Dear Editor,
Happy International Women’s Day!
"Women need to be empowered through the strongest tool – education. They don't need to be subservient to anyone, but at the same time, men must change their mindset towards women. If they are more respectful towards them, then things will change at the grassroots level. It will happen slowly, but everyone has to move together." - Madhuri Dixit
Women empowerment has taken on a new meaning in this modern society. The power of a woman is not limited to self but to progress of a people in its broadest sense. Femi Fani-Kayode in the Premier Times of Nigeria noted that women are by far the deeper and more powerful of the two sexes.
With all this in mind, the steady increase in the number of working women, they have gained financial independence, which has given them confidence to lead their own lives and build their own identity. They are successfully taking up diverse professions to prove that they are second to none in any respect.
But while doing so, women also take care to strike a balance between their commitment to their profession as well as their home and family. They are playing multiple roles of a mother, daughter, sister, wife and a working professional with remarkable harmony and ease. With equal opportunities to work, they are functioning with a spirit of teamwork to render all possible co-operation to their male counterparts in meeting the deadlines and targets set in their respective professions.
Even with careful planning, women continually face challenges in society. Some of these challenges can be relieved by employer-provided family-friendly conditions for women. These solutions may include job-sharing where two employees cooperatively share the same job, part-time employment, staff working from home or telecommuting, flexible starting and stop times and flexible core business hours, and periodic paid and unpaid work interruptions for child care and elder care.
In modern age, women are going very well in all the fields of progress. They are demonstrating their talents in best. They are serving as teachers, doctors, engineers, administrators and even leaders of government. The need is to increase this ratio with balance. An empowered woman is an educated woman and more education among the women means more progress of our society and our nation.
Happy International Women’s day on behalf of the board of the Windward Island Teachers Union.

Board of the Windward Island Teachers Union (WITU)

