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january 13, 2016 \ newsweekly - € 0,75 \ read more at www.flanderstoday.eu current affairs \ p2

politics \ p4

I’ll drink to that

Bar managers and brewery suppliers come to an agreement on a new code of conduct that ends “strangulation contracts” \6

BUSiNESS \ p6

innovation \ p7

Older and wiser

Limburg platform LifeTechValley is giving a boost to tech startups, while supporting healthy ageing for Flanders’ citizens

\7

education \ p9

art & living \ p10

Ghosts in the machine

Flemish documentary filmmaker Manu Riche makes his feature fiction debut with refugee story Problemski Hotel \ 13

In tune with life

© Courtesy Opera Vlaanderen Kinderkoor

Opera Vlaanderen children’s choir celebrates 25 years Tom Peeters More articles by Tom \ flanderstoday.eu

For 25 years, the Opera Vlaanderen children’s choir has been grooming kids to join professional singers on stage and, in the process, has offered them life-long lessons about discipline, sacrifices and difficult people

T

he Opera Vlaanderen children’s choir is celebrating its 25th anniversary this year, an event that promises to be the icing on the cake of a whirlwind season.

With parts in the opera classic La Bohème and the Nutcracker ballet, a series of concerts and the brand-new Babel production, written especially for them, the diary of the Kinderkoor Opera Vlaanderen seems fuller than ever.

According to both the kids, who range in age from seven to 16, and their adult mentors, performing in the choir is not just a musical challenge but also a preparation for life.

Until the early ’90s, Opera Vlaanderen generally relied on guest youth choirs, explains Guido Spruyt, manager of the music department of Opera Ballet Vlaanderen. In 1991, together with Simon Halsey, then director of the adult choir, he launched a call for auditions to form the Opera’s own children’s choir.

“Our guest choirs were musically OK, but the level of theatrical talent didn’t always meet the expectations of the directors,” Spruyt explains, adding that the choirs were often

exclusively made up of teenage girls. “But when there’s ‘children’s choir’ in your score, you just expect both boys and girls, and often also younger children.”

Since 1991, Opera Vlaanderen has organised auditions on a semi-annual basis for boys and girls between the ages of seven and 12. Getting into the choir, however, is no child’s play. “Singing in tune and possessing an excellent pair of ears is necessary,” says Spruyt. “The children have to be able to discern and repeat different tones.”

Each year, the choir, which is today conducted by Hendrik Derolez, tries to get some 40 kids to audition to fill the gaps created when choir members leave. Boys are in high demand continued on page 5

\ CURRENT AFFAIRS

€950,000 for restorations Three Flemish heritage sites receive funding for renovation projects Alan Hope Follow Alan on Twitter \ @AlanHopeFT

F

lemish minister-president Geert Bourgeois, also minister for heritage, has announced a grant of €951,000 for three heritage projects.

The restoration of the Bloemendal Alpine Gardens in Beersel, Flemish Brabant, has been awarded €445,000. The garden was designed by landscape architect Paul Dewit for the 1958 World’s Fair in Brussels. It was awarded monument status in 2002. The garden forms part of the Huizingen provincial domain, just outside of Brussels, and is open to the public.

The restoration of the Sint-Karel windmill in Veurne, West Flanders, is receiving €430,000. The stone mill was constructed between 1814 and 1820 and declared a monu-

Nine in 10 smokers support ban in car with children Banning smoking in cars where children are present is supported by 91% of smokers and 87% of non-smokers, according to a poll carried out for the Anti-Cancer Foundation. “There is a gap between the expectations of the population and political initiatives,” the organisation said.

In 2015, 20% of Belgians smoked, with 17% smoking daily. A majority were in favour of the smoking ban in bars, neutral cigarette packaging, a ban on advertising at point of sale and an increase in the price of tobacco.

But politicians, the foundation said, are not acting on those statistics. “The support for measures against tobacco contrasts with the lack of measures proposed in this country or initiatives recently adopted in other EU countries,” the foundation said.

Belgium ratified the Framework Convention against Tobacco of the World Health Organisation in 2005, and it came into force in 2006. “Almost 10 years later, our country has failed to pass a number of binding measures.”

About 40 people in Belgium die from smoking-related illnesses every day. \ AH

ment in 1943. The restoration, in two phases, will return the mill to its original function. The first phase is due to be completed this year. The latest funding goes to the second phase – the restoration of the internal mechanics. The SintKarel mill is one of only two remaining in the polders area of Flanders.

Finally, the former Hotel Van Havre in Antwerp is receiving €76,000 for restoration works. The mansion, now property of the Antwerp-Waasland Chamber of Commerce, is built of traditional brick and sandstone, with the oldest part dating to the 16th century. It was finished in its present state by the Van Havre family in the 18th century and was declared a monument in 1986.

© Tripleclick/Onroerend Erfgoed

The ecological approach of Bloemendal Alpine Gardens was revolutionary at the time

Increase in cost of electricity and postage 1 January brought with it a number of notable changes to Belgian law. The cost of electricity will rise substantially. The average household, which paid €676 in 2015 will now face a bill of €911 on the same consumption.

In March, the “Turtel tax” will be introduced in Flanders, bringing the average household bill in the region to €1,005.

The average gas bill, on the other hand, will go down by about €100 to an average €1,193.

The ordinary postage stamp for mail within Belgium costs 2 cents more, to 79 cents for individual stamps, or 74 cents when bought in batches of 10. International post within the EU goes up 3 cents to €1.13, and other international post to €1.35 when bought in blocks of five.

New owners of electric and hydrogenpowered cars in Flanders no longer pay the one-off registration tax or the annual road tax. Drivers of transitional vehicles such as liquid natural gas and plug-in hybrids are also free of tax, but only until 2020. Petrol and diesel cars will pay more according to their emissions level.

A new sliding scale for water charges has been introduced: Households using little drinking water will be charged at a lower tariff than high users, with special conditions for the handicapped and those on benefits.

Water bills for second residences go up.

Small companies turning over less than €25,000 no longer have to submit a quarterly VAT declaration. About 28,000 compa-

nies are affected.

A plan that allowed dentists to charge a supplement for patients who had not been seen in the previous year has been postponed to 1 February, after the legislation was delayed. The plan aims to encourage regular preventive visits to the dentist.

Smoke detectors are compulsory in all rentals more than 70 years old, with the responsibility on landlords to fit and maintain them.

More recent buildings are already covered.

Finally, the new smart cash register is now compulsory for all restaurants as well as bars that serve food which have sales of €25,000 a year or more. Smaller businesses have until 2017 to comply. \ AH

Rail strike cost economy €80 million, says VBO Last week’s train strike cost the Belgian economy €40 million a day, according to the employers’ organisation VBO. Four in 10 train commuters turned to their cars during the 48-hour strike, the organisation estimated, leading to 50% more congestion.

The loss of time in travelling to work cost the economy €16 million a day, VBO said. Delays caused to freight traffic cost some €2 million, while absence of workers unable to work from home or find alternative transport cost €14 million. The rest is accounted for by delays arriving at work or working from home.

In Wallonia, no trains were in operation during the industrial action by French-speaking unions last Wednesday and Thursday. In Flanders, as many as three out of four trains were in service.

Brussels is the nation’s rail hub, with many

63,447

© Aurore Belot/NurPhoto/Corbisw

trains passing through between the two regions and from Limburg, for example, to the coast. Those national connections were affected by the strike, in particular the connection between Brussels and Leuven,

where only one in three trains was running.

Brussels-Antwerp saw about 40% of its normal service.

The intention by the unions to strike on 6 and 7 January, and again from 21 to 23 January, was announced in December. When it became clear that the latter strike would create serious problems for the nation’s students, all of whom have to sit exams during January, the unions postponed the later action. Public support for rail workers has been notably strained following seven days of strikes in 2015.

The national strike was further undermined by the Flemish rail unions’ decision not to take part. As Flanders Today went to press, rail unions were due to sit down again with management and the government to discuss the NMBS’s productivity plans. \ AH

369,800,000 11,605

children born in Flanders in 2015, 2.7% less than in 2014, the fifth year in a row that the birth rate has declined, according to figures from the Study Centre for Perinatal Epidemiology

\2

fewer visitors to Winterpret, the Brussels Christmas market, compared to 2014. The main problem was the lack of foreign tourists because of the increased terror alert level

passenger journeys made on the Brussels public transport network MIVB in 2015, 5.2 million more than in 2014

fewer companies went bankrupt in 2015 compared to the previous year in Belgium. 10,322 companies went broke, with the food service and construction sectors worst hit

people under the age of 25 unemployed in Brussels at the end of December, according to the region’s employment agency. That’s 9.7% fewer than last year, and the lowest number since 1991

january 13, 2016

WEEK in brief

face of flanders

The Brussels-Capital Region has launched a campaign in an effort to polish up the city’s image following the links to terrorism publicised worldwide at the end of last year. For #CallBrussels, three telephones have been installed in public squares – Kunstberg, Flageyplein and Gemeenteplein in Molenbeek – that anyone from outside the country can call to ask questions of whoever answers. “Who can better speak for Brussels than its own residents,” asked minister-president Rudi Vervoort.

attacked by three men, one of whom called her by name. It is not known if there is a link to any of the trials over which she presided.

Flemish artist Arne Quinze has thanked an Ostend family who filed a legal complaint against his work “Rock Strangers” – a series of massive orange fibreglass shapes arranged on the Ostend seafront.

The family claimed that the artwork spoils their view of the sea from their first-floor apartment. Quinze said the complaint had brought him valuable publicity but warned against the precedent: “If the judge should decide to remove the work, then you might as well remove all work from public spaces right away,” he said.

The City of Brussels will soon hand out doggy bags to 50 restaurants as part of a pilot project to encourage diners to combat food waste.

The project is being run in conjunction with consumer group TestAankoop and will deliver 10,000 food containers to the restaurants taking part.

\ call.brussels

An alleged “orgy” reported to have taken place at a Brussels police station during the heightened terror alert last November never actually took place, an investigation by the West police zone and the defence ministry has revealed. The incident, said to have involved eight male soldiers and two female police officers, made international headlines.

The French-speaking tabloid La Dernière Heure misreported what was in fact a farewell drink for the 20 soldiers who had been camping in the station during the alert, a police spokesperson said.

Karin Gerard, a judge at the Justice Palace in Brussels, was back at work last week just days after being beaten and robbed outside the building. Gerard, who has become known for sitting in a number of heavily publicised trials, was

Antwerp Zoo has announced the death of long-time resident Kumba, the 43-year-old silverback gorilla. Kumba was three years beyond the maximum life expectancy of a silverback and was no longer eating or moving about, the zoo said. After allowing the other gorillas in the zoo to pay a last visit, Kumba was euthanised.

Police investigating the Paris terrorist attacks in November have uncovered the workshop in Brussels where they think the bomb vests used by the terrorists were made.

The discovery came during a search of an apartment in Schaarbeek that had been rented by one of the suspects currently in custody. Their search turned up traces of the explosive TATP as well as three handstitched bomb vests and a fingerprint of Salah Abdeslam, the prime suspect, who is still at large.

Flemish public broadcaster VRT is phasing out Teletext for everything but programme subtitles for the hard of hearing, media minister Sven Gatz told the Flemish parliament’s media committee. The number of users has fallen since 2010 from 576,000 to less than 124,000. Commercial broadcaster VTM stopped its Teletext service in 2014.

