Name: David Oliva Uribe
Nationality: Belgian-Mexican
Profession: Head of the Industrial Doctoral School – EIT Digital

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Could you tell us a little about your journey and how you came to be in Brussels?

I’m 44 years old. I was born in Mexico City in 1975, but I’m a Belgian national now. I became a Belgian national in 2016. I went down the path where you show that you have more than five years working here. In addition, although it wasn’t necessary, I had several references from University rectors through my job – my scientific work, but also the work I have done to promote Belgian universities abroad. I help to enhance international cooperation between universities.

I came to Europe in 2005. I was interested in coming because at the time, in Mexico, I was working for one of the most important private universities, the Instituto Tecnológico y de Estudios Superiores de Monterrey (ITESM) and I was involved in education and research. But I was not able to lead my own research because I didn’t have a PhD. Also, Mexico at that time was not really able to carry out research with an impact on society or industry. So, I was very interested to know how the European model works.

I decided to go to Germany where I started my journey in Europe. It was very funny because I didn’t start out doing a PhD. I got a job working in a research centre. I was helping to manage the centre, with a team leader role, but not really working on my PhD. Basically, when I started looking to go there, I talked to the research centre directors and professors, and I said, I’m not only interested in doing a PhD, I’m also interested in how universities and industries can work together and innovate. So I was in Germany when I got that opportunity.

I learned quite a lot there about how German universities really have strong links with industry. I was the leader of a research team working on projects for Airbus, Siemens, Bosch and Volkswagen – very varied, really big as well as small companies. This helped me to understand the various collaborative possibilities.

It was there that I got the chance to be involved in applying for funding from the European Commission for FP7, the framework programme, and it became clear how important it was also to collaborate with the rest of Europe, because for every project you need three countries at least to work together.

Then the time came for me to know more about the European Union and I got the chance to come to Brussels in 2010 for summer training with a professor at the Vrije Universiteit Brussels (VUB).

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What were your first impressions of Brussels?

It was very interesting because people don’t necessarily imagine the things going on at Brussels’s universities. They may not be highly ranked although they are doing their best to improve, but they have real jewels in research: very highly renowned scientific researchers. The professor who ran this training course I went on is number two in the world for the research he does in modelling for non-linear systems, which you can apply everywhere. Finding the number two in the world in Brussels!

I spent one month here in the summer of 2010 and got to know the VUB and I found not only him but several professors who are really in the top echelons of research. You could say, I fell in love with the VUB – how they work, how they really want to promote collaboration and how they are very inclusive. It opened my eyes to Brussels as a very international city, a very friendly city, very open. For example, when you compare it to Paris – Paris is very international too but you still see it’s very closed and selfish. And Brussels is more open. Even just the different social days, for example on Thursday in Place Luxembourg or you can go to Chatelain. You can find people working in industry, working in the European Parliament or the Commission, and everybody can hang out with everybody. Nobody will be really ‘posh’ and say, ‘I will not talk to you!’. They really give you a smile, ask what you’re doing, you might find out they’re an MEP. You feel it’s a very friendly city.

By chance, the professor who was giving the training, was very interested in the research I’d started in Germany. While making things for industry was important, I had wanted to do something with a real impact for society and I had found a German neurosurgeon, Doctor Ralf Stroop, looking for a solution for local hospitals to better operate on brain tumours. He asked if I could develop something with him and we started working together. The prototypes were working very well, but very slowly. They were accurate but they took a very long time. So, I took this summer training to gain the knowledge and skills to make it really fast.

I presented this to the VUB professor, Johan Schoukens, and he told me, ‘I will give you a job here if you want to collaborate with me.’ For me, it was a nice opportunity to be in Brussels, to be with the number two in the world, and to continue my European path.

I decided to take the job. He gave me other responsibilities, such as the academic coordination of summer training. We receive PhD students from all over the world, and 17 countries in Europe. This has equipped me with great insight into European environments.

Around that time, I started a strong collaboration with the Mexican Embassy in Brussels and their mission to the EU, because they asked me to start creating professional networks for Mexicans living in Europe. So I created the first one in Germany, then one in Belgium, and I helped to structure the Mexican network in Europe which now has 17 associations in 16 different countries.

The main idea is to enhance collaboration between European countries and Mexican institutions and people. Previously Mexico’s focus had been the United States. But many things have happened to change that. First of all, we sent a strong message that Europe and the EU is a very good partner to work with. Education in Europe is stronger, richer, more inclusive. And this has changed the way Mexico views collaboration. 15 years ago, 90% of Mexican scholarships to go abroad were to the United States. Now, 65% of scholars want to come to Europe or are in Europe. So we changed that completely.

When you say Europe is stronger, richer, in terms of education, how does that fit with the impression people have of, for example, MIT in the States, their big name universities and all the private money that goes into those institutions? There’s a narrative that says that sort of approach drives innovation and research in a way that doesn’t happen here. But you think that Europe has a stronger academic offer than America?

Europe has a stronger academic scene and a completely different perspective on innovation, which is the social impact side of things. This is totally different from the vision of the United States. The US has a stronger, economy driven model of innovation. Money is the most important thing there, multiplication of investment. Creating value, economic value. But it’s not always thought-through: what are we placing into the market?

In Europe, on the other hand, there is a strong commitment to saying, ‘What we invest as public funds, plus what we win from private investors, drives innovation and yes, will generate economic benefits, but the tangible outputs are things that are good for society. Products that will improve health, improve the quality of life, that will give you a safer job.’ And when you look at these, the financial side has not been the aim. Of course, we have a gap, which we need to rebalance. We need to generate more successful companies. But still, we don’t need to change that social impact mission.

Through this collaboration with Mexico, I had more and more contact and attended events at the EU, so I really observed a lot of what’s happening in Brussels. At the time when I got my first offer of work with a European organisation, I had become a Belgian national and I was invited to work with the European University Association, the EUA. It’s the biggest university lobbying effort in the world. They gather universities in all European countries. They had on the association’s board the rectors conference of 30 countries, so it’s really global.

