Supported projects

Because of the unrest in the Ukraine and the Middle East the past year, Europe has become acutely aware of its energy dependency. Brussels presented a new European Commissioner for Energy Union, but real collaboration is still a long way off.

AFGHANISTAN/IRAQ - Tine Danckaers travelled to the Middle East and spoke in Afghanistan and Kurdish Iraq with people who applied for asylum in Belgium but returned to their country of origin 'voluntarily' or after a forced deportation. A dossier on return as part of the European migration policy, the flexible interpretation of security, perspectives or lack thereof, homesickness and paralysis.

BELGIUM - In the Netherlands, it has been possible for years: a visit to the Nationaal Archief (National Archive) to find out what your grandfather or grandmother's wartime past was. In Belgium, however, these archives remain closed, for fear that 'certain passions' will flare up. Anoek Nuyens and Lynn Berger on the struggle of historians and archivists for more openness.

In 1964 some 2000 hostages were saved out of the hands of Congolese rebels by Belgian para troopers. But the events behind that success story paved the way for the autocratic regime of President Mobutu.

BRUSSELS - Something's brewing in Brussels. Photographer Kurt Deruyter has been working for years on a project in the Brussels neighbourhoods of Molenbeek and Cureghem. Together with De Standaard-journaliste Sarah Vankersschaever, he has spent the past few months looking for a new perspective on these neighbourhoods, where chaos, entrepreneurship and cosmopolitanism dominate the streetscape.

Yemi Oduwale, a flemish boy born in '86, has a Belgian mother and a Nigerian father. His grandfather is ill, and he wants Yemi to succeed him as a 'chief' in Nigeria. But Yemi is born and raised in Europe and doesn't know anything about the culture of the Yoruba, one of West-Africa's largest tribes. Besides, it's been more than 15 years ago since he was in Nigeria for the last time.

BELGIUM - What do politicians think about media and political reporting? In recent months, Apache.be has spoken with the party chairmen of the liberal party Open VLD, the Christian democratic party CD&V, the socialist party Sp.a and the green party Groen and with various media specialists and communication staff of those parties.

MALI -  In comic strips Timbuktu is the end of the world, and the Tuareg who live there have been attracting westerners for centuries. With minimal means they survive in the Sahara, heroically fighting the colonial occupation. Volkswagen named a car after them.

The term climate change usually conjures up images of melting glaciers, rising sea levels and outsize hailstones. But what will be its impact on life on Earth? Science journalist Tim Vernimmen interviewed scientists in Southern Europe who document species' gradually shifting comfort zones.

MYANMAR - What nobody expected happened anyway. The army in Myanmar (formerly Burma) initiated a transition that had to transform one of the world's oldest dictatorships into a democracy. After fifty years of repression, a new constitution was drawn up and democratic elections were held. Western diplomats and companies plunged directly into the reborn Southeast Asian nation.