Dear Editor,

  A sour, self-proclaimed leader of government (SPLOG) advised the people of Statia in the paper of March 22^nd to be careful what they wish for. I do believe that this is a well needed advice. I would like to add an additional advice and that is, also not to simply accept all statements that are presented to you as fact, but to seriously do research and form your own opinion.

  He qualifies the elections of a body that is responsible to elect one of the highest institutions of our nation as nonsensical. If one takes this qualification down the hierarchy of the institutions of our country then not much respect will be left over for municipality and island council elections.

  I take this opportunity to thank him wholeheartedly for the statistics provided and the comparison with the outcome of the island council elections of 2015. The total number of eligible voters compared to the 2015 island council elections was 23 per cent lower last Wednesday. The number of eligible voters who cast their vote last Wednesday on the DP was only 21 per cent lower than in 2015. And we all know that non-Dutch nationals were excluded from these elections. He calls this a loss of support, while in fact he proves that it is actually a gain. In this largely unknown election for the electoral college, boycotted by all other parties and without simultaneous island council elections held, the DP managed to get percentual more support than even in the last island council elections.

  The title the earlier mentioned individual signs his letter with is “Island Council Member”. I guess that everyone is aware that by law the island council of St. Eustatius, he claims to be a member of has been dissolved due to his doings on February 7, 2018. This means that there are since that date no longer island council members. But even when following his irrational line of reasoning, he is no longer an island council member. When he was sworn in in 2015, he was sworn in for a period of four years. This period of four years in the meantime has expired.

  My advice to him is not to put himself in the same category as the president of the United States, who will remain with that title until the day he dies. In our democratic system not even the King keeps his title after abdicating the throne.

Koos Sneek

DP Statia

Dear Editor,

  The front man for the opposition party of Statia, Mr. Sneek, confidently stated that the elections for the electoral council on Wednesday were a test to see where his party stands, leading up to the next island council elections. His party was all in favor of these nonsensical elections. They were the only local party to participate (which says enough), and therefore all votes cast therefore automatically went to the opposition party.

  Looking at the comparison with the island council elections of 2015, however, the opposition party might have been better off not participating. Just like its big sister party in the Netherlands, the CDA, the opposition party and its individual candidates who are currently members of the island council, lost a good bit of support.

  Despite the fact that they were the only party postulated to vie for 0 seats, and despite the propaganda to get voters out, the voters of Statia were not fooled. I know that they will come with all sorts of excuses, just like Mr. Knops did on Dutch national TV, but the fact of the matter is that voters are not foolish, are always right, and always have the last say in a democracy.

  I am convinced that the opposition party was punished by the voters of Statia for not standing up for their right to elect their own local representatives to the Island Council. Just like its big sister party the CDA in the Netherlands, the opposition party was punished at the polls for not taking care of the business of the people.

  I hereby want to commend the people of Statia for not being fooled by the misleading propaganda of the Dutch Government and local opposition party. You can rest assured that your legitimate government of Sint Eustatius will continue its quest to have democracy restored and the democratic will of the people respected.

Clyde I. van Putten

Island Council Member

Leader, Progressive Labour Party, St. Eustatius

Dear Editor,

  Some days ago, it was my birthday. It is an event which I look forward to immensely, taking the opportunity to disconnect from the world and to focus on celebrating another trip around the sun with my loved ones. After a few days when I connected my phone back to the Internet, the device soon blew up with disturbing images and videos of a pregnant tiger shark being caught, cut open and having her pups ripped out while a crowd, including small children, stood by and looked on.

  I was first quite upset, and then saddened to see my friends and colleagues from St. Maarten, St. Martin, Anguilla and around the region come to grips with not only the catching of a species threatened with its imminent extinction, but to also watch the disrespect for life we still need to come to grips with here in the Caribbean.

  I was upset and saddened at how, in 2019, with all the information out there on how sharks are so important to our ocean’s ecosystem, that they are not the mindless killers that they were made out to be by the media, that they are one of the most endangered animals on the planet. How can us island people who have such a close connection to the sea not realize that we have now removed one of the most important animals in the oceanic food chain? I then realized that misconceptions are still a major issue regarding how we perceive sharks.

  Sharks are essential to the health of our ocean; they are top-level ocean predators and their essential role in the ecosystem is to keep it in balance, ensuring that the whole food chain remains intact and functioning. If sharks are removed, the population of animals  they prey on will become unbalanced, and our reefs and the fisheries which depend on them, will collapse.

  To also see more than a dozen near-term pups, who would have grown into essential parts of the ocean food chain, also killed, further highlights the level of threat faced by these creatures. The arguments that a shark was responsible in the death of an Anguilla fisherman who went missing some months ago without any corroborative evidence, or the saying that any good shark is a dead shark, without any consideration for the importance of the species, is something which needs to be addressed in the wider Caribbean Sea.

  Sharks are not the mindless predators we have been led to believe by movies, books and television series. I would recommend your readers to consider this the next time they use their telephone cameras to take a picture of themselves and their friends at say, a nightclub: the act of taking a selfie has killed more people in 2019 than in three years by sharks. And New Yorkers have bitten more people than sharks ever can and ever will, often times with more deadly consequences.

