Dear Editor,
It seems that there is no end to the scams that prevail in our world today, there’s always someone trying to get something through nefarious, fraudulent and often criminal schemes. Always at the end, someone is a victim, someone suffers, whether financially, emotionally or socially.
There is yet another scam ongoing in our islands these days, just another of the many that seem to pop up from time to time. This one is not about money nor inheritance, at least not immediately nor directly, it is about gaining nationality, either US citizenship or European Union, in this case, Kingdom of the Netherlands citizenship.
In recent months, women on neighboring islands have been telling men that they have fathered a child, they target married men and men prominent in the business community, often after having one casual sexual encounter; most times the woman is someone who is of questionable background and behavior; when the news comes, the child is usually several months old. The woman will then claim that she kept the fact of the pregnancy and the birth of the child a secret because she knew the man was married and she didn’t want to upset his marriage.
In one particular case which has just come to light, the child, now a full grown woman with children of her own, is said to have been fathered over 25 years ago. The mother in question claims, as expected, that she knew he was married and she did not want to upset his marriage.
Recently, this writer discovered that this “scam” had been tried with at least two men, one in the BVI and the other in the Dutch islands. The Dutchman, his ego getting the better of him, seems to have accepted that he fathered a child, he announced to members of his family and friends, that he has a child on St. Kitts and that he is a grandfather as well, he happily showed off photos of his “supposed” daughter and her children. This man had been in his marriage for over 30 years and fathered no children in that marriage so, ego prevailing, having told everyone that the childless marriage was the fault of his wife, he is proud to be able to claim this mysterious child he has found after all these years.
Now comes the problem for both the mother and the grown daughter; the fact is that the Dutchman has nothing to give this newly-found daughter, there is no property to inherit, no big bank account but there is nationality, a European Union passport. However, this comes with a catch, DNA testing.
Due to the fact that many men of Dutch nationality have, in the past, claimed children mothered by foreign women outside of the kingdom and have brought them into the kingdom with full privileges of Dutch citizenship, Dutch law now requires DNA matching for any supposed offspring of a Dutch national, even women bringing children into the kingdom claiming they gave birth abroad are subject to the same system. Therefore, this newly found daughter will have to submit to DNA testing if she has any plan to enter the Dutch kingdom, even to make a claim of inheritance.
A recent situation on another Dutch island required that a “son” born outside the marriage, even though he was born on the island, in attempting to claim a portion of inheritance, had to prove that he was a biological child of the deceased before he was even heard in his claim against the estate of his deceased father.
Nothing is known of the supposed father/victim in the BVI, he may or may not have been able to dodge the scam, but the Dutchman was ripe for the picking. His saving grace will be the immigration system of the Kingdom of the Netherlands and the inheritance laws, both requiring DNA testing.
These two men are not the first; women have had multiple men supporting a child or children they did not father, this is a familiar game. Some men have been taken to court and ordered to pay child support, then to find out that they are not the father of the child. In one recent case in the United States state of Georgia, a man was released from his obligation of over 16 years when DNA test results proved he was not the father of the child. Even more painfully for him, the mother knew the true father but still received payments through the court system for the boy, while also receiving occasional support from the biological father, a married man who had three children with his wife and was still very married.
This has been happening throughout the Caribbean, the United States and elsewhere, for many years; embarrassment and blackmail have kept many men paying for countless children they have not fathered. It has to stop.
Men who fall prey to infidelity deserve punishment, I agree, but women who blackmail or force men to pay for children they did not father should have to repay every dollar they have received, it is fraud. In the same instance, taking advantage of weak men to gain nationality or inheritance is also fraud. In the instance of the Dutch system, it is unfortunate that years after the children had been living with their Dutch nationality, their passports were taken away because they were gotten through deception.
In these times, all over the world, DNA testing has become the norm. It should give people who are willing to deceive and defraud others time to think.
It is true that many men from the Dutch islands have had and are still having children with women in the Federation, the Dominican Republic and elsewhere; some know their children, some don’t. Those who want to know them and bring them into the Kingdom of the Netherlands, they know that there are procedures to be followed. Allowing themselves to become the victim of someone who thinks of them as foolish, gullible or easily manipulated is not a requirement.

Name withheld at author’s request.

Dear Editor,
On behalf of the board and members of URSM, I would like to wish our students, their parents, and our teachers all the best for this new year. As the leader of URSM, I am happy that our students can once again follow in-person classes without the challenges they faced over the past two years due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Not only is this sense of normalcy critical for our students, but it also alleviates the stress the online and in some cases dual learning system caused on our teachers.
While seeing all the happy faces back in school, I cannot help but reflect on the current state of education in St. Maarten. Questions that come to mind are: what has been the effect of the pandemic on the individual results of our students over the past two years? Do the schoolboards have an idea as to this impact on our students? Has the Ministry of Education assessed this? How do the “Irma and COVID-19” students measure to the previous cohort? Not to mention the mental health of students and staff. Lastly, a more important question I ask myself is how much attention have we given the education sector since 10/10/10?
As the leader of URSM, I am of the opinion that we have neglected this critical sector. As a party, we have thought long and hard about the education system our children deserve. While it is easy to criticize, we recognize the importance of actually proposing solutions.
For one, we believe it is high time to review and amend the current methods used to calculate and approve subsidies for schools. While we have a law on compulsory education, the government does not guarantee education for all. Furthermore, the current subsidy method used by the Ministry of Education places its focus predominantly on the number of students per school. In other words, the more students registered at a school the higher the number of funds received by the school. Little emphasis is placed on ensuring the actual quality standards of education applied by the respective schools are met. A specific budget for periodic evaluation of curriculum is not part of this lump sum. Imagine, our children are currently taught based on a curriculum that was formulated more than 30 years ago.
The recognition of children with learning disabilities is nowhere to be found in this system. If it were, we would have a public school catering to special needs children up to age 16 or 18, and/or we would subsidize those private institutions that do cater to such. The current methods also fail to highlight the importance of regular training for teachers.
The URSM is finalizing its overall vision for education which will outline solutions to address the ongoing challenges facing our country’s educational system.
Once again I wish all students parents and teachers a successful academic year!

