Dear Editor,

I am asking for a space in your paper for this letter written directly to the Honourable Minister of Health, Emil Lee. This is the height of thievery around SZV. People paying everything to the SZV – taking out your money – you can’t get a doctor card. Why?

This is thieving Justice from workers. Why you take my money for and I can’t get a doctor card? If something happens you go by the hospital, you can’t show a payslip – that can’t work now.

Tell me what is fair to workers? Do your job and stop talking!

Name withheld at author's request.

Dear Editor,

This topic is about the reality of life. And below are different examples presently in our society of what deception is.

It is very unfortunate that what you see and hear is oftentimes not real and not true. The word deception means to be a fool not knowing you are being fooled.

In many marriages today and other relationships including friendship and business deals, people are very false. They will say the things you like to hear to gain your confidence and once they have it they deceive you. The reason why many marriages fail today is that in most cases it is deception. Some people married for help or money but their heart could care less about their partner. They forget the promise “for better or worst” when they are in divorce court.

A person can tell you “I love you” and in 10 minutes around the corner they can go and have sex with another partner (deception). This has to do with the heart of man. (man meaning both men and women)

If people understand the heart of man as God explains to us we will take our time to know people. Notice how people will go to extreme lengths to cover up evil and to make the wrong right.

Politics in St. Maarten today is all about deception. Most politicians could care less about you. The dump is a major health hazard in St. Maarten and for all these years it endangers the population in St. Maarten health and what is the end result? The problem continues.

But the fact is we deceive ourselves also. Many of us know they do not care but as sheep, we continue to suck up to people who do not care about us. Many of the churches today are all about deception. They are strict on you to pay tithe, but when you need help where is the church?

We have many pedophile priests presently and this behavior was always in the Catholic church, it is a part of that church history and culture. They often apologize but the carnage continues. Again, that is deception. We have many pastors in today’s churches that sleep with many female members and the congregation looks the other way like it does not exist.

The conclusion is to make it your business and try not to deceive people and not to be deceived also, take your time to know people in general. Make it your business to mind your own business. Prove all things, trust no person blindly. Patience is the key.

Remember these verses: Genesis 6:5 – Then the Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great on the earth and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. Jeremiah 17:9 – The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it? Proverbs 4:23 – Above all else, guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it.
 

The Patriot Miguel Arrindell

Dear Editor,
Chances of a prison sentence are bigger for Dutch citizens with a Moroccan or Antillean background than for African-Americans in the United States. For the same offense, young people with a non-western migrant background have a 5.6 times bigger chance of being regarded as a suspect than indigenous peers, for the same offence. This is shown by an analysis by PhD student Willemijn Bezemer, published by Control Alt Delete. For Moroccan-Dutch youngsters the chance to be considered a suspect is even 8.4 times as large.
Bezemer, who is affiliated with the Erasmus University, closely scrutinised research of the Scientific Research and Documentation Centre WODC. This study examined whether young people who claim to have committed a criminal offense are also in the police system. Bezemer concludes: “If we merely look at the group of youngsters that admits to have committed a criminal offense, youngsters with the aforementioned non-western migrant background are much more often considered a suspect by the police and much more legal action is taken against this group in comparison to indigenous youngsters.”
Another published study provides insight into the inequality further down the criminal justice chain. In an article of the Journal of Criminology, Moroccan-Dutch youngsters are 12 times more likely to be put in prison in comparison to their indigenous peers. For Antillean-Dutch youngsters the chance is 10 times as big. The disproportion with which these groups are detained is even higher than in the US. Pay attention! The chance for an African-American to be detained is 4 times bigger than for a white American.
Now we know how big of a difference there is in the chances to be considered a suspect. The obvious purpose is that everyone who performs criminal activities receives the same attention from the judiciary and the police – that is not the case in the Netherlands. It is important to discuss the cause: what role does their cultural background play, what is the impact of growing up in deprived areas, under-advice in education, discrimination on the labour market and other matters?
The researchers also mention racial profiling as one of the possible causes. They refer to the discrimination test with bicycles that we have carried out for the documentary “Zwart als Roet” of Sunny Bergman. It makes sense to look at this: the criminal justice chain starts with police contact. If, in that first interaction, the same chance differences are visible, we have a logical starting point for improvement. To begin with: the police and the judiciary must be transparent. They must make the relevant data available to scientists for further research.

