Dear Editor,
The main problem on St. Maarten is that we don't really understand what the problem is. Sure, the garbage problem, the crime problem, and the education problem, but these things are not the problem. These issues are merely the symptoms of the real problem in St. Maarten. A symptom is a sign of something wrong, an indicator of disease, the symptoms are not the problem. The symptoms exist because of the problem. So what, you may ask, is the real problem? I would humbly submit that we the people are the problem.
As a society we the people have grown soft and weak; we take everything as it comes and when someone does stand up, most of us close our mouths, eyes and ears, just like those three little monkeys. Hear no evil, see no evil, and speak no evil. Don't make waves. Live and let live. That's not my problem. What is one person going to do? Someone else will take care of that. That's not my business.
These are the excuses we make for ourselves to shirk our responsibilities as useful contributing members of society. When you are not responsible for anything, how can you be held accountable for it? You see, we the people are the problem, because we the people do not hold our leaders accountable, we the people do not hold our friends accountable; we the people do not hold our family accountable. We the people do not hold ourselves accountable. We the people have allowed our government, our leaders to run amok, no one can deny it. We catch them in their dirty deals and we watch them play the blame game like its musical chairs and we still don't hold them accountable. They should be ashamed, but they are not. We should be ashamed, but we are not.
We are all going about our merry ways ensconced in the belief that someone is minding the sheep. Well St. Maarten, I hate to break it to you, but the wolves are minding the sheep and we the people are in big trouble. Yes, our politicians are mostly corrupt, those that are not directly guilty of corruption are still guilty of passive participation in the corruption. But they can only do what we the people allow them to get away with. Who voted them in? We the people. Who let them stay in? We the people.
The real question is are we men, or are we mice? Do we the people want things to continue as they are, or will we demand change? Do we the people have the balls to say enough is enough? Me, I am always hopeful, but I can't say I'm optimistic about it.
I believe St. Maarten is special, and since I can trace my direct ancestry back at least 8 generations on SXM, I can reasonably assume I came from a long line of people who believed that St. Maarten was special as well.
Certainly I am biased. When I was born, there were about 7,500 people on St. Maarten.....it's more than 5 times that now. And that number is a joke compared to the number of transients barging through with no respect for our society, no responsibilities, and of course no accountability. But whose fault is that? We the people.
So, even though I still believe that St. Maarten is special, I feel it has long lost its charm and its lustre. Too great a percentage of the population do not care at all about St. Maarten, and we the people. They care only for themselves; they care only to see what they wish to see, and they refuse to do what needs to be done. Some might say it's the foreigners, but if we want to really see the truth, we could easily see that it's our own people that have sold us out. Deep down you know no one can buy what's not for sale.
We the people are both the problem and the solution. We need to realize that the times they are a ‘changing, that SXM is too small for all this garbage....in every sense. We the people must demand change. We must no longer accept mediocrity and incompetence. We must no longer accept deception and double-dealing, we must see the wolves for what they are, and we must demand better. No more second and third chances, no more suspicious activities that remain unexplained, no more nepotism, no more cronyism, no more secret deals, no more looking the other way. Enough is enough.
The time has come to take out the garbage, but we must be vigilant, we must truly look at the candidates running and not succumb to the same nepotism and cronyism that has gotten us a greedy government to begin with. Inform yourself before you decide that your cousin is best for the job; is he or she really? Or are you blinded by the same nepotism that has plagued us all these years?
Demand transparency, the Government belongs to we the people, they are our employees. Think about it, if you don't know or understand something, ask a question. Information is ever at our finger tips these days; ignorance might be bliss, but knowledge is power.
That power lies with you and I, the responsibility lies with you and I. Don't let them fool you, they work for us and when we start holding all our civil servants accountable for what they've done, and for what they haven't done, things will change.
"It is what it is, but it will become what you make it." - Attributed to Abe Lincoln.
I would like to mention that I wrote this last year in June of 2016. I believe it highlights how nothing has changed, and how we seem to have forgotten all we were already going through before Hurricane Irma.
Haydee Peterson
