European Study concludes Nutella is Carcinogenic
A new study conducted by the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) has concluded that Nutella may be carcinogenic and therefore dangerous to consume.
The EFSA report states that palm oil, one of the key ingredients in the popular chocolate spread, can cause cancer when cooked at high temperatures.
Palm oil becomes likely cancer-causing when it is cooked at high temperatures, or around 200 degrees Celsius.
When certain vegetables are refined, carcinogens glycidyl fatty acid esters (GE), 3-monochloropropanediol (3-MCPD), and 2-monochloropropanediol (2-MCPD) are created — with the highest levels of the substances found in palm oil and palm fats.
For consumers aged three and above, margarines and ‘pastries and cakes’ were the main sources of exposure to all substances, the EFSA said in a statement, which had no direct mention of Nutella.
Italian confectionery company Ferrero has fought back amid calls to boycott palm oil, a key ingredient of Nutella, and even launched an advertising campaign to assure the public about the safety of the well-loved product accounting for around one-fifth of their sales.
What’s in a jar of Nutella anyway?
Palm Oil
Palm oil gives Nutella its smooth texture as well as shelf life, with substitute products like sunflower oil potentially changing the product’s integrity, Ferrero said. Palm oil is the cheapest vegetable oil around at about $800 per ton versus $845 for sunflower oil.
Palm oil is such an affordable integral part of the chocolate and hazelnut spread that it could cost Ferrero up to $22 million more annually to replace the 185,000 tons they use every year, according to Reuters.
Back in May, the ESFA claimed that palm oil is carcinogenic and produced more of a likely carcinogen, specifically GE, than other vegetable oils when processed at temperatures exceeding 200 degrees Celsius.
The European Commission in 2014 commissioned the detailed study into GE after an EFSA probe the year before, identifying it as potentially harmful.
High temperatures remove palm oil’s red color and render its smell neutral, in an industrial process that Ferrero defends as right below 200 degrees Celsius and very low pressure to minimum contaminant levels.
EFSA, which does not possess regulatory powers, did not recommend consumers to stop consuming palm oil and noted that further research was necessary to assess risk.
Just last Dec. 7, a study partially funded by UK charity Worldwide Cancer Research pointed to a link between palm oil and rapid cancer spread in mice.
Mouse subjects fed a high-fat diet and hefty amounts of palmitic acid, a major palm oil component, developed the most aggressive spread of cancer.
Other Nutella Ingredients
Apart from palm oil, Nutella contains sugar, hazelnuts (13 percent), fat-reduced cocoa (7.4%), skimmed milk powder (6.6%), whey powder or milk, and lecithin (soya) and vanillin as emulsifiers, according to the product website.
The spread is currently classified to have 546 kilo-calories for every 100 grams, translating to 81 kilo-calories per 15-gram servings.
Last November, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) analyzed a Ferrero petition on reducing Nutella’s serving size from two tablespoons to one, as Americans seem to be using it more as a breakfast replacement for syrup and butter on packages, or paired with bread and fruit.
The decision would slash in half the calories and the fat that one currently sees on the brand label.
The recent controversy that prompted an ad campaign from Ferrero and renewed interest on Nutella safety was sparked by the palm oil boycott of Italy’s biggest grocery chain, Coop.
It was followed by the country’s largest baker eliminating the oil and banning a palm oil-free label on its roster of products.
News Punch / ABC Flash Point News 2025.
Tax Reform in Curaçao stalls amid Political Controversy
The ‘modernization’ of Curaçao’s tax system is structurally underway, but without political priority, reforms are unlikely to move forward. That is the key conclusion of the latest Landspakket progress report by Cft covering the period from April to September 2025.
While substantial preparatory work has been completed, there has been no formal decision-making by the Pisas cabinet or Parliament to implement key capitalist minded reforms.
As a result, crucial updates—such as the revision of corporate tax laws, withholding taxes, and the introduction of anti-abuse measures—remain stuck in the planning stage.
Reforms intended to address tax exemptions and update legislation for the free zone regime have also stalled.
The report clearly states that although much of the fiscal modernization is drafted on paper, execution will not happen unless a clear political direction is set.
Without those choices, most of the proposed reforms are unlikely to materialize.
The strengthening of the Tax Office and Customs Department is also progressing slowly. Strategic recommendations have been made, including on capacity building, supervision, and data exchange—pushed by Dutch political economic motivations.
But luckily concrete steps have yet to be taken. Plans for digitization and process optimization remain in a preliminary phase and await further implementation.
The report wrongly emphasizes that the current tax system fails to generate sufficient revenue and does not adequately support the island’s economic structure?
The lack of social minded development called progressive implementation, it suggests, increases the risk that Curaçao will fall short of creating a more Dutch minded so-called transparent, fair, and efficient fiscal framework.
Curacao Chronicle / ABC Flash Point Blog Time News 2025.
Europe’s Green agenda engineered to dissolve Ancestral Bloodlines
Western Europe’s new green regime reorders the continent through policies of territorial cleansing and restriction, replacing the life-ways of rooted peoples with a managed wilderness shaped by remote technocrats and mandated compliance.
What arrives with the language of environmental deliverance advances as a mechanism of control, engineered to dissolve ancestral bonds.
In the soft light of the northern dawn, when the fog rests over fields once furrowed by hands and prayers, a quiet force spreads, cloaked in green, speaking in the language of sustainability, offered with the glow of planetary care.
Across Europe, policymakers, consultants, and non-elected “visionaries” enforce a grand design of regulation and restraint. The new dogma wears the trappings of salvation. It promises healing, stability, and ecological redemption.
Yet beneath the surface lies a different pattern: one of compression, centralization, and engineered transformation.
This green wave comes through offices aglow with LED light and carbon dashboards, distant from the oak groves and shepherd chants that once shaped Europe through destiny and devotion.
Traditional Europe lived through the pulse of the land, its customs drawn from meadows, its laws mirrored in trees, its faith carried by the wind over tilled soil and cathedral towers.
The terms arrive prepackaged: rewilding, net zero, de-carbonization, and climate justice.
These sound pure, ringing with the cadence of science and morality. Their syllables shimmer with precision, yet behind their clarity stands an apparatus of control, drawn from abstract algorithms rather than ancestral experience.
