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a maTTer of faiTh

The annual Flemish Regional Indicators paint a picture of contemporary life in Flanders

The website with all the answers has just solved its 15,000th puzzle

Stefan Hertmans’ latest novel unfolds against the backdrop of the Crusades

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Learning in tongues

what goes on in the brain when we study in a second language? ian mundell follow Ian on Twitter \ @IanMundell

Researchers at UGent are looking closely at how exactly we deal with information when we learn it in a language not our own, as their university and others offer more and more programmes in English.

s Flemish universities reach out to international students by providing more programmes in English, there is a lingering concern that home students may be at a disadvantage. So researchers at Ghent University have been looking more closely at how people learn in a second language.

“People always assume the professors speak very poor English and the students are not proficient in English either, and that their studies will suffer tremendously as a result,” explains Robert Hartsuiker, a professor in the Department of Experimental Psychology, in very good English. “But I think we should investigate this, and if we find that it is the case, we should know why and what we should do about it.” In order to explore this very practical issue, Hartsuiker and his colleagues Marc Brysbaert and Wouter Duyck set out to ask some fundamental questions about how people take

in, process and retain information when they receive it in a second language. Meanwhile, Martin Valcke, a professor in the Department of Educational Studies, will be looking at how the results of their fundamental research carry over into the lecture hall. The €1.5 million project is called Lemma, which is both a linguistic term and an acronym for Language, Education, and Memory in Multilingualism and Academia. It has been running for three years, with two years to go, and is beginning to produce its first scientific results. One advantage of working on this problem is that the raw continued on page 5

\ CURREnT AFFAIRs

Healthier and happier

annual publication of regional indicators gives a snapshot of life in flanders alan Hope Follow Alan on Twitter \ @AlanHopeFT

he average person in Flanders has a higher standard of living than in 2000, lives a healthy life for longer and has a high degree of satisfaction with their living situation. However, they are more likely to be pessimistic about the future. Those are some of the conclusions of the Flemish Regional Indicators, an annual set of data published by the Flemish government’s research department. The publication was described by minister-president Geert Bourgeois as “a snapshot of the general landscape in which the Flemish government carries out its work, which gathers information over developments at social, economic and envi-

ronmental levels”. Concern in the past year has grown over war and ethnic conflict in the world. Drug use and lack of safety on the streets, however, are no

longer considered a serious social problem, though a decade ago they were named as one of the public’s top five concerns. Flanders is among the best performers in Europe on poverty, where it has the secondlowest rate after the Czech Republic; the third-lowest unemployment rate; a fall in the numbers leaving school without a diploma and an increase in the numbers passing through tertiary education. Women are now more highly educated than men, and the pay gap has fallen from 19% in 2000 to 7.5% in 2014. On the economy, 2015 saw a record year for inward foreign investment, with 227 projects

worth €2.7 billion and 4,352 jobs. Exports grew slightly, but the number of exporting companies did not. Flanders also holds a top position in Europe for innovation in the private sector. The region’s GDP in 2014 was 19% higher than the average in the EU. That year, 2.46% of GDP was devoted to research and development, slightly short of the government’s target of 3%. In terms of the environment, Flanders recycles 36% of household waste, with another 27% composted. The remaining 63% is incinerated, in some cases with energy recovery. The impact of fine particles on health went down by 29.7% compared to in 2000, and greenhouse gas emissions also fell.

Online aggressors could face fines for social media threats

Supermarket hostage-taker ‘wanted to be arrested’

Insults, threats and verbal aggression committed in the Brussels West police zone will now be liable to municipal administrative (GAS) fines, the mayor of Jette has announced. “Certain minor offences, such as insults and verbal aggression, are in reality never penalised,” Hervé Doyen explained. “That means it’s the job of the municipalities to punish these offences, using the GAS fine. But anyone who receives such insults via the internet or social media has no legal recourse to do anything about it. With the five municipalities of the Brussels West police zone, we intend to do something about it.” The zone is made up of Molenbeek, Jette, Ganshoren, Sint-Agatha-Berchem and Koekelberg. Together they have a population of around 180,000. The move involves amending the first article of the police

A man who took about 30 customers hostage in a Carrefour supermarket in Vorst in Brussels last week had gone into a police station earlier in the day to try to get arrested, it was revealed. The man, the son of one of Vorst’s municipal councillors, was on parole and wanted to go back to prison, but police saw no reason to hold him. Instead, at about 19.00 on Tuesday, he entered the supermarket brandishing a gun and told the customers to lie on the floor. He demanded the contents of the cash register and handcuffed a member of staff. Police came, including a special unit of the federal police and a helicopter. “Negotiations were started with the hostage-taker and during negotiations several hostages were released,” a spokesperson for the prosecutor’s office explained. “After about an hour the man gave himself up and could be arrested. The weapon he used appears to

regulation that governs the zone, to extend the notion of “public space” to include the online space – a move that is likely to be challenged in court before long. “We can’t get round the fact that insults are increasingly being thrown around in the virtual public space,” Doyen said. “People think they can say what they like on the internet and social media.” \ AH

be a starting pistol, but that still has to be determined.” The man has been named as Nourredine Ouartassi, son of the municipality’s councillor for sport. He has a record of robbery with violence and menaces and has been the subject of psychiatric measures, the prosecutor’s office said. He remains in custody. \ AH

Organisation launches rental agency to match refugees and landlords The non-profit Flemish Refugee Action has launched an online project that brings refugees together with anyone prepared to rent them accommodation. The goal, the organisation said, is to make it easier for newcomers to find a home in a market that is often closed to them. “When asylum-seekers are recognised as refugees, they have two months to find accommodation,” said Charlotte Vandycke of Flem-

ish Refugee Action, “but there is a great deal of discrimination and ignorance among landlords.” At present, Mijn huis jouw thuis (My House Your Home) – in Dutch, English and French – only has two properties advertised: a house in Destelbergen, bordering Ghent, for €850 a month, and a house in Knokke Heist for €650 a month. The site also contains information on depos-

20%

n o i l l i b 4 . 9 € in investment in new material for the armed forces between now and 2030, agreed by the federal government last week. The money will go towards fighter planes, frigates and drones

its, leases, disputes with landlords and sharing options. Information is provided to landlords as well, including on refugee status, renting to someone on welfare and possible avenues of support. “This will save refugees a lot of time,” Vandycke said. “Instead of digging around in property sites only to find they can’t rent the property, they can come straight to us, where the landlords are open to everyone.” \ AH

people took part in Zuiddag, when pupils in Flanders and Brussels swap the classroom for a day in a work environment, with their “wages” going to charities that work in the developing world – this year, the favelas around Rio

less commuter traffic into Brussels by 2025, according to the target in the Brussels regional government’s latest policy declaration. The share of the car should come down by 15%, with 25,000 new park & ride places available

4,42

businesses in Limburg took on their first employee in the first half of 2016, an average of 10 new jobs every working day and the highest half-year total yet

new firearms for the federal police, to replace their outdated Uzi machine pistols. The contract will be put out to tender and is expected to cost between €6.6 and €11.9 million

octoBEr 26, 2016

weeK in brief The University of Leuven has awarded an honorary doctorate to Lorne Campbell, a Scottish historian who is an expert on 15th- and 16th-century Flemish art. Professor Campbell lectured at the universities of Manchester and Cambridge as well as London’s Courtauld Institute, and was later curator of the National Gallery. He also co-curated the exhibition on Rogier van der Weyden that opened Museum M in Leuven in 2009. Telecommunications company Proximus intends to integrate the TV and movie streaming service Netflix more closely into its services, CEO Dominique Leroy has said, by including it as an option in its new Tuttimus premium package. Netflix is already available to Proximus clients, but it is not technically possible to include it in the Tuttimus options. That problem should be solved next year, Leroy says. Divers off the coast of the border area between Flanders and northern France have spotted a rare ocean sunfish, also known as the common mola (Mola mola), the Flemish Institute for the Sea reports. The mola is the heaviest bony fish in the sea and can reach up to 1.8m and more than two tonnes. One or two of the fish wash up on Flemish or Dutch beaches every year, but sightings of living examples are more rare. The Council of State has rejected an appeal brought by a group of airlines including Brussels Airlines and parent company Lufthansa against the Brussels regional government’s zero-tolerance policy on noise complaints. In May, Brussels decided to scrap a margin of tolerance on noise complaints of nine decibels during the day and six at night. A group of seven airlines threatened to quit the airport and took the case to the Council of State. The Council ruled that the margins had been

face of flanders a favour and could no longer be defended given the state of noisereduction technology. The discovery of a dead raccoon on the E314 in Limburg is a sign the creatures are making inroads into Flanders, according to the Institute for Nature and Forestry Research. Raccoons are not native to Belgium but have been showing up – usually as roadkill – in border areas of Wallonia, Germany and Dutch Limburg. According to EU rules on exotic species, the Belgian authorities are obliged to take steps to combat the invasion. Around 150 to 200 staff and students at the faculty of bio-engineering science at Ghent University had to vacate the building last week when an accident in a laboratory led to the release of sulphuric acid vapours, which are highly corrosive. The fire service were called and ventilated the lab. People were allowed back into the building shortly after, but the lab affected remained out of commission for the rest of the day. Nobody was injured. One in three occupants of a vehicle on the roads during rush-hour have no pressing reason to be there and could travel at another time, according to a study by motoring organisation Touring. If they were to do so, traffic jams could be cut by about a fifth, researchers found. The problem could also be improved by allowing more flexibility in the workplace, via teleworking or less rigid hours. The Flemish public broadcaster VRT is to begin showing a version of the main evening news with Flemish sign language from 6 December. The broadcast is a repeat of the main evening bulletin on Een and will be aired on Ketnet, YV and online. Ketnet already broadcasts the children’s news shows of Karrewiet with Flemish sign language.

