UTRECHT, Netherlands:--- University of Utrecht researcher Nicole Sanches affiliated to the USM opens online site to support St. Maarteners stranded in the Netherlands. In the rebirth of the USM and its growing recognition in the academic world, several links with sister institutions have been established. Some of these are today beneficial for St. Maarteners here and those making their way to the Netherlands. Drs. Nicole Sanches, a PhD researcher at Utrecht University, conducting research on education and migration in the Dutch Caribbean in a project run by Dr. Francio Guadeloupe of the USM, has teamed up with other academics to create an online site where St. Maarteners can be helped through the bureaucratic maze that is the Netherlands. The media report, of St. Maartners placed in an asylum center meant for refugees, prompted her to act.

Op 14 september verscheen er een opinie stuk van KITLV collega Sanne Rotmeijer en Jordi Halfman in de Volkskrant. Hierin vragen zij aandacht voor de kans die zij zien om nu, post Irma, meer gelijkwaardigheid binnen het koninkrijk te creëren. 

​Voor de rest van het artikel, volg onderstaande link.

www.volkskrant.nl/opinie/gelijkwaardig-koninkrijk-moet-het-doel-zijn-van-wederopbouw-sint-maarten~a4516481/

Jordi Halfman was invited to the NOS radio show 'Met het oog op morgen', to share her worries about the children she works with on Sint Maarten. Many live in the less well developed sections of SXM and so far little information about their health and safety has reached the outside world.
During her fieldwork with Hope, Esmeralda and Brandon in a public school in Dutch Quarter, these children told her they did not have a passport. Unlike the Dutch and American citizens and other 'nationals' they do not have a nation-state elsewhere that is looking out for them.

You can listen to the interview (in Dutch) here.   

After the devastating effects of the passing of hurricane Irma, the team of Imagining the Nation is happy to inform you that, under the circumstances, we are all ok. Sadly we have not yet been able to contact all our local partners and the many children we work with on Sint Maarten. 

In the aftermath of the storm the team of Imaging the Nation will come together to find out ways in which to help those who need it the most. For now, our thoughts are with all those who are still unaccounted for. And with their families.

During the first two days of December 2016 intellectuals (traditional, organic and vernacular and all what lays between) from all parts of the Dutch Kingdom and other areas within the Caribbean region, came together at the University of Saint Martin (USM) to discuss the important matter of racism at the conference: Raising the Curtain on Race; Globalizing A Critical Analysis of Race and Racism. This ties into our NWO project 'Imaging the Nation in the Classroom' as ideas of racialism and racism are also part of constructions of national identity within the Kingdom of the Netherlands.
    After an introduction by Dr. Teresa Leslie of the Eastern Caribbean Public Health Foundation (ECPHF), one of the organizers along with Dr. Francio Guadeloupe (USM) and Lianne Leonara of the National Anthropological and Archaeological Memory Management (NAAM), Jorgen Unom JG of Poetry Circle Nowhere opened the conference. His opening was directly followed by the insightful keynote of the social activist and vernacular intellectual Mr. Quincy Gario, who discussed his experiences with Black Peter and racism in the Netherlands. After informing all those present of his struggle for justice, he entered into a lively debate with the USM students most of whom had never encountered this Dutch caricature/festivity.
    

The team of imagining the nation has collaborated with Amsterdam United of the University of Amsterdam to create an alternative to the Sinterklaas and Zwarte Piet tradition that would be anti-racist and inclusive. The products of this initiative will be part of the research of the postdoctoral fellow. 

Below you find the founding myth of this invented tradition that strats as follows:

​‘Mama. Mama! Mamaaaaah….’
‘Papa help!’
​
Eli huilde hard en schreeuwde terwijl hij langzaam viel. Langzaam, dieper en diepere totdat hij zich bevond op de bodem van de zee. Eli was met zijn ouders en vele andere mensen uit Damascus op zoek naar een land zonder oorlog en honger. Ze hadden hoop terwijl ze door de donkere nacht voeren. Maar de hoop redde Eli niet. De harde wind deed het kleine bootje wankelen en huilend viel hij, langzaam, naar de bodem van de zee.

Papa en mama konden Eli niet horen, en ook zijn zusjes en broertje waren ver weg. Eli was bang en voelde zich alleen. Maar Eli was niet alleen. Een zeeschildpad, honderden jaren oud, hoorde de stem van de kleine jongen. Langzaam zwom hij naar het geluid van Eli. En ook een dolfijn werd geraakt door de schreeuw van verdriet. Snel dartelde hij naar Eli. Op de bodem van de zee vonden de dolfijn en de schildpad Eli. Ze spraken weinig mensentaal, maar zagen dat Eli hun hulp nodig had. En ze wisten meteen hoe ze hem konden helpen.

Yesterday we read that a young man of 21 years was gunned down in the city of Schiedam in the Netherlands. The fact that he was dark complexioned, and ethno-racial profiling among Dutch police officers in the Netherlands is condoned as an unfortunate security measure and have caused many activists throughout the Kingdom of the Netherlands to argue that this is one of the outcomes of a situation where it has become politically suspect to say that Dutch racism is unacceptable!

In this contribution, the staff of the University of St. Martin (USM) seek to say the new politically suspect as loud as possible: Dutch racism is unacceptable!     
“Sticks and stones may break our bones, but words can never hurt us.” Whoever wholeheartedly believes that this saying holds all the time, and in every occasion, is either lying to themselves or not part of the human species. The fact of the matter is that words like stones can lead to suffering. It is true that the hurt produced by words is of a different kind—psychological rather than physical—but a hurt it is nevertheless. And we remain silent when listening to these words, forgetting that these words can lead to actions.

Ook vanuit Willemstad, Curaçao is er aandacht voor de op St Maarten ontworpen lessen over Slavernij en mensenrechten. Via onderstaand link kunt u het interview beluisteren en het artikel van Anneke Polak van het Caribisch Netwerk lezen.

Also in Willemstad, Curaçao, people are interested in the lesson plan developed on St. Maarten. The interview, in Dutch can be listened to by clicking on the link below.