(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

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

Dear Editor,

  St. Maarten is expected to receive less cruise passengers in 2016, but the country is not the only one; our competitor St. Thomas is facing the same fate. St. Thomas is forecast to receive 1.65 million cruise passengers for the fiscal year 2017, and for 2016 the port authority expects to receive approximately 1.75 million. In 2014, the destination received 2,083 million.

  St. Thomas’ port authority says the decline is the result of ships being taken out of service and put in dry dock for repairs; others re-routed to other destinations around the world. The aforementioned also applies for cruise destination St. Maarten, however, representatives from the Florida-Caribbean Cruise Association (FCCA) met in May with the permanent parliamentary committee for Tourism and Economic Affairs, and informed Members of Parliament, that the destination needed to do something as it had reached the cross-roads and needed to re-invent itself in order to see further growth over the mid to long-term.

  The cruise industry, in the meantime, continues to grow and will reach 315 ships in 2016, and generate approximately US $35.5 billion in revenues world-wide this year, up from $33.2 billion last year.

  The North American market will represent approximately 56 per cent of the global industry in terms of where passengers come from; Europe 27 per cent, and the Asia/Pacific region 17 per cent. The latter market is growing while the other two source markets have shown declines. Cruise lines will move their vessels to regions where growth is taking place, and that is one of the reasons several destinations in the Caribbean are seeing a decline in their cruise numbers for 2016 and 2017.

  Cruise lines are ordering new cruise vessels, which reached a historic high in value of $42 billion for 59-ocean going vessels, according to Seatrade. These orders are up to 2024. This demonstrates that the cruise industry is continuing to grow in other areas of the world.

  Cruise Lines International Association (CLIA) last month announced the cruise industry has surpassed 2015 ocean cruise passenger projections and has increased passenger expectations for 2016. This is a sign, according to CLIA, that the industry is stronger than ever.

  CLIA says a total of 23.2 million passengers were on ocean cruises globally in 2015, up from a projection of 23 million, and a four-per cent increase over 2014. CLIA has modified 2016 expectations and is now predicting 24.2 million travellers will set sail on ocean cruises around the world.

  CLIA adds that much of the industry’s growth can be attributed to emerging regions of the world. In 2015, Asia experienced the most growth year-over-year in ocean cruise passengers with another impressive 24 per cent increase.

  “When looking at the travel industry, cruise travel has astonishing long-term growth potential since it represents only two per cent of the total leisure travel market, has the highest satisfaction rates among global travellers and is growing in popularity. In fact, according to the United Nations World Tourism Organization, in the decade between 2004 and 2014, global cruise vacations have grown faster in popularity than land-based vacations by a 20-per-cent margin,” CLIA says.

  The decline in our country’s cruise numbers for 2016 is just a bump along the road of cruise growth. At the same time, it is an opportunity to review and evaluate, enhance our product and introduce new services, tours and products that gives us an edge over the other competitors. It’s all about re-inventing our cruise product to meet the demands of the customers–cruise passengers, by giving them that experience that they don’t find anywhere else.

Roddy Heyliger