Dr. Luc Mercelina
Leader of the URSM

Dear Editor,
St. Maarten just took a giant step in economic development by signing off on the cannabis legislation. However, we must be careful that this new economic development does not benefit only a few. When I first campaigned for the legalization of cannabis and its sale to the market in 2014, no other politician wanted to touch the subject for fear of unpopularity. I was the only one willing to propose this form of economic development. The fact that it is beneficial for the country was irrelevant. I was ridiculed by the same politicians who permitted me to run with this campaign.
Behind my back was talk of, Engel must be a smoker or a seller. That is why he is campaigning for legalization of cannabis. Thus, the potential for economic development died a natural death. I believe, however, that my motivation behind legalization of the use, and sale of cannabis was not what others may want out of it. It is still my firm conviction that the government must own and operate the business. Licences must not be issued to private investors. There is a perfect model from the government of Canada that we can use to benefit the entire population of St. Maarten with.
By having exclusive rights for sale of cannabis to the market, government has direct and total benefit of the huge income derived from this market. This provides generous income for the coffers of the government, which in turn permits the government to use this income in development of the infrastructure of the island. Be it housing, schooling, law enforcement, road improvements, or any other requirements of government functioning. Repayment of loans to the Netherlands can also be serviced from this income.
Another use for the income could be the reduction of wage, or income tax. If the business is placed in the hands of private investors, they will make a fortune and pay only the share of what is required. The government will lose out on the opportunity to develop the country. I am not against the businessman. I am one myself. However, my philosophy is that if I enrich the population, I empower their spending capacity. By empowering their spending capacity, all merchants’ benefit.
Also, let the retail of cannabis be permitted by the illegal vendors. Give them the opportunity to become legal vendors. If one cannot afford to establish on their own, a joint venture can be established so that none are left out. Sales points must be established according to the carrying capacity of the neighbourhoods to avoid saturation. I request of the work group, to please endeavour for the study to place emphasis on benefits for all.

Louis Engel

By Alex Rosaria

I often wonder why it’s so difficult to persuade people to care about our island and planet upon which we completely depend. Why aren’t we making progress with Kòrsou Limpi i Bunita (a Clean and Lovely Curaçao) in all these years? The answer may be simpler than we think.
Recently I read a true Second World War story that disclosed how the U.S. carefully compiled a list of Japanese cities it wanted to bomb with the atom bomb. Kyoto was on that list. To the indignation of military advisers, Kyoto was however removed by the U.S. Secretary of War Henry Stimson. Instead, Nagasaki was added. Why did he remove Kyoto? Because Stimson and his wife had spent their honeymoon in Kyoto. It was difficult to destroy the city that represented love and beauty to him.
Be that as it may, the opposite is equally true. We easily destroy what we don’t feel connected to, what we don’t know, and don’t love. Nowhere is this more apparent than how we’re littering our environment. It seems that with or without law and fines (remember when relevant legislation was put on the negative list in 2010), littering has not been curbed. There are more cleaning actions now, and more ugly trash cans crammed in our capital city, but these don’t seem to have made a dent.
According to the Environmental Performance Index, Denmark is the world’s cleanest country. Wait, you’ll say, it’s because of their stiff fines. An offender is fined about US $100 in Denmark, not a whopping amount. Interestingly, only 36 offenders have been penalized for littering in an 8-year period. And, anyone who has walked around Singapore and Korea, the cleanest Asian countries, must have noticed the lack of public trash cans. Not surprisingly, people in the cleanest countries say they feel closely connected to nature and take their own responsibility for a clean environment.
If people don’t experience nature or don’t understand the essence of nature, it’s unlikely they’ll care. And this is what’s missing. A campaign to stimulate humans to reconnect with nature and understand its importance. This may trigger a mentality change that puts an end to the poisoning of our life support system. The fact is that we lost touch with nature and have become an indoor generation. When was the last time we went for a walk in one of our parks, did some bird watching, or did nature photography? Without a human reconnection to nature, its destructing is certain.
~ Alex David Rosaria (53) is a freelance consultant active in Asia and the Pacific. He is a former Member of Parliament, Minister of Economic Affairs, State Secretary of Finance and UN Implementation Officer in Africa and Central America. He is from Curaçao and has an MBA from University of Iowa (USA). ~