21 March 2018
Two years after the terror attacks on Brussels, one victim is still in hospital. Belgian American, Karen Northshield was queueing when the bombs exploded near her. Mrs Northshield has lost parts of her body and she's still suffering from bone infections. She hasn't been able to leave hospital for 2 years.
Philippe & Mathilde visited her privately for the first time. Mrs Northshield told the press a few days earlier she felt let down by Belgian government, and she regretted not having received a visit from the King like other victims had.
donderdag 22 maart 2018
woensdag 21 maart 2018
Flashback: Visiting Laetitia
25 April 2003
Crown Prince Philippe, Princess Mathilde & Princess Elisabeth (1,5) visited their new niece/cousin, Laetitia, at the hospital in Brussels.
Princess Laetitia Maria of Belgium is the 5th and youngest child of princess Astrid and prince Lorenz.
Mathilde was expecting Gabriel.
Crown Prince Philippe, Princess Mathilde & Princess Elisabeth (1,5) visited their new niece/cousin, Laetitia, at the hospital in Brussels.
Princess Laetitia Maria of Belgium is the 5th and youngest child of princess Astrid and prince Lorenz.
dinsdag 20 maart 2018
QEC Concert for Teenagers 2018
19 March 2018
Queen Mathilde attended a concert in the Queen Elisabeth Competition series of 2018, dedicated to singing, at Flagey in Brussels. The concert was especially aimed at young people.
Queen Mathilde attended a concert in the Queen Elisabeth Competition series of 2018, dedicated to singing, at Flagey in Brussels. The concert was especially aimed at young people.
maandag 19 maart 2018
INTERVIEW "2030 is tomorrow : We need to change"
Queen Mathilde gave an interview to Belgian MO Magazine on the SDGs.
Full interview in Dutch: https://www.mo.be/interview/2030-morgen-de-verandering-moet-er-vandaag-komen
(...) What made the queen help shoulder the SDGs? What does she hope to achieve? She gives an extensive answer to these questions in a long interview with MO.
Our interview takes place at the royal palace, in the very heart of Brussels. When photographer Brecht and I are taken to the first floor by an assistant, we notice an impressive bronze of Leopold II: with a straight back and a self-assured look he isn't hindered by the violence that's being committed in his name among the Congolese people. The dilemma of this conversation on sustainable development goals coudn't have been presented more clearly - even though it turns out Leopold II is just a visitor. The Africa Museum of Tervuren is being renovated and had to look for temporary accommodation for Leopold, and who else has a hall big enough to fit a statue of these dimensions?
Has the queen ever made a humanitarian visit to Congo? And how much does the fact that Belgium or the Belgian royal house were actively involved in the country's colonial history play a part in deciding wether or not to make such a visit? I asked this question afterwards and the answer clearly shows the lines the queen's international role has to follow: "The queen has never been to Congo. Every field visit is decided in collaboration with the minister of foreign affairs and the minister of development cooperation. Both the political situation and the safety aspect are taken into account. For the time being such a visit is not relevant."
But our interview never had the same diplomatic reserve, on the contrary. I was prepared for an interview where formal answers would be given to general questions before we would reach the queen's personal reasons, her doubts and contradictions. But as soon as queen Mathilde comes to get us from the antichambre and as she takes us to the place of our interview, she starts to talk about her recent state visit to India. She tells us how impressed she was by the girls she spoke to in Dehli. Which brings us immediately to the question: Why does she go to the very bottom of society, and what does she hope to be to underpriviledged people?
The answer starts with Mathilde's mother's family history. She describes Anne Komorowska as a Polish woman who fled the communist regime. Mother was a countess, but during those nomad years, that also briefly took her to Congo, she knew poverty and hunger. A trauma that never healed, and that was made clear from the absolute prohibition to spill or waste food in the d'Udekem d'Acoz household.
When she was 18, Mathilde frightened her parents with her holiday plans: she wanted to spend the summer months of 1991 in Cairo. She would go there on her own to work with a local NGO in the slums of the Egyptian capital.
"I wanted to go alone. I knew that the chance of meeting people and opening up to their experiences would be greatly limited if I was accompanied by a friend". Mathilde did all the jobs that such an experience entails: building a local school, teaching French, helping children, walking for hours along dusty roads to the next activity. "I still remember the road, the dust, the smells. That summer changed me and made me into the person I am today".