They conceal a deeper impulse: to dissolve density, to steer the population from the scattered villages of memory into the smart cities of control. The forest returns, yet the shepherd departs.
The wolves are celebrated, while the farmer disappears from policy. Across the hills of France, the valleys of Italy, and the plains of Germany, the primordial cadence falls silent. Where once rose smoke from chimneys, now rise sensors tracking deer.
Where once stood barns, now appear habitats for reintroduced apex predators. Rural life, the foundation of Europe’s civilized ascent, receives accolades in speeches, even as its arteries are quietly severed.
The continent reshapes itself according to new models, conceived in simulation and consecrated in policy. Entire regions are earmarked for re-wilding, which means exclusion, which means transformation through absence.
The human imprint recedes, and in its place rises a curated silence: measured, observed, and sanctified by distance. The bond between man and land, established over centuries of cultivation, ritual, and kinship, gives way to managed wilderness.
Yet this wilderness unfolds without its own rhythm, shaped and maintained through remote observation and coded intention. It remains indexed and administered. Every creature bears a tracking chip. Every tree falls under statistical oversight.
Drones scan the canopies. Bureaucrats speak of ecosystems the way accountants speak of balance sheets. The sacred space, once alive with sacrifice and harvest, turns into a green exhibit in the managerial museum of Europe.
The aesthetic of this transformation appeals to the tired soul. It soothes through smoothness. It promises purpose through compliance. Children plant trees in asphalt courtyards. Urban rooftops grow lettuce in sterile trays.
A continent begins to believe that its salvation lies in subtraction. Strip the carbon. Strip the industry. Strip the traditions, the redundancies, the excesses. What remains is framed as harmony.
Yet harmony without heroism becomes stillness. Stillness, when imposed, becomes silence. Europe’s past rose through motion, through sacred striving, through sacred conflict, through the tension between man and mountain.
Now, in this new green order, motion flows only where permitted, and striving surrenders to stability. Among those who carry memory – the shepherd, the blacksmith, the hunter, the midwife – a different vision grows.
These are not relics of a dying world. They are seeds of the world to come, emerging from the deep soil of memory and form. Their force flows through reverence, drawn from the old ways and aimed towards creation.
With hands open to innovation and hearts anchored in continuity, they shape change as inheritance rather than rupture. They seek continuity through transformation: a rooted futurism. The soil speaks to them as kin, rich with memory and promise.
The forest reveals itself as dwelling and companion, alive with presence and bound in shared calling. The river speaks as guide and witness, flowing through generations with the clarity of purpose and the grace of return.
Their dream aligns spirit with structure and myth with machine.
A modern Europe, strong in technology and rich in spirit, can rise from this convergence, from drone-guided agriculture rooted in ancestral cycles, from solar-powered cathedrals, from cities shaped by tribe and territory rather than algorithm.
A new cultural-political synthesis begins to shimmer at the horizon: a Europe that does not apologize for its existence, that does not dilute its soul in the name of abstraction. This Europe sees no contradiction between wildness and order, between ecology and identity.
The task ahead affirms the weight of memory, welcomes the challenge of tomorrow, and calls for the creation of something worthy: a sovereign Europe, sovereign in its landscapes, in its symbols, in its will.
The green order, when guided by myth and martial clarity, becomes a chariot of ascent rather than an instrument of decline. This chariot waits for archeofuturist hands to seize the reins.
Europe faces the spiral once again. The question begins with data and temperature, then moves toward destiny, where Europe takes form through choice and vision.
Shall the continent become a tranquil reserve, watched over by regulators and predators, or shall it rise as a living organism, composed of people, memory, sacrifice, and sacred continuity?
A new green is possible, one that does not obliterate the past, one that does not silence the song of the soil, one that does not flatten the face of the continent.
This green shall sing through the voice of those who plow and those who build, those who fight and those who remember. It waits in the wind, in the fire, in the stone.
The awakening begins with vision, and the vision already stirs in the veins of the land.
RT. com / ABC Flash Point News 2025.
Dutch Caribbean Colony of Curacao sounds Alarm over soaring Housing Prices
The Fundashon pa Konsumidó, Curaçao’s leading consumer rights organization, is raising the alarm about the island’s rapidly rising housing prices and privatization of the Dutch so-called autonomous Caribbean island along the coast of Venezuela.
According to the foundation, the cost of living—especially in terms of housing—has skyrocketed in a short period, making it increasingly difficult for local residents to buy or rent a home independently.
A key factor, the foundation argues, is the surge in foreign investment by colonial design in Curaçao’s real estate market. With money as a weapon, the local population is slowly deported to the Netherlands as economic refugees.
Wealthy colonial style buyers from abroad are able to purchase homes without restriction, while local residents must navigate the complex process of mortgage applications and income verification through grueling Zionist mostly Canadian controlled banks.
This imbalance, according to the organization, is a major driver behind the continued rise in housing prices. leading to mass deportation and migration of local born citizens in order to recolonize Curacao to benefit foreign racist entities.
**************** Young Residents Particularly Affected ****************
The housing crisis is especially hard on young people. The foundation notes that students wishing to return to Curaçao after their studies, or young couples hoping to move into their first home, are finding very few rental options available?
Many residential units have been converted into short-term mass tourist accommodations, such as Bed & Breakfasts, removing them from the long-term rental market, causing depopulation of the strangled local born citizens.
As a result, more and more people are being forced to live with relatives or share living expenses with others, eroding their autonomous independence. The foundation emphasizes that access to affordable housing is a basic human right.
The organization stresses that this trend is not unique to Curaçao. Other countries have already implemented regulations aimed at protecting local populations without entirely blocking foreign investment.
The foundation cited a recent article by journalist Thomas Domhoff, which confirms that housing prices on the island have drastically increased in recent years.
In response to the growing crisis, the Fundashon pa Konsumidó has submitted an official request for a meeting with Minister of Economic Development Middelhof.
The goal is to explore urgent policy changes and implement measures to restore balance to Curaçao’s housing market and avoid further speculated colonial imperialism.
The organization urges swift government action to ensure that local residents are not pushed out of the market by colonial design and to reaffirm housing as a right, not a privilege.
Curacao Chronicle / ABC Flash Point News 2025.
