Dear Editor,

  The Dutch and St. Maarten Parliamentarians are doing great but they should not delay the recovery process. And hopefully there should be no election. The money government will be spending for election should be used to help the people with materials, food, do more cleaning and pay the Police for overtime for the coming season. As long as the new Government goes into power election can take place early 2020.

Cuthbert Bannis

Dear Editor,

  Please allow me the opportunity to vent my frustrations. I'll make it short and simple. Why in heaven’s name do we have to make an appointment to make an ID at the island Receiver’s Office? And why does it take so long to receive that ID? This is completely backwards and not to mention slows down progress.

Dear Editor,
Only the socially-inept will revel in the social shortcomings and awkwardness of others.
In an age where our senses are constantly being bombarded by a proliferation of images, objects and stimuli from mass media and the wider environment, we are more susceptible now more than any other point in our brief history of being exposed to sensory overload. What, and how much we choose to consume, determines, in part, the quality of our experiences, either enhancing or diminishing our lives in the process.
Whether we choose to spend time reading Tolstoy's Anna Karenina or War and Peace, instead of being glued to a Smart TV, taking in the latest action thriller, we are consciously choosing the experience we want to have. Engaging in the former can provide us with a heightened moral sense which helps us negotiate complex ethical scenarios thus expanding our horizons and understanding of different social classes, and their accompanying values.
I cannot expound on the quality of the pleasures the latter provides, since I seldom watch TV, but if it does, I'm sure it doesn't have the same benefits as the former and other works of great literature.
If I choose to visit Izi, Avantika, Topper's, Lay Back Bar on Walter Plantz Square or Gracia's Bar in Sucker Garden, it means I am anticipating great conversation, good food that excites one's taste buds, good service and friendly staff. I have preconceived ideas of what I want my experience to be. My experience is likely to provide me with both sensual and mental pleasures, as being at one of these spots is both therapeutic and cathartic.
Whatever we choose to consume in the broadest sense of the word has consequences and implications for our overall well-being. The places we go to or frequent, the food we eat, the conversations we have, the thoughts we think, the friends we keep, the manner in which we entertain ourselves, all contribute to shaping and reinforcing who we are and what we become.
There are experiences that help to eject the undesirables in us, they refine our senses and free us from the impurities and defects we all share as human beings. For instance, being in the company and dialogue of persons from different socio-economic and cultural backgrounds, is an opportunity to celebrate and enjoy our diversity. The knowledge we gain based on personal observation and contact should serve to enrich our lives, making us wiser, more skilful and more tolerant.
Similarly, an experience of an evening spent dining on foie gras – the officially protected gastronomy patrimony of France and a low-hanging fruit for animal rights activists – while immersed in conversation that attaches great importance to differences of social positions, meanly and vulgarly admiring and imitating those of superior social position should not be construed as qualitatively superior to an evening spent campaigning against the manner in which the duck meets it demise.
Which experience would you rather have, as neither has any inherent higher value to the senses and mind? This is where the subjectivity of experiences comes in. We can choose to listen to Mozart or Vivaldi, or music that speaks to the anguished heart, musical language able to convey the most heart-rending emotions without ever transgressing the bounds of elegance, or we can choose to stuff our auditory bank with male, sexist noise that condemns and reduces women to objects of mere sexual gratification, something for the ego to possess, rather than truly liking her as a person.
We can choose to stimulate our creative imagination with images of a world with natural beauty which has not been violated, where money has no value, and possessions are deadweight, the person with the fewest possessions is the freest, or we can limit our creative, intellectual imagination with the intuitive certainties of our daily activities.
The more we read about religion, the more we realize that the mystics were all saying the same thing – enlightenment came from the extinction of desire. Desire didn't bring fulfilment, but only temporary satiety until the next temptation came along, and that was only if you were lucky enough to get what you wanted. If you didn't, you spent your life in unrequited longing.
So whatever path you choose on the road to enlightenment, or the food you choose to feed your spiritual appetite, be mindful of this. Experiences and matters of the senses and mind are highly subjective, and don't have the same appeal to all, but it is wise to give consideration to the quality of food we eat, our social circle, the thoughts and conversations we have, the judgments and observations we make, the places we visit. In essence, take notice of what your senses and mind are consuming, every waking moment of your life, as far as humanly possible.