Dear Editor,
“You are never too old to set another goal or to dream a new dream.” – C.S. Lewis
“Oh no, I’m too old for that. Not at my time of life. That ship has sailed. You’re only getting weaker at age 40 with fewer opportunities. What have you done with your life? I thought that I would’ve bought a house by now. Starting over at this age? Where am I going with 4 children? Who will want me? You better choose now because it only gets worse the older you get.”
I wonder if this sounds familiar to you? It does to me. For many years I watched as many people around me have set unrealistic goals, limiting beliefs, and placed unfair rules on themselves, generally based upon the expectations of others – especially by a certain age.
Some have convinced themselves that they couldn’t leave their well-paid office job to pursue a dream, because of their advancing years. A colleague once shared that she didn’t pursue an advanced degree because she thought that she was too old, at age 41. She now deeply regrets this, while another was completing his college degree at age 48.
A close friend from college with an advanced degree in engineering got married in her 40s and had her third child at age 47. She loves her life and it is very evident too.
Obama retired at age 55. Ronald Reagan took his oath at age 69. Sydney is 3 hours ahead of Perth, but this doesn’t mean that Perth is slow. Someone graduated at age 22 but took a decade to secure an excellent job. Sandra, a 52-year-old senior executive, lost her job and moved back to Alabama and in with her mother.
Someone became a CEO at 28 and died at 50, while another became CEO at 50 and lived to 90. Someone is still single, and another is getting their third divorce. Dana had her daughter in college, she died at 39. I watched a neighbour brag about buying her house before everyone else did, and she also was the first to foreclosure. Her partner also died very soon afterwards. A dear friend of mine waited almost 20 years for his dream home; he just paid off his mortgage in just 7 years. At age 65 Colonel Sanders parlayed his now famous chicken recipe into a multimillion-dollar business – KFC
You are a unique individual that cannot fit into a rigid system set by others. Everyone operates in their own time zone. Some may seem ahead of you, and others may seem behind you, but everyone is running their own race at their own pace. Do not envy nor mock them; they are in their own time zone. Don’t pay attention to what others around you may be secretly thinking of your latest venture.
I know that certain family members may believe that you should be working in a full-time corporate job with benefits and that you should “suck it up and accept a life of limitations.” In trying to make others proud of you, to satisfy their own beliefs and values, you completely overlooked your own pride in yourself, your values, and your dreams. You abandoned and betrayed yourself.
This, I believe, is a life lesson that for the most part can only be learned and utilized after a certain amount of life experience.
You can still value the opinions of others, but do not let them influence your intuition and the passion that you have for what you are trying to achieve. You’ll gain priceless knowledge from each attempt, and as you get older, you’ll gradually start to gain some clarity about what you want from my life.
As a parent, you’ll discover a resolve, power, and dignity that had been lying within you dormant, an untapped resource. With age comes responsibility, but it also brings with it new outlooks on life. It brings with it feelings of self-awareness and of clarity that may not be there in your earlier years.
I also believe that our dreams and desires can take many years to truly form into something that resembles our true path, and I’m not sure that this process ever really ends unless we allow it to – which would be such a terrible shame. Each of our life experiences forms our perception of the world around us, and this, in turn, forms our vision of what we want our future to hold. It is imperative that we never become too old to dream and that we have the confidence to act on those dreams to create the lives we most covet, at any time along our journey.
Sometimes, we must learn how to do nothing, which is actually much harder than it sounds, if we have always been busy, living a life of stress and overwork.
If we have nothing to aspire or look forward to in life, we end up feeling like we are going nowhere, and we stagnate. I believe that these limiting thoughts of age hold us back from living the truly miraculous lives we deserve and are fully able to cultivate if we take diligent care of ourselves. Age, if anything, is on our side. When we grow older, our goals and dreams should really, by our life experiences, seem more attainable.
It is a pity that age is seen as something of a restriction; and that we adopt this belief through our own perceptions of what others view as acceptable for us at a given time. I learned that the advice that others give to you is merely based on their level of consciousness.
Life is about the right time for you to act. Your journey may be a straight path or a long winding one. But, just relax! You’re not late, slow or behind. You are just in time ... in your very own time zone.
The most important relationship is the one that you have with yourself.

Carmelise Gittens

Happy International Women’s Day 2018

Dear Editor,

Press for progress or in other words, push forward for progress in order to achieve equality for women in areas where it is felt that progress is still lacking for women, including in economic and social standing. I take this opportunity to wish all women in

Sint Maarten from all walks of life an enjoyable and most reflective day.

On this occasion I wish to give attention and support to the many women who became jobless in the aftermath of Hurricane Irma. Women from different backgrounds, who made a choice to leave Sint Maarten in search of work. Women, who brazed the odds and started a small business in order to help put often-overpriced food on the table, and pay the high rent.

Women, who to date have no place to live since the hurricane and shuffle from place to place every day, waiting for a safe place to sleep for themselves and for their children.

Women, who have written into the social housing scheme, and who have been waiting for many years to be able to live in an affordable and decent home. Women, who wish and can afford to purchase their social homes, waiting in vain to see yet another year go by with no firm decision.

The list continues, yes, right here in Sint Maarten. How about pushing for progress for these and other women, without having a specific social agenda, other than pushing for progress for all women, and by extension, our society would benefit and progress as a whole?

Less talk and firm decision-making is required sooner rather than later. How do we break this vicious cycle of marginalization, and achieve true empowerment of women in our society as a whole? This struggle is real. One of our most pressing issues facing our women today is the fact that reportedly a whopping ninety-four percent of our households have a yearly income of between 0-50.000 guilders a year. Most likely a great percentage of this figure comprises women.

Pushing for progress in our society is ultimately measured by the success of our empowerment programs and policies made available for women and girls that enhance their participation in our social, financial and economic life, visible through the improvement of their immediate surroundings. Improvement in their homes, real job opportunities, and their neighbourhoods.

Happy International Women’s Day 2018!

