Dear Editor,

Many years ago, before I came to St. Maarten, an American couple came to the police station with a road map asking for directions to a restaurant. The desk sergeant attended to them and I noticed from their reaction that they did not understand what was been explained (lack of knowledge of the English language.)

I stood there contemplating how to intervene, at the risk of embarrassing my superior or permitting these tourists to leave with the wrong impression – that not even by the police station they could not get correct directions. I decided not to let them leave without the correct information, and in what I thought was a tactical way asked them to show me that they had understood what was explained while correcting them. In doing so they got the information they wanted and left thanking us and commenting on the willingness of the people to help.

Later on in the evening another major called me and told me that the desk sergeant was not pleased because he had felt that I had showed him up. I explained to him that in contemplating to act I relied on the desk sergeant to understand that in that instance for me the name of the country had priority, and that he should consider my action as me coming to his rescue and not showing him up.

Because this story was getting a tail I had decided that I would refrain from intervening when anyone was having a problem attending to the public in English, and to avoid not serving the public adequately I requested a meeting with our boss and the desk sergeant to explain the reason for my action at that time. It was decided that if the desk sergeant noticed that he needed assistance with the English-speaking public he would call on me when possible.

A rock and the hard place; the lesser of two evils – when do we make that choice? Should not this be investigated thoroughly? We are in the middle of trying to solve integrity issues and because a person decided to choose the lesser of two evils he is threatened to be taken before the courts. Who is above the law? Press conferences, the gazette, newspapers, opinion page in the newspapers, editorials, Facebook, Twitter, e-mail, g-mail etc. As it seems to be accepted nowadays at some point in time, from the highest to the lowest government employee has used the previous media to communicate government information to the public.

Is A. M. wrong for letting the public know, via the same media which government employees at some point in time have used, that a high-ranking public servant did something wrong? Whether or not the way it was done was wrong, was the content of the message factual or not? Does that take away the wrong-doing of that high-ranking official or differently, does it make what the minister did right because that employee did not use the right procedures?

What message are we sending to those who we ask to give tips on wrong doing? Are we telling those who are against snitching that government also is against snitching? Are we telling the people who could know something about the spate of robberies and shootings that they should be careful and not give information? When one snitches is it not almost always about something that really happened? If we continually say “know better do better” and people do better are they wrong? So will both the situations be dealt with? And if both parties willingly did what they did, which one weighs more – the one who did wrong, or the one who used the common method of communication nowadays to let the public know about the wrong-doing of that high-ranking public servant?

What I know is if I am coming from the right, even though I am driving in the wrong direction of a one-way road and there is a collision at the intersection, I am not wrong for the accident because I am fast traffic from the right. I will be fined for driving in the wrong direction.

Being a minister should not exempt anyone of wrong-doing. Had that employee known about the wrong-doing of the minister and did not do anything about it would he to be cited for omission to report it, if proven that he knew? Is the Justice Department really going to waste taxpayers’ money to deal with A. M's situation? To do what, mess with another young St. Maartener because of lack of integrity of a high-ranking government official? Is sweeping it under the rug not worse than spilling the beans? What message are we sending?

Russell A. Simmons

Dear Editor,

Nuance, the intelligence that emerges between reason and emotion, seems to be lacking these days after the devastating attacks in Paris. This brief intervention is one that seeks to remain faithful to nuance. In these dark times the fever of exclusive-camp-thinking (Us against Them) threatens to infest even our brightest minds.

In their zest to display their global knowledge, as in those who question why a Parisian life should weigh more than say a Kenyan (a country also reeling from lethal attacks by religious extremists), or spontaneous fellow feeling – those who say that an attack on Paris is an attack on all French and St. Martinois living in Paris – intellectuals, politicians, journalists, and activists on St. Martin and St. Maarten run the risk of forgetting what solidarity entails. Solidarity is never exclusive. Such is camp- thinking, and this is what we get when some quarters claim that “we are the West and with the West,” while others retort “the West is the place that oppresses and cannibalizes the Rest.” Solidarity, which is charity, is far removed when one hears words like these uttered by our brightest minds.

