Dear Editor,

  Allow me some space in your well-read newspaper to address an issue that can be very detrimental to the future development of our students. We are already in our third week of the 2019-2020 school year and I strongly believe that some of the teachers of St. Dominic High School have already started on the wrong foot.

  Teachers play an important role in the life of their students. A good teacher helps their students to become a good human being in society and a good citizen of the country. Teachers should know that their students are the future of their country, so the future development of any nation is in the hands of teachers. A teacher should be a role model and should bring out the best in their students by encouraging them to strive for greatness.

  Sadly, this is not the case with some of the teachers at the St. Dominic High. Some of these teachers that are supposed to be veterans/well-seasoned in their craft have now resorted to degrading, selfish patterns of speech directed at the students, which is very discouraging to them. Especially students in the final year. How is it a teacher can literally tell you in your final year that you are going to fail, I do not have time to teach you, because I have my own problems to worry about. Refuse to teach a class because a few students are being disruptive. These are just some of the examples of the behavior being exhibited towards the students.

  It is every student’s ultimate goal to succeed, but in such an environment it can be quite difficult.

  St. Dominic High is supposed to be a Catholic faith institution; this surely is not behavior becoming of the faith.

  I do hope and pray that these students have the strength to endure such intolerable behavior and at the end of the day become that well-rounded citizen they strive to become.

  St. Dominic High School, shame on you! Get your act together, wheel your teachers in and give them a crash course in Positivity, Encouragement, Love and Understanding!

Concerned parents

Name withheld at author’s request.

Dear Editor,

  When we bought our air conditioner we were explained that if we let it work consistently it will not use up as much current as if we turned it off when we were not at home. We followed advice and indeed the bill was very reasonable.

  And then with no extra people in the house to use extra water and electricity, also no use of Internet because during that period I was off-island, to my greatest surprise the GEBE bill was almost twice as much as the average bill. As I mentioned, I was off-island and did not get back in time to be able to monitor the system, because one period had passed and I got home towards the end of the next period, of which that bill was about NAf. 200 more than the average bill.

  I am writing this because I am of the opinion that the utility users of St. Maarten are being taken advantage of, by whoever is profiting from in whatever way (except earnest earned salary).

  Whether or not I have mentioned this before I will go down the same path again. I asked an influential person, “How can Saba and Statia, who are in the hurricane belt just like us here in St. Maarten, have the use of solar energy and not St. Maarten?” Yes, the same St. Maarten where everything about the Dutch Windward Islands was administrated. I also added that the ABC islands are also going solar.

  The answers varied, but I could sense that people were careful to voice their full opinion. Some said that is a coalition secret. And then I heard that if you hear that heads roll in GEBE that could be part of the problem.

  That is when I turned off, because I did not want to be involved in hearsay and gossip. I ask direct questions and expect concrete answers.

  I write what I swear to and what I can swear to is that there are so many electricity outages these days that I am surprised if a day passes without an outage. Thanks to radios with built-in rechargeable system which serve to break the silence when there is no electricity, and that is more and more becoming a norm here.

  Because I had to have the airco serviced I asked the gentleman who serviced the airco how often should the airco be serviced and if this can cause the increase in the use of electricity? He did not think so. When I told him about the high GEBE bill he explained that that is gradually becoming a regular complaint and that he believes it is the frequent outages from GEBE which causes the rise in electricity usage. Every time the airco starts it uses much more current than when it remains working consistently.

  In connection with this GEBE situation I was talking to an influential person and mention was made of the way people lived for a long time after [Hurricane – Ed.] Luis. He promised to have that conversation with others, because he understands why those who can, are not willing to switch to solar energy, but he admits that it is not fair to the voters of St. Maarten.

  I told him a few more things which I hope he will deliver directly. He wanted to know why the price of cooking gas should differ so much between the islands.

  By the way, there is a power outage again so I hope this letter reaches you in time. Thanks to back-up batteries.

Russell A. Simmons

Dear Editor,

  As I meditated and enjoyed God’s scenic nature of our beautiful island with my Mom and eldest son, a good friend of mine sent me a WhatsApp message if I ever read the book The Making of an Island by Jean Glasscock.

  One of the pages in the book which my friend sent to me spoke about the history of St. Maarten when Mr. Bill Hunter opened Hunter House (now called Castle Cove Inn where he brought guests by boat to Pointe Blanche from the little pier in town). The article spoke about my Dad “Mooch” who use to work for Mr. Hunter, and who would blow a conch shell from the little boat and pick up the guests and bring them to Hunter House.

  In those days they only had lanterns and candles and some large flashlights. The road was built out to Pointe Blanche in the fall of 1961 and in 1963 or 1964 they finally got electricity from the light company.

