An Open Letter to the Incoming Cabinet
(Curaçao Chronicle)
As the global economy continues to become increasingly dependent on technology, the baseline requirements for jobs in that new economy will continue to evolve. As you assume the challenges of carrying out your mandate to oversee the critical task of maximizing educational outcomes for the students of Curaçao, it is important to consider that you now have in front of you the opportunity to transform your schools, teachers and students to prepare for the labour force of this rapidly changing world economy.
Transformative initiatives centred around technology integration will not only improve the lives of students but also directly support a broader national objective of expanding the economic development of this country.
The importance of your task cannot be understated. By enabling students to compete against their peers in the global labour market, you will position Curaçao to better compete internationally. Research suggests that integrating ICT throughout governmental services, especially in the classroom, contributes to the overall economic and social health of a nation by increasing competitiveness and preparing students for macro-level labour force shifts as the number of non-skilled jobs continues to decline.
Both in developed and developing countries, employment opportunities are rapidly shifting to jobs that require employees to have the education necessary to use specialized technologies in the workplace. This training is about more than instruction to use new tools and processes, but also fostering students’ cognitive skills to become constant learners to adapt as technology inevitably evolves.
In other words, learning technical skills alone is inadequate. Rather a well-prepared student must also have the skills to continuously adapt their technical knowledge – they must learn how to learn. Countries which pursue active programs of transforming their educational systems for the purpose of developing a workforce are better able to take advantage of changing social and economic realities and will fare better in the long run as these trends continue.
Technology in the classroom can no longer be considered as option nor can it be considered as something to add on to existing curricula. Instead, it is necessary to integrate technology training into every facet of your schools. Children must learn to solve problems not simply by using technology to automate old ways of doing things but rather to weave it into the fabric of the entire educational programme.
It is insufficient to make technology a discrete once-a-day class but rather it must be a part of every subject from math to language arts. You otherwise risk the “$1,000 pencil” problem in which you are simply tacking on modern technology to continue teaching from an old perspective.
As multinational companies continue operating with increasing impact to the local markets, it is important to have a qualified workforce to serve in new roles in those companies’ operations here. They will demand a baseline training standard in order to hire local candidates. Failing to find qualified locals may otherwise require them to import workers who have the requisite skills for this new information economy.
If you consider the country’s relative economic prosperity, as evidenced by a nominal per capita GDP of over ANG 64,000 which is 27th in the world, it would seem reasonable that the resources to carry out this transformation are available. And although monetary measures are useful in defining the affluence of a country, further consider that knowledge, information and training also prove valuable assets albeit less simple to measure. Take steps now to assure Curaçao remains knowledge-rich and not poor.
The digital divide, which defines the gap between the haves and the have-nots in relation to ICT services is growing worldwide. It is your responsibility to make certain that you fully leverage available resources to plot the nation’s course towards staying on the right side of that gap.
To carry out the vision to educate workers for a new workforce, there are a few guiding principles to consider. Teachers and administrators must be adequately trained to ensure programme success. Teacher competency in embracing new technologies is a crucial element to training others. The training must be more than cursory, teachers and educators must have mastery of not only the material they will teach but competency to challenge students beyond the stated curriculum when appropriate. In addition to qualifying them to teach students, educators using technology in their own jobs will be more effective overall.
English must be integrated fully into the classroom. The lingua franca of the technology industry is English. Technology developers in every corner of the globe use English almost exclusively when interacting with their colleagues. In the same way that the aviation industry has standardized on English to ensure pilots and flight controllers can universally communicate, the technology industry has done the same. This is not to diminish the cultural significance of the Papiamentu language or to deny the nuanced sensitivities surrounding the historical and socio-political remnants of colonialism.
Nonetheless, it is critical for success in preparing students for globally-focused careers with increasingly international employers.
