The one Venezuolan cruiser
March 12, 2006I’m not sure whether or not to place this in my brand new ‘Black helicopters!’ topic, but it sure does fit in amazingly well.
In any case, as some of you may know, The Netherlands still has a few colonies in the Carribean. Aruba, Boniare, Curacau, Sint Maarten, Saba, and Sint Eustatius are part of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, but have a lot of autonomy (which results in those isles being a mess, we should take some autonomy away there, but oh well). However, the ‘ABC islands’ (the first three) have long been claimed by… Venezuela. Yes, one of the poorest countries in South America has been claiming the ABC islands for centuries. The previous government of Venezuela kind of dropped those claims (they’d be mental to mess with one of the richest countries in the world– a founding-member of NATO for that matter), however, the new president, Hugo Chavez (not really a friend of the US either) has reinstated the claims.
There are actually talks of… War. I’m not kidding.
Henk Kamp, Dutch secretary of defence, has belittled these claims. We Dutch have a complete plan ready to counter any invasion by Venezuela, consisting of bomb raids, counterinvasions, naval war, etc. Kamp also mentioned the ‘one Venezuolan cruiser’, obviously belittleing them even more. We have numerous cruisers in the Carribean fighting drug smugglers and such, and of course the US is right behind us, so we seriously have little to fear.
However doesn’t this sound an awful lot familiar? Did I hear you say Falkland War? Exactly.
Yeah, uh, right. Anyway, I’m not done yet– the best part is coming– the part which makes me place this story in ‘Black helicopters!’ The Venezuolan consul-general said that ‘Henk Kamp is part of a conspiracy of an international minority to discredit the Chavez administration and make it fall’.
I’m still laughing out loud. Consul-general, this is the place for you!
Greece has its shares of such problems in the past too, mostly with Turkey.
There is an easier way to solve such problems and I really don’t understand why governments don’t put it to work: simply, make a public vote. Do the people living in the islands want to stay under the Dutch or under the Venezouelans, or become fully independant?
I mean, I understand that the Dutch wouldn’t want to put oil in the fire and acknowledge the problem via a public vote (voting is the fair thing to do, but not always the best strategical move). But you know, if a govermnet could bite that bullet and let the inhabitants decide for their own fate, then there wouldn’t any such disputes and potential wars.
You might not like me stating of the Dutch potentially “losing” land, but you know, the decision should be at the hands of the island inhabitants, and no one else’s. And if they vote for complete independance and then Venezouelans occupy them, well, let them deal with it. If the natives vote the Dutch off, then they are on their own. At least that way they won’t drag the two whole countries into war. War must be avoided at all costs.
Comment by Eugenia — March 12, 2006 @ 5:54 pm
You know what? We already held such a vote on the islands! Each island was given various options; such as full independance, autonomy, protectorate, etc. etc. The results are that none of the islands wanted full independance; quite the opposite: 3 (I believe) want to be tied closer to the Kingdom.
These changes will take effect July (or June, not sure) next year.
Cool huh?
Comment by Administrator — March 12, 2006 @ 6:22 pm
Then kick Venezouelan’s asses.
Comment by Eugenia — March 12, 2006 @ 6:49 pm