Suriname bird stamps

Posted on January 12, 2024 by petrel41

Suriname Bird Stamps

Second wave COVID-19 disaster in Suriname

Posted on June 1, 2020 by petrel41

This 13 May 2020 video says about itself:

What will the coronavirus second wave look like? | COVID-19 Special

As lockdown measures are lifted, many parts of the world are feeling a sense of relief. But experts warn of a second, possibly worse wave of the coronavirus.

There is a precedent for multiple peaks in a pandemic. The second wave of the 1918 Spanish flu was more deadly than the first. With coronavirus, could the worst be yet to come?

Translated from Dutch NOS radio today:

In Suriname, the number of diagnosed coronavirus infections has risen to 23. That was announced last night at a press conference. Last night there were still fifteen.

Ten of the 23 patients have recovered and one died. Five patients are on intensive care.

Correspondent Nina Jurna calls it shocking figures. “Suriname was almost coronavirus-free for a few weeks, but at the press conference it was said that there are probably more cases.” That’s bad news for the country, as it doesn’t have the resources to deal with a major outbreak. “There are only about thirty ventilators and not enough healthcare personnel.”

Suriname borders on Brazil, COVID-19 epicentre because of the pandemic denialist policies of extreme right President Jair Bolsonaro.

New coronavirus outbreak in Suriname

Posted on May 31, 2020 by petrel41

This 17 May 2020 video is called French schools return amid apprehension over coronavirus pandemic.

Translated from Dutch NOS radio today:

In Suriname, code red has been announced because of three new coronavirus infections. Schools that were supposed to reopen for students on Monday remain closed longer and domestic air traffic has been shut down.

The new Covid-19 infections have been reported by the Ministry of Health of Suriname. Correspondent Nina Jurna …: “No new infections were added in recent weeks. However, the virus has now flared up again. In Suriname, all alarm bells are already ringing for a few infections, because the country has only 25 to 30 respirators.”

Porous borders

In total Suriname now has 14 coronavirus patients. One of them died. Of the three new contamination cases, one was reported on Tuesday, May 26, and two on Saturday. According to the ministry, the source of all infections is not yet known.

… The infections may come from neighboring French Guiana. “These are porous borders,” said Jurna.

Suriname borders on COVID-19 epicentre Brazil as well.

16-year-old girl wins adults’ championship, to Olympics?

Posted on February 23, 2020 by petrel41

This 22 February 2020 video shows the finals of the Dutch indoor track and field championship: sixty metres-dash for adult women.

As the video shows, the winner was 16-year-old N’ketia Seedo. Being 16-year-old means that Ms Seedo is in the Junior Girls B category of Dutch track and field. Supposedly, as she grew older, she would first go to the Junior A category, and later still to the adult women category. Yet, she won the adult women’s championship.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by N'ketia Seedo (@nketiaseedo)

This photo shows N’ketia Seedo and the numbers two and three of the women seniors’ final.

N’ketia Seedo’s winning time was 7.24 seconds. The second-fastest time ever anywhere in the world of an under-18-year-old woman. Only Tamari Davis from the USA had ever been faster.

This March 2019 video is about Ms Seedo when she was 15 years old; including her playing saxophone.

Seedo, of African Surinamese ancestry, was born in Utrecht city. Like Dafne Schippers, former 200 metres-dash world champion. Ms Seedo yesterday ran faster than Ms Schippers when she was 16-years-old.

N'ketia Seedo and her club trainer Juul Acton

She now wants to go to the Tokyo Olympics later this year. If she succeeds in that, then she will be youngest ever 100-metres-dash runner at the Olympics. She will try to be in the 4 x 100 metres Dutch women’s relay team, maybe together with Dafne Schippers. Maybe the individual 100 metres four years later, at the next Olympics.

Maybe at the Tokyo Olympics, Ms Seedo will meet Keet Oldenbeuving, one year younger, European skateboard champion, also from Utrecht.

Suriname slavery history, new book

Posted on October 4, 2018 by petrel41

New book on slavery in Suriname

Translated from Leiden University in the Netherlands, 25 September 2018:

Eigendomsstrijd [Ownership struggle]. The history of slavery and emancipation in Suriname

Eigendomsstrijd by the historian Karwan Fatah-Black is a clear and accessible book that offers new insights into the debate about Dutch slavery. It describes the history of slavery and emancipation in Suriname.

In the streets, houses and backyards of Paramaribo the control by the slave owners was difficult to sustain. There a free group began to lay the foundations of a community of their own. While the slave owners were fighting for control over their property, the slaves searched their roads towards freedom in the city and on the waterfront.

On the basis of the lives of these founders, Karwan Fatah-Black describes the period that preceded the definitive abolition of slavery in 1863. The result is a beautiful book that throws new light on Dutch slavery and its legacy.