The technology industry as a whole has done a poor job of building gender equity among its ranks, including in the US. Tech companies have recognized this and will continue taking steps for demanding a more inclusive workforce. This provides an outstanding opportunity for Curaçao to leapfrog many of its peers by demonstrating strong leadership when it comes to educating women for the high tech industry. However, employing the strategy of gender mainstreaming will be insufficient by itself. Rather, it is also necessary to embrace a fundamental transformation of existing educational processes to wholly embrace gender equality as a core value.
Unlike much of the world, Curaçao does not suffer the biggest risks to educating young women. The UN cites lack of financial resources, physical attack, non-consensual marriage, lack of family support and access to healthcare as leading reasons why 62 million girls around the world are not in school.
Curaçao has cultural attitudes which on the whole render most of those as inconsequential issues here. Therefore, it is imperative to exploit the lack of these educational impediments relative to other nations for the purposes of producing a more valuable workforce with a greater chance of being sought by high tech firms in the future.
Engage the private sector. Outcomes of these efforts will be enhanced the more private industry is involved in the process. Public-private partnerships may provide more and better access to educational opportunities for all students, especially children from lower-income families.
In addition, these partnerships contribute to the overall educational environment by providing learning opportunities which more closely mimic modern workplace environments. Creating opportunities for children to become accustomed to the culture of modern offices and interacting with people in the industry will improve results for Curaçao’s students.
Ministers, this is your opportunity to embrace the positive impacts of refining your educational system to include technology as a core element. The benefits to the country’s economic future and to the quality of life here can be significantly enhanced. However, failing to act quickly may very well diminish your chances to do so in the future. Your mission is critical to this country’s continued success.
By James Ogden, MS
Cabaviso Technology Advisors
Dear Editor,
Honourable EU Citizens of Aruba, Bonaire, Curaçao , Saba, Statia, St. Maarten/St. Martin, during the second day of the handling of the 2017 Kingdom Relations budget in the Second Chamber of the Dutch Parliament on Thursday, October 13, a joint motion was submitted by Members of Parliament (MP) Andre Bosman (VVD) and Ronald van Raak (SP) in which they requested the Dutch Government to consult the UN, together with Aruba Curaçao and St. Maarten, to arrive at a definite fulfilment of the right of self-determination of all countries in the Kingdom.
Reportedly, Bosman and Van Raak in the motion also made mention of the UN decolonisation process that started 1945 and the fact that the Kingdom Charter of 1954 was “the first step in the decolonisation process.”
According to the motion, the charter was never the end goal to do justice to the dull right of self-determination of all countries within the Kingdom. This motion which Bosman subsequently agreed to shelve in order to give the Dutch Minister of Home Affairs and Kingdom Relations Ronald Plasterk the chance to enter into discussions with the overseas countries up to December 31 this year should spark a debate on this issue among EU citizens of Aruba, Bonaire, Curaçao, Saba, Statia, St. Maarten/St. Martin.
We must begin right now to reclaim our essence as an Antillean people with a shared history, cultures and families. As an EU citizen I would like to make of this opportunity to humbly present to all EU citizens of Aruba, Bonaire, Curaçao, Saba, Statia, St. Maarten/St. Martin my proposal for the Commonwealth of the United Antilles (UA); An EU Ultra-Peripheral Confederate state to do justice to the full right of self-determination of all the islands mentioned, in keeping with Article 73 of the UN charter.
My vision/proposal, taking into serious account the policy of the present Obama administration to oppose the granting of independence by European colonial powers to any more territories in the Caribbean; to prevent them from falling under Mafia control is for the creation of the 28th member state (taking Brexit in consideration) of the European Union; the Commonwealth of the United Antilles (UA); an EU Ultra-Peripheral Confederate State with an exempt status by 2025, maintaining a Commonwealth relationship with the Netherlands, France and King Willem-Alexander, ceremonial head of State of this proposed Commonwealth of the United Antilles, which will occupy six seats in the Parliament of the EU representing six sovereign nations in the Caribbean region namel: Aruba, Bonaire, Curaçao, Saba, Statia and unified St. Martin (North and South) with the secretariat headquarters stationed in Brussels.
