The Erosion of Thinking and Organizational Capacity

The Erosion of Thinking and Organizational Capacity

6 April 2026

My last piece dates back to Tuesday, 17 February 2026. On Wednesday, 18 February, the forty-day Lenten period began. It ended on Saturday, 4 April. During that time, I did not write, but reflected. My friends said I would never manage to keep it up. Yet it turned out to be easier than I had expected. My suspicion was also confirmed that only a few would notice my absence from writing.

During that period, however, I did publish an e-bundle of articles from the previous cycle under the title: “Does AI Connect?; Artificial Intelligence, Society, and the Future of Governance.”

With this, I pick up the thread — and the pen — once again. I want to address our significantly diminished organizational capacity. It was never our strongest point. In my September 2025 collection Bruá en prufiá, I already discussed this extensively. Still, I want to raise it again because it is becoming increasingly visible to many, while others neither see it nor can interpret it.

A clear illustration of our low organizational capacity is the way road tax is handled: the payment process and the requirement to collect license plates weeks later at a completely unsuitable location along a main road with limited parking.

A second illustration — and I limit myself here, as examples are abundant — is the organization of Carnival 2026. At first glance, it appeared to be a significant improvement compared to previous years. Until the final evening, when the closing event — the burning of Rei Momo — failed completely. The idea had been conceived to carry this out in the harbor, but apparently without considering that fire and a harbor do not mix well. The event was canceled and was only carried out the following day, after public dissatisfaction, in an improvised manner at a different location.

A third example: our spatial planning is entirely disorganized. What bothers me most is the absence of road markings on paved roads. And we seem to accept this as well.

Organizational capacity is, of course, closely linked to our capacity for thinking. Former Prime Minister Rhuggenaath, while in office, spoke on Dutch television about “thinking capacity.” I have consistently added that we do not make proper use of our limited capacity for thinking and that, on a large scale, we consciously choose not to engage it.

These capacities — and possibly others — have declined at an accelerated pace since 2010, when Curaçao acquired the status of an autonomous country within the Kingdom. Many factors play a role, but an important one is the declining quality of education. To make matters worse, it now appears that progression to secondary education is being further stripped of objective testing and increasingly based on subjective assessments, at least as I understand it.

One factor that certainly contributes is the addictive smartphone and the equally addictive apps that run on it. This has now also been established in court. Taken together, all of this has led to a profound erosion of critical thinking — something that is not replaced by AI.

Miguel Goede