DUTCH the magazine
about The Netherlands and its people at home and abroad
The green heart of Holland A lush garden surrounded by bustling cities
How Dutch is Nederland?
Following the tracks down to southern Texas
Dutch dairy treats
Cool drinks and desserts for hot summer days
PLUS Keeping the land dry and the water wet Profile: photographer Dana Lixenberg On-line genealogical resources Is it really impossible to translate ‘gezellig’? Issue 6 July/August 2012 $7.95
July/August 2012
DUTCH, the magazine - 1
The Dutch in Wartime Survivors Remember UNDER NAZI RULE The Dutch in Wartime Survivors Remember
The Dutch in Wartime: Survivors Remember Book Series
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WITNESSING THE HOLOCAUST The Dutch in Wartime Survivors Remember
Book Series
‘The Dutch in Wartime: Survivors Remember’ is a series of books containing the wartime memories of Dutch immigrants to Canada and the USA, who survived Nazi occupation of the Netherlands from 1940 to 1945. Designed and written to be easily accessible to readers of all ages and backgrounds, these books contain important stories about the devastating effects of war and occupation on a civilian population. The stories are collected in separate volumes, each covering a specific theme or subject. The first of these volumes (’Invasion’) was published in June of 2011, with a new volume appearing every quarter thereafter. Readers may order single copies as they appear, or subscribe to the whole series at a discount, thus securing the receipt of the next book in the series every three months. Book 3 in the series, ‘Witnessing the Holocaust’, was published in January 2012. All three books are in stock. “You have to write it all down, about the concentration camp and how we survived. All that you remember and all that I remember.” “I do not write, Annie,” I objected. “You have to do this, Loes,” she said, “otherwise we suffered for nothing.” She gasped for air and closed her eyes. I did not want to upset her, so I told her: “Yes Annie, I will do it. I will write it all down.” Loes de Kater in ‘Witnessing the Holocaust’ July/August 2012
The Map
Delfzijl
Wadden Sea
GRONINGEN Groningen
Leeuwarden
Veendam
North Sea
FRIESLAND
Assen
Barrier Dam (Afsluitdijk)
NORTHHOLLAND
Amsterdam
Nieuwe Waterweg
Spengen Kortrijk Portengen
Kamerik
Schiedam
Rotterdam
Lelystad
Zwolle
OVERIJSSEL
IJssel
Naarden
Kockengen Benthuizen
Delft
DRENTHE
FLEVOLAND
Monnickendam
Haarlem
Utrecht
Ter Apel
Koekange
Edam Volendam
Zaandam
The Hague
IJssel Lake
Hoorn
Alkmaar
SOUTH-HOLLAND
Westerbork
Amersfoort
GELDERLAND
Zeist
Groenlo
Arnhem
UTRECHT
Didam
Leerdam
Rhine
Maasdam
‘s-Hertogenbosch Breda
ZEELAND Middelburg
BRABANT Hilvarenbeek
Zeeuws-Vlaanderen
LIMBURG
Scheldt
Germany
Belgium Maastricht
Major Waterway
PROVINCIAL BOUNDARY National Capital Provincial Capital
Maas 70 Kilometers 43.5 Miles
Larger city or town mentioned in the text Smaller town or village mentioned in the text
July/August 2012
DUTCH, the magazine - 3
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Ina’s Story
by Anne van Arragon Hutten
(author of Uprooted: Dutch immigrant children in Canada 1947-1959)
Answers to quizzes on page 50 Odd dam out: 1.Volendam is not a cheese 2. Monnickendam is not named for a river 3. Potsdam is not in The Netherlands 4. Leerdam is not a cruiseship 5. Maasdam is not in the province of North-Holland Match the Words: Green-Groen, Grass-Gras, Hay-Hooi, Pasture-Wei, Manure-Mest, Paardebloem-Dandelion, Whey-Wei, Way-Weg, Clay-Klei, Peat-Veen Who: Groenteboer (Greengrocer). What: Pisang Ambon. Where: Groenlo.
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On the cover: Lilypads float in one of the many drainage canals that traverse the reclaimed land in and around Kockengen. (See p. 45). (Photo: E.Dronkert)
DUTCH the magazine Issue 6 - July/August 2012
Published by:
Mokeham Publishing Inc. 457 Ellis Street Penticton, BC V2A 4M1, Canada
Mailing addresses:
Box 20203 Penticton, BC V2A 8M1, Canada PO Box 2090 Oroville, WA 98844, USA
Contact:
info@dutchthemag.com (250) 492-3002 fax: (866) 864-7510 www.dutchthemag.com www.facebook.com/dutchthemag
Editor
Tom Bijvoet (editor@dutchthemag.com)
Circulation and Administration
Mohrea Halingten (info@dutchthemag.com)
Contributors
Scott L. Ayers, Brian Bramson, Nicole Holten, Scott Hatton, Dirk Hoogeveen, Erik Raschke, Anne van Arragon Hutten, Merel van Beeren, Jesse van Muylwijck, Paola Westbeek.
ISSN: 1927-1492 Canada Post Corporation Publications Mail Agreement No. 40017090. Return undeliverable Canadian addresses to: Box 20203, Penticton, BC V2A 8M1 POSTMASTER US MAIL OFFICES DUTCH (ISSN:1927-1492) is published bimonthly, 862 Peace Portal Dr, Blaine, WA 98230. Pending periodicals paid at Blaine, WA 98230. US Postmaster send address changes to DUTCH, P. O. Box 2090, Oroville, WA 98844.
A true story about growing up on a Dutch freight ship on the Rhine during the Great Depression and WW II.
To obtain your copy, send a cheque for $20 to: North Mountain Press 181 Thorpe Rd, Kentville, NS B4N 3V7, Canada (includes shipping and handling)
4 - DUTCH, the magazine
All rights reserved. The views expressed in DUTCH are those of the respective contributors and not necessarily those of the publisher or staff. Although all reasonable attempts are made to ensure accuracy, the publishers do not assume any liability for errors or omissions anywhere in the publication, or on its websites. DUTCH considers unsolicited manuscripts and mail for the Correspondence pages. All editorial material sent to DUTCH will be treated as unconditionally assigned for publication purposes and may be subject to editing. We reserve the right to reject submissions. We prefer to receive submissions via e-mail, but cannot guarantee that we will acknowledge receipt. We will not return submissions received in hardcopy format, please send copies only. Printed in Canada.
July/August 2012
Tom Bijvoet - Editor’s Brief
Buying a house in Holland as long as your feet stay dry
W
e stood by the front door of the first house we would ever buy in The Netherlands, and, incidentally, the last, but that is a different and unrelated story that I may one day tell. We had completed our tour. The owner, who had chosen not to be represented by a realtor, smiled – she felt the viewing had been a success, which I suppose it had been, since we wanted the house. Just as she was about to close the door our realtor said: “Excuse me ma’am, I almost forgot, just one more thing.” “What is it?” she asked, willingly. “Well, I forgot to look in the crawl space, I really should do that as part of the proper viewing of a house. Where is the access?” I should explain that in The Netherlands a crawl space is usually only about two to three feet deep, is almost never finished with concrete but basically consists of a sandy floor. To get anywhere underneath a house one literally has to crawl through the dirt. One contractor who came to quote on a job in our crawl space (as is the case here, in The Netherlands a lot of the plumbing runs underneath the house) took one look and said: “forget it, I’m not a mole.” “Oh right here, by the front door, I believe,” the woman said. “It’s not like I go down there often.” Our realtor casually kicked the doormat to the side. Of course he knew where the access was, they’re all by the front door; it stops contractors from traipsing dirt all through the house and since usually the water shut-off is situated there too it makes it easy to access in an emergency. I noticed a bit of a smile on the realtor’s face as he bent down to open the hatch that had been hidden under the doormat. As he pulled up the hatch, the owner bent over, put her hand in front of her mouth and emitted a rather disturbed “ooooh”. I saw disbelief in her eyes. My wife and I looked at each other. What could there be down there that was so shocking. I got a little nudge in the small of my back. Apparently I had been nominated to take a look. Our realtor stood to the side with the hatch leaned up against his legs, a neutral look on his face but a twinkle in his eye. I took a step forward, bent over and looked into the dark hole. “Oooooh,” I said. “You had better come see this.” My wife joined me and ‘oooohed’ too.
The realtor closed the hatch and we left. As we walked to our cars I glanced over my shoulder. The lady who was selling the house peered through the blinds as we walked away. She did not look at all happy. “That is really bad, isn’t it?” I said. Our realtor chuckled, “oh not at all,” he said. “Pretty standard, I bet you that there isn’t a house in this town, that does not have the same problem.” “Half a foot of water in the crawl space…?” I said. “Oh sure. That’s what you get this time of year here. It’s just ground water, no big deal. As I said, every house here has it, it was pretty much what I expected. I always pull that trick if they don’t have their own realtor who would set their minds at rest. It sure helps bring the price down.” So we bought the house, 6 inches of ground water in the crawl space and all. I suppose it is what you get for living in a country where everyone in elementary school at least once gets to see a map that is similar to the one on page 21 and that has a government agency that includes providing dry feet in its mission statement (see page 22).
I took a step forward, bent over and looked into the dark hole. “Oooooooh,” I said.
July/August 2012
W
hen I was a little boy I watched the television news with my parents one day when it had a story about a volcano erupting somewhere and villagers being forced to flee their homes. In all innocence I asked my father why people would be so stupid to live on the slopes of an active volcano. The next day my father took me for a bike ride. We rode along a path not dissimilar to the one shown in the photograph on page 45. As he pointed to the water on the left and the much lower lying land on the right he soon made his point. At least a volcano rumbles before it blows. No one had any forewarning when the big flood of 1953 happened and large parts of Holland were devastated. In several articles this month we look at the relationship between the Dutch and the water around them. It has been a fraught relationship to say the least. It has defined the country, its culture and, some say, even its national character. We will investigate those subjects and many more as we enter the second year of DUTCH the magazine. One thing is sure though: as long as it is only the crawl space that’s flooded, everything is just fine! DUTCH, the magazine - 5
Calendar of Events
JULY ANNUAL FRISIAN PICNIC July 2, 11.00 a.m. Paris, Ontario Pinehurst Lake Conservation Area The largest annual gathering of Frisians in North America. (519) 426-0099 fryskedei@hotmail.com
JULY/AUGUST BEFORE THE FESTIVAL: THE IMPROBABLE JOURNEY OF HOLLAND’S FAVORITE FLOWER February 24 - September 2 Holland, Michigan Holland Museum, Wichers Gallery Explore the origins of the tulip, when it arrived in The Netherlands, and eventually Holland, Michigan, and how it became the Dutch icon as we know it today. (616) 796-3329 hollandmuseum.org VAN GOGH: UP CLOSE May 25 - September 3 Ottawa, Ontario National Gallery of Canada The first major Van Gogh exhibition in Canada in 25 years brings together more than 40 of his paintings from collections around the world. 1-888-541-8888 (613) 998-8888 gallery.ca REMBRANDT, VAN DYCK, GAINSBOROUGH, THE TREASURES OF KENWOOD HOUSE June 3 - September 4 Houston, Texas Museum of Fine Arts Houston 48 Masterpieces from the collection known as the Iveagh Bequest. These magnificent paintings reside in London, now coming to America for the first time. (713) 639-7300 mfah.org REMBRANDT IN AMERICA June 24 - September 16 Minneapolis, Minnesota Minneapolis Institute of the Arts Experience a nation’s zeal for paintings by Rembrandt and his followers. Witness the development of this 17th-century Dutch master, from brash young artist to timeless observer of humanity. These fasci6 - DUTCH, the magazine
nating portraits show how Rembrandt revealed the true, individual personalities of his subjects. 1-888-MIA-ARTS (612) 870-3000 artsmia.org RINEKE DIJKSTRA: RETROSPECTIVE June 29 - October 3 New York, New York Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum This comprehensive mid-career retrospective features more than 70 color photographs and five video installations by Dutch artist Rineke Dijkstra (212) 423-3500 guggenheim.org
AUGUST Dutch Influence on the American Kitchen and Life, LECTURE BY PETER ROSE August 8, 6.30 p.m. Newburgh, New York Mount Saint Mary College Food historian Peter G. Rose explores the foodways brought to America by the Dutch more than three centuries ago, and the way they were adapted to new circumstances. (845) 565-2076 nyhumanities.org The August 15, 1945 Foundation Annual Commemoration of the end of WORLD WAR II August 18, 11.00 a.m. Brampton, Ontario Holland Christian Homes (905) 444-9506 LEST WE FORGET August 18, 11.30 a.m. Commemorating Japanese surrender ending WWII, followed by lunch at nearby ABC restaurant. White Rock, British Columbia Cenotaph, White Rock City Hall Grounds (604) 261-5080 or (604) 820-4262 duablas@hotmail.com For upcoming events to be included, please e-mail details to info@dutchthemag.com. We strive to include as many events as possible, but cannot guarantee placement. Send in details no later than three months before event date. DUTCH, the magazine does not take any responsibility for the accuracy of the listings. Readers are advised to check with the organizers for verification of event dates, times and locations. July/August 2012
Contents
Features
12 TRACKS & TRACES: How Dutch is Nederland? Scott L. Ayers visits a sultry railway town in Southern Texas to look for traces of a one-time Dutch settlement there.
16 PROFILE: Photographer Dana Lixenberg Merel van Beeren visits and profiles New York based Dutch photographer Dana Lixenberg.
20 ECONOMY: Dredging Holland’s Waterways
Anne van Arragon Hutten discovers how an activity originating in the struggle to survive became a major economic driver.
24 IMMIGRATION: Burning Man - part 2
An Iranian asylum seeker sets fire to himself in Amsterdam. Erik Raschke concludes the story of why that affects him so much.
