Now you may be asking to yourself “ Kamilah where did you get that saying from?” Well to answer your question, this saying comes from this year’s Kingdom Task Force on Children’s Rights Conference where the various members of the Kingdom of the Netherlands come together and discuss the various tasks that we achieved and what is for the future of the various islands and The Netherlands.
 
For those who do not know, the Kingdom of the Netherlands consists of four countries: The Netherlands, Aruba, Curacao and Sint Maarten. The Netherlands has three municipals in the Caribbean which are Bonaire, Saba and Sint Eustatius. Now that you've received a brief history/geography lesson, we are going to focus on the theme of this conference and how can it applies to your daily lives and the importance of child rights in your communities.
 
Come Together. Stay Together. Work Together is translated from the theme Samen komen, Samen blijven, samen werken. This theme was initiated by the famous African proverb. “it takes a village to raise a child.” 

Why should we, as a people, Come Together? It is simple, you do more when you work together. Many people are quick to scream and complain that so many things are going wrong in our various communities, yet aren’t willing to sit down as different task holders and initiate conversation. Like I mentioned in my speech at the Victorious Living Foundation’s Leader Worth Following Awards, dialogue is important. It doesn’t matter which field you are working with, you need to sit down with your fellow colleagues and have a dialogue and what you guys can do as a collective to make that positive change in the community.
Team sports are great examples of the importance of coming together. Look at the Eastern Conference Finals between the Cleveland Cavaliers and the Boston Celtics. During the first two games, it was evident that majority of the work was being done by the Cavs superstar, Lebron James. Everyone saw the fatigued that plagued him at the end of the games, something that ended up working in the favour of the opposing team. During the break between games two and three they came together as a team, practiced and dialogue on how they can play better as a collective unit.
 
I am going to keep on with the narrative of the Cavaliers  and use other basketball terminologies as we look at the second statement, Stay Together. Stay Together means that we are willing to share the same space, whether the space is mentally or physically to make the dialogue something effective and positive for the community. During this time you will be able to learn about the people you are working with, their skills and weaknesses and how they can be allocating in whichever project you are working on. This also creates a special bond that makes the ended results better due to the time that was spent together working and brainstorming. The Cavaliers had each other’s back throughout the last two games, allowing their teammates to be comfortable to makes shots, giving them opportunity to be their best self on the court. That bond is also strong off the court or outside of the project, especially when your team member is criticized  for something that doesn’t make sense by the pessimistic people that are around our community. They will question your integrity, if you are truly genuine about your work, but you should be able to shut down all those negative assumptions when your team as already set that common goal.
 
Always remember, never do anything just for the camera.
 
Work Together is quite straight forward. As we go back to the Cavaliers, during game three and four, they worked together. Working together as one to be productive is important in today’s society. No man can run things by himself, help is always needed, sometimes you just have to dig deeper for it.
 
As we recap the importance of samen komen, samen blijven en samen werken in our daily lives, remember the African proverb once more “It takes a village to raise a child.”

That child can be the actual children in your community, that child can be the goal you want for your country, that child can be the goal you want for your brand or your business, that child can be the professional team you're on or the athletes, dancers, artists, debaters, whoever, you are pushing to succeed.
 
Just remember you have come together, stay together and work together to get the job done.

1. R. Kelly

 The support that this man receives, especially from older black women, is frightening. These are mothers, aunts, and other forms of martial figures in the black community that are religiously supporting this man, despite all the disgusting things this man has done throughout his entire career.
It’s a shame that how these women still lust over him, after evidence has been circulating for decades that he is not only a sexual predator but a huge pedophile as well. I mean read up the entire Aaliyah scandal. May her soul rest in peace
 
It’s unfortunate in our community that we are willing to support someone because “they are always trying to bring the black man down.” I say, foolishness. 

2. Morgan Freeman. 

I am disappointed. Surprised? Definitely not. Morgan Freeman is eighty years old. His morals are based on that fact that he can address a woman in any manner and can get away with it, because who cared about the well-being of women? 
Obviously not him, and obviously not the group of people who are quick to say “oh here y’all go again.” 
Yes here we go again. Sexual harassment, sexual assault, rape, anything that lacks consent is traumatic to the victim. It makes you question yourself and what did you do to deserve it? 
The investigative article from CNN "Women accuse Morgan Freeman of inappropriate behavior, harassment"  reports the many inappropriate actions and the use of inappropriate language towards many women that worked for his companies, staffed in the many films he starred in and the women that interviewed him in press junkies.

