Originally from Tibet, Phuntsok came to Belgium in 2002, and he dismisses out of hand the idea that he must have it extra hard as an immigrant entrepreneur. “I don’t feel that, no,” he says. “I have exactly zero problems.”

Pointing out that the challenges of running a business and the accompanying administrative headaches pale in comparison to the hard times he experienced growing up poor in Nepal and India, he adds: “Things are better now. We always have little problems, but you shouldn’t give those too much attention. We can quickly resolve them.”

They were already members of the local trade committee, and they had an accountant who helped them take care of the paperwork, he points out. “But if we ever need something, well, we have Thomas’ number. He said we could always contact him if we needed something.”

That, De Troy says, was the fundamental value of Café Herman for the immigrant entrepreneurs. “A great many of them had absolutely no relationship with the administration,” she says. “Now, they know where they can find the administration and are much more aware of what the city can do for them.”

Together with her husband, Larisa Mutalibova, 55, runs the Mini Mix grocery store on Onze-Lieve-Vrouwestraat. Originally from Russia,

the now naturalised Chechen family settled in Flanders in 1999.

They opened the store in 2007 and moved to their current, much bigger shop a year later. Not long after, they joined a German affiliate of supermarkets with Russian products, Mix Market, which gives them the exclusive right to sell certain Russian products in Mechelen.

Between exchanging Russian banter with customers and giving instructions to her young daughter in Chechen as she fills in at the counter for her, Mutalibova (pictured on cover) emphasises she could have never done all this without the support of her four nowgrown children who helped her overcome the language and administrative barriers.

“It was really difficult for us to start up the business,” she says. “It was difficult with the language, and always all those papers. We needed a translator. We received papers and didn’t understand what they said.”

Like Phuntsok, Mutalibova couldn’t offer examples of ways in which Rottiers’ visits had helped. She also indicated that her first years as an entrepreneur were the most trying ones, and that is when she might have benefited from a project like Café Herman.

All in all, it’s hard to distil what the value of Café Herman was for immigrant entrepreneurs from Rerhioui, Phuntsok and Mutalibova’s experiences, and the organisers themselves did not poll partic-

ipants for feedback before or after the project.

Still, Dusar concedes, the project was established in response to public servants and organisations’ complaints rather than actual needs articulated by local foreign entrepreneurs. Its biggest merit, then, might be in that it pushed the city’s economic department to drastically rethink some of its approaches, now that it was no longer from the outside, looking in.

Rottiers, who currently works as a consultant for the city’s economic department, was just one person, De Troy says, but the insights he gathered trickled into the department as a whole. Citing the department’s new tendency to review its own forms with an eye to readerfriendliness, she says: “A reflex has developed now: We want to be more customer-friendly.”

Based on Rottiers and his colleagues’ input, the city’s economic department also revised its offer of Dutch lessons. The standard and initial approach would have been to bring groups of 10 to 20 immigrant entrepreneurs to the city’s Adult Education Centre for four to eight hours of Dutch lessons a week.

“We realised that wouldn’t work from the results and methodology of Café Herman,” Rottiers explains.

“We were then given the space to completely overhaul the project, from a general, classroom-style approach, just learning Dutch, to a personalised coaching trajectory in their own shops for one hour a week.”

\5

\ BUSINESS

week in business Adhesives Soudal The multinational adhesive, sealant and plastic foam producer has announced an investment of €35 million in its Turnhout facility, where it is based. The 25,000-squaremetre plant will be expanded by one-fifth. Soudal has 14 facilities and employs 2,200 people worldwide.

Air Brussels Airlines Brussels Airlines will fly twice a week to winter sun destinations Tenerife and Gran Canaria from October, the company said. According to BA, 640,000 Belgians visit the Canary Islands each year, with many having a second home there.

Catering Balls & Glory The extremely popular eatery, with outlets in Ghent and Antwerp, is scouting out locations in Brussels’ canal district after being turned down for a permit to operate in the capital’s fish market area under the city council’s new restrictions on new restaurant licences in the centre.

Duty Free Belgian Sky Shops International Duty Free Belgium, based in Diegem, Flemish Brabant, has changed the name of its duty free outlets in Brussels and Charleroi airports to International Duty Free. The company has also won the contract to operate the duty free zone linked to the United Nations site in Nairobi, Kenya.

Publishing Clavis The Hasselt-based children’s book publisher has been awarded an International Excellence Award in the category “international trade children’s and young adult publisher” at the London Book fair. Clavis was praised for its innovative approach to international sales and marketing.

Telecoms Proximus Shareholders of Belgacom Group have approved the name change of the main brand to Proximus with a vote in favour of 99.94% at the company’s AGM. The new name was proposed in March of last year and a new logo was introduced last September. The name Belgacom will now no longer be used. CEO Dominique Leroy also informed shareholders that the rebranding had cost €4 million less than the €20 million expected.

\6

New fish auction for Ostend

Nineteenth-century fish market will become state-of-the-art facility Alan Hope More articles by Alan \ flanderstoday.eu

P

lans for the new vismijn, or fish market auction, in Ostend have been announced, with virtually the entire existing structure due for demolition to make way for a new seafood distribution centre, the Vlaamse Visveiling (VV) said.

VV was created in 2010 with the merger of the market in Zeebrugge with that in Ostend, which was then on the brink of bankruptcy. It was immediately clear that Ostend’s 19th-century market, where fish is landed, sorted, sold and dispatched, no longer met the logistical requirements of a modern distribution centre.

The main auction hall and the historic façade will be kept; the rest of the buildings will be replaced. “The aim is to create an efficient and

© Courtesy arch-teco-ap.eu

technically well-equipped market that meets all European requirements,” the VV said in a statement.

Three building permits have been requested:

Proposal for Uber to replace the De Lijn belbus service in Flanders The belbus, the on-demand bus service offered by Flemish public transport authority De Lijn, should be dismantled and replaced with alternative taxi service Uber, according to a proposal by four CD&V members of the Flemish parliament’s mobility and public works committee.

De Lijn’s belbus aims to offer public transport in thinly populated areas of Flanders where demand is not high enough to support a scheduled bus service. The bus has to be reserved in advance, which can be done weeks or hours ahead of the journey.

The fare is the same as it would be for a scheduled bus service. However, the belbus is expensive for De Lijn. “CD&V wishes for De Lijn to remain a powerful public company,” the four wrote in an opinion piece which appeared in De Morgen. “But if Uber is able to replace certain remote buses, then De Lijn can offer a higherfrequency service on its basic lines. That way, more people will be able to make use of public transport.”

In return, Uber would have to agree to a “minimal legal framework” to ensure fair competition and passenger safety.

The principle of collective taxis is accepted

by De Lijn CEO Roger Kesteloot, who has been in talks with PickMeUp, a service similar to Uber, which is legal as it employs

© Kneiphof/Wikimedia

only officially licensed taxi drivers. “I am convinced that this service, which is less controversial than Uber, could be a worthwhile addition to what De Lijn offers,” he told the newspaper.

Opposition socialists were angry. “The government is pulling out and leaving rural bus services to others,” said Joris Vandenbroucke.

“I can understand that people are considering scrapping the belbus,” said Pierre Steenbergen of the national federation of taxi and hire-car drivers. “But why look immediately towards Uber? Uber is not a trustworthy partner.” Mobility minister Ben Weyts has yet to comment. \ AH

one for a workshop for fishing boats has already been granted; the others, for the market hall and for premises for suppliers, are expected to be granted in June, with works completed by the end of 2016.

“This will allow us to keep the fish market in Ostend open and give us the breathing room needed to develop further in the future,” said VV director-general Johan van de Steene.

The fishing industry in Flanders consists of about 400 fishermen, employing an average of five staff each onshore. Ostend has 39 fish companies, six major shipping lines and 25 fish processors. Apart from Zeebrugge, which is part of VV, the other main fishing port, with its own market, is Nieuwpoort.

