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| View from the Roosevelthouse in Willemstad |
REMARKS
BY CONSUL GENERAL MARGARET D. HAWTHORNE
FOR THE
241ST ANNIVERSARY OF THE INDEPENDENCE OF
THE
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
THE
ROOSEVELT HOUSE, CURAÇAO
JULY 3,
2017
Bon
nochi, y un caloroso bon bini na Roosevelt House. Happy Fourth of July!
Her
Excellency Zita Jesus-Leito, Minister of Traffic, Transportation and Urban
Planning
General
Peter de Vin, Commander of the Netherlands Forces Caribbean
His
Excellency William Millerson, President of Parliament
Honorable
Ministers, Members of Parliament and dignitaries from Curacao, Aruba, and Sint
Maarten
Commander
of the U.S. Forward Operating Location, Lt. Col. James Wells and colleagues
from the FOL
Fellow
members of the Consular Corps
Distinguished
guests, ladies and gentlemen:
Thank
you very much for honoring us with your presence this evening to celebrate the
241st anniversary of the Independence of the United States of America. Thanks to those who travelled from the other
islands to be here. And thank you to our
many sponsors for their generous support again this year to make this evening
possible. You will see our sponsors’
names listed on the Donor Wall in the foyer.
Thank you also to Ghislaine van de Laarschot, who just graduated from the
Berkeley School of Music, for that beautiful rendition of our national anthems,
and to “The Other Level” for entertaining us tonight.
In
the spirit of new beginnings of which the 4th of July is emblematic, I want to
congratulate Curaçao on its recent elections.
We look forward to working with the new government for years to
come. We know that Aruba will also be
holding elections in a few months and we wish them all the best. I also want to thank our colleagues in the
DBB offices in all the countries who have been invaluable in helping us over
the years on numerous matters, and I also want to thank my colleagues in the
Consular Corps whose friendships have helped make my time here so
rewarding.
Our
theme for tonight’s celebration is partnership.
Definitions of the word partnership include “A partnership is an
arrangement where parties, known as partners, agree to cooperate to advance
their mutual interests.” Some of the words
identified as synonyms with partnership include: friendship, cooperation,
interest, community, sharing, and party.
These are the words and the concepts that I think of when I think of the
relationship between the United States and the countries and islands of the
Dutch Caribbean. We are natural partners
in so many areas, and that’s something we want to celebrate tonight.
 |
| Consul General of the USA, Mrs. Margaret D. Hawthorne |
Friendship: The friendship between our countries dates
back even longer than the independence of the United States. Statia was the first to officially recognize
the fledgling United States in November, 1776 with its First Salute and the
islands of the Netherlands Antilles were critical in helping supply the
American colonies during our war of independence; the U.S. established its
first Consulate in Curaçao in 1793 and we’ve been here ever since. .
Cooperation: The U.S. and the Dutch Caribbean cooperate on
numerous issues and in numerous ways.
During World War II, the fuel that the refineries in Aruba and Curaçao
supplied was critical to the allied forces fighting in Europe; conversely, the
protection the U.S. helped provide to Aruba and Curaçao safeguarded your
refineries, tankers, territory and people; today we cooperate to stop the drug
traffickers and transnational criminal networks from ravaging our societies,
and I’d like to take a moment to welcome our new Commander of the Forward
Operating Location, Lt. Col. James Wells, and his team. We are also working together to increase law
enforcement cooperation and information sharing under the Memorandum of
Understanding signed last year and are developing a partnership program between
the VKC and the U.S. National Guard. Our
Customs and Border Protection pre-clearance unit in Aruba helps to facilitate
travel and tourism between Aruba and the U.S. and increases security for both
our countries. CBP recently announced
that it would be working with the government of Sint Maarten to put a
preclearance facility there as well. A
few weeks ago, staff from the Consulate joined with Sea Turtle Conservation to
help clean up the beaches after the oil spill.
I was very sorry not to be here for that and I am so proud of all of them
who participated and helped out. U.S.
partners are also working with Curaçao on renewable energy, the film institute,
tourism, and financial transactions.
Interest: The U.S. and the Dutch Caribbean share
fundamental common interests: increasing
business relationships and investment, promoting entrepreneurship, empowering
women, developing sustainable energy and environmental programs, and securing
education and economic opportunities for our young people. Thanks to a grant from the U.S. State
Department, the Consulate will provide mosquito nets to the newborn ward at St.