 Think about this the next time a flight arrives from JFK. Yet, we are led to believe that these animals are mindless killing machines out to consume unsuspecting bathers. All this while annually humans kill one hundred million sharks a year. (100,000,000 annually). Some estimates say that some sharks will be extinct by 2030, followed by many other species of fish, followed by the way of life we know as Caribbean people.  And some may say that the shark will be eaten. This is in itself a problem: sharks are so full of mercury that eating them may be causing us to poison ourselves.

  Aside from these facts, all of them established in science, the act of cutting up a live animal, a pregnant female, and leaving its pups spill out on the beach in front of children, dragging it up the beach causing it to suffocate is just cruel. Where is our moral compass, our realization that we are part of a whole with all of the creatures of this planet? Where is the realization that we should and must show compassion for all life?

  I find it difficult to believe that the people who were seen dragging this animal up the beach and seeing it suffocate and die did not feel some type of remorse, did not consider that this is a living thing that had a life, an animal that has seen things in the ocean that we never will, that has evolved much earlier than us and has formed the foundation of our very existence. I find it hard to acknowledge that somewhere, deep down in their hearts, they did not feel some form of negative emotion in doing this to such a magnificent example of God’s creation.

  Nature Foundation will continue with its shark conservation program that not only involves research and protection, but also has a large educational component. It seems as if we have a long way to go in changing people’s perception of sharks, which luckily, are protected in the territorial waters of St. Maarten.

  These animals are some of the most misunderstood, maligned, yet most important creatures in our seas. Healthy reefs need sharks. And to do this we should collectively save our sharks. Not only for their sake but, ultimately, for ours.

Tadzio Bervoets

Manager Sint Maarten Nature Foundation

The following was given as the keynote address to the Fourth Annual Prominent Women’s International Women’s Day Awards Ceremony on March 19.

When I think of the phrase “Happy Women’s Day” I am drawn back to my childhood and my first reading of Lewis Carroll’s Alice In Wonderland. How odd, you may think, that this day women plan for and celebrate makes this woman, me, think of a children’s story. So here is the bit that got me thinking – Alice and Humpty Dumpty, who is balancing on a wall, are enwrapped in conversation:

  Alice says: “I mean, what is an un-birthday present?”

  Humpty Dumpty replied: “A present given when it isn’t your birthday, of course.”

  Alice considered a little. “I like birthday presents best,” she said at last.

  “You don’t know what you’re talking about!” cried Humpty Dumpty. “How many days are there in a year?”

  “Three hundred and sixty-five,” said Alice.

  “And how many birthdays have you,” he asked.

  “One,” said Alice.

  So, ladies what about the other 364 days? Aren’t they all women’s day? I don’t know about you, but my vagina doesn’t take a break and suddenly become a focus point only on March 8. It was thrusted upon me when the egg of my mother and the sperm of my father did that dance in the womb. I was born with it and it has kept growing … and growing on me. It made itself very noticed on the day the first blood came. It screamed when the hymen was pierced and it rejoiced after that … again and again.

  There is another poignant quote; this time from a real-life woman – Hillary Rodham-Clinton. The year was 1995 and I was 15. My breasts had not yet made an appearance, but looming large was my sense of self and the soapbox I already carried around. Clinton said: “Human rights are women’s rights, and women’s rights are human rights.”

  Let’s look at what we, women, are confronted with on St. Maarten. The basket of necessities – the list of government price-controlled items – covers some dozen products. So, a woman, let’s make her a mother, with limited financial means can go out and buy all the things she needs to make her family a meal – give or take.

  Let’s imagine that mother in a typical mom scenario. She is busy in the kitchen trying to prepare a meal, there is a baby screaming in the background as her 11-year-old approaches her: “Mom,” she says, “I got my period.” This is a proud and scary moment for a mother, I am sure. That mom as she stands looking at her child feels something warm snaking down her leg. She knows it is a rivulet of red because she couldn’t afford this month to buy sanitary pads. This item, ladies, is NOT price-controlled or labelled a basic necessity on St. Maarten. Feminine hygiene products such as sanitary pads are basic necessities on Curaçao since 2012.

  What would it take to get feminine hygiene products on the list of price-controlled basic necessities? The simplest of procedure. No law change is required. All that is needed is a thinking minister to instruct the Economic Affairs Department to inventorize this item and with the stroke of a pen it can be added. The department can also take the lead in this and conduct the price assessment. There is absolutely no reason why this should remain an imbalance.

  By the way, sanitary pads are also not on the hurricane supply list. This is that list we hear about all throughout the hurricane season. That’s how much we are thought of, ladies! We better know that a stack of feminine hygiene products is necessary or be in a rather messy situation following a hurricane; say, one like Irma. What is great about this hurricane supply list is that batteries are prominently placed. Should hurricane stress get you down, you can always pop some batteries into your vibrator and get some release, just not when you have your period. Detergent is not price-controlled.

