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“Equality is a promise, but not a reality”
THE HAGUE – Rabin Baldewsingh, the national coördinator against discrimination and racism was presented with the first copy of Kadushi’s Prikkeljaar 2025, a collection of fifty columns written by retired journalist Rene Zwart. Baldewsingh wrote the introduction to the book and in it, he makes clear why Zwart’s work matters.
“Who really wants to understand what is happening in the Caribbean part of our kingdom must be prepared to look beyond the governance language, the conference tables in The Hague and the written policy intentions. Those who want to know how life is really felt, experienced and endure, must listen to the voices that are not represented but that are affected by decisions that are taken thousands of kilometers further on.
One of the sharpest and most necessary voices is the one of René Zwart, Baldewsingh writes: “Sometimes vicious, sometimes mockingly, but always dedicated to a bigger goal: equality.”
Baldewsingh furthermore notes that Zwart has been exposing for years what remains too often hidden: that the Caribbean islands are still living in a kingdom where equality is a promise, but not a reality.
The Kadushi columns are a moral necessity, Baldewsingh adds. “They create a dossier that dissects the reality of governance, the poverty that is structurally being neglected, education that cannot flourish, healthcare that abandons people, young people without perspective and a political hierarchy that can hardly enforce responsibility.”
Baldewsingh furthermore addresses an inconvenient truth: the democratic deficit. “The 350,000 inhabitants of the Caribbean part of the kingdom live under policy for which they do not have political representation, no democratic counter-power and no possibility to enforce accountability on a national level. That is not a governance nuance, but a shortfall in the system that is unworthy for who we say that we are.”
The author of the Kadushi-clumns, René Zwart, lived and worked in Curacao for ten years. His columns target politicians in the European and the Caribbean part of the kingdom “who are asking for it.”
Kadushi’s Prikkeljaar 2025 is Zwart’s tenth book and they all deal with kingdom relations. The book has been printed in a modest quantity. Those who are interested in the digital edition can download it as ebook or pfd-file free of charge from dossierkoninkrijksrelaties.nl.
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