At the EUA, I was in charge of the Council for Doctoral Education, where I had contacts with 230 universities in 30 countries in Europe – not only the EU – so I became involved with policies and how we develop better opportunities for researchers. This has given me a great perspective to understand institutions, to understand what they do. But at the same time, I’ve never stopped collaborating with Mexico. That’s how and why I started bringing more and more ideas to Mexico and Latin America, from Brussels: how to do things that will promote development but with social impact. This is what Brussels can bring and I have been a big promoter of Brussels in Latin America. With Brussels you can reach every single part of Europe – you cannot imagine! I have meetings with the Helsinki office who are just downstairs. Through those windows there (pointing) you have the Association of Norwegian Universities. If I want to reach Russian universities, they have an office near Place Luxembourg. So, every single place in Europe can be reached in Brussels.

It’s a city where you can achieve your personal goals too. I lived a wonderful life here as a single person. I got married here with a German and we have a daughter and she was born in Brussels, raised here, educated here and we are very happy here. You can combine a good quality of life while still being in the most interesting and active region where you discuss the future of European development.

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Those are very positive comments about Brussels. How would you compare those experiences with Germany or indeed, Mexico City? Would you draw any comparisons?

It’s different. I was in Hanover in Germany. Many German cities are still not really international. German companies see ‘internationalisation’ in terms of ‘how can we place things into foreign markets’, not ‘how do we integrate these things into our environment?’. In Belgium, in Brussels, it’s the latter. There, in Germany, you can see, everybody really pictures you as a foreigner. Here, the definition of ‘foreigner’ is gone. Actually, sometimes you feel that it’s the Belgians who feel foreign sometimes in Brussels! That’s the difference.

I joined EIT Digital. There are certain external organisations that depend on the European Commission called European Union Bodies. EIT is one of them, the European Institute for Innovation and Technology. The headquarters are in Budapest, and EIT has a mission to boost innovation in Europe. They are divided into different Knowledge Innovation Communities (KICs) and one of them is EIT Digital, which is in charge of the digital transformation of Europe. There is also EIT Climate, EIT Energy.

EIT Digital decided to put the headquarters in Brussels but we have offices in 17 different cities, including one in Silicon Valley. I joined EIT Digital last year to be the Head of the Industrial Doctoral School, so for me it’s a really dream job. In fact, every job I’ve ever had has been a dream job for me. But why do I enjoy this job? Because first we are talking about bringing innovation to Europe in the domain of digital transformation – where we are not the world leaders yet, and we have everything it takes to become the strongest. And for me, now I feel I’m really working for Europe and for Brussels.

Secondly, I have the opportunity both to promote programmes that will see companies and universities working together, and to communicate with young talent and tell them: doing research is something not only university-based, but also collaborative which gives you the opportunity to boost your career, to have a better position in your professional life and to develop solutions that will have an impact on society.

One of the things that is really a problem in Europe, is the fight for talent. Talent management is a huge topic. Talent retention. For example, Nordic countries have ideal places to work but nobody wants to go there. So they have even placed offices in Brussels to understand how to become more attractive. And we can retain talent if we show them the value of European companies.

So our mission in the industrial doctorates is to shape new talents, to shape new professionals for Europe who believe in European companies. We also have international companies with a great commitment to Europe, although we put emphasis on European ones. They can create and nurture their own companies, and we can provide them with the best ecosystem for innovation. We can connect them to all the programmes we are working on with the Commission’s vision. It just so happened with the change of Presidency, that the new Commissioner for Innovation and Youth, (Mariya Gabriel), was the Commissioner for Digital and this has helped to infuse digital research and education into all other agendas like climate and societal inclusion.

So we really want to expand the way we work: bring in more universities, more industries working together and inspiring young talent to believe that we can achieve a very powerful digital transformation. We already have around 120 participants in the Industrial Doctorate, but we’ll expand it to 300 – where we provide part of the scholarship funding and a complete international training in innovation and entrepreneurship. Actually, I would add that part of the training we provide, can take part here in Brussels so students can grasp how, through understanding Brussels and the EU, they can also reach many things.

Can you talk a little more about your own research work and give us an example of how research in the digital technology and biotech space can really have an impact on people’s lives?

Basically, where digital technologies can help is to do more complex tasks, because now we have the capacity to do it with artificial intelligence, numerical methods and powerful computers that can allow us to obtain better results. This has been, for instance, my focus with the ‘intelligent scalpel’ I designed: to develop technology that is accessible for all hospitals, that can be very precise and safe, and allows the surgeon to take the decisions, because he or she should take the decision. Human decision-making is really relevant for health. You should never take out the human approach from health and well-being.

With Doctor Stroop we aim to make an instrument that a surgeon will use to evaluate areas of the brain where he knows there is a tumour. The instrument will very thoroughly analyse the tissue being touched and confirm the surgeon’s judgement. Just through touch, the instrument starts making micro-vibrations using more than 4000 frequencies simultaneously. It’s like spectrum photography of how the tissue is vibrating. We analyse how the tissue vibrates and we extract complex models to decide if the tissue being touched is healthy or tumorous.

This requires material science as we decide on intelligent materials but these materials are only intelligent alongside digital technologies. We need to process a lot of information and calculations very quickly. Before, in Germany, we could do this in one minute per point, which is way too long! Waiting one minute for each bit of tissue analysis would mean the surgery would take ten days. Now, after working in Brussels with Professor Schoukens, we’ve managed to complete that task in 400 milliseconds per point. So really, you can just touch the tissue and see the result straightaway.

We are in the final phase of human trials and we hope to take it to market in a couple of years. But our aim is not really thinking about money, rather offering a solution that can be placed everywhere. That’s part of what I appreciate being here in Brussels, where many people here have that commitment. We believe that bringing things to society is the goal and as we come from different societies, so we try to ensure that the solutions match needs in different places.

Do you ever feel homesick for Mexico? Do you get the chance to go back?

In the past, before EIT I used to go back five times a year because I had a lot of projects but now EIT absorbs most of my time and my travels are more European. I try to go three times a year. But I don’t feel homesick because now, my family is here. My wife, my daughter. We really feel like une famille bruxelloise. So, Brussels is part of us.

If you were Mayor of one of the Communes, is there anything you would change, if you were in charge?

This is related to your first question. Why am I not homesick in Brussels? Because Brussels is like a small Mexico City. It is charming and chaotic. The only difference is that Mexico City is 30 times bigger because it has 30 million people, but still they are very similar. Very beautiful areas. Very dangerous areas. Chaotic. The traffic. Excellent transportation. Bad planning for street works.

