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Action sought on jihad fighters

Muslim youth from Flanders and Brussels are feeling the pressure to go and fight in Syria

Two parents from Flanders are in Syria, hoping they can find and convince their sons, who have gone to fight on the side of rebels, to come home. Meanwhile, politicians have come up with a remarkable selection of proposals for what to do about the problem of growing numbers of youths being recruited to travel to foreign war zones to take part in jihad.

Last week, Dimitri Bontinck from Antwerp was in Syria looking for his 16-year-old son, Jejoen, while another father from Vilvoorde was reported to have departed on the same mission. As Flanders Today went to press, neither had made contact with his son.

Alan Hope
(April 17, 2013)

Lights out for Alfacam

The launch of its own TV stations proves fatal to the media services group

Alfacam, the TV and media services company that featured on every list of world-class Flemish businesses is on the brink of being broken up or declared bankrupt, after negotiations to find a new owner broke down last week.

Alfacam was founded by Gabriel Fehervari, the child of Hungarian refugees, in 1985. It provided technical services such as cameras and outside-broadcast studios to TV producers. The company quickly established a strong reputation and won important contracts at home – beginning with the Night of the Proms – and abroad, picking up the contract in 2005 to provide services for the Olympic Games in Beijing in 2008.

Alan Hope
(April 17, 2013)

At home in the rest of the world

Ostend’s Mu.Zee hosts an exhibition of 30 years in the life of Antwerp artist Philip Aguirre y Otegui

Being a person who feels most comfortable with linear narratives, I felt a little lost in the Philip Aguirre y Otegui exhibition in Ostend’s Mu.Zee museum. At least at first. But once you let go of wanting to see a story build from the 1980s to today, you realise how delightful each work is in its own right, regardless of when or why the Antwerp artist created it.

That was the goal of Aguirre, who curated the show himself. “We decided not to make it a historical, retrospective kind of show because I thought I was too young for that,” the 52-year-old tells me from his home in the Borgerhout district of Antwerp. “Instead of chronological or thematic, it’s more like a poetic landscape. Every visitor can make their own story from it.”

Lisa Bradshaw
(April 17, 2013)

If I could turn back time

Heritage Day in Flanders and Brussels invites visitors to stand still and look back

If the heritage industry is about one thing, it’s about time: bringing the past to the attention of the future, stopping and – if possible – reversing the ravages of time. The theme of this Sunday’s annual Erfgoeddag (Heritage Day) is Stop de tijd!

Brussels and Flanders have teamed up for this year’s Erfgoeddag, or Heritage Day, so they are both on the same day. The slogan of this 13th edition is Stop de tijd!, or Stop Time!, which is “more than ever an invitation,” according to Flemish culture minister Joke Schauvliege. “It’s an invitation to step outside the daily race against time, stand still and enjoy the work of the many thousands of heritage workers, both volunteers and professionals, who fight that fight against time day after day,” she says.

Alan Hope
(April 17, 2013)

Human nature

Projects across Flanders aim to control flooding while creating new habitat for wildlife

“Developing nature” is something of a contradiction: Common sense says that “nature” signifies the absence of any human intervention. But in a densely populated area such as Flanders, this concept of nature is losing its meaning. Most nature reserves are tightly managed, and sometimes the choice is made to develop new ones. The results are indeed often remarkable.

Last week, a major construction project began in Kruibeke, East Flanders. The intention, however, is not to construct new roads or buildings, but new nature: reed fields, small islands and spawning grounds for fish.

The works are part of the Flemish government’s Sigma plan, which aims to create space for new bodies of water along the river Scheldt and its tributaries. The plan will not only aid nature, it will protect against flooding.

Toon Lambrechts
(April 17, 2013)

Peeters visits Malawi and Botswana

Flemish government provides €25 million for agricultural development

Development and diamonds were on the agenda of Flemish minister-president Kris Peeters during a week-long visit last week to southern Africa. The first port of call was Malawi, where Peeters was met by president Joyce Banda, who visited Brussels last October at Peeters’ invitation.

Peeters signed a memorandum of understanding between the governments of Flanders and Malawi, including a pledge for funding worth €25 million in support of Malawi’s agriculture over the next five years. “We believe that president Joyce Banda is making the right decisions, and we have agreed that this money should be used in agriculture, which is the top priority area in our agreement,” Peeters told the country’s Daily Times.

Alan Hope
(April 10, 2013)

Hundreds of local names in Offshore Leaks

Antwerp diamond dealers “among most prominent” users of tax havens

The Belgian tax authorities will investigate the cases of any nationals named in the so-called Offshore Leaks – a major journalistic investigation of leaked files dealing with offshore companies and tax havens. Last week an international consortium of 86 magazines and newspapers, including Belgium’s Le Soir, revealed some of the names of approximately 130,000 wealthy individuals and companies accused of using offshore corporations to avoid up to €25 trillion in tax in their 170 respective countries.

No specific names were revealed by Le Soir journalist Alain Lallemand, but there were “hundreds” of Belgians involved, he said. He has been in touch with some of those whose names appear in the documents, and they have admitted involvement. “I think Antwerp diamond traders are among the most prominent names,” on the list, he said.

Alan Hope
(April 10, 2013)

Valley full of life

The river Maas sheds its polluted past to provide fertile grounds for the Maas Valley River Park

In the east of Flanders, the river Maas forms the border with the Netherlands for 46 kilometres. It’s now also the backbone of the RivierPark Maasvallei, a 2,500-hectare nature park co-created and maintained by Flemish and Dutch organisations that cleaned up the region after decades of mismanagement and pollution.

On a tour of the RivierPark Maasvallei (Maas Valley River Park), project leader Lambert Schoenmaekers points out how the area has been redeveloped in the last five years. Negotiations with farmers and gravel companies have already led to a park of 650 hectares in Flanders, and the goal is to return an area of about 1,100 hectares on this side of the border to nature.

Andy Furniere
(April 10, 2013)

Everyone’s a scientist

Public participation via the internet is shining new light on research in Flanders

Is science something nerdy and boring, only practised by specialists producing research that nobody else will ever understand? No way. These days, thanks in large part to the internet, science can be fun, like a game in which everyone can participate.

If you have five minutes spare, take a look at the Woordentest, or Words Test, a language game designed by researchers at Ghent University. The concept is simple: You’re shown word after word and asked whether it’s a real Dutch word or not. If you’re not happy with your score, just play again. There are 75,000 test words available.

Toon Lambrechts
(April 10, 2013)

Death and the singer

Ozark Henry’s latest album opens up a new road with an old collaborator

Ozark Henry is the stage name of Kortrijk-born Piet Goddaer, who broke through to an international audience in 2001 with his third album, Birthmarks, a collection of pop songs streaked with classical music and electronics. The classical influence was less present on his next albums, though still palpable. His sixth and latest album, Stay Gold, is first and foremost a collection of affectionate pop tunes.

The most remarkable difference between Stay Gold and Ozark Henry’s previous outings is the presence of second singer Amaryllis Uitterlinden. In the past, Goddaer has regularly added an extra voice to his songs. This time around, it’s different. “Some of the new songs gravitated towards duets. For that I didn’t just need a good singer, but someone whose voice fits with mine. Compare it with a film: It’s not enough to have two great actors; there needs to be chemistry between them.”

Christophe Verbiest
(April 10, 2013)