Dear Editor,

  On the Eve of July 4, 1976, a task force of brave steely-eyed Israeli commandos departed from Sharm El Shiekh under the cover of darkness aboard a squadron of C-130 Hercules aircraft, for Uganda’s Entebbe airport. The commandos’ mission: to rescue 106 hostages held captive in a terminal at Entebbe’s airport.

  Just one week earlier, on June 27, an Air France airbus was hijacked after departing from Paris by members of the popular front for the liberation of Palestine(PLO) and the German revolutionary cells. The crew of the Air France Airbus was ordered by the terrorists to reroute the flight to Uganda's Entebbe airport where upon arrival the passengers, mostly Israelis, disembarked and, were huddled into an old terminal and held hostage.

  While at Entebbe the Israeli hostages, all of whom were kept in separate rooms from non-Israelis, recounted having memories of the selection process during the holocaust and the singling out of Jews for persecution. With memories of the holocaust fresh in their minds, the Israelis feared that it was just a matter of time before the terrorists would start executing them.

  But little did the hostages know that the Israeli defense force had already conceived of and put in motion a bold rescue plan. A special team of courageous warriors from the elite Sayeret Matkal commando unit was hurtling towards the hostages on a daring mission to rescue and take them back to their homeland.

  Aboard one of the C-130 Hercules was Lieutenant Colonel Yonathan Netanyahu, once a Harvard philosophy major and brother of Israel’s former prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu. Yoni, as he was affectionately called, fought his way back into active military duty after he suffered severe nerve damage during the Yom Kippur war. A charismatic, brilliant, and highly respected military officer, Yoni was regarded by his peers, subordinates, and superiors alike. The higher echelons of the Israeli defense force and the then-prime minister Yitzhak Rabin reposed special trust in the leadership and ability of Lt. Col. Jonathan Netanyahu to lead the assault team on the raid at Entebbe.

  After the squadron of C-130s landed at Entebbe’s airport the assault team deplaned and began tactically making their way towards the hostages’ terminal in Mercedes Benz and Land Rovers. A firefight ensued between the assault team and Ugandan soldiers guarding the airport’s terminal after the commandos lost the element of surprise. As the commandos continued advancing amidst heavy gunfire towards the terminal one of their colleagues could be heard frantically repeating on the radio “Betser! Betser! Yoni is hit, Yoni is hit.” Lt. Col. Yonathan Netanyahu took a fatal bullet from a Ugandan sniper and collapsed, the only Israeli combatant killed.

  When the firefight was over all the Ugandan soldiers and terrorists lay dead. All but four of the 106 hostages survived and were quickly taken on board the waiting aircraft for the flight back to Israel.

  There was jubilation and celebration in Israel and when the freed hostages and their liberators arrived at Ben Gurion airport the commandos received a hero’s welcome. But for the men who were under the command of Lt. Col. Yonatan Netanyahu, it was one of the darkest and saddest moments in their lives, they had lost a well-loved, respected, and great leader.

  In the ensuing years, Operation Entebbe would come to be regarded as one of the best counter-terrorism hostage rescue missions ever executed in military history. Studied in military academies and celebrated for its surgical precision, planning, and execution, Operation Entebbe has been retroactively renamed Operation Jonathan in honor of Lieutenant Colonel Yonathan Netanyahu. A valiant military commander and fearless combatant, Yoni’s men followed him unquestioningly into the deepest valley and darkest night confidently assured of victory.

Orlando Patterson

By Alex Rosaria

  Until everybody is safe, nobody is safe is a United Nations’ slogan which makes the case for vaccinating everyone around the world. Failure to vaccinate prolongs the pandemic — with all the massive social, health and economic costs that entails — and allows new possibly vaccine-resistant variants to flourish, putting everybody back in danger.