Brussels is become less appealing to technology companies, with the region’s share of ICT jobs in Belgium

falling from 30% in 2007 to 26% now, the tech industry federation Agoria has warned. Some 26,000 people work in IT and telecommunications in Brussels. The region needs better mobility and lower taxation if companies are to be retained, the organisation said, as well as the creation of an economic climate encouraging to the growth and innovation of both large and small companies.

The federal gaming commission has proposed allowing smoking in casinos, in closed rooms with adequate ventilation, to attract gamblers back from online sites, which have become increasingly popular since smoking was banned.

The proposal is “a realistic policy,” according to Peter Naessens of the commission, in the face of the fragile situation of casinos and betting shops, which together employ 5,000 people nationwide.

The renovation of the Justice Palace in Brussels will end up costing more than €100 million, according to a parliamentary answer given last week by federal minister Jan Jambon. The exact cost cannot be estimated until the completion of a market study commissioned to see whether part of the building can be given a cultural or commercial purpose, he said.

Groupe Bertrand, the majority shareholder of Burger King France, has announced that it is looking for a buyer for the Belgian branches of the Quick burger chain, which it acquired last September.

Flemish media minister Sven Gatz has approved the prolongation of the FM radio licences beyond 2017 for Q-Music, Joe FM and Nostalgie.

In return for the prolonged licences, the stations have pledged to invest in the development of digital radio DAB+. No new licences are being issued, despite reported interest from SBS, provider of TV content online, and Mediahuis, publisher of De Standaard and Flanders Today.

OFFSIDE Berry confusing Cranberries may or may not be a superfood, but surely a cranberry should at least be made of cranberry?

Take the dried cranberries sold by Albert Heijn (AH), the Dutch supermarket giant that has a growing number of stores in Flanders. That product has just been awarded a prize by the Dutch consumer organisation Foodwatch – the Gouden Windei (a windei, or “wind-egg”, is an egg without a yolk). According to Foodwatch, AH cranberries consist of 68% pineapple syrup and only 30% cranberry flesh.

Contacted by Foodwatch, AH promised to change the product. The current product will this year be swapped for an organic alternative consisting of 60% cranberry and 39% apple juice as sweetener, with 1% sunflower oil added.

AH was up against tough competition, includ-

© Kristof Van Accom/BELGA

Chris Van Doorslaer Chris Van Doorslaer, CEO of Cartamundi in Turnhout, has been voted Manager of the Year by the readers and jury of business magazine Trends. Cartamundi is one of the world’s leading manufacturers of playing and trading cards.

Van Doorslaer, 54, studied civil engineering at Ghent University before earning a Master’s in Business from Vlerick Management School and an MBA from Flanders Business School in Antwerp. He also served for a time in the military, earning a Master’s in political and military sciences from the Royal Military School in Brussels. He is a colonel in the army reserve.

Van Doorslaer started his career with Unilever and became CEO of Cartamundi in 1997. Cartamundi – the name means “cards for the world” – was launched in 1970 as a joint venture by three card-makers. The company now has factories in 10 countries and sells in 120, with turnover in 2014 of €190 million.

Cartamundi also makes board games, a business that received a boost last summer when it

took over two production plants from Hasbro, the makers of Monopoly and Trivial Pursuit.

Production of board games went up from three million to more than 40 million units a year, 500 new employees were hired, and Cartamundi was suddenly the world leader in that field, too.

The jury praised Van Doorslaer “for his unstoppable effort over the last two decades to turn Cartamundi, a purely Flemish family venture, into a successful, sustainable world leader in the field of playing cards,” said jury chair Luc Vandewalle.

This was the CEO’s fifth nomination for the prize, and he had given up hope of winning, he said. “Our dream is to make the name Cartamundi literally true.

We strongly believe that we must bring people together around the table to spend quality time with each other.”

Trends also awarded a Manager of the Year prize to a Frenchspeaking CEO. That went this year to Dominique Leroy, chief executive of telecoms company Proximus. \ Alan Hope

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

ing the Liga Milkbreak, which claims to be a healthy snack, but contains 20% sugar compared to 0.03% fruit powder; Aldi pasta with truffle, which contains a microscopic 0.0006% truffle; and Rude Health almond drink, which contains 1% almonds.

“An informed and responsible choice in the supermarket is being undermined by the misleading information provided by food manufacturers,” said Sjoerd van de Wouw of Foodwatch. “Consumers have the right to honest information, and they are not getting it.” \ AH

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

Editor Lisa Bradshaw DEPUTY Editor Sally Tipper CONTRIBUTING Editor Alan Hope sub Editor Linda A Thompson Agenda Robyn Boyle, Georgio Valentino Art director Paul Van Dooren Prepress Mediahuis AdPro Contributors Rebecca Benoot, Bartosz Brzezi´nski, Derek Blyth, Leo Cendrowicz, Katy Desmond, Andy Furniere, Diana Goodwin, Catherine Kosters, Toon Lambrechts, Katrien Lindemans, Ian Mundell, Anja Otte, Tom Peeters, Senne Starckx, Christophe Verbiest, Denzil Walton General manager Hans De Loore Publisher Mediahuis NV

Editorial address Gossetlaan 30 - 1702 Groot-Bijgaarden tel 02 467 23 06 editorial@flanderstoday.eu subscriptions tel 03 560 17 49 subscriptions@flanderstoday.eu or order online at www.flanderstoday.eu Advertising 02 467 24 37 advertising@flanderstoday.eu Verantwoordelijke uitgever Hans De Loore

© Courtesy Albert Heijn

\3

\ POLITICS

5TH COLUMN Reception season

New Year’s receptions are traditionally occasions for political parties to assert themselves.

Majority party leaders defend government decisions in their speeches, opposition leaders attack them. Would that be the case this year, too?

The question arose as majority parties in both the federal and Flemish governments have tended to argue mostly among themselves, resulting in the media term “squabbling cabinet”.

The reception to look out for was N-VA’s, the party with the most voters and the most colourful leader in Flanders.

N-VA welcomed no less than 4,000 members, who partied, took selfies with politicians and basked in the party’s power. The long-awaited speech by Bart De Wever did not disappoint.

The party president applauded the work of secretary of state for asylum Theo Francken, to cheers from the crowd. He also set out his party’s policy. The V the party used during the election campaign returned, though not standing for verandering (change) this time, but for volharding (endurance).

The government is on the right track, De Wever stated, but more cuts are needed, particularly in social security.

That woke the socialist opposition from its winter sleep.

In a televised debate at the weekend, SP.A president John Crombez challenged De Wever. Social security is about pensioners, invalids, the sick, Crombez said. From whom does De Wever plan to take the money?

The N-VA president, who knows that public opinion largely supports him, retorted with common arguments. The socialists were in power for so long, they are responsible for the state the economy is in.

They spend money that is not theirs, building up debt.

De Wever stated that cuts could be made in the allowance that unions and mutualities receive to pay out unemployment and health insurance benefits, respectively. This angered coalition party CD&V, which is in two minds about the governments’ right-wing policies.

The Christian-democrats have close ties to unions and mutualities. These manage the benefits better than any private player or the state could possibly do, CD&V leader Wouter Beke said. He, too, opposes more cuts in social security.

Which brings us back to the start: majority parties squabbling among themselves.

Reception season has started, happy new year! \ Anja Otte

\4

No arms exports to Saudis

No outright ban, but Flanders declines recent permit request Alan Hope More articles by Alan \ flanderstoday.eu

F

lemish minister-president Geert Bourgeois has refused to issue an export licence for an arms shipment to Saudi Arabia, he told the Flemish parliament last week. Bourgeois, whose portfolio includes foreign trade, did not give details of the contents of the shipment.

Earlier in the week, Bourgeois (pictured) stressed that he was not in favour of an outright ban on arms sales to Saudi Arabia but would deal with each case on its own merits. The call for a ban had come following a day that saw 47 executions carried out in the country, including that of a prominent Shiite cleric, which led to heightened tensions with Iran.

At that point, Bourgeois said he would view each

application for an export licence “extremely critically” and judged the chances of any application being successful as “very unlikely”. The refusal in the latest case was based on advice from the government’s strategic materials service, based mainly on Saudi Arabia’s air strikes on Yemen.

Speaking in parliament, Bourgeois repeated his opposition to an outright ban, in the face of demands from the opposition socialists and greens, but also members of the coalition parties. He said that his decisions were not guided by economic considerations. “Jobs and employment here in Flanders play no role,” he said.

The government received no applications for export of arms to Saudi in 2015. In 2014, a

Germany and the Netherlands express concerns over Doel nuclear plant The Dutch government will for the first time carry out a joint inspection of the Doel nuclear power plant with the Belgian authorities on 20 January. The visit follows an incident with the Doel 1 reactor, which was shut down because of a faulty alternator.

“Both governments had agreed last year that there would be joint inspections, and this is a good moment to share our views,” according to a spokesperson for federal home affairs minister Jan Jambon. Both the Dutch and the German governments have expressed concern over the safety of the reactors, located in East Flanders, after a number of incidents in recent weeks.

Prior to the current incident, the Doel 3 reactor was shut down unexpectedly on 24 December after a leak was discovered in the high-temperature water pipes leading to the steam generators in the non-nuclear part of the complex. The incident took place just four days after Doel 3 had been brought back into service following a nine-month shutdown to investigate microscopic cracks in the reactor casing. The reactor was reconnected on 30 December.

The problem with the alternator at Doel 1 led to an automatic shutdown the following weekend, which Jambon said was proof of the effec-

© Courtesy Wwuyts/Wikimedia

tiveness of safety measures.

The Dutch socialists have said they would like to see the plant shut down entirely, while Dutch party Democrats 66 recently noted the age of the reactors in parliament, emphasising that “if something goes wrong, it’s not just a problem at the Belgian border”.

Dutch environment minister Melanie Schultz will visit Doel next week with representatives of the Dutch nuclear safety agency ANVS, as well as Belgian counterparts Jambon and Fanc. “This is something that happens often in Europe,” Jambon’s spokesperson said. “Belgium carries out inspections together with the French, for instance. It’s not a question of one country checking up on the other; it’s a question of exchanging best practices.” \ AH

© Courtesy N-VA

licence was granted for military clothing to protect against chemical attacks but refused for armoured cars.

Home affairs minister urges women to report sexual violence Federal home affairs minister Jan Jambon has called on women who experience sexual intimidation or violence to report the offence so that authorities can take effective action.

Jambon was speaking in parliament in response to a series of MPs seeking information on the government’s reaction to events in Cologne on New Year’s Eve. More than 500 crimes were committed in the city, 40% of them sexual assaults by asylum seekers and other men of foreign descent. The attacks have sparked a wave of debates across Europe as to the cultural situation of the refugee crisis.

“Sexual violence is not acceptable, never was acceptable and never will be,” said Jambon.

“Equality between men and women is one of our society’s fundamental values, and no one can call that into question.”

The protection of personal integrity will be a priority in the government’s security plan, he told MPs, which means it will be granted increased police personnel and resources. Reporting all offences is important, he said, to allow the extent of the situation to be better evaluated. “That will allow us to bring that dark number into the light – the only way police services and others involved can take effective action.” \ AH

Privacy Commission unhappy with terror suspect database The Privacy Commission has criticised a new database of terrorist suspects and extremists, part of a package of measures agreed by the government two weeks ago. The federal home affairs and justice ministers had asked the commission for advice.

