Dear Editor,
St. Maarten’s Day, November 11, was nice. Lt’s a new beginning for all of us, especially the Parliamentarians of St. Maarten; they must stop the fighting and jealousy, and put a blind eye towards Article 33. We are fed up with parliament segregation.
Since 10/10/10, the writing is on the wall for St. Maarten and Curaçao; new parties, new political leaders and new government to lead both islands and their people in St. Maarten and Curaçao, but the old parties and old leaders giving the new parties a fight, whereas mostly most of the older political party leaders should leave the leadership to their party.
We all now Theo Heyliger is a good candidate and a good politician to get the project done; he is already mastering his political field. So are those other politicians, who do just how Cornelius de Weever is doing; mastering his portfolios, something just as Theo Heyliger is doing in government.
It will be good if all politicians on this island would take the style of Theo Heyliger and Cornelius. Maurice Lake seems to be catching on to Theo’s and Cornelius’s style. People said he was trained by Theo.
Building low-income housing is not only what we want. We need the bank managers and government to meet every month continually to get a solution so that loan officers on St. Maarten can give St. Maarteners better rate on loans for our civil servants to own their own homes and property. If banks are in a rush to give loans for transportation, they should help St. Maarteners own their homes.
Our beautiful secretaries in public offices, our police officers, our nurses, our teachers, our detectives and many more citizens need to own their own home and property on this island of St. Maarten.
Now we need two or three parliamentarians and/or ministers to take a stand on this situation with the banks to help the citizens own their own home. The people cannot survive paying high house rent with a low minimum wage. Yes, the minimum wage has gone up, but government must not stop monitoring the prices of items. Citizens of Commonwealth of Dominica, St Kitts and Grenada are very proud of the smaller islands in the Caribbean; these three nations stood up for the smaller territories in the Caribbean region and are very proud of St. Maarten’s development and her people.
The world is watching this nation, and remember, history will be written. My people, stay united and strife to make St. Maarten a better place.
Cuthbert Bannis
Dear Editor,
Set it up as an NGO, which means it has to run like a business, but it is not a business, so it does not pay taxes. We do not need a business licence only a Chamber of Commerce notarial deed setup. Aim to start it from early to mid-April 2016. It caters to children born from 2009 in St. Maarten, who only have a birth certificate and not necessarily the Dutch nationality.
The main reason or prime source of existence for this home is to take underprivileged children in home care. I am not talking about handicapped children, they must be underprivileged children who are born “normal” or has a mild to moderate developmental delay. These children will be taken care of as if the people working at the home are their parents. So they have to be clothed, given regular meals, must be taken or sent to primary school, etc.
If the Government of St. Maarten does not have enough money to send these children to at least primary/elementary school, the foster home employees will have to educate them to a standard of 6th grade elementary school.
How will the foster home be funded? By various means. Key: start small, grow big. By various means:
1. Yearly or monthly St. Maarten government subsidy. (financial)
2. Donations by supermarkets. (food and goods)
3. Donations by large clothes stores. (clothing and toys)
4. Private donations. (financial, food, goods)
5. International donations whether financial or goods.
The foster home should be nondenominational but one can use Bible stories to teach the children the basic principles about Jesus Christ and his love through the Holy Bible.
Age range: the child must be between three months and 17 years old (three months because it takes more or less three months to get a child legalized or it can be determined by politics).
Between ages 14 and 17 the child must be taught a skill, e.g.: hairdressing, plumbing, mechanic, carpenter, masonry, driving skills, photography/journalism, etc.
The Government of St. Maarten must pay the person with these skills to teach the teenagers from the foster home (this must be part of the constitution, to be changed by two-thirds majority in Parliament only).
What happens to babies born in the foster home? This is politics (family planning should be important after age 10 to 11 years. After age 17 this child or these children should have enough skills to start their own business (politics should determine microfinancing).
Arrindell’s Medical Center N.V. and assets is willing to go in business/NGO set up with whoever is willing to help these underprivileged children born in St. Maarten.
