SinberguensaTown = GreenTown

Na mei 2011 ta tin un marcha di protesta organisa pa fundashonnan SMOC i GreenTown. Un shen piku persona a presenta pa demostra nan malkontentu pa e polushon ku refineria Isla ta emiti pabou di brug ku segun un raport di Ecorys di 2005 ta kobra 18 bida di hende prematuro. Sindikato PWFC huntu ku SGTK a organisa un grupo chiki di nan miembro pa kontra-protesta. E dos fundashonnan, SMOC pa bringa pa salud di e habitantenan i GreenTown ku ta boga pa un suidat berde limpi, tin mesun meta: tur dos ke elimina e refineria ku ta keda manega pa PDVSA e kompania venezolano te ku 2019 segun e kontrakt.

Kos kasi ‘semper’ ta bai robes ora bo ke trese kambio for di un filosofia ulandes of elite krioyo. Den e marcha no ta niun hende ta kana ku tabata biba den Wishi, Marchena o Buena Vista. (Ku eksepshon di lider di sindikato Horecaf Kenneth Valpoort)
E organishon dje protesta no por a mobilisa un representashon masal di e barionan ku ta sufri di e polushon pa motibu di honra e suidadanonan un interkambio di vishon pa aserka e problematika ambiental.

Si bo wak e trayektoria di GreenTown semper a propaga nan agenda for di studionan di Z86, nunka a purba di yega drenta serka emisoranan ku tin un merkado grandi di e klase trahado.
E klase di pueblo ku ta traha den Isla of tin famia of ku ta biba pabou di brug semper a keda menospresia. Semper a boikotia, silensia nan bos, nunka a organisa un debate of sikiera seshonan di informashon pa e pueblo ei ku tin e derechi demokratiko di tin bos grandi den kreamentu di e proyekto berde riba pampel.
Tur bja tabata harma un serie di presentashon (hopi bja na ingles/ulandes) ku mester a paga pe, despues ela bira gratis pero ku drempel haltu. (Mester reserva style di selekshona bo publiko.)
Un presentashon den Avila hotel no ta un luga ku ‘pueblo’ gusta bin, no pensa mes ku Avila ke mira e tipo di hende ‘normal’ ei den su hotel. Asina GreenTown a sigi manipula kada anja nan a konstrui, mehora, adapta nan plan, sin niun bja buska aprobashon, konsenso, sosten popular serka e trahadonan di e refineria i e habitantenan. Un plan berde sustenibel ku por trese hopi empleo sin ku e poblashon mes tin algu di bisa ta un vishon diktorial, disenja pa makamba na Ulanda i Korsou yuda pa yunan di tera na Korsou i Ulanda ku no ta respeta e desaroyo intelektual di e yu di tera aki na Korsou pe mes krea un plan sosio-ekonomiko a base di demokrasia partisipativo popular.

Lokual Andres Casimiri komo presidente di GreenTown ta hasi ta askeroso, sindikatonan (pustando riba dos kabai) no ta wori i no ke inspira nan miembronan pa organisa i kombati e proseso di e diktatura sustenibel kaminda e ‘viktima’ lo keda di poei di dos banda.
E trahadonan i habitantenan tin e prome opshon pa duna direkshon na e proseso di kambio. Si nan ke mira un kompleho di katedralnan katoliko konstrui basa riba un vishon di turismo religioso e ta den nan man pa disidi esei paso nan mester tin e ultimo palabra huntu ku gobiernu i hasta ku sobra pueblo via un referendum konsultativo.

Bo ta tiranisa un pueblo trahado si bo ta papia di konseptonan bunita manera ‘ekologia, berde, sustenibel’ sin por trese e poder di desishon for di abou bai ariba enbes di e proseso kolonial modernisa ku ta korda hopi hende di antes kaminda Shell, iglesia katoliko i gobernado (representando NL) tabata e trinidat santu ku sosiedat mester a obedese siegamente sin kwestiona. Usando e mesun maalchi di ‘slotverklaring’, GreenTown kada bes ta negosha un pida mas i eksploitando e nesesidat di e forsa laboral i habitantenan na maneranan rafina pero paresido na e sistema di politika petrolero ku nan mes ta akusa PDVSA di tur tempu di dje.

E era no ta bin bek mas i awoki tin un siklo di tempu nobo pa e klase trahado subi den rango di entrada i propiedat, bira donjo di nan destino i no mane semper kedando kontentu ku kiriwichi ekonomiko di un proyekto elitario ku ta parse ekologiko pero en realidat ta rasista, klasista i anti-demokratiko segun moralnan demokratiko progresivo di siglo 21. Sigur pa un pueblo ku a pasa den e trastorno di un herensia di kolonialismo ku semper su futuro mester a keda segun ordu di un of otro opresor di pafo of djaden ku un variedat di maskarada di benevolensia sosial aktuando komo e noble salbado ‘blanku’ di e pober ‘pretunan’

~ Despues di tres anja ta Sentro di bario Souax a organisa e uniko debate riba futuro di Isla ku ni habitante dje bario mes a bishita.

