We have selected nine De Morgen stories that you can read after this weekend.
1. Patrick Loobuyck: ‘Woke’s opponents are going crazy’
These are exciting times for a political philosopher. Current affairs are red-hot with the thorny themes. Patrick Loobuyck (48) about our liberal democracy, the ‘activist’ judges, the Flemish canon and wokeness. “Wokers are the new Muslims.”
Read the interview here.
2. Koen and Hilde Vanmechelen: ‘We all had incubators in our bedrooms’
The youngest is 57 and an artist who achieved world fame with his Cosmopolitan Chicken Project, an investigation into biodiversity. In his own country he lives in Labiomista, his studio in Genk. The oldest is 63 and director-publisher at LannooCampus. Koen and Hilde Vanmechelen, brother and sister. “There is no brake built into that child, mom and dad used to say about Koen. Forgotten in the manufacturing process.”
Read the double interview here.
3. ‘The Greatest Dancer’ was supposed to be a success, but that didn’t happen. Four possible explanations
“A lot of people will be watching. And then it’s goodbye and thanks.” Siska Schoeters, who presents The Greatest Dancer of Flanders with Aster Nzeyimana, was sure: it would be a success. But with an average of 565,000 live viewers, VRT’s first major show program has fallen short of expectations in times. A statement in four acts.
Read the analysis here.
4. ‘For months we lived on ready meals because cooking was impossible’: victims of lung covid testify
After three years of corona, lung covid remains a great mystery for scientists. The impact for those who have it among the members is enormous. “My son has broken contact. He can’t understand that I’m completely broken after a walk of three hundred meters. But there is also reason for hope.
Read the testimonials here.
5. Writer Lize Spit: ‘In a short time our family completely fell apart’
This year Lize Spit (35) is responsible for the Book Week gift. It has become a glowing novella about friendship, surrender and war. The closing note of a stormy year in which her mother was diagnosed with cancer: “I’m afraid I won’t understand my mom until I can no longer talk to her.”
Read the interview here.
6. ‘My decision is: Putin has no more foreign friends’: Russia expert Mark Galeotti
According to historian Mark Galeotti, top expert of Russia’s security apparatus, the divided Kremlin is so aimless in Ukraine that it is now undermining its own state. This creates opportunities for Kiev, but also risks. “We are too little concerned with the future after Putin. This is how we drive Russia into China’s arms.”
Read the interview here.
7. Bart Eeckhout fillets new book by Bart De Wever about woke: ‘Here speaks a politician who feels the end of his career is approaching’
After the lectures, the book: N-VA chairman Bart De Wever joins the list of speech makers who warn against the leaden corset in which the ‘woke movement’ threatens to engulf free society. Yet an important question remains unanswered. What is actually the problem?
Read Bart Eeckhout’s analysis here.
8. Actor Tom Vermeir (‘1985’): ‘My girlfriend at the time started crying so hard because she realized I was a real pig’
As Guy Goffinard in the 1985 series, he almost ends the season, but soon actor and boat lover Tom Vermeir (46) will be back on stage. “Heartbreak taught me that you shouldn’t try to change people, and that’s the hardest thing there is.”
Read the interview here.
9. ‘Almost 3 years later I still feel jitters’: for them, retirement age is not the signal to stop working
At the end of this year, Marc Leemans (ACV) will stop working at the age of 62. The fact that he is taking early retirement has come under fierce criticism. These four people took on another challenge at that age or worked longer. “I feel I am still making a difference.”
Read the testimonials here.