Dr. Angelica Arrindell-Villous
Oh Sweet St. Martin Land …
St. Martin is my home and I’ll do just about anything to make it bloom …
Rumba, Rumba St. Maarten Rumba Rumba …
Brim, Shoot, Ponum Ponum Ponum Ponum …
Sin Maatin, soooo beautiful. Sin Maaatin, so wonderful …
Songs and Poems of St. Maarten conjure memories experienced and bring to life the words of Tan Tan Nez Baly, Miss Yaya, Miss Vivian, Camille Baly, Mother Gath Vlaun, Milton Peters and so many other icons in our cultural heritage. The words of our elders resonate in my mind, stories of families sharing and caring for each other, working hard to make a living and stressing the importance of education and entrepreneurship, fostering pride in standing on one’s own two feet. These morals and values were taught at our ancestors’ feet and passed on from generation to generation.
St. Maarten/St. Martin Day is a day to celebrate One Island, One People and the unified destiny of us all. Historically we have celebrated this day officially with our brothers and sisters to the North with symbolic ceremonies of unity and sharing, while acknowledging that there is much to do to truly unify us in the legal sense. Despite this, I encourage the general public to come together with their families and friends to share a meal, witness the displays and performances and generally to celebrate being a St. Maartener with pride.
Much still needs to be done to truly equalize and optimize opportunities for our people on both sides. Much still needs to be done to educate our youth and the nation about our rich natural and cultural heritage. As a people we must choose and recognize a national anthem that represents us today. Record and preserve our other national songs, poems and dances. We must also decide once and for all if we will recognize a flag that truly unifies us – which does not make us Dutch or French, but St. Martiners. We must also define who is a St. Maartener and choose the spelling that identifies us all.
We have large shoes to fill, in looking back where we were, acknowledging where we are now, and planning ahead to where we would like to be. St. Maarten/St. Martin Day is a day to celebrate, to reflect and to plan on how to do it better together in the future for the benefit of our children, their children and all the others to come. This is our moral obligation, to leave this world better for having been entrusted with its care.
Happy St. Maarten/St. Martin Day 2015 to all people of St. Maarten, including those who love and claim St. Maarten as their very own.
MP Silveria E. Jacobs
Dear Editor,
I have been at Orient Beach for over 30 years. “Pedro’s” and “The Pirate” were the two original pioneers at Orient Beach. Following Tropical Storm Gonzalo in 2014, the Collectivité came under the guise of wanting to improve the beauty of the beach, and have more uniform structures and better parking.
The current proprietors did not have much choice although we were invited to one of the early meetings with the Collectivité. It appeared that we were there for our input, but in actuality, the decision had already been made to demolish all structures between Kontiki and Pedro’s. It was a crafty way for the Collectivité to acquire complete ownership of Orient Beach, because I have now turned from owner of my establishment to renter with a temporary occupation permit to be renewed annually. The bathrooms that I had constructed and which were used for many years by visitors to the beach were demolished.
My letter dated May 6, 2015 to President Madame Aline Hanson and 3rd Vice President Wendel Cocks went unanswered. My follow-up letter dated July 24, 2015 still received no response. On October 15, 2015, I, along with other proprietors at the beach wrote to the Chamber of Commerce with concerns regarding the present construction; again no reply.
I have just received an email from the Collectivité on November 5, 2015.
The email is actually a general electronic message to all the candidates requesting approximately one dozen pieces of written information to include a police record. I don’t have a problem with that, however, a number of documents requested could not even be obtained because the Chamber of Commerce is asking us for certain information that the Collectivité is still to provide. I would have expected collaboration between the two offices so that we are not shuttled between the two to no avail.
As it is, we are supposed to return all these documents by Friday, November 20, at 12:00 noon, but until today, we do not know our exact numerical location with regard to the new buildings. We do not know what the rent will be among other things, and it is stated in the email that any dossier filed outside the time limits will not be considered.
Imagine, our last general meeting was over 4 months ago. We were told that the delivery date would be the end of October in time for us to benefit from the tourist season. No one has advised what the actual completion date will be. I have to read in The Daily Herald that we are expected to open for Christmas. I have to read that we will only be given yearly, temporary occupation permits. And the biggest fairy-tale is that we now have more beach.