I am hereby appealing to all EU citizens of the abovementioned islands to give serious consideration to the proposal of the Commonwealth of the United Antilles (UA); An EU Ultra-Peripheral Confederate State.We are one family and God is Great.
Theophilus Priest
Dear Editor,
I kindly request that you allow me some space in your publication to express my thoughts about the recent articles that have been written about me in the media. I am hopeful that you will consider giving this story the same kind of exposure as you did to the story printed about me on Thursday, October 6.
I would like to start by thanking everyone in the local media for the countless times over the past two decades that they have highlighted my many accomplishments, awards, and services within the community. I have taken great pride in being a leader on the local culinary scene, and have thoroughly enjoyed playing a role in helping St. Maarten to build the reputation of being recognized as the gastronomic capital of the Caribbean.
This being said, the recent article about my tax situation begs me to question if the leading news sources on this island are truly practicing newsworthy journalism, or are they simply becoming avenues for tabloid and gossip stories? One of the fundamental principles of truthful journalism is that there are always two sides to every story.
In recent days I have read articles about me in several different "news" publications, which make strong accusations about my business practices, but sadly not one reporter has contacted me for comment before printing these stories. It seems like our media are a little too eager to write slanderous stories about any well-known person on the island. I am no stranger to the local media; why has no one reached out to me for a comment?
Why have the local media been so quick to try and tear down my reputation without even asking to hear my side of the story? Does every business person who has a tax issue have his or her name and picture printed along with a lengthy (one-sided) story? If I were not well known in the community, would this still be a front-page story? If in fact this is a newsworthy story it could have been printed with just my initials, and certainly there was no need for a large picture of me on the front page (as was printed by the Today paper), but then again, perhaps my name and image is what makes this story interesting? If you are writing a gossip column then this is fair game.
The headlines that were written are clearly worded in a way to sound like a "new piece of melee”. I have good relationships in the media with many journalists for many years, several of whom I still consider personal friends. Why would no one contact me for a statement before printing such a negative headline about me? Since my personal business is out in the open now, I think it’s important for me to offer a statement to explain things from my side.
About 10 years ago, I opened a restaurant in Cupecoy called Rare with the intention of building this business into an international brand that would one day be a franchise with multiple locations in various countries. I took advice from accountants and attorneys as to how I should structure the legal set-up. As a formally trained and celebrated chef with many awards, I worked hard to create recipes, a unique design, and standards of operations that would have been used for new locations in collaboration with other professionals.
Some of you might remember, around this time, the global economy changed drastically. The opportunities I was exploring in cities like Miami and New York now came with far more risk. The plans to go international were put on hold. Rare St. Maarten experienced some success for a few years, but we were still barely breaking even, whatever we made in the high season covered our losses in the off season.
About 4 years after I opened Rare, I also invested into a coffee franchise (Rituals) and opened 2 locations in Philipsburg. After a trial period of almost 1 year, we were struggling to turn a profit with Rituals. I was spreading myself too thin, so I decided to close Rituals. When it was all said and done, between my start-up costs and costs of shutting down, I lost a fair amount of money. As per the advice of my accountant at the time, my losses from Rituals were absorbed by Rare.
I would also like to clarify that my brother Arun never had anything to do with the business set-up or any of the business dealings of Rare. There were plans to get him involved from a marketing and branding side, when Rare was ready to open locations outside of St. Maarten, but sadly that day never came.
After years of trying, Rare never became what I originally dreamed it could be, so I decided to close the business and re-focus all my energy to my flagship restaurant Temptation. Since Rare did not grow the way it was designed to, the legal structure which originally was set up was inappropriate and resulted with me having an obligation to pay more taxes. It grew to be a costly learning experience, but one that I am glad will soon be behind me.
For almost a year now, I have been trying to negotiate a settlement with the Fiscal Affairs Office, but we were unable to mutually agree on a figure, and were even denied a reasonable monthly payment plan, which led to the recent court case to determine whether the legal construction I had chosen to use, could qualify as tax-fraud. To the letter of the law, I have been “convicted,” but in fact I am a hard-working local businessman who made a mistake, and am prepared to pay for this.