Control Alt Delete

Controle Alt Delete has developed itself as an independent, critical and constructive organisation since December 2013 and actively campaigns against racial profiling. Info:
www.controlealtdelete.nl

Dear Editor, 

I have followed the debate on the social minimum for the Caribbean Netherlands between the members of the Kingdom Relations committee of the Second Chamber and state-secretaries Knops (Kingdom Relations) and Van Ark (Social Affairs). I am rather disappointed with the point of view of both state-secretaries and their unwillingness to establish this social minimum. They believe that the report compiled by Regioplan on their request does not give them enough information to establish this social minimum. They do not want to go further than carrying out a number of ad hoc measures to improve the financial position a little bit of some weaker groups in our society. They do this without an integral approach and without knowing or wanting to know what the end result should be. They want to evaluate the impact of their measures in 2020. How they will evaluate them, when they do not agree on the need for a measuring stick, being the social minimum, is unclear to me.
For many years a social minimum exists in the European part of The Netherlands, which is periodically adjusted based on the changing circumstances. However, in our part of the Netherlands, with a population the size of a small Dutch village, this appears to be very complicated. And it is not that the discussion just has started. It dates back from even before 10-10-10. While other matters such as the taxes, the healthcare and education were addressed without delay, for successive governments dealing with the social wellbeing and the guarantee of an acceptable standard of living for our people appears to be an unsurmountable problem. Knowingly and willingly they accept that in this part of the Netherlands a vast amount of people are living in poverty.
A number of times I heard mention being made of the fact that poverty policy is the responsibility of the local governments. This while it is common knowledge that local governments lack the capacity and the financial resources. Just recently state-secretary Knops made known that he will not raise the free allowance, which we all know is at least 20 per cent too low. Where does the state-secretary suggest that the local governments get the funds from? On the other hand, a large part of the cause of our poverty are the low wages and social benefits or the lack thereof. Income policies, however, are the responsibility of the national government. Increasing minimum wage and old age pension, as happens now only based on inflation, does not have any impact on poverty reduction, but merely guarantees the status quo.
I heard one state-secretary say that our people are very happy with the ad hoc measures they will be introducing if it is possible. I am living among these people and I clearly did not notice the happiness around me. The other state-secretary said that one of the bottlenecks is the limited absorbing capacity of our islands. I have no idea what this actually means and how can it stop him from establishing the social minimum.
Many on our islands were afraid that the inclusion of art. 132.a in our constitution would allow for our people to be treated as second class citizens. I did not believe that. I still believe that the intention of this article is to protect our people from Dutch European laws and regulation that are not suitable for us. I was and am strongly of the opinion that art. 1 of our constitution is valid for all citizens of the Netherlands, including those who are living in the Caribbean Netherlands. We are all to be treated equal in equal circumstances.
I guess we all understand that once a social minimum has been established for the islands we will not get to that level the next day. We all understand that it takes time. It is not just a matter of raising the minimum wage and the social benefits. It requires strengthening our economies, stimulating of investment, improving our infrastructure and the creation of better paying jobs. This means that it needs an integral approach and a multi-annual plan. We cannot do this without the help of our national government. A few ad hoc measures, no matter how well intended, and a promised evaluation in 2020 will not be sufficient.
Both First and Second Chamber have demanded the cabinet to establish our social minimum. The state-secretaries in the debate last Thursday have indicated that they intent not to honor this demand. Our parliament will have the last word.

Koos Sneek
Democratic Party St. Eustatius