{"id":729,"date":"2017-02-02T11:50:17","date_gmt":"2017-02-02T10:50:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.erasmusmagazine.nl\/?p=64909\/"},"modified":"2025-12-19T11:22:05","modified_gmt":"2025-12-19T10:22:05","slug":"there-are-so-many-great-things-zuid-if-only-they-knew","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.erasmusmagazine.nl\/en\/2017\/02\/02\/there-are-so-many-great-things-zuid-if-only-they-knew\/","title":{"rendered":"‘There are so many great things in Zuid. If only they knew.’"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Rotterdam-Zuid is not known for being a safe place. It has the odd shooting. And it is quite a long bike ride away. For these reasons, students tend to give the cheap houses in Zuid a miss. However, there is a world waiting to be discovered to the South of the Nieuwe Maas river.<\/p>\n\n\t

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\n\t\t\u2018You weren\u2019t expecting that, were you, from such a black broad?\u2019\n\t<\/blockquote>\n\n\t<\/figure>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t<\/div>\n

Dark-skinned Loraine, 47, is in the smokers\u2019 part of Caf\u00e9 Schuyer, her local in Feijenoord. Tuesday afternoon is grinding to a halt. She is drinking beer and looking for a photo on her phone, without much success. She yells at a male friend, who is sitting three feet away from her, with a good view of the house rule: \u201cDon\u2019t smoke joints in here\u2026 Don\u2019t roll them, either.\u201d Next to him sits a man wearing a shell necklace and tracksuit bottoms, who starts yelling the moment someone else opens their mouth. The friend finds the photo. \u201cLook,\u201d says Loraine, who has been a die-hard Zuid resident for 22 years. \u201cMy son. A graduated econometrist. He is leaving for Wall Street next year. Lives in this neighbourhood, but works hard.\u201d She bursts out laughing. \u201cYou weren\u2019t expecting that, were you, from such a black broad? Oh, well. That\u2019s Zuid humour for you.\u201d She gives me her phone number in case I want to ask her some more\u00a0 questions later. \u201cRight now I\u2019m too tipsy.<\/p>\n

Bad rep<\/h3>

Colloquially, Zuid is said to cover all of Rotterdam to the south of the Nieuwe Maas, comprising the boroughs of Charlois, Feijenoord, Hoogvliet and IJsselmonde. The place is supposed to be unsafe, multi-cultural and cheap. Afrikaanderwijk, which does not boast many Dutch speakers, has a particularly bad reputation.<\/p>\n\n\t

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\n\t\t\u2018Yo, chief! Once upon a time people used to greet each other. Now they are quick to say, \u201cShut your fucking mouth\u2019\n\t<\/blockquote>\n\n\t<\/figure>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t<\/div>\n

The Feijenoord and Charlois neighbourhoods have 73,080 and 65,309 residents, respectively, of whom 8 and 7 percent are students (the municipal authorities do not keep tabs on how many of them are EUR students). Fifty-one percent of the people living in the two neighbourhoods \u2013 where houses tend to be several dozen years older than the average Rotterdam home \u2013 are native Dutch citizens. By way of comparison, in Kralingen-West, which is considered a student haven, 12 percent of the population are students, with native Dutch people making up 67 percent of the population.<\/p>\n

It is easy to find people like Loraine in Zuid, but much harder to find students, since they are well integrated in urban life and hardly stand out. Every once in a while a student will flit across the street. One of them is addressed by a junkie: \u201cYo, chief! Once upon a time people used to greet each other. Now they are quick to say, \u201cShut your fucking mouth\u201d. The student walks on, looking anxious.<\/p>\n

Tetanus shot<\/h3>
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Recent graduate Richard van der Bijl, 26, lives in Polderlaan. His place is cheap. He pays about \u20ac 230 per month, which gives him his own room, as well as a 40-square-metre living room. However, it is also unsafe; just a week ago he attended a security meeting with the Mayor, Ahmed Aboutaleb, which was convened because of the many shootings in the Hillesluis neighbourhood of Feijenoord, which is often called a \u2018ghetto\u2019 by people from Zuid.<\/p>\n

