Dear Editor,

In the past few weeks we have been inundated with political and personal interventions from instances as distant as the Dutch Government and as near as our own Minister of Finance, President of Parliament and most recently guest speaker at the Governor’s symposium.

Let’s review these mind challenging and politically testy statements. The latter has offered some views and possibilities to move the economy forward and taking him at face value one must believe that he is frank and in no way attached to the local happenings. But think just for a moment if someone doesn’t reside here and is asked to give a key note address on a particular subject he/she would have to do some research. And with a resume like this good gentleman possesses we can expect that that was done.

However, we should be quite skeptical about his sources of information. For common logic would tell us if we speak to foreign business that use every excuse not to employ locals, the solution will be to make it easier to import foreign labour. If you have a Government that is devoid of ideas on how to tackle the island’s high unemployment rate reportedly at some 12.3 per cent and said to be 27 per cent among the youth, easing the almost non-existent barrier would be a way out. After all pleasing the businessman makes good sense if the next election is your main concern while the next generation only matters when it’s your own offspring and not the masses.

We were elated to finally hear a member of the executive speak openly on the need to include locals in the high position in our private and public sector, thank you Ritchie (Min. Gibson). But the thought has crossed our collective minds that the members of the Council of Ministers don’t meet on these very issues. When you read that in the past year we issued 2700 plus work and residence permits then it’s easy to conclude that while we talk the talk, walking the walk is not permanent on our agenda.

We have spent more than five years trying to present a draft legislation to address the abuse of the short term contract, to date zero zilch. But in usual politic “modus operandi” political reform is of utmost importance for our own longevity even if it’s spent fooling and misleading the people. So we give that precedence, however, that too we completely messed up, for our only intention seems to be giving ourselves as political leaders supreme power over the plebes as in communism and dictatorship. Nice try but because you took the same road of your predecessor to send the draft first to The Hague before Parliament you are doomed to fail. It is uncanny that people who rant and rave conveniently at times about interference from the Dutch seek all their advice and justification from them.

Another statement that I have problems coming to grips with is that of the honourable President of Parliament Mrs. Sarah Wescot Williams that requesting the U.N. to put St. Maarten Back on the list of non-selfgoverning countries is regression or a step backward. It is mostly strange because the meeting was incomplete and much information was not exchanged. However, suffice it to say our belief that we are equal to whom so ever and therefore not a colony is the main reason for these misleading statements. Harriet Tubman of the Underground Railroad fame once wrote, “I have freed ten thousand slaves and God knows I could have saved ten thousand more had they only known they were slaves.”

With emancipation day approaching it might be a good idea to take stock of where we are and the fact that the Dutch can impose their will totally squashing the will of the people in a democratically held election and determine who can be Prime Minister.

And of course there are the instructions and threats of higher supervision. There is also the now tiring repetition of integrity chamber, dispute regulation and their need to know what happens in our N.V.s. A people who have made it clear that their tax payers’ money will not be used to assist in any way, why all the jockeying to dictate what happens here where we spend our own tax payers’ money.

Oh how unfortunate it is that we are colonies but we can’t get our President of Parliament and those that agree with her to see it. Real change and freedom will remain fleeting things.

Elton Jones

Dear Editor,

I and my family have been coming to your Friendly Island for 28 years. We have enjoyed the beauty of the beaches and the friendship of the people in St. Maarten.

In Philipsburg on Front Street, the business people are treating tourists badly as you try to walk down Front

Street trying to have a look and do some shopping, so, many of our friends don’t want to visit Front Street

anymore.

There are some new stores trying to sell beauty products by catching people off the streets, and don’t want to hear no for an answer.

I feel somebody should do something. We still love St Maarten.

Grayce Sanger

Dear Editor,

Because I frequently make use of the opportunity to write letters to you, which you oftentimes publish, people approach me to either congratulate me or to let me know what’s on their minds. Some asking me to write about it, others I assume, hoping that I would write about what they spoke to me about. Those who ask me, I always encourage to write it themselves, because I will not take the responsibility nor the praise for their opinion.

From experience I know that those persons would say that they told me what to write. Since I wrote that piece stating that we need more priests and ministers I got good feedback and I will go against my principle and write about some of these comments.

It is known that teachers have always been in a position to give advice to parents about their children’s tendencies, so I should approach the teachers for them to monitor which students have the tendency to become a man of the cloth. I look at it differently. I say because Christianity goes a long way in curbing violence in a country, instead of being influenced by the minority who are abusing rights acquired, not earned, to take the bible out of the schools, government should look into a way of putting back the bible into the schools. And like I was reminded about, split up the classes and juggle the subjects so that bible lessons can be given and those who are against bible teachings will have another subject for those few hours that bible lessons are given to the others.

I am not talking religion. I am talking studying the Bible. The most read and real life illustrated book in the world (in all languages). We fight for all kinds of freedoms of the lowest class. We fight to give all kinds of sexual priorities. Even paedophiles are looking for rights to abuse children. So again why do we not reject those laws that Holland wants to force on us and do the right thing.

Do what our culture is about and not what ignorant people who want to force their sick behaviour on us want. Am I really to believe that all of those MPs agree with the sexual persuasion of our Kingdom partners? Don’t the MPs have a preference, so where is their backbone. How do they sleep at night. How do they look their children in the eye and say “daddy (mommy) have to go against what daddy (mommy) instilled in you because others with a completely different culture have decided that.” And what will they answer when their children answer them “but daddy (mommy) you can’t tell the voters that?”

Permit me to give a shout-out to cuzzo Joslyn for giving credit and honour where credit and honour is due. My heading would have been “Keep her there.”

In closing, I would not have used “chicken leg and Johnny cake” as an example but rather “a beer or a drink” etc. Chicken leg and Johnny cake is close to the St. Maarten people’s heart or as some would say is part of our culture and should not be thrown around loosely.

Russell A. Simmons

Dear Editor,

I just got my hand on today's Daily Herald (21-6-16) and saw the headline Bus Association insists on use of taxi terminal. And my question is: Or what? From experience, I know that, just like there is always bacchanal in Carnival, this is the kind of rhetoric that always rises its head in an election year, and always close up to the elections. So my question is, who is behind it this time? I would start by inquiring how the vetting process went for many of those bus drivers to get a permit.

The fact that only ten drivers from about 300 are qualified to go on the French side, already tells me that administratively something is wrong. I know for a fact that the last set of them did not appear before any committee. I have mentioned this several times. "Public transportation should be in the hands of the public (government) to ensure that the whole community is served". Today, they are demanding a terminal, tomorrow a strike to jack up fares, already they are determining which route they are going to service.

When are those that we put there going to do what they are supposed to do? There should not be any bus association. There should be a "Sint Maarten Bus company" with people working for the bus company and when they are not pleased with the way things are run then they can strike when justified. This is another reason we have to determine who is a Sint Maartener, so that jobs like these could be reserved for the Sint Maartener, just like is done on all the surrounding islands.

Should bus-driver Claude Omeus really be the one to tell taxi-driver Richardson, "Move your taxi so that I can park my bus?

Russell A. Simmons