Dear Editor,
Eight years after 10-10-10 it is clear that the present Dutch coalition government is prepared to finally establish a social minimum. While the responsible state-secretary Van Ark has recently announced that the presentation of the study into the social minimum to parliament will be delayed, the chairman of the Kingdom Relations Committee of the First Chamber is demanding to receive the report no later than July 1st. Also the representatives of CDA and D66 factions in the Second Chamber have stated that social benefits for the three BES islands [Bonaire, St. Eustatius and Saba – Ed.] have to be increased by January next year. This even without knowing what the outcome of the study will be. This is definitely good news.
Some are questioning the need of the establishment of the social minimum. It is, however, extremely important in order to prove how the present social benefits and the minimum wage relate to the minimum amount that our people actually need to live on and whether they have a within-the-Netherlands-acceptable level of service and that adjustments have to be made. Seeing the urgent call that is now coming from parliament, it appears that the political will is there to establish the social minimum as well as to take the next, and just as important, step to come with proposals to also guarantee that our people actually have this minimum amount at their disposal.
There is in my opinion a comprehensive approach needed to arrive to this social minimum for everyone. First comes to mind, of course, to just raise the minimum wage and the social benefits. Since social benefits are tied to the minimum wage, you cannot raise one and not the other. I guess that raising the social benefits is the easiest one, especially when the political will in The Hague is there.
The extra moneys needed for this will come from the budget of the national government. In order to keep the amount for the benefits under control, however, measures may be introduced to bring down the cost for our households. Hereby we can think of the introduction of subsidy on house rent and finding ways and means to reduce cost for other essential expenditures such as for electricity, water, telephone and internet, bank interest, insurance, just to name a few.
Purposely I left out of this list the cost for foodstuff. Although I am aware of the cry by some for price control in this area, a recent study in the prices has established that the net margin for supermarkets is a mere 3 per cent. This means that there is not much room to cut the food prices without this having a negative effect and may result in closures of supermarkets or much-needed food items that fall under the control will no longer be offered.
When social benefits have to go up, also the minimum wage needs to be adjusted. Here some caution is required, because an increase in minimum wage does not come from the budget of the national government, but has to be paid by our mostly small local businesses. It is therefore extremely important to establish if the local businesses can carry an higher minimum wage and as a result an increase in their payroll cost. If this is not the case the measure may lead to business closures and the loss of jobs, which will make it counterproductive. Another logical effect may be that the businesses are forced to raise their prices, whereby the value of the wage increase will dissipate.
In the tourism sector the higher operating cost as a result of the increase of the minimum wage may negatively affect the competitive position of the sector when these costs in the rest of the Caribbean are much lower and consequently will result in less tourism and less income for the sector. It is also important, in order to measure the impact, to identify in which business sectors minimum wage is being paid. Although to my knowledge no official research has been carried out, I believe that in Statia, for instance, by supermarkets, other retail stores as well as in the hotel and restaurant sector minimum wage is common.
It is therefore unavoidable that with the increase in minimum wage an incentive or compensation package needs to be introduced to reduce the effect of the increase of payroll cost to the businesses as much as possible. This can be done for instance by reducing taxes and premiums the businesses have to pay. The tripling of the amount of taxes collected in the Caribbean Netherlands since 2011 should allow enough room for this.