I am deeply offended by recent statements which suggested I have avoided paying taxes for many years, and that my actions have cost country St. Maarten a lot of money. Because I am well known in the community, and my restaurant is constantly in the spotlight, I cannot hide under the radar, and therefore my tax compliance is significantly higher than many others on the island. There are plenty of businesses with significantly less or even zero compliance.
At the end of the day, I took advice from professionals who are fiscal law specialists. I am a chef, I could never know the details of the tax code, and therefore I rely on advices that have been given to me from the experts I hire. The structure which was set up was fundamentally legal, but every construction has to be played by certain rules to avoid problems with the tax inspectorate. I find it a pity that Fiscal Affairs Office was not willing to offer a reasonable monthly plan to settle the fine I was facing, insisting that this payment had to be made in full within a time frame of several weeks.
To use a soccer analogy, I feel I have been given a red card on my first violation, which should have been a yellow card, especially considering that many players on the field are commonly getting away with many violations.
I am not blaming anyone for what has taken place, I am an adult, and I must own my decisions. Yes, I tried to find a legal way to lower my tax burden, but I have always paid taxes! I challenge the media to find anyone from the business community who does not try to minimize his or her tax burden. I accept responsibility for the way I have run my business. Now that my name and reputation will be linked to conversations about taxes within the community (for the next few days at least), I hope some good can come out of all of this.
The real story here should be, it’s long overdue for country St. Maarten to simplify and reform our tax code. Hopefully we will have a stable government in place that will finally make this a priority, because the current tax code is not motivating to the business community, and I know the leaders of this country are aware of this.
My story hopefully serves to highlight how challenging the current tax system makes it for local businesses to turn a profit, even if you are qualified and armed with a very good business plan, the odds are stacked against you. In my case, 2 out of 3 businesses failed, but fortunately Temptation is still running strong. This year we closed for an entire month for the first time in 14 years. I needed some time to step away and re-focus my energy to my passion of cooking.
As stated, I'm glad to finally put this matter behind me and get back to doing what I do best! This story hit the media the day before Temptation was scheduled to re-open... thanks again to all my friends in the media for the free press! Don’t forget to book your office Christmas party!!! Even the tax office is welcome for dinner by us.
Finally, I would like to encourage the local media to focus on real journalism and stop being so quick to try and ruin the reputation of hard-working St. Maarteners. The media's role and obligation to society is far more important than this!
Thank you for allowing me to express my thoughts on this matter.
Dino Jagtiani
Chef/owner
Temptation Restaurant
Editor’s note: The story that appeared on page 4 in last Thursday’s edition of The Daily Herald is based on the official verdict as handed down by the Court in Philipsburg on Wednesday, October5. The story made ample reference to the arguments presented by tax lawyer Gert Bergman on behalf of his client Mr. Jagtiani. As is usual in all court reporting by this newspaper, the arguments presented by both sides in court are reported in summary. Therefore we see no need to seek additional comment from Mr. Jagtiani nor do we recognize ourselves in his description of local media as becoming “avenues for tabloid and gossip stories”.
Three cheers to Tamilia Chance
For taking ah chance
Te sing in France...
But shame on France
For not giving we a chance
Te vote fo Chance
We could vote fo Hollande
So he could hold on
And even Sarko
So he could come sock we
some more
But fo Tamilia Chance
They can’t give we a chance
So Tamilia don’t give up singing
Sing fo wee
And you will go down in history
Raymond Helligar aka Big Ray
Dear Editor,
Former Lieutenant Governor Charlie Vlaun once stated, “There are three powers and governments. The largest and strongest is located in Maho, the second largest in Front Street, and the smallest and weakest government, in the administration building.”
