Dear Editor,
An agreement for provision of clinical and medical services was reached and signed between the management of SZV Social and Health Insurance of St. Maarten and director Jose Chavez, MD of the International Healthcare Services at Clinica de Occidente in Cali, Colombia.
Something must have gotten lost in translation because the “safe and high-quality health services” for international patients are nowhere to be seen, and not even their domestic patients are given quality care.
Clinica Occidente is understaffed, their personnel is overworked with 12 hour shifts. As a result, patients are not tended to in a timely manner, do not get prescribed physical therapy on a regular basis, and dangerous mistakes are made in administering medication. Lack of communication between doctors and nursing staff, lack of prescribed medication and hygienic supplies can and has led to complications and setbacks in the recovery of patients. Often, the patient’s family member ends up purchasing these items at a pharmacy. In the hospitalization section, 2 nurses aides have to tend to patients in at least 23 rooms. The registered nurse who’s in charge of the department does not report to the attending physician when a patient gets bedsores, hemorrhoids, vomiting, and diarrhea caused by medication or infections. The physician only hears about these issues when it’s mentioned by the patient’s family member/travel companion. When this is pointed out to the nurse in charge, it’s not always appreciated and has resulted in nasty attitudes.
Changes in treatment, scheduling of procedures, and moving of patients to other sections of the hospital are not always communicated to the family member/companion and are the cause of much anxiety.
The cleanliness of patients and the hospital in general leaves a lot to be desired, especially since the restrooms are not cleaned on a regular basis. Many patients in Cali have told me their own horror stories. All of the above concerns are not hearsay, they are what I experienced as a travel companion to a family member. My complaints were delivered in person to the office in Cali and by phone and email to the office in St. Maarten.
When our concerns got to the point where we knew it had become a matter of life and death, we tried to transfer to a hospital that offered better care. We confirmed that all further medical/transfer costs would be at our expense. All our efforts to do so were blocked by Jose Chavez, director of the International Healthcare Services. Even after my family member passed away Jose Chavez tried to make us believe that human remains can only be shipped on a cargo plane via Miami. We knew better and succeeded in making our own arrangements so our beloved family member could be brought home with us on the same commercial flight that we arrived on.
We don’t know the reasons why St. Maarten patients are being sent to a hospital with a 3.2 ranking, why patients are kept there against their will, and why human remains are only flown out by cargo plane – via Miami. We do know that The International Healthcare Services at Clinica de Occidente in Cali, Colombia, under the leadership of their director Jose Chavez, is earning a windfall at the expense of St. Maarten’s patients.
Rita Halley
Dear Editor,
No, it is not prejudicial, nor is it being self-centred or conceited. Fact is if selection is done adequately, anybody can become a Minister of Government, but not anyone can be selected to be a police officer. We need healthy people with a level head, who are not trigger-happy and are able to deal with ridicule and insults; people who do not take everything personal. We need people with a certain level of education, who are able to compile reports and statistics. etc., here on Sint Maarten in Dutch and English. We need people who do not discriminate in any fashion. But there is something basically wrong when such criteria are demanded to become a police officer and the criteria to be leader in government do not even require a minimum level of education.
These are the same people who dare criticise and evaluate others. It might sound sarcastic, but are they not right when they determine that students who after graduating abroad and apply for a job here where they were born and bred, are made out to be "overqualified" for the job that they apply for?
I am not a mindreader, but after reading the expression made by Julio Romney in the paper of Friday/Saturday April 22/23, I am under the firm impression that Romney, who continuously demonstrates professionalism, expressed himself out of frustration on Thursday when he stated "We have also heard the false narrative on the floor of Parliament that members of Parliament have a right to declare themselves as an independant Member of Parliament".
Although Romney explained to them that he could not find any legislation to sustain this and requested such from those self-appointed independent members of Parliament, they have not done so and continue to illegally represent themselves as indepenedant members of Parliament. I do not know what Romney's advice would be, but logic would tell me that those self-appointed independant members should either re-associate themselves with their original party, or give up their seat in Parliament The different parties would then have to determine who is in line to be the next member of Parliament for the party.
