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Flanders today

october 23, 20 1 3

Erkenningsnummer P708816

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current affairs

Get happy Flemings among most content in Europe, according to annual Vrind indicators 4

f r e e n e w s w e e k ly

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politics

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business

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Saying goodbye Hundreds gather in Ghent to pay their last respects to former PM Wilfried Martens 6

innovation

w w w. f l a n d e r s t o d ay. e u

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living

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arts

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agenda

Ghostly Ghent British author Helen Grant tells us why she sets her next unsettling novel in the medieval city 10

Happy birthdays For three decades, scientists in Flanders have been helping couples conceive via IVF Alan Hope

Thirty years ago, the country’s first IVF baby was born in Flanders. At the time, doctors didn’t feel able to shout about the achievement, but now, as the first generation of IVF children are having children of their own, we talk to the scientists who pioneered the life-changing procedure.

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n 24 October, Tina will celebrate her 30th birthday. That it’s also the 30th anniversary of in vitro fertilisation (IVF) in Belgium is no coincidence. “I had contact with her until a few years ago,” said Paul Devroey, one of the doctors responsible for bringing Tina into the world, making history in the process. “But then she decided she’d rather be out of the picture, I guess. She’d been in the public eye, on television and in the papers.”

Tina, from Opwijk, Flemish Brabant, was conceived at the Free University of Brussels (VUB)in 1983 and, nine months later, became the first recognised birth by IVF in Belgium. She

was not, however, actually the country’s first “test tube baby”.

That honour goes to the university hospital in Leuven, which had succeeded in bringing a child into the world by IVF five months earlier.

Two things stopped the university from claiming its milestone: the family wanted no publicity and have never been identified, and the hospital found itself in a difficult situation as the procedure was clearly forbidden according to the Papal encyclical Humanae Vitae.

At the time, the University of Leuven (KUL) was under tighter control from the Catholic church authorities than now; its reticence on religious-ethical grounds led it to hand over dominance in the field – not only in Belgium but across Europe – to Leuven graduate Paul Devroey and former paediatrician André Van Steirteghem of VUB. The two had met in 1978, when Devroey convinced Van Steirteghem to turn his lab skills towards the field of artificial insemination. “I was looking for people who were interested

in working with me on the culture of human embryos,” Dr Devroey tells me. “I tried to convince several people to join me, but they all refused because it was too sensitive; it was not well-regarded in society at that time.”

Van Steirteghem agreed to work on the project in 1980. The pair spent three years preparing the lab and travelling the world visiting other clinics.

“I was happy that one of my colleagues from the hospital came looking for me with a very innovative project,” Van Steirteghem said in the Canvas documentary Alles voor de wetenschap (Everything for Science). “At a certain point we clicked and decided to start out on what was to become a fantastic adventure.”

Leuven’s religious objections left the door open for Brussels.

“The Free University of Brussels was the centre where ‘anything goes’,” Van Steirteghem explained. “From lesbian mothers to women who wished to be inseminated with the sperm of their deceased partner. But we always paid a great `` continued on page 3

current affairs

Flanders today

october 23, 2013

Huis van het Nederlands turns 10 Organisations invited to present proposals that encourage learning Dutch Andy Furniere

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he Huis van het Nederlands (House of Dutch) in Brussels celebrated a decade of promoting Dutch courses in the capital last week with a gala event at Bozar. During the Nacht van Ambitie (Night of Ambition), 60 organisations presented proposals to motivate residents of Brussels to learn Dutch. Ministers of the Brussels and Flemish governments will choose the five best, which will all receive the full support of the Huis.

Last year, a record 19,890 people followed a Dutch course via the centre. Over the 10 years, Huis van

het Nederlands has referred about 85,000 people to a Dutch course in the capital. According to director Gunther Van Neste, about two-thirds of the students seek to learn Dutch to make them more employable. He also notices a rising interest among expats.

A remarkable recent trend is the growing enthusiasm among inhabitants of the canal zone in Brussels. About one in five students currently comes from the district of Sint-Jans-Molenbeek, while five years ago, the number was one in 10. Van Neste thinks the reason is rapid word of mouth in the close

communities of Molenbeek.

The number of – mostly Francophone – Belgians who consult the Brussels Huis keeps on rising, up to 35% of all students in 2012. The Moroccan community is the second largest group, with 10%.

Huis van het Nederlands has also focused on campaigns to promote Dutch in the capital. Bijt in Brussel (Bite in Brussels), for example, invites non-Dutch speakers to leisure activities, and Duidelijke Taal (Clear Language) teaches organisations how to improve their interaction with non-Dutch speakers. `` www.huisnederlandsbrussel.be

As of next year, electricity suppliers will be obliged to offer information on their lowest tariffs to customers who request it, according to an agreement reached between the federal government and the industry.

Companies will place a price simulator online, which customers can to use to find out what the lowest price is to suit their needs.

The simulator will also be linked to the electricity regulator CREG in order to compare the price to those

© freeimageslive

Electricity providers must offer lowest price

offered by other electricity providers.

Providers will also be obliged to switch customers over to the lowest tariff at no cost.

Among other specifics agreed to among the industry, federal consumer affairs minister Johan Vande Lanotte and federal energy minister Melchior Wathelet: the ability of a customer to switch to another supplier without penalty; companies may no longer prolong limited-term contracts without the approval of the customer; if there is a repayment due at the end of the year, it must be paid promptly or incur interest to be paid by the company. Alan Hope

Government installs ANPR cameras near Antwerp The government of Flanders will encourage city authorities to adopt more ANPR (automatic number plate recognition) systems on the region’s roads.

Last week Flemish mobility minister Hilde Crevits inaugurated a test project in Brecht and Brasschaat, both in Antwerp province. The project equips normal speed-check cameras with number-plate recognition.

The ANPR cameras not only measure the speed of a vehicle by registering the time taken to travel a set distance between two cameras, they are also able to look out for particular plate numbers in order to

identify potential lawbreakers, such as car owners have not paid road tax. The cameras can also be deployed for more wide-ranging traffic analysis.

“By introducing ANPR cameras, we can make our roads and town centres safer and more agreeable to live in,” said Crevits. “We’re now offering the municipalities the chance to buy these cameras via the roads and traffic agency.”

Each pair of cameras costs €97,000, of which €39,000 is provided by the roads agency. AH

Campaign for flexible secondary school study If secondary school students fail one or more courses, they can often opt to take these courses the following year rather than repeating the entire school year. And, as in higher education, students can resit exams.

But this so-called “flexible study path” is too-little understood or used, according to Flemish education minister Pascal Smet.

The increased promotion of this system is one of the features of a new action plan drawn up by the Flemish government, education organisations and social partners, like trade unions and employers’ associations.

With the plan, the collaborators want to reduce the number of students leaving school without a diploma

from the current 10% to 4.3% by 2020. The conditions of the flexible study path are, however, stricter in secondary schools than in the higher education system. The secondary school system only applies to the transition from the first to the second year, and not every student with one or more failed exams can repeat the courses the following year. AF

Red Devils clinch World Cup seed Belgium’s national football team has secured a berth among the top seeds for next year’s World Cup, ensuring they will be kept apart from hosts Brazil and the other six top ranked teams in the group stages of the tournament.

The coveted seeding comes after Belgium shot up the FIFA rankings: The Red Devils are now fifth in the world, after Spain, Germany, Argentina and Colombia (who could be yet overtaken when Belgium plays them in a friendly next month). Marc Wilmots’ side would have been in fourth place had they won their final group qualifying match last Tuesday, at home to Wales, but a late concession meant they ended their campaign with a 1-1 draw.

Belgium’s fifth place position caps a remarkable renaissance for a side that has not qualified for a major tournament since the 2002 World Cup in Japan and South Korea. In June last year, just after Wilmots was named Red Devils coach, the side was ranked a lowly 54th in the world. Leo Cendrowicz

Funds approved for urban renewal across Flanders Flanders’ minister for urban affairs, Freya Van den Bossche, has approved funding of €360,000 for six urban renewal studies in Brussels, Antwerp, Ghent, Deinze and SintNiklaas.

The funding is part of a package of €12.5 million a year available for urban renewal in the 13 largest cities in the Flemish region, as well as Brussels and 21 smaller cities. Most of the financing goes to projects aimed at bringing about sustainable and quality changes to urban areas, but there is also money for six feasibility study projects a year.

The projects financed include a make-over for the walls of the elevated railway in central Antwerp; a study into the importance of user experience in the design of public

spaces; the conversion of an old police station into a community centre in Deinze; the reuniting of the various neighbourhoods around the Dampoort train station in Ghent; the revival of the Hendrik Heymanplein in Sint-Niklaas; and further development of the site of the slaughterhouses in the Brussels district of Anderlecht. AH

THE WEEK IN FIGURES

€.60

1,500

€23,188

1,080

10%

cost of a bus trip for Hasselt residents once the city’s free bus service, which has been running since 1997, stops on 1 January.

Those under 19 and over 65 will still travel for free

Brussels properties listed on the accommodation site AirBnB. The region is tightening regulations on owners renting out their properties through the site to bring them more in line with those hotels must follow

electricity bill sent to a couple living in Ostend by power company Electrabel. The bill turned out to be a mistake caused by the faulty installation of a new meter

churches in Flanders have the status of a listed monument – one in three of the total, according to the church magazine Kerk & Leven

fewer British tourists visiting the Flemish coast over the last five years, compared to an increase of French tourists of 3.4%, according to tourism minister Geert Bourgeois

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current affairs

Flanders today

october 23, 2013

Political party lists in Flanders are not representative of immigrant and minority populations, according to a study carried out by researchers from the Free University of Brussels (VUB) and the University College Ghent (HoGent). Party lists for local elections remain almost exclusively white and contain few non-Belgian members. Groen and SP.A do best of all the parties, with about 4% of immigrants among members.

Women who breathe in too many fine particles during pregnancy are more likely to have a baby with a birth weight lower than average. That is the conclusion of environmental epidemiologist Tim Nawrot of Hasselt University. Babies with a lower birth weight run a larger risk of cardiovascular diseases later in life.

In Flanders, concentrations of fine particles are on average 35 microgram per cubic metre, considerably higher than the limit of 20 microgram per cubic metre set by the World Health Organisation.

Genk city council has agreed to a proposal by mayor Wim Dries to pursue a claim against General Motors for damages of €60.9 million for the closure of the Ford manufacturing plant at the end of next year. Ford earlier refused a settlement of the sum, which the city claims represents the loss to the public purse from taxes and other charges consequent on the closure.

The fruit market auction at SintTruiden in Limburg has welcomed its first shipment of one tonne of Red Love apples. The new variety has red flesh, and growers say it presents new opportunities for use in gastronomy and industry. The variety is the result of crossing some 20 other varieties.

The Limburg market planted 6,000 trees in 2011 under licence from the Swiss patent-holders, and the fruit sold last week is the first crop.

Next year’s Tour de France will pass through Ypres, West Flanders. The 101st edition, begins in the English

city of Leeds on 5 July and ends in Paris on 27 July. The Ypres visit is likely to be part of the fourth or fifth stage.

The place on the route was arranged after lobbying by former Belgian prime minister and Ypres local Yves Leterme and marks the tour’s commemoration of the centenary of the start of the First World War. Jimmy Wales, co-founder of Wikipedia, the online non-profit encyclopaedia, is the guest of honour of the Ideafest seminar this week at the Free University of Brussels (VUB). During the Ideafest, experts will discuss whether the free sharing of research results, so-called “open science”, could counter plagiarism and fraud. As co-founder of Wikipedia, Wales considerably democratised access to knowledge. `` www.vub.ac.be/events

The federal foreign affairs ministry has promised an investigation into claims

by N-VA parliament member Karel Van Overmeire that Princess Astrid is prevented by law from heading Belgian trade missions overseas.

