Dear Editor,

  Regardless of what the media in general and the politicians think, people aren’t stupid. And for the record, I am not just talking about the media and politicians here, I am talking about the media and politicians globally.

  The debate rages on every day whether to get vaccinated or not. The pro vax side will tell you it’s the only way to save the world and to trust big pharma when they tell you it works and it’s safe. Sure, normally it takes years to develop and test a vax and true, we did this one in about 3 weeks, but you can believe us when we tell you it’s safe and it works. The anti-vax people will tell you there isn’t a shred of genuine credible scientific evidence that says the vax will stop anything and besides, what about all the people it’s killing? And that’s not counting the wack jobs that will tell you that the vax is strictly a way for government to establish mind control, genetic mutation and track you everywhere you go. So, who do you believe and why do you believe it ?

  Do the media help you ? No. they merely repeat whatever good story that will get them some attention, ratings and circulation numbers. Some PhD scientist says that the vax will prevent every virus known to man and grow your hair back as well? The New York Times and CNN are happy to give it front page coverage. Some other PhD scientist says that your heart will explode in your chest within 30 minutes of getting the vax and that if it doesn’t then you will grow a third eye in the middle of your forehead anyway and the Times and CNN are happy to give it front page coverage as well.

  The government scientist guy who is supposed to have all the definitive answers says on Monday that everybody on earth has to go into quarantine for two years and the media sell that as the ultimate truth, but then 24 hours later the same guy says, “Well, a 24-hour stay-at-home self-isolation is just as good unless you have to go out for like coffee or a fundraiser or something.” The Washington Post parrots that as the new ultimate truth. This is the supposed noted scientist who is in charge of all U.S. policy and changes his mind literally every day about what he thinks will work. Most days he can’t even remember what he said the day before.

  The U.S. military says, “We vax everybody so we are ready!” and three days later one of their fully-vaxed ships is down and can’t sail because they have a comprehensive outbreak on board.

  The U.S. government says on one day that the nation is has millions of cases in hospital and that the system is in chaos and the next day the President’s press secretary and the New York Times say that  there is no one in hospital at all. That, in fact, overnight, everybody got better and went home. That’s an exaggeration, of course, but not far from the complete blithering nonsense that comes out of the White House these days.

  Now for a bit of reality. Government says, “Get the vax and then wait five or six weeks (or whatever it was) to get the next one. We know this is safe.” But now, “That that didn’t exactly work out,” they say, “Oh wait, three weeks is really okay, and remember when we told you that two shots would do it? Well, there is this new booster thing and what we really meant was that it was going to be two shots unless someone somewhere told us that you needed more.”

  And government and the media are absolutely mystified why people are skeptical about this whole vax thing.

  Well, here is the news flash for you and it is mind-numbingly simple. Nobody believes a thing you say anymore. You have been so comprehensively wrong so many times and you have changed your mind and the rules so many times with no results that you simply have no credibility on the matter any longer.

  The mask thing is complete nonsense. Everybody on earth knows it. It is probably the only thing that the scientists actually agree on.

  You pretend that a few hand-washing machines at the entrance of buildings are doing something, yet a casual observer anywhere sees personal and intimate interaction 10,000 times a day.

  The notion that “Anything is better than nothing” is nonsense on its face. Viruses spread exponentially. All you need is one infected person to miss any single hand-washing machine and in 24 hours he has passed that infection exponentially to thousands. You impose curfews and social distancing standards that are universally ignored because, simply, people don’t believe you and you have no track record of being right about anything or that they work.

  Another news flash for you. People live in the real world. They don’t live in labs and test tubes and in theses written by theoretical scientists working with statistical studies. Maybe in a lab somewhere if you isolate your 10 rats from the other 10 nothing gets transmitted but in the real world with about 8 billion people you can just forget about that. They tried total isolation in Australia and it failed, and it failed everywhere else where it was tried.

  The one shining example of what may actually work is Florida. They dropped virtually all the restrictions and nonsense and ended up with the lowest infection and death rates in the U.S. Maybe it’s time to do the same here.

  In the meantime, my advice to the media , this newspaper included, is maybe try treating the info that gets fed to you with a healthy dose of skepticism for a change. When someone in authority changes the data 180 degrees from one day to the next, maybe just ask them why what was true yesterday isn’t true today anymore. If you want people to start believing you again, you will have to earn that trust back.

  Now, for those of you wondering, I am vaccinated and boosted. Not because I believe or have any confidence in the propaganda but because it is a simple matter of expedience. I have to get on airplanes periodically and I don’t want to sit there and argue philosophy at some check-in counter. I want to show the card and move on. Will the vax kill me? Maybe, maybe not. And for sure there is no one I trust to ask that might actually have an answer I believe. If anything, it will be the whole hypocrisy of this situation that will likely see me dead.

Steven Johnson

Dear Editor,

  While shopping for a “Welkom” sign to put on the front door, I met an acquaintance in the hardware store. We chit chat a little and then the situation with the guilty verdicts came up. During that conversation “I do not defend criminals” was expressed. When I heard that it rocketed me back about 40 years.

  I was working on Aruba between 1979 and 1982 and stayed at my parents’ home. My father had stopped sailing , so we saw each other every day and of course had some good conversations. He accepted me being a police officer, but he would always hint that I would make a good lawyer. During one of those conversations, he said to me lawyers can protect people also. All they have to do is refuse to defend criminals. I never remembered that until I spoke to that gentleman a few days ago.

