Good governance and local autonomy in the Kingdom of the Netherlands in Europe and the Caribbean: An uneasy relationship

2014 ◽  
Vol 35 (2) ◽  
pp. 11-24
Author(s):  
Jaap Woldendorp
Keyword(s):  
The Netherlands ◽  
Good Governance ◽  
Local Autonomy ◽  
Colonial History ◽  
Independent State ◽  
Post Colonial ◽  
Netherlands Antilles ◽  
The Caribbean ◽  
Overseas Territories

The existence of a specific ministry for overseas territories in the Netherlands — Binnenlandse Zaken en Koninkrijksrelaties (Interior Affairs and Relations within the Realm or Kingdom) — is the outcome of a few hundred years of (post) colonial history. In the 1970s and 1980s Dutch governments pushed for independence of the Netherlands Antilles and Suriname in order to get rid of the colonial stigma. In 1975, Suriname became an independent state. However, subsequently a combination of factors made decolonization of the Netherlands Antilles unfeasible. The first factor was the experience with the negative developments in Suriname after its independence.

Caribbean Organization

1965 ◽  
Vol 19 (4) ◽  
pp. 1070-1073
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Puerto Rico ◽  
The Netherlands ◽  
French Guiana ◽  
The United States ◽  
Virgin Islands ◽  
British Virgin Islands ◽  
Netherlands Antilles ◽  
The United Kingdom ◽  
The Caribbean

The Caribbean Council held its fifth and last meeting in Curaçao, Netherlands Antilles, from November 30 to December 4, 1964. Attending the meeting were delegates from France on behalf of French Guiana, Guadeloupe, and Martinique; the Netherlands Antilles; Surinam; the British Virgin Islands; the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico; and the United States Virgin Islands. Representatives of Antigua, Barbados, Dominica, Grenada, Montserrat, and St. Vincent, countries enjoying special observer status, attended the meeting. Also at the meeting were observers from the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, and the United States.

Conjuring Futures

2019 ◽  
Vol 45 (2) ◽  
pp. 84-104
Author(s):  
Chelsea Schields
Keyword(s):  
The Netherlands ◽  
World Order ◽  
Cultural Institutions ◽  
National Sovereignty ◽  
Netherlands Antilles ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Caribbean

This article explores the history of the Foundation for Cultural Cooperation between the Netherlands, Suriname, and the Netherlands Antilles (Sticusa), asking how cultural institutions partook in the process of decolonization. Analyzing the perspectives of Sticusa collaborators and critics in the Caribbean, I argue that cultural actors saw decolonization as an opportunity to reorient cultures toward an emergent world order. In this process, they envisioned a range of horizons, from closer integration with Europe to enhanced affinity with the broader Americas. By the 1970s, however, these horizons narrowed to the attainment of national sovereignty, and Sticusa’s cultural experiment ended as a result.

Thrust Together: The Netherlands Relationship with Its Caribbean Partners

1996 ◽  
Vol 38 (4) ◽  
pp. 35-54 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rosemarijn Hoefte
Keyword(s):  
The Netherlands ◽  
40Th Anniversary ◽  
Major Step ◽  
Netherlands Antilles ◽  
The Will ◽  
The Caribbean

In December 1942, the Dutch Queen Wilhelmina announced, in a radio address, that the Netherlands was revising its relationship with its colonies, employing the famous words: “Relying on one’s own strength, with the will to support each other” [Steunend op eigen kracht, metde wil elkander bij te staan] (Schenk and spaan, 1945: 56). Some 52 years later, her granddaughter, Queen Beatrix, returned to this theme in a televised speech delivered to mark the occasion of the 40th anniversary of the Charter of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, when she referred to relations betweenThe Netherlands and its Caribbean partners as one of “a genuine relationship and mutual commitment” (een echte verwantschap en onderlinge betrokkenheid). This Charter, signed in 1954, had been drawn up to establish that henceforth the Kingdom of the Netherlands would be comprised of three equal partners: the Netherlands itself, Suriname, and the Netherlands Antilles. Back in 1954, when it was signed, the Charter was widely viewed as constituting a first, major step towards eventual independence for the Dutch partners in the Caribbean. Nor could anyone have foreseen that, 40 years later, only Suriname would have achieved independence, while the islands of the Netherlands Antilles were renouncing that option and expressing a desire to remain Dutch.

