As others see us

There is an air of panic amongst many of the British staff members and assistants in the EU institutions at the moment, as they prepare themselves for what the press here have dubbed "Brexodus".

There is also a certain amount of hostility from staffers from other EU member states who realise that without UK money, there own lucrative 'jobs for life' may not be as secure as they had assumed.

One Hungarian friend recently (he was well into the 3rd hour of his lunchbreak, and was somewhat the worse for it) told me that they want us to go. They are fed up with us Brits spoiling everything.

The French are also less than happy with us. How many times we are expected to go to Europe to get the French out of trouble I don't know?

It's vital that we have this debate, and that it is settled once and for all by public referendum. I strongly suspect that the vote will be to leave the EU.

The Eurozone crisis, the migrant crisis, and the rise of populism almost certainly herald the end of the EU as we currently know it. It has proven itself to be fractured, inconsistent, lost, and downright inept in the face of challenge.

If one example throws light onto the level of incompetence in the EU, it is the formation of the External Action Service.

When work on the new lavish headquarters began, and staff were being recruited, it emerged that there was no budget line to cover it. It simply never occurred to them that it had to be paid for.

Boris Mikhailov in Antwerp

Boris Mikhailov, from Kharkiv in Ukraine, is regarded as the most important fine art photographer to have emerged from the Soviet era.

He began exhibiting in the 1960, and quickly fell foul of the KGB, losing his job as an engineer when it was found that he had taken nude photographs of his wife.

Subsequent series of his works are considered as criticisms of the Soviet system through the sheer

frankness with which he shows life as it really was.

He is currently being exhibited at FOMU, the photographic museum in Antwerp.

His early work in the 60s involved layering colour transparencies, and many of these are shown by means of a slide show, lasting several minutes, to the soundtrack of Pink Floyd. 

When these images were first shown, it had to be done secretly in private homes.

But to see how far Eastern Europe has come since the collapse of the evil empire, it is his Red Series and Salt Lake that show life as it really was. It is hard now for us to imagine that Europeans really lived like that, although in many parts of Russia, and possibly Moldova, little, if anything, has changed. 

The Red series portrays the social system that emerged out of the October Revolution, whilst the somewhat grim Case History shows the homeless and dispossessed who were left behind after the fall of the Soviet Union.

I found the latter to be somewhat 'staged', and so for me as an attempt at social documentary it didn't really work. 

We were very lucky to attend a Vernissage in advance of the official opening. Mikhailov himself was present at what was a superb event. 

The Ukrainian community in Antwerp is very lively, and the turn out at such cultural events is always high.

The exhibition far exceeded my expectations, and is well worth visiting.

The exhibition runs until June 5th, details can be found here:
http://www.fotomuseum.be/en.html

Randall Calvin

My very good friend Randall Calvin passed away just some days ago.

We arrived in Brussels around the same time - he just some months after me - and we quickly became good mates. He  worked with the Socialists teaching languages, I worked with the Eurosceptics.

Later he was to concentrate on citizen journalism, an activity which he based on social media, and which he was very good at.

From his apartment he once filmed the brutal beating of a young Arabic guy by a group of Brussels police officers. I won't go into details, but it was horrific. The resulting video went viral, and is now used as a training aid by Belgian police to illustrate how quickly things can go wrong.

He once interviewed me in the middle of a riot outside the European Parliament. To a backdrop of riot police, teargas, and sirens, I stood alongside a pyre of burning tractor tyres speculating about the future of European democracy. It was great fun!

But my favourite memory (although I probably shouldn't admit this) was inside the parliament, just before Christmas 2012.

An elderly priest from Rome was leading a group of Italian MEPs in prayer, when Randall made what I can best describe as an 'intervention'. He was a committed atheist, and was never shy about sharing his views in public. The resulting chaos is talked about fondly to this day.

As a result of another interesting discussion on religion, with a Sikh, he was to become, in his 30s, the first man I know to be banned from his local sweet shop. As a result he had to lurk on the corner, like a guilty schoolboy, asking people to go in and buy him cigarettes, which I found hilarious.

