Vertalingen (Engels) - Don't give up (Peter Gabriel en Kate Bush)

In dit trots land werden we sterk,

We waren altijd al gewild.

En ik moest vechten, en ik moest winnen,

Verliezen kwam niet bij me op.

Er lijkt niets meer te vechten nu,

Ik ben een man wiens dromen weg zijn.

Mijn gezicht veranderd, mijn naam veranderd,

Maar niemand wil je als je verliest.

Geef niet op,

Want je hebt vrienden.

Geef niet op,

Je bent nog niet verslagen.

Geef niet op,

Ik weet dat je het maken kan.

Ik zag het overal rondom,

Maar dacht niet dat het mij kon treffen.

Dacht dat we de laatsten zouden zijn,

Het is zo raar hoe dingen keren.

Ik reed bij nacht naar mijn thuis toe,

De plaats van mijn geboorte, bij het meer.

Toen de zon opkwam, zag ik de aarde,

De bomen afgebrand tot op de grond

Geef niet op,

Je hebt ons nog.

Geef niet op,

We hebben niet veel nodig.

Geef niet op,

Want ergens is een plaats,

Waar we thuishoren.

Rust wat uit,

Je piekert te veel,

Het komt allemaal in orde.

Als het moeilijk wordt,

Dan zijn wij er nog steeds.

Geef niet op,

Nee, geef niet op

Ik moet hier echt vandaan nu,

Ik kan het leven niet meer aan.

Ik loop naar die brug toe,

Kijk alleen maar naar beneden,

Wat er ook mag komen

En wat er ook mag gaan,

Die rivier stroomt,

Die rivier stroomt.

Verhuisde naar een andere stad,

Deed of ik er mijn thuis had.

Voor elke job, zoveel mensen,

Zoveel mensen nutteloos.

Geef niet op,

Want je hebt vrienden.

Geef niet op,

Je bent niet de enige.

Geef niet op,

Je hoeft je niet te schamen.

Geef niet op,

Je hebt ons nog.

Geef niet op,

We zijn trots op wie je bent.

Geef niet op,

Het is nooit makkelijk geweest.

Geef niet op,

Want ik geloof dat er een plaats is,

Een plaats waar we thuishoren.

(Vertaald door Björn Roose)

Teksten - Op pad met Hertog Jan

Op pad met Hertog Jan

( Gepubliceerd in De Brug, augustus 2014)

Inleiding

Waar waren we gebleven ? O ja, bij het feit dat we het geluk hebben niet al te ver van de Nederlands-Belgische grens te wonen en dus wel eens een ritje naar de overkant kunnen maken om daar een paar biertjes te kopen.

Wel, dat ritje valt inderdaad reuze mee: met de fiets rijd je vanaf Sint-Niklaas bijna onafgebroken rechtdoor langs wat vroeger een spoorlijn was, maar nu een fietspad, tot je in De Klinge (Vlaanderen) / Clinge (Nederland) het zuiden voor het noorden inwisselt. Alleen het kopen van die biertjes was een stuk minder. We hadden niet de moeite gedaan vooraf even op te zoeken waar we gespecialiseerde drankenhandels vonden en moesten ons dus wenden tot de lokale supermarkten. En die bleken vooral … Belgische bieren in huis te hebben. Na een bezoek aan drie warenhuizen waren we gelukkig toch in het bezit van een zevental “speciaalbieren”: de intussen ook in Vlaanderen alom bekende tripel van La Trappe, een tweetal van Grolsch, en zowaar vier bieren van Hertog Jan. In afwachting van onze volgende oversteek en omdat we zélfs de pils van Hertog Jan niet slecht vonden toen we die tijden geleden voor het eerst dronken, openen we deze serie dus met de “speciallekes” van deze … Limburgse brouwerij.

Hertog Jan I van Brabant

Waarom eigenlijk dat beletselteken voor “Limburgse brouwerij” ? Omdat de hertog Jan waarnaar het bier vernoemd wordt uiteraard hertog Jan I van Brabant is. Van Brabant, inderdaad. Geboren in het Vlaams-Brabantse Leuven ergens in de periode 1252-1254 huwde deze hertog in 1269 Margaretha, een dochter van de Franse koning Lodewijk IX. Nadat deze Margaretha een goed jaar later overleed in het kraambed, zocht hertog Jan het geluk wat dichter bij huis en huwde in 1273 een andere Margaretha: de eerstgeboren dochter van de Vlaamse graaf Gwijde van Dampierre, die uiteraard het bekendst is vanwege zijn aanhoudende problemen met de kleinzoon van Jans eerste schoonvader, die uiteindelijk zouden leiden tot Vlaanderens meest gedenkwaardige oorlogsfeit, de Guldensporenslag. Maar Jan I was behalve vader van vier erkende kinderen en een hele reeks bastaarden ook een krachtig heerser, die er in slaagde de Brabantse invloed tussen Maas en Rijn zodanig te versterken dat hij uiteindelijk ook het toenmalige hertogdom Limburg in handen kreeg.

Dat laatste ging niet zonder slag of stoot, al had hertog Jan zich dat wel zo gewenst. Toen Irmgard van Limburg, dochter van Walram IV van Limburg, namelijk kinderloos kwam te overlijden, kócht Jan het opvolgingsrecht als hertog van Limburg immers van één van haar erfgenamen. Dit was echter niet naar de zin van Reinoud I, echtgenoot van de overledene en vanaf 1286 echtgenoot van Margaretha van Vlaanderen, dochter uit het tweede huwelijk van Gwijde van Dampierre. Na jarenlange intrafamiliale schermutselingen (Reinoud I en Jan I waren immers halfzwagers van mekaar) en het daarmee weer in een bijzonder actief stadium treden van de al lang bestaande vijandelijkheden tussen Brabant en Gelre (Gelderland – Reinoud I was de zoon van Otto II, graaf van Gelderland) kwam het dan ook tot de grote botsing: de slag bij Woeringen (nu een stadsdeel van het Duitse Keulen) op 5 juni 1288. Daar stonden aan de ene kant Jan I met 1500 ridders gesteund door Arnold V van Loon (een leenman van Gwijde van Dampierre die overigens in 1302 een omweg maakte langs Jan II, de zoon van Jan I, om er niét bij te zijn in de Kortrijkse beemden) en burgers van de vrije rijksstad Keulen, aan de andere kant de troepen van de Luxemburgers, Geldersen, de aartsbisschop van Keulen, Siegfried van Westerburg en Limburgers met zo’n 2200 ridders. Ondanks het feit dat ze tegen een nogal duidelijke overmacht stonden, wonnen de Brabanders het pleit in de veldslag die een dag zou duren (ze verloren daarbij slechts 40 ridders tegenover 1100 aan de andere kant) en werd Limburg voor 500 jaar bij Brabant gevoegd, al zou de opvolgingsstrijd pas definitief eindigen in 1289, toen Filips IV “de Schone”, koning van Frankrijk, door bemiddeling Limburg wettelijk in het bezit van hertog Jan I stelde.

Maar hertog Jan was ook een levensgenieter en, naar verluidt, een minnezanger (onder andere het Middelnederlandse “Eens meien morgens vroege” wordt aan hem toegeschreven, lied waarvan het refrein “Harba lorifa, harba harba lorifa, harba lorifa” nog bewaard wordt in het bekende lied “Van Hertog Jan”, geschreven en op muziek gezet in 1947 door de Noord-Brabantse priesters Beex en van der Putt). En hoewel hij door zijn liefde voor jachtpartijen en riddertoernooien om het leven kwam (hij verongelukte in een toernooi in Bar-le-Duc, nu Frankrijk, toen nog hertogdom Lotharingen, deel van het Heilige Roomse Rijk) is het dus niet onlogisch dat de naam van de hertog, die overigens begraven werd in de Brusselse Minderbroederskerk, verbonden werd aan dit Limburgse bier.