Koos Sneek
Democratic Party St. Eustatius

Dear Editor,
A positive and improved view of the future is a key ingredient for the perceptions of a people collaborating to create a great future. A positive view of the future will drive productivity, investment and political collaboration. Excessive expectations increase conflict.
In Sint Maarten in the 1960s and prior there had not been much in the way of great prospects in Sint Maarten. There was little reason for the quality of life to improve and therefore also no high expectations. Then in the 1970s and 1980s the particular circumstances with a growth in air travel, the smart use of opportunities by Claude Wathey and investment interest in the eastern US led to a boom in Sint Maarten. Not having had this boom before, the population adopted the expectation that this economic boom would result in a great standard of living for all in Sint Maarten. The levels of expectation bloomed from a low level to a high one.
And whilst some prospered, the need for workers and the relatively open border meant that the wealth needed to be shared with a much larger population so the expectations, inevitably inflated, were not fully realized. The access to internet and cable TV, like the rest of the world also accelerated this spurt in expectations.
In the last few years, especially since 10-10-10, the country has hit a number of challenges which have made it clear that prosperity and happiness are going to require overcoming some fundamental hurdles and the resolution of some tough structural impediments. Not just instable government but dump fires, indictments for corruption, ineffective civil service, crime and of course hurricanes.
This reduction of the expectations has led to a wide range of responses:
* Calls for increased nationalism. The setbacks have led to some believing that a more “unified” country would solve the problems and return the country to be on track for the expectations developed in the 1970s and 1980s. Nationalistic pride is seen as the solution to raising the ability of the country to produce the unrealized benefits that had been expected. Flagpoles got built and efforts made that were intended to “bring the people together.”
* Identification of “culprits” that can be seen as the cause of the non-realization of expectations. These vary, but include “the Dutch,” the political establishment, the older members of the political establishment, the younger and newer members of the political establishment, investors, employers and (up to 2010) Curaçao.
* Increased interest in radical solutions like Independence on the one side and integration into the Netherlands on the other side. Between these extremes there are a range of ideas that seem largely driven by the desperate hope that the expectations can return.
On top of these declining expectations there comes a disastrous hurricane exceeding in damage all that came before. The vulnerability of a small single-pillar economy, the limitations of a small state as well as the thought that somehow the shameful looting will be punished in some form, are also added to the mix that negatively impacts the positive views of the people of Sint Maarten and their expectations.
“Resilient” and “Strong” are good choices of words to describe what the country would now like to be. But nobody is attracted to the concept of being resilient, it is more a condition that you are forced to be in tough circumstances. These tough circumstances, however, also reduce the level of expectations and thereby allow for more measured decision-making, a more grounded view of immediate prospects and rethinking of some unrealistic expectations that evolved from the boom times and political restructuring and might have been a contributing factor to the many of the challenges like political instability.
This more realistic perception of the future might be the silver lining of Irma.

Robbie Ferron

~ Re: placing unlawful removal of democratically elected Government of Sint Eustatius on IPKO agenda ~

Esteemed Members of Parliament,

I am hereby urgently requesting you on behalf of the people of St. Eustatius to place the matter of the coup d’état against the democratically elected government of St. Eustatius on your agenda.

Keeping this high level meeting between Kingdom Partners without this unlawful act being the centrepiece of the discussions would be a great injustice. Said act has and will continue to affect the entire Kingdom as we know it and has changed it forever in a negative sense. As such, is has placed blemish on all Kingdom partners, including those who are not responsible for it, towards the world community.

I sincerely hope and trust that for the sake of democracy and the liberation and emancipation of all people worldwide, you will bring this matter to the attention of the meeting, and in particular your counterparts of the Netherlands.

Thanking you in advance for your consideration and cooperation, I remain,

Clyde I. van Putten

Island Council Member and Coalition Leader of Sint Eustatius

Dear Editor

I would like to react to the letter to the editor in the Monday issue of this newspaper by Mrs. L. Gumbs-Duggins. The fact that state-secretary Raymond Knops during one of his recent visits purchased groceries in her supermarket, which action went viral on Facebook, has prompted a reaction from this well known local supermarket owner.

I believe it is unfortunate that she feels singled out and in her own words has to defend her company against biased characterization. The way I see it, the action of the state-secretary was not intended to single out and expose any particular supermarket. The intention was to confirm the high prices of groceries on Statia and not those of a Duggins supermarket.

Personally, I am happy that for this Knops had chosen one of the few local stores. In my limited shopping experience I have noticed that this particular supermarket in many instances is offering lower prices than many other supermarkets on the island. Also, unlike many others, Duggins supermarket never has a deaf ear when social organizations request its support with their fundraising and other activities.

The fact that Knops still finds the prices very high on Statia is an indication and a clear sign on the wall that something needs to be done to the purchasing power of the people of Statia. Mrs. Gumbs’ call for the establishment of the social minimum as soon as possible I therefore fully support.

I also agree with her reference to the study into the prices on our island where it is concluded that the margin of the supermarket is a mere 3 per cent. This clearly means that the high prices of groceries are not caused by the profit margin that the stores on Statia are charging, but by external factors like production cost, margins of outside wholesalers, high transportation cost and taxes and harbor fees charged by our governments as well as by the still levied turnover taxes on goods exported to Statia by St. Maarten.

The action by the state-secretary is a clear sign that the present coalition government is recognizing the fact that something needs to be done and at the same time a signal to parliament to be ready to deal with the long-awaited and overdue social minimum for the Caribbean Netherlands. It is time to take the observations in the Spies report and other researches seriously. The call for higher social allowances in parliament by the CDA and D66 parties shows that the message is reaching home. And I agree with Mrs. Gumbs, “it is better to do well than to say well”!

Koos Sneek

Democratic Party St. Eustatius