Flemish fruit and veg companies sign agreement to merge The creation of a Flanders-based world leader in fruit and vegetables came one step closer last week, with the signing of a declaration of intent to merge

by Greenyard Foods, Univeg and Peatinvest, who together would create a company with turnover of €3.7 billion. The merger should be complete by the summer.

Word of a possible merger first emerged last month.

Greenyard is a major player in the frozen vegetables and preserves market, employing 2,200 at 13 production facilities in Belgium, France, the UK, Poland and Hungary. Univeg delivers fresh fruit and vegetables, employing 4,000 people in 27 countries. Peatinvest delivers substrate and potting compost to growers.

Univeg, based in Sint-Katelijne-Waver, Antwerp province, and Ghent-based Peatinvest would be entirely taken up by Greenyard Foods, a stock market quoted company, with the shareholders of the two companies being issued 25.5 million Greenyard shares.

Hein Deprez, chair and main shareholder of all three companies, remains, together with his sister Veerle Deprez, the reference shareholder of the merged group. The merger has to be approved by the three boards and by EU competition authorities. Greenyard shares went up 8.5% on the announcement to €18.35.

“The creation of a combined group of fresh fruit and vegetables on one side and processed fruit and vegetables in cans, preserves and deep-freeze on the other is a good thing for growers, retailers, consumers, workers and shareholders,” Hein Deprez said. \ AH

Green Tech Aircraft develops electric aeroplane The new Leuven-based aviation company Green Tech Aircraft (GTA) has announced the development of an innovative electrically powered airplane called Ypselon GT. The aircraft, meant for flying enthusiasts, comes with a high performance capacity but is also sustainable because of its electric motor and low operational cost.

The Ypselon GT was presented last week at the Aero Expo 2015 in Friedrichshafen, Germany.

GTA said that it wants to provide a solution for the biggest challenge facing owners and pilots of recreational airplanes: keeping operational costs at a reasonable level.

“The power consumption will only cost about €8 per hour in the air,” said David De Ridder, GTA founder and managing director. “That is unique because for current similar recreational

airplanes this cost can easily be more than ten times that.”

De Ridder added that the new electric system is much more eco-friendly than gas-powered systems and requires very little maintenance.

The Ypselon GT has a maximum capacity of two people and an extra carrying capacity of 220 kilograms. It can achieve speed of up to 320 km/h.

Ypselon GT is still in the development phase and, when finished, will initially become available as a self-built airplane. The first deliveries of building kits are expected before 2019.

Buyers are obliged to follow the Builder Assist programme.

Pre-sale of the airplane has not started yet, but anyone interested can sign an

The Green Tech team with Ypselon GT

“Expression of Interest”. If sales are strong enough, GTA will consider a complete factory-constructed version. \ Andy Furniere

\ INNOVATION

april 22, 2015

The positive entrepreneurs

Inspiration Days teaches the importance of a sustainable economy Jan L Hupkens More articles by Jan \ flanderstoday.eu

WWW.INSPIRATIONDAYS.BIZ

“T

o make economic development sustainable, we shouldn’t focus just on profit but also take into account human, social and ecological values.”

This is one of the messages that 50 Belgian experts and social entrepreneurs are trying to transmit to students from local business schools during the annual Inspiration Days event, organised by the Positive Entrepreneurs Network.

Contributing to sustainable economic development has been among the priorities for the government of Flanders since 2000. In its Pact 2020 long-term development plan, it encourages businesses to take social responsibility seriously.

But to profoundly change the way business is done, you have to look to the next generation of leadership. Reaching out to today’s students who will be the decision-makers of tomorrow,

© Courtesy Positive Entrepreneurs Network

problem,” says Caroline Godts, manager at the Sociale Innovatiefabriek, a Brussels-based organisation focused on promoting social innovation. “This requires innovation, as our classic economic models practise cost externalising, which has negative effects for society or the

Our classic economic models practise cost externalising, which has negative effects for society Inspiration Days is a first step in transforming the way we look at economic development.

“Social entrepreneurs start a business out of idealism because they want to tackle a societal

environment. Social enterprises do everything but that.”

Sociale Innovatiefabriek is delivering a workshop about social business models during Inspiration Days.

The Positive Entrepreneurs Network was founded in 2010

by Poseco, short for “positive economy”. Poseco’s mission is to promote such an economy, based on benefiting the common wellbeing of society.

How do these ideals translate into reality? To answer this, Poseco has created a portal where information and advice for current and aspiring entrepreneurs can be shared. According to Inspiration Days co-ordinator Nora de Herdt, it’s important to “make students realise that the economy is changing and that young people can start cool enterprises”.

After all, young people who are currently finalising their university education will be next in line to take the decisions that will influence our future economy.

By highlighting success stories of flourishing businesses that benefit people and their environment

as well as generating profit, initiatives such as Inspiration Days show that social entrepreneurship has the potential for growth and innovation.

In this year’s Inspiration Days, the Positive Entrepreneurs Network is teaming up with the business schools of the universities of Ghent and Liège, as well as Solvay Brussels. Taking the form of lectures, discussions and workshops, bringing together an array of relevant themes such as renewable energy, green logistics and sustainable food, the event is at the forefront of raising awareness about social entrepreneurship.

The concept features 12 workshops per school. The session in Ghent this week featured Maarten Kooiman, co-founder of Tapazz, a software platform focused on car-sharing; Daan Creupelandt, European project manager at Ecopower, focusing on renewable energy initiatives; and Benjamin Rieder, co-founder of Bubble Post, which specialises in environmentally friendly city logistics.

Bert Boone, CEO of Compaan, addressed how to integrate people with underutilised talents in the job market, while Lieven D’Hont explained his efforts to lower people’s impact on the world’s resources via a sharing app that has reached more than 10,000 members in one year.

Although the road to a fully positive economy is long, initiatives such as this offer a fresh perspective on how business can be combined with sustainability.

Q&A Katrijn Vannerum is a systems biologist at the Flemish Institute for Biotechnology (VIB) and one of the organisers of the new MSc in bioinformatics – the development of methods and software for understanding biological data – at Ghent University, a brand new curriculum in Flanders Why do we need more specialists in bioinformatics?

Huge amounts of genetic information on ribonucleic acid, proteins and internal bacteria are being produced on an almost daily basis, while whole genome sequences are being determined at an everincreasing pace. Ten years ago, sequencing a human genome took about 10 years of work by hundreds of scientists and cost more than €2.8 billion. Today, one technician can sequence a human genome for less than €4,700, in less than one day.

The accumulation of all this data has created a need for highly trained scientists. In addition, genes and proteins are no longer studied as isolated entities, but as part of

complex regulatory and biological networks.

Can’t “normal” molecular biologists take on this job?

To analyse all the data, we need a multi-angle approach. We need people with an interdisciplinary mindset. Biological systems, for instance, have randomly evolved into complex systems that cannot be captured in a few rules. There are more exceptions than rules in biology. Engineers, on the other hand, model systems, and these models depend on predefined rules.

The task of a bioinformatician is to keep both parties happy. A good formalisation of a biological question should reduce the problem to a

model that is mathematically tractable but that still captures the intricacies the biologist is interested in.

The new course is an interfaculty curriculum that aims to provide students with the necessary knowledge, skills and attitude to work in such an interdisciplinary context.

Can you give an example of the added value of bioinformatics in molecular biology?

One example where bioinformatics

can be really useful is pest control in economically valuable crops.

If we’ve deciphered the genome of a certain crop and of the corresponding pest – and we need bioinformatics to do this – we can find clues about why a crop is sensitive or resistant to that particular pest species.