You can get hysterical in Brussels but at the end of the day you don’t want to leave because Brussels offers many things. I think what makes Brussels beautiful is the people. The combined international community really makes Brussels very warm for everybody. You feel it in the schools and your kids. My daughter, for example, who is a Belgian but she comes from ‘foreign blood’ – if she were in a school where she was the only foreigner, as could happen in Germany, she would feel maybe a little bit isolated. But here, almost everybody comes from parents with different origins. Children who were born here have parents who speak different languages and different cultures. But they’re integrated and they generate tolerance since they are growing and being educated alongside others.

What I don’t like, and I think many of us complain about on social media, is the bad planning of street works. I think there are many issues. Security and sometimes the work of the police is not so effective. The streets are not properly prepared for cycling; they were just adapted and it’s interesting that they simply put a line down the traffic lane, but actually there is no room for both! I think the street planning is very bad. I would really change the signage and I think they should move to more one-way traffic, because there are such narrow streets.

Brussels is chaotic in that sense. My wife remarked that even in Mexico City, the traffic works. There are fewer accidents in percentage terms than Brussels. The formula is like this: in Germany, mostly everybody follows the rules, so you know what to expect. In Mexico, actually there are no rules, so you still know what to expect. But in Brussels, half the people follow the rules and the others don’t, so you never know what to expect. I think they could do something with civil education because we come from so many different places that people are not used to the same rules. You don’t know what is about to happen in front of you, so there is always a crash.

Do you have any anecdotes about experiencing Belgian surrealism?

I live in Ixelles and they took a year to repair the Chaussée d’Ixelles and exactly one day after re-opening it, they closed it again to fix something they had forgotten!

The other thing is, why on earth do children have so many holidays when we as workers only have 20 days? They have a lot of holidays. It’s not easy. They have the whole of July and August and then every two months they have another week. It’s impossible. Even if you had 40 holiday days you would never keep up with them.

Do you have any favourite places to frequent in Brussels?

We love to go to Volle Gas restaurant, in front of Ixelles commune. It’s one of my favourites. There is also the Fin de Siècle, which is an excellent restaurant towards Saint-Gery from the Bourse. Very nice, Belgian-style food. They only have the menu on a board, so you have to choose from there. After about 7pm, there’s a queue of people, but it’s nice because as you get closer to the bar you can ask for a drink. And usually when you’ve stopped eating, you have to go, to make room.

We also like to go to the Cinquantenaire Park and Bois de la Cambre. We live very close to the ULB and we are only one street away from Bois de la Cambre, so that’s our back garden.

Another thing I find wonderful in Brussels is the nightlife and all the festivals. So in summertime, even September, you find a lot of things to do. I’ve been several times to the Brussels Summer Festival, and all the local events, like the Fiesta Latina and when they open the beach at the canal.

And of course the beer. And the Christmas Market. Even though I’ve been to quite a few German Christmas Markets, I find the Brussels one really nice. It’s really, really nice. It’s a good one. I think it competes with the German ones. And what I like the most is that they open after Christmas, whereas the German ones close on the 23rd.

You mentioned Belgian food. What’s your favourite Belgian specialty?

Carbonnade. And mussels.

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Do you have a personal wish linked to Brussels?

There is the route, the Comic Strip Walk, which I would like to do because I love comics. I only know two of the murals on the walk. And I’ve never been to the Comic Book Museum or to the Magritte Museum.

Just on a different note finally, because I think it would be remiss not to ask you: do you have any remarks about Trump and his policies?

I think it’s curious because of course it’s a bad position, but in terms of me as a Mexican Belgian, his protectionist policies help me to encourage Latin America to look more towards Europe. In terms of the wall (the one he wants Mexicans to pay for!), what he has actually done is place a wall between Latin American and US collaboration. For me this was an interesting moment, because I was then able to really strengthen my message. I also collaborate with other Latin American countries, with Colombia, Ecuador, Costa Rica and Argentina – I help them to find strategic alliances. When they were faced with Trump stopping every means to collaborate, it was a perfect time for me to introduce the message: Europe is your partner.

The post Portrait: Doctor David Oliva Uribe appeared first on Brussels Express.

This year’s trend in online posting is for greater authenticity and the popularity of walls doesn’t appear to be going away. A colourful corrugated iron barrier or bit of graffiti behind you (or your product) looks attractive and has the added advantage of giving off a fun, unpretentious vibe.

Want to try it out? Now is a great time to do it. September light is gentler than the harsh contrasts of summer and Brussels is full of amazing graffiti and throw-ups. Some of them are part of the Comic Strip Walk. Others have gone up in for the 450^th anniversary of Breugel’s death.

Here’s a ‘leg-up’ to seven of Brussels’s most instagrammable walls:

1.Rue Blaes – in the heart of the vintage and antique district. This area is chock full of great graffiti and pleasing brickwork. The trouble is, the streets are so narrow it’s hard to get far enough away for a good shot, but Rue Blaes offers the double whammy of colourful street art and an old Bovril advert for your delectation.

2. Villa Empain – This stunning Art Deco mansion built in 1930 by Baron Louis Empain has a chequered past, including Nazi occupation. But as the home of the Boghossian Foundation it is finally fulfilling Empain’s philanthropic dream again now. Materials include marble, bronze, granite, wood and some interior walls are sumptuously papered. The real treasure though is out back, where the elegant symmetry of the swimming pool will make you feel you’ve dropped into a Hopper painting.

3. The courtyard of O Lion D’Or – A refurbished trading inn on Place Saint Géry boasting a courtyard where you can see the buried river Senne and its reconstructed quayside. The red brick walls are a gift and its peace and quiet means you should not have to fight off other wall aficionados.

4. Rue Notre Seigneur 29-31 – For the 450^th anniversary of Breugel’s death, the HELL’O Collective (an artistic duo composed of Jerôme Meynen and Antoine Detaille) created ‘Patience’, isolating elements of Breugel’s Patientia into geometric forms.

5. The restaurant of the Musical Instrument Museum (MIM) is free to access and offers fantastic views across the city through quintessentially curlicue Art Nouveau windows. Plan your visit to avoid peak mealtimes if you’re going to attempt this more technical photography challenge into the light.