  My father summed it up this way. When the criminal realizes that he cannot get the lawyer of his choice to defend him, he would be reluctant to commit crime. The crime rate would go down significantly. At that time I told him that the court appoints lawyers for defendants who cannot afford a lawyer.

  That might be so, he said, but the routine criminal knows which lawyer is good at what. But when he has no choice but to accept the one which is assigned to him, that’s a different story. They will not have access to seasoned criminal lawyers and would realize that it is not worth it. Crime rate will go down; less people in prison, including those 27 years and younger. With less convicts, no need for expanding or building new prisons, lawyers will have more time to adequately attend to civil cases. The rightful people will get what is entitled to them and the statistics would help to eradicate that dreadful word “corrupt”. I am sitting here typing this letter and blaming myself for not remembering what I would say is one of the most realistic things that my father had said to me years ago.

  This past week I was told a few things as a consequence of the letters that I have written to you. One of them is what a friend of mine once told me. He said, “If people follow what you write they won’t get locked up, because you have goat mouth.” Another one told me one time that I am working with the Dutchman. I literally laughed out loud, because he did not realize that I was a policeman for years and that I could know something about law enforcement and crime detection.

  But the latest one that I heard is the truth and staring us in our face – “Right now the word parliamentarian seems to be synonymous to prisoner”. I applaud where it came from, because who else is left to highlight and denounce that kind of behaviour?

 The following might be challenged by skeptics, but I believe that basically the human being is good and where there is a will there’s a way. These last few days we have come to realize that money is not the cure for sickness, but that it is still so that the love of money is the root of all evil, so my question is: Can “not defending crime” be a deterrent to crime?

Russell A. Simmons

~ Spreading a spirit of goodwill ~

My Fellow Sint Maarteners,

I am delighted to speak to you on this Christmas Day.

  Christmas is the season of goodwill brought to us through the birth of Jesus. May your day be blessed with the season’s gifts of caring, giving, and renewed hope for a brighter tomorrow. May you safely navigate the pandemic world we live in.

  Wherever you are I ask you to join me in prayer. Let us pray for and show compassion to the children who do not enjoy the care of parents or of other loved ones. Let us pray for and support our fellow brothers and sisters who cannot care for themselves and who continue to experience difficulties: health, social, financial, or otherwise. Let us pray for those of us who are missing loved ones taken from them by the coronavirus or by other ailments.

  As we celebrate this Christmas, we should be grateful for and inspired by the courage of our health care professionals and other front-liners. When compared to other countries we should count ourselves fortunate with the availability and the opportunity of the vaccines. Let each of us use this opportunity to do our part to protect ourselves and each other. And above it all we should be thankful to the Lord for His blessings on our country. For guiding and seeing us through in our continuing fight against the coronavirus and its financial and economic effects.

  In celebrating Christmas, we therefore have reason for hope for a brighter tomorrow. We have reason to spread goodwill and lighten and brighten the way of our nation. Let us, in the spirit of the season, therefore commit ourselves to seize the opportunities available to us to spread goodwill.

  May the spirit of Christmas move us to care for and protect each other and bring joy and laughter to each home. Let this Christmas period be the time for us to renew our commitment to work together as one people to build a better life for all Sint Maarteners.

  It is in that spirit of spreading goodwill that Marie-Louise and I bring you Christmas greetings from our home to yours.

  May you have healthy, joyous, safe, and hope-filled Christmas holidays!

  God bless you and may God bless Sint Maarten and protect its coast.

Governor Eugene B. Holiday

 Dear Editor,

  Several days a week cars swoosh by men and women cleaning our streets, come rain or shine.

Some of these workers wear a hat or some other garment wrapped tightly around their head and face to protect from the blistering sun, from dirt, or grass particles flying around as they go about their tasks. Working in small groups, some holding a shield to safeguard vehicles from possible damage, while having little protection themselves from ongoing traffic such as container-trucks, or small motorcades including quads.

  While we are aware of the fact that cleaning agents are paid to do this line of work, we must be kinder and more appreciative of the work they do in order to keep our island clean and beautiful for our citizens, as well as for our valued visitors.

  A good start to show we care and respect these workers is to stop throwing trash out of vehicles. These workers are not our personal picker-uppers! Government can be more proactive by placing road signs back at strategic locations warning of fines to pay by perpetrators when caught. Regrettable, some of those who continue to litter our island include garbage-collecting companies contracted by government, thus paid for by our tax paying residents. Many of these vehicles remain uncovered as they head towards the landfill in Philipsburg to offload their trash, usually leaving a trail of their load behind. This brings to mind the definition of insanity: “Doing the same things over and over again and each time expecting a different outcome”. We must change our behaviour and stop loitering our neighbourhoods.

  These road-cleaning workers deserve respect and hopefully an end-of-the-year bonus from their respective employers for the work they do.

  Special gratitude and words of encouragement go out as well to management of the Sint Maarten Harbour group of companies represented by new managing Director Alexander Gumbs. Their decision to include the Freddy Lejuez bridge in Simpson Bay in their annual Holiday decorations currently carried out by a team of young electricians headed by well-known resident Addison Richardson, better known as uncle Shadz, is not only fabulous. It is historic! This bridge will be a festive backdrop for our citizens, as well as our yachting visitors. With so many distractions and negativity it is good to pause and choose a positive.

  We are thankful to many other citizens and companies who take their responsibilities seriously and execute these with pride to serve. This time around, both the road-cleaning crews as well as  Alexander Gumbs deserve to be highly commended. Sometimes a seemingly small decision can have a big impact.

Gracita Arrindell

Leader, People’s Progressive Alliance