Zo heette het echter niet van bij het begin. Daarvoor moest eerst een … Brabantse brouwerij in het spel komen.

Geschiedenis van de brouwerij

Op 2 maart 1915 richtten vier bevriende brouwers (Leopold Haffmans van Brouwerij de Roobeek, Geerard van Dijk van Brouwerij de Oranjeboom, August Schraven van Brouwerij het Anker, en Gerard van Soest) de Stoombierbrouwerij de Vriendenkring op te Arcen, gelegen aan de Maas en nu deel van Venlo. Ze brouwen er een bier van ondergisting of lage gisting (een manier van gisten waarbij lage temperaturen gebruikt worden, die langer duurt dan de toen gebruikelijke techniek van bovengisting, maar minder vatbaar is voor bacteriën, en als bekendste product pils oplevert) dat onder de naam VK bier (VK staat uiteraard voor “Vriendenkring”) de markt op gaat.

De brouwerij komt zwaar gehavend uit de Tweede Wereldoorlog (de Duitsers gebruiken het stevige gebouw als lokaal hoofdkwartier en de Geallieerden richten bij beschietingen ervan zware schade aan – kogelgaten zijn er nog steeds te zien) en de crisis en ondermaatse bierafzet brengt de brouwerij, ondanks het feit dat in 1945 begonnen wordt met de wederopbouw, in financiële problemen. In 1949 besluit de Vriendenkring alle aandelen te verkopen aan Bierbrouwerij de Drie Hoefijzers uit het Noord-Brabantse Breda. Die besluit de brouwerij en het merk VK Bier te laten bestaan en moderniseert in 1956 gebouwen en installaties.

In 1968 komt Brouwerij de Drie Hoefijzers echter op haar beurt in financiële problemen en wordt overgenomen door de Engelse Allied Breweries Limited. Deze groep besluit in oktober 1980 de brouwerij in Arcen en de bottelarij in Helmond (Noord-Brabant) te sluiten. Toon van de Reek, werkzaam in die bottelarij, en een tweetal vennoten zien dat niet zitten en besluiten de brouwerij in Arcen zélf verder te exploiteren. In 1981 wordt Stoombierbrouwerij de Vriendenkring herboren als Arcense Stoombierbrouwerij. Er wordt ditmaal gekozen voor bieren van hoge gisting ofte bovengisting. De pils wordt dus aan de kant gezet, maar reeds in 1986 worden de brouwers voor hun speciaalbieren beloond met een aantal gouden medailles.

Helaas, de geschiedenis herhaalt zich: op 29 oktober 1992 wordt de Arcense Bierbrouwerij weer overgekocht. Dit keer door de Verenigde Bierbrouwerijen uit, jawel, Breda-Rotterdam. In 1993 treedt de Maas buiten haar oevers. De schade in de brouwerij is echter snel hersteld en van de nood wordt een deugd gemaakt: er worden lagerkelders gebouwd, waardoor behalve speciaalbieren ook weer bieren van lage gisting kunnen worden gebrouwen, wat dan ook gebeurt.

De ene overname is nog maar net verwerkt of er komt al een andere aan: in 1995 wordt de brouwerij overgenomen door Interbrew Nederland (tegenwoordig onderdeel van AB Inbev) en drie jaar later krijgt de brouwerij uiteindelijk de naam waaronder ze nu bekend staat, Hertog Jan Brouwerij.

Tussen haakjes

Hertog Jan I van Brabant wordt trouwens wel vaker betrokken bij de productie van gerstenat. De hertog zou namelijk ook aangeduid zijn als Jan Primus (Jan de eerste, dus) en Primus is sinds 1975 (voorheen heette het Super 8) ook de naam van de pils die gebrouwen wordt door Brouwerij Haacht in het Vlaams-Brabantse Boortmeerbeek. Het logo van de pils in kwestie draagt zijn afbeelding te paard. En om de cirkel rond te maken: Brouwerij De Leeuw uit Valkenburg in Nederlands Limburg is sinds 2006 in handen van Brouwerij Haacht.

Wie welk bier brouwde, zou Jan Primus wellicht worst geweest zijn. Misschien was hij immers wel, zoals de Brabantse volkslegenden vertellen, die gulle en goedlachse vorst die in het gezelschap van gewone luiden genoot van spijs en drank. En misschien stond hij wel degelijk model voor Gambrinus, de bierkoning, wiens naam een verbastering lijkt van die van de hertog. Hij zou hoe dan ook naar alle waarschijnlijkheid de veelheid aan bieren van de Hertog Jan Brouwerij kunnen waarderen hebben.

Elk diertje zijn biertje

Behalve de pils – zoals gezegd pas in de jaren 1990 terug geïntroduceerd – brouwen ze daar in Arcen Lentebock, Weizener, Bockbier, Karakter, Dubbel, Tripel, en Grand Prestige. Het Bockbier, de Dubbel en de Tripel zijn we helaas niet tegengekomen bij ons oversteekje, maar we zijn wel van plan te genieten van de Weizener, de Lentebock, de Grand Prestige en Karakter. Gaan we u ook meegeven wat we van die biertjes denken ? Neen. Waarom niet ? Omdat smaken nu eenmaal verschillen en we niet zitten te wachten op brieven aan de redactie waarin ons vriendelijk doch met aandrang verzocht wordt het bierproeven over te laten aan mensen die er wat van kennen.

Maar … we kunnen u wél vertellen wat de brouwerij over de biertjes te vertellen heeft – uiteraard niets dan goeds, hoe zou u zelf zijn – en we gaan ook op zoek naar het oordeel van “professionele” zuipschuiten, excuseer, bierproevers.

Lentebock

Lentebock als biersoort kent een interessante geschiedenis. De soort ontstond namelijk … ondergronds. In 1539 verbood immers de vorst van Beieren het bierbrouwen in de zomer vanwege het brandgevaar dat het vuur onder de ketels vormde voor de droge zomervelden. Het volk aldaar hield iets te veel van bier om een zomer lang zonder te kunnen, dus brouwden ze elk jaar in maart een langer houdbaar bier: meer hop, meer alcohol, meer zuren. Het kreeg de naam Märzen ofte maartbier mee en de vaten werden ondergronds bewaard, in grotten en diepe kelders.

De legende gaat dat toen in latere jaren Ludwig I, vorst van Beieren, op een zekere dag in oktober trouwde met Therese von Saxe Hildeburghausen hij een groot huwelijksfeest gaf op een enorm weiland in München. Eten was er genoeg, maar bier kón er nog niet zijn aangezien de nieuwe oogst nog lang niet geschikt was om ervan te brouwen. De brave mensen van Beieren haalden echter hun ondergrondse voorraad aan Märzen boven en van toen af werd er in München ieder jaar een Oktoberfest gehouden met dat maartbier.

Bij Brouwerij Hertog Jan vinden ze het, naar eigen zeggen, zonde om te wachten tot oktober om dat frisse lentebier, in Nederland bekend onder de naam lentebock, te proeven. Daarom brengen ze het, zoals vele andere Nederlandse brouwerijen, al uit in de lente (in Utrecht gaat trouwens al enkele jaren begin april een Lentebockfestival door, waar dit jaar naar verluidt zeventien verschillende lentebocken te proeven waren).

Wat de naam betreft: de verklaring voor het “lente”-gedeelte las u hierboven al, “bo(c)k” is een algemene benaming voor “zwaarder” bier (over het ontstaan van die naam hebben we het later nog wel eens), bier dus met een hoger alcoholpercentage (dat daarom ook langer bewaart).

Bij Hertog Jan omschrijven ze hun Lentebock (die vroeger overigens Meibock heette) als “romig en fruitig”, “goudgeel”, met 7,2 % alcohol en te drinken op een temperatuur van 6 tot 10 graden Celsius. Bij Beeradvocate krijgt het lentebiertje een “rating” van 83 op 100 (wat daar in de categorie “goed” valt). Bij Ratebeer komt men tot een score van 2,86 op 5 en amper 28 op 100 in zijn soort.

