The murder was on Marie Pompoen beach, near Wiels’ home, by a group of three people who fled after their crime. Police do not know yet who these perpetrators were, and why they did it.
The area of Rif-Sint Marie is relatively undisturbed and undeveloped and comprises a salt marsh surrounded by mud flats, shrub land, and forests. The marsh is a strategic feeding habitat for flamingos and several waterbirds. The coral reef of Rif-Sint Marie is well developed and shelters several threatened coral species such as elkhorn coral (Acropora palmata) and staghorn coral (Acropora cervicornis), as well as endangered turtle species as leatherback turtle (Dermochelys coriacea; NL: lederschildpad) and hawksbill sea turtle (Eretmochelys imbricata, NL: karetschildpad) and threatened fishes like Goliath grouper (Epinephelus itajara, NL: itajara*).
Dense thickets of elkhorn coral sustain major ecological processes such as gross community calcification and nitrogen fixation; dense populations of this branching species dissipate wave energy and thus protect the coast. The area is currently used for recreational purposes like hiking, biking and guided eco-tours. The major threats to the site are uncontrolled access of visitors with dogs disturbing flamingos and potentially unwise development of touristic infrastructures in the surrounding area.
It was on January 15th 2013, during a bat research session in one of the important bat caves on the eastern part of the island of Curaçao, that local bat researchers of ABC-islands’ Bat Protection Program or PPR-ABC (PAP: Programa pa Protehé Ratonnan di Anochi di islanan ABC) captured and released two individuals of the Curaçaoan Long-nosed bat (Leptonycteris curasoae), which were previously tagged on Bonaire.
Curaçaoan long-nosed bat (picture: Jafet M. Nassar)
This finding signifies a major breakthrough in understanding the population dynamics of this key species in northern South America, and especially in the case of the ABC-islands. After more than 4 years of continuous work on Bonaire and 1 year of work on Curaçao and Aruba, we got the first two animals that show a behavior that could be common for the species in this set of islands: they can switch islands for food by flying across the sea. The Curaçaoan long-nosed bats are together with the Miller’s long-tongued bats (Glossophaga longirostris), the main pollinators of all columnar cacti on the islands, which in turn are a major food source for the local terrestrial fauna. Later that week another tagged bat from Bonaire was caught in the most western major cave of the island (Kueba Bosa 3). Could these mammalian pollinators be travelling to Aruba too?!
Curaçao harbors a total of 9 species (including the two previously mentioned pollinator species) of bats that feed on nectar, insects, fruits and even fish.
The current bat research activities conducted on Curaçao, Aruba, Bonaire and northern Venezuela are part of a long-term Bat Research and Conservation Plan designed and conducted under the coordination of four institutions: Arikok National Park Foundation in Aruba, Carmabi Foundation in Curaçao, Stinapa Bonaire in Bonaire, and Insituto Venezolano de Investigaciones Científicas (IVIC) in Venezuela. A specific component of this plan is to acquire more knowledge on the population dynamics of the Curaçaoan long-nosed bat. Previous research conducted by Carmabi and international bat researcher Sophie Petit on the major bat caves of Curaçao in the previous decades showed heavy seasonal fluctuations in population sizes of mainly the Long-nosed bat. Sometimes normally densely populated caves were found totally empty. Until last Tuesday, it was only hypothesized that these bats might travel between the ABC-islands and the possibly the Paraguaná peninsula (northwestern Venezuela). The capture of the Bonairean bats confirmed that, at least, there is connection between the populations of this species inhabiting Bonaire and Curaçao.
The Curaçao team together with bat specialists (picture: Jafet M. Nassar)
The bats have been tagged by ringing them on their forearm with coded aluminum rings. The code constitutes the initials of the bat specialist supervising the project, Jafet M. Nassar, the initial letter of the island where the bat was marked, followed by a unique number that reflects the number of bats ringed on each island. Lepto JNB 0577 was ringed 2.5 years ago and Lepto JNB 2046 was ringed in November 2011 on Bonaire. Although this finding constitutes a major breakthrough for the study of bats on the ABC islands, many critical questions about the bat species inhabiting the islands still remain unanswered and continued research on all three islands and Venezuela is necessary to understand and protect these very important and threatened mammals in this part of the Caribbean
For more information and nice pictures visit PPR-ABC Curacao-team Facebook page: Bat Conservation Curacao.
