Dutch Common Sense in a World Gone Mad

Dispatch from Sint Maarten

By Terrance Rey | Sunday, November 15, 2026

There are weeks when you begin to wonder whether the entire world has collectively lost its mind.

Or, to put it the Dutch way: whatever happened to good old-fashioned common sense?

We Dutch are supposed to be famous for our Hollandse nuchterheid, that typically Dutch down-to-earth attitude. Both feet firmly on the ground. No unnecessary fuss. Think first, act later. Just use your common sense.

But after everything that happened this past week, I am seriously beginning to wonder whether that famous Dutch common sense has suffered a system failure of its own.

Just like Microsoft.

And the American air traffic control system.

And the politicians in The Hague.

And, lest we forget, our very own Parliament here on Sint Maarten.

Microsoft Loses Its Outlook

It all started on Thursday.

Microsoft, one of the world’s largest technology companies, experienced a worldwide disruption of its Microsoft 365 services.

Outlook stopped working. Teams was malfunctioning. Even Copilot, Microsoft’s very own artificial intelligence assistant, was affected.

Millions of people and businesses found themselves unable to communicate properly.

A company promising us the future of artificial intelligence couldn’t even keep its own email system running.

Oh, dearie me!

Some organizations reportedly had to resort to using fax machines.

Fax machines!

Those ancient contraptions we thought had disappeared into the museum of technological history alongside typewriters and floppy disks.

Microsoft eventually explained that problems associated with expanding its network capacity had contributed to the disruption. There was no indication of a cyberattack or a rogue AI agent running amok.

Well, that’s reassuring.

But I couldn’t help wondering: if our digital infrastructure has become so dependent on a handful of giant technology companies, what happens when these systems experience a truly prolonged failure?

And Friday hadn’t even arrived yet.

Houston, We Have a Problem!

Friday, November 13.

An unlucky day for the superstitious.

The United States Federal Aviation Administration, better known as the FAA, ordered departing air traffic across the United States to come to a halt.

A nationwide ground stop.

Thousands of flights were affected. Passengers were stranded. Airlines had to suspend operations and reposition aircraft and crews.

The consequences were felt well beyond American borders.

The cause?

Communication problems between air traffic control centers.

Interestingly enough, new technology had recently been introduced to modernize America’s air traffic control infrastructure, including applications involving artificial intelligence.

Caribbean commentator Mervin Hanley pointed out the remarkable coincidence between the Microsoft outage and the FAA ground stop, while correctly emphasizing that no connection between the two incidents had been established.

American authorities subsequently pointed to overloaded, aging network equipment during modernization work. There was no indication that the new AI systems had caused the disruption.

But the irony remains.

We are developing computer systems designed to help us perform increasingly complex tasks.

And meanwhile, an overloaded router apparently proves sufficient to bring a substantial portion of American air traffic to a standstill.

Perhaps we should give artificial intelligence one simple assignment for now:

First, make sure the existing systems keep working.

Then we can talk about taking over the world.

A Drunken Sailor in The Hague

And while the world’s digital infrastructure was malfunctioning, another kind of system failure was unfolding in The Hague.

The Jetten minority government was wobbling.

The VVD, D66 and CDA could not agree on their political direction and budget arrangements.

Tensions had risen so high that the coalition partners had to meet again this weekend to discuss whether the government even had a future.

It reminded me of a drunken sailor trying to walk home in a straight line after a night of heavy drinking.

He takes two steps forward.

Three sideways.

Grabs hold of a lamppost.

And assures everyone that he is perfectly sober.

That’s more or less what the Jetten government looks like at the moment.

A fellow columnist at DossierKoninkrijksrelaties.nl responded to my comparison with the drunken sailor:

“It’s not the government that’s drunk. It’s the voters.”

He was referring to the enormous political fragmentation in the Dutch House of Representatives.

He went on to predict that things could become even worse in the Dutch Senate, potentially ending up with twenty political factions occupying just 75 seats.

Twenty factions!

At that rate, you’ll soon have more parliamentary faction leaders than people still willing to listen to one another.

Oh, dearie me!

Where on earth are we heading?

The Prime Minister Who Isn’t Coming

The political crisis has now also reached the Caribbean part of the Kingdom.

This week, Sint Maarten is hosting the first Kingdom Summit.

A gathering intended to strengthen cooperation among the four countries of the Kingdom of the Netherlands.

An important initiative.

Because if there is one thing the Kingdom desperately needs, it is greater cooperation, mutual trust and continuity in governance.

But of all people, Dutch Prime Minister Rob Jetten will not be attending.

He canceled his trip because of the political crisis in The Hague.

King Willem-Alexander will still travel to Sint Eustatius to commemorate the 250th anniversary of the First Salute.

But the Prime Minister has to stay home to prevent his own government from collapsing.

Imagine being the Caribbean host.

You organize a summit to bring the Kingdom closer together.

