Dear Editor,
On June 15, 2018, the seventh Governor’s Symposium was held under the theme, “Climate change and small Island states: A call for strategic action.” During this meeting a number of concerns were raised as it related to climate change and the impact that it will have on St. Maarten as well as various Islands.
The Hon. Governor Eugene Holiday said, “St. Maarten is running out of time to enact timely climate change measures.” He also stated that he is optimistic that acting now we can save the day for future generations.
Hon. Prime Minister Leona Romeo- Marlin labeled climate change as a threat to our economy and wellbeing. She stated that we must be pro-active and must make all effort to mitigate the effects of climate change. We must act now to strengthen our resilience.
Mr. Joseph Isaac, head of St. Maarten’s Meteorological Department also voiced his concerns and presented numerous options as to how to mitigate the impact of natural disasters.
Mr. Derek Downes, Windward Islands Bank director, made this statement: “Postponement of action is not an option, and it will lead to higher cost.”
It was predicted that in the next 20 to 50 years, St. Maarten will no longer have an airport as it will be covered under water along with low-lying areas such as Simpson Bay, Cole Bay, Philipsburg and Sucker Garden to mention a few.
To this point I am not aware of any serious actions taken to mitigate the impact of climate change on St. Maarten, however all parties agree that the time to act is now.
What is even more irrefutable is the fact that so many people including myself have being getting dreams and visions about a terrible earthquake and tsunami hitting this island and neighboring Islands. God has been speaking to people and we simply cannot ignore these warnings.
St. Maarten, please wake up! Our lives and the very existence of our country are at stake!
i am calling on the people of St. Maarten and neighboring islands to please cry out to God for mercy. I am calling on the Government to cry out to God for mercy for the country that you lead and I am calling on the church to wake up and cry to Almighty God. Let us repent before God and seek His mercy. I am sure that a terrible disaster is hanging over St. Maarten’s head and it is not 20 to 50 years from now, but right around the corner. I believe God is able to divert it and even if God allows it to come to pass, because we turn to Him many lives will be saved.
I am calling on the churches on this island to seek God!
It is an individual and collective effect. We cannot continue on the same trend. The survival of the country depends on us. (Chronicles 7:14)
It is time to humble ourselves, turn from our wicked ways and seek God so that He can show us mercy and save this country.
While the government is talking about mitigating disaster which is commendable, we as the church know the power of prayer. God still answers prayers.
I do not prefer to use this medium as a means of addressing the churches. However, because of the urgency of the matter and the time it will take me to set up appointments with the various leaders and visit the various churches, I have no choice. It is high time for prayer.
I have a mandate from the Lord to gather the people who saw the vision of disaster and the watchmen of this country and it shall be done in Jesus’ name.
A few persons have already contacted me and we are engaged in prayer for this island. Persons from abroad have also contacted me and they too are praying for us. Please feel free to contact me, my number is 522-7201. I am envisioning the various churches on the Island engaged in prayer on a particular day and time at our respective place of worship interceding for this country, therefore it is important for those leaders who catch the vision to contact me. We will also organize a day and time to gather at the beach and pray. I am envisioning the people on this Island especially the churches lined up on the beach, symbolic of a wall of defense for this island, praying.
God bless and keep St. Maarten.
Dieanna Wilson
Dear Public Works,
How deep do the potholes have to be before you finally start to fix them on our public roads?
We pay our road tax to be able to drive on decent public roads!
The high season is around the corner and because of the potholes we got already more traffic jams!
Simpson Bay is now the local and tourist strip but too many potholes on this stretch!
The road is crying to be fixed!
Please wake up public roads!
A concerned citizen
Dear Editor,
With much interest I read the article appearing in the daily newspaper under the heading “St. Eustatius deposed coalition files court case against Dutch government”. A petition was filed at the Court of first Instance to initiate main proceedings against the government of the Netherlands. The article states that the first hearing is scheduled for October 23, 2018. I can conclude there will be other court hearings. Their main focus is article 73 of the United Nations Charter, which reads: Members of the United Nations which have or assume responsibilities for the administration of territories whose peoples have not yet attained a full measure of self-government recognize the principle that the interests of the inhabitants of these territories are paramount. … Question: Has the Dutch government acted in accordance with the law as it regards the interests of the inhabitants of St. Eustatius by removing a democratically elected government?