Solidarity is always shared with the weak and threatened across ideological divides. Terms like the West and the Rest; the defenders of democracy and the terrorists; Us versus Them, give way to looking at and looking after those who will suffer when the power hungry dehumanize each other and lead most to forget the individuality of each other. We, St. Martinois and St. Maarteners, are not the victims of Paris, neither are we the ones in Kenya, Palestine or Syria. We are not the mothers, fathers, sisters, brothers, sons or daughters plunged into mourning. We are not, no matter how many times some of us have visited the French capital or how many of us can claim a historical connection to the victims. What we are those people that today can and must stand with those weak persons: Muslim, Christian, secular and whatever, that threaten to be victimized due to acts of revenge.

One can only hope that this will be the tone of the coming interventions by our brightest minds.

Dr. Francio Guadeloupe – President and Interim Dean of Academics, USM

Erwin Wolthuis – Division Head of the Hospitality and Business programs

Dr. Natasha Gittens – Director of the SCELL

Josue Ferrol – Division Head of the pre-USM program

Pedro de Weever – Lecturer of the USM

Dear Editor,
I was shocked to read about the three men who were arrested at our airport last Saturday, a day after Friday’s terrorist attacks in Paris. It has been confirmed that they are Syrian nationals. The fact that they were travelling with false passports is an indication that they did not come here with good intentions.
The words of our minister of Justice: “There seem to be no indications of planned acts of terrorism in St. Maarten” are not in the least reassuring. The fact that they are here is an indication that a catastrophe might be in the making.
It cannot be ruled out that these men are terrorists, killers of innocent men, women and children, who have either fled in order to escape arrest, or came here to carry out a terrorist attack.
Thank God our immigration officers were competent enough to detect their false documents. These men obviously did not expect to be caught on such a tiny island as ours. My admiration goes out to these officers.
Given the fact that the USA and both France and Holland have dropped bombs on Syria, and lots of American tourists come here, the terrorists could have targeted this little Dutch-French island to simultaneously take vengeance on Holland, France and the USA. The idiom: To kill 2 (read 3) birds with one stone comes to mind here.
The perfect targets would be our international airport and/or harbour where there are thousands of American tourists and only a handful of unarmed security guards. I once jokingly pointed out to one of the guards-a former postal worker-that he is unarmed, untrained and therefore utterly helpless in any emergency.
I then asked him, “What would you do if confronted by an armed man? Without hesitating, he replied, “Mr. Hodge, I would run away.” We both laughed at his reply, but we both knew he would do exactly that. I can’t blame him. It would be insane for an unarmed security officer to attempt to tackle someone with a weapon. Many countries have tightened security at their airports; what are we waiting for?
I used to think that our little island was safe from what’s going on in the rest of the
World; I no longer entertain that thought.
All security guards at the airport and at the harbour should be armed with uzis and properly trained on how to use them. We don’t want them to miss their targets. Another concern is that the toys our police officers are wearing will not protect them or us from terrorists. These precautions would not scare away tourists; on the contrary, they would make them (and us) feel safe.
In 2001, I heard from several people that Arabs residing on the island had rejoiced and celebrated after the 9-11 attack on the World Trade Center had taken the lives of more than 3,000 innocent people and injured almost 10,000.
I was also told by several persons that one of those, who were involved in the 9-11 attack had been on St. Maarten.
If these rumours were true, it cannot be ruled out that these three Syrians could have friends or family members on our island, who are willing to accommodate them and provide them with the information (and perhaps even weapons) they need to carry out their ungodly acts here.
As far as I know, containers that come to the island are not inspected by the authorities. Terrorist-friendly Arabs–if they are indeed here-could have imported more than just furniture and hardware into the island. They could also be funding terrorism overseas with all their unpaid tax monies.
I used to praise European countries that are accepting-even welcoming-tens of thousands of refugees who are fleeing Syria, Iraq and other troubled countries. The vast majority of ‘refugees’ are actually immigrants fleeing abject poverty and seeking a better life in Europe and the USA. God will bless these countries, I often said.
However, my attitude changed after I read reports of how these ‘refugees’ are gang- raping, violating, severely ill-treating women and young girls and instilling fear and dread in the population of their host country.
They insist on introducing Sharia law and enforcing their ungodly culture and way of life on their host countries. The fact that the governments of the host countries are doing nothing to protect their own people from these dangerous criminals is beyond me. I guess all these happenings boil down to politics. The host country wants to show the world how generous and humanitarian they are.
They do this to the detriment of their own citizens.
Asking the population and border officials to be on high alert is not good enough. All countries, including St. Maarten, should close their borders to these murderers who are intent on killing Jews and Christians. This may sound inhumane, but the safety of our people should be our government’s first priority.
The French government has extended the state of emergency to all her overseas territories, including French Saint Martin. What are we waiting for? Let’s not bury our heads in the sand! Let’s not wait until after the unthinkable has taken place to take action.

