With all sports halls closed due to Covid-19 restrictions, Yassin, Movsar, Wassim and Issa are carrying out their training sessions in a local park. The stage for their three minute bouts is an ‘open podium’ that had been set up during summer time.
Image 1 and 3: Yassin and Movsar sparring at Tour-andTaxis Park in Brussels - December 09, 2020.
Image 2 and 4: Yassin and Issa sparring at Tour-andTaxis Park in Brussels - December 09, 2020.
On August 20, 2020 Mehdi Bouda was remembered by his friends and family during a vigil at the Ravenstein Gallery. Exactly a year had passed since he was hit by a police patrol car at that very place and died.
A moment of silence was observed and Ayoub Bouda, Mehdi’s older brother, gave an emotional speech in which he reiterated his hope that the truth about the circumstances of his brother’s death will be brought to light by the judiciary .
The preliminary investigation into Mehdi’s death has established that the police car was not sounding its sirens which - in addition to flashing its lights - need to be in use for the vehicle to be considered a priority vehicle. It was moreover driving with a speed of 98 km/h.
Mehdi and his friends were allegedly on the run for a drug search by police on the nearby Mont Des Arts when he was hit by a police car on its way to an intervention elsewhere in the city. No drugs were found on his body.
The court has yet determined whether a bellowing siren or slower speed could have prevented Mehdi's death.
Ayoub Bouda, who is pictured in images 3,4, and 7, had this to say about the police in an interview with news site BRUZZ on 14 April 2020: “What hurts me most is how inhumane we were treated after the accident. No one has come to explain to us what happened or apologise for the accident. On the contrary, we had to hire a lawyer ourselves to gain access to the investigation.”
“…, the police waited 11 hours to notify us of my brother's death. At that time there were already articles appearing in the media about my brother’s death. Meanwhile, the officers behind the wheel are back to work, but we have never heard from either the police or the mayor again. It shouldn't have come this far.”
Above info is sourced from https://www.bruzz.be/samenleving/politiewagen-die-mehdi-17-dodelijk-aanreed-had-geen-sirene-op-2020-04-17
Newssite Bruzz also published this moving testimony of Ayoub Bouda, Mehdi’s brother,: https://www.bruzz.be/videoreeks/vrijdag-25-oktober-2019/video-broer-aangereden-mehdi-ik-wacht-nog-altijd-op-antwoorden
There is also a website https://justicepourmehdi.com
On 05 July 2020, 1.200 women demonstrated in Brussels for the right to wear the headscarf on the premises of higher education institutions such as colleges.
The protest was organised after a ruling of the Constitutional Court of Belgium decreed that a ban on wearing visible religious symbols (as is the headscarf) is not in violation of religious freedoms and the right to education. The court thus ruled in favour of a Brussels school that has such a regulation in place. In the meantime, some of the major colleges and universities in Belgium communicated that they have no intention to institute such a regulation.
In the early morning of 25 June 2020 a group of climate activists from Extinction Rebellion removed the word ‘Finance’ from the Finance Tower in Brussels. The tower was to be re-baptized ‘Resilience Tower’ during a demonstration on June 27.
The re-naming of the building was to be a symbolic gesture. According to the movement the building “houses key government competencies, such as immigration and health under the umbrella of 'Finance', which is symbolic of the priorities that clearly guide our politics. We want our governments to focus on building a more resilient society that will be better able to cope with future crises.”
Although protestors were allowed to demonstrate, they were prevented by police from actually attaching the letters to the tower. Subsequently, protesters were immediately stopped by police in riot gear when they tried to march to the office of the Prime Minister. Protestors were, after being hemmed in by police for more than an hour, presented with a choice to either leave and have their identity checked or be arrested. Seventy-five people were eventually arrested.
Image 3: Protestors hold up the ‘R’ of resilience during a demonstration in Brussels. Plain-clothes police officers are looking on in the background.
Image 4: Protestors were prevented by police officers from attaching the letters to the tower. Note on the depiction of a police officer: I doubted to post this photo, but as the police officer is on duty during an event of public interest, I think it is warranted that he is as such depicted (this in combination with the journalistic context of the depiction as described above).
