The Summer 2011 Issue contains the following articles:

INTERVIEW

From the Point of View of… Neil Aaronson

“I have lived in Amsterdam longer than anywhere else in the world and it still takes my breath away. We have a 6-meter steel open canal boat with which we cruise the canals of the city. Every time I say: ‘Oh my God, this is so gorgeous!’ and my kids say ‘Dad, you always say that!’ But this city has a charm and beauty that are unique. Other cities are often museums, but these 16th and 17th-century buildings are no Disneyland. People live and work in them, every day. And however crowded it may be during the day, after 7 P.M., Amsterdam becomes a village. It has the best of both worlds; it is cosmopolitan, but you still hear the birds sing in the morning.”

LEGAL

The ‘Welcoming’ Role of the Lawyer: Sparing Loved Ones the Headaches

By Deborah Valentine

In this increasingly multi-lingual, multi-cultural, global world in which we live there are probably very few universal adages that resonate for all. However, while there may be variations on the theme, one, no doubt, is universal: you cannot avoid death and taxes. There may be creative ways of avoiding taxes during one's lifetime, but regrettably these catch up with us when we are gone. And, when we are gone those we leave behind are left with a lot of questions to which the answers are not always pleasant, let alone straightforward. Perhaps unbeknownst to many, this particular issue can be a painful reality for those living an international life and residing in the Netherlands, or any other country for that matter, when they pass away. In an interview with Marieke Morshuis and Carla van Waes of GMW Advocaten in The Hague, a few thoughts were shared.
www.gmw.nl/en/international-community/family-and-inheritance-law.html

TAX

30%-Ruling: Only for Non-Dutch Nationals?

By Bart van Meijl

Junior finance minister Frans Weekers is to look into the possible abuse of the 30% tax-ruling for expats. The Dutch news program, RTL News, has discovered that some 2,000 Dutch nationals are using the tax break after having worked abroad for a long time, costing the Dutch treasury € 25 million a year.

How did the 30%-ruling come to be and what were the exact reasons for creating this facility? Bart van Meijl of Expatax takes you on a little stroll through the history of this tax measure.
www.expatax.nl

EXPAT LIVING

Relocation Agents – A Question of Experience and Creativity

In 2006, nine relocation agencies, including Linda’s Personal Relocation, and Settle Service, for which Irene works, got together to found ARPN; the Association for Relocation Professionals Netherlands. “Our aim,” says Linda, “is to promote quality and professionalism and to offer the government input on migration issues from the point of view of relocation agents. Already in our first year, we joined the discussion on this country’s new policy for knowledge migrants.” ARPN’s relation with the Immigration and Naturalization Sevices (IND) is a mutually supportive one. “The IND was getting fed up with incomplete forms and sub-standard applications. When we come in with a client, they know that they will be getting exactly what they need.”
www.arpn-relocation.org

EXPAT LIVING

Legal Aliens Expands Your World

By Connie Moser

It has been said that ‘it takes friends to make friends’ and one of the fastest-growing groups in the Randstad area, Legal Aliens, is evidence of this fact. Numerous opportunities are created for people to get together, have fun, meet new friends, enjoy great experiences and be a part of a 2,000-member strong network. And it’s free!

Dean Southall, one of the co-founders of Legal Aliens (LA) is no stranger to international adventures. He has traveled the world twice, lived in four counties and thoroughly enjoys meeting people. The LA group had its beginnings via Yahoo groups back in 2007, and from its humble beginnings of posting events and hoping that somebody would show up, it now hosts activities and events mainly in The Hague, but also in Leiden, Delft, Amsterdam and other surrounding towns.

This year, Dean was unanimously voted Expat of the Year by both the public and jury due to the "sheer variety of activities and ways he has created to connect people within the international community...”
www.legalaliens.eu  
 

HEALTH CARE

Health Care: You Are in Good Hands

Wouldn’t it be nice if we never had to be sick? Yet the anthroposophists wouldn’t necessarily agree with that; they say that every illness is caused by an imbalance between your body, soul and spirit which, after asking yourself why this is, you take the time to restore and, in the process, learn from and become stronger.
It’s an interesting thought – but I think we would all still prefer not to have to go through this – particularly when away from home. Yet, as we have yet to find a way to protect ourselves against every disease, in this issue of The XPat Journal, we offer you a short guide on how to find help on your road to recovery.