Weizener

De Hertog Jan Weizener is volgens Gerard van den Broeck, brouwmeester van de Hertog Jan Brouwerij, het ideale tarwebier. Het zou namelijk het beste van een Duitse Weizen en een Belgisch witbier combineren, zijnde de kenmerkende “gruit” (het kruidenmengsel) en de frisse gist van dat laatste en de “lichtzoetige, zachtbittere en milde smaak” van het eerste.

Volgens de brouwmeester smaakt de Weizener, te drinken op een temperatuur van 3 graden Celsius en goed voor een alcoholpercentage van 5,7, “volmondig fris met karaktervolle bittertonen en een prettig stevige afdronk” en is ie “diepgoud met een lichte nevel”. Volgens Ratebeer scoort hij 3,05 op 5 en 60 op 100 in zijn soort, volgens Beeradvocate is hij 81 op 100 waard, daarmee nog net binnen de categorie “goed” vallend.

Bockbier

Dat we het Bockbier niet vonden in de supermarkt zal wellicht liggen aan het feit dat we daarvoor te vroeg waren. Dit bier luidt namelijk – zoals de Lentebock dat doet met de lente – de herfst in. Het was vroeger dan ook het eerste bier dat gebrouwen werd van de nieuwe hop- en moutoogst. Maar het was ook ondergistend. Bij Hertog Jan hebben ze er een bovengistend bier van gemaakt, waardoor, weerom volgens de brouwmeester, de smaak ervan – “vol, romig en karamelachtig” – beter tot zijn recht komt. Het Bockbier is robijnrood, te drinken op een temperatuur van 10 tot 12 graden Celsius en heeft een alcoholpercentage van 6,5. Volgens Beeradvocate 82 op 100 waard, volgens Ratebeer 3,19 op 5 en 83 op 100 in zijn soort.

Karakter

Ook voor Karakter ging brouwmeester van den Broeck in de zuidelijke Nederlanden kijken. Alhoewel: Karakter is een “ale” en het brouwen van “ales” is natuurlijk een Engelse traditie. Die Engelse traditie kwam echter via John Martin in 1909 terecht in België en al spoedig leerde men in de zuidelijke Nederlanden zélf hoe men dat lekkere spul moest brouwen. Waarna ook de noorderlingen volgden.

Karakter wordt gebrouwen op basis van vier verschillende typen mout, waarvan het mengsel aangeduid wordt als Hertog Jan Mout. Resultaat is volgens de brouwerij een roodkoperkleurig bier met “een fruitige smaak met volwassen bittertonen”. 7,5 % alcohol, te drinken op een temperatuur van 6 tot 8 graden Celsius, en volgens Ratebeer amper 2,98 op 5 waard (zelfs maar 14/100 in zijn soort). Beeradvocate geeft er een score van 81 op 100 aan.

Dubbel

Geen verhaaltje bij dit bier op de webstek van de brouwerij. Je krijgt er enkel te lezen dat het een traditioneel bier van hoge gisting is, waarbij de aanduiding “dubbel” van oudsher verwijst naar de dubbele hoeveelheid ingrediënten. We besparen u de welwillende instructies die u ter consumptie meekrijgt, maar geven u wel nog mee dat het bier “aangenaam bitterzoet” (“moutig en iets zoetig”), donkerbruin, op 6 tot 10 graden Celsius dient gedronken te worden en 7,3 procent alcohol bevat. Ook dit speciaalbier krijgt vanwege Beeradvocate 81 op 100, bij Ratebeer vonden ze het beter dan alle andere tot nog toe besproken soorten (3,31 op 5) en in zijn soort scoort het 78/100.

Tripel

Wie een dubbel kan brouwen, kan een tripel brouwen. Er gaan drie keer zoveel ingrediënten in als in een “gewoon” biertje en het is doorgaans ook de soort met het hoogste alcoholpercentage. Genoeg om zichzelf te verkopen oordeelde de brouwmeester wellicht, want ook hier geen verhaaltje op de webstek. De tripel is uiteraard blond (“mooi blond”), “krachtig, zoet, moutig en fruitig”, en de nagisting op fles “zorgt voor een frissere en rijkere smaak”. 8,5 procent alcohol, te drinken op een temperatuur van 6 tot 10 graden Celsius.

Leuk vinden wij dat hij verkocht wordt in een halve-literkruik met kurk, net zoals de Dubbel overigens. De mensen van Ratebeer vonden hem helaas niet zo lekker als de dubbel (3,24/5 en 50/100 in zijn soort), bij Beeradvocate kreeg hij net zoals de Weizener, Karakter en Dubbel 81 op 100.

Last call: Grand Prestige

Het laatste speciaalbier voor deze aflevering wordt door de brouwerij aangeduid als het “kroonjuweel”. De mythe die er rond verspreid wordt is dat meesterbrouwer van den Broeck ergens in 2001 door de kelders liep en er toevallig een pallet vol “verweerde flessen” van Grand Prestige aantrof. Die zouden er al vóór de overstroming van de Maas hebben gelegen (slecht voorraadbeheer ?) en het bier zou niet alleen helder geweest zijn, maar ook “overweldigend rijk” geroken hebben en zich qua smaak kunnen meten “met een bijzondere vintage port”. Altijd opletten met dat soort verhalen, maar tegenwoordig laten ze bij Hertog Jan Brouwerij in ieder geval hele voorraden Grand Prestige rijpen in de grote kelder.

Ook deze Grand Prestige wordt, zoals Karakter, gebrouwen op basis van de Hertog Jan Mout-mengeling en wordt omschreven als een “gerstewijn van hoge gisting”, “vol en rijp, zoet en bitter”, met een alcoholpercentage van 10 en te drinken op 10 tot 12 graden Celsius. Hij is verkrijgbaar in alle formaten (30 cl, 50 cl en 75 cl) en, zoals de andere bieren van de brouwerij, van het vat.

Je kan deze Grand Prestige dus rustig laten rijpen, al stond op de flessen die wij kochten wel een houdbaarheidsdatum die amper anderhalf jaar in de toekomst lag. Hij kreeg van Ratebeer in ieder geval de beste score van de Hertog Jan-bieren: 3,51 op 5 (zij het dat ze hem maar 51/100 in zijn soort gaven). Bij Beeradvocate bedachten ze hem met een 87/100, wat hem als enige in de categorie “very good” doet belanden.

Tot slot

Je kan, zoals bij vele grote brouwerijen het geval is, de Hertog Jan Brouwerij bezoeken (voor een kleine 13 euro krijg je er een geschenk en een glas pils bovenop) en in 2006 werd – verwijzend naar de oorspronkelijke oprichters van de brouwerij – een zogenaamde Vriendenkring gestart. Deze telt intussen ruim 200 cafés-leden, die zich volgens de brouwerij onderscheiden door de “kwaliteit van gastheerschap, service, ambiance en bierbehandeling”.

Eerlijk, we hebben toen we de grens overtrokken op zoek naar bier wel op een terrasje gezeten, maar niét dat van het lokale Vriendenkring-lid. Niet omdat we dat niet wilden, maar omdat we het niet wisten (op het schildje dat een café als dusdanig aanduidt, hebben we niet gelet) en omdat álle terrassen behalve dat ene volzet waren. Op dat ene terras werd niet één noord-Nederlands bier geschonken en de conversatie aan het tafeltje naast ons was om “er de muren van op te lopen”. Volgende keer dus toch maar eens een bezoekje brengen aan de Rentree …

Björn Roose

Translations (to English) - Habbakuk or Haunebu ?

