The Dutch slavery and colonization DNA. A call to engage in self-examination

This article answers the question whether there is a Dutch slavery and colonisation DNA. After all, the Netherlands has centuries of experience (approximately three and a half centuries) with colonisation (including occupation, wars and genocide, rearrangement of land and population, plundering and theft), trade in enslaved people (the Atlantic route: Europe, Africa, North and South America) and trade in the products of these enslaved people. The Netherlands has colonised large parts of the world. This was a large part of Asia, including the Indonesian archipelago, Malaysia, Ceylon, Taiwan and New Guinea, large parts of the continent Africa, including Madagascar, Mozambique, Cape of Good Hope, Luanda, Sao Tome, Fort Elmina etc., and North (New York) and South America (including Brazil, Dejima, Surinam and the Netherlands Antilles). It is a fact that human conditions and circumstances influence the human DNA that is passed on to posterity. This goes through the mechanism of methylation. This mechanism is used by cells in the human body to put genes in the "off" position. Human conditions and circumstances are abstractly formulated, poverty, hunger, disasters and wars. These are also horrors that accompanied slavery and colonisation. The Dutch, as slave traders, plantation owners, occupiers of lands, soldiers, merchants, captains and sailors, and administrators and their staff, have had centuries of experience with practising atrocities. Because those experiences are translated into the DNA of posterity, it is understandable that Dutch authorities misbehave towards immigrants and refugees. Those institutions are political leaders, governmental institutions, such as the tax authorities and youth welfare, and also companies that do their utmost to avoid taking on immigrants. This behaviour is called institutional colour and black racism.

Belief in Brua among psychiatric patients from Aruba, Bonaire, and Curaçao: Results from an explorative study in the Netherlands

Brua is an Afro-Caribbean religion and healing tradition predominantly practised on the ABC islands of the former Netherlands Antilles. It is grounded in oral tradition and shrouded in strict social taboos. Existing literature suggests that the majority of people on and from the islands are familiar with Brua and that it plays a substantial role in shaping their illness conception and idioms of distress. A lack of knowledge of Brua may therefore lead biomedically trained health professionals to misdiagnose these patients. This article discusses how religious beliefs related to Brua influence the illness concepts and idioms of distress of psychiatric patients originating from the ABC Islands, based on semi-structured interviews with former islanders receiving treatment at a psychiatric institute in the Netherlands. We found that of the 29 interviewees, 93.1% knew what Brua involved, 72.4% believed in it, 48.2% had first-hand experience with Brua practices, and 34.5% attributed their mental illness to Brua with greater or lesser certainty. However, only one patient had previously discussed her belief in Brua with her psychiatrist and only when asked to do so. The role of psychoactive substances in the context of Brua practices was negligible. Thus, the present study indicates that the majority of psychiatric patients from the ABC islands are familiar with Brua, but feel reluctant to discuss their concerns in this area with mental health professionals. Recommendations for clinical practice and further research are provided, including the need for a culture-sensitive approach and integrative care.

The taxonomic status of Myotis nesopolus larensis (Chiroptera, Vespertilionidae) and new insights on the diversity of Caribbean Myotis

Myotis nesopolus currently comprises two subspecies. The nominate subspecies (M. n. nesopolus) occurs on the Caribbean islands of Curaçao and Bonaire, Netherlands Antilles, whereas M. n. larensis is known from mainland South America in northeastern Colombia and northwestern Venezuela. Our Maximum Likelihood phylogenetic analyses of cytochrome-b gene sequences recovered M. nesopolus as a paraphyletic group, with M. n. nesopolus and M. n. larensis as non-sister lineages. The haplotype network indicates that these two subspecies do not share any haplotypes and are in different evolutionary trajectories. Additionally, these two subspecies can be distinguished on the basis of qualitative and quantitative morphological traits. This pattern supports the recognition of M. nesopolus and M. larensis as full species. Our results also reveal that the assemblage of Caribbean Myotis do not form a monophyletic group. Caribbean species are phylogenetically close to mainland species from northern South America and Central America, suggesting that colonization of Caribbean islands happened multiple times.