Since genomes are the blueprints of life, the answer must lie in the genomes. By, for instance, comparing a crop that is sensitive to a particular pest with a crop that is not sensitive to the same pest, we can see where the crop genomes differ. This will provide important information for breeders, who can then try to breed into the sensitive crop species the genes that make the crop resistant. There are many examples of such applications, and that’s why the scientific community is sequencing all crop species, as well as their pests.

week in innovation Third of organ donors is over 60 The population of organ donors in Belgium has aged over the past 25 years, Het Nieuwsblad reports, with one in three donor organs coming from a person older than 60. There are also fewer donors younger than 20. One explanation is the declining number of traffic deaths. “Many of the donors used to be young traffic victims, while they are now more often people who die from a stroke,” said Marc Van der Vennet, transplantation co-ordinator at Ghent University Hospital.

Older organs are more worn than younger ones, particularly the heart and pancreas, but the higher numbers of older organs don’t seem to be having an effect on transplant failure rates, Van der Vennet added.

New oncology firm established Biopharmaceutical company ThromboGenics and Flemish life sciences institute VIB have founded a new oncology company. Oncurious will focus on the development of an antibody for the treatment of paediatric brain tumours.

Leuven-based ThromboGenics is the majority shareholder, with 90% of shares.

Oncurious will concentrate on the treatment of very rare paediatric tumours through the use of the antibody TB-403, or Anti-PIGF. It will first focus on the treatment of medulloblastoma, a lifethreatening brain tumour that mainly affects children.

Call for action against mosquito Experts are worried that the Asian tiger mosquito (Aedes albopictus) will settle in Belgium and spread dengue and yellow fever. They are calling for more monitoring to prevent health problems.

Since 2013, scientists at the Institute for Tropical Medicine (ITM) have been finding the insect in cargo that enters Belgium via ports and airports. It is often found in water in old tyres and in plants from the US and Asia.

According to federal public health minister Maggie De Block, it is probably impossible to keep the insect from settling in the country, but thorough monitoring of certain cargo could slow down the process. “The mosquitoes don’t seem to survive the winters,” said ITM researcher Maxime Madder. “But we are worried about the risks for Europe.” / Andy Furniere

\ 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 22, 2015

The organic gap

week in education

Experts call for more research on organic agriculture in Flanders Andy Furniere More articles by Andy \ flanderstoday.eu

WWW.BIOZOEKTBOER.BE

M

ore and more consumers and growers around the world have embraced organic farming in recent years. With a growing number of local organic farming initiatives, Flanders has solidly jumped on the bandwagon.

Yet sustainable farming still represents just a fraction of the region’s agriculture industry, and it remains absent from the curricula of most bioscience engineering departments.

The government of Flanders is giving the sector a nudge with initiatives to help new organic farmers set up, to assist experienced farmers in transitioning to organic production and to encourage research into organic farming.

The number of organic farms in Flanders has steadily increased over the last five years.

According to the most recent annual report of the government’s agriculture and fisheries department, 39 new farms began growing organic crops in 2014.

Part of this success appears to be the result of the administration’s decision to support the budding industry with subsidies. In 2014, the government invested €3.8 million in the sector, an increase of 6.7% compared to the year before.

The government supports, for instance, the Antwerp training centre Landwijzer, which offers a two-year training programme to those interested in becoming professional organic farmers. It also provided funding to Bio Zoekt Boer (Organic Seeks Farmer), an initiative of organic farmers’ association Bioforum and two farmers unions, for farmers looking for concrete advice on adopting organic methods.

For Bio Zoekt Boer’s Sander Van Haver, this type of basic training in organic farming is absolutely vital for Flanders. “Both young and older farmers have a very limited understanding of what organic farming entails,” he says. “It seems that universities and colleges devote little attention to the topic.”

Van Haver himself graduated as an agricultural engineer four years ago without much insight, he says, into organic farming.

Koen Dhoore from Landwijzer says his training centre caters to a different crowd than local universities and colleges. “We provide very practical training to people who have a clear ambition to become organic farmers,” he says. “But

The Flemish digital learning platform Bingel, created by publisher Van In, has won the International Educational Learning Resource Award at the London Book Fair International Excellence Awards.

Bingel was praised for providing children and teachers with a safe, motivating and userfriendly digital learning environment for use at home and at school, according to Datanews. The platform for primary school pupils was created in 2011 and was updated this school year by adding support for tablet computers. Its popularity has been increasing steadily, and it is used by about three-quarters of Flemish primary schools.

Complaints about registrations down © Courtesy Bio Zoekt Boer

Bio Zoekt Boer participants in a recent visit to an organic farm in the Netherlands

it is a problem that organic farming is not well integrated in curricula at higher education institutions yet.”

Both young and older farmers have a very limited understanding of what organic farming entails According to Van Haver, not many people recognise that, beyond the ecological advantages, organic farming also provides major economic opportunities. “Organic farmers distinguish themselves on the market from the mass of regular farmers,” he explains. “By focusing on a certain product for which there is a huge demand, they can be very successful.”

Organic farms today represent just 0.8% of the total agricultural area in Flanders. Van Haver

feels the government should increase its financial support of organic farming even more so that the sector can begin operating on a larger scale.

Another challenge in Flanders is the lack of robust research into organic farming. “There are initiatives at universities, mostly in Ghent and Leuven, but only on a small scale,” says Johan Van Waes, president of the Netwerk Onderzoek Biologische Landbouw en Voeding (Network Research Organic Farming and Food), which streamlines exchange of knowledge between researchers working around organic farming in Flanders.

“Among the different research institutes,” he says, “the Flemish Institute for Agricultural and Fisheries Research is especially active on the topic.”

According to Van Waes, traditional farmers could also benefit from additional research into organic farming, since it provides important insights into crop diversification and soil fertility. He hopes the growth of the organic farming sector will result in more financial support for future research projects. “A chair at a Flemish university devoted to the topic would also be a big step forward,” he says.

Q&A How is the Catholic network trying to attract more Muslim teachers?

We have set up test projects at the university college campuses of Thomas More in Mechelen and Odisee in Aalst. At Thomas More, Muslim students can become teachers in primary education without having to learn about Roman Catholicism. The test project at Odisee has the same goal, but for pre-school education.

A theology professor and head of the Catholic education network, Lieven Boeve wants Flemish schools to relax their attitudes toward headscarves in the classroom and to recruit more Muslim teachers Why do you think headscarves should be allowed to be worn in schools?

I am against prohibiting headscarves at school and thus don’t agree with the general ban on headscarves in the community education network. Muslim girls can also be the victim of group pressure to wear headscarves, which should be combatted. But an all-out ban should be a last resort, after intense efforts to resolve issues through dialogue. I’m in favour of the wearing of religious symbols at school in general – also crucifixes

by Christian students, for instance.

To prepare students for our multicultural society, we have to start by

Learning platform Bingel wins prize

encouraging respect for other religions at school.

You have called in the media for actions to recruit more Muslim teachers.

I feel that the diversity of the staff at schools should reflect the diversity of their student population. Muslim teachers can be role models for Muslim students. They understand the situation at home, what it means to have a migration background and the importance of Islam in their lives. With this knowledge, Muslim teachers can help them to form their identities and prevent radicalisation.

These teachers can also deal with

© Rob Stevens/ KU Leuven

prejudices about Islam that nonMuslim students may harbour.

Can the Islamic religion be taught in Catholic schools?

In certain schools with a large population of Muslim students, we already devote one hour of the three hours of religion or ethics lessons to Islam. These are, however, small test projects, and we are not sure if they will continue. \ Interview by AF

The number of complaints from parents being turned away from their first choice of primary and secondary schools for their children decreased considerably last year, according to figures from the Commission on Students’ Rights. In 2012, parents filed 171 complaints about refused registrations. A year later, that number decreased to 157; last year it was 107. The majority of the complaints last year concerned primary education.

The Commission judged the complaint to be well-founded in 25 cases. This judgment is non-binding, however: Students can try again, but the schools are not obliged to register them.

Universities take action against cyber-attacks Ghent University (UGent) and the University of Leuven (KU Leuven) are increasing protection of their ICT systems.

