Dear Editor,
In 1970 was time I visited the Dutch Windward Islands. One of the first things which caught my attention was the hills and the fruit trees. And the cisterns by the houses. I visited Saba and I noticed that there were community cisterns.
When I was transferred up here in 1975, with that water situation and the community cisterns on my mind, I approached the then-director of GEBE, a schoolmate, and we spoke about the possibility of putting water tanks to catch rainwater in the hills above the various villages. Treat the water. Make use of gravity and some extra pumps to help distribute the water. He, being an engineer, made notes and he reminded me how in the days of LAGO on Aruba an idea like that could bring me money.
On one occasion later when I asked him if he was working on the tanks, his answer was, “The people who bring oil (gasoline and diesel) to St. Maarten don’t want to hear anything about that.” After seeing, reading and listening about “solar energy” on five of the six islands of the former Netherlands Antilles would I be amiss to think that “The people who bring oil (gasoline and diesel) to St. Maarten don’t want to hear anything about that?”
By the way, what is the difference between treating well-water and treating rainwater?
Between the steady raising of the price of gasoline and the lack of control of daily, yes, I repeat daily adding of US $0.25 to the price of a different article in the supermarkets, before long even those who walk out the supermarkets without being checked by the cashier will feel the pinch.
By the way, why does it seem that only “St. Maarteners” are being indicted? From a child going to school I know the term “de heeler zowel als de steler” so what am I missing here? At one time during a conversation under the tree someone asked me if (“C” people from a certain country) don’t commit crime on St. Maarten? My simple answer is, “Even those who get caught with their hand in the cookie jar go free on St. Maarten.”
Now this. Someone said to me I should ask the police, “How would they be able to see if the occupants of a motor vehicle are making proper use the seatbelt if they cannot see in the vehicle because of the black tint on the cars?” I will add to that what about the safety of the passengers in the buses, do they have safety belts?
One of the constant comments that we have heard coming towards the end of the Silveria Jacobs-led government was, “This is the worst government we ever had.” And my reaction to that is we never had a full-term government since 10-10-2010 so we do not have any other St. Maarten government to compare it to.
Do not follow politicians who take advantage of the people’s ignorance instead of educating the people. I would be elated to hear that the Mercelina government is (was) better than the former government because that should mean an improvement for the people in general. We need drastic price control!
If we had solar energy there would not be any need for load-shedding.
Russell A. Simmons
