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
Honorable CARICOM leaders,
We took note of the important White House briefing on the Ninth Summit of the Americas meeting with leaders of the Caribbean Community CARICOM and the Dominican Republic of June 10, 2022, statement on challenges stemming from COVID-19, natural disasters due to climate change and with closing statement, “That the United States and CARICOM reaffirm our commitment to promoting and defending democracy and the rule of law, as enshrined in the Inter-American Democratic Charter.”
With this letter directed to the CARICOM leaders and the American president Mr. Biden and Vice-President Mrs. Harris we would like to add that Bonaire, as a small Caribbean island, we were the victim of forced illegal annexation and elimination of our democracy and reversed to an era of non-democracy when the Netherlands Antilles was dissolved on October 10, 2010.
One major critical issue at this summit was the theme of “democracy” where Cuba and Venezuela (which Bonaire is 50 miles off the coast of Venezuela) democracy were the center point of this discussion. We would like to add our situation which was imposed in a state of non-democracy – where our people are being ruled in a status against their wishes which they democratically and legally rejected after the annexation on October 10, 2010, and were embedded under unequal rights in the Dutch Constitution in October 2017.
We urge the CARICOM to discuss our island Bonaire as an individual case as it is of high urgency as it led to many violations of self-determination, democratic and human rights, eradication of the Bonaire natives, declared by the United Nations and International Community as crime against humanity:
Open borders for European Dutch that doubled the population in a decade, reducing the native Bonerians to less than 40% minority on their own island.
Reversing education policies and laws, denying our children human rights to education in own native language, Papiamento.
Replacing/changing our demography, lifting all small-market protections to open market, open pricing, wiping out all our local businesses replacing them with Dutch Europeans and others
Demoting and replacing all our local head of departments with Dutch immigrants taking over all local institutions and leadership positions
Raising and imposing taxes at level of Holland in Europe while our income is less than half of the income in Holland, Europe – land and property taxes increased by over 800% destitute locals from their inherited lands and food resources.
Creating and maintaining social inequality, pushing over 60% of the population under half of the poverty line.
We Bonerians, who are on an inevitable path to disappear as Caribbean people, we have no choice left but to reach out for support and solidarity to you as CARICOM leaders at this critical moment in our history as the summit raised to global attention especially on the theme of democracy. This is very special as “our nations are bonded together by shared values, culture, history, and family ties” as you reaffirmed your commitment to promoting and defending democracy and the rule of law. Also, that you will work in partnership with civil society and the private sector to ensure that democracy delivers for all our people and to build safe, inclusive, prosperous, equitable, and climate resilient societies.
To substantiate all above-mentioned violations and denial of our self-determination, democratic, social, political, cultural human rights we commissioned and finalized recently an independent United Nations-recognized report: “Assessment of self-governance sufficiency in conformity with internationally recognized standards: Country Bonaire” and video-report
https://youtu.be/Zj3zKvE5hHw that we would like to disseminate to your CARICOM leaders.
Thank you for taking time to read our note. We know it is a lot of information, so please don’t hesitate to reach out if you have any questions.
James Finies – President Nos Ke Boneiru Bek
Davika Bissessar – President Bonaire Human Rights
Dear Justice Minister,
Please notify all your female justice workers to please stamp everyone’s letters and keep a copy.
The male policemen and male detectives are more honest than many of the female justice workers and local lawyers.
Cuthbert Bannis
Dear Editor,
A few days ago a person asked me what I meant when I wrote that the inland waters are the cash cow for St. Maarten. I told him to ask Mister Engel because he was the one who wrote about planting in the pond or something like that.
But the reason for me going back there is because of the way things are developing around Prins Bernhard Bridge and the Minister of VROMI is telling us that they can do what they want and we don’t have anything to say about it, which, no matter how they tried to play with words, is still disrespectful to the people of St. Maarten.
And another point is that the Minister of Justice will be needing more qualified people to man the office of the Ministry of Justice. In this case I must emphasize that in comparison to what we have been experiencing of late at least the Minister of Justice is being regarded in a positive sense.
The article stated “more qualified people.” Let me go straight to the point and mention that this does not surprise me, because for years now (long before this Minister of Justice) there have been all kinds of observations about employees who were employed not because of qualification, but because of political colour and as I have mentioned before the politicians made and still make use of this because they can get away with murder because there are not many who can correct their wrongdoings. Hence the countless investigations whether justified or not.
I read a letter to you from the person who puts Cuthbert Bannis under his letters and I do not agree with the general negative characterization of specifically the female employees of the justice department.. My opinion is that he may be playing with words while planting negativity in the minds of the public about the female justice workers. There is nothing like “more honest” or “not so honest”, both of them depict a grade of dishonesty or take away from being honest . I believe that this is a serious negative characterization of the people who are supposed to protect and serve the community of St. Maarten.
I do not believe that this letter should have been addressed to you, because of the serious implication. This is a generalization of negative behavior of the female employees of the justice department and I am not sure what damage it could do to the image of Sint Maarten. Those who are aware would acknowledge that this is the most attention that government has paid to the justice departments in years. Now this.