Media company Vice Benelux is to launch a new TV broadcaster, Viceland, in the new year, to be shown on Channel 21 of Telenet. It will concentrate on lifestyle and cultural subjects for Flanders, with a mix of domestic and foreign productions aimed at millennials. The government in Belgium needs to tackle alcohol consumption as hard as it did the use of tobacco, according to the Flemish expertise centre for Alcohol and other Drugs (VAD). That means rethinking the availability of alcohol including strong drinks almost 24/24 in vending machines and night shops, as well as to under-18s. VAD also calls for a massive price increase to depress consumption, as well as a ban on advertising. Researchers from the University of Leuven and the Flemish Institute for Biotechnology have found a relationship between the sugars contained in tumours and the spread of cancers throughout the body, a team said. The research into macrophages, a white blood cell contained in the immune system, could provide a means of slowing or stopping the spread of cancer from one organ to another, and eventually to the entire body, the researchers write in a paper published in the journal Cell Metabolism. Vilvoorde would be “honoured” to be the new home of world music festival Couleur Café, mayor Hans Bonte said. The festival is in search of a new home after failing to reach an agreement with Brussels City and the Brussels Capital region over a new location when Tour & Taxis becomes unavailable because of construction. Bonte has suggested the Drie Fonteinen park as well as two other sites. Festival organisers welcomed the suggestion but said negotiations with Brussels were continuing.

offside all roads lead to rome The word archaeologists use in Dutch is baanpost, but the best English translation is probably “roadhouse”: or what the Flemish media are calling “a Gallo-Roman motorway services”. One such site has just been discovered in Aalter, East Flanders, close to the border with Zeeland. It was probably on a newly built Roman road from the Scheldt ports to the Roman fort at Aardenburg just over what is now the border. The site, dating from about 200 BCE, was occupied by a family who grew vegetables and raised sheep, and who also took in weary travellers, fed them and let them feed

and water their animals. Archaeologists already know that the ground around Aalter is unusually rich in remains. The site in question, according to Johan Hoorne of archaeologists De Logi & Hoorne, contains intricate pottery that comes from the other end of the Roman Empire, as

Klaartje Heiremans One of the largest theatre companies in Flanders has a new managing director. Last week, the Toneelhuis in Antwerp announced the appointment of Klaartje Heiremans, who comes to them from Mechelen, where she was not only business manager of music ensemble Zefiro Torna for 10 of its 20 years of existence, but also a member of the municipal council, sitting for Groen. Heiremans was born in 1976 and went to school in Halle, and studied flute at the Royal Conservatory in Brussels. She joined Zefiro Torna in 2003. The ensemble concentrates on medieval, Renaissance and Baroque periods, using authentic instruments and historical singing and improvisation techniques – what is known as HIP – Historically Informed Performance. After 10 years there, she moved to Amuz in Antwerp, another group that relies on HIP. In February this year she started managing the academies that make up part of the city’s extra-curricular education system. Toneelhuis, working from the landmark Bourla Theatre in Antwerp, is a step outside her comfort zone. “These days Toneelhuis is one of the most important cultural organisations, in Antwerp and in the performance sector in general,” she

said. “To create the conditions and opportunities for theatre-makers and the theatre-going public of tomorrow is a challenge I want to grasp with both hands.” At Toneelhuis, she’ll be responsible for keeping the company running, working with artistic director Guy Cassiers, taking care of the parts of the business the public doesn’t see: controlling the budget, running the staff, managing the theatre infrastructure and representing the company to business, political and artistic partners. She takes over fromLucvandenbosch,whomoves on to become general manager of Rosas, the dance company of Anne Teresa de Keersmaeker in Brussels. “To become and remain a relevant cultural player in the current social context requires not only artistic vision but also a business policy that is flexible and inspires confidence,” she said. She will continue sitting on the city council in Mechelen. “I want to look into the opportunities offered by the city’s part-time arts education,” she said. “I think there are major challenges to be faced. There are huge obstacles to be overcome for less fortunate children and those from an immigrant background. I want to give every child in Mechelen the chance to blossom. That’s not the case today.”

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

well as cloak pins, the stylised head of a wild boar and the remains of iron items. The site was uncovered during the archaeological investigation that is obligatory before any major construction project can proceed. The area is intended for a housing project. Also visible in the 1.1-hectare dig are traces of older roads, which the Romans are known to have been developing into a broader roadway. “A roadhouse like this is extremely rare,” Hoorne said. “Apart from in Velzeke and Kerkhove, such a thing is quite unknown in contemporary Flanders.

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 Bartosz Brzezi´nski agEnda Robyn Boyle, Georgio Valentino art dirEctor Paul Van Dooren PrEPrEss Mediahuis AdPro contriButors Rebecca Benoot, Derek Blyth, Leo Cendrowicz, Emma Davis, Paula Dear, Andy Furniere, Lee Gillette, Diana Goodwin, Clodagh Kinsella, Catherine Kosters, Toon Lambrechts, Ian Mundell, Anja Otte, Tom Peeters, Arthur Rubinstein, Senne Starckx, Christophe Verbiest, Denzil Walton gEnEral managEr Hans De Loore PuBlisHEr Mediahuis NV

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\ POlITICs

5Th column The Ceta question

Wallonia’s refusal to agree to the EU Ceta trade deal with Canada has baffled the world, but it surprised few in Flanders. Politics in Flanders and in Wallonia could not be more different. The more prosperous Flanders is centre-right, while Wallonia leans to the left. Many in Flanders feel Wallonia, and especially its socialists, is holding back the country and economy. The Michel government, which has no majority and no socialists, seemed like a rare opportunity to introduce reforms. However, PS has not vanished: it is still in power in the Walloon and Brussels regions. And look who popped up to halt Ceta? Now the whole world can see what we have experienced for years, one observer said. Wallonia minister-president Paul Magnette (PS)’s Ceta refusal came unexpectedly, but what perplexed the outside world was that he even should agree to it. The reason is Belgium’s Constitution, which has been reshaped in a number of state reforms. As the regions increasingly demanded more autonomy, thereisnohierarchyinthelevels of government in the Constitution. The federal government has no power over the regions, so in certain cases the regions have to vote on international agreements independently. They routinely do this without any hassle. (The Brussels Capital region has yet to accept Ceta; it awaits the outcome of Magnette’s stand-off.) The view from Flanders is that Magnette’s resistance has personal political motives, as his party tries to win voters back from a smaller Marxist party. Being in opposition at the federal level gives PS little reason to push through Ceta either. That this embarrasses prime minister Charles Michel (MR), a Walloon, is a bonus. In Flanders, Magnette’s stance is admired by some on the left, but mostly it is criticised. Flanders is in favour of Ceta, as the region accounts for 90% of Belgium’s export to Canada. Once again, it feels “held back” by Wallonia. “Flanders wants to negotiate on an international level; Wallonia does it,” Magnette said. “Wallonia would rather export arms to Saudi Arabia than apples and pears to Canada,” Flemish minister-president Geert Bourgeois replied, referring to the state-owned arms factory in Herstal. Some have suggested that the federal government should simply ignore Wallonia, which would be a constitutional breach. Either way, the issue has landed Belgium in a political minefield once again. And the EU with it. \ Anja Otte

Flanders and Japan renew cultural co-operation arts flanders japan in tokyo celebrates 40th anniversary alan Hope More articles by Alan \ flanderstoday.eu

inister-president Geert Bourgeois has signed a new multi-year agreement with Arts Flanders Japan, previously known as Flanders Center Osaka. The Flemish cultural institute, which recently moved to Tokyo, is celebrating its 40th anniversary this year. The centre opened in Osaka, Japan’s third-largest city, in 1975 to introduce Flemish culture and science to the Japanese. Its purpose now will be to concentrate on cultural relations between Japan and Flanders from a new home base in the Japanese capital. Bourgeois was in Japan as part of the state visit led by King Filip and Queen Mathilde. At

the signing, which took place during the Taste of Belgium event, Bourgeois (pictured) talked

about some of the highlights of past co-operations. They included Flemish conductors Dirk Brossé and Jan Van der Roost conducting the Osaka Municipal Symphonic Band on the centre’s 25th anniversary, and a concert by the Cantate Domino boys’ choir in the aftermath of the earthquake and tsunami that hit eastern Japan in 2011. “The ambition here is to establish a genuine cross-cultural dialogue and to emphasise collaborative effort and creative process over any final outcome,” Bourgeois said. “The situation in the world, politically and economically, calls for better and stronger relations between like-minded and friendly nations.”

Scattering of ashes allowed outside traditional burial grounds

No new taxes as Brussels region agrees budget for 2017

The Flemish parliament has approved a change to the law that will allow people to scatter the ashes of a loved one in places other than traditional burial sites. The proposal was passed without opposition. According to the existing law, the ashes of a cremated person may only be scattered within the municipal graveyard or on private property, to avoid disputes and conflicts with people of faiths that do not allow cremation. The same applies to burying an urn containing ashes. The new rule allows municipal authorities to designate other parts of public property than the cemetery as sites where ashes may be strewn. They may also allow for the burial of urns, provided the urns are biodegradable. \ AH

The Brussels-Capital regional government has reached an agreement on its budget for 2017. The agreementcoversboththeregional government and the community commissions for matters pertaining to Flemish and French-speaking responsibilities. Spending in 2017 will remain at the levelof2016–around€4billion.The budget is in balance and involves a number of spending cuts. Brussels has also followed Flanders and Wallonia by safeguarding “productive investments” – in the case of Brussels, mainly investment in mobility. The government is not considering any new or increased taxes, though a tax reform recently introduced to stimulate the housing market will be retained. According to minister-president Rudi Vervoort, the reform is budget-neutral and makes the tax regime less complex. Personal tax goes down by 1% this year and a further 1.5% in 2017. Meanwhile, an attempt by the Brussels regional government to push the responsibility for approv-

Chamber debates budget and state of the union Following prime minister Charles Michel’s State of the Union speech and presentation of the new budget last Sunday, it was the turn of the parliament on Monday to debate the issues. Later came the traditional vote of confidence, which he won easily. The debate started at 10.00 on Monday and went on past 2.00 the next morning. Peter De Roover of N-VA blamed the opposition for the budget cuts that were necessary to fill a €3 billion gap. “The opposition is against a deficit; they are as one on that,” he said. “That immediately limits our options. Then, by definition, we have to turn to savings on spending, or income increases.” Karin Temmerman of the opposition socialists criticised the government’s plan to allow people under 21 to be paid less than the legal minimum wage to encourage employers to take them on, calling the measure “scandalous”. From outside the chamber, she was joined by the Network Against Poverty, which pointed out that a cut in wages would make life even more difficult for young people on the rental market, where many already spend more than one-third of their income. “Cuts are always painful,” said De Roover (pictured), while claiming some of the cuts contained in the

budget were made “not with an axe but a scalpel. In health care, such fine cuts were possible without reducing the quality of the care”. Belgium’s five main health insurers issued a joint statement claiming the €900 million cuts in health spending would be “the largest social decline in 10 years”. The result would be either a drop in the quality of care or an increase in patient fees and supplements. The Belgian Doctors’ Association warned that the budget clause on limiting the index on doctors’ pay would force them to raise their fees unilaterally. Unions representing military personnel threatened industrial action in response to the budget’s provision for raising the age at which military personnel can retire, bringing it into line with other sectors. At present, military personnel can retire at the age of 57; the new rule would see that go up to 58 in 2018, and by six months every year up to 63. \ AH

ing or rejecting the Ceta free-trade agreement between the EU and Canada on to the Brussels Parliament will not succeed, the parliament’s chair, Charles Picqué, told Bruzz. The government cannot come to an internal agreement, and minister-president Rudi Vervoort has called for the parliament to vote on the issue. “That has no point,” Picqué said. “A vote in parliament has no weight with the European Commission. The Brussels government is trying to shift the blame, but that won’t solve the problem.” As Flanders Today went to press, the deadline imposed by the European Commission for Belgium to sign the treaty was approaching without progress being made. \ AH