Orlando Patterson

Dear Editor,
The Democratic Party has been one of the longest serving parties in the history of St. Maarten. We have had our ups and downs, but we have been there for the people of St. Maarten, now more than ever before. Our main goal was and continues to be, "How can we make our island a better place for the people of St. Maarten".
To hear a political party, who welcomed the leader of the Democratic Party as the chairlady in one breath, and denounce her in the next, say some of the most unprofessional things is a shame to say the least. This berating article from the USP board comes as no surprise, because the same lowdown type of message was previously shared in the NA/USP/DP coalition WhatsApp chat.
Yes, the “testicular fortitude” message from the hand of a TEATT cabinet staffer, singling out 2 leaders of the coalition and calling the other (female) leader “spineless”. Well, for a spineless leader, Honourable MP Sarah Wescot-Williams, surely has a vicious bite. Why, if the leader of the Democratic Party was so incompetent, based on her "track record", did you include the Democratic Party in the coalition? Why did the USP and the NA, who together had a majority following the 2016 election, bring the DP into their coalition? They knew that “lil” bit of red made all the difference in the world.
Reference is being made to the party being "like an annoying mosquito that keeps you up at night". If being an annoying mosquito means that we have had to buzz the words like, we have to be loyal to the people of St. Maarten, we have to take their well-being into consideration, we have to ensure that our people have a roof over their head, we have to ensure that our shores are ready for our visitors, and we have to support our businesses so that they have the help they need to be ready when we open our borders to our guests. Then yes we are that mosquito and we will continue to be that mosquito ensuring that anyone who does not have the best interest of St. Maarten and its people at heart, wake up and smell the coffee.
The Democratic Party might be small, but we will not be bullied into silence by a group of people who have had their self-serving interest smashed, because we did not cower under the pressure. We will not simply slide into obscurity and keep our mouths shut just because a few people stood behind their phones and literally tried to cyber bully us, as representatives of Country St. Maarten, into oblivion.
What is evident is the USP, the poster child for creating political coups, nepotism and backhandedness, as long as they are allowed to do what they want like a spoiled child, without any push back or question, their partners are the sweetest persons in the world, well not the DP, SORRY!!!
Like the bold red of our party we will stand firm, and we will continue to stand if it means that things are not being done in the best interest of our country. While others try to create smoke screens by posting false allegations and throwing piles of blame in an attempt to cloud the waters of reason, the Democratic Party will continue to fight for the people. We believe that our time is best spent pounding the pavement of our parliament seeking justice, relief and proper negotiations for our people.
We can sit and talk about the roles assigned to the ministries of TEATT and Justice. We can look at the fact that while the ministry was out informing our cruise lines that we were ready to open, the merchants on Back Street and Front Street were shouting for proper security, assistance in cleaning up and a host of other issues that no one heeded the call to.
Has anyone asked why St. Maarten was not ready for the strongly publicized November 11th cruise visit? Where the reports of the hotels, and what are is being done to ensure that these hotels are open so that our people can go back to their jobs and welcome our visitors back to our shores?
We can also talk about the break-down in security during and after the hurricane, and the lack of proper planning from the Ministry of Justice. There is much to be said about a lot of issues. However, we are bigger than that, and we will continue to focus on ensuring that the people of St. Maarten get the necessary relief that they will need, while not compromising our current and future generations to come.
We believe that our new coalition government is able and capable to help the people of St. Maarten. The Democratic Party has partnered with a group of people who we believe are not about playing politics or smoothing down egos, but about making St. Maarten rise again. We will continue to look out in the best interest of country St. Maarten and its people. Our loyalty is to the people. Our coalition will always be the people's coalition because the coalition, in our opinion, will be about the people, and professionally, delicately, carefully and economically looking at what works for country St. Maarten.
In Part 2, please explain the following:
What will the USP say about the Integrity Law when it reaches Parliament? Will the USP that quietly backtracked and signed the same border control agreement it rallied against for weeks, now sign “its” Integrity Chamber in Parliament? Why did it take the Justice Minister weeks to buckle and sign the same border control agreement presented from day 1? Can the USP give us the people of St. Maarten the “ingredients” for actually throwing down government? Revert to the infamous, “carnival coup”, if necessary.
Why did the leader of USP, who so boisterously rants in Parliament, and defended the then PM William Marlin, leave the NA to form his own political party? Please explain the formation of the USP with the many defectors or ship jumpers:
Maria Buncamper-Molanus by way of UPP, by way of DP
Romain Laville by way of UPP
Silvio Matser by way of UPP by way of NA
Why have MP Chanel Brownbill aligned himself with the Democratic Party and form part of the Coalition of 8? MP-Leader Frans Richardson said on the floor of Parliament, they went after the two most vulnerable and youngest MPs. Why were candidates like
Leona Marlin-Romeo, Anna Rabess-Richardson, and Lyndon Lewis left out in the cold?

Democratic Party Board
Marinka Gumbs
President