I have less space for rental chairs which affects my bottom line. I have less restaurant space for my patrons, which affects my bottom line. From 30 years to this? And to think, that I voted for the RRR and change.
Lastly, I would like to say that beauty is in the eye of the beholder. If you were to “google” some of the most famous beach bars/ restaurants in the world, you would be amazed at the variety of structures you would encounter. Some may refer to what we had before as shacks, but tourists return year after year to experience the heartbeat and the organic flavour of the local people in every corner of the planet. Cookie-cutter, multi-coloured plywood/sheetrock is not the improvement I was anticipating at Orient Beach.
Semsamar, whose bid I am hearing has increased since inception, is the biggest winner in all of this yet again. And St. Martiners continue to hear from their leaders how much our representatives love St. Martin and its people and how they are working hard for the people’s interest. Thank you! Thank you again! We can certainly feel the love!
Since I am now learning that I will only be receiving a temporary permit that must be submitted for renewal each year, I would like the Collectivité to do two things for me:
First, pay me out for my building and bathrooms, septic and cistern that were demolished without my permission. In my letter of May 6, 2015, I specifically told the Collectivité that my buildings were not to be torn down until they provided me with specific information.
Second, I would like the option to purchase the domain where my business was located.
I came from a line of ancestors who taught me the ethic of hard work and perseverance. And I have put in time, sweat and tears at Orient Beach. I deserve greater respect.
Maurice Jermin
Proprietor of 30 years at Orient Beach
Dear Editor,
Regardless of your politics, I think most people on Sint Maarten can agree that our political system is flawed and inherently unstable. And why wouldn’t it be? It was adopted uncritically from The Netherlands by our leaders prior to 2010, without regard to local realities; a sort of one-size-fits-all approach.
The Dutch system, however, evolved over a long period of time under historical and cultural circumstances unique to The Netherlands and its national character. They have certain unspoken rules and taboos, which once broken, can mean the death of a political career. And it works for them. That doesn’t mean it will work for us, as has been painfully demonstrated.
We shouldn’t be afraid, though, to get politically creative and craft a homegrown democratic system that is tailored to our own needs and circumstances; one that is deliberately designed to offer what is needed most: political stability and predictability. It doesn’t have to be a carbon copy of the Dutch model; it need only be democratic, accountable and functional. Right now, Sint Maarten is arguably one of the most absurdly over-governed little societies I can think of, with more high councils of state and quasi-government agencies than even The Netherlands has.
All of this costs money. And has it really made the process more accessible or responsive to the average citizen? Seems to me things are both more confusing and less democratic now, and that shouldn’t be the purpose.
The American Founding Fathers provided the world with a brilliant historical example that we can borrow from. Perhaps Sint Maarten should adopt a completely separate executive branch directly elected by the people, much like a president, and not appointed by a wobbly alliance of MPs in parliament that could fall apart at any time. An island this small does not need a cumbersome and expensive executive of seven separately powerful ministers, each with a budget and cabinet, but could rather use something like an Office of the Premier, or whatever we decide to call it, as a single political focal point.
The premier, directly elected by the people, can then appoint (or dismiss) a single cabinet to govern, much like an American president does, with secretaries of state, finance, etc. In that way, the office of the premier is streamlined and efficient, and can be held directly accountable to the people. We know whom to hold accountable or to praise if need be. Would it be perfect? No. But point me to one on earth that is.
Our parliament would then assume its role as a purely legislative body, focusing on legislation and the budget. If the premier is directly elected, then it won’t matter how many times MPs shift allegiances in parliament, because the premier’s legitimacy comes from the consent of the people, not a small pool of unpredictable MPs, some of whom with barely enough votes to justify their current power. The system we have now is too dysfunctional to be merely modified. It must be overhauled.
We can adopt an impeachment system that gives parliament a final check on the executive in the event of a gross violation of the Constitution, but safeguarding its abuse by requiring a supermajority in parliament to impeach the premier, and then ratified by the governor. We can even impose term limits on the office of the premier, like in the US. The possibilities are endless if there is genuine political will for meaningful reform. But is there?
Jason Lista
