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

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

Grand rising people of Sint Maarten.

  My name is Joseph Peterson, I’m a candidate on the URSM party list.

  I am here to talk to you about The Dangers of Selling Your Vote.

  You are a loyal follower of your political party; however, you need to ask yourself the question: are you better off now than how you were before you voted for them? If you are not satisfied with your situation right now, then it’s time for you to make a change.

  I have lived practically my entire life on St. Maarten. I’ve seen all the different political parties come and go.

  Every election is the same thing, those that are in power now try to fool the people by doing small things like fixing the roads, and other small things, which makes me to wonder what happened to the years that they are in power, and why they don’t follow through on their commitment to the people that voted them in to Parliament.

  Why aren’t they helping the people, and why do they wait until it comes close to a new election year to start doing small things, to fool the people to vote them back in Parliament.

  I’m here now to tell those people of St. Maarten that believe that your vote doesn’t make a difference, I totally understand where you’re coming from. There are some political parties hoping that you stay at home because they have their followers, and if you continue to believe that your vote doesn’t make a difference, then they have a chance to win, and get right back in Government.

  I know you’re hurting and struggling right now. Some of you are working two or even three jobs to make ends meet, and you really want to make a difference. In this upcoming election, you’re willing to come out to vote, and right now you don’t know which political party will have the integrity and strength to make the difference that this country really needs right now.

  Unified Resilient Sint Maarten Movement (URSM), our name says it, we are Unified and Resilient. We strongly believe in the principle of democracy rule of Law and inclusion, while upholding and honoring our citizens’ values as the fundamental rights, freedoms, conscious conviction for all.

  URSM will lead with a clear vision and approach that is anchored in dignity, integrity, equality, peace and respect, contributing to the betterment of the people and St. Maarten.

  Now, to our topic of the article The Dangers of Vote Buying. There are different political parties running for this new election, and every one of the candidates of course have their favorite followers.

  Some have rich followers, and some have regular followers; of course, there are those that are going to try to buy your vote. It might not be the politician themselves, but one of those rich followers are willing to buy your vote for the candidate that they are supporting, because they want their candidate to win the election.

  The integrity of the politician that their followers are buying votes for, is questionable. If those politicians do not reach out to their followers and let them know that it is wrong to buy votes, then that politician has no morals, no character, and no integrity, and definitely does not deserve to be in parliament.

  Those citizens that are willing to sell their vote need to think about their future, because the funds or items that you are going to get for your vote will only last for that day or month or so. What happens to you for the rest of the four years, when that politician is going to be in parliament? Do you believe that the politician you voted for is going to help you?

  They might not be the politician that bought your vote, it’s probably one of their rich followers that wanted them to win the election, so be careful to whom you are selling your vote. Quite frankly, your vote is valued more than what they might want to pay you.

  You have the power this election to make a difference, I urge you to come out and vote, do your research and vote for the right party, the one that is going to help the people of this country.

  The URSM is a new party, and our leader Dr. Luc Mercelina has been preparing his candidates for this election, and we do believe that we have a team of candidates that are ready to lead our people and bring our country back on its feet, and make St. Maarten once again, the Jewel of the Caribbean.

  If you want a serious Government who will “help you” and not “hurt you”, you must vote URSM.

  Follow me on my Facebook page: www.facebook.com/ursmjgp

Joseph Peterson