Lasting blue wave social cohesion
Curaçao participated for the first time in a FIFA world cup, and this has brought a lot of togetherness and social cohesion. People of different levels in the community gathered to watch the games or flew together to the different stadiums to watch the games. Afterwards everyone is commenting that this togetherness and blue wave hype should continue beyond the FIFA world cup.
Most people would agree with this statement, meaning that if implemented and sustained the right way across every sector and in every single neighborhood of the community, this will make the country move forward in a positive way. However, if it’s only in the outside world and social media it will fail. The vulnerable groups in the community must see improvement in their lives for the blue wave to be sustainable.
Likely, the tourism sector will grow. As we get more visits, people working in the tourism industry such as taxi drivers, small and large bus drivers, people working in hotels and restaurants, must see their wages be at a level to support the costs of living. Lessons learned from other small island nations that have tourism as their primary economic sector report that when the cost-of-living rises, and the wages of local workers do not keep up, it creates a tiered society. This can influence the work environment, weaken social cohesion and create anxiety towards the tourists visiting the island.
Another point to consider is that of food production and food availability. Since the island doesn’t produce a big portion of the food we consume locally, and with an increase in tourism, this will mean that more food will need to be imported, which will mean higher prices. The high prices will not only affect the prices in the tourism sector but will also increase the living expenses for the local population. As mentioned in previous articles, since the median wage on the island is low and wages are not increasing to cope with the increase in price of food and other living expenses, this will lead to growth of the most vulnerable in the community.
Unless there is a strong short-, medium- and long-term plan to address the consequences of the single sector tourism economy, all the positive effects gained with the blue wave madness will be diluted. It’s important for all those involved to not only look at the hype but create and implement plans that will move this wave of positivism to every single layer in the community by improving every single inhabitant’s life, well-being and uniting rather than dividing us.