On October 10, 2010, St. Maarten embarked on a journey to the promised land of political freedom. A land where we would cut off the tyrannical grip of Curaçao – the colonial headquarters of the Dutch Kingdom. Politicians promised the people milk and honey since the island would no longer have its capital squandered within the Netherlands Antilles. St. Maarten would become an “equal partner” in the Dutch Kingdom and have its own Parliament. The new status came as a direct result of the 2000 referendum in which 69 per cent of the electorate voted for status aparte. Although the status may be seen as a great move by most political leaders, our people have yet to be incorporated into agendas of the local politicians. If we were, they would have focused on nation building by ensuring that the population was also prepared for the change.
The neglect of the people has been proven by the countless citizens that do not understand how our government system functions or what roles our parliamentarians play. The majority of our youth still do not know what 10-10-10 represents as they were not properly educated about the transformation that would take place. I can remember when my friends and I jokingly asked ourselves, “How different do you feel?” while we were in class laughing about the fall of the government. We probably wouldn’t have laughed if we found out the cost our parents and other taxpayers paid to benefits for ministers and Members of Parliament. What should probably be a day of celebration and a symbol of nationhood is nothing but a personal achievement for the politicians who delivered us from the burden within the Netherlands Antilles.
We are a country by mouth and not by practice. From 2000-2010 St. Maarten sent hundreds of its students abroad to study in the Netherlands, U.S. or within the region. Meaning, by the time we achieved our new status the island should have had enough professionals to work in the different ministries, departments and companies in government. Although the personnel quotas to fill in positions were reached, many positions were filled by people whose only strong point was their connection to politicians.
The effect of this was the hiring of consultants to do the work of those same people or the hiring of foreigners to be the head of the “incompetent” locals. What does 10-10-10 mean to a St. Martiner? At present, it means being abused by our very own politicians. Many of our youth are asking what does St. Maarten have to offer them or what sense does it make to come back home after studying? Major companies and hotels continue to hire foreigners to be managers and the cause of the working class is forgotten. We went from worse to “wussera” and got a six for a nine. At present, St. Martiners do not see a reflection of themselves in this current system and that has to change.
The most visible change since 10-10-10 is simply the expansion of government. St. Maarten had to set up and manage institutions which were usually run in Curaçao. Parliament had the biggest responsibility of amending laws, drafting or passing laws and proposing motions to improve the living standards of the people. It is supposedly the highest legal body on the island.
Unfortunately, what we have witnessed in the last five years are grandstanding, multiple falls/coalitions of governments and lucrative pay outs to former Ministers and MPs. Lack of continuity and stability continues to affect the public schools that remain in a deplorable condition, immigration control, a declining economy and the crime rate. Our political chaos led to instructions being imposed on the island by the Kingdom government, which local politicians deemed undemocratic in a system they signed up for.
Although I understand that the island was lacking resources, had politicians applied leadership principles besides playing politics we would have been much better off today. The poverty issue, cost of living and six-month-contract abuse have all been “addressed” by politicians yet the masses await actual implementation of policies that will solve the problems.
For the majority of the people, 10-10-10 is simply a false autonomy because the ultimate decision-making power is in the Hague. Parliament, the very same high-governing body in the country still cannot pass a budget without the approval of a supervisory (non-elected) board, with a foreign attorney general and an inherited justice system that does not take our culture into consideration. It is a holiday celebrated by the ruling class because I don’t see the positive impact or value for in the lives of the average St. Martiner.
The only solution for “Country St. Maarten” is to start the journey of nation building. The first priority should be the education of our people and instilling values within our community. We have to make provisions to safeguard our heritage and ensure that our culture continues to live. Entrepreneurship needs to be promoted and the red tape that prevents a local from starting his or her own business needs to be cut. Most importantly, politicians need to be held accountable, especially for the mismanagement of government resources.
Despite our problems St. Maarten progressed in leaps and bounds, but there is so much that could have been done better. The people must be involved and considered in the decision-making process in order to make up for the neglect that they’ve continuously faced. When our island is unified, when laws are passed to better the lives of our people, when our young professionals are given a chance to lead without victimization, when the rights of workers are being protected and when there is an equal distribution of wealth... then we shall celebrate. And a great jollification will surely take place.
It is time for us to rise and remember that love and labour will always prevail.
Ralph Cantave
