Autumn 2013 • n°3 expat time - ING Belgium · P 16 Ravi Agarwal P 17 Design September, KGID Studio; Henry Van de Velde, Sabam, Belgium 2013; Accessible Art Fair, Marcel Ceuppens

expat time

Essential lifestyle and business insights for foreign nationals in Belgium

Autumn 2013 • n°3

INTERVIEW

“All the key leadershipskills areabout people” FRANK ARANZANACEO Allnex

IN THIS ISSUEBuilding a careerin BelgiumThe Red StarLine MuseumCultural agenda

ING-magazine_HERFST_2013.indd 1 29/08/2013 15:42:02

No matter where in the world you're off to on your next assignment, Gosselincan take you there. Belgian at heart, but global by nature, we have 48 of�cesin 32 countries worldwide, and can move you wherever you need to go...all with an expert Belgian touch.

+32 (0)3 360 55 00+32 (0)2 752 21 [email protected]

Headquartered in Belgium, local of�ces in 32 countries worldwide

Belcrownlaan 232100 Deurne(Antwerp)Belgium

get in touch

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Going Global, Go Gosselin

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Yourbrilliantcareer

To invest in your career is to invest in your future, not only in terms of fi nancial return but also by boosting your professional skills and personal development.

With globalisation evolving fast, an international move is becoming a must-have on the CV of those working for multinational companies. Indeed, in a global enterprise managers need the skills to lead international teams. While company values tend to be constant and apply to all employees wherever they are in the world, it’s the non-professional bonding between colleagues that’s essential for cementing trust in an international team, with everyone making an effort to show interest in others’ culture and values. Multicultural teams are not always easy to manage, but they can be extremely enriching.

In this issue we focus on the world of work, from our cover story on French aviator turned businessman Frank Aranzana to advice from recruitment consultants on building an international career in the capital of Europe. As always, we profi le four expats in Belgium, who tell us about their career paths.

Dave DeruytterHead of expatriates and non-residents ING BelgiumING Expat is also on Facebook: facebook.com/ingexpats

No matter where in the world you're off to on your next assignment, Gosselincan take you there. Belgian at heart, but global by nature, we have 48 of�cesin 32 countries worldwide, and can move you wherever you need to go...all with an expert Belgian touch.

+32 (0)3 360 55 00+32 (0)2 752 21 [email protected]

Headquartered in Belgium, local of�ces in 32 countries worldwide

Belcrownlaan 232100 Deurne(Antwerp)Belgium

get in touch

Excess Baggage . Shop . Courier . Flights . Visas . More!

go-group.com

Going Global, Go Gosselin

ING_Magazine_Gosselin_Sep2013.pdf 1 28/08/2013 16:09:59

expat time • Autumn • 2013 • 3ING-magazine_HERFST_2013.indd 3 29/08/2013 15:42:31

EXECUTIVE MBA IN BRUSSELS!

MORE INFO: WWW.VLERICK.COM/EMBABRUSSELS

• Weekly format

• Monday & Tuesday evening

• 18 months

• Start October 2013

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IN THIS ISSUE

ColofonEditor • Sarah CrewDeputy editor • Sally TipperArt director • Paul Van DoorenProject coordinator • Thomas BuytaertContributors • Emma Beddington • Derek Blyth • Katy Desmond • Katrien Lindemans • Ronald Meeus • Nicholas Stuart • Georgio ValentinoCover • Frank Aranzana, by Bart DewaeleSales executive • Helena VreedenburghAccount executive • Evelyne Fregonese

Expat Time is a publication from ING Belgium SA/NV, Marnixlaan 24 1000 Brussels, [email protected] Brussels RPM/RPR, VAT BE 0403.200.393and Ackroyd Publications SA/NVEditorial • Content Connections (department of Ackroyd Publications SA/NV) and ING Belgium SA/NVPublisher • Hans De Loore Gossetlaan 30, 1702 Groot-Bijgaarden

profIlES

6 Meet four expats living in Belgium

INTErvIEw

8 frank Aranzana discusses successful business management

BUSINESS

14 Keeping on top of the expat paperwork

AgENdA

16 our pick of upcoming culture in Brussels

CArEEr

18 Top jobs in the European capital

AgENdA

24 Cultural highlights around Belgium and beyond

lIfESTYlE

26 The story of European emigration at the red Star line Museum

dIgITAl

29 New apps and gadgets for the home

lIfESTYlE

30 Eat, drink, explore and sleep in Antwerp’s docklands

CoMMENT

33 Emma Beddington takes a sideways look at the news and writer derek Blyth muses on life away from home

SpoTlIgHT

35 A multimedia project on birth rituals around the world

P 5 Top, Corbis; bottom and P 30, Beyer

Blinder Belle Architects and Planners Ltd

P 15 Corbis

P 16 Ravi Agarwal

P 17 Design September, KGID Studio; Henry Van

de Velde, Sabam, Belgium 2013; Accessible

Art Fair, Marcel Ceuppens Obsession 2012

P 18 Corbis

P 21 Corbis

P 25 Jean-François D’Or, www.thomasvanhaute.

com; The Golden Age of Danish Painting,

Hans Jorgen Hammer, A Leprince

P 28 Red Star Line Museum/Christophe Gaeta0

P 31 MAS, Filip Dujardin

P 34-35 Courtesy Lannoo

Photo credits

8INTErvIEw

Frank Aranzana at the tableExpat Time talks to the Frenchman

on leading a business in Belgium

18CArEEr

Recruitment in BelgiumExpat career advice from

specialists in Brussels and ING

Luxembourg CEO Luc Verbeken

26lIfESTYlE

Red Star Line MuseumFull steam ahead for the

new Antwerp museum

EXECUTIVE MBA IN BRUSSELS!

MORE INFO: WWW.VLERICK.COM/EMBABRUSSELS

• Weekly format

• Monday & Tuesday evening

• 18 months

• Start October 2013

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Profi les •

Get connectedFour expats tell us about how they came to Belgium

Paul is Dutch and has lived in Belgium since the mid-1990s. His partner is British and she works in the fashion industry. They live with their young daughter in Woluwe-Saint-Lambert

Paul Lugard“I sometimes wish there was a little more national pride”“I’m a partner with Baker Botts, a US law fi rm that recently set up a Brussels offi ce to provide services to clients worldwide. Originally a Texas-based fi rm, Baker Botts now has 14 offi ces around the world, including South America, Asia and the Middle East. The fi rm has an outstanding reputation in oil and gas and energy-related markets and we have a fi rst-class antitrust practice. In the Brussels offi ce, in the EU quarter, we concentrate mostly on competi-tion law and EU regulatory matters. I started working for the fi rm in Septem-ber last year. It would be fair to say that while a possible career in EU law brought me to Belgium, it is matters of the heart that have kept me here. Belgium has many hidden secrets and the country is slightly less organised than my home country, the Netherlands, which gives it a particular charm. But I sometimes wish there was a little more national pride and concern for public spaces.”

Maria Smith“It’s a great place to live, work and bring up children”“My husband, Andy, and I were living in France on one of his assign-ments (he’s a technical guru who works in composite packaging) when his company asked if he would be interested in leading a project for Pringles packaging in Belgium. Our children were still young at the time, seven and three years old, and already in the French education system, so we were ready to take on a new challenge. When we arrived, I started work as a freelance consultant within the executive search industry but since June I’ve been working as a senior recruiter for the retail division of Amazon EU, based in Luxembourg. Belgium is a melting pot of nationalities and great if you like living in a multicultural environment. The size of the country means you’re never far from neighbouring countries. However, the language barri-ers among the locals, Flemish versus French, can be very frustrating, as can the local bureaucracy. But the culture is predominantly welcoming and the friends and relationships acquired vastly outweigh any negative aspects. In short it is a great place to live, work and bring up children.”

