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august 31, 2016 \ newsweekly - € 0,75 \ rEad morE at www.flandErstoday.Eu currEnt affairs \ P2

Politics \ P4

Blue union

Minister-president Geert Bourgeois has come out in favour of a possible ‘North Sea Union’ to ease Brexit trade negotiations \4

BusinEss \ P6

Twinning comBinaTion

innovation \ P7

Antwerp University graduates – and twins – Joyce and Raissa de Haas are winning over taste buds around the world with their tonic mixers \ 10

Education \ P9

art & living \ P10

waTer world

Fold up a canoe and wheel it around like a suitcase to explore any city a whole new way, thanks to an ingenious design by two Ghent entrepreneurs \ 11

The diagnosis detectives

© Courtesy uZgent

medical mysteries are being solved in ghent, thanks to the ‘dr House team’ senne starckx More articles by senne \ flanderstoday.eu

A team of four specialists at UZGent are working on curious cases that other doctors have been unable to solve, giving answers to patients who have slipped through the net of the diagnosing system.

T

he most unrealistic element in the popular TV series House, M.D. was not so much the incredible range of diseases Dr House and his team encountered, but the suggestion that there could be a single physician with a command of the entire field of medicine.

“To identify a mysterious disorder in a patient who has run from one doctor to the other, from one hospital to the other, you need a thoroughly multidisciplinary team,” Flem-

ish doctor David Cassiman told De Standaard in a recent interview.

Cassiman, a specialist in liver and metabolic diseases at UZ Leuven and East Limburg Hospital, spent his summer working in the US, where he was invited to join the undiagnosed disease programme at the National Institute of Health in Bethesda, near Washington, DC. In that programme, a 10-strong team tackles the most mysterious and seemingly unsolvable medical pictures. It’s quite an honour for a Flemish doctor to be asked to join the team.

For Cassiman, the past two months have no doubt been an unforgettable experience. But he might equally have made an appointment with his colleagues at Ghent’s University

Hospital (UZGent).

Since June 2015, UZGent has been home to a similar undiagnosed rare diseases programme, known as Proza. In the programme, a team of four – they are actually referred to as “Dr House’s team” in the corridors – work together to help local patients who have slipped through the net of the diagnosing system.

“The profession of a physician, whether they’re a GP or a brain surgeon, is in many ways still a trade, a craft,” says Wim Terryn, one of the four Proza doctors and an internist specialised in infectious and kidney diseases. “There’s no golden protocol every doctor in the world follows to reach a diagnosis. Everyone has their own style, and in some continued on page 5

\ CuRRent aFFaIRs

Flemish Red Cross collects donations for earthquake victims in Italy locals can give directly to italian relief efforts, hampered by aftershocks alan Hope Follow alan on twitter \ @alanHopeFt

T

he Flemish Red Cross is accepting donations for the victims of the earthquake that struck central Italy last week, taking at least 290 lives. Some 300 people have been treated in area hospitals.

“The money will be transferred to the Red Cross in Italy, and then

they can decide how the donations are used,” said An Luyten, spokesperson for the Flemish Red Cross.

“It could be used for tents or medical kits, for example.”

At least 2,500 people have been made homeless by the 6.3 magnitude quake, which was followed by a 4.3 magnitude shock and

hundreds of smaller aftershocks, making rescue work more difficult. Because the area is popular with tourists, authorities are also finding it difficult to determine exactly how many people were in the buildings affected in the towns of Amatrice, Arquata, Accumoli and Pescara del Tronto.

© Riccardo De luca/MaXPPP

The local Red Cross chapter can also help trace missing family members, Luyten told VRT. But so far they have received no requests.

Donations can be made by transfer to bank account BE53 0000 0000 5353 with the reference “aardbeving Italië”.

Musicians and politicians pay tribute, as Toots Thielemans laid to rest

Transmigrants discovered following accident on E40

Politicians and artists have been paying tribute to jazz musician Toots Thielemans, who died early last week at the age of 94.

The Brussels-born Thielemans, particularly known as a harmonica virtuoso, had been in hospital since last month, when he suffered a fall.

“We saw it coming, but it was still a serious shock,” said Flemish jazz guitarist Philip Catherine, who was informed of Thielemans’ death while on holiday in France. The two musicians played together often and remained in close contact.

For Kurt Overbergh, artistic director of Brussels concert hall Ancienne Belgique, Thielemans (pictured) was above all an ordinary Brussels ketje. “Artists often have a desire to be larger than life,” he said. “But Toots was always friendly and down to earth, and I think that’s the best way to go through life.”

Singer Johan Verminnen recalled the first time he asked Thielemans to play on a recording. “I was wet behind the ears and didn’t realise I was talking to a world star. His reply was ‘How can I help you?’

Despite his status he was always an extremely friendly man.”

“I remember I had a new message on my answering machine one

One person was killed and five seriously injured in a traffic accident last week on the westbound E40 at Oudenburg in West Flanders. In the back of one of the lorries involved in the accident, police discovered four migrants without papers.

The four African men were locked inside the lorry and were discovered when they banged on the sides. The vehicle was refrigerated and had German number plates.

According to police, the men were headed to the UK. They were ordered to leave the country but not held.

© Jos knaepen/tootsthielemans.com

January,” recalls pianist Jef Neve.

“Toots had played a tune, and said ‘Happy New Year, Jefke!’ Those are moments you don’t forget”.

Flemish culture minister Sven Gatz said that a museum or house dedicated to the musician was not out of the question. “But I think the strength of a musician is that he will always be rediscovered by other musicians,” Gatz said. “In the case of Toots, I can say that he has enough musician friends to make sure that happens.”

“I will remember Toots above all as a gentle, warm-hearted and likeable global star who stood on the stage with no pretensions,” said Brussels minister Guy Vanhengel, a friend of the

harmonica player. “We have a lot to learn from Toots, the musician who built an international career everyone from Brussels and from Belgium can be proud of. He may well be the biggest ever Belgian in the outside world.”

Thielemans was buried last Saturday in La Hulpe, where he lived in his later years. A book of condolences was opened at Brussels city hall.

In related news, the Brussels Capital Academy for Music plans to introduce a course in harmonica, director Bruno De Jonghe has announced. The school, which teaches music to adults as well as children from the age of six, has already had several enquiries and expects renewed interest following Thielemans’ death.

“I’ve played the harmonica for years, and I’m a huge fan of Thielemans,” De Jonghe said.

The academy’s “jazz and light music” section includes lessons in several instruments, including guitar, percussion, piano, saxophone and keyboard. However, the harmonica is not recognised as an instrument by the parttime education system – something De Jonghe intends to rectify.

“The harmonica offers all sorts of possibilities, including for children,” he said. \ AH

The accident happened when another lorry drove into a tailback caused by maintenance work on the roadside. A car was crushed between two lorries, and one of the passengers – a 40-yearold man from La Louvière – was killed. The driver and her daughter were both injured.

The motorway was closed for several hours, while long tailbacks built up on the E40 and A10 towards Ostend. Civil defence personnel handed out water on what was the warmest day of the year so far. \ AH

De Lijn hands out 8,500 fines for blocking service Flemish public transport authority De Lijn has handed out 8,440 traffic fines since it took over the running of the fines system from the police court last September.

More than four out of five fines were for drivers parking in a bus bay.

De Lijn is now responsible for imposing its own fines of €107 on anyone who holds up the service.

The total brought in over the 10 months to date comes to more

250

than €900,000, with parked cars the biggest hindrance.

“That creates a dangerous situation for passengers who want to get off,” a company spokesperson said. By law, parking is not permitted 15m on either side of a bus stop.

At the request of the Flemish ombudsman, De Lijn has now created a FAQ to explain the system. \ AH

25%

17 €1.3 billion new driving instructors required in Flanders to cope with reformed regulations for driver education and the retirement of many experienced instructors, according to industry federation Federdrive

\2

spent in 2014 on pets in Belgium.

Households in Flanders spent 0.7% of their budget on pets, mainly on food and vet bills. One in five families in Flanders has a dog, while one in four has a cat

29,500 staff of companies active at Brussels Airport have not yet returned to work following the bomb attack in March. Ten are employees of Brussels Airlines

people travelled by train to the coast on Thursday, 25 August, a record for the summer. Ostend was the most popular destination, with 17,000 visitors

increase since 2011 in the number of employees in Flanders who work from home one or more days a week, according to the federal economy ministry

august 31, 2016

weeK in Brief Brussels needs more public transport at night, not only for those out on the town but also for restaurant and shift-workers, according to the public transport users group TreinTramBus. The organisation said it recognised that a 24-hour metro service was unfeasible, but suggested an extension of the Noctis night-bus service to run all week instead of only Friday and Saturday.

Hanne Verstreken and Jaro Steens, winners of the first edition of Mijn Pop-uprestaurant! in 2014, have sold the food truck they bought with their €100,000 winnings and plan to open a restaurant in Antwerp. An advertisement for the truck appears on the website 2dehands.be, with an asking price of €50,000.

For the third time, the lemon sole has been named Fish of the Year by the Flemish centre for agricultural and fisheries marketing Vlam.

The fish won the title previously in 1997 and 2008. Belgians consumed only 116 tonnes of lemon sole last year from a catch of 705 tonnes.

Works on the Antwerp Ring due to start on 5 September will last two months and mainly be carried out overnight, the roads and traffic agency said. Effects could be felt as early as 21.00, with closure of lanes and on- and off-ramps. The works involve replacing joints between the plates of reinforced concrete that make up the road, covering the area between the Kennedy Tunnel and the Deurne interchange on the north-bound carriageway.

The annual Snow and Ice Sculpture Festival in Bruges is moving to Hasselt, organisers have announced. The festival has been an annual event in Bruges since 1999, but visitor numbers have been falling. Organisers said the terror attacks in Paris last November led many coach parties to cut

face of flanders Bruges from their itineraries, while changes to the bus and taxi zones in front of Bruges station meant the festival would have less space.

It will now join Hasselt’s Winterland event and be called Ice Magic Hasselt.

The city of Leuven has signed a cultural co-operation agreement with the German city of Neuss. It was two battalions of troops from the German city who were responsible for much of the damage suffered

by Leuven in 1914. “We want to show that culture can repair what fire and war once destroyed,” said Denise Vandevoort, city councillor for culture. The agreement covers both cities’ archives, library exchanges and a joint exhibition in 1918 to mark the 100th anniversary of the end of the First World War. Mega-brewer AB InBev has plans to cut 3% of the workforce – some 5,500 jobs – after it has completed its takeover of SABMiller, Bloomberg reports. The figures come from merger documents the company submitted to competition authorities. The job cuts will be introduced in phases. Shareholders of the two companies will vote on 28 September.

Last Saturday saw the world’s largest ever Kubb tournament in Aalst, with more than 500 games being played simultaneously.