Looking back to his age and how women were addressed during his time, it is something we live with on a daily basis in our Caribbean community. I’ve been hit on more times than I wished by older men within my community. It’s something that I unfortunately can’t avoid because they are sitting in ever Chinese restaurants, chilling at every bar, walking all the streets and even sometimes are in the classrooms. It’s something as a Caribbean community and an international community need to sit down and address.  

Morgan Freeman is also one of those black men that really don’t care about black people. Morgan Freeman also had a weird, manipulative relationship with his now deceased step-granddaughter. 

Click here to see twitter thread from @MayaAMonroe 

3. National Football League

Every new notification from ESPN and Bleacher Report considering the new rules that the NFL introduces gives me more strength not to try and stream a Sunday night game of the teams that consist of players that I really like.
This new rule that states players would be punished if they don’t stand for the national anthem just adds to the list of long examples on how slavery is still imbedded  in all of our systems across the world today.
White supremacy is a real thing and trust me, the rich white man knows. The NFL, which teams are owned by rich white men and is run by a rich white man, knows what kneeling has done to their numbers. They know the sport is watched by the nastiest of white supremacist across the country and they want to continue to cater to them.
I mean, I bet they love to see a sport where 80% of its players are black, run up and down the field, pushing and dodging each other for entertainment. It sounds a little historical.
The question many people are asking though, are these black men in the league going to protest now or are they going to suck it up and take the pay check?

4. Abortions 

The 45th President of the United States of America has caused serious havoc on US and international relations since he stepped into office. His cabinet is filled with Hollywood scandals and unqualified personnel who agendas only benefits themselves.
One agenda that works for them, to stop funding planned parenthood and clinics that provide abortions. Why?
“Because abortions are killing our populations.” 
That statement by the way is false. Our populations are decreasing because people do not have time to get into relationships and have children because millennials are busy trying to be the successful working class people that baby boomers “worked ever so hard to give us these opportunities” for.
Also, mental illnesses are at an all-time high, because of all the stress and pressure that are being put on our bodies to live up to expectations of the ever growing cooperate world, but that’s another topic.
Abortions are a taboo topic in many of our communities, especially when it’s link to a specific race. Many black people are pro-life because they think that abortions will continue to make the black people the minority. Again, another false theory.
Elexus Jionde of intelexual media discusses this topic thoroughly and I think you should take the opportunity to watch this clip.
 
Doing the quick research on abortion laws in the Caribbean, it is sad to say that abortions are only legal in a small amount of countries, which I find it totally insane. This article, which was written by Rebekah Kebede back in 2016, shows how women have to cross borders in order to have an abortion.
 
I didn’t even realized that it was illegal on Dutch Sint Maarten (where I am from).
 
My question to all the Caribbean people, are you not willing to push the abortion conversation in your communities? Is the topic still too taboo to address, especially to politicians who are older? Are the Christian norms and values of the society blinding on how beneficial the option of abortion is to the woman?
Women get abortions for many reasons, where this patriarchy society fail to understand. Many women end up pregnant (while using protection by the way), when they are too young, not financially stable to raise a child, not mentally stable to raise child or even sexually assaulted. People need to understand that it is their body and they have the rights to do what they want to do. If they do not want to bear a child, they should have the choice to do such.
If you are going to use the argument, then well they shouldn’t be having sex then, pause for a moment and realise how ignorant you sound. 


5. The Gay Agenda.

Social media has rebapitised this year as 20gayteen and people ARE STILL MAD AT THE LGBT COMMUNITY. It is insane.
It amazes me of the level of ignorance that is portrayed from cis men and women when it comes to the gay agenda. Most (I might say there are some extra ones)  people in the LGBTQ community do not care about your sexual orientation, they just want the level of respect that you portray to your fellow heterosexuals. That is all.
Like legit. Trans men and women want to be able to live their lives without having to be worried about being killed or end up committing suicide because of all the negativity that is pushed towards them.
It’s even worse when they are black. Woii CHIILLE….. yueen know fam.
 
All they want to do is use the bathroom they feel they are comfortable using. All other members, regardless of what they recognized as, wants to see representation of their love on the silver screen. They want children from a young age to “recognize” that love comes in various shapes and sizes.
People feel that showing children images of gay people would make them gay. Incorrect. Majority of children movies and shows displayed heterosexual couples, ask how many of those children, who are teens/adults now, who are homosexual, bisexual, pansexual etc.
Yes the community has its problems. Race, like every society structure, has created a burden, but we should just all be able to live as the best person we were destined to be.