Maria was born in London to Spanish parents and was brought up in Spain by her grandparents, though her secondary education was in the UK. She and husband Andy live in Overijse and both their children were educated at the European School III. Richard, 24, is � nishing his master’s in international management with leadership in Edinburgh. Georgina, 20, is at Kent University where she has just completed her � rst year in biomedical sciences

6 • Autumn • 2013 • expat time


Pieter Philipsen“After many job-driven moves, Belgium was a family-led choice”“After several moves to various European countries, we were faced with some special educational needs for one of our children. After extensive research, the country that suited us best was Belgium, especially as we are a mixed couple of French and Dutch nationali-ties. So after many job-driven moves, Belgium was a family-led choice. I am an independent consultant, and my wife and I have just founded a company in Bel-gium, in addition to a company we run in Switzerland. In Belgium the main focus is on change management, team building and group and individual coaching. In Switzerland, for the moment, it is recruitment.”

Pieter is Dutch and has lived in Belgium for � ve years with his French wife, Valerie. She is a life coach who specialises in transformational breathing and nutrition. They have two sons: Jacob, 12, and Myles, nine. After initially renting in Auderghem, they now live in their own home in Watermael-Boitsfort

Caroline Quintero“We have a lot of freedom here and I’m really proud of it”

“My parents are both Colombian but they met in Belgium. I grew up in Brussels, vari-ous places in Wallonia and now live in Namur. I was educated in French in Belgium and studied communication. I also spent a year at the lycée français in the Colombian capital, Bogotá, and a year in London studying performing arts. After graduating I worked for

four years in the lobbying sector in Brussels for the European Magazine Media Associa-tion. I have recently become self-employed, setting up my own event organisation business in Namur which looks after everything from conferences to weddings to cultural and sporting events. In Belgium we have many good music and fi lm festivals and other international events, and I like the fact that even if it’s a small country, it is full of talented people in sport, music, movies, art and design. Also, we have a lot of

freedom here and I’m really proud of it: for instance, gay people have been able to marry for more than 10 years and they can adopt, too; euthanasia

is also legal here. We have a great social security system, access to university is not costly, the people are warm

and the food is delicious! On the downside, there are lots of issues with public transport, too many

governments, too high administration costs and shops close too early.”

Caroline has dual Colom-bian and Belgian nationality. She was born in Belgium to Colombian parents; her father then returned to Colombia where she regularly visited him. Her Belgian husband, Olivier, has his own company Studio2.0, a digital media factory. They married last year and had a second wedding in Colombia this year. The pair would like to spend time living in the South American country in the future


Frank Aranzana, the French CEO of Brussels-based resin specialist Allnex, looks back on 13 years of leading businesses in Belgium

A career in flight By Katy Desmond

Photos by Bart Dewaele



Rod Scrivener

Not many people can claim that their career began at the speed of a jet engine and mean it. But that is exactly how

Frank Aranzana’s working life started when he became a fighter pilot cadet in the French Air Force. Eventually he decided that, while he loved flying, the army life was not for him and he retired his wings. He may have placed two feet on the ground to go to university, but his career showed no signs of slowing. As a marketing, strategy and business development expert, Aranzana has spent the past 13 years navigating the world of business leadership in Belgium, as he discusses here with ING’s Dave Deruytter. Today, he is putting a new project in flight as CEO of Allnex, a new company created in April, after the leveraged buyout of Cytec Coating Resins division.

You have led companies in Belgium and elsewhere. What are the keys to success in a top position?

I think the key is to adapt. In the beginning, you need to understand

A career in flight

the culture of the organisation and its way of working. So you need to ask a lot of questions, to observe and to be quiet. Once you understand the rules of the game, then you need to adapt to the organisation. Of course, there are things you like in one company and not in another. Today at Allnex, we have the chance to create our own company. We are just three months old, so we have the opportunity to take the best from both worlds, based on what we like in Cytec. That’s how we are develop-ing our values.

What is your leadership style and what do you look for in leaders?

It’s always a challenge to move from being a manager to a leader. It requires different skills and a lot of development. But I think all the key leadership skills are about people. Earlier in my career, I grew to be an expert in strategy, mar-keting and business development; once I moved to a higher level, it became about people. For me, it was a very dif-ferent role to take on. Leadership is a lot about emotional intelligence. I had to

“The economy now is interconnected and, as a result,it has become very volatile”


learn to listen more, to be a better lis-tener and to connect more with people. I am an action-orientated, results-driven person, so I had to learn to take in the big picture, to let go and empower my team. It is not easy, but it is very interesting. And that is what you see in good leaders: they have high emotional intelligence and strong motivational and communication skills.

For my own leadership style, I have found there is no one-size-fi ts-all ap-proach. During the crisis I had to be authoritative to reduce costs to survive. Now my preferred style is more collabo-rative. I want to involve people early on in decision-making. Before, I had the tendency to do all the analysis myself, saying, “Ah, that’s the solution!” and then try to sell that to people. They always pushed back. Then I learnt to involve them upfront. That way, they get the feeling they have contributed and can understand why one option has been taken, and they are much faster to adapt.

Given your experience in managing mergers and acquisitions, what are the drivers for successful change?

What is important is to understand that change is a process; it is not one single action but a transformation. It takes time and a lot of effort. So it is important to create a sense of urgency and to align people so that everybody is going in the same direction. This is why communication is key. People tend to be resistant to change. They do not like it because they are afraid of the worst. Sometimes you have blockers in your company, people who are unwilling to change. From what I have learnt, you cannot remove these people fast enough. If people are blockers who are not willing to change, to adapt, then you need to get rid of them, because a few people can have a big negative impact.

Change seems to happen ever faster these days. Do you think companies are adapted to the pace?

It is a big challenge and one that has been exacerbated by the crisis. Today, the world is truly global. Before, we had business in Europe, Asia and America that was completely different and separate; now, the products are moving around and it is very volatile. For exam-ple, if there is weak demand in Europe, Shanghai has a problem, because it is based on exports. The housing market has an impact on the rest. The Span-ish problems affect the rest of Europe. Even Greece has an impact on the rest. Greece is a tiny country, as is Cyprus, but they have a huge impact.

So the economy now is interconnected and, as a result, it has become very vola-tile. As companies, we need to be very fast and agile. Agility is a new require-ment to be successful in business. We need to be fast, to adapt, and to take corrective actions. From this point of view, the US has a big advantage: people over there are very fast to adapt. This is a challenge for Europe, and that is one of the reasons why Europe has a lower growth rate than the rest of the world.

If you listen to the press, Belgians are expensiveto hire, keep and � re. How does this affect Belgium’s attractiveness to interna-tional businesses?

As an expat, I fi nd the quality of life in Belgium extremely high. Unfortunately, on the business side, Belgium has be-come less and less competitive. Belgium used to be a number-one location for employment for my company, but with the crisis and because of the high labour cost in Belgium, we had to move some production to Italy. Unfortunately, this has led to the elimination of jobs here.

We have strong competition from Asia, and this is the only way to be competitive

Interview •



“In the past, somepeople have called me

a workaholic”

and remain in business. Now we are very careful about hiring in Belgium. As a result, today we have more people in the US or Austria and most of the hiring is done in Asia or the US. So it is a challenge.

