Where Oh Where Wednesday: Dutch and Belgian settlements in the US

As we travel around the US, we are amazed at how many places we come across that are settlements of either Dutch or Belgian immigrants. 

DUTCH: New York, New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland, and Connecticut are all states where you will find quite a bit of Dutch influence. You will see it in place names, in family names and even in certain terms used locally. Pelle and Orange City, IA; Holland, MI; and Nederland, TX are all a step further. These places have tulip festivals, full-on Dutch traditions and are - clearly - named after The Netherlands (or Holland). 

BELGIAN: Lord Baltimore - of Baltimore, Maryland fame - was Flemish; Detroit, MI;  Moline, IL  and Namur, WI (near Green Bay) were settled by Walloon’s and still have a large population of Belgians ancestry. As a matter of fact, John Deere tractors can be found in Belgium because Belgian workers in Moline worked at the John Deere factory. 

In Texas the blacksmith in San Antonio was a man from Brussels who married a Flemish immigrant woman. They lived in the Alamo (in the 18th century). Later Belgians settled in San Antonio and established well-known vegetable farms. Scott was born in San Antonio as an American, but now has dual-nationality as a Belgian and American.

We are always amazed at how much influence such small countries can have and have had around the world. If you live in the US, look around. Maybe you will find some Dutch or Belgian influence in the areas where you live. We would be interested to hear what you find. 

Whodunit Wednesday: Film

As a New Years starts some people look to the various awards ceremonies for film which will soon be talked about. People will watch other people walk down a red carpet, listen to names presented and decide if a movie is worth watching or not - sometimes simply based on whether there has been an award or not. 

The Dutch-language world is quite small, so although there is a Dutch-language film market, most Dutch-language film makers make their films in English. Paul Verhoeven known Dutch filmmakers include Paul Verhoeven was a film director who was successful with both Dutch-language films and within the world scene. Although his movies not be ones you might have seen, they were well received within the film world and include: RoboCop, Total Recall, Starship Trooper, Hollow Man and Basic Instinct. 

Dutchman Theo Van Gogh is best known perhaps because of his name and the fact that he was assassinated because of his film content. He made controversial films about controversial politicians. The film for which he was murdered was about women in Islam and their treatment. 

Jan de Bont is another Dutch film director, perhaps best known for his action films Speed and Twister, but he also worked as director of photography on films such as Die Hard, The Hunt for Red October and Basic Instinct. 

For Belgians, the list runs a bit differently. Belgium is of course a multi-language market, serving both Dutch speakers and French speakers. The French-speaking market is much larger than the Dutch-speaking market. There have been plenty of directors within the French-speaking market who would not be known by English-speaking followers of film. 

Chantal Akermans is best known for her film ‘Jeanne Dielman’ which is considered by some in the film world to be one of the best films made. Others, like Akermans, have made their fame either in Dutch or French, including Stijn Coninx, the Dardenne brothers and Erik Van Looy. Van Looy directed his film ‘The Loft’ first in Dutch before also directing the US-remake. 

More recently films like “The Broken Circle Breakdown” and “Beautiful Boy” from Felix van Groeningen, “Girl” from Lukas Dhont, “Bullhead” from Michaël R. Roskam, and the “Bad Boys for Life” with Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah have brought Belgian filmmakers into the spotlight. 

Depending on what kind of film you might watch, what kind of film might garner an award (Foreign Language film, for example), or if a film is in English or not, you might have watched or be planning to watch a film by a Dutch or Belgian director. Sometimes the name might give it away (with a “van” or “de” in the middle), but you might not know unless you look into it a bit further. 

Whodunit Wednesday - Look familiar?

Although both The Netherlands and Belgium are quite small countries, they have and continue to contribute to the ranks fo famous people in the world. Of course, within the countries there are far more Belgiands and Dutch actors and musicians who are famous or recognized. But even in the wider world many of these names will be known. 

In Music

Adolphe Sax invented the saxophone around 1840. Anyone who loves sax music can thank this Belgian for his contribution (which carries his name). A well-known jazz sax player is Candy Dulfer, a Dutch woman. And staying in the jazz and blues tones, anyone who has ever heard a harmonica knows the name of legendary Belgian Toots Thielemans. 

But there are all types of music in the world. DJ Tiësto was one of the first and most well-known dj’s. He is a Dutchman. These days, you might listen to the Belgian Charlotte de Witte when listening to a dj set. Some other well-known Belgian artists are Angele and Stromae. 

Even when we move to different genres and times, we find Belgians and Dutchmen. Goerge Baker (Una Paloma Blanca) was from The Netherlands, as is country singer Ilse de Lange. For those who like classical music, Andre Rieu tours the world with his  orchestra getting people from Australia to Switzerland to sing along and start a waltz. He is from right here in Maastricht. 

In Film

For those watching the screen (or the small screen) there are also plenty of Dutch and Belgians actors. Some are more recognizable than others. Most people know that Jean-Claude van Damme is Belgian. He is called “the muscles from Brussels”. But perhaps people didn’t know that Veerle Baetens and her co-star in Broken Circle Breakdown are Belgian. Matthias Schoenaerts from “Rust and Bone” and “The Danish Girl” is also Belgian. 

Most people will definitely know Famke Janssen, either from the X-men or as a James Bond badgirl. She is a more recent Dutch actress. Rutger Hauer (Blade Runner) and Jeroen Krabbé (Jumpin’ Jack Flash, Bond baddie, The Fugitive) have been representing The Netherlands on the silver screen for quite some time. Most recently perhaps has been Carine Van Houten in Game of Thrones. 

Whodunit Wednesday - From detectives to forensics to physics

Shirley and I like detective series and enjoy Sherlock Holmes (and its newer versions), Wallander (from Sweden) and of course most Agatha Christie detectives. Anyone who has read about Hercule Poirot will know that, no, he is not a Frenchman, even though he speaks French. He is a Belgian and served in the Belgian police before moving to England because of the war and setting up as the best detective in the world. 

Much of what we enjoy about detectives also has to do with forensics. It is amazing what can be done these days with technology. “Fingermarks” were first used to identify criminals around the time that Poirot was supposed to have lived and worked. But it was much later that Ingrid Daubechies came up with a mathematical model which is used in many ways today, including by the FBI in stocking fingerprints. She developed wavelets which are the basis of computers and processors and digital processes. As a 6 year-old Ingrid would go to sleep multiplying numbers by two from memory. She was the first woman to become a full professor of mathematics at Princeton University. But she was born and raised in Houthalen, Belgium, not far from where we live. 

And speaking of physics, Belgian priest and scientist George Lemaître was the first to present the idea of the Big Bang theory of physics in 1927. At the time, most scientists were working with an idea of an eternal universe - one that had always been the same and would always remain the same. This fit with the newer ideas of the evolution theory and offered the millions of years necessary to believe that all of this could happen by chance. Lemaître posited the Big Bang theory because of increasing evidence that there must be a beginning to creation.