Unpublished research results of commercial interest can be the target of hackers, according to UGent ICT security consultant Michel Raes. The university is also concerned that staff and students’ personal data, such as user names and passwords, can easily fall into the wrong hands. According to Raes, no personal data or research results have been hacked up to this point and everything is being done to protect sensitive information. “We have a security plan in which we also raise awareness among the users of ICT applications,” he said.

Over the past few months, KU Leuven has employed a team of “ethical hackers”, who try to break into computer systems, thereby revealing any weak points. \ AF

\9

\ LIVING

week in activities Passchendaele Museum Weekend A highlight of the programme is the 100-year commemoration of Anzac Day, which begins with a dawn service in Polygon Wood. Also on the menu: Scottish Memorial Day on Sunday, the opening of the Decoding the Front exhibition as well as new walking trails with guided walks, living history with Belgian and foreign re-enactor camps, concerts, battlefield tours and more. 24-26 April, Memorial Museum Passchendaele 1917, Berten Pilstraat 5A, Zonnebeke; most activities free \ www.zonnebeke.be

Hageland Blossom Weekend Two days of outdoor activities in the fruit-growing region of east Brabant. Take a walk with a donkey and eat apple pancakes, go on a guided orchard walk, take a horse-and-carriage ride or sample local fruit products. 24-26 April, across Hageland; fees range from free to €8 \ www.toerismevlaamsbrabant.be

Draft Horse Day Experience a bit of Flemish nostalgia as draft horses compete in a log-dragging contest. Pony rides for the kids, live music and a market of regional specialities, including local beers. 26 April 13.00-18.00, De Winning, Sint-Ferdinandstraat 1, Lummen (Limburg); free \ www.tinyurl.com/trekpaard

International Storytelling Festival An annual event that draws professional storytellers from Belgium and abroad.

Evening programmes for adults and kids on Friday and Saturday. Sunday’s an all-day festival with simultaneous storytelling in different locations. English storytelling is part of the mix. 24-26 April, Alden-Biesen Castle, Kasteelstraat 6, Bilzen (Limburg); €5-€10 \ www.tinyurl.com/vertel

Zoniën Sounds This annual walking event in the Zoniën Forest in Brussels is already in its 36th edition. Four routes between 5 and 25 kilometres; walkers on the 10k route will encounter four musical intermezzos from around the world. 26 April, 8.00-15.00; CC WaBo, Delleurlaan 39-43, WatermaalBosvoorde (Brussels); €1.50 \ www.wabo.be

\ 10

Everybody’s art Flanders’ Amateur Arts Week gives local talent a push and a stage Marc Maes More articles by Marc \ flanderstoday.eu

WWW.WAK.BE

T

he official launch of the 20th edition of Flanders’ Week van de Amateurkunsten (Amateur Arts Week) is taking place in Antwerp this year – a city that has long played a vanguard role in supporting local amateur arts.

The Week van de Amateurkunsten (WAK), which starts on 24 April, offers a showcase of performance and works by non-professional artists – anyone in Flanders keen to show off their creative side. First organised in 1996, the event has grown into an important date on both the community and cultural calendars.

Half of all Flemish municipalities participate in WAK, organising no less than 800 activities this year.

“The idea is to offer as many artists as possible a platform to show their creativiy,” explains Katrien de Bruycker of Forum voor Amateurkunsten, which organises the event.

“One of the key issues is making local authorities aware of amateur arts by getting them to offer logistical and financial support.”

WAK is hugely popular among amateur artists and groups, and the forum launches ad campaigns to make the public aware of what’s on offer. This year, the annual opening event is taking place at Park Spoor Noord, and it kicks off both WAK and Antwerp’s leg of WAK, the Liefhebber Kunstenfestival.

Though several cities, including Maldegem, Damme and Kortrijk all host major WAK activities, the Liefhebber Arts Festival has probably played the most crucial role in making the week what it is today.

Liefhebber was first organised in 1998 and quickly became a

© Courtesy Fameus

The amateur choir Notches will perform during a full day of activities at ’t Werkhuys community centre in Antwerp during Amateur Arts Week

showcase for the city’s amateur arts scene. The city has played a unique role in the event, in terms of both support and organisation.

“Initially, Liefhebber was a city project, organised by public servants and staffers,” explains Wim Vervoort, director of the Fameus! non-profit, which now organises the Liefhebber festival. In 2012, the city decided to concentrate its various projects for amateur artists into Fameus!,” he says.

In addition to the co-ordination of WAK in Antwerp, Fameus! also

handles the management of the Zirkus stage rehearsal venue and the administration of subsidies for youth cultural projects. “Our mission is to make people happy,” says Vervoort. “By offering opportunities to amateur artists, a nice platform and a good setting, they can grow beyond themselves, create visibility and establish new contacts. That’s what Liefhebber is all about.”

24 April to 3 May

Fameus! has a management agreement with the city of Antwerp that includes an annual subsidy – the centre employs four full-time staff and a project manager. According to Vervoort, the real strength of Fameus! is in the cross-pollination of the different legs of the organisation.

“The symbiosis between the Liefhebber festival, the rehearsal rooms, the coaching and financial project support really benefits the amateur arts.”

Vervoort says that the essence of the Liefhebber festival is the combination of the passion and energy of both artists and local organisers. “We see that neighbourhood groups, youth clubs, cultural centres, hospices and associations organise events – that’s the added value here, and it results in a broad sense of togetherness.”

This year’s Liefhebber programme offers more than 120 events, with everything from exhibitions to small, intimate concerts and performances. The city’s historic Oude Beurs building, which housed the spice and condiment exchange in medieval times, will welcome some 80 artists in a huge exhibition.

“Neighbourhoods are participating in various projects,” says Vervoort. “‘Museum in the street’ invites residents to display amateur art in their windows. Some 15 streets and at least 250 people have joined in.”

Other events include miniconcerts in gardens, medieval chapels, orchards and private living rooms.

Across Flanders

BITE BioLicious introduces foodies to vast organic landscape Words like organic, free range, ecological, sustainable and natural are finally cool. What was once considered alternative or hippyish is now widely accepted, applauded even. These buzzwords have become part of our everyday vocabulary. And what they stand for forms the basis for BioLicious, a consumer fair in Ghent.

Launched last year, BioLicious is all about sustainable trends. In an event hall filled with experts on subjects like low-impact living, upcycling, building and transport, there will be loads of handson workshops and readings going on. And naturally, the organisers put plenty of food-related fun on the programme as well, including cooking demonstrations and tastings.

Let Sara Surinx of De Groene Keuken magazine sell you on the virtues of

a veggie-eco life during her Vegan for Beginners reading. Or have a chat with health specialist Laurent De Bremaeker, author of the book Echt gezond? De rauwe waarheid over jouw voeding (Really Healthy?

The Raw Truth about Your Food).

When it’s time for a bite to eat, visit Kevin Storms of Foodstorms while he presents Plant-Based Fine Dining, an introduction to vegan cooking. Storms has convinced many a foodie that no animal products are needed to produce an amazing meal.

Other standholders include Fairwine, makers of all-natural wine.

Sniff, swirl and taste the difference organic makes. They also offer a unique subscription that makes for a great gift idea.

The founders of Hello Fresh will be glad to show off their clever weeknight meal solution: boxes full of

© Courtesy De Groene Keuken

fresh ingredients and healthy recipes, delivered to your doorstep weekly. Or do you dream of making your own wine? Or honey or beer?

For all the equipment and expertise

26 April, 10.00-19.00

WWW.BIO-LICIOUS.BE

you’ll need, visit Bijenhuis. During the fair, they’ll be on hand to help visitors build their own bee hive.

Attention, fans of organic spelt pasta, fair-trade chocolate and additive-free almond spread: There will be representatives on hand from Bioshop Pimpernel, the organic food store with two locations in Ghent.

Antwerp’s Lombardia Hot Drinks, meanwhile, will be sharing the love in the form of their certified organic hot fruit juices such as GreenLove, Coconut Vibrations and the everpopular GingerLove.