  Speaking of Mother Nature’s monthly gift. Many of us may have just walked into a pharmacy to purchased contraceptives. How many of us are aware that by law, a prescription is required for birth control pills? Why bother with what is on the law if we can still get it without a hurdle? I say, what if the hammer of the law crashes down, what then?

  The age of consent is set at 16. I can only assume that is why it is called sweet sixteen. At that age a young girl can consent to a man entering her body, but she cannot access, legally, birth control pills. Based on the law books, a minor requires a parent’s consent to access birth control until age 18. Let’s pause here and think about this – a teenage girl can allow a man to thrust into her very self, but she does not have the means to prevent the egg/sperm dance if her chosen male partner does not wrap up his man parts. (Just a quick note – contraceptive pills and diabetic medicines are price-controlled in Curaçao, so we don’t have to go far for examples.)

  Now, let’s imagine birth control pills or a condom was not used or there was a malfunction, and the result is a pregnancy. What then for the 16-year-old or any other woman for that matter who is not prepared or wants this path. The medical termination of that pregnancy, let’s call it by the taboo name abortion, is not legally possible. I want the phrase “not legal” to be a focal point here. Yes, getting an abortion is as easy as crossing our open border. Abortions are also possibly performed on this side by doctors taking the risk of jail time to ensure women have a choice and control over their own body and life.

  By the way, birth control pills are not generally covered by insurance. The only women who have access to birth control via their insurance are those in the civil service due to government’s specific insurance type. So, the 65 per cent of the civil service – meaning all women working for government – have this access and 100 per cent of us who don’t work for government better find the cash – limited as it is – or hope the condom doesn’t go kaput!

  A mother, single or married, is not by law entitled to unpenalized time off should she need to stay at home with her sick child. She must take a vacation day or call in sick herself. She, of course, runs the risk of losing a day or more pay for missing work due to a sick child. It is in this area banks have shown they are not all Ebenezer Scrooge on Christmas Eve. Most banks, thanks to the work of labour unions, have enshrined in their collective labour agreements access to five “child care” days. This is not common in the private sector.

  A bit of equality when it comes to sexual reproductive health law is a woman (if married) requires the consent of her husband before she can tie her tubes to permanently prevent pregnancies. The husband also needs this consent from his wife if he decides to do a vasectomy. Neither of these procedures are done below age 35 to lessen the chance of regret in both parties.

  I don’t know if I should classify this as a perk, but in spite of all the sexual reproductive restrictions on a woman’s body, she is legally allowed to sell it to a man. The law regulating prostitution is gender specific, meaning it only allows a woman to sell her body for economic gain. Not a man. So, there we go, ladies, we are ahead of the men where is really matters – making money in reclining position.

  Basic rights are denied to a woman who happen to fall in love with someone of her own sex. Both lesbian partners – women! – cannot access the benefits a heterosexual couple in a civil union can. Mind you, I said “civil union,” not marriage. A marriage is performed by an ordained religious person. A civil union is presided over by a government-appointed official. Same-sex civil unions are not legal on St. Maarten. You don’t choose who you fall in love with, but there are laws determining what that love is worth in social and other benefits.

  Here we are at the poignant words of the now retired UN Population Fund Executive Director Thoraya Ahmed Obaid who in 2004 said – “We cannot reduce poverty and maternal and child mortality, promote women’s empowerment and equality, reverse the spread of HIV/AIDS and ensure sustainable development, unless reproductive health and rights are given the highest priority and are treated as a basis for achieving the MDGs [Millennium Development Goals – Ed.].” St. Maarten has signed on to achieving those goals.

  Are you a little bit wiser now? I definitely am after the journey I took researching for this speech. And as I stand here, I am reminded of a woman closer to home – retired Ombudsman Nilda Arduin. She closed her ground-breaking tenure by saying: “We have to learn how to finish the job. When I say ‘we,’ I mean the community and our leaders. We need to tackle our cultural approach. If we have 10 assignments and finish four, we celebrate and forget we still have six more. We have a tendency not to finish what we have to finish.” (Does this sound like Alice being happy with that one gift!)

  There have been great improvements on this resilient rock of ours. We can boast of shattering the glass ceiling into confetti with women represented in the highest offices of the land. But are we celebrating when only part of the work is done?

  Are we Alice contented with that one birthday gift a year? Or will we heed the call of Ombudsman Arduin – a real life woman – and work diligently, tirelessly, to fix these inequalities by calling vehemently, for changes via our laws?

  And think for a moment, if we are denied so many basic freedoms, rights – many we are not even aware of – and if we don’t get ourselves educated, become more aware and take up a fierce Oualichi battle cry, then the only thing we are celebrating on March 8 or for the entire month of March, for that matter, is the fact that we have a vagina. And the only balance we are concerned about is the PH balance of the place author Fabian Badejo describes in his book Fantasies Love-Making Poems – as “a jewel box” with “nectar like wine” – and the only problem we will prevent is a minor yeast infection as we continue to sit in blissful ignorance.

Alita Singh