Politics navigating between the waves of justice and power
Dear Editor,
As the great value of education for every citizen, since last century, has been recognized by almost all governments in the world, such generally has resulted in better attention being given to elevate the quality of life for all their citizens by means of government policies promoting education. But while we all know how important politics itself also is for our lives (“from the cradle to the grave”) still, in major parts of the world, including on our islands of the former Netherlands Antilles, the education regarding politics has remained very limited.
What here exists is mainly some school literature regarding the formal legal organization of government or as a subject of social science without thereby throwing a first good light on the internal structure and functioning of politics.
With this introductory work about politics we’d like to contribute to this issue and show, already in this first chapter of our upcoming book that it requires serious and honest attention from each citizen as it touches important individual and community values.
We would like to do that from a brief account of a matter which in this month of June 2018 is causing a lot of tension in the United States of America (USA), and which, in the near future also will be forcing the “Americans” to do some deep soul searching before honestly being able to say they deserve the title they have given their nation of “the greatest democracy in the world.”
That is because of the policy which the actual administration of president Donald Trump, through a public announcement by its Attorney General Jeff Sessions, has introduced in the last month of April for refugees who have entered the USA seeking asylum against the danger of being caused great damage or even losing their life in their own country.
The USA is partially affiliated to the Convention of 1951 of the United Nations regarding the Status of Refugees. Sessions then had declared that his administration would maintain a policy of zero tolerance regarding immigrants who enter the USA illegally, containing that the adults involved will be criminally prosecuted and their minor children removed from them and locked up in separate quarters.
After two months of this new policy it now appears that around 2,000 youngsters forcefully have been taken from their parents, sometimes pulled away from their breastfeeding mothers and with toddlers crying and screaming for their parents. It also appeared that at the time this article was written the government could not account for around 1,500 of the children.
When the press started questioning Trump and Sessions they blamed previous governments which had implemented the law they were now executing, which was very disputable as no previous government had tried to treat children in such a cruel manner. After that, following Sessions, other government officials also had been declaring that the Bible itself (Roman:13) “commands the citizens to obey the laws of government.”
While indeed many, particularly American evangelists, have agreed with said explanation, there were also many, including other evangelists, who called said policy inhumane and against many declarations of Jesus of Nazareth, the founder of Christianity, like “Love they Neighbor,” Mark: 12:31 and “Let the children come to me,” Mateus: 19:14. Others also commented that this Trump policy gives new evidence that he wants the USA to remain in the first place a country for white people.
What we see happening there is nothing less than two of the most fundamental values of our daily lives and of politics – justice and power – functioning by means of human activities with very dramatic results.
While they ought to function complementing each other, such can be in a critical manner and also can result in them strongly opposing each other. Still, in essence they emerge from the same source of our amazing human consciousness, from which we also ought to evaluate all our activities and underlying values related to our lives and politics in particular. That’s why we want to approach this work from our human consciousness although such will become more apparent, later in the course of this work.
Before reaching there we first have to stop at a few other important phenomena, like, in the next chapter, the one regarding the use of words in common parlance and also in politics: the relationship between words and their meaning.
Elco Rosario
Dear Editor,
The possibility is great that many who read this letter will observe that I am discriminating. They have a right to their opinion and freely do so, but because it is continually being proven that the Government of Sint Maarten does not protect the interest of the Sint Maartener, someone has to speak up at times.
Too often when one voices one’s opinion in favor of the Sint Maartener one is accused of being against foreigners. Politicians over the decades have coined the phrase “if you are not for me you are against me” in order to play on people’s conscience. They continue to do so because it is effective.
Does that really mean if you vote for your brother the candidate that you are against your cousin the candidate? Equally so that if you are for the native that you are against the foreigner?
I know that the same is practiced throughout all the neighboring islands. Now that we have established that if I am for the Sint Maartener it does not mean that I am against the foreigner, let me state this. I read the article “APS to start the construction of 62 residential units this summer.” These developments will offer a return that will enable us to continue to pay the pensions to our participants, make a socio-economic contribution to the individual buyers and the economy of the country as a whole. APS hosted several sessions for potential buyers on the project over the past months. Active APS participants were encouraged to make use of the opportunity to gather information on this potential home ownership.
What I know is that there are a great deal more than 62 people, families, partners who are not Sint Maarteners or APS participants who can buy those homes for cash. What I also know is that it is APS (participants) money which is making it possible for these 62 residential units to be built.
Every time I read about the sale of real estate(homes, land) the Mullet Bay situation comes to mind. Based on what is written at the beginning of this letter I would hope that the APS management would use a method that will primarily keep the units in the hands of Sint Maarteners or APS participants.
Russell A. Simmons
Besides a large number of Venezuelans leaving their country because of all the problems we already know about, we should not forget that there are also an important number of professionals and investors looking forward to expanding their horizons and establishing their business in a more promising country.