Kubb is a Swedish lawn game that involves knocking over wooden blocks by throwing wooden batons at them. The Aalst tournament is now in its 10th edition.

Brussels households consumed 1.9% less electricity in 2015 than the previous year, when consumptionwasdown4.4%on2013,according to expertise centre Brugel. They used more gas, however, which the centre attributed to the weather. A number of new providers entered the market, pushing down prices by 6% for electricity and by 8% for gas.

Flemish TV channel Acht has been renamed CAZ and will relaunch on 1 October as the “male equivalent of Vitaya”, new owners Medialaan have announced. The group said it would cater mainly to men aged 18 to 54, with mob and action movies and series such as Game of Thrones and Dexter. It will also produce a series looking behind the scenes of the Belgian army’s Special Forces.

Jane Windey, a 21-year-old tourism student from Bruges, has been named Job Student of the Year

by Unizo and human resources consultants ADMB. Windey guides tourists by bike in the city and surrounding area. A Unizo study showed that three out of four employers use job students, particularly in peak periods.

Dutch celebrity chef Sergio Herman plans to open his upscale chip-shop Frites Atelier in Antwerp later this year, he said.

Herman already owns a branch in The Hague and is co-owner of the two-Michelin star restaurant The Jane in Antwerp. “It’s not an eight-course meal, but a packet of fries can also be great,” he told Het Belang van Limburg. “It’s nice to be able to offer a top product for less than €5.”

The Royal Institute for Cultural Heritage in Brussels is investigating the apparent disturbance of two reliquaries in the Sint-Catharina Church in Maaseik, Limburg province, after it was discovered that bones contained in one had been moved to the other and that some of them had been wrapped in freezer bags – activity that followed the last official opening of the containers in 1930. The unofficial opening is thought to have taken place between 1987 and 1992.

offside never the twain The American scientist and philosopher Stephen Jay Gould proposed in a 1997 essay that the conflict between religion and science was a false concept. They were in fact entirely separate domains – he used the term “non-overlapping magisteria” – and the terms of one were not applicable to the other.

So what to make of a Communion wafer that appeared to start bleeding in Aalst? The news appeared last week, after the priest, Father Eric Jacqmin, announced the apparition that took place last month in his home, in the presence of seven witnesses present to celebrate a birthday Mass.

The wafer was contained in a metal holder difficult to tamper

dimitri vegas and like mike Flemish-Greek duo Dimitri Vegas and Like Mike have made it onto Forbes’ top 10 list of the world’s highest paid DJs. As the new boys on the millionaire’s block, they hold the 10th spot.

The duo’s estimated 2016 income amounts to €13.7 million.

(Number one on the list is Taylor Swift’s boyfriend, Calvin Harris, at €56 million).

Local authorities know Vegas and Mike as Dimitri and Michael Thivaios, Willebroekborn brothers of Greek origin.

They started working together in 2006, when Dimitri (pictured right), who was living in Greece at the time, returned to Flanders to help produce the first release under their Dimitri Vegas and Like Mike-moniker: “La Cocaina”.

A few years later, they hosted Tomorrowland for the first time, creating the anthem of the internationally renowned festival. “Tomorrow (Give in to the Night)” featuring Dada Life and Tara McDonald came out on the duo’s own label, Smash The House, and established their status as colossi of commercial

dance music.

They went on to host annual sold-out parties at Antwerp’s Sportpaleis, to play all over the world and to create another anthem – for the Red Devils during Euro 2016. Vegas and Mike are currently the first duo to become DJ Mag’s number one DJ, dethroning the Netherlands’ Hardwell after two consecutive years.

Vegas and Mike play and produce the same genre as most of their Forbes-list compatriots: electronic dance music (EDM), which serves as an umbrella term for popular dance genres like drum’n’bass, trance and dubstep. Their style comprises a mix of heavily produced electro and heavily produced house called, you guessed it, electrohouse.

EDM DJs are usually the ones who play the biggest clubs and festivals dance music has to offer and have been known to pour champagne all over the first rows of their audiences.

And flamboyant Vegas and Mike aren’t averse to this kind of decadence. \ Laurens Bouckaert

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

with, believers said. The event took place nine months after Father Jacqmin came into possession of the object, on his birthday, and in the month of the Holy Blood.

According to Father Jacqmin, the phenomenon stands outside all natural laws. According to professor Liesbeth Jacxsens of the department of food safety and quality at Ghent University, the host probably became discoloured by the presence of bacteria or mould, which produces a red colour in products containing starch.

Examples, she cited, are the bacterium Serratia marcescens, which produces a red pigment, or the fungus Monilia sitophila en Oidium, which has the same effect.

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

© John snyder/wikimedia

The professor is ready to analyse a piece of the host. The priest is unlikely to agree to that, adhering to Gould’s belief: the two domains have nothing to say to each other.

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

Editorial addrEss Gossetlaan 30 - 1702 Groot-Bijgaarden tel 02 467 23 06 editorial@flanderstoday.eu suBscriPtions tel 03 560 17 49 subscriptions@flanderstoday.eu or order online at www.flanderstoday.eu advErtising 02 467 24 37 advertising@flanderstoday.eu vErantwoordElijkE uitgEvEr Hans De Loore

\3

\ POlItICs

5TH column the 20%

The federal government has returned from holidays to tough budget talks, with some clear decisions to make. One discussion that seems to be settled already is that of a balanced budget by 2018.

Although it was part of the coalition agreement, no one is still insisting on a balanced budget. The general consensus seems to be that it is simply unattainable.

This is particularly troubling for leading party N-VA. A balanced budget was one of the cornerstones of its election programme, meant to “clean up the budgetary mess” left by the previous government and the French-speaking socialists PS. However, N-VA is hoping for another trophy: lowering business taxes. The idea is to make it more simple: the current rate stands at over 30%. With a wide range of possible reductions, hardly any company ever pays the full tax, but that is hard to explain, as foreign companies often only look at the rate itself.

So federal finance minister Johan Van Overtveldt (N-VA) has come up with a simple plan: lower the rate to a 20% flat rate, with no reductions possible.

The idea has not been accepted by the government yet, but it has caught international attention already. A Dutch financial newspaper put Van Overtveldt’s plans on its front page, stating that it “increases pressure” on the Dutch tax system.

In any case, lowering business tax rates is an international trend, as most OECD countries have done the same in recent years. Some critics warn about a “race to the bottom”.

International attention is one thing, getting the reduction approved is another. N-VA’s coalition partners CD&V and OpenVLDhavetheirownobjections. CD&V is worried about the treasury, as the budget is in trouble already. Vice-prime minister Kris Peeters again demanded a capital gains tax in return, as “a matter of fairness”.

Open VLD, meanwhile, stresses that the reduction should not be a “raise in disguise”. The liberals are worried about measures to compensate for the reduction.

Employer organisation VBO, too, is critical. It does not want to see the “notional interest reduction” disappear.

This reduction has persuaded many overseas corporations to choose Belgium as its European headquarters, but many local companies champion it, too.

Cutting company tax will thus become a major test for the Michel government. and the international attention won’t do much to ease the pressure. \ Anja Otte

\4

Brexit: North Sea Union could ease international relations flemish minister-president in favour of new ‘blue’ trade coalition alan Hope More articles by alan \ flanderstoday.eu

F

landers would be willing to join a new North Sea Union to govern trade relations with the UK after the country leaves the European Union, Britain’s Daily Telegraph reports. Flemish minister-president Geert Bourgeois, whose portfolio also includes foreign trade, was once again arguing for what he called a “soft Brexit”.

Bourgeois (pictured) first spoke of a soft Brexit in a speech last month, following the UK’s 23 June vote to leave the EU. His words contrasted with the more aggressive terms used by Belgian prime minister Charles Michel, who insisted the interests of continuing member states would come far ahead of those of the British.

“I can’t imagine a situation where we have more

© nicolas Maeterlinck/Belga

barriers on trade in both directions,” Bourgeois told the Telegraph. “You are our fourth biggest export market. It is in our mutual interest to find a solution, and the majority of the EU now

agrees that anything other than a soft Brexit would have a huge cost.”

The idea of a North Sea Union was first proposed by the Bremen regional government in Germany, which borders the North Sea. Bourgeois now believes the notion could be the basis for a new sort of co-operation between the UK and other European countries.

“I am not proposing a new EU,” Bourgeois told the paper. “My idea is a light structure on an intergovernmental basis, like the Mediterranean Union. There are so many areas in which we can work together on the enormous potential of blue industry in the oceans, whether it is the pharmaceutical sector, health or food production.”

Minister heads to West Africa to promote Flemish ports

Antwerp women organise ‘beach party’ against burqini ban

Flemish public works minister Ben Weyts has begun a week-long mission to West Africa, to discuss the use of Flemish ports with trading partners in Guinea and Ivory Coast. Just before his departure, the ports of Zeebrugge and Antwerp signed a co-operation agreement to work together more closely on the matter.

“We want to be seen as the front door to a European market of about 500 million consumers,” Weyts told Flanders Today. “Because of our maritime logistics and expertise, it’s useful for countries – and for whole continents even – to enter the European market through our ports. We always want to explore new markets.”

Weyts will be accompanied by some 50 representatives from local concerns and will meet with high-level contacts in Abidjan, the economic capital of Ivory Coast, and Conakry, the capital of Guinea.

A group of young Muslim women in Antwerp held a “beach party” last Saturday in protest at N-VA’s proposed ban on the burqini and at recent comments made by the city’s mayor, Bart De Wever. The event was planned to take place on Suikerrui, next to city hall, but moved to the nearby Steenplein.

“We are women, and we’re free,” the group said on its Facebook page. “We’re not prepared to have anyone tell us what we can or cannot wear.”

The burqini is a full-body swimsuit intended to allow Muslim women to go to the beach without exposing themselves. Last week, De Wever referred to burqinis as wearable “tents”. The comments followed his party’s proposal that the burqini should be banned on Flanders’ beaches as it has been in several coastal resorts in France, most notably Cannes and Nice.

“Our bodies are our own,” said

© Courtesy of port of abidjan

While Flanders already has strong ties with Abidjan, it is looking to make inroads into Conakry, an emerging economy.

Last week the CEOs of the ports of Antwerp and Zeebrugge signed an agreement to begin offering shipping companies access to both ports for a single tariff. The two signed a declaration of intent a year ago to work together more closely.

The CEOs of the two ports, with their counterparts from Ghent and Ostend, are part of the Flemish delegation to Africa. \ AH

© giorgio Montersino/wikimedia.

the group, which called its action a st(r)a(n)dfeest, a play on words mixing “beach party” with “city party”. “We decide which area of skin should be covered or left exposed. That’s how it ought to be, with a burqini, bikini, monokini or no kini at all.” \ AH

Weyts and Schauvliege break ground on Zwin expansion Flanders’ environment minister Joke Schauvliege and public works minister Ben Weyts broke ground last week on works to extend the Zwin nature reserve in Knokke at the coast.