According to the commission, too many services are to be allowed access to the database, with no clear indication of the limits to be applied to each service on what information it is able to consult or add to. The database also overlaps significantly with other existing systems, and no official has been designated as responsible for its overall upkeep, who would be consulted by the commission in the case of disputes.

The commission also criticised the fact that the database is being introduced as an amendment to

© Wiktor Dabkowski/dpa/Corbis

the law on the police service, which it describes as “very strange”, since the database will be open to not only the police but also the risk analysis office, the state security service, military intelligence, the prose-

cutors’ offices, the penal establishment, customs, the service for foreigners and the agency charged with tackling money laundering.

The commission concludes by giving a positive advice on the

general principle of the database.

Bart Tommelein, secretary of state for privacy matters, will review the legislative proposal to see where it can be corrected.

Meanwhile, home affairs minister Jan Jambon (pictured) has announced he has a “global plan” for tackling terrorism, following his promise in the early days of the post-Paris crisis to “clean up Molenbeek”.

The plan, details of which will be announced during January, includes better co-ordination and support of local workers, an increase in police presence on the streets and more resources for investigations into the financial streams that support terrorists.

Jambon was speaking as a ninth suspect was arrested in Brussels in connection with the Paris attacks. \ AH

\ COVER STORY

january 13, 2016

In tune with life

Flemish children’s choir join big league opera singers on stage

operaballet.be

continued from page 1

because the auditions mostly draw girls. Girls also tend to stay with the choir longer because their voices don’t break during puberty.

“If they have a strong voice and continue to look more like girls than young women, they can stay even until they’re 17,” says Spruyt.

Because the children are sometimes under pressure from their parents and disappointments can lead to anguish and tears, Spruyt and his team try to create a relaxed atmosphere during the auditions.

“They can choose the song they want,” he says. “It doesn’t have to be an opera aria; it can be anything – a folk song, or even a K3 song.

We basically want to see how they behave on a stage.”

Noa Calluy of Antwerp had sung in a small choir as a pre-schooler when her father signed her up for the choir auditions. She is 12 now, but she still remembers how nervous she was as a seven-year-old auditioning. “We sat and waited to appear in front of the jury, and we would only know the result in the evening.”

Noa is the only one in her family with a musical hobby. Andreas De Weert, on the other hand, comes from a musical family. His three brothers all play instruments, and his father is the director of a music school in Ghent. “That’s also how I learned about the auditions,” says Andreas, 11, who joined the choir in 2014. “I remember it was very short. I had prepared a very rhythmic song and a legato song, but I only had to do the first one.”

Sometimes it’s immediately obvious that someone meets the musical expectations of the choir directors – and then some. “In that case, Hendrik will ask the child to move a bit and to sing and act at the same time,” Spruyt says. “We are an opera house, so the theatrical aspect is important.”

Moreover, the main ambition behind the choir was always to train children so they could join the adult singers of Opera Vlaanderen on stage. “But, of course, our artistic director doesn’t tailor his season to the children’s choir,” Spruyt explains. “That means that in seasons with operas without a children’s choir, we have to find other challenges to develop their artistic talents.”

The choir has performed with

© Annemie Augustijns

Opera Vlaanderen children’s choir in the 2014 opera Khovansjtsjina

symphonic orchestras like deFilharmonie, the Brussels Philharmonic and the National Orchestra of Belgium. “In the last 10 years, the choir has sung ‘Kaddish’ by Leonard Bernstein, the ‘War Requiem’

by Benjamin Britten and ‘Carmina Burana’ by Carl Orff.”

Even more rewarding are the operas that were written specifically for the children’s choir, such as the 2001 youth opera Achilleus

by Flemish composer Wim Henderickx, and this year’s Babel, a collaborative effort between theatre group HETPALEIS and the music ensemble I Solisti del Vento.

Both Noa and Andreas sing in the new Babel production. “That’s so much better than a five-minute part in a three-hour opera!” says Andreas.

Rehearsals for Babel began last September. They have met two additional half-days a week in addition to their weekly Sunday morning dress and scene rehearsals with the other singers and musicians that take place two weeks before opening night.

“Those are very busy weeks, not only for the children, but also for their parents,” Spruyt says. In his view, being a member of the

children’s choir is so much more than a musical education. “Without the discipline, responsibility and commitment of both children and parents, we could not survive. When you have a family party, maybe you can skip your Sunday football training, but here you have to commit from the first minute to the last.”

But, on the other hand, I like this so much!”

“When they’re older, they often tell us that the discipline they learned here helped them,” Spruyt says with a hint of pride. “They consider it a sort of training for life.” Andreas, for instance, says that, in the last 18 months, he not only improved his singing tech-

Without the discipline, responsibility and commitment of both children and parents, we could not survive The children’s choir isn’t, he emphasises, “a hobby club. If we feel children and parents are not serious about the commitment, we talk to them and, if necessary, the collaboration may be ended.”

Though membership requires sacrifices from the children, they say they wouldn’t have it any other way. “We miss a lot of other things,” Noa admits. “For instance, I couldn’t go to the movie Safety First that my father had tickets for.

niques, he also learnt to better cope with stress.

By collaborating with so many different institutions and organisations, the choir members also become acquainted with the world of adults. The director of Babel, Bruges-born playwright Frank Adam, is exceptionally nice, the children say. Even when, they note, he has to impress on the youngest kids they have to sit still when they’re not singing or acting.

“What a difference from David Alden, the New York director with whom we did Khovansjtsjina last year,” says Andreas. “Everything we did was wrong.” Noa adds: “He even brought his assistant because he didn’t want to communicate with us directly.”

That experience doesn’t appear to have left any permanent scars.

Both Andreas and Noa say they intend to pursue a career in music.

Noa, who goes to an art academy, would like to become a vocal coach.

Choir members with professional opera ambitions of course can’t simply move up to the adult choir when they grow up. “Indeed, there will be a gap between the end of their children’s choir career and a possible adult career,” says Spruyt.

“But two former members, one of them a soprano, are now working for us.”

And the kids are very aware of that. During the Wagner opera Tannhäuser, they often rehearsed with the adult choir. “One of the singers was in La Bohème as a member of the children’s choir and was now in the same opera as part of the adult choir,” says Andreas.

“How cool is that?”

Children’s choir: a packed agenda For the next several weeks, the Opera Vlaanderen children’s choir will be particularly busy. Half of the choir sings in the Puccini opera La Bohème, directed by Robert Carsen.

The other half will star in the urban opera Babel.

Sam Vloemans says preparations for the ambitious new Babel

production, with three soloists and a prominent role for the children’s choir, started four years ago. It’s the first time the Flemish composer and musician has worked with a children’s choir.

“The kids are very open to what you say,” he says. “With a rather abstract story that includes some

70 languages, it wasn’t so easy for them. We used imagery to explain the feelings they had to communicate with their whole body, since singing isn’t enough. Babel clearly illustrates that opera is a visual art.”

Up next is The Nutcracker, which has small parts for the children who sang in La Bohème’s choir passage.

Most of the Babel cast will sing the third symphony of Gustav Mahler this spring with deFilharmonie and

the Ghent classical ensemble Collegium Vocale.

10-20 January

La Bohème

27-31 January

Babel

Opera Gent Opera Gent

\5

\ BUSINESS

week in business Air Brussels Airlines The carrier is launching a five-flight-a-week service to Toronto in April. The company is also to decide on flights to Mumbai in the coming months in the wake of the exit of Jet Airways from Brussels Airport

Automotive Punch Metals The Limburg producer of spare parts and industrial equipment for the automobile industry is prepared to spend up to €96 million to take over the Holden Commodore assembling plant in South Australia. The unit, an affiliate of General Motors, is to close in 2017, but Punch owner Guido Dumarey is confident he can turn it around.

Banking KBC Flanders’ largest financial institution is to recapitalise its Hungarian affiliate K&H Bank to meet new requests from Hungary’s National Bank.

Chemicals Solvay The Brussels-based chemicals and plastics group is seeking to sell its €1.6 billion Polyamide affiliate, specialised in products for the automotive, construction and textile industries, with seven plants worldwide.

Food Greenyard The world-leading fresh and prepared fruit and vegetables group, based in Sint-Katelijne-Waver, Antwerp province, is acquiring the Dutch Lutece group, specialised in canned mushrooms. The deal is the latest development of Greenyard’s growth strategy that has seen the recent acquisitions of canned food producer Noliko and the Peltracom fertilisers company.

Pharma Complix Specialised in the development of cancer treatments, Complix, based in Diepenbeek, Limburg, has signed a research partnership with the US Merck & Co group that could be worth up to €280 million, including future royalties.

Transport Bombardier National railway NMBS has ordered 445 train cars worth €1.3 billion from the Alstom/ Bombardier consortium. The bulk of the manufacturing will be carried out at Bombardier’s Bruges plant, providing employment to more than 300 workers between 2018 and 2021.

\6

Bar code of conduct agreed

Government and industry endorse new regulations for bar management Alan Hope More articles by Alan \ flanderstoday.eu

T

he federal government, the drinks industry and bar managers have reached an agreement on a code of conduct for the industry, aimed at tackling the problem of so-called “strangulation contracts”.

The months-long negotiation involved federal consumer affairs minister Kris Peeters, minister for small enterprise Willy Borsus and representatives of brewers, drinks distributors and bar proprietors.

Many bar properties in Belgium are owned by brewers, which license them to proprietors. The latter have long complained of contracts forced on them by their landlords. The contracts are often

© Sofie Coreynen / Visit Flanders

restrictive, forcing the small-business owners to sell only drinks supplied by the the landlord, requiring them to buy other products from approved partners –

from speculoos to toilet rolls – and controlling menu prices.

The code of conduct sets out a number of new conditions.

Managers will now be able to sell

a minimum of two special beers of their own choice, with the choice of other products such as biscuits, coffee and detergents left entirely up to them. Sales quotas must be reasonable, given the location and history of the pub and the experience of the manager, and be reviewed annually.

Managers will now be required to follow a training course in business administration, hygiene, conflict management and alcohol abuse. “I wasn’t going to let the cry for help from the drinks service industry go unheard,” Peeters said. “This is a crucial economic sector that employs 120,000 people.”

“Serious objections” to handling of Uplace shopping complex

Flanders Make invests €50 million in manufacturing technology

The Council of State has raised “serious objections” to the government of Flanders’ handling of Uplace, the planned shopping and leisure complex to be built in Machelen, just outside of Brussels. According to Bart Somers, mayor of Mechelen and one of the leading opponents of the complex, the chance is strong that the latest development could signal the end of the development.

The Council of State, which scrutinises the actions of governments at all levels, took issue with two points. In granting its final authorisation for Uplace, the government of Flanders raised two questions about mobility: a shuttle bus serving the complex, and a station on the new regional express network.

If no guarantees were made by the end of 2017 regarding those issues, the government said, the new plans for the complex would revert to the previous plan, which, among other differences, involved permits for fewer retail spaces and parking.

Flanders Make, the strategic research centre for the Flemish manufacturing industry, has gathered €50 million for investments in 21 new projects. The centre collected the funds from the government of Flanders and 34 companies in the region.

