Delano April 2012

April 2012 – Issue 11 – 4€ – www.delano.lu

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Understanding Luxembourg: current affairs, business, lifestyle, Culture

HACKERS: Ralf-Philipp Weinmann on the University of Luxembourg’s computer security lab

Bracelets en argent.

Hermès 13, rue Philippe II Luxembourg Tél. (352) 220 981 Hermes.com

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The seven year iTch Text: Duncan Roberts — Illustration: Quentin Vijoux

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Few commentators are foolish enough to second guess Jean-Claude Juncker.

But the prime minister’s decision not to seek another mandate as head of the Eurogroup has led to conjecture about his motives and a flurry of speculation as to his successor.

Juncker has spent seven years in what some observers of European politics call “a thankless task”, although the jockeying to succeed him would suggest the position is highly desirable. There is no doubt that Juncker was, in many ways, an ideal Eurogroup boss. As the longest serving head of government in the group he had the experience and knowledge required for the job, and Luxembourg’s neutrality and the prime minister’s renowned, if fading, ability to mediate between France and Germany has served him well. But he cited time restraint as the main reason for not seeking a fourth term in the office, saying that the position should be given to someone who can dedicate themselves full-time to the task at hand.

The prime minister is a tireless worker for Luxembourg and Europe. Even so, before the 2009 parliamentary elections speculation at home about his personal ambition in Europe led him to issue a statement that he would serve his full term as prime minister if re-elected. This latest move only serves to reiterate his loyalty to Luxembourg and follows what is the closest he has ever come to an “annus horribilis”, with the resignation of Jeannot Krecké, growing unemployment, banks in crisis and dissent over Qatari stakes in Cargolux and BIL. In January the prime minister himself admitted that things are going to get worse before they improve.

Juncker can still enjoy influence in Europe--indeed, he will have some say in finding his successor at the Eurogroup--and was never seriously accused of neglecting his domestic duties while doing just that. But after seven years doing two jobs, many in the Grand Duchy will be relieved to see him coming home.

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contents

42 COver STOry

RalF-pHilipp weinmann Seeing in believing He has already hacked the iPhone and BlackBerry. The University of Luxembourg computer security researcher is using some dramatic means to demonstrate how insecure your data really is.

12

36

6 CurreNT AffAirS

22 buSiNeSS

anOtHeR Fine mess Controversial fortress museum and successful cultural space face renewed debate

smalleR FOOtpRints Energy costs are changing Luxembourg’s home and office real estate market

10 FRançOise HettO-gaasCH

28 etHiCs in FinanCe

48 lifeSTyle netwORKing British Ladies Club

52 gOing natiVe

Three events for collectors

Luxembourg’s equality gains

What bank chiefs need to hear

12 getting tHe jOb dOne

International pilots on communication

30 sHiFting geaRs How the auto supply sector is faring

16 new luxexpO

34 mediCal teCHnOlOgY

56 pRaCtiCal stYle Design City returns

18 CRY FReedOm

36 getting tO FRanKFuRt

The ten minute play festival

Minister hits the breaks Taking on the church

54 QuiCK esCapes

Seven weekend getaways

Sector making strides

60 sHORt and sweet

Bus war breaks out

regulArS 38 tHinK lOCal

Tom Geelen: the Belgian architect explains what surprised him most about Luxembourg’s nightlife, why he helped organise a neighbourhood party, and why you should practice your Luxembourgish.

66 mY OtHeR liFe Jean-Claude Bintz: the media and telecoms entrepreneur talks about why he sometimes lets his guitar do the talking, the blues, and why he wants young Luxembourgers to dream about start-ups.

56

SNAPSHOTS 11 ViViane Reding

Does Europe need a woman’s quota?

20 Film pRize Young talent rewarded 26 HR debate

Being a change agent

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Culture

Another fine mess In the midst of economic uncertainty, as the controversial Musée Dräi Eechelen is set to open its doors and the CarréRotondes is seeking to return to its roots, cultural policy is being questioned as never before.

Text: Duncan Roberts — Photos: Julien Becker

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current affairs three acorns: lobbying to preserve the site led to compromise

Back to the roots: CarréRotondes should be able to move back to the Rotondes in 2014

There is nothing new about public building projects being brought in late or over budget, but the exasperation surrounding the Musée de la Forteresse on the Kirchberg is almost unprecedented. Over 20 years after it was first mooted, and 15 years since legislation was passed to give the project the green light, the museum will officially open its doors in July. The total cost of the project? Close to 42 million euro. That is more than 25 million euro over the original budget. The story of the museum seems indicative of the muddled compromise policy of successive governments when it comes to culture.

Despite the insistence of the current minister for culture, Octavie Modert, that Luxembourg is one of the few countries that consistently spends over one percent of its national budget on culture, the way that money is spent is often questioned. The fortress museum, for instance, is seen by many commentators as something of a white elephant.

It was first suggested back in 1989 when plans to build a modern art museum at the Dräi Eechelen site were also being considered. The fortress museum was some sort of sop to appease the Frënn

vun der Festungsgeschicht Lëtzebuerg (friends of the fortress history), which was vehemently opposed to allowing the site to be desecrated by a modern art museum. (The Dräi Eechelen is named after the “three acorns” that sit atop the turrets that remained following the post Treaty of London destruction of Fort Thüngen).

Lobbying Even so, the lobbyists managed to gather enough public support to force the government of the day to ask the designer of the modern art museum, renowned Sino-American architect I.M. Pei, to alter his original plans. Pei had wanted to remove some of the original fortress foundations, and have the entrance to the art museum through the middle of the three acorns. But the revision meant the size of the museum, Mudam as it is now known, was considerably reduced to preserve the historical site. Mudam opened in 2006, also over 15 years after the idea to create a modern art museum was first mooted.

Now the fortress museum is to follow suit. But while it costs just half of the

90 million spent on Mudam, its budgetary difficulties have highlighted wasteful government spending. The first legislation giving the museum the green light was passed by parliament in 1995 following a bill presented by then Green deputy Robert Garcia. At the time the estimated cost of the museum was calculated at the equivalent of around €16.5 million. By 2003 that budget had been breached and new legislation dedicating a further €14.03 million was passed through parliament. Four years later, the budget was once again in danger of being exceeded and Modert launched an investigation and ordered work on the project to be halted. Modert later said that at the time (just three years after being appointed to cabinet) she was surprised at how muddled the situation was. Work was halted and Modert said she not only managed to rescue the situation--even though it required a further extension of some €8.7 million to the budget--but also to bring administrative and technical orderliness to the relevant service at the ministry.

Not good enough, say opponents to the fortress museum. The Democratic Party,

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for instance, has severely criticised not only the cost of the museum but also the concept. “The government has shown it was overburdened, procedures were not respected and the court of auditors gave the project a poor mark,” said Anne Brasseur at an ironic celebration held outside the museum a few days after Modert had announced it would open in the middle of July. As the head of the parliamentary budget control committee, Brasseur has kept a keen eye on the project’s spending. But Modert says that the budget was not just to the museum, but was also used to restore and improve the Circuit Vauban tourist trail around the fortress and to reconstruct parts of the fortress itself. And she insists that Luxembourg needs a museum dedicated to its “origins”. But many commentators wonder what will actually be displayed at the museum. After all the history of the fortress is also part of the permanent exhibition at the Musée de l’Historie de la Ville de Luxembourg (the city history museum). Back in 2009 Modert revealed that the museum had managed to purchase a significant foreign collection about European fortresses, but few other details of the exhibition have been unveiled. success begets success Content is the least of the problems at the CarréRotondes, where the aforementioned Robert Garcia is in charge.

Garcia surrendered his parliamentary seat to take charge of the programme when Luxembourg and the Greater Region reigned as the European Capital of Culture in 2007. After the culture year concluded, Garcia became director of the CarréRotondes (the most successful initiative launched in 2007 and originally sited in the iconic former railway sheds in Bonnevoie) at its new venue in Hollerich. Home to

David Laurent/Wide (archives)

current affairs

roBert Garcia: proponent of Musée de la Forteresse, now in charge of CarréRotondes

the Traffo kids and young people’s theatre project as well as concert and events venue Exit07 and an exhibition space, CarréRotondes has been hugely successful thanks to the efforts of Garcia and his dedicated young team. Last year some 44,000 people attended shows or exhibitions at the venue.

But with its lease at the current site (owned by Paul Wurth) due to expire at the end of 2014, CarréRotondes is seeking a new home. Last month Garcia revealed that plans had been made to allow the institution to return to the Rotondes in Bonnevoie. Work on decontaminating the ground at the site has made progress, and plans have been made to turn one of the Rotondes into a venue for the Traffo programme with a 300-capacity theatre and an exhibition space where the former Serre Bleue restaurant was housed during the cultural year. The second Rotonde would be fitted out with a box in box space that would house a concert venue

and bar with capacity for 450. And containers housing workshop spaces and the studios of Radio ARA’s Graffiti youth programme as well as administrative offices are also part of the plans.

Garcia spoke about the sword of Damocles being lifted from the cultural institution. Indeed, for many years there was uncertainty about the future use of the historical Rotondes buildings once they had been cleaned up. At one stage the government had even made a public appeal for projects and in its political programme for the Ville de Luxembourg the current DP-Green coalition had suggested one of the buildings might be used to house an indoor crafts market in the style of Covent Garden.

The irony is not lost that it is a former Green deputy, Garcia, who will now move in to the Rotondes--nor that the Rotondes were at one stage even mooted as a location for the museum that would become Mudam.

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Available from April 2012 in English, French and German www.maisonmoderne.lu

current affairs

Françoise Hetto-Gaasch

“ We should speak about senior management” In advance of Girls’ Day-Boys’ Day, the equality minister explains how she is working with business groups to help push more women into executive roles.

Interview: Aaron Grunwald – Photo: Olivier Minaire

April 26 marks the 11th annual Girls’ Day-Boys’ Day, when 13- to 17-yearolds have a chance to learn about careers that break gender stereotypes. Young women spend a day working alongside artisans, scientists and female executives, while young men shadow education, health and social services professionals.

More than 900 students and 100 companies are expected to participate. One of the main backers of the event is Françoise Hetto-Gaasch, the CSV minister for equal opportunity.

AG: What is the state of gender equality in Luxembourg today?

FH-G: I see a positive trend, for sure.

The rate of employment for women, for example, has now reached 57 percent.

Sixty percent of university graduates are women in Europe and 59 percent here in Luxembourg. But we have still some unequal situations. There’s still a wage gap between men and women of about 10 percent here in Luxembourg. If we compare it to Europe, the wage gap is about 13 percent.

AG: So Luxembourg is doing well?

FH-G: It’s better than the European average, sure. But it’s still 10 percent.

And we have to find an explanation for that. There’s also a problem [of a lack of] women in senior management. This is, for me, a real problem because I think our society cannot afford it. To invest that much in the education of women, and then we lose them from the economy? We cannot afford this.

Françoise Hetto-GaascH: women should not be punished for having children

AG: What do you think of European commissioner Viviane Reding’s proposal for a quota on company boards [see page 11]?

FH-G: I [would like] more women in top positions, clearly. But I wonder about starting with the board of directors. I think we should speak about senior management. I think once they arrive in senior management, the [distance to] board of directors will not be too far. At the ministry we have decided to encourage the economic decision takers to take voluntary actions. Therefore we now have a deal with [business federation] FEDIL and the [bankers association] ABBL, who want to empower more women, and to have

this awareness rising of the problem in companies.

AG: What kinds of problems will this tackle?

FH-G: Working times, childcare, working remotely. The main difficulty is that women interrupt their career once they get pregnant. They come back, they work part time, and they never [keep pace with] their male colleagues. We should give them the same chance and also make them feel still part of the company, even if they stay at home half a day, so that they don’t have to be punished their whole life [because] they gave birth to a child. That’s what’s happening now. www.girlsday.lu - www.boysday.lu

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snapshots

From left: Aukse Packeviciute, Sophie Rein and Renate Bechthold

Equality

Quotas on the table Photos: Charles Caratini

Viviane Reding, Luxembourg’s European commissioner More than 120 attended the International Women’s Day conference at the Sofitel in Kirchberg

Marie-Béatrice Nobel

Viviane Reding outlined her move to have a minimum number of women serve on corporate boards of directors during the American Chamber of Commerce in Luxembourg International Women’s Day conference in March.

Reding--vice president of the European Commission and commissioner for justice and citizenship--noted that today there is an average of 14 percent women on company boards across the EU, up from 12 percent in 2010.

The Esch-sur-Alzette native expressed disappointment with the business community’s self-regulatory efforts over the past year. Reding observed that the biggest recent gains have come in member states which have adopted a quota into national law, notably France, the Netherlands and Norway. “I don’t like quotas either, but I like what quotas do.”

Thus Reding issued a consultation paper last month to prepare the groundwork for a new European directive.

Acknowledging that board membership is only the visible “tip of the iceberg” when it comes to women’s equality, Reding nevertheless said she was pushing for quotas because “if I didn’t start somewhere, things wouldn’t go anywhere.” AG

Chantal Lagniau and Sandra Piger

Franca Allegra (centre) David Micallef (centre)

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current affairs

HR

GETTING ThE jOB DONE English is the language of aviation, but many carriers outside the Grand Duchy still rely on their national tongue.

Does this give Luxembourg’s airlines an advantage?

Text: Aaron Grunwald — Photos: Olivier Minaire

date Line March 2012

Duchy’s national passenger airline, has employees from 50 different countries.

This extends throughout the sector, not just on the flight deck, notes PieterPaul van Griethuysen, a Dutch first officer at Luxair who grew up in France, Indonesia, Ireland, the Netherlands and Saudi Arabia, before attending flight school in Holland and Portugal. Quite often he finds himself part of a four-person crew that has four different nationalities.

And “if you’re in Germany, it’s not necessarily a German person working on the ground.”

GLOBAL MINDSET While objectively things are all the same on paper, the human factor surely comes into play. “We obviously have dif-

ACTA ON HOLD Minister for the ecomAr nomy Étienne Schneider said the government would wait until a ruling from the European Court of Justice before ratifying ACTA--the controversial intellectual property rights enforcement treaty.

1•

ferent backgrounds and we have to adapt to each other, all the time,” observes Aida Brito, a Cargolux captain from Lisbon who previously worked in Italy, New Zealand and Sweden.

This could be considered a strong point for Luxembourg’s aviation sector, explains Florian Unger, a fellow Cargolux captain from Rheinland-Pfalz, who learned to fly in the military. “I’m German, but I did not want to work in a German company. I feel that when ‘multiculti’ work together, you are more careful. It’s not that the job doesn’t get done.

