Dear Editor,
Please grant me a small space in your well-read newspaper to voice my opinion.
Nurses
I would assume many are familiar with the “Hippocratic Oath”. It is an oath typically taken by physicians. It is widely known in Greek medical texts. However, I wonder how many are familiar with a modified "Hippocratic Oath" for nurses called the Florence Nightingale Pledge. Lystra E. Gretter and a Committee for Farrand Training School for Nurses, Detroit, Michigan, composed this in 1893 as a token of esteem for the founder of modern nursing, Florence Nightingale herself. It reads as follows:
“I solemnly pledge myself before God and in the presence of this assembly, to pass my life in purity and to practice my profession faithfully. I will abstain from whatever is deleterious and mischievous, and will not take or knowingly administer any harmful drug. I will do all in my power to maintain and elevate the standard of my profession, and will hold in confidence all personal matters committed to my keeping, and all family affairs coming to my knowledge in the practice of my calling. With loyalty will I endeavour to aid the physician in his work, and devote myself to the welfare of those committed to my care.”
The aforementioned paragraphs are not meant to give anyone a history lesson, but merely a reminder. “I will treat the ill to the best of my ability and the preserve a patients’ privacy. As well as not be ashamed to say, “If I know not will I not fail to call on my colleagues when needed”.
Banking
Seeing the imminent closure of Windward Islands Bank Ltd., and the lack of a second commercial bank setting up shop and staying on our island, I wonder: Would the “Government” grant permission to a company to offer Vault and Safe Deposit boxes? These are not typically available at a local financial institution, or storage company anyway. Of course, they would need to have a controlled environment with all the safety precautions in place, just as the ones all over the world. You see, some people think they can sing and drink water at the same time.
Wild Animals
Saba has made it known; we have a problem with goats on Social Media and government expedited orders to kill them. You can look around and see the big wooden house. You must remember the gods of Saba are dead. Those gods would have known what to do with them.
Name withheld at author's request.
Dear Editor,
Cycling across sandy roads in the scorching heat. Between towering coral cliffs, artistically sculpted by the eternal wind. Between thriving mangrove forests and infinite salt marshes. Where menacing cacti are standing beside enchanting trees.
It can all be found in the western part of the Netherlands - in the far west to be clear. Where you can swim with tropical fish, which sway with you to the rhythm of the waves. Where people give you a friendly smile - and take life as it comes. Heavy divers popping up as stiff seals out of the blue sea. Older surfers experience their childhood once again in the timeless sunlight. You see it on Bonaire - The Netherlands in the Caribbean.
But the paradise of Bonaire – like St. Eustatius and Saba since 2010 part of the Netherlands as a public entity - also has a black edge. The island is a small community (fewer than 20,000 inhabitants), but there are significant differences. Along the coast are the million-dollar villas, of which there are few earned with honest work. Not far from there are poor neighbourhoods, where there is little work and not a lot to earn. There is a lot of anger because 'the Dutch' arrange everything. But if they don’t, not much would be done. Poverty is also brought up all the time. So many young people do not have employment, but jobs are done by people from outside - from Venezuela, Colombia and Peru - who are underpaid and exploited.
Recently, Bonaire was shocked by the murder of a policeman, an act that might have been committed by a drug trafficker, who also works for the drug mafia in Colombia. During my stay last week on this beautiful island, there were several shootings, nearby where I was staying. The car of a critical journalist was destroyed - a form of harassment.
Other great villains are the banks, which extend expensive loans for too expensive cars that people cannot afford. And there are the Chinese supermarkets, which lend people money at high interest rates. This leads to debts and feeds the anger towards the Netherlands. With signs along the roads where unsuspecting tourists are accused of ‘Dutch apartheid’.
Since 1633, when our country conquered Bonaire from the Spaniards, we belong together, but we still do not understand each other. But that doesn’t really matter, because deep down we love each other - otherwise we would not make such a hassle. Because this is our "Island in the Sun" as Harry Belafonte sang 60 years ago. A song in which the American calypso king sang about his love for our Bonaire. With all the money he earned from this worldwide hit, Belafonte bought property in Bonaire, where even a residential area (Belnem) was named after him. And so love became money again and the Caribbean circle is round again. In this paradise, but always elusive, as part of the Netherlands.
Ronald van Raak
Member of the Second Chamber of the
Dutch Parliament for the Socialist Party (SP)
Dear Editor,
The entire top brass of Parliament has flown off to Curaçao for the entire week of January 9th, to attend the tripartite meetings, and the Interparliamentary Kingdom Consultations (IPKO). While the President of Parliament MP Sarah Wescot-Williams, and First and Second Vice Presidents, MP Rudolphe Samuel and MP Frans Richardson, respectively, are off island, the Parliament of Sint Maarten is left without a leader.
Dear Editor,
The writing is on the wall. Government should uplift the border areas in Oyster Pond and also Dawn Beach main road with proper roads sidewalks and more streetlight and see to that the four green containers be painted.
Middle Region, which has one the best district names, government should do more towards bringing some of the public offices to Middle Region. GEBE, UTS, and Telcell. bills can also be paid in Middle Region; even some of the schools in St. Peters and South Rewards can be move to Middle Region.
One fire truck can be put in Middle Region to protect Middle Region, Oyster Pond, Dawn Beach, Dutch Quarter, Sucker Garden, Guana Bay and Madame Estate areas.
Government must resurface Middle Region’s roads so that the bus drivers will feel very comfortable running their buses there again. The bus drivers are right the road needs to be resurface very soon.
Now, St. Maarten has a new government let us hope they will help our senior citizens more internationally, build low income homes for the people. The high house rent on the island and a very low minimum wage makes life very hard for the people.
It's time government let Central Bank pay the clients of CKC Credit Union members their money.
Cuthbert Bannis
Dear Editor,
Everywhere you go, be it on social media or here in St. Maarten, the truth is becoming now the new hate speech.
The dangerous part is that many people who proclaim they like the truth are who actually oppose it. Do you know having money now means you are a good man or a good woman?
Some people call a man with money a good provider but do they check to see how he is accumulating his money.
Some people call a woman a good woman because she has a beautiful body.
But do they know if she has a clean heart? But let’s keep it in St. Maarten; once you are making a quick dollar and you can pay bills for some women they will call you a good man.
But morality does not matter anymore; it is all about the money. But if you tell women and men that you will be labelled offensive and they will call that hate speech.
The truth is in a class by itself. Because truth shines a light on darkness. Look how many young ladies love hanging out and being involved in a relationship with gangsters and drug pushers.
We see it and we turn the blind eye because the truth is too painful and it is in a class by itself.
We train our sons to be macho men, but doing that on the other end of the stick means your daughter should be like a whore. It takes two hands to clap.
But if I say that, it will be called hate speech and offensive.
We always talk about education, but the first education should be taught at home. This education is called values and morality.
Education does not make you a decent person, education gives you the tool to attain wealth and success but that does not make you a good and decent person.
Strippers and Gigolos get rich by selling sex or the beauty of flesh; does it makes them a good man and woman eventhough they may be a good provider.
The conclusion is if we truly believe in hope and optimism then we should promote values that foster a good and healthy lifestyle.
The truth will remain in a class by itself if we do not change for the better.
The patriot Miguel Arrindell
