Bram Gotink
09-03-2009, 04:37
-- Source: Knack nr. 36 yr 39 -- Text slightly altered --
The Netherlands reconquer New York
Four hundred years ago, the first Dutch ship landed in NY, and now they are ready to reconquer their ex-colony. The roots of president Obama's change lie in Holland, so they say. They don't care that the Flemish and Walloon people are totally forgotten.
[...]Holland has contributed more than 6 million euro in the NY400-project. The city of New York invested another 4 million (note: no monetary unit, so I'm guessing 4M euro).
[...]
The scientist Charles T. Gehring, who has been studying the original archives of New Amsterdam since 1973, stated a couple of years ago that all the good in America actually comes from the Low Countries (note: = The Netherlands and Belgium)
Moral values like tolerance (and the liberty to choose one's own religion), multiculturalism, democracy and free trade were not brought to the new world by the Pilgrim Fathers, but by Hollanders who settled in Manhattan.
[...]
Russell Shorto, who leads the John Adams foundation in (old) Amsterdam, will talk to Geert Mak (in the many NY400 seminars) about the Dutch-American 'cross-fertilization'. That is necessary, because the Americans themselves do not realise their Dutch roots.
They learn at school that NY became a democratic city when the British people took over. In reality, the British used all the institutions of New Amsterdam along with all the tolerance. The fundamentalist values of the Pilgrim Fathers are remembered every year at Thanksgiving Day. The Dutch inheritance only survives in place names like Brooklyn = Breukelen, Coney Island = Konijneneiland, Flushing Meadows = Vlissingen ... or expressions like 'going Dutch' (everyone pays their own meal) or 'Dutch foil'. So it seems we (note: the Belgian people) are not the only ones who think the 'Ollanders are greedy.
[...]
Herman Portacarero, writer and Belgian consul in the Big Apple, disagrees. He states the the Walloon people were the first to settle, and that Peter Minuit (who convinced the Indians to sell Manhattan) was one of those.
[...] There even is a Walloon Settlers Monument on the corner of Battery Park. [...] In 1934, the senate of New York recognized the Walloon people as the official founders of the city.
[...]
Someone who's absolutely not happy with the reference to the Walloon people, is the CEO of the new Flanders House, Philip Fontaine (note: was fired yesterday by the Flemish Minister President because of fraud). The Flanders House promotes Flanders in the USofA. Fontaine watches Holland reconquer New Amsterdam in the name of tolerance, for - o paradox! - nationalistic purposes. He states that there were a lot of Flemish people with the original settlers in Manhattan, and he's right.
[...] The oldest "Dutch" place-name in New Holland dates from 1614, and was "Hellegat", which is the name of of a small river that joins the Schelde, which is in a region that was donated to Holland in ... 1648. And everyone knows that Hoboken is a part of Antwerp.
[...]
-----
I read the article, and I went "OMG, wtf? WHO CARES?"
Perhaps any of you do?
The Netherlands reconquer New York
Four hundred years ago, the first Dutch ship landed in NY, and now they are ready to reconquer their ex-colony. The roots of president Obama's change lie in Holland, so they say. They don't care that the Flemish and Walloon people are totally forgotten.
[...]Holland has contributed more than 6 million euro in the NY400-project. The city of New York invested another 4 million (note: no monetary unit, so I'm guessing 4M euro).
[...]
The scientist Charles T. Gehring, who has been studying the original archives of New Amsterdam since 1973, stated a couple of years ago that all the good in America actually comes from the Low Countries (note: = The Netherlands and Belgium)
Moral values like tolerance (and the liberty to choose one's own religion), multiculturalism, democracy and free trade were not brought to the new world by the Pilgrim Fathers, but by Hollanders who settled in Manhattan.
[...]
Russell Shorto, who leads the John Adams foundation in (old) Amsterdam, will talk to Geert Mak (in the many NY400 seminars) about the Dutch-American 'cross-fertilization'. That is necessary, because the Americans themselves do not realise their Dutch roots.
They learn at school that NY became a democratic city when the British people took over. In reality, the British used all the institutions of New Amsterdam along with all the tolerance. The fundamentalist values of the Pilgrim Fathers are remembered every year at Thanksgiving Day. The Dutch inheritance only survives in place names like Brooklyn = Breukelen, Coney Island = Konijneneiland, Flushing Meadows = Vlissingen ... or expressions like 'going Dutch' (everyone pays their own meal) or 'Dutch foil'. So it seems we (note: the Belgian people) are not the only ones who think the 'Ollanders are greedy.
[...]
Herman Portacarero, writer and Belgian consul in the Big Apple, disagrees. He states the the Walloon people were the first to settle, and that Peter Minuit (who convinced the Indians to sell Manhattan) was one of those.
[...] There even is a Walloon Settlers Monument on the corner of Battery Park. [...] In 1934, the senate of New York recognized the Walloon people as the official founders of the city.
[...]
Someone who's absolutely not happy with the reference to the Walloon people, is the CEO of the new Flanders House, Philip Fontaine (note: was fired yesterday by the Flemish Minister President because of fraud). The Flanders House promotes Flanders in the USofA. Fontaine watches Holland reconquer New Amsterdam in the name of tolerance, for - o paradox! - nationalistic purposes. He states that there were a lot of Flemish people with the original settlers in Manhattan, and he's right.
[...] The oldest "Dutch" place-name in New Holland dates from 1614, and was "Hellegat", which is the name of of a small river that joins the Schelde, which is in a region that was donated to Holland in ... 1648. And everyone knows that Hoboken is a part of Antwerp.
[...]
-----
I read the article, and I went "OMG, wtf? WHO CARES?"
Perhaps any of you do?