Suriname 19th century slavery now online

Posted on June 26, 2018 by petrel41

Suriname slave register, NOS photo

Translated from Dutch NOS TV:

Surinamese slave registers now accessible to everyone

Today, 15:22

For those looking for more information about his or her Surinamese ancestors, doing research on Surinamese slavery or preparing lessons on slavery, the search from today will be easier. The Surinamese slave registers are now available online from today on.

The slave registers consist of 43 big books with a total of almost 30,000 pages. They are classified by the names of the slave owners or plantations. The name of the enslaved person is registered, just like the date of birth, the sex and the name of the mother (the father was not registered). Information about sales, contagious diseases, release and other information that was important for the status and monetary value of people in slavery can also be found in the register. Approximately 80,000 people are registered who lived in slavery in Suriname from 1830 to 1863.

“The slave registers are unique, it is the only source with detailed information that gives the possibility to follow all people in slavery over 35 years”, says initiator Coen van Galen.

Coen van Galen of the Radboud University in Nijmegen and Maurits Hassankhan of the Anton de Kom University of Suriname are the initiators of the project ‘Make the Surinamese slave registers public’. Together they have recruited 1500 volunteers who have contributed to digitizing the registers. The volunteers have put the information of all scans in a database within four months. With a crowdfunding campaign and donors, the initiators have raised money for the project.

“The slave registers in the National Archive of Suriname were not easily accessible, for example there was no index, so you could not search easily”, says Hassankhan. That has changed now. “It is now easily accessible to everyone worldwide.”

The fact that the registers are now digitally accessible is important both for the public and for science. “People need to know where they come from and learn more about their ancestors”, says Hassankhan. “This is important for your identity as an individual and as a group.” This source is also important for science. According to Van Galen, it gives scientists the opportunity to understand what slavery was and meant for people. …

The slave registers are from today on online and accessible to everyone via the website of the National Archives in The Hague and the Nationaal Archief Suriname. The symbolic launch date of the slave registers is July 1st during Keti Koti. …

On July 1, the Netherlands, Suriname and the Netherlands Antilles celebrate the abolition of slavery during the Keti Koti Festival. Keti Koti is Surinamese for ‘broken chains’.

6,852 bird species in one year, film review

Posted on March 17, 2018 by petrel41

This Dutch September 2017 video is the trailer of the film Arjan’s Big Year. The film is about Dutch birder Arjan Dwarshuis, who set a new world record by seeing over 6,000 bird species, all over the world, within one year.

This video is from before Arjan went on this journey around the world. His aim then still was a ‘modest’ number of 5500 bird species. So, before he broke the over 6,000 world record in Costa Rica in November 2016. The final count for the year would become 6,852. The video says about itself:

Nerd Nite Amsterdam, Friday 23 November 2015

Arjan Dwarshuis speaks at Nerd Nite Amsterdam about his crazy adventure of trying to spot 5500 bird species in one year.

I went to see the film on 17 March 2018, in a packed cinema.

In the film, Arjan says that in New Year’s night 2016, when his Big Year started, he could not sleep well. In the Netherlands, there are many noisy New Year’s night fireworks, making it difficult for birds and humans to sleep. Arjan felt nervous whether he would reach his ambitious goal for 2016. Then, a robin started singing. A common bird in the Netherlands. But a very special bird when an individual arrives in the Gambia in Africa; or in Beijing in China, attracting hundreds of birdwatchers with cameras and binoculars. Also, a very special bird for Arjan. He noted the robin as the #1 species for his world record birding attempt.

He went to over 40 countries, seeing birds from the big ostrich in Africa to small hummingbirds in South America.

It is a pity that many of the beautiful bird species are shown fleetingly, with just their (English) names mentioned, and nothing told about their lives.

There are exceptions to that, like the maleo of Sulawesi island. These birds make their nests in warm volcanic soil; meaning the parents don’t have to sit on the eggs. In Sulawesi, Arjan saw not only wild maleos, but also birds in a breeding centre. When young maleos are about two weeks old, they are able to fly. So, they then can be freed into the wild. Arjan adopted a young maleo. It sat on his hand; then, it flew away into the Sulawesi forest.

Another species with more attention than others in the movie is the white-necked picathartes in Ghana.

This Dutch language 4 August 2016 video is called The Birding Experience: Suriname. With Arjan Dwarshuis, Humberto Tan, Sean Dilrosun, Michiel van den Bergh and Fred Pansa.

The Suriname part of the film brought back fond memories to me of the great kiskadee and other birds which I had seen in Suriname.

Eg, the Brownsberg nature reserve.

The Costa Rican part also pictured people and birds which I had seen there.

This video from the USA says about itself:

5 January 2017

On his way to setting the World Big Year Birding Record in 2016, Dutch birder Arjan Dwarshuis visits Minnesota’s Sax-Zim Bog.

