Fiesta di seú is our harvest festival that we faithfully celebrate every year on Easter Monday. Celebrating harvest festivals is a worldwide phenomenon. After bringing in the (first) harvest, farmers usually reflect on this important event.
It happens in different ways with regional religious and cultural customs always playing an important role. On the other hand, these festivals, although from different regions and cultures, have a number of important things in common.
In the first place, the first harvest is widely displayed to the public. The harvest is central to all activities. You can see from the harvest whether it has been a good or less good year. There is no party in a bad year. The harvest is always greater than the accompanying decorations and activities such as the floats, costumes and music.
Second, it’s about gratitude. In some cultures, part of the harvest is offered to the gods (or God) or the church. The farmers express their gratitude for the gift of God through rituals (including church services). It is a festival with a deeply spiritual/religious meaning.
Thirdly, the feast is always celebrated in the region where the harvest takes place. It is primarily a celebration of the farmers, their families and everyone who has worked on the land. It’s a rural party. City dwellers move from the city to the agricultural areas to view the harvest and experience the festivities.
Our Fiesta di Seú has experienced a different development in the last 25 years, which raises the question of whether we can still talk about a harvest festival.
1. Where is the harvest, the most important element of our fiesta di seú? We see dozens of floats and music trailers in the parade; thousands of participants in beautiful folk costumes; “kantado mayo” (the seu singing king); Reina Seú (seú queen); but no harvest. So the accompanying decorations in our Fiesta di Seú are clearly larger than the harvest itself, if there is one.
2. Among all the festivities, there is hardly any expression of gratitude to God and Mother Earth. Little is known of the religious significance of this feast.
3. Our Fiesta di Seú has become a city festival, far from the region where the crops are grown. Our “kunukeros” (farmers) who work hard all season with limited resources and in an unfortunately not very agriculturally friendly climate, do not play an important role in this celebration.
Our Fiesta di Seú has thus become more of a cultural folkloric event. So let’s call it that. Personally, I would have liked all the money we raise to celebrate the festival to be used to provide the kunukeros with better resources and more know-how. This way we can at least bring in a decent harvest on which to build a party. At least we’ll have something to celebrate.
Etienne Ys
Former Prime Minister of the Netherlands Antilles
Dear Editor,
In the year 2000, my husband and I became residents of Cupecoy, and it has been a wonderful place to live. We have been through many developmental phases since then. Now we have Aqua.
Today is Easter Sunday and the pile drivers began work at 7:40am. Ten hours of noise a day, frequently seven days a week, manifests a total disregard for those who live in this area. The sound reverberates off buildings and often sounds as though it is coming from all directions!
I appeal to the powers that be to at least allow us to have some peace and quiet on Sundays.
Thank you.
WMF
Tigris Road
Cupecoy
Dear Editor,
Several of your readers want to know why I have slowed down with my writing. Simple. Contrary to the Carnival Committee, the Domincanos Organization and other organizations I try as much as possible not to be a distraction for those who “keep Lent”.
By now you might have realised that I have always been against taking the Bible out of the schools and government buildings. We see and read about the different events that took place during the Lenten season which started as usual on Ash Wednesday, this year on February 22. In the paper of April 3, 2023, on page 11, there is a report with accompanying picture of Palm Sunday Services held on St. Eustatius. The Roman Catholics, the Methodists and the Anglicans on St. Maarten also held a joint Palm Sunday march along Front Street and Back Street through Philipsburg. To my surprise, nothing was reported about that event. And I ask myself, why not?
Also in the same paper there were two different articles promoting Junior carnival events, and the C3 making sure that the SCDF have optimal radio communication during the carnival parades.
I have asked it in the past and will repeat it. Who is responsible for the recent spike in negative
behavior of our youth? I have also stated in the past that my father would emphasize that “children who play sports and go to Sunday school do not end up in jail.”
Just before closing this letter a lady called me and said to me, “The next time you write you have to tell the Editor that he must not print that the police are on a go-slow. He should write that they are on a go-slower.”
Now this: when banks and government are pressuring people to do online banking, what are they
actually doing to the community?Russell A. Simmons
By Alex Rosaria
Local politicians were mesmerized by Guangdong Zhenrong Energy (GZE), which was here to build a refinery without ever having built one. The Whiteman, Koeiman, Pisas 1, and Rhuggenaath administrations were impressed by the GZE’s charm offensive to help our most important companies, including Curaçao Ports Authority (CPA) and Curaçao Water and Power Company (Aqualectra).
Why wouldn’t they be elated? Additionally, GZE would create an entertainment strip à la Las Vegas, help out a local bank in trouble, and build many sports facilities, all while constructing a refinery, which, like I said, they have never done and had failed miserably trying to do in Myanmar.
GZE soon disappeared from the scene since it couldn’t produce the resources to back up its talk.