By now our readers know that in The Maier-Files – Book 1 – The Initiation flying saucers (haunebus) appear (for those who didn’t: you can buy the comic here). And the “Wunderwaffen” indeed are an essential part of the story, just as they are an essential part of lots of “conspiracy theories” concerning the escape routes of national-socialists after the Second World War. But not only national-socialists were working on so called wonder weapons. The Brits, amongst others, had some strange plans of their own. One of them was worked on in Project Habbakuk.

The idea was one of a certain Geoffrey Pike, who worked for the British Combined Operations Headquarters and was considered a genius by Lord Mountbatten, leader of that organization. Goal was – the U-boat war was still very active – solving the problem of invasions from the sea or Atlantic convoys that couldn’t be covered by airplanes. Steel and aluminum were scarce and needed for other goals. Ice however could be manufactured with about one percent of the energy needed for producing the same amount of steel and so ice became the solution for Pyke. His “bergship” (“berg” is derived from “iceberg”, which is originally derived from the Dutch word “ijsberg”) would consist of a, natural or artificial, ice mass flatted on top and hollowed to serve as an aircraft-carrier.

Mountbatten liked the idea and passed it on to Churchill, who liked it too. At the start of 1942 Pyke brought in a specialist to decide on whether an icefloat big enough and strong enough to endure circumstances in the Atlantic could be build in a reasonable span of time. The specialist said he’d better forget about a natural iceberg, because those have not enough surface above water to build an airstrip on it and tend to roll over rather suddenly. The project would have been dismissed if “pykrete” wasn’t invented by then, a mixture of 86 percent water and 14 percent sawdust much stronger than regular ice, melting much slower and unsinkable.

We spare you the technical details, but it was decided that a scale model would be build in Jasper National Park in Canada. It measured 18 meters by 9 meters, weighed a 1000 tons and was kept frozen by a one horsepower motor. The Canadians were sure they could build the first real “bergship” by 1944 and they had the necessary material to do so. But soon problems emerged that would multiply the costs by five times what was estimated first and the Canadians decided it wouldn’t be practical to build the ship “in the coming season”. Conclusion: no Habbakuk ship would be ready by the end of 1944. And meanwhile Pyke, who the Americans disliked, was taken of the project.

Of the three alternative concepts, Habbakuk I till III, the Habbakuk II came closest to the original model, but the engineers still working on the project couldn’t tell for sure that it would be practical until they would have build a bigger model in Canada. That never happened: the project lost priority by the end of 1943. Lord Mountbatten judged that the steel (which was necessary for the plant where the “pykrete” would be made) could be used better for other things, the Portuguese granted permission to use airfields on the Azores to hunt for U-boats, British airplanes were equipped with long distance fuel tanks, and the number of escorting ships rose sharply. Mountbatten retreating from the project says enough.

So the project went down in silence. A project which, for number of reasons, wouldn’t have been possible without … German help.

Pyke namely was not the real inventor of the “bergship”, that was a German scientist, Dr. Arthur Gerke (von Waldenburg), who had been experimenting with it on Lake Zürich back in 1930, a fact on which an English scientific magazine reported in 1932.

The specialist Pyke brought in to decide on whether it could be done with a natural iceberg (and that would continue working on the project) also had something to do with Germany: Max Perutz. He was born in Vienna (Austria), finished his studies there at the university, but had to run when Hitler took over power in 1938. Perutz namely was, though being baptized as a catholic, from Jewish decent. In the beginning of 1939 he moved from Switzerland to England, but was deported along with other people of German or Austrian nationality on command of Churchill to Newfoundland. Only after a number of months of “internment” he was allowed to return to England.

And then there was the inventor of the “pykrete”: Herman Mark. He was an officer in the Austrian-Hungarian army during the First World War, became a hero on the Italian front, went to work for IG Farben in 1926, was advised by his boss to return to Vienna in the 1930s (he was a son of a, though converted to Christianity, Jew), worked on the university there (where Max Perutz was one of his students), was arrested and locked in a gestapo prison when the Nazis came to power, but could escape to Switzerland with some luck and bravery. And with a swastika flag on the radiator of his car …

Björn Roose

Translations (to English) - Election of the best belgian comic

In the context of the “Boekenbeurs” (for non-Flemish: the biggest book event in Flanders) Boek.be organizes this year also an election of the best Belgian comic book. That is: a jury of “comic experts” has come up with a shortlist, five wildcards have been added to it, and now the public can choose from that list.

On the shortlist are these books (unless the titles have been translated in English, we’ll give them in Dutch): “The yellow ‘M’” by Edgar P. Jacobs, “De inwijding” by Comès, “Brüsel” by Benoit Peeters and François Schuiten, “Album 26” by Merho, “De liefhebbers” by Brecht Evens, “The black Smurfs” by Peyo, “Grand Prix” by Marvano, “Het zotte geweld” by Joris Vermassen, “The heirs” by Hermann, “De koningin van Onderland” by Jef Nys, “The Castafiore Emerald” by Hergé, “The Daltons’ escape” by Morris and Goscinny, “De hoed van Geeraard de Duivel” by Marc Sleen, “QRN op Bretzelburg” by Franquin and Greg, “De zwarte madam” by Willy Vandersteen, “The archers” by Rosinski and Van Hamme, “When David lost his voice” by Judith Vanistendael, Peter Verwey and Christel Geelen, “The day of the black sun” by Vance and Van Hamme, “Zoo, deel 3” by Frank and Bonifay, “Zwartkijken” by Franquin (again), “De ‘U’-straal” by Edgar P. Jacobs (again), “Frommeltje en Viola – Integraal” by Hislaire, “Avontuur in San Doremi” by Pom, “Rumberley” by Lambil and Cauvin, and “Chninkel”by Rosinski (again)

Admitted, we don’t know a few of these books, but that’s not one of the reasons why we can’t make a choice from this shortlist. Amongst those reasons there’s the fact that standalone graphic novels are compared to one book in a series, that some artists get a clear advance to others, that the best work of some artists often is not even in the list, and that other – far from unknown – artists with to our opinion great work are not in that list.

Even apart from the fact that we get the impression that in composing the shortlist the jury apparently chose for a more or less balanced mix of “classical” authors and new ones, mass produced series and rather “artistic” productions, new books and old ones, we thus object to choosing, for example, “Brüsel” from the “Obscure cities”-series (the art of Schuiten and Peeters is always of a very high level and we see no reason to prefer “Brüsel” above, for example, “De Archivaris), “The heirs” from the “Jeremiah”-series (not only because Hermanns work gets better and better, but also because, for example “De bloedbruiloft”, one of his one-shots, is not in the list), or “QRN op Bretzelburg”, because apart from Franquin many other artist have done fantastic work on the “Spirou and Fantasio”-series.

We would have liked an election of the best Belgian comic artist better, but we still would have missed people like François Craenhals (De Koene ridder”, “Pom en Teddy”), Paul Cuvelier (“Corentin”, “Epoxy”), Renaud Denauw (“Jessica Blandy”, “Venus H.”), Dupa (“Dommel”), Serge Ernst (“Knipoogje”, “William Hazehart”), Jean-Claude Fournier (“Spirou and Fantasio”), Tome and Janry (again “Spirou and Fantasio”), Jean-Claude Servais (“Bosliefje”), Franz Drappier (“Lester Cockney”, “Lotusbloem”), Philippe Francq (“Largo Winch”), Yves Swolfs (“Durango”, “De prins van de nacht”, “Legende”), Ptiluc (“Pacush Blues”), Philippe Delaby (“Murena”, “De klaagzang der verloren gewesten”), Griffo (“Vlad”), Gazzotti (“Soda”), Bernard Vrancken (“I.R.$.”), Olivier Grenson (“Niklos Koda”), and Sokal (“Canardo”) in the shortlist.

No, there’s too much work and too much people missing in the shortlist to be able to make an honest choice. That’s why we add one possibility: Book 1 of The Maier-Files (to appear very, very soon): “The Initiation”. Who wants a taste of it already can read the free prequel to The Maier-Files here.