Finally, the chefs at catering company Vers en Veggie will present their array of fresh vegetarian dishes made to order. \ Robyn Boyle

ICC Ghent,

Van Rysselberghedreef 2

april 22, 2015

From A(ntwerp) to Z(onnebeke) Heritage Day explores personal stories behind the heirlooms Denzil Walton More articles by Denzil \ flanderstoday.eu

WWW.ERFGOEDDAG.BE

Hundreds of archives, libraries and museums across Flanders are gearing up for the annual high point in the heritage agenda – Heritage Day. Flanders Today has put together an A to Z overview of activities you won’t want to miss

E

very April, Flanders experiences the excitement of Heritage Day. This 15th anniversary edition has the theme Erf ! (Inherit!) and examines the relationship between heritage and inheritance, with an emphasis on personal relationships and experiences.

In hundreds of archives, libraries, museums and associations, you can view thousands of inherited objects, listen to hundreds of stories and come to understand the passion and care that countless people and organisations throughout Flanders devote to taking care of this legacy.

From this fantastically rich and diverse selection of activities, we present Flanders Today’s own A to Z (Antwerp to Zonnebeke) of Heritage Day 2015, with some ideas to interact with cultural heritage in your own daily environment in a contemporary and meaningful manner.

ANTWERP: Flemish heirs of the American Dream Between 1880 and 1920, tens of thousands of Flemish people crossed the Atlantic in search of a better life. In North America, they tried to continue their traditions while adjusting to their new environment. Later generations of Flemish Americans became real citizens of America, yet remained faithful to the cultural heritage of their ancestors.

Flemish Archive and Documentation Centre ADVN, Lange Leemstraat 26 BERINGEN: The legacy of Limburg coal In the early 20th century, coal was discovered in Limburg. Until then, the region had been a poor agricultural region. The arrival of the mining industry changed everything. In no time at all, central Limburg developed into an industrial region. Share the excitement of the time and discover how Limburg has changed since the mines opened – and closed down.

Mine Museum, Koolmijnlaan 201 BRUGES: In the steps of master craftsmen Bruges has a long tradition of excellent craftsmanship. This knowledge was passed on from fathers to sons and apprentices, or through the 19th-century industrial schools.

Together with a guide, you will

© FARO

Participants at a 2014 Heritage Day event. The upcoming edition will focus on the relationship between heritage and inheritance

discover the personal stories of Bruges’ master craftsmen. The twohour walk ends with a demonstration by a young blacksmith.

Predikherenrei 4A BRUSSELS: Feminist memories Unearth the roots of the Belgian women’s movement and its pioneers in the exhibition 50 jaar strijd om gelijkheid (50 Years of Struggle for Equality). Read newspaper cuttings and study photographs from the front lines of the movement through the years.

Discover which books and articles inspired these women, and add your own source of inspiration to a feminist wall of fame.

Open-Vld office, Melsensstraat 34 DENDERMONDE: Take the train into the past Meet the steam locomotives of the past and discover how our current railway industry developed. What techniques have we learned from our ancestors that still exist today?

Children can learn how steam is created and experience its power during a ride on a real steam locomotive.

Baasrode North Station, Fabriekstraat 118. Check website for exact departure times GHENT: Reviving great-grandma’s living room How can you give all those things you’ve inherited from your greatgrandparents a second life? Take

a look at how a house from the 1870s was fitted out with furniture and decoration. And then interactively discover how these heirlooms could be re-used or recycled today.

It may inspire you to take a second look at all that stuff that Great Grandma left you.

KBOV library, Kraanlei 65 HERENTALS: By boat along the Albert Canal During a boat trip between Herentals and Zandhoven in Antwerp province, you can enjoy stories, old maps, photographs and prints of the landscape before digging began, through the construction of the Albert Canal to its present state and future vision. Discover the historical significance of this canal and its legacy for future generations.

Albert Canal, De Beukelaer-Pareinlaan HOESELT: Heritage in good hands Integrating heirlooms into a contemporary modern interior may seem at first sight extremely difficult, if not impossible. The craftsmen at Atelier Vanduca will demonstrate some practical examples of how inherited furniture and art objects can be given a new interpretation in a modern and rustic interior.

Atelier Vanduca, Tongersesteenweg 163 LEUVEN: Jewels of health care

This exhibition of old medical instrument illustrates some of the most interesting and important inventions and discoveries that have revolutionised health care throughout the ages. Find out about the people who played key roles in their discovery and how sometimes not everything went according to plan.

Museum Histaruz, Kapucijnenvoer 35 LOCHRISTI: Floriculture through the generations Discover the history and evolution of East Flanders’ floriculture – the cultivation of flowering and ornamental plants for gardens and floristry. Through a guided tour, objects and interactive material, you will learn about the challenges that floriculturists have faced through the years and their contemporary problems when considering the succession of their businesses.

Lochristi Floriculture Museum, Zaffelare-Dorp 83 MECHELEN: Treasures past and present Galerij CG displays a selection of what people inherit from their ancestors and what they in turn give to future generations. Explore their gallery of the “missing links” in Mechelen’s furniture history and

26 April

admire the heritage of Art Deco furniture. Bring along pictures of your own treasures – even on a tablet, phone or memory stick – and Galerij CG’s experts will try and tell you all about them.

Galerij CG, Sint-Janstraat 9 RIJKEVORSEL: 550 years of milling knowledge Milling has been conducted in the Kempen for over 550 years, with this knowledge carefully passed down through generations.

Discover the secrets of the miller’s trade in this exhibition in one of the remaining mills in the area. Learn about the miller’s secret language, how windmills were used to broadcast messages and why the miller was frequently the most important man in the village.

Stenen Bergmolen, Looiweg 33 ZONNEBEKE: Decoding the Front During a guided tour around the exhibition Decoding the Front, you can learn about communication during the First World War and what techniques have been passed down to today. The exhibition reveals soldiers’ letters, explains the use of pigeons and dogs during the war and the role of radio and telegraphy at the front.

Memorial Museum Passchendaele 1917, Berten Pilstraat 5A

Across Flanders

\ 11

WASHINGTON With smooth connections to more than 50 US destinations. brusselsairlines.com

or at your travel agency.

WE GO THE EXTRA SMILE.

\ ARTS

april 22, 2015

Where the grass is green

week in arts & CULTURE

New festival in Flemish Brabant castle aims to be a bit different Katrien Lindemans More articles by Katrien \ flanderstoday.eu

WWW.PARADISECITY.BE

G

reat music, tasty wholesome food and a low ecological footprint: the key ingredients for a summer festival, according to Dimitri Verschueren and Gilles De Decker. It took them two years to organise Paradise City, on the first weekend of July at Ribaucourt Castle in Perk, Flemish Brabant.

Paradise City aims to be different from other summer festivals.

“Gilles and I work in marketing and events and know how much ecological damage festivals cause,” Verschueren says. “We wanted to create a boutique festival that combines great music in an intimate atmosphere with an ecological and sustainable approach. Paradise City is not a fairy tale, though; it’s aimed at the future.”

Setting up a festival is hard work and requires a solid business plan,

Paradise City is not a fairy tale, though; it’s aimed at the future Verschueren points out. Since they wanted to focus on the green aspect, he says, “we teamed up with CO2Logic, a Brussels-based company that specialises in measuring and compensating CO2 emissions. The caterers will only serve organic and veggie food, and there will be filtered tap water, compost bins and ecological toilets.”

The festival is also the first to be

Ivo Van Hove wins Laurence Olivier Award Flemish theatre director Ivo van Hove has won this year’s Laurence Olivier Award for best director. The British theatre prize is one of the most prestigious awards for theatre in the world. Van Hove’s adaptation of the Arthur Miller play A View From the Bridge was a huge hit in London’s West End this year, called “visionary” by Time Out London, which went on to say that “it almost feels silly to compare this pure, primal, colossal thing with anything else in Theatreland”. The play also won Olivier awards for best actor (British actor Mark Strong) and best revival. Originally from Antwerp province, Van Hove has been the artistic director of Toneelgroep Amsterdam since 2001. His English-language Antigone of Sophocles, starring Juliette Binoche, sold out four nights at deSingel in Antwerp earlier this month.

