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Anxious to stanch the flow of immigrants, the government of Prime Minister Joop den Uyl has offered the Surinamese what U.S. Consul-General Robert Flanegin calls "the biggest golden handshake any colonialist power has ever conferred on a former colony." Surinam will get $1.7 billion in aid over the next 10 to 15 years. At the same time, independence will mean giving up the right to unlimited immigration to The Netherlands. Last week in languid Paramaribo, one hit song was a mournful ballad called There Is No Room for Surinamese in Holland Any More.
If so many talented Hindustanis had not left the country, the aid would not be needed quite so critically. Surinam is one of the world's leading exporters of bauxite, the ore from which aluminum is refined. Already determined reserves are more than 500 million tons, and untold additional tonnage is believed to exist beneath unexplored jungle. Surinam provides about one-fifth of U.S. bauxite needs. Meanwhile, the new nation has other markets and friends. Venezuela will soon give oil to Surinam in exchange for bauxite, and Brazil may build a highway through the jungle to gain another port on the Atlantic.
Manpower Hemorrhage. Nonetheless, the emigration of talent and labor hurts. Last week a diplomat's wife complained that there was only one plumber left in Paramaribo. There were hundreds of doctors, teachers and merchants among the emigrants, and the manpower hemorrhage included not only professionals but critically important farm workers as well. Surinam, a nation that imports more than 50% of its foodstuffs, must now also import farm workers to help harvest its sugar cane crops.
* Locally used languages include Dutch, French, Hindi, English, Javanese, Chinese and Taki-Taki, an English-based patois made up of many tongues.