According to Van Overmeire, trade missions must be led by the king, as honorary chairman of the overseas trade agency. Princess Astrid took over the leadership of the missions from her brother Filip when he became king in July. According to the foreign affairs ministry, the business world is happy with the arrangement: 159 companies have signed up for the first mission led by the princess, taking place this week in Angola and South Africa.

Representatives of anti-addiction organisations have criticised a new campaign by the Belgian Brewers Association to promote the consumption of beer. The campaign is aimed at stopping the downward trend in beer sales, which has seen average per capita consumption fall to 74 litres a year, compared to 120 litres 40 years ago. “There is still a large group of problem drinkers,” commented Marijs Geirnaert of the association for alcohol and drug problems. “It’s a great pity there

OFFSIDE

are campaigns to stimulate the consumption of beer. Surely the health risks are more important than the economic interests of the brewers?”

The festival boat that carries visitors from Mechelen railway station via the canal to animal park Planckendael will go out of service after the autumn school holidays, the owners said, because of new safety rules that would be too expensive to implement. The new rules require an extra crew member if there are 10 passengers or more. Some 40,000 people use the boat service, which runs from Easter to the autumn, every year.

King Filip will appear on his first postage stamp as sovereign from 28 October, bpost has announced.

Last week the king was in the postal print works in Mechelen to approve the design for the new stamps – a red version for national post at 77 cents, a blue for post within the EU priced €1.13 and a green version for post outside Europe at €1.34. The king has already appeared on five stamps, issued before he became king.

Flemish professors Bob Colebunders and Jean-Pierre Van Geertruyden of Antwerp University are collaborating with Geert Haesaert of Ghent University College to determine the causes of the nodding disease. About 15,000 youngsters between 5 and 15 years old in the African countries of Uganda, Tanzania and South Sudan suffer from the mysterious illness.

Tens of thousands have died from it over the past decades. Victims of nodding disease have regular epileptic seizures, which damage the brain irreversibly. Notwithstanding the scale of the problem, the cause is unknown and no remedy is available.

The Flemish researchers, together with the Ugandan professor Emilio Ovuga, will investigate if the disease is caused by mycotoxins – certain fungi in food. The project is supported by VLIR-UOS, which funds development co-operation projects in Flemish higher education.

Alan Hope

Criminally stupid

Christian Cigrang He’s the figure at the front of a fabulously wealthy Antwerp shipping family, the owner of an impressive art collection, a backer of the radical magazine Deng and one of the bankrollers of pop star Tom Barman’s film Any Way the Wind Blows. He’s Christian Cigrang, and he’s now also the angel investor behind two Antwerp fashion designers.

It’s the news the fashion industry has been waiting for since the beginning of the year, when CLdN Finance, a company owned by the Cigrang family, advertised for an acquisitions manager to handle takeovers in “the creative industries”.

Cigrang, at 44 is the eldest of four brothers. The family made its fortune in shipping, through its main vehicle Cobelfret, but Cigrang has for some years been a director of Blixa, the company behind AF Vandevorst. This week the company said it had a new financial partner without giving details, but detective work by financial daily De Tijd revealed that Cigrang has built up a 66% stake in Blixa through buying out a French minority shareholder and through a capital injection of €750,000.

AF Vandevorst is the label set up

by designer pair An Vandevorst and Filip Arickx, who met in 1987 on the first day of fashion school and have been in business for more than 15 years. Cigrang has also pumped €1 million into Ben, the company behind designer Christian Wijnants, giving the family a holding of 50%.

A decade ago, Cigrang helped set up ModeNatie, the building in Antwerp that now houses the Fashion Museum, the Flemish Fashion Institute and the fashion department of the Fine Arts Academy. Wijnants graduated from the academy in 2000 and worked as assistant to Dries Van Noten before setting up his own label in 2003, where he has become particularly known for knitwear, winning the Woolmark Prize in 2012.

Cigrang was not available for comment, De Tijd said, other than to let it be known this move into fashion is just the beginning. “There are other deals in the pipeline,” he said.

“Mainly abroad.”

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

© Karelj/Wikimedia Commons

Did you hear about the woman who was caught last week on the train from Leuven to Halle without a ticket? When challenged at Haren station, she fled from the ticket inspector and hid under the train.

Dodging a fare on the railway is, of course, a serious offence, but nothing like so serious as causing a delay to a commuter train at 8.00.

Police eventually led her away for questioning, while the train went on its way 40 minutes later. Due to the incident, two more trains were delayed and another was cancelled.

Then there was the thief nabbed for stealing copper lightning conductors from a church in Peer when he returned to the scene of the crime the following day to pick up his ladder. A witness saw him hoist the ladder onto his shoulder, climb on his bike and ride off.

Police were not far behind, and the man is currently behind bars charged with a series of thefts in the area, wondering where his perfectly hatched plan went wrong. The owner of the ladder, which was itself

Alan Hope © Kurt Desplenter / BELGA

face of flanders

WEEK in brief

stolen, has had his property returned.

And speaking of odd thefts, police are baffled by the disappearance of 100 carp from a former fish farm in Grimbergen, Flemish Brabant, which closed several months ago. The new owner of the property, which includes the lake, says he fed the fish last weekend but found them gone several days later.

The carp, a freshwater fish, is uncommon cuisine in western Europe, though it is still a popular fish for the table in central and eastern Europe. Investigating officers, take note.

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 News Editor Alan Hope sub Editor Linda Thompson SOCIAL EDITOR Robyn Boyle Agenda Robyn Boyle, Georgio Valentino Art director Paul Van Dooren Prepress Corelio AdPro Contributors Daan Bauwens, Rebecca Benoot, Derek Blyth, Leo Cendrowicz, Sabine Clappaert, Katy Desmond, Andy Furniere, Diana Goodwin, Toon Lambrechts, Katrien Lindemans, Marc Maes, Ian Mundell, Anja Otte, Tom Peeters, Senne Starckx, Georgio Valentino, Christophe Verbiest, Denzil Walton General manager Hans De Loore Publisher Corelio Publishing NV

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current affairs

Flanders today

october 23, 2013

“Our small world city” Flemish study session looks at how to create the metropolitan community of Brussels

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odies in Flanders and Brussels are taking the first steps towards establishing a new “metropolitan community” that would improve co-operation between the Brussels-Capital region and its hinterland in Flemish and Walloon Brabant.

The Council of the Flemish Community Commission (VGC) and the Flemish Advisory Council for Administrative Affairs organised a study session in the Brussels parliament last week to discuss the creation of this new consultation body, which was a key innovation in the sixth state reform agreed on during the long government negotiations of 201011.

One of the speakers at the study session was professor Fred Fleurke of the Free University of Amsterdam. He provided background information on the development of the metropolitan region of Rotterdam-Den Haag in the southern Netherlands. Next year, the 24 municipalities of the city regions of Rotterdam and Haaglanden will enter a metropolis union, and, after a transition year, the new governmental body will be able to make decisions that apply to both regions.

Bottom-up approach The organisation can only take independent decisions on two policy areas: mobility and the establishment of businesses.

In three other policy areas – urban planning, living and green development – the body also has a say, but the municipalities need to co-operate voluntarily, and each has a right of veto.

“The original ambitions of the mayors of Rotterdam and Den Haag for the body were much larger, affecting seven pillars of

policy,” said professor Fleurke. “But the reluctance of municipalities to give up their sovereignty showed that you need to proceed gradually, through a bottom-up approach.”

This advice for a pragmatic strategy was approved by Jean-Luc Vanraes, chairman of the VGC’s council. “I pledge to work one dossier after another,” he said, “to strengthen the trust between the different partners of the metropolis.” Vanraes hopes to start discussing concrete issues, such as the establishment of a national football stadium at the Heizel complex. This location has been suggested by the BrusselsCapital region, but the area lies in Grimbergen – part of Flemish Brabant.

Mobility is another key challenge that urgently requires more intense collaboration, according to Vanraes.

Creating a metropolitan community of Brussels will be a complex affair, although the existence of a Brussels metropolis is already a reality through the growing influence of Brussels in the neighbouring regions. The area includes 135 municipalities, if you look at the range of the planned Brussels Regional Express Network – a rapid transit system to connect the centre with municipalities within 30 kilometres.

The Brussels-Capital region itself already consists of 19 districts with a certain degree of independence. Furthermore, the growing internationalisation of the municipalities of Flemish Brabant in the periphery of Brussels (known as de rand) creates friction among Dutch speakers living there.

Professor Eric Corijn, director of the Centre for Urban Research Cosmopolis at the Free University of Brussels (VUB), listed these and other challenges. According to Corijn, the big difference with

© Wikimedia Commons/ChrisO

Andy Furniere

VUB professor Eric Corijn recommends expanding the centre of Brussels as part of attempts to create a new “metropolitan community” beyond the Capital Region

other large cities nearby, like Paris, is that the rich prefer to live outside the centre of the capital. The result is a dual image of a wealthy, international city that is the main European political centre but also has very high unemployment, especially among young people.

Corijn recommended expanding the centre of Brussels and considering the canal zone as

The professor went on to urge policymakers to look at the bigger picture instead of focusing on conflicts between language communities and realise the potential of connections with other cities in Belgium and Europe. He feels, for example, that co-operation between the knowledge centres in Brussels, Leuven and Louvain-La-Neuve in

I pledge to work one dossier after another, to strengthen the trust between the partners the backbone of the city instead of a border area. Efforts should be made to improve the image of the municipality of Sint-JansMolenbeek, which is now often seen as a problem area. He added that the young and diverse identity of the Brussels population poses both challenges and opportunities.

Wallonia could create a Belgian Silicon Valley.

The importance of Brussels also provides many opportunities for co-operation with cities such as London, Paris and Amsterdam.

Saying that Brussels was the solution, not the problem, Corijn hoped for more optimism on what

he called “our small world city”.

The strengths and weaknesses of Brussels were also touched on by Jan Van Doren, deputy-director of the knowledge centre of Voka, the Flemish Chamber of Commerce.

He listed the city’s multilingual character, access to markets and accessibility as its main economic strengths. The principal economic weaknesses, he believes, are the cost of staff, mobility and governmental policy. He also demonstrated the mismatch on the labour market: According to his figures, 61% of unemployed people in the Brussels metropolis are low-skilled and 82% of them live the Brussels-Capital region.

Last month, the branch of Voka in Brussels changed its name from Voka-Comité Brussel to Voka Metropolitan. Voka Metropolitan wants to forge better links between Brussels and Flanders, particularly Ghent, Antwerp and Leuven.

Essential themes that demand better collaboration revolve around accessibility and employment.

Flemings among Europe’s happiest citizens Flanders is in the top three in Europe when it comes to satisfaction with life, according to the latest Flemish Regional Indicators (Vrind) published last week by the government of Flanders. Other figures indicate that the region is making progress on economic sustainability and on the numbers of young people leaving secondary school without a diploma.

The Vrind is based on the measure of about 700 indicators contained in the government’s policy agreement for 2009-2014 and the Flanders in Action plan. The goal is to create a picture of which global developments have an impact on Flemish policy and how the effects of government policy are felt in various areas.

This year’s Vrind paid particular

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attention to three questions: sustainability in the economy, the social situation of residents in Flanders, and the effect of policy on individuals in this European Year of the Citizen.

