Dear Editor,
There were a whole lot of people in agreement with the fact that we need a complete revamp of the public transportation. My main reason for asking Mr. Boasman to petition Holland to help him change the public transportation system, which in his opinion cannot be changed that easily, is to ensure that senior citizens who in this era are still the pioneers and backbone of whatever Sint Maarten has developed into, are guaranteed the right to the respectable treatment they have earned.
The integral part of my philosophy of life is “where there is a will there is a way.” All over the world the seniors are carried, here we are dragged along as if we did not contribute. If we did not contribute where did the government on several occasions get money to bail themselves out of dubious deals gone wrong? Is it not the pension money that the seniors have accumulated (and those in charge invested) over the years from hard work which some are still doing.
Some people reminded me of how the (foreign) bus drivers blatantly disregarded the wishes of the then-government, of which several members are still in government, to transport senior citizens free of charge or at a reduced price and government did not do and still has not done anything about it.
One senior citizen, 76 years old, told me that a local based insurance company of which its headquarters is based in another country refused to insure his vehicle because of his age. He would have to be proven physically fit by a doctor to be able to insure his vehicle. My conclusion is that that man will have to use public transportation to get to and from that doctor, if his car is not insured. Another reason to make sure that public transportation is regulated so that the senior citizens can get around and not sit home and rot because of lack of government doing right by them.
These are the same people, the majority of whom were born here or who have been here since the ’60s and who are a major part of the foundation which everybody else has built on; who have withstood both the boom and perils of a growing Sint Maarten, including manually building roads, maintaining the beaches; the same people who see the fruits of their labor end up in the hands of others than their childrens’.
If we accept the saying “once a man twice a child” and we know that we have to take care of children then do that. Or is that saying only applied when it is beneficial to the one using it?
While being on the topic of taking care of the seniors, there is a case of a retired airline employee/station manager who worked for 25 years for a foreign-based airline. This retired citizen of 65 years has to pay full fare to travel through the Caribbean. I have written in the past that any company which comes to establish itself here should be subject to contributing towards the wellbeing of the country. Especially if a tax holiday is in the package. Maintain a school, part of a road, the traffic lights, etc. The same policy should be maintained to benefit the senior citizens.
Because of past experience with all who have been in government, I would not like to see that mentioned in any manifesto for the upcoming election, because that will be a guarantee not to get it done. Just do it. Some might not agree but for years now we are talking about protecting our tourism product while government itself is contributing to murder it. No price control, constant rise in prices of tourist articles, inferior products in stores, increase in liquor prices, and most of all the creation of Mount Disaster in the middle of the most unique sites in the Caribbean. None of this is caused by nature.
Change and improve on the public transportation system and create a snowball effect: more people using public transportation; less cars on the road; less wear and tear on the vehicles and on the roads; less traffic jams; less use of gasoline; less toxic emission; less contribution to the cause of global warming and on and on.
I know that there will be reaction from those directly or indirectly involved in the gasoline business. And my question is. Is tourism the only way to provide for a people? We have had enough time to sort that out, but again it seems as if greed has priority and blurs our minds from seeing alternatives.
It is time enough to realize that God’s teaching should precede all our deeds in order for us to succeed. We should keep Mark 8:36 in mind. The short version is “all crave all lost.” This has been proven over and over but seemingly not enough for a certain group of people who continue to shuffle the deck without thinking of the pitcher which goes to the well once too often. There is a limit to everything, people.
Russell A. Simmons