The reserve, which opened a new visitors’ centre earlier this summer (pictured), will eventually double in size. The project will also include storm protection, at a total cost of €12.7 million.

The Zwin reserve consists of sand flats situated on the border between West Flanders and Zeeland province in the Netherlands. The expansion works will add some 120 hectares to the reserve, almost doubling its size by 2019.

The works involve taking sand from the Zwin estuary to the Willem-Leopold polder, where a new dyke will be constructed to replace the existing one , which dates to 1872. In 2019, the old dyke will be demolished, and the polder – which straddles the border and is named after Willem III of the Netherlands and Leopold II of Belgium – will be returned to the sea.

That will have two effects. Wildlife will be given 120ha of new habitat – an act of compensation for the loss of habitat caused by the dredging of the Westerschelde further up the coast for shipping purposes.

And the works will prevent further silting of the Zwin, which was once the waterway used by ships to sail

© Courtesy Zwin nature reserve

all the way to Bruges, until silting cut off access.

The operation involves shifting the equivalent of 150,000 lorries of sand. Outdoors enthusiasts, and especially bird-watchers, will also benefit. “The Zwin will not only become larger and more valua-

ble, the new dyke will make the hinterland safer,” Weyts said at the ground-breaking ceremony in the Dutch village of Retranchement.

“The broader and deeper Zwin estuary is essential for the sustainable future of low-tide areas,” Schauvliege added. \ AH

\ COVeR stORy

august 31, 2016

The diagnosis detectives

in its first year, uZgent’s undiagnosed disease programme has solved 200 cases uZgEnt.BE

continued from page 1

disciplines diagnosing a patient involves more routine than in others.”

To err is human, and so it often happens that a doctor can’t make a clear diagnosis when they listen to a patient’s complaints or examine their body. That’s why our modern health system has both primary (GPs) and secondary health care (specialists).

A GP can refer patients with ambiguous or vague medical pictures to a specialist for further investigation, or to a colleague for a second opinion. For most patients, it stops there: they get the right diagnosis and, hopefully, a treatment is prescribed.

But for a minority, it’s the beginning of a journey in which they see more doctors and specialists than the average Fleming encounters in their whole life.

The Proza team consists of four specialists: two in internal medicine, one neurologist and one geneticist. “Many of the rare diseases that are missed in primary or secondary health care are genetic,” says Bruce Poppe, the geneticist. So, he explains, it’s important to sequence the exome, or the gene-coding part of the DNA, of the patients they deal with. They then try to find a match in the scientific literature with a known disorder.

Many of the genetic, sometimes hereditary, disorders are chronic or progressive – and often life-threatening. And though the diseases are rare, a surprising number of people suffer from one of them.

“Less than one in 2,000 people in Flanders are affected by an officially recognised ‘rare disease’,” says Poppe, “but because there are more than 8,000 variations of such diseases, the total number of patients in Flanders lies somewhere between 30,000 and 50,000.”

One of those rare disorders is Fabry’s disease, known for its misdiagnoses among clinicians.

Terryn wrote his PhD thesis on it. “Fabry’s disease is an ultra-rare disorder that produces symptoms and complaints that can easily be misunderstood,” he says. “I recall a young man who was hospitalised with a high fever and severe pain in his arms and legs, just after his GP had sent him home telling he just had a severe sinus infection.”

It was only after the patient had a stroke that another doctor remembered a similar case from a conference he’d attended a while before.

The patient was quickly sent to Poppe, and, after an exome scan, they discovered the real cause: Fabry’s disease.

Fortunately, there’s a treatment for Fabry’s disease, although it requires a hospital visit every two weeks for the rest of your life.

When Terryn says that a doctor

© Courtesy uZgent

the Proza team, from left: wim terryn, Dimitri Hemelsoet, steven Callens and Bruce Poppe

remembered a similar case entirely by coincidence, he hits the nail on the head. One of the reasons Poppe and his three colleagues started the Proza programme a year ago

the practice of diagnosing,” says Terryn, “as it’s clear that this routine hasn’t solved the cases that reach us. I believe a multidisciplinary approach is an important key

The Proza team meets twice a month, once to discuss new files, the second time to see the patients whose files were not clear enough to make a diagnosis. In the first

Making the right diagnosis depends heavily on what questions you ask and what answers you give priority to was their desire to decrease the role of chance in whether or not a patient receives the right diagnosis in time.

“We want to abolish routine in

to our success, combined with the fact that we sit together and brainstorm with each other when we discuss a file or see a patient in person.”

meeting, they discuss which of the new files, submitted by physicians across Flanders, offer the most hope of a diagnosis.

If a file is admitted, the Proza

doctors don’t necessarily see the patient behind it. On the contrary, in most cases the medical mystery is solved based solely on the information in the file. If it isn’t, the patient is invited for a consultation. “Since we’ve started, more than a year ago, we’ve diagnosed more than 200 patients,” Poppe says. “Of those 200, we saw 50 in person for a consultation.”

It’s a heavy workload for a team of four who do this as a kind of volunteer work. And, according to Poppe’s statistics, the number of requests isn’t decreasing.

During a consultation, a patient meets all four Proza doctors together. “Making the right diagnosis depends heavily on what questions you ask and what answers you give priority to,” explains Terryn. “We try to find as much as objective information as possible and avoid vague complaints, like fatigue, which is almost impossible to measure. It’s all about trying to find clues that put us on the way.”

When the team eventually come up with the diagnosis, it’s not necessarily a rare genetic disorder no one has ever heard of before.

Sometimes the final outcome even seems a little banal – but of course no less serious for the patient.

Terryn: “I recall a woman who was sufferingfrompaininherjointsand chronic fatigue and had already been diagnosed eight years earlier with fibromyalgia. We discovered that, before the complaints started, she had undergone gastric bypass surgery. A rare but wellknown consequence of such an operation – if it’s not carried out well – is a syndrome that causes fibromyalgia-like symptoms. We were able to help the woman; after six weeks of treatment, she felt fit as a fiddle.”

Like so many conditions, Fabry’s disease was named after its discoverer, a German named Johannes Fabry. Is there a chance that, someday, a patient at UZ Gent will be diagnosed with Poppe’s disease or Terryn’s syndrome?

“Thousands of rare genetic disorders have already been discovered and described, so there’s not much chance we’ll find a new one,” Terryn says. “But it’s not zero. At UZGent, we have a unique set of sequencing machinery by which we can scan a patient’s exome and immediately compare the results with the existing genomic data in the scientific literature.”

Even if there’s no match, he says, “we can continue our search and look for genetic anomalies in the patient’s DNA that resemble known mutations. This bio-informatics approach could lead us to yet undiscovered genes and, yes, to undiscovered disorders.”

\5

\ BusIness

weeK in Business Food Culinor The producer of ready-to-eat meals, based in Destelbergen, East Flanders, has been acquired by Switzerland’s Orior food group. Culinor is a leader in the Benelux countries and will become the Orior’s European competency centre.

events easyfairs The affiliate of the Brussels-based event organiser Artexis has acquired the World Water Works Conference and Exhibition from the Dutch ESC International.

Office space Bird The French start-up, developer of a website offering short-term office space based on the Airbnb model, has launched operations on the local market.

Fibres solvay The Brussels-based chemical and plastics group has inaugurated a new carbon fibre production line to double capacity in its unit in the US state of South Carolina to meet a growing demand from the American aerospace industry. The company is already a leading supplier of Boeing.

Banking Optima Optima bank’s bankruptcy proceedings require further investigations into the Ghent-based company’s affiliates. Magistrates are now seeking information on questionable deals in connection with the bank’s Spanish subsidiary.

logistics Cobepa The Brussels-based holding company has pushed its stake in the German JF Hillebrand logistics group beyond 50%.

Printing graphius Flanders’ largest printer, based in Ghent, has acquired Brussels’ Dereume printing firm to develop its activities in francophone Belgium.

Construction Besix The Brussels-based building group has won the €581 million contract to build an 82,000-seat stadium near Paris for the French rugby federation. The facility will be the home of the country’s national team and the venue for the Six Nations Tournament fixtures.

\6

Retailers co-operate on central system for complaints industry federation to tackle customer service in 20 chain stores alan Hope Follow alan on twitter \ @alanHopeFt

C

omeos, the federation representing the major retail and supermarket chains, is to set up its own ombudsman service to deal with complaints of customer satisfaction. The service should be up and running by the new year, De Tijd reports.

The service will deal with complaints from customers regarding products bought in

one of the participating stores, where the customer believes the store has not done enough to respond. “Customers can consult the service absolutely free,” said Comeos chair Dominique Michel.

“The service will be financed by the chain stores, which will pay a sort of subscription depending on their size. That money will allow us to hire independent lawyers who can step in if there is a conflict

© Courtesy maxedadiygroup.com

between a customer and a chain.”

Not all Comeos members – which

include such chains as Brico, Ikea, Carrefour and Overstock – are taking part, but the federation aims to have 20 chains on board by the time it launches in January. “I see a lot of interest, and we expect more stores to join up as the project advances,” Michel said.

More information on consumer rights and a list of stores taking part will be made available when the service is launched.

Antwerp port appeals against Dutch windmill plans at Zeeland

Unions sceptical of Bpost plan to recruit refugees as mail carriers

Antwerp Port Authority has filed an appeal with the Council of State in the Netherlands against the planned route of cables from a wind turbine installation off the coast of Zeeland. The route leads from the installation to the hightension station at Borssele via the Westerschelde – the estuary of the Scheldt river that carries heavy sea traffic to and from Antwerp and the sea.

The Dutch plans involve five turbine installations, delivering a total of 3,500 megawatts of power, which will be carried via transformer stations and cable to land.

According to the Port Authority, the planned route will be a danger to shipping in the Westerschelde.

Alternative routes were not sufficiently studied, the appeal alleges.

Five possible routes were originally proposed, two of which pass though the Westerschelde.

The Dutch government preferred what is known as Route 4B, and delivered the necessary permits.

Antwerp port claims that it repeatedly raised objections but was

Unions representing postal workers are concerned about a proposal by national post Bpost to bring in refugees to fill the vacancies for mail carriers. The jobs would go to those who have been accepted as asylum-seekers.

“Refugees are certainly welcome, but they have to have the right background,” said Jean-Pierre Nyns of the socialist union ACOD. “In the Brussels periphery we already get a lot of complaints from people that their mail carrier doesn’t speak Dutch. It’s a sensitive question.”

A Bpost spokesperson pointed out that the company has already filled many jobs with low-skilled workers. “We would have to approach this in the right way,” she said. “You can’t just hand over a letter bag to a refugee.”

