A group of well-known Dutch people asks the government to be generous in providing corona help to Aruba, Curaçao and Sint Maarten.
The Caribbean parts of the kingdom have suffered three blows over the past period that they have been unable to do anything about, they write. “Hurricanes, a completely collapsed neighboring country of Venezuela and the corona virus over it.”
Aruba, Curaçao and Sint Maarten are particularly hard hit because they are very dependent on tourism, but because of the corona no tourists come to these islands anymore.
Compassion and cool mind
The Kingdom Council of Ministers will decide on the continuation of corona relief to these islands on Friday. The signatories call on the government to make a decision on this with “compassion and a warm heart on the one hand and cool mind on the other”.
The Kingdom Council of Ministers had imposed strict conditions on the islands to qualify for the first package of 370 million euros in aid. This meant, among other things, that the salaries of civil servants and directors of public companies were reduced by 12.5 percent.
Riots broke out in Curaçao last week, after garbage collectors were told that some of them would be fired because there was no money left to pay them.
Added value for the underprivileged
The letter writers understand that the Kingdom Council of Ministers sets conditions, but want aid to be organized in such a way that the underprivileged experience the “added value of the Kingdom relationship” and at the same time strengthen the economic structure of the islands.
“There is so much more possible,” concludes the letter, “with the combination of business and warm heart on both sides of the Kingdom relationship.”
The call was signed by comedian and TV maker Jandino Asporaat, employer chairman Hans de Boer, NS CEO Roger van Boxtel, athlete Churandi Martina and former president of De Nederlandsche Bank Nout Wellink.
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