Dear Editor,
As we are entertained by the discussion of the migration issue in the United States and the huge contradictions involved in that issue it struck me that it might be a good time to pause and look at the migration issue here in Sint Maarten.
There is a fundamental difference between Sint Maarten and the United States. It is that our land mass, capacity and absorption capacity is minimal whilst in the United States it remains substantial with substantial absorption capacity.
It is the same, however, insofar as these economies both (and many other economies) require immigration to drive growth with the consistent model of development. In fact, the issue is not really immigration at all; it is, particularly in Sint Maarten, about growth.
The tiny economy of Sint Maarten grew quickly in the 1980s and 1990s through outside investment and the construction of tourist infrastructure. If it had not been for immigration, this growth could not have occurred at the speed it did. The second generation of these immigrants is less enthusiastic about working in construction and other physical tasking and so once again there is a shortage of construction workers. However, in the meantime the population has grown with all the consequences following this immigration wave.
Whatever policy is followed, if growth is to occur on the basis of the same model as previously, we will need to have more immigration.
Which makes the real question not an immigration question but a question of: Does Sint Maarten want/need to grow and if so in what way?
One would imagine that the population of Sint Maarten would want to consider:
* The fact that continued growth along the same model is going to increase congestion and a reduction in attractiveness to tourists and a reduction of quality of life for residents.
* The fact that continued growth along the same model is not going to lead to employment that suits a newer generation expecting higher-paying non-physical employment.
* That to meet the demand for high-paying non-physical jobs Sint Maarten will need to diversify into targeted industries, something that will not happen without the necessary investment and focus.
* That if this newer generation cannot find these jobs on-island their skills in which we have invested will move to jurisdictions that are growing jobs of this nature.
The choices are simple conceptually but brutally tough for political-decision making. It is simply not possible in the long run to “have your cake and eat it.”
Robbie Ferron
Dear Editor,
To the Minister of Tourism and the Minister of Justice: I cannot hold this back any longer. People are having a very hard time, but we only see that the sun comes up every day once we are in the land of the living. We don’t see the homeless, we don’t see the hungry and we are not seeing how many people are dying every day. We never give the countdown. But I sit and check what’s going on.
Yesterday something happened; we had two ships in port and the police were doing their control in Pointe Blanche, because that is the only way they feel they can embarrass the gypsies, the bus drivers and some taxi’s without orange shirts. And they say, keep things in order.
I do my things too. I don’t have a home, I live in a container, or sleep there. Because you can’t afford to live on your pension if you have to pay $500 for rent, $116 for light and $80 for water. How are poor people going to make it? We have so many people sick, poor and homeless.
I went all over the world and have seen public transportation gypsies or whatever they want to call them, and the tourists know that, and they come and go with the gypsies because they get a good deal.
I heard the police and control telling the tourists that the gypsies don’t have insurance for them. When I insured my car, I read the policy very well, I never saw a car with only one seat for the driver in St. Maarten (laugh), so how can they say something like that? Why can’t they solve crime, like finding the robbers of Domino’s or solve a murder?
But when people are working they go to the sites, take them out of a job, and put them to shame, but those people are helping build back the island. You not going to want to hear the truth. They run down the people on the beach; they say they are harassing the tourists and the tourists are the only income St. Maarten has. Why didn’t they put control when all the people they leave come into the island? No, St. Maarten was on top of the world.
Please stop embarrassing the tourists. Look, I want you to check if it has four ships in town and you want a taxi to the airport, try getting one in town; you better get a gypsy, or the plane will leave you. I can talk because I am a gypsy, so I know. They give taxi licences to people who don’t even know how to speak. I know they going to say, “Yes, Avril, you know it is wrong. But who feeds me? Must I be a beggar?
We have a little snack, and they are always on your back. Don’t play music a little hard and a few cars park up, they run leave all the thieves in town and run Sucker Garden to put people to shame, but they never can find a thief. They work only to embarrass their own and use their power to show off. I was very angry when I saw the Governor pinning medals on Holland police and marines and civil servants of St. Maarten who work hard. Public Works and the police know why they like to make people ashamed. You can be humble to them and speak nice, but they don’t care, they just feel give her a booth is you don’t like to go to the court you tell what it is they give you. Anyway, that’s all for now. Stop embarrassing the tourists, that’s all we have. And the rebuilding of St. Maarten.
Avril Gumbs
Dear Editor,
Ministers and parliamentarians can come and go but you all, the civil servants, have been always doing you all’s best to keep St. Maarten the number one tourist destination in the Caribbean.
Any part of the world you came from and you come to St. Maarten on vacation it is possible you can meet someone from any part of the world.
The hotel and guesthouse owners, managers and staff are excellent, letting all the visitors feel like they are at home.
It is nice to visit the island of St Maarten with two nations and over 100 different nationalities here. (St. Maarten the world tourist destination)
Cuthbert Bannis
Dear Editor,
In the past three weeks, politicians and industry leaders at a number of summits in the Caribbean have expressed the urgent need for better air connections and more reasonable prices. Sorry folks. That’s an old hat to say the least. There may even be a skeleton in the closet.
In 2007, Ministers of Civil Aviation in the Caribbean and other tourism and travel officials drafted the “San Juan Accord,” which called for regional officials to put in place the policy framework that would make intra-Caribbean travel for airlines less expensive and more competitive in terms of attracting investment.