Flemish parliament joins in United Nations Day for the first time The Flemish parliament took part in the global United Nations Day for the first time on Monday, as the organisation celebrated its 71st anniversary. Three senior UN officials – the directors of the International Labour Organisation, the Industrial Development Organisation and the International Organisation for Migration – explained the reforms that have taken place during secretarygeneral Ban Ki-Moon’s term of office, which is now coming to a close, and discussed the challenges facing the organisation. Those present also heard from

ambassador Bénédicte Frankinet, formerly Belgium’s permanent representative to the UN, about the campaign to have Belgium take a seat on the Security Council and the Human Rights Council. Flanders’ minister-president, Geert Bourgeois, talked about Flemish foreign policy, and singer and UN Goodwill Ambassador Ozark Henry performed. Parliament speaker Jan Peumans gave the closing address. The event was organised by Cifal Flanders, the UN training and research centre, and Unitar, the institute for training and research. \ AH

\ COVER sTORy

octoBEr 26, 2016

Learning in tongues

Eye movements as we read are key to understanding how we process language lEmma.ugEnt.BE

continued from page 1

material is close at hand. Ghent University students have been recruited to take part in a range of experiments that test aspects of their ability to learn in English compared to their native Dutch. The researchers examined differences in reading in the two languages by asking students to read a novel, half in Dutch and half in English. They do this on a computer screen, while a camera tracks the way their eyes move. “This can tell you, with the precision of a letter in a word, where the eye is looking, for time intervals of around 4 milliseconds,” says Hartsuiker. The reading pattern that emerges shows how long people spend on different words and how often they go back to check a word or re-read part of a sentence. The same book has to be used for each reading. “The tricky part is having a really accurate translation,” says Evy Woumans, a postdoctoral researcher involved in conducting the experiments. “The Dutch version has to be very equivalent to the English version.” It also helps if the book is engaging and not too hard to read. In this case, the winning title was The Mysterious Affair at Styles (De Zaak Styles in Dutch), one of Agatha Christie’s Hercule Poirot novels. The broad results of this work are not so surprising: people are slower to read in their second language and the pattern of going back and forth in the text resembles that of a developing reader. But this is just the beginning, since the data – the researchers call it a corpus – can be revisited with all sorts of new questions. For example, it is known from firstlanguage studies that people take longer to read long words than short words. But is this equally true of the second language, or is there an extra deterioration? Another experiment that is currently being developed will look at the way people’s minds wander when they’re reading. It’s already known that particular patterns of brain waves can be detected when people are drifting off, so the idea is to see if these can be linked to a reader’s eye movements. “If we can find a pattern of eye movements, we can look back at our corpus and see how much people mind-wandered while reading the novel, and what parts of the text made people’s minds wander,” says Woumans. Alongside these experiments that look at how students take in information, there are experiments that focus on its retrieval. The most basic tests have them memorise lists of words in English and Dutch, then recall them after a week and after a month. This produces a ‘forgetting curve’.

students from various faculties at UGent are taking part in the research to discover what goes on in the brain when they learn in a second language

“One possibility is that if you learn something in the second language, in the short term you remember it as well as if you had learned it in the first language, but you store it worse, maybe less specifically, so as time passes you forget more,” says Hartsuiker. A more complex test involves getting students to read short

Woumans. “And we test them right after reading the text, then after a day and after a week and see how much they remember.” There is hardly any difference between the languages with multiple-choice questions or those that involve recognising something. But when more is required, a gap opens up. “If you have to explain

in the process the difficulty lies. It could be in finding the concept to answer the question, finding the words or formulating them into an answer, or in making the physical movements in order to speak the words. “In principle, all these components could be more difficult in the second language than in the first,” says Hartsuiker.

It would be quite interesting to focus on Chinese or something that is quite different texts on topics such as the sun, types of stars or the lives of sea otters, and then asking those questions. “There is a part which is true or false, so just facts, then a part which has open questions,” says

something about the behaviour of sea otters, then you find it is more difficult in the second language after time has passed,” says Hartsuiker. The next step is to find out where

Experiments that involve recall of a word but not speech – for instance asking the student to press a button if the name of an object contains a particular letter – indicate that recalling concepts

and words are much the same in either language. “This suggests that the delay occurs in the later stages, perhaps in the articulation of the word or the speech motor commands,” says Hartsuiker. The conversion of memories into speech is also being tested by asking students to tell a story several times over. It is normal for the story to become shorter with each retelling, but the researchers want to see if the degree of compression varies when students retell stories in their first and second languages. Then there is an experiment to see how far ahead people plan sentences in each language. This is done by showing them two images on a screen and asking them to form a sentence that says the object on the left is next to the object on the right. But at the same time a disrupting word, related in meaning to the name of the first or second object, is fed to them through headphones. “If the participants plan the complete sentence in advance, then a relationship to the second word should slow down their initiation of the sentence. But if they plan just a bit of the sentence and produce the rest as they go along, then a relationship to the second part of the sentence should not really matter,” Hartsuiker explains. The students involved in all these experiments are rewarded for taking part, either with course credits if they are part of the departments concerned, or money if they are from elsewhere in the university. Afterwards they are told what the experiment was about, and they can access the results if they are interested. Work on practical support for those taking courses in English will come to the fore in the final years of the project. “One intervention could be in the form of advance organisers, which could be anything that provides structure to a text you are about to read,” says Hartsuiker. That could be an outline, bullet points or even a simple word list. Tools might also be developed to provide vocabulary support, if that proves to be an issue. And while this work may also help international students coming to Flanders to study in English, the basic research does not necessarily read across. “If you have totally different languages, with different syntactic structures, then maybe the outcome is totally different,” says Woumans. “We hope that that some of the conclusions would be valid for them as well, but that requires further research,” Hartsuiker adds. “It would be quite interesting to focus on Chinese or something that is quite different.”

\ BUsInEss

Brussels welcomes newest shopping and leisure centre docks Bruxsel aims to be ‘a neighbourhood in itself’ alan Hope Follow Alan on Twitter \ @AlanHopeFT

he first of several new shopping centres planned for the outskirts of Brussels has opened. Docks Bruxsel overlooks the canal at the Van Praet bridge, on the border between Schaarbeek and Laken. The project took 10 years to come to fruition. The centre covers 58,000 square metres and aims to attract eight million visitors a year. “Docks Bruxsel will cater not only to shoppers but also to cinema lovers, epicureans, culture lovers and adventurers,” said Carl Mestdagh, CEO of Equilis, which owns the site. The shopping centre is home to 113 brands, some of which – like the Samsung Experience Store, H&M Home and Kiabi – are opening in Belgium for the first time. There is also room for about 20 cafes and restaurants, a cinema, a conference centre

and an indoor park. Architecturally, the centre is made up of buildings of different styles and broad walkways, giving the impression of a pedestrian street in town, covered by a high glass roof. According to project manager Olivier Weets, Docks is not just a shopping centre but “a whole neighbourhood in itself ”. However, Docks has failed to keep promises it made to the Brussels government while the plans were still on the drawing board, according to a group of retail and environment representatives calling themselves the Platform for Sustainable Economic Development. For example, the choice of stores – heavily weighted towards clothing – goes against a government decision for the centre not to compete with existing retail centres but to complement them.

10,000 tonnes of surplus fruit will iSpace brings technology companies and students together not be destroyed after all Hasselt’s PXL university college and business community Corda Campus are launching iSpace, a joint project in which more than 120 ICT students will work with technology companies to develop innovative products and services. The goal is to prepare students for a digital and changing labour market, by bringing them into contact with the business world and letting them work on realistic assignments. They will learn to work with engineers, researchers and CEOs. “We want to close the gap between the business world and students,” Ben

Lambrechts, general director of PXL, told Limburgnieuws.be. “Students can learn a lot from ICT professionals and provide companies with new ideas through their fresh outlook.” Corda Campus has installed a 500-squaremetre workplace where students can experiment and develop innovations in a realistic working environment. As a first assignment, students will develop an augmented reality project to present the companies at Corda Campus to visitors in a virtual way, for example via an app. \ Andy Furniere

Less administration and more flexibility for market traders FlemisheconomyministerPhilippeMuyters has promised market traders a reduction in the administrative burden they work under, as well as more flexibility for local authorities to organise markets and local fairs on their own territory. In the sixth and latest set of state reforms, authority over ambulant traders – stallholders at weekly markets as well as concession holders and ride operators at annual fairs – passed to the regions. Muyters organised talks with trade federations and the Association of Flemish Towns and Municipalities to see what the industry needed. They concluded that as each town is different, and each market and fair has its own particular character, towns and municipalities should have the power to decide how their ambulant traders are organised, subject to local demands. Certain basic rules – such as what sort of trader is covered – should be provided by the government of Flanders, but the details of each town’s market arrangements will be

Flemish agriculture minister Joke Schauvliege has pledged that 10,000 tonnes of surplus fruit will not be destroyed but will go to hospitals and food banks. Last week, Boerenbond announced that the European Commission had set a limit of 27,500 tonnes on the amount of fruit Belgium could withdraw from the market this year, as a continuing result of the Russian boycott on agricultural products from the EU. According to Boerenbond, roughly half of that limit has already been reached. Belgian production is almost wholly concentrated in the Haspengouw region of Flemish Brabant and Limburg. Because of weather conditions, fruit growers have produced 18% less apples than normal this year and 10% less pears. Destruction of fruit is intended to keep the market stable and avoid the drop in prices that would be produced by a glut of fruit. According to Schauvliege, the surplus has

not been and will not be destroyed. “The Commission allows for edible fruit to be withdrawn from the market and for growers to be compensated,” her spokesperson said. “In Flanders, that means fruit can be distributed to food banks and hospitals. The fruit can also be used for animal feed, as fertiliser on fields or as biomass to produce energy.” \ AH