Ironically, the same crisis that is beating our neighbour country and is now (negatively) affecting us in many ways, could also be a tremendous opportunity for the development of our own economy. Unfortunately, there is a lack of vision on our side that is preventing us to go forward.
The slow processing of all kind of documents, bureaucracy, archaic laws and rude behaviour of many officials are making our island a less attractive destination for many investors. Many of those already here says it’s way easier to invest in other countries, including the U.S., and honestly, I think they are right!
How come we are so efficient to waste opportunities like this?
Foreigner investors are not a threat to this country. It is not a “favour” we are doing to them by allowing them to establish their business here. We need them! We need MANY of them!
Curaçao has great potential, but if we continue taking wrong decisions, the future of our economy looks very dark.
By Angel van Delden
Dear Editor,
I have written to you about this and find myself obliged to repeat myself because of a question posed to me by a young lady who wanted to know “why they got so many cars still driving around with dark tinted glass since they say that police is controlling?” My answer to that is: No follow-up.
World Refugee Day on June 20
Dear Editor,
The United Nations’ (UN) World Refugee Day is observed on June 20 each year. This event honors the courage, strength and determination of women, men and children who are forced to flee their homeland under threat of persecution, conflict and violence.
In some countries, it is a day when activists protest against using former prisons to detain migrants and asylum seekers while visiting them in detention to offer moral support.
Some communities dedicate an entire week that includes World Refugee Day to encourage people to think about the lives of refugees and the human right to a secure place that one can see as “home”.
A refugee is a displaced person who has been forced to cross national boundaries and who cannot return home safely. Such a person is seeking a form of protection and may be called an asylum seeker until granted refugee status by the contracting country. Most of the times those people are of special humanitarian concern.
A recurring item on TV news are scenes of refugees fleeing their home countries en route to more secure destination. Some countries slam their doors to refugees, other countries embrace newcomers as assets to their economies and cultural diversity.
The shores of St. Maarten may not yet have been the target for large groups of refugees, as with, for instance Curaçao and Aruba, where authorities have to deal with an influx of refugees from their neighboring country Venezuela, from which refugees are clandestinely arriving by sea.
The Dutch government has offered technical support to Aruba and Curaçao to help them deal with the flow of migrants from the crisis-hit Venezuela. The Dutch government has also emphasized that Aruba and Curaçao concern two autonomous countries within the kingdom and that these areas have their own responsibilities to solve the refugee and migration issues.
In Sint Maarten, immigration authorities would deal with refugees, once they reach our country. It is not uncommon that some refugees are opting to stay on illegally, while others choose to cross the border to the northern side, Saint Martin, and apply for asylum. According to figures released by the Sous-préfecture on French St. Martin, last April, some 345 asylum requests were received in 2016. This was 300 more than in 2015. Of these more than 78 percent were asylum seekers from Venezuela.
Caribbean migration
The Second Meeting of the Caribbean Migration Consultations (CMC) – Refugee Protection was hosted by the Government of the Commonwealth in The Bahamas from 4-6 December 2017. This was done with the logistical and technical support of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). The meeting concluded with a 2017 report on Caribbean migration recommending that all member countries pass legislation on refugee protection. The report was compiled after a meeting on the topic and ideas were presented for study visits, from one country to another, to see how other jurisdictions address the same issues.
From the group chaired by The Bahamas, priorities given included the need for local training and sensitization support across governments to process and treat refugees in a humane manner, and for capacity building for officials.
Contingency planning for natural disasters was also discussed. Individual countries identified either developing legislation or acceding to relevant conventions as priorities, including the conventions on statelessness, and looking more closely at potential statelessness within their borders.
National development relevance
Movement of people, most often through migration, is a significant part of global integration. Yet St. Maarten (Dutch side) is not alone where it concerns reliable statistics on migration, which are difficult to collect and are often incomplete, creating a challenge for exact figures on refugees entering St. Maarten.
Special attention from countries is needed to ensure that these vulnerable people will not be left behind when the 2030 Agenda is implemented. This entails efforts to ensure the right to health for both, displaced populations and for people who are transgressing national borders in their often dangerous and desperate search for security.
In 2016, 193 countries signed the New York Declaration for Refugees and Migrants, which emphasizes education as a critical component of the international response to the global refugee crisis. This is instrumental to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), particularly SDG 4 for quality education.
Sint Maarten has embraced the 2030 Agenda with its Sustainable Development Goals as part of country’s development agenda. SDGs 8, decent work and Economic Growth and SDG 16, Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions are dealing with issues related to refugees and migration as a wider perspective thereof. The government of Sint Maarten advocates working in partnership (MDG 17) with non-governmental institutions, the private sector and stakeholders abroad to contribute to a better world for its citizens and visitors on Sint Maarten.
Interested persons can reach out to The Department of The Interior and Kingdom Relations (BAK), program manager for SDGs Drs. Loekie Morales on 5271223 to know more about how to work together to realize the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development on Sint Maarten.
The Department of the Interior and Kingdom Relations BAK
