Dear Editor,
Caribbean leaders and disaster management officials are still studying the impact of the February 8, 2025, 7.6 magnitude Caribbean earthquake – the largest in the world since 2023 – that occurred near the Cayman Islands and north of Honduras, and the threat of a tsunami after the NWS Pacific Tsunami Warning Center issued a tsunami alert for the Caribbean Basin.
From time to time, regional leaders are alerted by an earthquake/tsunami alert in the region or by Kick-’em-Jenny – the active undersea volcano on the Caribbean Sea floor off the coast of Grenada that rises 1,300 meters above the sea floor – which raises temporary awareness for risk management planning about the threat level and steps that need to be taken to keep populations safe.
The National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) of the Federation of St. Kitts and Nevis says the alert was an opportunity to reinforce the importance of disaster preparedness for residents and citizens of the federation.
The Cayman Islands Hazard Management Agency director stated that Cayman residents should understand and be aware of their tsunami risk, especially in the context of where they live and work and if they have children, and where their children go to school.
Cayman Islands Hazard Management Agency is working to make the information available from their tsunami inundation model available to residents, so they can make informed decisions about where to go and how to react in the event of a tsunami threat.
The Prime Minister of St. Maarten Dr. Luc Mercelina last week announced that the Government is set to launch a new cell broadcast emergency warning system on June 1, to enhance the country’s disaster response capabilities. Testing of the new system will begin in March.
Caribbean leaders and disaster managers have to be prepared for the worst-case scenario. Annually, the world’s largest tsunami exercise – “Caribe Wave” – takes place in March coordinated by the U.S. NOAA Caribbean Tsunami Information Center.
The 14th annual Regional Tsunami Exercise, Caribe Wave 25, will be conducted on the 20th of March 2025 at 1500 UTC. UNESCO/IOC Intergovernmental Coordination Group for Tsunamis and Other Coastal Hazards for the Caribbean and Adjacent Regions (CARIBE EWS) Member States and Territories will have two scenarios from which to choose: a tsunami generated by a magnitude 8.0 earthquake located along the Enriquillo-Plantain Garden Fault Zone (EPGFZ) and a tsunami generated by a magnitude 8.6 earthquake located approximately 270 km off the Portugal coast.
Tsunami exercises such as Caribe Wave are important to validate and advance end-to-end tsunami preparedness across the Caribbean and adjacent regions. All 48 CARIBE EWS Member States and Territories, stakeholders, and communities at risk have been encouraged to plan for and participate in the exercise.
Roddy Heyliger
Dear Editor,
If you had to guess the leading cause of death for children and young people globally, what would you say?
Malaria? Pneumonia? Suicide? They’re all up there, but no, it’s road crashes.
Cars have been around for over 120 years, and we know how to prevent these tragedies. Yet road crashes still claim more than two lives every minute, and nearly 1.2 million lives every year.
If these deaths were caused by a virus, it would be called a pandemic and the world would scramble to develop vaccines to prevent them.
And yet reducing road deaths has long been overlooked, misunderstood and underfunded.
People will always make mistakes on the roads, but we have proven solutions that ensure our transport systems can absorb these errors in a way that significantly reduces the risk of death.
As part of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals and the UN Decade of Action for Road Safety 2021-2030, the world has set an ambitious target of halving road deaths worldwide by 2030.
Just 10 countries – including some hard-hit low- and middle-income countries – managed to reduce road deaths by more than 50% in a decade, and more than 30 countries are close behind. This shows that the target can be met but it is nowhere near enough. We need urgent action.
Key to meeting this goal is the decision to design and build our transport systems for people – not for motor vehicles – and to make safety paramount in all decisions and actions.
This is especially important for the most vulnerable road users such as pedestrians, cyclists and motorcycle riders, who are often left dangerously exposed.
Advancing road safety is crucial in itself, but it is also key to sustainable development overall.
The world is going through an unprecedented wave of motorization. More than a billion vehicles are on the roads. This is unsustainable, so we must focus on moving people, not cars, motorbikes and trucks.
Transport accounts for one quarter of global carbon emissions, and fuels congestion in our cities. Yet when mobility is made safe and accessible, people choose the greener options of public transport, walking and cycling.
Designing cities around sustainable transport – with cycling lanes, pedestrian zones, and accessible public transport – also strengthens communities by making spaces safer and more liveable, while improving access to adequate housing and basic services for all.
Safe roads power economies. Road deaths can cost countries around 3% to 5% of GDP [gross domestic product – Ed.], and ensuring more people can move safely to their jobs, schools and vital services drives development.
Safe, accessible and affordable transport also breaks down barriers to jobs, schools and opportunities for disadvantaged groups. This helps ensure everyone can reach their potential.
The same holds true for gender equality, and in some countries up to 80% of women report suffering harassment on public transport, so we must make transport safe for women and girls.
Road safety is everyone’s business and to succeed we need a range of sectors to be involved.
Urban planners and engineers must ensure safety is built into infrastructure. Academia and civil society can generate evidence. The media can dig deeper into what works, what doesn’t and why.