Flanders Make supports companies in realising innovations in vehicles, machines and factories. The centre invests in technology to develop selfdriving vehicles for public transport and in research on increasing the intelligence and energy-efficiency of machines. Another project revolves around 3D printing.

The centre has already helped Punch Powertrain, based in Sint-Truiden, to decrease the fuel consumption of hybrid cars by 17%. “Flanders Make brings companies together for open innovation and bridges the gap between research at universities and in industry,” said Flemish innovation minister Philippe Muyters. “The results are applicable for a variety of different companies, which are often faced with similar technological challenges.”

The manufacturing industry in Flanders consists of about 5,700 high-tech companies that employ some 200,000 people. Flanders Make has offices in Lommel in Limburg province, in Leuven and at the five Flemish universities. \ Andy Furniere

The Council said that decision was contrary to established practice set out in the Town Planning Code. Assigning responsibility for the realisation of the plan to a third party, such as public transport authority De Lijn, was also not permissible.

The comments were seized on by opponents of the project, whose objections range from its effect on traffic congestion and pollution to the effect on retail in town centres from Vilvoorde to Leuven. “This advice makes it clear that Uplace is further away now than it was a couple of weeks ago,” Somers said.

“Uplace is satisfied with the advice,” the development company said in a statement.

The council’s remarks would strengthen the position of the government, it added, and its objections were all “perfectly easy to resolve”.

The government of Flanders will deliver its response to the council’s criticism by Friday, ministerpresident Geert Bourgeois told parliament. \ AH

Delhaize opens new distribution centre in Ninove Supermarket chain Delhaize has started construction on a new distribution centre in Ninove, East Flanders, which will take the pressure off storage space in local stores. The new centre should be operational in 2018 and represents an investment of €143 million.

Taking up 200,000 square metres of space and employing 2,000 people, the centre will be built on a site already owned by Delhaize. The site will mainly work with products with a high rotation, such as drinks, breakfast cereals, pasta and toilet paper.

“The new distribution centre in Ninove is part of the long-term vision of Delhaize to make its logistic capacity stronger and more efficient,” said CEO Denis Knoops.

The opening of the works was attended by Flemish minister-president Geert Bourgeois. “The construction of an automated distribution centre in Ninove is a sign of confidence in the future,” he said. “I am particularly pleased that Delhaize is anchoring its investment in Flanders.” \ AH

Ghent architects chosen to design new VRT headquarters The contract to design the new VRT building on the current Reyers site in the Brussels commune of Schaarbeek has been awarded to the Ghent firm Robbrecht & Daem (R&D), the public broadcaster has announced.

R&D will team up with Dierendonckblancke Architecten, also from Ghent, on the project.

R&D, made up of architects Paul Robbrecht and Hilde Daem, was founded in the late 1970s and has built up a strong reputation at home and abroad for such landmark works as the Concertgebouw in Bruges, the Stadshal in Ghent, the Antwerp Zoo extension and Cinematek in Brussels, as well as the Boijmans Van Beuningen museum in Rotterdam and the Whitechapel Gallery in London.

The firm has also won a competition to develop the new Belgian Beer Palace in the stock exchange building in Brussels.

For VRT, R&D has chosen to create a “cultural space on a human scale”, in

© Filip Dujardin/VRT

a building of two parts joined at the second floor, surrounding an open space that will be accessible to the public, and which will be a venue for concerts and other events for up to 2,000 people.

“From the beginning it was clear to us that this building needed to be open and accessible,” Robbrecht said. “A broadcast building is not an office block, it’s a cultural building, all about creativity aimed at the public. So the public has to be involved.”

R&D beat five shortlisted candidates chosen from a total of 66 international teams that responded to the Flemish government’s invitation. \ AH

\ INNOVATION

january 13, 2016

Healthy, wealthy and wise

week in innovation

Integrated care start-ups give needed boost to Limburg economy Senne Starckx More articles by Senne \ flanderstoday.eu

The launch of LifeTechValley in Limburg marks the definitive start of a knowledge economy that’s focused on healthy ageing, and the end of an era dominated by economic regression.

L

ife expectancy in this country keeps increasing. Babies born in 2014 can look forward to living an average 78 years ( for males) or 83 years ( for females). The statistics are, however, a little misleading when we want to estimate how many years average pensioners today still have ahead of them.

For 65-year-old men, life expectancy exceeds 83. For women of the same age, this rises to 87. The reason why the statistics differ is that the second calculation doesn’t need to take premature deaths into account.

So we’re all getting older than we’d expected. Good news for us, of course. But for the treasury, it’s a different matter; the sharp rise in the ageing population takes a huge amount of the public healthcare budget.

One partial solution is to lower the impact of care for the elderly on this budget. That is why Flanders has been investing heavily for a number of years in innovations that keep the third age healthy for longer – so they can live independently in their own homes without too much assistance. An increase in “healthy years” means a drastic decrease in the number of expensive hospital admissions, consultations, therapies and special care programmes.

Flanders’ investments in initiatives concerning healthy ageing are heavily concentrated in Limburg. Since the closure of the coalmines at the beginning of the 1990s and, more recently, the closure of Ford Genk, the area around Hasselt and Genk has been re-inventing itself in all kinds of ways. To support that economic renaissance, Flanders has adopted a recovery scheme called Salk. So why not invest a large part of the Salk money in R&D that keeps the elderly – and the health-care budget – healthy?

A principal portion of the €317 million plan does indeed target innovations in the life

LifeTechValley director Piet Stinissen

LIFETECHVALLEY.BE

quicker and better valorisation of care products and services,” says Stinissen.

Central Limburg now has more than 40 healthy ageing companies. According to Stinissen, their future is bright. “Around the world we are seeing that companies that anticipate ageing have a very strong growth potential.”

One of these is Cubigo, which developed an online platform sometimes dubbed “Facebook for the third age”. The aim is to make the daily lives of older people as easy as possible. Cubigo controls, for example, medication schemes, connects with a nurse or a doctor and keeps personal medical information up to date.

“Users can easily fill in their blood values,” says Geert Houben, CEO of Cubigo.

“Then doctors can continuously and remotely control their blood pressure levels.”

Cubigo is already a © Photo courtesy Cubigo success The launch of LifeTechValley is a shot in the arm for story.

Limburg’s economy, and a positive step for elderly care Earlier this year, Google declared the company one of the 15 best sciences and health-care sector. To stimulate start-ups in the world. It also has an office in San both public organisations and private compaFrancisco, where it has just signed a contract nies in these sectors, the Flemish government with a major chain of rest homes in the US. launched an innovation platform in December: This illustrates that LifeTechValley isn’t limited LifeTechValley. to Limburg or Flanders. Houben: “I really believe in this platform. It’s entirely pinned down to one theme: healthy ageing. But it’s bigger than Limburg alone. That’s why I believe we should work to tie LifeTechValley in to an international network.”

One of Cubigo’s functions is to alert the elderly when they have to take their pills. But because they don’t necessarily carry their tablets or smartphones everywhere, another company has developed a solution: a smart sticking plaster.

“Forgetting is still the major cause of people not taking pills correctly,” says Wim De Geest, CEO of TheraSolve. “So the best way to promote therapy consistency is by sending out a clear signal “Life sciences and health care are sectors in that can be felt anytime, anywhere. That signal which companies tend to work closely with can’t be audiovisual, as it might not be seen or universities, secondary schools, the social heard all the time.” service sector and local governments,” says De Geest and his colleagues developed a plaster, Marc Vandeput, deputy of Limburg’s provindubbed MemoPatch, that sends out a prickling cial council. “The created added value is thus sensation when it’s time for the wearer to take substantial. LifeTechValley fits perfectly in the their pills. “The feeling is caused by micro-elecSalk philosophy to restore and reinforce the tronics integrated in the plaster,” he explains. economic DNA of our province.”

“Ideally it can be used by patients who have LifeTechValley currently supports about 10 to take regular medicines against cancer, viral companies – among them several start-ups – infections, Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s. Thanks that develop products and services in the area to the plaster, they can live a bit more indepenof “integrated care”. “The aim is that LifeTechdently.”

Valley will grow into an international hotspot Healthy ageing might just become the key solufor companies focused on healthy ageing,” says tion to keeping care for the elderly affordable.

Piet Stinissen, dean at Hasselt University and From another perspective, the LifeTechValley director of LifeTechValley. platform could turn out to be the trump card “With our network of partners, which are both that makes Limburg’s economy healthy again. local and international, we set initiatives in “Since the start of healthy ageing-related R&D motion that help existing companies and startin our province, more than 2,000 jobs have been ups grow.” created in this sector,” says Stinissen, who really One of these initiatives is CareVille, an “experis the originator of the project. “We believe that imental garden” where companies can try out if we keep going in this direction, we can create their innovations with end-users, and thus optianother 2,000 jobs. That would be a major mise them. “Cross-pollination has to lead to a economic boost for Limburg.”

It’s entirely pinned down to one theme – healthy ageing – and it’s bigger than Limburg alone

Antwerp researchers need volunteer noses

Antwerp University is looking for healthy volunteers who want to donate a sample of snot, to examine the bacteria in the nose. Scientists will compare it with that of sinusitis patients, with the goal of developing a treatment against the condition. Sinusitis is most often the result of an infection that causes the mucus membrane lining the inside of the nose and the sinuses to become inflamed. Bacteria play an important role. “Healthy people possibly have a good microbial system and balance, while people with chronic sinusitis possibly have another bacterial composition,” project co-ordinator Sarah Lebeer said.

“We want to map the processes better and develop an alternative for antibiotics as treatment.”

Sector to increase use of biosomilars Federal health minister Maggie De Block has signed an agreement with the medical sector and the pharmaceutical industry to encourage the use of biosimilars in Belgium. Biosimilars are generic copies of biological drugs with expired patents. Like other generic pharmaceuticals, biosimilars are therapeutically equivalent to the original but have a lower production cost. In this case, they are about 20% cheaper than the original. The medical sector and pharmaceutical industries have committed to using and prescribing more biosimilars in local hospitals, which is “necessary to keep health care affordable”, said De Block, “for both citizens and the government.”

DNA tests for unborn babies criticised Heredity researchers at the University of Leuven (KU Leuven) have criticised the practice of pharmaceutical companies offering pregnant women DNA tests that supposedly predict whether they will have a baby without disabilities. One of the companies is Gendia, from Antwerp.

Via blood samples from both parents, Gendia tests whether the baby will be born deaf, blind or with a mental disability. The test costs €400. The couple can then decide whether they will continue the pregnancy.

KU Leuven experts in human heredity say this is a very dangerous evolution because it’s not scientifically possible to be 100% certain that any baby will be born with or without certain medical conditions. The researchers say the tests could lead to unnecessary abortions. \ Andy Furniere

\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

january 13, 2016

Body positivity now

week in education

Students attract clicks and applause with self-acceptance message Toon Lambrechts More articles by Toon \ flanderstoday.eu

tinyurl.com/cnqrflws

A

trio of Flemish communications students have created a short video about self-image issues among teens and young adults as part of their coursework at the Artevelde University College in Ghent. To their own surprise, the clip has had a reach far beyond their teachers and fellow students.

The #conqueryourflaws video opens with a young man scrolling through a feed of fashion photos, all of them showing impossibly perfect bodies. Two other young people with glum expressions idle through the empty streets of the abandoned town of Doel. When asked to describe themselves, they offer up only negative qualities – “unattractive”, “stressed” and “plain”.

