Dear Editor,
I will try to keep this article professional and simple as possible.
Respect to all the new faces and people who may have good intentions that postulate themselves on a political party.
From the present political parties to all new political parties, they cannot define what makes them different.
Lesson number 1: To understand any problem you must identify the problem or else you cannot tackle or rectify it if you do not know where and what is the problem.
Lesson number 2: How you approach and how you tackle the problem defines how you see it. (That is what makes political parties different).
The difference is called ideology. In social studies, a political ideology is a certain set of ethical ideals, principles, doctrines, or symbols of a social movement, institution, class or large group that explains how society should work and offers some political and cultural blueprint for a certain social order.
Lesson number 3: Your political party should explain how you would like St. Maarten to be, and why your ideology is the ideology to make St. Maarten successful.
Lesson 4: Your platform (manifesto) should explain how your party ideology plans to rectify the financial issues and social issues and define your party’s patriotism to St. Maarten.
Lesson 5: The members of the party should in principle agree with at least 80 percent of the party platform or else you do not have a political party. This is the key to avoid ship-jumping.
Lesson 6: Every member should explain him- or herself to the party if their intentions are to serve in the executive branch (Council of Ministers) or the in the legislative branch (Parliament of St. Maarten).
Lesson 7: Every member should sign an agreement that loyalty is to the party and not their personal goals, and every party should present that agreement to the voters of St. Maarten.
Lesson 8: Every party member should study the constitution and explain to their party which part of the constitution they feel can be amended or what can be added to provide a better quality life to the people of St. Maarten. Why this is important, this defines who you are (character) as a person.
Lesson 9: Every party member should make clear to his party if he or she believes St. Maarten should stay indefinitely with the Dutch Kingdom or should it set a goal to be independent with a specific time frame.
Lesson 10: What is your party’s view of the definition on who is a St. Maartener and does your party intend to prescribe it in St. Maarten constitution.
The main 2 political ideologies are Conservative or Liberal. Conservatism is a political and social philosophy promoting traditional social institutions in the context of culture and civilization. The central tenets of conservatism include tradition, organic society, hierarchy, authority, and property rights. Liberalism combines ideas of civil liberty and equality with support for social justice and a mixed economy.
Conservatives believe in personal responsibility, limited government, free markets, individual liberty, traditional values and a strong national defense. Conservatives believe the role of government should be to provide people the freedom necessary to pursue their own goals. Liberals believe government should provide more services to the less fortunate (like health care) and increase taxes if necessary. High-income earners should pay a larger percentage of their income as taxes.
The conclusion, it is the party’s responsibility to convince the electorate why their ideology is better for St. Maarten and point out the differences between their party and other parties. This gives the reason why your party is needed. Choices have consequences, political parties choose people with same value and ideology.
The Patriot Miguel Arrindell
Sixty years ago, the founding fathers of St. Martin Day – Dr. Hubert Petit, Claude Wathey and Clem LaBega – conceived of this day as a celebration of the people, by the people and for the people. Alas, that whole idea has been hijacked. This is what Dr. Hubert Petit had to say about what happened:
“… Gradually, they (the colonial authorities) took over the celebration of St. Martin Day and they changed everything. We St. Martin people believed we had a day belonging to us, but in reality, they took it back from us. … The spirit that existed at that time does not exist anymore. At that time, it just had a small population and we all were St. Martin people; we knew each other and we celebrated happily.”
Dr. Petit was speaking on a televised interview with Elton Richardson of the St. Martin In Retrospect program many, many rains ago. But his words apply just as much today, or probably even more so.
It is very clear that originally, St. Martin Day was a people’s fete. Unity is what we are supposed to be celebrating, not the division of the island.
The true spirit of St. Martin Day should therefore not die after we have delivered all the sweet-sounding speeches on November 11. This ritual needs to be rooted in the very dreams and aspirations of our people for a St. Martin that belongs to all of us.
If we were able to see ourselves in this manner, no decision would be taken in Great Bay without consultation with Marigot and vice versa. Let me give a concrete example.
The controversial PPRN affects not only our brothers and sisters in Sandy Ground, Grand Case and Lamijo, but also several St. Martin people in Great Bay, Dutch Quarter and Simpson Bay who have family ties that stretch across the artificial borders.
The reverse is also true; whatever the fate of Princess Juliana International Airport may be, it would affect all of us equally because it is the international gateway for the entire island, employing people from both sides of the island.
This island is ours because we built it with our blood, sweat and tears; it is ours because our forefathers and foremothers worked it from salt pond to salt pond; from valley to hilltop; from sun-up to sundown; a chant of freedom on their lips; salty sweat on their brows, dripping down their bodies with the sun as the promise of a better day for us their offspring.
We should therefore not allow anybody, no matter where they come from, to divide us and take over what is ours. St. Martin is ours by history and heritage; it is ours by dint of hard work and by divine destiny.
We stand on this Rock we call home and shall not be moved from it, so help us God!
Happy St. Martin Day!
Chairman of Parliament William Marlin
Dear Editor,
Travelling with Winair from Bonaire to St. Eustatius an experience I would like to share through this medium.