It’s more that etiquette will be used.” He finds multicultural colleagues are more thoughtful and f lexible than staff working in their home culture, who might simply stick to rigid rules and old habits.

FILM CENTENARY The Kursaal in RumAr melange celebrated 100 years of cinema screenings. The former café was converted into a cinema in 1912.

Today it is part of the Caramba group that runs five cinemas in the south of the country.

2•

8

• mAr Charles Caratini

The fact that aviation is by nature international means that it has developed highly standardised processes.

“You can sit anybody in a cockpit--who has been trained, of course--coming from anywhere in the world and they would do the same job and they would understand each other,” says Geoffrey Bemelmans, a Belgian-born Luxembourgish captain at Cargolux. “And that’s the idea of aviation: that you can go wherever you want and it will always be the same.” Nevertheless, language and culture are still a challenge for those working in the industry, even here in Luxembourg.

Cargolux, Europe’s largest all-cargo air carrier, has more than 400 pilots hailing from more than a dozen countries, only nine percent of whom are native Luxembourgers. Luxair, the Grand

Close to 11,000 attended the Discovery Zone film festival.

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current affairs

luxair pilots: Sarah Danielsen-Hadrill and Pieter-Paul van Griethuysen

TAXI PROGRESS The ACL announced mAr plans to offer members a new taxi service as of July.

The Yellow Cab service will operate with eco-friendly Opel electric cars and will have fixed maximum prices.

9•

EvEryThING IS IN ENGLISh” Aida Brito

work here if I couldn’t speak English at the level where you’re talking about technical things and anything else.”

When Unger meets crews from nationally-focused carriers, he sees that “there’s a difference actually in the ability to communicate. So I feel it’s an advantage” being ensconced in the international language all day long.

“The thing you adapt to most is at the point when time pressure comes in a little bit. It’s very natural to go back to your

REFORM ON HOLD Education minister mAr Mady Delvaux-Stehres announced that she would put on hold for one year the government’s plans to reform the secondary education system. The minister’s plans have been slammed by teaching unions.

19 •

native tongue,” says van Griethuysen.

Maybe two crew members will speak to each other in their native French and sometimes van Griethuysen speaks to other Dutch pilots in Dutch. “The thing that we have to remember is that we should do it in English, so that whole crew stays in the loop on what’s happening.”

CLEAr COMMUNIATION Being a native English speaker is an advantage in aviation most of the time, says Sarah Danielsen-Hadrill, a Luxair first officer who grew up in Ipswich and is one of two British pilots at Luxair. The mother of two young children is married to a Danish pilot who joined Luxair after they met. “I can understand everything the first time, most of the time. On the other hand, it can be tricky when you’re communicating over

mAr

Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands arrived for a state visit.

SILVER JUBILEE The commune of BermAr trange honoured local pop-singer Jimmy Martin, who celebrates 25 years on stage this year. Martin has had a hatful of national hits and even dented the foreign charts and recorded with Rick Springfield ‘Jessie’s Girl’.

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SIP/Luc Deflorenne

Working in an international environment is “a fantastic thing because it broadens your horizons,” adds Bemelmans. “It really shows you how other people think about the same thing. You would say, that’s the way it’s done. Then you have five people at the table and everybody says, no, I would do it like this. And then you think, wait a minute, he or she is right, and we would never have thought of that as Luxembourgers or Germans or whatever.”

At both of Luxembourg’s air carriers, English is the official working language and the most used tongue, pilots say. This is in stark contrast to larger national carriers that obviously use English but are also oriented towards their home language.

The pilots at “my previous airline were just Germans and me, one Luxembourger,” says Bemelmans. Air France pilots speak French and “if you fly for KLM, you have to speak Dutch.”

“To work with Cargolux, we all have to have a certain level of English,” says Brito. “And I’m not talking about the [European regulatory qualifications]. We have to be proficient, otherwise it doesn’t work. Everything is in English. I couldn’t

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current affairs

Cargolux pilots: Geoffrey Bemelmans, Florian Unger and Aida Brito

22 •

mAr

Grand Duchess Maria Teresa celebrated her 56th birthday.

Cour Grand-Ducale/Lola Velasco

the radio. Of course, that’s another factor to add, because it’s not face-to-face communication.” She occasionally finds herself choosing her words carefully and sticking to the basics “to make sure the message gets across.”

“When you go to different places, [sometimes] they don’t speak English that well,” agrees Brito. “People have very different accents all over the world. That is something that we are used to, and you have to be used to as a pilot.” She adds that “even in English speaking countries, like the States, which is the worst,” pilots have to

work hard to avoid miscommunication.

At the same time, people working in multicultural workplace should not “worry too much about trying to speak the other person’s language,” advises Danielsen-Hadrill. “A lot of people from the UK get the feeling because they are not maybe as fluent in other languages as people in Europe that they have to make this enormous effort to communicate in that foreign language. But in a working environment, it’s really about getting your message across and getting the job done.”

Although she does use French and

SCHOOL CLOSED The primary school in mAr the rue Aloyse Kayser in Belair was shut down after safety inspectors discovered asbestos in the building.

They had originally been called in to deal with a rat infestation at the containers that housed the school’s day care centre.

23 •

German on a daily basis, “if I know that other person also has a good level of English, then I’m going to speak English.”

On the other hand, van Griethuysen counsels newcomers to Luxembourg to “not to be afraid to try many languages. I found that as a kid it was very easy to learn languages. I think that’s mainly because of the fear issue. You’re not afraid to practice, to try… and I see quite often there’s a certain fear of trying out a new language, or not [wanting] to make mistakes, and I think that takes away the magic a little bit of learning a language.”

SUCCESSFUL RELAIS mAr Some 9,000 runners and several thousand more spectators took part in the annual 24-hour Relais pour la Vie. A record number of 332 teams registered for the event said the director of Fondation Cancer Marie-Paule Prost-Heinisch.

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• mAr

14.7%

Percentage rise in reported crime in 2011

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current affairs

Kirchberg development

Luxexpo pLans abandoned

David Laurent/Wide (archives)

It's been a good or bad month for:

After paperJam.lu revealed that plans to build brand new exhibition halls for Luxexpo had been abandoned, the minister for the economy confirmed the news.

METAFORM The architecture bureau’s apartment building in Cessange won the Housing category in the archdaily.com Building of the Year online competition.

The building, comprising four residential units, was recognised for its innovative design and the use of graffiti by local artist Sumo. www.metaform.lu

NEW MEDIA IA LUX STAFF The publisher of 352LuxMag and Business Review Review, as well as Made in Luxe and the owner of the news352 and Les Frontaliers web websites, and the Advantage communi communications and advertising agency, was declared bankrupt on March 19, leaving around 50 employees without a job.

NATIONAL FOOTBA FOOTBALL TEAM The Red Lions recorded another of their (decreasingly) rare victories, a 2-1 home win over the national team of Macedonia. The win was the team’s sixth in five years following a 12-year winless streak. 19-year old Maurice Deville scored both goals for Luxembourg, though there were later unfounded allegations that the match had been fixed. www.flf.lu

Luxexpo

DRIVING STU STUDENTS D The liberalisation of the prices charged by driving schools for practical lessons has resulted in an average increase of 24 percent, a survey by the ULC has revealed.

A lesson costs on average €59.58 compared to the 48 euro regulated price that was previously charged.

The government took the axe to the project during a cabinet meeting on March 2 without the decision appearing on the official record, according to paperJam.lu’s sources. The state had planned to underwrite half of the 200 million euro cost, but was unable to find a private sector partner, the website said in its March 15 report. Later that day minister of the economy Étienne Schneider confirmed the report, saying that he had decided the existing halls could serve their purpose for several more years. “I was among the first cabinet ministers to take responsibility and decided to strike the project,” Schneider told radio station DNR. Schneider was not surprised that it had proven difficult to find a private investor. “It is not easy to earn money from exhibitions halls,” he said.

Work on the new 46,000 square meter Luxexpo was meant to begin this summer. The plans, designed by Luxembourg architecture bureau Steinmetzdemeyer together with German firm Pohl Architekten, included new exhibition halls, multi-

Fair state: the current exhibition halls are good for several more years, says Étienne Schnieder

purpose function rooms, restaurants and a hotel as well as a new Park & Ride facility.

It was scheduled to begin operating in 2017 or 2018, and replace the current facility, which opened in 1972 and was expanded and renovated in 1991. But Schneider did not rule out using the plans at some stage to either modernise the existing halls or to build brand new exhibition halls in a different location.

That would then allow the government to sell the 10-hectare Kirchberg site of prime building land vacated by the current Luxexpo building.

However, the so-called “KirchbergFairs” stop on the city’s new tram system, which was part of the new plan, will still be built. Work on that project is due to start before the end of this year. Eventually, a track will run from the Kirchberg stop via the Senningeberg Park & Ride facility to Findel airport, where a new train station is being built to facilitate a rail link between the airport and the city’s main train station via Cents. DR

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current affairs

Society

cry freedom The Alliance of Humanists, Atheists and Agnostics is lobbying for the separation of church and state. It is making waves.

“We are obviously opposed to all state aid to all religious communities, but in Luxembourg we are confronted with the Catholic church,” says Dr. Laurent Schley, president of AHA, the Alliance of Humanists, Atheists and Agnostics.

Founded in 2010, the group now counts over 600 active members and supporters, and has gathered testimonies from people in the public eye such as writer Jemp Schuster, rally driver Chrëscht Beneké and a host of politicians from across the political spectrum (though, unsurprisingly, none from the CSV; more of which later). The group has received plenty of press coverage for its lobbying efforts calling for a separation of church and state, but it would be a mistake to think of AHA as a onetrack association. “We are here to defend the rights of non-believers, and when that becomes a strong enough movement then politics will react,” says Schley. actions not Words AHA promotes principles based on science rather than religion, as well as trying to stamp out the social pressure to be involved with the church. For instance, AHA wants to demonstrate to those people that want to celebrate ceremonial acts such as a baby naming, marriage or even a burial, that they can be conducted without the involvement of religion. Reaching out to a wider audience, AHA has also just translated a summary of some of

Luc Deflorenne

Text: Duncan Roberts

its website content into English.

Schley, a biologist who spent some seven years studying in England at Keele, Canterbury and Sussex universities, was among the AHA representatives that met with the new archbishop of Luxembourg, Jean-Claude Hollerich, soon after his inauguration last autumn. Schley was impressed by the archbishop’s PR skills. “He tries to sound very open and he claims to be speaking to everyone, but I would judge him on his actions rather than his words.” Indeed, while the archbishop said he was ashamed and contrite about the sexual abuse scandal that enveloped the church, French-language newspaper

We are here to defend the rights of non-believers” Dr. Laurent Schley

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”

current affairs

L’essentiel claimed in a recent article that Hollerich has reinstated a priest who had been involved in sexual abuse and was suspended by the Archbishop’s predecessor Fernand Franck.

As for the separation of church and state, Schley argues that the archbishop’s appeal to grant state aid to the Islamic community in Luxemburg reveals just under how much pressure he feels.

“Clearly Christianity and Islam do not work well together, and the fact he is keen on giving Islam the same rights is all about self-preservation. If the government refuses aid for Islam, it will be much trickier for the Catholics to keep their huge financial privileges.” AHA is also opposed to what it sees as the political influence of the church. Despite the fact that Luxembourg is one of the few countries that has passed a law to legalise assisted suicides, Schley says the Catholic church was vehemently opposed to the bill and tried to use its influence to block it.

One of the most pressing matters for AHA is the abolition of religion in schools. “Dogmatic positions that have no basis in scientific evidence have no place in school. Schools should teach knowledge, not faith. The other point is: why separate pupils by creating artificial groups? School should unite children.” Schley, a father of three, is shocked when he hears parents argue that religious education is the only way that their children learn values.

However, AHA is not opposed to teaching children about different religions, as long as it is obligatory and also encompasses lessons about those who are athe-

Julien Becker

State and church: the Notre-Dame Cathedral rises above the office of the prime minister

ist or agnostic. “But there should not be this religious indoctrination as it is now.

That is outdated.” discrimination As for the archbishop’s argument that the state supports cultural institutions that are used by only a minority of the population, Schley says that society is pluralistic so it is quite normal that different interests are supported by the state. “But the Catholic church goes against these principles in many ways. It is not democratic, and tries to impose its dogmatic values on the rest of society.” Schley also says that cultural institutions and sports clubs produce tangible products, whereas the church does not.

And, perhaps just as importantly, many religious communities discriminate against homosexuals and women-something that would not be tolerated if a cultural institution did the same. “It is amazing that the same government whose ministry for equal opportunities pro-

duces campaigns against discrimination, also massively finances an institution that does not allow women priests and discriminates against homosexuals,” says Schley.

But for Schley, the biggest stumbling block in making progress on a separation of the church and state is the fact that the country’s largest circulation daily newspaper, Luxemburger Wort, is part of a media empire--Groupe Saint-Paul--that is owned by the Catholic church. The Wort also supports the de facto ruling political party, the CSV. “The Wort clearly has a huge impact and can massively influence public opinion. As a result the more progressive elements within the CSV cannot do anything about the separation of church and state, because they would risk being slammed by the Wort. So they don’t have the political courage to express their opinion. No CSV cabinet minister would ever admit to being an atheist, even though there is at least one,” says Schley.

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snapshots

Lëtzebuerger Filmpräis

Young talent rewarded Photos: Luc Deflorenne

As expected, Beryl Koltz’s Hot Hot Hot, made by samsa film, won the best Luxembourg film award at the biannual celebration of Luxembourg’s film industry.

It was the second time (after Jean-Claude Schlim’s House of Boys) that a debut feature made in English has picked up the main prize. It turned out to be a great night for samsa film, which also won the best documentary prize for Jean-Louis Schuller and Sam Blair’s film about Chinese gambling High/Low and best animated film for Claude Grosch and Luc Otter’s charming Rose et Violet.

Iris Productions won two prizes, including an expected best co-production statuette for Olivier Masset-Depasse’s Illégal (which has picked up prizes at festivals around the world) and a rather more surprising artistic contribution award for Maisy Hausemer and Paul Scheuer’s script for D’Symmetrie vum Päiperlek (a film that has received mixed reviews in the local press).