Regulars
30 Travel: The Green Heart of Holland - Paola Westbeek goes rural 36 Cooking: Summer dairy treats - Nicole Holten makes refreshments 42 Language: Gezellig - Scott Hatton finds out why it’s untranslatable 44 Died: Klaas Carel Faber - Nazi war criminal 45 Place: Kockengen - land of plenty in the peatbog 46 Poetry: Dapper Street - the classic sonnet by J.C. Bloem COLUMNS 5 Editor’s Brief, Tom Bijvoet
Buying a house in Holland, as long as your feet stay dry
28 Digging for Dutch Roots, Dirk Hoogeveen Births, marriages, deaths, diligently recorded since 1811
47 Book Browsing, Paola Westbeek
Three books about the Dutch colonial influence on the North-East
48 An Englishman Abroad, Brian Bramson Cyclists and Oliebollen
Departments 3 The map where things are 6 Calendar of Events when things are 8 The Courant what people do 10 Correspondence what people think 50 Fun and Games some light entertainment
July/August 2012
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The Courant
Caretaker government has to cut deep While Europe is plunging into an ever deeper financial and economic crisis, Holland is lumbered with a lame-duck caretaker government, probably until late in the year. On April 23, after losing the parliamentary support of the Freedom Party (PVV) led by charismatic and controversial maverick politician Geert Wilders, Prime Minister Mark Rutte offered Queen Beatrix the resignation of his entire cabinet. Rutte, leader of the free-market VVD party, together with his Christian-Democrat coalition partner Maxime Verhagen, formed a minority government. Wilders’ PVV was brought in to give the coalition government a parliamentary majority. The party did not, however, participate in government. This put Wilders in the unique and, in some eyes unfairly desirable position of having a voice in policy making, without having to take responsibility for it. Some examples of anti-immigrant PVV hobbyhorses that were seriously entertained by Rutte and his crew were the restriction of dual nationality and the prohibition of wearing the burqa in public. The PVV has a strong populist streak, and when Rutte and his government had to bring the burgeoning budget deficit back to within the strict guidelines of the European Central Bank, Wilders dug in his heels. The parties negotiated for seven weeks until, late in April, Wilders pulled the plug over cuts in old age pensions. The government now no longer had a majority in parliament, and Rutte had no choice but to resign. Several parties pushed for speedy elections, but the electoral council, an independent government body that organizes and monitors Dutch elections, decreed that elections could not be held until after the long Dutch summer vacation, and set the date for September 12. As post-election government for-
Better times: Prime-minister Mark Rutte speaks to the press while Geert Wilders (r) looks on. On his other side deputy prime-minister Maxime Verhagen mation in The Netherlands can be a lengthy process, and as it took Rutte 127 days from the last election to form his cabinet, the Dutch will be lucky to have a new government by Christmas. In the interim, Rutte governs in a caretaker capacity. International treaties being what they are, work on the budget deficit has to continue. So Rutte and his Finance Minster Jan Kees de Jager have had to cobble together a coalition of parties that could reach agreement on budget cuts. The unusual line-up of parties consisted of the governing VVD and CDA parties, the Social Liberal D66 Party, the Socialist Environmentalist Green Left Party and the Orthodox Reformed Christian Union Party. Together they managed to come up with a set of measures that was acceptable to all of them and that should bring the Dutch economy back to within Brussels’ and Frankfurt’s strict norms.
The end of an era: no more Windmill Herald On May 10th Van der Heide Publishing of Langley, British Columbia announced that the June 10 issue of the Windmill Herald would be the last regular issue. The Windmill Herald, which was published twice each month was one of the Dutch language publications that originated in the big immigration wave of the late 1940s and 1950s, when half a million people left The Netherlands to seek a better life in the traditional immigration countries of Canada, the USA, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa (and to a lesser extent Brazil, and also Israel, where a number of Jewish holocaust survivors headed). As the original immigrants are reaching old age, the publications they founded and eagerly read are gradually running out of steam. South Africa’s 8 - DUTCH, the magazine
Albert van der Heide (r) in his Langley, British Columbia office with a reader of the Windmill Herald
Nederlandse Post and Australia’s Dutch Weekly have already disappeared. Now we must add a successful and
widely read Canadian publication, the Windmill Herald, to the list. The paper increasingly dipped into red ink as the Canadian dollar moved to parity with its U.S. counterpart, and postal rates and technological upgrade costs inched upwards. “We were able to slow the effects of a nearly inevitable graying readership, with an English section in the Windmill Herald,” said Albert van der Heide, who purchased the paper in 1969. “We keep hearing from the grandchildren of the 1950s immigrants interested in their heritage and roots,” he added, “but not enough to sustain the paper in its current format.” A final full-color commemorative issue of the Windmill Herald is scheduled for July. July/August 2012
The Courant
Dutch police teach hospitality staff to spot the escort... Dutch hotel staff will be following a special course to learn how to recognize prostitutes. The Royal Dutch Hotel Organization and the National Police Force are developing a special program for hotels throughout the country. Previously, a similar course was organized for hotels in the urban western parts of the country only, but according to Hotel Association spokesperson Joris Prinssen prostitution is not limited to those areas. “Illegal practices are ubiquitous,” he said. He added that in addition to in-house staff, contractors such as security and cleaning staff will also be required to take the course. In Amsterdam police tested the alertness of the staff in three high-end hotels. East-European actresses impersonated prostitutes, while plain clothes police officers pretended to be
C/W: Fokko Muller - Courtesy Van der Heide Publishing - Minister-president
Too close for comfort Two modes of transport that almost define the urban space in The Netherlands, bicycles and streetcars, do not coexist as happily in Van Oldenbarnevelt Street in Rotterdam as they do elsewhere. The shopping street has an abundance of special metal fences against which cyclists can safely park and secure their bicycles. The problem is that the city has placed them so close to the tracks that the streetcars regularly graze and sometimes completely wreck the parked bicycles. The shopkeepers whose stores overlook the fencing and the track say that collisions are a daily occurrence. “Sometimes the drivers do not even slow down at all, while they can clearly see that it’s not going to fit,” said one of them. A spokesperson for the city claims that the fencing has been erected at the correct regulatory distance from the streetcar tracks and that there should be no problem. That argument did not hold water for the woman who recently saw her expensive Batavus bicycle destroyed, nor for the streetcar driver
their clients. The results were disappointing for the organizers. Prinssen said that they had expected staff to more readily pick up on signals pointing toward prostitution and human trafficking. “Cranking up the volume of the tv, requests for lots of extra towels, large numbers of condoms in the trash,” staff should pick up on those indications and inform the police,” said Prinssen. He was surprised that despite the fact that hotel staff did notice the odd behaviour of the play-acting policemen, no-one alerted their uniformed colleagues. Prinssen did not comment on whether welcoming philandering hotel guests with East-European escorts might be a good business proposition for the hotels in question and that this may have been the reason why the police were not contacted, rather than ignorance over the likely cause of an abundance of prophylactics in the trash.
A Rotterdam streetcar skirts closely by a fence-rail
who did it, and who muttered in an angry tone of voice that it was dumb of her to have placed her bicycle against the fence in the first place.
Deadly train wreck generates false insurance claims On April 21 a train crash just outside Amsterdam caused the death of one passenger. More than a hundred passengers were injured, at least forty of them seriously. The cause of the crash was a missed stop signal by the driver of a local commuter train, who was blinded by the setting sun. The sixty year old system that is still being used on the line where the accident took place, does not have the required checks and balances that could have prevented the accident. An express train ploughed into the commuter train and because it was nearing its destination many passengers had already gotten out of their seats and had started moving towards the exits. Many of them literally flew through the air as the two trains collided. July/August 2012
Apart from an investigation into the cause of the crash and pledges to upgrade the navigation control systems on the line, the crash has had another, more sinister result. Insurance companies are dealing with large numbers of fraudulent claims both from people who were on the train and are exaggerating their damages, and from people who were nowhere near the accident when it happened. One of the passengers claimed that she had suffered significant financial loss because she had missed a modelling contest. The most remarkable item reported lost is an original Stradivarius violin, worth many millions of dollars. The most commonly claimed items are iPads, which an unusually large number of passengers seem to have with them on the fateful day of the crash. DUTCH, the magazine - 9
Toponymy I came upon an article in your magazine about our beautiful city ’s-Hertogenbosch. It is a real pity that you referred to the city as Den Bosch, while this historic place carries the beautiful and official name of ’s-Hertogenbosch. As a ‘s-Hertogenbosch native and a member of the Society for the promotion of the name ‘s-Hertogenbosch I just had to send you this little note. I hope that in future you can use the real name ‘s-Hertogenbosch. With friendly greetings, Daan Gielen ‘s-Hertogenbosch, The Netherlands ‘s-Hertogenbosch is indeed a beautiful name, albeit difficult to pronounce for people who are not native Dutch speakers. Nevertheless we shall try to bear Mr. Gielen’s request in mind and refer to his city by its proper name. We suppose that the citizens of ‘sHertogenbosch should feel fortunate that unlike ‘s-Gravenhage, or Den Haag, where we commonly use the established English version The Hague, ‘Den Bosch’ was never translated into English! We welcome your letters to the editor, but we cannot guarantee placement. We reserve the right to edit letters for accuracy, brevity, clarity and good taste. Submissions by e-mail to: editor@dutchthemag.com preferred. Submissions may also be mailed to our regular postal addresses in the USA and Canada.
NOW AVAILABLE!
Book 3 of the The Dutch in Wartime Survivors Remember series Order on-line at www.dutchinwar.com or call (250) 492-3002 or use the form on PAGE 16 10 - DUTCH, the magazine
July/August 2012
Correspondence Prince Willem-Alexander and Princess Máxima chat with members of the crowd at the Hudson 400 celebrations
Busier than Kalver Street
Peter Philips - Peter Philips - Pakelc
Crowd Mr. Peter Philips of Syosset, New York sent us the accompanying photographs of the Hudson 400 commemoration in New York City in 2009. He expressed his surprise at Prince Willem Alexander and Princess Máxima’s reaction to attendance at the event. We reported in our article ‘Tracks and Traces, searching for New Amsterdam in New York City’ (DUTCH the magazine, issue 3), that the royals were surprised by the small number of people who had turned out. Mr. Philips tells us that during the festivities he regularly got stuck in the masses of people, and that foot-traffic came to a standstill on several occasions. His photographs bear out that the event was well attended. Mr. Philips makes a comparison: less crowded than Rockefeller Center at Christmas Time, but definitely more crowded than Amsterdam’s main pedestrian shopping precinct, Kalver Street, on a Saturday afternoon. We have not had the pleasure of visiting Rockefeller Center just before Christmas, but have unfortunately been in Kalver Street on a Saturday afternoon which had us shuffling along step by little step. We were not able to reach the royal couple for a comment, but can only surmise that they were particularly well shielded from the masses by their security people, or that they are used to drawing an even bigger crowd on their home turf, which given their popularity in Holland, would not come as a surprise to us. July/August 2012
Batavia shipwreck I have almost finished reading DUTCH the magazine issue 4. As always it is very educational and entertaining. The article ‘Historic Batavia rotting away’ on page 8 made me sad, as I have taken a great deal of interest in the construction of the famous vessel. I visited the ship in 1996 when I was in Holland. What a beauty she is! The Batavia was even transported to Australia for the Sydney Olympics in 2000. Unfortunately I could not visit it at that time. In 2001 Jaap Roskam, a Dutch photographer based in New South Wales, produced a marvelous hand-made limited edition book about the Batavia called ‘Sailing the Last East Indiaman’. I bought the beautiful book because of my keen interest in the ship’s history. I now quote from the book: October 1628: A VOC fleet with the flagship Batavia, the newest and largest East Indiaman, sets sail for a nine month journey from Amsterdam to the city of Batavia on Java. June 4 1629: The commandeur's ship is sadly wrecked on a small island near the West Coast of Hollandia Novae (the only partly discovered continent of Australia). Based on the above I need to correct you. You state that the vessel was shipwrecked on its maiden voyage in 1618. This must be an error. The ship was shipwrecked in 1629, very close to the Abrolhos Islands off the west coast of Australia. Groeten, Michael Teekens Mount Waverley, Australia We stand corrected. The Batavia left Amsterdam on its maiden voyage in 1628 and was shipwrecked on June 4th, 1629 on one of the Houtman Abrolhos, a chain of islands off the west coast of Australia. We are grateful to Mr. Teekens for setting us straight and also for drawing our attention to Jaap Roskam and his book. Only 175 copies of the original book were produced, so to own one is very special. A new edition is available through Roskam’s website at www.bataviaphotos.com, where many of his fascinating photographs can be viewed.