  As I continued to read one of the pages in the book, I turned to my mom and asked her about the history in which she explained to me how my Dad “Mooch” used to work, cook and even sing for the guests at Hunter House during those days. We spoke for a long time about my Dad’s contribution to St. Maarten and how he swam from Anguilla to St. Martin seven times, a talented soccer player and sportsman. He was the chauffeur for three Lt. Governors of St. Maarten.

  My mom turns to me and says we need to document our history for generations to come to have an insight on how it used to be in the early days before modern development and the progress of society took over.

  Mr. Editor, I fully agree with my mom and the point I would like to make in this letter to the editor is that we need to start documenting our history and landmarks of our beautiful island for generations to come. We have lost a lot of our seniors with so much wealth of knowledge without documenting our history.

  By documenting our history, we would treasure, value and respect the foundation and principles that St. Maarten was built on by our local ancestors and seniors.

  Today, we reap the fruits of St. Maarten’s past heritage but forget some of us forget the history and how St. Maarten was built and by whom. We need to get away from becoming a self-centered society and start focusing on building each other up rather than tearing each other down. It’s very sad to see how we got away from our history and principles on how we lead and build a Nation by becoming more caring and creating hope by speaking truth to our people to move forward in life. The most powerful leaders stay humble and tell people the truth and create hope for their people.

  We need to get back to basics and respect, appreciate the solid foundation and principles that St. Maarten was built on for us to enjoy and make us what we are today. We need to pray more, stay humble and start caring and sharing more about our people. We need to pass on all these principles and family values to the next generation and generations to come before we lose focus to outside peer pressure and other influences of the world.

  I pray that this letter to the editor will get us to appreciate and start sharing and documenting our history to build a better St. Maarten in unity for our people. A lot of us forget our history, where we came from and how St. Maarten was built for us to become the person, we have grown up to be today. We need to continue naming our buildings and streets after our local icons. I was so happy to see St. Maarteners will have the honour of carrying two street names in Amsterdam, Holland, by our own national cultural/heritage expert the late Camille E. Baly.

  In closing, let us continue to honor and recognize our people who have contributed to St. Maarten's development, and to create a new Destiny for our children, grandchildren and generations to come.

  Gratitude is a must.

Maurice Lake 

Dear Editor,

  Divide and conquer used to be the tool by which the Dutch acquired colonies and controlled them. This principle is well known as is the savvy with which it has been applied through the years. Even long after the Dutch Kingdom agreed in the context of the United Nations to decolonize, colonization and control has continued.

  There is no country status, in fact we are still governed by the Kingdom and treated as colonies not equal partners. The divide and conquer principle has now evolved undermining of the people and its society is the new tool .

  Under the heading of corruption and the need to clean up the corrupt colonies, such as St. Maarten, the Dutch have found a new way to diminish the autonomy and increase the control.

  TBO (which abbreviation stands for “Team Bestrijding Ondermijning”, freely translated “Team to Combat Corruption”) has been launched on St. Maarten. This righteous organization, part of the overall agenda of the Dutch Government, executes investigations in St. Maarten ensuring that the people and society are undermined from the onset.

  The interest of the society is not served by the manner in which these investigations are done. These investigations intended to target individuals are aimed at our society to gain control of the country.

  From the moment one becomes a subject or person of interest in a TBO investigation your life is changed forever. Innocent until proven guilty is just a phrase without meaning and a principle long removed from our judicial system. “TBO” suspects are mentioned in press releases by full name, so the entire society can assist with the investigation. The banks immediately start the process to eject such person, insurance companies refuse to issue policies, online publications will secure life-long impact, and blogs will help investigators to keep investigations open for years; all so that the undermining can continue for years.

  Even if someone is found innocent the damage that was already done cannot be repaired. If persons undermining the society are investigated and prosecuted for their acts, why would these actions by the “TBO” team not fall under the same heading. They are undermining the same way and use and abuse the legal system to do so over many years.

  Suspects in criminal cases, were questioned and/or arrested and would have their day in court in a matter of months. Now investigations last years in the public eye, with constant press releases by the investigators and others they use to keep stories alive; with the help of the court, cases are postponed indefinitely to give investigators an indefinite period to slowly work on completing investigations to make the undermining last as long as possible.

  With millions of euros these investigators have all the resources they need to do swift and good investigations. That is not the agenda and all because all holding one head (judges and prosecutors) together work to make the investigations draw out as long as possible.

  Only in St. Maarten judges can have dinner with prosecutors without having any impact on the case. Only in St. Maarten prosecutors are allowed to lie to the judge and have no consequences for the case. No case gets thrown out in St. Maarten because the prosecutors fails, the Judge is still there to pick it up and make it happen.

  It is not that we do not have good lawyers in St. Maarten, they just don’t have a chance in a system rigged to serve one agenda: “The undermining of the people of St. Maarten and St. Maarten”.

L.B. Hill