And here I am, sitting alone on the couch, in my Hende di Kòrsou shirt, watching the Flag ceremony https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flag_of_Cura%C3%A7ao on my phone, bawling my eyes out as I sing along….
I always get very emotional on this day, the 2nd
of July. It is the day we celebrate our flag. My mom was always (and still is!)
very big on flag day celebrations, I have very vivid memories of waking early
and finding our way to the city, decked out in yellow and blue and find a spot
to see it all. All the parades of the scouting and police and marching bands,
culminating in raising of the huge flag and singing the anthem, ending with
Biba Kòrsou! BIBA!
Maybe that is why it hit me extra hard this last week, when
someone made an unkind at best, very disparaging at worst, most probably
offhand comment about national pride. Sizing up the situation, there was
nothing to gain by engaging. So I didn’t. They have their own demons to conquer
about this island. As I still do. I don't always want to be here. So happy to have been able to fly out for a bit last month! But that does not change how I feel about my island.
But I am engaging now, in this manner.
I love to tell my story and I get to tell it often. My
curriculum vitae starts with saying that I was born and raised in that part of
the Dutch Kingdom where the sun always shines. Being born here gives me privileges
that others fight for, risk their lives for and some even die in pursuit of. I
was once asked by a ‘friend’ once, if I was marrying my husband of now 12 years
so quickly, because I needed a Dutch passport. After blinking away my
confusion, I replied: well, what would I do with two of those?
With the typical Curaçoan melting pot genetical jackpot, I
have hair that is sometimes frizzed, sometimes straight, sometimes curly and malleable
in all styles. My skin is the colour I allow it to tan, with a range from pasty
to toasty, with some pink around the edges. I can speak several languages
fluently. Growing up on a island where others pay to vacation has advantages in
itself, but also allows you to see outside the boundaries of the island with
all the nationalities flying in. With family, friends and educational
opportunities outside of the island, you grow up knowing there is more to the
world than what you see on these 440 plus square kilometres. So I went and
explored the world. As much of it as I could. There is still a lot to see, but
I have been places. And everywhere I told about this tiny speck on the map I am
from. And compared what I saw with what I knew. And the bottom line is, this
island is an incredibly special place.
Besides the physical. I mean the beaches and rugged nature
is what people come here for. But besides that, I have always found this island
a fertile place for achieving great things. Because of limited resources and
limited candidates, I have been able to carve a nice path in challenging jobs at
interesting companies from a young age, even without a higher degree. Maybe it
has to do with more that just growing up here, but I am surrounded with people
just like me, so I honestly don’t know better than going for what you want and
making and building things from scratch.
As I was singing along with the phone monitor, while
hearing the actual singing echoing off the ramp of the Julianabrug here in
Otrobanda, I felt all the feels. The words really matter to me. You can find
the translation here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Himno_di_K%C3%B2rsou
Nos pueblo tin su lucha, ma semper nos tin fe
di logra den tur tempu viktoria ku trabou!
Ban
duna di nos parti p'e isla prosperá.
Laga nos uni forsa p'asina triumfá.
We
as a people always pull through, no matter who is in charge or what colour is in
power. I try to stay away from politics. As the inhabitants we have to work at
it and hustle, to make this island a place we want to live. All of us, from the
ones that are here for generations to the ones who arrived by dinghy last week
in search for a better future. We are what makes up this island. We can
complain about bureaucracy and red tape, people that don’t keep their word, but
what are you doing to make it better. What are you contributing to the
betterment of your street, neighbourhood, island? I was impressed when I came
back 2 years ago with all the initiatives of my generation and younger people
that are building up this island. Even in the crisis. You can see how people
are thinking outside the box to create solutions for problems that should not
exist. I named my company Yu di Tera, which literally means Child of the Earth, but as a saying means locally born and raised.
Biba Kòrsou! BIBAAAAA!
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