Four Belgian entrepreneurs among world’s top 100 CEOs © GerardM/wikimedia

left to the municipalities. “With this amendment to the law, we’re leaving the ball where it belongs, in the court of the towns and municipalities,” Muyters said. “We have met their needs and requirements as far as possible, so they have much more autonomy in making decisions, and so that Flanders need only rule on those cases where Flemish government input is useful.” \ AH

There are four Belgians among the world’s top 100 CEOs, according to the annual list produced by the Harvard Business Review. The highest-rated is Johan Thijs, CEO of Leuven-based bank KBC, in 19th place. A Limburger born in Genk, Thijs studied mathematics and actuarial science at the University of Leuven and joined KBC in 1988, returning to Limburg to head the non-life department of the Limburg regional office in 1998. He became CEO in 2012. He’s followed at number 22 by Jean-François Van Boxmeer, chief executive of Heineken International. Van Boxmeer was born in Elsene in Brussels, joined Heineken in 1984, and has worked for the brewer in Rwanda, Congo, Poland and Italy. He became CEO in

2005. In 52nd place is Ronnie Leten, CEO of the Swedish company Atlas Copco. Another Limburger, Leten was born in the mining town of Beringen and studied applied economics at Hasselt University. He joined Atlas Copco in 1985 and has held the top job since 2009. Bringing up the rear is Jef Colruyt, CEO of the no-frills supermarket chain of the same name, at number 70. Colruyt is from Halle in Flemish Brabant. He studied electromechanics at the Higher Technical Institute in Ostend as his first degree, before joining the family business in 1987, taking over leadership when his father died suddenly in 1994. \ AH

\ BUsInEss

octoBEr 26, 2016

weeK in business Air Transport TUI Ostend-based tour operator and charter airline Jetair, which operates the bulk of its flights out of Brussels Airport, has become TUI, ending 45 years of operations under its own name. The German TUI tourism group took over the local company in 2001 but kept the Jetair brand for commercial reasons.

Venture capital Fund+

The Leuven-based venture capital fund has raised €125 million to help the development of local biotech companies. The company has already injected funds into eTherna, a spin-off of Brussels university VUB specialised in research into breast cancer and melanoma.

Retail Eggo

Integration through work

flemish employment agency helps refugees get back on their feet arthur rubinstein More articles by Arthur \ flanderstoday.eu

The employment and training agency VDAB has come up with an action plan that puts refugees into the labour market as quickly as possible and provides them with practical language skills.

eaving your home for a new country – whether to pursue better material opportunities or matters of the heart – is never easy, despite the prospect of a better life. Leaving because your home is ravaged by war or other man-made disaster can be, at best, traumatic. To help asylum seekers and others better integrate into Flemish society, a number of government agencies are investing time, money and manpower in practical campaigns. Integration through Work is one such initiative, set up by the Flemish employment and training agency VDAB. With various partners, the agency seeks to get refugees and others into the labour market as quickly as possible, rather than have them first go through an integration process before they look for work. The VDAB has taken a number of actions as part of the initiative, including additional recruitment and training of mediators, increased useoflanguagetrainingandexpanding existing mechanisms for workplace training. To further help the job seekers, VDAB spokesperson Shaireen Aftab explains, the VDAB offers a range of opportunities tailored to each person, so specific training can be customised to meet the requirements of the labour market. “We try to evaluate the job seeker to under-

stand what is needed to get them ready for the job market,” she says, “whether through providing training, work placement or other measures.” To promote the action plan, the VDAB is supporting it with a communication campaign, using tools that have been developed according to the needs of the target group. For example, partners can use leaflets in different languages, or turn to online videos about the agency’s services and other pertinent information.

rEfugEE.vdaB.BE

learn, for example, how the healthcare system and public transport work, and what their options are for language training in basic Dutch. Individuals with limited or no knowledge of Dutch go to the House of Dutch for an evaluation of their language level and the type of course they should follow. There, they follow a practical, intensive language training course to prepare them for job opportunities. In addition, they get a realistic picture of the labour market in Flanders and learn interview techniques with

The training course is the door to life in Flanders The agency is also active on other fronts in guiding newcomers to a job. Registered job seekers who don’t speak Dutch and lack a degree or certificate obtained in Belgium or the Netherlands can be referred to Dutch language courses. A person is screened and interviewed by a mediator, who assesses their abilities and expectations before establishing a programme describing the steps they must take in a job search. Based on the mediator’s assessment, the VDAB can refer the job seeker to a reception facility or to the language centre Huis van het Nederlands (House of Dutch). The reception website familiarises the newcomers with various aspects of Belgian society. They can

other job seekers, each sharing their ideas and experiences. The action plan also has another perspective, namely an awareness programme for employers who want to help a refugee find a job. The VDAB has a section on its website that describes the legal and practical steps employers must take before hiring a new arrival. AGII is one of several agencies working with the VDAB. The agency for integration is a private foundation established by the Flemish government as an autonomous body. Anyone who wants to learn Dutch can approach AGII and though it doesn’t offer any courses itself, it refers people to its education partners that offer Dutch courses in

their area. The purpose is to help the newcomer use familiar everyday expressions and very basic phrases. The students also learn how to present themselves to others in a professional or social context, and how to ask and answer questions about their personal details. The effort is not without difficulties and frustrations for both the students and the agencies that want to help them in the integration process. However, there are a number of success stories. One of them is Rami Anis, a refugee from war-ravaged Aleppo in Syria, who took part in the Olympic Games in Rio as a member of the Refugee Olympic team. The talented swimmer was granted asylum in Belgium in December last year and followed a course that teaches the customs and conventions of Flemish society. Someone else who has successfully crossed the integration bridge is Mawad, an Iraqi who has been living in Flanders for more than three years. Mawad attended a civic integration course and later found a job in Tienen, Flemish Brabant. During the course, he learned how to find all the sources of information he needed for living and working here. He calls the programme “the door to life in Flanders”. Partners in the VDAB initiative include social aid agency OCMW, the agency for integration AGII, reception centres, local relief initiatives, Fedasil, the Association of Flemish Cities and Municipalities and educational facilities.

The Aartselaer-based kitchen design and installation group has raised €5 million to fund the opening of eight additional stores in Flanders and two in Spain. The company already operates some 45 outlets in the country.

Food Belgocatering

The Aalst-based catering group is in negotiation to be taken over by Creia, the leading Italian company in the field.

Award Vyncke

The Harelbeke-based industrial group, specialised in the design and production of green biomass boilers, has been elected Flanders’ Enterprise of the Year. The company is market leader in Belgium and among the top three worldwide in the business.

Railways nMBs

The national railway company has issued a tender for a €75 million state-of-theart data centre to manage its operations. The new facility will replace the existing centre in Muizen, near Antwerp.

Retail Colruyt

The Halle-based discounter is to invest a further €380 million to open 20 additional stores next year. The company’s long-term plans also include the opening of 80 Okay proximity outlets and 30 Bio-planet shops.

Distribution Bpost

The country’s post office group has taken a stake in the Dutch Buren group, specialised in automated collecting stations that allow customers to collect their mail and parcels at any time.

\ InnOVATIOn

octoBEr 26, 2016

Questions big and small

weeK in innovaTion

online platform connects curious minds with academic experts senne starckx More articles by senne \ flanderstoday.eu

ikipedia, the largest and most popular online encyclopaedia, is the embodiment of the “wisdom of the crowds” principle, or the value of collective opinion over that of a single expert. When you’re aware of its strengths and weaknesses, the platform, and its 40-something million entries, can prove to be a true gold mine of information. But if you’re looking for answers to less obvious questions, like “Does it make sense to still believe in the existence of the Germanic gods?” or “What would happen if Pinocchio said ‘My nose will grow now’?”, the chances are Wikipedia won’t be of much use. What you’d need is a resource based not on artificial intelligence and algorithms but on good old-fashioned academic expertise. In 2008, the Brussels-based Royal Belgian Institute for Natural Sciences launched Ik heb een vraag (I Have a Question), an online platform run by more than 1,000 volunteers from Flemish universities, colleges and research institutes. The website, which lets anyone submit a question,

iKHEBEEnvraag.BE

provides an answer within 14 days. “After we receive a question, the first step is filtering it,” says Bart Coenen, who supervises the platform and acts as a gatekeeper. “I select the questions and assign them to a corresponding scientific discipline. Our system then automatically sends the questions to the volunteers who are experts in the area. Whoever clicks first gets to write the answer.” The project, which aims to make scientific expertise easily accessible, has proven to be a success. Last month, Ik heb een vraag solved its 15,000th question. The milestone came from a

14-year-old called Brit who was wondering about the process of turning lava into rock. The answer came from Sam Poppe, a volcanologist from the Free University of Brussels (VUB), who described the entire cycle of how magma turns into lava during a volcanic eruption. “Before giving the answer, we determine the age and education level of each questioner,” says Poppe. “We also try to provide an answer that’s both extensive and

complete, so that it can be understood without the question.” Who are the typical questioners? “We see people of all ages and backgrounds,” says Coenen. “There are children who are very curious about the world around them, and there are adults who wonder about how something is put together. In fact, two of my friends were debating a question once, and Ik heb een vraag had to determine who was right.” While Coenen lets even some of the strangest questions through, not all make the cut. “It’s hard to judge which questions are weird and which are not. If a question doesn’t get through, it’s likely because there is nothing scientific about it.” But science, Coenen admits, is always a work in progress. “When it’s difficult to deal with a specific question, because science isn’t ready to answer it just yet, we say so clearly. Our experts will then sketch possible hypotheses and ways of reasoning, and the current state of research.”

