Dear Editor,
Our beautiful island of Sint Maarten is on the way to lose the title of “Friendly Island” and “Second Home” to many visitors because of the recent upsurge of the crime condition due to the inefficiency of the government on every front.
To the best of my knowledge, the total number of the violent, daring daylight robberies in the year 2025 surpasses any year in the past no matter which government and/or party were in power. The criminals have become fearless and ruthless to the extent they now target the crowded locations.
Our only source of income is tourism and most of the robberies in the jewelry stores on Front Street and in the hotels and resorts are very well witnessed by the tourists and in this era of social media everyone can come to know in a very short period of time. Do you think we will be able to get the tourism for an exceedingly long time if this situation continues?
Well, I do not think so looking at the history of St. Croix, Haiti, and some of the central American countries. Who is getting the brunt of it and will get hurt the most? We the hardworking locals, employees, and employers or the commoners who wake up every morning to work hard to put the food on the table to feed the family.
The question arises who can contain and control this mess? The government! But every government just gives the same old BS and reason that the previous ones made the coffers empty, so we do not have funds to hire new personnel and pay overtime to the ones that we already have to provide the security which is actually the fundamental right of every citizen and it is the fundamental duty of the government.
But every now and then most of MPs are overseas attending some sort of conference or workshop in Panama, Curacao, Netherlands, and all over the world and not forgetting they are drawing a huge monthly salary. So, where the money is coming from? Should not those funds be invested in public security and save our only source of income the “TOURISM.”
The present government has failed on every aspect and now they have gone to the Netherlands to beg for support. Is Netherlands going to provide you support without getting anything in return? They will demand the transparency in the governance and want to see where the money is going but would our leaders accept that condition.
The Netherlands has full right to demand that. When your child grows up and still lives off your income then you have the full right to dictate the rules of the house and if not, he will be more than welcome to provide for himself and live by his rules. It is that simple. But the public will never come to know about this. We will only be told that, “We had very fruitful and positive conversation and we are working to fine tune the things.”
When you elect the MPs, see their biodata as what experience are they bringing to Parliament from their past if any. The person who never held a job or had any experience should not be elected to be your MP.
The fruit will always depend on the seed you plant. You can not plant a lemon seed and keep your fingers crossed that somehow you will harvest the sweet mangoes.
Wake up and next time you vote use your best judgement and don’t see what they say, see what they do! Remember the saying, “cheat me once shame on you, but cheat me twice it’s shame on me.”
F.T.