Dental Care – A Very Intimate Type of Care

Thomas Rietrae of Lassus Dentists knows all about cultural differences when it comes to medical care. “When starting research at Columbia University in New York, I began looking into these differences, which I continued to do here in the Netherlands.” He tells: “Depending on where you are from, you have very different expectations of the dental care you will receive.” Combining what he had learned abroad and as a patient, Thomas decided to create a practice based on a special philosophy: “Our policy is to take care of the person – and not just the problem. As much as possible, we want to provide our patients with the type of care they are used to, in a language they feel at ease communicating in.”
At the practice you will find the full spectrum of help, from dental hygienists, to dentists, to orthodontists, to endodontists, to pediatric dentists, and more.
www.lassustandartsen.nl

HOUSING

Vesteda – Easy Living for Internationals
 
Whether it be for a period of a month or for several years, and whether it be for modestly-remunerated trainees or for CFOs; Vesteda helps companies and individuals alike find a home away from home. “We offer four options to choose from,” explains Michael Berendsen, Corporate Partnership Manager at Vesteda, “Regular, meaning just that; semi-furnished, meaning we can arrange for instance carpeting and curtains; furnished, whereby we look with the client at what fits within their budget; and what we call ‘serviced apartments’. The latter are luxury apartments with a full service package that are available in a number of Vesteda-apartment complexes such as New Amsterdam and Detroit, in Amsterdam, New Orleans and De Hoge Heren in Rotterdam, La Fenêtre in The Hague, Cortile in Maastricht, and the Vesteda Tower in Eindhoven. In response to the changing expat market and relocation budgets, the semi-furnished apartments allow us to adapt the housing and furnishing expenditures to the budget of our client, both corporate.” All tenants, regardless of the apartment or home they rent, have access to a 24-hour, 7-day-a-week call center for emergencies and maintenance. In principle, rental periods range anywhere from one month or longer in the serviced apartments, to a minimum of 12 months for all other properties.
Vesteda owns every property they rent out, making them a very attractive partner for those companies who have to find housing on the Dutch market for both their incoming expats as well as local employees.
Vesteda’s English-language website can be found by visiting www.vesteda.com/corporatehousing.
www.servicedapartments.nl  lists all Vesteda’s serviced apartments.

City in the City: New Babylon
Living with Your Head in the Clouds, Even Though the Sun Is Shining

Where in the Netherlands will you find a place to live, work, eat, drink, relax, shop, work out and take public transportation in one single complex? That would be New Babylon – taking it up to new levels not only in terms of high-rise, but also in terms of quality of life.
Those who like a cosmopolitan life of luxury, such as expats, DINKYs, singles, professionals or pensionados, elect the ease of ‘having all the good stuff within reach’: gastronomy, wellness, unique shops, (flex)work, transportation, parking. They buy or rent an apartment in one of the two residential towers and enjoy its unique living experience.
On the website www.newbabylon.nl  you will find a search engine under ‘residences’. Per apartment, it lists availability, data, an artist’s impression, the view and the lay-out.
www.newbabylon.nl

Are You Looking for Rental Property?
Let MVGM Help You!

Within the Netherlands, MVGM is the largest private real estate agent that maintains and rents out property in a wide variety of price categories. For every special set of wishes they have the perfect solution. Their speciality is helping clients find a suitable home for the best price – without undue loss of time. Their structured rental process helps ensure that only the most relevant properties that match the search criteria are shown.

Located throughout the entire Netherlands, they have more than 50,000 properties under their management, so that they can virtually guarantee you that they will find the right residence.
MVGM and Home Inspirations – a rental company that specializes in the selling or renting out of complete home interiors – have joined hands in an aim to make it easier for you to find and create a real home. MVGM also works together with Square Knot Expat Services, who have years of experience in financial advice and relocation services.
www.ikwilhuren.nu
 

EDUCATION

Understanding Third Culture Kids

American School of the Hague was delighted to recently welcome Ruth van Reken, international expert and world-renowned co-author of Third Culture Kids, The Experience of Growing Up Among Worlds.

