Dear Editor,
With the political campaign for decision day January 9, 2020 well underway, 2020 will usher in a new agenda of what we all would like to accomplish in the New Year individually as well as politically.
From the individual to the political parties currently pounding the campaign trail across the nation, goals, plans, projects and visions are being considered, debated and presented.
Each and every year is a very important one for each one of us as individuals. Each day, month and year that goes by, we are not able to bring back or take back what has already gone and is considered history. We can only move forward and continue to do our best in bringing about national change for the benefit of all.
There are many issues impacting our nation today, from the stagnation in the airport reconstruction and development project to the lack of public housing, the economy, environmental neglect, climate change and much more.
Climate change presents a threat to our very existence as a nation. Climate change is happening! We have had the experience of severe weather – Hurricane Irma. The world is heating up and global temperatures are expected to rise further if trends continue bringing about wide-ranging and destructive climate impacts.
The 2019 United Nations (UN) Climate Change Conference known as COP25 got underway earlier this week in Spain. COP25 is the Conference of the Parties to the UN Convention on Climate Change, UNFCCC, which is tasked with making sure that the Convention (aka the 2015 Paris Agreement, which strengthens the Convention), are being implemented.
According to the latest climate chatter: “There is more evidence of the impacts of climate change, especially in extreme weather events, and these impacts are taking a greater toll. The science shows that emissions are still going up, not down.
“According to the 2019 WMO (World Meteorological Organization) Greenhouse Gas Bulletin, levels of heat-trapping greenhouse gases in the atmosphere have reached another new record high. This continuing long-term trend means that future generations will be confronted with increasingly severe impacts of climate change, including rising temperatures, more extreme weather, water stress, sea level rise and disruption to marine and land ecosystems.”
Some of the trends of commitments on a positive note are: “Small island states together committed to achieve carbon neutrality and to move to 100 per cent renewable energy by 2030. And countries from Pakistan to Guatemala, Colombia to Nigeria, New Zealand to Barbados vowed to plant more than 11 billion trees.”
The Prime Minister of the Netherlands Mark Rutte told COP25 on its opening day that because of climate change, “rising sea levels pose a direct threat to our very existence. None of us can escape the consequences of climate change. None of us can turn a blind eye to what is happening right now, and what will happen in the future,” the Dutch Prime Minister Rutte reportedly said. “All of us have a responsibility to tackle the causes of climate change and adapt to its impact. All of us – together.”
The Kingdom of the Netherlands comprises four countries: the Netherlands, Aruba, Curaçao, and St. Maarten.
Political parties who make up the 2020 Parliament of St. Maarten post-January 9 elections have to unite to bring about serious planning in preparation for climate change, because our own very existence as a nation-state is at stake. The words uttered by Rutte are also relevant and timely for St. Maarten.
A Kingdom approach is required in order to chart a new future for country St. Maarten as well as the other partners within the Kingdom. This will require considerable investments to protect our very existence.
We cannot allow disaster risk to outpace resilience. If we do not change, we will be bound to repeat disaster with catastrophic consequences, and we are now in a race against time.
Climate change should be one of the key issues of political parties vying for a seat in the House of Parliament.
Members of Parliament have to prepare the country’s readiness and resilience for future generations. We are entering a new decade, and there is no time for procrastination.
St. Maarten needs a “Climate Change Adapt-Mitigate” Plan of Action, as our own very survival as a country depends on it. Investments made in a timely manner will allow us to mitigate the changes for generations to continue to develop a vibrant and prosperous country for decades to come.
Let’s work towards preparing our country’s readiness and resilience in a time of climate change.
The clock is ticking, and St. Maarten is in a race against time. We cannot afford to waste more time. In 2020 we need bold, decisive decision-making in order to move our nation forward.
Roddy Heyliger
Dear Editor,
As a senior retired citizen I spent my whole Monday in the legislative hall of Parliament looking and listening to our Parliamentarians doing their things. The newly-sworn-in Prime Minister and the newly-sworn-in Minister of Finance were representing the newly-sworn-in Government, sitting on for me the left side of the aisle. A little over two weeks ago they sat on the right side of the aisle in that same legislative hall of Parliament, as then opposition to the Government.
Left in the front row on the right were seated two young enthusiastic and energetic young ladies just sworn in as Members of Parliament. A beautiful sight that filled my heart with pride and joy. It was touching to see the both Ministers taking pictures of the two young ladies across the aisle from them and it had a very homely cuddliness.