Later Mathilde would learn that you don't have to cross the Mediterranean to meet extreme poverty. As a speech therapist, her house calls were also made in the rue Blaes in the Marolles, and showed her loneliness also exists in Evere. She talks with great delight about how prince Philippe accompanied her as an 'advising doctor' during a house call to a man with throat cancer. "It was emotionally hard to say goodbye to my job and my patients. To all the persons who empowered me through their resilience, in spite of the difficulties they had to live with".
It was during her time as a speech therapist that Mathilde started to study psychology because she wanted to have a better understanding of the people she worked with. She continued the study when she became a princess and finished when her oldest daughter Elisabeth turned 1 year old. She wrote a thesis on the identity developments of delinquents. Her speech therapy thesis dealt with the ways parents (can) approach their autistic children.
"I've never had the chance to work as a psychologist, but I can use the insights I gained in my work for Unicef, or in projects that support education and mental health care." And at once the Indian women and girls enter our conversation again. "My recent encounters in Dehli reminded me of another meeting I had in Mumbai, 10 years ago. I spoke to a woman who had travelled hundreds of kilometers, she talked to me about the way microcredits had changed her life. They had enabled her son to study. I will never forget that woman's eyes".
Investing in education is key: the queen repeats it time after time - especially educating girls, because "it has a direct impact on the entire family and the local community".
She asks: "Did you ever meet Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf?". Johnson-Sirleaf was president of the West African country Liberia from 2005 to 2017. When I tell her yes, that we published an interview with her in 2011, the queen is visibly pleased. "Such a strong lady. So committed. And she's such an example for a country that had to rise from its ashes. When I can lend my support to women like her, in the battle for women's rights and more education for girls, I feel really happy."
She adds at once that the force she so admires in Johnson-Sirleaf isn't just to be found in Africa or in women in high ranking positions. As she does often during this interview, the queen talks about poverty in Brussels. She underlines how strong women - and men - can be here too. Despite poverty and dire circumstances. Like in Haiti, where Mathilde was in 2012. "The Haitians have really gone from one disaster to the next. Still they don't give up. I visited a hospital where cholera patients were being treated. They had as good as no provisions, the most vulnerable children were kept in quarantaine, and still."
In the course of our conversation we discuss the obvious gap between the lifestye or material wealth of the royal family and the hard reality the people Mathilde wants to put her energy to face - from West African girls to generational poverty in the Marolles.
"I live in these buildings of course", the queen replies, avoiding the word 'palace' but pointing at the large room where our talk takes place. We're seated in gilded sofas and behind the queen's back hangs a perfectly polished mirror that's several meters high. It reflects a state portrait of Leopold I - probably no coincidence. Gold is everywhere in this room, on the framing of the door, on the dresser, on the black mantlepiece, even in the details of our coffee cups and in the queen's earrings. The light that comes in from the Place des Palais falls through the high windows and is being softened by lace and curtains. It gives our room a rich, warm light that adds to the cristal chandeliers and cleverly placed table lamps. 'These buildings' aren't really decorated to be pompous, but inevitably they exude a luxury that recalls generations of aristocratic living.
It are nearly always women or girls, mothers or children, who play a central role in Mathilde's examples when she talks about her commitment to sustainable development. On the little table behind her I see a photo of her own children, who sit on a large tree trunk like the four sons of Aymon. Healthy children. Priviledged children. She doesn't say so, but she surely knows it.
"In Ethiopia I met two mothers in a small room, each with their child. One of the children was busy playing a game, the other was completely still and apathetic. It was 5 years old, just like my youngest at the time, but it had been malnourished and the damage was beyond repair. I tried to touch the child, but it gave no response. Can you imagine being a mother and seeing that your child's life is over when it's barely 5? Unrepairably over?"
Mathilde wants to be confronted with reality. In Liberia, Haiti, Laos, India, and more recently in Ghana. She doesn't want it out of self harm, she wants to base her efforts on real life experiences - even though she probably knows that each visit a queen and her team make is the result of an orchestrated reality. The meetings are well prepared, the locations are carefully selected, the projects have been screened.
"I can talk about poverty and underdevelopment, but it's really different to experience reality. To witness it with your own eyes. It makes you fully realize that poverty isn't a passing accident. It undermines the physical and even cognitive development of children for the rest of their lives. Investing in food for children is an intelligent investment in a country's economy. Realizing this means you can commit a lot more to the cause."
