After the Diagnosis, the Therapy

After the Diagnosis, the Therapy

22 July 2026

Yesterday I met with three respected elders of our society. All three had spent many years in positions of leadership. We quickly agreed that the current situation is far from encouraging. After briefly retracing the path that brought us to where we are today, the inevitable question arose: how on earth do we get out of this?

That proved to be a difficult puzzle, especially because our human capital has steadily diminished over the past years.

Once I got home, the question refused to leave my mind. It kept nagging at me. I started looking for answers. What can we learn from countries that once found themselves in a similar position? Before long I came across familiar examples: the Asian Tigers, the Celtic Tiger (Ireland), Singapore, New Zealand, Barbados and, more recently, El Salvador.

The common thread running through these success stories is striking. Nearly all of them developed a long-term vision for the future, made deliberate choices about their economic niche, and consistently invested in both the quality of governance and the development of their people.

My first thought naturally turned to technology. But a closer look at our own figures suggested that the answer is not that straightforward. According to the 2023 Census, around 60% of the population has completed primary education, pre-vocational secondary education or vocational education as their highest level of schooling. About 40% have completed at least senior secondary education or continued their studies, while roughly 23% hold a university of applied sciences or university degree.

Those are not poor numbers, but they do not tell the whole story.

Curaçao is aging rapidly. Today, more than a quarter of our population is 65 years of age or older. As a result, a significant share of our highly educated citizens has already retired or is approaching retirement. The workforce that must carry our economy and society over the coming decades is therefore both smaller and less highly educated than the overall statistics initially suggest.

Yet, as I continued my search, a direction gradually began to emerge. Alongside decisive leadership, a shared long-term vision and a clearly defined economic niche, we must invest unconditionally in our human capital. In the end, people are our most valuable natural resource.

During this search, I rediscovered a concept that I had not consciously revisited for quite some time: Society 5.0—a human-centered society. It reminded me that we can only take our country and our economy to the next level by truly placing people at the center. Not technology, buildings or economic growth ultimately form the foundation of sustainable development—people do.

We must help one another climb higher together. The real therapy for our island can therefore be summed up in a simple phrase: more "we" and less "me," translated into sustained investment in education, talent development, good governance and social cohesion.

Miguel Goede