Dear Editor,

  I saw on the news that there is an unusual mass of seaweed coming across the Atlantic through the Caribbean, into Florida and on to the Gulf of Mexico, taking what one might regard as a hurricane path (the Atlantic Sargassum Belt). Like a hurricane we can’t stop the trajectory but this mass is estimated to be 5,000 miles long according to this recent report from CNN, which means most everyone’s tourism product will be affected in some way, but those islands that are able to manage the problem will be competitively better off.

  The peak of this plague is predicted to be in July. According to the expert featured, it can possibly have a fatal effect on mangroves and coral reefs. The report also said that “in Barbados just last week, they reported they need 1,600 dump trucks a day to clean the beaches.” Would it be possible to limit the seaweed from reaching the shore in the first place by the placing of booms on either end of our most valued beaches resorts?

  But then you have the additional problem of clearing the sea at some stage and disposal of the seaweed. I hear it makes good fertilizer.

  At any rate, I think that a discussion of this potential problem should be tabled by the government before it arrives.

Mike Vieira

Dear Editor,

  From internal leaks to prevent a CEO job acquisition to an all–out cyber–attack which included a 1–million–dollar price behind it for access to their data, our country is facing yet another obstacle with this GEBE fiasco.

  For a short summary, GEBE closed its doors on March 17, 2022, up until June 6, 2022, after a cyber–attack which hit about 55 servers and 168 workstations. The attack being said as self–inflicting due to the weak security GEBE possessed to protect their servers at that time. Losing most if not their entire system which includes debtor and creditor information. Proceeding closing their doors, the team at GEBE came up with how they would categorize their clients without their database.

  Clients were split into 4 categories – respectively A, B, C, and D.

Category A – clients who had received their bill and were urged to pay it prior to a specific date.

Category B – clients who were in a dispute over received invoices; for them to contact customer care.

Category C – clients who did not receive a bill; for them to come in and make a payment.

Category D – clients who were not uploaded into the system due to being new or recent changes made; for them to make a payment via the bank.

  It was said that GEBE collections were down to 30-40% of monthly revenues after the attack. It was also said that GEBE was also collecting nearly NAf. 550,000 a day and had depleted down to nearly NAf. 30,000 a day after the cyber–attack.

  Nearing its official anniversary of the breach, there are many questions at hand in relation to the transparency of the situation.

  To date, regular bills are not received, what is being done about this?

  For those who are receiving bills, what is being done about the incorrect readings?

  How many people will be penalized to bear the additional costs; and who will benefit from this?

  Which clients were excused?

  Whose accounts were wiped out?

  What happens to the outstanding amounts that clients are not able to pay?

  What happens to the leaks that have gone unnoticed due to the delayed billing?

  On what grounds does GEBE calculate or estimate what a client owes them without having proper record in their system?

  These are questions that need answering. St. Maarten operates under one sole company who is responsible for the production/distribution of electricity and water operations. How can it be that, their data base was poorly protected, and furthermore not having contingencies in place? You come to ask, is this situation fully transparent to the public, or is it another ploy against the hard-working people of St. Maarten?

Viren V. Kotai

Dear Editor,

  My father was a stickler for taking time to understand what is written. That and along with what I did for years, reading something that interests me at least twice is normal to me. Why am I saying this? About 10 o’clock on Thursday, March 16, someone called me and asked me, “Why should you say that the Members of Parliament did not even go to school?”

  My first reaction was that I did not say anything about anybody not going to school. His response was, “But I read it in the paper this morning. You want to tell me I don’ know what I read?” So I asked him: “When was the last time that you and I were involved in any kind of conversation?” “Wah da got to do wid it?” So I asked him if it was yesterday? He said that it was about two weeks ago that he had last seen me. So why are you so sure about what I said yesterday? “But yo write it?” I responded, yes, I wrote a letter to the editor which was published, but I do not remember “saying” anything like the Members of Parliament did not even go to school. And told him to do himself a favour and read that letter again, not go over it, read it and then feel free to call me or not.

  I am writing this to point out the reason why our seasoned politicians keep getting away with murder, simply because our people just run with things instead of taking their time to read or research it themselves. This is one of the reasons I write, because what I write I cannot deny.

  Knowing how things go in his circle, it will become “Russell say the MP’s didn’t go to school.” It might be so, but I did not say or write that. What I will write now is that what I know from experience is that, if there are any statistics to bear me out, is that “children who go to Sunday school and play sports do not end up in jail.” I do not even have to mention numbers just by looking at the number of churches that we have on St. Maarten.

  We should have never permitted anyone to come to St. Maarten and interfere and impose on our way to revere our God. The same God we run to at the beginning of December. History will show that we permit all kinds of businesses to open on Sundays but that business owners of foreign origin close their place of business on their countries’ flag day, independence day or whichever. We permit foreign nationals to parade the streets of St. Maarten with their countries’ national flags. I wrote it down.

  On March 6 at 9:37am an American couple asked me if St. Maarten was part of another country. So, I told them yes, ready to explain to them about us being part of the Dutch kingdom. But before I could actually answer, they said they thought that we were Dutch. So, they saw the reaction on my face and asked if that was not a parade with flags from the Dominican Republic that they saw a few days ago. And right after that they said that they collected flags from countries all over the world, that is why they recognized the flag from the Dominican Republic. I was born in Aruba, I have an Aruban flag, but I do not raise it if I cannot comply with the contents of the flag ordinance.

