~ A call to action for every self-respecting St. Maartener ~

Dear Editor,
There comes a time in every society’s history when the people have to rise up and collectively decide that the path which the country is currently on is not the right one. I strongly believe that for St. Maarten, that time is now. Too long have we ideally sat by and let the government do as it wishes without any form of repercussion for underperforming.
With elections a year-and-a-half away, you can already start seeing ministers and parliamentarians kicking into action, taking any photo OP they can to make it seem as though they have been actively contributing to bettering the island over the past three years. Please do not be fooled! These same ministers that are posting their “wins” are the same ones that have reactively dealt with the slew of problems the island faces or outright ignored them. What has been done in regard to:
* Affordable housing?
* Inflation and cost of living going up (gas, electricity, food)?
* The stay on salary increases?
* The brain drain happening in government?
* The mutilation of our hillsides?
* The encroachment of our public beaches?
* Gross misspending of public funds?
* And the list goes on and on…
No, I for one will not be fooled! It is time we the people demand our government does better. All too often we hear through the grapevine of this and that wrongdoing, but these cases very rarely come to light. That is why I strongly commend the person(s) within GEBE, and our investigative journalists such as Ralph Cantave on their speaking out against the blatant neglect, wrongdoing, and utter fiasco that is taking place within GEBE. This is just one example, but a most welcome one at that, and I urge every St. Maartener to stand up and say no! No, we will not accept shady dealings and gross misconduct anymore! Call it out. Call out any wrongdoings, misspending of public funds, or lack of integrity with which you are faced. Then and only then can we start righting the many wrongs that have become common place, and “the way things are done here on the island.” We need a culture shift. Accountability needs to be the pillar we build our country on moving forward.
Therefore, I for one will be playing my part in writing up pieces such as this one, in which not only critical questions will be raised, but also viable solutions as it would seem our government is severely lacking in that department. I do not care who is in office, I care about results, and if those cannot be achieved with the current players, it is time for new ones to jump in and start booking us some wins. We the people of this nation deserve better, we desperately need optimism to return, so we can all collectively strive for a better and brighter tomorrow.
Enough, is enough!

David Salomon

Dear Editor,
Many years ago my mother told me that my girlfriend told her that I have a soft heart. Especially when it concerns children. I did not know that it was that obvious, but I did not do anything to change it because I am very conscious of the fact that I had a good childhood which was also because of my village. So, when children ask me questions or when I think that they deserve attention/correction I try to do so.
It has become more difficult these last years, because parents go as far as to go to the schools and threaten the teachers in the presence of their children. Yes, the teachers who spend more hours in a day with almost all of the schoolchildren. Because of the working hours of the parents, by the time the children get home from school many parents have just left for work or are working. Sometimes two jobs, so the parents mostly mothers, communicate with their children by phone. When those mothers get home it is almost their children’s bed time, so when we add up those hours the teachers spend, an average of seven hours per day, with the children in school, whereas we are not sure how many waking hours the parents spend with their children.
I will never forget what my father told me when I had just started to work as a police officer: “Try your utmost not to do anything wrong or vicious in the presence of children. Children become what they see, not what you tell them.” Another thing he told me was always try to avoid reprimanding parents in the presence of their children.
I have always stated that I do not believe in writing other people’s opinion, but I could not deny this one. A 14-year-old boy said to me that the Lions, the Rotary all those service clubs always have fundraising for some project with a certain monetary goal.
St. Maarten is full of number places where people buy numbers every day. Even on Sundays. I don’t know how many people we have working on St. Maarten, but if government could regulate it so that each one of those workers leaves one guilder every two weeks for charity, that money could be distributed under supervision for those kinds of fundraisings, sports trips, etc.
Right now we have more non-St. Maarteners than St. Maarteners and my father told me that every country makes immigration laws to accommodate the status of the population. So maybe the government can do that. I am not sure if that is really the case, but I do not think it is farfetched.
He started to say that they could drink one less beer per week, but I told him that he should never mess with a person’s pleasure when asking them for something. I told him I would ask around to hear what people in that field would think can be a heal sore. That was for me a big thing because of who it was coming from.
Oh, I almost forgot. He said they should include the gypsies also, because he does hear his money complaining of not having money to pay the gypsy drivers.
Now this. My cousin called me from the USA and asked me, “Who is the Bill Gates of St. Maarten?” I told her that I don’t know. So, she asked if we do not have a magazine like Forbes on the island. I could not give an affirmative answer. “So how do the people of St. Maarten know who they are making all of that money for?” That also I do not know, but since it’s published I can ask the Editor of the newspaper and see if he can work on something like that. I am sure the newspaper here on St. Maarten will not fall in the Bill Gates category. Besides, I don’t think that printing the truth is spreading rumors or falsehoods.
She said, “Governments work with a budget for the future which has to be approved and also there have to be checks and balances in government and accountability. But oftentimes there is a deficit. We know that political campaign money comes from businesses and favors are granted in return. For instance, campaign contribution becoming a tax write-off, etc.
“Because the businesspeople have the money and money is power, it is a fact and all of these things are out there, and the people should know who the Bill Gates of St. Maarten are. Just like the people in government and of government are open game, so should the wealthy be also. That is why Forbes can publicize all that information without liable of being sued. Businesspeople, people in sports, movie stars, etc., all of them rely on the financial support of the people so they find themselves accountable to the people. You should ask those questions.”
So, Editor, who are the richest individual residents on St. Maarten? I hope that they are banking here also?
By the way, that young man thanked me for defending the schoolchildren who were, as it were, forbidden by the Minister of Finance to take part in that number plate competition..
The bulk of the money in a country is usually in the hands of few.
Those few, because of their wealth, have influence on politicians.
Politicians rely on the people to vote them into office. So, the people are entitled to know who they are making the money for.