~ GreenTown nunka ta tin e respet pa enbolbi lidernan di barionan pabou di brug pa su proyekto. Niun debate, foro di diskushon na tv, radio. Nada ku ta empodera e pueblo ku entrada abou.

~ Ora bo puntra hende den Buena Vista si nan sa di e ‘brochure’ di GreenTown nan ta wak bo ku kara stranjo.

~ Sindikatonan nan ta asumi nan liderasgo sosial di eduka e pueblo riba nan derechinan den prosesonan di kambio ekonomiko.

~ Trahadonan di refineria Isla tampoko ta tuma e molester pa informa nan mes pa prepara i antisipa diferente movidanan ekonomiko.

~ Nan tin suerte ku e spiritunan di 30 di mei 1969 no ta bishita e konspiradonan di GreenTown (ainda).

~ GreenTown ta bai subi DCSX (Dutch Caribbean Stock Exchange), sin bedei kiko esaki ta. Sin duna barionan, trahado un bos den tumamentu di desishon.

~Sosiologonan, antropologonan, historiadonan i otro akademikonan; bosnan tei?

Myth Busting queen Beatrix the Royal Saviour of an Impoverished Dutch Caribbean

Queen Beatrix Dutch royalty ratchedness. No aid to equip or university to advance education wise.
Look at for example University of the West indies and ours. We stuck in a time machine that’s our queen B.
No credit line thrown to rescue our art academy that got killed by the neoliberal budget guillotine in the beginning of the 21st century. She a patron saint of Dutch kingdom art but this highly informed lady of all local developments watched how Curacao’s artistis soul was butchered by a local and Dutch government and never gave a fuck. Why is our art industry underdeveloped? Why we have to beg for funds literally? Queen Beatrix was never busy protecting our rights.
Many more examples but these two are prime models of the Dutch monarchy fairytale that protects and ensures the rights and advancement of their citizens.
Check how 15 million euro is granted to Dutch professors for archeological research on the colonization of the Americas from a Caribbean-Indian historical perspective. See how our scholars can’t even get 100.000 euro to evaluate the Dutch failed decolonization process since 1954 from our Afro-Curacaoan angle.

Where can the public catch this glimpse of greatness of her majestic self? What she done? The constant myth creation that queen Beatrix ‘helped us and intervened’ many times during drama on her (ex) colonized territorries is debunked by the historical proof that 2013 human rights are violated; our prisons, our pensioners, our youth, our labour class rights are trampled by an elite ceconomic and Curacaoan, Dutch governmental forces. Her reign has never been evaluated from 1980 when she ascended the throne until 2013 on emancipatory progress. A historical morally aware queen would never allow the out of proportion blown Dutch commercial, political and cultural dominance on the islands. What’s the status? Where are the official decolonization reports after the slick lobbying efforts that made UN throw Neth Antilles off of the list of non self governance territories?

Compared to the British, Spanish, French how do we grade, calibrate the Dutch decolonization process? Where do we stand compared to the British that also have a monarch supervising?
No studies on this constant influx of
Dutch Corporate conquestadors unwilling to implement economic decolonization principles.

But for the sake of entertaining the fantasy that she meant so much to us, where can one find her quotes on the islands, her valuable imput, the royal fruits of her labor?

Out of all the trade missions during her 33 throne hustling career which one in 3 decades has benefitted the Caribbean parts? Which mission had delegates from the Caribbean islands? Where are the economic studies to confirm that these state visits threw dollars in the treasury box of Curacao?

Since 2010 this Dutch queen Beatrix could not protect the rights of the BES (Bonaire, Statia, Saba) islands of 21.000, that are being tormented by Dutch constitutional Apartheid. What you expect from her son Willem-Alexander?

But yo it took a Dutch health inspector a few months to cause ruckus in the elite health sector weeding out fraud and malpractices that left deadly victims what a Dutch queen couldn’t take care of in 33 years.

Long live the struggling people of Curacao.

Mea Culpa Di Mundu Sindikal i Media Mas Na Tinu. 1969 Rebiba ku Madures.

Batajon di pregunta ta skeiru ora 30 di Mei yega. Manera tur anjanan anterior e dia pa parti di media no tin masha antenshon aunke e slanan emoshonal tei ketu bai. Horecaf ta reklama ku donjonan makamba ta kansa trahado pero VBC ta keda smoel. Sektor di salubridat, konstrukshon, pakus, supermerkado, vigilansia ta pasa diariamente den abuso laboral. Departamentu di labor no ta parse di hanja e memo ku 10-10-10 mester a trese un renobashon di hendel ku kehonan di trahado pa nan dunado di trabao. Minister di labor Sr. Koeiman ta papia nechi pero su forsa ta kai chiki kontra e kapital ku tin skrement di tur e leinan laboral.