Clive Hodge

Dear Editor,

Patrick began working on Michel Helligar’s apartment building with Paul, better known as Cat, from Dominica. While Patrick was working there Sablon will tell them to send home Patrick and give him the job. This happened many times. Sablon was told that they have enough people to work.

One day, in January 2015, Patrick had a marijuana cigarette. Paul tried to take it from Patrick, but didn’t succeed. Patrick didn’t use it, and this made Paul very upset; from that day all hell broke loose between Paul and Patrick.

From then, Patrick decided not to go to work with Paul anymore. He started to help out at the Chinese shop Wing Da. The reason also why Patrick left from Michel Helligar is that Michel was not paying Patrick as the law is stipulated. Most of the time Patrick will go to Michel to ask for money. Michel went to Patrick at many occasions asking him to come back to work with him because he needed him. Patrick told him no.

In the meantime, Sablon and Paul became a tag-team: almost every day Sablon will go by the Chinese shop telling the China lady to let Patrick go home because he can’t protect her; she must take him (Sablon) – he can do a better job.

Patrick will start to curse him. Eventually it started with death threats. He and Paul will go to the shop and harass Patrick almost every day.

Sablon will tell Patrick “look how you dress every day – you have on the same clothes.” Patrick will curse him and tell him that’s none of Sablon’s business.

Paul, Sablon and some of Sablon’s friends will sit on the wall across the road and all we can hear is about David and Patrick. David is an easy target because he rides a bike. Paul was going to get a young man from French Quarter to hire him to kill Patrick and David. The young man’s nickname is Kaka.

David heard Sablon said we can catch David easily when his son comes by him.

Sablon told Margarita with a loud voice, he’s going to kill David. She, Margarita, told him no, no, you can’t do that, because I love him, and he started to curse her.

When Sablon and Margarita moved into the apartment, I was off-island. The electricity and water in the garage are for my account. Margarita would wash her car which cost me NAf. 40 extra to pay GEBE.

Sablon was fixing a neighbour’s car on the side of the road, with his extension cord plugged into my receptacle in the garage, also his laptop plugged into my receptacle. I have to pay those bills. When I came home and saw what he was doing I asked him what are you doing here? He came and pulled them out and said sorry.

The garage is a two-port garage. Miss Margarita parked in the garage. David was driving a dump truck from Windward Roads. He could not park in the garage. So he asked Patrick to call Miss Margarita to come and straighten her car so he can park the dump truck. She took 3/4 hour before she came downstairs to straighten up the car. Instead of parking the car straight, she drove out of the garage like a mad woman and said she doesn’t have to park in the garage because all you is trouble. From then she never parked her car in the garage.

Patrick was home alone working on his laptop. From the corner of his eye, he saw a hand moving towards the doorknob. Patrick got up and peeked through the curtain. There was Sablon with a cement bucket with fine sand in his left hand and trying to open my door with his right hand, was my door unlocked he would enter my home and do whatever he wanted to do or steal whatever he could find to steal.

Patrick went outside through the next door and asked Sablon what are you looking for and he said, stammering, I didn’t know you was home. I will call the police. Then Sablon said you don’t need to call the police. Sablon climbed back over the porch, rest down the cement bucket in the garage where it was and left the premises. Since then I put a lock on the gate.

After the hurricane I will supply the tenants with water from the cistern which is on my porch. Sablon told Patrick he’s coming to steal some water. Patrick told me what Sablon said. I told Patrick if he comes for water, I will give him. I cannot refuse people water. Sablon came into the yard with a strange man. I told Sablon he can come for the water, but that man have to say outside the yard, because I don’t know him. Sablon and the man started calling me more wicked witch. When Patrick heard them, he went for the machete. There is where both of them started calling Patrick fassy. And Sablon still calling me wicked witch. Sablon said that he saw me around 3:15am dressed in pure black going down my stairs and went to throw something in the neighbour’s yard. I told him those same lies are going to get you behind bars.

