Dear Editor,

  According to the Chamber of Commerce, small businesses account for 89 per cent of St. Maarten’s economy. This indicates that small businesses will play a significant role in the recovery and rebuilding of St. Maarten’s economy post-Hurricane Irma. However, this will happen more successfully if existing small businesses find ways to collaborate with each other.

  As we at Lazy Lizard reopen it is important for us to work with other local businesses and create win-win situations that help all of our businesses grow. This will be part of the “rising up” economics that will impact St. Maarten on the whole.

  I encourage other small businesses to do the same and the community of St. Maarten to support the local businesses that are focused on collaboration.

  The importance of collaboration is not only seen by myself but by many other entrepreneurs who are finding ways to support each other and co-create services that will allow them to survive and rejuvenate St. Maarten’s economy. However, this is still fragmented and needs better coordination to yield better results. One of the reasons why I’d like to represent small businesses in the Chamber of Commerce and Industry is that there are many ways to collaborate in order to create a mutually beneficial relationship while better serving the community.

  With more than 15 years in business across several different kinds of industries, I’d like to help other small businesses like mine to thrive and not just survive. This can’t be done alone. We all need each other.

Nikhil “Nik” Kukreja

Dear Editor,
From the time I know myself, my father always stressed on us to tell the truth. And another thing he would remind us of when looking over our schoolwork and he found some mistakes was: “Why is there enough time to do it twice over and not enough time to do it once good?”
This is what ran through my mind in reading about the financial situation given by the finance Minister a few days ago. The second saying is self-explainable, but anytime anyone does not tell the truth from the beginning it creates doubt in a whole lot of minds.
And the term trustworthy and reliable comes into play. The minister comes back and says I didn’t mean it that way, but maybe next three months, though we still don’t have to panic And then my question still remains: if the situation does not change in three months then what?
I am sure that the minister knew about those figures that he mentioned for a long time now, so why sow panic in people first and then try to say it is not that bad. I am sure that especially restaurant owners are going to feel the backlash from that statement because people who are accustomed to eating out are going to do their own cooking to save that restaurant bill.
That explanation, frankly speaking, is not satisfying to me. I believe the people deserve the real truth. We are already in an emergency mode and now we are being put in a panic mode and being told not to worry.
I believe that all of instances which are playing around with financial figures should get together, come to the people and explain to the people the truth. We are no more living in the era of teletype, this is the era of Facebook and Photoshopping. We have to re- acquire a sense of confidence from the people towards us so that they could revert to believing in us.
This is definitely not the time for planting doubt in people’s minds. And it is not the time for leaving anyone out to dry. I believe that we have to use tact, but the truth is going to catch up with us anyhow so let us know the real truth.
Talking about the truth, I was told that it is not the screening, it is a fight for the crown and a “he say she say” thing. One of them say that men don’t wear crowns men does wear caps and they went on to say “over my dead body” and the other one answer “that is right up my alley” and then another say “throw dirt over that man.”
So again we have to start telling the people the truth.

Russell A. Simmons

Dear Editor,   

  I take this opportunity to express in the strongest terms possible on behalf of the members of my foundation and on behalf of the many, many people, both male and female who have expressed their horror and disgust after taking note of the front page photo of a woman lying on the road after she has allegedly been pushed out of a moving car by her alleged assailant.

  Our community has been through a lot post Hurricane Irma. It’s expected that an increase of tensions at homes and at business places would occur, after experiencing such a traumatic natural disaster. It is also proven that a peak occurs in relational violence during holiday seasons, and weekends.

  A combination of being traumatized, losing one’s home, losing your job, and feeling a sense of hopelessness can put some people on edge that can ultimately lead to a despicable act of violence. There is simply no excuse to resort to such criminal behavior.

  A structural support plan is needed to have more mental health professionals available for those who requires such support. Our Mental Health Foundation requires more support as well. Professionals who evaluate traumatic behavior and who provide much needed counsel to children as well as adults. No matter their background or standing in our society.

  We are aware that counseling support was provided and discussed by a team of mental health professionals post hurricane Irma. However, more structural funding is needed to temporarily recruit more of such professionals, not in the least due to the small number of hard working professionals in this field who are available and provide their much-needed expertise around the clock. They too deserve some rest.

  Peridot Foundation trusts that our law enforcement and judicial authorities will seriously investigate this unfortunate incident and do whatever is legally required to bring justice to the alleged victim. At the end of the day both parties will need counsel and support, each based on their respective horrific act and experience.

  In the spirit of the Holiday season, we wish u much Peace and patience towards our fellow citizens.

Gracita R. Arrindell,

Founder of Peridot Foundation

Dear Editor,
In the many conversations about the “integrity chamber” the majority of discussions are about the fact that this new chamber is apparently being imposed upon an unwilling Sint Maarten. But ironically there is very little conversation about whether it would indeed be an effective entity! Seeing as though we are going to be paying for yet another entity then surely we should be considering it’s likely value, besides just agreeing to it just because the political judgement in the Netherlands is that we should have it and because it facilitates a one-time reconstruction payment.
It seems to me that the majority of entities that we have adopted in the country model of government following the Dutch are not effective. At least not in the manner they currently operating. Not necessarily because they are poorly designed but the hard facts are they do not produce what they intended and the costs are disproportional to our tiny jurisdiction.
Our parliament’s functioning has clearly attracted public attention due to the lack of legislative productivity.
Many other expensive entities like the Council of Advice, Audit Chamber, Social Economic Council, and many supervisory boards are less well known and less considered by the public are also, in my view not as effective as they need to be. Not because they are poorly constituted but for a number of reasons they do not effectively function in our very young country in an environment where democracy and participation operate differently to where they were conceived.
We are taking all these models from a very-well-established democracy and parachuting them into a very different cultural environment and when they are not functioning, few people seem to be shocked. But our tiny population keeps paying the costs and suffering the ineffectiveness of these entities.
So when yet another proposed entity, the “integrity chamber,” becomes a political football that plays a major role in whether we can optimize reconstruction after the hurricane, then it strikes me as most peculiar that the potential effectiveness of this entity is not the subject of discussion. Does anybody believe that the Integrity Chamber will make a significant difference to Sint Maarten? After all the poorly functioning entities why would this one be different?

Robbie Ferron