Dear Editor,

  Just the other day, I asked some folks in a gathering if they were happy with the way things are taking place on our island, and, like me, they are not happy. When I asked if what they intended to do about it, the response was tepid. That was another warning bell to me and even more reason to fear the direction our island nation is headed.

  A few years ago, when he visited the St. Martin Book Fair, the young professor M.K. Asante left a message with the audience: “If you have an observation, you have an obligation.” In his wisdom, the then 26-year-old reminded us that we cannot remain silent and complicit when we notice injustice taking place in our community.

  I understand why some people choose to remain silent out of fear of being targeted by the powers that be. Many of us who have dared to stand up to injustice and other ills over the years know all too well what the repercussions can be. They can range from being disregarded for jobs and funding opportunities, economic boycott of your business, shady “investigations” of you and your family, and even death (Mr. Helmin Wiels being the most recent example). However, we also know that freedom comes at a price, but it is a price that must be paid.

  Too many St. Martiners will tell you that they know that Independence is the solution to St. Martiners taking full control of their destiny as a people, with all the ramifications thereof. Yet, still too few are willing to make the necessary sacrifices for this to happen. I’m not talking about the perceived material sacrifices that so many attribute to being a politically independent territory in this region. I am referring to sacrifices in terms of comfort zones and especially false notions of “power,” when in reality our people remain powerless in shaping our destiny.

  Colonialism – whether by the Americans, Dutch, French, British, or whomever – is evil and unjust. No matter how it is dressed up or whatever euphemisms are used to conceal it, it always works to the detriment of the colonized people and their way of life. The fact is St. Martin is a colony, and the contrived colonial domination that is currently taking place (on both sides of the island) is not in the interest of the St. Martin people, no matter what politicians tell you.

  At this point in our development, St. Martiners, the right thing for all of us, regardless of age, political colors, passports, etc. to do at this time is to unite and take a strong stand against colonialism and the continued use of our island nation and people as pawns to satisfy an evil agenda. We must do this not just for the common good today, but also in the interest of our children and future generations. We as St. Martiners, too, need to be honest with ourselves that if we want our freedom and to preserve our island for the future generations, we must be willing to make sacrifices today, now.

  I am calling on all St. Martiners to talk to your representatives, on both sides of the island, and urge them to put down their campaigning weapons and get together to fight this evil noose of colonialism around our collective necks. Those of us who know that independence is the way to save St. Martin cannot afford to sit idly by or remain complicit in the annihilation of our people and our values.

  For those aspiring to get into Heaven, know that you cannot get in while alive. Quote: The price of freedom …

Rhoda Arrindell

Dear Editor,

  There is saying, “A wise head keeps a still tongue.” That saying came to me when, during a discussion among five of us, one of the men who does not usually say much said to me, “If I compare all you to those nowadays, I believe that all you helped to pay your own salaries.”

  I rarely publicly engage in discussions concerning my profession, because people have the tendency to believe that I would take sides. You see, it is all about statistics and record-keeping.

  This conversation started because of a private car following behind the ambulance with siren, which prompted one of us sitting there to comment if the police were more active he wouldn’t take that chance. My personal point of view is that the more congested the traffic gets the more drivers force themselves through the traffic. I constantly get a nasty look when I can see the driver (of a car without heavily tinted glass) who is not pleased because I insist on using the roundabout correctly.

  In view of all this I am trying to recall whether the Marechaussee and those police people came to Sint Maarten to make up the numbers or to provide expertise. I am also asking myself if Bosman and Van Raak are not aware that the comments are that no normal police work is done for a long while now.

  Because of the amount of arrests that have been made and the ongoing investigations on people in government, the people are of the opinion that that is why they are here and do not feel that enough service is given to the public at large, or that there is enough surveillance kept. I personally can say that at least five days a week I am at home from 7:00am to 5:00pm and I rarely see a patrol go by.

  Conscientious drivers are of the opinion that the police leave too much go unattended-to while on patrol. I have several points of view on that but I will concentrate on only one.