The Batavia berthed in its regular spot in Lelystad
DUTCH, the magazine - 11
Tracks and Traces
The Kansas City Southern is stll a familiar sight (and sound) in Nederland
How Dutch is Nederland? a visit to a sultry railway town in southern Texas
W
Text and Photographs by Scott L. Ayers
hen is Nederland 5000 miles and seven time zones from Holland? Why when it’s Nederland, Texas of course! Nederland certainly sounds like it should have a Dutch heritage, but just how Dutch is Nederland? The Nederland, Texas story began in the late 19th century. Like the story of America of that era, it cannot be told without the railroad and, in the case of Nederland, one railroad in particular: the Kansas City Southern (KCS). Under the guidance of its visionary founder Arthur Edward Stilwell, the KCS railroad began in 1889 as a local beltline in Kansas City. But Stilwell envisioned a link to the sea, and realizing that the eastern seaboard was 1400 miles distant, while the Gulf of Mexico lay only 800 miles away, he soon had the KCS laying rails south12 - DUTCH, the magazine
ward. The advance of the KCS ground to a halt when the Panic of 1893 dried up railroad financing in the United States. With the fate of his developing railroad in the balance, Stilwell made a desperate trip to Amsterdam to solicit Dutch banking and brokerage houses for funding. The Dutch had a long history of investing in American railways. Several US railway companies were listed on the Amsterdam stock exchange at the time. The Dutch proved financially forthcoming, buying millions of dollars worth of KCS securities. In recognition of this assistance (and undoubtedly to promote further Dutch investment), Stilwell gave many of the towns along the KCS railroad Dutch names, and hired several Dutchmen as managers of the company. When a planned rail terminus at the major port of July/August 2012
Galveston, Texas did not work out (rather fortunately, because the Great Storm of 1900 nearly wiped that city off the map), the KCS drove rails toward the sea in the direction of what is now Port Arthur, Texas (named for Stilwell himself), reaching the Gulf of Mexico in 1897. As was the practice of the day for American railroads, the KCS actively promoted settlement and commerce along its newly completed rail line which traversed many relatively unpopulated areas. Just outside Port Arthur, a new town was plotted out on vacant land along the railroad for the creation of a rice and dairy farming community. Stilwell named it ‘Nederland’ in honor A display of Delftware for sale of the nation that had, just a few at the museum giftshop years before, proved the financial savior of the Kansas City Southern (which is still known ers from the homeland and the relocation of Hollandin some quarters as ‘The Dutch-American Railroad’). ers from existing Dutch farm communities in Iowa and Stilwell had grandiose plans for the new town, hoping Michigan. These early settlers were lodged in the KCSto establish a model Dutch agricultural settlement there built Orange Hotel in Nederland while establishing by actively promoting the immigration of Dutch farmtheir farmsteads. The hotel, named for the Dutch royal family, was the focal point of the Dutch community for The Dutch Windmill Museum keeps several years, also serving as a school and church until the memory of the city’s origins alive such institutions could be permanently built in the nafor future generations scent town. By 1903, several hundred Dutchmen and their families had heard the call of Stilwell and his railroad, and moved to the newly developed colony. By all accounts the enterprising Dutchmen soon formed thriving agricultural and commercial operations under very difficult conditions. Dutch was the language of the day and Nederland boasted a Dutch Reformed church and special edition Dutch-language newspapers! The Dutch heyday was short-lived, however, as the nearby Spindletop oil discovery of 1901 drew waves of Cajun laborers from nearby southern Louisiana to work the oilfields. This shift in the economic and cultural base of the area, combined with the vagaries of the climate and the difficulties of rice farming, soon resulted in most of the early Dutch settlers drifting away from Nederland. By 1912 only about thirty Dutch families remained.
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o how Dutch is Nederland, Texas 100 years later? I recently made the 90-mile drive from my home in Houston to find out. Nederland (pronounced need-er-lend by the locals) is a busy town of 17,000 located in the so-called ‘Golden Triangle’ of Southeast Texas, a designation derived from the vast wealth generated by the Spindletop petroleum boom of the last century. Today, Nederland’s night skyJuly/August 2012
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line glows golden from the many refinery flares as the town is set in the heart of one of the largest petro-chemical processing areas in the United States. Little remains of the area’s agricultural heritage. On the day I arrived, the skies opened up with a cool, drenching rain more reminiscent of the old country than a Gulf coastal community. This was a welcome respite from the sometimes oppressive weather in this part of the nation, and I could only imagine the hardships encountered by the early Dutch immigrants. Heat, humidity, malaria, anthrax, yellow fever, hurricanes and the dreaded mosquito bedeviled the hardy settlers. Indeed the story is told of young Dutch ladies of yore wearing newspapers under their stockings at Orange Hotel dances to fend off the swarms of pesky ‘muskieten’. Fortunately, modern science and medicine have made life much easier, and as no hurricanes were imminent despite the stormy weather, I set out to discover what traces of Holland might remain in Nederland. While Museum host Greg Allport can sell you a beer mug , but not a beer!
most Dutch culture here dissipated a century ago, I was pleased to find the town still remembers its original Dutch roots and background...
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he repository of Dutch history in Nederland is the Dutch Windmill Museum. It is housed in a beautiful, forty feet tall replica of a Dutch windmill built in a downtown park to honor Nederland’s namesake country. The Windmill Museum’s dedication ceremony in 1969 featured a speech by the vice consul of the Netherlands. The two story museum displays artifacts of the varied history of the town, including many from the Dutch settlement era at the dawn of the 20th century. My favorite was an exhibit of Sinterklaas paraphernalia from early Dutch immigrant schoolchildren. A selection of imported Dutch products is available for sale in the Museum gift shop. The museum host on the day of my visit was Greg Allport, a jovial native Hollander (with a British father) from the town of Delfzijl in far northeast Groningen province. Now a resident and unabashed promoter of Nederland, Texas he provides a tangible and welcome connection to The Netherlands and is well versed in the history of his adopted Texas town. Annually in March, the town hosts the popular Nederland Heritage Festival. However, the passage of time, and the influx of Cajun and Hispanic migrants and cultures, has largely diminished the Dutch influence on the festivities. Indeed the menu of this year’s fest included gumbo, etouffee, burritos and fajitas but nary a poffertje or kip croquette was to be found. The Kansas City Southern still rumbles through Nederland (keeping Greg awake at night), but passenger service and the train station are long gone, as is the Orange Hotel, the first American home for many Dutch settlers. A few anglicized street names still recall the Dutch era, but the straten and wegen (streets and roads) signage of 1900 is just a memory.
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f the relatively few Dutch families who remained in Nederland, several generations have prospered through the years and have proven to be proud and generous benefactors to Nederland, to which the names of several 14 - DUTCH, the magazine
July/August 2012
town parks bear witness. Many of the family heirlooms of these long-standing residents are displayed in the museum. While Stilwell’s vision of a Dutch agrarian utopia did not quite work out, and the economy of Nederland now
ebbs and flows with the price of crude rather than with the labor of Dutch rice farmers, the town has not totally forsaken its humble Dutch origins. After all, where else can one buy a T-shirt proclaiming: ‘Nederland, a little bit of The Netherlands in Southeast Texas’?
Newspaper Photograph: Jared McClelland
Not Insignificant! The accession of young Queen Wilhelmina to the Dutch throne on September 6, 1898 prompted the Port Arthur News to publish a special Dutch language edition for the settlers of the new colony of Nederland. On its front page, which is proudly displayed in the Dutch Windmill Museum, the publishers suggest that after reading the paper the settlers send the newspaper to “their relatives or friends in the old fatherland, which will save them the trouble of writing a detailed letter”. The following translated excerpt describes the arrival of the first 41 colonists in what was to become Nederland. “The only shelter that could be found was the ‘Orange Hotel’, still under construction, on which the American and Dutch flags and also an orange pennant already flew. A jolly crackling fire of forest giants in the stone hearth seemed to poke fun at the shivering newly arrived fortune and land seekers. Almost all were impressed with the land they viewed and the quality of the soil, and purchased smaller or larger July/August 2012
parcels. It confirmed that Mr. Kuipers in his explorations in this province had selected the best land for a Dutch settlement, which will always be considered one of his foremost achievements. We shall therefore consider November 16 (of 1897 ed.) as the founding day of the already not insignificant colony. Not insignificant! And that in less than ten months!” DUTCH, the magazine - 15
Profile
The eye of the outsider
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Dana Lixenberg and the concentrated intimacy of photography Text by Merel van Beeren, Photographs by Dana Lixenberg
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or Dutch photographer Dana Lixenberg, there has never been a clear line between editorial work and her private projects. Assignments proved to be an inspiration for her own interests, and vice versa — Lixenberg’s approach is always personal. In the 1990s, her photos of residents of Imperial Courts, a housing project in South Central Los Angeles that is home to the infamous Crips, were what got her noticed at Vibe magazine. It launched her American career. 16 - DUTCH, the magazine
The New York based Lixenberg now returns to Imperial Courts on a yearly basis. Time moves differently there, it seems. Despite ongoing daily routines and unchanged living conditions, frequent and sudden deaths as well as the disappearance of one of the community’s main characters have affected the outlook of its inhabitants significantly. It’s a world that stands in stark contrast to the one Lixenberg just finished documenting in her home country. In Document Nederland
2011: De Burgemeester, an exhibit commisioned by the Rijksmuseum, that ran from October 2011 until January 2012 in the Amsterdam Museum, Lixenberg presents us with a cross-section of Dutch mayors, focusing not just on portraits, but also on the daily, and sometimes tedious, life of the modern mayor. Though apparent opposites, Lixenberg’s choice of subjects reflects her love for portraying daily life that lies just beyond the ordinary perspective. In the case of the mayoral July/August 2012
routine, the dullness of meetings and the almost sterile environment of offices are the center of attention. With the Imperial Courts community, it is the vulnerability of individuals placed outside the usual confines of the defining gang colors and violent clashes. In one project, meetings with the photographer were carefully scheduled and prepared; in the other, they’d meet up ‘at noon, at the sandbox’ and take it from there. Her technical weapon of choice, the 4x5” camera, facilitates what she is looking to portray. Starting on the Imperial Courts project, Lixenberg was looking for a camera that allowed her to work slowly, and gave her the opportunity to portray a stillness in her subjects. “It’s quite a drag to carry around, that camera. But I was attracted to the concentrated observation it offered, and it gives a detailed rendition of the subject.”
plore her interests, and a course in photography put her on the path to her eventual career. “Photography is very much one on one, something that suits me well,” she says, “intimate, a form that lends itself to exploring my curiosity.” Lixenberg enrolled in photography school in London, came back to The Netherlands, slowly built a portfolio, and found her voice – mostly through experiencing that what she did not wish to do. Two years into the Gerrit Rietveld Arts and Design Academy in The Netherlands, she decided to leave the photography department and the uninspiring environment it offered at that time. With no specific plan, goal, or timeframe, Lixenberg moved to New York. She ended up staying.
Lixenberg sips her tea, distracted for a moment by loud music from a parked car just outside. “Having been gone for three and a half months, it took some time to get used to the noise again,” she says. The work for Document Nederland took her all over her native country to places she had never visited before. The annual documentary photography assignment of the Rijks museum in cooperation with the NRC Handelsblad, a national newspaper, aims to portray and preserve Dutch history for future generations. Since 1979 a specific subject is picked each year, and a leading Dutch photographer chosen to visualize it. “Portraying city management is very difficult, but besides her talent,
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n a Saturday in late September, I find myself in a little Puerto Rican neighborhood in Williamsburg. Looking up at a sturdy brick building, I ring the doorbell next to a piece of tape that reads ‘LIXENBERG’ in all caps. One flight of stairs leads up to the apartment, a live-work space. It’s smaller than the spacious loft in Tribeca she left a few years ago, but the new location agrees with her. Besides, Lixenberg’s work usually takes place away from her home – lately, she’s been dividing her time between projects in the United States and The Netherlands, focusing more on the latter since the 2000s. Born and raised in Amsterdam, 47 year old Lixenberg is the daughter of an artist (the English born Cyril Lixenberg) and an art teacher. As a young girl, she was passionate about film, and the chance it offered to observe human behavior, but the production side of it didn’t appeal to her at all. Barely eighteen years old, she moved to New York as an au pair to a young Dutch-American family. It gave her the time to exJuly/August 2012
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Dana has three important qualities that almost guaranteed success,” says Mattie Boom, curator of photography at the Rijksmuseum. “She’s skilled in thorough documentation, has a beautiful eye for portraits, and her tableaux give a sweeping sketch of a situation, an environment.” That talent and those qualities are what appealed to the Vibe photography staff almost twenty years ago when the Watts Imperial Courts series ended up on their desk. Having started out as an assistant to a number of photographers in New York, the young Lixenberg managed to get herself noticed by Dutch journalists and magazines. After a series of successful assignments she became a household name, resulting in an invitation to be included in a group exhibition at Fotofestival Naarden, a bi-annual festival in The Netherlands. The other exhibitors were Rineke Dijkstra and Inez van Lamsweerde. Since she never officially graduated, Lixenberg did not have a body of work ready for an exhibit. This was the first time she would be
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showing, and she decided to create a new project – requiring her to work quickly. A previous assignment had led her to Los Angeles shortly after the Rodney King riots in 1992. She found herself increasingly curious about the city’s gang culture – a world far removed from anything she knew, and a spectacular one at that.
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Dana Lixenberg (photo: Joost van den Broek)
Lixenberg’s Photographs 1. From The Mayor: Naturalization Ceremony, Hilvarenbeek, 2011 2. From Imperial Courts: Selena, 1993 3. From Set Amsterdam: Room 301, Hotel the Globe, 2010 4. From Set Amsterdam: Auditorium Noorderbegraafplaats (II), 2010 (Cemetery auditorium) 18 - DUTCH, the magazine
revious connections brought her into contact with Tony Bogard, the leader of the P. J. Watts Crips, who had just brokered a peace deal with the Bloods the previous year. He promised to take Lixenberg to his neighborhood, Imperial Courts in Watts, but it took considerable time for him to finally do so. “One day, he needed a ride,” Lixenberg says about their first trip. “I remember we hardly spoke at all.” Tony was convinced no one would want their picture taken, but Lixenberg shared her polaroids and contact prints with those interested, and her relaxed and unobtrusive presence quickly attracted interest. She prefers to work without a plan. “It’s about physical presence, being there, spending time and seeing something unfold.” In an afterword to Lixenberg’s book United States, a collection of feature
photos, Vibe’s former photo editor George Pitts writes that “Watts the location was barely visible, except as a state of mind, a patch of landscape, an edgy backdrop composed in rich grey, black, and white tonalities.” The photos ran in Vibe’s third issue ever, next to a poem by Ntozake Shange, inspired by the photographs. Lixenberg had been adamant about not placing the images in a journalistic context, wanting to protect the community from stigma and stereotype. The photo essay did more than launch Lixenberg’s career. As Pitts states, it “helped the magazine develop its visual tone, and influenced the way countless magazines visually approached urban experience”. Lixenberg went on to do many more shoots for Vibe – Tupac Shakur being her first big feature – as well as for other magazines like Rolling Stone, New York Times Magazine, and the New Yorker. The confrontational style and piercing gazes of her subjects are what made Lixenberg famous, and what has made some celebrities shy away from working with her. “People take a look at my portfolio, and get a little nervous,” she says with a hint of a smile. Her combined oeuvre of documentary series of the marginalized July/August 2012
and years of editorial work in the United States have increased Lixenberg’s understanding of her adopted country. The last few years of projects in The Netherlands have done the same for her with respect to her hative land. Apart from De Burgemeester, she did another notable project recently, called Set Amsterdam, which focused on scenes of Amsterdam stripped of its usual bustling life. With her feet in two worlds, Lixenberg has the ability to see and portray both her countries with a little more distance than the average citizen. “She’s able to see the things we no longer see,” Mattie Boom adds. The 4x5” camera enhances her point of view, by literally having to take a step back from the scene she’ll be shooting. After more than twenty years here, Lixenberg is considering becoming an American citizen, but only if she can hold on to her Dutch nationality. “There’ve been moments that I thought I should go back,” she says, “briefly, after 9/11, and a year after
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my mother’s death ... It’s very much like in a relationship: you keep making that choice over and over, that this is what you want. It’s far from self-evident.” After two big projects in the Neth-
erlands, Lixenberg is looking forward to reconnecting with her city of choice. “The love for New York keeps coming back. It’s different than before, but this city still manages to touch me deeply.”
