Dear editor,

  Reading Thursday’s paper about the achievement of Saba to export more than one million pounds of recyclables is wonderful news for Saba and I must compliment them on another major achievement.

  Looking at St. Maarten and the problems we have with waste management and lack of interested parties to promote serious recycling makes me wonder what we can learn from Saba.

  In my opinion, how we deal with waste in general is something that we should learn from childhood and carry on from there. Unless parents set the example and teach their children not to litter and to dispose of rubbish in a responsible manner we are not just setting the wrong example, we are in trouble. How often do you not see people disposing of a bottle from their car window onto the kerbside because they cannot be bothered to take it home.

  It is a mindset and until such time that this attitude changes things will not get better. There is an enormous need of rubbish bins in so many areas especially around Philipsburg and these could be sponsored by major businesses. This would make it cost-effective and a simple schedule to empty them twice or three times a week would ensure they are not overflowing with rubbish.

  To come back to recycling , it is a concept that works but I have the feeling that too many people on the island think that the few recycling bins (mainly at residential estates) are only a gimmick and that the items end up on the dump in any case.

  This service needs to be promoted more aggressively to make more people aware and how much effort does it take to separate your rubbish ?

  If the recycling companies would produce monthly figures in the newspaper of weight collected, processed, and shipped it would perhaps encourage more people to use the service.

  Make bins available for recycling in key locations like they do on the French side and let them collect the contents at night as to not disturb the traffic during the day. It works in so many places in the world, why not here?

  There is nothing more off-putting than being confronted by litter all over the island and changing our attitude is all it takes to sort it out

Rene Lammerse

So many feelings and thoughts to contend with,

Each one is fighting to express itself a little bit.

Sadness wants to remain on the surface and wouldn’t flee,

But stubbornly joy and happiness wouldn’t let that be.

Reason never stops searching for logical explanations and order,

But desires and passions oftentimes interrupt and prove the mightier.

Many thoughts of missed opportunities and regrets haunt me,

But hope the sweet universal cure never fails to comfort thee.

Thoughts of my final rest I no longer fear,

So let me enjoy life while I am still here.

Numerous are my vices and little my virtues,

But I soon slacken the grip and receive my dues.

Thinking of ways and sowing seeds to master myself,

So, I'm looking forward to the day of harvest in and of itself.

All the learned theories and concepts in my reservoir

Have provided me much help so far.

But sometimes my repository of knowledge 

Fuels my ego in ways I rather not acknowledge.

Feelings of gratitude continue to fill my heart,

Whenever I set the thoughts of my mind apart.

For I am reminded that my humble existence,

Could easily become corrupted by thoughts of my false sense of importance.

So, while I continue to take stock of my mind,

I am on the lookout for thoughts and feelings of an undesirable kind.

Orlando Patterson             

Dear Editor,

  I believe that the consequence of constantly changing or replacing people in decision-making positions is exactly what is happening here on our island. No consistency in government. I constantly ask myself: where is the proof of continuity in government?

  The only continuity in government is the lack of price control. I believe King Bobo got it exactly right with his calypso "Sint Maarten strong" and I have to add that with all the unstable governments we have had, Sint Maarten people are still coping with all the calamities. We have not deserted our Sweet Sint Maarten. It might not be the most ethical way, but I believe strongly and because of past experience in judging that  "Sint Maarten strong" should be the Sint Maarten Carnival Road March song for 2022. I would even venture to call it the 2022 Sint Maarten Carnival anthem.

 I am not sure what the reasoning is behind government constantly publishing the number of number plates sold this year. The only message in my concept that it is sending is that we must prepare for stickers. It is time for people in government to realize that legacy is not what they do, but how what they do make the people feel. Because it is Carnival season, and even though what I am going to say is about myself, what left  a lasting impression on the people of Sint Maarten and many visitors is the way I directed the Carnival. No longer than  Thursday last, some people met me in the parking lot and told me that I was going to live long, because just a few days before they were talking about  me, and how I directed the Carnival parades, and suddenly they met up with me after not having seen me for a while. That is an example of legacy.