On sustainability, the report notes the continuing trend of economic growth no longer coupled with an increase in energy consumption: Energy use compared to GDP is in fact 19% lower now than it was in 1990. On greenhouse emissions, Flanders has achieved the Kyoto targets and is one-third of the way to achieving Belgium’s target of a 15% reduction by 2020.

On economic sustainability, the report reveals that the number of young people leaving school without a qualification has fallen back almost to the level of 1999, after a

constant climb in the last decade.

Also according to Vrind, residents of Flanders are more satisfied with their living situation than most other citizens of the EU, with the exception only of Sweden and Denmark. The

score is based on indicators such as housing, social contacts, free time, income, health, security, mobility and work-life balance.

Perhaps not surprisingly, the study indicates which groups have the

greatest satisfaction with life: men, homeowners, higher income and education groups and those with stable work.

“On the fight against poverty, Flanders is at the top within the EU,” explained Luc Bral, who co-ordinated the Vrind study for the Flemish government. “Of course there are groups who merit extra attention, but in general the situation in Flanders is very good. In fact our international position has been strengthened.”

The Flemish score, 7.7 from a possible 10, was obtained from a survey of 1,522 people in Flanders.

“This satisfaction score is an answer to the pessimists and their negativism,” minister-president Kris Peeters said. Alan Hope

cover story

Flanders today

october 23, 2013

Happy birthdays Attitudes have changed since the country’s first IVF birth 30 years ago `` continued from page 1

So many people have been able to have children as a result of what we were doing In the meantime, I had to provide a sperm sample. The two vital components were brought together in the laboratory, before being implanted.

The process was physically and emotionally exhausting for my wife, and the chances of a successful conception once the fertilised ova were replaced in the uterus were far less than the one-in-five chance of success now.

Nevertheless, we now have two fine, healthy children, aged 19 and 15.

They are just two of the estimated two million children worldwide who were conceived through IVF, thanks in part to the advances in fertility treatments pioneered by Van Steirteghem, the lab boffin who worked away in virtual anonymity behind the scenes, and Devroey, the public face of the clinic, the consultant who picked up his phone and provided the patient-hospital interface for every patient.

Both men are now retired, though they are still in demand across the world to give talks and even to consult on the work of their clinic, now under the leadership of professor Herman Tournaye. The basic procedure of IVF is attributed to Patrick Steptoe and Robert Edwards in England, with the birth of the world’s first test-tube baby, Louise Brown, in 1978.

Devroey and Van Steirteghem’s contribution

IVF in figures

© James Arthur/Photo News

to the field is considered a milestone of almost equal importance – the development of intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI), in which a single sperm cell is retrieved from the testicle and injected in the lab into a single ovum.

It allows even couples where the man has an extremely low sperm count to conceive, literally by helping the single sperm along its way.

Worldwide application

Current UZ Brussels fertility clinic head Herman Tournaye (centre) is flanked by founders André Van Steirteghem (left) and Paul Devroey © courtesy UZ Brussel

“The importance of the technique is its simplicity,” explains Devroey, “which allows it to be used all over the world.” The majority of cases of male infertility occur because the sperm produced in the testes is not able to find a passage to the outside, and Devroey had long been convinced that it would be possible to extract sperm directly from the testicles.

Now, he says, ICSI is used in 70% of cases worldwide, including where it is not required.

He agrees with professor Thomas D’Hooghe of KUL, who recently expressed the view that ICSI is used too often. “The watchword needs to be: IVF if possible, ICSI if necessary,” D’Hooghe says.

The problem arises, Devroey explains, because people try to rule out every chance of failure of an IVF treatment. One of the main deciding factors is cost. “When people have to pay for treatment out of their own pockets, they can afford maybe one or two cycles, and so of course they want to avoid failure.”

ICSI is the most highly visible aspect of the Brussels centre’s approach, which Devroey says is the reason behind its reputation.

“There was a huge amount of teamwork with a lot of scientists behind us. Many clinics in the world are performing procedures but are not innovative, and I think innovation was the most important thing in our favour.” Some 2,000 patients a year come from all over the world to UZ Brussel for treatment. Many have had treatment unsuccessfully at home and come here for one last try.

This month, the hospital organised a get-together for some of the thousands of school-age children whose existence is directly attributable to the clinic’s work. According to some estimates, one in 12 children born now is the result of fertility treatment. The children were shown around the unit, and the processes that brought them into being were explained in simple terms. It’s a far cry from the early days of IVF 30 years ago, when even a leading university hospital considered it too shameful to speak of.

When ICSI came to public attention, Devroey recalls, French newspaper Le Monde headlined its article “Le viol de l’ovum” – The rape of the egg cell. “There was a really quite negative atmosphere then,” Devroey says. “But that’s gone now, because so many people have been able to have children as a result of what we were doing. That’s a fantastic feeling.”

Children and parents are shown around the lab at UZ Brussel © courtesy UZ Brussel

deal of attention to the ethical aspects of our work.”

Devroey: “Religion is not the sole owner of ethics. Ethical issues arise out of many, if not all, procedures concerning embryos.

For several years, I was head of the Belgian National Committee on Bioethics, and I’ve also been very close to the ethical committee of the European Society of Human Reproduction and Embryology. We have produced position papers on all aspects of medical ethics in the field of fertility treatments.”

The VUB clinic also set up a “reflection group” to address the issue of ethics.

My family made the acquaintance of IVF in 1993, when my wife and I visited Devroey’s clinic. The procedure then was more onerous than it is now: daily hormone injections to stimulate ovulation; regular temperature control to determine when ovulation was taking place; then a mad rush to the hospital in Jette to have the ova – one or more egg-cells produced with the help of the injections – “picked up” for treatment.

`` www.brusselsivf.be Kids learned about the equipment used on their moms during the IVF 30th anniversary celebration

85%

1 in 6

317

81%

18

chance of an average couple conceiving within a year

couples are unable to conceive, in 40-50% of cases because of male fertility problems

women over the age of 43 were treated in Belgium in 2012

were resident in Belgium, followed by the rest of the EU (16%)

fertility treatment centres in Flanders and Brussels, nine of them offering the full range of laboratory and clinical procedures

5

politics

october 23, 2013

Open season Since a new CEO has been appointed, the national railway company NMBS is no longer controversial – politically speaking. All eyes are now on another CEO of a government enterprise: Didier Bellens of telecoms operator Belgacom.

After a long list of incidents, Bellens has lost all of his political support, even with the French-speaking socialists (PS), who were long thought of as his patrons.

First, the Belgacom boss openly opposed a government plan to curb his wage package. CEOs of government-owned concerns should not take home more than the prime minister, the federal government reasonably proposed. Consultants make more money than we do and have less responsibility, Bellens replied.

Then there was Michel Moll, the Belgacom director who turned out to have a job on the side as a consultant for Huawei, the Chinese telecoms company with a reputation for espionage. Then Bellens himself was accused of favouritism in a real estate transaction.

Finally, there was the NSA hacking of the Belgacom network. According to CD&V MP Roel Deseyn, Bellens was less than transparent when questioned in parliament about the situation. The CEO, Deseyn stated, had been aware of the spying for much longer than he had declared.

Bellens reacted furiously to Deseyn’s accusation, in a letter to CD&V party president Wouter Beke, a move that the entire world of politics interpreted as intimidation.

So the beleaguered CEO was summoned to parliament once more, to clarify the real estate deal and the letter to Beke.

While MPs in the federal House are quite used to some hemming and hawing, Bellens’ performance left them aghast.

He apologised for the letter but not for the alleged conflict of interest in the real estate deal. Nothing could be wrong with that, for the simple reason that the sale has not yet been concluded, he said.

“The problem is not that an MP criticises your behaviour,” said Karine Lalieux (PS). “The problem is your behaviour itself.”

With that, Bellens lost his last remaining political ally. “Bellens is not a PS member – not in appearance, nor in his acts,” said PS party president Paul Magnette later.

So it is open season on Bellens, but getting rid of him is not that easy. No one wants a repeat of the NMBS appointment, which took months to conclude amid several twists and turns.

Moreover, firing Bellens would be as expensive as keeping him until the end of his contract in 2015.

6

Leaders pay tribute to Wilfried Martens

More than 800 attended the former Belgian PM’s funeral last Saturday Derek Blyth

G

erman Chancellor Angela Merkel was in Ghent on Saturday to attend the state funeral of former Belgian prime minister Wilfried Mertens. Merkel was one of many Belgian and European leaders who took part in the funeral in Sint-Baaf ’s Cathedral in honour of the Flemish statesman, who died on 9 October at age 77.

Several leaders spoke during the ceremony, including Merkel, who said that she had lost a “loyal ally and political friend”. She added that Martens had been a sort of “political father” of the centre-right European People’s Party and that his political ideals had defended freedom, tolerance and solidarity.

EU Commission president José Manuel Barroso described Martens as “truly a great statesman for Flanders, Belgium, and Europe”. He continued: “Europe has lost a man of strong convictions and solid values. He will be remembered as

© Reuters

Anja Otte

German Chancellor Angela Merkel (right) and European Council President Herman Van Rompuy offer their condolences to Wilfried Martens’ widow Miet Smet

someone who brought people together to reach a consensus, both in his own country and in Europe.”

Belgian prime minister Elio Di Rupo said that © Reuters

5th column

Flanders today

Di Rupo delivers State of the Union speech “Belgium is climbing out of the depths,” said prime minister Elio Di Rupo in his State of the Union speech last week. In an upbeat message to the House of Representatives, he said that the government had “regained trust” but that there was still important work to be done. The prime minister was making his last State of the Union speech before the elections next year.

“Over the past two years, our country has changed fundamentally,” he said, noting that he was “proud” of the decision coalition parties had made to form a government and bring to an end the longest period in Belgian history without a federal government.

“It was a choice between acting or criticising,” he said. “A choice to tackle problems, build bridges and find concrete solutions for citizens and companies.”

Di Rupo argued that the coalition government under his leadership had achieved the greatest institutional reforms in the country’s history, tackling areas like child allowance, employment and health care. He also said that the country’s economic policies were working. “Belgium was one of the first countries in the European Union to implement a recovery strategy,” he said. “The Belgian model is beginning to have results.”

While he did not set out many new initiatives, Di Rupo promised that the government would push ahead with plans to split savings banks from investment banks. He also suggested that the taxation system needed to be reformed and that the government was committed to increasing wages for 1.4 million workers.

The prime minister admitted that the crisis was far from over and called on everyone to work together. “If we work together – the federal state, regions, municipalities, citizens and companies – then we are capable of great things,” he said.

Jan Jambon of the Flemish opposition party N-VA criticised the speech as lacking in substance. “You can’t say that this government isn’t doing anything, but it is not solving the fundamental problems,” he said, going on to criticise Di Rupo for failing to tackle labour costs, which are still among the highest in Europe.

Meanwhile, Stefaan Van Hecke of Groen argued that Di Rupo’s plan lacked vision, especially in areas like the creation of sustainable jobs, youth unemployment and the rising number of bankrupt companies. DB

Martens was “a statesman who had made his mark on history.” He had also shown that it was possible to be a committed “Fleming, Belgian and European”.

Some 800 people attended the ceremony, including former prime minister Jean-Luc Dehaene and Flanders’ minister-president Kris Peeters, who spoke after Marten’s death of the profound influence Martens had on him as a young politician in the CD&V. “Without his work, I wouldn’t be sitting here as minister-president,” he told VTM news last weekend.