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State of the water
A large industrial dredger at work, creating sufficient depth for new harbor installations
Sucking up the sludge
How Dutch dredgers keep the land dry and the waterways wet
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ravelers from Halifax to Nova Scotia’s Annapolis Valley will cross the Windsor Causeway. This onetime marvel of engineering is actually a dike across the mouth of the Avon River where it flows into Minas Basin, an arm of the mighty Bay of Fundy. Similar in function to Holland’s Barrier Dam (Afsluitdijk), which connects the provinces of North-Holland and Friesland, the Causeway provides a roadbed for Highway 101 while protecting the town of Windsor and 1,400 hectares of farmland from periodic flooding. At less than half a mile its length, of course, comes nowhere 20 - DUTCH, the magazine
By Anne van Arragon Hutten near the Afsluitdijk’s twenty miles. There has always been controversy over the Causeway, especially in recent decades while Highway 101 is being twinned. What to do with the Causeway? Some say it should be removed and replaced with a bridge capable of six lane traffic. Others point to the significant cost of removing more than a million tons of rock. Meanwhile, what happens to newly developed recreational opportunities along Lake Pesaquid, formed by the causeway in 1970? What about the need for rebuilding many kilometers of inland dikes that have been disintegrating for
over forty years? A large salt water marsh has built up on the Minas Basin side of the Causeway since its 1970 opening. In the past large volumes of suspended sediment moved up and down the tidal mouth of the Avon River on a daily and seasonal basis. With the Causeway blocking any such movement, the sediment has since been building up to form a large area of marshy land extending well into Minas Basin. By now there is salt marsh grass growing on top, and one could almost visualize someone eventually farming the newly formed land. The whole situation brings to mind July/August 2012
the Dutch dredging operations which operate in similar circumstances, and which are, together with dikes, responsible for a good part of Holland’s very existence.
Boskalis
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epending on how it is measured, anywhere between about 25% and 60% of The Netherlands lies below sea level. This includes much of the densely populated and economically important western part of the country. Additional areas would be subject to flooding during high tides or major storms. The country is famous, of course, for the many dikes which protect both urban areas and farmland. Less publicity is given to the centuries-old reclamation methods which built those dikes and kept the newly created dry land… dry. The Netherlands lies at the juncture of three major rivers: The Rhine, the Maas, and the Scheldt. This confluence of river deltas might seem an inauspicious place to construct a country, since so much of this area would lie underwater without human intervention, especially at high tide. Despite the challenges, however, the population has waged a constant fight against its surrounding waters, gradually developing methods of augmenting the existing land, and even developing a unique vocabulary that speaks of the ancient enemy, the ‘Waterwolf ’. Over the course of many centuries each river, while carrying its waters towards the North Sea, also carried along enormous quantities of sediment. Consisting of plant material, sand, leaves, garbage, and whatever the force of rushing water can scrape off the river bottom, this sediment built up at the rivers’ mouths, forming ever growing mud flats and dunes. These offered some protection to the land lying behind them, but not enough. Farmers began building dikes more than a millennium ago in an effort to protect their low-lying fields from perennial flooding. Initially they stacked layers of sod to create a wall that would hold back July/August 2012
the water. In the Middle Ages, use was made of the tough sea grasses that grow abundantly in coastal regions. Through gradually more extensive use of dikes, ever larger areas of farm land became available. Meanwhile, smaller rivers were blocked off with dams or dikes whose sluices regulated their flow and kept salt tidal water from flowing back up the river. Because some of these dikes deprived towns of access to the sea over water, an extended system of canals was constructed to permit unfettered passage of fishermen and merchants. New towns and cities sprang up along the waterways. This pattern repeated itself over the ages, with a constantly evolving system of new and better dikes, more land being reclaimed from the water, and more sediment building up
wherever the natural flow of water was being disrupted. In the process of creating more arable land, the Dutch discovered that you can try to control the forces of nature, but not without serious side effects. One of these is the build-up of sediment in practically all waterways. Which brings us to Holland’s eighty-two dredging companies, all of which play a vital role in keeping shipping channels open in Holland’s 4000 miles of navigable rivers and canals. One of their tasks is to remove the endless buildup of sediment, so that sufficient depth is maintained in each waterway or harbor to accommodate the ever larger ships. Besides maintenance activities, dredgers are involved in land reclamation, building harbors, cleaning up existing bodies of water, and in acquiring sand to shore
The Netherlands The Netherlands: if there were no dikes...
GRONINGEN
Wadden Leeuwarden Sea
Texel
Makkum
Groningen
FRIESLAND
Assen
IJssel Lake
DRENTHE
NORTHHOLLAND NORTHHOLLAND
North Sea
Lelystad Haarlem
Noordwijk Katwijk
Zwolle
FLEVOLAND FLEVOLAND
OVERIJSSEL
Amsterdam
SOUTHHOLLAND
GELDERLAND
Utrecht
The TheHague Hague
UTRECHT
SOUTH-HOLLAND
Arnhem
Rhine ‘s-Hertogenbosch
Germany
BRABANT Middelburg
ZEELAND
LIMBURG
Scheldt
Belgium Water
70 Kilometers
Maastricht
43.5 Miles
Maas
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up the constantly eroding dunes while sea levels rise. The Dutch word baggeren (dredging) comes from bagger, the word for sediment. You might say that sediment, or rather the removal thereof, is the business of all those dredging companies. Wherever sediment limits the capacity of either the shipping trade or the rivers’ ability to carry off sufficient water to prevent flooding of the surrounding land, dredgers are called into action. Sediment must be removed if the country and its economy are to function, or even to survive. The task of sediment removal comes with many challenges. For instance, what to do with all that sludge? After all, an annual volume of 10 million cubic meters of sediment sinks to the bottom of Holland’s waterways. What is the chemical composition of the sediment? Is it toxic? Does it come from salt water or fresh water sources? Does it contain large quantities of
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garbage, further limiting disposal options? Where projects are carried out on a particular waterway, care must be taken not to contaminate the water supply through dredging. A recent report in national newspaper Trouw called attention to such a problem in the IJssel river, where dredgers had apparently gone too deep. Concerns over public health may limit the work being done. Most of the companies involved in dredging have chosen an area in which to specialize. Some get involved only in huge projects, or prefer to work in foreign countries requiring their expertise. Others function on a much smaller scale, such as cleaning up ditches or ponds, or offering expertise on the protection of shorelines. They might have only one dredging boat at their disposal, with a shallow draught to permit passage across shoals or sand bars. A larger outfit might spend 100 million euro each for two powerful new dredging ships, as the
Koninklijke Boskalis Westminster company did in recent years. One of the ships comes equipped with a ‘trailing suction hopper dredger’, giving some indication of its several functions, such as sucking up sand from the sea floor for deposit elsewhere. Additionally, the work involves huge grab cranes, bulldozers, backhoes, and the use of special geofibers to hold rock and sand in place.
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he responsibility for maintenance of Holland’s water channels is shared among the federal Rijkswaterstaat agency (its mission statement reads: Rijks waterstaat is the national agency that provides dry feet, clean and sufficient water and a quick and safe flow of traffic – literally translated the name means ‘State of the Kingdom’s Water’), provinces, and municipalities, as well as water boards (waterschappen), organizational bodies in charge of polders. Dredging companies need to work with
July/August 2012
Inyucho
relevant bodies in order to carry out any work. When it comes to disposal of the dredging spoils (called baggerspecie in Dutch), which include the chemically fouled material or garbage referred to earlier, dredging companies need to find a suitable site. Clean sediment can be spread on fields, on surface water or at sea, but suspect material is taken to depots established for that purpose. About 3.5 million cubic meters of questionable material is dredged up each year. Depots established between 2002 and 2006 have sufficient capacity for twenty years, and there are eighteen other dumping grounds as well as about 100 former sand pits that could be filled. However, environmental concerns can lead to objections against any of these places accepting contaminated material. Only a small portion can be recycled into sand, clay, or gravel for use elsewhere. With so many questions surrounding disposal, much work is being done to develop new uses for sediment and new technology to deal with it. Trials are being carried out covering sanitary landfills with a thick layer of contaminated sediment. It is hoped that heavy metals in such sediment might react favorably with sulphureous compounds in garbage, thus canceling each other out. Other trials may attempt to grow forest or other biomass on dumped sediment as a way of breaking down harmful chemicals. Dredging techniques have seen constant improvement over the years. Initially sediment was removed by hand, using a sort of long-handled fishnet. Four centuries ago, when the Dutch began digging peat for fuel, new technology was developed to remove the surface water and mud that covered peat layers. These eventually included steam-powered barges equipped with scoops attached to a rotating chain, scooping up water, soil, or mud, which was then carried to a reservoir on board. The invention July/August 2012
The Barrier Dam (Afsluitdijk): continuous dredging takes place on both sides to combat sediment build-up
of centrifugal pumps led to the development of much improved dredging equipment. Ships which were equipped with them were used during the creation of the New Waterway (Nieuwe Waterweg). Its seven mile length has provided a direct shipping route between the port of Rotterdam and the North Sea since 1872. More recent improvements in technology have built on those earlier inventions. Holland’s dredging companies have become world leaders in dealing with natural bodies of water. They have been involved in such enormous projects as not only the Delta Works domestically, but the creation of the harbor at Dunkirk in France, the Panama Canal, and Dubai’s man-made Palm Islands,
among many other examples. At home in Holland, dredging continues to make possible the country’s existence as a place where people can live and industry can thrive.
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s for the Windsor Causeway, none of the experts studying the phenomenon of salt marsh buildup have dared predict what would happen if the causeway were removed and tidal forces were given free rein again. Provincial government spokesmen quibble over feasibility studies and availability of financing. No one knows how the twinning of Highway 101, currently on indefinite hold, will eventually be implemented. That salt marsh may just keep on expanding. DUTCH, the magazine - 23
Immigration
Demonstrators gather in Amsterdam to protest against Geert Wilders, leader of the anti-immigrant PVV-party
Burning Man An American experiences first hand what it takes to become a legal resident of The Netherlands Part 2 of 2
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By Erik Raschke
hen an Iranian asylum seeker commits suicide by setting himself on fire in Amsterdam’s central Dam Square, the author, who lives only a few blocks away, reflects on his own situation: he has tried, without much success, to obtain legal residence status in The Netherlands for five years and the long and arduous process is beginning to take its toll on his personal life. Without steady work and my partner pulling in our entire income, we began to fight. I threatened to go back to America... She offered to come with me, but with caveats. She was forever hopeful things would work out. The Netherlands was still her country, her home, and she could not understand how her government could separate a father from a mother and her child. We split up. I could blame it solely on the immigration problems, but that would be disingenuous. Partnerships have a lot going against them. Ours was no different, but the visa issue did exacerbate our domestic quarrels. 24 - DUTCH, the magazine
That winter I went to a lawyer, originally from Michigan, who had moved to The Netherlands many years ago with his partner so that they could be legally married. He mentioned a new loophole. Leaning way back in his time-share chair in his time-share office, he said that since my ex and I were still legally registered in the same apartment, I was eligible to apply for Dutch naturalization. But I needed to pass a citizenship test (inburgeringsexamen) first. The Dutch citizenship test has caused some controversy lately. Journalists have colorfully described rooms full of Muslims forced to watch images of topless women sunbathing and homosexual men kissing and then being told: ‘If this offends you, living in the Netherlands is probably not the best option for you.’ I registered for a shortened version of the test, the Korte Vrijstellingstoets, a combination of a Dutch language exam with a test of cultural knowledge and sensitivity. The test, entirely in Dutch, allowed only forty-five minJuly/August 2012
utes for thirty questions and I could only take it once. It has the highest failure rate of all the test options and is relatively expensive. One person on a web forum claimed that only twenty percent of the participants pass. The test was administered in a bland office building in the Slotervaart suburb of Amsterdam. I arrived early and waited in a room full of people from around the world. When someone with a thick Dutch accent announced that the computer server was down, I found myself getting nervous. But I had one thing going for me. I knew how to take tests. I had taken one of those weekend courses back in high school and later, again, in college, that teach you how to take a multiple choice test. I had learned to narrow down my three choices into two, and then into one. The mantra was, even if you don’t know the right answer, you will always be able to figure out the wrong ones. The test was a series of videos with corresponding questions. I was, for example, shown a video clip of a young white Dutch couple fondling each other like a pair of dueling penguins. After a few seconds the camera panned to two men, Moustafa and Uzay, Morroccan and Turkish respectively. Uzay turned to Moustafa and said: ‘I find that disgusting. They should be put in jail,’ or words to that effect. Then the video stopped and I was instructed to scroll forward a page to answer the corresponding question:
Karen Eliot
How should Moustafa respond to Uzay? A. In The Netherlands public displays of affection are acceptable B. In The Netherlands public displays of affection are legal C. The police should be called and the couple taken to jail Obviously, the answer wasn’t C, but A and B were both technically correct. Thinking back to my test-preparation days, I was always told to put myself in the mind of the test-makers. I had been here five years and I knew that here an act considered anti-social (asociaal) often carries more weight than an illegal one. It is a mode of thought dating back centuries, when if one farmer didn’t pull his weight in the collective task of keeping the land dry, everyone’s field was at risk of being flooded. In such circumstances shaming non-participants into cooperation was more effective than legislating, so consensus on acceptable behavior became the predominant custom in collective endeavors. Reaching consensus took longer, and never made every participant completely happy, but at least the dykes were maintained, the windmills kept turning, and the fields remained arable. In the end, I chose answer A. It was an educated assumption. Someone like Kambiz Roustayi, a man who had never had the luxury of taking an expensive testtaking class, I think, might have chosen B. Laws are created by government. Laws are enforced by military and police. In Iran, Kambiz’s homeland, laws mirrored Allah’s will. July/August 2012
In any case, a few weeks later I was informed that I had passed the test. My success came with a water-marked certificate. I could now be naturalized, become a citizen. I rode my bike to City Hall, thrilled to finally see a conclusion to my visa troubles. It was there that I was informed by the clerk that the loophole of which my lawyer had informed me, came with a proviso: if I wanted to become naturalized, I would have to give up my American passport. Geert Wilders, the man told me, had zeroed in on people with dual nationalities, even going so far as attacking Turkish and Moroccan mayors and members of parliament who have retained the passports of their homeland.