The meeting as usual started out late again, because the game of signing off the presence list was as usual played again. The new Prime Minister delivered her opening speech proudly and heads up, “look at me, I’m now the Prime Minister.” She briefly passed the word to the new Minister of Finance who was a little shy in the beginning, having a little problem with fitting into the shoes he now wears, but also a little “look at me, I’m now your Minister of Finance.”
During this whole “ceremony” I distinguished this humming bee of a Member of Parliament floating around the legislative hall, leaning on the shoulders of the “friendly” Members of Parliament, the shoulders of the Ministers, humming his sound in their ears like giving them instructions how to play their role in Parliament. Again a humming and not biting bee, which makes him lovable.
The new kid on the block, of whom is said that he works hard in Parliament, who does his homework in Parliament and as such is highly respected by his colleagues in Parliament. He uplifts this Parliament, but my truth is he barely manages to achieve anything for the people of St. Maarten in Parliament. He reminded me of a character, “juffrouw Ooievaar” in an old Dutch TV show for children “De Fabeltjeskrant” (“Fables paper”), who would go around all the animals in the forest instructing, correcting and chastising them.
It really amused me, just as much as it amused my neighbor to my left in the public tribune who just a little more than two weeks ago vacated the office of Minister of Finance. I was overwhelmed by the feeling of looking at a play of the “Commedia dell arte”. Being a person who loves the theatre you will understand that I enjoyed the play being performed before me.
I saw the pain when the young lady, new Member of Parliament, was delivering a well-prepared and deeply-meant speech and the rest, even the Government side of the aisle, were showing little or no interest at all in her speech. She at one moment timidly held her breath, staring around the legislative hall with seemingly pain in her heart, asking for attention to her speech and then, undisturbed, proudly continued delivering her speech. I solemnly believe that this young lady deserved a better treatment from Parliament.
And then it struck me hard to notice that I this day would be going to listen to all other Parliamentarians talking about themselves, grandstanding with “let it be stated that I am against this; not under my watch; the other government never wanted to release any information (grunting of teeth to my left), but this government as soon they got in released all information (more teeth grunting on my left); I never opposed the repairing of the airport seated on the other side of the aisle; etc, etc.” And of course, the motion that could have been passed a month ago in Parliament after some so called “adaptions” was passed in Parliament after this whole “poppenkast”.
Yes, it struck me and in my head it was pounding “our St. Maarten deserves a better people representation in Parliament, our St. Maarten needs to be taken seriously and considered in depth by Parliament.”
Thank God we will on January 9, 2020, be having new elections and this time the electorate can vote a completely new Parliament in of a just mixture of youth, middle age and experience with fundamental knowledge of the role of Parliament in our society.
So, vote the old actors out and vote in committed new Parliamentarians. I am counting on the electorate as I always count on them, because this time it’s time.
Go out there and vote massively for that new Parliament who will more consider the people and less themselves. Vote vote vote!
Edwin Gumbs
Dear Editor,
This article is to educate the electorate of St. Maarten more about money-laundering and the consequences that affect St. Maarten if our government does not do all in its powers to enforce this law.
The term “money laundering” was only applied to financial transactions related to organized crime in the past. But today the definition is expanded by government regulators to include any financial transaction which produces assets of an illegal act, which may involve actions such as tax avoidance or false accounting. In a simple meaning, money-laundering refers to illegal or dirty money put through a cycle of transactions or cleansed, so that it comes out the other end as legal or clean money.
Based on these facts, money-laundering is a serious problem in the new era and the laws against money-laundering are not completely effective because the biggest problem arises concerning enforcement. Launderers are continuously looking for new routes for laundering their funds. Economies with growing or developing financial centers, but inadequate controls, are particularly vulnerable as established financial center countries implement comprehensive anti-money-laundering regimes.
Differences between national anti-money laundering systems will be exploited by launderers, who tend to move their networks to countries and financial systems with weak or ineffective countermeasures.
What is the connection with society at large? The possible social and political costs of money-laundering, if left unchecked or dealt with ineffectively, are serious. Organized crime can infiltrate financial institutions, acquire control of large sectors of the economy through investment, or offer bribes to public officials and indeed governments.
Most importantly, however, targeting the money-laundering aspect of criminal activity and depriving the criminal of his ill-gotten gains means hitting him where he is vulnerable. Without a usable profit, criminal activity will not continue.
FATF blacklist: The FATF blacklist was the common shorthand description for the Financial Action Task Force list of “Non-Cooperative Countries or Territories” (NCCTs). Blacklisting is the action of a group or authority compiling a list (or blacklist) of people, countries or other entities to be avoided or distrusted as not being acceptable to those making the list. A blacklist can list people to be discriminated against, refused employment, or censored.
