Profilific

A delicious not-Dutch beer

My 'Profile Writing' assignment for class:

He was already seated by himself in a quiet bar, in the striking inverse shadow of a lit-up St. Jan’s Cathedral. ‘The Rode Pimpernel’ is not a premiere night spot in ‘s-Hertogenbosch. But like his home town of Kerkrade, Limburg, the faces here are familiar and the not-Dutch beer is very, very good. It’s the only place that serves Murphy’s Irish Red op de tap.

When choosing our interview spot, the 25-year old Limburg native simply texted, ‘meet u at the pub, 21.30?’ We’ve been to a number of bars in the city, yet I knew exactly where we were going to meet. This is his place.

His head full of spikey, dark brown hair was bent over a black laptop computer. Atop his bright orange t-shirt emblazoned with a company name, the computer’s supplier, he looked like an absurd PEZ dispenser. A strange description, but not quite so much as his action here: working outside of office hours.

The Dutch are supposedly known for keeping their 40-hour work week well in check. He may be an exception, but perhaps working late is how to keep a decent job in Holland these days. ‘It’s a big shift for me to have a job that’s actually a bit challenging, that takes up some time,’ he says, comparing his current work with the temporary positions he held back in the languishing Limburg.

Dutch Limburg has been experiencing both significant ‘brain-drain’ and ‘ont groening;’ both educated individuals and not necessarily educated youth are all leaving the province. He is part of the former. He loves where he’s from – he just couldn’t get going there economically. The Dutch government is neglectful, and the Dutch public, disrespectful.

His old apartment was ten minutes from Germany. Now he lives in Nord Brabant, where few, if any, consider his home part of Holland. What’s a person from Limburg? A Belgian who thinks he can speak German. Given negative regional stereotypes, this is not exactly complimentary. Despite what everyone thinks about their beer.

Not directly harmful, Limburg jokes evince a deeper lack of respect for the governed province. Many revolve around the coal mining that features in its economy, along with gravel and peat. Limburgians mined, North-Hollanders owned the mines. You do the math. But the low, low-landers are having their voices heard louder than ever, as Limburg native and Dutch Freedom Party leader Geert Wilders has been on a fast break in recent Dutch elections. ‘That’s a result of having a province where there are a lot of people without jobs,’ he says. ‘They’re not satisfied with what’s going on. They’ll just latch on to the first demagogue who offers them a solution.’ But so far the offer is just words. In Dutch.

At home he speaks a dialect, a mixture between Dutch and German, almost unintelligible to either. ‘Dutch started as a dialect of German and what we speak is still stuck at that phase of being somewhere in between the two,’ he humbly explains. From social interactions prior to this interview, I actually thought he was German. ‘Many people do,’ he jokes, still with an air of pride.

Members of each town have their own version of dialect, changing about every ten minutes by car. Locals can detect slight differences from around the province but he feels a special kinship regardless, as long as you’re speaking the language. ‘Even if you’re being pulled over by the police - if they speak dialect and you do, you’re probably fine,’ he says.

Dialect may not be as strong a unifier as ideology a divider, he observes. ‘For every Dutch-German marriage - two people that met in a bar or club on either side of the border - there’s been huge fights, almost like battlefields between young Dutch Socialists and Germans on the Right. But Limburg has Neo-Nazis as well as Germany does.’ The re-emergence of Limburg as an international gateway location has only helped fuel these interactions as such groups routinely cross each other’s borders in search of drugs and paraphernalia.

But he still regularly visits his hometown. The warmth of his boyish face is genuine as he describes it, for better or worse. ‘It’s where I grew up. It’s where my family has been for a long time. It’s nice to speak dialect with people who have spoken it from birth, and not be mocked by people who happen to overhear you.’ The waitress brings him another Murphy’s. He shoots her a wide and true grin and he thanks her, in proper Dutch.