Dear Editor,

  So I opened up the Herald online to read updates pertaining to our island. Not the Bahamas. Us, in St Martin,
  I am sorry they suffered what they have. Truly I am. I suffered the same. I lost my house and my business. So many many of us did.
  Has St Martin forgotten what Hurricane Irma did to us? What little help we received?
Sorry, I never received more than a bottle of water after Irma tore off my brand new roof. I begged for water as I was breastfeeding my son. I needed the extra hydration. I was ignored. I will never forget how this island treated me after Irma.
  My brand new roof blew off, which the developer (Koozie Development) ran away from honouring a verbal guarantee that he would replace. Buyer beware from them with A&A Supplies. Very shady people … .
  As I sat under the bathroom sink with my 11-month-old child. My entire roof disappeared. I was told by his lawyer that “something hit the roof” again, a brand new roof. Buyer beware of this developer.
  Not one charity gave us a tarp for our roof as Maria rained on it and flooded my house.
  I will never give to a single charity on this island after struggling as a single mum rebuilding. Two years later I still rebuild.
  I don’t look like a charity case. I don’t present myself as a charity case. So to this date my family rebuilt with zero help from this island. Don’t you dare ask me for charity for others. How dare this island ignore us and now ask for handouts. Shameful. I am disgusted.

  You charity organisations should be ashamed of yourselves. Red Cross, I have words for you that cannot be published. Look within first. Where were you when I had no roof? Where were you when I needed help? Right … I don’t fit the charity “profile”. You charities, all of you, make me sick. I rebuilt from my own pocket. Now you want a penny from me to help others?

  I remember calling the police for help, I called the fire department for help. All they said was, “Am sorry we cannot help.” They gave all their handouts to their family. Rice, water, generators, etc. – all the donations worldwide. Where did they go? To their family. The police and fire department gave all donations to their family.
  I actually have a neighbour who bragged about her fire-fighting brother who gave her bags and bags of rice for life from China! She never even offered me a bowl of rice. Imagine that.
  Friendly Island …
  I have lost complete respect for the police and fire department on the Dutch side since Irma. They never helped the layman during hard times.

  Bring on the Dutchman, they also never helped. They will never help. They only help their own kind.
  I do believe that is called “bigotry” “racism”.

Mary De Francesco

Dear Editor,

  Yes, St. Maarten government has done it again. From the time the new coalition government was formed after elections, I believe people were hoping for the best, however things still turned out again for the worst. I believe I can hear the old people say: “Donkey maybe peed on them, or too much goat mouth was upon them.” However the case dear editor, we are now seemingly back to square one. Should we now go back to the polls, form another coalition or what? It’s a shame!

  Since St. Maarten obtained its separate status in 2010, yet now nine years later, our politicians still cannot get their act together when it comes to unity, agreement, interest of this island, and governing stability.

  Dear editor, how are we going to prove to the people of St. Maarten and the Dutch, that we can handle things on our own, even if we may ever get independence? With continual breakup of government, I can say that the future of this island may not be too bright. What example are we setting for ourselves, our future generation, and the Dutch Kingdom? It’s like a marriage relationship that goes sour. In the end it will lead to separation or divorce. And who will suffer the most? The children who depend on a stable family unity to grow up and walk in the footsteps of their parents.

  Over the last years since our Separate Status in 10-10-10, we have seen more disagreements, disunity, ship-jumping, greed, selfishness, even politicians continually being arrested, or put behind bars for committing fraud, money-laundering, cutting above- and under-the-table deals.

  Dear editor there is now talk about a re-election, especially among the opposition’s members of course. But dear editor, the people of St. Maarten are not foolish. We have been deceived for too long. Having a new government will not prove anything. The majority of people of St. Maarten have lost their trust in our politicians. The ten to thirteen thousand guilders a month salary is sweet, so why not fight your way back in?

  Dear editor, since Hurricane Irma, many people on this island are still suffering financially, emotionally, and socially. Also there are still many pending issues to be resolved since Hurricane Irma devastated this island almost two years ago. The people of St. Maarten deserve better than this.