  Not what you try to impress on people, but the impression you leave on them because of what you did. Since 2017 we have been having problems with number plates. No, not number plates, because the number plates do not run the show, it is those people in government who have been constantly asking, "What's in it for me?"  I went on the road in 1966 and from then already the motor vehicle tax administration of both Aruba and Curaçao was bigger than the present motor vehicle administration of Sint Maarten. I hate to have to think that it is incompetence, but how big is that administration that we are consistently having problems with numberplates.

What about copying the good things? In calculating I have concluded that an average of more than three thousand  numbers have not been paid for. Three thousand or more unpaid numbers is far too many for a country with a road infrastructure like Sint Maarten to go undetected. Between the police, the Receiver’s and the motor vehicle inspection office, this should never be possible. We have the resources to do things right. The control on motor vehicle taxes is not diligent enough.

  Looking for and noticing are not the same. They also do not require the same amount of energy. When the number plates are changed yearly, those which are not paid for, stick out like a sore thumb, whereas checking stickers would be like looking for a needle in a haystack.

  It would be advisable to start painting the  pedestrian crossings and the lines dividing the roads and intersections, etc. Paint the lines on the roundabouts so that the drivers do not drive in the middle of the road, defeating the purpose of the roundabout. We need more physical attention at busy intersections during rush hour. These are requests from people to me to write to you about. I write about it because this is also my opinion. My opinion for the longest while now is that we should regulate public transportation. Both administrative as well as the bus stops all over the island. This would slow down illegal transportation and all of those gypsy drivers would have to do that which they were permitted by immigration to come here and do. Pay their rightful taxes and we will start getting rightful order in the place.

  We want our sweet Sint Maarten land back. We have to put our administration in order. So that we can see the trees again. When we can really see who the rightful heirs to Sint Maarten are, then we can start thinking about independence. Up to now my question remains: "Independence from whom for whom?" .

Russell A. Simmons

Dear Chairman and members of the Kingdom Relations Committee,

  On the one hand I feel like an onlooker, on the other hand like an insider because you – as a member of the Lower House, representative of the people, so also of us, Statians – are much further removed from the daily practice on the island.

  And then there is no press on the island that, as in the European Netherlands, informs and interprets. Admittedly, the one newspaper has a little more of the same color, the other a little more of the same color, but in any case there is one newspaper that informs us – residents of the Netherlands – every day about the most important developments and abuses. It is along these lines that the government’s policy is regularly scrutinized.

  After all, many a parliamentary question begins with the sub-question as to whether the Minister is aware that medium X has recently published piece Y. This is all a bit obligatory, since the answer to this sub-question is always “yes”, but I would be a fool to make a point of it.

  In any case, there is feedback from Dutch society to which the national administration then reflects. This dynamic usually does not concern the parts that belong to the Dutch Caribbean. It is for this reason that I am motivated to regularly let at least some report – however subjective – from this southwestern corner of the Netherlands resound in The Hague.

  I see that the death of Mr. Pinas has stirred up a lot of unrest among the people of Statia. The message was – also carried out in a silent (protest) march – that the shovel must be put in the care organization in the broad sense. And what is happening? It may be too early to judge but it is my expectation that not very much is happening. Why? Because, in general, there is not much complaining. Yes, on the occasion of such a protest march, and also on Facebook, but complaints that the care organization can do something with: there will not be that many.

  First, because many Statians are unable to clearly formulate their complaints or findings, but also, and more seriously, complaints easily lead to repercussions. By way of example (although not entirely by accident), it may well happen that a doctor refuses to help a patient with something relatively harmless such as a speck of dirt in the eye or a (metal) splinter in a finger, because that same patient complained earlier in time about this doctor’s treatment of a family member of that patient.

  This naturally results in our doctors (not BIG-registered!) imagining themselves as a God in France and “ruling over the community of patients” with a certain degree of arbitrariness. In such a society (where, moreover, everyone knows each other and little seems to remain secret or confidential) people will think twice before complaining. And so, the formal register of complaints will probably be fairly empty, behind which a less than optimally functioning healthcare organization can and will hide.

  What I’m afraid of now is that there will be no real sweeping through – for example – the care organization, but that it will remain a matter of a change of function here and there, supplemented by a small bunch of good intentions for the future. After which everything conveniently “stays as it was” while those responsible can wash their hands of it: after all, “something” happened? And there were actually not that many complaints.