The movie shows birds which Arjan saw in the USA, but does not mention the Minnesota part of his journey. As one can hardly put forty countries and one year in ninety minutes of film. I have added the Minnesota video because it was the only part of Arjan’s Big Year, not included in the movie, which I could find on YouTube.

At the end of his Big Year, Arjan arrived back at Schiphol airport in the Netherlands. His parents greeted him there. So did his girlfriend, birder Camilla Dreef. They had met during the Dutch TV birdwatching show Fascinated by the condor, and had fallen in love there.

Arjan had worried that after seeing nearly 7000 bird species all over the world, he would have been unable to enjoy the often less spectacular birdwatching in the Netherlands. However, that fear proved to be unfounded. He found out he really enjoyed watching birds together with Camilla at the Kwade Hoek nature reserve. Camilla had especially studied spoonbills; and Arjan loved looking at these beautiful birds together with her.

Surinamese artist Erwin de Vries, RIP

Posted on February 1, 2018 by petrel41

This video from the Netherlands says about itself (translated):

The Surinamese sculptor and painter Erwin de Vries will be eighty years old on 21 December 2009 and will be active in that profession for 60 years. The Kunsthal Rotterdam honors The Grand Old Master from Suriname with a retrospective exhibition. Over one hundred and twenty-five works, including paintings, drawings and sculptures from the nineteen fifties to the present, provide a multifaceted picture of his extensive oeuvre.

Translated from Dutch NOS TV today:

The Surinamese artist Erwin de Vries died last night after a short-term illness in a hospital in his home town of Paramaribo. He leaves behind a large oeuvre, of which the National Slavery Monument in the Oosterpark in Amsterdam is one of the most famous works.

This 2017 video is about a Surinamese Winti religious ceremonial cleansing of Erwin de Vries’ slavery monument in Amsterdam.

The NOS article continues:

He [De Vries] also made many depictions of celebrities, eg in the Netherlands of politician Joop den Uyl, writer Simon Carmiggelt, cabaret artist Toon Hermans and footballer Clarence Seedorf. In Paramaribo there are images of him from, eg, the politicians Arron and Lachmon and the only survivor of the December murders, trade union leader Fred Derby.

De Vries (born in 1929) has been a prolific and successful sculptor and painter since the 1950s. He was influenced for some time by the Cobra movement and had solo exhibitions in, among other places, the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam, the Rotterdam Kunsthal, in Jamaica and in other countries. …

He was born in Paramaribo and came to the Netherlands in 1949 for training as a drawing teacher. Later he went to the Rijksacademie van beeldende kunsten in Amsterdam.

This 16 March 2008 video says about itself:

The making of a sculpture of Barack Obama, by the well-known Surinamese Artist, Erwin de Vries.

Obama was then not yet president of the USA; he was only a presidential candidate fighting for the Democratic party nomination against Hillary Clinton.

New rabbit species discovery in Suriname

Posted on May 17, 2017 by petrel41

This video says about itself:

Trail cam footage by Dave McIntyre from a trip to the Suriname rain forest – South America 2011.

From Portland State University in the USA:

New species of South American rabbit discovered

May 16, 2017

Summary: A rabbit known for centuries to exist in South America is different enough from its cousins to be its own unique species, research has concluded.

A Portland State University researcher discovered that a rabbit known for centuries to exist in South America is different enough from its cousins to be its own unique species.

“At a time when species are going extinct every day, it’s encouraging to know we can add one back on the list of survivors,” said PSU biology professor Luis Ruedas.

His findings will be published May 17 in the Journal of Mammalogy.

Ruedas made his discovery after studying rabbit specimens at the Naturalis museum in Leiden, in The Netherlands. The specimens, collected in 1983 from the small country of Suriname on South America’s northeast coast, were labeled as South American cottontails.

Ruedas studied the anatomy of the museum specimens and determined they were larger and shaped differently than other rabbits throughout South America — so much so that they deserved to be classified as a distinct species.

The creature will be only the third new rabbit species named in South America since the start of the modern classification system 260 years ago.

The discovery follows another finding that Ruedas published this year showing that the South American cottontail, which was considered to be a single species distributed over a vast area from Mexico to most of South America, really only occupies a small area of Brazil. The other rabbits on the continent — perhaps as many as 35 species in all — will have to be renamed, he said.

The rabbit from Suriname will be the first on that list.

Ruedas — who has traveled around the world studying small mammals and discovering new species — said the rabbit discovery in South America could affect how animal species are identified as unique, which is an important step when determining if a species is endangered. Ruedas said it could also lead to conservation efforts in Suriname, where environmental degradation is threatening the rabbit’s habitat.

New Species of Cottontail Rabbit Identified: Sylvilagus parentum. Jun 14, 2017 by Enrico de Lazaro.

PARAMARIBO, Feb 15 2019 (IPS) – At the Bonn Climate Conference in 2017, Suriname announced its aspirations to maintain its forest coverage at 93 percent of the land area: here.