The last time I saw Randall, about 3 weeks ago, he was enthusiastic about a new role he had found, visiting an elderly British WW2 veteran who is now in a Brussels nursing home. I know the chap in question, Eric, as he was for many years the standard bearer for the local branch of the Royal British Legion.

Actually, our conversation took place on the exact spot where the picture of us at the beginning of this post was taken on November 11th 2013. The chap in photo on the wall behind us is our dear friend Glynne Davis, another WW2 veteran, who passed away a few years ago at the grand age of 99.

On the right is Randall in the Lebanon in 1989.

Randall could be a difficult person sometimes, and could become very emotional very quickly. But he was very much a part of my life for most of my time in Brussels so far.

I spent many hours with him, and his lovely wife Raquel, over the years.

Randall's funeral will be held at St. Patrick's Garrison, Galway, today. He will be missed.

Rest in Peace.

Belgian Art 1868-1914

It is one of Brussels' newest museums - if not the newest - but what a great joy it proved to be!

Fin de Siecle (end of century) covers Belgian art from 1868-1914. I thought I knew at least something about this period having lived in the city for a long time, but this really opened my eyes.

My enchanting companion, Inna, who knows rather a lot about art, was also impressed.



I thought it was going to be a two hour visit, but after three hours the staff were literally pushing us towards the exits - there was so much more to see, and to talk about.

Its close to the EU institutions - should any of the Philistines wish to visit, which I doubt - but also just some minutes walk from Grand Place and the major tourist attractions.

I strongly recommend this.

www.fin-de-siecle-museum.be

A Memorial To Belgian Occupation Forces

A slightly unusual memorial - to those Belgian soldiers who died whilst serving abroad in the aftermath of the two World Wars, and during the Cold War.

It is very close to Square Marie-Louise, one of my favourite corners of Brussels.

The Square also boasts the memorial to Lt. General Louis Bernheim, the Jewish soldier who fought through the Great War and who died in 1931.

I had a slight mishap myself just here, back in the Summer of 2014. Just to the right of the white van is the spot where I was hit by a car while crossing the road.

Having had my legs swept out from under me, I took most of the force in my face before bouncing off the bonnet, over the car, and landing in the road on my head. There was rather a lot of blood, and nobody was as surprised as me that I was able to get up and walk away with just a broken nose.

I've actually broken my nose so often - 5 times at the last count - that I am getting rather bored with the experience.

The first time was the worst, I copped a roller skate in the face whilst in the Scouts. For about 6 years my nose pointed a bit to the left, but a right hook from a Geordie at RAF Wattisham straightened it out somewhat.

I started to get used to it after that.

August Sander: People of the 20th Century

I saw today, in Antwerp, August Sander's great portraits 'People of the 20th Century'.

From his early life before the First World War until his death in the 1960s, Sander recorded on film what ordinary German people looked like.

During the Nazi era his work had to be hidden, as it showed people who were not supposed to exist. A lot of his work was destroyed at that time. Fortunately for us, much of it was saved not just from the Nazis, but from the Allied bombings of Cologne which devastated the city.

The expo runs until Feb 14th. Details here:  www.fomu.be I strongly recommend it.

Her Time Has Come......

This astonishing Elm tree, reputed to be more than 250 years old, stands just 5 minutes from my front door. It is rare now for Elms to live so long, because of the combined effects of disease and pollution.

This beauty stands in the gardens of Paradis des Enfants, a local school. There was a nice shelter underneath the tree, where I liked to sit and read a book while my son played football on the practice pitches. It's a lovely little corner of Woluwe St Pierre.

The shelter has been taken away, and the tree is now fenced off. The roots are solidified and rotting, and so she has to come down.

So today I took some pictures of this incredible tree. The bark, which looks so gnarled and magnificent, comes away at the touch. Her time has come. But to the end she is beautiful.