6. Quai des Péniches. Along the banks of the canal, street art originating from the Kosmopolite Art Tour continues to give colourful new life to this part of the city. When visiting this part of town, don’t miss the old Citroen building at Yser.

7. The Horta Gallery in Brussels’s Gare Centrale was designed by Victor Horta but not built until after his death. Closed for 20 years from the 1980s, it is now open again and features walls lit by Lux Lumen. Visit when the space hosts the C12 nightclub for the optimum backlit wall photo opp.

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But what of his little sister?

The Jeanneke Pis, a bronze of a small naked girl squatting to pee, is situated in Impasse de la Fidélité just a three-minute walk from Grand Place, on the north-east side. Standing 50cm tall on a limestone base, she was designed and commissioned in 1985 by Denis Adrien Debouvrie. Known as the Godfather of the city’s centre, millionaire Debrouvie owned several nearby premises and had a vested interest in creating an attraction in the narrow alleyways the Jeanneke calls home. Debouvrie had his throat cut in 2008, in a case that continues to cause speculation, leaving a vast estate of prime but neglected property.

The Jeanneke Pis remains strangely little-known compared to her male counterpart. Whether this is because she’s perceived as a modern commercial creation, because she’s stuck behind protective bars up a dead-end alley, or because of associations with her creator’s dark fate, is anyone’s guess. Her brother has the advantage of centuries of history and is supposedly a symbol of the rebellious spirit of Brussels. Somehow though, the Jeanneke is more gloriously subversive.

The Manneken Pis, with his weirdly muscular arms, one hand casually on his hip, pot-belly, and angelic curls is clearly modelled on Cupid and does not really resemble a child at all. The Jeanneke, in contrast, is wonderfully life-like. Her hair in cheeky pig-tails, her hands on her knees, she’s doing something most women will have yearned to do at some point – and her blithe, satisfied smile says it all.

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Between 1867 and 1871, the river Senne in Brussels was enclosed due to its unpredictable water levels and pestilence. Prior to this, branches of the Senne had meandered through Brussels for centuries, creating ‘islands’. The ‘Ile Saint Gery’ or Grande Ile, where Place Saint-Géry is today, is allegedly the site of a church built by Saint Géry in 580 AD after he killed a dragon there. Be that as it may, we do know that in this location in 979, the year considered the birthdate of Brussels, a fort and chapel were dedicated to Saint Géry by Charles de France.

Frequent flooding of this Grande Ile area led to Grand Place gradually taking over as the city centre. Finally, the 19^th century engineering project to bury the river beneath grand Parisian style boulevards (Anspach, Lemonnier, Midi) meant the destruction of working-class neighbourhoods and the displacement of residents (who paid no taxes and had no vote, and therefore no say in the plans).

These days, visitors to Brussels can still appreciate vestiges of the past around Place Saint-Gery. The old ‘Halles’, used as a market until the 1970s, now host a café and various exhibitions dedicated to the heritage of Brussels and its surroundings. The pyramidal monument inside commemorates a church destroyed by the French and represents kilometre zero, from where all distances in Belgium are measured.

Meanwhile, neighbouring the Halles, is the O Lion D’Or, a refurbished neo-Gothic trading inn. Through its black courtyard gates you’ll find benches and leafy trees in an immensely instagrammable red-brick quad, a reconstructed mooring point and archways vaulting over water-lilies and goldfish in the ‘Senne’, and – possibly, if you’ve just escaped the crowds of Grand Place – your inner peace.

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Gaze upon the city from above, using Google maps, and all you will see are grey shapes between white roads: triangles, rectangles, pentagons. Many might imagine that in the blocks and squares formed by adjoining streets, there are garages perhaps. Or courtyards. Perhaps another apartment building squeezed in.

But, switch to ‘satellite view’ and zoom in a little. The city becomes a maze of red and green – red tiled roofs and green garden islands or ilôts. Not to be confused with the Ilôt Sacré, (the historic centre of Brussels), these other beloved ilôts exist in every neighbourhood. And there is disquiet over developments such as this one in Ixelles.

These spaces are the lungs of the city and are strictly protected by building regulations to fend off urban density. They provide drainage and oxygen and their cooling effect in a baking urban environment is not to be under-estimated. Brussels’s environment department has produced a heatmap of the city, showing temperature differences between built-up and less built-up areas.

Some ilôts contain old bâtiments arrières, back buildings such as warehouses or brewery buildings; theory has it the temperature and atmosphere were more stable in the sheltered spaces off the main streets. In among these former industrial premises, jigsaws of gardens – some high-walled, some long and narrow, some shared – provide residents with an oasis of birdsong and planting – and the occasional yowling or prowling cat.

Although the ilôts are a hidden and private a feature of the city, lucky visitors may find their trip coincides with a walk guided by a neighbourhood expert. Keep your eye on https://visit.brussels/en (also available in other languages) for information. On Heritage Days, Journées de Patrimoine, usually in mid-September, some of the ilôts open up for tours.

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Her journey

Edith Cavell was the eldest daughter of the Reverend Frederick Cavell and his wife, Louisa. Even as a young girl, she was a talented artist and activist, extraordinarily raising the equivalent of nearly €40,000 for the local Sunday School by selling illustrated cards. Edith was educated at Norwich High School for Girls and various UK boarding schools, before a period as a governess, including in Brussels. But it was her return to England to look after her sick father that would eventually lead to a career in nursing.

After training in London Hospital, she worked in hospitals around the UK and as a private travelling nurse. Eleven years later she was recruited by Dr Antoine Depage (founder of the Belgian Red Cross) to L’École Belge d’Infirmières Diplômées and by 1910, she was to become the Matron for a new secular hospital in St Gilles. She felt nursing in Belgium was well enough developed at this time to merit the launch of the nursing journal, L’Infirmière. She went on to train nurses for three hospitals, 24 schools and thirteen nurseries in Belgium.

When the First World War broke out, Edith was back in the UK, visiting her widowed mother. She insisted on returning to Brussels where her clinic had been taken over by the Red Cross.

First World War

While the Red Cross treated soldiers of all nationalities, its nurses were not supposed to take part in the war on either side. However, after the Battle of Mons in August, British soldiers were left stranded and Edith heard stories of them being shot, alongside the locals who assisted them.