Bpost is looking for at least 60 new mail carriers, mainly in the Flemish municipalities around Brussels. The company is already having trouble filling vacancies. because of improved economic conditions. Jobs are easier to fill during economic downturns, the

© Frans Berkelaar/Flickr

ignored by the Dutch government.

The port alleges that Route 4B is not in line with the 2005 Scheldt Treaty signed by both Dutch and Flemish governments, which concerns matters such as safety, accessibility and the environment.

The cable route passes through the river’s busiest shipping lanes, creating new potential obstacles to traffic in a spot where Flanders spent €50 million clearing old wreckage in the 1990s to make the river safe.

“Nothing must be allowed to impede the safety and efficiency of international shipping traffic to and from the port of Antwerp,” the port authority said in a statement. \ AH

British court ruling could complicate AB InBev’s bid for SABMiller A British court has ruled that the two main shareholders of Londonbased brewer SABMiller may be treated as a separate voting class in approving a takeover by Leuvenbased AB InBev. The ruling makes it easier for approval to be blocked.

The two shareholders – the Altria Group and Bevco, owned by the Santo Domingo family – were offered a combination cash and equity package by InBev, while other SABMiller shareholders were offered only cash. Since the initial offer, however, the value of the pound has fallen, while the value of InBev shares, which are denominated in euros, remains steady. InBev recently raised the offer from £44 to £45 to make up

© Courtesy saBMiller

for the fall.

The decision to treat the two blocs as separate now means it would take only 15% of shareholders to block the deal when it comes up for a vote on 28 September, instead of 25%. Both major shareholders have committed to approving the takeover, but their collective weight is now less than it was. \ AH

© Courtesy Bpost

spokesperson said.

“We’ve called on the help of municipalities to communicate vacancies in the belt around Brussels, the coastal region and Antwerp,” the spokesperson said. Advertisements will also be printed on 100,000 bread bags in the region.

“Recruiting mail carriers is only the first step,” Nyns said. “Bpost also has to make more effort to keep them. Turnover is huge because of work pressure, and the stress is only getting worse.”

Unions came out on strike for a day in June, and ACOD and the Christian union ACV have threatened more actions if their demands are not taken seriously. Both sides hope a new collective agreement can be reached in September. \ AH

Record number of young teachers becoming tenured in Flanders The number of tenured teachers younger than 25 has increased from 3% of the total in 2014 to 7% in 2015, according to the Flemish education ministry, responding to a parliamentary question by Flemish MP Vera Celis (N-VA).

Earlier research indicated that about half of teachers in Flanders had to wait until they were 30 years old to get tenure. This discouraged many young teachers, leading to one in four leaving the profession in the first five years.

The new statistics show that a positive evolution has started, Celis told De Standaard. “Tenure improves the psycho-social well-

being of many young teachers,” she said.

According to De Standaard, the statistics could become part of the ongoing debate on the pros and cons of the tenure system in education. Many school directors are opposed to the system because it doesn’t allow enough freedom in dismissing teachers who are seen as underperforming.

Among teachers, there is more support for the system, as it provides them a defence against “overeager education reformers,” as one teacher told the paper. \ Andy Furniere

\ InnOVatIOn

august 31, 2016

From the heart

weeK in innovaTion

charity rewards inventions designed for people with disabilities andy furniere More articles by andy \ flanderstoday.eu

HandicaPintErnational.BE

N

ette Dedapper’s grandmother loves to read and can spend hours buried in her favourite novels. But she is also partly paralysed and finds it difficult to hold a book, let alone turn the pages.

So the 12-year-old girl, who lives in Nijlen, Antwerp province, did what few other kids would do: She designed a book stand that makes it easier for her grandmother to read.

For her invention, Nette received the public prize in the Design with a Heart contest, organised by the Belgian chapter of the non-profit Handicap International. As part of the annual event, the organisation recognises amateur inventors who come up with tools designed to improve the daily lives of people with disabilities.

Like Nette, the three other laureates this year were inspired by the need to help their relatives or partners. Among the winners was also a team from the West Flanders University College (HoWest).

It’s the 13th time the local chapter of Handicap International has organised the contest that promotes non-commercial innovations for people with disabilities. The competition is aimed at caregivers, including occupational therapists and schools.

“While we have noticed that there are many products on the market for people with disabilities, they often don’t meet the individual needs of each person and can be very expensive,” says Nicole Luyckx, who co-ordinates the contest.

Design with a Heart provides the amateur inventions with increased visibility, and Handicap Interna-

© Olivier Papegnies

nette Dedapper designed a system to allow her grandmother to turn the pages of her book

tional serves as a contact point for people who feel they could benefit from them.

The jury awarded laureates in four categories: ergonomics, userfriendliness, design and schools.

For the first time, the public could also vote for their favourite inventions, through the website. The prize went to Nette, who came up with the book stand for a classroom assignment.

“I had to design a tool that would make someone else’s life easier, and I immediately thought of my grandmother,” says Nette. “She likes to read a lot, but it had become very tiring and complicated for her because of her physical disability.”

Nette asked her grandmother’s advice on what would help her the most and designed the concept, while her father helped her craft the book support out of wood. Her grandfather had already made a stick for his wife to help her type, and she now uses it to turn the

book pages.

Frank Genar, from Hove, Antwerp province, won in the user-friendliness category. Like Nette’s grandmother, Genar’s wife is partly paralysed and uses a wheelchair, but she faces a different challenge.

“Ingrid became paralysed in an accident a few years ago,” says Genar. “But she can still stand up, and it’s essential for her to do so on a regular basis to improve her physical condition.”

Getting up from a wheelchair, however, is difficult because of the rigid plate that supports her feet.

To make it easier for his wife to stand up, Genar replaced the footplate with one that can be folded out of the way easily by pulling on two strings.

“I would always have to first help her onto a regular chair, from which she could then stand up on her own,” says Genar. “Now, she can get up from the wheelchair and, for example, take her coat from a

hanger.”

Thanks to the increased mobility and sense of independence, he adds, his wife’s physical condition has improved and she’s regained some of her confidence.

Gilles Deleu from Kortrijk won in the school category. While studying occupational therapy at HoWest, he spent his final academic year working with two others students on a special wheelchair mat for 64-year-old Marc Detremmerie, who’s been using a wheelchair for most of his life.

“After a shower, the tyres on Marc’s wheelchair would always leave marks all over the house,” says Deleu. “We developed a platform with rotating tubes covered in textile, on which he could easily dry them.” The platform can also serve as a doormat, to dry the wheels during rainy weather.

The other two winners are David Delabassée, from Tournai, in the design category and Olivier Demoulin, from Namur, in ergonomics, who came up with inventions for their children.

Delabassée developed a confetti machine for his nine-year-old daughter Lylou, who has a neuromuscular condition, so she can celebrate carnival like other children. Demoulin made portable and adjustable bedside rails for his 10-year-old son Gilles, who has both a mental and physical disability. Though Gilles has an adjustable bed at home, on holidays he risked falling out of bed. The new tool prevents that.

In addition to the awards, all winners received a voucher worth €500 to shop at home improvement chain Brico.

Researchers create bacteria that turn organic waste into plastic Researchers from Ghent University (UGent) and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) have bred bacteria that can digest organic waste and turn it into useful molecules for producing plastics. Although there is a long way to go before it could be used in industrial applications, the new method can act as a more ecological alternative to fossil-fuel plastics.

The search to replace fossil resources with more sustainable materials has already produced significant results. Still, plantbased plastics remain a niche product, and the shift from a fossil-fuel industry to a commercial production based on biological material has yet to take place.

One of the biggest questions is how the increasing industrial demands for natural resources like corn will balance with the need to feed humans and livestock. The research by UGent, in collabora-

© Ingimage

tion with MIT, has come up with a new method of producing bioplastics that rely on the help of bacteria.

“We’ve modified the E coli bacteria to make it capable of transforming certain types of sugar into ethylene glycol, a molecule used to make the common plastic called PET,” explains professor Marjan De Mey of the Biochemical and Microbial Technology department

at UGent. “The sugars are found in organic waste but are not digestible by humans.”

PETs are found everywhere – that’s what plastic bottles are made of, for example – so finding an organic alternative is crucial. “Bottles are just one of the many applications of PET,” says De Mey. “The molecule resulting from our process is exactly the same as the one derived from oil, so bottles made with it are the same as regular ones.”

There are already many organic bottles on the market, she continues, like Coca Cola’s green bottle, but their production is based on ethanol, a resource made of sugars suitable for human consumption.

“Our method offers a simpler way to derive the basic component of PET from non-consumable sugars.

It’s more sustainable than fuelbased production because it relies on natural resources, and the production process requires fewer chemicals.”

This makes it also more advantageous from an economic point of view, says De Mey. “The plastics industry is focused on mass production. If you want to develop an economically sound production method, then you need to start with resources that are less expensive. That’s why we chose to work with organic waste; it’s cheaper than sugars suitable for human consumption.”

Still, there is a long way to go before bacteria can compete with fossil fuels as a basic resource for plastics. “It is a good starting point, but the challenge is to apply this lab-based method in an industrial setting.”

Luckily, she adds, the chemical industry has already expressed some interest. “Consumers are demanding more sustainable products, so producers are looking beyond fossil fuels.”

\ Toon Lambrechts

VuB researchers improve fertility treatment

Researchers at the Free University of Brussels (VUB) and the University Hospital of Brussels have, in collaboration with Australian colleagues, found a way to improve in-vitro maturation (IVM), the alternative to the in-vitro fertilisation (IVF) method. For IVF, women take hormones to stimulate the growth of egg cells, which are then taken and fertilised outside the womb. The use of hormones results in significant discomfort, medical complications and high costs. With IVM, egg cells are removed earlier and then further developed outside the body. The international research group has improved the IVM process by adding a new growth factor to the egg cells, allowing them to better imitate the natural processes of egg cell maturation, without using hormones.

eco-friendly way to battle mosquitoes

Researchers at the University of Leuven have discovered that the biological pesticide Bti becomes more deadly to mosquitoes when adding aromatic substances obtained from the notonectidae family of water insects, also known as backswimmers,whicharenatural enemies of the mosquito. A chemical substance known as kairomone produced by notonectidae in the presence of prey causes a stress response in mosquitoes, which suppresses their immune systems. Based on this process, PhD student Lin Op de Beeck found that Bti’s effectiveness can be improved by adding a synthetic variant of these kairomones. She also showed that the substance harms the immune system in such a way that surviving mosquitoes still die faster.

too many toddlers given antibiotics

About half of Flemish children younger than three are given antibiotics at least once a year, according to figures reported

by Het Nieuwsblad the basis of research by the Onafhankelijke Ziekenfondsen (Independent Mutualities). Compared with a decade ago, the use of antibiotics is decreasing. In 2006, about 70% of under-threes were given antibiotics, but consumption in Flanders is still three times higher than in the Netherlands. The Onafhankelijke Ziekenfondsen are calling for clearer guidelines for doctors.

