Dear Editor,

  I can’t believe the service the banks offer here in St. Maarten, as if they are doing favors to us. Let me blow some steam.

  Yesterday I went to Windward Islands Bank in Simpson bay, Twice. Both times, I counted over 20 people on line with only three tellers working at a “Turtle speed.” I decided to wait a day and go in the morning when they open up.

  After waiting in heat outside for 30 minutes behind a line of 22 persons, we were allowed inside. Being a senior citizen, I was allowed to enter before the rest of the crowd along with other seniors. I felt good. Wow.

  Now picture this. The lobby is full and only 2 tellers working the regular persons line. What happened to the “Senior” line? After yelling and showing unhappiness, the security guard comes and tells us, the seniors, to be quiet and wait in line until we were called. (Still no senior teller). One gentleman asked for the manager and the security told him to step aside. Rude and disrespectful.

  What is it with these banks? They don’t make enough? They have 8 teller windows. It must be for show only, since I have never seen them opened all my life here. Don’t they realize we have jobs to go to also and don’t have an hour just to give them money or cash a check.

  Disgusted!

Disgruntled customer

Name withheld at author's request.

Dear Editor,

  There is little doubt in my mind, after seeing how the debates unfolded in the Tweede Kamer and their refusal to set a social minimum in the Dutch Caribbean, that our status is one of second-class citizens.

  They say it cannot be done because the prices on our three islands are different. Convenient that one of the world leaders in finance, and the originators of the stock market, have forgotten how to use their calculators. Convenient that the ones bragging about the efficiency of their bureaucracy cannot seem to administer three different policies. Convenient that three parties (D66, CDA & CDU) who, two years ago as members of the opposition, were all for establishing a social minimum but now that they are in power have turned their backs on us. Like a member of GroenLinks said: this is a matter of human rights. But alas it doesn’t matter. To them, we do not seem to be human.

  How can the national government claim to be serious about tackling poverty when they don’t even want to establish where the poverty line actually is? Sure, the minimum wage and AOV have been raised by 5 per cent but how can that help when my mom’s electricity bill has gone up by 50 per cent in the last year? How can it help the many who work for more than the minimum wage but can only afford bread and butter at the end of the week? How can they be so bold to claim to care when they condemn thousands to live in worsening poverty at the same time that the national GDP has been steadily increasing? The belly of the Dutch government is full, but we hungry!

  This is what neo-colonialism looks like.

Dear Editor,

  I believe that by now your readers know that over and over I have stated that public transportation should be in the hands of the public (government). So when I read that the United Bus Drivers Association (UBDA) gave the Minister of TEATT an ultimatum to meet with them or face industrial action, my reaction was and still is “who the hell they think they are?”

  I never really found out the meaning of this saying, but when I go back just a little more than a month ago when I wrote about that protest march in which the Haitian community was taking part, and seeing who is heading that threat of industrial action, I believe that the saying “if the pan is not heated, the corn won’t pop” can be used here.

  I would like to know if those bus drivers strike and thousands of people cannot get to their jobs on time, with all the ensuing consequences, how is government going to react?  Would government be able to justify why the wellbeing of a great part of the community was left at the mercy of bus drivers?

  I can make this a long letter but I believe that your readers will accept if I say “I tell you so.”

Russell A. Simmons

Dear Editor,

  We took note of the recent publications in which the Dutch government took the Aruba, Curaçao, and St. Maarten prime ministers under the motto “One Kingdom – Four Countries” to the 73^rd UNGA meetings, or was it propaganda that the Netherlands put the Dutch Caribbean prime ministers in front of the Caribbean-war-propaganda campaign against their own Caribbean brothers and sisters? Mr. Rutte’s, prime minister of Netherlands, address in the UN seems to be a farce, and the CARICOM countries should be aware, this is not an internal matter, because the Kingdom is ruled by the Dutch parliament and has never met the true intentions of the decolonization treaties of the UN and there are no other countries in the Kingdom than the Netherlands and all the other islands are subordinated to them. And as such the Netherlands continued the colonization of the former Netherlands Antilles under a rigid modernized colonial agenda since 10-10-10 and are in violation with the UN principles and charter.

