Dear Editor,

I have come to realize that a great majority of people don’t really know much about the kind of diet needed for the proper functioning of their bodies, as well as how to keep healthy or even minimize the possibility of the onset of sickness or decease.

We eat to stay alive. We eat because we know our body needs food and drink. So we eat to live, but we don’t eat to stay healthy. There is a difference. You can eat all the junk or fast foods available. Yes, it will keep you alive, but not healthy. Sooner or later it will cause you to develop some kind of disease, taking you in and out of the doctor offices, hospitals, pharmacies, and in the worse cases eventually to the morgue.

But, how much does good nutrition have to do with our health and well-being? Continual decline in health and rise in disease increased when man began to process his food. When we moved from eating our foods directly from the soil to modernized, mechanically-processed factory foods.

From a Global Health review over the past decade, it has been reported that there is an increase spending on health. Each year doctors see more patients; a growing number of medicines are prescribed; ambulances and aero-medical services attend to transport more people; hospitals and emergency departments are busier, and more surgeries are performed.

In spite of more breakthroughs in medical science, technology and inventions, man is experiencing a decline in overall health, and is losing the battle against the rise in sickness or killer diseases. Medical science today is facing an uphill battle against incurable diseases that refuse to bow to man’s wisdom and technology.

So where do we go from here? Very simple, prevention is better than cure. We need to change our way of eating. From a survey it has been reported that in America an estimated 150 billion dollars alone per year is spent on people suffering from chronic diseases. More than 75 per cent of this nation’s population has to take some kind of prescription drug on a daily basis. Now you might say, well what does the impact of America’s health and consumption of quality food have to do with us here in the Caribbean? Bear in mind that most of the food we eat comes from the US. Is it any wonder why today we are confronted with many ailments, just to mention a few, such as obesity, high blood pressure, Alzheimer’s, stroke, diabetes, Autism, and now the increase of cancer on this island?

Most of us, because of our busy modern stressful lifestyle, don’t even have time to cook. So it’s easier to order or pick up a readymade, over-the-counter, quick-fix meal or sandwich on the way. We feel that should do the trick, because it will save time or prove beneficial. But, later on the consequences will become evident as our bodies will begin to react to how we have been abusing it through consuming the wrong diet.

It was Hippocrates who once said: “Let your food be your medicine, and medicine be your food. The good philosopher wasn’t referring here to any kind of food. He was talking about quality food. The proper nutritious kind of food that benefits our bodies. Foods that are capable of healing, rebuilding and strengthening our inner organs to function properly, and heal themselves.

I once met my house doctor just before he died, who I hadn’t seen in a long time. His reaction to me was: “But, I don’t see you.” I kindly responded to him: “That’s because I am keeping healthy.” Later on he died of some sickness. So, in the end I even managed to outlive my own house doctor.

Throughout my years of doing research and building my wisdom on how to keep healthy and minimize sickness, as a senior I am now enjoying the best of health every day. There is so much to say about this topic, more than enough to write a book. The secret of health and avoiding disease is keeping the laws of health. Matter of fact God, Himself, gave us the right kind of food to eat in the Garden of Eden. When you buy a new car or any kind of new appliance or electronic device, it will always come with a handbook or manual of the manufacturer to instruct you how to operate it; because as the creator of the product, he knows best. If you disregard the advice given then you will be in for trouble. Prevention and following the laws of nature will always be better than the cure.

A health conscious citizen

Name withheld at author's request

Dear Editor,

As a parent of two students in the Sixth Grade or Group 8, I wish to bring to the attention of the public, the Ministry of Education and the relevant stake holders the gross incivility meted out to our children, students attending the Public Schools.

On Thursday, May 19, 2016, a meeting was held at the Senior Citizens’ Hall in Hope Estate across from the Marie Genevieve De Weever Primary School.

The meeting was hosted by the Director of Public Education and the School Managers to brief parents about the school leaving exercise for the Group 8/grade 6 students.

I was only notified of this meeting the evening before by my children via a letter when I got home from work. It was in my children’s interest that I attended the meeting even though it was short notice.

I expected to hear complimentary things about the school leaving exercise but was most disappointed.