Belgium has attractive tax incentives for companies, but also the new fairness tax. What do you think of these?

I think the tax incentives are a positive move, but they are very cumbersome. It is good to promote R&D, but in the end it would be better to have a lower company tax rate. When a company takes a decision to invest, the tax rate is important. International companies have a choice, and it is made based on the economy: they will invest where it is better for them. The company tax rate in Belgium is al-most 34%, much higher than in other

countries. Now the fairness tax might push some companies elsewhere, so that is a risk.

The R&D incentive or notional interest deductions are adding complexity to the system. What happens is that some companies end up paying nothing – very rich companies – and others pay a lot. In the end, it is only an advantage for large companies. It would be much better to have a lower tax rate upfront.

How do you see the re-industrialisation of the US affecting production in Belgium and Europe?

For Allnex, we do see a re-industrialisa-tion of the US market and this is very positive for us. In recent decades, the US has moved a lot of production to Asia to benefit from lower costs. We now see them bringing production back home, as well as to Mexico, which

“At the start, I grew to be an expert in strategy, marketing and business development; once I moved to a higher level, it be-came about people”


Interview •

today is lower-cost than China. So the US is going to be a low-cost, low-ener-gy country. It is going to be as cheap as the Middle East, which gives it a strong advantage.

For Europe, this is a disadvantage. In Allnex’s case, we produce in Europe for Europe, and we export from Europe to

the rest of the world. Perhaps the US will take this over. However, the US is very big, but it is very far, so Europe still has the advantage of proximity. There are big differences between European countries. Belgium is more expensive than Italy, Austria, the Netherlands or Germany. It comes down to an issue of competitiveness in Belgium versus other European countries.

How have you managed your work-life balance over the years?

Well, in the past some people have called me a workaholic as I used to work during weekends and holidays. In my previous job at Cytec, I was an officer of the company, so I had to be in the US once or twice a month, and attend meetings in key markets like China, Japan and Korea. I was on a plane more than half my time. With the jetlag it was really tiring.

Then, a few years ago, I had a major health incident and ended up spending six weeks in hospital in Boston and got a new aorta. This was a clear sign to me to slow down. Now I am more careful with my health. Fortunately with the new company I am based in Brussels, the holding is in Luxembourg, so there’s no jetlag. I try not to work during weekends; I take my vacation; I exercise more regularly. So I am more disciplined about my life balance, which makes my wife and two children happy.

“Agility is a new requirement to be successful in business”

www.inno.be

Fall for the brands !

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Business •

On the paper trail By Dave Deruytter

Staying on top of paper-work is never easy, but when you move to another country, personal and professional admin can

quickly become a serious headache. You might even find yourself question-ing the decision to move abroad when you think about how simple life must be for former colleagues back home.

This may be a rather short-sighted view, but there are definitely logisti-cal challenges to overcome if you’re a career expat. While the chance to dis-cover new countries, their history, cul-ture and people is part of what makes expat life so fulfilling, battling with the paperwork is a serious downside to this international existence. And the biggest test is when the time comes to claim all your various pensions and finally settle in one country.

Having been an expat myself, with mis-sions to Japan and China, I know what a trial paperwork can be. Even though I have always worked for the same em-ployer, returned each time to my home country and am married to another Belgian, I would regularly open my filing cabinet to reassure myself that everything was in order.

So, is there any way of avoiding, or at least reducing, this administrative nightmare? Under the current regula-tions, if you’re a career expat moving between continents and companies within varying jurisdictions, the task is never going to be easy. Your starting point should be efficient bookkeeping and filing practices, so be honest about your capacity to keep on top of the unavoidable admin: if it’s never going to be a priority, maybe you should call in outside help and turn to one of the many services that offer expert advice to expats.

If you’re a career diplomat or inter-national civil servant, the chances are your employer will manage much of the administration, meaning that claiming pension benefits and extend-ing health insurance should be almost as easy as it would be for someone who has always worked in the same country. Until a few decades ago that was also still common practice for managers of large multinational companies on the European continent, though less so in the US. Nowadays, people change companies more frequently, and may have a sideline in addition to their main job. There is also an increasing trend for project-based assignments which can lead to

fixed periods of expatriation, further complicating the pension puzzle. If you choose to retire in an EU country, state pension laws are simpler; the situation is more complex outside the EU and when company pensions or private pension schemes are involved.

Of course, not everyone moves abroad with the intention of becoming a career expat and with the idea of changing companies and continents with each new job. Many leave on a six-month training programme to New York, Hong Kong or London, only to find themselves a few decades later still on the move, married to some-one of another nationality, with two children and three ex-employers under their belt. No wonder they might have trouble tracking down the paperwork.

Laws about estate planning are just one area that has become more com-plex. If, for example, our expat above married another national in another country, it is important to know which country has jurisdiction over any pos-sible marriage contract. It will affect wills and testaments and therefore the partner’s future financial protection.

A further 10 years on and with the kids out of the nest and possibly abroad,



Don’t be snowed under by paperwork

UPCOMING EVENTS ORGANISED BY ING & THE BULLETIN

October 8, Real Estate ING Head Offi ce, Auditorium24 Avenue Marnix, Brussels

December 12, Estate Planning ING Administrative Offi ce, Orange Room60 Cours Saint Michel, Brussels

Both 18.00-21.00, registration 17.30

Free, register at [email protected]

estate planning is a more pressing is-sue, especially if two or more countries are involved. In Belgium, children can-not be disinherited. It is also possible that your partner in Belgium may not be as well protected as you would like. The partner has a right to live in the family home and receive the income and life tenancy of the estate the de-ceased partner leaves behind. Children receive the remainder in equal parts unless a will states otherwise; normally a person cannot dispose freely of more than one third of his/her estate if there are two children.

These are just some of the areas that you need to plan. You can either manage the paperwork of all pension, health insurance and estate planning matters yourself from day one, or you can seek outside help. Before every major life event as a career expat – marriage, children, moving countries – it is highly recommended that you hire a specialised advisor to analyse your options from a legal and tax point of view.


Agenda •

What’s on in Brussels

The Water Art Walk looks at the role of

water in ancient and contemporary India

EUROPALIAThe Europalia International Arts Festival has facilitated cross-cultural exchange since its inauguration in 1969. Each edition of the bien-nial event focuses on a different guest country, around which a panoply of events are organ-ised. The goal is to showcase as much of the culture as possible, from the traditional to the contemporary, from arts to science to fashion to folklore to gastronomy. Given its scope, it’s not surprising that Europalia spans four months and the whole of Belgium. Brussels is its epicentre but the festival has partners in 10 other cities across the country. The guest of honour at this 24th edition is India, a country which has exercised the European imagination for centuries. The proof is in Bozar’s Indomania exhibition, which traces Europe’s fascination for the subcontinent from Rembrandt to the Beatles. Now, across a range of exhibitions, concerts, conferences, screenings, readings and other events, Europe finally meets the real India.