Leiden University researchers have discovered by chance a note from 1783 in Papiamento. They are working on a linguistic study on confiscated Dutch letters. This study, ‘Letters as loot’, is a project of professor Marijke van der Wal’s.
Anna Elisabeth Schermer-Charje wrote a note in Papiamento, signed it from [sic; for] her son, Jantje, and sent it to her husband, Dirk Schermer, who was in Rotterdam at the time. Mi papa bieda die mi Courasson ‘My daddy, my heart’s life,’ bieni prees toe seeka bo joego doesje ‘come quickly to your sweet little child’: thus starts the note that Dirk Schermer never received.
The value of the Papiamento note was confirmed by Creol expert Bart Jacobs at the University of Konstanz. He was unable to hide his enthusiasm when he laid eyes on the note that was sent from Curaçao to Rotterdam in 1783. The Papiamento of today’s ABC islands; Aruba, Bonaire and Curaçao, had always been a spoken means of communication. The two oldest written texts date from the late eighteenth century. This third text has now been added to them. The Leiden researchers found the remarkable document in the London National Archives, enclosed in a Dutch letter sent from Curaçao.
Professor Marijke van der Wal has been working on the project ‘Letters as loot’ since 2008 with her team. The project’s goal is to study the use of language in seventeenth and eighteenth century private letters that were seized by the British in times of war. The study gives new insight into the Dutch of people from different social ranks and positions, so also that of normal men and women from those times. Sometimes there are unexpected ‘extra catches’ such as this foreign language text. This Papiamento heritage document, supplied with explanatory notes, can now be read by everyone.
An extensive fuel spill has damaged a stretch of shoreline and endangered wildlife in a nature preserve on the tiny Dutch Caribbean island of Curacao.
The leader of a local environmental group warned today that the spill of crude oil at Curacao’s Jan Kok preserve was from at least one storage tank owned by the Isla oil refinery, the largest business and employer on the island.
John is 57-years-old. As a small child, he was abused by several friars at a boarding school in Curaçao. For the first time, he speaks publicly about the abuse he endured for years on end.
Ralph Raveneau (61) walks to his bookcase. He takes a dictionary, looks up ‘sadism’ and reads the definition. When he is finished, he looks again. “He terrorized us. Abused us. Humiliated us. Spit at us. I think he liked to do that. “
It’s about “Brother P “, a teacher at St. Paul’s College in Groot Kwartier, Curacao. “Brother P. was very well known. If today in Groot Kwartier you mention that name to a man in his sixties, then that man will either begin to cry or he will beat you up. Nobody wants to hear that name anymore.”
Fear of reprisals
“There were some good teachers as well,” Raveneau says in his family house in the north of North Holland. In the living room some things remind one of the maritime world. Later he became an offshore engineer. Like many Antilles people who emigrated, he did not want to be far from his beloved sea.
But fear colors his memories. Brother P. had “systems,” says Raveneau. “He put a blind map of the Netherlands on the school blackboard. You, come here. Point out Groningen, he said. If you then accidentally pointed out Hoogezand, he would beat the hell out of you. And he would grin while doing that. There were forty witnesses. “
Also, he remembers a boy who had been beaten by Brother P. and who then had to wash his face under the fountain. “But when he did that, P. beat him up from behind. His entire eyebrow was destroyed. What should a boy like that say when he comes home? We were afraid of reprisals.”
She was brought up to trust the Roman Catholic priests, but became the victim of sexual abuse by two Dutch priests in Curaçao – one of the former Netherlands Antilles – as a child: here.
Vatican canonizes Australia’s first saint: Nun who exposed sexual abuse by a priest: here.