Sindikatonan konfuso no sa di respeta i homenahia e lidernan ku tabata tei prome ku nan di nan mes sindikato. Falta e vishon, seriedat pa kuminsa ku programanan di informa e klase trahado struktura via korant, televishon, radio i internet riba nan derechinan laboral. No tin linjanan habri di komunikashon pa krese un konsenshi laboral, no tin un punto sentral moderno pa hanja konseho laboral kaminda tur trahado na Korsou mesora por sinja konhuntamente kiko por hasi kon por solushona tal drama laboral.

30 di Mei 1969 solamente ta wordu konmemora pa FOL pero ‘niun’ sindikato ta organisa un foro, un debate riba e historia dje rebolishi di ’69. Tin manera un fuku pega den nan alma pa inisia un diskushon riba e progreso di sindikalismo, e bida sosial ku nos ta den. No ke bin ku sifras dilanti, no ke hasi investigashon, ku sifrasnan sientifiko pa kombati e malinformashon ku na final lo kumbini nan lucha mas ora bo ta arma ku dokumentashon laboral.

Media su rol te ainda tambe ta fofo i no por of no ta ke buska un modelo di informashon manera Vito di antes. E kreadornan di Vito ku tabata buta kos move den anjanan 60 tampoko no a mira e importansia di gia eduka lidernan nobo pa e spiritu di konsientisa, senjala, denunsia tur sorti drama riba e baranka aki. Plaka nunka por tabata e motibu ku un sistema di informashon a kai i disparse. Sigur den e mundu nobo di komunikashon ta stranjo ku te ainda niun hende ta hasi uso di media sosial kombina ku radio, korant, tv pa trese kambio real pe trahado.

Kos a mehora berdat pero asuntu ta keda ku kosmetika ta dunabu e ilushon ku nos ta riba ‘un bon kaminda’ i VBC na ’69 a perde 40 miyon pa e mentalidat malagradesi. Tur kos ta keda meskos te dia nos intelegensia spiritual kuminsa rasona. Tanten nos ta drei asinaki manera Mgr. Dr. Amado Romer a bedei: “Tur kos ta parse dirigí riba un pais desaroyá. No ta fomentá sentido di solidaridat den pueblo, no tin e atenshon pa formashon sosial. Tur kos ta bai na kon por sigurá un entrada pa mañan, ta kompetensha ta manda i no sistema di kooperashon ku otro pa huntu yega na algu. Un enseñansa liberal pues, ku ta kria hende egoista, individualista, pará riba su mes pero totalmente los for di tur otro.”

Nydia Ecury Ku Biyechi Den Man

Par’i anja pasa
no lubida
Prensa tabata bebe
kome, baila riba
barku di bela
tur gastu paga pa
MCB bo banku amigu.
Masakra Ser’i Neger
Traha Villapark Fontein
riba tera sagrado
sangra pa katibu

Bo ta korda
Jacob gelt Dekker
deklara persona non grata
Pa amigu i enemigu
E karta di Robert de Jesus
referendum falsu na 8 Aprel 2005?

Pierre lastrando Emily cherche
sintando den mesun koalishon
Lio Capriles ku a kumpra
manego di gobernashon via elekshon.

Cratz ku a wordu kita
for di Vigilante
paso e donjo Sulveran
tabata eksigi mas
violensia i sanger.
Periodismo sinbergwensa
malu ta duna
demokrasia kanser.

Korda 2 di November 2006
ora Zita di: “Biba Korsou!!”
Niun vurwerk a zona
den e barionan margina
pe mesun hende ku a firma
e Slotverklaring na Den Haag.
Niun bario a bebe glasnan
ku shampanja pe supuesto
logro historiko di Spaanse Hof.

Korda Grupo Zero kon nan
a bai di neutral kolekta firma
pa ganja kos.
Kon Pourier na ’93 a grita:
“Nos si ta bai para e hulandesnan”
Yen beheit.

E konsepto di lei pa finansas
di partidonan politiko ku nunka
a wak kara di gobernador na 2006.

Korda kon Ys anochi lat ta bisa Macaay: “Firma e koi konjo pa kaba”
Hopi drama.

Bo ta korda Pare de Sufrir
Kon iglesia katoliko a tapa
su bista. Korda Gonzalo Cuales
sin miedu a konfesa ku e tabata
un Chavista.

No lubida
No
No
No
No
No
Lubida

John Deuss, Emsley Tromp
FCIB
DEA, RST
$80 miyon di Cuba
pa bankonan na Merka
laba akibou pa ING.

Shon and Katibu in the Dutch Divide and Conquer Neo-Naive Colonialism Party

Constitutional crisis management comes into play when Dr. Emsley Tromp the Central Bank president of Curacao and Sint Maarten accuses his prime minister Gerrit Schotte, finance minister Jamaloodin and minister of economic development Mr. El Hakim of corruptive acts on two anti-government radio’s Direct and Z86.