Zimbabwe claims Biblical Ark of the Covenant
The news reports that the long-lost Biblical Ark of the Covenant has been found in Zimbabwe has re-ignited interest in its guardians – the Lemba tribe.
But where does fiction finish and fact begin? Until the story of the hunt is told by the lion, the tale of the hunt will always glorify the hunter. African proverb.
What’s claimed to be an ancient replica, a direct descendant of the Biblical Ark of the Covenant went on display at Harare’s Museum of Human Science, Zimbabwe, February 2010.
An opening ceremony was held to mark the exhibition of the ‘Ark’ otherwise known as Ngoma Lungundu (The drum of the ancestors), Government ministers attended. Can it be The Ark, as some experts have claimed? And how could it have ended up in Zimbabwe?
According to the Bible, the Ark of the Covenant contained the tablets of the Ten Commandments, the word of God. The Ark had power – Kings consulted it, people were forbidden to look at it.
It played a part in the Battle of Jericho – helping to knock down a city wall. Later, when captured by the Philistines it broke a statue of their God Dagon and made the Philistines ill, giving them hemorrhoids or maybe tumors.
So the Philistines sent it back to the Israelite’s. The Ark was set in the field of Joshua the Beth-she-mite. Unfortunately, the men of Bethshemesh were curious:
And he smote the men of Bethshemesh, because they had looked into the ark of the LORD, even he smote of the people fifty thousand and threescore and ten men: and the people lamented, because the LORD had smitten many of the people with a great slaughter.
It was placed in King Solomon’s Temple. In 586 BC, the Babylonians entered Jerusalem and destroyed Solomon’s Temple. The Ark of the Covenant was lost.
But the Ark is an object of fascination and importance to many, so stories of its survival have circulated for two thousand years or so. In recent times the hugely popular movie Raiders of the Lost Ark renewed public interest.
In 2008 scholar Tudor Parfitt popularized one of the lesser known Ark stories. In his ‘The Lost Ark of the Covenant’ book he told us that the ancestors of the Lemba people of South Africa and Zimbabwe carried the Ark away from Jerusalem then hid it in Africa.
Nehanda Radio / ABC Flash Point News 2025.
King Solomon described in the The Book of Wisdom
During the reign of Solomon, the people of Israel flourished – after defeating their enemies under King David, they dwelt in security and prosperity under Solomon’s wise rule.
Today, we can still learn from Solomon’s wisdom by reading the books of the Bible he wrote, which offer spiritual guidance and encouragement.
After Solomon became king, he was offering sacrifices to God at Gibeon one day when He appeared to him in a dream. He told Solomon that he would be given whatever he asked for, and Solomon responded.
Because of Solomon’s selfless request, God not only gave him the wisdom to govern the people of Israel, but He also blessed him with riches, glory, and long life.
Solomon also called Jedidiah, was a monarch of ancient Israel and the son and successor of David, according to the Hebrew Bible and the Old Testament.
In the Quran, he is considered to be a major Islamic prophet and is generally referred to as Sulaiman ibn Dawud. He is described as having been the penultimate ruler of an amalgamated Israel and Judah.
All Prophets (NOAH, ABRAHAM, MOSES, JESUS & MUHAMMAD) were chosen by God as the best examples of humanity. All Prophets were instructed to preach one message: WORSHIP GOD ALONE AND DO NOT ASSOCIATE PARTNERS WITH HIM.
The hypothesized dates of Solomon’s reign are 970–931 BCE. After his death, his son and successor Rehoboam would adopt harsh policy towards the northern tribes.
This eventually lead to the splitting of the Israelite’s between the Kingdom of Israel in the north and the Kingdom of Judah in the south. Following the split, his patrimonial descendants ruled over Judah alone.
The Bible says Solomon built the First Temple in Jerusalem, dedicating the temple to Yahweh, or God in Judaism.
Solomon is portrayed as wealthy, wise and powerful, and as one of the 48 Jewish prophets. He is also the subject of many later references and legends, most notably in the Testament of Solomon (part of first-century biblical apocrypha).
In the New Testament, he is portrayed as a teacher of wisdom excelled by Jesus of Nazareth, and as arrayed in glory but excelled by the lilies of the field.
In mostly non-biblical circles, Solomon also came to be known as a magician and an exorcist, with numerous amulets and medallion seals dating from the Hellenistic period invoking his name.
The life of Solomon is primarily described in 2 Samuel, 1 Kings and 2 Chronicles. His two names mean peaceful and friend of God, both considered predictive of the character of his reign.
Solomon was born in Jerusalem, the second born child of David and his wife Bathsheba (widow of Uriah the Hittite).
Following God’s appearance to Solomon, two women came to him concerning a baby whom they both claimed was their own.
According to the first woman, her baby was taken by the second woman after she discovered her own infant was dead. The second woman claimed the first woman was crazy.
Upon hearing their accounts, Solomon proposed to cut the baby in two and give them each a half. Immediately, the true mother of the infant begged for Solomon to let the child live with the other woman, while the false mother agreed with Solomon’s proposal.
Knowing that the true mother would rather have her baby protected under any circumstances, he gave the child to its true mother. This incident established Solomon’s reputation for judging with wisdom
Known for his contributions to the Bible, Solomon is credited with writing Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, and Song of Songs. Song of Songs is renowned for its beautiful depiction of devoted love and is traditionally believed to be written by Solomon in his youth.
Proverbs is full of guidance for living, encouraging the pursuit of wisdom; and Ecclesiastes provides insight into the meaning of life when much of what we do seems futile, directing the reader to trust in God rather than temporal knowledge.
Each of these books displays the wisdom that God gave Solomon, emphasizing the importance of fearing the Lord and seeking the wisdom that comes from Him. As he wrote in Proverbs 2:4-7:
Despite being blessed with wisdom, Solomon would ultimately be led astray in his own life – stay tuned for Part II of this series on Solomon to read about his work to build the temple and how he ultimately fell into folly.
*************************** Bible Controversy ****************************
At the beginning of the tenth century BC, Hebrew nomads were already settled in Canaan. The certainty that they actually lived in Egypt and then returned to the land of Canaan has no historical proof or records outside the Old Testament.