The clip then switches to Sabine Peeters, a makeup artist and body positivity advocate.

Looking straight into the camera, she urges viewers to look for and focus on their positive aspects, and to learn to love themselves.

Sofie Van Speybroeck, one of the students who made the clip, says many adolescents today struggle with problems with self-esteem. “A lot of young people feel deeply unhappy with themselves. If you see the data from surveys, it’s almost dramatic how many young people are not happy with their appearance,” she says.

“Hence our choice to do something about selfesteem among young people.”

A lot of young people feel deeply unhappy with themselves The students recruited two fashion industry professionals to participate in the project – Peeters and fashion blogger Joppe De Campeneere. “This certainly helped draw attention to our clip,” Van Speybroeck says. “But the fact that various media picked it up so quickly was a surprise. That shows that it remains important to talk about the message of being happy with yourself.”

De Campeneere, who plays the young man looking at the fashion images, writes the popular blog Start to Fashion. He was immediately enthusiastic about the message. “The most important thing is that people are taught to like themselves and to focus on the positive side we all have,” he says.

The Catholic education network will support schools with lots of Muslim pupils if they want to adjust their summer exam schedules to take Ramadan into account.

The Islamic month of fasting takes place in June this year.

During Ramadan, Muslims are not allowed to eat between sunrise and sunset. “That means Muslim students will have to get up very early to eat in the morning and stay up until late for the evening meal,” Willy Bombeek, spokesperson for the Catholic education network, told Het Nieuwsblad. Schools can adjust by planning the most difficult exams on Monday and as far as possible letting pupils take exams in the morning.

More schools hire debt collectors © Courtesy Conquer Your Flaws

Joppe De Campeneere (left) and the three students working on their clip in Doel

In De Campeneere’s view, the media – but also ordinary citizens – tend to skew toward the negative. When pictures of celebrities with no makeup surface, they are gleefully shared and discussed.

“Negative attitudes about themselves makes people afraid,” explains De Campeneere. “Many people, especially young people, are dissatisfied with certain aspects of their appearance and, therefore, see themselves as unattractive. They fear that others will feel the same way about them. This campaign aims to clearly say that everyone is beautiful in their own way, and that believing in yourself is extremely important.”

De Campeneere was also surprised that the film quickly garnered more than 2,000 views. “I honestly did not expect it. I attached my name to it because one of the students is a good friend, because I obviously agree with the message and because I really appreciate the work of Sabine Peeters.”

After the clip went live, De Campeneere didn’t pay it much attention – until one of the students told him it was being shared on social media and getting coverage in mainstream media. “That shows that this is a pressing topic,” he says.

De Campeneere’s blog centres on fashion, an industry that is often criticised for promoting unrealistic beauty standards at the expense of normal-looking bodies. Doesn’t that fly in the face of the message of #conqueryourflaws? (In a pivotal moment in the clip, the three young

people also receive a professional makeover from Peeters that appears to instil in them the confidence they lack.)

“I don’t think so. There is an evolution in progress,” he says. “I notice that when I am present at fashion events, there is much less of an emphasis on having the perfect body. The impact of what you see on the streets is increasing, and there, almost nobody is the ‘perfect’ size.”

Fashion bloggers are becoming more and more influential, he says, in attracting attention to brands. “As a blogger, you are a kind of friend who’s trying out new things, and not a perfectly sized model. The fashion houses have to take this in account.”

The clip and the accompanying social media campaign with the #conqueryourflaws hashtag, flowed from an assignment the three students had to complete for a digital storytelling course at Artevelde. Will there be a sequel?

“Right now there is just no time for that,” says Van Speybroeck. “Everyone is in the middle of the exam period. But we definitely want to go on with this later, together with Sabine Peeters.”

They’re not sure yet when and how, but they hope to make another clip. “We noticed that this format appeals to people and is easy to share,” says Van Speybroeck. As to how their project will be assessed by their teachers, that they won’t know until next month. “But I’m quite confident,” she says.

UAntwerp awards honorary doctorate to Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui Antwerp dancer and choreographer Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui will receive this year’s honorary doctorate from Antwerp University (UAntwerp) for overall achievement. Cherkaoui will receive the prestigious academic title on 23 March, together with four academics also receiving honorary doctorates.

Cherkaoui (pictured) was a student of Flemish contemporary dance pioneer Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker and worked with dance company Les Ballets C de la B and theatre company Het Toneelhuis. In 2010, he founded his own dance company, Eastman. Last year, he was appointed the artistic director of the Royal Ballet Flanders. Among his many international awards is

Support for Ramadan exam provisions

the 2014 Laurence Olivier Award for Best New Dance Production for Puz/zle.

“Cherkaoui is one of the world’s most original and productive contemporary choreographers,” said UAntwerp rector Alain Verschoren. “He has developed an impressive oeuvre that examines the traditions of major cultures in a very personal way.”

The 39-year-old choreographer told Knack that he is very honoured “but also humbled when I look at the often life-saving research of the scientists who are also receiving honorary doctorates”.

Those are German expert in international family law Katharina Boele-Woelki, Maltese gastroen-

© Vladimir Vyatkin/BELGA

terologist Michael Camilleri, Australian forensic toxicologist Olaf Drummer and Dutch education psychologist Jan Vermunt. \ Andy Furniere

One in four schools in Belgium hired a debt collection agency last year to follow up on unpaid invoices from parents. Some 900 of a total of 1,400 schools were part of Flemish education networks.

It’s a notable increase from five years ago, when only 950 schools across the country hired an agency for the problem. Last year, the parents of about 12,000 children had to deal with a debt collection agency. The average invoice amounts to about €140. “In most cases, the parents didn’t pay for meals, field trips or after-school care,” Sven Dereze of the Belgian Association of Debt Collection Agencies told Het Nieuwsblad.

“Many parents think schools won’t take action if they don’t pay, but that time is over.”

UZ Gent steps closer to privatisation The government of Flanders has approved the draft decree for the privatisation of Ghent University Hospital (UZ Gent), the latest step towards the integration of the hospital into Ghent University (UGent), which should be finalised on 1 January, 2017. The University Hospitals of Brussels and Leuven are already integrated in, respectively, the Free University of Brussels (VUB) and the University of Leuven. UZ Gent will now become part of UGent, but both institutions will retain their own management and accounting. Currently, UZ Gent is under the custody of the Flemish education minister, making it ineligible for grants for hospital infrastructure from Belgium’s public health department. \ AF

\9

\ LIVING

week in activities Brussels and Tapestry: An Interwoven History On this guided walk through the city, learn the story of tapestry weaving in Brussels and Flanders, through street names, historic places and songs. (In Dutch) Reservations required on 02 380 22 09. 15 January 12.3014.00, Museum of the City of Brussels, Grote Markt, €5 \ tinyurl.com/interwoven-history

VeloFollies The biggest bike fair in the Benelux, from road bikes to e-bikes to BMX. Meet athletes, try out new models and book your next cycling holiday.

15-17 January, Kortrijk Xpo, Doornikstesteenweg 216, €14 \ velofollies.be

Venetian Costumes in Bruges Les Costumés de Venise, an international group of 50 men and women, will model their elaborate handmade costumes and masks for the upcoming Carnival in Venice. 16-17 January, across Bruges city centre, free \ bezoekers.brugge.be

Polar Bear Swim Join in the madness or just come to gawk at the ( fool) hardy folks who dare to plunge into ice-cold water in the middle of January for a nice swim. Polar bear clubs from all over Belgium participate in this annual tradition. 17 January 10.3012.00, St-Pietersplas, Blankenbergse Dijk 73, Bruges, free \ brugseijsberen.be

New Year’s Walk in Roeselare Get the new year off to a good start with a guided walk starting at the Church of St Michael, through the city centre to the park.

Explanations of trees and plants along the way, plus drinks and snacks.

(In Dutch) Reservations required on 051 26 96 00. 17 January 14.30, Marie-Louise de Meesterplein, €5 \ toerismeroeselare.be

Feast of St Anthony This traditional festival honouring the city’s patron saint starts with a solemn mass, followed by the blessing of the animals, and then the blessing of the tractors.

Village festival on the town square with hot soup and other refreshments. 17 January, Church of Saint Anthony Abbot, Polderstraat 2, OudTurnhout, free \ oud-turnhout.be

\ 10

New kid on the block

Antwerp student complex Gate15 wins architecture prize Clodagh Kinsella More articles by Clodagh \ flanderstoday.eu

GATE15.BE

T

hose who have left their university days behind may feel a pang of envy on entering Gate15 on Kleine Kauwenberg in the middle of Antwerp’s student quarter.

Bracketed by minimal-chic party space Tarmac and a Scandi-style cafe, the building’s reception houses suspended origami birds, modish brica-brac and an array of armchairs. It’s a far cry from the average student community centre.

Designed by Brussels architecture firm BOB361, already acclaimed for its social housing projects in Belgium and Paris, the nonprofit opened last autumn, coinciding with a new influx of students to the city. It has now won the biennial Belgian Architecture Prize, which recognises the achievements of local architects at home and abroad.

While the acoustically insulated party space and cafe occupy new concrete buildings, the reception area is set in a 16th-century house.

“It was in a very, very bad state, but because it was a protected monument, we had to keep it,” says Goedele Desmet of BOB361. “That meant we needed to bring in architects De Roma, who specialise in historical restoration.”

The result artfully blends old and new: exterior scars have been left intact, while on the inside, the original exposed-brick walls are complemented by industrial neon lights and makeshift furniture.

BOB361’s brief also included provision for an area housing guest computers, as well as 29 study rooms – all of which needed to be realised on a markedly small plot of land.

“What’s important is the way we organised the public space,” says Desmet. “Normally we would have had to put the building right up by the pavement, but the street was so narrow that we really didn’t want to do that.”

The solution was to flip one building so it was perpendicular to the street and matched the depth of the original house; a skylight was added to the top of the facade to reduce density – a real issue given it lay in an old part of the city, saturated with university auditoria. On the other side of the reception, the cafe was set back from the road, creating a square.

“That’s what the architecture prize jury appreciated the most – that we created this openness and light in the street, as well as providing a space for students to sit and talk,” says

© Luc Roymans

The new Gate15 complex artfully blends old and new, work and play

Desmet.

There are more than 40,000 students in Antwerp, spread across seven higher education institutions. Yet historically there has been a dearth of decent places to work. Gate15’s Study 360 scheme attempts to redress the balance: during the December-January revision period, it opened seven other pop-up study spaces in offbeat locations across the city, including the medieval castle Het Steen.

The Kleine Kauwenberg building welcomes students year-round, be it for work, play – groups can apply to host their own parties in Tarmac – or general orientation.

“We’ve got people from all over the world,” says Roel Diender, who sits at a welcome desk made of artfully bundled wooden planks. “They come in with all sorts of questions: Where’s a good barbershop? What do I do about my problematic landlady? We don’t discriminate – they can ask us anything at all, and if we don’t know the answer we’ll ask someone who does.”

In January, with exams approaching, even the party space and bar had been repurposed for the task at hand, with students drowning in piles of notes and empty coffee cups. Awards aside, their mass adoption of Gate15 is the clearest sign of its success.

BITE Bruges food and beer hall offers quality and quantity Flanders is rich in the variety of beers on offer, but how’s a person to get around them all without ending up in a puddle on the floor? One answer is tasting small quantities of a wide selection.

