Dear Editor,

  I come to understand how hatred and wickedness can destroy a country from within. The electorate of St. Maarten must stop falling for this false notion that Holland is causing members of the executive branch and parliamentarians to be locked up. If any person does not follow the procedure or laws that are prescribed in the Constitution or government ordinance, they become liable for not adhering to the law.

  Please explain to me if a minister or parliamentarian breaks a law how is it Holland's fault. Let me tell you why people get locked up, it is because of ignorance of what they should have known, or because they are too stupid and get caught.

  That is not Holland's fault, that is that individual’s own fault. In all legal systems, you are provided with the rules of engagement and staff to help you fulfil your endeavours legally through the system. It is up to you to adhere to them. It is no secret that St. Maarten political parties have made personal issues among themselves.

  People in government leak information on each other for political gain and personal interest and it ends up in the Prosecutor's hands, and they have no choice but to perform their duties. Is that Holland's fault? Ask yourself this question: if you were to break the law and you get prosecuted would you blame Holland or yourself?

  What is nasty is that the politicians in St. Maarten place the race card for the electorate to hate Dutch people, so they can have support for their own wrongdoings. That is evil. We have members in Parliament making laws about plastic; what we need is to establish laws to create wealth for the people of St. Maarten. Most of these politicians are destroying St. Maarten from within with their own personal vendetta against each other at the country’s expense.

  I, the Patriot Miguel Arrindell, defend righteousness, I could care less what colour you are and if you are a St. Maartener or not, I will not defend wrong. I can have compassion, but that is no licence to justify breaking the law. Worse is when those wicked politicians use people against people (race card) to fulfil their evil motives.

  Some people say let Holland take over the government, I say no! If you agree with that, you are insulting your own intelligence because you are assuming, we cannot administrate our own country.

  I see it totally differently. I think no person is better to administrate St. Maarten than the St. Maartener, but it is up to the electorate to investigate people's background well and let the politician’s character prove they have good intentions. Some people say they go into politics and they get corrupt after. I disagree; if I were a minister of justice, I would hold every individual who breaks the law accountable, and there would be no need for Holland to intervene. But many politicians from day one have no ideology and they do not know their character. That is a recipe for disaster.

  Warning again, education alone cannot make a good leader. A criterion is a humble person with a good character and good intent. If the individual may lack the required education, the assistance of professional people alongside him or her can correct that part. But if he or she has five Master’s degrees and their intention is evil, there is nothing you can do to fix that. Love of country is an action proven, not saying I love my country.

  My conclusion: St. Maarten is being destroyed from within.

The Patriot Miguel Arrindell

Dear Editor,

  I am very disappointed in those involved in laying out the bus stops along Walter Nisbeth Road. In my opinion to lay out a bus stop does not take rocket science. Just material and space. I am sure that there is more than enough space along Walter Nisbeth Road, especially on the pond side, to lay out a decent bus stop.

  Article 18 of the traffic ordinance states that it is prohibited to stop a vehicle within five meters of both sides of a signboard indicating a bus stop unless otherwise indicated. Meaning if another distance (10m) is indicated then it is not allowed to stop within 10 meters of the sign.

  Even though there is ample space on Walter Nisbeth Road to lay out the bus stops in a responsible way, and not against the law because certain Ministers say so, I believe that there was never any intention to lay out those bus stops in the correct way. Absolutely no consideration was taken to lay out those bus stops the way they should be laid out, taking the traffic law into consideration. Not a brain surgery, just a measuring tape, some stakes, either cement or pitch, your bus stop sign and you gone clear. You do not need a bus stop hut, those are not mentioned in the traffic ordinance.

  If it is not irresponsible then those involved do not care, because the bus stop signs are right next to lamp posts, next to snack trucks, even though there is ample space to make inlets so that the buses can get off the road to let out or pick up passengers.

  Neither was space for that five meters on either side of the signboard taken into consideration, Where there is an inlet the inlet is barely three meters wide, but extra effort was made to assure that those bus stop huts were placed along the road, whether they are a confusion or not.

  Since we are talking about article 18 of the Traffic ordinance, there are at least 15 places mentioned in that article where it is forbidden to stop with a vehicle. In my days I would have field days with those gypsies stopping any- and everywhere along the road. I would have grossly contributed in paying my own salary.

  Again I have to repeat: Public transportation should be in the hands of the public. The fate of those without transportation should never be left up to the bus permit holders. There is no getting away from this.

  Those politicians who have been in government for years, no matter which party, are all responsible for the mess that the public transportation is in presently. Nine governments in nine years and every government has used the public transportation to get voters to vote for them.

  Nobody protects anybody forever, so we hear these things all the time. I came and met that saying “the longest rope has an end,” but I have experienced many situations which have proven it true. Another way to say that is that “the pitcher goes to the well so often ’til at last it comes up broken.”

  Another politician was arrested and charged. Are we aiming to break and set a world record?

  Between Curaçao and Aruba there are about eight baseball players in the major leagues and they are at the top in their positions on their teams. To me relatively that is number one in the world. But that is a very positive thing.

  I can make the same comparison with our St. Maarten politicians and people in government when it concerns the amounts of arrests. Relatively it is also number one in the world, but that is a very bad and negative thing. So I would suggest for us to undo those wrong things and let us begin by showing maturity and, for instance, tackle the public transportation.

