Dear Editor,

I am no longer a resident of St. Maarten; I now live on Bonaire. But I am a born and bred Simaatin man and although I am not physically there, my spirit and my navel string still are. So, seeing the cloud that now hangs over my island grow darker and gloomier upsets me. It keeps me awake. And at night my dreams are wafted by the smell of greed instead of that of the morning dew on the leaves of the July Tree.

Undoubtedly St. Maarten is teething. But these growing pains are now accompanied by a fever. And nowhere is that burning malaise more evident than on how we treat our environment; that which makes our island the special, incredible place that it is.

St. Maarten is lagging, she is falling behind. Falling behind in how we manage our natural resources, how we respond to a changing climate, and how we address our social ills in the face of this climate challenge. We are failing in how we protect and conserve the coral reefs and mountain forests and seagrass beds that make our island one of the most beautiful in the Caribbean.

Bonaire is beautiful, but it is a desert. I miss the green golden sunrise on the St. Maarten hills, the dawn sunshine so bright it makes your eyes hurt as it heals your soul. But that same sunlight hasn’t been healing us as a Nation. We still depend too much on fossil fuels; on the big generators that sporadically provide electricity.

Solar is a renewable resource, one that shines on our soil almost daily. The initial investments to move towards sustainable energy might be a pinch, but the benefits in the long run much outweigh those initial costs. I am in some position to comment; after two years on the Board of Directors of our utilities company trying to push it towards sustainable energy I failed. Failed not because of want of trying but because, as Bob would say; politricks.

Another painful point is the conservation of our beaches and coasts. I remember the first time my mother gifted me a diving mask and I stuck my seven-year-old head in the sea. The mind-blow I received from seeing a world so different yet familiar to my own has set me on the path I currently walk. Yet we seem to have a flagrant disregard for our most important resource. What is occurring on Kim Sha is a prime example; constant water quality issues and popular party spots building structures without the proper permits. Yet we all want pictures with wings on Instagram.

We are losing our critical terrestrial and marine ecosystems at an unprecedented rate. Ecosystems that provide essential goods and services to our economy. If there is one thing the exercise of the past two years has shown us is that we are ill-prepared to face what is coming, what this changing world driven by an already changed climate will bring. Ill-prepared in terms of conservation, economic resilience, social safety nets and simply caring for our land, people, heritage and culture. 

During my nine years working on the island I have constantly, sometimes daily, been offered “help” if I would do a “favor”. Naturally I have always refused, but whenever this happened it broke my heart. It eroded my soul. Especially when you realize that this modus operandi has been perpetuated by my own people.

It is unfortunate that, even with the millions of dollars which were made available after [Hurricane – Ed.] Irma; which, again, was a Climate Change driven event; struggling nature and social organizations are treated as an afterthought. Well, maybe with the exception of well-positioned photo-ops in the local media. There have been times when we have had to go without salary for months because of non-payment of our subsidies. And we were fortunate enough to work for an organization that was actually able to provide salaries. Many can’t. But if you compare this to the level of financial support which is given to entities that do not contribute to the sustainable development of our country, then I am worried.

Not only do visitors to our shores have a holiday but many entities which can contribute financially to our environmental and social wellbeing are also on holiday, albeit one centered on their tax contribution to the country’s coffers. Money which could go to the establishment of a Climate Change Bureau, or towards the implementing of a circular economy that would effectively eliminate the need for single use plastics. Or for amending laws to include Environmental Impact Assessments for all large developments. But I am known to be a dreamer, though I hope not the only one.

It always appears as if St. Maarten is falling behind the rest of the region, the rest of the world. We are too caught up with our own insecurities as a people; being reactionary to external threats, whether real or imagined, instead of responding to our existential ones. Irma will happen again. And her successor will be worse. Irma was worse than Luis.

Having said all of that, I do consider myself fortunate. Fortunate to have contributed to my island. Fortunate to have worked on protecting the species that call our land and sea home, communicating their importance to my people. Fortunate to have introduced children to the wonders of our nature. But mostly I am fortunate to have worked and to still work with my people and the wild places and wildlife that make St. Maarten St. Maarten.

