Dear Editor,
I was stopped on Sunday after church by someone who after greeting me told me that he had not read anything from me in a while. I told him that there was not much more happening that I did not write about in the past.
“So you don’t know that they say ’tis VROMI [Ministry of Public Housing, Spatial Planning, Environment and Infrastructure VROMI – Ed.] people who building those bus stops right there in the Government work shop across from TelEm?” Indeed I did not know.
My question to him was if they were building them during Government working hours? He was not exactly sure how it was done but he knew for sure that if they were not being built there there they were been assembled there.
What I had already assumed with the little knowledge of technology that I have is that I did not believe that a whole solar system would be used to only generate electricity for charging of cellular phones. When I scrutinized the commercial signs closer it confirmed my suspicions that something fishy as usual was going on.
I do not believe that Government is going to get involved with commercial signage. So this is, even though not surprising, a bit confusing as well as suspicious to me. Because if this is a private enterprise, why are these bus stop huts being built or assembled in the Government premises and probably by Government employees on Government time?
So in view of transparency of Government I would request of the Minister of VROMI to, via this news medium because it has become common practice for members of Government in their official capacity to use this medium officially, let the people know what is the situation with those bus stop huts.
For instance who is to profit from the revenue generated through those propaganda signs? Is VROMI involved with the placing of those huts, which if nothing is done concerning the placing of official bus stop signs will become bus stops?
Public transportation should be of Government, so my question would be is Government involved in some kind of a partnership with whomever the owner(s) of those bus stop huts are or is?
We live in the hurricane belt, and those bus stop huts with propaganda signs have material value as well as the financial value which those propaganda signs will generate. I believe if Government is in partnership with the owners some kind of a contract is signed. The material value is a set price, but my concern would be the value of the financial revenue per month, per year etc. What kind of a revenue are we talking about here and how far would Government be liable for the guarantee of this let us call it commercial value?
This reminds me of that US $70.000 which Government is paying for water not produced. Like I mentioned before, once those bus stop huts are placed they will take on a life of their own, whether in strategic places or not; whether conducive to the traffic situation or not.
My take on this is that I and a whole lot more than myself believe that since 10-10-10 all of Sint Maarten’s governments have not lasted due to the fact that half of the time the members of Government were busy planning how to topple each other and the rest of the time they used trying to make themselves look good in order to secure votes.
All this while the country is deteriorating. And Irma is no excuse. I believe that in time of universal deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act, which reminds me of what my mother seriously expressed to me when I was not yet a teenager. I can still hear it distinctively. She said “ Ah can’ hear what you sayin’, because what you doin’ is gettin’ in the way. So don’ try to take trick to make luck.”
I did not quite understand what she meant, but as I had been doing for years I would write them down, because questioning your parents under the circumstances was completely out of the question in my days growing up.
Over the years I came to understand what a lot of those sayings meant, and you know what? Almost all of them were interpretations of what is written in the Bible. For too many years now every last Island Council member and since 10-10-10 every member of Government has avoided regulating public transportation because that would be in the interest of the people. Less traffic congestion, getting to work on time, less wear and tear on private vehicles. less gasoline consumption.
All of this was and still seems not to be in the interest of any of those who have been in Government for years. Especially when it concerned gasoline and bus permits. Some who are no more in Government still own bus fleets.
“If you don’t reveal what I did, I will not reveal what you are doing” is still the unwritten rule among members of government, so I foresee that whoever is involved in placing those bus stop huts will single-handed create bus stops while Government is turning a blind eye to the situation.
Am I to accept that year in year out people in Government are being locked up by the RST as if nobody on Sint Maarten is allowed to stop its own people from going too far? Who is actually in charge of the supervision of good governance?
I cannot recall seeing any legislation concerning the placing of bus stop huts or bus stops of late. Bus stops which I consider not to be there because buses stop whenever and wherever they want and nothing is being done about it.
I always ask myself if the Prosecutor’s Office does not notice that despite the erratic behavior of the bus drivers, no fines are issued to them?
I continue to repeat that we are consistently supplying Holland ammunition to use against us. Knowing that as long as there is nothing in it for me ,my question is: “Is there really nothing in it for whoever is so interested in installing those bus stop huts supplied with solar system and commercial signs? And on whose land are these bus stop huts being placed?”
Russell A. Simmons