The article continues, … to ensure with due respect for culture and for peoples concerned, their political, economic, social, and educational advancement, their treatment, and their protection against abuses … . Were the people of St. Eustatius protected by the actions of the Dutch government?
The fact that the Dutch government out of thin air or as the Dutch saying goes (uit de duim zuigen) creates a law called “Temporary Law Task Neglect” and imposes it immediately on the island of St. Eustatius in my opinion is a blatant display of abuse of power. Will justice prevail?
The Dutch government when it comes to laws, agreements and their adherence to them pretends to be flawless. The contrary has proven to be the case. A clear example is NAf.180 million that was promised or agreed to for debt relief. Can I include the 50 million or so promised to the late Miguel Pourier who was at the time Prime Minister of the then Netherlands Antilles after he laid off hundreds of civil servants which never came?
The court is being called upon to adjudicate in this conflict between St. Eustatius and the Netherlands. The Dutch are signatories to the United Nations Charter. Article 1.2 of the Charter reads: … to develop friendly relations among nations based on respect for principles of equal rights and self-determination of peoples … . Is the Dutch government complying with this law? Dutch politicians all too often reminded us that we are not equal.
The questions to ask are the following; Are the Dutch violating the United Nations charter by its actions towards St. Eustatius, and by extension the other 5 islands in the Kingdom? Is the Dutch Charter subjugated to the United Nations Charter? Must they adhere or comply with the articles of the United Nations Charter? The Dutch Charter in its present form, and I will extract Article 51 of the Kingdom Charter, freely translated is biased as it reads: If any organ in Aruba, Curaçao or St. Maarten does not or does not adequately perform its duties as required by this present charter, an international instrument, a Kingdom Act or an order in council for the Kingdom, the measures to be taken may be determined by Kingdom Act, setting forth the legal grounds and the reasons on which it is based.
What I noted in this article was that the Netherlands was not mentioned as one of the countries having to perform such duties. But this became clear when I read the following: A motion was proposed on October 10, 2018, to the Dutch Second Chamber by Mr. De Graaf in which he confirms that there is a democratic deficit or inequality between Holland and the other countries (note countries) in the Kingdom. His motion reads as follows, freely translated: considering that the Netherlands deserves or has the same rights as Curaçao, Aruba and St. Maarten; considering
that the Netherlands fulfilled her obligations as former colonizer (we are still colonies) of the other countries in the Kingdom in an ad hoc or careless manner; And pay keen attention to the following; to request the government to serve the interests of the citizens of the Netherlands by seeing to it that the other countries “leave our Kingdom”.
This statement brings to mind the one that was told to former Prime Minister of St. Maarten William Marlin by Prime Minister Mark Rutte who was angry and said leave our Kingdom because the former PM told him that establishing the “Integrity chamber Ordinance was not the priority of the government of St. Maarten. Minister William Marlin’s response was, “It is not your Kingdom”.
I look forward with much interest to the upcoming hearings. Will it be a matter of interpretation or the letter of the law? Will justice prevail?
George Pantophlet
Dear Editor,
We thank the Netherlands for the generous support, primarily provided through the Trust Fund set up with the World Bank but also the funds spent on early help and recovery projects as well as the liquidity support provided to our Government. Without these efforts, St. Maarten would today be much worse off than it is at this moment.
The National Recovery and Resilience Plan (NRRP) while not actually containing any form of planning does provide an overview of the total damage, losses and needs arising from the Hurricane Irma disaster. We commend our Government and civil servants for staying the course when prioritizing projects on which to spend the financial support funds provided through the World Bank. The training and education program executed by the St. Maarten Training Foundation is a good example of what can be achieved through understanding and cooperation.