  Our politicians need to understand that since 10-10-10, because of political issues, misunderstandings, backbiting, and cut throats, little progress has been made or achieved as an island that has received more autonomy. The people of this island are greatly concerned about what is going on politically. This issue has become the talk of the day.

  Dear editor what people want is a stable government who will be able to jumpstart this island economy, bring in investors, get our airport, which is St. Maarten’s main economical stronghold, rebuilt, provide jobs, and give them security.

  Voting for a new government who will go into office and repeat the same mistakes like the previous one or ones, does not make much sense. I don’t believe many people might even want to go cast their votes, unless they have the assurance that they will get a government who they can depend on, a government who is able to help them, and provide progress and a secure future for this island.

  Dear editor, if we cannot run our own country, then we might as well bring in the Dutch to run it for us.  

Frustrated and concerned citizen

Name withheld at author's request.

Dear Editor,

  On page 7 of The Daily Herald of Tuesday September 10, 2019, I read “‘Chacho’ working on initiative to amend country’s traffic laws”. I said to myself, at last. But when I read further it concerned the sobriety testing, which indeed should have been in use by the police a long time ago. I hope that this initiative law will be met with and dealt with the necessary maturity and not brushed aside like the, according to my recollection, one and only initiative plastic bags law.

  Along with that I would have loved to read that in cooperation with the traffic department and VROMI,, places for bus stops along the roads will be stipulated, and indicated by the official yellow bus stop sign. By the way I have been mentioning this long before “Chacho” got into politics.

  Over and over I have been calling people’s (in government) attention to the fact that official bus stops are not indicated by inlets along the roads or by bus stop huts. Bus stops are indicated by the yellow traffic sign with the Dutch word BUSHALTE. If the bus stops are indicated, other drivers would expect buses to stop at the bus stops and not as is the case now, not being sure or knowing if the bus is going to stop every ten meters or whenever and wherever a passenger ask them to stop.

  Right now anybody, including visitors to the island, are not sure where to go to catch a bus, because of the very erratic and irresponsible way in which bus drivers , and for that matter gypsies also, on the island go about picking up passengers. Sadly to say, and literally nothing is being done about it. This, in my opinion, is one of the reasons, if not the main reason why more and more the traffic is backed up.

  Every time I’m on the road and I see this erratic behavior of irresponsible drivers, it reminds me of my first mentor who at that time pressed upon me something that I had heard when leaving the police academy, that if the police remain consistent in the execution of their duty, the police just like the Customs, the tax department, the telephone company, the utility companies, would also be a department of government which would largely contribute in paying their own salary.

  While I’m at it, I believe that the school buses also can ask the schoolchildren (in same school uniform) if they can come together in one spot and not 30 meters further on the same road. That, to me, would be contributing to the building a sense of order of the child.

  If memory serves me well, as long as I have been here, politicians felt intimidated to talk to a subject, both in the Island Council and Parliament. It was pleasing to me to read that the MP expressed her sense of courage. It sounded like coming from a man after my own heart. It reminded me of what my father told me when I first started to work. He said to me, “If you are not man enough to represent what that uniform stands for take it off.” I did not take it off.

  I hope that the rest of the Members of Parliament will follow suit, which should assure us of the sense of independence and gumption of each member.

Russell A. Simmons

With a seven to seven
Tight parliament
The man with the eight ball
Will make that final call
And remain standing tall
And will determine
whether the government
stands or fall
Thus giving the key
To none other than Frankey
The honorable MP Meyers
by his sudden but calculated
move has become a game
changer
Frankie ketch the dutchman
with a finger still in the dike
trying hard te block the
airport leak
While the crying Minister
Was out shopping
Like a plumber for stop
Leak
Parliament sprang ah leak

And Frankie gone
Yeh done know
Looking for Frankie
Where is Frankie
Nobody know

Now Frankie once more
holds the key
Whether we rise
Or fall
Frankie will make that call

And as far as I am concerned
Frankie haven’t said his last
Word yet
YEH DONE KNOW
HE AIN’T DONE YET

Raymond Helligar aka “Big Ray”