To begin with, I am not a biased person, and the truth cannot hide. In reference to your article dated Friday, February 6, 2020, Vol.29 No. 238, stating that I seem to want to continue to perpetuate the misguided assumption that SMHDF is a part of government: The word perpetuate is a verb. In layman’s terms it means to cause something to continue. In other words, SMHDF is not part of government. Very interesting news for the tenants to know.
They went on to say, “SMHDF is a private organization carrying out the work that government is supposed to do and no way can be described as a public entity.” I hope the government reads this article. My question to them was, if you are not part of government, why they continue subsidizing the organization with a yearly amount of NAf. 300,000? This total was mentioned by SMHDF in the newspaper.
This is definitely not good! In order for tenants to get a relief, they had to take SMHDF to court. Many of the units still have leaks. There’s not even a community center where children in Belvedere can go and socialize with their peers, read books and get help with homework. Since Hurricane Lenny my roof spouting was blown away. Many other tenants lost their spouting also. Up until today I am still waiting for them to come and replace them. These spouting are very important because they stop the heavy load of water coming off the roof to the ground. Now there’re no spouting the water falls heavily to the front and back porches. Sometimes it got into the outlet and tripped the breaker.
I didn’t malign the foundation in any way. Information presented by the organization in the newspaper Vol.29. 219 states “Belvedere homes had hidden defects before Erma which cost $17 million.” I question them in my article about only now because SMHDF needs $45 million for new projects the tenants are hearing of the defects in the units and the cost of $17 million before [Hurricane – Ed.] Irma. I didn’t hear about these defects before Erma.
I’ve noted also that a number of financial reports and statistical information were presented to government by your team of professionals. If that is so, Why the three ministers still asked the foundation for Statement of Affairs? Why doesn’t the organization publish a Receipt and Payment Account, Income and Expenditure Account and Statement of Affairs for 2016 to 2019 in the National Gazette to prove me wrong? Has SMHDF ever provided feedback forms for the tenants to rate your service and performance? I think you should conduct the survey.
I never associated the foundation with any fraudulent activities. I said in my article that it is vital to prepare the necessary statements to safeguard the organization against fraud. What is wrong with that? There’s a difference between a Minister of Justice and a Public Prosecutor. If I asked the minister of justice and other ministers to make SMHDF comply to the request by the government, this doesn’t mean the organization commits a crime. Ministers have a parliament to answer to on how they spent taxpayers’ money. Most of the words expressed in their article is certainly out of context.
We are couple of months away from another hurricane season and no progress has been made to secure the units. I am a community-minded person. If I see someone needs help in the community I’ll try to assist that person. I remember in Matthew chapter 14:25-32 Jesus saw his disciples in the middle of the sea when a storm was approaching and saw that they needed help, and straight away he went to them walking on the water to rescue them. So am I today! I help the community by writing on events affecting the poor people in the community.
Finally, in our society many organizations involved in public housing should not confuse the social needs of the people with their economic wants. Sociology and economics sometimes clash on what is social and what is economic. It is quite convincing to financers to say that we are going to build new homes, etc., for people in the community in order to prevent homelessness in order to receive financial support. On the other side, when the homes are built, they are either for sale or for rent at high prices. The low-income family will not be able to rent or purchase these homes. This is the economic part to be considered. The government through their respective organization should continue subsidizing the low-income people to prevent homelessness.
Sometimes a private organization is established as a foundation and carrying out its commercial activities as a public entity. A good example is when private individuals purchase part of the shares in a public organization. Moreover, SMHDF is subsidized by government as stated in the newspaper with a yearly amount of NAf. 300,000. If funds are coming from other sources through government the organization can be private as well public. The aim and objectives statements will give more clarity in this matter. Foundations at times engage in this activity to gain and enjoy certain privileges.
Joseph Harvey
I agree with the recent letter from a Charlotte NC couple regarding this facility. After traveling here to get to St. Barth it is unimaginable after 30 months this facility is not to real operational functionality. A total embarrassment and the lack of ADA is horrific. A total mess.