  I can remember asking who owns that building in which the First Response security company is situated? No one could give me an answer at that time and I did not make it a point.. What I did at that time was explain to them that the place of that foreign flag was wrong.

  In closing I will mention this. Those of us who went to Sunday school were obliged to read the Bible, which enabled us to recognize difficult, non-everyday words, look them up in the dictionary, which expanded our vocabulary. So, via you, I would like to encourage our people to try reading more often. You might like it and then find books on civics of our country in order to avoid having to avoid yourself because you cannot even explain anything about your country.

Russell A. Simmons

Dear Editor,

  Nelson Mandela once said, “The brave man is not he who does not feel afraid, but he who conquers that fear. I have often ignored some things, hoping they would disappear, but even then, I knew it was wrong. What I have described is my being afraid. Afraid that if I spoke about injustice or wrongdoing, the people around me would ignore the message and crucify the messenger. After all, he who is without sin is never the one who casts the first stone and the sinner who cries out against sinfulness is always crucified as though he is the only one who has fallen short.”

  March 15, 2023, is World Consumers Day. This day is celebrated yearly to remind each business, consumer and government that they can draw attention to the fundamental rights of all consumers and unfair competition dealt out to companies and to respect and protect their individual needs.

  The Netherlands and Curaçao protect consumers from being taken advantage of. They ensure that businesses are protected against other companies using unfair practices, price gouging and other unfair competition tactics. They also give the consumer who drives the economy a place to vent their frustration and seek satisfaction should any business mistreat them.

  Today, businesses and residents alike purchase Internet service from companies who collect millions while providing less than half of what is agreed on your Internet Service Plan. Families complain that some medical professionals ignore their relatives’ complaints as trivial until it is too late. Cellular service is almost non-existent when you cross the border on a 36-square-mile island, often resulting in late responses to messages or loss of opportunities to receive important calls.

  Consumers are forced almost daily to take something else in the shop in exchange for the wrong or malfunctioning thing they purchased despite not needing it. Debit cards are being charged a percentage for usage, and shops have a minimum purchase amount before they can accept your card. If you only wanted bread, you would need to purchase another $17 in goods to charge your card for the bread. On the other hand, the bank offers a VISA debit card, which you are charged a percentage to use at certain outlets because it acts like a credit card, despite spending your own money, and you are penalized for being charged a rate to use it.

  Consumers make decisions daily based on incorrect information, whether provided by a government agency or another institution whose employees were not adequately trained or supervised. Rather than asking for help, they make up a rule or policy that does not exist.

  All of these things have in common that they happen daily to many of us. While some of us go nuts screaming about it at the establishments, we all end up walking away with no satisfaction or avenue to lodge our complaints and have our rights as consumers protected. Businesses such as those in middle-income areas have to endure what seem to be overzealous inspections of noise and the like that sometimes are necessary, but often appear unwarranted and interfere with these businesses’ ability to operate.

  Entrepreneurs follow guidelines to start their businesses and then feel targeted by government officials who make it nearly impossible for companies to thrive. Despite these issues almost daily, not much has been done in the way of consumer protection except for the unfair competition ordinance that is being worked on.

  Today I wish to highlight that protection, for both business and especially the consumer have been treated as unnecessary for too long. An excerpt of an article published on Monday, July 26, 2021, by

St.Maartennews.com states: On January 10, 2017, former TEATT Minister Ingrid Arrindell sent two draft ordinances for advice to the Social Economic Council (SER): the consumer ordinance and the competition ordinance. Already on February 9, the SER issued its letter of advice addressed to Minister Arrindell’s successor Rafael Boasman and to then Prime Minister William Marlin. According to the SER, “Studies should be carried out whether a Consumer Authority is necessary.”

  St.Maartennews.com also wrote, “Chairlady Oldine Bryson-Pantophlet wrote, ‘A consumer authority adds little value to the current consumer protection framework.’”

  The SER advised, “To establish an entity that protects consumers.” Still, it found yet another deficiency in the draft stating that the consumer authority and its attached legislation would supersede all other national laws. The article says, “Lastly, the SER barked at the projected costs; the draft ordinance mentions a budget of 1.6 million guilders (close to $894,000) for a fully operational Competition Authority by the end of 2019. This amount is significant considering that laws that protect consumers are already in place and should be enforced.”

  I believe the article by St.Maartennews.com should have received more attention, as should the issue of consumer protection. More people are buying everything from clothing to vehicles online and off-island, and they are experiencing a level of service that offers full refunds where necessary. In addition, despite sometimes getting the wrong thing, our locals are comfortable returning to the online stores because of this appreciation for consumers’ rights. If this trend continues, there will be less need for local businesses. If we put the Consumer Protection Bureau in place, we can protect what is left of our economy, and people will have restored confidence in buying locally.

  When I started on this journey to speak out about the absence of the Consumer Protection Bureau and proper laws to protect the people who make St. Maarten’s thriving economy what it is, I felt sure that many of my fears would come to life, and I still do. I also realized that despite many people experiencing harsh and unfair treatment by some businesses and the challenge of some companies not being allowed to open bank accounts while being allowed to operate, not enough is being said, and even less is being done.

  Today, I am standing up because fear cannot continue being the reason why good people refuse to stand up for themselves and others. If my life can have meaning from this point forward, I would like to believe that it would be that I conquered my fear because I am motivated. Mandela was on point when he said, “I learned that courage is not the absence of fear, but the triumph over it. The brave man is not he who does not feel afraid but he who conquers that fear. And, courage is a choice that we can make over fear.”

Alfred Harley