Yet some people here, including an ex-Minister President, still worship the ground GZE walks on. In one of his veneration rants about GZE, the politician said that Curaçao is missing out on getting Chinese expertise, money, and investment China is graciously giving the world in the frame of the Chinese Communist Party’s Belt and Road Infrastructure (BRI) projects.
The results of BRI have so far been less than gracious. In Angola, a vast social housing project by the Chinese is cracking, and there are complaints about moldy ceilings. In Pakistan, a Chinese-built hydroelectric plant had to be shut down last year after detecting cracks in a tunnel. Uganda’s power generation company said it has identified over 500 construction defects in a Chinese-built hydropower plant causing frequent breakdowns since its operation in 2019. And most recently, Ecuador - a small country, yet at the forefront of the communists’ push in the region, accessing more loans than any country except Venezuela and Brazil - has seen many big Chinese projects in the mining and energy sectors plagued with construction flaws.
Besides the mediocre quality of these Chinese constructions, many communities have been forced off their land in addition to huge environmental costs resulting in death and impoverishment. I have personally visited some of the affected areas left behind by the Chinese in Myanmar, Kazakhstan, and Laos.
China has become known for targetting poor countries with its debt traps. It lends money to other countries, which must cede control of key assets if they can’t repay their debt. Sri Lanka had to give up 70% of control of one of its ports to China which it now uses to, among others, dock spy ships, much to the chagrin of nearby India. It is unknown how widespread these practices are because China, unlike other major donors, does not publish records of its foreign loans, and most of its contracts contain non-disclosure clauses that prevent borrowers from revealing their contents.
Communist China, once a staunch believer in advancing the interests of developing countries in the Non-Alligned Movement, is now the new imperialism. In the past, China preached to the developing world to avoid subordination to Washington or Moscow. Now China is the one subjugating others. All around the world and unfortunately, in Curaçao, these communists are finding people willing to sell out their own countries to benefit the mother country, China.
Alex David Rosaria (53) is a freelance consultant active in Asia & Pacific. He is a former Member of Parliament, Minister of Economic Affairs, State Secretary of Finance and UN Implementation Officer in Africa and Central America. He’s from Curaçao and has an MBA from University of Iowa (USA).
Unexpectedly, the global financial markets are reeling from a series of shocks prompted by the US Silicon Valley Bank’s (SVB) collapse about two weeks ago. Worried that the SVB could be the first domino to fall, I urged the Central Bank of Curaçao and Sint Maarten (CBCS), on 13 March 2023, on my social media account to say something. Inconceivably, CBCS has so far preferred to stay in its cocoon.
A few days ago, the Minister of Finance sent a letter to the CBCS for more information. It’s beyond me why a letter was sent, and why this was published instead of a face-to-face meeting with the CBCS. If the CBCS had reacted quickly, it could have controlled the narrative instead of a political actor.
I digress. My fear became a reality. SVB was the first domino to fall, followed by Signature Bank, and the First Republic Bank. Crédit Suisse (CS) was forced to accept US$ billions to stay afloat in Europe. Some, including me, fear it could be a repeat of the collapse of Lehman Brothers in 2008, which led to a sharp contraction of the world economy in 2009.
The clear indicator of unrest is a sharp decline in oil prices despite strong efforts from US Fed and the Swiss National Bank to calm the situation. Just two days before the fall of SVB, the West Texas Intermediate (WTI) price, one of the leading global oil benchmarks, was over US $80 per barrel. After the shocks caused by SVB and CS, the WTI price fell by nearly US $15 per barrel.
The critical question is whether the situation was now better or worse than in 2008, which led to a sharp contraction of the world economy in 2009. This time bank failures are happening on both sides of the Atlantic. Also, the combined size of SVB and CS is US $750 billion, more significant than Lehman Brothers’ US $620 billion. Will the Federal Reserve contain this possible meltdown with a change in its monetary policies? In that case, what are the consequences for our country?
There are two causes of bank failure – inadequate capital and inadequate liquidity. Inadequate capital arises from bad loans or bad investments as was the case with CS and Lehman Brothers (2008). Inadequate liquidity is caused by rapid withdrawals of deposits.
SVB belongs to the inadequate liquidity category. SVB had approximately $200 billion in deposits and was overexposed to interest rate risks. This bank was not cautious, but greedy, and the greed overruled sound banking practice. To be fair, there were specific problems at SVB and Credit Suisse before the meltdown, as banks tried to balance inflation with financial stability. According to the Social Science Research Network, 186 US banks are vulnerable to a rapid liquidity drain like the SVB.
How vulnerable is our financial network? Why is the CBCS allowing its silence on this critical issue to potentially become a political sideshow? I hope the people at the CBCS realize that the genie is out of the bottle and that they have to say something.
Alex D. Rosaria was Minister of Economic Affairs, State Secretary of Finance and Member of Parliament. He is currently a member of the US think tanks Global Americans and Caribbean Policy Concern, as well as a freelancer in Asia and the Pacific.