Prime minister Schotte attacks Dr. Tromp back on tv waving with suspicious private bank accounts talking about shady loans and transfers, pension fund, clothing store constructions.

For reasons unknown the prime minister requests the Dutch government to help out in this self made crisis and ends up with an imposed Dutch committee with a “task limited to what has happened, what is now going on, how the peace can be re-established and how to ensure a proper debate as well as good governance in Willemstad” according to the Dutch minister of kingdom relations Mr. Piet Heyn Donner.

The integrity committee headed by ex Green Left politician Mr. Paul Rosenmoller and publicly known in Holland as a representative of the cleptomania culture was suspect from jump.

Very important detail is that the royal decree for the committee was officialized August 17th.

The committee had one mission: stir up political emotions, make the prime minister and his MFK party ministers look like crooks and sanctify the Central Bank president.

After a few days when the Rosenmoller committee presented the report named ‘Do It Yourself’ and it got known via a leaked memo that the Dutch government wouldn’t be that reluctant to use Kingdom Charter article 43 the Guarantee Function to intervene a political hell breaks lose.

The independent party Pueblo Soberano leader Mr. Helmin Wiels opposed strongly from day one and never recognized the committee. But in the past the same Wiels has labeled them as shady ministers so the consistency steps aside to fight the Dutch government as one team with his new found temporarily brotherly coalition family.

You could ask yourself how come Wiels wasn’t capable to prevent an unexperienced prime minister like Mr. Schotte to fall into the constitutional clutches of the Dutch government?

Everybody recognizes the picture being painted by Rosenmoller. Yes we got plenty integrity obstacles to get rid off but as a nation in becoming since 10-10-10 at least half of the island’s blood is boiling when Dutch Europeans come to tell you how you should govern your country.

Half of the electorate won’t accepted it when the Dutch government meddles in their autonomous affairs and threatens to ignore the Kingdom Charter and politically invade the island like the British did in Turks and Caicos islands. People prefer a young fresh new government with integrity beef over a 16 year old integrity problematized government. That’s word to Boelie van Leeuwen who partially understood our genial anarchy.

One of the main political bouts of the opposition parties was the screening process that took place before the 10-10-10 government
installment. The dispute for weeks was that the ministers hadn’t finished the screening procedure to the end.

The governor represents the queen. Ministers who didn’t fully pass screening got sworn in with royal blessings from queen Beatrix and crown prince Willem-Alexander who all had to be thoroughly informed that one of the MFK party main financial supporter Mr. Robby Dos Santos was under investigation of money laundry and tax evasion months before the 2010 elections.

Anyone claiming the ministers Jamaloodin, El Hakim and prime minister Schotte be corrupt should add the Curacao intelligence security service (VDC), the public prosecutor, governor Frits Goedgedrag, the Dutch government, crown prince Willem-Alexander and ultimately queen Beatrix to that corruption list.

Those that paid attention like ex prime minister Suzy Camelia-Romer declared in Antilliaans Dagblad that Rosenmoller had no authority to do an integrity investigation here based on article 38 of the Kingdom Charter.
This was never questioned by the Dutch or Papiamentu media.

You should ask yourself why Ms. Camelia-Romer who was an advisor during the constitutional reshuffling process didn’t write a protest the moment she realized the Dutch government violated the Kingdom Charter?

How come the media didn’t consult other constitutional law experts in Curacao and Holland to take a deeper look at this case like they did before the referendum of 2005 and 2009? Should the media also get an integrity investigation?

Its unthinkable that Paul Rosenmoller rocking a left wing ideology wasn’t aware of the high degree of difficulty to play the role of a neo-colonial crisis manager in a divided country caused by ideologic constitutional differences.

It was a neo colonial calculated move to brew up a political riot safeguarding Dr. Emsley Tromp’s presidential Central Bank image who received the previous PAR-PNP-FOL government appraisal for his strong lobby efforts with the Dutch ex minister of finance Mr. Gerrit Zalm that according to them resulted in a €1.5bn debt relief for the Netherlands Antilles.

And don’t forget the John Deuss case the multi-millionaire owner of the First Curaçao International Bank (FCIB) accused of a €1.100 billion carousel fraud which could never had happened without Dr. Tromp turning his cheek in a continuous smoothened out period of six years.

There is more constitutional friction to be expected and hopefully more Kingdom Council memo’s will leak like the one of plenipotenciary minister Sheldry Osepa that opens the eyes of many that blindly defend Dutch interests out of misguided colonial sentiments.

Lessons for the Dutch government: You don’t flirt around with the idea of intervening, you don’t adamantly demand to start any type of investigation on autonomous or municipal/open entity model territories in the Caribbean. Neo-naive colonial arrogance attitude works contraproductive dealing with a nation who yet has to confront its post-slavery scabs.