You have to get up very close to appreciate this, so I did, and I hope that you enjoy the pictures. The colour and texture speak of centuries of growth.

When this tree first began to grow, the nation of Belgium did not even exist.

Through independence and two world wars it survived. The district in which it stands is where British troops, under the command of Field Marshall Montgomery, who's memorial stands guard over the approach to Brussels to this day, and just 5 minutes walk away, first arrived in September 1944, and were bogged down by the Germans in Auderghem, literally on the other side of the road from Paradis des Enfants.




The great Belgian painter and sculptor Constantin Meunier, who passed away in 1905, and who lived little more than a stone's throw away, had not even been born when this tree was in full growth.

It is about 10 minutes walk away from the studio where Herge created Tin-Tin.

When the wheels fall off a good story....

Nigel Farage is probably regretting the 'assassination' story a bit right now.

I realised there was something iffy  about this when he said he did not want the police to investigate because he didn't want people to know where he parks his car when he is in Brussels. Errr... how about the MEPs car park underneath the parliament?

Its very secure, and just some moments walk away from Rue Montoyer.

But this has happened before, of course.


In 2011 British police were investigating former MEP Chris Huhne over a traffic offence. The investigation hinged largely on whether Huhne had been on a certain flight from Strasbourg to Stanstead on March 12th 2003, or if he had travelled the next day.

Never one to miss a media opportunity, Farage announced that he remembered being on that flight with Huhne. Then it went a bit wrong.

Essex police called to take a statement. Farage was forced to admit that he didn't really remember at all.

When Malaysian Airlines Flight MH-17 was shot down over Ukraine on July 17th 2014 with the loss of 298 lives, Farage made a statement. Apparently he was at Schipol airport at the same time that the passengers were embarking on the doomed jet.

This is attention seeking at it's most crass. But I'm sure will hear more of it in the future.

Pop Art in Belgium

A great afternoon at the 'Pop Art in Belgium' expo.

Inna is in front of Discs, a painted composition in which James Rosenquist assembled the front of a car, gramophone discs and a box of Kleenex tissues.

Before entering the art world, Rosenquist earned his living as a billboard painter. The style which he developed in this capacity remained visible in his work and is illustrative of the way in which American Pop artists introduced other painting techniques into the art world.





C'est Moi, with ten works by one of the masters of Pop Art, Roy Lichtenstein.

Ben-Day dots, thick black contours. Large

areas filled with primary colours and simplified compositions are elements that were also embraced in the consumption and comics culture. The landscape was one of the first subjects which Lichtenstein explored after he had broken through with his appropriation of the comics style.

This series contains all the stylistic elements that characterise his work.

It's a great expo, most of the works are from the ING bank collection, some are from private collections.


The expo runs until Feb 14th.

Details at https://about.ing.be/About-ING/Art/PopArt.htm

Goodbye Trapper John.....

Wayne Rogers, who played Trapper John McIntyre alongside Alan Alda's Hawkeye Pierce in the TV series M.A.S.H. has passed away in Los Angeles aged 82. 

It often surprises people to learn that Trapper only appeared in the first three of the eleven series, that ran from 1972 to 1983. After his departure, (his character was posted home whilst his friend Hawkeye was on leave and so there was no farewell), he was often referred to.

McIntyre's reason for leaving the show was he felt his character overshadowed by Alda's. Others would feel the same way. Ironically McIntyre was originally asked to audition for the role of Hawkeye, but felt the character too cynical, and asked to audition for Trapper instead.

As a youngster I was an obsessive M.A.S.H. fan. Every Friday evening at 9pm I would be glued to the set, and would absorb every single word. At school on Monday, my pals and I would pick over every single detail of every single show.

The show, based on the movie of a 1968 book by Richard Hooker, was ostensibly about an army medical unit during the Korean War. It combined tragedy and comedy in equal quantities, and gave us such wonderful characters as Radar O'Reilly, Hotlips Houlihan, Henry Blake, Sherman Potter, Frank Burns, and the totally bizarre sometimes transvestite and keen gambler Corporal Max Klinger. There were many others, each unique and there to make a point.