October 4-January 26, www.europalia.be



expat time • Autumn • 2013 • 17

DESIGN SEPTEMBER

Most of us rightly dread the passing of summer. Brussels’ design devotees, on the other hand, have been counting down the days to Septem-ber, when the capital hosts its biggest annual design event. Design September is a month-long celebration of the applied arts. There’s graphic, textile, industrial and furniture design as well as architecture. All told, over 100 cultural and commercial events are planned across the city. Highlights include the design market and the prestigious Commerce Design Award. Also, Belgian Design-er of the Year Jean-François D’Or will be warming up here for his fi rst solo exhibition at Grand-Hornu (see page 25). September 5-30www.designseptember.be

HENRYVAN DE VELDE

Meanwhile, the Cinquan-tenaire Museum honours one of the founding fathers

of modern design. A true renaissance man, Henry van de Velde trained as a painter but made his most lasting impression in the fi elds of ar-chitecture and interior design. The retrospective exhibition Passion-Function-Beauty marks the 150th anniversary of the Belgian artist’s birth. In a career that spanned the Belle Epoque as well as the turbulent inter- and post-war years, Van de Velde pioneered an innovative marriage of form and function. This isn’t just a local interest story ei-ther. Germany celebrated Van de Velde’s big 1-5-0 this past spring at Neues Museum in Weimar, where Van de Velde’s work was much in demand during his lifetime. September 13-January 12www.kmkg-mrah.be

ART NOUVEAU AND ART DECO BIENNALE

Art Deco lives in Brus-sels. So does Art Nouveau. These two early modern-ist styles changed the face of the capital, particularly those neighbourhoods just outside the city centre. The growing middle and upper classes fl ocked to these as-yet-undeveloped districts – Schaerbeek, Woluwe, Ixelles, Uccle, Forest and Saint-Gilles – between 1893 and 1939. They brought with them the latest aesthetic values as well as the will and wherewithal to realise them in brick and mortar (and marble and stylised, wrought-iron ara-besque). The seventh edition of the Art Nouveau and Art Deco Biennale is your chance to explore the traces of this bygone era through a series of guided tours. Each week-end focuses on a different

district, exteriors as well as interiors. October 5-27www.voiretdirebruxelles.be

ACCESSIBLEART FAIR

Art collecting is a notoriously expensive habit. Or so you might think. Since 2007, the Brussels Accessible Art Fair has proven that (almost) anyone can become a discriminating collector. Visitors are intro-duced to a carefully selected group of 50 artists. They are painters, photographers and sculptors; some are estab-lished and some are soon to be. Their works are on sale at a range of prices to suit (al-most) anyone’s budget at the Steigenberger Grand Hotel in Avenue Louise. October 10-13www.accessibleartfair.com

MARNIJAZZ FESTIVAL

The soprano sax fi nally gets its due. The alto’s oft-over-looked brother is the focus of the 10th edition of the Marni Jazz Festival. The instrument proves its versatility over the course of six very different concert soirées, as a line-up of respected Belgian and international jazz cats move from contemporary jazz to world fusion to straight-up festive jams. The festival is an encounter not just between styles and instruments but generations as well. Estab-lished players Fabrizio Cassol, Fabrice Alleman, Pierre Vaiana, Kristjan Randalu (pic-tured) and Ludovic Jeanmart enter into musical dialogue with rising stars Jennifer El Gammal, Mathieu Robert and François Lourtie. Then there’s the food. Every evening begins with dinner in Marni’s bar, where neighbourhood brasserie Volle Gas will pre-pare authentic Belgian dishes and serve them up alongside delicious Belgian beers. September 12-21www.theatremarni.com

UPCOMING EVENTS WITH ING

• October 9-January 5, Lieve Blancquaert ExhibitionING Cultural Centre, Brussels, www.birth-day.be

• October 15, Belgium vs Wales Football, King Baudouin Stadium, Heysel, Brussels, www.belgianfootball.be


A Brussels career By Nicholas Stuart



It is not surprising that Brus-sels is considered an attractive destination for internationally minded professionals. After all, it is not only home to the EU

and its associated industries – together accounting for an estimated 120,000 expats – but it is also the European headquarters of numerous corporations including Toyota, Cisco and MasterCard. As a result, many of Brussels’ sizeable expat community are enjoying lucrative international careers and working in any number of languages.

The rewards at the top of the ladder are in line with those available for top talent in other European capitals. A study by Ellwood Atfield, recruitment specialists in the lobbying and communications sector, found that the heads of Brussels-based political consultancies, corporate public affairs offices and trade asso-ciations earn anything from €150,000 to €400,000 a year, plus benefits. A director-general at the European Com-mission could expect to earn €217,000; an MEP receives around €125,000 a year.

While entry into the European institu-tions or Nato is done via highly competi-tive concours or national secondments, recruiters agree that Brussels’ private-sector jobs can prove rewarding for those with the right skills.

“A lot of industries are scaling up their representation in Brussels at the mo-ment, with political power concentrat-ing at the EU level,” says Mark Dober, a senior recruiter with Ellwood Atfield

and former managing director of the Brussels office of APCO, a leading political consultancy. Companies such as Samsung have also bulked up their EU affairs offices; this often reflects the growing importance of EU regulation in specific sectors. In particular, there has been demand for lobbyists to work in the financial services, energy, ICT and pharma and healthcare sectors, he explains.

He says the most sought-after positions for EU affairs specialists involve heading up the EU affairs office for a multina-tional. Unsurprising, perhaps: according to the Ellwood Atfield study, such jobs also offer the best packages in Brussels.

Yet people working in the EU sector should not underestimate the careers offered by political consultancies, Dober says. These can be very well remuner-ated, while providing interesting and sophisticated work, as consultants always need to make sure they are one step ahead of their clients. Indeed, con-sultants are clearly valued by the clients: APCO, which Dober set up in Brussels

in the 1990s, now turns over more than €10 million per year.

As for EU-sector jobs, industry expertise used to be the most important attribute of a lobbyist but that is now last on the list, says Dober. Lobbying in Brussels has changed and it is increasingly important that lobbyists have a detailed under-standing of complex EU procedures. The College of Europe in Bruges gives a very good grounding; increasingly, so do courses at other universities such as the London School of Economics. Having studied law is always a big asset, as are internships in key areas.

It can be very difficult to get into the EU public sector, Dober explains. Outside the institutions, the classic route seems to be studying at the College of Europe, followed by an internship in the Com-mission before working at an agency, then switching in-house or to a trade association.

He adds that at the junior level at companies in and around Brussels, there is a lot of competition for jobs and a lot of movement, but for more senior posi-tions, there tends to be a much smaller pool of talent. A recruitment specialist is not only able to locate suitable candi-dates for the job, but can also advise on the salary package that would be neces-sary to tempt away prized employees.

The legal industry is another EU sector that has seen business boom in the past 20 years. With the European Commis-sion blocking multi-billion-euro mergers by companies such as Ryanair, UPS and

Senior recruiter with Ellwood Atfield

Mark Dober

A Brussels career

Climbing the international professional ladder is a lot easier with the help of a recruitment specialist


Career •

What is your career history?

Paul Lugard I studied law and a few years of Russian at the University of Gron-

ingen in the Netherlands and spent a postgraduate year at the Col-lege of Europe in Bruges. After a few years with a Dutch law firm, I moved to electronics company Philips, where I eventually became a

senior vice president and the head of antitrust. I immensely enjoyed working at Philips for almost 10 years, but I do not regret having

moved back to private practice when I received the offer to do so. I have a number of great colleagues; our office has hit the ground running and it is

an exciting challenge to build the Brussels practice of Baker Botts in the years to come. Concerning my future aspirations, frankly, I do not know which job I would like better than the one I am doing now. Ask me again in a few years’ time!