In the autumn of 1914, when two British soldiers found their way to Edith’s clinic, she harboured them for two weeks. Others followed. Gradually an underground network was established to allow the soldiers safe passage out of Belgium through the Netherlands, with the help of false papers from Prince Reginald de Croy and guides organised by the architect Philippe Baucq. The secret password for this nine-month operation was allegedly YORC – Croy backwards.

Edith hid her activity from colleagues in order to protect them but her initial outspokenness about the need to care for all, regardless of nationality, had drawn attention. By summer 1915, German police were closing in and intimidating Cavell, who had been deeply shaken by the death of her friend Marie Depage (Antoine’s wife) when the HMS Lusitania was sunk. She continued her clandestine work, although she knew now that her actions were punishable by death.

Arrest

Philippe Baucq was arrested on July 15 1915, and Edith’s arrest followed on August 3. She’d sewn her diary into a cushion and no evidence was found but she was betrayed by a man later convicted of collaboration by the French courts.

After 72 hours of interrogation, she was tricked into confessing when officers told her others had already revealed the whole story and she could save them by telling the truth. She believed this promise, although four of her fellow resistants were later sentenced to death.

Incarceration

Cavell spent 10 weeks in a spartan cell in St Gilles prison where she wrote letters to her family and to the nursing school on money matters. She requested just a few items, among them ‘blue and white combs from my drawer, a small notebook and hankies’. She reportedly told a Reverend, ‘Life for me has always been hurried and full of difficulty. These weeks in prison have been a time of rest. I have had time to read, to pray and to reflect.’

Diplomatic Efforts

The Germans were convinced that Cavell’s actions were belligerent and thus she had forfeited any protection for medical personnel under the 1906 Geneva Convention. While the British government claimed it could not assist Cavell and that any intervention would do more harm than good, the United States had not yet joined the war and did apply some diplomatic pressure.

The US First Secretary in Brussels put it to the Germans that executing Cavell would further damage their international reputation after the sinking of the Lusitania, which had caused revulsion in the civilized world.

Cavell’s humanitarian work resulted in a call for pardon by the German Civil Governor. But Count Harrach, (the man who had given Archduke Franz Ferdinand the car he was assassinated in), stated he’d prefer to see Cavell shot than see any more harm done to German soldiers and lamented that there were not ‘three or four old English women to shoot.’

To make matters worse, the Military Governor of Brussels, General von Sauberzweig, was supposedly bitter because his son had been blinded fighting the British. Sauberzweig ordered Cavell’s execution on 11 October 1915.

Death

At 8.30pm on the same day, Edith learned her fate from German Army Chaplain, Pastor Le Seur. She was visited in her cell by an Anglican chaplain, Sterling Gahan, who described her as clothed in her dressing gown and ready for the night. Together they took communion, and she told him, ‘Patriotism is not enough. I must have no hatred or bitterness towards anyone.’

Early the next morning, nurses wept and German soldiers bowed their heads as Edith Cavell was taken from the St Gilles prison with Philippe Baucq to the Tir National, where she was put before a firing squad of 16 men. Le Seur bound her eyes, which he said were filled with tears.

She had completed the last entry in her diary which read, ‘Died at 07h on 12th October 1915.’ She was 49.

Fall Out and Legacy

The Germans had worried that mercy towards Cavell would inspire other women, no longer fearful of retribution, to join the resistance. Cavell’s execution however proved a huge mistake. The US Embassy ensured the story was published in the press and there was international condemnation. Public opinion veered against the Germans and the Americans joined the war. Army recruitment in the UK doubled for the two months following news of the shooting.

Propaganda like this was against Cavell’s last wishes. On the evening before her death, Chaplain Gahan had told her, ‘We shall always remember you as a heroine and a martyr.’ Her response? ‘Don’t think of me like that. Think of me as a nurse who tried to do her duty.’

Later, Cavell would be awarded the Belgian Cross of the Order of Leopold and Croix Civique and France awarded her the Légion d’Honneur. She was exhumed from her burial place in St Gilles in 1919 and taken to England, where there was a procession of hundreds of nurses, soldiers, marching bands and civilians, and a service in Westminster Abbey attended by royalty and politicians.

Edith Cavell was finally laid to rest in Norwich, near her birthplace. As well as numerous memorials in Brussels, she is honoured all over the world, including a mountain in Canada.

Perhaps the last word should go to the German poet, Gottfried Benn, who was a senior German doctor in Brussels at the time. He wrote of Cavell’s execution: ‘I followed the trial from first to last and frequently spoke with her. I certified her death, closed her eyes, and placed her body in the coffin. She was the bravest woman I ever met.’

>> Read another portrait: Ingrid Daubechies <<

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Just a few steps from Place Flagey and housed in one of Brussels’s modest flat-iron buildings on the corner of Malibran and Scarron, is a beer-lover’s paradise. Since opening in 2012, the Malting Pot has been offering customers over 200 different craft beers, all selected for flavour, originality and quality ingredients.

The premises manage to be cosy and airy at the same time. Stepping into the small establishment, you’ll see simple wooden shelves stocked with attractive bottles and cans of beer you’re unlikely to find anywhere else in Brussels. IPAs, sours, gueuzes, stouts, ales, bitters – these beers come from all over the world. The quirky labels catching your eye are just as artisanal as the beers themselves. Each beer is carefully chosen and the stock is reviewed regularly, meaning there are often new discoveries to be made before they hit the shelves anywhere else.

The counter has the feel of a pop-up bar. The owner, originally from Tehran, studied archaeology and wrote his thesis on the history of beer from Mesopotamia. He’d always dreamt of running a bar or beer store, and after two years working in an unrelated field, he’d saved enough to open a shop and share his passion with the buying public.  If you’re unsure about committing to a bottle of the UK’s Buxton Trolltunga Gooseberry Sour, or you can’t read the Swedish information on the can of Poppel’s Fruit Ale, he will be delighted to give you the low-down on flavour profiles and production methods.

‘I was doubtful when I saw Strawberry Daiquiri on the label,’ he might say. ‘But when I tasted it, it was tangy and not overly sweet. They add real strawberry pulp.’

Need a recommendation of a stout for your carbonnade recipe? This is the place to come: ‘I’d try this Christmas Ale. It’s deep and a bit spiced, but not too sweet.’