Outside Sint-Baaf ’s cathedral, meanwhile, a large crowd gathered to follow Martens’ funeral on a big screen. It was also broadcast live on Flemish television. After the funeral, the coffin was taken to be buried in a private ceremony attended by family members at Campo Santo cemetery in the Sint-Amandsberg district of Ghent.

Crevits approves new inland shipping link Flemish transport minister Hilde Crevits signed a treaty last week with three other EU ministers that paves the way for the creation of a new inland shipping corridor to link the river Seine with the river Scheldt.

The project forms part of the EU’s ambitious Trans European Transport Network (TEN-T) plan, a network of roads, railways, canals, rivers and airports across Europe. The Seine-Scheldt link is an important part of the plan, as it will allow large inland barges to move goods more easily.

The Tallinn agreement was signed by ministers from Flanders, Wallonia, France and the Netherlands, as well as EU Commissioner Siim Kallas. The four

ministers have undertaken to carry out the necessary work in their regions to realise the plan, which will be partly financed by EU funds.

The main work to be done in Flanders involves the river Leie and the Ringvaart waterway around Ghent as well as the construction of the new TerneuzenGhent lock. Once the corridor has been constructed, Flemish harbours are expected to benefit from improved access to large potential markets in northern France and Paris.

“The new link will develop into an important corridor in the coming years and will have a major impact on the logistics flow in northwest Europe,” said Crevits. DB

Road works database proposed Flanders’ minister-president Kris Peeters presented a draft of a new plan last week called GIPOD (Generic Information Platform for the Public Domain), which aims to provide a better system for managing public works projects.

Many European cities have projects similar to GIPOD, but Flanders is one of the first in Europe to create a system that covers the whole region, Peeters said. According to the scheme, contractors would be legally required to enter their road works schedules into a database that can be accessed by the public.

The plan is intended to benefit residents and to avoid disruption of De Lijn bus services.

The scheme would apply to all public works contractors, but also to street markets and festivals.

“With the introduction of GIPOD, we are providing municipalities and public works bodies with a powerful tool to carry out works more efficiently,” Peeters said. “This will lead to fewer obstructions and less government spending.” The plan has now to be submitted to various bodies for comments. It could be introduced by 2016. DB

Child Poverty Fund will tackle “greatest injustice”of our society The Flemish government has launched the Flemish Child Poverty Fund, aimed at tackling what minister Ingrid Lieten called “the greatest injustice of our society”. One in 10 children – about 130,000 – grows up in poverty in one of the most prosperous regions on the continent.

“This is a social injustice,” the minister said.

“We are throwing away a huge amount of talent, and children are not benefitting from the good fortune to which they are entitled.”

Research shows that poverty affects children both directly and later in life in issues such as work, housing opportunities and health. The fund, Lieten said, would help bring about “a broad social mobilisation” to fight child poverty.

The fund will be chaired by child psychologist Peter Adriaenssens and will, with the help of the King Baudouin Foundation, administer donations made by members of the public, businesses, organisations and government. Alan Hope

business

Flanders today

october 23, 2013

Antwerp receives largest container ship ever

week in business BanksHSBC

It’s the first European port of call for the Mary Maersk’s maiden voyage Alan Hope © Gemeentelijk Havenbedrijf Antwerpen

O

ne of the world’s largest container ships pulled into the port of Antwerp last week.

The Mary Maersk, which can carry 18,000 containers (TEU), is on its maiden voyage from Yiantian, China, and Antwerp is its first European port of call. It is the largest ship to ever pull into the Flemish port.

The vessel is 400 metres long, has 19 decks and weighs more unloaded than 55 nuclear submarines. If all 18,000 containers were laid end to end, they would stretch for 110 kilometres.

The Port Authority said it was “delighted” with the arrival of the Mary Maersk. The success of the run proved Antwerp is capable of handling the biggest the world has to offer, said Port Authority CEO Eddy Bruyninckx.

In the first nine months of the year, the port has welcomed 90 ships of 13,000 TEU, as a result of the deepening of the Westerschelde, the channel leading from the North Sea to the port. One week

ago, the Mary Maersk’s sister ship Emma Maersk navigated the channel with ease at 15,500 TEU. “The return on that investment is huge and allows our port, which is good for an added value of about €10 billion, to improve its competitive position,” said Marc Van Peel, Antwerp’s alderman of port affairs.

The success of the Mary Maersk runs coincides

with the announcement that three of the world’s biggest freight shipping lines – Maersk, MSC and CMA CGM – to adopt Antwerp as their European platform – a decision described as “a severe blow” for competitor Rotterdam. The so-called P3 consortium has awarded Antwerp a fourth call, of the eight calls that remain for Europe. In shipping terms, a call is when a port is included on a ship’s itinerary for a given route; for various reasons, mainly economic, shipping lines restrict the number of ports of call they use.

Antwerp’s inland position, once seen as a drawback, has now been turned into an advantage, Bruyninckx explained. “Antwerp is centrally located in Europe. Goods can not only be brought further inland once they are in port, they can be handled in various ways before efficiently being transported to their final destination in the European hinterland through an extensive network of connections.”

New Nike distribution centre breaks ground in Limburg

New tourist signposts for Flanders in 2014

Sporting goods manufacturer Nike has broken ground on a new distribution centre in Ham in southeast Limburg province, with the promise of 500 new jobs. The centre will distribute sports shoes to wholesalers, retailers and online customers across Europe.

Nike already has a distribution centre in nearby Laakdal(pictured), one of the largest in Europe at 210,000 square metres, as well as a logistics centre in Herentals. In total, 2,300 people in Flanders already work for Nike.

The Flemish government has agreed to provide €4 million in subsidy – €2 million for staff training support and €2 million for environmental investment. “This project proves once more than Flanders is the logistical heart of Europe,” said Flemish minister-president Kris Peeters.

“There’s a reason we’re home to more than 700 European distribution

The brown, roadside signposts designating Flanders’ cities and areas will be replaced with new, more eye-catching versions, tourism minister Geert Bourgeois announced last week. The new signs, with striking colour photography, will replace the current pictogram signs now present along the region’s motorways.

“By working with photos instead of pictograms, we’ve created signs that speak much more directly to the imagination,” Bourgeois said. “The photos on the new signs will give passers-by a powerful impression of the tourist attraction.”

The 39 new signs, measuring 3.7 x

Swedish truck builder Volvo plans to invest “several million” euros in its factory in Ghent, in a move designed to turn the site into the company’s largest for trucks over 16 tonnes.

The plan also involves the removal of production lines for medium-sized trucks to a factory in France. Volvo Ghent last year produced 29,100 heavy trucks, but only 4,203 mediumsized. The investment will involve increasing capacity at Volvo Ghent to allow construction of the company’s full range of heavy trucks and cabins.

Volvo was unable to put a figure to the investment, but said it would be more than the sum invested in 1997, which was €25 million.

The factory employs 2,500, among

© Volvo Trucks

Volvo Trucks to invest millions in Ghent factory

them about 200 on medium-sized trucks. The consequences for workers of the investment have to be discussed with unions, the company said, but those involved in the medium-sized trucks division have been given an assurance they will be redeployed in jobs elsewhere in the facility. Unions said they would consult with members before making any comment.

2.3 metres, refer to 23 cities and 14 areas; Genk, Brussels, Sint-Niklaas and Roeselare will get signs for the first time as will the Brugse Ommeland. The signs will be placed in the course of 2014. The total cost of the initiative is €550,000. `` www.toerismevlaanderen.be

Duvel-Moortgat is to acquire a majority stake in Boulevard Brewing, a Kansas City brewer with activities in 24 US states.

The move, which doubles Duvel’s size in the US, is part of a strategy to build market share in areas experiencing strong growth in the artisanal beers market.

BiotechAblynx Biotechnology firm Ablynx, headquartered in Ghent, has licensed one of its molecules to cure osteoporosis and bone metastasis to the Chinese Eddingspharm for €2 million and future royalties.

The textiles and apparel retailer, based in HouthalenHelchteren and owner of the Mayerline brand, is investing €6.5 million to build additional warehouse space and increase capacity.

MediaFlows The Antwerp-based weekly shipping and port publication Flows has been launched by Alfaport and the Antwerp Port Authority to succeed De Lloyd, the country’s oldest newspaper, founded in 1858, which went bankrupt last June.

Supermarkets Albert Heijn

Belgium fined €10 million for past wastewater problems The government of Flanders says it will not contribute to a €10 million fine imposed by the European Court of Justice (ECJ) in Luxembourg. The fine was handed down last week after Belgium failed for more than a decade to bring its urban wastewater treatment into line with EU regulations.

However Flanders’ wastewater system has been meeting regulations since 2011, before the current case was brought, according to environment minister Joke Schauvliege. Brussels has also been in compliance since 2011.

The ECJ is only able to rule on cases against member states, so the judgement was given against the Belgian state – even though the matter is, under Belgium’s system, the responsibility of the regions.

When the directive came into force in 1991, Flanders was also behind schedule in wastewater treatment,

BeerDuvel

DistributionJBC

© Toerisme Vlaanderen

centres. The Flemish government aims to keep on encouraging and supporting that trend.”

Construction of the new 40,000 square-metre centre will begin in the new year and complete in 2016.

The existing centre in Laakdal runs on solar and wind energy, and the company says it will conform to the requirements of sustainable enterprise and green design in the new centre, as well. Among other features, it will make maximum use of the adjacent Albert Canal to transport by water the equivalent of 14,000 truckloads of merchandise a year.

The Swiss affiliate of HSBC Bank is being investigated by Belgian judiciary authorities for money laundering and fiscal fraud. The enquiry has been triggered by the vast fraud uncovered in the Antwerp diamonds industry recently.

but the region has come into line in the meantime. “We don’t feel the need to pay a share,” commented minister-president Kris Peeters.

The ruling concerned five municipalities, all of them in Wallonia, which will also be subject to a penalty of €4,722 a day if in six months the legal requirements are still not met. According to Walloon minister-president Rudy Demotte, however, these five towns, too, are already in order.

According to federal energy minister Melchior Wathelet, the regional governments have to decide among them how to split the fine. Should that prove impossible, Wathelet’s spokesperson said, the federal government can pay the fine by withholding the sums concerned from the transfers made from the federal treasury to the regions.

Dutch supermarket chain Albert Heijn inaugurated its first outlet in Ghent last week, two years after its first venture in the Antwerp area. The company, which has plans for some 20 outlets in Flanders, will open a store in SintTruiden later this year.

TelecomsTelenet The Mechelen-based cable and telecommunications operator is in talks to merge with its Dutch counterpart Ziggo.

Both companies are owned by the US-based Liberty Global cable operator.

TelevisionFox America’s Fox television network, controlled by media magnate Rupert Murdoch, is to make a bid to acquire broadcasting rights of the Belgian Pro League football championship and to create a local sports network. The next round of negotiations is slated for early 2014.

7

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innovation

Flanders today

october 23, 2013

A better world

week in innovation Students’ solar car wins Innovation Award

A new centre in Brussels brings people together for social change Andy Furniere

© courtesy Social Innovation Factory

I

nnovation factory – the term conjures up images of high-tech devices designed behind the closed doors of specialised labs. But the Social Innovation Factory, launched by Flemish innovation minister Ingrid Lieten last week, is a different beast. Based in the Brussels district of Anderlecht, it will unite different players and actors in Flemish civil society to find answers to challenges like poverty, urbanisation, multiculturalism, ageing populations and climate change.

“New technology provides solutions to many practical issues, but we also need innovative social entrepreneurship to respond to pressing problems in our daily lives,” said Jan van den Nieuwenhuijzen, chair of the factory’s board of directors, during the opening festivities of the centre, which took place at the Halles des Tanneurs space in the centre of Brussels.