Unfortunately, over the years, the relationship of trust between the Government (representatives) of the Netherlands and the Government (representatives) of St. Maarten deteriorated to such a low level that the successful and (relatively) efficient execution of similar efforts after the hurricanes Luis (1995) and Lenny (1999) could not be repeated.
Instead, the Netherlands opted for interposing the World Bank for the disbursements and accountability of the available funds. While we acknowledge the efforts and hard work provided by the people of the World Bank, the civil servants from both St. Maarten and the Netherlands, as well as other Government officials, it cannot be denied that the direly necessary projects are bogged down in procedures and red tape.
We would like to echo the original request made by the Governor to the formateur of our current government coalition, specially ensuring that among the many projects emphasis be given to the recovery of the tourism sector. So far, actions of the World Bank and the Economic Recovery Plan do not show this emphasis.
Today, more than 13 months after the storm, not one cent has been spent on real economic recovery in the form of support for the business sector recovery. From information received during several meetings and discussions with World Bank representatives it appears that developing the required regulatory infrastructure and going through the process will take at least until May-June 2019. This means that the business recovery funding will most likely not be provided to businesses affected by Irma who by that time have been (forced to decide to) closed indefinitely but to new businesses starting up.
Even though it would, in our view, still be economic recovery it is no longer business recovery in a literal sense. Even though it is unclear to us whether such recovery is even allowed under the Trust Terms agreed upon between the Netherlands, St. Maarten and the World Bank, the business owners that were forced to close will call it “covering the well after the calf has drowned.”
St. Maarten Hospitality and Tourism Association (SHTA)
Dear Editor,
Every day you tune in to the radio it’s nonstop press briefings 20 times a day just like a soap opera nonstop they talk. They are traveling the world to talk at the UN in New York to the shores of South America they talk and attend useless seminars, cut ribbons, hand out flowers and spending our taxpayers money to stay in luxury hotels while our island burns. Nobody whatsoever is talking about a dump that’s poisoning the population daily.
Tourist minister stated he was staying home to solve the many issues plaguing St. Maarten but every time you open the newspaper he’s in a different country enjoying the opportunity as a tourist minister.
Listening to a minister answer 100 questions asked by a sleepy speaking journalist is such a joke. Our island is dirty, run down, over-populated, over-polluted, there’s garbage everywhere, our beaches are full of dog droppings, restaurants on Kim Sha beach throwing their dirty kitchen waste water and oil into the ocean early morning, and the list goes on and on.
I ask myself why do tourists come here? I’m sure after their first visit they won’t be coming back, yet they continue to talk and talk and most of them can’t speak proper English. It’s sickening to hear them speak with sentences with “mmm you know mmm and you know and you know mmmm.” I’ve counted one of them saying these words over 100 times and he used to be a school teacher! Get real! But most of them don’t speak at all!
They seem to be non-existent, only sitting there to collect a huge salary, that’s all they are for – listening to the tourist minister talk about tourist product, what is that? Tourist product!
The hundreds of car wrecks and the boat wrecks littering Airport Boulevard are the first thing visitors see. Get real, tourist minister, stay home and fix the issues we have here, and this is just a perfect example and there are many more hidden away from the public eye.
From the Simpson Bay bridge towards Cole Bay a local restaurant on the roadside serving food and drink and right next to the building running dirty water, barbecue droppings, discarded chicken leg bones, ribs, etc. lie next to the reeking garbage bin swamped by flies and you ask yourself, “is this what tourists come here to see?”
I live here, I will never eat there and many more that are squeezed into the parking lot on Kim Sha beach where sewage runs from a nearby hotel right under your feet and into the sea which is going on for years now.
So, Mr. tourist minister, stay home and fix issues here first before focusing on a gaming board and countless useless issues that we don’t care to know about.
As for the rest of them, stop the talk and start doing the walk. The dump issue has to be dealt with now, so stop talking about useless topics nobody cares to know about. And asking 100 questions to someone who hasn’t a clue of what he’s doing isn’t helping either.
We are smelling the poison all the way by La Samanna hotel it’s a disgrace to all of you in charge. Tourist product? Really!
Name withheld at author’s request.