Excessive use of antibiotics at a young age increases the risk of developing a chronic disease like obesity, as antibiotics can permanently damage the intestinal flora. \ AF

\7

\ eDuCatIOn

august 31, 2016

Carving a niche

weeK in educaTion

summer course immerses international students in language and culture Paula dear More articles by Paula \ flanderstoday.eu

taaluniE.org

A

group of 114 students from 27 countries has just completed a special summer course at Ghent University (UGent). To attend it, some have travelled from as far as China, Argentina, India, South Africa, Indonesia and Russia, while others came from western and eastern Europe.

The focus of the course: to immerse yourself in the Dutch language and grasp the meaning of Flemish culture. Now in its 61st year, the two-week Taalunie Summer Course covers traditional areas like language, art and literature, but was re-designed this summer to concentrate more on how students can use it to enhance their careers.

“All kinds of people are interested in the course, and we are now more focused on the professional side,” says course leader Els Verschuere.

“Many of the students are following Dutch classes at their home university and may want to become translators. Others are interested in our history or art, or perhaps economics and politics.”

Though Dutch isn’t a large-scale language like English or French, “for some people there are more opportunities in the economic market if they speak a language like Dutch,” Verschuere explains.

“Whether that’s teaching, translat-

© Isabelle Pateer

More than 100 student from around the world spent part of their summer learning Dutch and working for local companies

ing or working for a company.”

Participants in this year’s programme – run jointly with the Dutch language union Taalunie – chose to follow one of four themes, depending on their interests or the subjects they are already studying at home.

The themes included media and politics, art and literature, linguistics and literature and translation and publishing and included sessions with guest speakers such as journalists and translators. Each topic was presented by a Flemish teacher and a tutor from the Netherlands, in order to have an “equilibrium between the Dutch language in both places,” says Verschuere.

Students were taken on tours of Ghent and The Hague and, in the final two days, completed internships at a range of businesses and organisations, including Flemish public broadcaster VRT, newspaper NRC Handelsblad and the Ghent-based digital research institute iMinds.

Olena Kretska, who studies Dutch language and literature at Kiev National Linguistic University in her home country of Ukraine, chose the course because of her interests in art and culture. “And, of course, because it’s a lot easier to find a good job in Kiev with such a rare language,” says the 20-yearold. “The programme in Ghent was

a good opportunity to travel to a Dutch-speaking area, especially as it can be difficult to get a visa.”

Kretska has already done some translating from Dutch and hopes to eventually work in the tourism sector and make full use of the language. During the course, she participated in a workshop at Ghent’s Museum of Fine Arts and attended a performance by author, illustrator and cabaret artist Joke van Leeuwen.

Did anything in particular surprise her about Flanders’ culture? “I was shocked that so many places in the city close at 19.00,” she says.

In a series of blogs the students posted about their experiences, Eszter Kovács, from Hungary, and Saurabh Pal, from India, wrote about their two-day internship at Flemish-Dutch heritage journal Ons Erfdeel in Menen, West Flanders.

Kovács said that when she travelled here from Hungary she hadn’t expected Belgium to play such an important role in her life, but added: “I already know that I want to come back here.”

Pal commented that in two days at the publication he had learned “more about the culture of Belgium and the Netherlands than in the one-and-a-half years I spent learning Dutch”.

Antwerp fashion department fourth best in world The fashion department of the Royal Academy of Fine Arts Antwerp has been awarded fourth place in the Global Fashion Schools ranking complied by the British website Business of Fashion.

Antwerp took fourth place on both the best bachelor and master’s degrees lists. The school became internationally famous thanks to the Antwerp Six, six graduates who went on to show

together at London Fashion Week in 1988 and made a huge splash on the global fashion industry. The six included Dries Van Noten and Ann Demeulemeester, and other graduates include Kaat Tilley, Martin Margiela and Raf Simons.

Walter Van Beirendonck, head of the department and member of the original Antwerp Six, attributed its success to a “strong vision”. “The

fashion department is now more than ever looking outwards,” he said. “The challenge is to keep the course dynamic and relevant so that fashion students from across the world think it worthwhile to come to little Antwerp.”

First on Business of Fashion’s list for bachelor and masterdegreesisCentralSaintMartinsinLondon.

\ Alan Hope

Q&a Tinne De Laet is the head of the tutorial services at the University of Leuven’s engineering sciences department that has recently come up with a new, less stressful method for grading multiple-choice exams Students lost points for guessing, but how do you know if they’re guessing?

In the new grading method, students are asked to indicate whether each answer is possible or impossible. If the student eliminates the correct answer, then they are penalised. If the student leaves more than one answer as the possible one, and one of them is the correct answer, then they will receive partial credit.

What inspired this method?

We found that students were experiencing high levels of stress when they were not entirely sure of their answer because they had to decide

whether to guess or leave the answer blank. Statistically speaking, you should always answer the question even if you’re unsure. But we noticed that there were some students who left answers blank anyway, when really they knew part of the answer.

So we started looking for alternatives to measure the students’ “real” knowledge as accurately as possible. We also wanted to make the experience less stressful, and we didn’t want to teach them to guess if they don’t know.

How do you know if this is having a positive impact?

More than 2,000 students partic-

traditional multiple-choice exam.

As we had expected, the number of students who passed did not really change. But we believe that the more risk-conscious students received better marks, while the risk-takers did less well, since guessing is no longer rewarded, and showing doubts will still get you some credit.

© Rob stevens / ku leuven

ipated in our experiment, and more than 60% indicated that they felt less stressed out than during a

Is this going to be implemented throughout the university?

Our vice rector has promised that every teacher who wants to use this new grading system next year will be able to do so. In the meantime, we will continue to experiment and hopefully the university will adopt a wider policy.

\ Interview by Samantha Clark

teacher entrance exams now mandatory

Students who start teaching studies in the coming academic year will be required to take an entrance exam after registering for the programme. Starting in 2016, aspiring teachers will have to take this exam before registering. The entrance exam, which is non-binding, is one of the key aspects of the reform of teaching studies approved by the government of Flanders earlier this year. The idea behind the exam is to raise the profile of teaching studies and to ensure that students are sufficiently motivated to begin the programme.

Students will also get an indication as to whether they are skilled enough in certain competences.

80% of students lose sleep to noise

About 80% of Flemish students living away from home in a student room are woken by night noise. As a result, almost 40% of them have to catch up two hours of sleep the next day and 4% never really feel rested in the morning. The findings are the results of research by two master’s students at Antwerp University. Ruben de Bruyn and Thijs Driesen surveyed 130 students living in student rooms about the acoustic comfort of their rooms. The biggest source of disturbance is airborne noise, which bothers about half of the students.

This mostly consists of voices and sounds from a radio or TV in other bedrooms or in shared spaces like the hall or kitchen.

schools turn away disabled children

Primary and secondary schools still too often refuse to register children with a disability, says Flanders’ Children’s Rights Commission. According to the government’s M decree on inclusive education, as many students as possible must be shifted from special education to regular education and schools are obliged to carry out “reasonable adjustments” such as providing children with special needs technical assistance. Children’s rights commissioner Bruno Vanobbergen, speaking to VRT, said that there are big differences between the attitudes of schools across the region. “Some are developing a proper care policy, while others are lagging behind,” he said. Most problems, he added, are caused by a lack of knowledge and training. \ Andy Furniere

\9

\ lIVIng

weeK in acTiviTies Brussels Comic strip Festival

The seventh annual edition puts the comics of Québec in the spotlight. See an exhibition of the Canadian province’s greatest strips, attend panel discussions with international artists or take part in a drawing workshop.

Register for guided walking and cycling tours of Brussels’ comic book murals. 2-4 September, Warandepark; free \ visit.brussels

Prinsenhof Festival This block party in Ghent’s Prinsenhof, the birthplace of Charles V, has something for everyone. A bike race, in honour of the future emperor’s mother, Joanna the Mad, workshops for kids, a guided tour of the neighbourhood with anecdotes from its residents, plus jazz and standup comedy in three historic locations. Tickets required for some events. 2-4 September, Prinsenhof; free to €15 \ prinsenhof-gent.be

Rozenberg light Parade Did you know that the oldest and biggest light parade in the world takes place in Flanders? In Mol, to be exact.

Come see the 132nd annual edition, with 23 floats decorated with electric lights.

The event kicks off with fireworks, and there will be live music. 3 September, from 19.45, town centre; free \ rozenberglichtstoet.be

gordel Festival The annual festival dedicated to de rand, or the Flemish periphery around Brussels, showcases all the activities and attractions that the area has to offer: cycling, hiking, heritage. There are two main locations for activities: Huizingen Provincial Park and the Jezus-Eik district in Overijse.

4 September, across de rand; free \ gordelfestival.be

Monument Run Choose between the 5K or 10K for this evening run through the centre of SintTruiden, where the historic buildings are beautifully lit after dark. Kids can participate too, with their own 1K run, and there’s live entertainment and a DJ party on the Grote Markt afterwards.

Register online or in person.

10 September, from 19.00, Grote Markt; €1-€8 \ monumentenrun.be

\ 10

Get your glean on

volunteers pick leftover crops, combating food waste and world hunger toon lambrechts More articles by toon \ flanderstoday.eu

fEEdBackgloBal.org

A

t least one-third of all the food produced in the world ends up not on our plates but in the waste bin. Meanwhile, millions of people still suffer from hunger and malnutrition. The unbelievable amount of wasted food is perhaps one of the greatest sins of the modern age.

Something needs to be done urgently, say the volunteers of the Gleaning Network EU, who spend their free time collecting leftover crops from farmers’ fields and offering them to charitable organisations.

The concept is simple, explains Helena Schalenbourg, a volunteer for the network’s local chapter. “On average, as much as 33% of the harvest is wasted in the first phase of the production process, either because the vegetables don’t meet the absurd aesthetic standards from the supermarkets, or because of unfair commercial practices.”

Wholesalers, she continues, also often cancel their orders at the last minute, leaving farmers with crops that can’t be sold anywhere else.

“Gleaning might be a possible, small-scale solution.”

Working with the farmers, the volunteers go to the fields, collect the vegetables and redistribute them to social organisations like food aid networks. “At the same time, gleaning is a way to raise awareness about the issue of food waste,” Schalenbourg says.

That’s necessary because wasting perfectly edible food for aesthetic standards is morally unacceptable, she says. “But it is an environmental disaster as well. Every vegetable that ends up in the bin is a waste of resources like water, fertilisers, land and, of course, the farmer’s labour.”

The participating farmers are very enthusiastic about the gleaning initiative. For Schalenbourg, this doesn’t come as a surprise. “Farmers put a lot of resources and love into their work, so it hurts them to see the fruits of their labour go to waste,” she says. “They are really happy with our effort to put these commercially unwanted vegetables to use, especially because we redistribute everything to charities and social entre-

© Courtesy gleaning network Belgium

Volunteers go into Flanders’ fields, collect leftover vegetables and redistribute them to social organisations like food aid networks

preneurs.”