Promising young director Govinda van Maele won the best short film award for his low-budget drama En Dag am Fräien (made specifically without the usual support from the Film Fund), and actress Vicky Krieps won the Young Hopeful award. The ceremony was skilfully hosted by Gabriel Boisante with the help of visuals and music by Radar. DR

Jean-Louis Schuller and producer Anne Schroeder with the prizes for best documentary (High/Low) alongside Gladys Lazareff and Françoise Lentz

Hot winner: Beryl Koltz is all smiles with her award for the best Luxembourg film Jean-Claude Schlim, Nicole Max and Germain Wagner

MC Gabriel Boisante

Govinda van Maele (2nd right) with producers Bernard Michaux (right) and Pol Cruchten (centre) won best short for En Dag am Fräien

Guy Daleiden, Illégal director Olivier Masset-Depasse, producer Nicolas Stiel and Roberto Olla

Ministers Octavie Modert and François Biltgen

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Real estate

Smaller footprintS Demand for housing and commercial space has never been higher. Can the property market deliver?

Text: Aaron Grunwald – Photos: Luc Deflorenne

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Business

AAron rice: land prices get higher as lots get smaller

Kirchberg: still plenty of room to grow

Luxembourg’s residential and office real estate markets have seemingly defied the economic crisis. Demand and prices continue to escalate, but experts say energy prices are finally beginning to enter the equation. In recent years, only between 2,200 and 4,400 new housing units have been built annually, about 70 percent of which are apartments, Luxembourg’s statistics agency reported earlier this year.

STATEC said apartment sales prices rose 4.1% last year compared to 2010, in contrast to the 4.5% gain between 2010 and 2009.

The Grand Duchy’s small geographic size, “exceptional ” rate of immigration and high wages are all having “an impact on the housing sector,” Jérôme Krier, policy advisor at the housing ministry, told Delano last autumn, which is why real estate prices have continued to climb.

Krier notes the price of land, not necessarily construction, is a big part of what fuels housing costs.

Still, the number of total real estate transactions rose 46 percent between 2011 and 2010, according to STATEC. One shift real estate experts are starting to see is a

wider gap between new and old housing units. For example, apartment prices were up seven percent last year, while previously owned flats sold for only 5.5% more, STATEC figures show.

For the past couple of decades “the price diversification hasn’t been very high between houses or apartments located in a good location and in a poor location,” observes Aaron Rice, general manager of Family Park, the Contern-based company managing the Auf Mont housing development located across the Moselle River from Wormeldange. Traditionally in Luxembourg “older apartments or houses weren’t being priced significantly differently to newer buildings.” emerGinG SHift This year, however, “you’re starting to get that diversification in the market. You’re starting to see better located properties fetching significantly more than poorer located properties. I think you’re starting to see newer properties, the more energy efficiently built properties, getting a better price than older properties.” He explains that buyers now “are becoming more discerning. They’re starting to say [to sellers], ‘look this is in a

place where I’m going to have to travel significantly to get to my place of work. This is in a place that doesn’t have a lot of infrastructure, or this is an old house and it’s going to cost me a lot to heat it.’ And there’s starting to be some segregation.”

Rice says the Luxembourg property market is still somewhat unique in Europe. “Trying to get permission to develop new buildings can be a very long, drawn out affair.” But a more fundamental problem is finding proper plots in the first place. “There are lots in Luxembourg, but very much so they tend to be getting smaller and smaller, as the property prices get larger and larger.”

He says “that’s largely because the Luxembourg market isn’t a market just dependent on supply and demand. A lot of the supply is just being held for investment purposes.

Luxembourg prices just don’t drop; they’re being held aloft. If you can’t sell for the price that you want, you just withdraw it. You don’t sink your price. Whereas the German side is a much more supply- and demandrelated dynamic.”

Thus the pull of the Greater Region.

More than 90 percent of buyers in the Auf Mont planned suburb--which lies

April 2012 - delAno - 23

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Business

locAtion, locAtion, locAtion: the Stargate building will open in the city centre this autumn

roughly between Mondorf-les-Bains and Trier--work in Luxembourg, Rice reckons, and two-thirds of the families have moved to the German side of the Moselle from the Grand Duchy.

The Luxembourg market also marches to a different drummer on the commercial real estate side. The vacancy rate for office space in Kirchberg is below three percent and less than seven percent nationally, according to Vincent Bechet, managing director of Property Partners. His real estate management firm has about 60 buildings and 350,000 square meters of office space in its portfolio. “The average in big cities like London and Paris is eight to 15 percent.” enerGY effiCienCY Nevertheless Bechet says the old adage about “location, location, location” still very much applies to Luxembourg. Kirchberg “is definitely the place to be in this market.” He notes that the plateau accounts for 27.5% of the country’s office market, and that Kirchberg plus the other three key areas--the city centre, Cloche d’Or

and Gasperich, and the Gare district-represent about 70 percent of the total stock.

With the continued soft economy “people are very conservative, and have a cost saving attitude. So they are looking for very efficient buildings, in the sense of the space and in the sense of the common charges.

The crisis does not mean people will not move anymore. They will take advantage of the market and move from older buildings, with no green label that are consuming a lot, to the new buildings that have been developed recently.”

He cites the examples of big firms like Ernst & Young, KPMG and Arendt & Medernach, as well as the European Parliament administration, which are consolidating from several different office spaces to one central location.

RTL is building a new modern headquarters right next to its current Kirchberg site. “People want to have more efficient buildings.”

On the other hand, smaller and midsized firms may be tempted to try an energy efficiency makeover. “Let’s say you are already grouped in single building with a great location, then you will think about

refurbishing to take advantage of new green technologies,” explains Bechet. “But if you are split in different sites with expiring leases, maybe it’s time to think about relocating into a single site.”

Despite being the prime locale, Bechet says there’s still more than 100,000 square meters of space available to develop in Kirchberg. Right now Property Partners is marketing the top floors of insurance giant AXA’s Stargate site in the city centre, being developed by Pylos, when the building opens this autumn.

And despite being a good market for owners, there will be plenty of downward price pressure in the form of the “musical chairs” that will take place in the coming years when office space comes back into the market after the big four firms and European institutions complete their consolidations.

Construction of the Luxembourg City tram should begin in 2014 (see article page 16). The initial phase of the network will run from the congested central station area east to Kirchberg plateau and south to the Gasperich district, which should further enhance the attractiveness of those prime areas.

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snapshots

Robert Deed and Darren Robinson

BCC: HR Challenges

Delivering tangible results Photos: Olivier Minaire

Expert panel: David Holland, Ernestina Tancredi, Andres Moll, Anne Levy-Prévost Pascale Schuman

Vio Ivanova and Rachel Treece

Expertly chaired by Pascale Schuman of fast, the British Chamber of Commerce for Luxembourg’s March evening business forum attracted a healthy audience to hear experts talk about HR challenges. The panel was made up of Andres Moll from Vodafone, Anne Levy-Prévost from Banque Privée Edmond de Rothschild Europe, David Holland of Results Rules OK Limited and Ernestina Tancredi, an HR expert and lecturer.

Tancredi pointed out that HR departments are now expected to be involved in strategic decision making rather than mere administration. Levy-Prévost agreed, saying that HR must be a change agent, but must also be there “to provide people with the right support to develop their competencies in a rapidly evolving world.”

Moll tackled the challenge of training in an increasingly demanding business environment, and the focus on compact e-learning modules that take hours rather than days. “HR needs to deliver tangible results,” he said. Nevertheless, Holland gave an example of one typical company that he worked with in which take up on soft skills training was as low as five percent.

“Responsibility for personal development and ambition lies squarely with the individual,” said Holland. DR

Monica Jonsson and Nick Barclay

Richard Hawel and Xavier Kieffer

26 - delano - April 2012

The event attracted a healthy audience

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23.02.2012 16:53:10 Uhr

Business

Philippa Foster Back

“It’s not a pretty backdrop”

The head of a major ethics institute says the way for banks to regain public trust after the financial crisis is to show leadership from the middle.

Text: Aaron Grunwald — Photo: Luc Deflorenne

“Some elements of the banking sector don’t seem to have understood the public concern” in the wake of the financial crisis, says Philippa Foster Back, head of the London-based Institute for Business Ethics since 2001.

Back started out as a banker 30 years ago, but then spent most of her career as a corporate treasurer and f inance director. She spoke at a luncheon held

by The Institute for Global Financial Integrity, a Luxembourg-based group focused on ethical business behaviour in the global financial services sector.

The IBE launched “literally the day after the big bang in the City,” when the UK deregulated much of the financial sector in 1987. Many “were concerned that ‘my word is my bond’ was going to fly out of the window with all of these new participants coming into the market,” she explains. “Twenty-five years on I think we’re still relevant to the original purpose.”

Back says that the number of people who “trust banks” in the Europe and US “literally halved” between 2008 and 2012.

“So it’s not a pretty backdrop that the sector is operating in, and if one tries to find what’s the key issue that the public--through the media, we mustn’t forget that it’s the media that tells us about everyone else-the hot topic is remuneration.”

Back still encounters directors of publicly traded firms who resist the idea that rises and bonuses for poor performance are seen as a major ethical issue in the public’s mind. Yet she finds the mes-

PhiliPPa Foster Back: ethical business practices have a positive impact on the bottom line

sage has already sunk in with most directors who take IBE seminars.

At the same time, she finds the media obsession with senior management pay slightly mis-placed. “There’s a lot of talk about tone from the top. I think one of the most important aspects is tone from the middle. What does middle management say, what example does middle management set with the workforce,” are the vital questions in her mind.

Firms also need to “help people to do the right thing, which means you need a very strong process to encourage people to speak up. We don’t call it whistle-blowing at the institute. That term is very negative,” she says.

“What you want in today’s environment is for people to speak up, to tell you their concerns, so you can understand them and deal with them before you read about it in the newspapers.”

IBE studies show that following a code of ethics correlates with better financial performance. Other research shows that being an ethical business “helps in the recruitment and retention of staff.”

And Back notes that having the right people is the main building block of a strong, and service-oriented, corporate culture. If customers encounter staff who are “not just selling them another product, that is the best way to regain public trust.”

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snapshots

Being green

EnErgy makEovEr Photos: Luc Deflorenne

More than 4,000 attended the second myenergy days expo at Luxexpo in early March to learn about upgrading the energy efficiency of residential properties.

Myenergy days focused uniquely on refurbishing existing buildings. While Luxembourg sees about 1,900 new constructions annually--which must comply with modern energy efficiency standards--there are about 140,000 existing buildings that could potentially benefit from “very considerable” energy savings via an energy makeover, Étienne Schneider, economy minister, said at the official opening.

And home renovations have the potential to be worth 200 million euro annually for companies in the field, according to a study conducted by the Chamber of Trades.

This year’s myenergy days featured 75 exhibitors--a number up about 50 percent from the premiere event last spring --and a host of seminars on everything from modern insulation materials and photovoltaic systems to adhering to planning requirements and obtaining bank financing.

While the event itself has ended, renovation information is available year-round from the organiser, myenergy. AG www.myenergy.lu

From left: Paul Ensch, Henri Kox, Tom Eischen, Étienne Schneider

About 140,000 buildings could use an energy makeover, the economy minister said

Gilbert Théato and Tom Eischen

Bob Strotz Birgit Knoch

April 2012 - delano - 29

Business

Industry

Ready to shift geaRs Luxembourg’s automotive supply sector is facing serious challenges.

Some firms are doing much better than others.

Text: Aaron Grunwald — Photos: Olivier Minaire

The economic crisis and slow recovery have been bad for Europe’s auto sector.

While cars are not made in the Grand Duchy, it is home to a notable number of European auto industry suppliers.

And while Luxembourg’s auto industry is expected to contract this year, just like the global auto sector, results are likely to be mixed and highly dependent the company’s profile.

“The European market is still in slightly bad shape since the crisis,” admits Paul Schockmel, president of Luxembourg’s auto supplier trade group ILEA and business development director at the Contern-based auto sensor vendor IEE. “In 2010 it was down 5.5%, last year it was down 1.7% .” As for 2012: “we already started badly in January and February, that’s clear,” he says of the entire industry.

In February, credit ratings agency Moody’s estimated that auto parts sup-

date Line March 2012

pliers would see at least five, and up to ten, percent decline in production and revenue this year. The worst case scenario in the agency’s “stress tests” saw a drop of 20 percent.

Schockmel thinks double digit figures are highly unlikely, expecting the industry to see a contraction of between two and seven percent this year. “That’s bad, clearly, but not disastrous.”

Challenges in the auto business are found both on the supply and on the demand sides of the equation. The negative economic environment has obviously shaken consumer demand.

“They don’t have confidence in the future, so of course that impacts buying behaviour,” says Schockmel. After all, a car “is still a big purchase.”

Another contributing factor is actually an unintended consequence of the industry’s quality improvements. “The average lifetime of a car has grown sig-

MOBILE FEES Luxembourg has the mar 3rd highest mobile termination rates in the rich world, the OECD said. The fees for calling mobile phones typically get passed on to consumers.

The charges were higher in Chile and Estonia, while the US and Canada were cheapest.

1•

nificantly over the years.” In 2000, a new car would last seven years on average.

By 2010, the figure had risen to eight and half years. “In percentage terms, that’s more than a 30 percent longer lifetime,” which means people would want to buy fewer cars regardless of the economy.

Mixed signals But the demand picture is still quite uneven. Auto makers with more exposure to big emerging markets that continue to grow--in Europe, that means German firms--are actually seeing increased growth in demand. On the other hand, car companies that rely on European sales--British, French and Italian firms--are the hardest hit.

The supply side is another one of the European industry’s biggest challenges, because capacity has never been higher. Schockmel reports there are 112 automotive production plants in

1•

mar

5.1%

Luxembourg’s January unemployment rate (Eurostat)

MERSCH BOOST Word circulated that mar French president Nicolas Sarkozy would back Luxembourg central banker Yves Mersch for the next open seat on the European Central Bank’s executive board, as part of horse trading for several top EU posts opening up this summer.

6•

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Business R&d: key to Luxembourg’s auto supplier sector

Europe capable of making 22.8 million cars. “The capacity utilization [rate] has gone down. Now it’s roughly 82.4% and that’s not the best average number. Typically if you go below 80 percent, you’re in trouble. You’re not profitable.” In Europe, he sees a continued “mismatch between sales and what you could produce.” In comparison, US makers have “shut down factories, eliminated car lines and brands very radically and they find themselves in quite a solid situation.”