  We have seen new COVID-19 cases here in Curaçao drop dramatically, but we cannot lean back. We need to stay vigilant. Many countries struggle because they have not been able to get their hands on the COVID-19 vaccines. We, on the other hand, are among the fortunate ones to have vaccines for everyone. Why should we care about what goes on elsewhere? COVID-19 has taught us — at a terrible human cost — that we all live on an interconnected planet and our fate is in each other’s hands.

  We cannot lean back either whilst false information is leading to people hesitating to take the vaccine. It should not come as a surprise that those hardest hit by the pandemic are often those most likely to be sceptical of vaccination. Here we must double our efforts to try to dispel some of the vaccine myths which are a real threat to public health, in other words the health of everybody.

  A study by University of Illinois this year found that 63 per cent of vaccine-sceptic people changed their minds after reading/watching news reports about people who had already been successfully vaccinated. The study also found that people are more likely to be hesitant when politicians talk about the need to vaccinate or contact them directly with information on how to get vaccinated.

  Now is probably the time to stop pointing fingers at the antivaccine movement and change our communication strategy.

Alex David Rosaria (53) is a freelance consultant active in Asia & 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 the University of Iowa. (USA)

Dear Editor,

  So the picture is front page the other day. A guy on a 450 motocross bike doing a wheelie in traffic and suddenly it’s a national scandal. “Do you know this man! Turn him in to the police immediately,” the story screams. It’s an outrage.

  I have news for you. Everybody on the island knows this guy. We see him every single day, 100 times a day. He is part of the scooter gangs that terrorize Simpson Bay on weekend nights. He is the guy pretending he is Marc Marquez at a 45-degree lean angle at 60mph on his 900cc Katana coming straight at you in the wrong lane on a blind corner. He is one of the mob of wannabe Tour de France riders all spiffed up in their xxxl spandex that take over Airport Road every night during rush hour blocking traffic riding 3 abreast making sure there is a line of traffic behind them that stretches for a quarter of a mile. He is the leader of the quad parades that feel they can block roundabouts so their tourist parade of toy vehicles that are illegal for the roads in every civilized jurisdiction on earth can make sure that everyone that follows them never ever gets where they are actually going in any reasonable manner.

  He is, again, the quad guy riding up the center line of the road on his toy that is as wide as an I10 as if he is on some 25cc Vespa so you either hit him head on or drive on the sidewalk to miss him. He is the guy on the unmuffled 450 Yamaha that spends his afternoons and evening running up and down doing tricks on Little Bay Road making everyone that lives there insane.

  Unfortunately I am limited to only 1,500 words here so I can’t name all the various instances where “wheelie guy” makes himself known but there is no doubt in my mind that if you are reading this you know exactly “who” I am talking about. You have daily routine anarchy on the roads here and it is for one reason and one reason only. It is because you allow it.

  Actually it goes beyond that. You condone it and encourage it. It is so completely natural for anyone that uses the roads here to assume that they can simply do whatever they want on whatever they want that it is the de-facto law. It’s not illegal to do this stuff, it’s actually the exception if you don’t do this stuff.

  I don’t actually hate this. For me it just becomes the natural state of affairs to drive as aggressively as possible at all times because that seems to be the only way to avoid becoming part of some other idiot’s accident. Let it all happen behind me, so to speak. And philosophically I get it completely. The rush you get at speed on a good sport bike or the thrill of a near-death ride through traffic is hugely exhilarating especially for some 15-year-old on a scooter that he kluged together from stolen parts in his back yard. I get it completely. Except for the stolen parts part, that used to be me. Some would say it still is, but the point is that it is the hypocrisy of it all that is, frankly, sickening.

  Some guy on a motogp sport bike vaporizes himself on Airport Road going 150mph and suddenly it’s a tragedy. There are wreaths and shrines and chest-beating and weeping. Why? He died being stupid. That was the risk he took. You don’t want to say he deserved it but, frankly, if he didn’t have the skills to stay alive doing it then better he killed himself alone rather than take someone else with him. One of your 15-year-olds on his junk scooter get killed because he wedged himself under the front bumper of a tourist rental car? Too bad. His risk, his loss. A minor tragedy maybe, but no surprise at all. Why? Because you allow it. It is simply the cost of doing business on the roads where there are no rules.