With something for all tastes, it’s tempting to settle down, lean into that counter and make a session of it. ‘Maybe I’ll be able to open a bar in the future,’ says our host. Let’s keep our fingers crossed. Meanwhile, don’t wait for Christmas to treat yourself.

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Nationality: French

Profession: Director, Committee of the Regions, EU

« In Belgium we’re totally divided . . . the national football team is the only unifying point in the whole country. »

‘One of the hardest-working people you’ll meet’ I was told as I was taken through security at the Committee of the Regions building on Belliard. My guide was talking about Laurent Thieule, who kindly took a few moments out of his day to speak to Brussels Express.

Mr Thieule, could you begin by telling us a little about your professional journey?

I had been working in France, which is my native country, until the age of 40, and then I came to Brussels a bit randomly because I had the opportunity to join the Committee of the Regions during its infancy in 1994, so 25 years ago. We left France and I said to my wife, who is Belgian, we’re coming back to your home country! She told me she wasn’t so happy – she thought I wouldn’t like the way of life, the rain, the big contrast with Montpellier. But we came here with the whole family and we had our third child at the end of the year.

I don’t live in the city; I live out in Wezembeek-Oppem, out of Brussels near the airport, and I only come into the city for working.

In terms of my career, I started working in Paris in the Assemblée Nationale and stayed for three years and then I joined the Languedoc Roussillon Regional Assembly, and I was Head of the Cabinet of the President of the Region for 18 years. I was very committed to sporting events and was CEO of the 1993 Mediterranean Games.

What were your first impressions of Brussels?

The first time I came through Brussels was in a taxi from the airport and passing the Cinquantenaire Arc de Triomphe, I thought, ‘This is a nice city; I like it.’ Then you arrive on Rue de la Loi where the traffic is so busy and then Belliard, which is even more polluted – the most polluted street in Europe – so I was very shocked. Immediately, I saw there was a contrast of architecture and urbanism from one neighbourhood to the other. I had an impression of huge chaos, with a lot of building work going on, a lot of traffic. Compared to Paris and London, here nothing feels designed and the urban concept does not exist. But the chaos is very human and very diverse, and I like this diversity.

I’m the owner of a vineyard in the south of France, in the village where my father was Mayor for 30 years and I have strong family roots. So, I decided to buy a vineyard with my family. I go back there to take care of the harvest. I like to have a link to my native village. I feel more French than Belgian, and more French than European I have to say. There’s now a plane route with Ryan Air to Montpellier, so I go back every month, because my mother and siblings still live there and I have the land to take care of. I’m not homesick, because I can go back there often, but I do feel more French than Belgian.

Even after all this time? What is it, you think, that makes you feel French rather than Belgian? 

I suppose French schools, French education, French history. The French heroes we have. For me Napoleon is a hero (I’m sorry about that!). Générale de Gaulle is a hero. The beauty of the country, the culture, the French language – it’s a beautiful language to listen to, to read, to speak . . . and it’s one of the founding countries for democracy in the world. The Declaration of Human Rights. So this is in my blood, my DNA. Kylian Mbappé is another hero of mine. When we won the World Cup in Russia, I was in the stadium and I cried during the Marseillaise! It was great. We felt really French and proud to be there.

However I try not to compare and I don’t feel homesick. In my football club they call me Le Francais. They like my accent when I speak French. When I go to the north of the country where people speak Flemish, the first thing I say is ‘Sorry, I don’t speak Flemish because je suis francais.’ They accept this and don’t mind speaking French to me. Many Flemish people go to the south of France on holiday, so they accept it. Often they don’t accept speaking French with other Belgian people, but when you explain that you’re French, they are tolerant and will share some words with you in the language of Moliere.

My main concern when I came to Brussels was to be integrated in my new city, because I think that people like me – civil servants, migrants, people coming from the outside – they have to make the effort to be integrated. Successful integration is a two-way effort. People welcome you, but you have to make the most effort to be integrated. My wife found a job at Kraainem Primary School when we arrived, and I immediately went to register in Kraainem Football Club, and now I’ve been the President of the Club for ten years.

All my friends are native Belgians. I belong to a cycling association and I’m President of the football club and so I’ve done my best since day one to share the city and way of life with Belgian people. In other words, I have no private relationships with European civil servants. I see them all day, every day, all the year, but I think if you want to integrate successfully you have to share your time, your passions, your family with the people living in the city. So I did my best to be accepted as an integrated newcomer.

Your relationship with the football club there has been quite phenomenal. Very successful.

Yes. The thing I’m most proud of at the football club is the diversity of the people. We have 350 kids, of more than 42 nationalities, so it’s a big multi-cultural platform which creates strong social capital. We decided four years ago in 2015 to launch an initiative welcoming young refugees to the club. Three days a week, for the last four years, we’ve been welcoming a group of young refugees, all minors, unaccompanied asylum-seekers. We pick them up in the refugee centre in Woluwe-Saint-Pierre on Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday evenings. They do some French or English courses and then they play football in teams with the young kids from our club. They have dinner and we take them back to their centre. It’s a big integration success. Over the four years, we’ve welcomed around 2000 unaccompanied minors. We’re supported by the European Commission, Erasmus+ Programme, by the UEFA Foundation for Children, and by other foundations and private companies, so it’s a huge programme. It’s a European Pilot Project and this is one of my greatest achievements since coming to Brussels. I’m very proud of it, because we’ve shown that integration is possible with a diverse community. Diversity adds value and is not an obstacle.

Will you go back to France when you retire?

I don’t know. In two years I will be old enough to stay at home every morning. I think I will share my life between Brussels and my village because my roots are still there. My children are here and they are 29, 27, and 24 years old and they’re having new families of their own, so I think my wife would like to stay here for the grandchildren. Luckily with Ryan Air, we have a chance to share our life between the south of France and Brussels.

But regarding the European Institutions – just one word on this, because I’ve always worked in political assemblies: the Assemblée Nationale, then the Regional Assembly in the south of France, and now the European institutions – I like and appreciate working for politicians. They don’t all have a great reputation, but I have to say that elected local people are very useful for maintaining democracy, for maintaining social cohesion, for maintaining integration solutions. When they are criticized, I have to say that the big, big majority of politicians are honest, are not corrupt and are committed to a sense of democracy and citizenship which is great and useful for the European Union, the member states and regional assemblies.

