Dear fellow countrymen, More than a year ago, our beautiful island was closed in response to the then-flaring corona pandemic. That heralded a period of uncertain and fearful days, weeks, months. For a while, it seemed to go better. Now it seems like we are back to square one. Especially now, on King’s Day, I had hoped for more freedom of movement. Even here in this palace, where it is normally so lively around this time, the silence is palpable. But the coronavirus has not yet been completely tamed. And yet, while the numbers are still troubling and health care workers are working overtime, it looks like things are slowly turning around. In the press conference on April 15, the Prime Minister aptly put it: the tipping point is approaching, the point at which the vaccine will gain the upper hand over the virus. Until then, it is a matter of persistence. It is not that we can neglect measures to prevent the virus from spreading further. It is still important to avoid contacts and to observe other applicable safety regulations. This goes against our wishes and feelings. We like to give each other “brasas” (hugs). But now that is not possible. We cannot ignore it, the coronavirus is taking a heavy toll on our society. To everyone who has to miss a loved one due to corona. To people who are ill or who are struggling with the physical and mental aftermath of the virus. On the elderly and young people who have to deal with stress or loneliness because of social limitations. To all our business owners and to people who have lost or are at risk of losing their jobs. I am with you in my mind. But I am convinced that the tradition we stand in will help us get through this difficult time. Each of us individually, but also our country as a whole. “Love your neighbor as yourself”, this means to me: look after one another, help one another, comfort one another. Exactly what we now see happening in our neighborhoods, where neighbors help each other to get groceries, or pay extra attention to those who can now receive fewer visitors. Support each other unconditionally regardless of religion, origin, or background. Many people from Curaçao recognize themselves in this and that makes me proud. Within our kingdom, we also know cultural traditions that sometimes differ greatly from each other. Our collective history has seen bitter periods as well as times of hope and expectation. Despite the – sometimes large – differences in experience and perception that exist, we have been united in a kingdom for more than two centuries. That is significant. Without covering up differences of opinion, it is good to have an eye for what connects us. Also within the kingdom, we look after each other and we support each other. The examples of this have also been numerous in recent times; dozens of healthcare workers from the Netherlands who arrived at Hato at the beginning of this month to assist their colleagues in the CMC, food aid that the Dutch government makes available through the Red Cross, 30,000 extra vaccines that were delivered urgently by the Dutch government, the help that Defense offers in vaccinating our population and in maintaining public order and Aruba sheltering patients to relieve pressure on our ICU. And in turn, we were able to help our Kingdom members from Bonaire with care for their patients when needed. This is an ideal day to appreciate and celebrate our unique connection with the 4 countries of the Kingdom and the 3 public entities. Together we are strong! As between people, expressing gratitude between countries is not always easy. Expressing appreciation can make a person appear vulnerable because it recognizes that one is indebted to another. Yet it is important that we express gratitude not only as human beings to each other but also as countries within the Kingdom. Not as a sign of weakness but as a sign of strength. More than ever, these tokens of appreciation between people, but also between our fellow kingdoms, are of essential significance. On March 19, many of you exercised your democratic right to vote. That was important. The next government will be given the heavy responsibility of, among other things, getting the economy back on track, which has been hit hard by the corona crisis. Recent times have shown that constructive cooperation within the Kingdom can contribute to this. Undersecretary Knops recently described cooperation within the Kingdom with the word “huntu”; only together can we progress within the Kingdom. In line with the measures in force, it has been decided that this year, as in the previous year, no King’s Day reception, and for the time being no King’s Games and Ribbon Rain, can take place. The day before yesterday I also conveyed this message to the 32 citizens of Curaçao whom I was able to inform on behalf of His Majesty, King Willem-Alexander, that they will be decorated with a royal decoration for their many years of special service to the Curaçao community. I would like to congratulate the recipients once again on their honorable distinction. I look forward to meeting and embracing not only the recipients but all of you. I would like to toast the health of our Majesty King Willem Alexander and the merits of our recipients. We celebrate King’s Day 2021 at home, from a distance, but together. Long live the King.
Lucille George-WoutGovernor of Curaçao
Dear Editor,
Do politicians continuously only think of themselves and never do what they are elected to do? Politicians are not put in government to make hay for themselves by making use of the mishaps and misfortune of the public. Again, they are put there to take care of the needs of the people. I still cannot understand why the dismissal of a civil servant was the cause of a meeting of Parliament. And why should the Minister concerned be publicly questioned about it while Parliament is infringing on the rights to privacy of the civil servant? If the real intention was to guarantee the rights of that civil servant, why not direct her or refer her to the competent authorities – in this case the Ombudsman or the Ambtenaren Rechter?
In my opinion, the government is playing along with whatever certain members of Parliament are getting away with and that demonstrates a certain sign of weakness. MPs [Members of Parliament – Ed.] Wescot and Emmanuel publicly used the rights of privacy of that civil servant and did what has become commonplace in the government of St. Maarten: politicize it and, as it were, scheming her into believing that they were going to bat for her.
