Dear Editor,
I do not have anything against any individual. What I will not accept is political leaders taking the people for a ride. And more and more the political leaders are disregarding their duties and what they were elected to do. The people in the government building are civil servants, and there are also public servants. Yes, that is what it is. We are paid by the people to serve the people. And you know what our salaries are more than those who pay us because they expect us to go out and serve them in the right way.
This is also expected of our political leaders in government. The positions in government afford us a lot of leeway, but not to be disrespectful nor to become dictators. We also should not believe, as we would say, "that we can do what we want'. We also should not, as it were, beat our chest with: ”I will not be stopped”. These are not the days for that.
The cockfighters have a saying for that. Over the years I have learned to examine what is said, and not hear who speaks. I believe nowadays that who speaks has much influence and not always positive. So, it has become necessary to pay attention to who is having the say.
The CDA asked about Brison and Corallo, and UP condemns CDA for this while dragging the people of Sint Maarten into this melee. I do not think that UP really expects the people to stand behind them. Brison did not invite the people for cocktails, neither did he let the people know what that meeting was all about. So why does UP think that the people are going to follow their lead because the CDA does not appreciate one of our political leaders hanging out with a person who was arrested by the authorities of, I believe, the country of his birth, for tax evasion and bribery of several politicians.
I came to Sint Maarten and met my close relatives involved in a business which was rivalled to the same type of business that government sustained. Because of how I carried out my duty, politicians had my every step followed to be able to get something on me, and yes, it was expected of people in certain jobs and positions to keep out of certain circles. We all know which those circles are because we gossip about it all the time and also condemn it.
It goes without saying that I do not appreciate a thief. But if a person is known to be a thief, not every robbery that was committed, was committed by that thief. So, if the UP has an axe to grind with CDA, they are mature people who run the country, so keep us out. If you want to stand up for something, stand up for seniors who worked for years for the Kingdom of the Netherlands, but whose pension is not equal to everyone in the Kingdom of the Netherlands.
The Dutch government has resigned. We read about it for two days, and before we could guess who were involved, they took French leave, and we do not even know their names. Mario di Palma of District 721 plays his music which disturbs those who live in the neighbourhood and it becomes a saga. Instead of the police being left to mediate between parties to try to come to a consensus, the president of Parliament, found himself down there to fix the situation. By interfering with what did not concern him (or did it?), he made himself look ridiculous by interfering where he should not.
And to top it off, the CDA did what the Dutch typically do, made use of a long-awaited opportunity and let Brison know to be careful not to put his Italian friends up against his TEATT Minister.
I hope it was not the honourable Rolando Brison who was the one to okay that permit in some form or fashion, because that will be another reason to investigate those young people in government, who do not take warning. (I Timothy 6:10).
Russell A. Simmons
Dear editor,
This topic is about values. First, let me explain the intention is never for people to agree or disagree. The purpose is for people to understand. Understanding is the key to how your response will be.
A person's values determine who they really are, and what to expect of them. The individual values define one’s character. Values are principles or standards of behaviour, or an individual judgment of what is important in life.
Character is the mental and moral qualities distinctive to an individual. Every moral act consists of three elements: the objective act (what we do), the subjective goal or intention (why we do the act), and the concrete situation or circumstances in which we perform the act (where, when, how, with whom, the consequences, etc.).
Many people live in a relationship with people they do not understand. That is why many marriages end in divorce, friendship do not last. I will now portray some examples for you to define who you are, and for people to understand you (not to agree or disagree).
A man or a woman can be a good provider, but if he or she has nasty and bad conduct, will you marry people like that?
A man or a woman can be very caring and great lovers but they cheat on you whenever an opportunity arises, will you marry people like that?
A man or a woman that you may not find attractive and does not have much money, but they are honest, respectful, loving, and conduct themselves respectfully, would you marry people like that? Your values in life will decide what you are willing to accept or not, or what you find good or bad.
What do you expect from a leader of a country? Must he or she only have education, or should he or she have good moral conduct and values that people can look up to?
The big question is, what is moral for you? Is abortion or homosexuality or adultery ok for you to live with once that person has money?
Can you marry a drug dealer if he or she is loving to you, and as long he or she sustains you financially, regardless of how he or she has attained wealth?
Can you marry a man or woman who is rich, loving and caring, and is a good lover; is very honest, but they do not believe in God, and hate Christianity?
These are the things when you involve yourself with a person you should know and make it your business to find out before you enter into a relationship. Your passion for moral values will determine your quality of life.
The conclusion is that what you accept is what you deserve. Choices have consequences, choose wisely.
The Patriot Miguel Arrindell
Dear Editor,
Our island may look beautiful on the postcards we send out, but that is a distorted picture of the reality. And that got me thinking. Back in the day we’d go to beautiful, white beaches and take off our slippers without a care. Nowadays we cannot even take off our slippers at the beaches anymore, because of all the filth that fills the surface. And there is only one culprit for that problem: us residents.
The grounds around garbage bins are filled more than the bins themselves. Have we islanders become too lazy to take care of our beautiful island? Have we revolutionized to the point that we need to be rewarded for the simple things like throwing away our garbage?
Our island lives off of tourism. But what if the tourists do not visit our island anymore because of all the filth that has packed up? We’re called “The Friendly Island”, but we do not show our friendliness to mother nature.
Next time you visit the beach or park with your friends, think about the consequences it has for the island when you throw that little wrapper anywhere but a garbage bin. They’re bigger than you expect.
VWO 6, Milton Peters College
Dear Editor,
For those of you that were stuck in traffic for hours on Thursday afternoon and Friday morning, you have me to blame for that . Indirectly perhaps, but nevertheless, my name is on the mailbox.
