Читать книгу Sleepless Summer - Bram Dehouck - Страница 10

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THE DRAMA IN Blaashoek began as all great dramas do: with a trifle.

Immediately following the tragic events, sociologists and psychologists scrambled to pinpoint the cause of this human cataclysm. Loneliness, cried one. Alienation, bellowed the next. Small-town insularity, opined the third. It was only a matter of time before a fourth would come up with inbreeding.

It was much simpler.

The town’s demise was brought on by a well-meant project supported by statistics, spreadsheets, measurements and calculations. No one saw it coming. No one could have known.

The root of it all was an eighty-four-word item in the local newspaper:

FIRST WIND FARM IN BLAASHOEK

The province and municipality have licensed alternative energy provider Windelectrix to erect ten wind turbines along the Blaashoek Canal, on the outskirts of the town of Blaashoek. Windelectrix hopes to complete the construction of Belgium’s first wind farm before the summer. ‘Our surveys have indicated this as the most suitable location,’ according to chief engineer Didier Deroo. ‘It is not only the optimal site for generating wind energy, but the chance of causing a nuisance or disturbance is minimal.’

Perhaps the word ‘minimal’ should have alarmed a few people. But it did not. According to some survivors, the trail could be traced back to the butcher Herman Bracke. In fact, everyone’s troubles started more or less at the same time, but for the sake of convenience let us begin with the butcher.