Why? For the past two years, the Education Ministry decided to dictate the format of the exercise to which parents agreed. This was that a fee of US $100 will be paid by each student. This money will provide the child with clothing and to secure a venue including a light snack. However, this year, a grey gown was the choice of clothing. The students will wear their school uniform to attend the ceremony with the gown.

This is not acceptable because the uniforms are worn and the children deserve to be better dressed. For me, it is either my children are provided with proper clothing or a refund of US $60.

The math in this scenario shows that US $40 per child will yield over US $9,500, which should be adequate to host the event.

Now at the meeting, the manner in which the Director addressed the parents was distasteful to put it mildly. These are our children and we have a right to be involved in decisions concerning our children. The Director is a dictator. She cannot tell parents that her decision is final and that parents do not have any other choice. Her remarks were supported by the Lionel Connor School Manager.

Parents felt unappreciated and disrespected, and tried to voice their concerns. The Director and the school manager from Lionel Connor were not accommodating. The other managers especially Martin Luther King and Oranje School laughed at us.

Notably, many students were present at this meeting and heard the rough and impolite manner in which the Director and Principal spoke and witnessed their uncultured behaviour.

I am wondering what kind of people are these School Managers and this Director. They deal with our children daily and have our children’s future in their hands.

The irony of this situation is that most teachers and those at the Education ministry do not have their children attending Public School. Their children attend the Semi private schools, the Catholic, Adventist, Hill Side, the MAC and Private schools, Learning Unlimited and CIA.

Further, the Director and the Oranje School Principal have their children abroad; the Principals of the Martin Luther King and Lionel Connor Schools have none.

Do these persons really care how parents feel, more so the children-students entrusted to their care.

They have put forward the point that they want parents to save money. That is not their business. They are totally out of place to think that. Can parents tell them what to do with their money and on whom they should spend it on?

Parents make sacrifices for their children. Therefore, I am calling on the Minister of Education and those in a higher authoritative position to urgently rectify this situation. The Director and Principals need to publicly apologize to the parents and our children.  

Aggrieved but concerned parent

E.C. Alexander

Dear Editor,

I recently ran into this article by Dennis E.A. Arrindell in the featured column section of the Curaçao Chronicle newspaper. Many of you may not know that our present Leftist/Marxist labour laws were legislated into law in the mid-seventies by the then Marxist government of Papa Godett, Amador Nita and Stanley Brown of the “Frente Obrero Liberashon” Socialist Party. Below are some excerpts of Mr. Dennis Arrindell’s spot-on assessment of our current high unemployment situation.

“Youth unemployment is an issue that is frequently discussed in formal and informal circles in Curaçao and St. Maarten. I often observe frustrated young people exclaim: “How can I get any experience if nobody will hire me because of lack of experience?” Awkward attempts by politicians and policymakers to address this issue only expose the utter lack of economic logic to which we have let our political discussions degenerate.

The most common proposed solutions are all based on forms of labour protectionism and creating subsidized jobs. This unsensible approach is nothing more than a hidden form of wealth redistribution, as no actual value is created by protecting jobs from effective competition or by subsidizing them directly. Obviously this populist approach does not offer any long term sustainability. Most credible reports on the Curaçao and St. Maarten economy tend to agree about one thing – to promote economic growth, the St. Maarten/Curaçao labour market is in dire need of flexibilization.

Yet we find that in practice the government aims toward the complete opposite and blatantly disregards economic logic in favour of utopian delirium. I therefore find it appropriate to briefly highlight the true causes of youth unemployment in St. Maarten and Curaçao, as unsettling as they might be for some.

Reason 1: Too many of our youngsters have created the habit of focusing only on extracting value out of their employers instead of adding value to the employer.

Reason 2: An inflexible labour market. A culture of encouraging post-colonial victimization from a very early age on, glorifying labour rights and blaming all individual adversities on differences in sex or skin colour has essentially created a large group of highly egoistic and dysfunctional people that are simply not desirable to hire as employees.

The employers unfortunate enough to have hired people from this group soon find themselves in a quagmire of undisciplined and ill-mannered workers that feel offended and discriminated against one way or another whenever their superiors give them orders or even suggestions on the job.

