Dear Editor,
Respectfully I, J.J.F., want to express my dissatisfaction with the handling of my recent luggage. On the 25th of September, I was scheduled to fly with Winair Airlines from St. Maarten to Antigua, and upon my arrival, my luggage was nowhere to be found.
I understand that there could be unexpected delays, but this delay was unreasonably long. I waited one whole day in Antigua and still, my luggage was not available. Even after I filed a missing baggage report and requested compensation, I received the response that the bag was left back in St. Maarten. The next day I had to travel to Jamaica because it was a transit flight. I spent one week in Jamaica without any kind of compensation, I spent one week and four days without any clothes, and no one from the airline Winair gave me a call or tried to contact me concerning my luggage.
Upon returning to St. Maarten, I went to the airline Winair at their office and was sent back to the airport to make another complaint. And I was told the luggage was sent to Trinidad on Caribbean Airlines from Antigua; they contacted Trinidad, and they said it was sent to Jamaica on Caribbean Airlines. When I was told this, I was sent home, and no one contacted me further about the luggage. The Manager of Winair also told me upon arrival to St. Maarten that it's the first time she heard about a missing luggage.
I would like to receive my luggage or to be compensated for this extremely inconvenient delay. Please provide me with the compensation I am due for the inconvenience. And the officials and departments of Winair should investigate the matter so that this doesn't happen to anybody else again.
And please note that if I don't receive my luggage, any compensation or any kind of satisfaction I will be carrying this case to a lawyer and have to take this matter to court.
J.J.F.
Initials used at author’s request.
Dear Editor,
If my ready knowledge serves me well I can state that the permits to operate a business are placed in the business concerned readily available to the controller so that controller should not have to ask the owner for it. Because I am aware of this I always read them to know who the owner(s) is (are).
I am amazed at the amount of names of St. Maarteners that appeared on those permits in businesses managed by non-nationals. In the supermarkets nowadays the ratio non-nationals to nationals is five to one or four to none. Not to mention the illegals who accept less than minimum wages, encouraging job owners to claim that the nationals don’t want to work.
For a while now I have noticed that Prime Minister Mercelina is acting spokesman for GEBE, which also raises questions, because I believe that there is a ministry in which portfolio GEBE is included.
Because of the above and because of seemingly injustices with “fuel clause” I do not believe that the name of the owner(s) of SOL on St. Maarten should be withheld from the people (government) of St. Maarten. This is not a permit to carry a particular weapon, so the clients should be able to know, without any red tape, who the owner is or the owners are, who is making all of this money from the fuel clause.
If a calculation is done from the amount of money made, like someone told me, the tax alone from that money could pay one-third of the government’s employees’ salary. Based on this and the letters sent to you concerning what is happening at GEBE I do not think that it should be a secret. It is the people’s money and we should know how it is being spent. For instance, how much is a billion divided by sixty thousand?
Now this. I am fully aware of the increase in temperature In the area, but even though I might be venturing into dangerous territory, in taking I Corinthians 6:19-20 into consideration I believe that our ladies when venturing outside/in public should clothe themselves less revealing. The words “dignified” and “chastity” come to mind. I still believe that leaving some for the imagination is more attractive than revealing all. Children grow up and become what they are revealed to, quicker than what they are told. Proverbs 22:6 should be a parents’ secret weapon.
And I would still like to see individual passport pictures of my leaders of government and their portfolios. As far as I can see, up ’til now I noticed that Ms. Gumbs is putting her cards on the table and her picture is shown with the article. This should become common for all the rest. Everybody knew who we were.
I just finished reading a letter sent to you. Immediately I thought of the saying “She tongue ain’t got no bone”.
Russell A. Simmons
Dear Minister of Finance,
Congratulations! Your performance is great and excellent. Keep it up.
Dollarisation is better for St. Maarten instead of having this Caribbean currency.
St. Maarten needs their own Central Bank. All the other islands have Curaçao since 10/10/10. And it seems like St. Maarten is still the colony of Curaçao. Please do your best for St. Maarten to have its own central bank as soon as possible, and please ask the Central Bank in Curaçao for the CKC clients’ money.
I don't see the images of Claude Wathey and Vance James on the new Caribbean currency.
Cuthbert Bannis
Dear Editor,
October 7 2024 is the one year anniversary since Hamas did a very shameful act
on the holy land of Israel, for which 90% of the world population condemned Hamas.
Iran seems to be more wise than Hamas, Hezbollah and Russia because see the situation
Hammas and Hezbollah have Palestine and Lebanon and in Iran no problem.
Until the UN and NATO give Iran a taste of the Armageddon war before 2030 with the UK leading the war against Iran, by doing so 80% of Iran people will help put out Iran government.
Cuthbert Bannis
Dear Editor,
Please allow me some space in your well-read newspaper to find out from NV GEBE why is it that the fuel clause is so high and getting higher for the past few months. I don’t understand how the fuel clause could be 3 times your bill. This is getting out of hand and I would like to know how this fuel clause is being calculated.
We the people of this island only complain to each other about it, but no real action is taken – reason also why this fuel clause will never be addressed to none of us. This is insane and we need to get more clarity on this fuel clause issue. The bills from NV GEBE are very high with all the power outages we are still experiencing. Come on, St. Maarten people, do you think this is right and are you going to do something about this?
A concerned citizen
Name withheld at author’s request.