As for his industry, “the situation for suppliers is exactly the same. It really depends on your product mix and especially on your geographic mix. If you have a global customer base and deliver a good solid part [of production] to BRIC countries, then normally a supplier should not have any problems, and even may see a slight growth path. If a supplier in Luxembourg only has a European customer base, he’s in the same position [as the car firm]. But the

INDEXATION Energy and housing mar pushed inflation up more than 3% in February, which will initiate an increase in salaries, the social minimum wage and pensions starting on October 1 this year. Indexation is triggered when the overall cost of living rises by 2.5%.

8•

largest numbers of those suppliers I know here operate globally.”

Luxembourg’s largest auto supply firm, Goodyear, told investors last month that it expected consumer tyre shipments this year “to be down between five and nine percent compared to 2011” in the Europe, Middle East & Africa regions, while it expected commercial tyre shipments “to be down between 20 and 25 percent compared to” the year before. “As you would expect, the general economic conditions in the euro zone are driving these expectations,” a company spokesman in Akron, Ohio, tells Delano.

Moving upstReaM Another Luxembourg auto supply giant, glass maker Guardian, declined to comment for this article. However, in recent months the US-based company-which has three plants in Luxembourg, its European hub--has been busy

TRADING RULES The European Commar mission proposed a pan-EU regulatory regime for the institutions that manage securities settlements in an attempt to break national monopolies. Clearstream said the draft might run counter to European Central Bank standards.

8•

it’s difficult to speak of aveRages” Paul Schockmel

diversifying its product range. The firm has announced R&D and licensing agreements with American and German organisations, and acquired an American glass repair and replacement company.

Overall “it’s difficult to speak of averages,” cautions Schockmel. “There are some [vendors] suffering and for others it’s going well. It’s not a uniform picture.

Unlike in 2008 and 2009 when everybody was suffering.”

TOOTH TUNES Dentists do not have mar to pay royalties on music played for patients, the European Court of Justice ruled.

The court said music is not part of the profit-making operations of dental practices and a single patient listening was not a public performance.

15 •

LABOUR RULES The European Commar mission proposed a revamp of the regulations covering the roughly one million workers temporarily posted abroad within the EU. The directive would crackdown on “letter-box” companies trying to avoid social insurance charges.

21 •

april 2012 - delano - 31

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Business

Paul Schockmel: bad year in Europe, good year in the BRICs

While Schockmel does expect a certain amount of consolidation in the supplier industry, he does not mean to sound overly negative. He notes that the auto sector is the largest industry in Europe and, at 25 billion euro annually, its largest R&D spender. He says about 2,000 people are working in the sector locally, “so that’s already a considerable amount for Luxembourg.”

He adds that “very often things are developed here in Luxembourg but produced somewhere else.”

22 •

mar

5.9%

Luxembourg’s February unemployment rate (ADEM)

Nevertheless, more negative news is likely to come this year. On March 1, Moody’s downgraded PSA Peugeot Citroën’s credit score, and warned that further downgrades were possible.

The agency says “the risks of a more negative light vehicle demand in Europe, and especially in PSA’s core markets France, Spain and Italy.” Moody’s adds that PSA’s R&D alliance with America’s largest car manufacturer, GM, was unlikely “to have a material impact” on its financial rating.

AIR RULING Ryanair was responmar sible for taking care of food, hotel and ground transport costs for passengers stranded in the wake of the 2010 Eyjafjallajökull Volcano eruption, an advocate general at the European Court of Justice said in a preliminary opinion.

22 •

On the other hand, not all the developments have been bad. On March 23, credit ratings agency Standard & Poor’s upgraded French tyre maker Michelin one notch, citing the firm’s “very solid operating performance.” Moody’s maintained its top-notch AAA rating on German carmaker Volkswagen.

Schockmel also notes that Luxembourg suppliers are taking over an increasing portion of R&D responsibilities, which could just make many of them indispensible partners.

23 •

mar

BIL unveiled its new, purple, post-Dexia, logo

GALILEO TESTS Operational tests of mar the first two Galileo satellites launched in orbit were completed at the European Space Agency Centre in Redu, about 50 km north east of Arlon. Galileo is meant to eventually compete with America’s GPS navigation system.

29 •

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Business

Med-e-Tel

NursiNg aN emergiNg sector Luxembourg hosts a global health technology confab this month.

How is it making the most of its moment in the industry’s spotlight?

This month marks the 10th anniversary of the Med-e-Tel conference, which brings together international healthcare providers, technologists and intergovernmental organisations for education, networking and business.

More than 500 participants from 50 countries are expected to attend, says Frederic Lievens, who coordinates Med-e-Tel for the International Society for Telemedicine and E-Health, the conference organiser. This includes Europe, the US and Japan “and also quite a few developing countries, as telemedicine and e-health in developing countries and low resource settings is also always one of the themes of the event.”

Lievens explains that “many of the products and technologies that can be seen at Med-e-Tel, or that are being presented in the conference sessions, are currently still not routinely used or integrated in the daily healthcare practice of general practitioners, nurses, patients, hospitals, etc. But this will definitely change over the next decade.”

The Luxembourg government has become a backer of the event, because “this is a field in the making,” says Patrizia Luchetta, director at the ministry of economy and foreign trade. “Medical devices go from the syringe up to monitoring via mobile phone.” But one area of focus in Luxembourg is information and

34 - delano - April 2012

Cellon

Text: Aaron Grunwald — Photo: Luc Deflorenne

Cellon: medical products must meet super strict requirements

communications technology, already one of Luxembourg’s economic niches.

Medical device “companies usually need a high tech infrastructure, because a lot of [the development is] now focused on the data centre, as you collect data from patients” such as from monitoring their heart rate. “At the end of the day you need to store this information safely.”

She also notes that approval times for medical devices are much faster in Luxembourg. So in fact the Grand

Duchy has attracted a notable number of firms from Belgium and France who want to take advantage of harmonised EU rules and get their product on the market faster.

Luxembourg already has a long-established biotech and vaccine production sector. For example, Bascharage-based Cellon was founded in 1987 and today has 26 employees with €7.5 million in turnover. The company makes products used in the manufacture of paren-

Business

teral drugs and vaccines, which need to be made under rigorous conditions.

The firm opened a new production facility in 2010 that included state-ofthe-art cleanrooms as “our products are vacuum packed to provide tamper evidence,” explains its managing director, Richard Fry. In terms of delivery of medical services directly to patients, ICT is one of the main “challenges of the health care system in Luxembourg but also other countries in Europe,” says François Daue, director of Solstisse, a consultancy that helps medical practitioners in Belgium and Luxembourg implement new technologies. He cites the rise in chronic diseases and an aging population combined with modern treatments and more health information available online. “You have wonderful opportunities for the future, but you also have increased expectations from patients.”

To maintain quality, access and cost, Daue reckons that health systems will need to invest much more heavily in ICT. Health technology investment is about two percent of government budgets across Europe, compared to the equivalent of four to five percent in private sectors like banking, he says. e-HeaLtH ProJect To help meet the challenge, Luxembourg is currently working on an e-health platform, says another conference presenter, Dr. Stefan Benzschawel, a researcher at the CRP Henri Tudor.

He is working on the system with the health ministry. Benzschawel explains that the future electronic medical record will be constructed together by the patient and their GP, with the patient deciding who would get access to what information and when. For example, a patient could decide that any emergency room could see they are allergic to penicillin but that only their primary care physician could view their last x-ray.

Patrizia luChetta: health technology marries many Luxembourg niches

While the technological challenges are still being worked out, Benzschawel hopes Luxembourg’s system could become an EU or even a worldwide standard. He thinks a private company could help build the system here cheaply--perhaps easier to get up and running in small Luxembourg than in bigger countries--and then take that experience to sell more profitably into larger markets.

Equally, “telemedicine is a growing industry, as many people see it as a solution for the rising cost of medical care, especially with the economic slowdown in Europe,” says Med-e-Tel exhibitor Ofer Atzmon, vice president of business development at Aerotel. The Israeli company makes telemedicine equipment and software for medical providers who monitor patients remotely in more than 50 countries.

Yet it is likely to take several years for the average health consumer to adapt to all the new medical offerings. “Our philosophy is to make things very simple, not to confuse people with technology. After all, technology is only a tool to provide the ser-

Wonderful opportunities.... increased expectations” François Daue

vice. It has to be simple for the end-users, the patients, and also for the medical providers.

Even doctors and nurses don’t want to mess around with technology; they want it all to be very simple.”

Why come to the tiny Grand Duchy from another small nation? “The conference is not focused on Luxembourg, it’s international.” Atzman says he has always met many existing and potential customers during the ten years he has attended the event. “It’s really the place to exchange ideas, meet your peers, and to do some networking.”

The event will be held April 18-20 at Luxexpo. www.medetel.lu

April 2012 - delano - 35

Business

Travel

FrankFurt bus war

New options for getting to Frankfurt’s main airport and train station launched last month, as a discount bus battle erupted between Luxembourg firms.

Telecoms

The Entreprise des P&T announced at the end of March that Claude Strasser (left) would be the successor to Marcel Gross as its new head.

Gross actually quit the job effective on March 1, but the process of appointing a new director general was not as straight forward as expected. Indeed, the favourite to land the job was deputy director Joseph Glod as the P&T had a tradition of internal promotion-Gross had been the deputy director to his predecessor Edmond Toussing before taking the reins in 2002.

But minister of the economy Étienne Schneider was in favour of a younger man and of bringing someone from the outside to the post. Strasser, 40 years old, fit the bill as the secretary general (the equivalent of director general) of the Société Électrique de l’Our, a post he had occupied since 2006.

Serge Allegrezza, the director general of Statec and a member of the P&T board had been charged with finding Gross’s successor.

The final decision was ratified by the board after Schneider had seen his suggestion of Strasser accepted by cabinet. Strasser will now have to oversee major changes in the P&T’s postal service before liberalisation of the branch enters into effect next January. Some 1,200 of the P&T’s 3,600 employees currently work in the postal service.

36 - delano - April 2012

David Laurent/Wide (archives)

Luc Deflorenne (archives)

New P&T boss uNveiled

GettinG to airport: the bus battle is heating up

Flibco, operated by Sales-Lentz, launched its new service to Frankfurt Main Airport on March 25, in partnership with the German coach company Bohr Omnibusse.

The line is an extension of its current run that begins in Metz, running through Luxembourg’s main train station, Trier and currently ending at Frankfurt Hahn, the area’s budget carrier airport. Now passengers are able to continue on to Frankfurt Main.

The trip involves changing buses, but only requires a single ticket. The company says total travel time will be about three and half hours, including the stopover at Frankfurt Hahn. Although the connection is required, passengers receive a coupon for a free coffee while they wait at Hahn airport. The service began with eight daily roundtrips, and the firm says it has fares available starting at five euro.

Flibco had already been operating bus service to Charleroi and Hahn airports, also used by budget air carriers, for several years.

The announcement was a riposte of sorts to arch-rival Voyages Emile Weber, the Luxembourg travel and transport firm that started a service to Frankfurt Main on March 20, in partnership with Trier’s municipallyowned transport firm, SWT Stadtwerke Trier Verkehrs.

That line, called DeLux-Express, offers departures from the Gare Centrale and Kirchberg eight times per day. The journey takes about four hours between Luxembourg’s main train station and Germany’s largest airport.

The route goes through Trier, Birkenfeld, Kaiserslautern and Mainz, before reaching the airport. The bus then heads into the city centre and Frankfurt’s main train station. However, the service cannot take passengers between Luxembourg and Trier, as it does not have permits for “local traffic,” the company says.

Tickets between Luxembourg and Frankfurt will run 35 euro for adults and 17.50 for children 14 and under. Kids through age four ride free. AG www.flibco.com – www.delux-express.de

Printemps/Été 2012 Inspirez-vous.

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Venez profiter des nouvelles collections de Ben Sherman, Closed, Corneliani, Diesel, Dondup, Drykorn, Dr. Denim, FTC, Hackett, Hugo, Hugo Boss, Humör, Maison Scotch, Marc Cain, Marc O'Polo, Parajumpers, Peuterey, Polo Ralph Lauren, Repeat, Scotch & Soda, Seven for all Mankind, Steffen Schraut, St. Emile, Strellson, Tommy Hilfiger et bien d‘autres encore !

BR AM

Shopping Center City Concorde

DR_RZ_BRAM_0065_AZ_SDL_Delano_210x265_v2 1

80, Route de Longwy

L-8060 Bertrange

www.bram.lu

21.03.12 17:54

Think local: Tom GeeLen

Belgian

“moien instead of bonjour” Eleven year resident in Luxembourg Tom Geelen gives his insight into living and working in the Grand Duchy.

Tom Geelen: learning Luxembourgish has its advantages

Interview: Aaron Grunwald — Photo: David Laurent/Wide

Tom Geelen grew up in Sint-Truiden, Flanders--near the border with Germany, the Netherlands and Wallonia-and briefly in Germany, before studying in Leuven and working in Brussels. He and his wife moved to the Grand Duchy in the autumn of 2000. Today he is a partner at the architecture firm morph4.

France, where they’ll dub into German or French. You lose the quality of the film and you don’t learn the language.

AG: How’s your Luxembourgish?

TG: Good. Luxembourgish has the same basic structure of Dutch and German. It’s very, very similar. So it wasn’t that hard to learn. But it was necessary.

AG: Why was it necessary?

TG: In my personal opinion, when you move to a certain country, you should learn the language of the people. It’s a form of politeness or respect towards the country that you go to.

AG: Do you get treated differently speaking in Luxembourgish?

TG: I think so. When you go to a bakery, when you come in and say moien, for example, directly people are a lot more friendly.

I definitely don’t want to generalise, but some people will be friendlier when you come in with moien instead of bonjour.

Some administrations will ‘favourise’ when you speak Luxembourgish to them. When you come in speaking French, there will be certain people that it makes a difference to.

AG: What was the biggest surprise for you after moving here?

TG: In Belgium, quite a lot of people had worked in Luxembourg. All those people told me, ‘oh, in Luxembourg there’s nothing to do.’ Then we moved to Luxembourg, and I completely didn’t

AG: What brought you to Luxembourg?

TG: My wife took an exam to work at the Court of Justice. She was accepted and then we decided together to move here. Basically it was a good opportunity for her, and an architect, technically, should be able to work everywhere.

AG: Is it an advantage when you come to Luxembourg from a multilingual country?

TG: Dutch is my mother tongue.

French you learn in school, but I didn’t speak French that well until I moved to Brussels. Then it improved very rapidly. English, I think all Flems more or less speak it.