At the Social Innovation Factory, a company or association with an idea for a social enterprise can present its concept and then brainstorm the next steps to realising it. First, the innovators will discuss their strategy with other social entrepreneurs during a “strengthening session”.

The new centre wants to foster a community of social innovators that helps other aspiring entrepreneurs by exchanging experiences and knowledge.

Van den Nieuwenhuijzen, former CEO of the Antwerp human resources company SD Worx, represents the business world on the board together with representatives of energy group Eneco and the organisation in der minne, which offers trainings to improve staff relations in companies. The initial idea for the Social Innovation Factory came from these and other businesses and organisations, including the Brussels-based sustainable bank Triodos and Antwerp dance school Let’s Go Urban.

The social sector is represented by the Flemish

Network Against Poverty, environmental organisation Bond Beter Leefmilieu and the umbrella organisation for civil associations De Verenigde Verenigingen. Three representatives of the government of Flanders will also be appointed to the board.

The Flemish Agency for Innovation in Science and Technology (IWT) was an important partner in the run-up to the project. Through the Social Innovation Factory, entrepreneurs can request a feasibility study and (co-)financing by the IWT. The network also assists innovators in their search for other partners or investors. The Flemish government has allocated the Social Innovation Factory a budget of €2.56 million, spread over four years.

To stimulate the area of social enterprise, the Flemish government’s department of economy, science and innovation launched an open call for projects in need of funding early this year. Associations, businesses and knowledge institutions submitted no less than 137 proposals, which clearly demonstrates that the factory is filling a need. An independent group of experts selected 20 projects, which will each receive an investment of a maximum of €50,000 for the duration of one year.

One of the projects backed is Buurtpensio(e)n,

an initiative of the knowledge centre Woonzorg Brussel. The centre has developed a swap system in which volunteers collect “time credits” for their later home care by helping people in need of assistance or companionship. Participants can, for example, shop for groceries for a neighbour or read the paper to someone who is socially isolated.

The time spent on these activities is stored on a personal account. The volunteers can exchange the credits they’ve collected for the services of other participants, can give them to acquaintances or donate them to the organisation. The project will launch in the Brussels district of Neder-OverHeembeek next month. A year from now, the knowledge centre will evaluate the project and possibly launch similar activities across Flanders.

Among the other laureates is DementiaLab, which designs low-tech solutions for people with dementia and their caregivers. Launched just this month, DementiaLab shares tools via an online platform. The idea is to help people with dementia live longer in their own homes and improve their quality of life. The project is co-ordinated by the Limburg Catholic College, its MAD Faculty (Media, Arts and Design school) and its Social Spaces research group.

At the launch of the Social Innovation Factory, veteran social entrepreneurs also talked about their companies’ histories. Serge Van de Zande, founder of the telecommunications business Ello Mobile, explained the philosophy of his “profit for non-profit” initiative. All the profits of the company’s mobile phone operations are used to fund charity projects selected by the King Baudouin Foundation. Right now the company supports projects providing health care to the homeless in Brussels and education to street kids in South America. `` www.socialeinnovatiefabriek.be

Battling research fraud Flemish Commission for Scientific Integrity to offer second opinions Andy Furniere © ingimage

F

lemish universities have joined together to establish a Flemish Commission for Scientific Integrity. The commission will offer a second opinion in cases of scientific fraud at local institutions and knowledge centres and will also offer advice on more general questions of scientific integrity. The commission plans to become an expertise centre on research fraud and hopes to stimulate open, frank discussion of the problem.

Although the Flemish Fund for Scientific Research (FWO) first made plans for the project in 2011, the commission’s launch comes in the wake of a number of recent, high-profile fraud cases at Flemish universities. And in a survey conducted last spring by Flemish science magazine Eos, one in 12 Flemish researchers admitted to having manipulated results to confirm their hypotheses.

Since the University of Hasselt established its own commission earlier this year, every Flemish university now has one. If scientists

see unethical practices and want to report them, they can first contact the commission at their own institution. After an investigation, the commission judges whether fraud has indeed been committed and, if necessary, can take action.

This was where the story usually ended. Now, if either party is not satisfied with the decision, they can ask the newly minted commission for a second opinion. University

commissions can also contact the organisation for advice prior to making a decision. The final say, however, remains with the local institutions.

The Eos survey revealed that scientists often see suspect practices but are not inclined to report them.

“Researchers fear that a complaint will damage their own position,” the president of the commission, professor André Van Steirteghem,

said in an interview with Eos. “Universities need to have clear contact points, neutral institutions where a complaint can be discussed without any prejudices.”

In the Netherlands, a similar umbrella organisation has been in place since 2003. Reports of research fraud are published on the organisation’s website anonymously, and Dutch universities often make cases public.

Van Steirteghem expressed his hope for a similar transparency in Flanders. “Universities have to stop thinking that the fraud is their fault,” he said. “It’s a global phenomenon.” By publishing the cases anonymously, the commission hopes to dissuade other scientists from making the same mistakes.

The commission’s other founding members are the Royal Flemish Academy of Belgium for Science and the Arts, the Royal Academy of Medicine in Belgium and the Flemish Agency for Innovation through Science and Technology.

Seventeen engineering students of the University of Leuven’s campus Group T have won the Technical Innovation Award at Australia’s Bridgestone World Solar Challenge. The prize, awarded by the Australian research institute CSIRO, rewards the team with the most innovative component in its car.

The Flemish Punch Powertrain Solar Team received the award for its exceptionally safe and lightweight battery pack. The compact pack consists of 429 battery cells and was created through 3D printing. The car, assembled by the students and dubbed “Indupol One”, reached the finish line on 13 October in Adelaide in sixth place out of 42 participants from 23 countries.

It raced 3,000 kilometres in six days. `` www.solarteam.be

KUL researcher receives Unesco science grant Researcher Marian Dejaeger of the University of Leuven has won the L’Oréal-Unesco For Women in Science grant together with two scientists from the Free University of Brussels (ULB).

Dejaeger receives €60,000 for her work on treatments for bone diseases, like osteoporosis, that focuses on cell migration.

The biennial grants are awarded in Belgium for the fourth time, an initiative of cosmetics group L’Oréal and supported by Unesco, the Flemish Fund for Scientific Research (FWO) and the Francophone counterpart FNRS. The purpose of the grants is to enable young scientists to start PhD research.

Longest-ever preservation time for lung transplant The transplant team of Leuven’s University Hospital has succeeded in preserving a pair of donor lungs for more than 11 hours before transplantation.

That is the longest period ever recorded worldwide.

The extended preservation time was necessary because the patient suddenly developed acute liver problems and went into coma. The surgeons first needed to perform a liver transplant, as a lung transplant requires proper functioning of the liver.

Normally, a donor lung can be preserved for 10 hours outside the body. In this case, the lungs were not, as usual, put on ice but placed in the machine OCS LUNG, which ensured continual flushing and oxygen at room temperature. The patient is in good health and has been discharged from hospital. AF

`` www.fwo.be

9

living

Flanders today

october 23, 2013

It’s nearly Halloween! Whether you’re a kid or a bit older, Flanders’ has much to offer during this spooky season The Curse of the Mercator Ostend has several Halloween activities planned. The historical sailing vessel Mercator has been transformed into a pirate ship, where kids can tour the haunted decks, listen to a ghost story and participate in crafty workshops. Other events around town include a fairytale festival in Leopoldpark, a pumpkin-carving party and a Halloween parade. Until 3 November, across Ostend ``www.visitoostende.be

Funfear Haunted House The ninth edition of this free annual haunted house in Mol has a carnival theme, with actors putting a grisly twist on traditional “fun fair” attractions. For young children (and the faint of heart) there will be face painting and balloon animals. 31 October, Mol (Antwerp province) ``www.halloweengroep.be

Halloween Festival and Witches’ Walk The Museum of Fantastic Art in the Brussels district of Sint-Gillis hosts a Halloween Festival with creepy treats and a scavenger hunt. On Halloween night itself, there’s a Witches’ Walk through the neighbourhood with kids (and their parents) in costume, followed by a party for young and old. 27 October to 4 November, Brussels ``www.fantastic-museum.be

Autumn Shivers in Bokrijk Limburg’s popular open-air museum is closed for the season, but it will be open the weekend after Halloween for two days of creepy fun. Outdoor festival for kids with entertainment, seasonal activities and costumed performers.

1-2 November, Genk ``www.bokrijk.be

Halloween at Historium Halloween goes medieval in Bruges. Daily craft and makeup workshops for kids, plus readings and lectures about the history of Halloween and superstition in the middle ages. On 31 October, visitors in costume will receive a 30% discount on admission, and the attraction will be open until 21.00. 26 October to 3 November, Bruges ``www.historium.be

Halloween Fright Tour Twelfth annual edition of “The Biggest Fright Tour in Flanders”, with two outdoor routes covering seven kilometres.

Food and drink at the starting point. Tickets are €5/€3.

2 November, Lebbeke (East Flanders) ``www.halloweenlebbeke.be

10

Haunted by Ghent On the cusp of Halloween, British author Helen Grant tours the scary corners of the medieval city Ian Mundell

On the cusp of Halloween, British author Helen Grant tells us why she chose Ghent as the setting for the second part of her unsettling trilogy

© Ian Mundell

week in activities

A

uthor Helen Grant’s first visit to Ghent only lasted a few hours, but it was enough. “I fell in love with the city, so much so that I rather rashly said I would set a book there,” she recalls. The result of that encounter, The Demons of Ghent, is due to be published next year.

Grant writes mysteries, crime thrillers with young protagonists, that travel the borderline between human intrigue and the supernatural. She is inspired by folklore and history, both of which are very close to the surface in Ghent.

“It has that sense of the overlay of different centuries,” she says. “If you look from the Gravensteen across the city you can still see the three towers of Sint-Baafs, Sint-Niklaas and the Belfort, the same as you would have in the middle ages. And that is amazing.”

The chief inspiration for The Demons of Ghent came from the altarpiece in Sint-Baafs cathedral, known as the Lamb of God. “There are things about it that are quite spooky,” Grant says. First of all there is the eerie sharpness of the painting. Then there is the central panel, in which crowds gather round a lamb on an altar, a neat fountain of blood gushing from its neck. Yet not everyone in the painting is focused on this holy scene. “One of the bishops, but only one, is looking out, straight at the viewer,” Grant says. “I found that quite chilling.”

Researching the history of the

The view from a hidden corner of Sint-Baafs Cathedral

altarpiece produced further intriguing details. The work was started by Hubert van Eyck but finished by his brother Jan. So little is known about Hubert that some people wonder if he existed at all.

Then there is the story that, when Hubert died, his arm was cut off and placed in a casket over the main door of the cathedral. “You have to think: Why would anyone do that? He’s not a saint. He’s a painter.”

Grant wove these symbols, historical facts and traditions into a suitably sinister (and entirely fictional) backstory, then started to think about how it might play out in presentday Ghent. This meant returning to experience more of the city at first hand.

“That is really critical to me because I want to know that, if the characters in the book have a certain feeling about a place, then it’s authentic,” she says. Various practicalities also needed to be worked out. “I did a lot

of walking around the streets as well, to get a feeling for where you would go if you were running away from somebody.”

Aside from her young protagonists, Sint-Baafs emerged as the star of the book. “Some places almost vibrate with atmosphere in a way that others don’t, and that cathedral really spoke to me.” Sint-Niklaas church has a smaller role, but Grant is particularly fond of a sculpture on its altar that shows the saint with three children he has just raised from the dead. “I love gruesome stories like that.”