90,000 visit exhibition dedicated to Jan Hoet Organisers Dimitri Verschueren (left) and Gilles De Decker on the site of their new project, Paradise City

entirely cashless. “Visitors can upload money to a bracelet and pay by scanning the chip at the bar, for instance,” Verschueren explains.

“There’s no hassle and waste with thousands of cardboard tokens.

Whatever’s left on your bracelet will be refunded and at the same time we’ll have a clear view of what’s been consumed over the weekend.”

This ecological and innovative approach convinced Perk’s council and Count De Ribaucourt, owner of the castle and garden, to give the festival a permit. “Finding the perfect location was difficult, as we wanted it to be in or just outside Brussels,” Verschueren says.

“We couldn’t be happier with this

private domain. It’s the first time the garden has been open to the public for a large event and we have an agreement to host the festival for three years.”

For its first edition, Paradise City is hoping for about 4,000 people each day. “We think the festival will appeal to people of all ages, but mainly music lovers in their 20s to 40s, with or without children.”

The music will evolve from indie and singer-songwriters throughout the day, to electronic music and beats in the evening. “We have three stages and have managed to book

some great bands, 40 live acts and DJ sets in total,” Verschueren says.

“Tout Va Bien, Aeroplane and Monkey Safari are the headliners on the live stage, and more names will be added soon. For the DJ sets, we’ll work with Brussels party concepts LOVE and Bruksel Jardin, Berlin agency Jackmode and party concept Abstrkt from Ghent. They’ll all host a stage and bring their own vibes to the festival.”

There’s no camping, but the website lists public transport and carpooling options, with carpoolers getting to park closer to the festival area.

Ribaucourt Castle

4-5 July

Perk (Steenokkerzeel)

Discover the coast with a weekend of walking Think of the Flemish coastal resort of Blankenberge and what comes to mind? Lying on the sand? Sitting in a deckchair? Most likely. But walking? Probably not. And certainly not walking up to 42 kilometres.

Yet every year since 1969, thousands of people have come to Blankenberge to walk. They take part in the International Two-Day Walk of Flanders, which this year takes place on 2 and 3 May. Aside from enjoying fresh sea air and partaking in exercise, the event will introduce you to the surprising other side of this busy seaside town and the surrounding area. You’ll discover the dunes and the polder nature reserves, the historic site of Lissewegge, the street markets in Zuienkerke, as well as old fishing harbours, windmills, village churches and war memorials.

Authentic cafes will open their doors to you, restaurants and brasseries will entice you with their seafood, local bands will serenade you and thousands of locals will cheer you on, shouting encouragement in their incomprehensible dialect.

So what’s on the programme? You can keep things simple with the gentle 6km family walk,

designed for children of all ages. Entertainment is provided on the route with strategically located bouncy castles, face painting, a fun park and a workshop on life in the North Sea. The 15km route is always popular with youth groups, scouts and schools, and offers time to take a dip in the sea or sit and enjoy the seascape.

Regular walkers might be attracted by the 24km nature walk. But if you really want to impress your colleagues on Monday morning, the 42km walk will give you something to crow about.

Unless you’re at home tending to your blisters, that is.

WWW.2DAAGSE.BE

On either day, you can start whenever you want between 10.00 (8.00 for the 42km route) and 15.00.

On Sunday the festivities begin at 15.00 with a musical extravaganza and the award ceremony: Everyone who completes a walk gets a medal.

The Saturday walks take in the villages of Zeebrugge, Lissewegge, Dudzele, Heist and Uitkerke, while on Sunday you can discover Wenduine, De Haan, Vlissegem, Houtave, Meetkerke, Zuienkerke and Uitkerke.

Registration is best done in advance to avoid the queues. However, if you’d rather wait to see what the weather’s like, you can register on the day in the market square. The fee varies according to distance but starts at €5. Several hotels and campsites are offering special deals for the weekend. You can also register via www.walkforthinkpink.be and raise money to support breast cancer research and awareness.

But take care – you might catch the walking bug.

If so, you might end up treating Blankenberge as training for the Four Days of the Ijzer, from 18 to 21 August, when you can join 40,000 people walking up to 32km on each of the four days.

More than 90,000 people visited the exhibition The Sea: Salut d’honneur Jan Hoet in Ostend by the time it closed last week. The exhibition was dedicated to the memory of the famous Flemish curator who died in early 2014. Hoet was working on the wideranging exhibition in Ostend with the sea as a theme, but he died before he could realise the project and it was carried out by three curators, including Phillip Van den Bossche, director of the Mu.Zee museum. The exhibition took place in Mu.Zee as well as at site-specific locations across the city. The multi-media works spanned the centuries and included pieces by both former masters, such as James Ensor and Picasso, and modern luminaries like Jan Fabre and Luc Tuymans.

Toneelhuis renovations to go ahead Antwerp’s Toneelhuis has reached an agreement with the city and the government of Flanders on renovations to the group’s Bourla theatre. According to Toneelhuis chair Johan Swinnen, they are ready to invite tenders for the works, which should start in 2019 and cost about €30 million. The renovations will allow Toneelhuis “to offer contemporary theatrical productions, while taking into account the building’s heritage value”. The neo-classical theatre with its circular façade was designed by city architect Pierre Bourla in 1827 and completed in 1834.

\ Denzil Walton

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\ ARTS

Too big for Flanders

Bavo Dhooge shines with his new thriller, which needed all of LA to bring it to life Rebecca Benoot More articles by Rebecca \ flanderstoday.eu

WWW.BAVODHOOGE.BE

Prolific Flemish novelist Bavo Dhooge is back with an eighth instalment in his LA series, a thriller that encompasses history, friendship and redemption.

T

here aren’t many authors out there as busy as Bavo Dhooge, who released no fewer than eight novels last year. And 2015 will be another whirlwind adventure for this Ghent native who has another six books planned in various genres. The first is Scam Alarm, the latest novel in his LA series.

A series like this was inevitable, as it is in a sense classic Dhooge. After writing several thrillers set in Ghent about a private detective, “I started to get bored with them,” he says. “So I began looking for a new series, but a series that isn’t really a series … because when you always use the same character, there’s only so much you can do with it.”

The 42-year-old had an idea for a story, he explains, “but it was one that needed a bigger setting than Flanders. I love American literature with its more filmic approach, where the lines between good and evil are blurred.”

Dhooge (pictured), who studied film and television at Ghent’s Fine Arts Academy, is known for his entertaining and comic writing, his detailed, almost tangible, depictions

I love American literature with its more filmic approach and his love for unusual characters and situations. Never having written a novel about average people living average lives makes him an oddity in Flemish fiction.

“My first LA novel was set in the 1920s, at the

© Jef Boes

time the ‘talkies’ were introduced,” he says.

“The second LA novel, Stiletto Libretto, won the Diamanten Kogel because it’s a little different.”

There aren’t many Flemish authors who have set their stories in the US. “But the location fits my stories,” Dhooge says. “I love characters who are a bit edgy. After winning that prize, I was determined to continue with the series.”

Despite the common setting and requisite black humour, Dhooge says the eight books in the LA series are also stand-alone novels.

So the reader can dive in anywhere.

Scam Alarm is set in 1956 on the outskirts of LA. Donnie is an eight-year-old boy who passes the time with his friend Buddy in Donnie’s mother’s motel. One day, Carl

Harper arrives, an ad salesman whose latest client, a tobacco corporation, isn’t happy with the deal he just botched.

And there seem to be people determined to get into the boot of his car, which is the last place he wants them to look. Donnie and Carl become unlikely friends, but Buddy knows more than he should – like whose body is hidden in the shack behind the motel.

