Dear Editor,
The elected officials of our island must understand that it is a privilege and an honour to serve the people. They have the responsibility to portray themselves exemplary because they represent all of us. The United People's Coalition (UPC) felt the need to emphasize the following, after listening to the ignorance uttered by Mr. Clyde van Putten last week in Curaçao. First of all he introduced himself as the prime minister of Statia and spoke on behalf of Statia and her people in a borderline delusional way, addressing a gathering of Kursou Fuerte I Outonomo.
This brings to mind the Dunning-Kruger effect. A person of low ability suffering from the illusion of superiority mistakenly assessing their cognitive ability as greater than it is.
The UPC had hoped that with the passing of Irma and Maria that he and his cronies would have had a semblance of understanding to tone down the inflammatory rhetoric and make use of this nature given opportunity to really engage in talks with The Hague, without losing face, in an effort to finally get the development of the island going.
What is sad and surely an offence to our people is for this island council member of the ruling coalition in antagonizing, lying manner and with much fanfare, perceived to tell The Hague that if they send people to Statia to take over government backed by marines, he and his followers will hunt them down, burn them and drag them in the street of Statia. Now, in the state our island is in, these types of provoking statements are unbecoming and not in the interest of the people.
As the UPC pointed out already in previous articles this delusional quest of him for more autonomy is only championed because he so eagerly would like to be the first prime minister of Statia. We hope the people are paying attention to what is going on and understand that this fight for more autonomy has nothing to do with them, but only is pushed to feed this “gentleman’s” huge ego.
Taking the above-mentioned into consideration the UPC condemns in the strongest terms the statement coming from this council member and also feels the need to tell the world that our people are resilient, but also a friendly people and will not be incited to violence by this deranged politician.

Reginald C. Zaandam
Leader of the United People's Coalition

Dear Editor,
Having been involved with the consequences of hurricanes in the marine sector for many years, I can say without any doubt that the damage that will result from Hurricane Irma will be disproportionate due to the slow reaction by those wishing to minimize losses to their vessels.
When a vessel is sunk, deterioration occurs as a result of batteries being underwater, fuels being present, acids in the polluted lagoon bottom, high salt content and stray currents. The longer the submersion, the worse the damage.
Undoubtedly the slowness of the reaction to this hurricane was made worse by the lack of a functioning airport that kept away decision-makers and a following hurricane also slowing things up.
But the marine sector had a big shock when it was declared by the Government that all salvaging of vessels needed to be approved by a Ministry.
If there had been a declaration defining measures that needed to be followed that minimized environmental damage, nobody would have been shocked.
This declaration was by the same Ministry that said all building reconstruction needed their approval, which was quickly corrected.
The big difference, of course, is that whilst the Ministry of [Public Housing, Spatial Planning, Environment and Infrastructure – Ed.] VROMI has numerous professionals with appropriate qualifications that have the expertise to evaluate building plans, to the best of my knowledge they do not have the same level of expertise when it comes to marine salvage.
The declaration was quickly posted on social media and all around the world there was reaction that concluded that here was another case of regulation without expertise and heavy-handed control without understanding of the challenges. This could have been easily avoided with communications that dealt with the results that the Ministry was attempting to achieve (environmental protection?).
The Marine Sector has been professionally measured to constitute the drive behind 15 per cent of our Sint Maarten economy. It was also the sector that could rebound the fastest and attract outside capital in this critical period where getting the economy going is critical to the entire country. It is a sector that has a high tax contribution and minimal expense by government in facilitation.
Should we not be smart and strategic about retaining this sector?

Robbie Ferron

Dear Editor,
The Central Committee meeting of Parliament, convened on October 12, 2017, to discuss hurricane preparedness, disaster management and the recovery of St. Maarten, was closed based on an erroneous ruling. As the Prime Minister, the Honourable William Marlin was unable to attend this meeting Acting Prime Minister, the Honourable Raphael Boasman, together with the Honourable Ministers Jacobs, Doncher and Lee substituted for him.

Dear Editor,
Major disasters and stressful situations tend to bring out the best and the worst in people and the organizations managed by them; public and private and even volunteer. The indiscriminate nature of Hurricane Irma means that no one has been spared.