Russell A. Simmons

Dear Editor,
St. Maarten has been known for decades for its “sea, sun and sand”, all of which attracted the very first tourists and continues to attract tourists to our beautiful Island. Tourism is our only source of income.
Let us make no mistake that our sandy beaches and our beautiful crystal, clear waters are the primary reasons why most people come to St. Maarten. If we continue to dredge Great Bay Harbor, putting that precious sand into the Pondfill, the lagoon and landfill, we are destroying our most precious resource, our beaches which God gave us at no cost.
The cruise ship business is important to our economy. Without our beautiful beaches and crystal clear waters, the cruise ship business, indifferent to their investments, would be more likely to move to another island that has maintained their beautiful beaches and crystal clear waters.
The only other reason the cruise ships might briefly stop here would be to dump their garbage, thus continuing to increase the size of “Mt. Garbage” at the Pond, which I am sure will not replace our beaches as a tourist attraction.
They may also stop to dump their other wastes in the precious sea that surrounds us, thereby continuing to pollute and further endanger our crystal clear, beautiful blue waters. This is the very same water along with our beaches that attracts the cruise ship business and most of the tourists to our Friendly Island.
Considering the above, it is advantageous and necessary to return any sand dredged to the perimeter of the Island, thereby ensuring the future of our beaches, the future of our people for now and for generations to come.
It takes millions of years to create sand and that sand travels around the island. The conclusion being: if you take sand from one place, whether dredged or shoveled onto the back of a pickup, you take it from all the beaches. I have lived here 49years and seen our big beautiful powder-white beaches turn to a coarser beige sand or a grey sludge.
During the days of Claude Wathey, it was illegal to take any sand from our beaches. We bought the sand we needed for construction or any other purpose from Barbuda.
Every ounce of sand dredged and not returned to the outskirts of our island is an act of pure destruction of our beaches and of our economy.
It is an act of treason to St. Maarten, its people and its future.

Cheri Batson

Dear Editor,
Today is a sad, sad day in country St. Maarten. As a mother and with a heavy heart I turn to the people of country St. Maarten and ask for patience and vigilance when operating motor vehicles on public roads. My sympathy goes out to the family of yesterday’s [Monday’s – Ed.] tragic accident and everyone else and their loved ones who have been negatively affected by traffic incidents in the past.
My people, as summer vacation is approaching please keep in mind that our children will be utilizing our public roadways and sidewalks a lot more than usual, and with the numerous fatal accidents that have been occurring lately I can’t stress enough the urgent need for us as a community of road users to operate our cars, trucks, bikes and scooters with a heightened sense of caution and patience.
We had an accident involving an 8-year-old three weeks ago at late hours of the night that we haven’t had an update to this present day. Yesterday [Monday] another family found themselves grieving and in deep pain with the loss of their 4-year-old daughter, granddaughter, niece, cousin, friend; a little girl who was robbed of the opportunity to experience life.
Every child in this country is ours as mothers, grandmothers, and aunts. Our children are valuable and we are all responsible for treating them as such. Young bikers dying in traffic accidents, people irresponsibly utilizing the roadways at high rates of speed and jeopardizing innocent lives has to come to an end. Irresponsible traffic behavior cannot and should not be the norm. Our streets are too small and too congested to accommodate the reckless driving patterns that are developing among some road users. Slow down before the next casualty is you or someone you love dearly. We cannot afford to lose any more innocent children.
The developing trend of recklessness on our roads needs to be addressed not only with enforcement by police, but also by means of a public awareness campaign by government, to address the dangerous behavioral patterns that seem to have become the norm.
* Children 10 years old and younger should sit in the back seat with their seatbelts fastened.
* Do not sit babies on your lap while driving. Be responsible and wise – put babies in a car seat in the back seat.
* Children sitting in the front, use seatbelts and keep your arms inside the car.
* Bikes passing motor vehicles should do so with extreme caution.
* Buses, please use utilize the bus stops properly and pull completely off the road to allow proper traffic to flow.
* Pedestrians, please utilize the crosswalk where and when available.
* Motorists, be courteous and allow pedestrians to cross the roadways.
There needs to be a concentrated effort to address what’s going wrong in order to change the course of events, and not accept wrongdoings as the norm.
As the stress of daily life and living has increased, so has road rage. I implore everyone to please be an example to your children. Parents, hold your children’s hands when on the roadside and teach them the proper roadside ethics. Keep in mind that they are children and public roads are fatally unsafe at present, so I advise against unsupervised activity involving public streets and roadways.
We are building a nation and for this we need our young ones. Let’s use technology and our traditions of the village raising the child to enhance safety and enlighten our society. This is who we are and have always been as a people, we need to embrace our past traditions and combined them with present-day norms to our advantage.

Pamela Gordon-Carty
Leader United St. Maarten Party