Dear Editor,
One St. Maarten People Party (OSPP)condemns the murder of Belgium tourist Wendy Montulet, and offer condolences to the family of the 22-year-old. In this critical time when Caribbean tourism is already under the microscope, the island cannot afford to be tarred with the same brush as countries like the Bahamas, where according to a recent report in the Nassau Guardian “an executive with Carnival Cruise Line reportedly warned a Bahamas tourism official that Carnival is so worried about crime in Nassau, it’s considering issuing crime warnings to the passengers it brings there.”
The OSPP advocates for protection for all people and believes in equality and justice for all, but more must be done to safeguard the islands tourism product beginning with joint task forces from both sides of the island working to solve crimes against tourists, and imposing maximum penalties to offenders as a deterrent against such behaviour. We also support more social programmes and opportunities for those who feel they have been left behind. This is also important as regard to deterring criminal behaviour.
Some Caribbean islands are already under the microscope. In a recent article in the St. Lucia Times, the president of the St. Lucia Venders Association publicly accused the Minister of Tourism of ignoring the island nation’s crime problem. The association’s president noted that crime in St. Lucia has gotten so bad, that cruise lines might consider dropping that popular Caribbean port stop from their itineraries, as Norwegian Cruise Line did in the 2010-2012 season because of reported crimes against passengers.
St. Maarten has to assure it does not go the same route. One of the ways of doing this is by making the penalty for such crimes – which I view as directed against St. Maarten – so steep that possible offenders would not want to risk it.
As a St. Maartener, my first priority is the safety and wellbeing of my island and the people on it. It is a public secret that tourism is the bread and butter of St. Maarten and loss of tourism revenue would affect us all. That makes it the responsibility of all of us to do what we can to protect that much needed revenue. When these types of crimes occur, the offender is not only attacking that victim, but the entire island. I encourage anyone with information about this and other crimes to do your duty by putting St. Maarten first and contacting the authorities.
This crime was committed by one or two persons and somebody in their inner circle must know who they are. St. Maarten is asking you to come forward and tell what you know to the authorities, Dutch or French side.
I congratulate the Gendarmes for their diligent work on this case to date, and to the Dutch St. Maarten police for their timely cooperation with the Gendarme to solve this heinous crime.
Lenny Priest
Leader, One St. Maarten People Party (OSPP)
Dear Editor,
Please allow me some space in your newspaper to let GEBE know that the electricity is being cut off daily.
Today we had no lights from 10:00am to 12 noon; then at 1:50pm – no lights again.
GEBE should let the public know so as they can plan their day.
With all the cruise ship passengers in town it is a disgrace for us not to provide them with lights.
They prefer to stay on the ship with air conditioning, which means loss of income for the island and also bad publicity.
There are no lights from Walter Plantz Square to the African store; and until now, at 3:19pm, power is not back yet.
Victor
Price Club
131 Front Street
Dear Editor,
Enough is enough! Three or more outages per day are ridiculous in this day and age and utterly unacceptable.
Our government better give some answers about the situation; how much longer we have to endure this and how this will be prevented in the future. No pre-election nice talk and finger pointing, but honest answers.
In case there are no answers forthcoming I call on all residents to come out in front of GEBE’s offices at 7:30, Wednesday morning to march from there to the Administration Building to demand answers.
React to my Facebook page today if you agree and are prepared to come out.
Binkie van Es
(from Curaçao Chronicle)
Drielstraat in Marie Pampoen, Curaçao, is one of the many streets that end at the south coastline of our island. You could walk to the end of the street and either go for a swim, fish, relax or see the beautiful sunset every day.
Some years back, Atlantis Dive decided to build a parking lot on this street taking more than half of the street. This left only an alley that gave access to the waterfront. Last year, Hotel Baoase decided to expand by building some more bungalows and promised us (we who’ve been living on Drielstraat and Winterswijk long before Baoase or Atlantis was there), that they were not going to close off the street. Baoase went against their word and placed a big wooden door restricting access for everyone to the coastline.
Now, they are at it again constructing what looks like a railing for a remote controlled door. This one starting from the wall that was placed by Atlantis dive closing off the street even more!
My questions are: Why do our local authorities allow these things to happen? Since when is it okay for people or companies to just take a public street and decide to make it their own? Who gives these people permission to do these things?
I don’t think anyone in their right mind would like someone to come and do this on their street, so why do it here? Feeling annoyed is an understatement!
Garrick Marchena
Annoyed, desperate, sad…and just pissed off!
Dear Editor,
Clearly Mr. Simmons you missed that semester at school when reading and comprehension were taught, so please allow me a moment to clear up your confusion with my letter concerning Ms. Clinton. First, allow me to say that I am the furthest thing from an aspiring politician there is. I am an engineer and, as such, my religions are the truth of mathematics and the absolutes of the laws of physics. There is no room in my life for the lies, BS, obfuscation and corruption of politics. I’ll leave that to the professionals like the Clintons.
Now to clarify and, in deference to you Mr. Simmons, I will use small words and short sentences. When I say Mr. Trump is lousy public speaker it is because (pay attention here, please) he is a lousy public speaker. It does not mean he has nothing to say; on the contrary, he has everything to say and most importantly, what he says is honest, truthful and to the point.
Compare this to Ms. Clinton, who is a much better public speaker because she has spent her entire life doing just that. Running her mouth and saying absolutely anything to anyone without a shred of regard for the truth. If someone will pay her, she will say exactly what they want to hear. And, to further help you understand, that is the fundamental difference between what we in engineering like to call style and substance. That is the difference between saying something that is the truth in a clear, understandable and unambiguous manner like Mr. Trump, versus using a lot of fine sounding language that means nothing as a way of evading any commitment she could possibly be held accountable for like Ms. Clinton.
Mr. Trump is the real deal. He has some tens of thousands of employees that he alone is responsible for. He accomplishes real and genuine things for a living. You can touch and feel them. They are real. He means what he says regardless if he isn’t going to win any public speaking awards. The Clintons, on the other hand, have done absolutely nothing for their entire professional lives except lie, cheat and steal. They are the poster children for a corrupt and inept political system.
To help you further, allow me to point out that when I refer to Mr. Trump as not being smart enough I am referring (as I clearly said) to his inability to lie on demand in the way that the Clintons have embedded in their DNA. Ask him a question and you get a real answer. Ask Hillary a question and you get 20 self-serving paragraphs that have no bearing at all on the subject.
Donald Trump is a self-made millionaire from his own work. He has an empire created from his own talent and brains in one of the toughest markets on the planet. He has done the work, something the Clintons could not recognize if it bit them in the face. They are the leeches on the system that drag it down for their own enrichment.
Mr. Simmons, if you cannot recognize that as being self-evident then I can only reply to you by talking some licence with what Mark Twain said a very long time ago: “If your ideal candidate is one that talks a good game, but can do nothing except lie cheat and steal versus one that has a long proven track record of solid accomplishment, but who isn’t a particularly polished public speaker, then you deserve the government you get in all respects.” And none of this has anything to do with St. Maarten…which like most of the rest of my writing that you have failed to grasp. I never said it did.
Steven Johnson