If I read well, the weak Minister felt backed in a corner and did not say anything positive on the performance of that civil servant. So now my question is: “If that young lady seeks employment elsewhere, what kind of a reference letter would she obtain from government to go along with her diploma(s)?
When will enough be enough? As long as one knows how to reckon, two and two will add up to four. When I read that article I thought of several known sayings like the one about “long rope…” and “what sweeten’ goat mouth”, etc. And my mathematical mind also produced a temporary formula which is T+E=>NAUP. But I believe that it is proven that K+A+R+M+A is the permanent formula. . .
Russell A, Simmons
By Alex Rosaria
There are times when one single story makes us clearly understand the meaning of evil. This is an account about how a French charity group, supposed to care for child victims of a genocide, were caught moments before boarding a plane with 103 little boys and girls they had kidnapped in order to sell them in France for lots of cash. Zoë’s Ark was founded in 2005 by a group of French four-wheel-drive community who were lured to charity work by the large sums of money donated for the thousands of victims of the Darfur (Sudan) genocide (2003 – ongoing). Zoë’s Ark was supposed to provide aid to Sudanese orphans usually under the age of five years and look for French families to place these children with. So far so good. In November 2007 Zoë’s Ark attempts to fly out of Chad (Sudan’s neighbor to the east) with 103 children aged 1-10 to France. The plane was, however, stopped moments before it was to take off after authorities somehow were alerted. It turned out that these children were not from Darfur and neither were they Sudanese. They were Chadians. They were not orphans either, but kidnapped from their families. The members of Zoë’s Ark involved with this scheme are promptly arrested and the children are returned to their loved ones. In court it becomes clear that some French families paid large sums of money to adopt “the orphans” the French charity had kidnapped. They are sentenced to 8 years hard labor. In a stunning move, Chadian president Idriss Déby (killed this weekend apparently by Chadian rebels) and the French president, Nicolas Sarkozy (jailed last month for corruption) reached a deal: the kidnappers are pardoned and sent to France. Clearly a political deal since Idriss Déby earlier had accused the French organization of “selling (the children) to pedophile organizations in Europe, and even perhaps to kill them and sell their organs.” Déby became a favorite of the Élysée until his demise this weekend. As for the main culprits of the kidnapping, they opened a popular café in Cape Town, South Africa. The Big Box Café is especially popular with kids. According to its website, “here you can play different board games, as many as you want.” ~ Alex David Rosaria (53) is a freelance consultant active in Asia and the Pacific. He is a former Member of Parliament, Minister of Economic Affairs, Undersecretary of Finance and UN Implementation Officer in Africa and Central America. He is from Curaçao and has an MBA from University of Iowa (USA). ~
Dear Editor,
Seemingly, there is an inherent yearning residing somewhere within the biological or psychological make-up of humans that’s driving and beckoning us to become better than who we are. We are constantly striving as a species to ax our old, unhealthy, and non-productive habits and practices that are frustratingly inhibiting our forward march and progress. Like a shadow to an object, we are seldomly unaccompanied by the images and forms of what we envision to be our best selves. The change we are desirous of realizing for ourselves keeps us in a never-ending laborious mental march. We are constantly employing rigorous self-discipline to feed essential virtues necessary for reforming ourselves while starving vices that are counter-productive to the change we seek.
This innate longing that possesses and dwells in us and often commands us to leave our old selves behind and welcome the possibility of being born anew apparently has its origin in man’s fall from grace, and his subsequent odyssey trying to regain paradise lost. We seem unable or rather ill-equipped to erase or undo this impulsive need and powerful will we share to change ourselves and others. But if the possibility of reforming ourselves is an illusion and our mind is tricking us into believing that we are the sole agents of our reformation when in fact we are just passively responding to determinism and fate, then what’s the point of all our mental exertions?
Who benefits from cleverly persuading us that we are the exclusive initiators and executors of the change we tirelessly seek? Whose agendas, albeit many times a manipulative one, are we serving unaware of the futility of trying to change ourselves in the face of determinism and fate? Who among us can say with any degree of scientific certainty that the possibility of self-change resides exclusively within our domain? Do we enjoy absolute dominion and sovereignty over the all-too-present biological and environmental factors that are constantly influencing the outcomes we are desirous of bringing about?
The foregoing are some of the many uncertainties we face which have naturally provided a niche for the numerous change movements and their multi-billion-dollar self-help industry. The message that threads through these change movements is that we are the sole most powerful determinants of the spiritual, mental, and material alterations we crave in our lives.
