In april 2013 zend een Nederlandse zender NTR een item uit over expats, makamba's 1.0 op Curaçao die geen hoge dunk hebben van de eilandbewoners. Langzaam maar zeker gaan steeds meer Curacaoenaars reageren. Helaas werpt dit incident ons weer terug op de mindset 1.0. We gaan weer denken in termen van slavernij.

De slavenmentaliteit bestaat nog steeds. Een van de uitingen is de wreedheid waarmee men met mensen om gaat. H...

Chavez died on 5 March 2013, on 16:25. What is his legacy? It will be awhile before we can answer this question because Venezuela has for a long time reveived bad press. A quick assesment:

"As the statistics show, the reality in Venezuela is far from the picture painted by the media in recent years. The nation’s poor have made important gains, and have significantly improved their standard of living. The social changes have been so rapid, in fact, that despite impre...

Populism in Curaçao is a correction to the liberalism that sometimes become isolated from public opinion and the views of the common people. But it is also a consequence of the debate on decolonization. In Curaçao the conditions for populism to develop are present. The elites are under heavy pressure. The majority is poor and institutions are heavily criticized. The media in Curaçao are pervasive and invasive. Populism is growing. But the practical answers that p...

While many denounce the elites, Wiels addresses the old elites and Pierre and Leeflang address the new elites who sponsored the PS and MFK election campaign.The PAR is headed by the charismatic Mrs. de Jongh-Elhage, but its day-to-days pokesperson is Mrs. Leeflang. Leeflang defends institutions and there fore cannot be labeled as a populist, in that sense.

All political leaders glorify “the people” and incline toward conspira...

In the mean while Omayra Leeflang of the PAR and Nelson Pierre of NPA  started talk shows in the same format as Wiels to fight back. In a sense Leeflang had no option, given the success of the PS. Pierre returned from Colombia, coming out of retirement.

Facebook plays an important role in this whole process. Voters exchange ideas using social media.

There was constant conflict within the coal...

Parallel to this process of replacing CEOs of SOE, the names of institutions were changed as an act of nationalism (Millett, 2003). Names that were linked to colonialism were replaced by names that were declared more patriotic. The two most visible cases were the change of names of the National University and Peter Stuyvesant College.

A climate of fear was created. This is the effect of the vilification of the elites and institutions thro...

In August 2010, the MFK of Gerrit Schotte fielded candidates in the elections for the first time. Schotte started his political career in the FOL party, led by Anthony Godett, also a populist in his own right, who obtained 33.9% of the votes in 2003. After wandering around in the political world, Schotte ended up in the MAN party, where he became the main vote winner. After much deliberation about becoming the partyleader, he left the MAN four months before the next elections. ...

The noticeable growth of populism on the island can be explained as part of the process of constitutional reform in the context of decolonization (Millett, 2003). In a constitutional referendum in 2005, 68% of the voters voted for the island to have autonomous status within the Kingdom of the Netherlands. As part of the process PS demanded an additional option on the ballot paper: Curaçao should have the status of Freely Associated State. This entails a transitional stage ...

The noticeable growth of populism can be explained as part of the process of constitutional reform in the context of decolonization (Millett, 2003). In a constitutional referendum in 2005, 68% of the voters voted for the island to have autonomous status within the Kingdom of the Netherlands. As part of the process PS demanded an additional option on the ballot paper: Curaçao should have the status of Freely Associated State. This entails a transitional stage towards full i...

In Curaçao the political spectrum can be described as follows. None of the parties claim to be right wing. Adversaries place the PAR (established in 1993) to the right of centre, but PAR claims to be a Christian party. The FOL and the MAN are established socialist parties.The PNP is one of the oldest political parties, a traditional Christian party. NPA and PS are relatively new parties. They are on the extreme left wing. They are inspired by, among others, President Chave...