Björn Roose

Translations (to English) - Studio 100 declares comics dead

This morning at breakfast we took a look at Rekto:verso, a Flemish “magazine for culture & critics”, and read: “I think Jommeke [a very well known comics series in Flanders and the Netherlands, but rarely translated in other languages] is a succeeded cultural product for children. More than fifty million books in Flemish households! Of course the medium, the comic, is now completely outmoded, but children still find it interesting.”

Apart from the fact that the author of the quote is apparently judging something as a “succeeded cultural product” only because it’s a gigantic commercial success (and fifty million books of a comic series in Flanders is indeed gigantic), he thinks that comics, the “cultural products” that we at The Maier-Files are working on, are out of date. Antiquated, passed on, over, dead.

The author of the quote doesn’t explain why he thinks so, but we did find it somewhat amazing. Not only because personally we have other experiences, but also because the business world itself, of which the author of the quote is part, contradicts that. While Flemish sales of books in general dropped strongly in the second half of 2013, sales of comics in the same period of time arose with 10 percent.

But maybe there were not enough products of the company which the author of the quote represents as CEO in the top twenty of comics sales ? The author namely is Hans Bourlon and he is the big chief of … Studio 100, a company which is almost solely responsible for all TV programs for children in Flanders [it’s best known in the English speaking world for House of Anubis]. TV programs which have spin-offs in the form of, indeed, comics about Kabouter Plop, Piet Piraat, Samson en Gert, and Big en Betsy.

Anyway, what we read further in the same interview, put us at ease: Hans Bourlon seems to be talking nonsense frequently. Amongst other things he namely also said this: “Now we have at Flying Bark, our Australian cartoon studio, a series in the making about a koala, Blinky Bill, but a koala only lives in a number of European zoos and Australia. Compared to that Maya the Bee [which Studio 100 is also working on] has a gigantic advantage: there are bees all over the world, and nowhere with a religious connotation, which is rather exceptional for an animal.”

“Nowhere with a religious connotation”, mister Bourlon ? Already the Minoan goddess Potnia was said to be “the pure mother bee”, her priestesses were called “Melissa” (or “bee”), as were the priestesses of Artemis and Demeter and the oracles of Delphi. According to the San, a people living in the Kalahari desert, a bee was responsible for the birth of the first man, in Egyptian mythology bees were born from the tears of the god Ra, in Hinduism the cord of Kamadeva’s bow is composed of honey bees, and according to the Ugandan Baganda people Nambi disguised as a bee helped the first man Kintu. The ancient Greeks considered Aristaeus to be the god of the bees, the quran has a surah about bees, in the Jewish Midrash the Jewish people is compared to bees, and the fact that bees and the beehive are common symbols in Catholicism is generally known.

We’re not very religious ourselves, but we would dare suggesting to Hans Bourlon – in case he is – to contact Our Lady of the Bees and ask her for guidance …

Björn Roose

Translations (to English) - Why we don’t have a problem with conspiracy theories

You will have noticed by now that we at The Maier-Files regularly pay attention to so called “conspiracy theories”. And if you have read the prequel to our series, you will have seen that a conspiracy theory (one ?) plays a major role there (by the way: that’s even more so starting from Book 1, which by now is finished, but not yet published). So you could ask yourself: are these guys crazy ?

The answer to that question is “no”, on the contrary, scientific studies even show that we’re very sane. More sane than the people who take for granted official versions on controversial and disputed “facts”.

The most recent of those scientific studies was published in July 2013 – our apologies for the delay, but we only saw the news on the internet yesterday – by the psychologists Michael J. Wood and Karen M. Douglas of Kent University (UK). It’s entitled “What about Building 7?' A Social Psychological Study of Online Discussion of 9/11 Conspiracy Theories" and compares "conspiracist" and “anti-conspiracist” comments on news websites.

Apart from the fact that the researchers soon came to the conclusion that “conspiracy” comments were more mainstream than others (about 2 to 1), they also saw that people accepting the official story on 9/11 were generally more hostile. A phenomenon which could originate from frustration over the fact that their viewpoints thought to be mainstream were no longer considered as such by a majority.

Moreover, the researchers claim, those who fight the “conspiracy theories” are not just hostile but also fanatically wedded to their own conspiracy theorie, in the present case “one which says 19 Muslims, none of whom could fly commercial airliners with any proficiency, pulled off an amazing surprise attack under the direction of a man on dialysis (Osama bin Laden) who was living in a cave somewhere in Afghanistan”.

So, in other words, the negative stereotype generally attached to the “conspiracy theorists” doesn’t describe them but rather their opponents: a hostile fanatic holding on to his own fringe theory. Furthermore conspiracy believers look at things in a historical context – the bigger picture – more than their opponents.

Finally: “conspiracy theorists” apparently don’t like to be labeled as such. Something which Lance deHaven-Smith, in his last year published book “Conspiracy Theory in America”, explains as such: "The CIA's campaign to popularize the term 'conspiracy theory' and make conspiracy belief a target of ridicule and hostility must be credited, unfortunately, with being one of the most successful propaganda initiatives of all time".

We at The Maier-Files do not have a problem with the denomination “conspiracy theorists”. We consider it, as do many others, a badge of honor.

Björn Roose

Translations (to English) - The Hessdalen lights

Last week we accidentally stumbled upon – that’s how it works at StumbleUpon, isn’t it ? – a picture of the so called Hessdalen lights. An interesting phenomenon in the UFO category (it are, until now, non identified flying objects), be it by the sole fact that “real” scientists don’t just dismiss it as imaginary.

The phenomenon is basically all about strange lights being seen since the 1940s (possibly even earlier) in the Norwegian Hessdalen valley. The activity became that frequent in the first half of the 1980s – lights were seen up to 20 times a week – that finally serious scientific research took off, leading to the installation of the automated research station Hessdalen AMS in 1998 and the start of the EMBLA-program, a cooperation between Ostfold University College and the Italian Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche.

The lights usually are bright, white or yellow, of unknown origin and standing on or floating above ground level, but that’s about the only thing being certain for now. Because of the overwhelming presence of ore in the valley – the supplies would be much bigger than what was originally in the ground at the nearby Roros, which was the stage for fierce battles at the beginning of WW II – the lights are however often connected to minerals.

That’s also what the newest theory is doing. Scientists now are convinced that the lights are being formed by some natural, underground “battery” created by metallic minerals in reaction with the sulphurous river Hesja flowing through the area. On one side of the river there seem to be rocks containing zinc and iron, at the other side rocks containing copper, and between those two, via the sulphuric water of the river, there would emerge an electrical flow. From that process bubbles of ionized gas would emerge when the sulphurous fumes from the river Hesja react with the humid air of the valley. The fact that geology also forms electromagnetic lines in the valley would account for the orbs moving around (in some cases they just float, in other cases they reach speeds of up to 8 kilometres per second).

The orbs by the way make no sound, seem cool and leave no scorch marks on the ground, but they do on contact kill the soil microbes. Some experts thus judge that the lights are some kind of plasma (that can be cool too and kill soil microbes, but requires high temperatures and much energy to be produced), while others think that they are (despite the fact that they don’t leave scorch marks) some kind of ball lightning, because similar phenomena in China have been seen, though analysis of the Hessdalen lights show that they contain – and that metal is only to be found in Scandinavia – scandium too. Number of scientists meanwhile is convinced that in the solution of the riddle there might be a new manner of storing energy, something which is necessary to contain plasma in the presumed way.

We at The Maier-Files have no problem with that possibility, howeer this “solution” doesn’t explain why the phenomenon is much more active in one period than in another, nor does it provide us with an answer to the fact that in the valley on several occasions large pieces of grass – with weights up to 2000 kilo – were cut out in a perfect rectangular form and moved over several meters without any damage, meanwhile clearing the rocks under it, a phenomenon associated to the lights by the inhabitants of the valley.