In 2012, at the annual Caribbean Hotel and Tourism Investment Conference, industry experts made it clear that the lack of airlift within the region represents a missed opportunity for Caribbean tourism,
“There is no Caribbean government anywhere that can ignore the difficulties that face airlift in the region,”said the then Minister of Tourism of St. Kitts. “What we are saying at the CTO [Caribbean Tourism Organisation – Ed.] is that all Caribbean governments need to create a forum that can really bring these issues to the table. It is my hope that over the next few months there will be certain opportunities that will be used.”
What was suggested in 2012 as hope for action “in the next few months” takes six years and shows no results. The Director General and CEO of the Caribbean Hotel and Tourism Association (CHTA) at the time commented:“The problem is, we have not implemented what we ourselves agree needs to be done.” In other words, let’s just call it a lot of “um diddle diddle um diddle ay” and no action.
As for industry organizations in 2018 warning for the impact of raising passenger taxes? At that same 2012 Conference, the then President of the CHTA said that he noticed new policies for taxing not only the private sector, but also our visitors directly, and that these masquerade under such names as airport improvement taxes, tourism enhancement fees, and airline passenger duty. He believed that increased taxation is regressive, resulting in less revenue for the hotel and attraction sector. He urged governments to make a “serious effort” to review their taxation policies on the tourism industry and said: “It is now time to remove or reduce all excessive consumption taxes. Our industry is based on competitive pricing. Our visitors will simply choose other destinations.”
The alarm clock rang already in 2012, but apparently someone hit the “snooze button.” Snoozing before officially getting out of bed is a pretty standard practice. To give some background on the biology of sleep: About an hour before eyes actually open, the body begins to “reboot.” The brain sends out signals to release hormones, the body temperature rises, and one enters into a lighter sleep in preparation for the wake-up. So, the current big “to-do” about passenger taxes may very well be considered no more than “the preparation for a wake-up.” Yet, snoozing six years could also be considered a coma and one may question whether there will be an actual rise-and-shine to remove or reduce taxes. After all, any Government will be very hesitant to give up a cash-cow.
At an industry conference in 2017, the tourism expert consultant and former Minister of Tourism and Aviation of the Bahamas, Vincent Vanderpool-Wallace called the implementation of the taxation “committing economic suicide without doing it.”
In July 2018, the Prime Minister of Barbados reminded the attending Honourables at yet another summit that “The single domestic space for hassle, intra-regional travel, must be a place where we must start if we are serious about the single market and the single economy. It must be the place if we want the buy-in of our citizens.” She stated that a single domestic space for hassle-free travel pre-supposes a single domestic space for transportation and that the region could do better with respect to moving people between island to island and country to country.
In 2015, the Secretary General of the Caribbean Tourism Organization (CTO) has urged regional authorities to institute an Open Skies policy. It would allow regional carriers to take unlimited flights to all Caricom member states and encourage the growth of competition among carriers, elimination of secondary screening would encourage greater demand for intra-regional travel. He spoke at the airline route development forum “World Routes” in Durban, South Africa.
Already in 2006 a study was done for the same CTO, called “Caribbean Air Transport Study” as part of the Caribbean Regional Sustainable Tourism Development Program. The main objective of the study was to “assist the region in rationalizing international and intra-regional air transport as a means of ensuring the sustainable development of the tourism sector,” or “how to develop and maintain regional airlift capacity consistent with the sustainable development of the tourism sector.”The study called for “Open Skies” between the various countries in the region. Most of the governments signed bilateral agreements with the USA because they want US airlines and passengers to come and visit. But “Open Skies” among the Caribbean territories themselves? Fifteen years of ZZZzzzz and snoring!
Recently in 2018 at an industry conference, the before-mentioned Vincent Vanderpool-Wallace stated that the Caribbean itself is the major market for Caribbean airlift.
The Caribbean may not need any more studies and committees, and meetings of Honourables, calling upon others to do something where they failed themselves to take the initiative for action. A “Summit-and-Do” should be organized, whereby is nailed who will take the first step, what will be done, and a date of completion is set. Wouldn’t that be an honourable initiative for Honourables to agree on and stick to?
In the meantime, … on and on it goes and where it ends no one knows.
Commander Bud Slabbaert
The French cocks standing up strong
And we singing
Coquioco
Some say tez lucky
WE lucky
Cauz WE started off
Soo slowly
Some Say WE Darkness
Was WE weakness
Mbappe
Prove them Wrong
Cause Like Pele
He score two goals
In one Match
AT the age of nineteen
Making football History
But the French press
Refuse to tell he story
Just like they did to Henri
And Thuram
Or EVEN Jean Pierre Adam
Remaining to the media
An to the French press in Anomia
After thirty-five years
He Still on a COMA
Tez WE dat make France
Great
So whether YOU Like it
Or l'UMP it
Paris IS nothing
Without WE
So Come sunday
We taking WE stand
Next to the White Man
Like ah good kreol cock
And we Chanteing
CoccoRico
True to we FRENCH Motto
Même quand nos pieds
Sont dans la merde
On chante toujours
COCORICO
Raymond Helligar aka “Big Ray”