April 18 of this year saw Ruth sharing a full day with the students, parents and staff of American School of The Hague, discussing what it means to be a Third Culture Kid and how families and teachers can help children that are moving from one country to another through the transition process. A Third Culture Kid is defined as "someone who, as a child, has spent a significant period of time in one or more culture(s) other than his or her own, thus integrating elements of those cultures and their own birth culture into a third culture.”
With more than 68 nationalities learning and working together at the School, helping ASH community members figure out how they fit into this world and how to enjoy the many benefits and manage the challenges of growing up multi-culturally, is just part of daily life at the School. American School of The Hague has a long-standing, tried and tested approach towards supporting families and staff through this type of transition, under their umbrella group of volunteers and committees called A Safe Harbour.
www.ash.nl

Graduation 2011 – The American Way

The graduation ceremony at the only American University in the Netherlands is so completely different from the ceremony at a Dutch university; it is a colorful celebration in a beautiful old church – a perfect combination of solemn, serious, and stylish, topped off with the splendor and exuberance that is so characteristically American. A perfect ceremony to mark the end of years of hard study, with friends and family there to witness it. Where? In the Pieterskerk in Leiden. What university? Webster University, of course.

Webster University offers an American-style education at more than 100 locations worldwide. With its focus on individual excellence and global citizenship, Webster is a truly global university that encourages student mobility between its network of campuses. In the Netherlands, Webster Leiden offers Bachelor programs in business and management, international relations, psychology and sociology, media communications and fine art. At graduate level, Webster offers an MBA and Masters in Management & Leadership, International Relations, International NGO Studies, and Media Communications. The MBA is also offered at Webster’s Amsterdam WTC (ZuidAs) location. Webster is a university accredited in the US with dual degree options (Dutch and US diplomas) for some of its Dutch NVAO-accredited Bachelor programs. Its recently launched Global Research Institute allows students to work in internships or interdisciplinary collaborative research projects on sustainability and development.
For more Information, visit: www.webster.nl

MEDIA

Connecting with the Community: a Daily Affair

by Deborah Valentine

In this age of information saturation, it is hard to believe that there is still room for more sources of information. Ultimately however, this depends on what the information is, when it is available and how it is packaged. At The Hague Expat TV, the answers to these questions all suggest that there is indeed still room for more. Their short daily video clips, available online or via their App, provide 24/7 information that addresses and reflects the local international community. www.thexpat.tv provides information and news that unites the community and that connects its members.

LEISURE

Marken and Monnickendam
Small Is Beautiful

By Trevor Waldron

The former island of Marken hangs like a gem from a slender causeway in the quieter reaches of the IJsselmeer Lake. Floating on the near horizon opposite its founding town of Monnickendam, whose monks founded the two communities over 700 years ago, Marken today is a fortunate and fascinating accident of history.

Time and again over the centuries, Marken has been perilously close to being washed away, or buried by land reclamation projects. Together with the medieval town of Monnickendam, the two locations make for a rewarding day’s outing.

Accessible by car or passenger ferry, the island – for it still feels like that – is less than a half-hour drive from Amsterdam.
Trevor Waldron, professional photographer, workshop leader and private coach takes us on a tour of this island in time.

www.trevorwaldron.com

North Sea Jazz Festival
A Festival You Can Not Afford to Miss

This three-day festival was first organized by Paul Acket – a jazz lover who had made his fortune in music magazines – in 1976. There were six stages, 300 musicians and more than 9,000 visitors who came to see such icons as Count Basie, Ray Charles, Dizzy Gillespie, Lionel Hampton, and Sarah Vaughn. In the first year alone!