The show was actually about the Vietnam War, but in 1972 it was not possible to trivialise the conflict that had traumatised a nation.

It explored relationships between strangers, brought together in terrible circumstances, and with a difficult job to do in appalling conditions. Talented surgeons putting their careers and lives on hold. The public were introduced to the concept of 'meatball surgery' for the first time.

Hooker drew on personal accounts of army surgeons and nurses who had served in Korea, and many of the incidents portrayed in the book were based on real events. This lent the book, the movie, and the show an air of authenticity, much appreciated by those who had served there, and younger veterans who had returned from Vietnam.

Much loved characters died suddenly and unexpectedly. The much loved commanding officer, Henry Blake, was sent home to his family, with an emotional send off, only for the characters to learn in the final scene that his aircraft had been shot down. There were no survivors. This twist had been kept from the cast during rehearsals, only the director and Gary Burghof, who as Radar O'Reilly delivered the tragic news, knew what was coming. It was so well played that viewers were reduced to tears.

Like everything, M.A.S.H. had to come to an end, The final episode, on February 28th 1983, was watched by 125 million people in the US alone.

Wayne Rogers, prior to a successful acting career had served in the US Navy. He later went on to build a career as an investment strategist, and regularly appeared on TV as an expert in the field.

From the Front Line to Antwerp

The young chap to the right of the photo is Jan. Last night, at a private meeting in Antwerp, he had an absolutely riveting story to tell.

Jan was extremely tired, but in astonishingly good spirits given the fact that he had just travelled more than 2000 km from the front line in the Donbass region of Eastern Ukraine without rest.

He is one of a considerable number of Belarusian volunteers fighting alongside Ukrainian forces against the Russian aggression. The heavy weaponry, including Main Battle Tanks, that the volunteers are coming up against are Russian. Many of the forces they are fighting are serving Russian soldiers. Russian casualties have been very high, but in Putin's Russia it is now a criminal offence for even the families to discuss this.

His reason for fighting was simple. He realised after the attacks on Chechnya that Russia intended to swallow up it's neighbours. He was, of course correct, and he is not the only one to voice concerns. President Lukashenko of Belarus recently asked Putin "will we be next?".

In 2008 Russia invaded Georgia on the pretext of protecting the interests of the Russian speaking communities. Russian forces still occupy two Georgian regions.

Failure of the west to react gave the green light to Putin, and in February 2014 he sent his troops into Crimea, illegally annexing Ukrainian territory. Now his troops are in Eastern Ukraine, and as we learned recently, 20 000 more Russian soldiers are currently on their way.

There has also been at least one incursion into Estonia, a NATO member.  

There are also Russian troops in Moldova, an aspiring EU member state.

EU and NATO airspace is being violated by Russian military aircraft.

Russian submarines have been operating in British and Swedish waters.

Our friend shared with us fascinating stories about the tactical situation on the ground, and about his own unit, which obviously cannot be shared publically.

Starry, Starry Night.....

In Munch : Van Gogh, the focus is on the parallels between two iconic artists. Their visions on life and art are closely related, despite the fact that they never met. Their work is colourful, intense, expressive and radical. Their lives are remarkably similar in many ways.

For that reason, Vincent van Gogh (1853-1890) and the Norwegian artist Edvard Munch (1863-1944) are often mentioned together.

Today, Inna and I visited this incredible exhibition at the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam.

I simply had not realised the extent of the parallels between the Lives of Van Gogh and Munch. This expo illustrates those parallels brilliantly.

"During his short life, Van Gogh did not allow his flame to go out. Fire and embers were his brushes during the few years of his life, whilst he burned out for his art. I have thought, and wished – in the long term, with more money at my disposal than he had – to follow in his footsteps".
Edvard Munch, 23 October 1933.

The exhibition runs until Jan 17th, 2016.

http://www.vangoghmuseum.nl/en/whats-on/exhibitions/munch-van-gogh