And the most important representative of its largest country cannot attend because his government might fall apart.

It’s like organizing a family meeting to improve relationships among relatives, only to discover that Dad cannot attend because he’s at home arguing with his new wife.

Dutch common sense?

I’m finding it increasingly difficult to understand.

Thirty Million Euros and Not Even Seven Parliamentarians

But before we on Sint Maarten laugh too loudly at the political chaos in the Netherlands, perhaps we should first take a good look in our own mirror.

Because something rather remarkable happened here this week as well.

The Government of Sint Maarten is trying to secure approximately €30 million in Dutch funding to continue the Country Package (Landspakket) reform program.

This involves extending reform cooperation with the Netherlands from April 2027 through April 2029.

An important matter.

Especially now that the government in The Hague might collapse, potentially complicating political decision-making there.

So what does our Parliament do?

It cannot even get enough members together to hold a meeting.

On Thursday, only six Members of Parliament were present.

Seven were required.

No quorum.

Meeting postponed.

And this despite the governing coalition holding nine of the fifteen parliamentary seats.

Nine!

You need seven.

Only six show up.

And so the meeting cannot proceed.

I swear, sometimes I wonder whether our politicians can still count.

Of course, there are explanations. Three parliamentarians were abroad on official business. Others were unavailable.

But the result remains the same.

A Parliament tasked with considering an important financial and administrative matter cannot assemble enough members to conduct a meeting.

Meanwhile, the government in The Hague, with which these agreements must be concluded, is itself threatening to collapse.

The €30 million has been included in Dutch budget plans, but the necessary decisions and agreements have yet to be finalized.

A government collapse does not automatically mean the money disappears.

But political uncertainty certainly doesn’t help.

The irony is almost too good to be true.

In The Hague, a government threatens to collapse because politicians cannot reach an agreement.

On Sint Maarten, Parliament cannot even convene to discuss cooperation with that very same government.

And both countries solemnly preach the virtues of good governance.

Oh, dearie me!

And What About the Budget?

Meanwhile, the Government of Sint Maarten is still wrestling with its 2027 national budget.

Minister of Finance Marinka Gumbs has at least made an effort this year to move the budget process along more promptly.

That deserves recognition.

But as I wrote in my previous column, submitting a budget on time is not the same as presenting one that adequately accounts for all financial risks.

The Committee for Financial Supervision (Cft) remains critical.

The ENNIA obligations need to be clearly reflected.

The social security and healthcare funds are under pressure.

Certain financial risks have yet to be fully quantified.

And meanwhile, the Government and Parliament must decide on the continuation of reform cooperation with the Netherlands.

All this while the Dutch government itself faces uncertainty about its political future.

Try preparing a reliable multiyear financial plan under those circumstances.

Even an AI system would develop a headache.

Assuming it doesn’t crash first.

Can Artificial Intelligence Save Us?

And that brings me to the question that has increasingly occupied my thoughts this week.

Can artificial intelligence help us rediscover our famous Dutch common sense?

Nowadays, AI can perform complicated calculations, analyze millions of documents, model financial scenarios and identify patterns that humans might easily overlook.

Perhaps AI could check our national budgets before they are submitted to the Cft.

Perhaps AI could warn parliamentarians in advance when too few members are likely to attend a meeting.

Perhaps AI could help political parties better understand the agreements they have made.

And perhaps AI could even calculate how many political factions it takes before a parliament becomes practically ungovernable.

But there is one problem.

AI can calculate.

AI can advise.

AI can warn.

But AI cannot assume political responsibility.

And AI certainly cannot guarantee common sense.

For that, we still need human beings.

People who take responsibility.

Who honor their commitments.

Who show up on time.

Who understand that a national budget is more than a collection of numbers.

And who recognize that good governance does not begin with artificial intelligence, but with human intelligence.

Back to Dutch Common Sense

Perhaps that is ultimately the lesson of this crazy week.

We have computers that are becoming increasingly intelligent.

Yet our infrastructure remains vulnerable.

We have politicians holding more and more meetings.

Yet reaching fewer and fewer agreements.

We have governments cooperating within a single Kingdom.

Yet sometimes they cannot even keep their own meetings or coalitions together.

And we have AI systems promising to make the future more predictable.

While the future seems to become more unpredictable with every passing day.

So once again, I find myself asking that simple, old-fashioned question:

Whatever happened to our famous Dutch common sense?

Perhaps we should stop trying to make the world increasingly intelligent before we relearn how to behave sensibly ourselves.

Because what good is artificial intelligence when natural intelligence fails us?

And what good is a Kingdom Summit about cooperation if we cannot even manage to sit down together at the right time?

Perhaps, for now, we should give our AI agents just one assignment:

Find our missing Dutch common sense.

And when they find it, immediately send a message to The Hague and Philipsburg.

That is…

If Microsoft Outlook is working again.

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