If you were Mayor in Brussels or in charge of the Brussels Capital Region, what would your first action be?

Mobility. Mobility has become a mess for people commuting in and out of Brussels. We need to facilitate cycling and collective transport. The burning issue is mobility in Brussels. We have the hugest traffic jams in Europe and this is not acceptable. Ever since I came to Brussels, there’s been talk about the TER, the inter-regional train, but it’s a dream; they’ve been discussing and discussing it for years. For people coming to Brussels from outside, it’s a nightmare every day and this is not great. When you go to the north of Europe – to Copenhagen, Amsterdam, or Stockholm, you have 37% of the population riding bicycles to work. This is the solution. But here, if you take a bicycle to Rue de la Loi, it’s a big risk, you could be killed by a car at any time of day. The big issue is mobility in Brussels. I would put a lot of public investment into restoring the pistes cyclables, the avenues and giving harmony to pedestrians. Also, more park-and-rides at the metro stations, so you could park your car and take the metro if you live in the surrounding neighbourhoods, which is not the case at the moment. It’s a huge caseload for the President of Brussels Capital.

What has your attention in the news at the moment?

I don’t read anything about Brexit any more. Every day I read Le Monde and Le Soir, and L’Equipe because I’m a football fan. I’ve been keenly following how Macron has tried to manage the gilets jaunes situation in France and his organisation of the grand debat and citizen dialogues. I think it’s a great experiment in participative democracy, but we’re still waiting to see what policies he commits to. It’s important because, in Belgium, the government have done a lot of financial reform which was very profitable for the country. In France, there hasn’t been enough courage to do the same. If we want to reform the country, and France is a very difficult place to reform because the French are very conservative, we need a strong President. Macron must show that he has the political will to change things, which was the case of the Charles Michel government here. The problem in Belgium is that the political situation is never stable and we can sometimes go months without having a majority government, and this penalises us a lot. It delays the process of reforming this country. It’s a pity because the people in the north of Flanders are keen on change and giving more freedom to companies and more flexibility to the labour market, in order to reform the employment situation in Belgium. Some people are ready to change, but the government must be stable and ready to act.

Would you draw any other comparisons between France and Belgium, or Montpellier in particular and Brussels?

Brussels’s specificity is its diversity. I’ve never seen such a diverse city. It’s really multi-cultural. When you go from one street to another, the cultural context changes and this is a richness, an added-value for the municipality. I’ve found the Mayor, Philippe Close, very clever. He says diversity adds value for building up new social cohesion.

In the south of France, we have a big majority of cities where the Front National dominates political life. In my village, 65% of voters voted Marine Le Pen in the second round of the presidential election. You cannot imagine! In a lot of cities, this is the case. Macron was seen as a new political wave, but he has some difficulty because people are out in the street. As I said, to reform the French is a challenge, because there are people who have privileges who want to keep their privileges. They don’t want to work more, until they’re older. They want to keep their car. They want to keep everything they have and they don’t want to share and to be part of the process of reform.

In Belgium, the main characteristic of the capital city is diversity, and the characteristic of the country is that we have two countries. We’re totally divided. Flanders is another country. When you go from one village at the border of Flanders into a Wallonian village, it’s a new country. You don’t speak the same language, you don’t have the same music, or the same actors on the TV. It’s totally different. When confederalist fans, like NVA (New Flemish Alliance) say we have to move to a confederal system, I understand their vision but it’s not my story; it’s the story of the Belgian people. They have to decide themselves about their future. But for now, we’re two different countries with a border, not with different laws or different social security, but the national football team is the only unifying point in the whole country! If social security were regionalised, that would totally be the end of the Belgian story of one linked country, because the only link between the people is this solidarity between the north and the south.

You often hear about people in Flanders complaining that they subsidise Wallonia. Is that sense of social solidarity breaking down?

It’s just about maintained by the federal system of social security. If we change and regionalise social security, we’ll divide the country definitively. Solidarity will be killed. I can understand the Flemish mentality is totally different to those in the south, because some in the south are too ‘assisted’. In the north, when you see the companies which are created, the jobs they create, the dynamism of the people – even the farmers are different to the south. When you look at the big farms in the north of this country, they’re different to the small farms with a few cows you have in Wallonia which are helped by the Common Agricultural Policy from Brussels. There’s a cultural mentality of being ‘assisted’ by the regional and federal government and by the European Union. This is the typical situation in the south of the country. The south of the country is not capable by itself of facing political and economic challenges.

Do you have any anecdotes or experiences of Belgian surrealism?

I had a sport experience, in cyclo-cross – cross-country cycling – where they cycle across fields and up and down. It’s a spectacular Belgian sport, a national sport, and there’s a Belgian championship here. Once I went to a village near Brussels, called Vossem, and there was a cyclo-cross circuit there. At one point, in a flat field they’d put a tent, with two bars either side – and the cyclists were riding through the middle of the tent! The people, the fans, were drinking beers and watching the cyclists riding in between the two bars. That was totally surrealistic!

What advice would you give to people coming to Brussels in the future?

I meet a lot of kids in my football club, and here in my office; people looking for jobs. My advice is: never regret what you do. Be mobile. The world is huge. Go out, far from your parents’ cocoon, and discover the world. And don’t regret what you do. If you decide to come to Brussels, it’s a brilliant idea, don’t look back to your past but project yourself into the future. The future is always brilliant if you accept that mobility is the key issue for the new generation. I advise people coming into the labour market to open their eyes and see the opportunities they have outside of their house, outside of their city, out of their country. That’s the advice I would give. Never regret what you do. Life is short, but never regret.

Good advice! Some quickfire final questions: do you have any favourite shops in Brussels?

I never go shopping! I go shopping when my wife obliges me to buy trousers for the beginning of winter. It takes me a quarter of an hour to buy three pairs of trousers or a suit. I never go shopping. I like some places – more bars than shops. I know a small bar in a village – you should go there – in the small village of Vossem near Tervuren. You have the Church, and behind the Church is a bar where you can get a beer for less than one euro! It’s the cheapest bar in Europe I think! The name is In Den Congo, because the Congo was a former Belgian colony. There are posters of Tintin in the Congo. It’s great. It’s a very strange place, where everything – beer, coca cola, orange juice – is one euro or less. It’s where I used to go for a beer every Saturday morning after my cycle ride.