For those of you just getting home now and don’t know the story, at about 3:00 on Thursday afternoon the retaining wall that keeps my front yard from ending up in the middle of the link heading into Philipsburg blew out and my front yard did, in fact, end up in the middle of the road. I was really lucky. Nobody was driving by at that precise moment and there was no ancillary damage and no injuries.
We had to block the road for danger of further collapse and the [Ministry of Public Housing, Spatial Planning, Environment and Infrastructure – Ed.] VROMI guys and the police did as good a job as could possibly be done to mitigate the disaster.
It took 5 hours to make things even borderline safe, but lacking one piece of equipment the size of a house, we couldn’t finish. So, I parked my cars such that if any further collapse occurred it would crush my cars rather than any passer-by and we quit and reopened the road.
On Friday morning machine-zilla showed up and spent four more hours “safeing” the environment and that’s why you were all screwed up for two days.
Like I said, I’m really sorry about that, but all we could do was damage control and unfortunately, you paid the price. If any of you see me in a bar or restaurant, make yourself known and your first drink is on me. That goes for the police and the VROMI guys as well. Thank you for your spectacular efforts
Now, having said all that, there is a moral to this story and a very valuable lesson to be learned. The wall that blew out was probably at least 30 years old and some think more than 40. It was there before I bought the place and very much before anybody was really paying attention. The wall was complete garbage from the moment it got put up, whenever that was. Simple 8” hollow blocks with no filled cores, no reinforcing steel, no columns, no mechanical attachment to the footings, no ties to the strakes, nothing that would make it a real wall except in name only. I would say that the guys that built it were completely unskilled but that would be a terrible insult to all the other unskilled people doing this work.
Two children with baseball bats could have knocked this wall down. If I had realized this, I would never have bought the house in the first place, but in the end it was my responsibility to do my due diligence and I failed. But that’s not the point. The point is that when these bozos were putting up this wall that was supposed to protect people driving by, there was no competent inspector there to say, “Stop! Are you guys crazy? You are going to hold up half a hillside with a few drabs of mortar and some pretty plaster? That thing will fall down someday and kill somebody.”
VROMI didn’t exist in any formal guise in those days, so they certainly aren’t to blame.
But again, having said that, that was then and this is now. and I know this is a long way around to this, but for those of you that have been on Mars for the last two years, I am the person that has VROMI in court over the Sunwing/Planet Hollywood project. To be clear, I have no fundamental objection to the project as an entity. What I do object to is that it is proposed to be built to a completely inferior structural standard and that (pay attention here) VROMI doesn’t have the inspectors to make certain almost on a daily basis that critical aspects aren’t being built by the same guys that built my wall.
When you talked to the window and door manufactures after Hurricane Irma , they all said the same thing, “Very few of the windows and doors failed themselves. The vast majority of the failures were that the entire element blew out because they were installed so badly.” Why was that? Because there was no one there to watch a cat-5 window get installed with 3 drywall screws and some caulking and say, “That’s unacceptable.”
That’s all I am trying to get VROMI to do.
I want Sunwing/Planet Hollywood to be forced, in writing, to build to the Cat 5/Dade County standards that they keep saying they are doing (documents available for inspection) instead of the Cat 3 and Eurocode standards that they actually tell VROMI when no one else is listening. And I want VROMI to inspect the construction on a daily basis to make sure the place actually gets built like the engineers designed it.
Why is this important to me? Simple. The last two times VROMI approved designs and construction for the Great Bay Hotel roofs, those roofs blew apart at cat 2 levels and ended up in my living room to the tune of hundreds of thousands of dollars in damage. I would really like that not to happen a third time.
Thirty years ago, or whenever my wall was built, no one knew any better or cared. Now things are different. Or at least they should be. No more ticking time bomb walls or roofs, please. We have all had the lessons and we should know better by now.
Steven Johnson
Dear Editor,
So, we have dueling stories in the newspaper. TEATT [Ministry of Tourism, Economic Affairs, Transport and Telecommunication – Ed.] and the minister say that everything was just business as usual when inspectors swarmed in and closed down 721 , a business in Simpson Bay. The proprietor says it was anything but. He says it is a Minister with an axe to grind making his life miserable and abusing her power because she finds the music annoying even though he is breaking no laws and is acting in a manner that every bar in Simpson Bay already does. Who are we to believe?
Well ... if you look at it simply and historically, everyone that has lived here for more than a few hours has experienced exactly this sort of capricious behavior from the various ministries from the airport to the parking lot downtown and everywhere in between. If you are a “nobody” your applications and paperwork disappear. Years go by before you ever get an answer about anything and if the guy who lives next door happens to be connected or have some juice then he gets a building permit to build something in a location that no one else would ever be able to.
If you have complaints to make you may as well write them on the bottom of a stone and leave them on the beach for someone to find. If you are living in an apartment on a residential street and someone decides to turn their house next door into a restaurant/disco and play music until 3:00am and you complain to “Government” you know as well as I do that nothing ever happens to allow you to get any sleep.
Except if you happen to have some influence or power or “juice” as it is colloquially known. If you are a minister or a “friend” of someone that’s “connected” then for sure you can expect the full weight and power of the various inspection divisions to snap to attention and generate violations that, previously, no one had ever heard of. Exactly like what happened at 721 the other day. A guy doing the work, grinding out a living, has annoyed someone with the juice to ruin his life and bankrupt him.
Of course, it might all be just an innocent mistake. Right. Just when I think I can’t possibly be any more cynical I discover that it’s really nowhere near enough.
So which of the two accounts of the shutdown of 721 do you believe? Which one has that ring of truth? Who is the aggrieved party here?
Not a difficult question after all.
Steven Johnson
