Strebelle ceremony: finally some of the pictures!

Posted on by Gilbert Van Kerckhove

See here the gallery where you will find from the Chinese side, among others:
– Beijing’s vice mayor Mr. Chen Gang
– Beijing Municipal Urban Planning Commission, director Ms. Huang Yan
– Chaoyang District vice mayor Mr. Dai Jilou
– Beijing Foreign Affairs Office, vice director Mr. Liu Yang
And from the Belgian side:
– Belgian foreign minister Karel De Gucht
– Belgian ambassador Bernard Pierre and Mrs. Karin Pierre
– Olivier Strebelle, the artist
– François Narmon, president of the asbl Strebelle in Beijing
– Jean-Luc Dehaene, former Belgian prime minister and board member of the asbl
– Alain Rens and his wife, board member of the asbl
and of course Sun Bin and myself.

[Show slideshow]
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During the ceremony the focal point stone and the wall stone were represented by life-sized pictures. The stones, the biggest one being 27 ton, will be put into place after the Olympics. Visitors will climb a small hill to reach the focal point stone; there will be a sign on the top of the stone where to put the camera to have the exact focal spot.
The area around the statues will be remodeled so the ground level will be increased to hide the foundations and to make a garden with pathways so visitors can stroll around the statues.
The wall stone will have all names carved as seen on the picture.
Our company name: Beijing Global Strategy Consulting Co., Ltd.

Strebelle in Beijing: how the ceremony went

Posted on by Gilbert Van Kerckhove

Before I update my blog software (and mess it all up again), just a few words: the ceremony on 23 May finally went well. Apparently the people over there in Brussels decided to put our names back on their website. They also did include our company in the flyers and in the proper location on the “wall” that will carry the names of the sponsoring companies and the main actors. Not that all was perfect but Olivier Strebelle did put a personal touch in his speech, mentioning our love & fight relation over the past four years. And Karel De Gucht turned out to be pleasant, friendly and handled the Chinese quite well.
Pictures are ready to post – if the new software will allow. So, patience.

Strebelle in Beijing: the real story

Posted on by Gilbert Van Kerckhove

Today 23 May 2008 the “Athletes Alley”, the huge sculpture of Olivier Strebelle in the Olympic Forest Park will be officially unveiled by the Belgian Foreign Minister Karel De Gucht.
The whole event is being followed by a large contingent of Belgian journalists. Seems they are being fed strange stories by the “ASBL Strebelle in Beijing”. Seems some people in Brussels suffer from memory loss.
Indeed, the new story is that Strebelle was awarded the sculpture “by winning two tenders”. Hmmm. Cool. Problem is, he didn’t. He joined the first tender years ago and results were never announced.
Later in 2006 another tender was launched to select “Olympic artwork”. We told Olivier Strebelle not to participate for many reasons and he never did. Hundreds and hundreds of sculptures were submitted and hundreds were shortlisted by a jury. No Strebelle. See a picture taken in Wangfujing Street in July 2006 when the shortlisted pieces were shown to the public. The scale models then traveled all over China, “to consult the public”. As for now, no decision on any choice was made public.
click to enlarge Sun Bin in Wangfujing Street, July 2006
So, what is the real story? Well, we lobbied and negotiated for four years with the Beijing officials. Substantial modifications were made to the original design till the Chinese art lovers felt happy. The City then officially agreed to accept the donation of the statue and officially appointed me as the representative as recognition of our hard work.
Oh well, some people probably did not like that and our names disappeared from their website and publications. Of course they kept us as far as possible from the journalists so they could dish up their own story without being disturbed.
The Strebelle project has been an interesting experience. It is already used in my seminars as an example of how to do successful lobbying in China, without greasing the hands of officials to get a project approved.
For Strebelle’s sculpture, getting the approval from Beijing seemed mission impossible. The statue is the only foreign artwork approved in the huge Olympic Park while many other countries and artists tried so hard too.
And no tender. Just through the hard work of Sun Bin and myself.
The “ASBL” is even shooting a movie about it. Don’t count on seeing much of us in it.
Much more to follow on the real story but have a look at previous entries on Strebelle on this blog.
And let’s see what happens later today…