These meetings turn the humanitarian work into a personal thing: "It changes a person in need into a real person with a past and a future. And most of all: it changes him into someone with human dignity." Mathilde explicity adds: "That's why I always tell my children to look the people they shake hands with straight in the eye. A way to acknowledge someone's dignity." She does what she's talking about, at that very moment: she looks straight at me - when I look up from the notebook where I write down what she's saying. Because court's protocol woudn't allow a tape being made of the interview.
It was former UN secretary-general, Ban Ki-Moon who asked the queen to become an SDG advocate. Ban was no stranger to Mathilde. She met him at UN conferences and during his visits to Brussels. He knew her and her main fields of interest: children, education, development, and girls. "It was an honour to be asked to help promote these goals internationally," Mathilde says, "because 2030 is on our doorstep. Change has to happen today." At other moments in our talk she says the same thing, but using the multilateral institutions' jargon: "The time of declarations is behind us. Now it's time for us to implement agreements."
I had hoped for some stories about the meetings of the global SDG Advocates. About the queen chatting with Lionel Messi about the ever dissapointing results of the Belgian teams in the Champions League. Or about the time she discussed her kids' musical taste with Shakira. But the 17 advocates have never been together in the same room, even though the queen herself was the one to organize a meeting of a number of them last year, at the European Development Days.
It didn't include the TV celebrities, but it did bring together the development celebrities, like Nobel winner Leymah Gbowee, Jeffrey Sachs, deputy UN secretary-general Amina Mohammed and Nobel winner Muhammad Yunus. With minister De Croo, European Commisionary for International Development Neven Mimica and other political, societal and industrial leaders they discussed the ways to make their agenda for 2030 more visible, and to increase its success. But alas, that's no source for gossip.
You need only glance at the SDGs to see that Mathilde focusses on SDGs 3, 4 and 5: Ensuring healthy lives and promoting the well-being for all at all ages. Obtaining a quality education and increasing enrolment rates in schools particularly for women and girls. Achieving gender equality and empowering all women and girls.
These goals succeed the Millenium Development Goals that were proclaimed in 2000. The MDGs were, up to 2015, a guide for the international community and the national governments to invest in developing the South. "None the less, each of the 17 goals is important," Mathilde confirms. Because "the SDGs change the conversation about North & South, with changes needed in the South. Now we talk about an inclusive, universal story where all of us are responsable for the future we have in common. The 'developing world' becomes a real actor, and the business world is being asked to be responsable."
"We have to be consequent", Mathilde adds. Practice what we preach. She doesn't mean to call on the Belgian government to finally put together a coherent policy on development aid - the queen is not allowed to tread on the terrain of the democratically elected government - yet it's a personal appeal. And she sees that the younger generations are particularly sensitive to this nowadays. "Intuitively, young people are very conscious of the 2030 agenda", the queen says in perfect UN jargon. "And they know their input doesn't always have to be massive, as long as it is real. The question is: are we giving their daily humanity and input enough visibilty?"
Isn't there a growing cynism, apart from the idealism that emerges from the bottom-up, I ask Mathilde. A cynicism that's being fed by the incapacity of governments to really tackle climate change, for instance?
Mathilde doesn't deny my question, but offers a positive perspective: "Much has changed for the better these past years. Child mortality rates have halved, maternal mortality has been reduced severely, many more children go to school... The challenges remain huge, but we should also look at what has been achieved and let it be the basis of our investment." She herself finds strength in the hopefull perspective of what she sees when she makes field visits, by witnessing with her own eyes how people - even those who have nothing - try to improve society. "I don't want to lock myself in negative thoughts. I prefer to focus on what's positive and realistic. The resilience of vulnerable people, their ability to rise time and time again, to find the strength to survive... that's what I admire."
To illustrate that indestructable life force she's talking about, Mathilde tells me the story of a 55-year old man she met recently: "His face was a reminder of the painful life he'd led. A crooked nose from a violent youth, with a father who had broken every bone in his son's face. He'd been left on the street in a coma. He grew into a thug and worse. He knew every juvenile court judge in the wider area. Untill one of those judges looked him straight in the eye and said: you've got the brains to get a degree. That one time where someone believed in him made all the difference. He told me: I existed in the eyes of someone. And yes, he got his degree and finally showed it to the judge to prove he was capable of it. Now he's married. With his wife he runs a youth shelter for kids with a difficult background."