The local government is not investing in this facility. Plenty of insurance money as everything else in SXM is being built or re-built. I will not return as I will go through SJU and clear US Customs. No jet bridges after 30 months, follow the money trail, it’s not being invested here. Think of the landing fees, taxes the local government is charging as well as 25 per cent plus fuel premiums and fees … It’s not going back into the infrastructure. The island is suffering as well as much lower occupancy rates in hotels as the crime rate has risen.
David Bond
By Li Yigang
Recently the epidemic of COVID-19 has caught everyone’s attention. It’s not only a major threat to the safety and health of Chinese people but also a great challenge to global public health security. According to data of the past a few days, the overall situation of China’s epidemic prevention and control continues to improve.
The growth rate of confirmed COVID-19 cases has slowed down, and most provinces and cities except Hubei have no new cases. However, a few foreign countries are reporting quickly increasing numbers of patients and the Netherlands also has confirmed cases. Moreover, Saint Martin of this region has two cases confirmed days ago, attracting continuous public attention. Here I would like to introduce Dutch Caribbean friends to the situation about China's fight against the epidemic.
- Be united-as-one to fight against the disease.
Since the epidemic breakout, the Chinese government has always put people’s lives, safety and health as priority. Under the strong leadership of the Communist Party of China Central Committee with Comrade Xi Jinping at its core, China has adopted the most comprehensive, rigorous and thorough measures to prevent and control the disease.
With extraordinary efforts, we have contained its spread momentum and have made great contribution to the world. President Xi Jinping personally chaired a meeting to direct the outbreak response, and called for confidence, unity, science-based approach and targeted response as guidelines for China’s epidemic control efforts.
The government organizations and relevant institutions are operating efficiently, building up a comprehensive and multi-level control system, including the lockdown of Wuhan city as the key area, the full participation of all government officials in epidemic prevention and control, the cancellation of large-scale public events, the guidance to residents for self-quarantine, the deployment of medical staff and supplies across the country, and the construction and put into use of two specialized hospitals with 2,500 beds within 15 days, etc.
Aforementioned measures have demonstrated China’s speed and scale during this fight, as well as the strengths of China’s system.
- Prevent the disease from spreading and live up to the responsibility as a major country.
China’s efforts to fight against the epidemic and the progress to prevent its spread to other countries have been recognized worldwide. WHO [World Health Organisation – Ed.] Director-General Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said on Munich Security Conference that the steps China took to contain the outbreak at its source have bought the world time, even though those steps have come at greater cost to China, but it’s slowing the spread to the rest of the world.
China is fighting the outbreak aggressively to protect its own people and the people of the world. UN [United Nations] Secretary-General Mr. António Guterres praised Chinese people’s contribution that they are suffering from daily inconveniences and have given up parts of normal lives. They made sacrifice to contain the spread of the virus and it is great contribution to all mankind.
Thanks to the concerted efforts of the people of all ethnic groups throughout the country, China has made positive progress in controlling the epidemic. Since mid-February, the number of newly diagnosed cases in China has steadily declined, and the number of cured cases has increased rapidly.
On February 18, for the first time, the number of cured cases exceeded the number of newly diagnosed. On March 3, 2,652 patients were cured, which was 22 times more than the confirmed patients the same day.
The figures are inspiring and illustrate that the epidemic is preventable, controllable and the disease curable. There is no reason to panic and we should assess the situation in an objective, rational and scientific way.
Now the governments at various levels in China are strengthening personnel health management according to local conditions, to prevent the epidemic from rebounding.
III. Work together to win the battle against the epidemic.
Acting with openness, transparency and a high sense of responsibility, the Chinese authorities shared information of the epidemic with relevant parties in a timely manner.
We keep close communication with the WHO, the neighbouring and relevant countries, and carry out international cooperation. After two-month epidemic prevention and control, China’s strategy and experience are worth learning from.
Meanwhile, various countries and international organizations have offered timely sources of help, providing aid supplies to China. The Dutch King, Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs have expressed their condolences and support by telegram and letter in succession.
The Dutch business community donated much-needed medical supplies to China. When I met with leaders of the Curaçao government and officials from its Ministry of Health, I could also feel their support and appreciation of China’s fight against the epidemic.
The epidemic respects no borders and the fight against it should leave no one behind. I noticed that the Netherlands has taken necessary and reasonable measures for the purpose of strengthening epidemic prevention and control.
