Brussels has always had negative internal migration, which means that more Brussels residents leave the capital to live in Flanders or Wallonia than vice versa. In the course of 2016, 24,000 inhabitants left Brussels to settle in Flanders, an increase of 55% compared to 1997, according to the latest report of the Ibsa (Brussels Institute for Statistics and Analysis).

The inhabitants of Brussels who settle in another region go mainly to the bordering communes. However, the movement is widening towards more and more distant zones. One of the explanations is the increase in the cost of housing in the municipalities that are closest to Brussels.

People leaving are aged between 30 and 44 with children under ten years old. Among them, there are more and more non-European citizens that entered the European Union after the year 2000.

The number of inhabitants leaving Flanders for Brussels is also increasing. In this case, they are mostly young people. The number of Walloons, instead, is more stable.

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The income taken into account is the net taxable amount, calculated from the personal income tax returns. The breakdown of the figures between the three Regions shows that Flanders has the highest average income per capita, which is 7% higher than the national average. The inhabitants of the Walloon Region and the Brussels-Capital Region have incomes respectively 6 and 22% below average.

As for the provinces, Brabant is in the first place. In the north, residents have an average income of 21,462 euros, and in the south of 21,035. Other Flemish provinces follow while Namur is the second Walloon province with 17,893 euros. The Brussels-Capital Region closes in the last place.

As for the municipalities, those of Sint-Martens-Latem, Keerbergen, and Oud-Heverlee are the top three, with the average revenues ranging from 26,590 to 30,748 euros. Lasne is the only Walloon entity to be in the top 10, in the fourth position with 26,395 euros. The two municipalities with the lowest average income are in Brussels: Saint-Josse-ten-Noodde (9,297 euros) and Molenbeek-Saint-Jean (10,406 euros).

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The major consequence of the new economy would be the cut of job positions. The socialist union CGSP talks about 250 jobs at risk. « It is also an assault on the autonomy of the VRT. Some want to make it become a state media! », denounced Wies Descheemaeker (CGSP), calling for an immediate meeting with the Flemish Minister-President, Jan Jambon (N-VA).

Meanwhile, Paul Lembrechts met the new Flemish Minister of Media, the CD & V Benjamin Dalle. « Our first priority now is the budget up to 2020, but the decline in saving is soon to be felt. In order to catch it, and the way we function on this level, we have a plan », he writes.

This means, according to VRT spokesperson Bob Vermeir, that staff and supply will not be cut off next year. The 2016 economy plan is still running, including natural departures. « Temporarily, we can absorb the new economies, » he said. For the future, the VRT leadership calls for a dialogue with the Flemish government.

« After twelve years of savings, we are already an efficient public operator and we want to stay that way in order to strengthen Flanders, » says Bob Vermeir. The sluggishness that prevailed Friday in the corridors of the VRT, the announcement of these figures, goes well beyond the Boulevard Reyers, he observes. It also affects the creative sector, which indirectly benefits from the means of the VRT.

Minister Dalle, meanwhile, has not confirmed the figure of 40 million, which according to him is the result of a calculation internal to VRT. It refers to the upcoming budget arrangements and the preparation of the new management contract and promises a dialogue on how the efforts will be made. « It is clear that an efficiency exercise will also affect VRT, but we will prioritize non-replacements for retirements ».

In the opposition, sp.aa denounced a covert intention of the government, since 2014 already, to reduce VRT to a role of the small operator that would no longer be relevant in the audiovisual landscape, at the expense of listeners, viewers and internet users.

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Chocolate traditionally continues to do well, but our frozen potatoes and vegetables, along with meat and dairy, are also in great demand internationally. Exports rose by no less than 3.5% in 2018 compared to 2017, a historic record. On a national level, it boasts a turnover of more than 27 billion euros. This was announced by Fevia, the federation of the Belgian food industry.