Gleaning Network Belgium is part of the European network, which is headquartered in the UK. The first gleaning event in Flanders took place in 2014, on the occasion of the Feeding the 5000 event, run by the Feedback organisation to provide 5,000 people with a meal, using only food that didn’t make it to the supermarkets or was thrown away. Feedback is the brainchild of British environmental activist Tristram Stuart and has inspired similar movements all over Europe.

During last year’s harvest season, Gleaning Network Belgium went out to the fields almost every weekend for three consecutive months.

“It was intense, but very valuable,” says Schalenbourg. As the summer draws to an end, new

volunteers are enthusiastic, but sometimes also surprised.

“We are all raised with the idea of finishing everything on our plate out of respect,” says Schalenbourg. “Many participants are shocked when they see for themselves how much food goes to waste. I was too, the first time.”

Apart from raising awareness and collecting the leftover crops, Schalenbourg adds, gleaning is also an activity that connects volunteers with each other, but also with the land and the farmers. “People often don’t have a clue where their food comes from or what certain vegetables look like in reality,” she says. “So for all its simplicity, gleaning is actually more than meets the eye.”

BiTe

douBlEdutcHdrinks.com

antwerp twins mix high-end cocktails and mingle with richard Branson They have a nose for good business and a taste for original mixers. Twin sisters Joyce and Raissa de Haas of Antwerp launched Double Dutch two years ago, when they were just 23. Now the pair, who live in London, are going global at high speed.

“Even as students we were frustrated that there were so few options for those who like mixed drinks,” says Joyce. “So we thought, why not develop our own?”

The twins – who have Dutch roots, hence the name – studied economics at Antwerp University, and both went on to the University College London (UCL), where they picked up their second master’s in entrepreneurship technology. “At UCL, we were asked to pick a product that would become our study topic for the whole year,” explains Joyce. “We were so passionate about making

our own mixers that our choice was easily made.”

They graduated in 2014 with UCL’s title of most promising start-up of their year. With a grant from the school, they launched their first drink in early 2015.

“We started with mixing cucumber, watermelon, pomegranate and basil, with a focus on vodka and gin,” says Raissa. “We don’t just randomly mix drinks. We research them on a molecular level to figure out which flavour mixes best with which spirit.”

And then came Richard Branson, the internationally renowned business magnate and founder of Virgin Group. “In 2015, we won the Virgin StartUp Foodpreneur Festival and received coaching from Branson himself,” says Raissa. “He flew us to the United States and introduced

© Courtesy Double Dutch

us to the people running the retail giant Target. In January, you'll be able to find Double Dutch mixers in 300 of their stores.”

The sisters already export to several

European locations, including Belgium, Italy, Ibiza, the Czech Republic and Cyprus. Australia and South Africa will follow in 2017.

“We always start with the highend customers,” says Raissa. “First, we launch in five-star hotels and well-respected bars. Then we work with supermarkets to distribute our mixers.”

What’s next for the young entrepreneurs who have already achieved such fame? Joyce: “We want to develop a mixer for a darkercoloured spirit and target the Asian market.”

Whatever the future brings, the sisters will continue working together. Raissa: “It's probably because we are twins that we work so well together. It feels very natural”. \ Débora Votquenne

august 31, 2016

Come sail away

Entrepreneurs from ghent create a canoe that folds up like a suitcase andy furniere More articles by andy \ flanderstoday.eu

onakcanoEs.com

T

homas Weyn and Otto Van de Steene share a passion for canoeing. If it were up to them, urban waterways in their native Ghent would be teeming with boats paddling up and down the stream.

But transporting a conventional canoe is no easy task, even less so in the city, says Weyn.

“You always have to transport it on a car. An inflatable canoe, on the other hand, is not very robust.”

Coming from an engineering and a graphic design background respectively, Weyn and Van de Steene had tinkered with alternatives, but the breakthrough arrived three years ago when Van de Steene returned from a photography tour in Norway.

“I accidentally lost my cameras, so I started making tiny paper canoes to distract myself,” he says. “That’s when I was struck by the idea of making real-size foldable ones.”

Taking inspiration from the Japanese art of origami, the young entrepreneurs created a light-weight portable canoe, and called it Onak. The concept is not entirely new – the US-based company Oru Kayak offers kayaks that also fold and unfold.

For Onak, however, Weyn and Van de Steene developed a unique material based on the pattern of a honeycomb. It’s both highly flexible and durable.

With support from EconCore, a technology company connected to the University of Leuven, Weyn and Van de Steene were able to design a canoe that’s not only very sturdy and light, but also comfortable and safe.

Before hitting the production line, the Ghent start-up received support from the Flemish agency for innovation through science and technology, Vlaio, and the Flemish government's investment agency PMV. Weyn and Van de Steene also had assistance from the networking organisation Wonderland and raised some €235,000 through crowdfunding.

This month, production finally began. The canoe folds into a compact suitcase on wheels, weighing just 17 kilograms. In a few minutes, however, it transforms into a sturdy canoe that can carry a load of up to 250kg.

“Ideal for two people and some luggage,” says Weyn.

© Courtesy Onak

Onak has met with immensely positive feedback already, with many orders coming in from abroad

Or for three people. Onak was designed to seat up to three, so it can also be an enjoyable social activity, they emphasise.

The canoe can be used anywhere but is especially suited for urban paddling. This opens up new recreational opportunities, say the inventors, as canoeing is allowed in all Flemish cities, except for the centre of Bruges and some ports.

Onak will offer financial incentives to customers who share their adventures and routes online, with the aim of expanding the canoeing community. “Canoeing is the perfect way to relax during stressful times,” says Van de Steene. “You experience the urban environment differently and notice

things from a new perspective because you are not distracted by the traffic in the streets.”

It has met with immensely positive feedback already. Time magazine devoted an article

“The honeycomb material opens new opportunities, but it’s too early to disclose anything yet,” says Weyn.

If you’d like to examine the origami canoe up

You experience the urban environment differently and see things from a new perspective to it, and many orders are coming in from abroad. This means the canoe is probably not the end of the road for the two inventors.

close before sinking €1,295 into it (paddles included), head over to Ghent’s Design Museum, where one is currently on display.

Urban farming gets a smart makeover thanks to tilapia and bugs Somewhere in the ever-expanding universe of Dok, the canal-side festival-cum-meeting point for Ghent’s creative types, Pascal De Bondt and Kenny Vandenbroucke found space for their two fairly inconspicuous shipping containers.

One of them is filled with water tanks, home to tilapia and giant shrimp. The other holds vegetables, basking in a soft, pinkish light provided by a set of LED lamps. Together, the containers serve as a concept for what a smart urban farm of the future might look like.

“We were presented with the wonderful opportunity to install the prototype here for the summer,” says Vandenbroucke. “If you tell people about the idea of growing food and fish in a closed circuit, you will be met with scepticism. But when you show them how it works, people become convinced.”

Over the summer, De Bondt and Vanden-

© Courtesy urban smart Farm

Container farming: Pascal De Bondt (left) and kenny Vandenbroucke

broucke made final adjustments to the prototype. In November, they will move to De Punt, the support platform for start-ups in the Gentbrugge district. “We’ll also add

a third container, making the Urban Smart Farm fully operational,” Vandenbroucke says.

The Urban Smart Farm concept makes a conventional garden look primitive. It is a technologically advanced, autonomous system that produces vegetables, fish and shellfish.

The process begins with the larvae of the black soldier fly, which feed on organic waste. The larvae serve as food for the fish and the shrimp, whose manure is used to fertilise the plants, which, in turn, filter the water for the fish tanks.

Every square metre is put to use, so the vegetables and herbs are grown in several vertical layers and get the right light from solarpowered LEDs. The whole set-up may appear complicated, but De Bondt and Vandenbroucke are not deterred.

“Within five years, we’d like to set up five additional smart farms and produce food

that’s economically viable,” says Vandenbroucke. “Vegetables and fish produced in Ghent, for Ghent, all in accordance with the short food chain principle.”

Urban farming is big these days, with communal allotments and related projects popping up everywhere. But De Bondt and Vandenbroucke want to take the movement further. “Most projects are social initiatives started by enthusiasts,” says Vandenbroucke. “We aim to become producers and help professionalise urban farming.”

But their project has a social component as well. “We are working with several partners in Ghent on an educational programme to help explain what we are doing,” explains Vandenbroucke. “It will be open to everyone, but we hope to focus on youngsters who have problems at school, offering them an interesting and completely new work experience.” \ Toon Lambrechts

\ 11

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TODDLER VILLAGE SPORTS VILLAGE REGIONAL PRODUCTS MARKET

Discover the entire programme at www.gordelfestival.be

What’s the weirdest thing you’ve ever done in Flanders?

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Visit the Flanders Today website to download the e-book now! For free!

www.flanderstoday.eu

\ aRts

august 31, 2016

weeK in arTs & culTure Few Flemish schools visit Bronks

© Courtesy laundry Day

Programmer wouter “schele” Hoet (left) and MC gunter “Ras” Van Reusel

Dance like nobody’s watching

offbeat antwerp dj duo discobaar a moeder put the fun into funky music discoBaaramoEdEr.BE

tom Peeters More articles by tom \ flanderstoday.eu

The eccentric DJ duo Discobaar A Moeder have made a name for themselves for playing music that puts a smile on your face, and they perform at Antwerp’s Laundry Day festival next month.

T

he success of eccentric Antwerp DJ duo Discobaar A Moeder lies in their mix of any music you can shake your hips to. “Everybody gets rewarded with our very democratic playlist,” says Wouter “Schele” Hoet, who chooses the music, while Gunter “Ras” Van Reusel acts as Master of Ceremonies. “Everyone gets their moment. We play it all: new wave, hard rock, mambo, cha-chacha, rock’n’roll, samba, reggae and Flemish schlager.”

During their set, seriousness is constantly under attack from the playful, unexpected playlist and a never-ending series of funny rhymes in Antwerp dialect. The pink plastic flamingo on the DJ desk serves as a metaphor for a vital mission. “People are way too serious,” says Hoet. “If audiences see we’re having fun, they’ll join us.”

Other DJ duos such as Discobar Galaxie, 2ManyDJs and, more recently, Mensch, Erger Je Niet have offered an alternative to the often one-dimensional dance-floor beats of the ’90s by mixing things up and going eclectic. Discobar A Moeder counter the professional mixing of their colleagues with a looser approach and tracks you can sing along to without the risk of being ridiculed.

“We’re not in it to deliver the perfect mix; we don’t even prepare our sets,” says Van Reusel. “But it’s precisely this carefree atmosphere that tells the audience they can

relax and dance without having to be cool.”