Elizabeth’s hospital to help protect against Zika and other mosquito-borne
diseases, and we will bring a team from the Centers for Disease Control to
Aruba, Curaçao, and Sint Maarten this fall to work with government experts and
local health providers to raise awareness and share information on best practices
against Zika. Tourism is critically
important to all of our economies. I was
delighted to see that tourism from the U.S. to Aruba and Curaçao increased
substantially in May, and cruise ship tourism to Sint Maarten just continues to
grow every year. As a fan of the TV game
show Jeopardy, I’m always excited when I see the beautiful commercial for
Curaçao during the broadcast, and the Times Square advertisement in New York
was brilliantly done.
Community: As
people get to know others from different countries and different cultures, they
develop ties in common and relationships that are invaluable to promoting peace
and prosperity. We continue to encourage
the young people of the Dutch Caribbean to do some of their education in the
United States, whether it’s undergraduate, graduate, or specialized education,
and we are continuing to look for ways to make those studies even more
affordable and beneficial. At the same time,
universities in the U.S. continue to bring students to the Dutch Caribbean for
a variety of programs and projects, on everything from coral reef preservation
to technological innovation and renewable energy. Our people-to-people exchanges promote mutual
understanding, new ideas, and strong and enduring friendships and
networks. The Young Leaders of the
Americas Initiative brought four young entrepreneurs from the Dutch Caribbean
to the U.S. last year to build linkages among young leaders across the
hemisphere, and two of them traveled to Peru to meet with President Obama. We are very pleased to share that some of the
young entrepreneurs who applied will be selected to join this outstanding
program this year. Our International
Visitor Leadership Program continues to provide opportunities for rising young
leaders to gain knowledge and build partnerships on specific areas of
study. This year, our IVLP fellows
focused on environmental protection, particularly related to ocean and coral
reef management, and on entrepreneurship.
I’m delighted that an IVLP alumnus is now the Governor of Aruba. And of course, let us not forget sports,
especially baseball and football, well, soccer for us, which brings our countries
and people together. All of my staff and
many of you know how I went a little crazy last fall when the Chicago Cubs
finally won the World Series after a 108-year dry spell. Wow, was it good to get that billy goat off
our back and end his curse forever! Although
the Cubs didn’t have a Curacaoan player on their roster, we all know how well
represented Curaçao is in the major leagues and elsewhere in the world. And now Curaçao will be playing in its first
ever Concacaf Gold Cup next month in the U.S. after winning the Caribbean
Cup. Congratulations and best of luck to
the team!
Sharing: None of the areas of partnership and
cooperation I’ve mentioned would be possible if our countries and our people
didn’t share similar values. We work
together to promote human rights and equality for all our people; to combat
trafficking in persons; to encourage good governance; and to take
responsibility to safeguard our people and the future for our children. One area the Consulate has focused on this
past year is women’s empowerment and entrepreneurship, and we hosted a terrific
event earlier this year that highlighted some of the challenges women still
face, in government, in business, in law enforcement, and in schools. Curaçao has always been a leader in having
strong women in all spheres but there is still more we can do, and I look
forward to working with all of you to continue this effort.
Party: This
can mean political parties and partnerships, or parties to an agreement or a
business deal, but tonight I want to emphasize the type of party that we are
all at right now. It is a way to bring together
all of the people that make this partnership and all these efforts I’ve
mentioned work. So, first, thank you all
for coming tonight and joining in our partnership. Second, please join me in thanking our sponsors
who made tonight possible, our wonderful caterer Divino Catering, and Hairodinie
who will launch the traditional fireworks tonight at 9 pm. And finally, I want to thank our incredible staff
at the Consulate and here in the Roosevelt House, without whom there would have
been no party tonight, and who make our partnerships so much better. I do want to single out one member of our
staff, however. Humphrey, who not only
drives me around town and helps keep me safe, but is also a hero. Truly.
A few weeks ago, he was on his way home when he saw a young woman walking
barefoot along the Queen Juliana bridge.
Most people probably would have simply wondered what she was doing but
continued on their way. But not
Humphrey. Humphrey stopped and asked her
if she was ok. She was distraught and it
was clear to Humphrey that she was planning to take her life by jumping off the
bridge. Humphrey was able to calm her
and to notify the authorities and together they were able to stop her from
jumping. So, yes, we do have a true hero
from Curaçao here in the Consulate and I am so proud of him, and of the entire
team here. I am very lucky to be the
U.S. Consul General in Curaçao and Chief of Mission to the Dutch
Caribbean.
Danki pa boso presencia
awenochi. Thank you again for joining us
this evening to celebrate the 241st anniversary of the independence
of the United States of America.
TOAST
“Please join me in
raising our glasses to the strong friendship between our countries as we
celebrate the 241st anniversary of U.S. independence. Salud!”