  In my view both the local and the Dutch police people are to be blamed for not doing anything about all the infringements committed, often in plain sight of the police. The community is noticing this along with the blunder committed by the Minister of Finance by giving in to the protesters against the 2019 number plate, and gradually everybody is doing what they want. Even the emergency vehicles with sirens are disregarded and nothing is done about that either.

  Would I be facetious if I would think that the Prosecutor’s Office is not addressing this issue because that would be exposing the inefficiency of their own?

  Actually, it does not take me to notice this. If all of those involved with the supervision of enforcing the law and maintaining the peace, would get off their phones while operating a motor vehicle they would notice that, just like the prices are going up daily in the supermarkets, the confusion in traffic is steadily increasing. Beside reiterating that we do not need any more cars on Sint Maarten and we need to regulate the public transportation, I do not think I have to go down into specificities because it is all there to see.

Russell A. Simmons

Dear Editor,

  When I was a young girl of 11 years old on Saba, my parents Clement Sorton, a policeman at the time, and Allier Sorton took me to New York City on vacation together with my 2 sisters and 2 brothers. It was in the month of June 1956 when we travelled there on vacation. We were there for about 4 months.

  During our vacation in New York we were invited out for lunch by so many families and friends. Many of them visited us also at the apartment where we were staying in Harlem at 138 Street West, Lenox Avenue Apartment No 8.

  In the month of July one of our families invited us out to spend the day with them.

  The late Mr. C. Whitfield came for us and took us to his home. We had a wonderful time with his sons and grandchildren who were all there. We played different games, such as Chinese checkers, among other things and had a lot of fun.

  As night stepped in and it was getting dark, we had to leave Brooklyn and travel back to Harlem where we were staying. The late C. Whitfield travelled together with us to the train station. There we took the midnight express train and we all were in the train travelling back to our family apartment at 138 Street. In the train my parents, both sisters and brothers as well as Mr. C. Whitfield were talking and laughing and were very happy. They were not observing when the train stopped.

  When the train stopped, I was looking out through the window and saw that the train had stopped at 136 Street. I stepped out of the train and stood on the block platform with other passengers who had also stepped out. I looked around thinking my family was also out of the train and noticed that they had not got out.

  The express train took off and took them all up to 145^th Street. There they took a taxi and went back down to the block at 136 Street looking for me. They did not see me and were all upset.

  Because I knew that the train continued on with them, I decided to walk and run as much as I could until I reached 138 Street. I walked and ran one block and saw heavy traffic coming my way. Although I was very young, I stood on the zebra crossing and then jumped over to the other blocks as fast as I could.

  At a given moment I met a dark-skin lady with a long black coat over her arm and wearing a woolen cap. When she saw that I was a young girl running in front of her she shouted out “Kid, kid, what are you doing out this hour of the night? Wait for me. I can take you where you have to go.” I turned around and told her, “I don't need your help.” The lady continued to shout “Kid, Kid!” while I continued running as fast as I could.

  While I was running, I looked to my left side and saw a vision of 2 large white wings flying along with me. I kept running until I reached the candy store at the end of the block. Upon reaching the candy store I saw 3 Latino men with their heads hanging down in their laps. They were apparently so high that they did not observe a young person running passing them by.

  When I reached the candy store, I knew I was almost home. I looked up, down and across and saw that no traffic was approaching. I ran over to the other side of the street from where I then walked until I saw the basement door of the Apartment 111½ where we were staying. I pressed the doorknob and opened the door. I went inside to the cabinet and pressed apartment No 8. The bell rang at my godmother's apartment. She answered and asked, “Who is it?” Then I answered and said, “It is Golda” as I am usually called. She said, “What are you doing here by yourself?” “When I come upstairs I will tell you what happened.” Then she said, “Come on up.”

  I ran up the stairs to her apartment. My godmother opened her door and I thanked the Lord I had reached home safe.

  After that my godmother and I sat looking out the window to see when my parents with my sisters and brothers and Mr. C. Whitfield would reach.

  A short time after we saw them coming to the basement. I called out from upstairs and told them, “I am home.” I called again, “I am home. Come upstairs. Don’t worry anymore.”