 

 

Neighbouring countries, such as France and Germany, are our largest export markets, but the expansion is particularly noticeable in sales regions further away. Overseas markets such as the US, Canada, China and South Korea grew by as much as 18%.

Flanders accounts for some 82% of the country’s food production. It is the most important industrial sector, responsible for more than a quarter of all industrial companies.

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James Ensor (1860-1949) painted The Strange Masks in 1892, two years before Belgium introduced the universal male suffrage and compulsory voting. There is an aura of quirkiness to Ensor‘s figures that will haunt the viewer long after his encounter with the painting. Angular masks, coarse faces, witch shoes, and mannerist traces of elongated and distorted proportions imbue the atmosphere with suspicion, anguish and foolishness. The Belgian artist had an insatiable appetite for satirical caricatures, along the lines of Otto Dix‘ and Käthe Kollwitz‘ acerbic social criticism.

The crowd is depicted as obedient, with a ravenous lust for the oppressive policies of tyrants or the excitement of recklessness. In The Baths at Ostend (1890), women and men revel in their peculiarity, bathing and playing, undisturbed by the spectators who watch them closely. The compression of figures and the rendition of worldly gaieties echo The Garden of Earthly Delights (1490-1510), a triptych by the Dutch painter Hieronymus Bosch, where temptations and indulgences unfold narratively to display a world of debauchery.

Ensor’s imagery is evocative of unconscious reverberations. Evil physiognomies mirror the power of urges and instincts and the individual‘s propensity towards chaos. A precursor of modern Expressionism, James Ensor disects one’s true identity until the inner evil is laid bare, in all its ugliness. The mask becomes a symbol of the wearer’s wickedness. Carnivalesque and macabre, at the same time. The aesthetic of ugliness exerted an unparalleled influence on the German painter Emil Nolde (1867-1956), who admitted to having been « attracted by decadence, by those who exhaust their lives in the shallow pursuits of pleasure. »

It was his grandmother’s souvenir shop in Ostend, a coastal city in Belgium, that fueled Ensor‘s passion for masks. Gewgaws, shells, mermaids, skeletons, each one a treasure and source of inspiration in the eyes of the small boy who blithely rebelled against the established order. In his work The Intrigue (1890), iridescent masks and flamboyant costumes in Venetian colours invite the viewer into the realm of liminal fantasy, where mystery and vagary become indistinguishable from reality, as in Franz Kafka‘s dreamlike world.

A symphony of light pervades all his compositions. Pearly shells from the shores of the North Sea dissolve into the canvas to give way to « dancing shimmering reflections. » In Pierrot and Skeleton in a Yellow Robe (1893), grinning masks intermingle with translucent layers of colour to dampen gloomy expectations. James Ensor offers a wretched version of reality, always aware of the menacing shadow of vitriol and frustration. He favoured the mask, with its ominous presence and frosty determination, to be his medium of expression. In the words of the French philosopher René Descartes, he would probably have said, « Masked, I advance. » And so, he did.

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The owner of MEES BVBA company, Jan Mees has shared the video on his LinkedIn profile, showing that the company not only has great operators of its machines, but they are also very child-friendly. The company performs groundwork & excavation work, demolition work, foundation techniques and more.

The video portrays how Belgians are at work, both efficient and kind.

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Last week Mr Van Dijck crashed his car while driving under the influence; he is also suspected of having had an illicit relationship with a prostitute.

“Recent events have made it impossible for me to act as Speaker of the Flemish Parliament. I have never done anything that is against the law. Those who know me a little know this. Today’s allegations are totally incorrect,” said Mr Van Dijck in a statement.

As a consequence of Mr Van Dijck’s resignation, Filip Dewinter, the leader of the far-right Flemish nationalist party Vlaams Belang, became de facto Speaker of the Flemish Parliament. He immediately scheduled a meeting of leaders of other major Flemish parties for this Friday morning, where they will discuss the appointment of a new permanent Speaker.

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