Former SA CTO explains why he moved to the Netherlands

[Willie Trombone]

Population 3000 around here, everyone knows everyone. It becomes a Whatsapp group scandal when someones slipslops go missing around here.

Edit: no, they steal the batteries out the mobile providers towers as well

Which side of PE are you?
Were eyeing morgs as a change of scenery.

 

[Willie Trombone]

Ah you live in Orania.

Surfing the orange LMAO

 

[Willie Trombone]

I found it easy to converse with a guy from the North. Apparently it's slightly different depending on which part of the country you live.

 

[Corelli]

Great for you, but here is the problem. The Dutch Golden Age is gone, in matter of fact most of the families from the Dutch Golden age is right here....in Cape Town. I can give you names but surname like Jordaan, Swellengrebel, Moucheron, etc etc well yip.

I have actually met more people coming from the Netherlands to settle here, than South Africans that left for there. The Netherlands is only so big.

They all wish for their golden age again, but alas, we wont give them that back. Nor all their history. My family vault has about 12 Rembrandts of family members thats never seen a museum. Let alone all the other artists, the pottery etc.

So when we speak of the Dutch Mafia in Cape Town....well we still have it, and nothing is going back to the Netherlands. nothing at all.

 

[Willie Trombone]

Great for you, but here is the problem. The Dutch Golden Age is gone, in matter of fact most of the families from the Dutch Golden age is right here....in Cape Town. I can give you names but surname like Jordaan, Swellengrebel, Moucheron, etc etc well yip.

I have actually met more people coming from the Netherlands to settle here, than South Africans that left for there. The Netherlands is only so big.

They all wish for their golden age again, but alas, we wont give them that back. Nor all their history. My family vault has about 12 Rembrandts of family members thats never seen a museum. Let alone all the other artists, the pottery etc.

So when we speak of the Dutch Mafia in Cape Town....well we still have it, and nothing is going back to the Netherlands. nothing at all.

Different problems when you have money. The average Joe appreciates a working municipality and government and a clean environment.

 

[Hamster]

In my experience most of the people in the Netherlands aren't Dutch. British, Italian, Ukrainian, Uzbekistan, Indians, Romanians...

in fact, I spoke to seven different people at a Dutch software company and didn't meet a single Dutch person.

My wife seems to like it but in a world of remote work opportunities I'd prefer some place less popular.

Anyway, not sure why there's an article about why somebody moved to the Netherlands or any other country for that matter. Firstly we know why and secondly we don't care. We may feel the same and even do the same but really: we don't care.

 

[Willie Trombone]

In my experience most of the people in the Netherlands aren't Dutch. British, Italian, Ukrainian, Uzbekistan, Indians, Romanians...

in fact, I spoke to seven different people at a Dutch software company and didn't meet a single Dutch person.

My wife seems to like it but in a world of remote work opportunities I'd prefer some place less popular.

Anyway, not sure why there's an article about why somebody moved to the Netherlands or any other country for that matter. Firstly we know why and secondly we don't care. We may feel the same and even do the same but really: we don't care.

If anyone knows, it's Jan.

 

[cda]

In my experience most of the people in the Netherlands aren't Dutch. British, Italian, Ukrainian, Uzbekistan, Indians, Romanians...

in fact, I spoke to seven different people at a Dutch software company and didn't meet a single Dutch person.

My wife seems to like it but in a world of remote work opportunities I'd prefer some place less popular.

Anyway, not sure why there's an article about why somebody moved to the Netherlands or any other country for that matter. Firstly we know why and secondly we don't care. We may feel the same and even do the same but really: we don't care.

Yeah pretty much this. Big EU cities are melting pots. In my London team youre better off learning Spanish or Polish

 

[roadcat]

Takes a long time to adjust, been in the US over a year and still check the doors and windows are closed/locked before going to bed.

But my wife and I both noticed how quickly we stopped being on edge when driving and being outdoors. Such a pleasant change.

 

[TehStranger]

In my experience most of the people in the Netherlands aren't Dutch. British, Italian, Ukrainian, Uzbekistan, Indians, Romanians...

in fact, I spoke to seven different people at a Dutch software company and didn't meet a single Dutch person.

My wife seems to like it but in a world of remote work opportunities I'd prefer some place less popular.

Anyway, not sure why there's an article about why somebody moved to the Netherlands or any other country for that matter. Firstly we know why and secondly we don't care. We may feel the same and even do the same but really: we don't care.

After living in the Netherlands for over 3 years I can echo many of the experiences in the article, as well as some of this post. Most are Dutch, but it doesn't feel like it in the big cities.

The Dutch are great but very difficult to interact with on a deeper social level, you'll likely end up with a diverse friend group made up of expats from more countries than you can count. The few Dutchies I'm friends with here (keyword, few) are either through work or are dating expats in my friend group. Last week we had an American over for dinner. This week it's a Latvian and Italian. My direct teammates are Canadian, German and Brazilian. The social games evening I ran for our R&D team two weeks ago was attended by French, Danish, Portuguese, Romanian and one Dutch person.

That's really the experience in the bigger cities (I've lived in Rotterdam, The Hague and now Amsterdam) and surrounds, though as you go out to the smaller/more remote cities (Enschede, Zwolle, Tilburg, basically most places outside of the Randstad) the more Dutch it becomes.

I miss the storms in SA. Thunder and lightning and theatre. And a few other things. But I feel just at home here with the other expats, and there's no comparsion to life back in SA.

 

[w1z4rd]

Which side of PE are you?
Were eyeing morgs as a change of scenery.

East London, north of EL. Its kinda a weird space to be, its just outside of town. There used to be about twenty tiny little holiday villages, but over the last 5 years people have been moving out of EL to live in this area.

Morgs is fine. For a holiday, you really stepping back in time and pace if you live there, but its a bit far from town for my liking. Also, little surfing space (though it does have great fishing). If you looking for a quiet life, but close enough to town that its just half an hour away, then anything along the Schafli Road is ideal (there about 20 little towns on that road).

Morgs is not far, I can see Kei Mouth lighthouse on the beach.

 

[vic777]

In my experience most of the people in the Netherlands aren't Dutch. British, Italian, Ukrainian, Uzbekistan, Indians, Romanians...

in fact, I spoke to seven different people at a Dutch software company and didn't meet a single Dutch person.

My wife seems to like it but in a world of remote work opportunities I'd prefer some place less popular.

Anyway, not sure why there's an article about why somebody moved to the Netherlands or any other country for that matter. Firstly we know why and secondly we don't care. We may feel the same and even do the same but really: we don't care.

Depends where and what company. In the "randstad" this might be the case, but usually only the techies. I work at a large Dutch company, had a meeting this morning where out of 30+ people I was the only non Dutch person