  They then came up the stairs to our apartment and were very happy that I had reached home safely.

  After that day, I was called the child that was lost and found.

Florence Golda Frederica Sorton

Saba

The U.S. ambassador to Barbados has absolutely no authority to speak about Venezuela whatsoever. If we let her do so, we would be validating the infamous 19^th century Monroe Doctrine, which claimed the whole of the Americas (including the Caribbean) to be the backyard of the United States.

  Ever since the enunciation of the Monroe Doctrine in 1823, the U.S. has invaded, occupied and destabilized Latin American and Caribbean countries on more than 160 occasions, leaving absolutely not one single positive legacy in the region as a result of such violent and cruel regime change adventures.

  For example, ruthless dictators like Augusto Pinochet in Chile, Anastasio Somoza in Nicaragua and Rafael Leonidas Trujillo in the Dominican Republic are by-products of American intervention in the region, just to name a few.

  The countless military interventions and bullying by the U.S. against Haiti, for instance, failed to produce positive results either (the U.S. occupied Haiti militarily for 19 consecutive years, from 1915 until 1934).

  Clearly, the U.S. has never cared about democracy or human rights. It is just looking after corporate interests, which among other things, translate in trying to secure precious commodities cheaply and/or the routes to get to them.

  This is where Venezuela falls in. Venezuela has the largest proven reserves of oil in the world, as well as the largest reserve of gold in Latin America, not to count the immense amounts of strategic resources, such as gas, bauxite, coltan and water.

  A Pentagon document leaked by Edward Snowden in 2007 cites six countries as strategic priorities of the National Security Agency (NSA) of the U.S. They are: China, North Korea, Iraq, Iran, Russia and Venezuela. On Venezuela the paper states that Venezuela’s influence and leadership must be stopped from “growing in areas such as politics, ideology and energy.”

  In fact, the U.S. National Security Adviser John Bolton, a fanatical war hawk, a few weeks ago said that “it would make a big difference to the U.S. economically if we can have American companies produce the oil in Venezuela.”

  Ever since President Hugo Chavez was elected in 1999, the U.S. has been trying to destroy the Bolivarian Revolution. It has tried it through an unsuccessful coup d’etat in 2002; a business lockout in 2002-2003; street violence in 2004, 2013, 2014 and 2017, as well as through a process of economic warfare, sanctions and a financial blockade, which are the main reason for the severe economic difficulties Venezuela is currently going through.

  In his book, Treasury’s War: The Unleashing of a New Era of Financial Warfare, Juan Zarate, a White House insider and former U.S. Treasury Department official, states that “the U.S. has waged a new brand of financial warfare, unprecedented in its reach and effectiveness. This ‘hidden war’ has often been underestimated or misunderstood, but it is no longer secret and has since become central to America’s national security doctrine.”

  In addition, WikiLeaks released a whole U.S. manual on how to conduct financial warfare against enemy countries. Entitled “Army Special Operations Forces Unconventional Warfare – September 2008 - FM-3-05.130,” the manual states that “the U.S. can use financial power as a weapon in times of conflict up to and including large-scale general war.”

  Also, Admiral Kurt Tidd, former commander of the U.S. Southern Command, is the author of a paper entitled “Plan to Overthrow the Venezuelan Dictatorship – Masterstroke,” from February 2018. In it, Tidd recommends to “encourage popular dissatisfaction by increasing scarcity and rise in price of foodstuffs, medicine and other essential goods,” as one of several steps listed “to speed up the definitive overthrow of chavismo.”

  As a result of this “hidden war,” Venezuela has thus far lost over 20 billion U.S. dollars annually. That amount represents one year of food imports in Venezuela.

  Therefore, this is about completely breaking Venezuela financially to later on offer us “humanitarian assistance,” in order to bring about regime change.

  If Donald Trump really wanted to help Venezuela, all he has to do is lift the sanctions, stop attacking Venezuela financially, stop intervening in our domestic affairs and give back to us the Venezuelan assets illegally confiscated by Trump in the U.S. a couple of days ago, valued at 12 billion U.S. dollars.