Many years ago I asked the then Minister of Finance Tuitt how does government go about collecting those millions of one cents which the businesses collect from the consumer for each dollar that is spent? The exchange rate was and still is $1.00 = NAf. 1.79 but for years now the business are collecting NAf. 1.80. The other explanation was that there are no “one cent” coins. So why is it that the customer always has to be the victim of these circumstances? His answer was that it is complicated to control. And I will say the same thing now like I said then. What is black on white is what it is, whether it is correct or not. So everybody should receive a receipt for payment and the receipt should show what currency was used. All of this should be programmed and recorded in the government-controlled cash register.
But I have to repeat my question. Who are the actual permit holders for all of these businesses operated by non-St. Maarteners, who have influence on what is or is not being done correctly in these places of business? .
For a while now people have been asking me why the Chinese don’t give you a receipt. My answer has always been, you should always ask for a receipt for payment from everybody who you pay money to as proof of purchase, rent or service and no one is allowed to deny you a receipt.
So, after all this, again I ask, “Who really cares?”
Russell A. Simmons
With heavy hearts all staff and employees of the Sea Aquarium Park waved goodbye to five dolphins that departed this morning aboard a cargo plane of air transport company DFS. The aircraft, which has Saudi Arabia as its destination. They will make a stopover in Cairo for a water change for the dolphins and for refuelling.
Their final destination will be Jeddah, where the dolphins will find a new home at Fakieh Aquarium. On board of the aircraft the animals were accompanied by the Director of Dolphins of the Curaçao facility, an internationally leading veterinarian on marine mammals, the Director of Dolphins of Fakieh Aquarium, and the chief trainer of that aquarium.
The decision to reduce the number of dolphins at the Sea Aquarium Park was not an easy one, but among other things became necessary because of financial, economic, and operational aspects resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic that started more than two years ago. This led to Curaçao Sea Aquarium Park and all associated companies closing for more than 7 weeks in 2020, and for almost two months in 2021. Periods during which the companies received no income at all.
The personnel cost for the total of approximately 150 employees, as well as the operational cost on the other hand, continued unabated. And that is without mentioning the cost of about ANG 100,000 per container for the bi-monthly container shipments of fish as food for the dolphins. The subsidies provided by the Curaçao government (NOW and TVL) to partially cover personnel and operational costs, were therefore indispensable and without these subsidies the companies would not have survived the COVID-19 pandemic. The financial reserves available for the companies were completely depleted during the COVID-19 pandemic.
An additional factor for considering reducing the number of dolphins at the facility, was the fact that ever since 2017 the Sea Aquarium's lagoons had already exceeded their maximum capacity for dolphins. Ever since that time a targeted search for potential new homes for some of the dolphins had therefore already been underway. As the welfare of the dolphins was paramount, facilities that showed interest in the animals but could not meet the set requirements and conditions, or which were excluded because of external circumstances, were not eligible as options to receive any of the dolphins.
There are a total of 17 dolphins at Dolphin Academy Curaçao, and 5 dolphins at Curaçao Dolphin Therapy Centre. Classified as Tursiops Truncatus, these dolphins are listed on Annex II of the 'Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora' (CITES), an international agreement on the trade in protected animals and plants that the European Union (EU), and 183 other countries adhere to.
Dolphin Academy Curaçao nor the Curaçao Dolphin Therapy Center own any of the dolphins but lease these from a holding company. With the capacity of the lagoons and the welfare of the dolphins in mind, the holding company therefore opted for lowering the number of dolphins, and started exploring various options. Fakieh Aquarium in Jeddah turned out to be a very viable option with the best available facilities. This resulted in talks with that aquarium for the transfer of five Curaçao-born dolphins, consisting of three female and two male dolphins, ranging in age from 5 to 10 years.
To qualify for the issuance of a CITES export licence, detailed information had to be provided to the competent authorities in Curaçao about for example the transport logistics that have to be carried out in complete accordance with IATA guidelines, and have to be based on conditions stipulated by CITES rules and regulations. Additional information about Fakieh Aquarium in Jeddah regarding animal welfare, the aftercare of the animals and extensive documentation had to be provided for approval by the authorities. Furthermore, a detailed transport plan had to be submitted containing the dimensions, construction materials and how the animals would be received in their new home after arrival in Jeddah.
For the CITES representative in Curaçao, the detailed documentation was sufficient to clear up any ambiguities regarding the transport and the animal welfare aspects in Jeddah, while the CITES representative had also received confirmation that the transport and the reception of the animals had been carefully prepared. Additionally, the Director of Dolphins at Curaçao Sea Aquarium Park not only accompanied the animals to Jeddah to ensure a safe transition, but he will also remain there for a period to ensure a seamless transition of the animals into the care of their new handlers.
While a collaboration agreement was signed with Fakieh Aquarium for the duration of a year to provide the Jeddah facility with advice and support with regards to the dolphins, Fakieh Aquarium committed itself to do everything in its power to provide the dolphins with the best possible facilities in Jeddah.
Adriaan “Dutch” Schrier
Curaçao