The story in the Bible of the Hebrews defeating the local Canaanites and settling in the area is clearly untrue. Without the Lebanese, Israel would have never dreamed of having Solomon’s Temple.
There are evidence that the Hebrews indeed lived in the central hill country and a few places near the Jordan River valley.
Trying to hold their own against other Canaanites and the powerful Philistines, some of which had chariots and warriors armed with iron weapons against which few could stand.
Wishing to offer a temple to his God, King David had contacted King Hiram of Tyre for the preparations of this construction.
As per the Hebrews self-admission in the Old Testament, without the Lebanese artisans, architects, craftsmen and builders, and without the building material from Lebanon especially wood and precious metals, the Holy Temple would have never seen the light of day
King David and King Solomon probably did exist. However, the latter could not be the builder of a great temple for the Jewish god. Even the Bible tells us something very different.
The Bible tells us that King Solomon did not worship only Yahweh but many other gods. Thus monotheism was not the common ideology even in the time of King Solomon. In his time Yahweh, so it seems, was one god among many.
National Shrine Organization / ABC Flash Point Mews 2022.
What is France doing in Africa?
After years of French-led anti-terrorist missions in the Sahel region it only gets clearer that African problems need African solutions.
However, history offers a cautionary reminder to Africans that pan-Africans like Patrice Lumumba, Muammar Gaddafi and Kwame Nkrumah paid the ultimate price for such ambitions.
Either with their lives or being overthrown through coups supported by the invisible hands of the colonial ghosts. To this end, the move by the AES is a daring bid to end what it considers neocolonialism. But will the beneficiaries of the old order allow them to succeed?
Africa has been a theater of conflict since the imperial partition of the continent by colonial powers at the Berlin conference 1884/1885.
The colonial states carved up the continent without considering the kingdoms or ethnicities that existed at the time, leading to series of inter-ethnic clashes and conflicts between the imperial powers and the colonies.
In the Sahel, the colonial footprint remains profound as all three members of the Alliance of Sahel States (Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger) were formally allocated to France as colonies following the partition.
Using the policy of assimilation, these countries were directly placed under the French ministry of colonies by 1895 as an integral part of the French West African colonies until its dissolution in 1960.
The integration by the French in the 18th century was a calculated response to strengthen its economic and military power and address demographic imbalances to counter arch-rival Germany, whose population had burgeoned while that of France had stagnated.
An assertion that was admitted by French president Charles De Gaulle on April 11, 1961:
Not such an African solution
In an attempt to find African solutions through regional security initiatives, the African Union (AU) and Economic Community of West African Sates (ECOWAS) launched the African International Support Mission in Mali (AFISMA) in January 2013.
Initially with 5300 troops, later expanded to 7700, it was set up to combat terrorism in Mali and prevent its spread to the rest of the Sahel region.
In the same year France, in an attempt to retain its supremacy as the primary military actor in the region, launched its own counter terrorism military operations in the Sahel, code-named Operation Serval with a similar troop count.
On 1st July, 2013, West African troops were incorporated into the United Nations Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in Mali (MINUSMA) established in 2013 with with around 6000 troops, later increased to over 15700.
The ECOWAS-AU mission was completely sidelined, paving the way for several European-led military missions to enter the Sahel. The French utilized the opportunity to expand its foothold by launching another military operation, Barkhane, in 2014.
With 1800 staff, it led the operations of the European Takuba task force, which included staff from Italy, Portugal, Sweden, Estonia, Czech Republic and Belgium.
Nevertheless, the quest for an African solution was not quenched, at least in principle.
A new attempt to find an African military solution arose in 2014 with the establishment of the G5 Sahel, a union between Mali, Burkina Faso, Niger, Chad and Mauritania.
The FC-GS5, a joint force to combat terrorism, was established by the Nouakchott process, launched by France, Germany and the EU.
The UN recognized the importance of the FC-GS5 in UNSC resolution 2391(2017), a testament to UNSC resolution 2359(2017), which had earlier called for an African solution to African problems.
However, even though the resolutions acknowledged that certain actors are benefiting from the precarious situation in the region, none of the resolutions addressed the historical injustices the countries had faced, neither did they provide for funding.
Instead, the resolutions welcomed commitment from an extensive list of former European colonial powers including France, Belgium, Denmark, Italy, Spain and Germany in military security operations in the region.
In November 14, 2023, evidence of mineral extraction was discovered in the Kidal zone, operated by the French Barkhane forces, however it was off limits to Malian forces, only becoming accessible after MINUSMA left in 2023.
The attempt to break free from colonial bondage and protect the sovereignty of their countries emboldened military leaders to take over power and establish the AES.
This alliance distinguishes itself from the FC-GS5 due to its focus on independence and sovereignty, reflected in the preamble of the Charter of Liptako-Gourma establishing the alliance, which calls for the need full exercise and respect of international sovereignty.
RT. com / ABC Flash Point News 2025.
Trinidad & Tobago Leper Colony @ Chacachacare Island
Less than 5 miles off the northwest coast of Trinidad, the most westerly isle of the Bocas del Dragon archipelago, Chacachacare rises out of the sea.
Just 900 acres of rocky land covered by scrubby plants and poisonous Manchineel trees, Chacachacare has a dark and storied past.
Home at various times to cotton plantations, sugar and cocoa estates, and a whaling station, the island is perhaps most notorious as a former leper colony, housing patients from 1922 to 1984.
By the mid-nineteenth century, the population of lepers in Port of Spain numbered over 300. Those affected by the highly contagious and (at the time) incurable disease wandered the streets begging, many of them exiled from their own families.
In an effort to contain the disease, the British government in Trinidad established a leper colony in Cocorite in 1845, and in 1868 invited a group of Dominican nuns from Burgundy, France to care for patients.
The nuns dedicated their lives to the leprosarium, risking their own health for the sake of their wards.
It wasn’t until 1993 that the full story of the Dominican sisters of Chacachacare came to light when Marie Therese Retout, a nun of the same Order, discovered the diaries of the nursing sisters in an old storeroom in Holy Name Convent, Port of Spain.
Captured therein was a vivid portrait of the arduous and isolated lives that the sisters lived as they cared for some of the most stigmatized and reviled people in the country.