The queen is passionate about these kind of stories, she loves to tell them. "And then there was this tiny elderly lady, from Budapest. As a 16-year old she was sent to Auschwitz. She lost everyone in the camp. I don't know if I've ever seen such powerful eyes - anyway she impressed me so much that I decided to visit her with my children. We made a 700 kilometer drive deep into the heart of France, so my kids could hear her story - and her message of hope."
"I've seen hell", the lady told us. "But even in hell humanity exists and survives. A dying woman gave me her bread and ordered me to survive." She also told us how her father, before the war, never asked about her school results. Instead he asked if she has asked the right questions in class that day. She assured my children: "That's the most important thing you can learn as a child, a teenager, a human being: to ask the right questions."
Mathilde's motto about her investment in the sustainable development goals is one she got from Ban Ki-Moon, she says: "No-one is left behind." That's why she says education and health are crucial. Specifically mental health, she adds. "Because children who survive conficts and violence don't just lose their traumas. They have to heal, or they will suffer their entire lives."
She's so motivated about the SDGs because they assemble all actors: government, society and business life. "Together we can make the difference", Mathilde believes. When asked if she ever confronts the Belgian government with their inconsistent policies, or with the cuts they make in social security or development aid, the queen replies with a royal smile and similar diplomacy: "I'd rather put my energy to encouragement than to reproaches."
Interview Gie Goris/ Photos Brecht Goris.
Full interview in Dutch: https://www.mo.be/interview/2030-morgen-de-verandering-moet-er-vandaag-komen
Our interview takes place at the royal palace, in the very heart of Brussels. When photographer Brecht and I are taken to the first floor by an assistant, we notice an impressive bronze of Leopold II: with a straight back and a self-assured look he isn't hindered by the violence that's being committed in his name among the Congolese people. The dilemma of this conversation on sustainable development goals coudn't have been presented more clearly - even though it turns out Leopold II is just a visitor. The Africa Museum of Tervuren is being renovated and had to look for temporary accommodation for Leopold, and who else has a hall big enough to fit a statue of these dimensions?
Has the queen ever made a humanitarian visit to Congo? And how much does the fact that Belgium or the Belgian royal house were actively involved in the country's colonial history play a part in deciding wether or not to make such a visit? I asked this question afterwards and the answer clearly shows the lines the queen's international role has to follow: "The queen has never been to Congo. Every field visit is decided in collaboration with the minister of foreign affairs and the minister of development cooperation. Both the political situation and the safety aspect are taken into account. For the time being such a visit is not relevant."
Family History
But our interview never had the same diplomatic reserve, on the contrary. I was prepared for an interview where formal answers would be given to general questions before we would reach the queen's personal reasons, her doubts and contradictions. But as soon as queen Mathilde comes to get us from the antichambre and as she takes us to the place of our interview, she starts to talk about her recent state visit to India. She tells us how impressed she was by the girls she spoke to in Dehli. Which brings us immediately to the question: Why does she go to the very bottom of society, and what does she hope to be to underpriviledged people?
The answer starts with Mathilde's mother's family history. She describes Anne Komorowska as a Polish woman who fled the communist regime. Mother was a countess, but during those nomad years, that also briefly took her to Congo, she knew poverty and hunger. A trauma that never healed, and that was made clear from the absolute prohibition to spill or waste food in the d'Udekem d'Acoz household.
When she was 18, Mathilde frightened her parents with her holiday plans: she wanted to spend the summer months of 1991 in Cairo. She would go there on her own to work with a local NGO in the slums of the Egyptian capital.
"I still remember the road, the dust, the smells. That summer changed me and made me into the person I am today"."
"I wanted to go alone. I knew that the chance of meeting people and opening up to their experiences would be greatly limited if I was accompanied by a friend". Mathilde did all the jobs that such an experience entails: building a local school, teaching French, helping children, walking for hours along dusty roads to the next activity. "I still remember the road, the dust, the smells. That summer changed me and made me into the person I am today".
Later Mathilde would learn that you don't have to cross the Mediterranean to meet extreme poverty. As a speech therapist, her house calls were also made in the rue Blaes in the Marolles, and showed her loneliness also exists in Evere. She talks with great delight about how prince Philippe accompanied her as an 'advising doctor' during a house call to a man with throat cancer. "It was emotionally hard to say goodbye to my job and my patients. To all the persons who empowered me through their resilience, in spite of the difficulties they had to live with".