Maria Smith After A-levels in England I completed marketing and European

language studies in London. I joined Alfred Marks as a recruitment consultant in Manchester, which is where I developed my passion for recruitment. The face of recruitment has changed enormously in the past few years, with more corporate companies cutting budgets and taking on their own in-house talent management teams. This makes it very competitive to remain as a stand-alone freelance. After years of freelancing in Belgium, Amazon’s job posting came at a very opportune time for me as I was reviewing my career options. I am loving every minute of the challenge and hope to continue to be part of Amazon’s growth plans. The company is the best in its class. The European HQ in Luxembourg has great modern offices with the most up-to-date technology. We are the fastest growing online retailers and are recruiting at a phenomenal pace.

Pieter Philipsen I spent a year as an art therapist in a psychiatric hospital, then

did a degree in business administration and became an assistant controller for Packard Bell. Later I worked as controller of the sales

office in Munich, before joining an international project in France to lead the finance and business department. Eight years later, I moved

to a Swiss start-up as financial director, with the intention of living in the UK. We moved to Switzerland for nine months to prepare the business, but

it was the ‘dotcom bubble’ and the company went bankrupt. I participated in a management buyout, becoming CFO of the new company; within five years we went from 100 employees to 1,400. I left after five years, when one of our children needed specialised education. We settled in Brussels and I found a position as CFO of a company producing software for talent management, which meant lots of travel. Our goal was to re-finance or sell the company, which we achieved in 2010. After helping various companies to grow, I noticed that many needed not only an entrepreneur but advice on achieving their goals. Becoming a success-ful business is more than having a great idea. It takes a lot of perseverance, hard work and people skills; the last is not necessarily nurtured at business schools. Now as an independent consultant, I offer companies the help they need to get to the next level.

Caroline Quintero After four years in the EU bubble I am now a self-employed

event organiser and consultant. I started at my previous job as an intern and created my own position as a communication consult-ant, but there was little room for advancement. I decided to com-bine my experience and contacts to launch Oh My Day!, which specialises in private and public events. I am currently organising a wedding and have just finished working as a social media officer for an international motocross event and presenter at the Esperanzah! music festival. Via the Smart platform I am able to hire photographers, video artists and graphic and website designers. We can all share activities and contacts. I would ob-viously like to expand the business, and my husband and I would like to spend time in Colombia and use our combined experience to create a business that would bridge Colombia and Belgium.

NYSE Euronext and hitting others such as Intel, Saint-Gobain and Microsoft with fines reaching as high as €1 billion, top legal advice is highly prized. As a result, the number of EU legal practices in Brussels has mushroomed, with senior partners earning in the mil-lions of euros each year.

Ronni Kanoff was the first legal recruiter to offer specialised advice for the Brussels bubble, and re-mains its best known. She started working life as a concert violinist, before going to law school and becoming a litigator in New York. After moving to Brussels and do-ing an internship in the European Commission’s prestigious Directo-rate-General for Competition, she started to look for a legal position in Brussels but was struck by the lack of legal recruitment special-ists. She has recently expanded her firm, Kanoff Legal, taking on two lawyer/recruiters.

“We’ve seen great changes in the Brussels legal market over the last ten years,” she says.“The new generation of law-yers are very European, often multinational and with degrees from several countries in several languages: this is Europe.” There is also a trend for lawyers to move around more than in the past, she says, with a lot of movement

“The new generation of lawyers are very European, with degrees from several countries in several languages”



between firms at the associate and partner level.

Kanoff has helped a number of inter-national law firms to set up office as well as to bolster their presence in the ever-growing Brussels market. She has placed partners, associates, partners with associates and some in-house lawyers. “There is a lot of competition among firms for the top candidates,” she says.

Kanoff stresses that recruiters play an important role in advising profession-als who are looking for a move. The Brussels job market for lawyers is very “untransparent”, she says. It has a mix of global, regional and Belgian firms, which makes it challenging for lawyers working in Brussels or looking to move to Brussels to understand what choices they have and where they may feel most comfortable. In addition, as lawyers spend most of their time working, they may not be aware of what is out there.

She advises applicants on which firms would match their skills, interests and lifestyle, and would best suit them ac-cording to their ambitions and personal-ity. Salary levels in Belgium are often unpredictable and indeed Kanoff has seen offers with a discrepancy of up to €20,000 between competing firms for the same candidate. Confidentiality is also a big concern for all lawyers look-ing to move, says Kanoff – particularly for well-known or senior lawyers. As such, a recruiter can play an important role as an intermediary, protecting ap-plicants’ identity until the discussions have advanced.

While EU affairs and legal job markets are robust, Andrew Simmonds, director at Profile Group, a recruitment and selection company with offices across Belgium and in Paris, is more bearish when assessing opportunities at compa-nies in and around Brussels.

The job market is relatively dynamic, he explains, but labour costs for companies have steadily increased in recent years, making Belgium “expensive and inflexi-ble”. Indeed, Belgium is one of Europe’s most costly employment markets, while many benefits that used to be available to multinationals and expats have been chipped away.

It is important to bear in mind that, as a proportion of all jobs in Belgium, only a small number are international, Sim-

monds points out. In addition, languag-es can often prove a hurdle for expats looking for corporate jobs. If the office is the European headquarters, then Eng-lish will be the working language, but if it is a national company, working-level French and Dutch may be mandatory. Nonetheless, people with specific skills will find it easier to find a position in Belgium, he says. For example, Profile Group is often looking to France to recruit engineers.

Simmonds, Dober and Kanoff all agree that having an up-to-date and well-crafted LinkedIn profile is essential. But it is also important to remember that Brussels is a small market, says Dober. “Do a good job and word will get around, but do a bad job...”

Senior legal recruiter

Ronni Kanoff

Director Profile Group

Andrew Simmonds

“There is a lot of competition among the firms for the top candidates”


“I joined the bank BBL in 1985, straight from Solvay Business School, and moved with the bank when it became part of the ING Group in January 1998. At the beginning of my career I didn’t push to go abroad but did state that I was avail-able for a foreign posting. When I was invited to go to New York, I discussed it with my wife and our family. With two small children, we decided this was a real opportunity so we jumped at the chance.

“After three years in New York I was asked to go to Madrid. I wasn’t very enthusiastic at first because the city was not a financial capital. Luc Vandewalle, who was responsible for southwest Europe, said I would not regret it and would not be bored. He asked me to trust him and I did. Of course it was a culture shock, as Spain was a complete-ly different environment, but it proved to be a very interesting and enriching experience. For example, in America it is customary to use systems and follow manuals when something goes wrong, but in Spain, at least then, there were none. I would find people in the office working late at night following an inci-dent and they would reassure me that

everything would be fixed by the morn-ing. They took pride in their work and found ways of solving problems. There are advantages to both approaches; there is not one right way, and it pays to have experience of both.

“Although happy in Spain, I was asked to return to Belgium and work in Brussels, to take responsibility for wholesale banking in southwest Europe (evolved later to regional continental western Europe). My next move was to Amsterdam, to the new worldwide project management office, report-ing to ING Bank’s vice-chairman, Koos Timmermans. It was his leadership that determined my decision as at first I was quite surprised by the offer. I said, ‘I’m a businessman, why would I want to be in a support function?’ But I was told there was a need for specialised people and they wanted a business point of view. Again, I trusted the people above me.

“I believe that you have to embrace change, view it as an opportunity and not a nuisance. It is better to move on a little too early than too late. I left Amsterdam for Luxembourg after only

one year. It was early, but better that way than waiting ten years to be asked to move. If it also works for your family, I think it is better to jump on the train, go for the change and improve your employability. It’s certainly more fun!

