Roy Ristie is involved in all kinds of things – ‘including keeping my fingers crossed for the Dutch team’. However, he did not attend the official slavery remembrance at the Oosterpark. “I haven’t yet reached that point in my personal development”.
Last week, News from Amsterdam wrote that there seems to be reconciliation between the remembrance at the Oosterpark and its ‘radical little brother’ at the Surinameplein. ‘Was there some kind of war? Not that I know’, says Ristie, who also distances himself from the term ‘radical’.
The two remembrances do have very different basic principles, says Ristie, who was one of the initiators of the Surinameplein remembrance.
At the Oosterpark, the history of slavery is being remembered. The term suggests that this era has been closed, says Ristie, and that is premature in his view. “I haven’t yet reached that point in my personal development where I can participate in a yearly remembrance of something that’s finished”.
For example, the Surinamese and Antilleans are still considered foreigners, whereas they are Dutch, he says. It stings that they still have a disadvantaged position in society.
The Zuidoost District is often associated with affairs involving conflicts of interest among politicians. “Zuidoost is like Volendam, as a village where everybody’s related”, Ristie says. “The bank manager is also a volunteer for the Volendam Run”.
According to Ristie, the difference is that in Zuidoost, such relations will often be called clientelism. “What’s seen as a lobby elsewhere, will here be called favouritism”.
Criticism on politics in Zuidoost often targets the PvdA. However, according to Ristie, this has no negative impact on the support for the party: people would feel stronger solidarity with the party because of what they perceive as attacks from the outside.
However, he does think the PvdA may loose support because it is not as open to other people’s contributions as it should be.
Ristie thinks he could create a breakthrough by creating his own movement and stand for office, but he is not planning to do so. “It may flatter my ego if many people vote for me, but then I’d have to give up my free role”.
What is more, he does not think highly of the powers of the district administration: in the end, they are ‘social workers with a political function’.
Tags: Amsterdam, Roy Ristie, Slavery