My point is, any candidate who does not understand or who does not care about ensuring St. Maarten upholds and enforces the money-laundering laws is a person not credible and worthy of your vote.
These are some of the consequences that can happen. St. Maarten’s economy is based on tourism. If St. Maarten is blacklisted and it appears to the United States of America that St. Maarten is not complying or intentionally not enforcing the money-laundering laws they can block all US airlines from flying to St. Maarten, they can establish a trade embargo, which is a governmental order to restrict trade of certain goods or all goods entirely with St. Maarten. This typically stems from political differences between the two nations or economic circumstances that make commercial trade undesirable.
God forbid, if that happens St. Maarten’s economy will go in a freefall which will have dire consequences for the people living in St. Maarten.
The electorate of St. Maarten, make it your business to make sure all political parties take the FATF seriously. Choices have consequences, choose wisely.
The Patriot Miguel Arrindell
Dear Editor,
There is a saying in Dutch: Schoenmaker blijf bij je leest. Simply said, leave painting for painters. Because of what has become the norm (ship-jumping and throwing down of government) here on Sint Maarten, this phenomenon is plaguing the country. We keep putting amateurs in positions where professionals are needed. Ministers of Justice who never read anything pertaining to laws, Ministers of VROMI, Minister of health whose friend is a nurse, etc.
People who take decisions based on what is told to them too often without a second opinion and mostly what is good for their own pockets and their party or coalition. Still we keep saying that the Dutch are here to lock us up. My question to that is always. Did the Dutch put a gun to your head? Is not your salary enough? Does the people's money belong to you?
Here we are again. Elections are around the corner; certain people have postulated themselves and are now trying to get things done in a hurry to try to fool the people one more time. Others have said it is easy to get a 'dig-in' in those coffers. But none, absolutely none, with the interest of the people at heart.
For the longest while now, I have been suggesting for us to go to those who have proven to know what to do about traffic to get ideas on how to try to solve our traffic problems. There is no money in that, and it is in the interest of the people, so we are not interested. By now everyone should know my opinion on public transportation. We can jump high or low, the road infrastructure on Sint Maarten will not change no matter where you put the capital. So, we have to limit the number of cars on the road and regulate public transportation.
I know a certain person who enjoys walking a certain route at a specific time during the day, and constantly proves that he/she gets to the end of that route before many cars alongside, which that person started to walk on the same route. In doing so, that person observed that to every ten cars, there are only two with more passengers than only the driver.
I would always correct that person and say, 'eight out of the ten cars only has one person, which is the driver'. It is a long time now that we have not seen anyone directing traffic on any of the roads, and especially intersections. Without knowing the reason, I have to hold a certain family in government accountable and responsible for this. Most civil servants are there to serve. Directing and controlling traffic is serving the community and when that part of the service is taken away from the community because of the inability to handle it, I believe by management, that is dereliction of duty. Minister Irion should find out from the SG's where is the Control Unit? One of the most frustrating things is sitting in a car in traffic which is not going anywhere. I know that.
I am a driver and for years I have also heard the many complaints. When I headed the control unit, the people saw members of the Control Unit daily at areas of potential bottle necks and traffic jams. If I count right at this moment there are seven roundabouts on the Dutch Side of Sint Maarten, of which all are not used in the correct way by drivers because of – still after two years of Irma – the lack of correct signage.
But there is money to put bus stop-huts, even though 95 percent of them are either illegally or incorrectly placed. We rush to put the traffic lights to work again because its election time and we want to impress. No, it does not work that way. Pressing buttons causes confusion. God did not create buttons, He created man and because man did not listen, He told man that man would have to work and sweat to earn.
So, in this case no matter if the traffic lights are programmed to be able to regulate the flow of traffic in one area, there is still congestion at the roundabouts caused by man because of impatient drivers and lack of traffic controllers during peak hours. That does not take rocket science, people, that is common sense, discipline and interest in helping the people. Minister Doran could do something for the public by getting cooperation from the TEATT Minister, and putting back the Control Unit to control and direct the ever-growing traffic, especially now during the holiday and election campaign season.
And after that, as we would say, set them on those bus drivers who stop any and everywhere. Article 18 of the Traffic Ordinance covers all of that. By the way, because of the lack of traffic signs 10 and 10-A, especially tourists are constantly going the wrong way on those one-way roads in town. We should probably pay more attention to that than placing those private money-making bus stop-huts along the roads where the buses don't stop anyway.
Russell A. Simmons
“My humble, down-to-earth character and naturally caring personality allow me to connect with people of all walks of life without prejudice”. This is one of the ways that this remarkable SMCP candidate describes herself.