These days, the festival has 15 stages, 1,200 musicians and more than 23,000 visitors a day, who come to listen to music varying from traditional jazz, to avant-garde jazz, to electronic jazz, to hip hop, rap, funk, blues, soul, r&b and just about anything you can think of. This is a place where you will find a tremendous diversity of people, all focused on enjoying the music, the atmosphere and good company – and where personal differences, historical disagreements, and politics are all part of a different dimension.
www.northseajazz.com
 

CULTURE

Delft Chamber Music Festival 2011

From July 29 to August 7, the Delft Chamber Music Festival will be taking place. It is the festival’s 15th edition, and at the same time violinist Liza Ferschtman’s fifth time as the festival’s artistic director. She has chosen Between Dream and Reality as this year’s theme.
“There will be extraordinary music that will take the audience away from their daily hassles to a different reality; big compositions such as the enchanting sextet Verklärte Nacht by Schönberg, Strauss’ transforming septet Metamorphosen, Chausson’s big-scaled but at the same time intimate Concerto for Violin, Piano and String Quartet, and much more magical, heavenly and enriching chamber music.
www.delftmusicfestival.nl

EVENT

Parade on the Road with Traveling Theater

This summer will be the 27th time that the Theater Festival De Parade will be traveling through the country. In every city, they will be constructing a completely self-supporting village made up of dozens of tents – a temporary home for the artists and crew.

Smaller and More Intimate
On Thursday, June 16, De Parade will start out in Rotterdam, after which it will travel on to The Hague and Utrecht, ending in Amsterdam on August 21. During its 55 days, there will be more than 60 different performances, as well as 15 children’s shows, while every evening there will be two different bands performing in Café Correct and the Orangerie. From August 11-14, while De Parade is in Amsterdam, there will be a mini-version in Eindhoven on the Piet-Hein Eek on Strijp R. Here you will find the 120-meter long ‘Table of the Idea’.
This year, the program, with slightly fewer venues and more performing days, will be smaller and more intimate.
www.deparade.nl

Discover International & Cultural The Hague!

On Sunday, September 18, the sixth annual Feel at Home in The Hague - The International Community Fair 2011 is set to take place in the Atrium of The Hague City Hall. This keenly anticipated annual event will once again provide visitors with a unique opportunity to discover all there is to see and do in the region.

Feel at Home in The Hague - The International Community Fair 2011 is the event for the expat and international community of The Hague region to discover all there is to do in their free time – in one go, on one location. Last year’s event, which was a huge success, attracted over 4,000 visitors and featured nearly 200 stands.

The annual event encourages visitors to establish new contacts and connect with locals and other expats in the area, while providing the perfect opportunity for cultural organisations, sports and social clubs as well as business and service providers, to reach out to the international population in the region.
www.FeelatHomeinTheHague.com

READERS’ OFFER

Adventure on the High Seas with RIB Actie Scheveningen!

There are various RIB tour options: business trips, trips for singles, family trips – or any other type of pleasure trip. With an RIB Actie Scheveningen trip you can experience the pleasure and excitement of Scheveningen from the sea. They can make it hard and fast, or relaxing and educational. It is up to the guests. Sometimes they have passengers who have never been on a boat before, which they always take into account – because it is all about safety and fun. They want everyone to leave the boat with a big smile!

READERS’ OFFER
For the readers of The XPat Journal there is the following readers’ offer:
30 minutes in a RIB € 27 per person
45 minutes in a RIB € 36 per person
60 minutes in a RIB € 45 per person
(prices include a 10% readers’ discount)
Free sailing clothing during the trip in order to keep your clothes dry! (Normally € 5 per person)

Above rate applies to a minimum number of 4 participants.
Including Secumar150N lifejacket, gasoline, VAT and insurance.
RIB School Scheveningen and RIB Actie can be found in Scheveningen in the second inner harbor (tweede binnenhaven), nearby cozy restaurants and terraces, and within walking distance of the boulevard and the beach.
www.rib-actie.nl
info@rib-actie.nl

www.ribschool.nl  
info@ribschool.nl

COLUMN

Funny You Should Ask About … Health Care

By Shirley Agudo

Being an expat has its pros and cons, as we all know, and one of the issues of living in a foreign country is that of health care. Accustomed as we are to our own country’s system, we all experience a dose of trepidation as we try to navigate through that of our host country, constantly wondering how good and how different the level of care and the ‘bedside manner’ will be, in comparison to what we’re used to.

Here in Holland, I have pleasantly discovered that the quality of the Dutch health care system, although it does have its inherent quirks like any system does, is overall much better than I had anticipated when I came here 17 years ago. As an American, I was used to some of the best health care technology in the world, and my fear was that I would not find an equally high level abroad.
www.shirleyagudo.com

© Copyright The XPat Journal

Top