Because I am aware that politicians often use big words to impress, I would like to know what is the situation or the fact whose cause or explanation is in question , unique to Sint Maarten. Even a blind man can see that our people in government are ready to use everything possible to do what is convenient for themselves rather than to take care of the people who pay their overinflated salaries.
I can express these feelings because for forty-one years I earned every penny that I received, and am still paying taxes on moneys that so many others and myself deposited in the coffers of government for over forty years. I do not think a professional like Romney would go into Parliament and prove to the world that he does not know what he is talking about. The seats belong to the political party, not to MPs and MPs have no right to declare themself an independent member of Parliament. I wonder if those members of Parliament would think of claiming Parliamentary immunity if they were charged with performing in an illegal or false capacity?
Russell A. Simmons
Dear Editor,
Allow me the space in your paper to: voice my opinion, speak up for the ones who are being targeted, speak out for the ones who are being legally blackmailed and threatened by the system, speak for the ones that cannot speak for themselves, and to speak out for the rights of our people.
Please let me make my views clear. I am aware of the reason why one has to pay taxes. I am in agreement that we should all do our part and contribute towards the upkeep of our island, even if this comes in the form of paying taxes. My opinion regarding the method and amount is a story for a different article.
My parents make sure that my siblings and I face consequences for our actions and or lack of actions, thus I believe this is the correct way to go.
We all face challenges in life and some setbacks of some sort, especially during these difficult economic times with constantly raising prices and still recovering from the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Like our legal system, I do not believe in abuse no matter what form or shape. No matter who you are. I believe the representatives of the Tax Office on Statia are abusing their power and are busy victimizing persons.
It has been years since I have been assisting companies and individuals with filing taxes, thus I am aware and familiar with the system.
Let me explain reasons for believing this:
Over the last six to seven years, I have been accompanying individuals to the local tax office based on assessments they received. After querying this assessment, the information in the system was either incorrect or was not put into the system even though it was submitted to the office on time. This was proven by the receipts dated and stamped by the same office that sent the assessment. On one occasion the representatives indicated that there was a glitch in the system which threw all the payments of clients from in the system. Since we proved that from our end the information was filed and paid for on time, the lady asked us to give them two weeks to have this fixed. After two weeks the situation was corrected.
Currently, there are some companies/individuals that are the victim of what I call abuse of power by this office.
There is one company that has an arrangement with this office and is paying between 800 to 1,000 dollars every couple of weeks. Thus, there was and is willingness to pay. Yet the very equipment that this company uses to generate their funds was confiscated and auctioned off for approximately one quarter of the starting auction price. Now the business owner does not have his equipment and cannot generate funds to continue to pay what is owed. How does this office plan to collect the remaining funds when they crippled the business? What is the plan, to sell his home next? What is the motive and the goal of this office in doing this?
There is another company which has more than one piece of equipment for the sole purpose of executing the business. They have already sold half of the equipment and expect the same company to pay hefty amounts while their production was cut in half due to the lack of machines that were sold by this office. Again, what are the main goals in this situation? Income possibilities were cut by close to 50 percent due to lack of equipment and the payment amount remains very high. It does not take rocket science to know this is impossible.
There is another company that received an assessment and sent in an objection letter and due to the absence (vacation) of one member of staff, this was not processed. The office had the balls to indicate that the person was on vacation and still penalized the company.
Another company has been paying an amount indicated by the tax office for over four years. Their payments were deducted from the person’s salary by the employer as was requested by the office. After more than four years of paying hundreds of dollars per month to this office, the office threatened to sell the equipment of the company. The company went searching in their records and submitted copies of receipts stamped by the tax office for years that the business was being charged for a second time. After going through their system with the received receipts the amount that was owed according to the tax office dropped by almost 75%. The representative decided that she had to stop correcting the information in the system because it was time to auction the companies’ assets, after realizing that there were lots of errors/incorrect information in the tax office system which their auction was based on was not important. How realistic is this?
There are some individuals complaining and are in the process of losing assets that they own due to other family members battling with the tax office. Please note that I am not referring to spouses because they are allowed to take assets owned by their spouses. I am referring to siblings, parents and/or adult children. Which law allows this?
People in Statia are complaining about the unjust and unfair treatment by this office and are not being taken seriously.
Is it a coincidence that all these people currently facing these issues have the same political preference?