Many self-change materials purporting to offer road-maps to the change we desperately long for come wrapped in unsuspecting packages lined with carefully written and spoken words filled with pseudo-scientific information. From Rhonda Byrne’s The Secret to Echart Tolle’s The Power of Now and Dwanye Dyer’s podcast we are bombarded with scores of scientifically unverified methods, “new thoughts”, mantras and self-affirmations which excitingly promise self-transformation. But every so often we nevertheless allow ourselves to be duped, succumbing to the superficial messages of these agents of change who are cleverly and subtly more preoccupied with controlling our cognitive maps; what we think. We lazily outsource our thinking to these agents of change, relieving us of the burden to figure things out for ourselves.
Whenever we fall prey to the persuasive and emotionally rich language of advocates of self-reformation, we fail to critically interrogate what is before us. And usually omitted from the literature of these new thought movements for change are some hard and inflexible truths, one of which is the need for us to first know who we are before attempting to change ourselves. It’s a Sisyphean task to change oneself while being in ignorance of oneself. Self-knowledge is an essential preliminary to self-change. But can we know ourselves? Well, so far, we seem to partially know that we are part reason, part animal, and mostly a collection of particles subject to the laws of chance. So, how then should we embark on our journeys to change ourselves in the face of such conflicting, uncontrollable, and largely unknown aspects of ourselves?
Orlando Patterson
Dear Editor,
It has been a tough year, and the scientific medical world is telling us that the vaccine for COVID-19 is going to bring us back to as close to normal as possible. This proposed solution poses legal questions and dilemmas. One of legal questions that has been in the news in different countries is “Can an employer force an employee to take the COVID-19 vaccine?”. There is one simple answer to that question in our jurisdiction. That answer is “no”. But depending on circumstances, not taking a COVID-19 vaccine can be of influence on the employment relationship between employee and employer.
One key factor is, that at the moment, there is no caselaw on this topic. Employment law experts use the existing caselaw in regard to testing by the employer for drug and alcohol or other type of blood testing required by the employer to sketch a legal framework for the COVID-19 vaccine question.
There are different fundamental rights of the employee involved in regard to compulsory medical tests, or in this case vaccination. The rights involved are the right to private life and the right to inviolability of the body, which are both protected in the Constitution of St. Maarten. The European Convention of the Human Rights, that also applies to St. Maarten, also guarantees the protection of private life. The freedom of religion by the European Convention of the Human Rights and the Constitution of St. Maarten may also play a role if the employee does not want to be vaccinated for religious motives. These rights are not absolute. There are legal criteria on circumstances where these fundamental rights can be infringed on. The criteria are if the infringement has a legitimate purpose, foreseeable, proportional and if the same result cannot be achieved with less stringent measures.
In the case of drug and alcohol testing at the Hyatt Hotel in Aruba, the Supreme Court ruled in two cases that the immediate dismissals of the employees were lawful. The first case was in the case of an employee that tested positive for drugs and did not want to submit herself to the mandatory drug treatment imposed by Hyatt. As drug treatment is a medical treatment, compulsory drug treatment is an infringement on the right on private life. The second Hyatt case was of an employee that did not want to submit to testing. The higher court in S’Hertogenbosch upheld an immediate dismissal because a firefighter would not submit himself to a safety blood test to establish if he was exposed to lead.
In these abovementioned cases the employer had a legitimate purpose, the measures were foreseeable, proportional and the same result could not be achieved with less stringent measures. The circumstance of the COVID-19 vaccine is not comparable with the earlier discussed case law, because we are in unprecedented times, and it entails that the employee would have to use a newly-developed vaccine or risk losing his job.
However, the employer has the legal duty to provide a safe work environment for all his employees. In addition to that, the employer should provide a safe environment for its clients. Furthermore, every time that there is an outbreak of COVID-19 at the business, the business is compromised and frequent absences of personnel due to sickness, quarantine or isolation disturb the organization of the employer.
Depending on the interest the employer has for employees to be vaccinated (in certain parts of the organization), the employer could request the employee that does not want to be vaccinated to change to a position or work circumstances in which such requirement is not necessary. If such changes are not possible and there is no other solution, the employer may decide to seek termination of the employment agreement. If such circumstances are sufficient to justify termination of the employment agreement is highly dependent on the industry of the employer and all circumstances of the case.
Clear examples of organizations of which the clients are particularly vulnerable for sickness caused by COVID-19 are hospitals, ambulance personnel, and nursing homes. The employer’s duty to care for these vulnerable clients may require that the personnel must be vaccinated, to be able to do their job without putting the clients at risk.
Although employers cannot compel employees to get the vaccine, they can motivate employees. Certain companies have decided to offer bonusses to employees that take the COVID-19 vaccine. Others have created internal campaigns or give employees free time to get vaccinated.
For employers it is important to know that the ordinance regarding the protection of personal data prohibits employers to register and process medical information of employees. Therefore, the employer cannot register if employees are vaccinated or not.
If an employer wishes to introduce a COVID-19 vaccination policy in his company, it is important to seek (legal) advice or consult an occupational doctor, as this is a complex matter. The expectation is that the (legal) discussion on this matter will keep evolving.
Suhendra T. Leon