“I have always enjoyed working in an international team, so I would hate to lose this aspect of my job. The Nether-lands in that regard came as a bit of a surprise, as for the first time in my ca-reer many meetings were held in Dutch rather than English. When I moved to Luxembourg, I was initially worried about working on a national rather than an international level. But although it is a small country it is an international hub, and I am having a lot of fun. At the moment I’m not thinking about my future career, as I first want to concen-trate on my current mandate. The major tax changes that are going ahead in Luxembourg mean it is an interesting job, if not always easy. As a general rule I think it’s good for the stability of the company to stay in one position for three to five years. But then a change of blood is good because of the new energy it can bring.“ SC

Career •

CEO of ING Luxembourg

Luc Verbeken

“I believe thatyou have toembrace change”Luc Verbeken, CEO of ING Luxembourg, has had an international career that began in Brussels and encompassed New York, Madrid, Amsterdam and now the Grand Duchy. This is his expat story



Seven pointersfor a smooth international career

so you can position yourself for key jobs within the com-pany in the future.

5 Don’t under-estimate the administrative burden of being an expat when it comes

to your pension, health insurance, estate planning and legal and tax provision. Keep all your records up to date or consult an expert, especially if you are likely to move again professionally or are thinking about retiring in another country. See page 14 for more on this.

6 International exposure is essential for management positions in multinational

companies, so don’t forget to draw attention to this

asset at internal or external job interviews. Make sure you can describe at least one situation where this experi-ence was crucial in problem-solving or negotiating a deal.

7 Corporate-level personnel, in particular the CEO, are in-creasingly cho-sen or coached

for their leadership skills above their technical mana-gerial ability. Make sure you enrol in any training sessions or leadership programmes that are offered.

1 Before you begin your expat mission, make sure your new contract is signed and

everything is clear. It should mention all the key elements: salary, housing, schooling, spousal support, healthcare, pension and repatriation.

2 Talk to col-leagues and fellow expats about their ex-periences and ask them for

advice concerning both your future job and new home.

3 Think about your mid- to long-term career plan before your ex-pat job comes

to an end. What positions or functions will now be open to you thanks to your experience abroad? Your present employer may not be able put anything on paper, but you could ask for your present role and responsibili-ties to be outlined.

4 Find out who is responsible for your posi-tion at head office. Make sure you keep

in regular contact with them

What future positions or functions will now be open to you thanks to your experience abroad?


What’s onoutside Brussels

Jodie Foster,Robert de Niro and Martin Scorsese onthe set of Taxi Driver

FILM FESTIVAL GHENT Lights, camera, action! The Flanders International Film Festival Ghent is one of Belgium’s oldest and most exciting cinematic events. Since its humble beginnings as a student film showcase, Ghent has grown exponentially and success-fully carved out a niche as the most music-friendly of Europe’s film festivals, with its focus squarely on soundtracks and their composers. The strategy has landed the festival in the top tier of silver-screen celebrations worldwide. It annually welcomes a whopping 130,000 visitors, who come to enjoy some 100 features, 30 shorts and a cross-section of related fare, from exhibitions to celebrity meet-and-greets to concerts to the prestigious World Soundtracks Award. That’s in a normal year. This year Film Festival Ghent turns 40. The powers-that-be are duly planning an anniversary extravaganza complete with the best new films and soundtracks from Belgium, Europe and beyond. An anniversary highlight is a focus on American direc-tor Martin Scorsese with a retrospective of his most iconic films and documentaries, an exhibition and a concert of musical scores from his film catalogue.

October 8-19, www.filmfestival.beSponsored by ING

Agenda •



RACHEL HARRISON

American sculptor Rachel Harrison picks up where 20th-century French artist Marcel Duchamp left off. Duchamp’s concept of ready-made art – art made of random objects – was central to the development of modernism. Harrison takes the ready-made even further. The New Yorker has been transforming found objects into bizarre and thought-provoking sculp-tures and installations since the 1990s. The S.M.A.K. ex-hibition, organised with the Kunstverein Kestnergesells-chaft in Hanover, Germany, focuses on Harrison’s more recent work, specifically sculptures and drawings from her 2012 series The Help, large-scale instal-lations from Incidents of Travel in Yucatan (2011) and photographs from Sunset Series (2000-2012). September 7-January 5 S.M.A.K., www.smak.be

LUXEMBOURG FESTIVAL

The Grand Duchy of Lux-embourg, hidden gem of the Benelux, is little more than a hop, skip and jump away from Brussels. The season’s big event there is the Luxembourg Festival, a two-month cultural collabo-ration between the Philhar-

monie Luxembourg and the Grand Duchy’s equally Grand Théâtre. The two vener-able institutions showcase nearly three dozen top-shelf performances. You’ll find theatre, opera and dance as well as live classical, jazz and world music. Invited artists hail from Luxembourg and beyond. Belgium’s own Vlaamse Opera joins forces with the local philharmonic orchestra to stage Verdi’s La Forza del Destino. English guitarist John McLaughlin’s quartet Remember Shakti fuses Western jazz and tra-ditional Indian music. There’s Germany’s Signum Quartet (pictured). And the list goes on. It’s the perfect excuse to discover Luxembourg. October 12-November 29www.luxembourgfestival.lu

AUTUMN PLANT FESTIVAL

Spring has its blooms and summer its opulence. Au-tumn has neither, of course, but it is the last hurrah in the annual floral cycle. And so the Belgians celebrate with plant festivals across the country. This is when La Feuillerie, in Celles (just outside Walloon border town Tournai), hosts its popular Autumn Plant Festival. The sumptuous 19th-century gardens are open to the public only four times annu-ally so this is your last chance to visit this year. Besides the

landscaped splendour of the place, you’ll find specialised vendors and exhibitors galore – over 50 in total – all riffing on this season’s theme: decorative berries and fruits. You’ll be surprised at nature’s variety. September 28 & 29www.lafeuillerie.be

JEAN-FRANCOIS D’OR

It was his blend of technical precision and poetic spirit that earned 38-year-old Brus-seleer Jean-François D’Or the title Belgian Designer of the Year. Apart from being, un-derstandably, a guest of hon-our at the Design September festival in Brussels (see page 17), D’Or is the focus of a solo exhibition at the repur-posed mining complex at Grand-Hornu. Moodboards presents a range of objects designed by the La Cambre alumnus, who launched his own industrial design label Loudordesign in 2003. The motif is logical, unfussy form. D’Or’s designs are straight-forward from a manufactur-ing perspective and blissfully functional at the consump-tion end. See especially his line of conical mirrors. So simple but so brilliant. September 22-December 15www.grand-hornu-images.be

GOLDEN AGE OF DANISH PAINTING

The Napoleonic Wars ushered in a new period in the Golden Age of Danish Painting. True, Copenha-gen was left charred and ruined in their wake but the city’s artistic spirit rose like a phoenix from the ashes. Over the course of the cen-tury, successive generations of painters like Christof-fer Wilhelm Eckersberg, Nicolai Abilgaard, Martinus Rørbye, Johan Lundbye and Anton Melbye developed a distinctively Danish style, which combined elements of German Romanticism, French Neo-Classicism and the lived experience of Denmark. You won’t have to go as far as Copenhagen to discover these treasures either. La Piscine museum, just across the Franco-Belgian border in Roubaix, is hosting a comprehensive exhibition covering the entire century. You’ll find intense rustic portraits as well as sweep-ing land- and seascapes. The museum is itself worth the price of admission. Originally constructed in the 1920s as an art-deco swimming pool, the building was converted into a museum of art and industry in 2000.October 12-January 12www.roubaix-lapiscine.com


We are sailing

By Sarah Crew

The Red Star Line Museum uncovers Antwerp’s pivotal role in the story of European migration to America

Lifestyle •



The latest high-profile landmark rejuvenating the historic Eilandje area of Antwerp’s docklands is an €18 million project that has

transformed three derelict warehouses into a poignant museum. Presenting an interactive and narrative history of the legendary Red Star Shipping Line and the wider migration experience, it charts how millions of Europeans embarked on a life-changing journey across the Atlantic.