The Dutch Caribbean autonomous countries have also issued health reminders and raised vigilance, to protect the health and safety of their citizens and foreign nationals. So long as these measures are science-based, professional and appropriate, I think people will accept.
We will uphold the concept of building a community of shared future for mankind and are willing to strengthen communication and collaboration with countries around the world including the Netherlands, as well as the WHO, to enhance the mutual understanding and trust among all parties. The aims are to effectively prevent the transnational spread of the epidemic and maintain regional and global public health security.
Let’s keep united-as-one, work together and achieve the final victory of combating the COVID-19 epidemic!
~ Li Yigang is Consul General of the People’s Republic of China in Willemstad. ~
Dear Editor,
Death is as present as the shadows cast from our bodies by the sun’s brilliance during our waking life. Intertwined with life is this non-negotiator ever lurking in the shadows, remaining unseen from an espial right in the here-and-now. Death comes knocking at our doors unannounced, oblivious to whether we are prepared or not. What an inflexible and cruel truth this can be for those who are overwhelmed by the co-existence of this invisible resident.
Dear Editor,
One of my people who usually picks my brain asked me recently what were the acronyms for “nothing going on”. Because I know who I was dealing with, I assumed that it was a loaded question, so I told him to turn off his phone, you will not play it back and say that I say. The part of the conclusion of the discussion turned out to be that those are the people who constantly stagnate the business of the country. A common expression has become “the bottom of the pile” or “in the drawer which is hardly opened”.
At five years old I was a batboy for the Baby Ruth baseball team in Aruba and at that time already my father insisted that if I am going to be involved in anything I should know the basics of it. At a very young age I used to sell the local newspaper and when I was 13 years old the Windward Island Opinion came from St. Maarten to my father’s friend so I also distributed and sold that on Aruba. Again my father would query me on articles in that newspaper. “If you are selling those papers you should be able to know some of the headlines in the paper.” Later on I joined the Baseball Umpires Association of St. Maarten and I used to challenge the players to know the baseball rules better that me.
It is from that premise I rate my Ministers. One of the things that I realized when I was a baseball umpire is that the baseballs that were used in the Major Leagues and many other countries where baseball is played were made in Haiti. That opened my mind and I concluded that if Haiti, a country in the Caribbean, can make something as important to the sport as baseballs, then other things can be made also. I went back to when we were looking forward to get yams from Statia. When they told me that lobster was used here for bait for fish pots my reaction was “and they don’t export them?”
Why am I writing all of this? Because of the number plate saga. I do not know where Mister Irion was in 2013, I am sure if there was goodwill to serve the people of St. Maarten in the right way, someone should have told him that the results will be just like in 2013. Mr. Tuitt is still alive and there are a lot of NGOs around who if there was goodwill should not have permitted the sale of number plates to go that way.
And it should not even be necessary for me to write this letter because several times last year I commented on the blunder that the Receiver and the Finance as well as the Justice Ministers made by giving in to the demands of those who were against not putting “The Friendly Island” while putting “50 years of Carnival” on the 2019 plates. They had a whole year to do the thing right, but I believe that “what’s in it for me” again is looming its head. and then to my disgust I have to read that there is a sharp drop in road tax compared to the same period last year.
Well, let me add this: just like they used statistics from since 2011 to determine the crime rate I believe they should use the figures from 2018 as a comparison to 2019 and 2020.
Why am I referring to be well versed in the material? As long as I can remember, where to make the number plates has been a point of discussion in the so many governments of St. Maarten, I am sure we also know that Haiti is a possibility, did we really have to go all the way to the Middle East? Now we still do not have any number plates and we have to rely on the cooperation from the insurance companies and the keurings lokaal to help curb the illegal use of motor vehicles on our public roads.
What the majority of the drivers would say is that the police strike for money so they don’t think the police paid their road tax neither. That is why they do not expect any controls.
I believe that it is time enough for us to know what is out there on the market, where to get it and what are the pros and cons when we purchase goods abroad. Are we still not aware that we have to be careful in dealing with finances of the people?
History has proven that it comes back to haunt you.
Russell A. Simmons
