Every government has its own way of doing business and so does the Dutch Governent ! It’s most likely known by many of us Indos what’s happening to our omas, opas, parents and ooms and tantes who were born in the DEI, Japanese occupation, the Bersiap, how they were welcomed by the Dutch etc…But did you know that about 82,000 former military people and civilians employed by the Dutch Governent never got paid during the Japanese occupation between 1942-1945…

For decades it’s been a cat and mouse game to claim those funds what belongs to those mentioned above and up to today the Dutch Government owes them €5,7 billion which equals €70,500 per victim if I may describe it like this.

The Dutch Governent refuses to be responsible for this and thinks it’s the responsibility of the Republic of Indonesia.

During the negotiations in 1949 between the Dutch Government and the Republic of Indonesia it has never been stated that the Republic of Indonesia would take over all the debts and is only responsible for the debts that play in the advance of the new Republic. And that being said, it gave the Dutch Government the opportunity to claim that all the debts were not their responsibility and that’s deceit in the first degree…

Until now only 577 of those still alive or their offspring received only €25,000 instead of what they really derserved…

For 350 years the Dutch Government used the fruits of the archipelago and the sweat of its people… 

And FYI before you eat your “brood met muisjes” the Dutch Government is the only country in the world that still hasn’t paid back the overdue debts/salaries from this period of war in the Dutch East Indies…

Isn’t it about time to call ourselves Indos and leave the Dutch out of it, PERIOD ? 

My close friends Griselda Molemans and Anneke van de Casteele deserve all the credit for their hard work at Task Force Indisch Rechtsherstel because without their help those 577 wouldn’t have gotten that little amount of €25,000, little in comparison to €70,500…

It’s another Friday evening in SoCal and I’m about to pick up Victor Van der Geugten and Gerry Lapré, three of us live in the San Fernando Valley about 15 minutes driving East on the 210 towards should I say Indo capital of the US, Pasadena.  Just like Den Haag is the Capital of us Indos in the Netherlands we can all agree that most of our omas, opas, tantes, ooms, mamas and papas have lived there, grew up there, joined kumpulans out there and yes also moved out from there to another region in SoCal or out of state. 

The three of us are on our way to Dutch Club Avio in Anaheim, should we request to change the name into Dutch-Indo Club Avio since there’s both Dutch and Indos hanging out there for decades.  The majority of visitors are our first generation Indos, our omas and opas and moms and dads but what about the generation of Vic, Gerry and myself ? WHY is it that especially this gereration isn’t too much interested to get together once a month or every other month,  just like our opas and omas and moms and pops did and yes, still do ?

Today, Friday 17 November 2017 Jason Schmidt Weymans and our SoCal Indo Band are performing at the Avio and we’re celebrating Francesca Meijer’s birthday so a reason more to have a good handful of younger Indos attending !

It was good to see all of the ooms en tantes but also many of us younger Indos, enjoyed our meal, biefstuk met friet, sla en grown ten and gebakken vis met friet en sla, real Dutch, only thing that was missing was an ice cold glass of Hero Cassis !

Next event has been scheduled for most likely the 3rd Saturday of March 2018, our first SoCal Indo Pasar Malam at Avio, we’ll keep you posted !