A
t the time I was writing this article, a Nigerian man set himself on fire in the Southern part of The Netherlands, where Wilders is the most popular. It was not clear whether the man was already mentally unstable, but he was an asylum seeker. As Dutch lawyer, Alie Westerhuis told national newspaper Trouw: ‘There are so many wrecked people walking around. Not a day goes by that I don’t hear about a suicide plan or attempted suicide.’ Kambiz spent eleven years living in The Netherlands, under the shadow of deportation. He worked as an electrician or in other odd jobs. He spent nine of his eleven years moving from one detention center to another, or, as one journalist for Trouw put it: ‘from procedure to procedure, from lawyer to lawyer, living a life between hope and illegality.’ In 2010 his last appeal was denied and he was arrested. In the detention center in the city of Zeist, he met Ali Akbar Abbasi. Ali had just tried to commit suicide so Kambiz took him under his wing, cooking for and counseling his fellow asylum seeker. Abbasi’s frustrations were familiar. According to the same Trouw article he said: ‘The Ministry of Immigration and Naturalization treats you as a liar, you’re detained and treated like a criminal. The asylum system,’ he concluded, ‘breaks you’. When Kambiz was moved to a new detention center in Ter Apel, he witnessed the deportation of entire Iraqi families, including children who had been in The Netherlands for so long that they couldn’t even remember their homes in Baghdad or Basra. When the rumor went out that a large-scale ‘action’ of returning hundreds more asylum-seekers was getting underway, Kambiz fled to Amsterdam where he took his chances on the street. But Kambiz was a man of ideals, of purpose. His reason for fleeing to The Netherlands was that he had stood up against an authoritarian regime. He had fled out of selfpreservation, and, like many other Iranian journalists, continued the fight from afar. At some point though, his decade-long stay in the Netherlands, the unending legal limbo, wore him down. He simply couldn’t do it anymore. DUTCH, the magazine - 25
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His friend Parvis Noshirrani said that in the last days before his death, Kambiz had drifted off in the middle of conversations, that his look became increasingly distant, that he mentioned ‘ending it’ frequently. Kambiz had even said to his friend: ‘You will read in the papers tomorrow about how my story ends.’ He was ready to make a final protest against his government, the Dutch government, in the loudest way possible. He wanted to show the world that the asylum process was long, demoralizing, and ultimately futile. That to give someone hope, and take it away, and give it back, and take it away through an seemingly unending legal process, is inhumane. Perhaps more inhumane than outright denial. I guess he had concluded by this point that setting himself on fire would convey his anger to a far larger audience than a letter to the editor could. Kambiz’s self-immolation, a political protest, has a far deeper significance for me than just politics. I feel that I have been made powerless during my time navigating the bureaucracy of the Dutch immigration system. Never in my life have I, for such an extended period of time, felt so sad, helpless, even depressed over such an abstract situation. I have always, in some way, no matter how minor, been able to influence my situation – but not now. If Kambiz wanted to end his misery, he could have taken pills or jumped off a bridge, but he believed in protest, slipping away in silence was not an option for him.
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Dirk Hoogeveen - Digging for Dutch Roots
Births, Marriages, Deaths
diligently recorded since 1811
T
he Code Napoleon, and with it the legal obligation to register births, marriage announcements, marriages, divorces and deaths, came into force on January 1, 1811.These civil registrations had to take place at the local town or city hall. The actual date of the introduction of the registers varies somewhat by region. Generally south of the River Rhine registration started on January 1, 1811 and north of it on March 1, 1811. Exceptions are the province of Limburg, which had already introduced civil registration in 1794 and Zeeuws-Vlaanderen, which introduced it in 1796. The different registers were not necessarily implemented at the same time, even in the same town. In Amsterdam, for example, the first marriage was registered on March 3, 1811, while the first births and deaths were not registered until July 23 of that same year. Other places also have implementation dates after March 1. In the Province of Friesland civil registration did not start until 1812. When civil registration was introduced, cities’ administrative staffs were expected to know how to perform these tasks, even though they had no previous experience in this regard. The population at large, too, had to be informed of what was expected of them. Considering that means of communication were limited at the time, it is understandable that the system didn’t work too efficiently. On top of that, there was a certain amount of resistance to the new rules. When, after the battle of Leipzig (October 6-19, 1813) the French withdrew from The Netherlands, it was assumed by some that the new French rules were now no longer in force, and registration was halted in several jurisdictions. However, when The Netherlands became a Kingdom at the end of 1813, the new King, Willem I, decreed by Royal Resolution on
Age of majority
The age of majority in The Netherlands has varied over the years. Since many marriage certificates identify the bride or groom as a minor (minderjarig) or having reached the age of majority (meerderjarig), it is helpful to know what the rule was when these certificates were made up. • Until 1810 the age of majority was 25. • Under the French Code civil in 1811 it became 21. • In 1838 the Dutch civil code increased the age of majority to 23. • In 1901 the age of majority was reduced to 21. • Since 1988 the age of majority is 18. 28 - DUTCH, the magazine
February 16, 1814 that the civil registration system was to be retained. To make registration successful a fixed last name is a prerequisite. The usual method of identifying people in The Netherlands, since the middle ages at least, had been the patronymic, the name of the father. Hence Claes Maertensz is Claes, son of Maerten or for a female Engeltje Cornelisdr is Engeltje daughter of Cornelis. There were variations of the sz and dr endings and sometimes they were even omitted, especially when the base name ended in an s. In the 15th and 16th centuries not many people had a last name in addition to the patronymic. So last names varied across the generations. Fixed last names became more common in the 17th century. My own last name appears for the first time in the church register of Benthuizen in 1658, where my ancestor Claes Maertensz is mentioned with the last name Hogeveen. In the civil registration records we sometimes see the patronymic system preserved in conjunction with a fixed last name until about 1850. By 1800 most people in the southern part of The Netherlands had fixed last names, although the spelling varied depending on who wrote the name. On August 18, 1811 Napoleon decreed that everybody in The Netherlands who did not have a last name, had to register one within a year. Some people thought this new system would only be of a temporary nature and registered funny names as a form of protest. On May 17, 1813 the period of registration was extended to January 1, 1814. Even after that date there were still some people without a fixed last name. On November 8, 1825 King Willem I gave those laggards another six months to register their names. This was especially relevant in areas in the provinces of Gelderland and Overijssel, where people had variable last names, which depended on which farm they lived on. Many of the original registers of chosen last names have disappeared, but those in the northern part of the country, especially in the Province of Friesland, still exist.
F
or each of the categories of registration, births, marriages, deaths (BMD), notice of intended marriage and the announcement of marriages, separate bound registers in folio format (nearly as large as legal format) were created each year. The certificates contained in these ledgers were numbered sequentially. To prevent fraud loose leafs were not permitted, no July/August 2012
Anne Hornyak
pages between the certificates were allowed to stay blank. The President of the District Court signed the first and the last page of the registers and initialled the pages in between. Then on the first page it was noted how many pages the book contained. The principle of bound pages prevailed for nearly 150 years. For the most important registers, births, marriages, deaths and divorces, two copies were made, one of which was filed with the District Court at the end of the year, as were the single copies of the others. In order to preserve the records for a long time the ink and the paper should be of good quality. Black ink and linen paper became the requirement after 1820. Early on the certificates were entirely handwritten, but relatively soon pre-printed certificates appeared, on which the official only had to fill in the blanks. The wording of the certificates changed somewhat from time to time to keep up with the usage and style of the day. For larger centres the manual entry in bound books became unwieldy. By act of May 20, 1955 the certificates of civil registration were allowed to be typed on single sheets, which later were assembled and bound into books. First only the larger cities were allowed to do this, but soon the process became universal. The system changed again with the introduction of computers. The first person named on any certificate is the official who recorded the event. Next are the people declaring the event, often present themselves, such as a father registering the birth of a child or a bride and groom who declare that they wish to be married. Next the witnesses are named. They are present to verify that the people declaring the event are who they say they are. They witness the reading of the document and sign it. The requirement for witnesses has gradually eroded over the two centuries since the introduction of the civil registry and usually now only applies to marriages. July/August 2012
Entrance to the Archives of Noord-Holland in Haarlem, one of the archives affiliated with digitalestamboom.nl
Useful websites
A large number of Dutch BMD-records have been digitized and are accessible in searchable databases on the Internet. The biggest, covering the entire country, but not complete yet, is the Genlias database, where records generally go back to the start of civil registration in 1811. Many cities have also put their archives on-line. City sites generally cover the city itself and a number of surrounding communities. City sites often go further back in time than Genlias. The digitalestamboom.nl site is a combined effort of Rotterdam, The Hague, Delft, Haarlem and Amersfoort. Websites: • http://www.genlias.nl/ • http://www.digitalestamboom.nl/ DUTCH, the magazine - 29
Travel
The abundance of narrow country lanes flanked by leaning willow trees is a defining feature of the Green Heart
The green heart of Holland a lush garden surrounded by bustling cities By Paola Westbeek
N
estled amidst the Dutch conurbation known as the Randstad (Rim City), lies a sparsely populated, rural area: the Green Heart (Het Groene Hart). It is a place where cows lazily graze in wide, grassy meadows, windmills slowly turn against the wide open skies and the stress of everyday life can be left behind. Perhaps we can best describe it as the lush back garden to the vibrant cities which surround it. People come here for a day out and a gentle bike ride through the countryside, or a peaceful boat trip on some of the many lakes. It is a favored recreational area, yet throughout its history, the natural 30 - DUTCH, the magazine
beauty of the Green Heart has been threatened by large-scale urbanization. Fortunately, it has fought back and managed to become one of the 20 protected Dutch national landscapes. In the 11th century, the Count of Holland and the Bishop of Utrecht initiated the reclamation of what at the time was nothing more than wet, marshy land. Ditches, watercourses and windmills were built to provide drainage and make the land suitable for agriculture, while peat digging resulted in the formation of lakes. It wasn’t long before the area became an iconic example of Dutch man-made landscape.
By 1958 the term ‘Green Heart’ had been coined and the area was destined as a place for agriculture and recreation for the surrounding cities. Unfortunately, the next couple of decades saw the Green Heart threatened by expanding cities such as Alphen aan den Rijn, Gouda and Zoetermeer, and by the late 1980s urbanization had increased by approximately 18%. Industrial zones were emerging almost everywhere and it soon became clear that something needed to be done in order to retain the Green Heart’s rural and open character. Planning policies such as the Fourth National Planning Report Extra (VINEX) adJuly/August 2012
Hazerswoude. Try some of their delicious farm-fresh products, have a go at farmer’s golf, take a clog painting workshop or venture out on one of the scenic routes. Perhaps you might want to consider a day trip to bird park Avifauna where you can admire a wide variety of exotic birds from all over the world. The park also offers boat tours through the Green Heart. A perfect opportunity to take in the Dutch countryside, as seen from the water! Alphen aan den Rijn is one of the larger cities in the area, so if shopping or eating out is your thing, head to its center and you won’t be disappointed!
Hans Westbeek
Sint Nicolaashoeve in Nieuwveen offers a full farm experience for locals and visitors alike
opted in 1993 attempted to bring a halt to this development by concentrating the agglomerations in and around existing cities. To a certain extent, spatial planning proved to be successful, yet there was still a lot of damage from the earlier years that needed to be repaired and many rules had to be tightened. By December of 2006, the three provincial governments of South Holland, Utrecht and North Holland had drawn up a mutual plan aimed at protecting the integrity of the Green Heart and restoring the balance between landscape and urban development. It was to remain a place where living, agriculture, nature, industry and recreation would co-exist harmoniously. The beauty of the Green Heart lies not only in its many postcardworthy panoramas, but also in its proximity to the major cities. Amsterdam, The Hague, Rotterdam and Leiden are all a stone’s throw away, making this piece of Dutch paradise a great place for city dwellers to escape to, whether it be for an afternoon outdoors or a few nights in one of its many charming accommodations. There is always something wonderful waiting to be discovered and enjoyed in one of its seven regions.
Alphen aan den Rijn
Situated in the central part of the July/August 2012
Hollands Plassengebied
Green Heart lies Alphen aan den Rijn, an area of characteristic Dutch meadows and rich cultural history. A great place to spend the day is recreational farm Jeu de Boer in
Made up of lakes, rivers, canals and rectangular meadows, this is one of the most water-rich areas in The Netherlands. The Braasemermeer, Westeinder Plassen, Nieuwkoopse AMSTER DAM
Vreeland
Hollands Plassengebied
Vinkeveen
Nieuwveen
Utrechtse Venen
Ter Aar
LEIDEN
Alphen aan den Rijn THE HAGUE
Hazerswoude
Woerden
ZOETER MEER
UTRECHT Montfoort
Gouda
Oudewater
Haastrecht
IJsselstein Benschop
Utrechtse Waarden Krimpenerwaard ROTTER DAM
Nieuwpoort
Alblasserwaard - Vijfheerenlanden
The Green Heart of Holland and the Randstad Cities and towns, the size of the circle indicates the relative footprint of the built-up area (only places that are mentioned in the article are identified on the map).