Babies born to overweight mums are ‘biologically older’ Babies born to overweight women are “biologically older”, which could increase their risk of conditions like diabetes and cardiovascular diseases, according to researchers at Hasselt University. The researchers © Ingimage

studied a sample of 740 pregnant women and their babies. Researchers from the university’s department of environmental sciences found that babies born to mothers with weight problems have shorter

telomeres – sequences of DNA that protect genetic material and become shorter as people grow older. The researchers determined that for each additional point of the mothers’ body mass index, the babies’ telomeres were an average 0.5% shorter. “Newborns may all have the same age, but on a molecular level they have a different ‘biological age’,” explained professor Tim Nawrot. “The babies of overweight mothers are older on a molecular level,

as their cells have a shorter life expectancy.” The precise effect of the shorter telomeres is unclear, but it is thought to increase the risk of age-related diseases like diabetes. “This study supports the hypothesis that the weight of the mother has an impact on ‘foetal programming’ and thus the development of diseases at a later age,” said Nawrot. “So the prevention of diseases can already start before conception.” \ Andy Furniere

Q&a Kristof Van Beeck is a PhD student at the University of Leuven who has developed a camera system that warns drivers when a pedestrian or cyclist is in their blind spot. Unlike mirrors and dashboard monitors, which rely on the driver’s constant attention and need to be correctly adjusted, Van Beeck’s system is fully automatic. What prompted you to design this system? An estimated 1,300 casualties occur across Europe each year because lorry drivers fail to spot bikes and other vehicles in their blind spot. There are already several products on the market that show lorry drivers what is in their blind spot. Blind spot mirrors – which have been a legal requirement since 2003 – are the most popular. However, they still rely on the driver being alert at all times, and need to be adjusted correctly.

Sometimes drivers use blind spot cameras, which display the blind spot zone using a monitor in the cabin, but these suffer from similar issues. What makes your system different? The aim of our research was to develop a camera system that actually warns drivers when a vulnerable road user is in their blind spot. When the system detects a pedestrian or cyclist in the driver’s blind spot, it automatically sets off an alarm. It was a challenging task

because the system needs to be very accurate and has to process the information quickly, in real time. When is it likely to come out on the market? It will probably still take a few years. We’re currently getting excellent results in the testing stage, with a 95% accuracy rate. But the system needs to be perfect. We still get some false alarms – such as when a shadow appears and the camera system mistakes it for a pedestrian. To overcome these issues we’re thinking of installing infrared sensors that are able to visualise the temperature of the environment. We also need to carry out more tests over a longer period,

and on public roads. So far we’ve just carried out tests on private terrain. So it will be a while until the system is market-ready, but the results look promising. \ Interview

by Ellie Mears

Air quality varies from street to street The air quality in cities differs significantly from street to street, according to a citizen project in Antwerp. The air in a small and busy street can contain twice as much nitrogen dioxide (NO2) as that in a trafficfree street, even if the roads are next to each other. As part of the CurieuzeNeuzen (Curious Noses) project, 2,000 Antwerp citizens hung sensors in their window to measure the amount of NO2. Scientists from Antwerp University and the Free University of Brussels (VUB) analysed the results, at the request of activist organisation Ringland. The lowest NO2 concentrations were found in traffic-free areas like the city park; the highest were in narrow streets with tall, continuous buildings on both sides.

Digital currency for green energy

Researchers from the Free University of Brussels (VUB) have launched the Scanergy project, which supports the introduction of a digital currency – the NRGcoin – to encourage the installation of solar panels. The system would enable producers to trade green energy with each other directly. Increasing numbers of citizens are producing energy with solar panels and can already deliver surpluses against payment to the grid, the researchers said, but they are dependent on the electricity supplier. The NRGcoin would be worth 1 kilowatt hour of green energy, and its value could be determined without mediation by any authority.

Database to map Belgians’ DnA

A consortium of Belgian research institutions, hospitals and companies are co-operating to develop a database that will contain the DNA profile of thousands of Belgians. The DNA platform will help experts diagnose health problems and provide more efficient, customised treatments. The database will also be able to map hereditary health risks, which will aid preventive health care. The partner organisations also see the platform as a first step towards a “genetic passport” for newborns. This passport can then serve as a guideline for future health care. The data of the first patients is expected to be analysed at the start of next year. \ AF

\ EDUCATIOn

weeK in educaTion Crevits calls for better energy use The government of Flanders currently spends about €700 million a year on energy for buildings, with old school buildings accounting for a substantial chunk of this budget. Education minister Hilde Crevits has now ordered the Vlaams Energiebedrijf (Flemish Energy Agency) to follow up schools’ energy consumption better and set up energy-saving projects. This winter, experts will measure the energy use of a group of schools, by adjusting their boilers and monitoring the effect. The government is also launching a call to universities and colleges to submit proposals on working more energyefficiently. The projects can receive up to €500,000 per project and €2 million per institution.

Children’s Zone to help Antwerp youth

The City of Antwerp is investing €1 million a year in a new Children’s Zone project in the Kiel neighbourhood to reduce the number of youngsters leaving school without a diploma. Antwerp’s city councillor for education, Claude Marinower, launched his plans for an Antwerp Children’s Zone earlier this year, inspired by similar initiatives in New York and Rotterdam, which devote extra attention to students in neighbourhoods with the highest levels of poverty. The Children’s Zone will focus on improving the learning process of children not only in schools but also in other neighbourhood organisations and at home.

BsB opens €25m sports centre

The British School of Brussels (BSB) in Tervuren has officially opened its new sports centre, named after Jacques Rogge, the former president of the International Olympic Committee. Construction began on the €25 million project two years ago; it replaces a now demolished, much smaller sports centre. The facility includes a 25-metre swimming pool with movable floor, allowing the depth to be adjusted. The pool features digital timing and touch pads so the BSB swimming squad can train with the latest technology, as well as allowing the school to host invitationals and interschool swim meets. The centre also includes fitness and dance studios, a multipurpose gymnasium and gymnastics infrastructure. \ Andy Furniere

\ 10

Home is where the class is

families across flanders embrace the practice of home education Emma Portier davis More articles by Emma \ flanderstoday.eu

Although only a fraction of parents in Flanders educate their children at home, more than ever before are forgoing traditional schools in favour of going it alone.

ne child is busy putting out muffins she helped bake for breakfast, another is practising piano in the next room but pops back in for a cuddle with his mother. Educational charts hang on the walls, there are shelves full of books, and there’s an exercise ball, which an 11-year-old bounces on while explaining how far he is in reading Lord of the Rings. A 16-year-old briefly appears for breakfast before heading back to his online courses. These are the Beskys, one of a growing number of families that have chosen homeschooling. In Flanders this means any education outside of schools that is recognised, financed or subsidised by the government, for either an individual child or a group of children. While a handful of private schools, including the Hasidic Jewish schools in Antwerp, fall into this group, there are many families choosing to educate their kids at home. According to the Flemish government’s education agency, Agodi, 853 children of primary school age were homeschooled in the year 2013-2014 (0.21% of the total number of children of that age in Flanders) and 1,164 secondary-school-age children (0.28% of the total). The figures have been steadily rising. In 2000, there were only about 100 homeschooled pupils of secondary school age and less than 100 of primary school age. According to Agodi, there are several motivations. Close to 20% of families said they were homeschooling because of a low sense of well-being in school, about 16% said it was because they could tailor education to their children’s needs and 11% wanted to give their children a broader or different education than they were getting in school. Other reasons cited included religious convictions, medical and learning problems, and because the family moves around a lot. In the case of the Beskys, an American family that moved from the US first to Austria, and then to Belgium in 2007, the path to homeschooling all six of their children was a gradual one. Their three oldest started out in private international school here, but, with a big family, the fees became prohibitive. “One of our kids had to be homeschooled,” explains Maja Besky. Eventually she and her husband asked themselves why they shouldn’t just homeschool all of

them and save on the school fees. That was the Beskys’ starting point on their journey of homeschooling. Many other advantages have since become evident. With one of her children, Besky had endured sleepless nights during his early days at school in Austria, discussing how he was coping in the school playground when children were fighting. “If I’m trying to teach my kids the golden rule,” she says, “I shouldn’t put them where the law of the jungle prevails.”

The religious aspect has raised flags in Flanders recently, where the government has been looking for ways to head off radicalisation at an early age in school. In May, during a debate about radicalisation of youngsters, MP Jo De Ro of Open VLD criticised the lack of inspections carried out in homeschooling, amid fears that children were being radicalised under the radar. De Ro said only 5% of homeschools were inspected, and one-

My job is to help them find the things that make their hearts sing While their children excel in some areas – one is well ahead of his year group in mathematics – homeschooling also allows her to give help where and how it is needed. “When they are struggling, rather than having a teacher say your kid has ADHD, we let them sit on an exercise ball and bounce around while they do their mathematics.” When the children are younger and can’t deal with sitting behind a desk all day, she continues, “they can run around outside and then come back in to do their work”. Homeschooling, however, has many critics. In a country with the world’s highest level of participation in school from the age of two-and-a-half, keeping children at home is seen as a destructive method in their development of soft skills that enable people to interact with others. Then there are the clichés of homeschooled kids, as seen, for example, in the opening scenes of the teen movie Mean Girls: They are freakishly clever and have parents who are “weirdly religious”.

quarter of those were issued with negative reports. Flemish education minister Hilde Crevits replied that inspections increased in 2014-2015, noting that it wasn’t her intention to make it harder for homeschoolers. Another blow to homeschooling came from the constitutional court, which ruled in 2014 that a government decree ordering that all children of secondary school age must attain set graduation goals (known in Dutch as eindtermen) was not in conflict with constitutional law. This, said those who appealed the decree, would undermine or conflict with their own teaching programmes. Besky says that having her kids socialise is very important. “One of my kids is leading a youth band, then there’s scouts. We have a piano teacher come to the house. I try to make sure they do things outside of the home. They also follow online courses where they communicate with their teacher, and they are in study groups and discussion forums.”

As for the raised eyebrows in the supermarket when she is out with her kids during the school day, she says: “They look at us, but then they see that my kids are adding up grocery costs, or helping me or other shoppers. They’re actually learning a variety of things as they accompany me.” As for the children, one of them, who is now at university, initially struggled with the lack of competition from peers. “He got really frustrated, but he turned his attention to baseball,” explains Besky. The 11-year-old tells me the best bit about homeschooling is that “you can change your schedule according to what you have going on”. There is some required paperwork for homeschoolers. Every year, Besky has to submit her application to the Flemish government and describe her teaching themes. The government also requires that secondary school-age children sit exams each year, which is a problem for kids who don’t speak Dutch. But this can be avoided, according to Agodi, if the education in another language – in her kids’ case English – is deemed equivalent. As the children graze on freshly harvested vegetables from their garden and drift peacefully in and out of their studies – today is an “off day”, meaning a relaxed day – Besky explains that each child has household responsibilities, including preparing lunch and cleaning. According to a recent report by the Vlaamse Scholierenkoepel, these are skills that the government would like to see among their graduation goals. As for academic successes, Besky notes that she already has two kids at university. “The proof is in the pudding,” she says. “My job is to help them find the things that make their hearts sing.”