The Flemish beer association Zythos, which organises the country’s largest beer festival in Leuven in April, works with 10-centilitre samples, which is enough to get a good taste of the beer without losing the power of rational thought.

That’s something to keep in mind when visiting B Taste in Bruges, a new concept in food halls. Its main attraction is 104 beer taps you get to operate yourself. B Taste is housed in the Oud Sint-Jan site, on the grounds of the medieval hospital and in rooms once used to film the TV series Aspe.

It opened last month with the intention of running daily until 3 January, when it would move to weekends only. According to founder

© Courtesy B Taste

Peggy Bobelijn, however, the plan has changed: B Taste will now be open every day on a permanent basis.

B Taste has its own kitchen, but nibbles will mainly be provided by a rotation of stand-holders and food trucks, so the selection will change regularly. When Flanders Today visited, the

BTASTE.BE

menu was limited to burgers and spicy potatoes or three varieties of quiche. But the organisers assure us the selection will be broader once the venture finds its feet.

Of a lack of choice in the beers on offer, though, there’s no question: Some 100 choices on any given day, from everyday offerings like Maes Pils and Leffe Blond to rarities like the Scheldebrouwerij range, Brouwerij Verzet, Prearis and, of course, Brugse Zot and Straffe Hendrik from Bruges brewery De Halve Maan.

You pay €10 as a starter, which gives you a glass to keep and €5 credit on a swipe card that registers exactly how much you’ve poured. When your credit is up, refills are available for whatever sum you choose. You won’t get round everything in one day, but at least you will be able to walk out the door unaided. \ Alan Hope

\ ARTS

january 13, 2016

Thanks for the memories Hello Mr De Wilde: veteran Flemish singer embarks on new tour Tom Peeters More articles by Tom \ flanderstoday.eu

B

acked by an extended band with horns, a well-documented biography and a three-CD career retrospective, including a few new songs, legendary Flemish singer and songwriter Jan De Wilde is on a sell-out tour across the region he’s been chronicling for half a century.

His husky, nostalgia-soaked voice has got deeper along the way, and De Wilde, born in Aalst on 1 January, 1944, remains an excellent observer and performer. During his career, the 72-year-old has covered personal heroes such as John Prine, Randy Newman and now Tom Waits, penning strong Dutch-language versions of “Fish & Whistle”, “Naked Man” and “Waltzing Matilda”.

Looking back on a career that started in the mid-1960s, De Wilde doesn’t mind that his two most popular songs, “Eerste sneeuw” (First Snow) and “De fanfare van honger en

JANDEWILDE.NET

Mr De Wilde), a 62-song career review.

Today, it’s hard to imagine the original version of the most cheerful song De Wilde ever created causing controversy. But the still very Catholic Flanders of the 1970s blushed at lines such as “De Phallus impudicus staat al in bloei / En de blaadjes krijgen bomen” (The Phallus impudicus is already in bloom / And the leaves are getting trees”).

It wasn’t the only time De Wilde’s frankness, wrapped up in clumsiness, melancholy or (self) mockery, had been confronting for members of the church and the middle classes. “Religious mania has always been a topic of mine,” he says. “Like in ‘Walter, ballade van een goudvis’ (Walter: Ballad of a Goldfish), an adaptation of a poem by the Anglo-American author WH Auden, now in the new song ‘Hare Krishna Halleluja’.”

But the one new song that characterises the

Non-Flemish acquaintances would say they knew a very old Flemish folk song, and then they would start to sing ‘Een vrolijk lentelied’ dorst” (The Fanfare of Hunger and Thirst), were written by fellow musician Lieven Tavernier. It’s De Wilde’s melancholic singing that – primarily during winter and in countless end-of-the-year top 100s – has slipped slowly into the Flemish collective memory.

Only once did he get a bit upset. “I was tired of hearing friends say that their non-Flemish acquaintances had told them they knew a very old Flemish folk song, and then they would start to sing ‘Een vrolijk lentelied’,” he says, referring to a song he released in 1972. They would sing it in German, Spanish, French, Portuguese, “even in a Central African language, because a missionary had translated it there. I wanted people to know that I wrote that!”

So he translated it into English, French and German himself. The English version, “Here Comes the Springtime”, is a bonus track on the CD box-set Dag meneer De Wilde (Hello

singer the most is undoubtedly “Valsspeler” (Cheat), he says. “I’m singing that when I play chess I mostly draw, since I really don’t like to win. For me it’s really about the game, not about the result. In school I didn’t want to be the best, and later in my career I avoided studying or working hard.”

He ended up at the Sint-Lucas art school in Ghent. “That was a disappointment,” he says.

“I wanted to learn the old techniques Jan van Eyck and Pieter Breughel the Elder practised to paint on wood panel, but my teachers didn’t know how to do that.”

Eventually, he focused on another love: singing. “As a kid, I’d always been in a choir, but then I started to play guitar. First, I tried to sing in English, then I shifted to Dutch poetry, but neither went well. In desperation I started to write my own lyrics.”

The stories of his youth, his breakthrough as an artist and his lengthy career are now in

© Luc De Decker

Jan De Wilde is looking back on a career spanning more than 50 years, with a new book, tour and CD box set

the biography Dag meneer De Wilde, penned by his good friend Jo Bogaert. Indeed, he’s the man behind the Belgian new beat phenomenon and chart success Technotronic. Bogaert had earlier produced De Wilde’s 2000 album Oude maan (Old Moon) and recently outed himself as an author.

“And he’s a very good one,” says De Wilde.

“I really liked his books about his youth in Aalst and about the iconography of the

‘Lam Gods’ painting, in which he discovered several hidden meanings. Me and my wife, who used to work as a translator for Flemish public television where she did the subtitles, edited that one.

Until 25 March Across Flanders

50 weekends in Flanders: Public art in Ghent Flanders Today has launched an e-book with ideas for how to spend a year’s worth of weekends. Visit our website to get your free copy of 50 Weekends in Flanders. We’ll also print one of our suggestions every week here, too.

Ghent is dotted with odd sculptures, installations and art interventions.

Some were created for art festivals, and some are simply baffling.

DRONGENHOF CHAPEL The early 17th-century Drongenhof Chapel is a sad, abandoned place.

It’s sometimes used for concerts and exhibitions, but it normally stays locked. Yet you can peer through the gap between the green doors to glimpse a modern stained-glass

window at the far end installed in 2003 by Ghent artist Wim Delvoye.

Look carefully and you will see that it’s decorated with X-rays of couples having sex.

FACEBOOKSTEEG A narrow alley called Boeksteeg (Book Lane) runs down from the Veldstraat shopping street to the river Leie. A second unofficial sign attached to the wall gives the street name as Facebooksteeg. It was put up by the artists Har Hollands and Kees Bos during the Ghent Light Festival in 2012.

ODE TO STUDENTS This mural is not easy to find unless you know where to look. It was created in 2011 by the artist Anouk

De Clercq on the side wall of a staircase leading down to the car park beneath Sint-Pietersplein. Intended to serve as a monument to student life, the work (pictured) represents shelves of books in Ghent University library along with the faint sounds of students whispering.

© Abscis Architecten

TINYURL.COM/50WEEKENDS

FLICKERING LAMPPOSTS The lampposts on Sint-Veerleplein have been programmed to flicker every time a child is born in a Ghent maternity ward. The Italian artist Alberto Garutti created this installation during the Track art parcours in 2012. He called it “Ai Nati Oggi” (To Those Born Today).

the park after Track ended, but they might not stay here forever.

MUSEUM GRAVEYARD For the same art festival, Ghent artist Leo Copers created a haunting mock cemetery. Dotted among old trees in Citadelpark are 111 gravestones carved with the names of famous art museums, a warning that visual culture as we know it is ailing. The fake memorials were left standing in

THE EXTERMINATING ANGEL An avenging angel wearing a gas mask stands on top of a globe in the courtyard of the Augustine Monastery on Augustijnenkaai.

This eerie work was made by the Brussels sculptor Tom Frantzen for a 2013 exhibition held in the former monastery. \ Derek Blyth

THE BIG VASE An enormous green vase stands in the inner courtyard of the city’s Design Museum. The nine-metrehigh object was designed in 1999

by Italian architect Andrea Branzi. \ designmuseumgent.be

\ 11

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\ ARTS

january 13, 2016

But you can never leave

week in arts & CULTURE

Documentarian Manu Riche makes fiction debut with Problemski Hotel Lisa Bradshaw Follow Lisa on Twitter \ @lmbsie

problemskihotel.be

After 25 years of award-winning documentaries, Flemish director Manu Riche makes his fiction film debut with Problemski Hotel, a surreal story of life in a Brussels asylum centre – of sorts.

I

n 2001, Flemish author Dimitri Verhulst visited an asylum centre in Flanders to write a series of articles for the newspaper De Morgen. Manu Riche read those articles and has carried them around with him ever since.

Growing up in Hasselt but living in Brussels for the last 30 years, Riche is known for creative documentaries such as Tempo of a Restless Soul, the biopic of musician Tom Barman, and, more recently, Snake Dance, in which he traces the origins of the atomic bomb.

After more than 25 years of work on the big and small screen – and a stint in playwriting – he’s now broken into fiction filmmaking with Problemski Hotel, based on Verhulst’s 2003 surrealist novel that followed the newspaper series. It opens in cinemas this week.

“Like in all of Dimitri’s work, it was more than the subject that touched me. He developed his style in it and made the story his own,” Riche tells me from Bozar’s Horta Hall, across the street from the Brussels building where Problemski Hotel was filmed. “I’m touched by what reality brings to me, and I think he had the same sense of documentary feel in that story. But he also used his imagination.”

Riche, 51, finally gave the book to his long-time collaborator, scriptwriter Steve Hawes. “‘You cannot make a film out of this,’ he told me. ‘It’s not a narrative, it’s got too many characters, it has everything you can’t do in a drama.’ That was sort of a reason for me to think of it as a drama,” Riche says, laughing.

The pair managed the adaptation by embracing everything that made it difficult, in fact, retaining Verhulst’s absurdist style, incorporating characters in a patchwork of experiences and using the building to visualise the idea of being caught in an endless cycle.

The building is more a character

Flemish author Stijn Streuvels was one of the candidates accepted for consideration for the 1965 Nobel Prize for Literature, according to records just released by the prize committee. The Swedish Academy’s policy is not to release any names other than the winner’s until 50 years has passed. Streuvels, born in Kortrijk in 1871, was also a candidate for the prize in 1937 and ‘38. He is best-known for his 1907 novel De Vlaschaard (The Flax Field), an epic story of a conflict between father and son.

Film Critics’ Union chooses Son of Saul Manu Riche (right) on the set of Problemski Hotel

in the movie than a setting, admits Riche, who searched for the right structure before stumbling upon the BNP Paribas Fortis bank building in the centre of town. The workers happened to be moving out in preparation for tearing it down (to make way for a whole new building in the same spot).

Designed in the 1960s, the office block is a monument to capitalism, Riche says, “and shows the power and the wealth of the industry. It’s an enormous building with a very rich interior.”

Rather than try to hide the office infrastructure, he used it, blending its sense of a rigid structure of economic conformity with the plight of the asylum-seekers, and also – even more blatantly – of the staff. As one moves from room to room with a group carrying a huge

Christmas tree, confused as to where to place it, another speedwalks through the long corridors and eerily empty open spaces. The camera cuts back to them over and over again.