Its those scabs that made it possible for minister Sheldry Osepa to gently warn the Kingdom Council in The Hague that article 43 Dutch intervention could trigger a second May 30th revolution as it did in 1969.

Them same old scabs Helmin Wiels used to brazenly threaten the Dutch that if they dared to intervene he and many others would be prepared to die for Curacao and would send the Dutch back in bags.

If the Netherlands really are interested in good governance they should help establishing new and fortifying older democratic institutions, create participatory democratic tools, assure growth of civic society and most important contribute to a realization of an independization process for the media.

Will that ever happen in the nearby future? No never unless we make popular pressure effective and start learning how to spit our pseudo-constitution, Kingdom Charter articles, United Nations treaties from the top of our domes during our emancipatory voyage.

Spanta PARa – ‘#Curacao Culture Week’

Pic from http://www.liveincuracao.com
Artist: Gala Lewis-Martinus

I take the
last sip from
my tamarind
wine filled gobi,
put grandma’s
maishi chiki,
berehein,
peanuts,
pumpkin
blessed makutu
symetrically at
Biesheuvel’s
intersection.
My tilted sombre
di kabana matches
the Skalo lensu
di gera wrapped
around the heads
of all my wisdom
welfare mothers,
breathing the
freedom flokore
and stomping out
all the misery
management
consultants
with our pilon
on the gratifying
Shon Grandi Seu rythms.

‘Take the slavery image off the Golden Coach’

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Take the slavery image off the Golden Coach:

That’s what activists say:
half-naked black people do not belong on the coach.

On the Golden Coach is a reference to our history of slavery and colonial times. Would Beatrix remove the wrong image? That is what Barryl Biekman (National Platform Slavery), Harry van Bommel (SP MP), Mariko Peters (Green MP) and Jeffrey Pondaag (Dutch Committee debt of honor) ask themselves today in the editorial pages of the print nrc.next. http://www.nrcnext.nl/blog/2011/09/16/haal-die-slavenillustratie-van-de-gouden-koets-af/

Next week the golden coach will ride again through The Hague and thousands of day trippers will come to catch a glimpse of the queen. Budget Day this year will have a special character, as different political parties have made proposals to limit the power of the head of state. We want to put a critical note at the Golden Coach

The Golden Coach has become the symbol of the Dutch monarchy. The “Association of the Amsterdam People” wanted to give the coach to Queen Wilhelmina in 1898 for its inauguration. Wilhelmina felt little for it. Historians suspect that this reluctance stemmed from protests some years earlier in the Netherlands against the exaggerated pomp of the coronation, of Czar Nicholas the Second.

The Golden Coach is a typical Dutch product, developed by the brothers Spyker in the Dutch Renaissance style. That was the style of the Golden Age of colonial Netherlands that has brought so much wealth.

The images on the golden coach also refer to that age. They are written by Nicholas van der Waay in 1891 at the age of 36 when he was appointed professor at the State Academy of Fine Arts.

The side panels depict a “Tribute to the Netherlands and Orange” and “Tribute of the Colonies’. The sidebar “Tribute of the Colonies” activates great resistance from us. On that side are half-naked black men and women who offer their riches to the royal king. In the colonial era and the aftermath of slavery this seemed like a very ordinary picture. Now it reminds us of a horrible period in Dutch history.

The Netherlands are still struggling with the colonial past. Dutch families of the massacre in the Indonesian village Rawagede demand reparations from the Dutch state but they claim the case has expired. Descendants of the enslaved in the Antilles and Suriname asked an apology from the Dutch government, but see the only knowledge institute on Dutch slavery, NiNsee, threatened with closure. Apparently, the most shameful pages of history from the Dutch collective memory must be repressed.

Netherlands could take an example from Australia and the United States of America. In 2008, the Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd formally apologized to the indigenous Aborigines who were systematically deprived and whose children were taken. Also in 2008 the U.S. House of Representatives passed a resolution in which apologies were made to black Americans for the period they were treated as slaves and the discriminatory laws under which they had to live deep into the twentieth century. In 2001 during a UN Conference in Durban the Netherlands, “expressed deep regret” over slavery and the colonial past, but never apologized.

The big difference between showing regret and apologize is the fact that the first one comes from one side, and apologies must be accepted by the other party. Netherlands has never apologized, because this could be seen as an admission of guilt and that couldbring forth claims.

We sincerly hope that the Dutch government can come to terms with its national history and just like the Australians and Americans offers a generous apology to the descendants of the Dutch colonial oppression and the violence that sometimes came forth out of it.

Maybe Queen Beatrix, might want to push the government into that direction by removing the panel of “Tribute to the Colonies” of the Golden Coach and place it where it belongs : the Rijksmuseum.

