Curacao has many international successful athletes. Churandy Martina in sprint. Jean Julien Royer in tennis. The biggest pool in talents is baseball players. Curacao is the biggest supplier of athletes to the MLB per capita. How is this possible? Part of the story is that the little league organization is one of the best managed and biggest sport organizations on the island. On a steady basis Curacao represents the region in the World Series. And on several occasions won the championship. The talent in the other sports is less successful. The government policy in the area of sports and culture is under developed. There are not enough funds, facilities and other conditions to develop the talent. After the constitutional changes on 10 October 2010 Curacao could not participate in the Olympics. All this led to a situation that the talent represents the Dutch Kingdom and not Curacao.
The people of Curacao are immensely talented. This is the result of many factors: The multi culture society. The multi languages. The climate stimulates outdoor live. The small scale hinders specialization. The lack of resources stimulates creativity to solve problems. On the other hand, some of these same factors hinder de development of this talent. The is no finance to create a structure to develop and manage the latent. Those who are successful are successful against the odds.
The main obstacle is that talent is taken for granted. There is over appreciation of cognitive education. Parents and students want to become doctors and accountants. Many successful artist first finished an academic program before perusing a music career.
In a way, this is the case in many Caribbean SIDS. But Aruba is an exception. Many years ago the government started the so called “Lotto pa deporte”. The generated funds are invested to develop the talent. Curacao has studied this concept years ago, but due to political will and other interest, till this day this has not been implemented.