Sint Maarten rep: European colonizers will have to acknowledge consequences of their inhumane actions

European colonizers will have to acknowledge the consequences of their inhumane actions, slavery, and colonialism, Rhoda Arrindel, an advocate for the independence of Sint Maarten, said in her statement to journalists during COP29 in Baku, Report informs.

Arrindel noted that Global South states are prone to the consequences of poor choices made by Global North states. Therefore, colonizers' environmental concerns are often invisible, and they don't allocate sufficient funding for it:

"Our experience with Hurricane Irma in 2017 and the COVID-19 pandemic are just two of the most recent examples. The Netherlands' funding proposal for hurricane recovery was so inhumane that our then-government leader labeled it an 'indecent proposal.' Accepting these terms meant agreeing to projects by the World Bank office and National Recovery Program Bureau in the Netherlands that would return financial resources to organizations and accounts in Europe and the US until 2028."

Arrindel added that the Netherlands' post-pandemic steps meant that Sint Maarten's population had to accept loans that future generations would have to bear:

"Thus, over three years, the Sint Maarten population was exploited by colonial states when they were at their most vulnerable."