The Dutch government has been arguing if we should apologise. For the behaviour of our forefathers during the colonial period in the 18th  19th centuries. Recently the Dutch king Willem Alexander did. Many of the statues of the reins in those days have been already removed. We have to compensate “relatives”

They forgot 1. Jan Pieterszoon Coen. A Dutch hero so far. His statue is still standing in a small city in the North-West of Holland called HOORN.

JPC discovered and ruled in the early 17th century the Indonesian Banda Islands. A part of what we now call Indonesia. Rich with spices, especially nutmake. JPC even swopped 1 of the islands with the Brits for New Amsterdam. Now called after a famous Sinatra song: “New York” Or was it the other way  around.

I watch a documentary by the English actrice Joanna Lumley travelling all the spice islands in Asia.

The VOC, the shipping company JPC worked for, hired Japanese samoerai-hangmen who beheaded several village chiefs. The murderers speered their heads on long thin poles. All around 1621. JPC was named The Butcher of Banda.

But is this something to apologise and compensate the locals for? And remove his statue in Hoorn? It was JPC who branded the nutmake world wide. And made some of the Islanders stinking rich.

We can’t be held responsible for what our forefathers did? What about the New Guinean “Koppesnellers” (Head Cutters)? Does the black community have to pay us compensation? And what about the prehistoric Germanen. Oh, that’s us. So we compensate ourselves? Yes, this is all ridiculous.

I think, we should leave history alone. Enjoy the nice parts and forget cruelties from centuries long ago. I was thinking, have I been cruel to anybody? Should I apologise? Pay compensation? No idea. My old memory is terrible. I just donated to my old football club. For not scoring enough goals.

Enjoy the day. Theo R.