What is the goal of this office? If they continue this trend, will we be closing businesses?
What is the role and objective of this office?
What is the role of the Tax department in general?
Why are there so many errors being made in the administration of this office?
I would like to encourage the community of Statia to ask questions from these offices. It is not legal for offices to abuse their power nor to victimize clients.
Statia, demand of your representatives that they deal with these situations that are festering like wildfire in this office. Ask them to demand answers from this office as the role and goal of this office.
In closing I would like to thank the editor for the space to voice this concern in putting dents into our economy and for allowing me to bring this monster into the light.
A.S.
A concerned Statian
Name withheld at author’s request.
Dear Editor,
Some weeks ago, I sat in church and listened to the pastor preaching. He spoke about the dysfunctional human desires to take, grab and have, which are all deeply rooted in human nature. The more I listened, the more I realized that what the pastor was saying was a depiction of the current events unfolding in the world. My mind raced to the current war between Russia and Ukraine, to power-hungry women and men in leadership positions, to the boys on the street corners who refused to work but want to have it all and therefore they target the Chinese shops, to the many shortcuts that have been taken “to grab” rather than to earn by hard-working means, and to the women who cheapen themselves for luxurious lifestyles and worldly possessions.
Later that afternoon, as I reflected on the sermon, I became more fascinated and decided to dig further. Through research, I found out that dysfunctional human desires refer to a variety of unproductive, harmful, or totally destructive desires that we experience as human beings. These desires can take numerous forms, from the urge to abuse power, to overeat or overspend to the compulsion to engage in addictive behaviours like alcohol or drug abuse. In addition, the root of these desires is often driven by a sense of emptiness or dissatisfaction within us. We may feel that something is missing from our lives, or that we are not living up to our full potential. In response, we may turn to these dysfunctional desires as a way to fill the void or distract ourselves from our problems.
It then dawned on me that these dysfunctional behaviours are like octopuses. They have many tentacles that have far-reaching effects. Personally, I have been a victim of dysfunctional human desires on the work floor, like many others. We have worked assiduously and made our contribution to the growth and development of organizations; however, it did not shelter us from the undermining, denigrating, lying, denying, assuming, blaming, discrediting, and gaslighting. On the contrary, one would have thought that educated people would “know better”, but apparently, that is not the case. I, like many others have come to realize that this happens in the workplace because some qualified individuals are only qualified on paper; they have absorbed and recalled to get good grades in colleges and universities, however, they lack the ability to think and solve problems, and they are emotional and vindictive.
Regrettably, these desires hardly provide the satisfaction people seek. Instead, they tend to exacerbate the problems, leading to negative consequences such as financial devastation, broken personal and professional relationships, and health problems.
To overcome dysfunctional desires, it is important to understand their underlying causes. This may involve soliciting professional help, developing healthier coping mechanisms, and taking steps to address any underlying emotional or psychological issues.
Ultimately, it is important to remember that we are all humans, and we all experience desires that are less than productive or healthy. By acknowledging and addressing these desires, we can begin to live more fulfilling and satisfying lives.
Natchie Swardes
Moniker used at author’s request.
Dear Editor,
We, the Heads of government of the Caribbean Community CARICOM, meeting in Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago on April 17-18, on the occasion of the Regional Symposium to address Crime and Violence as a public health issue, register our grave concern at the increase in the illegal exportation of guns from the United States of America which is a direct threat to our democracy.
We declare a War on Guns to combat the illegal trade which provides the weapons that contribute significantly to crime and violence in our region causing death, disabilities and compromising the safety of our citizens.
We call on the United States of America to join the Caribbean in our War on Guns and urgently adopt and take action to stop the illegal exportation of firearms and ammunition into the Caribbean.
We lament the disproportionate share of our national budgets that we are compelled to allocate to measures to address crime, violence and national security, as well as mental health and other health-related challenges, that directly result from the illegal exportation of guns to our region.
We underscore our commitment to utilize all human, financial and other resources to rid our region of the scourge of illicit weapons.
We reiterate that the Caribbean must be a Zone of Peace, which will allow us to achieve our goal of a secure, stable and prosperous community for all our citizens.
Heads of Government of CARICOM
