Beyond My Strength

Beyond My Strength

25 September 2026

I have just returned from the gym after a session with my personal trainer, whom I suspect of sadism. The pleasure he takes in increasing the weights is suspicious. Every week, those weights seem to exceed my strength. But as they say: no pain, no gain.

The trainer asks about my latest piece. But he knows damn well that I haven’t posted anything for about four days. I suspect he follows my posts.

I tell him that I haven’t written for a few days, not primarily because I was on another island for work, but because so many things are happening on such a scale that they feel beyond my strength.

Just a few examples.

CMC hospital does not have the budget to operate responsibly until the end of the year, and the political establishment is nowhere to be found. Yet money is being spent on drag strips and on bringing in Colombians to help reduce CMC’s waiting lists. Against that background, the murder of a CMC nurse, although it took place in the private sphere, somehow takes on an additional dimension.

Then the education sector goes on strike after a teacher suffers a cut while trying to break up a fight between two students.

After a conference, the tourism sector announces that the strategy is now high value, low impact. But it is already clear that the number of rooms will increase by more than 50 percent, from 12,000 to almost 20,000 by 2030. Meanwhile, everything is becoming congested, and the government is still withholding the report on the island’s carrying capacity.

Then there is news from that other economic pot. The database of the Curaçao Gaming Authority, which regulates the online gambling industry—a global multibillion-dollar business—has been hacked, and all the customer data is now in the hands of investigative journalists.

The news is so intrusive that I almost experience it as a personal violation. For a moment, I simply don’t know what to do with it. Reports that AI could escape human control and start operating autonomously only add to the unease.

Fortunately, our Blue Wave pulled off a miraculous victory away against Costa Rica last night: 4–3, after being 3–0 down at halftime.

That gives the citizen some courage and strength again.

Miguel Goede