20-11-2009 om 12:00 by Sueli Brodin

The loneliest time of my life in the Maastricht Region must have been the period when my two first children were still very small and I was a mother at home in my little village. This was before the time of the internet and there were not many opportunities for interaction with the outside world. The irony is that it had been my own decision to quit my  job  to become a full time mother. I was even looking forward to being fully immersed in a Dutch environment. I thought that it would be the perfect chance to experience what it was like to live among the Dutch.

But as it turned out, I quickly realised that it was not so easy to meet people in the streets or at the local playgrounds, which were often deserted. So the days felt long and instead of feeling more Dutch, I increasingly yearned for anything foreign.

Then I met a Japanese woman who introduced me to the International Women’s Club of South Limburg. From that moment on, and for quite a few years, especially after I started working again, almost all the people I spent time with were foreigners. The number of Dutch friends I had could be counted on one hand.

Something felt awkward and a bit crooked. Would my social life forever continue to be restricted to the foreign community? Deep inside I knew that this status quo wasn’t going to give me the long term balance I was looking for.

I can’t pinpoint exactly when things changed but when I look at my life now, the two worlds finally seem to have merged: is it thanks to all the new channels for social communication and interaction that the internet has made possible? Is it because of my work, which brings me into contact with not only foreigners, but also a growing number of Dutch people? Is it because of the fact that local authorities themselves have become more aware of and interested in the international community living in the region?

The two-day Maastricht Global event held this week by Maastricht Debates in association with COS Limburg (Centre for International Cooperation Limburg), is a good example of an open platform where Dutch and non-Dutch with a common interest in globalisation and development matters were able to meet and exchange views with knowledgeable speakers. Without leaving Maastricht, I felt as if I had travelled across the planet with all my senses – through the topics of the debates, the films and video clips that were shown and discussed, the wide variety of nationalities and experiences represented in the audience, the exotic food that was served and the world music that was played at the end of both evenings.



The conversation I had on the second evening over Afrikana’s tasty dinner with Dutch geographer and film maker Joshka Wessels stands out as a highlight.

The way we first “met” is actually telling of the internet age we are living in. Our initial contact took place in the virtual world via Twitter - we were both tweeting about our activities in the Maastricht region - and started “following” each other. When I tweeted that I going to attend the debates at AINSI, Joshka immediately suggested us to “tweet up”.

She came to Maastricht Debates with her Palestinian cameraman Saed Abu Hmud and the three of us lengthily talked about their current film project, which deals with the subject of water, “the most precious commodity in the thirsty Middle East”. When I told them that my Dutch husband and I had met on a kibbutz in Israel in the early 1990’s, Saed surprised me by spontaneously switching to Hebrew. He also said that he was planning to learn Dutch and it shouldn’t be too difficult, since Joshka could speak Syrian Arabic.

What attracts me to events and platforms such as Maastricht Debates, or Pecha Kucha Night Maastricht, is that they bring people together who wish to look beyond what seemingly separates them. Nationalities and languages are no longer perceived as obstacles because communication and interaction take place on a different level.



As I drove back home with the sounds of the West African percussion band Indumbe still ringing in my ears, I entertained the hope that the antagonism that is commonly made between the “international” and the “local Dutch” communities would eventually become obsolete and that the Maastricht Region would soon distinguish itself instead by a growing and all inclusive international climate.

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