Foreigners

Day 4,177, 08:22 • Published in Netherlands Serbia • by Krivi Kurjak




Introduction


djirtsdew, can you tell something about the beginnings in the Netherlands, the arrival of the first foreigners, the reasons for their arrival and how English became the official language in the Netherlands next to the Dutch?

Even when I started English already was the main language. We also had some Dutch and French in those days (so also some three-language articles in official newspapers). And the reason for French was that we were UNL, the United Netherlands, a merger with eBelgium. But English was the language which was readable by most of our population.

There are still traces of this merger to this date. As an example, our congress paper UNL Binnenhof still has UNL in its name.

Because English was our main language, we also had some native English speakers in our country since those days, which is probably the reason we never changed our main language back to Dutch.


One of the reasons this merger eventually failed was because the Netherlands in the name was perceived to diminish the Belgian contribution. In terms of only the name it might be acceptable, as Netherlands means low countries. Both Belgium and the Netherlands do not really have any mountains, possibly with the exception of the Ardennes.

But historically in real life, Belgium used to be part of the Netherlands, but became independent in the 1830s. So calling themselves part of the Netherlands again sort of hurt some people, especially the French-speaking part of our population.


We remind ourselves




During the Congress elections on the 25th of March 2009, Spanish citizens who called themselves "Las tropas imperiales" won a majority of the congressional seats, effecting in a political takeover. In response to this, president CreveRoeland decided to cede all Belgian territories to the Netherlands on the 5th April 2009, forming a union and preventing a Spanish president from being elected. The unification, that had gained major support, was a success. Without many troubles, both countries were unified under one flag.



Foreigners


All interviewed players were answering on two questions, and those are:

How did you choose the Netherlands?
What made you to stay here?


Jordic69
Country: Spain/Italy

I chose the Netherlands because I was an ambassador there, from Spain, and after interacting for a while with people out there someone invited me to come over. I saw it as an opportunity to fully immerse myself in an English speaking country (back in the day I was trying to improve my English) so I decided to move.

Different reasons. I enjoyed the place, met new people and made new friends. I like that it is a more relaxed country. There is always political fight and there will always be, but here things are more civil and they do not tend to escalate that much. Given that I used to get really mad in my days in Spain I enjoyed a more tranquil environment.


Zelig
Country: Scotland/England

Well in RL, I have always liked the Netherlands, and it is one of the countries I just feel most at home in. All countries have their tensions, but I have always like the intangible 'feel' of the country and that comes from its peoples.

I also say, that in a world of rising sea levels, where much land is going to be underwater, what better country than one that's always been below sea level! (In parts at least.)

As a traveler in RL, I have sometimes thought I should up sticks and perhaps see what life is like in other eCountries. But I have always been a loyal eNL citizen. Though I have struggled to be as involved in the politics and be as active part of the debates as I would like. Perhaps a roving Ambassador role would be the answer. Travel in the RL makes for the best citizens of any country. Can't believe I have been playing for nearly 10 year!


flo rida20
Country: Iran

I already said it in an interview or something like that. When my country was in a bad situation I asked odan (cp of netherlands) and he accepted to help us. Also it never happened because other countries came faster and we won the war but anyway he accepted to help and when I saw an article from him that NL players are leaving the game and country needs new citizens and people who are willing to work in cabinet or in politics I thought I can help.

I worked in cabinets for months and also I found good friends here like shawty,arcanic,jordi,odan,... and this made eNetherlands a second home for me in this game to live.


Janty F
Country: Czech Republic

1. Well, when I decided to leave Cuba, there was several countries, who either were interested in having me, or I was interested in going to them. What tipped me to join Netherlands out of all choices was the article below:

Oh No: Retirement?

From Orion, I have seen and recognized Shawtyl0w as the leading politician of Netherlands, as we was by far the most active and visible representative of this nation. And I was afraid that with him going into retirement, the country of Netherlands will go politically inactive. And as I like all Orion members, I could not allow that to happen - so out of all destinations, I picked Netherlands, and decided to do my best to make them stay alive. And... as you can see today, it worked amazingly.

Netherlands not only stayed alive, but became one of the most active small nations in this game. And that deserves respect. Of course, it would not be possible without help and influence from other people, who decided to return back to the politics, or even return back to the game, independently of me, but with similar goals. And I am proud to say that together we have turned Netherlands into such a great nation - still small in terms of population or damage, but big in terms of activity and community.

2. To continue in the spirit of the first answer - while progress has been achieved, it also needs effort to be maintained, and it needs time to become part of our everyday lives. As we see today, there are still some people, who would do anything in their power to overthrow all the achievements, just because they politically thrived, when Netherlands was not active. And from the past, we know that even one or two month of neglicence can lead to the death of good things.

I mean - The Flying Dutchman is not the first Dutch Aerial program, The Green Berets are not the first Dutch Tank program either, etc. ... but this time, we need to make sure things like these do not die out, even when their creators will be long gone from the government or even Netherlands itself.

Plus, there are still some improvements, which were not achieved, and which I would like to see being achieved - and I do not run away from unfinished work. So I see myself staying here for quite some time in the future. If only to get atleast one TP medal and two more CP medals to fill my usual quota!


Kaczyk
Country: Poland

Well in first I was upset by ePL political fights, not only in whole eCountry but also inside parties. After few weeks in eSpain, in my real life i traveled to Netherlands ( Amsterdam, Amstelveen, Haarlem for holidays. I found all dutch people was so nice to me, helpful and happy to have me as tourist so i wanted to check if people in eNL are also like that. And in fact they are even better ! I remember how nice i was welcomed here by many great players, so i choose to stay here to work and fight for glory of eDutch Empire.


nutty fox
Country: Finland

Well this is actually a good question. I had to look back in my newspaper articles to remember how all of this happened. First of all I have to thank ePoland for bringing me in your country the first place! It was back in early days 1900 -> I was posting articles in English back in eFinland. Some how Zeeuwsmeisje and I think few other eNL players happened to read about my first steps in politics. I got an invitation to come over to eNL as part of a Presidential team, I had not been around in the game for a long time so this was a huge deal for me! Yes and I must give special thanks to ePoland that was wiping all over eWorld made this happen.

What made me stay over here? Well my first visit here lasted a long time and because of RL happenings I quitted playing few times, moved back to eFinland and came back once again. The main reason for me staying here was and is the fact that I publish in English and all the great characters and personalities you have had here over the years. Also that eNL like eFinland is a smaller country and you dont "drown" in the masses. I also like the Dutch humor and mentality towards life in general and have RL friends from there as well.




Let the fight be constant,
let it be what can not be.
At the graveyard flowers will rise,
for some faraway generation.