This dysfunctional group cannot easily be fired because of the fact that the bureaucratic “dismissal committee” takes months to review a single case (during which the employer is still obligated to pay wages and socials premiums). But the employers learn their lesson fast; for the next job opening they will be a lot more picky whom they choose.

Reason 3: Supporting trade unions means supporting youth unemployment. In Curaçao and St. Maarten we have a long history of admiring and respecting trade unions. Few people realise that trade unions function primarily as an instrument of labour supply control. By being able to control the labour supply and by limiting competition from non-labour union members, the labour unions essentially attempt to monopolize labour in order to demand higher wages for their affiliated members.

The effect is very simple: Existing jobs are protected at the expense of new jobs (filled mainly by young people). Thusly, supporting labour unions is equivalent to supporting youth unemployment.

Reason 4: Supporting the existence of the minimum wage means supporting youth unemployment. The primary way by which trade unions obstruct competition from new entrants is by pricing lowly skilled labourers (mainly young inexperienced people) out of the market. This is achieved by the minimum wage. The higher the minimum wage, the more expensive the hiring of lowly skilled labour becomes. Consequently, employers no longer hire lowly skilled labour as they become too expensive, but instead will only hire more experienced workers whose productivity is more in line with the minimum wage.

Cynical as it may sound, the existence of the minimum wage is one of the primary causes of youth unemployment and serves no other purpose than to protect the established workers from competition with the lowly skilled workers.

If young people could work for a lower wage, they would at least get a job and gain experience and discipline, which eventually increases their market value. Instead, the government and members of parliament opt to habitually and with a great deal of flamboyancy, combined with misleading propaganda, take pride in raising the minimum wage.

Every time the minimum wage is raised, more lowly skilled people end up being priced out of the job market and are forced to make a living in the shadow economy. Thusly, supporting the existence of a minimum wage is equivalent to supporting youth unemployment. The New Curaçao 80/20 law will further dive the nail in the coffin for investment. Thank you Mr. Arrindell for your accurate and dead-on assessment of our present negative unemployment situation.

Remember, a couple of years ago when the then minister of labour Mr. de Weever made a deal with Sheriff Security to train locals to be security guards. Several thousands of dollars of tax payers’ funds were spent in this populist endeavour. How many locals do you see working as security guards today? The prime minister is coming with another “populist” subsided job scheme again that will raise taxes on gasoline and electricity which is guaranteed to further produce more negative results that will not offer any long-term sustainability for the economy and unemployment.

Peter Gunn

Dear Editor,

We are very disappointed with the news we heard that bus drivers are getting insurance for themselves and their families from Nagico, or whosoever the insurance company is.

Should not approve any insurance like this for those kinds of bus divers we have in St. Maarten, until these bus drivers agree and are willing to run their buses through Middle Region, Sucker Garden, and Pointe Blanche.

No insurance deal should approve this; we are calling on the insurance company in question to reverse this deal, and go back and sit around the table again, and encourage those bus drivers to run Middle Region, Sucker Garden and Pointe Blanche. The minister of transportation should be part of this negotiation. Bus drivers love to demand what they want, but never hear the call of the citizens. They cannot find buses to run Middle Region, Sucker. Garden, and Point Blanche.

And not only those who live in this district alone are complaining about the bus situation, also people who live elsewhere, who want to go to these districts to visit their relatives and loved ones are complaining too.

If Government will not do something about the bus situation in Middle Region, Sucker Garden, and Point Blanche, these three district should form a movement and demand for St. Maarten to have its own district representative.

I have been calling on Government to resurface Middle Region Road from the Tamarind tree to Romeo Drive for the mean time. Let the buses coming into Middle Region help the citizens of Middle Region. It is difficult for Middle Region people to get transportation to come home when they are on the Pond Fill, Illidge Road and Madame Estate.

Buses are not coming to Middle Region, instead from town to Madame Estate $1.00 bus fee, it should be from town to Middle Region, Entrance $1.00. We should not be paying $1.50 for bus fee at Middle Region entrance.

The minister for transportation should look into this and fix it. Lenny Priest said that one of his priorities, if elected, is that buses will run Middle Region, Sucker Garden, and Pointe Blanche. Let’s see what this present minister for transportation will soon do for us.

Cuthbert Bannis