"It was emotionally hard to say goodbye to my job and my patients. To all the persons who empowered me through their resilience, in spite of the difficulties they had to live with".
It was during her time as a speech therapist that Mathilde started to study psychology because she wanted to have a better understanding of the people she worked with. She continued the study when she became a princess and finished when her oldest daughter Elisabeth turned 1 year old. She wrote a thesis on the identity developments of delinquents. Her speech therapy thesis dealt with the ways parents (can) approach their autistic children.
"I've never had the chance to work as a psychologist, but I can use the insights I gained in my work for Unicef, or in projects that support education and mental health care." And at once the Indian women and girls enter our conversation again. "My recent encounters in Dehli reminded me of another meeting I had in Mumbai, 10 years ago. I spoke to a woman who had travelled hundreds of kilometers, she talked to me about the way microcredits had changed her life. They had enabled her son to study. I will never forget that woman's eyes".
Investing in education is key: the queen repeats it time after time - especially educating girls, because "it has a direct impact on the entire family and the local community".
Women's Rights
She asks: "Did you ever meet Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf?". Johnson-Sirleaf was president of the West African country Liberia from 2005 to 2017. When I tell her yes, that we published an interview with her in 2011, the queen is visibly pleased. "Such a strong lady. So committed. And she's such an example for a country that had to rise from its ashes. When I can lend my support to women like her, in the battle for women's rights and more education for girls, I feel really happy."
She adds at once that the force she so admires in Johnson-Sirleaf isn't just to be found in Africa or in women in high ranking positions. As she does often during this interview, the queen talks about poverty in Brussels. She underlines how strong women - and men - can be here too. Despite poverty and dire circumstances. Like in Haiti, where Mathilde was in 2012. "The Haitians have really gone from one disaster to the next. Still they don't give up. I visited a hospital where cholera patients were being treated. They had as good as no provisions, the most vulnerable children were kept in quarantaine, and still."
In the course of our conversation we discuss the obvious gap between the lifestye or material wealth of the royal family and the hard reality the people Mathilde wants to put her energy to face - from West African girls to generational poverty in the Marolles.
"I live in these buildings of course", the queen replies, avoiding the word 'palace' but pointing at the large room where our talk takes place. We're seated in gilded sofas and behind the queen's back hangs a perfectly polished mirror that's several meters high. It reflects a state portrait of Leopold I - probably no coincidence. Gold is everywhere in this room, on the framing of the door, on the dresser, on the black mantlepiece, even in the details of our coffee cups and in the queen's earrings. The light that comes in from the Place des Palais falls through the high windows and is being softened by lace and curtains. It gives our room a rich, warm light that adds to the cristal chandeliers and cleverly placed table lamps. 'These buildings' aren't really decorated to be pompous, but inevitably they exude a luxury that recalls generations of aristocratic living.
The rich and the poor
The gap between rich and poor is something the queen is well aware of, but when she's on a field visit the main thing she wants to do is listen to people, she says. "People give me life lessons on hope and resilience". Other than that, she wants to "give what I can with my whole heart: time, dedication and dignity". When I write this down I realize how mellow it sounds. But Mathilde looks you straight in the eye, and you think: she's serious about this.It are nearly always women or girls, mothers or children, who play a central role in Mathilde's examples when she talks about her commitment to sustainable development. On the little table behind her I see a photo of her own children, who sit on a large tree trunk like the four sons of Aymon. Healthy children. Priviledged children. She doesn't say so, but she surely knows it.
"In Ethiopia I met two mothers in a small room, each with their child. One of the children was busy playing a game, the other was completely still and apathetic. It was 5 years old, just like my youngest at the time, but it had been malnourished and the damage was beyond repair. I tried to touch the child, but it gave no response. Can you imagine being a mother and seeing that your child's life is over when it's barely 5? Unrepairably over?"
"Can you imagine being a mother and seeing that your child's life is over when it's barely 5? Unrepairably over?"
Mathilde wants to be confronted with reality. In Liberia, Haiti, Laos, India, and more recently in Ghana. She doesn't want it out of self harm, she wants to base her efforts on real life experiences - even though she probably knows that each visit a queen and her team make is the result of an orchestrated reality. The meetings are well prepared, the locations are carefully selected, the projects have been screened.
