Dear Editor,

Please allow me this opportunity to thank the government of the Netherlands along with all who contributed in one way or another to the repair of my home that was damaged by the passing of the hurricanes last year.

As a pensioner I was extremely fortunate to be one of the first in line who received the necessary repairs to my home. I am deeply grateful and appreciate the opportunity to publicly thank all concerned who contributed.

It is comforting to know that in our time of need and devastation the Dutch government stepped in to put a roof back over our heads. From the bottom of my heart I say, thank you.

Martha Angelica Redan

St. Eustatius

Dear Editor,
So many conversations about the condition of country Sint Maarten are based on comparisons with other “territories” or “countries”. Hardly ever does one see reference to the role that scale (size) plays in this comparison.
Every government has to collect revenues and has costs in executing its programmes. Developing country governments have relatively higher costs due to a less-developed civil service, less capitalization and inherited infrastructure. Developing countries must spend more in capital projects to make growth and higher standards of living possible. Sint Maarten suffers from all the above, but even more because of its small scale.
Let’s take the example of Parliament. Holland has a parliament of 150 seats. The population is 17.02 million. This means that the cost of one parliamentarian is borne by 113,300 of the residents. Here in Sint Maarten we have 15 Parliamentarians for 45,000 persons so the cost of one parliamentarian is borne by 3,000 people.
Now to be fair, we only have one level of government (no municipalities) so there is an extra cost for provincial and municipal government in Holland. But it will not correct the fact that each resident in Sint Maarten has to pay for the parliament function 38 times as much as the resident in Holland. It is also exacerbated by the fact that the Sint Maarten parliamentarian earns more than the Holland parliamentarian.
The parliament example is only one that stands out. If one takes many of the government bodies and allocates their cost on a per resident basis, you are likely to find their cost per beneficiary to be extremely high. This applies to entities whose services are of a general nature like the Council of Advice, the Audit Chamber, law writing costs, etc.
With other government services that address specific matters, the cost per resident should be more comparable but not the overhead cost. Whilst the cost of roads or social services should not vary much, the cost of supervision, R and D, systems upgrading, etc will be disproportionally high in a small political entity.
This is all not to say that small political entities are not viable. The example of Singapore is the obvious one. But small political entities need to be focused on how they can beat the economies of scale that large entities enjoy. The likelihood of failure is going to be high if there is the assumption that models can be imported without question from larger entities (like Holland) without regard for the financial and developmental consequences.

Robbie Ferron

Dear Editor,

This article describes in detail a large number of events and strategies for better economic growth and prosperity for country St. Maarten. The situation started with shelters. However, before the aftermath, destruction resulted in cost over 550 million guilders. The fact is hundreds of people lost their roofs, and others their homes.

Dear Editor,

Overall, I support the action of the police officer who shot the robber. When he made his stand, he made himself “the target” and his life was surely in greater jeopardy than anyone else present. So, I’m not going to arm chair judge.

As hurricane season rolls in, many are consciously or unconsciously reliving the trauma of the natural but also the deliberate man-made disaster of the looting that followed.

I consider that, had the protective services shot one or two of the looters in the act, it would have stopped much of the looting, and this season we would feel a whole lot safer.

Instead, law-abiding citizens were left to cringe at the prospects of hoards invading their property, destroying cars to steal gas, possibly injuring and/or raping homeowners, as their wanton destruction seemed to know no bounds. The looters enriched themselves at the expense of others; left our economy in shambles and the consequences of their actions were in comparison a joke.

So, I’m going to save my tears for those members of our protective services who don’t shirk their obligations and get injured in the line of duty. From the general reaction to this latest incident, I think most of us feel the same way. Since the hurricane, the police have been doing a great job, although I am a little concerned there might be unnecessary wailing of sirens to get through traffic, which is not good for our tourist product. But their increased visibility has been immensely reassuring.

Name withheld at author's request.