Dear Editor,
During the last election campaign I constantly advocated out with the old and in with the new. History shows who are the old, so I do not have to specify who they are.
But what I know is that many many years now I have been saying that there is nothing wrong with copying the good thing. Tourism did not start on Sint Maarten, so we have copied that from somewhere.
In the paper of May 24, I read an article on the front page which made me sad. Sad because it is totally the fault of government whose members have been there for many many years and have done nothing. The article stated by and large provided evidence shows that there are insufficient skilled laborers on the local labor market to meet the demand for skills in several industries. This is something that I wrote to you about in March of this year under the heading “There have never been professionals here.” This is sad.
Over the years I have had all kinds of conversations with members of government who instead of putting these ideas in the back of their heads for the future, tried to explain why it could not be done. One of those conversations was sending our youth to the Bushiri Hotel on Aruba which is a hotel training school. I will challenge any one of them to show me if they have made use of the Bushiri Hotel.
In 1995 we had a similar experience as with Irma and a whole lot of people who worked in the casinos found out that they were good tradesmen.
What did we do with Milton Peters College?
Do we really feel at home to rest on our laurels, knowing that we live in the hurricane belt and eventually will need skilled tradesmen? Instead of letting the people know what is going to happen to avoid this kind of predicament we are again dedicating our time in the paper to justify why we will have to continue importing cheap labour.
There are several programs in place that offer a combination of job-training and paid employment. Job-seekers have the opportunity to learn new skills and join new trades. The NIPA and White and Yellow Cross have also sent several persons to Trinidad for training Because of the urgency can I think that they are the first available ones? Are we going to continue sending our youth to Trinidad in the future? Are we going to enhance what is happening at the Vocational School and Milton Peters College?
My question is also what is more expensive? To educate your people and have them on hand, or create a bigger immigration problem which, as we know, is not conducive to the face of the island.
When I hear the amount of fights with knives and cutting in faces, which I never heard of in the past, I ask myself, what happened to The Friendly Island? What will my legacy be? I made it by not educating my people.
Does what happened with the traffic on Wednesday on the Cole Bay Hill remind us that we have too many cars on the roads and that part of the solution is to regulate public transportation in order to minimize this?
Russell A. Simmons
Dear Editor,
My recent appointment as President of the University of St. Martin has been accompanied by a warm welcome from many of the island’s residents, as well as a strong sense of encouragement and support expressed by my colleagues from around the world. As a newcomer, I hope to use my experience, strengths, and knowledge to collaborate with local talents and doers in the reconstruction of the country and the reconstitution of its main public institution of higher education.
CHICAGO--Last year featured the most active Atlantic hurricane season since 2005, and some forecasters believe 2018 could end up the third straight above-average season.
These predictions rely on expected atmospheric and oceanic conditions throughout the next several months, so they are certainly subject to change. However, recent trends, including the potential onset of El Niño later in the year, could derail the active forecast.
Shame on you! Yes, shame on the government of St. Maarten for allowing the Mullet Bay property to rot away. For whatever reason the government has not stepped in to force a resolution to the egregious act of letting this premier Caribbean property degrade the island. The Mullet Bay situation has gotten so bad that no one seems to even notice the problem anymore.
There has been a huge loss of tourism to the island since 1996 and the loss continues. The economic impact on St. Maarten has been a disaster. I would like to try to put this issue in some financial perspective. The assumptions for my calculations are realistic and they should open everyone’s eyes as to the economic drain the St. Maarten government has allowed to take place on the island. Let’s assume that the Mullet Bay property was rebuilt with 750 rooms, golf course and all the competitive amenities that would attract tourists to St. Maarten and, a premier developer with a name that attracts tourists would do the work. For financial purposes let’s further assume the following:
* The property became operational in 1999
* Calculations are from 1999 thru 2018
* Yearly occupancy rate: 60 per cent
* Number of employees: 750
* Room tax rate: 5 per cent
* Airport departure tax: $30 per person
* Average employee salary per week: $300
* Average employee tax rate: 20 per cent
* Average room rate: $300 per night
* Average people per room: 2
* Average stay is 1 week per room
* Average spending per person for non-room expenses on the island: $75 per day
Therefore, we can calculate that this property would have generated from 1999 to today:
* Room revenues of $936,225,000
* Room taxes at 5 per cent, of $46,811,250 for the St. Maarten government
* Additional revenues that would be generated into the economy from tourist spending would be $468,112,500
* Additional tax revenues that the government would receive from the airport departure fees would be approximately: $26,676,000
* Additional revenues received by the St. Martin economy for employees that are now working in newly created jobs: $210,000,000
* Additional payroll taxes received by the government by the employees: $42,120,000
Let’s stop here and summarize the impact.
* A loss of money over 19 years flowing into the St. Martin economy: $1,614,937,500. That is over $1.6 billion!
* Tax revenues lost by the St. Maarten government: $115,607,250
* This is just up to the present. More revenues from these areas would continue to be gained in the future
* The above figures do not include the additional huge income from hotel support services and taxes from areas such as linen cleaning, maintenance, food and beverage, landscaping, utilities, car rentals, etc.
* The figures also do not include the large amount of taxes the St. Maarten government could have received from the hotel
* Let’s assume my calculations are off by 20 per cent, the financial impact is huge and a disgrace for the government for not taking action!
Having a world class resort at Mullet Bay would build upon the historic Mullet Bay legend. Tourists having a positive experience at the new resort would create more word-of-mouth advertising for St. Maarten. Some of the increased tax revenues could fund some much-needed TV advertising of the island, which has been sorely lacking.
The foolishness by the St. Maarten government has been going on since 1996 and even if a decision was made today to set Mullet Bay right, it would be another 3 to 4 years before tourists come to the new property and boost the island’s prosperity. This is a disaster and should be immediately addressed and included as part of the reconstruction effort caused by Hurricane Irma.
Why does the government let this foolishness continue?
Thomas Metz
Dear Editor,
It’s too bad that the May 14 opinion column of one of my favourite French Canadian journalists (Richard Martineau @quebecormedia.com) is not translated and made available to young people everywhere, particularly to those throughout the western world, who continue to take to the streets, and to the media, peddling, pushing the so-called values of the tandem socialism-communism.