Another advantage of their nonchalant approach is that they welcome requests from the fans.

“For most DJs, this is a real horror, but to us it’s part of the vibe,” says the MC, who hits people up with his rhymes as he calls out for group hugs. All through the microphone, his weapon of choice.

Van Reusel has been familiar with the power of the mic since he became a member of the Far West Crew sound system in 1993. Under the Ras Gunti pseudonym he helped bring Jamaican reggae and dub sounds to Antwerp.

In fact, that’s where Discobaar A Moeder picked up the tradition of performing with a programme selector, who’s responsible for playing the 33-inch vinyl records, and a Master of Ceremonies talking to his audience in rhyme. “I’m pretty sure that our direct communication with the audience has added to our success,” says Van Reusel.

Though they “have a big mouth,” he says, “people don’t feel intimidated by us because we respect them, putting on nice suits and mixing local anthems such as Jimmy Frey’s ‘Saragossa’ with classics such as Neil Diamond’s ‘Sweet Caroline’ or Motörhead’s ‘Ace of Spades’.”

Discobaar A Moeder (Disco Bar Your Mother, in Antwerp dialect) got started when their favourite hangout, cafe De Kroon in Borgerhout, asked them to DJ one evening nearly 15 years ago. From playing local bars and fairs, they gradually became a Flemish phenomenon, bringing out two compilation CDs (Volle Gas and 2de Vitesse), showing up on Flemish TV (they had a weekly guest spot on the prime

laundryday.BE

time show Iedereen Beroemd) and, this summer, a radio show on Studio Brussel.

That’s quite an achievement for a duo without a master plan or even the slightest advertising campaign.

“Just once we printed posters to promote our DJ set,” Hoet says. “We wanted to distribute them during a pub crawl, but we only managed to do three bars…”

Despite the success, they’ve kept their jobs in social care. “We could make a living from our sets,” Van Reusel says, “but then it would turn into a real job. Now it can be an outlet.”

Their biggest appearances to date have been during the annual Night Of The Proms in the Antwerp Sportpaleis. Playing with the symphonic orchestra II Novecento, led by conductor Robert Groslot, was a totally new experience. But there was more: Van Reusel got to sing a duet with the American R&B diva Angie Stone.

“Of course, she didn’t know us at all,” he says. “We were only introduced a few hours before the first show. I still remember the scene: ‘This is Ras. He will sing with you, replacing Snoop Dogg.’ She was probably thinking: ‘Oh no, do I really have to go through this?’.

“I still remember I had to walk up to her after 2:35, but she was startled, as if she’d already forgotten me. Maybe it wasn’t a top-notch performance, but we definitely had a good time, and I think the audience did, too.”

And isn’t that exactly their mission? At least that’s what article 3 of their Barak A Bomma (Barrack

3 september

Your Grandma, again in Antwerp dialect) charter says: “The association’s aim is to contribute to a more pleasant society – by means of musical interventions – by urging the audience to dance with enthusiasm.”

Discobaar A Moeder are performing at Antwerp’s 12-stage Laundry Day dance festival next weekend.

It isn’t the first time they’ve been invited to play the event, so they’re aware those attending the festival on the left bank of the Scheldt aren’t there because of them.

“We’reconsideredaguiltypleasure,” Van Reusel says. “The kids come to our set to relax for a moment from the bouncing, pumping beats, to sing along to some real music and have fun.”

In its 19th edition, the festival is eager to move away from the Tomorrowland-style commercial superstar DJs, going back to the roots of the festival that started out in 1998 to unite fashion and beat lovers in Antwerp’s Kammenstraat shopping street. This means no more VIP area in front of the main stage, more live performances, and stages focusing on techno, house, drum’n’bass and local hip-hop talent.

The headliners are DJ and drum’n’bass producer Netsky – he released his new album, 3, in June – and house producer Claptone. For more adventurous gigs, check out the Secret Stage. Among others, Pomrad will play a live set here, accompanied by his trademark keytar and music from his funky debut album, Knights.

Only 16 schools in Flanders found their way to Brussels’ youth theatre Bronks in 2015, compared to 190 classes from Brussels schools, “despite the fact that Bronks is worldrenowned,” lamented Flemish MP Joris Poschet (CD&V) in Bruzz. “Even for schools from Flemish Brabant, Het Paleis youth theatre in Antwerp seems to be easier to visit than Bronks.” Poschet has suggested a promotion campaign in Flemish schools, convinced that the multilingual Bronks can introduce youngsters across Flanders to their capital city. Bronks pointed out that demand is much larger than supply. “We regret the imbalance, but for the moment we are focused primarily on a good collaboration with the Dutch-speaking schools in Brussels,” said a spokesperson.

uantwerp puts famous art urban legend to rest The white smear on the first version of Edvard Munch’s “The Scream” is not, in fact, a bird dropping, according to the cultural heritage department of Antwerp University (UAntwerp). Urban legend has long had it that a faint white splotch on the right shoulder of the figure in the Norwegian artist’s earliest version of the iconic painting was bird poo. Munch often painted outdoors, insisting that his work be subjected to the forces of nature. No formal testing had ever been carried out. UAntwerp scientist Geert Van der Snickt and his team took their specialised equipment to Oslo and obtained a micro-sample, which they then analysed using a particle accelerator in a specialist facility in Hamburg. A “pattern of wax crystals” was discovered. Experts believe that candle wax dripped onto the painting and was wiped away. “Solving the mystery of the bird droppings demonstrates how our discipline has much in common with forensic experts,” says Van der Snickt. “The field of cultural heritage science is characterised by a rapid introduction of improved state-of-the-art techniques, and this allows us to bring to light completely new information on iconic works of art.”

Middenvijver, antwerp

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\ aRts

The artist as an artwork

after 30 years, flanders’ bad boy of visual arts offends more for what he says christophe verbiest More articles by Christophe \ flanderstoday.eu

Ghent-based artist Wim Delvoye’s words speak as loud as his actions these days, as becomes clear when he guides Flanders Today through a retrospective of his often controversial work in a Luxembourg retrospective.

I

t takes three hours from Brussels, but it’s worth taking the train to Luxembourg City for the 10th anniversary of the Mudam, the museum of modern art, as it celebrates its first decade with a retrospective of Ghentbased artist Wim Delvoye.

The exhibition makes no claim to be exhaustive, but it gives a great overview of Delvoye, who was born in 1965 in the West Flemish border town of Wervik and rose to prominence at the end of the 1980s. On show are ironing boards decorated with coats of arms, his goal made with stained glass instead of netting, stretched out and contorted bronze statues, lorry tyres hand-carved with designs, a few Cloacas (his installation that turns food into faeces), some suitcases made from embossed aluminium and much more.

What’s Delvoye’s reflection on his three decades of work? “I’m still doing the same thing,” he says when pondering the two floors full of his art at the Mudam, an architectural gem in a district lined with office buildings. “But I’ve always been able to adapt to new technologies.”

Most artists, he continues, “are recognisable from the formal characteristics of their work. And for some, this works very well; think of [20th-century Japanese conceptual artist] On Kawara. But I’m full of doubt, all the time. So I always want to change. Some works are very small, others are gigantic. Some are made from a fragile material, others from a very strong one. They can be well executed or really grungy.”

That’s true, but it’s also true that a Delvoye work is immediately recognisable. His signature is the oxymoron, as Michael Onfray wrote in 2006 when Delvoye was commissioned to create an in situ artwork – a gothic chapel that’s still on view – for the then new Mudam. Delvoye combines elements you don’t expect to see together, be it tattoos on pigs or gas canisters that look like Delft Blue pottery.

This is the most extensive overview of his work ever assembled, so it might come as a surprise that it’s taking place in Luxembourg.

“Strategically, it’s a perfect location,” he says. “It’s outside Belgium, but also very close to it.”

\ 14

Not that Belgian museums aren’t interested. Ghent’s contemporary art museum Smak is, and the head of the Royal Museums of Fine Arts in Brussels has approached Delvoye for a collaboration. “But it’s easier to work with the Mudam,” he says. “It’s smaller, but also bigger: They have a larger budget.”

More than 20 years ago, Delvoye had his first exhibition in Luxembourg, and in 2007 the Casino Luxembourg, the city’s other important space for contemporary art, organised a grand overview of his Cloaca machines. At that time, Enrico Lunghi was head of the Casino; today he’s general director of the Mudam. Delvoye: “It feels like coming home.”

The exhibition is Delvoye’s second big show this year. In the spring he had an exhibition at the Tehran Museum of Contemporary Art.

© wikimedia Commons

It’s true love between Delvoye and Iran, since he’s planning to open an art gallery in Kashan, a city of onequarter of a million people in the country’s central Isfahan province.

Given his problems with the Flemish authorities, who thwarted his plans to establish a sculpture garden at his castle in Melle, near Ghent, the Kashan art space is a remarkable change of plans. “I’m either completely mad or a master investor,” he says with his characteristic grin.

“I’m convinced you are more free in Iran.” That’s a surprising remark, to say the least. “Of course, you could find some elements annoying,” he admits. “Drinking alcohol is forbidden, but I don’t drink it anyway. As a man, you can’t wear shorts, but the western press thinks this is far less of a problem than the coverings women have to wear.” In neighbouring countries, like Bahrain or Saudi Arabia, the regime is even stricter, he says.

But compared to European norms, Iran certainly cannot be called a democracy with respect for human

© aDagP, Paris, 2016 / wim Delvoye

a cloaca and a tattooed pig: 30 years of wim Delvoye at the Mudam

rights. Delvoye is not impressed.

“I’m convinced that the country is less corrupt than ours, is better organised and can guarantee the safety of its inhabitants better,” he says. “It’s an oasis of peace. That’s all highly important for an investor. On a social level it’s grand, too: A much larger percentage of women there have gone to university, compared to the United States or here.”

Did he encounter no limitations in setting up his show in Tehran? “I don’t think they would have let me tattoo pigs,” he says, referring to a previous work. In the past, Delvoye has also made gothic stained glass windows that show X-rays of copulating couples. “That would probably have been a problem, too. But

I’m not making those works at the moment, so it wasn’t an issue.

I had an exhibition at the Louvre and, believe me, they wouldn’t have accepted those works, either.”

He’s not naïve about Iran, he says, but calls freedom “relative”.

“Certainly for someone from Flanders. I’m a good barometer for the economic climate, since most of the buyers of my work are entrepreneurs. Well, for five, six years now, most of them have been living in fear. Not of burglars, not of refugees but of our own government that has become a Gargantua with an ever-growing stomach.”

Once upon a time, Delvoye was

until 8 january

considered an enfant terrible and his work shocking and confronting. This isn’t the case anymore.

Maybe because his work has changed – it probably has a bit – but certainly because our society’s stance on art has become much more lenient.