Problemski Hotel is a place where life never really begins, and never really ends. “I think the staff are asylum-seekers themselves,” explains Riche. “They are survivors, refugees from the big, bureaucratic system in which we live. And they try to make the best of it.”

As does Bipul, the refugee who acts as the film’s narrator and distant observer. Though whether he’s actually a refugee, no one can say. In a fascinating plot device – and departure from Verhulst’s character – Bipul doesn’t officially exist. Found in a toilet at Brussels Airport with amnesia and no ID, he

Evgenia Brendes (left) and Tarak Haleby as Lidia and Bipul

has no idea who he is or where he comes from. He is the epitome of the refugee identity crisis.

Played by Brussels-based dancer Tarak Haleby, Bipul has an enormous influence on the other residents and yet is completely neutral in every interaction. Calm and distanced, he’s just this side of unnerving but thoroughly captivating.

“Haleby is not an actor,” says Riche.

“I wanted somebody who was able to be completely taken up by the building. He’s almost a ghost of the space, he’s there and not there. He is the go-between.” But he did have certain professional skills that came in handy. “He can stand still, so it was like he was rooted there.

That’s more difficult for actors – they just cannot stand still.”

And then the question every filmmaker hates to hear: What’s your message? Riche grimaces, but only a little.

He mentions how his own parents had to leave Belgium for France during the Second World War. “But it’s difficult for anyone from my generation to understand what most of these refugees are escaping,” he says. “I can understand why they want to come here.

And we have to adapt; this is a new world we are going to live in.

Maybe the film is saying, this is it; there is no solution, so don’t try to find one. There is no right way to deal with it, we just have to do it.”

Review In an asylum centre somewhere in Brussels, Bipul has a trump card. As one of the characters says: “No one knows where he comes from, so they can’t send him back.”

Bipul was found in Brussels with amnesia and no ID, so he is Problemski Hotel’s somewhat permanent resident. He speaks English, Farsi, a little Dutch and a bit of Arabic, making him a useful translator as he is dragged into conflict after conflict

Stijn Streuvels was candidate for 1965 Nobel Prize

among a motley crew of refugees all hoping to receive the letter that tells them they can stay in Belgium.

Based on the 2003 book of the same name by Flemish author Dimitri Verhulst, Problemski Hotel – largely filmed in English – is documentary filmmaker Manu Riche’s fiction debut. It’s a curious but successful mix of tragedy, comedy and surrealism that calls to mind the Scandinavian style of absurdism by directors

like Bent Hamer.

It might seem a strange choice for Riche, a long-time director of sombre documentaries. And yet the real-life asylum situation can at times seem unreal, as strangers in a strange land wade through miles of paperwork and wait among the rest of the world’s lost souls.

And so they do in Problemski Hotel, which weaves the residents’ sometimes horrific, sometimes darkly

comic stories with a blossoming romance between Bipul – played with a calm detachment by Brusselsbased dancer Tarak Haleby – and new Russian arrival Lidia (Evgenia Brendes of Toneelgroep Amsterdam).

Lidia wants to take off for London, but Bipul is comfortable where he is – the personification of a building filled with identities in question.

The Belgian Film Critics’ Union has chosen the Hungarian Holocaust film Son of Saul as the best film of 2015. Among nominations that included Turkish film Mustang, American film Whiplash, Yorgos Lanthimos’ latest surreal sensation The Lobster and action thriller Mad Max: Fury Road, László Nemes’ Son of Saul was chosen for its unique take on Auschwitz through the eyes of a member of the Sonderkommando, a group of prisoners chosen to work in the gas chambers. Its haunting images and desperate pace as one prisoner tries to give his own son a proper burial has won plaudits and awards from around the world, including the Golden Globe for Best Foreign-Language Film.

Baby rhino born at Planckendael Animal park Planckendael in Mechelen has announced the birth of a baby rhinoceros. He was born last month to mother Karamat and father Gujarat.

The latter is now living in the Blijdorp park in Rotterdam.

The baby (pictured), weighing 60 kilograms at birth, is not yet on view to the public. The park will keep him indoors with Karamat until the temperature outside reaches 15 degrees. Like all rhino babies, he was born without a horn, which will grow in later.

A rhinoceros pregnancy lasts 16 months.

© Courtesy Planckendael

\ 13

\ ARTS

An unexpected renaissance Flemish ’80s band Aroma di Amore are back with new music by popular demand Christophe Verbiest More articles by Christophe \ flanderstoday.eu

aromadiamore.be

After a 25-year hiatus, pop band Aroma di Amore are back with a new album and tour. They’re not young men anymore, but if the lyrics of their new songs are any indication, they’re still pretty angry.

T

hough they captured the mood of the times, the Flemish band Aroma di Amore have always been outsiders.

“If anything was deliberate about the band, it was not trying to be part of a movement,” says bass player Lo Meulen.

In the 1980s, the band combined electronic sounds with cutting guitars, which resulted in songs as sharp as a razor. “That was never a very conscious decision,” says Fred Angst, who plays the guitar.

“When we started out, we worked with a cheap rhythm box and ditto organ because we couldn’t afford anything else.”

Their outsider status also extended to their lyrics, which were in Dutch. Angst, however, doesn’t understand what’s so odd about Dutch-language lyrics. “It’s weird; no-one ever asks a Flemish writer why he writes in Dutch,” he says. “It’s evident that, apart from the proverbial exception, authors write in their mother tongue.”

Singer Elvis Peeters, who, coincidentally, is also an author, adds that they were strongly influenced by the ideas behind the punk movement. “I didn’t want to comply with the rules of Anglo-Saxon pop music. And we weren’t the only ones,” he says, pointing out that German bands like Einstürzende Neubauten and Deutsch Amerikanische Freundschaft also sang in their native tongue. “The lyrics would have been much more banal if I had sung in English because at that point I hadn’t mastered the subtleties of the language.”

Angst and Peeters are both founding members of Aroma di Amore, which formed in 1982. (Bass

From left: Elvis Peeters, Lo Meulen and Fred Angst, who say that playing together again was like riding a bike

player Lo Meulen joined them a year later.) After a long hiatus, the band are now back with a brandnew album, Zin, a word that can mean “sense” but also “desire” and “sentence”.

Zin is Aroma di Amore’s fourth full-length album. Samizdat from 2012 was a belated follow-up to 1987’s Koudvuur (“gangrene” but

stroom contacted them to release the two-album compilation Onverdeeld (Undivided), they decided to start working on new material. “We had ideas aplenty, and we really felt like doing it,” Peeters explains.

“Compare it to riding a bike: Once you’ve mastered it, you never forget how to do it,” adds Meulen.

Few artists in Flanders are as socially committed as we are literally also “cold fire”). But, notes Peeters, “it’s not that we didn’t play for 25 years”.

Though they performed their final series of concerts in 1994, they reunited for the Belgian Independent Music festival 10 years later.

“When we started rehearsing for the festival, it was as if we had never even stopped,” says Peeters.

When record company Onder-

The million dollar question is: Why did they break up in the first place? According to Meulen, it was a two-phase process. “I moved to London, and Elvis and Fred continued Aroma with a few other musicians.”

In 1994, they finally decided to pull the plug. “I don’t think it’s a bad thing to take some distance for a while and recharge your batter-

ies,” says Meulen. Angst also saw a practical reason: “We have to admit that 20 years ago, there wasn’t much interest in the band anymore. Period.”

But over the years, prices in secondhand shops for Aroma di Amore’s vinyl albums – their discography comprises two albums, three mini albums and two EPs – went up. And ever since they reunited, interest in the band has continued to grow. At concerts, they see both contemporaries and younger fans who weren’t even born when Aroma di Amore first released their records.

But renewed interest in the music is not the only reason the three have started playing together again. “Social commitment has always been an essential part of Aroma di Amore,” says Angst. “Few artists in Flanders are as committed as we are. It’s necessary, more

27 Febuary to 22 April

than ever in today’s society.”

In the 1980s, too, the band were committed to social causes. “We were young then; we were still iconoclasts,” says Meulen. “The big difference between then and now is that in the 1980s, we hoped we could change things,” Angst points out. “Now, the struggle is about keeping what has changed for the better, because everything we fought for the past 30 years is being threatened by reactionary politics of a kind that I have never seen before in my life.”

But, according to Peeters, it’s still music first and politics second.

“Regardless of the opinions we express, we’re first and foremost three guys playing music.” He points to a statement the Germanborn musician Blixa Bargeld once made. “You won’t change the world with music, but you can inspire people with it and let them know they’re not alone in their feelings.”

He offers the lyrics of “Mijn profeet” (“My Prophet”) as an example, which he describes as a sign of the times. “Ik ben een mens, ik houd God in mijn hand / Ik zaai hem uit, strooi hem uit over het land” (“I am human; I keep God in my hand / I sow him; I scatter him over the land”).

In the CD’s liner notes, the lyrics are accompanied by a picture of Christian iconography. “Like all Elvis’ lyrics, there is some room for interpretation,” Meulen says. “For me, it’s about religious fanaticism, regardless of which religion.”

Peeters’ lyrics aren’t usually overtly political. He tends to give them a jagged poetical side as he plays fascinating games with the Dutch language – in the process proving everyone who says it’s too difficult to sing in Dutch wrong.

You just need talent. And some guts.

Aroma de Amore on tour Across Brussels and Flanders

MORE NEW ALBUMS THIS MONTH Arno Human Incognito • Naïve “Too late to grow up,” Arno ponders on Human Incognito. Never mind that, the new album by the 66-year-old Ostendborn singer offers plenty nuggets of wisdom. Over the course of more than 30 albums, the adopted Brusselaar has carved out his own musical niche, one that combines groovy blues, with French chanson and dirty rock. On this one, he mostly opts for a stripped-down sound

\ 14

that places his voice at the centre of songs that both soothe the soul (“Oublie qui je suis”) and shake you awake (“Never Trouble Trouble”). Not bad for, to borrow a line from the album opener, just an “old motherfucker”.

Ansatz Der Maschine Tattooed Body Blues • Pon Mathijs Bertel started Ansatz der Maschine as an experimental electronic project 10 years ago. By bringing in

multiple acoustic instruments and vocals on subsequent albums, the band’s sound started to lean more toward pop without ever completely losing its edge.

For this fourth album, Bertel enlisted the help of six singers, most notably Inne Eysermans from Amatorski and Nathalie Delcroix. Tattooed Body Blues excels in sweet songs with an acrid touch – a tempting combination.

\ AGENDA

january 13, 2016

Join the revolution

Moussem Cities: Tunisia 15-16 January

Bozar, Brussels bozar.be

P

erformances from and about Tunisia come to Bozar in a mini-festival organised

by Moussem, a “nomadic arts centre” focused on the Arabic world. In this context, Tunisia stands out as the origin of the Arab Spring movement in 2010, and the only country involved where hopes of lasting change are still relatively strong.

The idea of the event is to explore the role the arts can play in Tunisia’s new, still-fragile democracy and to showcase work by Tunisian performers.

