Beste mensen,

Graag wil ik jullie aandacht vragen om het volgende.

Zoals jullie weten hou ik van schrijven. Door mijn schrijven kom ik in contact met mensen op Curacao met wie ik lange gesprekken heb over de politieke ontwikkelingen daar. Een goede vriend van mij op Curacao, Jermaine Ostiana ..die het liefst mensen bewust maakt over wat er allemaal gaande is.. is gevraagd om een stuk te schrijven over de huidige ontwikkelingen. Ik wil het met jullie delen en ik hoop dat jullie de tijd nemen om het even te lezen.

Er zijn jongeren die zeer begaan zijn met de politieke ontwikkelingen en die met de middelen die ze hebben, mensen proberen bewust te maken over wat er allemaal gebeurd op onze dushi Korsou.

Alvast bedankt voor de tijd om te lezen.

Groet,

Daryanani


Bron: http://wanderlustlive.wordpress.com/2009/02/19/immortalizing-the-word-4-curacao-and-its-upcoming-referendum/

I give you Mr. Jermaine Ostiana.
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There has never been and there will never be a ‘quick fix’ to unite a nation as divided as Curacao. A country which has suffered from decades of colonial/political looting and corporate exploitation on both sides of the deep blue ocean with blessings of Her Royal Highness Queen Beatrix. No magic snap of the finger will make us believe that a so-called partisan constitutional change allowing us to become an autonomous country while remaining within the Dutch Kingdom will be our gold paved road to genuine prosperity.

Let’s focus on the facts: The Central Bureau of Statistics shows that in 2007 our total labour force of 53,779 only 6,360 have a gross monthly income of $2,825 and higher. 47,419 people, 88% of the population, earn between $282 and $2825 per month.
All praises due to the most high that it hasn’t happened yet, but this is a Molotov cocktail waiting to be thrown into the laps of Curacao’s ruling power-elite. Now if you take a deeper look into this cold war between the haves and have not’s you’ll see the European Dutch community who are few in number but a dominant financial/economical force to be reckoned with: Real estate, resorts, hotels, big construction companies, law offices. 96% of all judges are Dutch. 500 of the total 600 interns in Curacao are European Dutch, offshore companies, banking, insurance, financial services, accountants, consultants, governmental technical assistance. All of these areas are heavily represented by the minority European Dutch population residing in Curacao.
Now only if the Dutch European would channel some generous energy towards the people and destroy this thinly veiled apartheid. Why not share their networks, knowledge and expertise to improve the living standards of everyone on the island? Its about time they wake up and stop assuming that its still okay to continue with this shameless and opportunistic behaviour.
Only a few moons will pass before to the people of Curacao will go out and vote in a referendum to either approve or reject the judicial/financial package that resulted after 3 years of mediocre negotiations with the Netherlands. The deal is that the seated government in The Hague will commit itself to a €1.3 billion debt relief under strict conditions. The Dutch prime minister Balkende and Antillean prime minister El Hage with their propaganda spin try to convince the public that “Holland loves us” and that if we vote against the package there will be no renegotiation for debt relief. The real truth of course, as explained by the fiercely critical opposition leader Helmin Wiels, is that Curacao is indispensable to the Netherlands. They will inject millions in a propaganda machine to convince the man and woman in the street to vote ‘Yes’ in the referendum. To approve the deal would mean that the same corrupt politicians and political parties that helped the Dutch government to create Curacao’s massive debt will stay in power and none of them will have to appear in front of a judge to be convicted of their illegal deeds.
The status quo would be the perfect scenario for political and corporate elite of the Netherlands. They could continue to do business in Latin America and North America just around the corner; under cover corporate crime: tax evasion, money laundering activities. The added bonus of Curacao’s proximity to Venezuela, a country with brand new oil reserves in the Orinoco Valley; schemes to maximize their profits with oil and gas in Curacao’s territorial waters using cut throat kingdom contracts and of course colluding with the US by remodelling their so-called overseas kingdom territories so it can fit right into Washington’s foreign policy.
A ‘NO’ in my eyes means a chance to partially purify the putrid political and corporate system to a certain degree that will gently persuade the financial institutions to create a solid sustainable social-financial economy that will benefit the people from the bottom up. A land storm ‘NO’ vote will confirm the fact that people have wizened up and haven’t fallen yet again into the trap to approve a constitutional deal negotiated by incapable crooked governments. No mother in her right mind would let a paedophile baby-sit her children, so let’s not fool ourselves!!
Since when do you negotiate a right? In this decolonization process it is up to Curacao to demand its rights, nothing more nothing less. All of this villainy happened because the people were tamed by their daily lives and all the joy and pain that it brings along. The Netherlands will always try to cook something up within the corridors of power but it will be in vain if the people stay vigilant and keep opening their mouths and putting pressure using any creative means.
The docile times are dead and gone, buried deep. I can’t predict when we will get what’s rightfully ours but I do know if I look around in the Caribbean I see Guadeloupe taking a stand. A general strike for the past couple of weeks has in effect shut down the this French territory with the threat of contagion to other islands in the French Caribbean. They’ve already decided to stop bowing down to the economic elite and the colonial government in France.
Meanwhile in the French Antilles, an anti-colonialism conference is taking place. Here in Curacao we are allowing a narcissistic Dutch multi-millionaire to have a conference about the blessings and benefits the WIC (West Indian Company and its first director/pirate Peter Stuyvesant which transformed Curacao into one of the major slave depots during the Transatlantic slave trade.) has brought to Curacao. Its a commonly held belief within the European Dutch community that without them we, black folks, would still be stuck in the African jungle going through our daily misery.

It is the same Dutch collective along with a large group of natives that shamelessly screams murder, chaos, anarchy, scared to death the people will be voting against the financial package. Manipulating public opinion so that we’ll become like Suriname or Haiti. Making the people believe that Chavez is ready to incorporate the island into his Bolivarian Revolution.

A labour dispute with racial injustice and history rooted in colonial exploitation resulted in the notorious riots of 30 May 1969. This year’s referendum its exactly 40 years to the date. I’ve an interesting suggestion: considering that 85% of the population is Catholic the Church could meditate on the religious statistics of the number 40, namely that it took Moses 40 years to guide his nation out of Egypt to the promised land.
There’s this funny little myth that Curacao is on the verge of becoming financially bankrupt and that licking Mama Holland’s heels for debt relief is considered, amongst many, a grand act of salvation insuring a worry free future for our children. I oppose that belief by sharing a publicly known secret: Curacao has always been sitting on a pile of moneybags whether it was Nazi dollars from Prescott Bush with a little help from off-shore inventors Anton Smeets and Prince Bernard or Royal Shell, PdVSA, Mirant, Mitsubishi, Wackenhut or even the Bin Laden group or Ikea money.
That wealth being shared in our communities needs to come into fruition by putting on the armour of a defiant social critic. We need to lock the Dutch, native and international legacies of post-colonial financial leech-craft in a public pillory on 8 May 2009. It will be one out of the many moments of truth our country must go through and I will be right there casting my first vote ever with a gigantic NO!