\ lIVInG

octoBEr 26, 2016

Back to their roots

weeK in acTiviTies

non-profits in moroccan community help to revive country’s economy andy furniere More articles by Andy \ flanderstoday.eu

on-profit organisations from the Moroccan community in Antwerp are hoping to revive the economy in the region where their roots lie. Among their plans are developing ecotourism, a student exchange programme, and supporting co-operatives making local food. A large part of the Moroccan community in the Borgerhout district of the city has its roots in the Ouled Daoud Zkhanine region in the northeast of Morocco, around the cities of Nador and Berkane. Extreme drought has made large-scale agriculture and cattle farming impossible, leading to high unemployment and emigration. From the mid-1960s, after a labour agreement between the Belgian and Moroccan governments, many people from Ouled Daoud Zkhanine came to live and work in Flanders. Among them was the father of Ali Kaddouri, co-founder of the Steunproject non-profit in Borgerhout. “Just like most emigrants, my father sent money to his family in his home region and we took gifts with us when we went there for holidays,” says Kaddouri. “But as the decades passed, the community in Morocco became too dependent on funding from Flanders, while family ties became weaker.” To provide more sustainable and structural support in the region, a few years ago Steunproject set up Al Amal, a co-operative that encourages the breeding of goats and production of goat cheese. It followed in the footsteps of the pioneering non-profit Imane, also based in Borgerhout’s Moroccan community, which created the Al Fath co-operative in the same region in 2000. Al Fath focuses on producing honey, chickens and

Halloween in Puyenbroeck A big outdoor party with kids’ cyclocross course, ghost train rides, haunted house, Halloween-themed entertainment and evening fireworks followed by a torchlight tour of the park with spooky surprises. Food and drink available to buy. 30 October 15.00, Provinciaal Domein Puyenbroeck, Puyenbrug 1a, Wachtebeke; €8 \ puyenbroeck.be

Bad kitty For two days, Bokrijk’s outdoor museum will be taken over by a mischievous black cat. He has lots of fun activities planned for kids: a “bad kitty” challenge course, a fun scavenger hunt and a dance route for those who can’t sit still. Plus storytelling, live music, craft workshops and more. 30 October and 1 November 10.00-18.00, Domein Bokrijk, Bokrijklaan 1, Genk; €12

olive oil. The organisations receive financial help from the province and city of Antwerp. The city provides an annual subsidy of €8,000 to Steunproject, Imane and fellow nonprofit Iben Sina, which they’ve used to set up a project involving the Antwerp university colleges Karel de Grote and AP. Students at these colleges can participate in an exchange programme set up with the community in Ouled Daoud Zkhanine. Those studying to become teachers in Antwerp can teach in local schools, while midwifery and nursing students can take on an internship in a local hospital. Teachers in Antwerp’s urban education network can also travel to Morocco, to see what life is like in the schools. “It means current and future teachers in Flanders can better understand the cultural background of

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students of Moroccan origin in Flanders,” says Kaddouri. Moroccan teachers and directors come over to get to know the Flemish education system, while a number of Moroccan midwifery and nursing students have done an internship here. The education project will now be expanded even further. The Moroccan government wants to use Flemish expertise to set up preschool classes in the region, which is not common in the state education system. Flemish students taking part in the exchange programme stay with host families, paying them €20 a day. This system inspired the nonprofits to boost the development of ecotourism in the region. “The region has a beautiful mountainous landscape and coastal environment,” says Kaddouri. “Living closer to nature and in an open community can give people

another perspective on life, by showing how you can live happily in more modest conditions.” With fellow non-profit Marobel, Imane and Steunproject have now submitted a plan to stimulate economic development in Oulad Daoud Zkhanine. In particular, they hope to receive a budget of €430,000 for five years from the federal government’s development co-operation department. They will find out at the start of next year if they have been granted the funds. The budget would be used to stimulate ecotourism and set up a platform to strengthen the co-operatives in and around Morocco, led by two local experts who will provide training and examine the best ways to commercialise products. The Borgerhout organisations and the city of Antwerp plan to assist the community in taking control of the economic initiatives.

biTe

sugar rush: family baking workshop encourages creative kids It’s a Wednesday lunchtime and school’s out. While most kids are burning off some energy at sports clubs, I’m taking my boys, aged three and five, to learn how to decorate cakes at a new shop cum workshop in Tervuren. How could this possibly go wrong? My & More Cake opened a few weeks ago, offering workshops for kids aged up to 18, mother and baby baking get-togethers, and birthday parties. The owner, from the Netherlands, also sells baking paraphernalia and makes cakes to order. For a baking fan, the shop is dangerous. So far it’s a modest collection, but it’s all rather desirable. We head out to the workshop where the table is laid out with rolling pins, cutters, cakes (made dairy-free for my dairy-intolerant kids) and lots of coloured fondant icing. Having tried this at home and ended up scraping icing from every accessible surface. I’m curi-

ous to see how she will manage. She shows the boys pictures on her tablet of animal cupcakes and we get to work, rolling and cutting and eventually producing some pretty cute pigs, frogs, mice and bees. I’m surprised by how long my kids are engaged in this exercise, but eventually the sugar rush kicks in from the various fragments of icing that, despite my best attempts, have been gobbled up by the little guys who now think stabbing

mycaKE.BE

Mummy’s cakes with modelling toys is the best game ever. I’m relieved and impressed by how patient the owner is as she ignores the icing and toolthrowing and tries to divert them with humour back to the task in hand. “I have three kids of my own,” she says repeatedly with a knowing smile. The former social worker came up with the idea for My & More Cake after starting out baking occasion cakes. “I love to make cakes. I also have three children and at a certain point I asked myself, ‘why don’t I make this my job instead of my hobby?’.” After about an hour, my boys decide they’ve had enough of sitting still (or being told to sit still). As they headed off to the well-equipped play area, part of me was disappointed, but most of me was happy to have them happy and to be left in peace to work on some more cakes.

Halloween at the Zoo Afterdark,evilspiritscomeout of the shadows and haunt the zoo… If you’re brave enough, you’ll find scares aplenty, plus creepy live acts and even some laughs. Limited admission; advance ticket purchase via the website. Not suitable for young children; recommended for ages 10 and up. 28 & 29 October 19.00-midnight, Olmense Zoo, Bukenberg 45, Olmen; €8 \ olmensezoo.be

Beastly Brunch Drop off your kids at the new Zwin Nature Reserve for a hearty, healthy breakfast followed by a discovery trail and creative workshop. Parents get a breakfast basket to take home, and can pick up their kids after lunch. Reservation required via the website; limited to 500 participants. 30 October 9.00-14.00, Zwin Natuur Centrum, Graaf Leon Lippensdreef 10, KnokkeHeist; free \ myknokke-heist.be/ beestigebrunch

Cartooning workshop During this family workshop, explore the Belgium et cetera exhibition of editorial and political cartoons and then get busy with pencils and paper, making your own cartoons and caricatures. Registration required via the website; price includes one adult and one child. (In Dutch or French.) 2, 3 and 4 November, Museum BELvue, Paleizenplein 7, Brussels; €10 \ belvue.be

\ Emma Portier Davis

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What’s the weirdest thing you’ve ever done in Flanders? If you can’t think of anything at all, you’d better check out our new e-book

Quirky Flanders offers 20 unexpected – or downright odd – activities or sights across the region you can get busy taking part in right now

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\ ARTs

octoBEr 26, 2016

Lust for life

weeK in arTs & culTure

fashion and art meet in celebration of rik wouters’ private paradise christophe verbiest More articles by Christophe \ flanderstoday.eu

momu.BE

An exhibition in Antwerp’s Fashion Museum brings together contemporary designers, artisanal craftwork and modern art in a vivid elegy to the work of visual artist Rik Wouters, who died a century ago.

century after his death, Flemish visual artist Rik Wouters is more popular than ever. But who would have expected him to be at the centre of an exhibition at Antwerp’s ModeMuseum (Fashion Museum)? Rik Wouters & the Private Utopia combines his paintings, drawings and sculptures with mostly contemporary fashion. Yet there’s also room for clothing from Wouters’ lifetime and works by a few other artists, both his contemporaries and those currently working. Post-impressionist Wouters, who died shortly before his 34th birthday, first and foremost found his inspiration in the meagre existence he led with his wife, Nel. The love of his life was his most important model whether in homely scenes – reading a book, doing the laundry or just sitting at a window – or naked in sensual, sexual poses. Though Wouters’ life was full of hardship, he has been praised for the optimism in his work. This view skips too easily over the brooding that’s implicitly present in his work, but this is not the point here, since the idea of the exhibition is to concentrate on the safe cocoon that Wouters created in his work, reflecting the private utopia he and Nel had created for themselves in Bosvoorde, Brussels. It was an Eden that couldn’t even be shattered by the First World War. In the exhibition, this attitude is linked to what the curators recog-

The non-profit organisation Conservamus,whichismanaging the renovations and restoration of the Royal Conservatory in Brussels, has launched a campaign for donations to start restoration on the windows. The group has hung a banner inviting members of the public to adopt a window frame. The Conservatory is a federal responsibility, while the activities that take place inside are governed by the Flemish and French-speaking communities. Conservamus said that, despite an agreement signed in 2013 by the three governments, none of the work had yet begun. “Conservamus has decided to wait no longer and organise the restoration of these important architectural elements ourselves,” the group said in a statement.