  What do I mean by no rules? How about this – some time ago, I was downtown at the roundabout near the police station waiting behind a police car. As we waited, a guy on a 450 Yamaha passed the line of traffic doing a wheelie straight into the roundabout missing a couple cars by an inch or two. The two officers in the police car never even gave him a second look. So what does that tell the guy on the 450? Exactly what he already knows. He can do what he wants where he wants in whatever manner he chooses with no consequences.

  Can you stop this? No, I don’t think so. It is all very much an ingrained cultural phenomenon. Guys that bought 175mph motogp sport bikes don’t do that to cruise at 15mph and wait in traffic lines and the scooter guys … well there is no changing their mentality ever. Only the law of natural selection and the availability of stolen parts will slow them down. But what you can do is make it expensive for them.

  First there needs to be an ordinance passed today that says “Anything with wheels that uses the roads must have plates and insurance.” And I mean anything. The Tour de France wannabes all have “Share the road” stickers on their cars. What really needs to happen to these rolling roadblocks is for them to pay their share. They want to use the roads then pay your own way. Then maybe they might have some honest entitlement to their rolling road show.

  And second there needs to be a “death penalty” for the serial reckless riders and drivers that are trying to kill everybody every day. Scooter gang rampaging through Simpson Bay on a Friday night? Road block, capture them and crush the scooters. Guy seen riding his sport bike or MX like a crazy person? Don’t fine him. That’s just money. Take the bike and crush it. That will be like killing his mother. Forget the soft target seat belt and turn-signal controls. Enforce what really matters.

  There was another interesting tidbit in the paper the other day. In Australia they confiscated a guy’s $300,000 Lambo and auctioned it off because he was a serial reckless driver. The car had something like 800 miles on it. I’ll bet he remembers that lesson. They actually have a law there that lets them do it. Good for them. It would work here as well. The problem seems to be enforcement. Apparently, from what I’m told, most of the guys on the motogp bikes are the cops themselves.

Steven Johnson

Dear Editor,

  Caribbean politics look from a distance  like they are highly democratic. The indicators that  guide you to this view is that there is limited suppression of views, lively debate and regular changes in the power holders in Caribbean politics. But at the same time, it is obvious that democratically elected Caribbean governments are not effective in providing services, growing and developing their economies and in long-term planning for their voters. You can confirm this with statistics as well as by visiting most drinking establishments in the region.

  The key that defines Caribbean politics is that it is transactional. The voter votes for a candidate expecting the candidate to provide employment, benefits or entitlements in the short term. The candidate who wants to stay in power knows that he has to supply the jobs, benefits and entitlements in his term of office before an always lively election season arrives. The often-heard expectations of “what is the government doing for me?” confirm this.

  The inevitable result is that governments are focused on the benefits that need to be delivered before the next election. The inevitable result is also that there is no execution of matters that go beyond the governing term and are likely to promote long-term wellbeing, because the immediate “transaction” always takes precedence.

  It also means in the Dutch islands, that the extensive advice and review institutions that are set up under the Dutch constitutional framework (Council of Advice, SER , Law Enforcement Council) do not function because  of this transactional relationship between voters and politicians. The constitutional concept was that policy would be driven by such institutions with a strong scientific, forward thinking and legal base, but that is not happening. Instead, the decision-making is being largely driven by political parties whose basis for decision-making is largely based on the “transaction” to maintain power, and offer direct benefits in return to identifiable voter groups.

  The voters should not expect that under these circumstances the long-term projects like infrastructure investment, waste solutions, and alternative energy will ever be prioritized, because they do not fit into the short- term transaction that is so obviously the core modus operandi of Caribbean politics, also well represented in sweet Sint Maarten land.

Robbie Ferron