My father was in the military, and we lived for some time when I was really small in Germany. They had the habit [back in Flanders] of watching German TV quite regularly. It’s amazing how much you get by watching television basically. I think a big advantage for Dutch [speakers] is that we don’t translate films, in comparison to Germany or

find it that way. In the summer, you have enormous amounts of things to do. The tourist office makes a lot of effort inviting people to come over for “Summer in the City”. The nightlife was very interesting as well. It still is very interesting, although we don’t go out that often anymore.

Architecture wise, the last 10 or 15 years-not because we started [morph4]--I think that the quality of architecture has made an enormous jump. If I compare what’s being built now, the quality of certain projects is extremely high.

The amount of projects has definitely increased, which has to do with the communes. All over the country, the communes definitely are a lot more open to modern architecture or can accept a lot more than they used to.

AG: What’s a good way to integrate?

TG: In our street, several new people arrived that we didn’t know. So we organised a street party with a few neighbours and invited the whole street.

It will be third year that we’re doing this, over a weekend this summer.

Those who want to come, they come.

But every year there’s always a few more that come. It really helps you integrate, but it also helps integrate other people who just arrived. The fun part is when you drive through the street, it’s ‘moien, moien, moien, moien,’ which really, really makes you feel at home.

38 - delano - April 2012 08_p38_thinklocal.indd 38

28/3/12 10:39 AM

business

The events planner

ON THE HORIZON

Delano presents a guide to the next two months of business, social and informational events for Luxembourg’s international community. Events are listed by organiser. Advance registration or fees may be required, so consult the website indicated for full details. All events are held in English unless otherwise noted.

AWCL

ALFI

www.awcluxembourg.com

www.alfi.lu

BREASTFEEDING GROUP

BUSINESSMENTORING www.businessmentoring.lu

www.lalecheleague.lu

18 •

UCITS RISK

Luxembourg’s funds industry and risk management associaApr tions present their third risk management conference and networking event, this time focused on UCITS IV.

Chamber of Commerce, Luxembourg-Kirchberg, all day event

10 •

GOOD INVESTING

ALFI and LuxFLAG have merged their microfinance and socially responsible investments events, resulting in the “Responsible Investing Conference: making a difference.”

mAy

25 •

Apr

SPRING FLING

21 •

Celebrate spring at the group’s fun evening of food, dancing Apr and good company. Email clubhouseawcl@gmail.com by April 16 to book your place.

Restaurant Reimerwee at Luxexpo, Luxembourg-Kirchberg, 19:30

23 •

mAy

MONTHLY MEETING

La Leche League Luxembourg is a multilingual support and information exchange group for expectant and new mothers, and mums who can share their experience.

Hesperange, 10:00-12:00

BRITISH CHAMBER www.bcc.lu

Chamber of Commerce, Luxembourg-Kirchberg, all day event

BRITISH CARS www.bscoc.org

MAY ABAL

Légère Premium Hotel, Munsbach, 12:00

25

1•

june

6•

july

Luxembourg’s only British car club meets the first Friday of the month to cover everything “from Mini to Aston Martin,” both classic and modern. Non-members welcome.

DEMOCRATS ABROAD www.democratsabroad.org

10

• Apr

ONLINE NETWORKS

8

• mAy

Skype, Luxembourg-Clausen, 18:30

BRITISH UNIVERSITIES www.cambridge.lu www.oxford.lu

TECH NETWORKING

The American Chamber’s IT committee welcomes communications minister, François Biltgen, for an evening of tech talk. Space is limited.

• mAy

RTL studios, Luxembourg-Kirchberg, 18:30

19 •

www.ey.lu

18 •

An information evening for students interested in applying to Cambridge or Oxford, plus a session for teachers. No advanced registration required.

HEDGE FUNDS

The consulting firm hosts a symposium to discuss AIFMD, Luxembourg’s role in structuring international hedge funds, and other business and regulatory issues.

Apr

Hotel Le Royal, Luxembourg-city centre, 15:30-18:30

STUDY SESSION

EUMA

Apr

Forum Geesseknäppechen, LuxembourgHollerich, 17:30-19:30

The next edition of Delano will feature events taking place from May 15 through July 17. We invite you to submit an event by sending an email no later than April 23 to news@delano.lu

E&Y

This Evening Business Forum talks about “leading the way in social and mobile networking.”

Speakers include Neil Ward, head of Skype in Luxembourg.

• Apr

Conterstuff, Contern, 20:00

40 - delano - April 2012

Chamber of Commerce, Luxembourg-Kirchberg, 12:00-13:00

Brasserie Bosso, Luxembourg-Grund, 19:00

COOL WHEELS

24

The Chamber of Commerce is hosting an informational workshop for entrepreneurs interested in becoming a mentor or mentee. Bilingual French-English.

Apr

The group’s monthly get-together to discuss current political events, and also to meet and get to know new members. “Feel free to join us for an interesting evening.”

www.amcham.lu

Troy Bankhead, head of marketing and communications at financial mAy sector services provider Kneip, is guest speaker at the monthly luncheon.

INTRO MEETING

SECOND TUESDAYS

AMCHAM

7•

19 •

www.euma.lu

19 •

CELEBRATE

In honour of Secretary’s Day 2012, the Luxembourg executive assistants association hosts a fun tapas-and-drinks get-together. Sign-up in advance on the EUMA site.

Apr

El Compañero Café, Luxembourg-city centre, 19:30

business

FEMALE CHIEFS www.ffcel.lu

DEBT COLLECTION

25 •

JUNIOR CHAMBER

26 •

JCI promotes citizenship and entrepreneurship for 18-40 year Apr olds. To register for meetings, contact: info@jcluxembourg.com.

Um Plateau, Luxembourg-Clausen, 12:00-14:00

Venue to be announced, 19:30

INDIAN CHAMBER www.ibcl.lu

LANGUAGES.LU www.languages.lu

27 •

FÊTE DES LANGUES

23 •

ÉTIENNE SCHNEIDER

The economy and trade minister helps IBCL mark its third anApr niversary with a speech on the “importance of India-Luxembourg business cooperation.”

The Romania Luxembourg Business Forum hosts “Romania: doing business in EU emerging markets” featuring Romania’s ambassador and partners from E&Y and PwC.

19 •

BANK LUNCH

www.internations.org/luxembourg-expats

InterNations Luxembourg is an expatriate community for people living and working in the Grand Duchy as well as all “global minds”.

Marx Bar, Luxembourg-Hollerich, 18:30-23:59

INT’L GET-TOGETHER

26

Learn more about the expat social networking group’s monthly gettogethers on the Delano website: delano.lu/news/internations-fetes-turks

• Apr

The Rotaract Club of Luxembourg is for 18 to 35 year olds, promoting international friendship and fun, whilst aiming to benefit society.

Apr

Venue to be announced, 19:00

22 •

mAy

10

• Apr

23 •

mAy

24 •

Abbaye de Neumünster, Luxembourg-Grund, 8:30-13:00

Certified professional coach Mariana Florea presents “Work Apr without stress: mission (im)possible?” during the group’s monthly get-together.

Sofitel, Luxembourg-Kirchberg, 19:30

27 •

Apr

Apr

Apr

MED-E-TEL

The 10 anniversary edition brings together international healthcare providers and technologists for education, networking and business. See pages 34-35 for more information. th

Luxexpo, Luxembourg-Kirchberg, all day event

22

• mAy

CASEMATES

Public speaking group Casemates Communicators Toastmasters Club holds an informational meeting for those interested in improving public speaking skills.

Chambre des Salariés, Luxembourg-Merl, 19:30

BANK RISK

Lunchtime seminar and interactive discussion on liquidity risk management for banks, moderated by Marco Lichtfous, former deputy head of the Luxembourg Central Bank.

Apr

Deloitte, Luxembourg-Neudorf, 12:15

REPUBLICANS ABROAD

16

• Apr

7

• mAy

21

• mAy

4

• june

GREENHEARTS

Public speaking group Greenheart Toastmasters Club meets two Mondays each month. No requirement to be a native Anglophone.

Chamber of Commerce, LuxembourgKirchberg, 19:30

www.republicansabroad.lu

www.medetel.eu

20 •

8

• mAy

www.prim.lu

www.the-network.lu

STRESS NOT

24

• Apr

PRIM

THE NETWORK

18 •

TIME MANAGEMENT

Linda Block of Berlitz presents a seminar on how to “structure your Apr work better, to set priorities and to carry out or delegate tasks more efficiently.”

ISFTEH

19 •

TOASTMASTERS district59.eu

Le Coral, Luxembourg-Gare, 18:30-23:59

18 •

REGULAR MEETING

www.luxinnovation.lu

Chamber of Commerce, Luxembourg-Kirchberg, all day event

Apr

www.rotaract.lu

17 •

club.paperjam.lu

“Business meets research” is an informational networking and matchmaking event for entrepreneurs and scientists seeking collaboration partners.

SPEED NETWORKING

ROTARACT

Hotel Parc Belair, Luxembourg-Belair, 12:00

LUxINNOVATION

INNOVATION MEETUP

12 •

Cercle Munster, Luxembourg-Grund, 18:00

Jean-Jacques Rommes, head of the Luxembourg bankers’ assoApr ciation, talks about “upcoming regulatory challenges in banking sector.”

Tramsschapp, Luxembourg-Limpertsberg, 9:00-16:00

BGL BNP Paribas, Luxembourg-Kirchberg, 18:00

INTERNATIONS

ECONOMIC SEMINAR

mAy

The training centre hosts its first language festival, “to give Apr a taste of languages to children and celebrate the linguistic and cultural diversity of the country.”

16 •

www.romlux.org

www.nobelux.lu

MONTHLY MEETING

An expert from the law firm of Wildgen will discussion the colApr lection of receivables during the group’s monthly luncheon conference. In French.

ROMLUx

NOBELUx

www.jcluxembourg.com

SCIENCE CAREERS

26 •

GOP CONFAB

This monthly meeting will feature a presentation on women mAy in science and technical careers, which will be followed by a networking cocktail.

Luxembourg’s Republicans gather one evening the last week of Apr the month for a members cocktail. By invitation only. Email republicans@ internet.lu to request an invite.

Sofitel, Luxembourg-Kirchberg, 19:30

Venue to be announced, 19:00

16 •

13 •

SOCIAL EVENT

One of the professional women networking group’s two annual offsite visits will be a tour of the European Investment Bank, followed by dinner.

WOMEN LEADERS www.women-leaders.eu

10 •

INSPIRING WOMEN

Dinner featuring inspiring women and men from around the Greater Region who help make work place “more responsible, respectful, efficient and harmonious.”

mAy

Cercle Munster, Luxembourg-Grund, 18:30

june

EIB, Luxembourg-Kirchberg, 18:30

April 2012 - delano - 41

cover story

Ralf-Philipp Weinmann

“PeoPle will not believe you” A University of Luxembourg computer security researcher is using some dramatic means to demonstrate how insecure your data really is.

Text: Aaron Grunwald — Photos: David Laurent/Wide (cover photo styling by Capsule)

Ralf-PhiliPP Weinmann: doesn’t mind if you call him a hacker

“It started out as a weekend passion,” says Ralf-Philipp Weinmann. “But, well, we needed a little bit more time. So I talked to my boss, Alex [Biryukov], and said ‘I think I need to work on this a few hours during the week as well,’ and he said, ‘yeah, ok.’” Weinmann, a research associate in cryptography at the University of Luxembourg’s Interdisciplinary Centre for Security, Reliability and Trust (SnT), is actually talking about one of his most notorious achievements: cracking an iPhone. But this simple exchange with his boss is also a vivid demonstration of his unique role straddling both the academic computer security world and the global hacker community. It is a role that he and the University are likely to increasingly play as cyber-attacks continue to evolve and multiply.

Breaking into mobile devices not only allows users to bypass exclusive contracts with official telecom carriers, it can expose both personal data and corporate networks to outsiders.

The notorious achievement of being first to sidestep Apple’s then-latest security took place in Vancouver, during the 2010 Pwn2Own contest, one the hacker world’s premiere confabs.

Weinmann had partnered with his Italian friend Vincenzo Iozzo, who at the time was a student at the University of Milan and has since founded the security research firm Tiqad. Out of the four mobile device categories, Weinmann and Iozzo targeted the iPhone because they more or less thought it “would be the most interesting and most sexy.” Also “because in the media, it was the thing that came up the most often. So that’s what you’re gonna attack.”

“Apple had just hardened the platform, and we knew that we had to jump through several hoops to crack it,” he says. “You try to go for the things that people think are not-crackable. That’s also why the next year, we didn’t go for the iPhone again, but we said well, ‘which one is the thing that is most secure in the perception of the public? Well, the BlackBerry.’ RIM [the company that makes BlackBerrys] had done a number of changes before that made it much easier for us. So, we thought, let’s take advantage of that and let’s take the BlackBerry.” not only formulas Weinmann and Iozzo were joined by a Dutch friend Willem Pinckaers, who now lives in San Francisco, and they

indeed did crack the ubiquitous device at the Pwn2Own contest in 2011. “It wasn’t a publicity stunt per se. It was basically to demonstrate that things are not as secure as people might like them or perceive them. And also as a challenge for ourselves; can we really do this? It’s only a challenge if nobody had done it before.” For his part, Weinmann set his sight on the iPhone because only previous generations of the devices had been hacked and “there was a long gap and nobody had done any public exploit.” For the BlackBerry, “I was even more interested, because nobody had done anything public.”

Growing up near Frankfurt, Weinmann “was very much interested in chemistry.

That’s why my parents bought me a computer. They became scared at a certain point,” he says. “I was actually interested in explosives at the time. A couple years later it became clear to me in a very obvious way that my parents had actually done the right thing, because a friend of mine in high school lost one of his fingers in a similar endeavor.”

His consolation present for being banned from chemistry later turned into a genuine area of interest. When his high school got internet access in the early 1990s he volunteered to help build the

April 2012 - delano - 43

09_p42-46_cover story.indd 43

29/3/12 10:30 AM

cover story

Ralf-PhiliPP Weinmann: seeking better collaboration between academia and the computer security industry

campus network, including the security system. He also was a member of the math club, which at one point examined encryption. “From that time on, I became interested in cryptology.”

After completing his compulsory civil service, he attended the University of Darmstadt, which had just launched a cryptology programme led by Professor Johannes Buchmann. Weinmann earned a Diplome and doctorate, and then joined the University of Luxembourg in 2008. nothing is “uncrackable” The father of a newborn and toddler explains that modern computer security is not only about powerful formulas, which is one reason why he and his colleagues focus on mobile devices and desktop browsers so much. “Commercial grade encryption that we have today is actually pretty good. You can screw up implementations, but the basic algorithms are sound. So the next level for an attacker is not to attack the actual cryptography, but to attack your end-devices, or to perform traffic analysis,” which involves studying patterns of communication but not actual messages.