Although I am worried about the direction the island is moving towards, my heart is still. Still because of the energy, passion and compassion, and drive that I see now in St. Maarten. My Sweet Sweet St. Maarten. And it is my hope that this fire will continue to burn, burn not like the one that still burns at the landfill, but like the one that I know still burns in my people’s souls.

Tadzio Bervoets

Dear Editor,

  Let me start by stating that I will be as neutral as possible and in no way want to defend or accuse anyone of wrongdoing. There are always different sides to a story, but nowadays cameras can help to show the truth. In the paper of Thursday, October 10, I read a letter sent to you by Cathy Kangas, which prompted me to react.

   Mrs. Kangas, I have become more familiar with dogs’ behaviour, since at home we are also involved in the life of a Belgian Malinois. But that sceptical part of me reminds that if human beings can have psychological and/or psychiatric problems, so can animals. Just as there are no absolutes in human behaviour, I believe the same goes for animals. For this reason, I am not a favourite of having those dogs in the centre of people’s movement.

  For example, I am not sure how the dog will react to someone slipping in its immediate area. I have not taken time to observe how the dogs are handled or treated, so I cannot voice an opinion on that either. But the intention of this letter is not about dog training. In my forty-odd years as a police officer, I have witnessed  umpteen cases of overreaction from fanatics.

  Whether they were political party followers, animal lovers, car worshipers, you name them, we were called. And on too many occasions it was a question of overreaction, which is very understandable. Thankfully those cases were generally resolved in an amicable manner. Like I stated before, I am not defending anyone, but after taking in the contents of that letter to you by Cathy Kangas I believe that instead of writing to you, Mrs. Cathy Kangas,(who could have expected that that letter could be published) being a member of the board of Humane Society of the United States could know the ramification of that letter.

  I believe that Mrs. Kangas could have taken a different route. I do not believe that Mrs. Kangas is really out to destroy Sint Maarten because of an unpleasant situation which she writes could be remedied in another way. I do not believe that anyone personally offended Mrs. Kangas, I believe that the security officer was being cautious.

  Hopefully from the side of TEATT there will be a speedy reaction to avoid any further missed interpretations. Apart from the dogs used by security companies, what I know is that the situation as it is at the moment is not conducive for having loose dogs. By now we all should have realized that the behaviour of 10 dogs on an area of 100 square meters is much more visible than the behaviour of 10 dogs on an area of 10,000 square meters. 

Russell A. Simmons   

Dear Editor,

  Given the performance of the Parliament of St. Maarten in the first nine years, voters are going to be apprehensive about how they can be effective when they cast their vote in the upcoming election.

  The evidence is clear that in the past voters were not being offered choices that were real. It turned out that party lists did not consist of nominees that were truly and jointly committed to a particular party programme, nor that the parties had effective party discipline and organization to manage their nominees or parliamentarians for any reasonable amount of time. The recent history where members abandoned parties to join new coalitions without any clear public disclosure of the political motivation for abandoning the coalition in power dramatically shone light on this.

  In nine years this minimal requirement for effective democracy was found wanting.

  One would have hoped and expected that the older parties, having experienced the breakdowns would have learnt the lessons of the past, but clearly this has not been the case.

  The conclusion is therefore that the upcoming pre-nomination period is in fact the most important in the election cycle. Voters will be hoping that parties will be selecting lists made up exclusively of persons truly supporting their platform and not selecting persons whose exclusive contribution would be to garner some votes in any way possible.

  In the constitution we have, political parties have a significant function. The majority of parties in St. Maarten have failed. Stabilizing St. Maarten politics is dependent on political parties playing their required role. The voter who favours any party programme still has no democratic role unless the nominated persons have sufficient common vision that will last at least four years.

Robbie Ferron

Dear Editor,

  In memory and in celebration of the life of my old friend Mrs. Daniella Jeffry (1941-2019), please allow me to publish these elements of a speech I delivered in Marigot (July 5, 2003) on the occasion of the presentation of her book 1963, A Landmark Year in St. Martin/1963 – Année charnière à St. Martin.