You get both in Join the Revolution, conceived

by Ghent-based performance group Action Zoo Humain, which stages a crowd-funding campaign to preserve just one piece of Tunisian culture from destruction. Along the way it combines music, dance, song and speech (in Dutch and French), brought together in a framework based on Henry Purcell’s opera Dido and

© Blandine Soulage

Aeneas. (Recall that Dido is the lovesick queen of ancient Carthage, now a suburb of modern Tunis.)

The legacy of oppression in the Arab world is examined in What the Dictator Did Not Say, a monologue by Tunisian dramatist Meriam Bousselmi. Performed in French by Lassaad

Jamoussi, it shows a deposed dictator reproaching the population for turning against him.

Dutch surtitles are provided.

Turning to the revolution itself, choreographers Aïcha M’Barek and Hafiz Dhaou give a personal interpretation of Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring.

Surrounded by cardboard figures representing people killed in the struggle, the dancers rediscover and celebrate the freedom to move their bodies (pictured).

The festival concludes with a concert by veteran singer and oud player Lotfi Bouchnak, whose repertoire ranges from classical Arabic music to rap.

The conversations, which are mainly in French, include a panel discussion on the art scene in Tunisia and a discussion on the impact authoritarian regimes have on the modernisation of Islam. \ Ian Mundell

CONCERT

PERFORMANCE

BJO does Brel

Speak Low if You Speak Love

20 January, 20.15 The Brussels Jazz Orchestra and Brussels-born jazz singer David Linx (pictured) pay tribute to Belgium’s most revered songwriter with a concert of Jacques Brel classics. Brel may have died nearly 40 years ago, but tunes like “Ne me quitte pas” and “Marieke” continue to inspire music-lovers young and old. Even Belgium’s most recent

Flagey, Brussels brusselsjazzorchestra.com

pop export, Stromae, owes a stylistic debt to the ironic, literate Brel.

Most of the songs in BJO’s tribute concert are sung in the original French, but the set includes the English version of “Amsterdam” popularised by Scott Walker and David Bowie. The performance premieres in Flagey before touring across Flanders. \ Georgio Valentino

21-24 January, 20.30

deSingel, Antwerp DESINGEL.BE

Wim Vandekeybus has been a fixture on the international dance scene for decades. The contemporary Flemish choreographer is lauded not just for his fresh, no-holds-barred approach to the human body but also his pioneering use of live rock music and multimedia elements.

Vandekeybus’ frequent musical collaborator, Mauro Pawlowski, is back on board for this latest work, Speak Low if You Speak Love, which explores one of humanity’s most elemental emotions through cutting-edge sound and vision. The production premiered last year and is selling out fast in Antwerp now.

The ongoing international tour includes stops in Ghent and Dilbeek later this year. \ GV

Now in its second edition, Flagey’s Brussels Jazz Festival picks up where its predecessor, the Winter Jazz Festival, left off. The event boasts a fortnight of midwinter concerts at one of the capital’s most popular jazz and classical music venues. Among the festival’s highlights is Antwerp-

based quartet Les Blauw (15 January). Inspired by the gypsy swing of mid-century Franco-Belgian guitarist Django Reinhardt, the music of Les Blauw celebrates a time of musical ferment, a time when political ferment and crosscultural dialogue yielded exciting new art forms. \ GV

With its scenic city hall and myriad monuments, Brussels’ city centre is selfie paradise. This new exhibition, sponsored by Japanese camera manufacturer Nikon, gives visitors more reasons to take pictures of themselves. Here you’ll find life-sized, ready-made scenes just waiting for you to step in and

PERFORMANCE Brussels The Dialogue Series: IV Moya: The result of an intimate conversation between celebrated Congolese choreographer Faustin Linyekula and South African dancer Moya Michael, a vulnerable and honest solo performance about what it means to be “coloured” in Johannesburg, Kisangani or Brussels. 21-23 January 20.30, KVS, Arduinkaai 9 \ kvs.be

Maasmechelen Unisono: Playwright and actor Abke Haring performs in her own piece, a monologue about looking for a holdfast in an uncertain world. 21 January 20.15, CC Maasmechelen, Koninginnelaan 42

Modernika: Belgian Dream of an American city: Architectural exploration of the ways in which the “American Dream” developed in postwar Belgium, when consumer society flourished and cities were (re)designed with a bias towards large, functional complexes and the idealised “vertical city”. Until 10 April, Atomium Square \ atomium.be

Nikon 3D World Magic & Fun

FLAGEY.BE

\ cczoetegem.be

Brussels

Brussels Jazz Festival

Until 3 April

Laïs: Midwinter Tales: The Flemish folk trio performs self-composed melodies with lyrics dating back to the middle ages, sung with angelic voices accompanied by cello and harp. 14 January 20.00, Heilig Hartkerk Bevegem, Heilig Hartplein 1

VISUAL ARTS

FAMILY Flagey, Brussels

Zottegem (East Flanders)

\ ccmaasmechelen.be

FESTIVAL 13-23 January

CONCERT

Cinema Galeries, Brussels 3DWORLDBELGIUM.BE

snap away. If some of the seascapes look familiar, it’s because Nikon 3D World Magic & Fun is a regular attraction on the Flemish coast in the summertime. Ambitious selfie artists can submit their favourite shots to Nikon for the chance to win a camera. \ GV

FAMILY Brussels Au loin: Dialogue-free puppet theatre inspired by Homer’s Odyssey (ages 3+). 17 January 14.30 & 16.00, Bronks, Varkensmarkt 15-17 \ bronks.be

FILM Brussels Andrew Kötting retrospective: Works by the British writer, artist and filmmaker, from film and video fragments to installations and avant-garde theatre, including an exclusive screening of his latest film, By Our Selves, a tribute to British poet John Clare. 14-21 January, Cinema Nova, Arenbergstraat \ nova-cinema.org

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january 13, 2016

Talking Dutch He ain’t heavy, he’s my Billy

In response to: Germany and the Netherlands express concerns over Doel Danielle Robertson: There is absolutely a future in nuclear energy, especially if Belgian authorities can properly maintain the facilities.

Derek Blyth More articles by Derek \ flanderstoday.eu

A

nyone who’s ever driven knows that motorways are dangerous places. You might even come across that nightmare scenario – a spookrijder – ghost driver, coming towards you on the wrong side of the motorway.

But now there’s a new hazard on the roads you need to know about. ‘Ikea-syndroom’ is gevaar op de weg – Ikea syndrome is a danger on the road, announced a recent headline in De Morgen.

At first, I thought they might be describing that feeling of hopeless defeat that comes over you at 17.45 on a Saturday after you’ve been struggling for three hours to assemble a Billy bookcase.

But it’s worse than that. Steeds meer bestuurders laden hun auto vol met spullen uit doe-het-zelfzaken – More and more drivers are packing their car with stuff from DIY stores, maar gaan onverstandig te werk – but they don’t do it properly. No, they set off into busy traffic with a Malm bed tied to the roof with some old string.

Vorig jaar werden op onze wegen bijna 4.000 pv’s opgesteld – Almost 4,000 traffic fines were issued last year, wegens verlies van lading – for losing a load. Maar dat is slechts het topje van de ijsberg – but that’s just the tip of the iceberg, want er slingert nog veel meer ongestraft op onze autowegen rond – because there are a lot more people driving recklessly on our motorways without being caught.

As you might have guessed, this phenomenon has been given a name. Ik noem dit het Ikea-syndroom – I call it Ikea syndrome, said Michaël Reul of the Union of Professional Transporters.

He believes something has to be done to stop the madness. Een of ander obstakel – Some obstacle or

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In response to: Rail strike confirmed for Wednesday and Thursday Odigie ThelordMayor Frank: Old news...we’re used to the strikes.... Bring it on!!!!

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other, zorgt ervoor dat er binnen de kortste keren een verkeersinfarct ontstaat – will cause a traffic jam to build up in no time at all. Hoe drukker ons verkeer wordt – the more congested our roads get, hoe meer ladingverlies – the more loads fall off, en ook hoe meer ellende op de weg – and the more misery there is on the roads.

For Danny Smagghe of the motoring organisation Touring, stupid drivers are to blame for all this misery. Geen tijd – no time, geen geld – no money, gemakzucht en onwetendheid – laziness and stupidity, alle redenen zijn blijkbaar goed om nonchalant met ladingen om te springen – all are apparently good reasons to set off nonchalantly with a load of stuff.

Jammer genoeg hebben zij hun nieuwe aankopen niet goed vastgemaakt – Unfortunately, they haven’t attached their new purchases properly, en binnen de kortste keren vliegt alles in het rond – and it isn’t long before everything is scattered all over the place.

It means a quick trip to Ikea for a new sofa can end up bringing most of Flanders to a standstill. One man’s Malm is another man’s misery.

Tweet us your thoughts @FlandersToday

Poll

a. Absolutely. New drivers are inexperienced and need to be taught how serious drink-driving is

8% b. Yes, but the lower limit of .02% should apply to everyone, not just new drivers

77% c. No, the law will mostly affect young drivers, who already pay more for insurance and aren’t the biggest drink-driving risk group

15% the recent scourge of hit-and-run accidents involving drink-drivers, but a majority saying that it targets the wrong group: Most drink-drivers are middle-aged.

Your answer was overwhelmingly in favour of zero-tolerance, but for all drivers, not just new ones.

The logic is clear: if a lower limit would decrease accidents, why not

extend it to everyone?

At the same time, that would mean no quick after-work pintje or glass of champagne at the company New Year’s reception before getting into your car. To about one-quarter of you, that seems like it’s going too far.

\ Next week's question: Researchers at the University of Leuven have condemned tests offered by pharmaceutical companies claiming to reveal defects in foetuses (see p7). 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 One in 10 Belgians drinks too much, says KCE Linda Robert: So I know only every tenth Belgian.

In response to: Jet Airways confirms it will leave Brussels Airport Pauline Manos: Anukriti, I will have to find another way to accompany you to India

Marcello Arrambide @Wanderingtradr Stunning view from my lunch in Ghent: http://ow.ly/Wwrjv Loved the waterways #Belgium #travel

Joy Anna Thielemans @JoyThielemans Yes, miss Antwerpen is #missbelgie! Good job Lenty! #lentyfrans

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the last word

Do you agree with the proposal to lower the blood-alcohol limit to .02% for new drivers?

Federal mobility minister Jacqueline Galant is introducing a new limit for drink-driving later this year: .02% instead of .05% for new drivers. Those who haven’t been behind the wheel long, she argues, require a zero-tolerance approach.

Politicians have been weighing in on it for weeks, some arguing that it will be effective in ending

VoiceS of flanders today

Defensive posture

Stand by me

“We saw the biggest increase in Antwerp. This week we’ve had a dozen emails about private lessons for women. Normally we get one a month.”

“The subject has been discussed more in recent years in families and classrooms. Schools have brought the issue more to the forefront of their policies. And the various awareness campaigns seem finally to be paying off.”

Luc Van Laere of the Krav Maga Academy in Antwerp on an increase in demand for self-defence classes for women

Winter wonderland “Starting on Friday we’ll see waves of sleet coming over, and a carpet of snow will form overnight. On Sunday it will freeze all day for the first time.”

Winter is finally coming, according to VRT meteorologist Frank Deboosere

Gie Deboutte of Antwerp University on figures showing a 21% decline in bullying in schools over the last four years

Uptown girl “I’m crazy about photo shoots and modelling work.”

The new Miss Belgium, 21-year-old Lenty Frans from Brecht, Antwerp province, seems to have fallen on her feet

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