“Even if you crack ciphers in five minutes [for each encoded message], you’re going to waste a huge amount of energy just trying to inspect everything.” Instead attackers can study communications patterns to find the weak links in the chain. “Attacking the end points is the much cheaper option here. This is something that we did like the iPhone or the BlackBerry. You

44 - delano - April 2012

send people an email saying ‘ hey look at these photos’, somebody clicks on” the link and their system is compromised. Even though the software for such back-door vulnerabilities trade on the black market for up to 100,000 US dollars, “it turns out it’s still cheaper for them to do it this way than to attack the cryptography.”

At the same time, security experts do need to constantly fine-tune their formulas. “This has to be an ongoing process, otherwise you will have advancements in some other field of mathematics that can be transferred and then you have a surprise,” he says. “This is conjecture, but nothing available today is going to be secure in 50 or 100 years. They will be laughing

about” the security software used currently, in his personal view. “When you look at the history of cryptography, people always thought something was ‘uncrackable’ but then it only lasted for the next three years.”

Case in point is the so-called hash algorithm SHA-1, which was designed by the US electronic spy agency NSA. This is the scheme used for secure internet connections, symbolised by the padlock symbol in your browser whenever, for example, you logon to your bank account, use a credit card online or sign-in to your company’s private network. “We’ve known for a number of years that SHA-1 can be attacked.” Wein-

cover story

hackeRs: find creative uses of technology, legal or otherwise iPhone hacks: attacking Apple devices is an effective way to get the word out

mann explains that at a conference last month a Dutch doctoral student previewed his PhD thesis demonstrating one of many potential ways to break SHA-1 in the next few years. By coincidence, a conference was also held last month in Washington to narrow down the candidates for SHA-1’s replacement. Although Weinmann was not involved, three teams from the University of Luxembourg submitted designs, the most coming from any single institution, he reckons. Unfortunately none of the Grand Duchy’s proposals made it to the final round, which will be held later this year.

Weinmann is, however, currently working with doctoral student Ivan Pustogarov “on attacks and improvement of Tor, which is a network for providing anonymity. This is a way to mask yourself when you’re on the internet. When you do anything online these days, it leaves tracks all over the place that people can correlate.

From your browsing history, if I’m Google I can infer a lot of things about your personal life.” Unless legislation obliges companies to delete data, they will retain it forever. “For them, it’s valua-

you’ll be owned in five minutes” Ralf-Philipp Weinmann

ble,” he says. “Even if you don’t realise something today, you might have an algorithm for mining this data in three years.”

Asked if he himself has thought about working in the private sector, he says, “I have been tempted, yes. Despite the salaries being very, very good in Luxembourg compared to other universities, the pay in the private sector would be significantly higher, especially if you know how to write exploits.” However, “you’re entering the area where you don’t know what other people will do with the technology that you’ve created,” Weinmann explains. “I’m not talking about selling to the Russian mafia, I’m talking about selling to a European government or to a NATO country.

Still you don’t know what these things are being used for, so it can be disruptive to your

sleep patterns,” he understands from friends who have made such moves.

Equally “I very much enjoy being both in academia and being able to interface with the security community. But being in the security community full-time is not something that would allow me to be as open minded as I am today.” Commercial considerations often means focusing on a few narrow areas and so “you don’t expand your horizons anymore.”

In addition, certain “commercial developments are something that is very, very unfortunate that has happened in the security community in the last couple of years. A lot of people get sucked into this. I wouldn’t say it’s so much being commercially minded, because this is just one aspect. But there are people who are very skilled in ‘practical insecurity research.’

They’re very innovative in finding ways around security measures” for less than constructive reasons. search for synergy That said, Weinmann believes there should be more cross-pollination between the two sides. “I think there’s a symbiosis there that could be happening, that is not.

April 2012 - delano - 45

cover story

PRivacy: your data is a profit centre

GRoWinG fast: The number of computer security researchers at the university’s SnT centre doubled between 2010 and 2011

It’s starting to develop more. But we still have this problem that people in the security industry make fun of academics” for being unrealistic in their assumptions and removed from realities on the ground, while academics consider industry experts to be unstructured in their approach and uncommunicative in style.

Both groups are starting to mix it up more in Luxembourg. While Weinmann thinks the SnT is one of the better venues for such exchanges, “we need to be more successful in attracting the right people for that. We’re growing fast. But as always finding skilled people is a hard problem, especially if you grow fast.”

Indeed, there were 113 people working in research at the SnT at the end of last year, up from 64 in December 2010, the University reports. Yet Weinmann says that it is fair to expect that more “synergies between the different areas of research are created. I think this is happening.”

At the beginning of his interview with Delano, Weinmann jokingly apologises for not wearing the stereotypical hacker hoodie, but he seems quite comfortable with the hacker label. “I don’t have a

46 - delano - April 2012

problem with the term ‘ hacker.’ I see it as a positive thing, personally. For me, the term hacker doesn’t have a negative connotation.” From his point of view, he is “both a hacker and a security researcher. A hacker is just someone who uses technology in an imaginative way, in a way the technology was not foreseen to be used. I just turned out to be a hacker who is interested in security research. For me the excitement is not thinking ‘I can break this.’ No, it’s ‘this wasn’t meant to happen. Wow, I can do all of these other things now.’”

That same sense of amazement is one reason why experts like Weinmann focus on breaking iPhones and BlackBerrys. “For lots of these things, people will not believe you until they see it. You tell them, ‘I can access your computer in five minutes. You just have to open your browser or your email programme, you don’t have to do anything and you’ll be owned in five minutes.’ They laugh at you.

But when you show someone, it’s a different effect. This is especially the case for big companies. You have to be able to demonstrate that you really are able to perform things for people to believe you.”

Join us so that taxis in Luxembourg become accessible and always take the shortest road.

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Support our cause by taking part in the online petition.

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networking

British Ladies Club

Welcoming and fund-raising

Olivier Minaire

The BLC has long lost the image of a club for the British ex-pat women of a certain age. It is now a young and dynamic social club that also raises money for charitable projects.

debbie SuSutoglu: no longer fuddy-duddy

Practical info

British Ladies Club www.blc.lu tel: 691 686 891 info@blc.lu

committee

President: The Honourable Alice Walpole Honorary Vice President: Cynthia Albrecht Chair: Debbie Susutoglu Vice Chair & Membership Secretary: Sam Grocock

Treasurer: Rachael Burton-Rafferty Newcomers Coordinator: Davina Rowe Area Rep. Coordinator: Liz Graybrook Newsletter Editor: Helen Callaway Advertising Manager & Public Relations: Nicola Howells

Children’s Coordinator: Heidi Lampach-Greene Events Coordinator: Sandra van Esebeck Groups Coordinator: Sam Schnopfhagen

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networking

the car Boot sale

Attracting some 100 participants selling bargains including second-hand books, toys, clothes and home wares, the Car Boot Sale is a hugely popular event in the international community’s social calendar. Refreshments will be available and kids will be entertained by a bouncy castle. This year the club will also be selling British chocolate and teas. The event is a major fund-raiser, with profits going to the Office social at the Ville de Luxembourg as well as the club’s two charities (Femmes en détresse and Shelter). The event is also open to non-members and details and information on how to reserve a “spot” can be obtained from Liz Graybrook on tel: 691 906 309 or email carboot@blc.lu.

May 26, 9 a.m.-4p.m., Glacis Car Park

Founded in 1969, the British Ladies Club is a veritable institution in Luxembourg, a port of call for Englishspeaking women, regardless of nationality, living in and around Luxembourg.

One of its primary aims remains to help newcomers settle into Luxembourg life and to provide social contacts and a range of activities to its members. Debbie Susutoglu has been the club’s chair since January, and was previously on the committee for one and a half years. She explains that membership of the club is now younger than it has ever been--she estimates that the average age of the committee is around 39. “The club has lost its fuddyduddy image,” she says. “It is very mixed in age and nationalities--we have 440 members from 70 different nationalities.

The only requirement is that members should have some level of English.”

The BLC has many dynamics, with a committee of 10 and 30 area reps responsible for 14 geographical areas.

The club offers members a range of different services, leisure activities and parent-children groups--the latter are very popular and Susutoglu admits that

founded

1969

areas

14 across Luxembourg supported by 30 reps

a lot of women join just for the mothers and toddlers groups.

The areas are set up according to where members are, rather than geographical size--so there are many small “areas” in and around the capital city, but the north of the country is one vast geographical spread. Area reps welcome newcomers and invite them to events.

But the club also hosts a newcomer event every month. “We do our best to really nurture new arrivals,” says Susutoglu. The club does not just attract stay-at-home mums, however. “We are aware that we have a lot of women who work, which is why we hold events and activities in the evening. And a lot of the women who work are single.”

Each year the club raises money for charity. This year’s two main club charities are Femmes en détresse in Luxembourg and Shelter in the UK. Each will receive 1,500 euro from the BLC, with funds being raised from the Christmas Lunch tombola and other activities.

The club’s annual Car Boot Sale (see box) also raises over 3,000 euro that is handed to the Ville de Luxembourg to use for its social projects--this year the

regular social activities

Coffee mornings, pot luck lunches, B.B.Q.’s, evenings out to restaurants and the cinema.

money will be dedicated to the Cent Buttek grocery store for low income families in Beggen. Two of the club’s members--honorary vice president Cynthia Albrecht and Becky Delves-raise money for the Macmillan cancer charity in the UK from club coffee mornings. In addition, Sue Khalila has held a lunch every year for the past 20 years or so to raise money--last year for Haus Omega, and this year the proceeds will go towards a well-covers project in Gambia.

As well as regular activities the club recently participated in the British Embassy’s team at the Relais pour la Vie--ambassador Alice Walpole is the president of the club, an honour that falls to the ambassador’s wife if a male is the incumbent. It also held a cookery demonstration and lunch at Lea Linster’s--an event that was fully booked within days. And on June 16 the club will be hosting a party to celebrate the Diamond Jubilee of Queen Elizabeth II together with other interested clubs and associations.

The club publishes its own monthly newsletter, featuring a message from Susutoglu as well as club information, a list of upcoming events and also classified advertising. The club’s own website is, by Susutoglu’s own admission, not used very much. “You can’t make people use a website, and it is only as good as the people who do post. So we are launching our own Facebook page. We feel it will be used a lot more, especially by younger members who can post rather DR than picking up the phone.”

April 2012 - delano - 49

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28/3/12 12:30 PM

lifestyle 111 thinGs tO dO

David Laurent

don’t get bored again A new things to do guide, 111 – the city guide with 111 insider tips for Luxembourg, has just been published by Maison Moderne. Written by Hans Fellner, the guide explores the city’s quirky side and provides tips for everything from indulging in oysters in the afternoon to playing pétanque at the Kyosk, from jogging in the Bambësch (photo) to enjoying a good old-fashioned sing-a-long to French and Luxembourgish chansons at the Café des Artistes. The idea is to inform not only tourists and visitors of the more obvious attractions, but also to reveal some hidden gems and “secrets” to residents. 111 – the city guide with 111 insider tips for Luxembourg is available in English, French and German editions from bookstores and newsagents as well as from the Maison Moderne website.

Olivier Minaire

smOOJO

Frozen delightS SmooJo in the Grand-Rue gallery sells natural frozen yoghurts with a choice of toppings as well as smoothies. The idea of frozen yoghurt has really taken off and blended with a choice of three fruit toppings, the yoghurt is transformed into a delicious and healthy smoothie drink.

But even if that is not your thing, SmooJo has a range of hot and cold drinks on offer. www.smoojo.lu

www.maisonmoderne.lu

News about

Food, drink & going out

David Laurent

Oliviers & Co at 15 rue du Marchéaux-Herbes specialises in fine olive oils and vinegars among other epicurean delicacies. The boutique is part of a an 80-store chain founded in the village of Mane, high in the Alpes de Haute-Provence in France with the idea of making olive oil that was rooted in tradition but firmly anchored in the modern world. That philosophy has continued with the other produce available at the boutique. www.oliviers-co.com

Family Guide

new edition in the pipeline Maison Moderne has taken over the Family Guide book. The team here (with their children) will unveil the latest edition in the autumn.

The brainchild of Viviane Bumb, a Swiss mother of three who saw a gap in the market for just such a publication when she moved to Luxembourg, Family Guide contains a wealth of information. It features hundreds of

Julien Becker

Oliviers & CO

Sun-drenched oaSiS

ideas for excursions, cultural activities, nature discovery trips, birthday celebrations and much more. A listing of family-friendly restaurants, the best play parks, shopping tips, child care possibilities, workshops as well as useful addresses relating to health and advice services is truly indispensable for any parent of children aged 0 to 15. www.familyguide.lu

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snapshots

Committee members Thérèse Collins and Clare Abbott

Rose of Tralee

Nicola is goiNg to Portlaoise Photos: Charles Caratini

The Roses and their escorts Last year’s Luxembourg Rose Aisling McInerney

Nicola McEvoy and escort

The annual Rose Ball is one of the highlights of the international community’s calendar, attracting over 300 guests for a gala dinner at which Luxembourg’s Rose of Tralee representative is chosen by a jury. Seven girls entered this year’s contest in the hope of being selected to go to Portlaoise to compete in heats and make it through to the Tralee festival in August, where girls from the Irish counties and of Irish descent from all over the world compete for the International Rose of Tralee title.

The event this year was honoured by the visit of Tara Talbot, the International Rose of Tralee from Queensland, Australia. MC for the evening was Jim Kent and music was provided

by DJ Tim Andrews. The event also raised 4,000 euro for charity.

Nicola McEvoy, a 25-year old native of Cork now teaching at the European School, was chosen by the judges as the winner on the night, although all of the girls acquitted themselves well and once again the finalists displayed the sort of team spirit that has become a trademark of the Luxembourg competition. DR www.rose.lu

Supporters of Victoria Thompson

International Rose of Tralee 2011 Tara Talbot

MC Jim Kent, Rose president Deirdre Ecock and Tracey Farrelly

April 2012 - delano - 51

lifestyle going native

Local events

FOIRE DE PRINTEMPS

Luxexpo’s most popular trade fair, the Foire de Printemps is best known for its winetasting section at which local producers unveil last year’s vintage. This is an opportunity to snap up some of the best wines that the Moselle has to offer, but producers from France and Germany and other countries are also represented at the fair. The 2011 Luxembourg wines have not yet been previewed by the local media, but last year’s weather, combined with fewer incidences of diseases that attack vines, meant the grapes were allowed to fully ripen and should produce a very good vintage.