  Good evening, Ladies and Gentlemen:

  Mrs. Jeffry has asked me to say a few words in the context of this presentation of her book to the public on this side of the island. I take this as an honor and thank her for the esteem and the confidence she has placed in me.   

  My fellow St. Martiners, those of you who are familiar with my views and sympathies know the importance I ascribe to language, to the spoken/written word, to discussion, dialogue and debate in general, to the fundamental relationship between language and politics, by politics I mean life in the “polis,” the city, the community.

  There can be no real community without language, without communication, without the spoken/written word. Therein lies the importance of language, of interaction, of communication in general, of a people’s mother tongue, and of a people’s history in particular. Most of us know that the question of the St. Martiners’ mother tongue is a very sensitive subject, more so on this side of the island than on the other side, the South side. It is sensitive because it is political and, therefore, crucially important.

  Unfortunately but understandably, as soon as one touches upon this nerve, one runs the risk of being misunderstood, and being labeled anti-French, anti-foreigner, i.e., a member of the “born-here” crowd, a troublemaker, an agent provocateur, etc. I am none of those. At least, I do not wish to be any of those except to say that I was born here, and on that matter, I have no lessons to take from anyone, particularly from those who were born elsewhere but who act as if I must roll over like a dying cockroach.

  Fellow St. Martiners, if the old sandbox tree that stands in Marigot, the only one remaining on the waterfront, should fall tonight without anyone ever acknowledging its presence, this old tree, so generous with its shade, would fade out of memory. If no one ever records its existence, attests to its presence, its bounty, this old tree would soon fade away; it would fall into oblivion, into nothingness, would cease to exist due to a lack of representation.

  Representation is the key element here. Representation goes hand in hand with survival and democracy. Without representation, democracy cannot exist. Democracy is representative government. (…) That is why we cannot get out of politics, because we cannot get out of language, of interaction. We cannot get out of representation, lest we pay the consequences.

  Therein lies the importance of information, of communication, newspapers, literature, books, and history books in particular. History deals with the lives and the development of people. It is the record and analysis of past events. A community that does not record and analyze events is a community whose days are numbered. To be without a history is to be outside of time, to have no existence, no being. (…)

   Mrs. Jeffry’s book, 1963, A Landmark Year in Saint Martin deals with the lives and development of St. Martiners. That is what her book is all about, what it “re-presents”. That is why it is crucially important, fundamentally important. That is why we must not only present this book, but we must celebrate its publication that now makes it available to every school child in St. Martin, in every home library in St. Martin, in the libraries of the world. (…)

  With this book, Mrs. Jeffry invites us to consider and acknowledge the fact that her community, our community, the St. Martin community, does not date back to the ’60s. Her book bears witness to the fact that, like all people, our people have a history, one that is full of events, full of true stories, full of our stories. This book brings home the fact that, like all people, St. Martiners have a collective memory.

  We have no cathedrals but we have our hills and valleys, our gutters and old trees. We have no annals but we have the sand, the sun and the sea. These three have seen all the injustices, all the spoliation, all the suffering. They have seen the red men, the white men and the black men. They have seen all the women and all the commingling. To date, most historians are men who too often neglect to underline the role, the key role of women, of great-grandmothers, of grandmothers, of mothers, aunts, sisters, wives. This St. Martin historian does not neglect them. She does not place them in the margin, on the edge, away from the center where they rightfully belong.

  1963, A Landmark Year in St. Martin/1963 – Année charnière à St. Martin is a determined valiant effort to make sure, to see to it that the St. Martin community does not fade out of memory, that it does not fall into oblivion, into nothingness, outside of time, outside of history; that St. Martiners do not cease to exist due to a lack of representation.

  This history, this book, this exemplary act of representation, is the ultimate tribute that an individual can pay his or her community. Therefore St. Martiners should, St. Martiners (French and Dutch) shall, forever be grateful to their historian, to Mme. Daniella Jeffry.

Gérard M. Hunt