Unlike the other LA novels, Scam Alarm is much more than a thriller; it’s a historical novel, a story about friendship, redemption and honesty.

“Of all the LA novels, Scam Alarm is the one that lingers the most,” Dhooge says. “There are a lot of autobiographical elements here.”

The tobacco corporation has a resonance

Paradijs (The Paradise), poet and children’s book author Bart Moeyeart has released the final part of his musical literary trilogy about life. (It comes with a CD of Haydn’s “Seven Last Words”). Mesmerising and beautifully illustrated by Gerda Dendooven, De Hemel features a nameless old man who tells us the tale of his final day on earth as he waits for death. A simple but suspenseful story that is poetic and picture-perfect.

cent girls ripping their frog prince to shreds, parents killing their children and the title character who does dirtier work than Cinderella ever dreamed of. Disney it certainly ain’t.

Fresh fiction Vicky en John (Vicky and John) Louis van Dievel • Vrijdag VRT journalist and author Louis Van Dievel has written a novel about growing up in the Kempen in the 1970s. Touching, funny and familiar, Vicky en John deals with a couple in their 50s whose youngest son leaves home. Just as the couple are ready to do all the things they dreamed they’d do when they were on their own again, their children start turning up one by one, reclaiming their old rooms. Disease, divorce and unemployment are just some of the reasons Vicky and John’s plans are shelved and their peaceful home turned into a campground.

De hemel (The Heavens) Bart Moeyeart • Querido After De Schepping (The Creation) and Het

\ 14

Vuil vel (Dirty Skin) Marita de Sterck • De Bezige Bij Marita de Sterck, youth author and anthropologist, had already written a book uncovering the often sordid origins of familiar folk tales. Now she returns with a collection of uncensored Flemish equivalents of 40 famous fairy tales. Shocking, surprising and frequently sordid, Vuil vel finds inno-

Arsène Schrauwen Olivier Schrauwen • Bries Although he’s not a household name (yet), Olivier Schrauwen has proved that he’s one of the most adventurous and absurd graphic novelists in Flanders. Visually, Schrauwen has come into his own, and narratively, he has created a sensitive and surreal story about his grandfather, Arsène.

One foggy day, Arsène boards a steamboat headed for the former Belgian Congo. Here he is met by his cousin, who is creating Freedom Town, an avant-garde city in the middle of nowhere – or that was the plan, anyway.

with Dhooge, for instance. “My father died of lung cancer.”

Scam Alarm “doesn’t contain a lot of murders, but there’s more intrigue. So it isn’t a classic thriller,” he continues. The 1950s’ setting also gives Dhooge the opportunity to intertwine themes such as the tobacco industry and its surrounding conspiracies, the heyday of television quiz shows and the witch hunt against Communism, making this a multi-layered endeavour.

One would argue that quantity often stands in the way of quality, but Dhooge aims to put that theory to bed; he’s written more than 80 novels in 15 years.

“I only write fiction, and I’ve found a system that works for me,” he says. “It focuses heavily on structure and plot development.

The story is completely constructed and planned out before I begin writing, making the process a lot easier and more straightforward.”

But the quantity of his work isn’t the only quirk of the S-Express (Dhooge’s nickname, as all his novels start with the letter S): He also writes across genres, taking in literature, thrillers, young adult fiction and even fantasy.

“I usually start my novels from the point of view of one of my characters,” he says, “so I haven’t decided what genre it will be when I begin. It only becomes clear during the writing process.” The thriller, though, remains his favourite and is the genre in which he excels, winning him both the Diamanten Kogel and the Hercule Poirot prize.

This year, one of Dhooge’s novels will be translated into English for the first time: Styx, a fantasy thriller released last year, is set in Ostend and focuses on Raphaël Styx, a corrupt inspector tracking a serial killer called “the Stuffer”. Hot on his trail, he is shot, only to return as a man who walks a fine line between life and death.

Scam Alarm ( Dutch by VBK

) is published in

\ AGENDA

april 22, 2015

When Art met… everything else

FESTIVAL

Art Brussels

Antwerp

Brussels Expo

25-27 April

www.artbrussels.com

B

y attracting new galleries and organising an increasing number of artistic initiatives, while still enjoying a strong collector base, Brussels is earning respect and firing up enthusiasm in international contemporary art circles. The capital’s largest art fair is a grateful witness to that.

For its 33rd edition, Art Brussels has invited 191 galleries from 33 countries, presenting both established and emerging artists. A new Discovery section welcomes 14 young galleries displaying artists that are not yet known or emerging within the European context. As a result, you can

discover the work of the Kortrijkborn, Berlin-based mixed-media artist Ada Van Hoorebeke, bringing together materials such as rod, rope, mirrors, batik and ceramics in layered compositions, fusing elements from folklore and subcultures. The Brussels Super Dakota gallery is also represented in this new section.

But, like artistic director Katerina Gregos says: “It is in the programme’s details that Art Brussels truly reveals its identity as a fair to discover the surprising, the unusual, and the adventurous.”

She could be referring to the series The Cinema, curated by the Italian-

born director of De Art Brussels has recruited Vleeshal arts centre bands with a link to visual or in Middelburg, performing arts to play here. the Netherlands, For instance, Ratzinger is or to the HISKfronted by Almine Rech Café offered by Gallery’s Matthieu Ronsse, Ghent’s Higher Musique Chienne is the Institute for Fine video artist Sarah-Louise Arts and its 26 Barbett, the Antwerp artists-in-resisynth-duo Mittland och dence, or to the Leo features the multinewly launched disciplinary artist Joke Artists’ Music Leonare Desmet and series on The the two members of the Stage. In a band Different Fountains collaborative started out at the Faculty effort with arts for Architecture and centre Beurss- © Courtesy Deweer Gallery, Otegem Urban Design in Caracas.

Stephan Balkenhol’s Grosser Kopf chouwburg, \ Tom Peeters (Large Head)

EVENT

FESTIVAL

Bozar Night

Brussels Tango Festival Bozar, Brussels

30 April, 20.00

WWW.BOZAR.BE

Bozar Night is an annual celebration of electronic music put on by one of Brussels’ most prestigious arts institutions. Once a year, Bozar keeps its doors open late and invites cutting-edge DJs from around the world to perform. This year’s headliner is American digital musician Holly Herndon (pictured). It’s not just about music, though. All participating performers are encouraged to riff on Bozar’s current exhibition(s) of portrait Faces Then and Faces Now. Visitors will also see New Technological Art Award laureate Patrick Tresset’s prize-winning installation 5 Robots Named Paul. \ Georgio Valentino

23-27 April Brussels Tango Festival is another reminder that Brussels isn’t just a European capital; it’s a global melting pot. The event’s Argentine musicians and dancers are keen to convert the curious, so put on your dancing shoes. The mood is just as important as the moves. Every night, BTF aims to

Twintig achttien: Free music festival in the courtyard of one of the city’s iconic buildings, featuring young talent from Antwerp performing hip-hop, rap, garage rock, Latin, ska, drum & bass and more. 25 April, 15.00, Den Bell, Francis Wellesplein 1 \ www.twintigachttien.be

Brussels Brussels International Guitar Festival & Competition: Fourth edition of the annual festival featuring the world’s most popular instrument, with 11 classical concerts, a show for children, several masterclasses, lectures, a guitar makers salon and the competition.

24-28 April, Espace Magh, Priemstraat 17 \ www.bigfest.be

CLASSICAL Across Brussels WWW.BRUSSELSTANGOFESTIVAL.COM

transport its public to a different world with co-ordinated dress themes. Since opening night unfolds at Molenbeek’s Karreveld Castle, the theme is fairy tales. The all-access pass gives you entry to BTF’s eight workshops, five evening salons and a programme of parties. \ GV

Brussels Bach Weekend: American jazz pianist Uri Caine and the ensembles 88, B’Rock and Bl!ndman revisit works by JS Bach, resulting in a fascinating dialogue between early, jazz and contemporary music, and between historical and contemporary performing practices. 25-26 April, Flagey, Heilig Kruisplein \ www.flagey.be

FAMILY Brussels Kermezzo(o): A new familyfriendly theatre and comedy festival, with dance, stand-up, circus, magic and a Dinosaur Zoo, where massive dinosaurs and other animals both engage and educate children.