Nah, in The Maier-Files we have strange lights appearing too. And, no, we’re not going to explain them right away. Buy Book 1 – The Initiation when it’s published and you’ll get to know something more about it. For now you can of course already read our free prequel.

Björn Roose

Translations (to English) - Frau Holle and … The Maier-Files

Though we consider ourselves as not totally unacquainted with Germanic mythology, we happily recognize that other people know more about it. So it was with great interest we read an article on customs associated with autumn and/or harvest by a young man named Nick Krekelbergh in a Dutch language magazine called TeKoS yesterday. And our interest was rewarded: we learned more about Frau Holle (aka Frau Holda).

Okay … but who is this Frau Holle anyway ? Well, we’ve got two options here: tell you all about it and bore those acquainted with Germanic mythology to death or provide you with a summary, meanwhile hoping to make it interesting enough to get you to look up further information and not chasing the already informed away. Since we’re trying to get you to read our free prequel too, we’ll be going for option two.

Frau Holle is best known as protector of agriculture and women’s crafts, though Jacob Grimm (one of the Brothers, indeed, but also a philologist and mythologist) connected her with the Germanic goddess Hludana or Holda. Other connections are those to Hlóðyn, mother of the Old Norse Thor, Nerthus, another Germanic goddess who like Frau Holle rides a wagon, and Frigg, Odin’s wife and highest goddess of the Aesir (who in turn may be the same as Freyja, highest goddess of the Vanir). Known alternate names for her are Frau Guaden (or Wodan, also known as Odin) and Frau Frekke (see the resemblance with Frigg and Freyja), while she is also claimed to be mistress of the Wild Hunt (those familiar with the origins of Sinterklaas, from which is derived Santa Claus, will know that Odin seated on his horse Sleipnir is more frequently claimed to be so).

So much for Frau Holle’s name. But what did she do again ? Well, she was the protector of women’s crafts, in particular spinning (weaving), an activity strongly connected to magic and the other world (remember the Cathars), just like Frigg. Spinning and Christmas Eve or Twelfth Night are still associated in parts of Germany where festivals for Holda are observed. Frau Holle was also closely associated with the wilderness, wild animals, remote places and the weather. Holda shaking her feather pillows made it snow, fog was smoke from her fire, thunder was heard when she reeled her flax. Holle is said to be the protector of children, whose souls enter the world through a sacred pool she owns, but she also haunts lakes and fountains and is seen as a White Lady bathing in the water and disappearing, just like Nerthus. And we already told she is one of the supposed leaders of the Wild Hunt.

What we didn’t know, and learned from Krekelbergh’s article, is that in some parts of Germany Frau Holle was considered to be the Corn Mother (Grain Mother). When mowing the villagers would let some stalks stand, sometimes decorate them with flowers and call for Frau Holle (also Fru Gaue or Fru Gode) or just leave the stalks for her. From the corn mother to Holle’s last occupation is just a small step: though the Corn Mother was a positive appearance in pagan religion, catholic church gradually demonized her and Frau Holle became a witch. In old church documents she was identified with the goddess Diana, but starting at the beginning of the eleventh century she was even designated as matron of witches.

Though there’s much more to tell about the subject we’d like to finish this story. Frau Holle, a goddess claimed to be matron of witches and maybe being another denomination for Hludana or Holda, the Germanic goddess of death (also known as Hel), is namely … one of the main characters in The Maier-Files. She has a small part in the free prequel, but starts playing a major role in Book 1 – The Inauguration (to appear this month). Actually, in that book she’s mowing the enemies down.

Now, why would we name that character Frau Holle ? Well, because there’s a lot more to The Maier-Files than meets the eye at first glance. As we said before: it’s a story about secret services and covert wars, but it’s also about UFOs and … witches. Want to know more ? Read the prequel and buy Book 1. When will that be published ? Subscribe to our free newsletter, receive the prequel in high definition, and we’ll keep you posted.

Björn Roose

Translations (to English) - Blake & Mortimer and the Jenseitsflugmaschine

This morning for some reason – this strange memory of ours, isn’t it ? – we returned a number of years back in time. Not literally, we’re not that good, but in a manner of speaking: we namely saw pictures of a Blake and Mortimer-book. That book in which Mortimer travels through time … What was it again … Oh yeah, The time trap.

You remember that book ? Blake barely plays a part in it, but Mortimer is nicely tricked in professor Miloch’s play. Miloch, the brain behind the meteor shower in S.O.S. Meteors: Mortimer in Paris, has a nice little inheritance for Mortimer: a “time machine”. Sadly a sabotaged one, which almost kills Mortimer, but it is working.

Hmm, okay, not really original in the world of comics, of course, and that wasn’t the case either in 162 when the book was published. But we were thinking of exactly this “time machine” when, this morning, we read a piece about the so called Jenseitsflugmaschine (no good translation for this German word, but some call it “Interdimensional machine”)?

Only one picture of this Jenseitsflugmaschine (above) is known and that machine doesn’t look a lot like the one Miloch made (here), but apparently they both do exactly the same: make it possible for the pilot to travel through time …

December 1919: Karl Haushofer, head of the Thule Gesellschaft (Thule Society), has invited a handful of highly esteemed occultists to a cabin in the Alps near Berchtesgaden and introduces them to two beautiful women. One seems rather shy, is only 18 years old and is called Sigrun. The other one goes by the name of Maria Orsitsch and has, according to Haushofer, received a message from an extraterrestrial civilization. Both are, what is called, mediums.

Orsitsch has – using a technique called automatic writing - written the received message in two languages, being, again according to Haushofer, a secret Templar code and Sumerian. Haushofer has translated the texts already: they appear to contain the necessary instructions to build an anti-gravity engine. Viktor Schauberger, back then already a controversial scientist, had looked at the instructions and confirmed they had potential.

We’ll not digress on explanations on the origin of the instructions – Aldebaran -, but we will dwell on the fact that Orsitch and/or Haushofer claimed also that the machine had the possibility to alter time.

Knowing that Aldebaran is 65 light years away from us and the Jenseitsflugmaschine according to the instructions had to be used to transport “worthy” people over there, that claim fits the bill. And realizing that the Thule Gesellschaft was far from happy with the world created by the Industrial Revolution and would have done anything to finish that, that claim is exactly what made the story interesting for the group.

Just imagine them being able to return to a time in which “the Gods still walked the Earth”. We don’t have a clue when that was, but to which time does Mortimer initially return with professor Miloch’s Jenseitsflugmaschine – called a diachronator in the book ? Exactly, to a time passed by 150.000.000 years ago. He doesn’t meet Gods there, but has a close encounter with a number of dinosaurs that walked the Earth back then. The men and women gathered that evening at Haushofer’s cabin sure would have been astonished …

However, flying saucers play a certain role in Book 1 of The Maier-Files, but there’s nog Jenseitsflugmaschine there. Neither is in the free prequel on our website by the way, but it is worth reading it.

Björn Roose

Translations (to English) - TR-3B and the Belgian UFO-wave

Strange how little things can remind us of things that happened a very long time ago. For example the two sentences Dorn read this morning in the book “Dark Star” by Henry Stevens (very interesting, by the way, though a little too technical):

“If this were the technology the Reagan Administration had received, it would account, temporally, for the appearance of flying triangles in Belgium only a couple years after ‘payment’ had taken place. Likewise, beyond Belgium this new shape seemed to be the predominant UFO shape from that time to the present.

We told you already that we’re not “believers” concerning UFOs and were in view of the time period (ending of the 1980s – beginning of the 1990s) and the triangular shape of the objects immediately thinking of the Lockheed Martin F-117 Nighthawk. That first stealth-bomber was produced from 1982 till 1992 and was gradually retired and stored to be, if need be, used again when the American Senate judges that necessary, from 2008 on (The first Northrop B-2 Spirit, another stealth plane that was more or less triangular, was only delivered at Whiteman AFB Missouri in 1993 and didn’t get operational before 1997.).