"I can talk about poverty and underdevelopment, but it's really different to experience reality. To witness it with your own eyes. It makes you fully realize that poverty isn't a passing accident. It undermines the physical and even cognitive development of children for the rest of their lives. Investing in food for children is an intelligent investment in a country's economy. Realizing this means you can commit a lot more to the cause."
These meetings turn the humanitarian work into a personal thing: "It changes a person in need into a real person with a past and a future. And most of all: it changes him into someone with human dignity." Mathilde explicity adds: "That's why I always tell my children to look the people they shake hands with straight in the eye. A way to acknowledge someone's dignity." She does what she's talking about, at that very moment: she looks straight at me - when I look up from the notebook where I write down what she's saying. Because court's protocol woudn't allow a tape being made of the interview.
No Juicy Stories
Mathilde doesn't just want to be a first class volunteer. She invests a lot of time in literature, she says: books, reports, studies and research. And MO Magazine, of course. She frequently asks briefings from NGOs, "to remain up to date with people who have been hit the most by poverty and exclusion".It was former UN secretary-general, Ban Ki-Moon who asked the queen to become an SDG advocate. Ban was no stranger to Mathilde. She met him at UN conferences and during his visits to Brussels. He knew her and her main fields of interest: children, education, development, and girls. "It was an honour to be asked to help promote these goals internationally," Mathilde says, "because 2030 is on our doorstep. Change has to happen today." At other moments in our talk she says the same thing, but using the multilateral institutions' jargon: "The time of declarations is behind us. Now it's time for us to implement agreements."
I had hoped for some stories about the meetings of the global SDG Advocates. About the queen chatting with Lionel Messi about the ever dissapointing results of the Belgian teams in the Champions League. Or about the time she discussed her kids' musical taste with Shakira. But the 17 advocates have never been together in the same room, even though the queen herself was the one to organize a meeting of a number of them last year, at the European Development Days.
It didn't include the TV celebrities, but it did bring together the development celebrities, like Nobel winner Leymah Gbowee, Jeffrey Sachs, deputy UN secretary-general Amina Mohammed and Nobel winner Muhammad Yunus. With minister De Croo, European Commisionary for International Development Neven Mimica and other political, societal and industrial leaders they discussed the ways to make their agenda for 2030 more visible, and to increase its success. But alas, that's no source for gossip.
A Positive Perspective
You need only glance at the SDGs to see that Mathilde focusses on SDGs 3, 4 and 5: Ensuring healthy lives and promoting the well-being for all at all ages. Obtaining a quality education and increasing enrolment rates in schools particularly for women and girls. Achieving gender equality and empowering all women and girls.
These goals succeed the Millenium Development Goals that were proclaimed in 2000. The MDGs were, up to 2015, a guide for the international community and the national governments to invest in developing the South. "None the less, each of the 17 goals is important," Mathilde confirms. Because "the SDGs change the conversation about North & South, with changes needed in the South. Now we talk about an inclusive, universal story where all of us are responsable for the future we have in common. The 'developing world' becomes a real actor, and the business world is being asked to be responsable."
"Intuitively, young people are very conscious of the 2030 agenda. And they know their input doesn't always have to be massive, as long as it is real."
"We have to be consequent", Mathilde adds. Practice what we preach. She doesn't mean to call on the Belgian government to finally put together a coherent policy on development aid - the queen is not allowed to tread on the terrain of the democratically elected government - yet it's a personal appeal. And she sees that the younger generations are particularly sensitive to this nowadays. "Intuitively, young people are very conscious of the 2030 agenda", the queen says in perfect UN jargon. "And they know their input doesn't always have to be massive, as long as it is real. The question is: are we giving their daily humanity and input enough visibilty?"
Isn't there a growing cynism, apart from the idealism that emerges from the bottom-up, I ask Mathilde. A cynicism that's being fed by the incapacity of governments to really tackle climate change, for instance?
Mathilde doesn't deny my question, but offers a positive perspective: "Much has changed for the better these past years. Child mortality rates have halved, maternal mortality has been reduced severely, many more children go to school... The challenges remain huge, but we should also look at what has been achieved and let it be the basis of our investment." She herself finds strength in the hopefull perspective of what she sees when she makes field visits, by witnessing with her own eyes how people - even those who have nothing - try to improve society. "I don't want to lock myself in negative thoughts. I prefer to focus on what's positive and realistic. The resilience of vulnerable people, their ability to rise time and time again, to find the strength to survive... that's what I admire."
