MyWorld Tuesday

Referring to last weeks MyWorld post I can show you a photo of the coal mine in the place I grew up. I think the picture must have been taken before the war because I see empty spots of land where I remember houses. I also see only one cooling tower and there were two as far as I remember.
The closing of this coal mine as of all the other mines in this region had an enormous impact on life. Many people were glad they did not have to do the hard and dirty work anymore though most of them feared a collapse of the economy and empoverishment in the future. Government promised alternative employment by developping and setting up new heavily subsidised industries. But they were not very succesful. Many young people left the area to find jobs elswhere in the Netherlands. The former mining part of the Netherlands changed it looks totally during the last decades. It is about the most beautiful part of the country with a foreign look. Not many windmills, no clogs, not much water and no flat polders here. Geologically the land belongs to the northern part of the Belgian Ardennes. Tourism has been promoted and many touristic attractions have been developped. There is a strong interaction with the surrounding countries Germany and Belgium and the region is flourishing again. The only concern of the government is that there live relatively more older people here than in other parts of the country. That is one of the effects of young people moving way three decades ago.

The Domaniale Mine, probably before WW2



This is how the area looks now