Dear Editor,
Again and again you hear that we should be diversifying the St. Maarten economy. Never do you hear that this is a bad idea and we should stick to cruise and stayover tourism.
One of the most realistic diversifications is the yachting industry which already has achieved a significant percentage of contribution to the economy.
This diversification option meets all the criteria that can be realistically expected from any diversification. It supports the core economy, produces high-paying jobs in a wide range of specializations and our geography has some attributes that enhance the chances of success.
All options for diversification come with limitations and require effort to achieve. There simply are no industries that will provide employment for an overpopulated island that has no agricultural land and no extractive industry potential without requiring some investment or legislative and strategic effort to achieve success in a chosen industry. Many planning reports mandated by the St. Maarten government have identified the yachting industry’s potential and suitability, without their recommendations being followed up.
The very minimal requirement for making any form of progress is for there to be knowledgeable persons in government who have a deep understanding of the yachting industry. Whilst the yachting industry has great potential it is complicated because there are so many components to it. As far as government establishing a knowledge center with clearly mandated staff who can be counted on to be able to effectively evaluate this activity, we have made no progress.
For the past 40 years I have met regularly with the executive parties in government on the subject of the marine industry. No matter their intentions it is never possible for such decision-makers (ministers in the current structure) to have a grasp of what makes the marine industry function well or poorly. A new minister of TEATT [Tourism, Economic Affairs, Transport and Telecommunication – Ed.], for instance, will be able to see the number of boats that arrive and depart but the many details of what drives them to visit, to spend money with us and to leave with a positive experience is what is needed to make policy. The customer satisfaction of yachting visitors depends on different factors to those staying in hotels and resorts.
Diversification of the economy takes focused effort. Simply hoping it will happen without the effort is unlikely to be successful.

Robbie Ferron

Dear Editor,
When someone is in a position where his/her decision is final, we do not use euphemisms. For instance, when a minister of government wants to force through his/her will, instead of using convince we use coerce. So, when are our people in government going to realize that it is time enough for them to understand that they cannot continue to insult the intelligence of the people of Sint Maarten by coercing them into, in this case, waiving five hundred guilders in front their eyes to accept the already prepared change in the way of collecting motor vehicle taxes for 2024? The Minister of Finance has already decided that come 2024 collection of motor vehicle taxes will be done via computer. Yes, decided, because when one talks about "the last Sint Maarten number plate", that means there will not be any more number plate system. The minister is talking stickers.
One would think that after that severe cyber-attack the minister would relax, knowing that the G.E.B.E. cyber-attack was about the loss of millions. Nope, this change in the collection of number plate taxes must happen. And then to top it off, the top brass in G.E.B.E. refuse to cooperate with the investigation. Let me write it like we does say, "This is what is running St. Martin". I must alert those involved about the Dutch term "willens en wetens". The schoolchildren would say those ministers have something up their sleeves.
But I am not finished yet. "Election day should be a national holiday to avoid the informalities and dishonesty of the country's electoral process". I am confused because this is coming from a person who is on the board of a political party. Or is he also trying to pull the wool over the eyes of the voters? I do not like the use of this word but I have to ask, "Who could be that stupid?".
You want me to vote for you, but you refuse to fight for my rights, and then try to fool me off with a lousy ploy of making election day a national holiday? Does that gentleman realize that holiday goes with celebration and the use of alcohol, which is the same all over the world? Does not that gentleman know that the sale of alcohol is forbidden on election day in many countries? If he were thinking like the usual slick politician, instead of trying to fool off the employees by trying to make them believe that he is trying to make election day a national holiday, he should organize transportation for the employees, make sure that they get the allotted four hours, and hope that they would vote for his party.
As I am writing this I had to smile because I was about to write that a lot of people sent me messages via the social media, but it was only four, then I said to myself my mother used to tell us, "two is a couple and three is a crowd", so I would not be exaggerating. So yes, I saw an incriminating message from four different people on social media and I thought, not Theo again, but this time as I read further the names of three or four others were mentioned. Believe it or not, I felt relieved because it is impossible for only politicians to be involved in all the cases for which so many people were indicted. In this world people are known for their behaviour.
The French are lovers and known for their cuisine, the Dutch are stingy, people from Dominica and St. Vincent are known for provisions, Trinidad for its Calypso and the Indians, as far as we know, love money deals. So, I was not surprised to see a few names of what is known to us as East Indians mentioned in that article.
Before closing, let me mention this conversation. Mr. Russell, do you know the man who is in charge of the newspaper? Why that question? Because not every time they talk about Sint Maarteners being lazy, that is the case". OK, so you would like to speak to the Editor of the newspaper and voice your opinion?
No, we want for him to understand what is really going on". You do not need the Editor for that, what you can do is get together with some interested people who know the facts, organise a meeting with the newspaper reporter. Explain the reporter your side of the story. If it newsworthy it will be printed like it is told. And then the public can form an opinion.
But I can tell you from now that, that stigma is difficult to get rid of and your politicians are not doing much to protect the local job market either. I have worked on all six of the islands of the Netherlands Antilles. Sint Maarten is the only island on which government has not reserved, let me call it, the middle-class jobs for its people. This is not called discrimination; this is protecting those who brought you to where you are today. Why should anyone blame me for putting my people first? I do not have proof but I was told that many people were encouraged by influential people to sell land or lease it to yes, to Chinese in order to put down a supermarket. Why would I sell you my land and then I have to come back to you and give you back the same money that you paid me? That does not make any sense.
I have a question. If Sint Maarten is 16 square miles and no permits should be given for two identical businesses to be within 300 metres of each other, how many identical businesses should there be on Sint Maarten? .

