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Series: Dominee of Koopman

Series: Dominee of Koopman

Posted on May 1, 2023April 28, 2023

It’s been a while, but today I’m sharing a series with you again. ‘Dominee of Koopman’, a Dutch series. In English it would say ‘Reverend or merchant’. It’s a series which dives a little deeper in the world of Dutch development aid. Something I’m very much interested in, because I feel like countries which are rich have a duty to help countries which are not that resourceful and are struggling with issues that can easily be solved. Hunger and a lack of access to clean water for example. And so, I’m recommending the series Dominee of Koopman to you. Let’s learn more about development aid.

Dominee of Koopman

Now that I’m writing this, the series Dominee of Koopman is already three years old: it aired in 2020 on Dutch television. Dominee of Koopman consists of 6 episodes. In the series, a Dutch person called Patrick Lodiers dives deeper in the matter of Dutch development aid. The past 70 years the Netherlands has been sending development aid to all sorts of countries in the African continent. Lodiers travels to some of these countries to find out whether development aid actually works. Has it helpen? And has it reached the right people? In each episode Lodiers visits another country and I’ll tell you about the biggest lessons I learned.

Episode 1 – Senegal

For me this first episode is spot on. It makes the thing that I think is most important about these series apparent. It shows how we in western countries are destroying African economies with our capitalistic system. And then, as a blister for the bleeding, send development aid to solve all the problems we created ourselves. And the most messed up thing about it is that we praise ourselves for sending that development aid. This first episodes shows this phenomenon very clearly with the example of fisheries. First, western countries fish the oceans near Senegal completely empty. Leaving people there to starve, as that fish is their food and income. Then, these people in Senegal flee to western countries because they are starving. And in return, we get mad at them for doing so, and built walls around Europe to prevent these people from coming here. It’s so messed up.

Episode 2 – Ghana

This episode tells us more about the cacao industry in Ghana. Cacao is the biggest export product in Ghana, but western countries refuse to pay a fair price for that cacao. It’s an industry that pays people the bare minimum, just to stay barely alive. All that while western companies which import the cacao make huge profits from the end product: chocolate. And again: we mess up their biggest industry first and then, because a lot of people in Ghana are poor, we send development aid. Another patch for the bleeding, while we do not fix the core problem. And that development does not even reach the right people either. We should pay people a fair price for their products.

Episode 3 – Uganda

Episode 3 is not so much about a product; it’s about culture. It tells the history of development aid. Britain colonized Uganda and along with that, it spread Christianity in Uganda. Luckily, decades later Uganda gained independence. However, Christianity, and its morals, stayed. But then, halfway the 80’s , there was a big wave of AIDS in Uganda. And since the morals from politicians in the country are still very conservative, the fight against AIDS is difficult. Sex education and contraceptives are taboo. Queer people are discriminated against and their lives are not safe. That’s just one of the horrible things that colonization has left behind in Uganda. And development aid alone is not fixing that problem.

Episode 4 – Kenya

To me, episode 4 shows the phenomenon of white saviorism. The phenomenon of white people wanting to feel good. And so, they go to a country in Africa and volunteer there. They built schools, toilet buildings or hand out electronics. They don’t consider the local people but fix what they think the problem is. Instead of sending money to Kenya, directly to local people and not through charities (which is very well possible), they spend money on a flight to for example Kenya to go volunteering. That money they spend on tickets and housing, they could give to the local people. But no, that type of good-doing is not so visible. And so, they want to feed their ego and be visible, and so they go to that country theirselves. But of course there are good examples too. This episode shows the charity GiveDirectly; a charity that transfers donations directly to local people. It’s one of the charities I personally support.

Episode 5 – Ethiopia

One part of the development aid that The Netherlands is giving to Ethiopia is through agricultural companies. Dutch farmers get a huge amount of money to start an agricultural company in Ethiopia. And the stupidity of that model is just mind-blowing. The Netherlands is totally destroying the world with our agricultural system that is based on animal agriculture. It destroys nature and creates hunger. With this aid, we’re doing the same in Ethiopia and setting them up for disaster. It also shows that foreign people starting a business in Ethiopia, totally displaces local people because they don’t have official ownership of the land. The government sells the land that was used by local people to foreign companies. People from the western world think they have all the solutions, but they only make matters worse.