Hearing him sing Iran’s praises and making politically incorrect statements without caring what people think, it’s clear that these days what he says is more shocking than what he creates. You might even say the artist himself has morphed into a work of art.

A typical Delvoye, come to think of it.

Mudam

Park Dräi Eechelen, Luxembourg City

\ agenDa

august 31, 2016

Where art and nature meet

concerT

The Enchanted Garden until 25 september

W

hen Norwegian painter Tone Aanderaa and her Belgian husband revamped the old train station at Sainte-Marie-Geest into an art gallery, they took a special interest in the large surrounding garden. Once settled just across the language border from Flanders, they started inviting other artists to their premises deep in the countryside.

This is the fifth time they have curated their own garden art exhibition in this picturesque hamlet, part of Jodoigne but closer to Hoegaarden in Flemish Brabant.

Thirty-one artists from Belgium, the Netherlands, the UK, France,

antwerp

Rue du tilleul, Jodoigne

dE-BEtovErEndE-tuin.info

Norway and Indonesia are introducing works in diverse materials, as well as land and street art, sound installations and music.

The couple open their natural garden for “a journey of mysteries and wonders, transformations and metamorphosis” on Friday evenings and weekend afternoons until late September, setting up “encounters, exchanges, and collaborations between art and nature”.

Along with sculptures in glass, stone, concrete, metal, wood, textiles and ceramic, Aanderaa’s own paintings are featured in the garden, exhibiting scenes from books of fairy-tales she has illustrated. She’s not the only Norwegian

artist; Anne Hesvik displays decorative painting, inspired by the old

European and Norwegian masters.

A more modern collaboration couples Belgian landscape architect Jean de la Kethulle with graffiti artist Axel, combining pastoral and street art (pictured).

The music of British sound artist Barbara Hills, presenting the installation “Moon and Shadows”, adds to the overall sensory trip in different parts of the garden, while the contemplative bronzes and ceramics by Flemish visual artist and poet Lebuïn D’Haese are especially enchanting. He describes his art as a house with open doors. It’s a nice metaphor for a garden connecting art with nature. \ Tom Peeters

visual arTs

treintjesfestival

Belgium et cetera: 1830-2030 in Press cartoons treinland, aalst ovmv.BE

Everyone loves trains, but they are simply too bulky to enjoy indoors.

Hence the model train. The collectors and enthusiasts behind Aalst’s Treinland invite families for a weekend open house of 1:48 scale proportion. The voyage begins with Friday night’s Nocturne, during which visitors will watch magical illuminated trains pulling into fairy-tale stations. Treinland reopens for a more traditional open house the following afternoon. Kids will enjoy interactive demonstrations and multimedia train simulations as well as food and drink. Entry to both events is free. \ Georgio Valentino

Belvue, Brussels BElvuE.BE

tHEatrEmarni.com

21 september, 20.00 Nigerian author Wole Soyinka’s political activism earned him a prison sentence and the animosity of a succession of corrupt regimes.

It has also fed a steady stream of plays and poems that made him a Nobel laureate in 1986. Now aged 82, the veteran playwright shows no signs of slowing down.

He remains a tireless advocate of democracy and human rights around the world but especially in Africa. This Bozar appearance, moderated by MO* Magazine’s Africa correspondent Stefaan Anrys, focuses not just on Soyinka’s life and career but the future of African activism. (In English) \ GV

Despite its genteel origins in Renaissance Italy, the piano would become a crucial player in the jazz revolution that rocked Europe in the 20th century. Early jazz pianists like Thelonious Monk and Bill Evans were seminal to the fledgling musical form. The 13th edition of the Marni Jazz Festival pays tribute to this workhorse of jazz. Each of the festival’s six concerts showcases a home-grown pianist or piano-based ensemble currently plying the international jazz scene. Among the performers are pianist-composers Jef Neve (pictured), Nathalie Loriers, Igor Gehenot and avant-garde quartet Aka Moon. \ GV

Sofia Matsagou: Concert and CD preview from the talented Greek pianist, including works by Bach, Chopin, Ravel and Debussy, among others.

3 September 20.00, Art Base, Zavelstraat 29

visual arTs ghent Lee Kit: A small sound in your head: Installations by the Chinese contemporary artist incorporating readymade objects such as videos and paintings on kitchen towels, picnic blankets and curtains, all with elements of pop music and language. Until 4 September, Smak, Jan Hoetplein 1 \ smak.be

music fesTival Veurne get tic k

wole soyinka théâtre Marni, Brussels

\ oltrivierenhof.be

\ art-base.be

liTeraTure

marni jazz festival

The Van Jets: The Flemish rock band perform their unique form of groovy glamrock, right after the fireworks show to close out another edition of Deurne’s annual Bevrijdingsfeesten (Liberation Festival). 2 September 22.30, Openluchttheater Rivierenhof, Turnhoutsebaan 246 (Deurne)

Brussels

The founding of the modern Belgian state some 185 years ago coincided with the golden age of press cartoons. Local cartoonists have continued ever since to put pen to paper in order to satirise current events, be it the late 19th-century colonisation of the Congo or the perennial political strife between the linguistic communities. This free exhibition brings together artists from yesterday and today to present an unflinching if irreverent visual account of the past two centuries.

Pop historian Gilles Dal curated a selection of historical works and invited living cartoonists to reflect on Belgian history from a contemporary perspective. \ GV

fesTival 7-17 september

until 6 november

\ deroma.be

classical

familY 2-3 september

Ben Miller Band: The fourpiece American blues-rock band performs with an arsenal of instruments: violin, slide guitar, dobro, dulcimer, keyboard, mandolin, banjo, bass and harmonica.

2 September 20.30, De Roma, Turnhoutsebaan 329 (Borgerhout)

Bozar, Brussels BoZar.BE

ets no w

Veurne La Fête: Annual music festival in the charming historic centre of this West Flemish town, featuring local bands like hip-hop crew Westflag, fierce rock’n’rollers Helsinki, the ever-humorous Radio Guga and cabaret duo Preuteleute. 2 September, Grote Markt \ toerisme-veurne.be

film sint-niklaas Parklife: Summer bar with cocktails and tapas, plus a free open-air screening of Sergio Leone’s 1966 classic The Good, The Bad and The Ugly, starring Clint Eastwood.

31 August 22.00, De Casino, Stationsstraat 104 \ decasino.be

© stefan Vanfleteren

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\ BaCkPage

august 31, 2016

Talking Dutch there will be bl

voices of flanders TodaY

d

derek Blyth More articles by Derek \ flanderstoday.eu

I

t was puzzling at first. The newspaper De Standaard had changed its name to De St nd rd. The Antwerp newspaper Gazet van Antwerpen had become G zet v n ntwerpen. And Het Belang van Limburg was barely recognisable on the newsstands as Het el ng v n Lim urg.

It was only when you turned to an inside page of De Standaard that the mystery was explained. U zag het wellicht al – You have perhaps seen it already, de letter ‘a’ is tijdelijk verdwenen uit het logo van De Standaard – the letter ‘a’ has temporarily disappeared from De Standaard’s logo. Dat heeft alles te maken met een actie van het Rode Kruis – It’s all to do with a campaign by the Red Cross.

Still confused? Het Rode Kruis zoekt dit jaar 38.000 bloeddonoren – The Red Cross is looking for 38,000 blood donors this year, en hoopt die te vinden met een opvallende campagne – and is hoping to find them through an eye-catching campaign waarbij de letters van de belangrijkste bloedgroepen geschrapt worden – in which the letters of major blood groups are dropped uit de logo’s van tientallen bedrijven en organisaties – from the logos of dozens of companies and organisations.

Door gewoon elk jaar aan te kondigen dat we meer bloeddonoren nodig hadden – Just announcing every year that we needed more blood donors boekten we weinig vooruitgang – didn’t have much impact, explained Red Cross spokesperson An Luyten. So it was time for a more innovative campaign.

The drive is part of an international initiative called Missing Type. De organisatie sprak een hele reeks bedrijven en organisaties aan – The organisation asked a long

rodEkruis.BE

In response to Toots Thielemans, harmonica virtuoso, dies aged 94 Annick de Vliegher: A great loss. đ&#x;˜˘đ&#x;˜˘ Such a maestro đ&#x;’•đ&#x;’ž

In response to Antwerp women organise ‘beach party’ against burqini ban Danielle Robertson: Good. Show France that not all Europeans have to be idiotic about their unfounded fears of modest women.

list of companies and organisations om de letters A, O en B uit hun logo te halen – to remove the letters A, O and B from their logos.

We waren verrast over de respons – We were amazed at the response, Luyten said: 95 bedrijven en organisaties – 95 companies and organisations waaronder politieke partijen – including political parties, zijn met ons in zee gegaan – joined in the action.

The campaign led to some strange metro station names popping up overnight in Brussels. De MIVB onderschrijft de campagne – MIVB supported the campaign door letters weg te laten op haar website en in de stations – by dropping letters on its website and in the stations.

So leest u Park voortaan als P rk, De Brouckère als De Br uckère en Louiza als L uiz – So from now on you see Park as P rk, De Brouckère as De Br uckère and Louiza as L uiz .

You can find out more about the campaign and how you can donate blood on the website of R de Kruis Vl nderen.

PHoto of tHE wEEk

In response to Heading south: Dutch students come to Flanders en masse Zei Dan: This is why Belgium is the best country to live in.

Victoria Azarenka @vika7 Hagelslag – that’s just amazing. Used to be my favourite as a kid and I played a tournament in Hasselt. Tried it there.

Marion @MarionH_ Antwerpen, you so pretty.

Cat Baker @CatBakerator Was recognised by Fairgrounds barista and briefly chatted on way to the toilet. I’ve finally made it. I am a recognisable Ghent civilian.

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THe lasT word no place like home

“I really don’t want to go to Kosovo. I don’t know it. I don’t speak the language very well, I don’t know the traditions, the culture, the mentality. I don’t know anything.�

Sixteen-year-old Djellza, who has lived in Flanders nearly her entire life, was ordered to return to Kosovo with her family last week. She has since gone underground, her lawyer said

Body politics

“If looks could kill, I’d be dead by now.� Š Ricardo smit/Belga

Het Nieuwsblad reporter Kim Clemens spent a day in a burqini on the beach at Blankenberge

clean it up

“Everyone has 10 minutes, even if it means getting up a bit earlier.�

Jean-Paul Meus, CEO of Antwerp decorations company Goodwill, devotes 10 minutes every day to cleaning up rubbish in his local area

Pie in the sky

“The drone cannot detect if there is another aircraft or other obstacle in the way. The chance of collisions is too great.�

A spokesperson for the federal mobility ministry explained why Domino’s will not be delivering pizzas by drone in Belgium for the time being

HoT sTuff Families made the most of the sunshine during the final week of the summer holidays, with thousands flocking to the Flemish coast as temperatures reached 31 degrees

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