  Of course, we all know that Trump’s concerns regarding Venezuela have nothing to do with the wellbeing of Venezuelans. After all, Trump has responded to the plight of Central American migrants with an unwelcoming wall, putting migrant children in cages and mobilizing the army to stop them at the border.

  Not to mention the hideous association that Trump has made between Latin American and Caribbean countries with animal stool.

  In addition, after the devastation of Puerto Rico as a consequence of Hurricane Maria in 2017, all Puerto Ricans obtained from Trump as humanitarian aid was toilet paper thrown at them in a sort of reality show staged by Trump during his stay on that island.

  So, unsurprisingly, showing his disregard and contempt for Venezuela, Trump appointed Elliot Abrams, who many in the U.S. view as a war criminal, who was convicted for his role in the Iran-Contra Affair and who was in charge of U.S. policy when death squads wreaked havoc in Central America (leading to the death of about 250,000 people in just three countries – Nicaragua, El Salvador and Guatemala – in less than a decade in the 1980s), as the person in charge of “steering U.S. Venezuela policy.”

  In the 1980s, Abrams transported arms to the Contras in Nicaragua on planes disguised for “humanitarian aid.” A New York Times piece from 1987, “Aide Says U.S. Planes Carried Contra Arms,” provides additional information regarding the involvement of Abrams in such a sinister and anti-humanitarian scheme.

  At any rate, legally speaking the U.S. cannot deliver “humanitarian aid” to Venezuela because according to UN General Assembly Resolution 46/182 of 1991, any humanitarian aid must be delivered with neutrality and impartiality. In addition, the government of the affected nation must make the request. None of this applies to Venezuela.

  Indeed, the UN and the International Red Cross refused to endorse the delivery of U.S. “humanitarian aid” to Venezuela, for it does not comply with the requirements established by international law.

  But most importantly Venezuela is not suffering any humanitarian crisis. Instead, Venezuela is suffering an economic crisis, which to a great extent has been engineered by the Trump government through a financial blockade and economic warfare, as explained above.

  It is evident that Trump would like to invade Venezuela militarily, as he has stated a few times (in violation of Article 2 of the UN Charter) so as to bring about “regime change,” in order to gain access to our vast natural resources, through the façade of “humanitarian aid.” Trump is trying to take the Monroe Doctrine to a new level in the 21^st century by seeking to recolonize Venezuela. Instead of “humanitarian aid,” it should be dubbed “weaponized aid.”

  In Venezuela we are prepared to fend off this offensive and defend our country in what has become our “second struggle for independence.” However, it is critically important that neighboring countries contribute to stopping Trump from creating a new Libya or Syria out of Venezuela, for the consequences would be disastrous for a region that has been declared, and must be maintained, as a zone of peace.

  This is not about President Maduro. Chavismo in Venezuela is a huge political force, engrained in our political sociology and history, and this is something that cannot be easily erased. This is about not only Venezuela’s national sovereignty, but if the U.S. gets away with destroying our right to self-determination, no country’s national sovereignty in Latin America and the Caribbean will be safe. This is about the assertion of the Monroe Doctrine over Venezuela’s national sovereignty to be followed by its imposition over the rest of the continent and to be spread even further afield.

  Faced with the prospect of yet another U.S. war for oil, this time against Venezuela, which would have horrific consequences, the international community is rallying behind Mexico’s, Uruguay’s and CARICOM’s Initiative for Dialogue, which President Maduro has warmly endorsed.

  The strong opposition by the Trump government to, and his derision of, dialogue, obfuscated behind a great deal of fakery, stems from the irrefutable fact that his government is openly and explicitly preparing for war against Venezuela.

  What we are truly facing is the real possibility of having people like Trump and his war hawkish cabinet destroying and dismembering the Venezuelan State in order to satisfy greed and supremacy both in Venezuela and the region. No blood for oil!

Alvaro Sanchez Cordero

Charge D’Affaires of the Embassy of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela to Barbados