The private sector has tremendous influence. Businesses can contribute to safe and sustainable mobility by applying proven principles and practices throughout their value chains. They must only sell vehicles that meet United Nations safety standards.
Yet the role of government is paramount. Governments must provide strategic and well-coordinated approaches, strong policy and legal frameworks that enforce safety standards and safe behaviors, and sufficient funding. Law enforcement and education are also key.
This vision is right at the heart of the Global Plan for the United Nations Decade of Action for Road Safety 2021-2030, which offers a blueprint for governments to reduce road deaths.
This week, world leaders will meet for a Global Ministerial Conference on Road Safety in Morocco. They will assess progress, share knowledge, and advance actions to halve road deaths by 2030.
They are set to adopt a new Marrakech Declaration, which recognizes road safety as an urgent public health and development priority, and that our efforts must be guided by the principles of equity, accessibility, and sustainability.
The Declaration calls on leaders to step up efforts to action the Global Plan for the UN Decade of Action for Road Safety. We need a step change in political will, a sense of urgency, evidenced-based, strategies that are costed and implemented, strong coordination and adequate financing.
Road safety is a crisis that has gone on far too long. No road deaths are necessary or acceptable.
Yet it is also much more than that. Safe and sustainable mobility can power a better future for us all.
Abdessamad Kayouh
Minister of Transport and Logistics of the Kingdom of Morocco
Host of the 4th Global Ministerial Conference on Road Safety
Dear Editor,
There is much conversation in Sint Maarten in which our small jurisdiction is compared to large jurisdictions. The difference between small and big is not just in size but also in the consequences of size. The small scale of a territory leads to governance having to be different.
Large jurisdictions are able to have multiple layers of government. Typically federal/national, regional and local/municipal. Here in Sint Maarten we have just one level of government.
Multiple levels of government allow for there to be greater degrees of specialization and expertise. Here in Sint Maarten our government has to administer a much greater range of public sector responsibilities.
The result is that the single elected chamber has to deal with everything from macro national and international affairs to the most minute matters along a mind-blowing range of issues. The risk of lack of competence and the chances of chaos and delays increase.
How can we and other small (tiny) jurisdictions mitigate this?
You could increase the levels of government or create institutions that would take care of certain areas but that would even further put pressure on treasury and limit the investments required for development and long term quality of life.
The alternative would be to hope that more persons in government would develop a wider range of skills and be able to juggle their activities across multiple areas more effectively. But that is difficult, and the difficulty should not be underestimated. Our brain drain makes this worse than it would otherwise be.
My submission is that there is value in recognizing the specific disadvantages of a small self-governing territory and finding every possible manner of mitigating the disadvantages.
Robbie Ferron
Curaçao’s journey to constitutional autonomy was intended to mark a new era of economic stability and self-sufficiency. As part of the transition, a package of debt relief and structural reforms was envisioned to create a resilient foundation for the island’s future.
Dear Editor,
Much has been written recently about the lack of prison space at the Point Blanche facility and how it is affecting the sentences being meted out through judicial proceedings.
Unfortunately, there is also much being written about the escalation of crime on the island, which is obviously adding to the problem of where to house the convicted criminals. One of the negative effects of having a shortage of detention facilities is an inadvertent enabling of crime due to a perceived and actual lack of strict and immediate punishment, lessening the deterrent in a time where stronger deterrents are woefully needed.
Hopefully this is a short-term problem due to the upcoming building of a new prison with increased capacity, but waiting until the completion of the new prison three years from now, to address crime and proper punishment, is not acceptable, as today the island’s reputation is faltering, affecting many industries and individual livelihoods, not to mention personal safety.
In your recent editorial, you pointed out that there are some cell container type facilities on the island that are not being utilized due to costs and impracticability of locating them outside the prison. Use of them needs to be considered and analyzed, as the status quo is unacceptable.
However, there is potentially another solution whose roots go back to 1776. That is the use of prison ships, also known as prison hulks. These are former seagoing vessels that have been modified to become a place of substantive detention for convicts.
Until recently, the Vernon C. Bain Correctional Center was a five-story jail barge that stretched the length of two football fields, resembling a container ship stacked with cargo. This is an extreme example, as it could hold 800 inmates, hopefully significantly more than needed on SXM.
A company named Chevalier Floatels has prison ships that can hold 101, 110 and 221 prisoners. Those facilities can be divided into several security sections with recreational areas in every section. Also, there are ample office facilities for security posts, medical examination, visitor areas and administration. A large galley can be used to provide meals. Light wells can be used as exercise yards. Conversion to prison standards can be done in a few weeks.
I do not know the availability or cost of these ships, but the concept is worth considering and implementation a possibility when SXM is replete with water frontage and getting ships here should not be difficult. In addition, when the prison is completed and there is no need for the temporary prison facilities, a lease can be terminated or the ship sold, should the decision be to purchase one, returning capital to the country. Coordinating with the French side of the island might also defray cost and make the concept more feasible.
The United States military has been using barge-like temporary housing for years, for when a navy ship comes to port for a multi-year overhaul where the sailors cannot stay on board their ship. This could be another source for SXM.
Something to consider.
R. Paul Speece
Simpson Bay
