THE HAGUE - The Dutch House of Representatives delegation that will visit Suriname, Curaçao and Bonaire this week to find out how the slavery past affects the present could have saved itself the long journey, argues slavery historian Piet Emmer in an opinion article on the website Wynia's Week.
"The statements of the delegation leader, Kiki Hagen (D66), make it clear that she could have walked to the library around the corner at considerably lower costs, because she hints that she has no idea about that past," according to the provocative style well-known professor.
The Curaçao former minister Omayra Leeflang also has a tip for the parliamentary delegation. She posted on Linkedin: "I hope they will also come and talk to the self-emancipated descendants of enslaved people, who, after Bob Marley's model, have freed themselves from mental slavery and are living a successful life." She closes her post with the hashtag #bengeenslachtoffer (not a victim).
The MPs (of the Committee for the Interior) will start their working visit in Paramaribo today. Then they travel on to Willemstad where they attend, among other things, the Tula commemoration and finally visit Bonaire. It is striking that the Dutch media pay much more attention to the Surinamese part of the program than that on Curaçao and have been able to come up with nothing at all about Bonaire in relation to the slavery past.