The Green Heart
Body of water
Region of the Green Heart
DUTCH, the magazine - 31
In the mood for a sail or a ride? At De Willigen you can rent a large sloop and bicycles.
Utrechtse Waarden
The Green Heart has always been one of Holland’s prime dairy farming regions
Plassen and Kagerplassen are a paradise for those who enjoy adventurous watersports or quiet canoe trips. If you have always wondered what it’s like to milk a cow or ride a tractor, you might want to take a quick course at the Sint Nicolaashoeve in Nieuwveen and find out. At the end you’ll even get a farmer’s certificate! The Sint Nicolaashoeve, a historic farm dating back to 1858, is run by the welcoming Hartveld family and offers visitors six completely furnished apartments where the peace of the countryside can be savored to the fullest. Care for a glass of Dutch wine? At the Naescas Vineyard in Ter Aar you can take a wine tour or shop for wine and charming home decorations at a quaint store.
ers. Should you want to actually visit a dairy farm and see how the product is made, stop by De Willigen in Vreeland where farmer Coby will be delighted to show you. Taste some of her cheeses or treat yourself to one of farmer Yolanda’s artisanal ice cream varieties made with fresh, home-grown fruit. Located directly on the Vecht River, De Willigen offers bed and breakfast accommodation with seven elegantly furnished rooms and a sunny, waterside deck.
Located to the southwest of Utrecht, the area is one of agriculture and historical farms dotted here and there with fruit orchards and windmills. Craving some cultural inspiration? Visit the medieval city of Oudewater and discover monumental buildings such as The Weigh House (Waag) (weigh yourself and find out if you are a witch), the Renaissance-style Town Hall and Saint Michael’s Church. If you’d like to get to know the area at a gentle pace, go to Visitor’s Center (Bezoekerscentrum) de Utrechtse Waarden in Benschop (also a great place to discover more about farming) and choose one of the four cycling or walking routes which will take you through picturesque towns such as IJsselstein and Montfoort.
Alblasserwaard Vijfheerenlanden
This is one of the most peaceful, quiet areas in the Green Heart. An oasis which lies between the rivers Lek, Noord, Linge and Merwede. Put on your walking shoes and take the Ooievaarspad (Stork’s Route)
Utrechtse Venen
In the northeast of the Green Heart you’ll find large stretches of peat meadows and waterways that disappear into the horizon. This scenic area is home to lapwings and black-tailed godwits. On a rainy day, head to Museum de Ronde Venen in Vinkeveen where you can learn more about the area’s history. Or visit Woerden’s market on a Wednesday or Saturday morning to buy cheese and other regional products directly from the farm32 - DUTCH, the magazine
Bikes on a bridge and a boat under it in the medieval city of Oudewater July/August 2012
Cheese farm De Willigen in Vreeland offers a wide variety of artisanal cheeses
starting at Nieuwpoort aan de Lek. The 16 kilometer route will take you to windmills, farms and polders. It includes a take-away lunch which you can enjoy at one of many beautiful spots along the way.
Krimpenerwaard
C/W: Hans Westbeek - Rob Koopmans - Zoetnet - Mirko Tobias
A calm retreat surrounded by the
Just outside the busy city of Leiden lie tranquil fields and tiny villages July/August 2012
rivers Hollandse IJssel, Lek and Vlist with long rows of farms along its banks. If you’re interested in how the Dutch have battled against the water, visit the former pumping station Poldermuseum Gemaal De Hoge Boezem in Haastrecht and discover the history of polders and
Groene Hart Logies Planning a trip to one of the major Dutch cities and looking for a special place to stay? Skip the conventional hotel room and rent one of the charming accommodations right in the middle of the Green Heart. Over a decade ago, six families with their own farm decided to give their businesses a second function by offering visitors a friendly place to stay. Currently there are 28 authentic farms with either fully furnished apartments or spacious rooms destined to make your stay as comfortable and memorable as possible. Enjoy the idyllic Dutch countryside, wake up to cows slowly walking past your window, have a country breakfast and hop on the bicycle or train for a day out in the city. It’s the best of both worlds! For more information and availability please visit: www.holidayfarm.nl DUTCH, the magazine - 33
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34 - DUTCH, the magazine
July/August 2012
windmills during the last thousand years.
Gouda
Mention the name ‘Gouda’ and most people will automatically think ‘cheese’, yet the city also happens to be the historical heart in the Green Heart. Admire its impressive facades, immaculately kept gardens, romantic canals and monumental buildings such as the Saint John’s church (Janskerk) or the majestic Gothic City Hall. Those with a sweet tooth will not want to leave the city without indulging in one of its local delicacies: a warm, thin-crusted and fabulously gooey stroopwafel (Dutch syrup waffle)! You can find them at stands throughout the city or witness how they are actually made at Van Vliet’s bakery. Be sure to stock up on some tasty souvenirs before heading home!
T
he Green Heart is a place where possibilities abound. Within one compact area, visitors are treated to everything the Netherlands has to offer: characteristic open landscapes and low horizons, unique villages full of culture and charm, wonderful artisanal products and plenty of recreational opportunities. Add to that the fact that practically all major Dutch cities are at its doorstep and it isn’t hard to see why the Green Heart is one of the country’s most remarkable holiday destinations.
Places of interest
Mishimoto
Websites for the places of interest mentioned in the article are listed below. www.jeudeboer.nl www.avifauna.nl www.sintnicolaashoeve.nl www.naescas.nl www.museumderondevenen.nl www.dewilligenlogies.nl www.boerderijdehaan.nl www.gemaalhaastrecht.nl July/August 2012
Gouda’s historic City Hall, one of the oldest in the country, dates back to the fifteenth century DUTCH, the magazine - 35
Cooking
Summer dairy treats
for a delicious daily dietary line-up
H
Text and Photographs by Nicole Holten
olland is dairy country par excellence. Much of that lactic largesse is reflected in its vast assortment of cheeses, of course. Cheese is a product so closely associated with The Netherlands that the Dutch are often referred to as ‘cheese heads’ (kaaskoppen). But the domination of dairy does not stop with cheese. Check out the dessert aisle in the grocery story which besides yogurt, ice cream and chocolate milk, holds a huge variety of puddings, pourable custards (vla), ‘drink yogurts’, cream cheese, mousse and bavaroise, all made with delicious Dutch milk. 36 - DUTCH, the magazine
Dutch dairy cows have long been famous for the quality of their milk, and particularly for the quantity they were able to produce on a daily basis. In the 19th century, Holland’s dairy cattle was much desired in neighboring countries. Its fame even reached as far as the United States. The dairy industry contributed greatly to the economy of several regions, especially those that were able to maintain large herds, such as the Green Heart of Holland (see page 30) and the province of Friesland. In its capital, Leeuwarden, the Frisians even raised a monuJuly/August 2012
ment to the cow, calling it ‘Us mem’, which means ‘our mother’ in the local language. During the 1950s, the country experienced an overproduction of milk, and in order to not let it go to waste, a milk drinking campaign was created, in which famous cartoon character Joris Driepinter was the star. He was an adventurous little guy who was able to solve all kinds of problems because of his predilection for milk. His name Driepinter (three pinter), referred to Joris’s encouragement to kids to drink three glasses of the calcium-rich beverage a day. During that same time, school milk (schoolmelk) was introduced. Local or regional dairy cooperatives delivered milk to the schools for the kids to drink. Research showed that children who had access to milk while at school did better and were healthier in general than those who didn’t. As time progressed, milk slowly but surely was replaced by sugary sodas as the beverage of choice, a trend that unfortunately still continues to this day.
D
airy plays a large role in the Dutch daily dietary line-up. Cheese as well as a huge variety of dairy desserts are practically impossible to ignore in the grocery store. Until the 1950s most desserts were made at home, but by then the dairy industry started producing such a variety that it was easier to purchase store-bought versions. Nowadays, it is rare to find people who make their own yogurt, kwark or vla from scratch. Nevertheless, it is a treat when someone does and it is not very hard to do! Sweet, pourable vla is a typically Dutch product. It has the consistency and texture of yogurt but without the tang, and is available in more than twenty flavors: vanilla, chocolate, caramel, strawberry, banana, raspberry, apple-cinnamon, and of course the typically Dutch hopjes (with a caramel-coffee type taste)… the list goes on. One dairy product that does not usually stand out for its texture, flavor, or even for its innovative character is the slighly snubbed, often overlooked buttermilk (karnemelk). The slightly sour taste, the viscosity of the milk and sometimes even its smell, will put many people off. Karnemelk is the milk that is left over after the cream has been removed for butter. It is slightly sour and a little thicker than milk and is most often used for baking: the slight acidity is an excellent trigger for a leavener such as baking powder. In the old days, buttermilk was used as a beverage and for the poorest of people as a substitute for meat gravy on their potatoes. In the rural areas of The Netherlands you will still find that many people of the older generation pour buttermilk over the potatoes on their plate before mashing them with their fork. Of the same vintage, is an old-fashioned dessert called buttermilk pudding (karnemelkpudding). It is easy to make. The hardest part is exercising the patience to wait until it’s ready to eat as the pudding requires a minimum July/August 2012
Hangop Ingredients
1 quart (32 ozs) buttermilk 1 cup plain yogurt with active cultures Warm the buttermilk in a pan on the stove to 110 F. Stir in the plain yogurt, bring the mixture back to 110 F, then cover with a cloth and set aside overnight. The next morning the buttermilk should have thickened considerably. Moisten a tea towel, drape it over a colander and place the colander in a bowl. Carefully pour the buttermilk into the towel. The whey, a light yellow-greenish watery liquid, will almost immediately start dripping through the towel. Now you can either tie the four ends of the towel together and suspend it from, for example, a kitchen cabinet doorknob, or just leave it in the colander. The whey will continue to drain. After four hours, carefully lift the towel with its contents and slightly squeeze out the remainder of the whey. Open the towel and move the hangop into a clean bowl with a spoon. You should have a very thick creamy yogurt! Stir in your sweetener of choice and see if it's creamy enough. If too much whey drained, you can stir in some whipping cream or milk, one tablespoon at a time.
Kwark Ingredients 6 cups whole milk 2 cups buttermilk (avoid buttermilks with gums, corn starch etc.) Pour both milks into a heavy pan and slowly bring up to 100 F. Cover the pan and let it sit at room temperature overnight. The next day, the whey should have separated from the milk solids. Pour everything into a tea towel, knot the four ends together and suspend the package from the kitchen cabinet’s door knob. Place a bowl underneath to catch the whey. Drain for a good three hours or until the whey has stopped draining. Scrape the kwark out of the towel and fluff up with a fork. If it’s too dry, add a tablespoon or two of milk, or if it’s still too wet, continue to drain until it has the right consistency. You are looking for a thicker yogurt consistency. Makes two cups of kwark. DUTCH, the magazine - 37
Buttermilk Pudding (Karnemelkpudding) Ingredients ½ cup sugar Ÿ cup water 2 envelopes of gelatin powder 2½ cups buttermilk 1 cup heavy whipping cream 2 heaping tablespoons powdered sugar Put the sugar and the water into a small saucepan and stir over medium heat until the sugar has dissolved. Take it off the stove and sprinkle in one envelope of gelatin powder. Once the powder has dissolved, slowly pour in the buttermilk. Stir until everything is well mixed. Set aside to cool. In a separate bowl whip the whipping cream with the powdered sugar and the remaining gelatin powder until stiff peaks form. Fold the whipped cream into the buttermilk until well blended. Rinse a pudding mold (either one large one or several small ones) with cold water and pour in the pudding mix. Cover with plastic film and refrigerate for four to five hours minimum, or overnight. To remove the pudding from the mold, place the mold in a pan with hot water for ten seconds, then tip over on a plate. Decorate with fresh or canned fruit.
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July/August 2012
of four hours in the refrigerator. It will improve from sitting overnight. It has a creamy, airy consistency with a slightly tangy taste and goes very well with sweet fresh fruit such as strawberries or for a more wintery dish, it can be paired with sweet dark cherries. For an equally patience-demanding, yet even easier to make dessert, try hangop. Hangop literally means ‘to hang up’. It is an old fashioned Dutch dairy dessert made with buttermilk or yogurt that’s left to drain, hanging, in a towel; hence the name. When the whey is drained, you are left with a thick, creamy dessert, somewhere between thick cream and creamy yogurt.
Hopjesvla Ingredients ½ cup sugar 2 cups milk ½ cup strong black coffee (plus 2 teaspoons instant coffee if required) 3 tablespoons cornstarch 2 egg yolks Heat the sugar in a saucepan with a heavy bottom. Watch carefully as the sugar liquefies and slowly takes on a golden colour. Monitor heat carefully as sugar will burn quickly.
Kwark Cake (Kwarktaart) Ingredients 10 cookies (graham crackers, tea biscuits etc.) 9 tablespoons sugar, divided 1 teaspoon cinnamon 6 tablespoons butter, melted 1 cup heavy whipping cream 1 tablespoon vanilla essence 1 cup whole milk 1 envelope gelatin 2 cups kwark Place the cookies in a plastic bag and roll into crumbs with a rolling pin. Pour into a bowl. Mix in 2 tablespoons of sugar and one tablespoon of cinnamon. Add the melted butter and mix well. Line the bottom of a springform pan with parchment paper. Add the crumb mixture and flatten with the back of a spoon. Place the pan in the fridge so the cookie bottom can harden. Whip the heavy cream with 3 tablespoons of sugar and the vanilla. In a bowl mix 3 tablespoons of sugar with the gelatin. Bring the milk to a boil and mix with the sugar until the gelatine has dissolved. Set aside to cool.