The other essential location is the Gravensteen, the city’s castle. “There is something quite impressive about the fact that even nowadays it would be extremely difficult to break into or out of,” Grant says.

She was also drawn to its museum of torture. “They have a guillotine and various other torture instruments, like a rack and thumbscrews, but one of the nastiest things just seems

BITE

to be a bed. You instantly start thinking: What did they do to people when they were tied to that? Your imagination runs riot because, out of all the things in the room, that’s the one that looks relatively innocent.”

The Demons of Ghent is the second part of a trilogy that begins with Silent Saturday, published earlier this year. This is set in and around Tervuren, just outside Brussels in Flemish Brabant, where Grant lived for several years. Here the spooky atmosphere comes from more modern locations, such as opulent villas left empty by wealthy expats, which represent a temptation for adventurous teenagers and the more dedicated urban explorers who appear throughout the series.

“Some of these urban sites are incredibly spooky, if you look at something like a modern hospital or a modern factory, where everything is so dusty and dirty and broken and derelict. It doesn’t need to be hundreds of years old.”

These more modern elements will also feature in the third volume, Urban Legends. As the name suggests, Grant plans to draw on more recent folklore for this book, and has been particularly inspired by a book of Flemish urban legends collected by Stefaan Top, a professor at the University of Leuven.

“This is some of the most chilling stuff I’ve read,” she says. “Stories about people who pick up strangers on the way back from the cinema at Kinepolis, or gangs attacking people in stations, people disappearing in the toilets at South Station in Brussels...” `` www.helengrantbooks.com

Robyn Boyle

Witloof in hespenrolletjes This very popular and traditional Flemish dish is also called endive and ham gratin, endive with ham and cheese sauce or chicon gratin.

The most important thing, though, is not its name, but the use of good quality fresh ingredients. While it may seem like simple farmer’s food, when prepared well this dish will please even the most discerning food critic. You can even make the vegetarians at your table happy simply by omitting the ham.

It’s the kind of dish you want to pull from the oven on a cold day, if only for the pleasure of seeing the cheesy topping bubble up to form a golden crust. I call this comfort food at its very best.

Ingredients ( for 4) 8 small or 4 large witloof 8 slices of pre-cooked or smoked ham (on the thick side) pat of butter

Cheese sauce 40g butter 45g flour 500ml milk 75g grated Gruyère or Emmental cheese freshly ground black pepper sea salt nutmeg Topping 75g more of the same grated cheese Cut off the very base of each witloof, but not too much; you want them to remain intact. Remove the outer leaves and rinse. Boil or steam the witloof for about 20 minutes or until soft when pricked with a fork. Let them drain in a colander, pressing out all excess water once they’ve cooled. Heat some butter in a heavy casserole, add the witloof and brown slightly all over.

Meanwhile, prepare the cheese sauce. Melt the butter in a small saucepan over a medium heat,

then whisk in the flour and cook for about a minute, before slowly adding the milk, all the while stirring with the whisk. Bring to a gentle boil, whisking constantly, then reduce heat to low and simmer until thickened. Add the cheese and stir until melted, then season to taste with a little coarse salt, pepper and nutmeg.

Wrap each witloof with a slice of ham (remove any fatty trim). Pour

a thin layer of cheese sauce into the bottom of the baking dish, carefully arrange the rolls to fit and cover them with the rest of the sauce.

Finally, sprinkle the top with grated cheese before putting in a preheated oven at 180°C for about 25 minutes.

At the last moment, let the cheese go crusty under the grill, but only for a few seconds to avoid burning. Serve immediately with mashed potatoes and a crisp, easy-drinking lager.

living

Flanders today

october 23, 2013

What lies beneath Archaeologists unearth scale model of West Flemish war site in England Andy Furniere

W

The model of Mesen found in Staffordshire includes trenches, railway lines, roads and detailed outlines of the surrounding area

thousands of casualties, the brigade ordered its German prisoners to build a replica scale model of the Mesen terrain near their camps.

The terrain model did double-duty as both a memorial and a training facility for the soldiers.

After the war, the model turned into a tourist attraction, which could be visited with guides who led visitors round the site and explained its history. But with the start of the Second World War and the return of military training sites to Cannock Chase, the terrain model was neglected and became overgrown with weeds. In the following decades, Cannock Chase

Baby red pandas make public debut The red panda twins born to mother Lolita and father Fernando last June at Planckendael animal park in Mechelen have finally left the nest and made their public debut.

The female pair, named Ophelia and Oshin, can be seen regularly climbing around their habitat next to the elephant terrain in the park’s Asia area. Their names were chosen by members of the public, who

voted via the park’s website.

Red pandas come from the Himalayas and southwest China but are endangered, partially because of a loss of habitat and partially because poachers are keen to cash in on their beautiful, soft pelts.

Planckendael is open seven days a week, including holidays, from 10.00 to 17.30. Lisa Bradshaw

was designated a nature reserve.

Apart from a handful of obscure stories, Mesen’s unique war heritage was as good as forgotten in Staffordshire – until six years ago. Inspired to explore the war history of their own town after visiting heritage sites in Belgium and France, locals and war history enthusiasts Lee Dent and Richard Pursehouse began researching archives and the Cannock Chase war site. Pursehouse stumbled on the first relics of the Mesen terrain model while walking his dog. “A stick that he picked up turned out to be a piece of concrete, part of the model,” Dent explains.

The friends established The Chase Project to unearth the model of the terrain. After they convinced the Staffordshire County Council and environmental organisation Natural England of the worthiness of the project, they received funding, which allowed an archaeological team and volunteers with study group No Man’s Land to dig up the model last month.

The Mesen site in Staffordshire is considered the only remaining example of a First World War terrain model. Most scale models weren’t made from concrete, but from the ground on which they stood. They usually disappeared when peace

café spotlight

returned and ordinary life resumed.

According to Dent, the Mesen model was conserved surprisingly well, with clearly visible details of roads and secondary trenches. That the city of Mesen, known as Messines in English, was so well-known isn’t unusual, he says. “The ridge of Mesen was one of the most heavily photographed areas in 1917. Over six months, airplanes took more than 10,000 photos of the zone.”

The Mesen model is too fragile to stay exposed, and the British archaeologists have already covered it up again. But not before experts captured every detail of the site with laser scanners, and drones flew over to take aerial photographs.

Computer specialists will use the data to create a 3D model, which will be displayed at Cannock Chase’s visitor centre.

Dent hopes that this won’t be where the story ends. That’s why he and Pursehouse suggested the council construct a new replica model on a nearby terrain. “This would really bring the history back to life for war heritage visitors,” he says.

The Staffordshire team also closely co-operated with Mesen, and they visited the small city in West Flanders several times.

Steven Reynaert, the city’s cultural co-ordinator, says that the history of the model will definitely receive a prominent place in the Great War centenary commemorations, which begin next year. A permanent exhibition in the former town hall, now a cultural centre, will, for instance, include information on the structure. `` http://messines1917.blogspot.be

Daan Bauwens

Café Zenon

Veerleplein 7, Ghent It’s getting trickier and trickier to find a genuine bruine (brown) bar these days. Not the kind of high-brow venue where people show up dressed to the nines to savour sophisticated jazz while they’re reminded to keep quiet, but a gathering spot where people make new friends around the bar and stumble home long after closing time.

That’s what you still find at café Zenon, located just opposite the imposing Gravensteen castle and one of Ghent’s most charming neighbourhood bars.

When you walk in, you’re hit by a wave of nostalgia.

The floor is a black-and-white chessboard topped by old marble tables and wooden chairs. Metal advertisements from the 1930s and ‘40s adorn the walls. But Zenon’s greatest asset is bartender Henk Goossens. Incredibly charismatic, he’s usually at the centre of the friendly gang of patrons around the counter.

Goossens bought the place 18 years ago and in many ways decorated it as an extension of his personality.

A signpost behind the counter, for instance, points the way to Heraklion, the capital of the Greek island of Crete. “The same year I opened this bar, I also discovered Crete,” Goossens smiles, “and I’ve been addicted to it ever since.”

On Greek National Day, Goossens hangs the Greek flag, plays Greek music and organises a free buffet. So it can

hardly come as a surprise that the bar has become a meeting place for Greeks from around the country.

But there’s more. Fastened upside-down, an old rowboat hangs from the bar’s ceiling. “My father used to row, and the boat was built in Switzerland in 1960,” he explains. This makes Goossens exactly as old as the boat. “According to my mother, I was also conceived in Switzerland.” We laugh, a new round of beers is on its way, and we’re not going anywhere. © Anne Celis

ith fewer than 1,000 residents, the West Flemish town of Mesen might be the smallest city in Belgium, but it nonetheless played an important historical role in the First World War. In history books, the June 1917 Battle of Mesen went down as an important victory for the Allied forces and a bloody prelude to the famous Passchendaele offensive.

Now the little town is once again at the centre of attention – this time across the Channel. Last month, archaeological excavations in Staffordshire, England, brought to the surface a unique scale terrain model of Mesen, roughly half the size of a football field. The New Zealand Rifle Brigade, which had previously been stationed in Flanders, put German prisoners of war to work constructing it there.

The Mesen ridge of 1917 formed a strategic landmark in the German frontlines and was fiercely defended by the German soldiers.

If allied troops were nonetheless able to quickly capture the area, it was in part because the soldiers had practised with scale models of actual military sites, built both in Flanders and France. The instructional models included small-scale reconstructions of Mesen’s structures, including a mock church, trenches, railway lines, roads and detailed outlines of the surrounding area.

Among the troops involved in the Mesen battle was the New Zealand Rifle Brigade, which was later relocated to a training camp at Cannock Chase in Staffordshire. To commemorate the battle and the

11

25 world class speakers, 1500 attendees in 1 mind-blowing day at the Bozar, where ideas are shared and lifelong connections are made.

28OCTOBER2013BOZAR www.tedxbrussels.eu

arts

Flanders today

october 23, 2013

I spy Jonathan Coe set his new novel at Expo 58, where nothing is as it seems Rebecca Benoot

© Guillem Lopez / BELGA

An incidental encounter with the Atomium convinced award-winning British author Jonathan Coe to set his new novel during Expo 58. In the spirit of 1950s spy novels, the book finds an average British civil servant encountering intrigue and espionage in Brussels.

T

hree years ago, the celebrated British author Jonathan Coe (pictured) was staying at the writer’s residence Villa Hellebosch in Vollezele, Flemish Brabant, when he was invited to the Atomium for an interview with Radio One’s Ann Rootveld. It was the first time he had encountered this remnant of the 1958 World’s Fair, and suddenly everything fell into place.

“I was looking for a way to approach the subject of Britishness at the time,” he explains. “If I wanted to examine what life was like for an Englishman in the late 1950s, it made sense not to keep him stuck in drab, boring and monochrome London but to send him to Expo 58, where all the countries of the world come together, and see what happens to him there.”

Inspired by the time and the place, Coe had the premise of his next novel.

Since the World’s Fair in Brussels isn’t a topic that’s well known in Britain, it’s quite an unusual time and place for a British novel to be set. Coe spent many hours at the Belgian National Library and talked to several local friends and others who had been to the Expo.

“I also drove around a lot and tried to get a feel for the Heizel area because it was hard to find anyone who knew where the British delegates and workers had been housed,” he says. “Apart from a sign from the Britannia pub, there’s nothing left of the British pavilion.”

With a clear picture in mind of the surroundings, the 52-year-old started writing his 10th and most humorous novel to date, a follow-up to his previous award-winning novels which include What a Carve Up! and The Rotters’ Club.