So Dorn dived into the internet sources, but suddenly also remembered what he had seen on an April night in 1990: an F-117 Nighthawk hovering silently above the plains around Diksmuide (West-Flanders, Belgium). And that … proved impossible.

Dorn remembered it this way: “I used to be a long distance walker, just like my father, and somewhere in April on a Friday night we started a 100 kilometer walk in the Koekelare (near Diksmuide) region. I don’t remember what was the exact hour, but at a certain moment we, my father and I, noticed, to the left of us, above the Diksmuide plains, a rather big triangular shape with yellow white lights in the corners and a red light in the middle of those. We were joking that it was a UFO since the thing was hovering and making absolutely no noise, but concluded it had to be a ‘stealth’ ) – we heard about those before -, even when it literally disappeared in a blink”.

For over 24 years Dorn didn’t think about the incident anymore. When however he started looking for the properties of the F-117, he discovered that hovering is none of them (the F-117 became unstable at low speeds), neither is disappearing from that state in just a second, left alone doing that without any noise (hovering nor flying). There’s more: googling for the words “F-117” and “Belgium” immediately resulted in … a story about a Belgian UFO-wave.

That UFO-wave started in November 1989 and ended in April 1990, the sighted UFOs commonly are called “black triangle”, but in circles of conspiracy theorists it’s named TR-3B. We know little about technology, so we won’t waste your time on explaining things we don’t understand ourselves, but “experts” claim that it’s part of an American secret project, a product of the so called Aurora-project.

We don’t know anything about that project either, but we do know that the sightings between November 1989 and April 1990 were more than standard. On November 29 already amongst the people who saw the UFOs were three police teams and everybody saw exactly the same: a large object, flying on low altitude, silent, triangular, with lights underneath. In the night of 30/31 March 1990 the UFOs were even seen on the radar and subsequently chased by two Belgian Air Force F-16s. The Glons Control Reporting Center around 23:00 received reports of a bizarre constellation of lights and asked the Waver gendarmerie (some kind of military police) to go out and confirm the reports. At 23:30 it actually did and Glons CRC got the UFOs on its radar. Air Traffic Control centre in Semmerzake (East-Flanders) confirmed the radar sighting, after which Glons CRC shortly before midnight ordered two F-16s to scramble from Beauvechain Air Base.

Over the next hour the two F-16s attempted nine interceptions of the targets and managed to obtain a radar lock on the targets on three occasions, but each time the UFOs changed positions so fast that the lock was broken. During the first radar lock the target accelerated from 240 km/h to over 1770 km/h while changing altitude from 2700 m to 1500 m, then up to 3350 m before descending to almost ground level, the first descent taking less than 2 seconds. Similar maneuvers were repeated during the next radar locks. The F-16 pilots were never able to make visual contact with the targets, there was never a sonic boom, and the sighted changes in speed would apparently have killed human pilots.

Back then nobody had a cell phone, left alone a smartphone and cameras fit for night recording were not wide spread either. The one picture taken in April 1990 proved to be a hoax. This was exactly what all the sightings were, said the professional sceptics later on: mass hysteria caused by what the media wrote, probably helicopters making “no sound” because the witnesses couldn’t hear it while there car engine was running or because of strong winds.

Well, Pat regrettably has never seen a UFO, but Dorn has. At his parents, where he lived back then, only one weekly, local paper arrived and that had never published anything about UFO sightings, he and his father were not in a car when they saw the UFO (they were walking) and that night on the plains there was almost no wind at all. That Dorn was no victim of mass hysteria is moreover proven by the fact that he realized only today that he saw a UFO then …

By the way: that was the only UFO Dorn ever saw. If you want to see more of them, you can do that in Book 1 of The Maier-Files. If you don’t want to wait for that, you can already read the free prequel. No UFOs in that, but it is an exiting story.

Björn Roose

Translations (to English) - Are the Rockefellers REALLY going philantropic ?

Whoever knows anything about the Rockefeller family history will without any doubt, and without having to think about it, answer the question above with a “no”. There namely is a difference between naïve and crazy: the Rockefellers are neither, and we surely ain’t crazy. But let us explain what we’re talking about.

The Rockefeller family, more specifically the Rockefeller Brothers Fund, announced yesterday that it turns its back to the oil sector and chooses for “renewable” energy. A bombshell at the eve of the climate conference in New York, knowing that the family has made its fortune thanks to the oil industry, and news that will certainly affect the financial world.

But what will happen concretely ? Well, the Rockefeller Brothers Fund announced that it would pull back 50 billion dollars of investments in the oil industry and invest the same amount in so called “renewable” energy, thus joining the Global Divest-Invest initiative which arose a few years back at American universities.

Undoubtedly good news for the environmentalists, but it doesn’t answer the question whether the Rockefellers really do this for philanthropic reasons. Honestly: the fact that American pension funds, religious groups and big universities have doubled their pledges in Global Divest-Invest since the start of this year proves that either there’s big money there or the stakeholders, members and sponsors of the pension funds, religious groups and big university see no problem in throwing their money away. We put our money on the first possibility.

We dare adding that the Rockefeller statements on their conversion to “renewable” energy sound rather ambiguous: “We are quite convinced that if he [John D. Rockefeller, father of the Rockefeller empire] were alive today, as an astute businessman looking out to the future, he would be moving out of fossil fuels and investing in clean, renewable energy”. We learn from that, in apparent contradiction to the media, especially that the Rockefellers see their decision as one that would be made by an astute businessman. And an astute businessman just goes where the money is.

“Where the money is”, that is these days, or at least in the very near future, no longer in the oil industry, but in the sector of “renewable” energy. To us that’s the reason why the Rockefellers turned “philanthropic” now and not, for example, twenty years ago when the pollution by the oil industry was already more than accurately proven and everybody had come to the conclusion that the oil reserves were not endless. As Ellen Dorsey wrote in The Huffington Post in January divesting from fossil fuels need not adversely affect portfolio risk or performance. Analyses made by, amongst others, Impax, Aperio Group, and Boston Common Asset Management, show not only there’s essentially zero risk in being out of the top 200 fossil fuel companies, but also that to the contrary staying in fossil fuels may present the greater risk, given the existence of the Carbon Bubble and the valuation of fossil energy stock based on stranded fuel reserves.

That the Rockefellers are aware of this problem, is by the way also proven by the fact that the Rockefeller Brothers Fund was one of the sponsors of research on … the Carbon Bubble. So we think that the Rockefellers just go where the money is and that more giants from the oil industry will take the same decision soon. Just like some of the characters in the free prequel to The Maier-Files would ...

Björn Roose

Translations (to English) - “Our publicity budget consists of blood, sweat and tears“

This weekend an interview - our first ! - with the authors of The Maier-Files was published on the website of Stripelmagazine. Since the interview is published in Dutch we translated it into English for our readers. Here it is:

Striking new initiative: The Maier-Files, first comic book of the debuting duo Pat & Dorn. They have a go at it without a publisher but with a complete website, provided with a webshop, a crowdfunding possibility and an option to read the prequel to the series for free. By the way, you can understand “debuting” literally.

Pat: “I come from the multimedia world and always worked there behind the screens. So I’m completely new to the world of comics.”

Dorn: “I met Pat for the first time some twenty years ago in a pub in Schaarbeek (Brussels). When I recently gained lots of spare time, he came along with a project on which he had been brooding for some years and got to the “active” phase in the first months of this year: The Maier-Files. Would you like cooperating on that ? Yes, indeed. That I have been collecting comic books for half my life and so have some reference material was a nice little extra.”