The Year of the Rat: bumpy start

Posted on by Gilbert Van Kerckhove

I write again. More to test the blog, yesterday I updated the Rotary one without problems but then this blog blew up in my face. Latest WordPress but all busted.
So I write this to see how it works. Bit difficult on a blue Sunday morning to see my router becoming a flickering Christmas tree and then all lights out. No Internet. Oh well, back to emergency mode, trying to rediscover codes and passwords, looking with a total ignorance at panels of the iMAC talking about PPPoE and other geek talk. Finally, back to the Internet. And to the dead blog. With a hangover of the biggest lesbian party I ever saw in Beijing, thinking actually still worked (so many cute girls, all off-limits, asking me if I knew where I was and if I was gay, etc. etc. and many Tsingtaos…). Decided to look inside the server, cleaned up the suspect files (google sitemap generator) that turned out to be the unexpected culprit. The joys followed of being able to get to the Dashboard, activating most plugins. That google stuff is like a bomb, just put it on the server and kaboom, all is gone. No clue why.
So, yes, I did not write. Man, too busy following the US primaries, definitely more fun than that Super Ball (or is it Bowl?) that seems as exciting as counting pebbles in a river. We miss that campaigning here, just imagine Who running from province to province and talking to real people with real media showing real news. Never mind the guys here are nearly as boring & kinda zealots as Republicans over there (the actually share many ideologies), but overall the debate is there. Also too busy trying to put order in my life (failed), my office files (failed), my thousands of useless business cards (did 5%), read my backlog of IHT (I am reaching October 2006, going backwards). Now, don’t get me even more depressed by asking how my Chinese lessons are doing, how my books are taking shape.
I am a “Golden Rat” according to Chinese mythology. As 100 different versions of interpretations result in 100 contradictory statements about my Rat Year, I keep the copy at heart that says I will get laid a lot. Other forecasts are systematically trashed though I deeply believe this year WILL be s***. The puzzling clouds of the Games are coming nearer. Maybe I should run away in time. But to miss this Halloween Party would be a pity (Yeah, we talk about this “party” later). But with all the not-so-good rumblings here I will need to look for worse places around the world so I can feel relieved to be in this harmonious society of Beijing.
So, I’ll stop here as i will soon drop on the keyboard, still in pajamas since yesterday (after that party, OK!). Good night.

Taking a break

Posted on by Gilbert Van Kerckhove

Yeah, no “New Year resolutions”.
Maybe one, just before that dreaded day of 31 (if you know me you’ll understand).
I am going to take a break from this blog. Is it the horrendous Beijing pollution (topping 500 these days), is it old age, is it nervous breakdown, is it demotivation, is it trying to stop my beloved cigars, etc. No comments, no pick.
This blog has become too big, too diverse. Bloated?
I have lots of stuff sitting ready to be edited, pics to be uploaded. They’ll remain there taking digital dust.
I do have some nice and interested readers (NOT those looking for the BIGGEST PENIS or for sexy massage Beijing).
I need desperately to clean up my computer files (doing it right now), sorting out my thousands of pictures, clean out my office of useless files and company introductions, clean up my head (tough). Wading through gigabytes of files I stumble on so much crap I had to deal with in the past years, a lot to do with the (dreaded) Olympics.
Any of you still interested in my views on Beijing, Chinese girls, pollution, etc.: I will take out more time for personal contacts. You know how to find me. Could be more fun.
Writing a book? Not yet convinced. Too much rubbish comes out every day, including intellectual waste about the importance of ying and yang, Confucianism, etc. People are even paid to blabber about it. They urgently need a visit to the Gongti Strip after 11 pm; the new Babyface is open.