Avuncular American

Fighting With Fire and Water

Another First World War centenary: in October 1914, the Belgian Army, squeezed into the final corner of the country between the North Sea and France, floods the fields of Flanders and holds off the German army for the rest of World War I.

This feat of military hydrology was the main focus of a conference at IRSD - the Belgian Royal Higher Institute for Defence.  A gathering of experts - Belgian and Dutch, military and scientific - to mark this modern example of the use of water as a weapon in the Low Countries.  There's a useful slideshow here Download 01 03 ph mignolet.

This is an old, old story: French monarch Louis XIV, forced to abandon a siege of the Belgian town of Dendermonde (Termonde), cursed the town ("ville maudite"), saying he could only take it "with an army of ducks."

Medieval castles had moats, but as late as the Cold War, Dutch defenses included, as part of NATO, high-tech hydrological traps for any eventual Soviet invaders.

Flooding, as we know, can be deadly, and the collective memory in the Netherlands (and to a lesser extent in Belgium) hasn't forgotten the catastrophic breaching of the dikes in 1953.  As the world faces coastal flooding brought on by rising sea levels, this Low Country expertise will be of increasing importance beyond the land of the polders.

In October 1914, the German generals were no doubt cursing the collection of Belgian officers and canal wardens who improvised this defense that allowed King Albert - ever since revered here as the sovereign who stayed at the head of his troops during the entire war - to maintain a piece of Belgian territory free of German occupation.

The peaceful waters today at Nieuwpoort Belgium, flooded in October 1914

Last weekend we made a pilgrimage to the sites associated with the flooding that saved a piece of Belgium - Nieuwpoort and Diksmude.  The latter town boasts a towering monument to the sacrifice of Belgian soldiers, especially the Flemish (Dutch-speaking) dead of WW I, which has been associated with controversial Flemish nationalist sentiment.

No such sectartian feelings were evident at the Royal Higher Institute for Defence Studies, where French, Dutch, and English were used and the Belgian speakers were scrupulous in their bilingualism.  It looks like the Belgian army has set itself to be an example in that sphere to the rest of the country.

Europe Refresh: Face 2 Face Crowdfunding

Photo courtesy Quentin Houben and Pierre Guilluy of Slide Up at Europe Refresh

Attracted by a newspaper writeup on a great vegetarian foodtruck that is becoming a Brussels institution (Sinstreetfood, their Facebook page), we spent Saturday afternoon at the cultural center of Les Halles de Schaerbeek.  We came for the food (a delight, even though we're not vegetarians), but we stayed for Europe Refresh, the second edition of a unique crowdfunding event.

In which some 44 young Europeans (a good number, naturally, from Belgium and France, but from as far afield as Serbia and Canada) pitched their projects for a chance at some in-person financing.  It was put on by the European crowdfunding people, KissKissBankBank.com.

The idea of bringing such an impressive collection of talent under one roof is very appealing, and from the outset we were amazed at the creative genius arrayed around the space of the former indoor market.

From authors to inventors to entrepreneurs, the range of projects was astounding.  Some are personal: Serbian Gorana Jovanovic and her whimsical short film about Laika, the Soviet space dog; photographer Johanne Verbrockhaven's discovery of the lost Icelandic world of Hornstrandir.

Others are for the greater good: www.mainsdoeuvres.org, which creates participative cultural centers using recycled materials from building sites.  Antiheroes.org and their "Failure School" (they also have something called "F**kup Nights") want us to learn from mistakes, "because a failure shared is not as likely to be repeated."

Ever thought of what happens to the tons of coffee grounds from all the cafés that churn out those cups of expresso?  Well, "Champignon de Bruxelles" has, and they'd like to recycle those coffee grounds as a substrate to grow shitake mushrooms, currently imported largely from China.  Two young Belgian graduates (who also studied at Clemson University in South Carolina) have come up with an impressive business plan.

I could go on.  Best thing is to go to the project list, poke around those that strike your interest, and poney up a few Euros.  It's an investment in a better future.