Russell A. Simmons

By Alex Rosaria

If you are still in doubt, hate, racism and discrimination really exist in Curaçao. After the last outcry of a radio person and father of the Minister Plenipotentiary (GevMin) that Nazis should have killed more Dutch people because a European Dutch journalist had criticized his son, I thought: should I laugh at this nonsense? But after the umpteenth hate speech against foreigners, the LGBTQ+, Asians, Jews, to name a few, my laughter has long since died.
How would my father have liked it if that journalist had suggested that the crew on one of the slave ships from Africa to our island should have overturned the ancestors of the GevMin in the Atlantic Ocean? Probably fewer people would have shrugged. Then it would have been a white attack on blacks. Because what strikes me here is that some assume that racism is a one-way street. That is not the case. Hate speech is not limited to one race, gender, or religious institution.
For years we have kept ourselves sweet with the belief that there is no hate virus here because “dozens of different nationalities live side by side”. So, we are tolerant, is the conclusion. Error. Being anti-racist and anti-hate-monger does not mean tolerating each other but fighting in deed and word so that everyone, regardless of race, colour, gender, religion, sexual preference, or mother tongue, have the same rights and obligations to be themselves.
Many institutionalized discriminations no longer exist. One of the last battles brave men and women have waged is against legal discrimination against women. Institutional discrimination against the LGBTQ+, on the other hand, persists as some groups, especially Christian organizations, continue to insist that equal rights do not apply to people of a certain sexual orientation. We need courageous men and women again, regardless of their sexual preferences, to fight against this discrimination.
The hate virus is mainly maintained through our contemporary language (use). How often have we heard: “She is black but beautiful (or intelligent or delicate)”? Names for groups such as kuli, bedji, sabachi, house negro are still used. How many times have we read in the papers that the 45 million Yoruba population in Africa is a tribe, but that word is never used for Iceland which has only 350,000 souls? Or that Amharic, a language dating back 2,000 years, with its own alphabet and spoken by 65 million people, is a dialect?
Our language is decisive. Few people say openly: I’m racist or hate speech. But that doesn’t mean it’s right. The hate virus can be compared to the coronavirus: not visible to the naked eye, but extremely contagious and subject to mutations. Like the case of the coronavirus, we need to work on the antidote. Pay close attention to our language use and that of our environment. If it discriminates or hurts a group, we need to stop it. We can’t stay in the middle, hoping this will blow over, or shove it under the rug. Sooner or later a bomb will explode.
~ 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). ~

His Highness Willem Alexander, Honorable Mr. Rutte,
I write this letter as a follow-up on our personal meeting on Bonaire, November 16, 2013, and following letters communications. Especially my prior letters to your Highness of June 9, 2017, and October 22, 2017, and July 4, 2018 based on your promise to me and the people of Bonaire on violations of the United Nations Charter, Human Rights and International Law by your government of the Kingdom of the Netherlands.
As your Highness would be aware of that your promise was not complied with, on the contrary was broken and your government abusing their power and without any remorse illegally annexed our people and island by embedding us in your constitution in October 2017 under unequal rights in violation of all humanity rights.
As your Highness may know that the Dutch government recently instructed three main Dutch constitutional and legal experts Prof. dr. Gert Oostindie, Prof. Gerhard Hoogers, and dr. Wouter Veenendaal to investigate our organization’s continuous allegations and protests of the violations of the UN Charter on self-determination and human rights and international law since the illegal annexation of 10-10-10. The same as I informed you in our conversation in September 2013.
For your Highness’ information these experts in a recent press release and report admitted and confirmed that our island Bonaire and former Netherlands Antilles decolonization was never confirmed by the United Nations. And furthermore that Bonaire and the other former Netherlands Antilles islands were unjustly removed from the UN list when your government gave its own interpretation to the United Nations Charter article 73. The Netherlands was incorrectly absolved from its reporting obligations and compliance to article 73 when they implemented the Statute in 1955.
For us as Bonaire this admission of the truth is a huge step on the road to the re-listing on the United Nations list of Non-Self-Governing Territories. As your Highness may remember that you questioned me very seriously if what I want was independence, where I answered to you, no. That I want our people’s self-determination rights to be restored and respected according to United Nations article 73.
The world was misled that we as former Netherlands Antilles were free and equal in your Kingdom. By this recent historical admission after almost 70 years by your own constitutional experts exposed that your government since 1954 wrongfully remains in violation of your own co-signed UN Charter and human rights conventions.
Recently we received very disturbing indications that your intelligence service has all my personal communications wire-tapped. I herewith kindly request your Highness’ influence and cooperation to stop the Dutch government immediately from its illegal practices of violations of my human rights.
I seemingly became a victim of your government’s colonial political repressive actions, as there were three attempts on my life, in September 2012, January 2015 and June 2017 and I was unlawfully arrested in September 2019, all because standing up and voicing against your government article 73 human rights violations, your own truths that are now admitted by your own experts.
Finally I have no other choice to put your Highness Kingdom Government responsible for any attempt on my life.
We hope that you as our King, which we all highly respect, will take the responsibility to do everything in your power to address your government’s cooperation to return us back to the list of Non-Self-Governing-Territories of the United Nations. According to Article 73 your government’s obligations to restore our right to emancipation and nation-building, our self-government back to our people as your promise to me on November 16, 2013, and Queen Wilhelmina promised to the United Nations and the world and the Kingdom signed on June 26, 1945, and Kingdom Law of July 1, 1863 , where we all be equally human and equally free.
With utmost trust in the Justice and Equity of Your Royal Highness,

James Finies