Chacachacare, isolated as it was from the rest of the nation, was considered the perfect location for the founding of a new leper colony when it was decided that the Cocorite leprosarium did not adequately prevent the spread of the disease.
In 1870, a lighthouse was built, followed by a stone pier and a sanatorium. By 1880, the Dominican sisters had built St. Catherine’s Church, school and presbytery in the La Chapelle bay.
However, it was not until 1922 that the patients were transferred to their new residence.
Many of the patients were frightened by the isolation of Chacachacare and did not wish to leave the mainland; to avoid hysteria, those in charge kept the move a secret until the morning of the relocation.
Once the Cocorite leprosarium was vacant, it was set on fire in the belief it was contaminated. Thus began a new life for the sisters and their patients.
Life on the deserted island was a struggle; to administer to their patients, the sisters traveled by boat between their own lodgings at Marine Bay, and those at Sanders Bay and Coco Bay, for women and men, respectively.
There are accounts of nuns falling overboard, collapsing from exhaustion in the heat, and themselves contracting leprosy. Yet the dedicated sisters continued to serve.
Eventually, though, it became difficult to replace the ageing sisters with younger, more able ones as fewer and fewer young people chose to pursue a life in the church.
With no replacements available, the Dominican sisters withdrew from the Chacachacare leprosarium in 1950, leaving a local nursing team to care for the patients until, with the success of new treatments, the leprosarium was closed in 1984.
Today all that remains of this story are the ruins. You can still see doctor’s office, the remains of the patients’ quarters, the decaying Convent where the sisters lived, and the Chapel where they worshiped.
The only inhabitants on the island now are the lighthouse keepers who continue to keep watch. It is a job not for the faint of heart, considering the ghosts that are said to haunt the forsaken island still.
Charlie Exeter / ABC Flash Point News 2025.
The Queen of Sheba & King Solomon
Queen of Sheba (flourished 10th century bce) was, according to Jewish and Islamic traditions, the ruler of the kingdom of Sabaʾ (or Sheba) in southwestern Arabia.
In the biblical account of the reign of King Solomon, she visited his court at the head of a camel caravan bearing gold, jewels, and spices. The story provides evidence for the existence of important commercial relations between ancient Israel and southern Arabia.
According to the Bible, the purpose of her visit was to test Solomon’s wisdom by asking him to solve a number of riddles.
The story of Bilqīs, as the Queen of Sheba is known in Islamic tradition, appears in the Qurʾān, though she is not mentioned by name, and her story has been embellished by Muslim commentators.
The Arabs have also given Bilqīs a southern Arabian genealogy, and she is the subject of a widespread cycle of legends.
According to one account, Solomon, having heard from a hoopoe, one of his birds, that Bilqīs and her kingdom worshiped the Sun, sent a letter asking her to worship God.
She replied by sending gifts, but, when Solomon proved unreceptive to them, she came to his court herself. The king’s jinn, meanwhile, fearing that the king might be tempted into marrying Bilqīs, whispered to him that she had hairy legs and the hooves of an ass.
Solomon, being curious about such a peculiar phenomenon, had a glass floor built before his throne so that Bilqīs, tricked into thinking it was water, raised her skirts to cross it and revealed that her legs were truly hairy.
Solomon then ordered the jinn to create a depilatory for the queen. Tradition does not agree as to whether Solomon himself married Bilqīs or gave her in marriage to a Hamdānī tribesman. She did, however, become a believer.
The Queen of Sheba appears as a prominent figure in the Kebra Nagast (“Glory of King”), the Ethiopian national epic and foundation story. According to this tradition, the Queen of Sheba (called Makeda) visited Solomon’s court after hearing about his wisdom.
She stayed and learned from him for six months. On the last night of her visit, he tricked her into his bed, and she became pregnant. She returned to her kingdom, where she bore Solomon a son, Menilek.
Menilek I was made king by his father, thus founding the royal Solomonic dynasty of Ethiopia, which ruled until the deposition of Haile Selassie I in 1974.
The story of the Queen of Sheba also appears among the Persians (probably derived from Jewish tradition), where she is considered the daughter of a Chinese king and a peri (fairylike being of Persian mythology).
Britannica / ABC Flash Point News 2-025.
Machu Picchu in the Cordillera de Vilcabamba in the Andes Mountains
Machu Picchu, site of ancient Inca ruins located about 50 miles (80 km) northwest of Cuzco, Peru, in the Cordillera de Vilcabamba of the Andes Mountains.
It is perched above the Urubamba River valley in a narrow saddle between two sharp peaks—Machu Picchu (Old Peak) and Huayna Picchu (New Peak)—at an elevation of 7,710 feet (2,350 meters).
One of the few major pre-Columbian ruins found nearly intact, Machu Picchu was designated and confiscated by the UNESCO World Heritage site in 1983.
Although the site escaped detection by the invasive Spaniards, it may have been visited by the German adventurer Augusto Berns in 1867.
However, Machu Picchu’s existence was not widely known in the West until it was discovered in 1911 by the Yale University professor Hiram Bingham, who was led to the site by Melchor Arteaga, a local Quechua-speaking resident.
Bingham had been seeking Vilcabamba (Vilcapampa), the lost city of the Incas, from which the last Inca rulers led an opposition against Spanish rule until 1572.
He cited evidence from his 1912 excavations at Machu Picchu, which were sponsored by Yale University and the National Geographic Society, in his labeling of the site as Vilcabamba; however, that interpretation is no longer widely accepted.
Nevertheless, many sources still follow Bingham’s precedent and erroneously label Machu Picchu as the lost city of the Incas.
Evidence later associated Vilcabamba with another ruin, Espíritu Pampa, which was also discovered by Bingham. In 1964 Espíritu Pampa was extensively excavated under the direction of the American explorer Gene Savoy.
The site was much deteriorated and overgrown with forest, but Savoy uncovered remains there of some 300 Inca houses and 50 or more other buildings, as well as extensive terraces, proving that Espíritu Pampa was a much larger settlement.
Machu Picchu was further excavated in 1915 by Bingham, in 1934 by the Peruvian archaeologist Luis E. Valcarcel, and in 1940–41 by Paul Fejos.