Saturday May 5 to Sunday May 13, Luxexpo, Luxembourg-Kirchberg, www.luxexpo.lu

Olivier Minaire (archives)

David Laurent/Wide (archives)

Three eveNTS for ColleCTorS

KONSCHT AM GRONN

The art in the Grund open air gallery, featuring some 20 artists from Luxembourg and the Greater Region, takes place on the first Sunday of every month between May and October. Visitors can stroll at leisure between stands, buy art, take in the spectacular views to the Corniche and Bock rock and savour local food and drink.

Sunday May 6, 10 a.m.-6 p.m., Luxembourg-Grund, www.konschtamgronn.lu

INTERNATIONAL RECORD FAIR

In the age of the digital download it is refreshing to see that record fairs still exist, attracting customers who take their music seriously and delight in finding rarities and discovering new artists. The Rockhal’s foyer will be host to over 50 international exhibitors with over a million vinyl records, CDs and DVDs as well as posters, t-shirts and other memorabilia from the last 50 years up for grabs. What’s more, ARA Radio’s Lost In Music team of Hans Fellner and Tom Dockal will be providing a DJ set at the Rockhal Café between 1 and 3 p.m.--another opportunity to discover music that has been overlooked by commercial radio stations. In the evening, Danish band Sleep Party People will play a free concert.

Sunday April 22, 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. (concert at 8.30 p.m.), Rockhal, Esch-Belval, www.rockhal.lu

“ Luxembourg is...

Luxembourg! but growing with and through europe!”

GeorGes BinGen: head of Luxembourg representation office, European Commission

Club life

Highlights from the directory of local associations found on: Delano.lu

Sport

luxembourg JuNior opeN SquaSh

Organises the annual international tournament for junior squash players. From April 20 to 22. www.awcluxembourg.com

52 - delano - April 2012

Culture

New world TheaTre Club Puts on English-language theatre productions and organises workshops and residential courses for anyone interested in theatre. www.nwtc.lu

going native lifestyle

People in the news

The CruCial Three

Nina Subin

CHRIS PAVONE

The New York City native has just published his first novel, an espionage thriller set largely in Luxembourg. Pavone lived in the Grand Duchy for 18 months while his wife was working here for Amazon and used that time to start The Expats. The book has received widespread publicity in the US and UK press and has also been lauded by thriller writers such as John Connolly.

Pavone is a graduate in government from Cornell University and subsequently worked at a number of publishing houses, most notably as an editor at Clarkson Potter, where he specialised in cookbooks (cooking is a passion of his). Although The Expats is his first novel, Pavone has also written a guide to wine: The Wine Log.

The kNowledge HOW TO...

BECOME A LUXEMBOURGER

BRYAN NYGAARD

David Laurent / Wide (archives)

Luc Deflorenne (archives)

The former general manager of Leopard Trek (and Delano cover star) has been speaking out about his time with the Luxembourg-based cycling team (now renamed Radioshack Nissan Trek). In an interview with Danish newspaper Morgenavisen JyllandsPosten, Nygaard criticised the team’s backers, though refrained from naming anyone in particular, for their lack of understanding about cycling. “The people who backed the team were not from inside the sport, and therefore there was no understanding that we did not win all the races that we took part in,” Nygaard told the paper.

Nygaard, now with Australian team GreenEdge, was hired personally by Leopard Trek financial backer Flavio Becca to build the team, but left Leopard Trek--before its merger with Radioshack--by mutual consent in the late summer of 2011.

JULES HOFFMANN CNRS Photolibrary/Pascal Disdier

The Nobel Prize winner has been honoured with admittance to the Académie française, thus joining the ranks of the so-called immortals, named after the academy’s motto À l’immortalité (to immortality), that appears on the official seal of the charter granted by Cardinal Richelieu. The Echternach-born biologist received his doctorate from the University of Strasbourg, where he led a research laboratory from 1974 to 2009.

politiCal

buSineSS

demoCraTS abroad luxembourg

The NeTwork

www.democratsabroad.org/group/Luxembourg

www.the-network.lu

An official group that hosts events as well as election registration drives.

A group aimed at promoting career and personal development for women of all nationalities in Luxembourg.

1 To apply for Luxembourg nationality you must be at least 18 years old 2 You must be holder of a Luxembourg residence permit for at least seven consecutive years immediately preceding the application 3 You must have successfully passed the language evaluation test in spoken Luxembourgish (unless you have completed at least seven years of schooling in the Luxembourg public school system or acquired a residence permit before December 31 1984) 4 You must have followed the obligatory citizenship courses (with the same exemptions as for the language test) 5 You must meet requirements of good repute (i.e. not have made false statements in the application or been sentenced for a criminal offence) http://www.mj.public.lu/nationalite/

food & drink

whiSky Club luxembourg

This club is for whisky enthusiasts with regular whisky tastings, special offers and trips. www.whiskyclublux.com

April 2012 - delano - 53

lifestyle

foodie ParadiSe Event In the Sky

“Brusselicious 2012,” a year-long campaign promoting local gastronomy, showcases a wide range of culture and cuisine. More than 45 events include: Chez Cinematek (until Dec. 31): A gourmet session of 24 food-related film screenings and tastings. Tram Experience (until Dec. 31): Board a tram furnished in white livery for a 2-hour tour of the city’s most beautiful spots while savouring a succulent menu of classic Brussels cuisine.

Dinner in the Sky (June 4-July 1): An unforgettable and surrealist gastronomic experience 40 meters high (photo).

Also, don’t miss the Brussels Jazz Marathon (May 25-27): This huge jazz party makes the capital of Europe swing with more than 450 musicians performing free shows. www.visitbrussels.be

YOU CAN WIN! Two Delano readers will each win € 250 in travel vouchers courtesy of Voyages Émile Weber, which can be used at dozens of Brussels hotels and restaurants. To enter, send an email with “Fabulous Brussels” in the subject line to contest@delano.lu by May 2.

Der Wolf im Wald/Creative Commons

Brussels

Cologne

Something for everyone Impressive architecture, historic sites and museums make Cologne a great city. A World Heritage Site, Cologne Cathedral (photo) is truly magnificent. It is Germany’s most visited landmark. Another popular attraction, Koelner Zoo is home to more than 10,000 animals. Highlights include a Hippodom-African river landscape, a renowned elephant park, a tropical rain forest, a jungle house for apes and an aquarium. www.koeln.de

Seven fabulous

Weekend getaWayS Paris

tgv to the City of LightS

Jonathan Zornow/Creative Commons

Paris is always worth a visit. Aside from countless world-famous attractions, 2012 offers many justifications for a 2-hour train ride: Foire du Trone (April 7-June 3): France’s biggest funfair.

French Open Tennis Championship (May 20-June 3) Paris Jazz Festival (June 9-29) Nuit Blanche (June 10): An incredible night of performances and concerts.

Tour de France (June 30-July 1) Bastille Day (July 14): A parade, music and fireworks.

Paris Plages (July 20-Aug. 20): The banks of the Seine River are transformed into a beach. www.cfl.lu, www.parisinfo.com

54 - delano - April 2012

strasBourg

franCe meetS germany Strasbourg is full of architectural wonders and historic sites. The Notre-Dame Cathedrale, a 13th century Gothic marvel, is the city’s most famous landmark.

Other noteworthy attractions include the European Parliament, Place Gutenberg and the National Opera. For a charming respite, visit La Petite France (photo), a neighbourhood graced with cobblestone alleys, medieval buildings, fine dining and boutique shopping. Make plans now to attend the Strasbourg Christmas market, an extravaganza of food and crafts that has been going strong since 1570!

Marc Ryckaert/Creative Commons

Andreas Trepte/Creative Commons

lifestyle

oostende & KnoKKe

hiStory & nature The Atlantic Wall Museum in Oostende is an open-air historical site rife with German artefacts from both World Wars. Underground trenches, bunkers and observation points and gun sites bring war history to life.

For a less sombre atmosphere, nature lovers will enjoy Knokke.

The Zwin nature reserve (photo) is a paradise for bird lovers.

www.strasbourg.info

Genève Tourisme

Netherlands Board of Tourism and Conventions

www.visitoostende.be www.knokkeattractions.vox.com

geneva

Luxair metroPoLiS City triP The breathtaking beauty of Lake Geneva alone is worth a trip. If you’re staying in a local hotel (Luxair has a choice of four), you ride the ferry free of charge, or stroll over the Mont Blanc Bridge (photo) and take in the magnificent English Garden. While you’re enjoying the serenity, be sure to visit Victo-

MaastriCht

City of CaveS

ria Hall, the Grand Theatre and the famous Jet d’Eau fountain. History buffs will appreciate the Reformation Wall, a 60-foot stone wall commemorating Geneva’s vital role in the Protestant Reformation, as well as the Musée international de la Réforme.

For a truly unique experience, take a walking tour in the subterranean network of St. Pietersberg Caves.

This labyrinth of underground tunnels formed over many centuries provided shelter for inhabitants during the town’s many sieges. During WWII, modifications included a well, a bakery and a chapel. Prepare for cold temperatures and bring a torch.

Also, request an English-speaking guide in advance.

www.luxairtours.lu

www.vvmaastricht.nl

April 2012 - delano - 55

lifestyle

Design City 2012

A turn on

The Design City biennale seeks to show how design can make a positive contribution to quality of life.

Text: Duncan Roberts — Photo: Thomas Larsen

Refining the inaugural 2010 edition of the biennale, this year’s Design City takes design to the public to highlight the impact it can have on daily life and in finding solutions to global problems.

Above all, it aims to dispel the myth that design is something exclusive, only accessible to people interested in the arts or with the money to afford expensive objects.

Exhibitions at Mudam connected to the biennale have been open for over a month--Transversal Design by Maurizio Galante and Tal Lancman and Next Cabane and The Riot Act by designers at Benneton’s Fabrica think tank--the main events only start in April. These include the Index: Award and Chat Zone outdoor exhibitions. Index: Award is a show in the place d’Armes featuring impressive installations that exhibit the very best designs by winners of the Danish awards. The exhibition has been in tour to Asia and Luxembourg is its first stop in Europe outside Denmark. The award winners challenge traditional concepts and stereotypes of design and highlight the complexity of the design field, demonstrating very different solutions to problems such as HIV/AIDS, scarcity of drinking water, and carbon emissions. Danish ambassador Louise Bang Jespersen says it is “more than just about form and aesthetics, but it is also about impact--about environmental, social and economic sustainability. It shows design in a broader context.”

Guido Wolff ’s Chat Zone will be installed at the three locations in the city--on the rue Philippe II on the cor-

StyliSh life-Saver: the Hövding cyclists’ airbag is worn as a collar and inflates when the cyclist has an accident

ner with Bonn, on the boulevard Royal near the bus stop to Kirchberg and on the place de Paris near the bus stops. In cooperation with the Zurich University of the Arts, Wolff has launched a study titled “Discussion Space” in which he examines the difficulties of starting a conversation between strangers in public places. An interactive workstation, Chat Zone aims to provoke reaction from passers-by and generate communication. “It demonstrates how design-relevant findings can be obtained through simple means and how easy it can be to take the initiative to start a discussion with a stranger.”

Later in April, CarréRotondes is hosting the Emergenc(e)(y) exhibition especially conceived for Design City which

features works by emerging designers from various European schools and works on the theme of urgency by Luxembourg designers.

The final two events of the biennale are held at Mudam. On April 27 a one-day symposium titled Turn Me On-Design Hits On LXBG will feature a series of fascinating panel discussions, expert sessions and lectures, and a number of side events such as the projection of videos of best practices by Luxinnovation.

And over the weekend of May 19 and 20 the Mudam will host the Marché des Créateurs at which designers from all over the Greater Region will display their latest objects.

Until June 3, Mudam, CarréRotondes & Luxembourg City, www.designcity.lu

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28/3/12 12:33 PM

28 APRIL 2012 Den Atelier Concert

Ben Howard

Send an email mentioning “den Atelier/Ben HowARD” to contest@delano.lu Deadline for entries is 18 APRIL 2012 Winners will be notified by email

Win rt ce o c nk e t s ! c i t

Delano_0412_Atelier.indd 1

28/3/12 3:02 PM

The contemporary art of reading.

Books, mags and files.

Casino Luxembourg – Forum d’art contemporain . 41, rue Notre-Dame . L-2240 Luxembourg . www.casino-luxembourg.lu Public library opening hours: 11 a.m. – 7 p.m. Thursday 11 a.m. – 8 p.m. Saturday & Sunday 11 a.m. – 6 p.m. Tuesday closed.

057_Atelier_Casino.indd 41

© Photo: Jessica Theis Blue Box Design

28/3/12 3:06 PM

lifestyle

Seven performances to watch

oN STage

Ben Howard

Soulful folk

Hailing from Devon, Ben Howard is a rising star who has been likened to that great of the English folk scene John Martyn and to contemporary legends Bon Iver (themselves a recent addition to the den Atelier line-up, playing Neumünster Abbaye in July). Howard retains a distinctly soulful voice and his songwriting is surprisingly mature.

He arrives at den Atelier in support of acclaimed album Every Kingdom.

April 28, den Atelier, Luxembourg-Hollerich, www.atelier.lu Lizz wrigHt

dreamBoats and Petticoats

NoSTalgia calliNg Hauled in at the last minute to replace scheduled show Shoes, Dreamboats and Petticoats is a trip down memory lane.

A musical show inspired by a CD compilation of old rock’n’roll hits may not sound that, well, inspiring, but somehow Dreamboats and Petticoats seems to have enough pizzazz and energy to keep audiences enthralled. Scripted by Laurence Marks and Maurice Gran, who have a string of TV sitcoms under their belt, the story is set in an Essex youth club and follows the mixed fortunes of a group of teenagers who fall in and out of love and try to become

pop stars. The story is actually driven by familiar hits from the likes of Roy Orbison, The Shadows, Eddie Cochran and Billy Fury, and it is these upbeat numbers and sentimental ballads that provide the real entertainment. The Daily Telegraph said the show is: “ heartfelt, hilarious and touching” and that it “ brings the memories flooding back.” Tickets for Shoes are valid for this show.

See Delano’s newsletter on April 10 to win tickets.