Russell A. Simmons

Your expressions
Give us the impression
Of your innermost intentions
Words too can kill
Kill your desire
Kill your motivation
If you think it
In your heart
And speak it
With your mouth
Then you are as guilty
As charge
Some people will say
Sticks and stones
Will break my bones
But words can't
But that's so far from the truth
For words can break the heart
Break the spirit
And destroy the will of the
Strongest human being
For words can break
As well as it can make you
So be careful in your use
Of words
Use your words to
Build and not to destroy
Words of encouragement
Words of love
Words of comfort
Words of wisdom
Used wisely can
Bring to the soul healings
And add suddenness
To the hearing
Kind words turn away
Wrath
Wise words bring peace
For in the beginning
Was the Word
And the Word was God

Until man came and

Polluted it
So to the speakers
To the writers
To the preachers
To the politicians

To the orators
To the singers
To the  poets
Please weigh your words
And measure your terms
For you will never know who
You may hurt in turn
Or who can be blessed
In your freedom of speech
Be careful someone else’s
Rights not to breach

Big Ray

Dear Editor,

  Thank you for another very read-worthy Teen Times edition. Please allow me to respond to one of the articles, in particular the one about “local inspiration Dr. Jonas Wilson”.

  Dr. Wilson returned enthusiastically to St. Maarten in August 2018 as medical doctor and biomolecular engineer, ready to serve his homeland and welcomed with open arms by family and friends and an article in The Daily Herald, but will soon leave our island a major illusion poorer and frustrated.

  How can it be that a small country continually loses inspirational young professionals because they feel stagnated by our poor Governmental “organization” at all levels (executive, legislative and implementing).

  As the new leader of the Party for Progress (PFP) Melissa Gumbs explains: “St. Maarten is faced with many issues that have not improved due to a start/stop attitude that has been present from before 10-10-10,” which (I add) has been compounded by the fact that we are a multicultural village, expected to take country responsibility with growing pains that are inflated by political egos that favor talking and (as Teen Times describes) a crab mentality over structural, long term planning and effective, pro-active action.

  Let’s face it. Any country that is financially broke and needs foreign financial assistance to pay the salaries of its civil servants, has politicized the re-building of its most important tourist gateway (the airport), approves governmental budgets 8-9 months into the year with, according to its own audit chamber, poor if non-existent accountability while having expensive governmental executive changes on a yearly basis is bound to float around as a lame duck and obviously “pray” to powers with more structural and organizational experience or, in worst case, others with criminal intentions.

  We can blame the Dutch, but more realistically we should look in our own yard that is riddled with poor structure and inconsistent implementation of regulations, if implemented at all or often colored by favoritism and nepotism. We often lack the guts and out-of-the-box thinking to create progress and stability while many are afraid to take responsibility and rather point to others to take the lead. We feel stuck to antiquated rules and keep saying, “Well … this is St. Maarten,” expressing the feeling that we can’t expect much better.

  Coming back to Dr. Wilson, who will be leaving St. Maarten soon due to his frustrations with the government apparatus and, as he states, “reverse culture shock,” archaic rules and regulations at the level of the national legislature.

  Born on the French side but raised in Cole Bay, having Dutch nationality and permanent resident status, his Saint Martin-born parents living on the Dutch side from before his birth, according to literal interpretation of our country ordinances he should be seen as a “son of the soil”. Even according to our constitution he should have all the rights to be treated equally, but he was confronted with personal interpretations of ordinances and was not accepted as ‘real’ local.

  Our governments, even in our constitution, have never formulated in detail who should be seen as a son or daughter of the soil because no one dares to take the risk to either include or alienate the many persons who have over decades contributed to the development of this country.

  Despite handing in all the required documents, it took him more than 6 months to obtain a ministerial decision (MB) to work as house officer in our hospital.

  Reading through the Teen Times article, hearing from colleagues and nurses at the hospital and from my own conversations with Dr. Wilson I have to deduce that he is not only an excellent physician, but has outstanding social and communication skills extremely important for progress in our Health Care field.

  I’m also aware that, although he had not finished a specialization in the field, his intention was to serve our community as a general practitioner. Far-reaching plans with one of the clinics were made to be trained by two family practitioners, both with 35 years of experience, both trained as Dutch general practitioners. The training was anticipated to give Dr. Wilson the best possible opportunity to familiarize himself with our local health care field and the multilingual/multicultural as well as organizational aspects that come along with it. Agreed it would not be exactly similar to a Dutch or UK training and wouldn’t give him a diploma, but it was envisioned and planned to be close to a local equivalent.

  Government has given physicians permits to work as general practitioners who have no formal training as GP but have worked at the Emergency Room for a number of years, while working at the ER obviously trains you to work in emergency care but doesn’t necessarily train you to work in family practice where the approach is much more geared towards long-term medical support, psycho-social problems, preventative health and interpersonal (family) relations.

  Our government, however, thought the planned extensive GP training for Dr. Wilson was not sufficient and will only accept an official training abroad. Mind you, a training in Holland or the UK as alternatives would train the young physician for the typical Dutch or UK health care situation but would not help this physician to adjust to the local insurance and health care practices.

  In the coming 1-5 years 11 of the 23 general practitioners will retire in St. Maarten. One would think that keeping capable and interested local physicians on-island and training them locally would make sense especially because it will be almost impossible to obtain sufficient replacements for the GPs retiring, most probably creating a shortage in General Practice the coming years.

  Several of the current GPs have already indicated that they will just close their clinics and leave patients to seek alternative care, creating a gap in continuity of especially chronic care. That at a time when preventative and cost-effective chronic care will become more important to keep health care cost controlled.

  Government seems not to have a plan how to anticipate to this looming health care gap.

  We’re losing locals and there are insufficient local doctors in training to replace those that will retire. It’s sad to see a young enthusiastic local physician leave our country frustrated, but fortunately for him with excellent prospects elsewhere, so with little inclination to come back to a poorly-organized country unless St. Maarten really makes some effective changes, cleans up its yard and makes use of its local talent.

Gerard van Osch, MD