That’s a great tip! Does that mean that beer is your favourite Belgian specialty?

Absolutely. When I first came to Brussels, I never drank beer, but now I can drink beer just like any Belgian friend of mine. This goes back to what I said at the start of our conversation. You have to make the effort to be integrated. If you drink pastis in Belgium, people won’t understand, so please, drink beer and fit in with the people welcoming you!

And yet, there seems a lot more variety in the way people drink here than in the UK. I’ve seen workmen, labourers, in their work trousers with tool pockets, come into bars in Belgium and order a bottle of sparkling white wine to drink between them. I don’t think I’ve ever seen anything like that in the UK because there’s a silly assumption that white wine is a ‘woman’s drink’.

I drink white wine because I produce white wine in my vineyard in my village. But in Belgium it depends on the clientele of the bar. In my football club we drink a lot of beer. Last Saturday we had a full day of matches and we drank 2000 beers in one day!

2000 beers! For how many people?

Hundreds of people. At the end of the day I went to the kitchen, and they’d sold over 2000 beers. And I was one of them!

What’s your best memory of Brussels?

The birth of my third kid, Pauline. She was born in December 1994 in the Hôpital Saint-Luc. The birth of a child is always the best moment of your life.

Any personal wishes linked to the city?

The city must not change from a sociological point of view. Diversity is the main asset of Brussels, but transportation should be improved.

Read another portrait: mathematician Ingrid Daubechies

The post Portrait: Laurent Thieule – Director, Committee of the Regions, EU appeared first on Brussels Express.

Brussels has a reputation for poor urban decision-making. The destruction of Horta’s Maison du Peuple or Ixelles’s Halles for example, still cause locals to facepalm in anguish. But sometimes the planners get it right.

The Anderlecht Abattoir was built in 1888 to replace its festering predecessor. The new site would be better connected to the canal and rail infrastructure. A branch of the Senne was redirected, the swampy terrain was drained and four-metre vaulted foundations were dug. The vaults become an ice-cellar and mushroom farm (and these days are available for venue-hire). Above sprouted a hundred cast iron columns supporting the vast metal roof of the 400sq metre markethall, designed by Emile Tirou.

At the gate, visitors are greeted by two cast bronze bulls, copies of those at the Vaugirard Abattoir in Paris (now the Parc Georges Brassins). Inside, in the shade of the roof, daylight is carved into horizontal bands and ornate arches.

This is not only an impressive part of agro-food history, but an exciting part of the city’s future. A hundred years after its construction, the site was sold to a cooperative and listed as a classified monument in 1988. It has gone from strength to strength. 200,000 animals a year are still slaughtered here and there are multiple thriving ‘mets’ (‘met’ is the old Brussels dialect for market) including a Sunday flea market, Brocantemet. Complementing its older mistress, a new Foodmet was recently added, housed in a pre-cast concrete pavilion which was exhibited at the Venice Biennale 2016, with cutaway panels resembling a child’s shape sorting game.

And throughout the summer, from 6pm on a Thursday night, Abattoir becomes the venue for one of Brussels’s most surprising afterwork parties. The Boeremet. Lined with foodstalls serving pizza, thai noodles, dim sum, burgers, nibbles and shots, chips (of course) and plenty more, the marketplace is taken over by a massive sound system pumping out popular club floorfillers. By 8pm, enthusiastic semi-clad punters are dancing on the tables.

You’ve been warned!

The post Brussels Hidden Gems: Afterwork Party at Boeremet, Abattoir – and more appeared first on Brussels Express.

Since 1900, when the family business was founded by Paul Cantillon and his wife Marie Troch, Brasserie Cantillon has been brewing lambic beer. In 120 years, the only real change has been a switch to organic ingredients in 2011. A visit will teach you all about the brewing process and give you a taste of some of the 400,000 bottles produced each year.

 

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My first time!

A post shared by Mike « Tasty » McDole (@tastymcd) on May 24, 2018 at 4:16am PDT

Inside you’ll discover a honey-hued interior filled with beer-making paraphernalia. Wooden crates, scorched and branded ‘CANTILLON’, seem to multiply. Labyrinthine corridors are formed from green bottles and oak and chestnut casks and there’s a reverent sense of hush. But make no mistake: this is a working brewery, not a mausoleum. Magic is taking place.

The casks are all at least 40 years old and have previously held French wine, port or Iberian sherry. They are not there for decoration. They are resting, for at least one summer. Vast copper mash tuns are in action and 50 kilo sacks of ingredients are being lugged about, while Heath Robinson-esque conveyor belts twist and turn through the building.

 

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Thanks to our talented friend @ammoamo we’ve got some brand new signage to guide our visitors through the brewery! Ammo has also painted a beautiful new piece for our tasting room (last photo). Silk-screen print versions are available in the shop 😉 Merci Ammo! ❤️🍻 🤗1. Brewing area 2. Mill and Boiler Room 3. Granary 4. Coolship 5a. Barrel room 5b. Barrel room & fruiting tanks 6. Barrel cleaning 7. Bottling 8. Labeling & Cellars

A post shared by Brasserie Cantillon Brouwerij (@brasseriecantillonofficiel) on Mar 19, 2019 at 2:49am PDT

Up in the rafters, tanks named ‘coolships’ receive the wort and at night roof vents are opened, letting the night air flood in, carrying with it the wild yeasts that make this beer unique. Fermented exclusively from natural fungi and bacteria found in the Zenne valley, this inimitable beverage simply cannot be made anywhere else, although many have tried.

During the winter, lambics of various ages are matched, blended, and bottled immediately. This is the famous ‘méthode champenoise’ which kicks off a second fermentation in the bottle and produces the classic ‘gueuze’. At other points in the year, seasonal fruits are added to make different varieties of Cantillon, including local Schaerbeek cherries, raspberries and, in the autumn, Italian muscat grapes.

At the end of your visit, you’ll have a chance to sample a bottle or two. Dry, sour, tart and complex, the flavour approaches that of some traditional ciders – and divides beer lovers.

Watch your step as you leave but do turn back to see the famous Cantillon sign swinging in the twilight – a drunkard, falling over backwards as he tips the last drops of lambic down his throat.

Next time: Abbatoir

The post Brussels Hidden Gems: Cantillon Brewery, Anderlecht appeared first on Brussels Express.