IT’S VIRTUALLY meaningless to most Dutch people in the Netherlands, but most Dutch people in the US shudder at hearing the name.
Rikers Island.
America’s most notorious prison, a complex on an island between Harlem and Flushing, formerly Haarlem and Vlissingen. When you land at New York’s LaGuardia Airport, you’ll see it, all 160 acres of it. Surrounded by the smelly waters of the East River.
Ten thousand prisoners. Ten thousand guards. Ten thousand outbreaks of violence inside the walls. Per year. And they are not even long-term prisoners, but generally detainees awaiting trial. Conditions there are legendarily bad. Alcatraz, but today.
Once the beautiful island of the Reijken family from Arnhem, Reijkens Island. Hendrik, Pieter, Femmetje, Bram, Johannes, Marietje. The family owned it for over two hundred years. But as if they felt it coming – after all, they were no longer called Reijken or Ryker.
Suidam they began to call themselves, and then Suydam. No one knew exactly why, except the people back home in Gelderland. Zuidam is still a common name there today: in Herwijnen, Hurwenen, Gameren, all dam villages, two on the south side of the river Waal.
In the US you find Suydam Roads, Streets and Avenues, in New Jersey, Illinois, New York. A proud name. But nowhere do you find Riker. Except on that island.
And nobody wants to live there.
