Friends in a Cold Climate: Schiedam-6b

(This is the second interview with Jan Brouwer,former official with the municipality of Schiedam. In November 1990, Schiedam organized its first sister cities conference. Previously, Schiedam participated annually in various partner cities but was encouraged to host one themselves. They made it a significant event held in the auditorium of the Stedelijk Museum Schiedam, commemorated with a group photo in front of the museum. Schiedam had attendees from various cities and languages at the conference. While most spoke fluent English, Esslingen and Velenje needed simultaneous interpreters, which was very costly and took a significant part of our budget. Schiedam also experienced the impact of the war in Yugoslavia— Croatia, Serbia, Bosnia, etc. Slovenia, part of former Yugoslavia, is just below Austria and Italy. When the war broke out in the south, Schiedam took notice, especially due to the refugee crisis. Velenje asked for our help, and I took the initiative to start a relief effort. Slovenia also wanted to become an independent republic and asked for support from its partner cities. The council of Schiedam had reservations, expressing that while they valued the sister city relationships, deciding on international political matters was beyond their scope and should be handled by national politics. As a result, Schiedam distanced itself from this issue, unlike Esslingen, which did not. Eastern European countries were looking to establish close contacts with Dutch municipalities. However, Schiedam did not extend our contacts further into Eastern Europe. A significant highlight was when Schiedam, together with Vienne and the Polish city Piotrków (partnered with Esslingen), received the Etoile dOr award from the Council of Europe. We were recognized for forming a network of partner cities and organizing several successful exchanges, which was unique compared to the more common bilateral partnerships. The award ceremony took place in a grand theater in Ferrara, Italy, with a beautiful, full audience. Jan explains that the successor of Mayor Scheeres, who had no interest in the sister city relationships instructed him to quickly remove the city signs. Mayor Scheeres, already retired, inquired about the signs, which had been taken down. Jan confirmed they were removed but secretly found two signs, now stored at the company that removed them. Taking and preserving these signs was seen as an act of resistance, though the succeeding mayor never knew they were taken. Otherwise, the speaker might have had a shorter tenure with the municipality.