The story goes from poverty and desperation to the now widespread recognition of the role migration has played in global history, business and the character of the city of Antwerp. It was at the beginning of the 19th century that Europeans started sailing to America, in search of adventure and fortune, or fleeing poverty and, later, Jewish persecution in Eastern Europe; between 1900 and 1921 an estimated one in four of passengers was of Jewish descent.

As a key port for continental Europe, Antwerp was home to the world’s emi-nent shipping companies. Founded in Philadelphia in the 1870s, the Red Star Line was a joint venture by an American businessman and two Belgian investors to transport grain and passengers to and from Europe. In addition to Phila-delphia, New York City and Antwerp, the line operated from the UK ports of Liverpool and Southampton.

From 1873 to 1934, the Red Star Line transported close to 2 million passen-

gers, and in its heyday, two liners sailed each week, carrying 1,000 to 1,500 people. The majority travelled in third class, known as steerage, paying the equivalent of €550 in 1895 and €2,400 by 1924. While the maiden voyage by the steamer Vaderland took a month, the company’s flagship, the 212m-long Belgenland II, made the same crossing in 10 days. The Atlantic voyage was a notorious ordeal for third-class pas-sengers, made more uncomfortable by bad weather. The Red Star fleet suffered damage and losses; six people died when the Finland rammed a cargo ship in the Scheldt estuary on Christmas Day 1910.

Passengers’ final days on the European continent would be taken up with ad-ministrative and medical checks at the Red Star Line’s Rijnkaai base. Examina-tions became increasingly thorough over the years because any passengers who were refused entry to the US on medical grounds had to be returned to Europe at the company’s expense. Belgian Christophe Gaeta was commissioned by the project’s architects to create the mu-seum’s multimedia scenography, which presents several perspectives including these medical formalities.

The permanent exhibition tells the story of the Red Star Line, Antwerp and the city’s port, including 20 personal stories of passengers who travelled on the line. The family of composer and one-time passenger Irving Berlin have loaned his

rare transposing piano to the museum. Albert Einstein was another famous passenger; a letter he penned on Red Star Line stationery announcing his resignation from the Prussian Academy of Sciences has also been lent to the museum. The spotlight on witnesses to the immigration experience also includes some who are still alive.

The main exhibit simulates the immigra-tion experience. Visitors first go to a Warsaw travel agency, before stepping inside a train carriage which takes them to Antwerp. Steerage passengers then pass through a screening process before boarding a mock ferry that takes them to Ellis Island or an immigrant centre in Philadelphia. There is also reference to the Jews who remained in Antwerp rather than continue on to the US, either because they were deemed unfit to travel or because they saw business opportunities in the city.

When the Red Star Line collapsed in 1934, its buildings remained largely unoccupied. In 2001 the complex was listed as a historical monument and in 2005 the City of Antwerp bought it to create an educational and heritage mu-seum. Work started in 2010 to restore the three architecturally diverse ware-houses that are a permanent reminder of this significant period in the history of the city’s docklands.

One of its distinct features was a red-brick chimney. It was demolished in


1936, but the architects have symboli-cally replaced it with a modern vertical beacon that provides a distinct focus to the complex. Suggestive of the bow of a ship and the funnel of a steamer, it al-ludes to the passengers’ on-board expe-rience. It was completed last year and is accessible to everyone for a panoramic view of the area, free of charge.

With some 30 million people in North America possibly tracing their family lin-eage to these unprepossessing Antwerp warehouses, the project is expected to attract high numbers of visitors from America and Canada. A promotional campaign in New York is targeting potential tourists and Brussels Airlines is offering promotional airfares on its New York-Brussels line for visitors to the museum. The museum aims to draw 200,000 visitors a year, helped by the increasing number of attractions in the area including the MAS museum that dominates the nearby Willemdok. “There’s been a growing interest in Europe in immigration, because we are confronted by lots of immigration,” said Luc Verheyen, the museum’s project coordinator. With the new institution, he added, “we tried to give immigra-tion new meaning for a wider public, an example of a global phenomenon.”

Attending the opening of the museum on September 27 will be King Philippe and Queen Mathilde, former Ameri-can ambassador to Belgium Sam Fox, the family of composer and Red Star emigrant Irving Berlin, Belgo-American fashion designer Diane von Furstenburg and Steven Briganti, president of the Ellis Island Foundation. It was the New York immigration museum that served as a model for the Antwerp city project. The Red Star Line warehouses have been restored by the international archi-tectural fi rm Beyer Blinder Belle, which was also behind the renovation and preservation of historic Ellis Island.

www.redstarline.be

The Atlantic voyage was a notorious ordeal for third-class passengers, made more uncomfortable by bad weather



The digital homeThe latest apps and gadgets for smart living

Digital •

COMPUTER

Sony VAIO Duo 13With the advent of touch-enabled screens and desktop operating systems (like Windows 8) that make use of them, PC makers are scratching their heads over how to deliver both current worlds of computing – the consumer-friendly, touch-enabled tablet and the work-related, power-orientated laptop – in one single product. Most manufacturers have their own solutions at hand, but a slight standard seems to be developing on foldable solutions. Like this Sony VAIO Duo 13, a tablet/ultrabook hybrid with an ultrathin keyboard that can neatly be folded behind the touchscreen. It’s got a camera on the back, and when you release the stylus from its socket, the screen automatically conjures a notebook app.€1,600www.sony.com

LIGHTING

Hue LED bulbsWith a set of these bulbs from Dutch electronics maker Philips, you can change the lights in your living room to any colour you desire through an app on your iPhone. But there’s more to it: a base station that controls the lamps becomes part of your wireless network, so the things can be set to any mood you desire (Philips engineers prepared, for instance, ‘relaxed’, ‘read’ and ‘con-centration’ modes), and you can even reproduce the mood of certain fond holiday images. Current Hue bulbs can be screwed into most common fi ttings. Also, they save up to 80% on energy compared to a traditional light bulb.€195.50www.meethue.com

APP

Ikea catalogue Swedish home furniture giant Ikea introduced augmented reality features in its digital 2013 catalogue, allowing users to view items in 3D on their smart-phone or tablet screen. Now, with the 2014 edition, you can also see exactly how that new table, bed or cupboard would look in your actual home. At this moment, only a select number of items can be viewed in virtual form, but here’s hoping Ikea will include more of its products in digital form. It’s a great way of measuring and styling your house before you take a shopping trip, which could protect you from buying stuff that really doesn’t fi t your interior the way you hoped when you saw it in the store.Freewww.ikea.be


Lifestyle •

In the neighbourhood

RED STARLINE MUSEUMThe opening of the Red Star Line Museum inAntwerp on September 28 is a further boost to the port area known as Eilandje (meaning ‘small island’). There’s lots to discover in this old but upcoming part of the city surrounded bywater and the docks

Our tips on how to make a day – or a weekend – out of a visit to the season’s top event