Mix the coffee with the milk. Taste, and if a stronger flavour is required, add some instant coffee, making sure the granules dissolve completely. Pour half of the liquid into the caramelized sugar and slowly bring to a boil to soften and dissolve the caramel, stirring continually. In a separate bowl, mix the cornstarch with the egg yolks and slowly add the remainder of the liquid. Take 5 tablespoons of the hot milk and, one by one, add to the egg mixture, stirring well, until the egg mixture is up to temperature. Take the caramel off the stove and carefully stir in the egg mixture. Return the pan to the heat and slowly bring to a boil, stirring all the while. The vla will thicken in the next two to three minutes, and will be ready when air bubbles come to the surface and leave small holes in the surface. Pour the vla in a bowl and cover with plastic film to avoid the formation of a skin. Refrigerate until cold.
Stir the whipped cream into the kwark and carefully fold in the remainder of the sugar. Stir in the cooled milk until it forms a smooth, creamy liquid, and pour it into the springform pan. Tap the sides carefully to pop any air bubbles, then place the pan back in the fridge. Let sit overnight.
To achieve a pourable consistency, you may need to add one or two tablespoons of cold milk to the vla. Stir well before serving.
The next day, carefully slide a knife along the rim to loosen the cake. Top with fresh strawberries, mandarins oranges, or any other fruit.
July/August 2012
DUTCH, the magazine - 39
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Recipes Please email your favourite Dutch recipe to susanna_t_scott@shaw.ca
RIJNDAM PASSENGERS I left Holland on December 23rd 1953, sailing on the Rijndam. It would be of interest to hear from any fellow passengers. oosterbaan@sympatico.ca (705) 759-8882
DUTCH the magazine issue #2 My collection is incomplete! Still looking for DUTCH the magazine issue #2. Contact: Anke Smeele ankes@shaw.ca (250) 537-1270 WEEKBLAD D’ORIENT During the pre-war years my father, Albert Zimmerman, was Chief Editor of d’Oriënt. I am looking for issues of this magazine. Adalei Starreveld-Zimmerman (780) 963-5795 adaleistarreveld@cruzinternet.com
EVENTS DUTCH RADIO PROGRAM “The Dutch Touch” Dutch language radio program. CJMR 1320 AM. Live every Saturday morning from 8.30 until 9.30 a.m. in Greater Toronto. Listen live from anywhere in the world on www.cjmr1320.ca Your host: Martin van Denzen
De Krant is the only Dutch language monthly in North America. News items, essays, columns, letters, recipes, puzzles, poems, songs, jokes, written in Dutch from a North American perspective...
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40 - DUTCH, the magazine
DUTCH STORES ACTON, ONTARIO Shopping at the Holland Shop, Acton is a unique experience, but it is also familiar, with the comforts and smells of home. Come celebrate EuroCup 2012 with us! Family-owned and operated for over 50 years. Carolin Tolkamp (519) 853-0950 the_holland_shop@hotmail.com
PROFESSIONAL SERVICES DUTCH SPEAKING LAWYER Dutch speaking Alberta Lawyer. I’ll make your will, your personal directive, your enduring power of attorney, do your real estate purchase or sale. If you need advice or direction, I’m available. Frank N.T. Vanderkley B.Sc. B.Ed. LL.B. (403) 442-2395 Fax: (403) 442-2348 vanderkley@eastlink.ca
VACATION RENTALS PORT ALBERNI, BRITISH COLUMBIA The Roses B&B. 5570 Kitsuksis St, Port Alberni. Large rooms; single, queen beds; private/shared baths; hot tub/sunroom; breakfast menu; wireless; free long distance calling; long-term off-street parking; close to restaurants; pick-up at ‘Lady Rose’ dock, bus depot; 22 yrs experience; home comfort; “There is a difference” www.therosesbb.com (250) 723-3507 Temagami, Ontario Temagami, Ontario island paradise for rent. Visit www.zyp.ca. For more information, contact: andrew@zyp.ca
BOOKS FOR SALE Almost a foreign country Manfred Wolf’s book ‘Almost a Foreign Country’, which contains a number of columns on matters Dutch, is available from Amazon.com, Barnes and Noble, and other booksellers. MY Name is Jacoba By Jackie Gingrich 128 page soft cover book about my family’s history and immigration from Holland to Canada in the 1950s For cost and ordering go to: http://www3.sympatico.ca/phil.gingrich or phone: (519) 668-1130 July/August 2012
A
nother dairy product that is hard to find, but easy to make is kwark: it is similar to hangop, but made with whole milk and buttermilk. Kwark is ideal for making kwarktaart: a tarter, lighter version of the American cheesecake that works fantastically well with fresh or canned fruit. No time, but still want to try something Dutch? Drinkyogurt will take but a couple of minutes to make. An absolute favorite with children, drinkable yogurt is refreshing and can be made in everybody’s favorite flavor. Hilariously funny, in his first book
BRIAN BRAMSON
warns his nephew about the strange habits of the people of the Lowlands.
Drink yogurt Ingredients 6 oz flavored yogurt (strawberry, peach, orange…..) 3 oz cold milk Pour the yogurt and the milk into a canning jar with a lid. Shake at least ten times vigorously, then shake it ten more times. Pour into a cold glass and enjoy!
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Tel: +31 320 254316 web: www.luikink.nl www.luikink.com Email: frans-ria-luikink@planet.nl
DUTCH, the magazine - 41
Language
The untranslatability of gezellig By Scott Hatton
S
hould you come to live in Holland with limited knowledge of the language beforehand, your Dutch teacher will eventually throw the word gezellig into the conversation. Indeed, mine did about four months into the course. I have to say that, along with the language lessons, Gert-Jan De Boer was the perfect man to teach about the culture of the Low Countries. Of course for the sake of this article and perhaps the laws of libel neither Gert-Jan nor De Boer were his real name, just an indication that he was as Dutch as Dutch teachers come: big grey handlebar moustache, round ‘John Lennon’ glasses, an accent as thick as chocolate spread, annoyingly at home in three foreign languages and he could confidently talk about both Rembrandt and Rijkaard in the same sentence. At least ten years older than the oldest of the students, he was the prime example of the problem facing the uninitiated learner about whether to use the formal u, or the familiar jij when addressing him “In the modern Netherlands, you use u only to address a person substantially older than yourself”, opined meneer De Boer, “and jij for everybody else – your friends, children, contemporaries. I am the living embodiment of the issue to you younger people. Am I u or am I jij? Am I Gert-Jan or meneer De Boer to you? I see the clock is telling me that we are out of time. Next week, we will study the difference between jou and jouw – even the Dutch don’t know how that works. I hope you find a gezellige bar and join your classmates for a post-lesson drink. By the way gezellig is untranslatable, there is no equivalent in any other language.” “My Dutch friend said it’s exactly the same as the German 42 - DUTCH, the magazine
word gemütlich” said a lone voice from the back of the classroom, “meaning ‘comfortable’, ‘cosy’ or ‘pleasant’.” “A friendly word of advice, Miss Salvador, would be never to confuse German gemütlichkeit with Dutch gezelligheid. They are utterly different things and experiences. Chalk and cheese. Woe betide all unwary people who use the German gemütlich in front of a true Dutchman as the translation of gezellig. Good night to you all and see you next Wednesday.” One would think that gemütlichkeit is almost a literal translation of gezelligheid. German people similarly talk proudly of gemütlich as ‘untranslatable’. For your own amusement, you may challenge the Dutch with this retort. But of course, Gert-Jan was quite right – gezellig is untranslatable, but maybe not in the way many Netherlanders think it is. When a bar or café is gezellig, it is a place where the conversation flows, good friends are made out of strangers – at least for one evening. The old brown cafés of Amsterdam oozed gezelligheid – walls browned by decades of cigarette smoke, the main table draped with a huge old carpet and the darkness peppered with conversations about the Ajax soccer team, the terrible mayor and his stupid decisions, the train that was three minutes late last Thursday, and round after round of beer served in a glass little bigger than a thimble. English speakers might make a reasonable stab at the translation of this type of gezelligheid as ‘convivial’. With the advent of the smoking ban, gezelligheid has diminished as many discussions move out to the sidewalk for a few nicotine-filled minutes. Worse, many such conversations these days stay in the living room of people who now prefer to buy a July/August 2012
six-pack of cheap supermarket Heineken instead of venturing out in the rain. Now, to digress just for a second or two. A ‘wake’ in Catholic Ireland is typically an alcohol-fuelled, laughter-filled occasion commemorating a recently-departed soul. A ‘wake’ in Presbyterian Scotland is generally a tea-fuelled, tearful event commemorating a recently-departed soul. One word. Two different concepts. And the supporters of the simple translation to ‘convivial’ are stumped when gezellig is applied as the perfect word to use when discussing a Dutch birthday celebration. We are no longer in the pub in a free-flowing improvised and enjoyable conversation – indeed quite the opposite. We are instead in a highly choreographed chore – the merest shadow of the fun party that a birthday can be elsewhere. The full version of the Dutch birthday ceremony can be found at the heart of a Dutch family, but ‘Dutch Birthday Lite’ can be equally unenjoyed in an office environment. To start with, the birthday boy or girl will need to buy their own cake. Before arriving at the office, the lucky person will need to visit a Dutch banketbakker – a dedicated cake shop which will conveniently open early in the morning before the office does, to serve all the birthday boys and girls of The Netherlands. Upon arrival in the office, the cake will be stowed in the refrigerator for a few hours until it is too cold to eat.
IMMIGRANT
ROSEMARY SLOOT
A
t precisely 10.30 (or 11 a.m. in the most progressive offices), the celebrant’s boss will invite everybody to stop working immediately and gather in the kitchen
area. “We are here”, will say said boss, “to commemorate the special day of our esteemed colleague who turns 42 today”. Hands will be shaken: “Congratulations upon the birthday of your colleague”. If you are there, and you are not a native of the Netherlands, any conversation will be conducted in English ‘for your benefit’. Coffee and exactly one cookie will be distributed by the department’s secretary. Uncomfortable and stilted conversations will try to fill the auditory void, but silence is tolerated and indeed encouraged. The cake will then be cut by the person who bought it and distributed fairly among all present – the more people, the thinner the slices. The birthday boy or girl will apologize to any diabetics among the assembled colleagues and say that the shop did not make sugar-free cakes – they will go without. Less than ten minutes later the occasion will fizzle out when, in other countries, a second cup of coffee or a second cookie would have been offered. Only exactly one coffee and one cookie is allowed. Participants will then drift back to their desks to finish that email they were halfway through writing. “I hear it was your birthday yesterday” a colleague who was absent will say, “was it gezellig?” Everyone present experienced a stylized, coordinated, gloomy waste of a few minutes which added only to the waistline and not to the sum of human happiness. Yes it was completely gezellig. It can mean ‘convivial’. It can mean ‘unconvivial’. Gezellig, as widely reported then, is indeed a word that has no equivalent in other languages. July/August 2012
Burlington Art Centre, Burlington, ON April 21 - June 10, 2012 Reception May 6, 2-4pm Thunder Bay Art Gallery, Thunder Bay, ON September 9 - October 30, 2012 The King's University College, Edmonton, AB November 2012 through February 2013 The Norfolk Arts Centre, Simcoe, ON Spring or summer, 2013, dates to be confirmed
BAC
1333 Lakeshore Road Burlington, ON L7S 1A9 (905) 632 - 7796 BURLINGTON ART CENTRE theBAC.ca DUTCH, the magazine - 43
Death
Klaas Carel Faber K
the Nazi war criminal, died a free man, 65 years after he received his death sentence
laas Carel Faber liked to take strolls in the park with his wife Jacoba. When during one of those walks two years ago, a reporter from British tabloid The Sun approached him and asked him whether he felt any remorse for his crimes his initial smile ‘immediately vanished, replaced by an icy stare and grim silence.’ Faber was by that time listed by the Simon Wiesenthal Center as one of the five most wanted Nazi war criminals in the world. Unlike many other wartime executioners he was not hiding. He lived in plain sight, in Ingolstadt, a historic town on the banks of the Danube in the German state of Bavaria, about midway between Munich and Nuremberg. Secure in the knowledge that Germany does not extradite its own citizens Faber lived openly, if quietly, in the town where he had worked for many years as an office clerk at the Audi automobile works. His German nationality came courtesy of the Führer himself, who in 1943 granted all foreign SS-volunteers the right to German citizenship, a promise which was upheld by the post-war German authorities when in 1952 Faber needed to call in the favor. He had escaped from Breda prison where he was serving a life sentence for the wartime atrocities he had perpetrated and made his way straight to Germany, where he was treated to cake and coffee by the border guards before being handed a token fine for illegally crossing into the country.