In multiple languages. 22-26 April, Jubelpark \ www.kermezzoo.be

© GR-DR

FILM

FAIR

Docville

Brussels Design Market

1-9 May Leuven’s documentary film festival is all about balance and has earned a reputation for programming films that are as visually compelling as they are politically engaged.

Juries are presented with the best of Belgian and international productions. And, finally, Docville supports independent, obscure and otherwise unorthodox films – like oddball Australian director Matthew Bate’s retro romp Sam Klemke’s Time Machine (Bate established himself as bard of the slacker generation with his 2011 film Shut Up Little Man! An Audio Misadventure) – in addition to mainstream festival fare like Laura Poitras’ Oscar-winning Edward Snowden doc Citizenfour (pictured). \ GV

Across Leuven WWW.DOCVILLE.BE

25-26 April The month-long extravaganza that is Design September is still an entire season away, but you can get your springtime fix of the applied arts at Brussels Design Market. More than a mere stopgap, this fair annually attracts 100 international exhibitors and thousands of visitors. You’ll find furniture, glassware, cutlery

ACTIVITY Tour & Taxis, Brussels WWW.BRUSSELSDESIGNMARKET.BE

and ornaments from the 20th century, particularly the 1960s and ’70s. Think space-age Panton chairs and Knoll tables. The fair is open to professionals, passionate amateurs and curious punters alike. The event spans the entire weekend, but the best finds will surely have been found by Sunday. \ GV

Brussels City in Motion: Guided walking tour of Brussels in English

by Brukselbinnenstebuiten (Brussels Inside-Out), showing some of the city’s unexpected charms and the transformation it has undergone.

25 April, 13.30-17.00, departure from Beursplein \ www.brukselbinnenstebuiten.be

FOOD&DRINK Ghent Food Farm Fiësta: Foodie festival featuring a dozen food trucks, gin & tonic corner and whisky bar, DJs, retro barber shop, exhibition of artists and more. 24 April to 3 May, Tondeliersite, Gasmeterlaan 107 \ www.foodfarm.be

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\ BACKPAGE

april 22, 2015

Talking Dutch

VoiceS of flanders today

The sound of silence

Derek Blyth More articles by Derek \ flanderstoday.eu

WWW.30DAGEN.BE

I

t’s not that easy to find somewhere quiet in Flanders these days, but that’s what we’ve been told to do. The Flemish government recently launched a campaign called Dertig dagen stilte zoeken – Thirty Days in Search of Silence.

The idea is simple. Bijna overal is er lawaai, het is vaak moeilijk om echt volledige stilte op te zoeken – It’s noisy almost everywhere and often difficult to find any real silence, the government says.

But silence is important, according to experts. Je wordt er rustiger van – It makes you more relaxed; minder gestresseerd – less stressed; kortom, je wordt er een gezonder en gelukkiger mens van – in short, it makes you a healthier and happier person.

Hence the campaign. But that doesn’t mean you have to become a Trappist monk. Or sit in the middle of a field. Dat hoeft niet drastisch te zijn – You don’t have to do anything drastic; je moet geen dertig dagen zwijgen – You don’t have to be silent for 30 days; maar bijvoorbeeld elke dag vijf minuutjes de stilte opzoeken volstaat al – it’s enough, for example, if you can find five minutes of silence every day.

So where do you find this silence? The government has some tips. Misschien kun je bij je thuis, hoog in je appelboom of via een klein omwegje na het werk ook wel je eigen stilteplek vinden – maybe you can find your own silent spot right in your home, or sitting high up in an apple tree or taking a short detour on your way back from work.

You could also head out into the Flemish countryside, which, even if you live in a city, isn’t far away. De natuur intrekken, naar een karaktervolle plek in de buurt of naar een stiltegebied gaan – Find some nature, head off to an

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VCP @Veloclubpapa And so it was with a heavy heart we departed #Belgium until our next meeting #Bruges #Ghent #Flanders

Andrew Stroehlein @astroehlein Somehow I missed the most important story out of #Brussels last week... “Zebras on the loose” http://bit.ly/1EWoEHt

attractive place near where you live, or look for a silent zone.

And the government reveals this nugget of information: Flanders has created several official silent zones, stiltegebieden waar je heerlijk kunt wandelen en voluit van de stilte, rust en ruimte kunt genieten – silent zones where you can go for a good walk and enjoy the silence, peace and space.

This silence even comes with a government guarantee. Een stiltegebied is een kwaliteitslabel voor een gebied waar natuurlijke geluiden overheersen en storende geluiden van auto’s en vliegtuigen minimaal zijn – A “silent area” is a quality designation that ensures that natural sounds are protected and disturbing noises like cars and aircraft are kept to a minimum. Met andere woorden een gebied met een aangenaam geluidsklimaat – In other words, an area with an appealing “noise climate”.

The government also points out that many of these stiltegebieden can be visited with a stiltegids – a silence guide. I like the sound of that.

Tweet us your thoughts @FlandersToday

Poll

a. Wouldn’t it be smarter to spend the money on keeping people off the roads, and solve two problems at once?

50% b. If drivers are paying the tax, they should benefit from it. The roads desperately need work, so the idea is a good one

33% c. Ring-fencing taxation is never a good idea. Use the money to pay for schools or hospitals or something else

17% of the time, and you’ll be aware of the state of the roads, whatever the efforts of the government to patch things up. The argument that money raised from the use of the roads should go back into the roads definitely holds water.

One in three voted in favour of the

federation’s proposal, but half of you – the clear majority – thought it made more sense to put the money into alternatives to road traffic, which would both solve funding problems for public transport improvements and encourage people to partake of it.

\ Next week's question: The Flemish Red Cross has said there is no case for lifting the ban on blood donations from men who have sex with men, although the supporting evidence is slim. What do you think?

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

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In response to: Willem Elias quits as VUB dean after controversial Facebook post Miranda Martin These are perfectly valid points of view and it is rather disturbing this man has been forced from his job for expressing them

In response to: Flanders’ beaches crowded, but swimming banned Alan Puplett We saw the sign, thought they were joking!

In response to: Experts call for drastic action against Asian tiger mosquito David Pendry Wouldn’t some sort of fumigation be a good idea? Just a thought, that’s all ...

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the last word

Should revenue earned from a new road toll for lorries be put back into road building and maintenance?

It’s only to be expected that poll readers would be split on the question of how to spend road toll income, after the Construction Federation suggested it should all go to building new roads and maintaining old ones. Many of you are probably motorists at least some

Ben White @morningmoneyben My flight to Brussels is number 999. No sign of Herman Cain though.

Animal instincts

Memory discs

“We have an Africa section of eight or nine hectares. They should have given us a call.”

“These days they get it off the internet, or they stream it. But that’s thin air. The feeling is gone, but that’s what music is all about: feeling, with your soul, with your hands, with your ears, with all of your senses.”

Eric Domb of animal park Pairi Daiza in Brugelette, after Planckendael animal park in Mechelen slaughtered two “surplus” antelope and fed them to the big cats

Less-thanrisky business

“I’m aware that this is not entirely without risk, but I can afford to fall on my face. After all these successful years in the business, I have something to fall back on if it doesn’t work.”

Crime writer Pieter Aspe published his 36th best-seller and announced the creation of his own publishing house

Michael Brandt of Lobcédé in Zelzate, East Flanders, runs one of the region’s last record shops

Facing the future “I’m not yet ready to have my photo taken. And I avoid mirrors because I don’t want to see my face. Still, I try to keep a positive outlook on things.”

Marina Tijssen of Olen, Antwerp province, was the victim of an acid attack at an Antwerp Delhaize store in February

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