  As with so many things, it starts with a healthy dose of good will. If parties on both sides of the ocean really want to get something off the ground, it generally works: the proverbial noses are pointed in the same direction and together they agree on a path forward to effect the improvements. But if one of the parties does not really want to, then absolutely nothing happens. And I believe I am seeing more and more of this kind of stalemate.

  Parties in The Hague who believe that legislation simply has to be followed and that changing legislation requires an extremely laborious and lengthy (in Hague jargon: careful) process. Only, of course, when you really have to change something in the view of the Hague administrator. After all, the intervention of February 2018 was prepared with un-Hague speed and poured into legislation: the then State Secretary wanted to show decisiveness. Well, if you really want to, then it can be done.

  Is it going a lot better now? No, of course not, because parties on both sides of the ocean fought each other instead of (wanting to) cooperate. The government commissioner is a puppet of the government in The Hague, the communication with the Island Council is difficult to difficult and now mediation is the key word in finding a solution. At a deeper level, of course, lies the unwillingness of the Dutch government (expressed in the actions of the government commissioner) to make something beautiful out of it. Anyway, there is now a mediation process going on so there is again every reason for The Hague to do nothing and just “wait and see”.

  I expect that the same will happen with the care organization. I mentioned earlier the broom that should be wiped out of this mess (I’ve spoken before of an Augean stable). An obvious approach for me would be to copy the Dutch healthcare organization as much as possible in terms of “comply or explain”. In that model Dutch healthcare insurers could also be effective on the Dutch Caribbean market and if in the European Netherlands only BIG registered doctors may work, why not also in the Dutch Caribbean? A club like the ZVK can in my opinion best just “evaporate”.

  By the way, what should we do with St. Maarten and Colombia as a fallback for St. Eustatius (and Saba)? Why not just Bonaire (where in that case extra investments may be needed) or to the European Netherlands; moreover, in all these areas the same Dutch legislation applies.

  Note: A similar observation applies to the services of notaries on the island of St. Eustatius. People are complaining all the time that St. Maarten would no longer want to participate in these services. But the legislation is already in place to bring Bonaire, St. Eustatius and Saba together in a notarial sense. Where is the enforcement in this? The former government commissioner Van Rij also clung frenetically to St. Maarten. What forces give St. Maarten such a position?

  Also in connectivity I see on the Hague side a seemingly endless amount of reluctance because Winair and St. Maarten must and will be part of a solution to the connectivity problem while a club like EZ Air is ready to jump into the hole as soon as that hole is made. But no, even the department responsible for connectivity chooses not to listen to the Dutch Caribbean needs and to push its own way through. She then hides behind a report, but is the commissioner of that report not that same ministry (of Infrastructure and Water Management)? So here, too, I think I detect a “packaging of unwillingness”.

  Of course I want to understand that the COHO-problems of the CAS-countries are “infinitely” more complicated, and although I do have an opinion about it, in this letter I will mainly limit myself to the BES-domain (whereby I will mainly focus on what I experience on the E of BES: St. Eustatius).

  Of course, there are also a lot of comments to be made, such as the somewhat conservative and reserved attitude of the Statian Island Council members when it comes to the involvement of the European Netherlands (in any area whatsoever), but is this not partly motivated by the fact that in practice, the findings of the Statian do not matter at all when Caribbean policy is formulated? For example, what does a traffic circle do in Statia’s road network? It is nothing more than a kind of status symbol without any added value for the island. But yes, the Dutch …

  Of course I’m always willing to act as a discussion partner for any Dutch government club, but to date I’ve noticed little more than that my words are taken for granted.

  Note: Discussion partner? I can already see you thinking “Not a member of the Island Council and actually an unorganized resident of St. Eustatius at all, that obviously cannot be a serious interlocutor.” So be it. Coloring outside the lines has never been a strongly developed quality of The Hague.

  I am waiting and watching the developments (if they come at all).

  As always, I wish you much wisdom, but also initiative as “motherland” to offer a listening ear to the Caribbean Netherlands in general and St. Eustatius in particular.

  Oh yes, just this: no one is talking about the disrespectful exhumations anymore. Any plans for reburial of the excavated human remains? If anyone knows anything about it, they may say so. The government commissioner is silent as the grave about it.

J.H.T. (Jan) Meijer

St. Eustatius