Gauguin restoration crowdfunded

The show bathes in vivid colours and has the effect of an energy booster

nise in our contemporary society: a growing desire to go back to nature, the slow movement and renewed interest in artisanal techniques like weaving and dyeing. The work of fashion designers who work in this vein, or at least have a common ground, is combined with Wouters’. This gives way to very different results. The chapter Teenage Dreams presents a teenager’s room, created by the duo Atelier E.B., with a Wouters poster on the wall. The chapter Line Drawings circles around “Woman Reading/ The Green Book”. It’s a painting in which Nel wears her iconic redand-white striped dress. Because of their precarious financial situation she owned only a few fancy dresses, and they feature in her husband’s

paintings time and again. The canvas is surrounded by a series of striped dresses by designer Christian Wijnants, an ode to the painter. At times the link between Wouters and the fashion designers is looser. Dirk Van Saene, one of the Antwerp Six who revolutionised fashion in 1980s, gets a special overview of his career with 15 of his most famous silhouettes. Wouters certainly wasn’t his most important direct source of inspiration (Louise Bourgeois or Ellsworth Kelly were far more influential), but they were both inspired by what they saw – still see in Van Saene’s case –

until 26 february

a symphony of echoes Not one but two exhibitions celebrate the centennial of Wouters’ death. His birthplace, Mechelen, celebrates him with Zot geweld/ Dwaze maagd (Crazy Violence/ Foolish Virgin), named after his fascinating sculpture (pictured) that forms the centre of the show. An exhibition centred on one work is always a tricky undertaking, especially when four curators are at the helm. But the collaboration has worked well. One is a connoisseur of modern art and Wouters, a second of sculptures, a third is a dance historian and the fourth a

Crumbling buildings cause alarm

specialist in contemporary art. Their four focus zones are the warp of this exhibition, whereas four themes (dance, morality, beauty and stability) form the weft. The result is an intricately woven expo that benefits well from its location: one huge basement room in the recently and smartly renovated Hof van Busleyden. Centre stage is the eponymous sculpture, though it shouldn’t have been placed on a pedestal, since now it feels like it’s trying to dominate the other works. It’s

around them in their personal life. Similarly, other links are found between the eponymous artist and designers (Walter Van Beirendonck, Veronique Branquinho, Jan-Jan Van Essche…). The result is a show that bathes in vivid colours and has the effect of an energy booster. Even if you’re more interested in visual arts than in fashion, or vice versa, you’ll find enough here to make it worth the trip. The excellent book that accompanies both this exhibition and the one below is called Lust for Life, and that’s exactly what Rik Wouters & The Private Utopia gives you.

The Royal Museums of Fine Arts in Brussels has launched a crowdfunding campaign to finance the restoration of “The Portrait of Suzanne Bambridge” by Paul Gauguin. Gauguin painted “Suzanne Bambridge” – one of his very few full frontal portraits – during a stay in Tahiti in 1891. The subject of the painting was married to a local political leader. The oil painting was sold to the Fine Arts Museums in 1923 and makes up part of the museums’ Fin-de-Siècle collection. Restoration is desperately needed, according to the museum, which hopes to get €22,500 through crowdfunding, an amount that will be matched by the Leuvenbased Baillet Latour fund. \ tinyurl.com/gauguinfund

ModeMuseum

Nationalestraat 28, Antwerp

musE.mEcHElEn.BE

the only minor drawback of this exhibition. Around it are placed almost 100 art works and artefacts. Wouters himself is present with some other fine works, like some drawings in his sketchy but very efficient style or the oil painting “Nude Study”. The latter is surrounded by nudes of Wouters’ contemporaries, both famous (Amedeo Modigliani) or virtually forgotten (Jan Sluijters). Nearby you also find some much older nudes, for instance by Renaissance painter Lucas Cranach – not because Wouters was influenced by him, but to contextualise the theme. A similar approach is employed for other themes. Wout-

ers’ love for dance, for instance, is illustrated with “The Wedding Dance” by Pieter Bruegel I, the anonymous “The Dance of Virtues around Christ” or an Etruscan statue. Wouters’ penchant for craziness is mostly exemplified by contemporary artists like Kati Heck or video artist Pipilotti Rist. Here, too, it’s not certain they were directly influenced by Wouters, but they do share the same sensitivities. These are just a few of the many reflections that bind together the presented artworks. To use a musical metaphor: Zot geweld/Dwaze maagd is a stunning symphony of echoes.

until 11 december

Hof van Busleyden St-Janstraat, Mechelen

Duo draw 31 days in Belgium Photographer Zoe Elliott and illustrator Tim Vaughan-Sanders are travelling Belgium for a month, capturing the country in 31 original drawings. Elliott, from Australia, captures quirky and interesting sights on her camera, which her partner, from New Zealand, then transforms into colourful yet minimalist illustrations. Some of the prints, available to buy online, alude to iconic cultural symbols, others are more ambiguous. They may show a barrell organ player from Hasselt, a pair of elderly women wearing matching raincoats, or three polar bear cubs messing about on the world’s oldest printing press, in Antwerp. A portion of all art sales will be donated to Serve the City, a Brussels-based charity. \ facebook.com/31daysin

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\ ARTs

A leap of faith

stefan Hertmans’ new novel reveals dark secrets of 11th-century france rebecca Benoot More articles by Rebecca \ flanderstoday.eu

stEfanHErtmans.BE

Set at the time of the Crusades, Stefan Hertmans’ new novel follows in the footsteps of a young woman who sacrifices everything in the name of love.

he New York Times had nothing but praise for Stefan Hertmans’ previous novel, War and Turpentine, which the award-winning novelist based on the notebooks left by his grandfather depicting his life during the First World War. Blurring the lines between fact and fiction, Hertmans created a moving, eloquent and powerful novel. Following on from the international success of the book, he now tells the tale of Hamoutal, a young woman from a powerful Christian family, who flees with the love of her life, the son of the Chief Rabbi of France, for whom she has converted to Judaism. Set in the 11th century, De Bekeerlinge (The Convert) takes place in Monieux, a town overlooking the barren peak of Mont Ventoux in the south of France. Hertmans, who has lived there for more than 20 years, was inspired by an old newspaper article about the town.

Pure fiction can sometimes be one-dimensional “When I finished writing War and Turpentine,” he says, “I sat down to read this document and discovered a fascinating story about a Christian girl who converted to Judaism, fled from her family with her husband and children and ended up in Monieux.” But she still wasn’t safe. The novel unfolds against the backdrop of the Crusades; Monieux bears witness to a bloody pogrom, after which Hamoutal finds herself alone and once again having to flee. With a letter of recommendation from the local rabbi in hand, she sets out on a voyage to Cairo in search of asylum. “I wanted to write the history of Monieux,” Hertmans says, “and focus on the life of this remarkable woman.”

Like the previous novel, De Bekeerlinge combines facts and fiction with elements of self-reflection, as Hertmans recounts his experience of writing the book. It’s a formula he loves. “By combining these elements,” he explains, “you start out with a solid base. Pure fiction can sometimes be one-dimensional; with the research you are able to add multiple layers. “If I had made this story up, it would have

become a run-of-the-mill historical novel. I wanted the reader to know my pain and feel the urgency in telling the story. But also to get to know this woman. I believe this enhances the tale.” Hertmans based the novel on a 1,000-yearold Hebrew document found in the Ben Ezra Synagogue in Cairo. Fascinated with the story, he retraced her steps through the French cities of Rouen, Narbonne and

Marseille, Italy’s Palermo and ultimately Cairo. “If you follow her route from 1,000 years ago,” he says, “you start to grasp the changes in climate and the hardships she had to endure.” Hertmans is clearly filled with empathy for the protagonist and tries to answer a pivotal question: What does it mean to change your identity? “Hamoutal naturally had a lot of doubt when renouncing the god she had believed in since she was a child,” he says. “But doubting makes one an intellectual. By questioning her surroundings, Hamoutal grows as a person; she evolves.” As a result of this questioning, she marries the son of the rabbi and finds herself a refugee. The love story is far from obvious and required a lot of research, says Hertmans. “She was a young woman with a strong character, who married against her parents’ will; they even sent knights after her,” he says. “She must have been a strong-willed woman who sacrificed everything for love.” Throughout the story, Hertmans paints a harrowing portrait of 11th-century Europe – from the repression of Jews, to the Crusades and the reaction in the Middle East – showing us that holy wars are universal and ongoing. The parallels with the current refugee crisis grew organically, Hertmans says, and were not intentional. The depictions of people having to flee home are just as poignant now as they were then. De Bekeerlinge is a beautifully written novel about a woman who falls between the cracks. Hertmans’ attempt to portray her world – with its inner and outer elements – is a success, giving us a harsh glimpse of history through the eyes of an unassuming character. By combining the evocative love story with his own experiences, Hertmans has proved to possess a degree of unprecedented perception and clarity. Above all, however, he has created a timeless portrait that will linger, showing us that tragedy, resilience and hope are all part of the human condition. De Bekeerlinge ( Dutch by De Bezige Bij

Books for all: Flanders’ largest literary fair turns 80 The 80th annual edition of the Boekenbeurs book fair brings together Flanders’ major publishers and independent bookshops in Antwerp. With more than 90 booths, the festival will be full of retro flashbacks, cutting-edge reading technology, literary prizes and guest appearances. This year, the focus is on eight themes, including books to relax with, books on contemporary society and current affairs, books that promote selfreflection and books that are true to themselves. Every theme will be applied to fiction, non-fiction and children’s books, through debates and workshops. There will also

\ 14

be three late-night openings with special themes: Night of the Profs ( focusing on

management and professionals), Foreign Affairs and Ladies & Literature. When they’re not signing books, Flemish and international authors will take part in thought-provoking conversations. Local favourites including Tom Lanoye, Marnix Peeters, Herman Brusselmans and Griet op de Beeck are expected to be there. Dutch journalist and author Geert Mak, best known for Reizen zonder John ( ), will be talking about his latest novel, De Levens van Jan Six (The Lives of Jan Six), while Herman Koch, one of the Netherlands’ finest contemporary authors, will present his upcoming book De greppel (The Ditch). The winner of this year’s Hercule Poirot

) is published in

BoEKEnBEurs.BE

award remains a mystery until the opening of the festival, but Frederik Willem Daem will be accepting the debut award for his novel Zelfs de vogels vallen (Even the Birds Fall). While Flemish pop group K3 entertain the kids, celebrity chefs including Jeroen Meus, Sergio Hermans, Pascale Naessens and Sofie Dumont will be signing their latest cookbooks and sharing some tricks of the trade. \ Rebecca Benoot