I was at the airport from 6:15am on the morning of November 2, 2019, to be checked in for 6:30am.
Unfortunately, that never happened. At 7:00am, I was the first person to be checked in at the counter. After reading my boarding pass, which said 10:40am boarding time, I immediately returned to the counter and was told the flight is delayed until 11:50am. This for a flight that should have left Bonaire at 8:30am.
We never departed from Bonaire until 11:50am. We departed Curaçao at 12:55pm, the flight lasted 2 hours and 15 minutes. During this time, I should have checked-in in St. Maarten for my connecting flight to St. Eustatius.
After my arrival, I went to Winair check-in counter where my connecting flight to St. Eustatius had already departed. I was professionally helped by the clerk of the counter, who gave me a boarding pass for a flight 541 to leave St. Maarten at 5:20pm with stipulation “standby”. At that moment, I realized it was eight passengers from that delayed flight to receive a boarding pass with the same information.
I then returned to the counter and asked would we get an extra flight, seeing the number of passengers that were there. I was told to hang on upstairs, so I did. Putting in an extra flight would have to be a supervisor decision.
After waiting from 2:45pm until 6:00pm and no word, I returned to the counter and was given a voucher to have something to eat. We stayed calm and were told it is more likely that we would be put up until the next day. At 6:15pm we were called for immediate boarding, we were all happy about that. However, to our great surprise this flight was actually destined for Antigua for but three persons, while we were eight.
After all that long stressful wait, Winair was flying from St. Maarten to Antigua to carry three passengers with a stop in St. Eustatius for the eight of us. A flight that would have been more costly to fly three to Antigua.
I am calling on Government and all stakeholders to stop allowing Winair’s decrease in good service to the Golden Rock and the increasing of prices.
After all, aren't we entitled to the same good service as the other islands? We are also one of the few that make use mostly of Winair; shouldn't we be able to connect with our family and friends from the other islands for an affordable fare?
I am asking Statians to stand united in a positive manner towards the service we pay for, like any other Island that pays for their services.
I would like to thank the captain and his co-pilot who brought us safely home that evening.
Eardley Woodley
Dear Editor,
I would like to congratulate University of St. Martin (USM) on its upcoming 30th Anniversary celebration on November 16. Our local university came a long way in its thirty years of existence. USM has graduated more than 750 alumni, who hold key positions in the public and private sectors of St. Maarten. USM has produced some of St. Maarten's top Directors, Managers and Leaders within our community. I am proud to have been associated with USM and a faculty member for more than 25 years.
USM’s major strength is its students who can go anywhere in the world from here and excel at top universities, and Ivy Leagues around the globe. I find it amazing for a non-accredited university, that our students can go anywhere from here with their credits and excel at other top universities as the best in their class. That's a fact!
Mr. Editor, all USM wanted in its thirty years of existence is for our local government to recognize its own national institution of higher learning on the island. I can't understand why any island/country would not recognize its own institution of higher learning, and put a structural solution in place for funding, instead of injecting bits of funding which can't finance the curriculum and educators to run a full accredited university.
What happened to the long overdue draft tertiary ordinance to recognize our university? The first question any outside business would ask USM while marketing abroad is, "Are you recognized by your local government?" which they can't answer.
Education should be legislators’ and government’s top priority. The educational system of a nation is the foundation for building any nation.
We need to reignite the vision of the founders of why USM was established, such as the late Dr. Claude Wathey and Ambassador Dr. Husang Ansary. We need to get back to the vision, instead of being all over the place with the future development of USM.
I also would like to know why our co-founder, Ambassador Dr. Husang Ansary, is donating millions to other universities in the United States, instead of helping to further develop our own local university that he helped co-found? USM should be the future corner stone to educate our people to become leaders of the 21st century within our community. Education must be a top priority!
In closing, I pray to God that the sooner the better, we get it right with the right vision and put a structural solution and funding in place to recognize our own local institution, USM.
Maurice Lake
From the days of slavery
All emphasis was given
To the economy
No one ever care
Whether we live, whether we die
We only existed te satisfy
The massah's greed
And every breath we breed
Te was te answer te his need
Picked he cotton, planted he corn
Cut he sugar cane
Reap he salt
While we were treated
With scorn
We grow their economy
To make them rich and wealthy
But nobody ever
Care ’bout we
Abolition came
But nothing did change
The exploitation continue
Just the same
Nobody caring fo we
The politicians more interested
In balancing the budget
And developing the economy
By caring fo the tourist industry
But nobody caring fo we
All they have fo we
Is some underpaying task
Or ah position at ah lower
Class
With no health care
No pension fund
Low compensation
In not even ah vacation
’Cauz fo we they just
Don’t care
Fo their wealth with we
They wouldn’t share
So we move from cultivation
On the plantation
To tourism and leisure vacation
But still remain the servant
To the massah
And we are consider the children
Of ah lesser God
Carriers of water and hewers
Of wood
So nobody care about us
As they should
So we are refused our share
In the pie
And our only promise
Is to have a better life
When we die
Up in the sky
Nobody care about us
Down here
Raymond Helligar aka “Big Ray”