RIJN

KA

AI

1

2

GODEFRIDUSKAAI

WILLEMDOK

KATTENDIJKDOK

3

5

6

4



expat time • Autumn • 2013 • 31

1 Broer

Bretel

Broer Bretel is an espresso bar with a dazzling list of caffeine treats: from a strong doppio ristretto to a drip (slowly extracted single origin coffee) or a flat white to a chocolate ball latte.If you’re not a coffee fan, tea and lemonade are also served. There is a lovely ter-race where you can enjoy the view over the docks, or catch up online with free wifi. 7 Nassaustraatwww.broerbretel.be

2 MAS

If you want to know more about Antwerp, a visit to MAS (Museum aan de Stroom/Museum on the Stream) is a must. It opened in 2011 and explores the city’s link with the world via a permanent exhibition on art, heritage, the river and the port. Some of the temporary activities include Sporting MAS (on Antwerp’s role as European Capital

of Sport 2013) and Happy Birthday Dear Academy (on the 350th birthday of Antwerp’s Royal Academy of Fine Arts). It’s an eye-catch-ing building with a towering 10 floors in a contemporary Lego-block-like design. Café Storm on the ground level is a popular venue for culture and music lovers, while restaurant ’t Zilte on the ninth floor is winning rave reviews. From the top floor, visitors are treated to a 360-degree panoramic view over the city and port.1 Hanzestedenplaatswww.mas.be

3 De NAtie

Located in the recently renovated building of De Valkeniers Natie (an 1817 warehouse transformed into offices, housing and commercial space), cafe and restaurant De Natie is a hidden gem. With a menu featuring tapas and cock-tails, sandwiches and salads, mains such as Irish steak or cod with vegetables, it’s a perfect spot for a bite at any time of the day. On weekends, (late) breakfast is served until 14.00.18-22 Van de Wervestraatwww.denatie.com

4 royAl BAllet

of flANDerS

The renowned company was founded in 1969 and is the only classic ballet company in Belgium. Its theatre and rehearsal studios are in the centre of Eilandje, with Portuguese Assis Carreiro as artistic director. For the up-coming season, there are a number of classics lined up. 16 Kattendijkdok Westkaaiwww.balletvlaanderen.be

5 PArk SPoor

NoorD

This park is a popular green spot in the area. What was once an old and neglected space in between railway tracks has been turned into a contemporary and eco-friendly park with lots of greenery and space for sports and cultural activities. The park opened in 2009 and has attracted many picnicking families, students cramming for exams, jog-gers and friends gathering for a drink ever since.

6 Hotel

MArjorie

Where better to spend the night in this area than on a boat? Not just any boat, but a luxury sailing ship called Marjorie, moored in the shadow of the MAS Museum. There are 12 cosy cabins, all with private shower and toilet. Wake up in the Antwerp port, enjoy your breakfast and you’re ready to explore the area as well as the nearby city cen-tre. It’s €135 for a double room (€100 a night during winter, when booking a minimum of two nights).3 Willemdok Kaaiwww.marjorie2.com


And finally ...With Egypt and Syria still in turmoil, Russia’s new anti-gay laws and, erm, a new dog for the Obamas, there’s been no respite for the news over the holiday season. Emma Beddington looks at who’s been busy over the past 100 days

As Chris Froome took the maillot jaune in what was heralded a “clean”

Tour de France, yet another wave of doping revelations somewhat overshadowed his victory. A newly released French Senate report detailed the devastating extent of use of the performance-enhancing drug EPO in the 1998 Tour, including by Marco Pantani and Jan Ullrich, the first- and second-placed riders, prompting the question: is there such a thing as a clean cyclist? Your postman? My five-year-old nephew?

After seven months of excitement shading into hysteria and a three-week vigil out-side the Lindo Wing

of St Mary’s hospital in London, the world’s media was finally delivered of a beautiful, bouncing story: the birth of

HRH Prince George Alexander Louis of Cambridge. Pity anyone who tried to ice that on to a commemorative cake. Proud father Prince William declared the new arrival to be “a little rascal”, which suggests he’ll get on great with Uncle Harry and great-grandfather Philip.

It looks like 2013 will go down as the year of abdications: did the Pope

and Queen Beatrix give Albert II the idea? As the King of the Belgians stood aside after 20 years in July, most factions in the country united to wish him an affectionate farewell, to take a peek at new boy Philippe and, above all, to marvel at Queen Fabiola’s limelight-stealing cerise and purple outfits.

US National Security Agency whistle-blower Edward Snowden finally

escaped from history’s worst ever airport transit lounge after five weeks in Moscow’s Sheremetyevo airport (that’s a lot of duty-free vodka and Toblerones), when President Putin granted him temporary asylum in August.

Comment •



The gentle tart of protest

Ihave lived in Belgium long enough to know that they do things differently here. When it comes to political protest, they do not take to the streets as they do in other countries. They do not set fire to cars so willingly. When a Belgian wants to protest, he or she is more

likely to buy a layered chocolate gateau. If they want to make their point in the strongest possible terms, they will ask the shop to add a Chantilly cream topping.

The chocolate gateau topped with whipped cream is not for eating. It is for throwing in the face of someone you have come to detest. The Belgian anarchist Noël Godin is seen as the godfather of the cream pie attack. He has been an active entarteur/taartengooier since 1969, when he slammed a cream pie in the face of a French novelist.

Godin tends to strike at people he believes are too self-important or humourless. He targets pompous French philosophers and egotistical TV presenters in attacks he colourfully describes as tempêtes pâtissières, or gateau storms. Godin made international news in 1998 when he hit the American software billionaire Bill Gates in the face with a cream pie. He has also targeted the former French president Nicolas Sarkozy, while the French intellectual Bernard Henri-

Levy has been hit no less than six times. Some celebrities now hire bodyguards to protect themselves from the Belgian entarteurs.

You might think that any old cream tart would do, but this is Belgium, where they take food very seriously. Godin explains that his weapon of choice is a classic Belgian tart filled with whipped cream and perhaps a little sponge. “We only use the finest patisserie ordered at the last minute from a small local bakery,” he once told an interviewer. “Quality is everything. If things go wrong, we can always eat it.”

Godin no longer carries out the attacks himself because he is too well known. But he has an endless supply of young volunteers who are more than willing to fling a cream tart while crying out “Gloup, gloup, gloup”.

Only last month, the Belgian minister for immigration was attacked in central Brussels by a group of protestors. One of them flung a cardboard plate of whipped cream, while a second assailant struck with a plate of tomato ketchup.

Most countries would treat Noël Godin as a dangerous terrorist, but Belgium is able to shrug these things off. This is not a country that takes itself too seriously. But it takes Chantilly cream tarts very seriously.

By Derek Blyth


Spotlight •

Hey babyPhoto exhibition records the intimate momentof birth around the worldOver two years, Belgian photographer, journalist and mother Lieve Blancquaert travelled to 14 countries to witness the arrival of new human life, including in Kenya (pictured below) and Morocco (right), for her project Birth Day. Convinced that the birth process holds up a mirror to the society in which it takes place, she talked to families about their experience. Her cultural journey appears in a book featuring 14 stories and more than 400 photographs, published on October 8 in Dutch, French and English. An accompany-ing nine-episode television series on Flemish channel VRT starts in November.

October 9-January 5, ING Cultural Centre, 6 Place Royale, Brusselswww.birth-day.be

The exhibition is organised by Lieve Blancquaert and publisher Lannoo in collaboration with ING




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Documents

Autumn 2013 • n°3 expat time - ING Belgium · P 16 Ravi Agarwal P 17 Design September, KGID Studio; Henry Van de Velde, Sabam, Belgium 2013; Accessible Art Fair, Marcel Ceuppens