Pat: “I have been brooding on the project for a few years indeed, but the theme of the key story and the start of it – which you can read in the prequel – literally come from my childhood years. My grandfather was a great storyteller and we had lots of mysterious stuff in the attic. At least, that’s what I thought as a kid. And with each of those objects came a story. On some autumn day he dug up a box with a picture of a passing V1, a few one million Deutsche Mark notes, rationing coupons, his forced labor papers from Germany … Tangible pieces of history making his stories more lively and his world really graphic. In that way he created an early multimedia history, a history of which you became part yourself. And that is exactly what we want to do: a bigger, contentual, interactive whole. And an attic like that, a warehouse packed with mysterious objects, is also where our story starts.”

What’s the comic series about ?

Pat: “The best way to get an impression is actually to read the free prequel on the website. It provides an image of where we’re going, be it however that the first full book goes back to events seventy years before what happens in the prequel. I’d call it a magical-realistic story, a story of seemingly impossible friendships against a background of worldly schemes, secret societies and their agreements, conspiracies and hidden agendas in the past century.”

Dorn: “The story is very close to reality in many aspects and tries to bestow us a look behind the screens of known facts. ‘Trust no one’ is a good baseline for The Maier-Files, though the friendships Pat is talking about are what keeps our main characters going. They are put to the test, but we hope they’ll survive the intriguing.”

You’re approaching the project in a rather big manner, not only concerning the content but also the form, with your own website and a Dutch and English version.

Pat: “Well, ‘big’ is only a matter of perspective, isn’t it ? We actually couldn’t approach the project in a smaller way given the economic reality. We sincerely hope to get The Maier-Files launched without a settled published. The whole project depends on the two of us, our publicity budget is as good as non existant.”

Dorn: “Honestly spoken, it consists of blood, sweat and tears (laughing). But up till now it has been one of the most educational experiences of my life. Incredible what one learns when one does everything on his own.”

Pat: “And the choice for an edition in two languages is merely due to the fact that the English-speaking market is a lot bigger than the Dutch-speaking market. If we don’t just want to have fun with The Maier-Files, but keep on doing that for a while, we have to take that in account. We’re both working on this more than fulltime, so we can only hope the response on our first books will be enough to make it possible to go on.”

You’re self-publishing the comic. How are things going ?

Pat: “We have a printer, all technical issues are resolved and at this moment we’re reviewing the ‘draft’ of the first book. So, we want to and will publish Book 1 in October. And yes, we think there’s room on the comics market. We don’t intend to publish just another comic …”

Dorn: “Precisely. You have to tell a story which is worth reading, different from the others. And I think The Maier-Files is exactly that. It’s a fascinating story packed with colorful characters, exciting though little known history and discoveries … No, I’m sure there’s enough place on the market for a comic like this one.”

Pat: “Furthermore we want to do more than publish this comic series. You could compare the comic to the stories my grandfather told, but there’s also the objects in the box on the attic. We want to create a full experience for our readers. With the technical possibilities of today that can be done. We want to create a world of which the readers can be part too.”

Dorn: “Remember he said we were not actually approaching the project in a big manner ? (laughing) First of all we want to offer a good comic series, maybe immediately adding some possibilities for the readers who want to go deeper in our world, and then, when reactions turn out to be positive and with sales showing so, take the following steps. But that will be after we’ve published Book 1.”

Pat: “Exactly. Book 1, working title The Inauguration, will be decisive for the future of The Maier-Files.”

Your enthusiasm certainly is no problem, gentlemen. Good luck !

(Translated by Björn Roose)

Translations (to English) - Obama (USA) – Assad (Syria) – From friends to foes and back

We probably don’t have to introduce Syria anymore. Since the start of the “civil war” over there almost everybody in the world knows the country at least by hearsay. But we do want to return for a second to the start of that “civil war”, somewhere in March 2011. At that time political islamists, Salafists and other radical Sunnis joined forces to throw over president Bashar al-Assad. Just another variation to the “Arabic Spring”-theme, with the small difference that the “free West” interfered very soon and openly allied with the “rebels”, though everybody could clearly see that these “rebels” were a motley crew and in general shared the ideology which was also popular amongst Taliban, al-Qaeda, and other “friends” of that “free West”.

Still, that “free West” got frightened when an important part of the “rebels” seemed to follow another agenda than throwing over the government of Assad. ISIS (ISIL), nowadays IS, namely was, as was the case with the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt, mostly interested in setting up a religious dictatorship, not in installing a democracy. After Assad unequivocally won the Syrian presidential elections on June 3 of this year, ISIS started the serious work: settling its own Islamic state on the territory of especially Syria and Iraq. An idea which can’t have come as a surprise for those who, directly or indirectly, provided these “rebels” with money or weapons (in first instance the “free West”), since ISIS was already established in 2003 as a union of al-Qaeda linked organizations aiming “to protect Sunni Iraqis and to defend Islam”. It was only in 2011 that the organization expanded its field of activity to Syria and changed its name from “Islamic State in Iraq” to “Islamic State in Iraq and Syria” (or “Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant”).

That the “rebels” of ISIS (in June renamed to IS, Islamic State) only entered Iraq once they had become big in Syria is thus complete nonsense. ISIS arose in Iraq, more specifically in the Iraq occupied by the troops of the Stabilization Force Iraq under control of the United States. So when Obama or his State Secretary John Kerry now tell us that they will attack Syria to get IS with the excuse that “we are going to do what they [the Syrian government] haven’t done”, that is a blatant lie, unless they mean: attacking the (umpteenth) enemy which we have created and armed ourselves.

But there’s more: the US government really is looking for a “legitimate” reason to enter Syria (see this again) and Syria has put forward that that would mean a violation of international rule of law and the UN manifest (which prohibits a violation of the territorial integrity of a UN member state without that country’s permission or without the permission of the UN Security Council, which won’t be obtained since Russia isn’t in agreement with it and Russia has veto power in that UN Security Council), but meanwhile Assad and Obama seem to be cooperating behind the screens.

Behind the screens, indeed, and via a third party (full article here). That third party would obtain intelligence information from the Americans on the movements of IS convoys, meetings, armories and so on and pass that information to the Syrian government, which can use it to attack IS in Syria. The third party remains unknown, but possible candidates are Iraqi intelligence services, Russian or German intermediates or a common headquarters put up in the Kurdish-Iraqi city Erbil. Other sources claim the information is indeed passed to the Syrian government by the Iraqi government and that there was a meeting yesterday between Faleh al-Fayad, the Iraqi national security adviser, and Assad.

That the legitimate governments in Iraq and Syria would be talking to each other would be no more than logic: with IS they clearly have a common enemy which is better handled concerted.

That the US government meanwhile denies talking to the Syrian government on whatever level is explained quite simply by on the one hand the fact that it’s psychologically difficult to claim that the one depicted as the enemy yesterday is now a friend and on the other hand the fact that the IS “rebels” probably are partly sponsored by Saudi Arabia and Qatar (that first country still an ally of the US, that second since 2003 – after moving out of Saudi Arabia – harboring a US military base).

That US troops could enter Syria without meeting real opposition from Syrian government forces is no more than logic – IS is at the Iraqi side of Syria, a side not controlled by the Syrian government – and would actually help the Syrian government in fighting the “rebels”. Those “rebels” would then be attacked from two sides, which would be a pleasant change for the government in Damascus.

Some claim that an invasion by US troops could be ment to capture Damascus between the “rebels” gathered near the Israeli border and the “rebels” and US troops coming from Iraq. We however deem that unlikely since the people coming up with that theory seem to think also that Israel would openly engage itself in the war and forget that the US government will not get international support for effectuating itself a regime change in Damascus.

And then of course there’s the Syrian government: it sees no objection in the possibility that its inland enemies would no longer be supported by the US (though for instance John McCain is still pleading for that), but it tries to make the unofficial cooperation between the US government and the Syrian government official in order not to get shot in the back afterward.

Interesting games being played in Syria … Almost as interesting as the games being played between the rival groups in the free prequel to The Maier-Files :-)

Björn Roose