Expo 58, which is also available in Dutch translation, focuses on Thomas Foley, a young civil servant living a quiet life in London with his wife, Sylvia, and their baby daughter, Gill. He is dispatched to Brussels to oversee the Britannia, the pub of the British pavilion, for the six months of the fair – but there might be slightly more to his enlistment than meets the eye. Intrigue, romance and espionage quickly ensue,

creating a tangled web of deception and potential doom.

Coe is clearly a fan of Alfred

which were next to each other, reminded me of those TV shows,” he confirms.

It’s more of an escape from the present day than a reflection of it Hitchcock and 1960s television, and he adds a wide array of pop culture references to the mix. “Looking at footage of people having fun at this theme park in suits and reading about the espionage between the Soviet and American pavilions,

The Expo was supposed to show off the contributing countries’ achievements in arts, science and technology and to develop “a genuine unity of mankind”. Sadly, the Americans and Russians had other ideas.

Allusions like this can also be found in Coe’s 1994 postmodern masterpiece, What a Carve Up. “I wasn’t alive in the 1950s, but I have seen a lot of movies from that period; much of the dialogue in the book is based on those movies, giving it an element of pastiche and making it quite postmodern. But that’s what Expo 58 was all about: It was a collection of national fictions.

Nothing is what it seems; everyone is putting on a show.” And in Coe’s book, a jolly good show at that.

Expo 58 can be best be described as a parody of the 1950s spy genre made famous by James Bond scribe Ian Fleming, only this time an unassuming middle-class nobody saves the day. It’s a mixture of slapstick, romance and spying set at the height of the cold war. Full of humour, crime, nostalgia and amorous encounters, this period piece is in fact more lightweight than Coe’s previous novels but highly entertaining nonetheless.

“A lot of people in Britain are writing very serious books – about the financial crisis or terrorism,” he says.

“So I ended up writing a book that’s more of an escape from the present day rather than a reflection.”

There is, however, a link with his other novels: Thomas Foley briefly appeared in 2007’s The Rain Before it Falls. “Despite having different settings and characters, all my books create a fictional universe that I recognise,” explains Coe. “So I started pulling minor characters from earlier novels and placing them in different contexts to see what happens. The novels aren’t selfcontained; they frequently overlap.

For instance, in this novel I’ve also planted several seeds, including Thomas’ children, to whom I might come back one day.” `` www.jonathancoewriter.com

Fresh fiction Natte dozen (Wet Boxes)

Gelukkige slaven (Happy Slaves)

Marnix Peeters • De Bezige Bij Marnix Peeters’ second novel deals with the trials and tribulations of the racist, sadistic and misogynistic Oscar van Beuseghem, a man who detests humanity almost as much as it does him. Natte Dozen is funny, razor-sharp and definitely not for the faint of heart – a poignant follow-up to its equally electrifying predecessor, De dag dat we Andy zijn arm afzaagden.

Tom Lanoye • Prometheus The master Flemish novelist’s much-anticipated new novel is a theatrical representation of a world consumed by capitalism. Two men, one name: Tony Hanssen. One hunts rhinos in a South African wildlife park, while the other walks the streets of Buenos Aires as a Chinese woman’s toy boy. Besides their name, they have another thing in common: debt, and lots of it. Elegantly written, as Lanoye’s work always is, combined with a cunning plot and breathtaking dialogue, Gelukkige slaven holds you hostage as the novel unfolds at an exhilarating pace.

De Qualastofont Herman Brusselmans • Prometheus By the time you’ve read the latest Brusselmans, the next one will already have seen the light of day.

Since his wife left him, there’s been no stopping the Ghent-based novelist. In a recent interview he even confessed: “I don’t have anything else to do now.” Sadly, quantity rarely equals quality. A professor in the beta sciences tries to unravel the mystery of the qualastofont in this funny, entertaining novel, the literary equivalent of fast food. What, I hear you wondering, is a qualastofont?

Buy the book and find out.

Oorlog en terpentijn (War and Turpentine) Stefan Hertmans • De Bezige Bij Oorlog en Terpentijn is a personal tale about professor Stefan Hertmans’ grandfather, a painter whose life was torn to shreds during the First World War. Already an old man, Corporal Urbain Joseph Emile Martien fills several notebooks with stories about his life in the army during the war and hands them over to his grandson in 1981. Also a seasoned author, Hertmans tells this harrowing piece of family history with poise and compassion, showing through intimate detail that lives can be shattered by a single brushstroke.

13

arts

New York Times waxes poetic over Stromae The Brussels dance and hip-hop singer Paul Van Haver, better known as Stromae, has had a glorious write-up in The New York Times. “Paul Van Haver is a musician for his time,” wrote Scott Sayare of the newspaper’s Paris bureau, “a gravel-voiced, mixed-race performer whose melancholic French-language dance pop has channelled, to popular acclaim, the grey that currently hangs over Europe.”

Sayare quotes other media as well as interviewing the musician, who grew up just outside Brussels with a Flemish mother. His Rwandan father did not live with the family and was killed in 1994 during the Rwandan genocide. “The music is often playful but almost always cut through with a darker strain,” said Sayare, “a reflection of the disillusionment and restlessness that have supplanted the self-assurance of an earlier generation in Europe.”

British composer wins BJO contest British composer Thomas Haines has won this year’s International Composition Contest sponsored by the Brussels Jazz Orchestra (BJO).

The finals of the competition for big-band jazz compositions took place in Flagey last week and saw four contestants directing the BJO in turn.

The jury of international jazz professionals praised Haines’ “Whistleblower”, written for the competition, as “syncopated and funky” and said it “offered elements of surprise and a touch of humour”. Haines, a pianist and drummer, won the €3,000 Duvel Jazz Award and the Bose Audience Award. ``www.brusselsjazzorchestra.com

Book pokes fun at “Belgian solutions” It started with a few photos, grew to a Facebook page with nearly 11,000 followers, and now there’s a book full of absurd “Belgian Solutions”. German David Helbich’s Belgian Solutions, published earlier this month, is a collection of 300 photos depicting occurrences such as a stairway that leads only to a brick wall, a car destroyed by the pick-up truck sent to tow it away and some ill thought-out traffic diversions.

The book, with text in English, is supported by arts centres Beursschouwburg in Brussels and Buda in Kortrijk and costs €20. ``www.exhibitionsinternational.org

14

october 23, 2013

The unknown masters revealed Brussels exhibition explores work of van der Weyden’s nameless followers Ian Mundell

I

n the second half of the 15th century, Brussels was a good place to be a painter. The dukes of Burgundy had made the Coudenberg Palace their preferred residence, and the noble families and courtiers who followed suit were enthusiastic patrons of the arts.

Brussels’ undisputed genius was Rogier van der Weyden, who was appointed city painter in 1435. His work offered a sensation of depth and theatricality that was revolutionary at the time, and that still stops people in their tracks. The Heritage of Rogier van der Weyden, currently on view at the Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium, may have van der Weyden as its figurehead, but its real focus is another group of artists working in the city after his death in 1464.

Most of their names have slipped through the cracks of history so that their work has garnered far less attention.

These artists were the subject of a four-year research programme that shifted attention away from their relationship with van der Weyden and instead focused on their individual qualities. The result was a considerable reassessment. According to Véronique Bücken, head of the ancient painting department at the Royal Museums of Fine Arts and co-curator of the exhibition, these unknown painters should no longer be considered minor artists or mere imitators.

“They knew the art of van der Weyden, admired it and adopted the means of expression that he had invented, but they interpreted them differently,” she explains, adding that they brought more realism and movement into their works. “And while van der Weyden had already introduced emotion into his compositions, his followers would bring a little bit of caricature, showing people’s real features or physical shortcomings.”

Another focus of the project was to investigate other influences on the then artists’ community in the city.

“In Brussels, you feel the influence of van der Weyden, but also of Hugo van der Goes,” says art historian Griet Steyaert, the other curator of the exhibition. Usually considered a Ghent artist, van der Goes worked at the priory of Rood Klooster in Oudergem, near Brussels, from around 1475 until his death in 1482. Part of Steyaert’s research was to explore this influence and she for instance argues that Brussels artist Aert van den Bossche was at one time his student or a close collaborator.

One thing the research project hasn’t been able to do is give most of these artists their names back. In this period, it was uncommon for painters to sign their work or leave other documentary traces. Van der Goes was a notable exception and for instance pops up in a monk’s chronicle, while van den Bossche owes his place in history to an accountant who noted that he had been paid for the “Martyrdom of Saints Crispin and Crispinian”. Once a connection is made, other attributions can be proposed by looking at stylistic similarities.

The other artists exist in abstract – as identities put forward by art historians for works with particular stylistic and thematic connections. These theoretical painters go by colourful names inspired by their defining works, such as “the Master of the Princely Portraits” or “the Master of the Embroidered Foliage”.

First proposed at the beginning of the 20th century, these name constructs have proved remarkably enduring, although scientific study now indicates that several hands worked on each painting. Rather than a single artist, each “master” probably represents a collection of painters working together in a studio or workshop.

Sometimes the research allows new work to be attributed to a particular master. Steyaert gives the example of a flag from the army of Philip the Bold in the exhibition. “The first time I saw it I thought: ‘That’s the Master of the View of Saint Gudule,’” she says. “That was simply because I recognised the style, but then if you study that group and give enough arguments, you can convince your colleagues, and it becomes accepted.”

A similar research effort is required to say with some degree of certainty that a painting comes from Brussels. Luckily, many panels are still in their

© London National Gallery

week in artS & culture

Flanders today

“Portrait of a Young Man” by Master of the View of Saint Gudule

original frames, and the city’s carpenters had a habit of marking their work or using a distinct form of joint. Meanwhile, stylistic elements can connect a painting with Brussels, not least the appearance of city buildings in the composition. Hence the Master of the View of Saint Gudule is known for the cathedral that can be seen in the background of one painting.

Exploring this detective work is one of the pleasures of the exhibition. For example, a triptych of the miracles of Christ that came all the way from Melbourne has a different horizon line in each panel, and figures of varying scales. This suggests that it was the product of different hands, but also that they worked alone rather than in close collaboration.

For Steyaert, the most exciting discovery was finding evidence that anonymous panels now in Dijon and Washington DC were originally the reverse of panels in Philadelphia attributed to van der Weyden. A link in their provenance and similarities in dimension prompted her to examine the wood, and evidence

Until 26 January

confirmed that the works were once painted on the same two sets of planks, which were then split lengthwise and separated some time before 1856.

The Philadelphia panels are too fragile to consider moving, but the Dijon and Washington panels are on view in the exhibition.

“There are only around 35 paintings we know are by van der Weyden, so if you can say for one of those that you have found the other side, that’s quite exciting,” Steyaert says.

Whether this changes the attribution either way remains to be seen, and her answer raises many more questions. Simply having all this work by the Brussels artists in one place, side by side, will help. “There are still things to find out,” Steyaert says. “I’m going to be working in this exhibition, looking again and rethinking. And I have colleagues who are already doing just that.”

Royal Museums of Fine Arts Museumstraat 9, Brussels

www.expo-vanderweyden.be

agenda

Flanders today

october 23, 2013

Welcome to the world

Concert

Lieve Blancquaert: Birth Day Belgium. She talked to midwives, doctor and patients, taking photos in delivery rooms before accompanying new mothers to their homes and family. She notes the varied customs and traditions that accompany birth; from filthy, overcrowded clinics with little to no medical equipment, to cultures where mothers are cosseted and given time to recover.