Tula will decolonize Curaçao cinematography

The freedom fighting fetish genes I have got me respecting our liberation warrior Tula who strived for abolition of slavery in Curacao. When in 2010 the news got to me that attempts were made to catapult the 1795 rebellion with Tula as protaganist unto the silver screen by Dutch filmmakers I foresaw a controversy. I was wrong one year flew by and the slave narrative theft remained below the cultural conscious radar.

What happened to all my elders and their mental decolonization principles? When you reach around or passed 60 it waters down? I need my elders who still have decision making powers to be S.T.R.O.N.G. Don’t you dare continue selling out on us. We need people to drink ‘Awa di Huramentu’ out of an ‘Ashe’ filled calabash. As United Nations declared 2011 the year of Afro descendants how in nomber di Dios (for heaven’s sake) can you green light a project of 2 Dutch European filmmakers who came up on this insensitive idea to do a movie about our recently declared freedom fighting national hero Tula? With the help from two Afro-Americans: A screenplay writer Curtis Hawkins and Warrington Hudlin a pioneering black filmmaker,activist and advocate for independent black film movement who should’ve know better to participate in the exploitation of Tula.

On the website www.tulathemovie.nl they are talking about :”A story representing centuries of conflicted relations between black and white the effects of which still haunt us today.” And it does as the two Dutch white privileged filmmakers cold heartedly or extreme naively kidnap the opportunity of Afro Curacaoans or at least Curacaoans to tell the tales of freedom fighting Tula. The website of the commission to rehabilitate Tula responsible for their active role to declare him a national hero www.tulalives.org states this: “After the revolt of May, 1969, many political leaders, intellectuals and artists from Curaçao were inspired by Tula in their search for our national identity. In 1971, a play was presented in the national theater named “Tula”…” I can envision the outrage if this play 41 years ago wouldve been made by soley Dutch Europeans and written by an Afro-American. Fortunately it was written by culturista, historian Pacheco Domacasse and co-directed by Tone Brulin a Flemish sociopolitical progressive Belgian. But that was 2 years after 30th May during a period where the Afro Curacaoan was starting to revalorize his African heritage. A young nation in becoming where carnaval is the most elevated form of cultural celebration really doesn’t worry that much about struggles of the past.

Was the announcement of this project lucid? No, there has been no transparency whatsoever of the commission in approving the making of ‘Tula The Revolt’. No one knows the criteria, no national hero law has been made public if there is such a law, we the people sure didn’t have democratic participation in it and therefore no one can scrutinize to see if the right procedures are just and were used which resulted in an approval.

A few lines from their summary: “As many slaves were transported and traded through Caribbean transit harbors like the one in Curacao, this story belongs to them and their descendants it deserves to be told, for its an important part of history, identity and in the end of our society today.” So they understand the story of Tula is ours but morals and respect for our own emancipatory path that we as descendants have to walk fade away for a $25 million Hollywood adventure?

You have to wait your turn until the descendants themselves have created a solid infrastructure where they can empower their communities, develop their talents via art, sport, music, theatre and film. You can’t commercialize our ancestor’s history bypassing the descendants rights and think you are doing us a favor.

2011 there is no film school here, if you want to learn cinematography you will have to go study abroad. Only the middle and upperclass or connection to them without any regular working class pressure has the privilege to choose and see the importance of a film study. Most underprivileged or working class folks will not end up in a cinematography class.

Tell me how many Afro-Curacaoan rolmodels who went to film school a bario like Kenepa has? The area where the uprising started. Lagun, Santa Cruz, Soto, Barber, Sabaneta, any filmmakers or rolmodels to inspire people to grow an interest for filmmaking?
Let’s be honest there is a great scarcity of visual griots who can light the fire inside our hearts to depict the past, present and future of Korsou.
Visionary leaders create a breeding-ground for democratization of film and media in general. Curacao troubled by social-corporate-political cataract epedimic within the Dutch Kingdom where its citizens are treated as third class hasn’t seen these leaders rise up yet.

A year before the psychical dissappearance of the fierce independentista Papiamentista Joceline Clemencia during a lecture in Holland of the annually Tula commemoration of 1795 August 17th she emphasized that in 2013 it will be 150 years since the abolition of slavery and that we should tell our own stories, document and reinterpretate our own history. We have a long way to go as many Curacaoans really don’t ‘revere’ Tula as some think we do. The thesis of Natasha Maritza van der Dijs- The Nature Of Ethnic Identity Among the People of Curacao (2011) illustrates this very clearly during her investigation: “an African descent a subject in the age range academic degree in business 19-35 recalls lucidly how a black child called her ‘Tula’ when she was in primary school, she even remembered that she felt ugly.”