Hell
To illustrate that indestructable life force she's talking about, Mathilde tells me the story of a 55-year old man she met recently: "His face was a reminder of the painful life he'd led. A crooked nose from a violent youth, with a father who had broken every bone in his son's face. He'd been left on the street in a coma. He grew into a thug and worse. He knew every juvenile court judge in the wider area. Untill one of those judges looked him straight in the eye and said: you've got the brains to get a degree. That one time where someone believed in him made all the difference. He told me: I existed in the eyes of someone. And yes, he got his degree and finally showed it to the judge to prove he was capable of it. Now he's married. With his wife he runs a youth shelter for kids with a difficult background."
The queen is passionate about these kind of stories, she loves to tell them. "And then there was this tiny elderly lady, from Budapest. As a 16-year old she was sent to Auschwitz. She lost everyone in the camp. I don't know if I've ever seen such powerful eyes - anyway she impressed me so much that I decided to visit her with my children. We made a 700 kilometer drive deep into the heart of France, so my kids could hear her story - and her message of hope."
"I decided to visit the elderly lady with my children. We made a 700 kilometer drive deep into the heart of France, so my kids could hear her story - and her message of hope.""
"I've seen hell", the lady told us. "But even in hell humanity exists and survives. A dying woman gave me her bread and ordered me to survive." She also told us how her father, before the war, never asked about her school results. Instead he asked if she has asked the right questions in class that day. She assured my children: "That's the most important thing you can learn as a child, a teenager, a human being: to ask the right questions."
Mathilde's motto about her investment in the sustainable development goals is one she got from Ban Ki-Moon, she says: "No-one is left behind." That's why she says education and health are crucial. Specifically mental health, she adds. "Because children who survive conficts and violence don't just lose their traumas. They have to heal, or they will suffer their entire lives."
She's so motivated about the SDGs because they assemble all actors: government, society and business life. "Together we can make the difference", Mathilde believes. When asked if she ever confronts the Belgian government with their inconsistent policies, or with the cuts they make in social security or development aid, the queen replies with a royal smile and similar diplomacy: "I'd rather put my energy to encouragement than to reproaches."
Interview Gie Goris/ Photos Brecht Goris.
zondag 18 maart 2018
New Photo of Crown Princess Elisabeth
As seen on the website of the Belgian Monarchy.
Probably taken in July 2017, on the National Day.
zondag 11 maart 2018
State Visit #7: Canada
From 11 to 17 March 2018 King Philippe & Queen Mathilde visited Ottowa, Montreal and Toronto as guests of Governor-General Julie Payette. They were heading a delegation of 211 politicians, business men & women, academics and journalists.
Sunday 11 March 2018
At 12:30 the Royal Couple and their delegation left from Melsbroek military airport.
Sunday 11 March 2018
At 12:30 the Royal Couple and their delegation left from Melsbroek military airport.
As is her habit, Mathilde had a chat with all of the passengers.
At 16:00 local time, they arrived in Ottowa, Canada.
With the Belgian ambassador in Canada, Raoul Delcorde.
Monday 12 March 2018
A carriage brought the King and Queen to Rideau Hall in Ottowa, where they were officially welcomed by Governor-General Julie Payette.
The King and Queen of the Belgians have arrived @RideauHall for the official welcoming ceremony. Their Majesties were welcomed with military honours in the presence of members of the Belgium community. #BelCan2018 @MonarchieBe pic.twitter.com/qzsd1uDU7w
— Governor General of Canada (@GGCanada) March 12, 2018
Then the Royal Couple was asked to plant a tree, as is tradition for each head of state who visits Rideau Hall. Mathilde traded her Armani pumps for Uggs.
video: https://www.vrt.be/vrtnws/nl/2018/03/12/canadezen-hangen-halen-duitse-en-belgische-vlag-door-elkaar/
They attended the Last Post at the tomb of the Unknown Soldier.
A visit to Parliament.
Mathilde was wearing a new maple leaf brooch, custom made by Tikli.
In the afternoon, Philippe & Mathilde were shown a traditional sugar shack, where they got to taste maple syrup.