April 25 to 27, Grand Théâtre, Luxembourg-Limpertsberg, www.theatres.lu

The eclecTic goSpel

Lizz Wright’s concert promises to be a highlight of the LCTO’s Printemps Musical festival. Carrying what Slant calls “perhaps the most gifted interpretive vocalist of her generation”, Wright is a former Gospel singer who has since expanded her repertoire to incorporate a more folk-oriented sound.

In her own words, she now preaches the gospel of eclecticism. Her latest album, Fellowship includes material

by Bob Marley, Eric Clapton and Jimi Hendrix as well as contributions from Angélique Kidjo, Joan as Policewoman and Meshell Ndegeocello. But it is for Wright’s voice that the record has been receiving most of its plaudits.

April 18, Abbaye de Neumünster, Luxembourg-Grund, www.printempsmusical.lu

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28/3/12 12:35 PM

TakiNg The fifTh

aU

April 18, Philharmonie, Luxembourg-Kirchberg, www.philharmonie.lu

tHe warrior of BeaUty

aSpecTS of femiNiNiTy Sylvia Camarda’s latest work is a solo piece that explores several facets of femininity. With a dramaturgy

by Natalia Ipatova, The warrior of beauty poses profound questions about what it is like to be a woman in the 21st century. It draws on a broad range of references from dance, cinema and literature and explores some of the darker sides of femininity such as anorexia and the image of women in the public eye.

April 19 and 28, Grand Théâtre, Luxembourg-Limpertsberg, www.theatres.lu

Seppi Ramos

SereNely off-kilTer

Regular presenters Tom Leick and Nicole Max take a break for this special event in the OPL’s Dating series.

In their place, renowned American pianist, composer and musicologist Robert Levin will make a presentation on the background, composition and context of Beethoven’s Piano Concerto N° 5.

Levin will also play examples on the pianoforte and modern piano. Popularly known as the Emperor Concerto-dedicated to Rudolf, Archduke and Prince Imperial of Austria--this was Beethoven’s final piano concerto.

Éric Chenal

dating: sPeciaL – BeetHoven

Spanning the bridge between “backwoods freak-folk and Eno-esque artpop” AU has been compared to the inspirational Animal Collective.

Ostensibly a solo project by multiinstrumentalist/singer Luke Wyland, AU is now a duo with Dana Valatka on drums. Wyland has been succinctly described by Pitchfork as having “an understanding of the bucolic that grasps its elegance as well as its occasional tumult.” His music can be serene and chaotic, evidence of both is found on the tracks ‘Solid Gold’ and ‘Get Alive’ from new album Both Lights.

May 5, Exit07 (CarréRotondes), Luxembourg-Hollerich, www.rotondes.lu

LemonHeads

a NiNeTieS claSSic

Concerts of complete albums seem to be all the rage these days as 80s and 90s kids are all grown up and can’t really connect with the likes of Lady Gaga or LMFAO. Following Peter Hook playing Unknown Pleasures at den Atelier, it is the turn of Evan Dando and cohorts to play their classic 90s album It’s A Shame About Ray in its entirety at the Rockhal. The album was hailed as one of the best of the decade by several music mags, and remains a firm favourite of the band’s fans to this day.

April 27, Rockhal, Esch-Belval, www.rockhal.lu

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lifestyle

10-Minute Play Festival

Short and Sweet

The New World Theatre Club and the Creative Writers Forum have teamed up again for a festival of short plays under the title Got 10 Minutes?

Text: Duncan Roberts — Photo: Olivier Minaire

“A jolt of theatrical energy” is how one critic described the ten-minute play format. Originating in the United States, the idea has since spread across the Atlantic and here in Luxembourg is being staged for a second time by the New World Theatre Club. NWTC, which has been staging theatre productions for some 40 years, teamed up with the Creative Writers Forum to find ten original plays--though only three works by Luxembourg-based playwrights have been selected for inclusion. The other seven plays on the bill are from writers who live in the USA, Canada or the UK and all are making their debut on the European mainland.

Deborah Anderson, who has a foot in both the NTWC and Creative Writers’ camps, is in charge of the production. She explains that the process of finding and choosing the appropriate plays takes a whole year. “Last spring, the call for plays went out on the Creative Writers Forum [www.luxwriters.com].

Within a few weeks we were receiving the first entries--some from our local group of writers, many from all over the globe: Australia, Canada, Switzerland, the UK and the USA. By the fall, word had spread to playwriting associations and even more plays were considered.” The selection process required a series of play reading sessions involving local actors, directors and writers to, in Anderson’s words, “ hear the plays aloud; walk them around a bit.” In the end, it came down to the six directors who would be working on the project and their own choices.

Deborah anDerson: a varied programme of little journeys

“Which is why we have such a varied programme,” says Anderson. “You’ll see everything from the comic to the surreal-all little journeys of ten minutes each.”

Although many of the playwrights will not be familiar to local theatre audiences, the six directors all have been involved in the local English-language theatrwe for some time. As well as Anderson, they include Erik Abbott, Bjørn Clasen, Timothy Lone, Fran Potasnik and Chris Wilson. The three local writers are Barbara Hall, Erik Abbott and Celeste Schuh-Kohler.

Such was the enthusiasm at NWTC for the project that around 40 aspiring actors turned up to audition for the 23 parts in the ten plays. “Everyone wanted to be in this one,” exclaims Anderson.

“So much so it’s been a challenge finding backstage crew,” she jokes. The festival will be staged at a new venue for NWTC, the Kinneksbond in Mamer.

Anderson is delighted with the venue, which has a professional stage with what she says are “superior acoustics”.

Nevertheless, there must be severe logistical challenges in staging ten tenminute plays in one evening? “Transitions, transitions! ” says Anderson. “I’ve given the directors the challenge of no more than 40 seconds between plays. Each set is minimal and the action moves from one play to the other. There are 23 actors in the troupe this year, many of them playing multiple roles throughout the evening.”

May 10-12, Kinneksbond, Mamer, www.nwtc.lu

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28/3/12 12:29 PM

10 May 2012 starting at 12:30

Centre Drosbach Luxembourg · Cloche d’Or

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Come to meet your clients and Suppliers!

1,000 visitors · 32 workshops 25 exhibitors

28/3/12 3:02 PM

28/3/12 3:09 PM

lifestyle

Casino Luxembourg

freeflowiNg creativity

All of the seven major museums in Luxembourg City offer workshops and other activities for kids, often related to their exhibitions. Why not sign up your child for a creative workshop at the Mudam, one of the weekly ateliers at the Casino – Forum d’art contemporain or the Kid’s Tour in May at the Villa Vauban? This is where they’ll learn that creativity and art have no limits! www.casino-luxembourg.lu www.mudam.lu www.villavauban.lu

Little Kitchen

D’Stater muSéeën

the little kitchen

cultural cookiNg “Teaching children how to cook is a creative and a cultural activity. If we bake with Nigella seeds, we’ll talk about ancient Egypt. The best way to learn is doing something material while learning about something nonmaterial”. Daniela and Carlotta give their inspiring lessons to young chefs (4-10) weekly and also do themed workshops, in Italian and English. www.littlekitchenworld.it

Four ways to get

Happy kids ZigZag

Berlitz

NoN-stop iNdoor fuN

ZigZag

BerlitZ

The ZigZag 3-storey play centre has become a favourite of kids and parents alike. Apart from organising holiday camps with structured activities like cooking, craft, or games, for any given number of full or half days, and organising birthday parties for all ages, it’s also a great spot to visit on rainy days. Owner Stéphanie Malcourant describes it as “a family place where children can have fun while parents chill out in the café”. www.zigzag.lu

proactive laNguage camps We’ve all heard the best way to learn a language is to speak it--and many of us know that’s not always easy, nor fun. However, with kids the fun factor is essential. Which is why Berlitz has created language holiday camps. “The children stay in a youth hostel for a week or two. They have lessons in the morning and different activities and outings in the afternoon, but everything is done in the target language,” explains director of

the Greater Region at Berlitz, Artur Sosna. In other words, a lot of learning is done while having a good time and making new friends. “We welcome children between 7 and 17.” The Luxembourgish camps take place in Echternach, Lultzhausen and Schengen.

This year, German has been added to the existing French and English camps. www.berlitz.lu

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28/3/12 10:27 AM

Enjoy Spring at Utopolis & Ciné Utopia!

Bring your friends & family and enjoy the Easter Holidays with great movies, candies, chocolate eggs & more…

Special family price: 6,20€/ family member* • Children (<12 years) 5,70€

For more information www.utopolis.lu

*At least 4 family members with a minimum of one and a maximum of two adults can benefit from this price.

Coyote Café, Club 5, Subway, Meneghino, Nemo’s, McDonald’s, Tie Break Café, Q45, Paul Eischen

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3/23/12 3:37 PM

lifestyle

Four films to watch

on screen haywire

Irish Film Board

Even though it has been decried, though not too loudly, by some critics as movie making by numbers, Steven Soderbergh manages to create in Haywire an intelligent and wry yet action-packed thriller that should make the likes of McG and Jerry Bruckheimer sit up and take notice (if they weren’t so busy counting their box office receipts). Mixed martial arts star Gina Carano plays a beautiful undercover operative who is betrayed by her bosses and goes on a mission to seek revenge. With a cast including Michael Fassbender, Ewan McGregor, Michael Douglas, Mathieu Kassovitz and Antonio Banderas (Soderbergh manages to pretty much get whomever he wants for his movies), and locations talking in Dublin and Barcelona, the film looks like a real treat for fans of fast-paced, keep’em-guessing, cloak-and-dagger thrillers.

Film4

KicK ass tyrannosaur

looK bacK in anger A harrowing film about the trials and tribulations of the English working class, Paddy Considine’s directorial debut features top-rate performances from Peter Mullen, Olivia Colman and Eddie Marsden. The film focuses on the budding relationship between Mullen’s violent and self-destructive Joe and Colman’s kindly charity shop worker Hannah. But Marsden, as Hannah’s malevolent husband, stands in the way of Joe’s redemption.

Released April 27

Released April 13

margin call

House of games Detachment

Before The Door Pictures

Please, sir

Released April 27

Released May 2

Paper Street Films

J.C. Chandor’s compelling financial crisis thriller follows the events of one fateful night as the shortcomings of an investment firm are exposed to reveal it is at risk from mortgage defaults. Featuring an almost all-male cast including such stellar names as Kevin Spacey, Jeremy Irons and Stanley Tucci, it has been likened to James Foley’s more claustrophobic Glengarry Glenn Ross.

Adrien Brody leads a great cast in Tony Kaye’s highly charged film about the lot suffered by high school teachers in America. He plays a substitute teacher who apparently has a secret in his past that threatens to erupt again at the latest school to which he is assigned. Marcia Gay Harden, James Caan, Lucy Liu, Christina Hendricks and newcomer Sami Gayle co-star.

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28/3/12 12:33 PM

www.maisonmoderne.lu

LUXEMBOURG.TENDANCES.CULTURE 164 pages 路 5 editions / year

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28/3/12 12:39 PM

my other life: Jean-Claude Bintz

Guitar

Look Who’s TaLking

Entrepreneur and consultant Jean-Claude Bintz charms audiences in business and in the clubs.

Olivier Minaire

Text: Tonya Stoneman

Jean-Claude Bintz

Crossroads

Crossroads

Good old fashioned blues

Formed in 2001 by Jean-Claude Bintz (though in the band he is simply Claude) along with fellow guitarist Raymond Linden and bassist Jacques Ruppert, Crossroads finally decided to hire a permanent sticksman in the shape of Jake Bock in 2010. The band plays good old fashioned blues by the likes of Willie Dixon and Howlin’ Wolf (and even some original compositions) and has a series of live dates lined up for June and July. www.crossroads.lu

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Jean-Claude Bintz is an expert communicator, but when he’s “off the clock” he lets his guitar do the talking. Passion is something that seeps through his pores, so whether he’s selling the latest telecommunications technology or a new song, people listen.

Bintz was born in Luxembourg and knew from an early age that he would go into business. He didn’t take the traditional route by attending university, but instead earned his stripes in the school of hard knocks. For years, the lack of an official degree bothered him, but now he takes pride in having achieved an enviable degree of success without it.

During the past 35 years, Bintz has become one of Luxembourg’s most notable entrepreneurial success stories. He started in banking, and then moved into telecommunications, then to media. The two mobile operators he created as start-ups--Tango and VOXmobile--have grown into major players, the latter being bought out by Orange in 2010.

After the sale of VOXmobile, Bintz decided to branch out on his own, allowing him to work from home and pursue his musical interests more vigorously. He set up Lakehouse, a marketing and strategy consultancy that acquired Moskito Productions, an audiovisual communications, and

also co-founded Sting, an operation for strategic investment in growth where he is director.

When he’s not working in one of those capacities, Bintz spends time with his Fender Eric Clapton Stratocaster. He started playing the guitar more than 40 years ago and loves it as much today as he did when he was a 13-year-old.

He’s performed extensively in clubs and festivals in France and Germany, and his current band Crossroads was once the number one act in Luxembourg.

Although he’s an accomplished blues player, Bintz never wanted to be a rock star. “If you are a Luxembourger, everybody tells you that you will never succeed,” he says. “It’s in your head. They used to say, ‘Go to the banks.’ Then they said, ‘go to private industry.’ Now they say, ‘go to the government.’ I’m fighting against this.

I want kids to think about being entrepreneurs. If everybody goes to the state, who will create the wealth?”

The connection between this message and Bintz’s work ethic is not lost on those who know him. Picasso once said, “Every child is an artist. The problem is how to remain an artist once he grows up.” Asked if there is a correlation between business and music, Bintz affirms: “I’m a salesman. If I like it, I sell it.

The passion I have for music, I have for business. If you love something, you do it well.”

W E N

LET YOUR iPhone EXPERIENCE THE SOUND OF 2012 We are delighted to announce the arrival of our new brand B&O PLAY. Visit your local Bang & Olufsen store and experience the debut product - the new Beolit 12 portable speaker.

iPhone is a trademark of Apple Inc., registered in the U.S. and other countries.

BEOLIT 12 € 665,-

Bang & Olufsen Luxembourg, 251, Rue de Beggen, Luxembourg, 26 09 43 46 Scala, 85 Avenue de la Gare, Esch Sur Alzette, 52 53 08 85 www.beoplay.com

BGL BNP PARIBAS S.A. (50, avenue J.F. Kennedy, L-2951 Luxembourg, R.C.S. Luxembourg: B 6481) Marketing Communication April 2012

LET’S TALK ABOUT YOU

Is it still worthwhile filling in a tax return?

Let’s do a personal

assessment together It’s easier to get in touch with my bank

bgl.lu

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27/03/12 11:42