There are also contradictions: despite current moves to reduce the trend, in Siberia abortion has been used as a contraceptive since the 1920s and is without social stigma. In Atlanta in the US, meanwhile, teenage pregnancy rates are the highest in the world as contraception is expensive and, along with abortion, is discouraged by the local community. Sarah Crew

ING Cultural Centre, Brussels

www.birth-day.be

Flemish photojournalist Lieve Blancquaert travelled around the world over the course of two years to record the intimate moment of birth. Convinced that where and how a child is born is a reflection on society, she has delivered a timely and compassionate portrait on the cultural, social and political differences surrounding childbirth across the globe.

Her multimedia project includes a book, published in English, Dutch and French, featuring 400 photos of the 5,000 she took during her travels, now showing at ING’s cultural space in Brussels. A nine-part TV series about the experience starts at the beginning of November on Eén.

Blancquaert’s large-format photographs combine technical skill with a strong social awareness.

About 364,500 babies are born every day around the world, and the millennium development goals of women’s rights, reduced child mortality rates and improved maternal health will fail to reach 2015 targets. The Ghent artist was inspired to undertake the project when witnessing women first in Kabul and later in Burundi and Congo giving birth in terrible conditions.

For Birth Day, she visited large cities and remote villages in countries as diverse as Kuwait, Cambodia, Greenland and

PERFORMANCE

EXHIBITION

The Old Woman

25-29 October, 20.00 deSingel, Antwerp

Germaine Van Parys and Odette Dereze www.desingel.be

After the European success of last year’s The Life and Death of Marina Abramovic, experimental theatre director Robert Wilson and the incomparable stage-and-screen actor Willem Dafoe return to deSingel. This time, though, the two American icons are joined by Russian dance legend Mikhail Baryshnikov. The trio stage The Old Woman, adapted from an absurdist novella by Soviet dissident author Daniil Kharms. The little-known modernist wrote the story not long before starving to death in the gulag.

Needless to say, it’s a thoroughly existential affair revolving around an angstridden artist – and it’s brilliant. Antwerp and Paris are the finals stops on a tour which took Wilson and co to Manchester, Athens and Spoleto, Italy. © Lucie Jansch

Georgio Valentino

25 October to 2 March www.fotomuseum.be

FAMILY

Brussels Light Festival

Rode Hond

Ghent’s Light Festival dazzled the public for the two years that it ran, but has been put on hold due to its prohibitive cost. This first Brussels edition scales it down to human size with an illuminated block party.

Spectators are invited for a free, evening stroll through the capital’s canal district, where they will experience electrified installations and performances. Italian lighting firm De Cagna presents its LED version of Pisa’s famous leaning tower (it towers some 20 metres). Lords of Lightning’s Tesla Coil Fight pits two electrified opponents against each other. There’s also a twice-nightly fireworks spectacle launched from canal barges. At the end of the trail is a campfire where you can warm up and enjoy food and drink. GV

26-29 October

Across Leuven

Curmudgeons are advised to steer clear of Leuven during Rode Hond.

The annual city-wide weekender is organised by cultural centre 30CC for a raucous audience of children aged four to 12, and the powersthat-be are expecting thousands of them. Spectators young and old are invited to enjoy the dozens of events, starting with a big kick-off party in the Grote Markt. There’s also a talent show starring Leuven’s newest crop of divas-in-training and the Best of International Short Film Festival, showcasing liveaction and animated shorts—all suitable for audiences of any age. If Junior isn’t content just to watch, s/he can learn the art of stopmotion photography in M Museum’s workshop or participate in several other hands-on activities. GV

Chat Blanc: Anglo-French folkster Pascal Dickens honed his songs in secret for 10 years before recruiting an angelic vocalist to help him present his finely tuned tunes to audiences.

The newly christened acoustic duo Chat Blanc is now touring Europe with fellow folk singer Brent Spar. Be warned: The venue is a monument to bad taste. But this bill is well worth the detour.

24 OCT 20.30 at Rock Classic, Kolenmarkt 55

`` www.rockclassic.be

Festival Leuven Transit: This award-winning new music festival features 10 performances by local and international avantgarde musicians. Opening night alone promises four premieres by Flemish collective Nadar Ensemble. A panel of composers and singers also debates the place of the voice in contemporary music.

25-27 OCT at STUK, Naamsestraat 96

`` www.stuk.be

Brussels Vrijheidsfestival (Liberty Festival): Every year Flemish theatre KVS joins hands with the Théâtre National to present a fortnight of politically aware performances, exhibitions and discussions. Closing weekend of the 2013 edition is packed solid with intercultural fare, including a concert by German-Nigerian singer Nneka.

Antwerp’s FotoMuseum offers a rare glimpse into the archives of two photojournalists who, between them, chronicled nearly 100 years of local history. Germaine Van Parys was born at the tail-end of the 19th century and first took up her camera during the First World War. Her goddaughter, Odette Dereze, entered the field in time to document the profound social developments that followed the Second World War. The two photographers seized on the human drama of every assignment; subjects range from the local butcher to the lords and ladies of the land (and visiting dignitaries such as US president Richard Nixon). Van Parys cultivated a relationship with the Belgian royal family that yielded a series of legendary portraits. GV

FESTIVAL 31 October to 3 November Sainctelettesquare, Brussels www.brusselslightfestival.be

FotoMuseum, Antwerp

Until 26 OCT at KVS, Lakensestraat 146

`` www.festivaldeslibertes.be

Exhibition Antwerp

www.rodehond.be © Vicky Bogaert

Until 5 January

Brussels

About Coming and Going: This exhibition, timed to coincide with the opening of the Red Star Line Museum, explores the experience of migration through prints and drawings from the 16th century to the present day. The museum’s erstwhile master – Renaissance printing mogul Christoffel Plantijn – had himself emigrated to Antwerp from his native France in search of opportunity. Needless to say, he found it.

Until 5 JAN at Plantin-Moretus Museum, Vrijdagmarkt 22

`` www.museumplantinmoretus.be

Film Brussels Black Friday: In the context of the four-month Europalia India festival, “Flageywood” screens Indian director Anurag Kashyap’s harrowing reconstruction of the deadly 1993 Mumbai bombings. A range of Indian wines is available by way of refreshment and/or respite from the emotional drama on screen.

28 OCT 17.30 at Flagey, Heilig-Kruisplein

`` www.flagey.be

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Flanders today

october 23, 2013

Talking Dutch

VoiceS of flanders today Kris Peeters @MP_Peeters #FashionTalks The craftsmanship of Raf Simons, Dries Van Noten or Walter Van Beirendonck = tip of the iceberg. #Flanders breathes #fashion.

Waste not, want not Derek Blyth

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© Ingimage

A

ll right. We have a problem.

I am the first to admit it. We have to do something about people who dump rubbish illegally.

Only the other day, I found an empty Polish beer can on our doorstep. I put it out with the rubbish like a good citizen. But am I going to get a fine?

The little town of Herentals in Antwerp province has got me worried because it is quite severe in its treatment of people who don’t put rubbish in the right place. Just a few weeks ago, according to a report in Het Laatste Nieuws, a woman was fined €250 because she dropped four bank statements in a rubbish bin after leaving her home.

“Het is verboten huishoudelijk afval te deponeren in straatvuilbakjes,” said the stern summons that landed in her letterbox – it is forbidden to deposit household waste in rubbish bins on the street. Pardon? Yes, that is right. “Er mag uitsluitend afval in van ter plekke geconsumeerde producten” – you may only deposit waste from products consumed in the vicinity.

Now, I don’t know about you, but I sometimes leave the house munching an apple. So, when I am finished, does the apple core count as household waste or may I safely deposit it in a rubbish bin?

The newspaper contacted the public servant who had sent the summons

Mieke Pynnaert @MiekePynnaert 500 new jobs in #expansion plan #EuropeanDistributionCenter #Nike in #Flanders @Fitagency

Visit Belgium @belgiuminfo Free first edition of the spectacular and unique #Brussels Light Festival along the waterway. Oct 31 to Nov 3, 2013 www.brusselslightfestival.be

to make sure the story was true. It was. The woman was suspected of illegal dumping because the rubbish bin was situated 165 metres from her house. And, to make matters worse, “blijkt dat het gezin uit twee personen bestaat en onregelmatig en weinig afval meegeeft met de gemeentelijke afvalophaling” – it appeared that the family consisted of two people and that they put out small and irregular amounts of waste for the municipal rubbish collection.

“In wat voor een totalitair regime leven wij?” the woman asked – what sort of totalitarian regime are we living in?

She has a point. The level of snooping and digging around in Herentals is

quite alarming. Why worry about Google reading your emails when a man from the council is busy sifting through your trash?

“Omdat mijn dochter en ik onze ecologische voetafdruk zo klein proberen te houden, zijn we sluitstorters?” – my daughter and I try to minimise our ecological footprint, so are we assumed to have dumped our rubbish illegally? “Dit is pure Kafka” – this is pure Kafka.

It makes me think that I should be putting out more rubbish every week, just to be safe. I might begin with that Polish beer can, but then again, when I think about it, I didn’t drink the beer, and I don’t know who did, so where exactly do I deposit the can?

Tweet us your thoughts @FlandersToday

Poll a. Yes, the Red Devils should be given as much support as possible!

40% b. Yes, but I would have been watching even if Belgium had failed to qualify

20%

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40% It would appear so, because twice as many – four out of 10 – are unimpressed by the achievements of Kompany, Lukaku and the rest and won’t be watching even now that the team are qualified and seeded.

Luckily for national pride, the other

Fledgling fight

Vanishing symbol

“I left for Syria on 22 February alone. I acted out of a sense of justice, because of my faith and to help people. I did not go under the influence of Sharia4Belgium. I paid for everything myself.”

“I don’t think Zwarte Piet is racist, but I think the problem will take care of itself, simply because he’s been called into question in recent years. I see him less and less often in advertisements.

My grandchildren will no longer know who he is.”

Jejoen Bontinck,16, from Antwerp will be questioned by investigators after his return from Syria at the weekend

Bitter pill

c. No, I’m not interested in football regardless of who’s playing

four in 10 of you are prepared to stand by Marc Wilmots’ boys when the time comes, donning bright red wigs and learning the words to “Olé Olé Olé Olé”. Go Belgium!

Next week's question: A woman in Flanders is facing a E250 fine for throwing some private mail away in a public bin (see Talking Dutch, above). Do you agree she should be fined?

Log on to the Flanders Today website and vote at this link: www.flanderstoday.eu/living/talking-dutch-waste-not-want-not

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Visit Bruges Construction of the next Snow and Ice Sculpture festival has commenced. Ice Magic Bruges opens its doors on 22 November.

the last word

Will you be watching Belgium’s progress in the World Cup Finals next year in Rio?

Surprise: only one in five of you is a hard-core football fan who would have watched the World Cup regardless of Belgium’s qualification.

Really? Is that the extent of the love for football among Flanders Today’s international readership?

TEDxBrussels @TEDxBrussels Simulcast events for #TEDxBrussels 2013 at Belgian Universities… #tedx #simulcast

“A doctor needs to be able to look someone in the eye and tell him he’s dying. With asylum, it’s just the same.”

Federal migration minister Maggie De Block, as it emerged that a man deported back to Afghanistan had been murdered

Wouter Van Bellingen, Flanders’ first black alderman, on the debate over Sinterklaas’ helper

Picture palace “We especially want to breathe new life into the food and drinks side. A visit to the cinema should be an experience. And there’s a place there for a nice cold beer.”

The new owners of the Antwerp cinema Cartoons aren’t only thinking about films