F
aber, a Haarlem native, was 18 years old when the Germans invaded The Netherlands. In a measure to prevent suspected fifth columnists from aiding the enemy, he was briefly incarcerated by the Dutch authorities, together with his fanatically pro-nazi father and his brother Pieter Johan. After the Dutch Army capitulated he was released and two months later, in Munich, he volunteered for the Waffen-SS. He returned to The Netherlands soon after, where he joined the paramilitary wing of the Dutch Nazi Movement. Later on in the war, as an operator with the German Sicher44 - DUTCH, the magazine
heitsdienst, the feared internal intelligence agency, he took part in ‘Operation Silbertanne’. Innocent Dutch civilians who were known to be critical of the German occupiers were visited at home or ambushed and shot at point blank range as a random reprisal for Resistance activity. Faber was a member of the ‘Sonderkommando Feldmeijer’ the most fanatical, and ultimately last remaining, of the groups tasked with the Silbertanne murders. Between September 1943 and September 1944 forty-five people were killed by the Silbertanne group. After Operation Silbertanne, Faber joined the firing squad in Concentration Camp Westerbork, the Dutch staging post for the deportation of Jews to the death camps in the east. During this time he also took captured Dutch resistance workers into the woods around the camp, where he shot them. After the war Faber was convicted in The Netherlands of 22 murders, although the prosecution claimed that he was responsible for ‘significantly more acts of murder and manslaughter.’ He was tried together with his brother, who had been at his side for most of his wartime crimes. The prosecution referred to them as ‘two of the worst SS-criminals’. Both brothers received the Death Penalty and Pieter Johan was executed in July of 1948. Klaas Carel’s sentence was commuted to life imprisonment in that same year and he lived for another 64 years, most of them a free man. Faber managed to escape his rightful punishment, not only by the failure of the German authorities to extradite and retry him (he successfully employed a double jeopardy defense), but also by the failure of the Dutch authorities to exert enough pressure until just recently, when after significant international pressure it became evident that the Ingolstadt judiciary was willing to consider locking him up for the rest of his life. Now it is too late to call one of Holland’s most brutal war criminals to justice. On May 24, 2012 Klaas Carel Faber died of kidney failure , aged 90, in Ingolstadt, Germany, 65 years after he received a death sentence for Nazi war crimes. July/August 2012
Place
Marketing Kockengen
V
a mythical land of plenty amid the peatbogs
irtually everyone has heard the story of how Greenland got its name. Erik the Red was banished from Iceland, sailed west across the NorthAtlantic and happened upon a frigid icy land. To attract settlers he named the land ‘Greenland’ in an early example of deceptive marketing. New research indicates that the climatic conditions during Erik’s sojourn in the far north may have been such that the southern coast of Greenland was in fact quite lush, giving poor Erik the undeserved reputation of being a trickster. But the story is too good to drop, so we’ll stick by it. Besides, it is not such an unusual story and many new colonies and settlements that required a population boost have employed the same tactic. Kockengen is one of them. Kockengen is a small town of just over 2,000 people in the province of Utrecht. It lies in the Green Heart (see page 30) and is surrounded by green fields and lots of canals and ditches. It is an easy twenty or thirty minutes from both Amsterdam and Utrecht, yet is surrounded by wide open spaces and an abundance of recreational opportunities. Overall it is quite a desirable place to live. But that was not always the case. In the late Middle Ages the area around Kockengen was a swampy peatbog, infested with mosquitos and other pesky insects. Relatively isolated because of the marshy ground, prone to flooding and other discomforts, Kockengen was not nearly as desirable as it is now. Around the same time that Erik was sailing the northern ocean, a large scale cultivation of the peatbogs of central Holland was taking place. There was a scarcity of arable land and as peat was being extracted for use as fuel, the marshy bogs were being reclaimed for agriculture. Settlers were required to dig the peat and till the fields, and somewhere around 1150 someone must have employed the same trick as Erik the Red near what is now Kockengen. To attract colonists the place was named Cocagne, the Middle-Dutch name for the mythical land of plenty, Cockayne. The village of Koekange in the province of Drenthe got its name in the same way, around the same time.
name) both lie within a few miles of Kockengen. Even closer lie the hamlets of Portengen and Spengen, which neatly rhyme with the neighboring village. Both again derive their names from fanciful grandeur applied to attract unsuspecting settlers. Portengen ultimately derives from the name Britain (through Britannien, Bertanien, Bartangen, Bartengen, Pertengen) and Spengen, slightly more transparently, comes from Spain. One can only imagine the disappointment of the first settlers when after their long trek from the area around the Pas de Calais they arrived in the peaty marsh that had been pitched to them as the land of plenty, with a dash of the grandeur of the courts of Britain and Spain thrown in. But then they could also have ended up on the boat to Greenland, one supposes, so every hardship is relative. Kockengen has been in the news recently. It seems that the bog is intent on reclaiming the town, which is sinking back into the marsh from whence it came. The streets and houses are being sucked into the spongy ground at the rate of two to three inches each year. Concerned residents have appealed to the authorities to do something about it, as sewage pipes are breaking and foundations are cracking. With the great ingenuity of the Dutch in managing the land and the water, we are sure that Kockengen will be saved. But until that time attracting people to Kockengen may require a renewed dose of marketing ingenuity.
View of Kockengen, slowly sinking into the low lying land
E. Dronkert
T
he trick worked and labourers flocked to the area, mostly escaping serfdom in feudal Northern France and Southwestern Flanders. Several place names in the area are a reminder of the colonization by Flemish peasants fleeing the feudal system in their native lands. Kamerik, (Kamerijk is the Flemish name for Cambrai) and Kortrijk (after the Flemish city of the same
July/August 2012
DUTCH, the magazine - 45
Poetry
Dapper Street Nature’s for the dim, or the contented. And then: what’s left of nature in this land? A tabloid-sized thicket in the sand, A hillside where some cabins can be rented. I prefer grey urban roads, cemented Watersides, the clouds never as grand As when they slide along the heavens, and Framed in attic windows are presented. If you don’t expect much, all is great. Life hides its splendor, until without warning It shows itself with miracles replete. I thought this notion up, myself, of late, Soaking, on a dreary, drizzly morning, Quite simply happy, down on Dapper Street. - J.C. Bloem (1887 - 1966) Original poem © Erven J.C. Bloem, translated by Benjamin de Regt
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July/August 2012
Off the shelf
Book Browsing
Paola Westbeek
In the early spring of 1609, Henry Hudson left Amsterdam wth his ship The Half Moon (de Halve Maen), when the Dutch East India Company sent him on a mission to find a shorter route to Asia. What he discovered instead was a rich and fertile land which, some time later, would be conquered by the Dutch. Although the Dutch colonial period was short-lived (by 1664 the English were calling the shots), the Dutch influence has remained to this very day in the language, the customs and even the food. The following three books will show you how this came about.
Cookies, Coleslaw and Stoops: The Influence of Dutch on North American Languages Nicoline van der Sijs
The next time you tell your children about Santa Claus and his sleigh, you might want to think about the Dutch pilgrims who arrived in present-day Manhattan over 400 years ago. From stoop to dope, from cookies to poppycock, North American English has borrowed many words and expressions from Dutch. In this thorough yet accessible book, acclaimed linguist Nicoline van der Sijs traces the origins of more than 300 Dutch loan words. Find out more about their etymology and discover how their meaning and form evolved over time. This is a fascinating study for anyone interested in language development and history.
Amsterdam University Press, 2009
Food, Drink and Celebrations of the Hudson Valley Dutch Peter G. Rose
Do you always have coleslaw with your sandwiches? How about some waffles or pancakes for breakfast? These are just a few of the foods that are part of the Dutch culinary heritage. In Food, Drink and Celebrations of the Hudson Valley Dutch, food historian Peter G. Rose explores how Dutch culinary customs made their way into the American kitchen. The book starts with a historical overview which briefly discusses the situation in the Dutch Republic during the Reformation and the Eighty Years’ War. This sets the stage for an entertaining and informative account that explores subjects such as the evolution of Dutch recipes, Iroquois influences on the colonial Dutch kitchen and holiday food traditions in the new world. Especially interesting is the story behind the donut. You’d be surprised to learn how it originated from a Dutch treat which is still a favorite today! The book contains a section with historical recipes such as Mrs. Lefferts’ s New Year’s Cakes and Seneca Boiled Cornbread. All have been adapted to modern cooking standards so that you too can literally have a taste of the past!
The History Press, 2009
Exploring Historic Dutch New York: New York City, Hudson Valley, New Jersey, Delaware
KatJaTo
Edited by Gajus Scheltema and Heleen Westerhuijs, introduction by Russell Shorto
Exploring Historic Dutch New York is more than just another travel guide. This historical guide book will help you become acquainted with the Dutch legacy left behind in the wider New York area; a legacy which is still very much present today, not only in place names such as Brooklyn and Harlem, but also in the area’s architecture and historical sites. It includes collaborations by various international experts on subjects such as Dutch art, architecture, food and immigration in the 19th and 20th century. With beautiful full-color photography and useful maps, tourists and natives alike (especially those of Dutch descent) will be delighted in discovering the Netherlandish roots which are still tangible today in New York, New Jersey and parts of Delaware.
Dover Publications, 2011 July/August 2012
DUTCH, the magazine - 47
n Brian Bramso__________________ __
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abs.co.u brian.bramson@ n” so m ra B n “Bria co.uk nnie.win@abs. “Jennie Win” je 20:28 12 March 2012 liebollen Cyclists and O
be continuing. bieding!’ must an A e al ci pe this five-star their ‘S uld get used to then. I guess co k, I . ee le w ab st rt la fo l as least it’s com So, same hote though it is, at ng si es pr de d Dark an desired. I was luxury. leave a lot to be n r ca e ic rv se , when anothe stomer ionist on duty pt level, Dutch cu ce ar se re st cu ly eex fiv on ’t e at ished. He didn dealing with th Trouble is, even saction was fin day evening, an on tr M y m on tton on his shirt til in un t ng checki eded to fix a bu e didn’t wai ne H . he sk at de th e d th ce at tted in, announ guest arrived ting. He just bu up rr te in r fo lf himse ed d a sewing kit. ceptionist play and demande but then the re , ’t ls te dn di ho st he S be me. in the stomers even ady dealing with re cu t y al al pp as de ro w e st e sh e sh ar that g while Okay, so there t out to the guy minded waitin I in if e po e ’t m m dn k ng di ki as e e ec sh ent. Nor did sh d continued ch it all wrong too: d waiting a mom barked “No!” an in y, m gu ld r ve, and should ou he w ot e he ask if rned to th one). It could ha tu d st se ju as rr he S ba y. em gu ably (and one with the other gry people, prob an o Tw t: ul es in. R t, different. roviding it’s no have, been so walk to work (p n ca dy I oo so bl , Q ss H ’s ms of thoughtle ce of the client ewalking distan what. The swar u in yo ith w ll ths and bicycl te is l l I’l te ut ho This ways). B e-built cycle pa de os of si rp t g pu ou in t d in go ra an , is hey’ve ving in as it so often on my wick. T vements, wea t f pa ge el e to ys th g m on in in e nn ra gi ey still rid er to rest th rd t ha us d m cyclists are be an hy er w rd o it ha clout the roads. S them a smart ow. I’m finding kn ng hi to t tc only lanes on fe an w or I s t el . he ? That’s wha I can hold back okes of their w the pedestrians sure how long through the sp ot la N el . br se um ca y op m ing of the lapt from thrusting liebolhead with a sw e th of ck ba er heard of ‘O e ev u Yo on th y. er ov tle wonderful disc ing across a lit m. I’ve made a Monday even oo on gl ad l d re te an at ho th e om p th to do the ck to But it’s not all big sign across was walking ba a d I . an ith er w il’ g ‘o ith r in ne fo th r e ’ is Dutch ood traile lie -f ‘o st t fa len’? Nope, m ou of s rt rn so Tu ere was this om I googled it. square and th t back to my ro go I as on so ‘Oliebollen’. As ‘balls’. ‘bollen’ means
Hi Jennie,
48 - DUTCH, the magazine
July/August 2012
Brian Bramson - An Englishman abroad
So, I thought, th ey’re selling oil-b alls. Do I really w stopped and boug ant any of those? ht some. They’re But Tuesday even excellent!. They’re and about the si ing I something like do ze of your fist. Fo ughnuts, deep fri r a few euros yo warm and sprinkl u get a brown pa ed ed with sugar. I’l per bag full of th l see if I can get get them sent to em, still the hotel receptio you (if I can raise nist to order som the courage to ap e in and proach her again) . Seems I’ve earn ed a reputation amongst the Dut mourous fellow (“O ch guys at the of h, you British are fice as a particu so funny!”). Even remarks, they fall larly huwhen I make the about. And on th most mild of amus e odd occasion I it has them in stitc ing say something I hes for hours. Th think is really quite en I realised that make a joke. They w itt y, I’v e no must have a sens t yet actually hear e of humour, or th come they never d any of them ey’d not react to make their own jo my humour, but kes? Is this a Dut only? how ch trait? A sense of humour set to receive Oh, there is one thing they say th at makes me laug phone conversatio h. Sometimes yo n with a phrase th u hear them end at sounds exactly time. a telelike “You! Oi!” Th at cracks me up every Anyway, that’s en ough for now. May be just one more Would you book oliebollen before me another wee I turn in. k’s flights and ho tel, please? Thanks, Brian Brian Bramson Senior Consultant Acme Business Computing
Ltd
brian.bramson@
acme.co.uk
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July/August 2012
DUTCH, the magazine - 49
Fun and Games
The odd DAM out
Match the words Match the English word on the left with its Dutch translation on the right.
In each of the following five rows of ‘Dam’ placenames, which is the odd one out? 1. Amsterdam - Edam - Leerdam - Maasdam - Volendam 2. Amsterdam - Edam - Maasdam - Monnickendam Schiedam 3. Didam - Leerdam - Potsdam - Veendam - Volendam 4. Amsterdam - Leerdam - Maasdam - Rotterdam Volendam 5. Amsterdam - Edam - Maasdam - Volendam - Zaandam I married a man born in Hoorn, Who loves to eat Chilliwack corn. He still likes his Edam, And I like to feed ‘im And bring him his coffee each morn! Thank you, Marion Stroet from Vancouver, British Columbia for sending us this limerick. Where we asked for one rhyme with a Dutch placename, you produced two. Now that’s showing off! Who’s next? We are looking for limericks in English with the first line ending in a Dutch place name!
Green Klei Grass Dandelion Hay Gras Pasture Weg Manure Wei Paardebloem Wei Whey Veen Way Mest Clay Groen Peat Hooi Answers to all quizzes on page 4
Who?
What?
Where?
• Before the rise of the supermarket I could be found in virtually every Dutch town or village. • I have the reputation of sometimes slipping one or two rotten pieces into the bottom of the bag. • I may smell of bananas. • I am becoming rare.
• I am based on an old Indonesian Recipe. • I was first marketed more than sixty years ago. • My name refers to an Island in Indonesia. • I taste and smell of bananas. • I come in a bottle.
• I was founded by the Saxons around 700 A.D. • I am situated in the eastern corner of the province of Gelderland, near the German border. • Until 2005 I was home to the brewery that produced Grolsch beer. In fact, Grolsch refers to me!
Who am I? What am I? Where am I? Theme for this issue: green.
The Dutch Judge
50 - DUTCH, the magazine
Jesse van Muylwijck
July/August 2012
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52 - DUTCH, the magazine
July/August 2012