In the evening, Mrs Payette hosted a gala dinner for the Belgian head of state and his delegation.
Clotilde Boël is Mathilde's lady-in-witing suring this state visit.
Video of the speeches: http://www.cpac.ca/en/programs/headline-politics/episodes/60347563
In her speech, Julie Payette reveales she & Mathilde met before, in Thailand. She was also at school with Harold Boël, the millionaire husband of Mathilde's lady-in-waiting, Clotilde Boël.
Monday 13 March 2018
At 9:00 Queen Mathilde took part in a breakfast meeting that centered around the SDGs. She was joined by Canadian deputy development minister Diane Jacovella.
At 11:00 a visit to the National Gallery of Canada was scheduled.
At 12:30 the king & queen attended a seminar on the advantages of multilinguisim in education, at the university of Ottawa.
At 15:00 Philippe & Mathilde attended a WWI remembrance activity.
At 16:30 there was a 'diamond experience' at the Canadian Museum of Nature. They were welcomed by First Nation chief Georges MacKenzie of the Tlicho government. An explanation followed about traditional diamond mining techniques & nature preservation.
After king Philippe's address, professor Sophie De Schaepdrijver gave a speech.
At night, king Philippe & queen Mathilde hosted a walking dinner in honour of governor-general Payette at the Museum of History. The guests were treated to Filip Jordens' "Hommage à Brel".
Wednesday 14 March 2018
In the morning, the royal couple and their delegation left Ottawa for Toronto, a 1 hour flight.
They were received by Elizabeth Dowdeswell, Lieutenant Governor of Ontario and welcomed to the Ontario Legislative Building.
With Ontario's premier, Mrs Wynne.
video: https://www.vrt.be/vrtnws/nl/2018/03/15/filip-en-mathilde-krijgen-een-bijzonder-cadeautje-in-canada/
An official luncheon was hosted by Reza Moridi, Minister of Research, Science & Innovation.
The king & queen particicpated in the group photo following the signing ceremony.
At 14:15 the king & queen were given a Tour of the MaRS Venture Showcase.
Afterwards, queen Mathilde visited SickKids Hospital where she took part in a roundtable discussion.
Looking at a picture of queen Fabiola, who visited the hospital 40 years ago.
In the evening, they leave Toronto for Montréal, a 1:10 hour flight.
Thursday 15 March 2018
At 9:15 Philippe & Mathilde were joined by Julie Payette & Frank Dewinne for a visit to the Sonaca plant, a Canada-Belgium partnership in the air & space industry.
At noon, there were meetings with Québec's lieutenant governor, J. Michel Doyon and Premier Philippe Couillard at the museum of fine arts of Montréal.
In the afternoon, the queen attended a Belgian Food and Gastronomy Event.
Claire Tillekaerts (ceo at Flanders Investment & Trade, and personal friend) in the background.
video: https://www.vrt.be/vrtnws/nl/2018/03/16/koningin-mathilde-proeft-tricolore-chocola-in-canada/
With Antoine de Saint-Affrique, CEO of Barry Callebaut.
A conference on artificial Intelligence in presence of Mr Couillard.
At 19:00 the lieutenant governor of Québec joined Philippe & Mathilde at a reception for the Belgian community living in Québec.
Mathilde wore a dress by Canada born designer Erdem.
Her fur stole is an inheritance from the late queen Fabiola.
Queen Fabiola in 1976
Friday 16 March 2018
Philippe & Mathilde started the day with a roundtable on social entrepreneurship.
Then they visited a project of the Montreal Canadiens Children’s Foundation.
At an introduction to ice hockey they were given T shirts for their children.
Queen Mathilde attended a high-level lunch on the Quebec-Belgian Science Cooperation.
At 14:00 Mathilde attended a meet & greet with Canadian & Belgian students at the McGill University of Montreal. Among the students is her own niece-in-law, princess Luisa of Belgium who's been studying political science at McGill for the past 4 years.
With the principal, Suzanne Fortier
A conference on the Belgian film industry, at the Musée Grévin of Montreal.
Informal meeting with the Belgian press.
Finally, king Philippe & queen Mathilde hosted a concert by Alice on the Roof & Lara Fabian at Théâtre Rialto.
Saturday 17 March 2018
The Belgian delegation departs at 9:00 from Montreal airport for a 6,5 hour flight.
Arrival in Belgium at 20:30 local time.
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