Gracita R. Arrindell

Dear Editor,
On February 26th the people of Sint Maarten spoke by means of the ballot. They said that they do not trust one party with an outright majority and that they still prefer to have a national parliamentary coalition. With the 15 parliamentary seats now distributed among four parties in a 7-5-2-1 composition, the voters have given the political parties a tall order.
Listening to the general public, I am hearing that the people of Sint Maarten would prefer a national government, which includes all parties. The Governor, in his assignment to the “informateurs,” referred to the broadest possible based government, which includes as many parties as possible. Of course, each party would have preferred to have obtained 8 or more seats in order to have a majority in Parliament. However, the people have spoken and their voice, according a popular Latin saying, is the Voice of God. “Populi Vox, Populi Dei”!
It is important to note that the formation of government after an election consists of two very distinct yet very interrelated phases. Phase one is the formation of a parliamentary coalition in order to obtain a majority of seats in the parliament or the legislative branch of government. This phase is finalized with a government accord or agreement. Phase two is the formation of the executive branch of government. This phase is finalized with a governing program and the appointment of Ministers.
At present, Sint Maarten is going through phase one. In the past, phase one was usually skipped. It became normal that almost immediately after the election results were announced political parties would sign an agreement to form a coalition purely based on numbers. This practice has proven not to be effective, because within a matter of months coalition members would realize that they were unable to work together in the coalition. This realization then brought about shifts in parliament which resulted in collapses of government. In the last eight years we have had several coalition changes in parliament which has led to some seven different governments.
Being very concerned about the recurring instability in parliament and government, the SMCP included stability in its Manifesto as its first point of departure. For SMCP, everything hinges on stability! SMCP went even further and outlined various steps that could lead to stability in parliament and in government.
Step one was simply following the procedure of utilizing an informateur in phase one and a formateur in phase two. The informateur’s role is to gather information from all of the winning parties concerning their vision, philosophy, principles, plans and projects, etc. He/she would then be able to ascertain fundamental differences, compatibilities and common aspects, non-negotiables, etc. among parties. After compiling all relevant information it would be much easier to ascertain which parties would be best able to form a durable coalition for the next four years.
SMCP is pleased to see that the Governor is following the in/formation procedure. On March 1st, 2018, he appointed two informateurs, namely Mr. Jan Beaujon and Dr. Nilda Arduin who are to report their findings as well as their recommendations no later than March 12th.
People are so accustomed of hearing which parties “form the government” the day after elections that they are all wondering now what is going on. Let me assure you that even though you do not hear anything, a lot of work is going on behind the scenes. Parties are now required to reflect on how they intend to move Sint Maarten forward once in parliament.
The Governor has presented some serious questions which need answers. Questions related to the reconstruction of Sint Maarten, the relationship with the Kingdom, the next hurricane season, the landfill and waste management as well as how to involve the social partners in the rebuilding of Sint Maarten.
In addition, SMCP is of the opinion that phase one can also serve as a cool-off period. After all, political parties and their candidates have just campaigned against each other. They may have said negative and disparaging things about each other. If such is the case it is impossible to immediately forge a relationship. Hence, there needs to be a time of reflection and reconciliation. Phase one of the formation process enables party leaders to do this as well as concentrate on what mandates they will give to their MPs in parliament with regard to legislation, supervision of government, budgetary control and interaction with the public of Sint Maarten.
After March 12th the people will hear which parties agree to form a parliamentary coalition and why they believe that they can work together during the coming four years. SMCP is hopeful for a national parliamentary coalition, if this is not possible then the broadest possible based coalition. In any case, SMCP is ready to serve the people of Sint Maarten for a change in both the legislative as well as the executive branches of government.
In the following article, I will elaborate on phase two of the government formation process, namely, the formation of the executive branch of government, i.e. the Council of Ministers!

Wycliffe Smith
Leader of the Sint Maarten Christian Party