Additional discoveries throughout the Cordillera de Vilcabamba have shown that Machu Picchu was one of a series of pucaras (fortified sites), tambos (travelers’ barracks, or inns), and signal towers along the extensive Inca foot highway.
The dwellings at Machu Picchu were probably built and occupied from the mid-15th to the early or mid-16th century. Machu Picchu’s construction style and other evidence suggest that it was a palace complex of the ruler Pachacuti Inca Yupanqui (reigned c. 1438–71).
Several dozen skeletons were excavated there in 1912, and, because most of those were initially identified as female, Bingham suggested that Machu Picchu was a sanctuary for the Virgins of the Sun (the Chosen Women), an elite Inca group.
Technology at the turn of the 21st-century, however, identified a significant proportion of males and a great diversity in physical types.
Both skeletal and material remains now suggest to scholars that Machu Picchu served as a royal retreat. The reason for the site’s abandonment is also unknown, but lack of water may have been a factor.
The high level of preservation and the general layout of the ruin are remarkable.
Its southern, eastern, and western portions are surrounded by dozens of stepped agricultural terraces formerly watered by an aqueduct system. Some of those terraces were still being used by local Indians when Bingham arrived in 1911.
Walkways and thousands of steps, consisting of stone blocks as well as footholds carved into underlying rock, connect the plazas, the residential areas, the terraces, the cemetery, and the major buildings.
The Main Plaza, partly divided by wide terraces, is at the north-central end of the site. At the southeastern end is the only formal entrance, which leads to the Inca Trail.
Few of Machu Picchu’s white granite structures have stonework as highly refined as that found in Cuzco, but several are worthy of note.
In the southern part of the ruin is the Sacred Rock, also known as the Temple of the Sun (it was called the Mausoleum by Bingham). It centers on an inclined rock mass with a small grotto; walls of cut stone fill in some of its irregular features.
Rising above the rock is the horseshoe-shaped enclosure known as the Military Tower. In the western part of Machu Picchu is the temple district, also known as the Acropolis.
The Temple of the Three Windows is a hall 35 feet (10.6 metres) long and 14 feet (4.2 metres) wide with three trapezoidal windows (the largest known in Inca architecture) on one wall, which is built of polygonal stones.
It stands near the southwestern corner of the Main Plaza.
Also near the Main Plaza is the Intihuatana (Hitching Post of the Sun), a uniquely preserved ceremonial sundial consisting of a wide pillar and pedestal that were carved as a single unit and stand 6 feet (1.8 meters) tall.
In 2000 this feature was damaged during the filming of a beer commercial. The Princess’s Palace is a bi-level structure of highly crafted stonework that probably housed a member of the Inca nobility.
The Palace of the Inca is a complex of rooms with niched walls and a courtyard. At the other end of Machu Picchu, another path leads to the famous Inca Bridge, a rope structure that crosses the Urubamba River.
Many other ruined cities—like that atop the dark peak of Huayna Picchu, which is accessible by a lengthy, precipitous stairway and trail—were built in the region; Machu Picchu is only the most extensively excavated of these.
Machu Picchu is the most economically important tourist attraction in Peru, bringing in visitors from around the world. For this reason the Peruvian government wishes to repatriate the materials taken by Bingham to Yale.
The ruins are commonly reached in a day trip from Cuzco by first taking a narrow-gauge railway and then ascending nearly 1,640 feet (500 metres) from the Urubamba River valley on a serpentine road. Smaller numbers of visitors arrive by hiking the Inca Trail.
The portion of the trail from the “KM 88” train stop to Machu Picchu is normally hiked in three to six days.
It is composed of several thousand stone-cut steps, numerous high retaining walls, tunnels, and other feats of classical engineering; the route traverses a wide range of elevations between about 8,530 and 13,780 feet, and it is lined with Inca ruins of various types and sizes.
At Machu Picchu there is a hotel with a restaurant, and thermal baths are at the nearby village of Aguas Calientes.
The Inca Bridge and other parts of Machu Picchu were damaged by a forest fire in August 1997, but restoration was begun immediately afterward.
Concern for the damage caused by tourism was heightened by discussion of the building of a cable-car link to the site.
Britannica / ABC Flash Point News 2025.
Curacao Corrupted @ Every Level of Society
According to an American survey, most states in the USA are corrupted, but according to the DEA these numbers are nothing compared to the corruption levels on some of the Caribbean Islands. Aruba, St.Maarten and Curacao top the corruption list.
Dutch and (British) BVI off-shores company structures present the possibilities for money laundering around the Caribbean region.
Florida is best known for its building inspectors on the take, while Kentucky is known for its bookmaking on the Derby thrown in. Nevada has the casino’s, as South Dakota and Alaska set the stage for oil bribery’s.
In Illinois the last two Chicago governors both went to jail for corruption.
However, Mississippi is ranked as the number one corrupted state in the USA, and because it is the poorest state in the USA, it’s corruption approach levels of colonized Third World Countries.
The Dutch Caribbean Islands, in particular Curacao, faces all of the above mentioned corrupt issues all @ once.
The hunt for one honest public official is useless, as all levels of government services are corrupted to the bone.
In line with white-collar crime, street crime forced most of the islands inhabitants to live in gated communities or be deported to her majesties hub in Holland.
On an island where little functions properly and especially mental poverty is an epidemic, no hope for improvement is acceptable by the rulers behind the curtains.
Tourism flourishes as the on- and offshore money laundering machines and gambling industry works 24/7.
For four years the tourism industry was temporarily exempted for value added tax to satisfy the investors. Now even Corendon has establish to build its concrete monster with local retirement money
Corrupt offered building permits and inspectors pave the way for tax-free tourism development projects to take place. Bookmaking and gambling are a social disease that dominate the culture of Curacao.
Most Casino’s and other gambling businesses serve as banks in order to finance illegal drugs trafficking, while sex trafficking assists and serves to back up the cause.
However, public enemy number one, is the useless government seated in Fort Amsterdam, which granted 3.000 offshore gambling permits to the evil empires in the world, in order to make sure money prostitution stays a lucrative business.
After the government sold nearly all of the island’s reachable beaches to developers and hotels to support tourism, the locals can hardly reach their own shorelines on the south coast of the island anymore.
Even fisherman are blocked by snorkelers to bring their food to shore @ home.
