Born in the Netherlands in 1954, Wim Bossema is a journalist at Volkskrant where he runs the "Dear Neighbours" section, an online forum where Volkskrant readers can exchange views on European subjects with readers from Poland's Gazeta Wyborcza and Portugal's Público. A history graduate of the universities of Amsterdam and Dar es Salaam in Tanzania, he was previously in charge of Volkskrant's Africa section.