Minister, state secretary in St. Maarten Tuesday | THE DAILY HERALD

This composition photo shows Minister Hanke Bruins Slot on the left and State Secretary Alexandra van Huffelen on the right. (Suzanne Koelega photos)

THE HAGUE–The slavery past will be the focal point during the visit of Dutch Minister of Home Affairs and kingdom Relations Hanke Bruins Slot and State Secretary of Kingdom Relations and Digitisation Alexandra van Huffelen to St. Maarten, St. Eustatius and Curaçao from September 6 to 10.

The visit of the minister and state secretary starts in St. Maarten on Tuesday, September 6 where they will engage in talks with residents of different backgrounds about the slavery past and the significance for the future, it was stated in a press release of the Dutch government on Friday.

  Bruins Slot and Van Huffelen will also dedicate attention to the fact that five years ago, Hurricane Irma devastated St. Maarten, a major disaster that resulted in the Dutch government making half a billion euros available for a Trust Fund to reconstruct St. Maarten.

  On Wednesday, September 7, the delegation will visit St. Eustatius where a walking tour through the historic centre of Oranjestad is planned. Also on the agenda is a meeting with the Statia Heritage Committee, a visit to a school and talks with youngsters about the slavery past.

  During the last days of the visit in Curaçao, the minister and state secretary will engage in talks with youngsters and experts about the slavery past. They will also visit the National Archaeological-Anthropological Memory and the National Archive. The visit to Curaçao will be closed off with an encounter with artists, writers and musicians where the slavery past will be the main topic of conversation.

  The objective of the visit of Bruins Slot and Van Huffelen to the three islands is to hear and see for themselves about the importance and the meaning of the Dutch slavery past, and how this still has an effect on people today.     

  On the request of the minister of Home Affairs and Kingdom Relations, the Advisory Board Dialogue Group Slavery Past drafted an advice with regard to the question how to deal with the slavery past and the effects thereof in today’s society.

  The Dutch government has said that it will give a formal, comprehensive response to the advice of the Advisory Board Dialogue Group Slavery Past before 2023. The experiences and accounts of the visit of the minister and state secretary to the three islands will be included in the government’s reaction.

Source: The Daily Herald https://www.thedailyherald.sx/islands/minister-state-secretary-in-st-maarten-tuesday

3 COMMENTS

  1. Slavery is not something of just centuries ago. Slavery has many appearances. Slavery was and is always made possible by laws. Governments have an economic interest in reestablishing economic slavery again.

    How to discover that any government is having this strategy?
    Open your eyes and see where large investments are made, financed by the Dutch government, some intermediate organization or companies that operate with government protection or subsidies.

    The goal for these large scale investments is to make the island ready for better exploitation. In which, as can be seen already, only white entrepreneurs are pussed forward by the local fake governments. Inhabitants of the islands will be used as cheap labor, but the exploiters have a preference for immigrants from poorer countries. And that means that at a certain moment those who were born on the island must leave. With some force if necessary.

    Another typical instrument that fits into this strategy is the aim of the Dutch government to get better registrations of people, companies, land, houses, nature, professions, health care, culture, education, etc. They bring along new it systems, new buildings, new indoctrination courses and in general these colonials are taking over all the crucial positions in society.

    The direct effects everyone can notice are more and higher taxes, new taxes, new rules where to go or not to go, new license rules for everything, a more oppressive police force, etc.

    Watch also for two-legged rats in roles of commissioner or minister. Their behavior is pretty much predictable.
    The intelligence of these servants of colonialism is not so high as they themselves think. Francis and Toet on Statia are such exemples.

  2. The colonial servants of the Dutch re-slavers, governments of the islands, have taken possession of the slavery debate by issuing conversation partners with a house negro opinion and mentality.
    No real interest in the past, just damage control, and to set off side the more-or-less critical islanders.
    Unfortunately these are not capable enough to think and act strategic and therefore cannot work together with others. These governments are very pleased that these so-called critical islanders only focus on symbolic items like a statue or a street name. Not on slavery reparations payments, inequality, poverty, discrimination or justice. And by doing so they are no real threat for the fast Re-colonization of our islands. Some of them even think dat the system the Dutch give them, the lolly of parliamentary democracy, could ever change something structural. Keep on dreaming!
    No island council, no island parliament is ever meant for the people. Rethink!

  3. Please do an internet search on the name “bruins slot” and you will find that this is no ordinary family. They consist of many patrician officials and have a more than average role in defending Dutch colonialism and slavery.
    This military minister is cut from the same tree.
    The other one, well, what should we say about her. It’s nothing, full of air, no social empathy and just one of the many gold diggers in politics.

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