In Search of Our Memory: Gender in the Netherlands Antilles

1998 ◽  
Vol 59 (1) ◽  
pp. 86-100 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sonia Magdalena Cuales
Keyword(s):  
The Netherlands ◽  
Gender Relations ◽  
Social Issues ◽  
Statistical Evidence ◽  
Feminist Movement ◽  
Race And Gender ◽  
Netherlands Antilles ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Caribbean ◽  
And Gender

The history of class, race and gender relations is largely under researched for the island territories of Curaçao, Bonaire, St Eustatius, Saba and St Maarten, the group of islands which comprise the Netherlands-Antilles. While there are archival sources which can depict some of this history, much of it remains submerged in our memories due to our self-imposed silences on these social issues. In this paper I extract some of this memory together with fragments of research already carried out, statistical evidence available, and some of the struggles which the feminist movement has waged in regard to oppressive legislation which discriminated against women, to provide a glimpse of this postcolonial variation which also constitutes part of the Caribbean.

scholarly journals Conservation status of Caribbean coot Fulica caribaea in the Netherlands Antilles and other parts of the Caribbean

2008 ◽  
Vol 4 ◽  
pp. 241-246 ◽  
Author(s):  
V Nijman ◽  
M Aliabadian ◽  
AO Debrot ◽  
JA de Freitas ◽  
LGL Gomes ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
The Netherlands ◽  
Conservation Status ◽  
Netherlands Antilles ◽  
The Caribbean

Renewing the ‘Special Relationship’ and Rethinking the Return of Cultural Property: The Netherlands and Indonesia, 1949–79

2016 ◽  
Vol 52 (3) ◽  
pp. 646-668
Author(s):  
Cynthia Scott
Keyword(s):  
The Netherlands ◽  
Cultural Property ◽  
Cultural Relations ◽  
Independent State ◽  
Post Colonial ◽  
East Indies ◽  
Mediating Role ◽  
Cultural Organization ◽  
Cultural Roles

This article questions how the return of cultural property from metropolitan centers of former colonial powers to the successor states of former colonies have been considered positive – if rare – examples of post-colonial redress. Highlighting UNESCO-driven publicity about the transfer of materials from the Netherlands to Indonesia, and tracing nearly 30 years of diplomacy between these countries, demonstrates that the return of cultural property depended on the ability of Dutch officials to vindicate the Netherlands’ historical and contemporary cultural roles in the former East Indies. More than anything, returns were influenced by the determination of Dutch officials to find and maintain a secure cultural role in Indonesia in the future. This article also considers how Dutch policies were initially independent from, but later coincided with, the anti-colonial activism that emerged within the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) around the issue of cultural property return to former colonies. Yet, rather than reveal a mediating role for UNESCO, this article re-positions the return debate within a broader framework of shifting post-colonial cultural relations negotiated bilaterally between the Netherlands – as a former colonial power – and the leaders of the newly independent state of Indonesia.

Caribbean Commission

1960 ◽  
Vol 14 (1) ◽  
pp. 215-216 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Puerto Rico ◽  
The Netherlands ◽  
West Indies ◽  
The United States ◽  
Virgin Islands ◽  
Common Interest ◽  
The West ◽  
British Guiana ◽  
Netherlands Antilles ◽  
The Caribbean

A special session of the West Indian Conference convened on July 28, 1959, in St. Thomas, the Virgin Islands, to consider revision of the agreement which established the Caribbean Commission in October 1946. The delegates were welcomed by Mr. John Merwin, Governor of the Virgin Islands, who referred to the proposed revision for the transfer of control to local governments as an exciting new concept which would witness the withdrawal from active membership of the metropolitan powers and the taking over of these functions by the non-self-governing territories and possessions. Before starting deliberations on the successor body, delegates went on record in support of a continuation of regional cooperation in the area through some machinery similar to the Caribbean Commission, the good work of which was unanimously acclaimed. After several days of discussion and working in committees, the Conference accepted a Statute for a new Caribbean Organization to succeed the present Caribbean Commission, agreeing that it should be submitted to the governments concerned. The statute gave the Organization consultative and advisory powers and defined the areas of its concern as being those social, economic, and cultural matters of common interest in the Caribbean area. Eligible for membership were the Republic of France for the Departments of French Guiana, Guadeloupe, and Martinique; the Netherlands Antilles; Surinam; the Bahamas; British Guiana; British Honduras; British Virgin Islands; the West Indies; Puerto Rico; and the Virgin Islands. The governing body of the new organization would be the Caribbean Council, which would hold annual meetings and to which each member would be entitled to nominate one delegate. The Organization was to come into being after an agreement with the members of the present Caribbean Commission—namely, the governments of France, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, and the United States—for its establishment had been ratified. Following an offer from the government of Puerto Rico to contribute 44.3 percent of the total budget on the understanding that the new Organization would have its headquarters in that country, the Conference agreed on the following apportionment of costs to cover its proposed budget: France, $50,560; Netherlands Antilles, $24,490; Surinam, $19,750; British Guiana, $11,760; the West Indies, $44,240; Puerto Rico, $140,000; and the Virgin Islands, $25,200. As an interim step designed to facilitate the transition, the Conference recommended that the Commission appoint a working group of experts to examine the problems which would arise from the change-over, and to give its attention as well to the task of formulating guiding principles for the work of the Organization.

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