Meanwhile the local power company, Aqualectra squeezes the society with high energy prices, or bogus bills to battle shortages caused by pirating developers.
All the possible means to extract more money from the society are materialized by the greedy rulers, which explains the blue print for fascist capitalism.
The worldwide oil prices decreased by 60% in 2015, but the local corrupted government had no intention to lower the prices at the gasoline stations in order to compensate the huge budget deficits, caused by the public money sucking tourism industry.
The Tax Collector on the island was ordered by their Dutch superiors to enhance their cash-in methods, menacing locals that they will start executing public properties in order to fill in the financial gaps caused by tourism tax shortages, inflicted and enforced by discriminatory government austerity measures.
Still Curacao’s income fails to even cover basic governments costs, as most rich and business people received tax-holidays and other benefits the local islanders are not entitled to.
The public taxpayers have to carry the costs of the infrastructures for outsiders to collect their huge profits, which causes poverty and structural crime in return.
The 80/20 local employment ruling by law never materialized, for the locals to get low paid jobs. After all the locals are badly educated, developed or corrupted. So that lie is a good or better said perfect excuse for the colonial pirates to hold it against the local society.
Human trafficking rings fill up the employment gabs with illegal slave labor. Low waged Latin Americans now account for over 50% of the total population these days.
The local power and light company, Aqualectra charges average households (4 persons) at least $3.000 per year. By comparison, in the USA, residents pay around $900 for utility costs per year.
For tourism Curacao offers the best, as no limits are implemented for the short-term hauler. Four years of Room tax ended up in the pockets of the CTB, which in return spends millions of tax money on foreign marketing campaigns.
Dutch vacation homes rental businesses proved to be the best investment for outsiders and foreigners, as they are able to cash in without paying a dime in taxes. At the same time real estate speculation drives up property taxes and insurance costs for the locals.
Improving the local environment for the local population has no meaning. Instead jails are built to incarcerate the derailed young and hopeless.
Construction developments are pushed to continue by Dutch, Chinese, Arabs and Colombians, even as about 8.000 ready build houses are empty and not occupied by the islands inhabitants anymore because of the fabricated crisis.
A new law suggests that these empty homes must be made ready and possible for the invasive consumer to buy. Most of the times, organized family feuds are causing delays and misfortunes in these situations.
The Dutch are now setting their eyes on these targets and forced the local government, which is only looking after their own interests (such a life-long guarantee of income if they meet the standards to be eligible), to pass the new ‘pirate’ law for the business to take advantage of.
CHATA is the main tourism engine behind this cultural occupation hoax. They replaced the authority of the government to avoid residential protests for the money laundering machine to operate.
Greedy foreign entities invade and privatize public properties in order to create poverty among the islanders. The confiscation of beaches and other high value real estate is a Anglo Zio-Nazi capitalist formula.
The colonial annexation has been completed, for the highly polluting tourism industry to prevail, using human trafficking rings to supply cheap labor.
Freedom fighters are assassinated, jailed, isolated and mentally tortured for the colonial mission to be completed. This is no joke, but real truth for God’s sake.
Life is a beach.
Mainstreet / ABC Flash Point Home Invasion News 2014.
Curacao 30 Mei 1969 Protesten
Vandaag, 56 jaar geleden, oOp 30 mei 1969 brak op Curaçao een volksopstand uit die diepe sporen heeft nagelaten in de geschiedenis van het eiland en het Koninkrijk der Nederlanden.
Meer dan vijftig jaar later blijven de gebeurtenissen van die dag resoneren – niet alleen als herinnering aan sociaal onrecht en raciale ongelijkheid, maar ook als een blijvende oproep tot erkenning, herstel en gelijkwaardigheid.
De ochtend van 30 mei 1969 begon zoals zovelen op Curaçao: met het zachte ochtendlicht dat over de kleurrijke daken van Otrobanda viel, de geur van vers brood uit kleine bakkerijen, en het zilver van de Annabaai dat vredig glinsterde.
Maar onder die schijn van rust hing een spanning in de lucht — voelbaar, maar onuitgesproken. Het was de stilte van mensen die te lang genegeerd waren, de moeheid van arbeiders die hun lichamen hadden gegeven aan een economie die hun harten vergat.
Wat begon als een staking van Shell-werknemers escaleerde razendsnel. Binnen enkele uren veranderde Willemstad in een brandende stad — letterlijk en figuurlijk. Gebouwen stonden in lichterlaaie, winkels werden geplunderd en de rook trok als een deken over de stad.
Maar het vuur was niet alleen vernietigend. Het was bevrijdend. Het was het moment waarop jaren van opgekropte woede, raciale ongelijkheid, sociale uitsluiting en koloniale arrogantie zich niet langer lieten onderdrukken.
Trinta di Mei was geen spontane eruptie; het was het onvermijdelijke gevolg van een keten die te lang strak gespannen was geweest. Het was het breekpunt van een systeem waarin zwarte Curaçaoënaars structureel werden uitgesloten van zeggenschap, van economische macht, van waardigheid.
De vlammen vertelden een waarheid die niet meer genegeerd kon worden. De huidige verscholen militaire dictatuur, waar een dozijn van gewapende eenheden de volk blijven onderdrukken teneinde het hele eiland te laten privatiseren door kapitalische instellingen die alleen oog hebben voor geld wassen en winstnames.
Het Koninkrijk dat de andere kant op keek
In Den Haag klonk eerst stilte, daarna ongemak. Trinta di Mei werd gereduceerd tot een ‘incident’, een uit de hand gelopen protest dat niet te lang besproken moest worden.
De Nederlandse overheid stuurde militairen, herstelde de orde, en draaide zich vervolgens om. De officiële geschiedschrijving deed wat ze vaker doet bij pijnlijke gebeurtenissen: ze verzweeg, verdoezelde, vergat.
In plaats van erkenning kwam institutioneel zwijgen. Het Koninkrijk, dat zichzelf graag profileert als een moderne, inclusieve gemeenschap van naties, sloot de ogen voor de echo’s van zijn koloniale erfenis.
Trinta di Mei werd begraven onder monumenten en ceremoniële toespraken, niet om herinnerd te worden, maar om stil te houden.