Amidst the constitutional changes, referendum and elections how many times our ears and hearts were bleeding as the group who supported the political process to become an autonomous neo-colonial country within the Dutch kingdom shouted that “Tula hasn’t done nothing for us, you shouldn’t look back to your past, stop reminding folks of that slave history”. Ironically the same persons who contributed to buffoonize Tula are getting paid from Tula for being the master of ceremony and offer their restaurant to hold the pre-production Tula fundraise event within an elite circle far away from those that truely respect him.  A top law office like Van Eps Kunneman Van Doorne, who never showed any interest in uplifting the Afro Curacaoan heritage suddenly sponsors these filmmakers hoping on a ROI. Nobody ever seen the corporate sector showing love or any support financially to document the history of slavery or any sort of history period. We all vividly remember the fiery discussions on the removal of the Peter Stuyvesant statue at a public school in 2010. The rumour that the school would be renamed Tula unleashed an agitated youth protest weighing him off as a nonsensical historical figure. That was a classic dispicable representation of how middle/upper class youth have been ignorantly conditioned to dehumanize Tula.

On the other hand the political parties who are seated now in the new so called ‘socialized’ government  have used the slavery past and Tula for electoral benefits. Whipping up an anti-Dutch atmosphere scaring the folks that the Dutch would take over this island once again if they didn’t vote for them during elections and referendum. We sure didn’t forget the political propaganda on tv,radio,print media and how many times they referred to slavery, Tula and his comrads bloodshed for their liberty struggle which we all benefitted from. 10 months later all this pro Afro-Curacaoan bravado all the emancipation rethoric vanished completely from the public horizon. A cultural betrayal like this of course will have its repercussions. So to claim everybody loves Tula is hypocritical to say the least.

In 2005 I wrote a poem called: ‘F..k Tula’ because obviously just like now only a small group is genuinely interested in uplifting this heroic character. Every year on August 17 no media will even live transmit or dedicate afterwards a full spread to the commemoration in Holland or in Curacao, it has no cultural priority at all. The first monument made was in 1963 the second one in 1998 at Rif far away from the public eye unlike Louis Brion a Venezuelan national hero who occupies our biggest square in the heart of Otrobanda sad but true it took us to overcome an identity crisis of 48 years to proclaim him as a national hero.

A wise thing to do for Dutch filmmakers Jeroen Leinders and Dolph van Stapele is to reprogram their ambition put this project on hold and respectfully await the flourishing of Curacao cinematography who have true ownership over their slave heritage and ultimately will tell their story.

  • The re-enslavement of Tula the greatest fighting spirit of our times for commercial glory, international fame is an act of colonial villany. A regime of critical thinkers and activists who sleep on this will have to deal with this when their ancestors lace them with the consequences. Everyone involved can still correct this injustice.

Tula will decolonize Curaçao cinematography

The freedom fighting fetish genes I have got me respecting our liberation warrior Tula who strived for abolition of slavery in Curacao. When in 2010 the news got to me that attempts were made to catapult the 1791 rebellion with Tula as protaganist unto the silver screen by Dutch filmmakers I foresaw a controversy. I was wrong one year flew by and the slave narrative theft remained below the cultural conscious radar.

What happened to all my elders and their mental decolonization principles? When you reach around or passed 60 it waters down? I need my elders who still have decision making powers to be S.T.R.O.N.G. Don't you dare continue selling out on us. We need people to drink ‘Awa di Huramentu’ out of an ‘Ashe’ filled calabash. As United Nations declared 2011 the year of Afro descendants how in nomber di Dios (for heaven’s sake) can you green light a project of 2 Dutch European filmmakers who came up on this insensitive idea to do a movie about our recently declared freedom fighting national hero Tula? With the help from two Afro-Americans: A screenplay writer Curtis Hawkins and Warrington Hudlin a pioneering black filmmaker,activist and advocate for independent black film movement who should've know better to participate in the exploitation of Tula.

On the website www.tulathemovie.nl they are talking about :"A story representing centuries of conflicted relations between black and white the effects of which still haunt us today." And it does as the two Dutch white privileged filmmakers cold heartedly or extreme naively kidnap the opportunity of Afro Curacaoans or at least Curacaoans to tell the tales of freedom fighting Tula. The website of the commission to rehabilitate Tula responsible for their active role to declare him a national hero www.tulalives.org states this: "After the revolt of May, 1969, many political leaders, intellectuals and artists from Curaçao were inspired by Tula in their search for our national identity. In 1971, a play was presented in the national theater named “Tula”…" I can envision the outrage if this play 41 years ago wouldve been made by soley Dutch Europeans and written by an Afro-American. Fortunately it was written by culturista, historian Pacheco Domacasse and co-directed by Tone Brulin a Flemish sociopolitical progressive Belgian. But that was 2 years after 30th May during a period where the Afro Curacaoan was starting to revalorize his African heritage. A young nation in becoming where carnaval is the most elevated form of cultural celebration really doesn't worry that much about struggles of the past.

Was the announcement of this project lucid? No, there has been no transparency whatsoever of the commission in approving the making of 'Tula The Revolt'. No one knows the criteria, no national hero law has been made public if there is such a law, we the people sure didn't have democratic participation in it and therefore no one can scrutinize to see if the right procedures are just and were used which resulted in an approval.