  The hypocrisy is that Dutch Prime Minister Rutte and Foreign Minister Blok, who took front row at the UNGA and who both publicly discriminated against the Dutch Caribbean people, used the Aruba prime minister Mrs. Wever-Croes to mask their intentions. And this time the Dutch Caribbean prime ministers were not only used as ornaments but hosted a side-event: “Strengthening International Cooperation on Maritime Security in the Caribbean region.”

  This letter serves as a serious warning to all Caribbean nations. This Dutch-orchestrated show at the UNGA meetings using our own Caribbean leaders, the prime ministers from Aruba, Curaçao and St. Maarten, in high-level meetings is high-level propaganda for more division in the Caribbean, which is aspiring and seeking integration and unity, to keep the islands under the control of The Hague.

  The Dutch Minister of Defense Mrs. Bijleveld, who was also part of the UNGA show, just recently got the instruction from the Dutch parliament to seek support from the US, France, and Great Britain for a robust militarization of the ABC islands that will spark provocation with neighboring Venezuela which could lead towards a war in the peaceful Caribbean and Latin America, wiping out the local population of the ABC islands, and which will be dividing and destroying the rest of the Caribbean.

  Mrs. Bijleveld seems to have been given another mayor task in the imperialistic endeavors of her nation,  is highly experienced in such strategy and tactics as she was the State Secretary of Kingdom Relations in a previous Dutch government that successfully blackmailed, bullied, and extorted the  Netherlands Antillean politicians and leaders by threatening to end the financial guarantee and aid to the islands and thus divided, destroyed, and dissolved the Netherlands Antilles on the symbolic Columbus Day of colonization of the Americas, October 10, 2010 (10-10-10). What can we expect of the future? Will 2-2-2020 be the deadline for the full execution of this demonic plan?

  The defenseless smaller islands Bonaire, Sint Eustatius, and Saba were annexed, re-colonized, embedded and integrated under unequal rights in the Dutch constitution against the wishes of the peoples, and keep up to today the peoples in this imposed colonial status, despite legal democratic rejection by the peoples through referenda. The autonomy of the other islands Aruba, Curaçao, and St. Maarten was reversed at that same time to a colonial level, and now as a mockery to democracy they are parading prime ministers who are subordinated to the Dutch politicians and parliament at the UN level. Meanwhile, the Dutch have the full and ultimate power over the islands’ budget and judiciary system, and can simply overrule any local government with a unilateral instruction from The Hague.

  To summarize: before the Netherlands put the Dutch Caribbean prime ministers in front of this Caribbean-war-propaganda campaign against their Caribbean brothers and sisters, all these prime ministers were and are intimidated, bullied, extorted by the current Dutch State Secretary of Kingdom Relations, Mr. Knops, whose military credentials (tactical officer, lieutenant colonel who was active in the Iraq war) predispose him to a less-than-democratic approach, for example:

* The Aruba prime minister Mrs. Wever-Croes and parliament are currently under an undemocratic budgetary financial supervision and under threat of a next instruction from The Hague;

* The Curaçao prime minister Mr. Rhuggenaath and parliament are under an undemocratic budgetary financial supervision and heavy threat of intervention by The Hague;

* St. Maarten prime minister Mrs. Marlin-Romeo and parliament are currently under an undemocratic budgetary control and government is steered by The Hague, abusing the post-Hurricane Irma chaos and need for financial aid for the reconstruction with a cynical quid-pro-quo attitude.

  Our hope is that these Dutch Caribbean prime ministers and parliamentarians who promised the people who voted for them to stand with them, open their eyes and realize who put them there and where they come from. In standing side-by-side with the oppressor on the wrong side of history as in consenting to and even cooperating with crimes against humanity, they qualify as traitors, betraying not only the ones who voted for them, but also betraying their ancestors, and all those in the Caribbean who died and suffered in the struggle for freedom and equality.

James Finies

President Nos Ke Boneiru Bek

(We Want Bonaire Back)