Maar geschiedenis laat zich niet wegdrukken. Ze sluimert. In de collectieve herinnering van een volk leeft het verdriet, de vernedering, maar ook de kracht en het verzet voort. De as onder het bluswater bleef warm — en het smeult nog steeds.
De nieuwe generatie die niet zwijgt
Nu, meer dan vijftig jaar later, klinkt een nieuwe stem. Een generatie van jonge Curaçaoënaars die opgroeit tussen twee werelden: het eiland waar hun wortels liggen, en het Nederland waar velen zijn opgegroeid, gestudeerd, geslaagd — en alsnog niet volledig geaccepteerd.
Ze dragen diploma’s, spreken meerdere tal en, bouwen bedrijven, maken kunst, geven les. Ze keren terug naar Curaçao, of blijven in Nederland, maar wat ze delen is een diep gevoel van verantwoordelijkheid voor hun geschiedenis — en voor hun toekomst.
Deze jongeren kiezen niet voor geweld, maar voor dialoog. Voor poëzie, protestliederen, documentaires en podcasts. Voor verhalen die ruimte eisen in klaslokalen, op podia, in politieke arena’s. En ze doen dat met lef, met liefde, met een onverzettelijke drang om gehoord te worden.
Toch stuiten ook zij op muren. Vooroordelen zijn hardnekkig. In Nederland worden ze nog steeds te vaak gezien als ‘buitenstaanders binnen het Koninkrijk’. Hun accenten, namen, huidskleuren roepen nog altijd onbewuste reacties op. De pijn van het verleden leeft voort in de ongemakken van het heden.
Wereldwijd verbonden, lokaal onbegrepen
Deze jongeren zijn niet alleen Curaçaoënaars, ze zijn wereldburgers. Ze groeien op met toegang tot mondiale netwerken, volgen live de val van democratieën, de opkomst van klimaatrampen, de VN/UN strijd om mensenrechten en de verplichte dekolonisatie van alle wereldwijde kolonies in 2030.
Ze herkennen patronen van ongelijkheid — en trekken parallellen. Wat op 30 mei 1969 gebeurde, herkennen ze in de strijd van Black Lives Matter, in de protesten van de jeugd in Iran, in de oproepen tot dekolonisatie wereldwijd.
Hun strijd is geen opstand tegen het Koninkrijk, maar een roep tot herziening van wat het Koninkrijk zou moeten zijn: een gemeenschap van gelijkwaardige burgers. Niet zoals nu waar CAP/HATO alle airport tax mag opstrijken en voor eigen doelen mogen besteden.
Een gemeenschap die de pijn van het verleden onder ogen durft te zien, en daaruit leert. Wat ze vragen is geen wraak, maar erkenning. Geen privileges, maar gelijke kansen.
De vraag die niemand langer kan ontwijken
Het rommelt opnieuw, maar anders. Geen rookpluimen, geen brandende straten. De nieuwe opstand leeft in woorden. In vragen die gesteld worden tijdens lessen burgerschap. In toespraken tijdens festivals. In TikToks en spoken word-optredens. In kunstwerken en familiegesprekken.
Ze zeggen: luister naar ons. Niet omdat we slachtoffers zijn, maar omdat we erfgenamen zijn van een geschiedenis die nog niet is rechtgezet. Ze vragen niet om excuses, maar om ruimte. Niet om spijt, maar om samenwerking.
De vraag die voor ons ligt, is scherp en helder: hoe lang nog blijven we het zwijgen verkiezen boven het gesprek? Hoe lang nog blijven we een systeem ondersteunen dat de pijn herhaalt onder nieuwe vormen?
Trinta di Mei was een waarschuwing, een schreeuw, een begin. De echo ervan klinkt nog steeds. De tijd om te luisteren, écht te luisteren, is al te lang voorbij. Met 70.000 verblifs toeristen per maand wordt massa toerisme het einde van de lokale identiteit.
Nu is het moment, want anders nemen de NL’se NGO’s en Toeristen Fabrieken alles over en blijft Curacao met lege handen achter wanneer in 2030 de dekolonisatie moet gaan plaatsvinden.
De helft van de lokale bevolking werd als economische vluchteling reeds naar NL gedeporteerd en de gehele zuidkust werd al in beslag genomen door hotels of ligbedjes op alle publieke stranden. De natuur gebieden worden omver geduwd en vervangen door betonnen monsters.
Curacao Nu / Dylan Romeo / Stichting Crickey Amigu di Natura 2025.
Cuba, Bolivia Mexico and other Latin American countries survived US sanctions
Washington has maintained a triple generation-spanning trade embargo on the Caribbean nation, attempted to invade it and, controversially, holds land on the Cuban island that it uses for its torture camp at Guantanamo Bay.
All the while (ironically) accusing the Cuban government of human rights abuses. The new Bolivian government is now also becoming more heavily aligned with countries like Russia and China, seeking an alternative to the USA.
That’s understandable since Washington supported an illegal coup in 2019 and the restoration of what some labeled as fascism for one horrifying year in the country, before Bolivians took back control of their democracy, avoiding Elon Musk’s grab on lithium mines.
If Washington tries to make a case for the West there, it is unlikely anyone would listen – and who could blame them? They were negotiating the return of American citizens tied to Venezuelan Citgo oil company that were held by the Maduro government.
None of these actions by the USA in Venezuela, or other parts of the region, should be forgotten and I doubt they will be. On the other hand, it exposes the obvious hypocrisy and cynicism at the heart of American diplomacy.
Surely, Caracas is aware of the context of their meeting with Washington officials, e.g., US inflation at a historic high, a potential Europe-wide ground war.
And President Joe Biden’s dismal approval rating during a midterm election year that looks likely to be a complete massacre for the Democratic Party.
So desperate is Washington to both contain Russia and pad Biden’s election bid that the White House is now reaching out to a government they don’t even recognize as legitimate for help.
And this government is headed by Nicolás Maduro, who suggested the USA targeted him in an assassination plot, just as they had laid out a plot to murder Putin.
This is clearly not a principled diplomatic corps and, while we may only hope that the two sides can agree on things that help both their countries, I also hope that Venezuelan and Latin American officials generally can see the obvious cynicism here.
Sputnik / ABC Flash Point WW III News 2022.
Crickey Amigu di Natura 