31 october to 11 november Antwerp Expo

\ AGEnDA

octoBEr 26, 2016

Gender juxtapositions

classical

Mary Reid Kelley M Museum, leuven

until 8 january

mlEuvEn.BE

hen the American mixed-media artist Mary Reid Kelley started doing video work, she was in the painting department at Yale University. Experiments to incorporate text into her practice led to her idiosyncratic video art. Both erudite and playful, the four black-andwhite films shown at her first Belgian solo exhibition are witty collages mixing artistic approaches and traditions, such as drawing, stop-motion animation, performance and poetry. “I can make these kind of long readable paintings, or I can just say them,” she said when receiving the MacArthur Fellowship earlier this year. “Once I’d started writing some verse, I wanted to read and speak it.” So that’s what she does while dressed up as one of the historical figures in her videos. While her partner, Patrick Kelley, is filming these

music

leuven

get tic k

drake

Mary Reid kelley with Patrick kelley. The Thong of Dionysus, 2015

scenes in their private studio, she explores the condition of women throughout history. The work of the New York-based artist is full of references to mythology, literature, pop culture and (gender) politics. Recited in poetic verse and a determined, sometimes rebellious voice, her intellectual approach is countered by surrealist characters and the whimsical retro design of abstract costumes, props and sets, produced

visual arTs

ets no w

february 28 & march 1 Ever since his first album, Thank Me Later, Toronto rapper Aubrey Drake Graham has been perfecting his idiosyncratic blend of emotional and confessional rap – heavy on dark thoughts and wild paranoia. It’s an artistic choice that’s made the Grammy Award-winning rapper hip hop’s favourite laughing stock, but it’s

using her drawings and paintings. Watch “The Syphilis of Sisyphus” (2011), a monologue in which the artist plays the role of a Parisian prostitute, or her video trilogy about the myth of the Minotaur, and notice how she reveals sexual taboos and gender inequity by the smart juxtaposition of contemporary cultural references with classical precedents. Some drawings, a trio of masks and a large mural with graffiti and quotations bring her films to a life-size set in which the walls of the museum act as a reference to the walls of the labyrinth of the Minotaur, where lost visitors wrote down their last messages. From 17 to 20 November, the artist couple will also present a live work at the nearby STUK arts centre. In “This is Offal”, a pathologist tries to understand why a woman took her life by examining her organs. \ Tom Peeters

sportpaleis, Antwerp tElEticKEtsErvicE.com

also allowed him to win over a broad mainstream audience. His most recent move to more dancefloorfriendly tracks caused him to break all manner of streaming records. Tickets for the upcoming Antwerp show sold out so fast that the organisers have added a second date the following day. \ Linda A Thompson

a feverish Era in japanese art until 22 january This year Belgium and Japan celebrate a century and a half of diplomatic friendship with state ceremonies and cultural events across Belgium. One of the programme’s centrepieces is this exhibition, which surveys the thriving underground arts scene in post-war Japan. The years following the Japanese surrender were full of

Bozar, Brussels BoZar.BE

cultural ferment as the exhausted nation’s artists re-evaluated traditional forms, much like their counterparts in Europe and the United States. Indeed, the end of the war inaugurated a truly global avant-garde movement fuelled by exchanges between East and West.

\ Georgio Valentino

Transit Festival: 17th edition of the annual new music festival devoted to 21st-century avant-garde music that is at once “international, imaginative, daring and unapologetically radical”. 28-30 October, STUK, Naamsestraat 96 \ festival2021.be

visual arTs Bruges Expo Picasso: More than 300 original works, including engravings, rare illustrations, drawings and ceramics, outlining the evolution of his work, from his Spanish period to Cubism to Surrealism. Until 31 December, Oud Sint-Jan, Mariastraat 38 \ visitbruges.be/en/expo-picasso

Brussels Picasso: Sculptures: More than 80 sculptures conduct a dialogue with paintings, ceramics, photographs and objets d’art from Picasso’s private collection, revealing the artist’s creative power in experimenting with a range of materials and techniques. Until 5 March, Bozar, Ravensteinstraat 23 \ bozar.be

Kids Ghent Halloween for kids: Hennie the Witch visits Ghent’s new cat cafe to tell kids (aged five to nine and dressed as a cat or witch) about her black cat, Elmer, followed by an interactive workshop (in Dutch). 30 October 10.00, Dreamcatchers, Schepenhuisstraat 17 \ wearedreamcatchers.be

film Ghent

fesTival

family

Brussels street Photography festival filemon until 2 november Brussels’ newest urban arts festival stakes its claim with an inaugural edition packed with exhibitions, discussion panels, workshops, photo walks and parties. The main events are its twin photo showcases: one dedicated to invited guests (including Magnum photographers Harry Gruyaert and Bieke Depoorter) and another given to young and

Across Brussels BsPfEstival.org

hungry photogs who paid for the chance to compete in various categories. Submitted works document street life in Brussels and other cities around the world. Only pre-selected finalists will appear in the festival. By the end of it, these will be whittled down to a handful of prize-winners by a jury of industry veterans. \ GV

30 october-7 november Brussels’ International Children’s Film Festival is back for another week-long celebration of familyfriendly cinema. This 10th anniversary edition boasts more than 100 screenings at 16 venues around the capital. The latest shorts and features are in the running for prizes in three categories, all judged by for-real youth juries.

Across Brussels filEmon.BE

The festival also features avantpremieres, workshops, special events and concerts. This year’s theme is, after all, music. A retrospective programme showcases musical films, musicals and other music-related movies, from the Beatles’ Yellow Submarine to Jim Henson and David Bowie’s Labyrinth and beyond. \ GV

Homeless Movies: Six artists delve deep into Huis van Alijn’s home movie collection to come up with new films, to be shown in film booths at various intriguing locations around the city, offering a few minutes of isolation from the outside world while peering into the memories of strangers. Until 15 January, 2017, across Ghent \ huisvanalijn.be

acTiviTy Ghent Fietslicht Festival: Mass bike ride organised by Critical Mass Gent, calling bicyclists to take to the streets to promote bicycling as the best means of urban transit, preferably wearing their most illuminated outfits and pimped-up bicycles. 28 October 18.00-22.00, Zuid, Woodrow Wilsonplein \ facebook.com/criticalmassgent

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octoBEr 26 , 2016

Talking Dutch oh my gourd!

derek Blyth More articles by Derek \ flanderstoday.eu

athias Willemijns of Deurle, part of SintMartens-Latem, has broken a world record. Not by running or swimming or some other feat of superhuman endurance, but by watering his vegetable garden every day. Oost-Vlaming kweekt grootste pompoen ooit – Man from East Flanders grows the biggest pumpkin ever, De Standaard reported. And it was truly a big one. Met een gewicht van 1.190,5 kilogram – With a weight of 1,190.5 kilograms verbrak Mathias het vorige wereldrecord – Mathias broke the previous world record met bijna 150 kilogram – by almost 150kg. That’s a lot of pumpkin pie. Mocht u wat aanknopingspunten nodig hebben – Should you need to put it in perspective, 1.190,5 kilogram is bijna evenveel als een Volkswagen Golf – 1,190.5kg is almost as heavy as a Volkswagen Golf. Of ietsje zwaarder dan een zwarte neushoorn – Or a little bit heavier than a black rhino. Willemijns, 24, picked up the award at the European Pumpkin Championships in the German city of Ludwigsburg. He was up against

18 growers from seven countries. The judges had never seen anything quite like the pumpkin trucked in from Flanders. Nooit werd er op deze planeet een zwaardere pompoen geteeld – Never has anyone grown a bigger pumpkin anywhere on the planet, De Standaard reported breathlessly. It’s an achievement that’s taken years of training. Ik was een jaar of tien – I was about 10 years old toen ik voor het eerst een eigen pompoen kweekte – when I grew my own pumpkin for the first time, he says. In his teens, he deed intensief opzoekingswerk – did intensive research en had al snel de belangrijkste basistechnieken onder de knie – and quickly grasped the most important basic techniques. He went on to reveal the secret to growing his mighty vegeta-

ble. Gunstige schimmels en bacteriën injecteren – Injecting useful moulds and bacteria, de wortels stimuleren met bepaalde fungi – stimulating the roots with certain fungi, zeker niet overdrijven met meststoffen – definitely not overloading it with compost. But he also pointed out that he couldn’t have done it without a very large greenhouse paid for by his parents. In juni en juli – In June and July, twee cruciale maanden – two crucial months, zat ik elke dag minstens 4 uur in mijn serre – I spent at least four hours every day in my greenhouse. His work has brought unexpected glory to a small town in East Flanders. Vroeger werden die reuzenpompoenen altijd in de Verenigde Staten geteeld – In the past these giant pumpkins were always grown in the US, maar twee jaar geleden vestigde een Zwitser het wereldrecord, 1.054 kilogram – but two years ago a Swiss grower set a world record of 1,054kg. Ik dacht: als dat in Zwitserse grond kan – I thought to myself, if it can be done in Switzerland, kan het ook in Deurle – then it can be done in Deurle.

PHoto of tHE wEEK

voices of flanders Today In response to Interactive after-dark tour shows castle in a new light Mathias Vdb: Can’t wait to visit this. The perfect blend between reality and imagination.

In response to 5 fun events in Flanders this week Nicole De Reys: This sounds awesome. I’m curious to check it out.

In response to Tourism minister announces subsidy shortlist Sandra Geluykens: Antwerp is just beautiful! Everyone should visit: lovely people, THE best food, great shopping, beautiful markets... it’s got everything!!

Anne Billson @AnneBillson One of the nicest things about Ghent is the people are REALLY sweet & encouraging & ever so patient when you try to speak Dutch to them

Sarah Fox @Sarahloufox @gayrath you can bring me back some chocolate from lovely lovely Bruges. Have a fab time

Eve @EefRockbell 11:11 happiness and nice weather in Hasselt

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The lasT word Heavenly bodies

“You certainly can pose in a bikini. That’s not in conflict with Islam. But if it gets too sexy, I’ll move on.” Myriam Sahili from Molenbeek is a strong favourite to become the first Muslim winner of Miss Belgium

touch of class

“I didn’t feel at home at school. I was looking for more depth in the lessons.”

17-year-old Céline Ibe from Merksplas is the new chair of the union of Flemish school students, but left school in her fifth year to homeschool

fall guy

“We already know a lot, but why the leaves fall when they do, nobody knows yet.”

Matteo Campioli of the University of Antwerp has been awarded a €1.5 million grant by the EU to study the behaviour of trees

life, but not as we know it

“Yvette was a beloved personality, as we’ve seen on social media. A lot of people wanted to say something about her.” An online condolence book for Yvette De Schrijver was signed by 14,000 people, the organiser said. Yvette is a fictional character in the TV soap Thuis, who “died” last week

hair Today Members of the Antwerp Moustache Club (and friend) announce that they will be organising the 2019 edition of the world Beard and Moustache Championships

[O\N \ 16