Richard isn\u2019t put off by that sort of thing. \u201cIt sounds stupid, but those guys are not after me. They are criminals who are only after each other.\u201d Richard ended up in Zuid in a roundabout way. It was not just because of the low rent that he decided to stay. \u201cI\u2019m from a small village. The contrast is huge. Something is always happening around here.\u201d He himself experienced one \u2018small incident\u2019 after a night\u00a0on the town, when he was bitten by an Alsatian that had torn itself loose. \u201cIt came running from a shabby caf\u00e9, and all of a sudden it was hanging from my arm. It was crazy. Its master was nice enough to pay for my tetanus shot.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bedde spryen for sale<\/h3>
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There is a great contrast between Richard\u2019s neighbourhood and Carnisse, less than 4 kilometres down the road, where 26-year-old Samir Azrioual has a room. In this neighbourhood, streets are empty, and everyone is at work. The place has a coldish, even business-like vibe. Around the corner, an old lady is feeding dates to the animals at the deer park. A rigidly orthodox Protestant church can be found a little down the road. \u201cIt always makes me laugh,\u201d says Samir. \u201cIt\u2019s a little out of place in Zuid.\u201d<\/p>\n

A little bourgeois<\/h3>\n\t
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\n\t\t\u2018Zuid has a bad reputation among\nstudents. That\u2019s because no one ever sees\nwhat it is really like.\u2019\n\t<\/blockquote>\n\n\t<\/figure>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t<\/div>\n

A caged bird sits on his windowsill. Whenever the animal screeches, Samir quietly takes a sip of his coffee. The Master\u2019s student in Philosophy feels a little bourgeois, he admits. \u201cThe main problem in this neighbourhood is a dearth of parking spots.\u201d Other than that, nothing much happens here.\u00a0Which is good, as Samir is here because of the peace and quiet: \u201cIf I want to go out, I\u2019ll go to the city centre. At home I don\u2019t want to have anything on my mind.\u201d<\/p>\n

He really likes the mix of cultures. He shows us his shopping street, which does not have a branch of Albert Heijn, but does have internationally oriented shops \u2013 a Polish supermarket and the Gulcan gift shop, whose window has a sign advertising \u201cbedde spryen\u201d rather than \u201cbeddenspreien\u201d. Samir likes to do his groceries here. \u201cThings are considerably cheaper and fresher than at the big-name supermarkets.\u201d<\/p>\n

He goes home with some spring onions, telling us, \u201cZuid has a bad reputation among students. That\u2019s because no one ever sees what it is really like.\u201d He is referring to the peace and quiet in his own neighbourhood, Zuiderpark (where he likes to study) and the Hannie Dekhuijzen Nursing Home, where students are welcome to come and have dinner if they are willing to keep the elderly people company. Samir likes to join in on occasion.<\/p>\n

A friend of sorts<\/h3>

In other words, lots of diversity, in a place where the Dutch capital is habitually referred to as \u2018020\u2019. Those who call Zuid a big and unsafe jungle simply do not know what they are talking about.<\/p>\n

Take, for instance, the forty-something guy who is paying for a few bags of weed at Colosseum coffee shop, right in the middle of the \u2018ghetto\u2019. He leaves 50 cents\u2019 worth of change on the counter. \u201cLast time I was here, you gave me fifty cents too much when you gave me my change.\u201d Coffee shop waiter Martin thinks it is quite funny. He says people here are hard-boiled, with a rough sense of humour, and very down to earth \u2013 \u201cit doesn\u2019t take much for rich people to be considered show-offs here\u201d \u2013 but they have big hearts. \u201cIt\u2019s an enclave in and of itself.\u201d<\/p>\n

Multi-cultural<\/h3>

Caf\u00e9 guest Loraine confirms this. When I talk to her on the phone, she says, quite soberly now: \u201cEveryone knows everyone around here. People talk to each other, and shopkeepers will always greet you. No one bothers me here. Students drop us a line when they are going to have a party. Fine. The neighbourhood policeman does the same thing after there has been a shooting. We are not the kind of people who will jump at the sight of a broken nail. And obviously, the place is very multi-cultural.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Richard has noticed this, as well. During the Football World Cups and European Championships, he is generally the only person displaying a Dutch flag in his window. He was pretty upset when the local Aldi was replaced by \u201cyet another Moroccan supermarket\u201d a while ago. \u00a0\u201cBut now I get my groceries from there every day. The fresh vegetables are great, and cheap, too.\u201d Sometimes language will be a bit of an issue. \u201cFor instance, I will ask the butcher for 300 grams of meat, only for him to give me 100 grams, because he didn\u2019t understand what I was saying. But hey, that\u2019s funny. He has become a friend of sorts. If I ever make it to Morocco, he wants to be my guide. That\u2019s because my flatmates and I are the only white people who ever come to their shop. They like that. They are very friendly and know exactly who we are.\u201d<\/p>\n

There is only one insurmountable problem: it\u2019s a good twenty minutes\u2019 bike ride from here to Coolsingel. \u201cMy friends don\u2019t come over for a cup of coffee very often,\u201d says Samir, \u201cwhich is a pity, because there are so many great things in Zuid. If only they knew.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Last episode of 'The student & his district'<\/h2>