WILLEMSTAD – The contract with the United States military ‘location’ on Curaçao which finishes in 2010, should not be prolonged. This Saturday, Curaçao politician Helmin Wiels of the opposition party Pueblo Soberano said that.
‘In this way, we will prevent that Curaçao will be dragged along into a future war between Venezuela and the USA.’ Wiels is convinced that the recently rising tensions between Colombia and Venezuela, will finally lead to a war between the USA and President Hugo Chávez‘ country.
The USA have several military bases in Colombia and recently, contracts have been concluded for more bases there. According to Wiels, the USA are aiming consciously at a war against Venezuela. He thinks that this may have ‘disastrous’ consequences for Curaçao. ‘As long as we will allow the USA to have a military base of their own on Curaçao, we will be seen as traitors in Venezuelan eyes. We are a small country, and it is better for us to have good relationships with all sides.’
The US American Forward Operation Location (FOL) is on Curaçao ever since 2000. From there, the USA flies over South America as part of the “war on drugs“. The ten-year contract for the locations on Curaçao and Aruba will finish next year. If one of the two parties will not object, it will be prolonged automatically. Wiels calls on the government of the Netherlands Antilles to be active and to close down the FOL.
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has rejected a White House offer at the weekend to “mediate” in the dispute over US military bases in Colombia: here.
Venezuela has no interest in direct talks with Colombia to end a months-long crisis, but would back an effort by other south American nations to broker a solution, a top government official has said: here.
When 14 Colombian trade union members were in the United States for a training program, they were unable to forget just how dangerous it is to support unions in their home country. During the two months they were here, four of their colleagues were assassinated: here.
Britain, Unite conference: Colombian human rights activist Martin Sandoval stunned delegates at Unite’s industrial conferences into silence as he recounted how 31 workers in his country had been killed so far this year – one every 10 days – simply for being a union organiser or a workplace rep: here.
A Colombian court has convicted a retired army general on Wednesday of murder and sentenced him to 40 years in prison for his role in a notorious 1997 massacre by right-wing paramilitaries: here.
Colombian trade unionists take campaign to US – meanwhile 4 more colleagues assassinated: here.
Brussels, 09 December 2009: The ITUC is appalled at the strategy used by the Colombian government to discredit the ITUC Colombian affiliates – CUT, CGT and CTC – and the National Trade Union School by sending incendiary information from a completely unrepresentative trade union to European Union Members of Parliament: here.
Colombia’s opposition parties have moved closer to organising a coalition to confront a possible re-election bid next year by far-right President Alvaro Uribe, here.
RIGHTS-COLOMBIA: Soldiers Accused of Extrajudicial Killings Freed: here.
Colombia has conceded that it has fallen short of its goal for eradicating coca crops this year, blaming the failure on budget problems despite having received billions of dollars in US aid: here.
Seven Colombian soldiers are to stand trial for the 2002 killing of the husband of an indigenous rights activist known for her criticism of President Alvaro Uribe, prosecutors announced on Tuesday: here.
Miami’s El Nuevo Herald and Spain’s Público have run stories in the past two days about a shocking find in La Macarena, about 200 miles south of Bogotá, Colombia: here.
Amnesty has called on Colombia to take “immediate action to protect indigenous peoples” as it released a damning report documenting a surge in violence against tribal communities in the country: here.
US combat plane stationed at the military base in Curaçao violated Venezuelan airspace yesterday: here.
A US Geological Survey geologist has said that Venezuela’s Orinoco Oil Belt accounts for one of the world’s largest known oil deposits holding 513 billion barrels of recoverable heavy crude – nearly twice as much as the proven reserves of Saudi Arabia: here.
Latin American and Caribbean leaders have agreed to create a new regional bloc that excludes the US and Canada: here.
Oliver Stone’s new documentary about Latin America’s leftward political shift and its growing independence from Washington is being lambasted by the media. This shouldn’t come as a surprise as Stone calls out the mainstream media in his new film South of the Border for its mostly one-sided, distorted coverage of the region’s political leaders — most significantly Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez: here .
