I remember in 2003 or so I was still living in St. Maarten. I was visiting in the Netherlands and I noticed that they had placed a huge heap of sand in the center of a certain roundabout. It irritated me because it was stupid: it blocked the view of oncoming traffic and I was wondering who had been that stupid to put it there.

The sand stayed there throughout the two months that I was in the Netherlands; annoying me all the time. When I came back to the Netherlands a year later it was still there. A year after that it was also still there. Then, a year after that, when I visited again, the heap of sand had changed into a leg for a viaduct.

All this time that the sand was annoying me, they had been planning to build a new fly-over over the roundabout. The heap had been there, settling to become a leg.

I went oowhh fucckkkk.  These people plan ahead!!! I was impressed

Now

In 1975, Suriname, my country of birth, became independent from the Netherlands.

They received a few billion in guilders in development aid from the Netherlands.

And they thought they were Solomon typa rich!

Then, a little over 25 years later, the Netherlands ditched the guilder for the euro. Whatever you owned in guilders was effectively half of its original value. I refuse to belief that people/systems that can think 30 years ahead, did not factor in that this would also happen to the development aid. All those billions have meanwhile evaporated

I REFUSE TO BELIEVE THEY DID NOT SEE THAT COMING!

But the wicked thing is.

The Netherlands pulled this trick again, and again, and again.

And we let them

Our pride that tells us we need independence and autonomy, lets them

I tell you, pride is stupid

Sometimes.