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Column JGD | Rule of law

HomeMediaColumn JGD | Rule of law
Jacob Gelt Dekker, opinion columnist for Curaçao Chronicle | Rule of Law
Jacob Gelt Dekker, opinion columnist for Curaçao Chronicle | Rule of Law

In the latest conflict between the Venezuelan-operated oil refinery on Curacao and environmental protest groups, it is hard to distinguish between utility, romantic environmental notions, and verifiable facts. Supposedly, according to contestants, the refinery exceeded the annually allowed amount of harmful exhaust, whereas the defendant, the oil plant, claims to be within the set parameters.

The judge will have to determine the verifiable facts. The contestants activated a passive lien of about US $ 36 million and now has to validate its claim in Court.

The contestant claims that at least eighteen people per year, living near the plant, die prematurely from smoke inhalation. The factual evidence of cause and effect remains in the emotional domain. Locals emphatically defend their right to chain smoke cigarettes and marijuana, both extremely carcinogenic agents, and deny such habits, as well as others, carry any relation to the alleged statistics of premature deaths from lung and airways disease.

Environmentalists, who are convinced that oil refinery’s exhaust is the one and only cause for the health problems, demand reduction of harmful exhaust. Of the thousands living in the immediate environment of the refinery, only 24 joined the environmentalists in their plight and legal case.

Romantics like to picture the Caribbean island of Curacao as a Blue Bay-paradise of waving palm trees and white sand beaches with friendly, Rumba-Dancing, subservient locals, living in a perpetual state of happiness. In reality, most palm trees on the island were imported from Cuba for tourism and sandy beaches had to be constructed with sand from the Bahamas. Locals suffer from a slavery-induced inferiority complex and are far from subservient; violent crime is rampant, and work ethics is abysmal.

Thousands work in and around the Venezuelan oil refinery where they just make enough money to get by. The Venezuelan Bolivarian-socialist revolution is so dear to these factory workers that they elected the PS, a Chavez- Maduro friendly workers’ party, into power on the island.

So, besides the verifiable facts, the conflict is a political one. Courts should exercise their discretion and apply marginal testing against laws, rules and regulations, but in any case, always stay out of politics. Unfortunately, the Judge is now put in the unpleasant position to pull the ideological, political cart, one way or another.

No matter whether you are a romantic or a utilitarian, separation-of-powers is near and dear to modern constitutional democratic states. The in 2010-newly formed autonomous state of Curacao may still be wrestling with these premises, but the Kingdom of the Netherlands, which guaranteed the Rule-of-Law and the Courts on the island, should excuse the Courts and make them pull out of the conflict immediately.

Bron: CuracaoChronicle

16 reacties

  1. Very clever Potver3 !! Then try this: if you want to write English impeccably then write ” the rain in spain falls mainly in the plain”with your left hand…..and swallow the potatoe while it’s still hot … 🙂

  2. Van Aller states; “He writes English impeccably.” WRITES!!
    He did not mention speaking….so try something else with that potatoe.

  3. OK, try this:
    put a hot potatoe in your mouth and repeat after me:
    ” the rain in spain falls mainly in the plain”… good luck !! 🙂
    en Sonny, ik weet dat jij dit ook gaat proberen, maar vraag de dokter te controleren of je niet smokkelt, Ok? Be a good boy!! 🙂

  4. “… factory workers … elected the PS, a .. workers’ party, into power …” Really?

    And: “… the Netherlands ….. should excuse the Courts and make them pull out of the conflict …” Again, really?

    Jacob, do you understand what the title, ‘rule-of-law’, implies? And although you want to see it differently it is because of ‘separation of powers’ that the Courts now have jurisdiction, particularly now that the government wants to participate in the dispute.
    Maybe it’s time to see if the dosage antidepressant needs adjusting.

  5. .
    .
    2017:

    Bye bye Curaçao. Goodbye crime. Bye bye pollution.
    Let’s go to the real tropical paradise with 1000 miles of white beach of Cuba. Cuban history and Hemingway. We love it!

    Cordial greetings to your corrupt Government
    and cheers with a real “Cuba libre”
    .
    .

  6. It is like Promoplus, the consultant of Ceasar in the new Asterix and Obelix, The missing scroll. The truth is woefully adjusted. A lot of double talk, subterfuge, denial of truth and lots of pollution. The vacation paradise Curacao is supposed to be, has absolutely nothing to do with reality. However much our leaders want us to accept the hallowed hallucination. Renée van Aller & John de Vries

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