Image 5: Members of the Extinction Rebellion movement are having a yoga session while police officers look on.
Image 6: protestors are subjected to an identity check before being able to leave.
Protestors were prevented by police officers from attaching the letters to the tower.
On 07 June 2020, 10.000 people gathered in a Black Lives Matter protest in Brussels, Belgium. In addition to the remembrance of George Floyd, the manifestation was centred around the testimonies of family and friends of victims of high-profile racism and police brutality cases in Belgium. The testimonies around the deaths of Mehdi Bouda and Lamine Bangoura (among others) were charged with a raw emotion that was palpable. There were also testimonies about racism against black people in the education system, the housing market and in sports.
The location of the protest - in front of the Palace of Justice on the Place Joseph Poelaert in Brussels - could not have been more symbolic. The megalomanic building - which is still in use today - was commissioned by Leopold II and was funded by the proceeds of the colonial enterprise.
Image 2: ‘Justice for Lamine’ - Lamine Moïse Bangoura died in 2018 after he was forcefully removed by police forces from his rent apartment.
Image 3: Mehdi Bouda died on August 20 2019 after he was hit by a police patrol car near the Ravenstein Gallery in central Brussels.
It is alleged that he and his friends were on the run for a drug search by police on the nearby Mont Des Arts when he was hit by a police car on its way to an intervention elsewhere in the city. No drugs were found on his body.
The preliminary investigation has established that the police car was not sounding its sirens - which, in addition to flashing lights, need to be in use for the vehicle to be considered a priority vehicle - and was driving with a speed of 98 km/h.
The court has yet determined whether a bellowing siren or slower speed could have prevented Mehdi's death.
Ayoub Bouda, the elder brother of Mehdi, had this to say about the police in an interview with news site BRUZZ on 14 April 2020: “What hurts me most is how inhumane we were treated after the accident. No one has come to explain to us what happened or apologise for the accident. On the contrary, we had to hire a lawyer ourselves to gain access to the investigation.”
“…, the police waited 11 hours to notify us of my brother's death. At that time there were already articles appearing in the media about my brother’s death. Meanwhile, the officers behind the wheel are back to work, but we have never heard from either the police or the mayor again. It shouldn't have come this far.”
Above info is sourced from https://www.bruzz.be/samenleving/politiewagen-die-mehdi-17-dodelijk-aanreed-had-geen-sirene-op-2020-04-17
Newssite Bruzz also published this moving testimony of Ayoub Bouda, Mehdi’s brother,: https://www.bruzz.be/videoreeks/vrijdag-25-oktober-2019/video-broer-aangereden-mehdi-ik-wacht-nog-altijd-op-antwoorden
There is also a website https://justicepourmehdi.com
Images 6 to 9: Protesters are posing in front of the Anglo-Belgian World War I monument in the aftermath of the Black Lives Matter protests in Brussels. The monument became a depository for the cardboard signs that had been carried during the protest.
Image 10 and 11: More than two hours after the manifestation had been officially disbanded, I photographed this lone protester who had staged his own silent protest. By then, unfortunately, in different parts of the city, plundering and violent clashes between police and small groups of protesters were taking place. Minus the mouth mask, I could, in my mind’s eye, picture the man in the 1980s, staging a silent protest somewhere in the DDR or Czechoslovakia.
Mehdi Bouda died on August 20 2019 after he was hit by a police patrol car near the Ravenstein Gallery in central Brussels.
Children playing hide & seek, Brussels.
The location in which these photos are taken seems remote, somewhere in the woods, faraway. In reality however, these are taken in Brussels Park, in the very centre of the city, near the Royal Palace.
Location: Brussels.
Cajón a San Lazaro is a series of photographs of a Santería ceremony in Havana, Cuba.
The ceremony, which lasted for almost two hours, was a so-called fulfilment ceremony, i.e. it was offered in compensation of the granting of a wish. The wish was health-related, as San Lazaro is the patron saint of health, and had been made by the lady of the house in which the ceremony took place.
The spirit with which the man in trance was imbued was however not that of the saint. The spirit was called Francisca and it took turns to talk to the different attendants in the room, addressing them about their personal lives, independent from the saint to which the ceremony was offered.