Every day I ask myself what’s next. Because here we don’t have peace of mind for Sablon, Paul and Margarita.

On the 20th of October during the morning hours, Patrick was at the Chinese shop Wing Da.

Tony who works with Paul (Cat) went into the supermarket, went by the freezers not for Paul to see him and call Patrick. He told Patrick I don’t want nobody to call me a snitch. But I want to put you on your guard. They are planning to shoot you tonight when you are walking going home from the shop.

When Patrick was coming home that evening he happened to get a ride from an ex-detective. Patrick explained him what was told to him. He told Patrick I will drop you in front your gate. When you get inside call the police station. He was told they can’t come for stupidness. You must come to the station tonight or tomorrow morning. In the meantime there were four men in dark clothing around a car, around the corner from where we live. One was Sablon and Paul, don’t know who the others were. Shortly after Sablon was going home from the car. I heard cursing. Then Sablon started cursing me. Patrick was cursing, David was cursing, Sablon was cursing.

In the meantime I was on the step to going into the apartment. I heard a shot. I heard Sablon screaming to the top of his voice telling Margarita call the police, call the police. David shoot me. Call the police, call the police. Patrick make David shoot me. Then Sablon and Margarita came out on the porch and Sablon said it’s not over. Margarita asked Patrick if he want her to call the boys for him. Sablon said when he comes out of the hospital and he’s strong enough he’s going to take his machete and chop up me and my boys. I would like the law to question both Margarita and Sablon who the boys are.

Sablon even hid cocaine in a cent bag in the garage. My sons could have been locked up for it.

We have had a week consecutive every morning when we get up there is no water. One of us has to go downstairs to turn on the main water valve. After a few days one of my sons placed a note on the valve telling whoever to please stay off the …. Pipe. From that day it never happened again.

David got a little Subaru from a French lady. He was working on it from time to time. All windshields were intact. One morning we wake up and the front windshield was broken. From time to time there were scratches all over the car. Then there were footsteps, large footsteps on the hood on the top of the car. Oil thrown on the car and the wall in the garage.

Sablon went away on vacation with his little daughter. Paul (Cat) started saying when Sablon comes back he will be very strong. Sablon went to set up himself. Nobody can’t touch Sablon.

I am living under constant fear. Every day I am asking myself what’s next.

From time to time also Margarita will go to Wing Da supermarket and verbally harass my son Patrick.

Since this incident of October 20, 2015, Margarita went to Wing Da supermarket and told Patrick just now you are getting the bill.

Patrick asked her what …. bill you are talking about.

Margarita mentioned in The Daily Herald of October 22, 2015, that her husband Sablon is the main breadwinner of the home and pays the bill. Just a few months ago there was a dispute between the two of them. They both were at the top of their voices 6:00am.

Margarita told Sablon I cannot support you, your child and a dog. If you don’t go and get yourself a job, you have to go. She is a casino addict.

On October 9, 2015, Patrick was not at the supermarket Wing Da. Sablon went to the supermarket and dragging down Patrick and David’s name. As soon as Patrick got back to the supermarket it was told to him.

On Tuesday, October 10, 2015, at 1:55am, a tall man dressed in full black with hoody came in from my gate, the gate was locked and he turned back in the same direction he came from.

On Wednesday, October 11, 2015, Patrick was walking down the road in Union Farm. Margarita was driving her Ford jeep coming up the same road with Sablon sitting in the passenger’s seat. Margarita drove as to knock down Patrick then continued up the road to go home.

An Indian gentleman who saw what happened told Patrick she tried to knock you down. Sablon is known to the Gendarmes on the French side. He cannot go to French Quarter because of him being a menace to people over there.

Margarita said that my children will taunt Sablon. Is she always with Sablon? It is Sablon and Paul who are always taunting my boys right in front the building where we live, across from the construction site.

The same night of the shooting incident, Margarita had the biggest mouth. She was saying how we have to get out of the apartment. She called the landlord who lives in Texas USA the same night.

The landlord called me a few hours later and told me that she heard that one of my sons shot her tenant. I said yes. She said she will make a decision about the property.

The landlord called me two days after and told me that I have to leave her property, but I will receive a letter. One of the landlord’s brothers brought me the letter on the 23rd of October. 2015, telling me that I have to vacate her premises by end of October, 2015.

Denies Cannegieter