Monday Morning, Carnival, and Poverty

Monday Morning, Carnival, and Poverty

9 February 2026

It is Monday morning and lunchtime is approaching. It is carnival week. The main parades take place this week, but in my immediate surroundings, it does not really seem to resonate. Yesterday, however, the roads were very busy after the parade.

I have not blogged yet. Not because there are no topics, but partly because it seems to have little use: everything remains as it was. To keep it simple, I take as my subject the main article in the Antilliaans Dagblad: “Ouderen vaak in armoede; door geldgebrek en digitalisering blijven zij achter.”

It is good that this appears on the front page, but it is nothing new. It is positive that the article mentions several NGOs that try to make a difference on a small scale. Once again, it is stated that a third of the population lives below the poverty line. What is regrettably not mentioned is that inequality, expressed in the Gini coefficient, has reached 0.50 in 2026.

Poverty here is so structural that it is unrealistic to expect any change, certainly not in the short term.

Perhaps that is also why the issue hardly stirs emotions anymore. The figures are familiar, the stories recognizable, the outcomes predictable. It is recorded, acknowledged, and then released again. Poverty is no longer an incident, but part of the scenery.

What I have noticed in recent days is that more people than I assumed read what I write. I notice this because I receive messages from people who come to me demanding explanations. That certainly has a positive side, but I am not necessarily waiting for it. The reactions are usually defensive, in the sense that what I say is perceived as “not cool.”

To be more concrete: elite circles firmly deny being exclusive. That is good to hear, and if this is indeed the case, there is no reason for them to take it personally.

Miguel Goede