A few lines from their summary: "As many slaves were transported and traded through Caribbean transit harbors like the one in Curacao, this story belongs to them and their descendants it deserves to be told, for its an important part of history, identity and in the end of our society today." So they understand the story of Tula is ours but morals and respect for our own emancipatory path that we as descendants have to walk fade away for a $25 million Hollywood adventure?

You have to wait your turn until the descendants themselves have created a solid infrastructure where they can empower their communities, develop their talents via art, sport, music, theatre and film. You can't commercialize our ancestor's history bypassing the descendants rights and think you are doing us a favor.

2011 there is no film school here, if you want to learn cinematography you will have to go study abroad. Only the middle and upperclass or connection to them without any regular working class pressure has the privilege to choose and see the importance of a film study. Most underprivileged or working class folks will not end up in a cinematography class.

Tell me how many Afro-Curacaoan rolmodels who went to film school a bario like Kenepa has? The area where the uprising started. Lagun, Santa Cruz, Soto, Barber, Sabaneta, any filmmakers or rolmodels to inspire people to grow an interest for filmmaking?
Let's be honest there is a great scarcity of visual griots who can light the fire inside our hearts to depict the past, present and future of Korsou.
Visionary leaders create a breeding-ground for democratization of film and media in general. Curacao troubled by social-corporate-political cataract epedimic within the Dutch Kingdom where its citizens are treated as third class hasn't seen these leaders rise up yet.

A year before the psychical dissappearance of the fierce independentista Papiamentista Joceline Clemencia during a lecture in Holland of the annually Tula commemoration of 1795 August 17th she emphasized that in 2013 it will be 150 years since the abolition of slavery and that we should tell our own stories, document and reinterpretate our own history. We have a long way to go as many Curacaoans really don't 'revere' Tula as some think we do. The thesis of Natasha Maritza van der Dijs- The Nature Of Ethnic Identity Among the People of Curacao (2011) illustrates this very clearly during her investigation: "an African descent a subject in the age range academic degree in business 19-35 recalls lucidly how a black child called her 'Tula' when she was in primary school, she even remembered that she felt ugly."

Amidst the constitutional changes, referendum and elections how many times our ears and hearts were bleeding as the group who supported the political process to become an autonomous neo-colonial country within the Dutch kingdom shouted that "Tula hasn't done nothing for us, you shouldn't look back to your past, stop reminding folks of that slave history". Ironically the same persons who contributed to buffoonize Tula are getting paid from Tula for being the master of ceremony and offer their restaurant to hold the pre-production Tula fundraise event within an elite circle far away from those that truely respect him.  A top law office like Van Eps Kunneman Van Doorne, who never showed any interest in uplifting the Afro Curacaoan heritage suddenly sponsors these filmmakers hoping on a ROI. Nobody ever seen the corporate sector showing love or any support financially to document the history of slavery or any sort of history period. We all vividly remember the fiery discussions on the removal of the Peter Stuyvesant statue at a public school in 2010. The rumour that the school would be renamed Tula unleashed an agitated youth protest weighing him off as a nonsensical historical figure. That was a classic dispicable representation of how middle/upper class youth have been ignorantly conditioned to dehumanize Tula.

On the other hand the political parties who are seated now in the new so called 'socialized' government  have used the slavery past and Tula for electoral benefits. Whipping up an anti-Dutch atmosphere scaring the folks that the Dutch would take over this island once again if they didn't vote for them during elections and referendum. We sure didn't forget the political propaganda on tv,radio,print media and how many times they referred to slavery, Tula and his comrads bloodshed for their liberty struggle which we all benefitted from. 10 months later all this pro Afro-Curacaoan bravado all the emancipation rethoric vanished completely from the public horizon. A cultural betrayal like this of course will have its repercussions. So to claim everybody loves Tula is hypocritical to say the least.

In 2005 I wrote a poem called: 'F..k Tula' because obviously just like now only a small group is genuinely interested in uplifting this heroic character. Every year on August 17 no media will even live transmit or dedicate afterwards a full spread to the commemoration in Holland or in Curacao, it has no cultural priority at all. The first monument made was in 1963 the second one in 1998 at Rif far away from the public eye unlike Louis Brion a Venezuelan national hero who occupies our biggest square in the heart of Otrobanda sad but true it took us to overcome an identity crisis of 48 years to proclaim him as a national hero.

A wise thing to do for Dutch filmmakers Jeroen Leinders and Dolph van Stapele is to reprogram their ambition put this project on hold and respectfully await the flourishing of Curacao cinematography who have true ownership over their slave heritage and ultimately will tell their story.

The re-enslavement of Tula the greatest fighting spirit of our times for commercial glory, international fame is an act of neo-colonial villany. A regime of critical thinkers and activists who sleep on this will have to deal with this when their ancestors lace them with the consequences. Everyone involved can still correct this injustice.