Episode 6 – Rwanda

Episode 6 is about an African country that wants to get rid of the development aid it has received for a long time: Rwanda. Rwanda is a country that is wants to be independent, which makes a lot of sense. Rwanda want to do what is good for Rwanda, regardless of what western countries want. It’s a very hopeful episode if you’d ask me!

Not everything

I’ve said a lot about the 6 episode in the series Dominee of Koopman. However, this is not the whole story. There is so much more to learn in each episode. I’ve just summed up my own lessons. Therefore, I would really recommend you to watch the series yourself. This is a part of development aid that you rarely hear about, but it’s very helpful to see things for what they really are.

Hypocrite

The biggest lesson that I learned from the series Dominee of Koopman is that we in the western world are very hypocrite. We think of ourselves as very good people because we are rich and send development aid. However, we are the ones that colonized African countries in the first place, which made their starting position terrible. And we’re still destroying their economies and making it very hard for African countries to recover from us. It’s mind-blowing that we think of ourselves as noble.

Yours sincerely,
Romee

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ABOUT ME

 

when a teen goes green

Hi! My name is Romee Hoeksma and I am on a journey to an eco-positive life. An eco-positive lifestyle is a lifestyle in which I have a more positive than negative impact on the beautiful planet earth. On this blog you can follow my journey to a life with only positive impact. At this blog you can find all sorts of things, from tips to recipes to personal experiences, but most of all fun (I hope!). I write about how I want to change the world, but don’t look at it as if I’m judging you. If anything, I like responses from my dear readers the most, so don’t hesitate to contact me or respond to any of my posts!

Yours sincerely,
Romee

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Dit is hoe ik met de trein van Krásná Lípa (🇨🇿) naar Bratislava (🇸🇰) reisde. Dit was reisdag 3/6 van onze duurzame interrail reis. Ik ben vandaag 25 jaar geworden 🥳. Ik hoop heel hard dat dat betekent dat ik ongeveer op een kwart van mijn leven ben. En wat een verjaardag is dit! Ik mag het vieren in Kopenhagen met mijn favoriete persoon @casperchristiaanse , terwijl ik met de trein door Europa reis 🚃. Ik ben een gelukkig mens. Op naar de 50! Dit is hoe ik van Dresden (🇩🇪) naar Krásná Lípa (🇨🇿) reisde. Niet een bijster lange, maar wel een prachtige treinreis, omdat je door het nationaal park Boheems Zwitserland gaat. Dit was de tweede reisdag van onze interrail (2/6). We zijn op de helft van de interrail. Terwijl ik dit typ zijn we onderweg naar Warschau (8,5 uur vanaf Bratislava). Nog twee bestemmingen te ontdekken, maar wat hebben we nu al veel genoten. Elke dag goed en lang slapen, nieuw vegan eten proberen, bijzonder lang wandelen, spelletjes spelen, weinig schermtijd, genieten van de mooie uitzichten en zon: deze reis is genieten 💜. Dit is hoe ik met de trein van Amsterdam naar Dresden reisde 🚃. De interrail is officieel begonnen! (1/6) Vandaag verschijnt er geen artikel op mijn blog. En de komende twee weken hierna ook niet. Dat is voor het eerst, in de 7 jaar dat ik schrijf. Een heel leuk onderdeel van duurzaam leven is tweedehands kleding. Hier zijn 4 tweedehands outfits die ik droeg in augustus 2023 🌞. Je zag het al in de reel van vorige week: ik ben op vakantie geweest naar Gent, in België. Het was een ontzettende aanrader, en daarom verscheen er vandaag een artikel op mijn blog over de leukste en duurzaamste hotspots in Gent 🌆. Check it out via de link in mijn bio Gent, wat was je prachtig 🌆. Dit is absolute een duurzame vakantietip (oh, maar wees niet zo naïef als ik en ga lekker met de trein 🚃). Binnenkort is op Youtube de gehele vakantievlog te bekijken.

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