All right, this blog needs to have an introduction before I can dive into it. (If you know about the history of Suriname, skip this part)

---start Surinamese history---

I used to be very mis-educated about the Independence of Suriname. In my head it played off, more or less, like the USA acquired their independence. Not through a series of wars, but I used to think that we boldly stated that we deserve to be independent and thus were granted our independence.

Nothing is less true. I was first shook up by a comic in the paper of the day that Suriname got independent. It was a picture of a mass of people heading in to an airplane. Apparently about half the people in Suriname left around the day that Suriname was declared independent. Politically, the group that was for independence was sweet-talked and supported by our former Colonizer, the Netherlands, into actually getting Suriname independent. Supporters of the opposite party with the opposite opinion left Suriname en masse.

---end Surinamese history---

Basically we weren’t economically viable anymore, due to the plantation era being over and thus were dropped as a colony as we were costing money and not making money. That is the bottom-line.

You can imagine my shock, having believed what I wrote in the history part for around 20 years.

The aftermath was brain-drain, a military coup, dictatorship, dictatorship taken to the max by killing of all criticizing voices and even more departure to the Netherlands by Surinamese folk.

It was during this era in which my parents were finishing up their studies in the city of Groningen, the Netherlands. On the day of the declaration of Independence, they drove from Groningen to the Hague (something like a 3 hour drive) to change their nationality from Dutch to Surinamese. They then left the Netherlands, came to Suriname, had me and my sister, built up their individual careers and never looked back.

If you had told this story to anybody Suriname, 90% would have declared my parents crazy and had told you that they needed to be locked up in some psychiatric ward.

Remember that in order to achieve anything, you need to sacrifice something. Keep that in mind while you read this next paragraph, we’ll come back to it.

Pictures say more than a thousand words, so I would like to start with these 3 photographs.

These represent the growth of the Lobi Foundation of which my Dad has been the Director for 25+ years. I am very proud of all he has achieved and it is the best representation of the career my Dad has built up in these 25 years. Starting out as a small foundation with debts all over the place, it has grown to a big and one of the most recognizable foundations in Suriname. Good Job, doesn’t even cut it. Yesterday, the foundation received another award for most outstanding contribution to the reduction of the regional condom gap. (which is the last of around 10 awards in these 25 years) This also states their position in the Caribbean. Needless to say, I am very proud of my Dad’s achievements.

Since I have arrived here, I had to visit multiple governmental offices to get a LOT of paperwork done. My mom is an English teacher with a career of 25+ years as well. And EVERYWHERE we went, I heard the same thing: Hi teach! Hi teach! Yes, I work here. Hi teach! My mom has taught so many people in 25 years, she had even taught my physics teacher back when I was in VWO. (pre-University) And the thing that boggles my mind is that he on his own was one of the most inspirational teachers I had myself. It is insane to see how much my mom has contributed to the working force that is Suriname nowadays.

So my parents came back as idealistic students bent on being a building block in the rebuilding of Suriname as an independent, democratic country. Experiencing their fruits, I as their son, am very, very proud. I hope I can use their example in the career of my choice.

So their decision to change nationality to Surinamese has made my life quite difficult as I chose to live with my girlfriend in the Netherlands. The amount of bureaucracy is insane. But….in order to achieve something, you need to sacrifice something else. If I have to sacrifice this, than I’ll gladly put in the energy.

I hope this story is as inspirational to you as it is to me. In the words of dr. Martin Luther King:

If you are called to be a street sweeper, sweep streets even as Michelangelo painted, or Beethoven composed music, or Shakespeare wrote poetry. Sweep streets so well that all the hosts of heaven and earth will pause to say, 'Here lived a great street sweeper who did his job well.'

Enjoy life, serve the higher purpose, be honorable, shoot high.

Fleppie