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,
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,
The start of a new year is always a good time to take stock of the previous year and evaluate how we can improve on the past. The year 2020 started and closed with one of the single most critical issues facing much of the world.
This new year will hopefully mark the start of a new era. We have 10 years ahead to look at our lives with a clear vision supported by achievable and coherent plans to deal with this pandemic as well as other pressing matters facing our young nation. As stated in previous publications, there is an undeniable correlation between how intelligently we handle the pandemic and our ability to stabilize and grow our economy. We must put people back to work with an executable plan.
Today we can look back at measures taken and evaluate our actions to present a comprehensive COVID-19-repressive economic-growth policy to our nation. We must do this now and not in hindsight. Citizens must be better informed as well and have more say in decisions that affect their lives and livelihood.
This year is the year for and by the People. It’s a year during which we must solve issues that are in your face up-close and personal “Inspraak vooraf niet achteraf”. Citizen’s consultation must be done prior to implementation of decisions that affect us all and not after the fact or once past the point of no return. Increase transparency and accountability to the people. Deep-clean Sint Maarten and strictly enact litter fines for trespassers.
Again, there is a compelling case to be made in appointing a separate department manned with a multidisciplinary team to research/coordinate, plan and advise COVID-repressive policies on behalf of the government.
The latest government decision to allow this year’s Carnival to take place, followed by the public debate about the consequences of this decision, warrants the need to install such department soonest. If this fete is allowed to take place, the negative health and economic consequences will be catastrophic if common sense fails to prevail.
We paraphrase our current Prime Minister in response to the Dutch government’s conditions set to provide liquidity support to St. Maarten: “We will be caught with our pants down.”
Currently several ministers and or their spokespersons and other stakeholders update on pandemic measures while using several and different media outlets. This remains of great concern, as often these messages contradict each other or are sometimes even outdated.
We certainly understand our small island culture where most ministers prefer to do the talking themselves rather than delegate to an experienced and qualified entity. Such an entity removes the political element from the issue at hand. Doing this leaves the day-to-day management of our people’s business to the ministers while parliament executes its oversight duties on the executive branch. Too many voices and one head can’t work.
There are enough pressing issues facing our island in the wake of this pandemic which need our undivided attention. Matters that lie in the hands of our local ministers and parliament can be solved without pointing fingers at Holland. For example, our national symbols are derelict and have many unfinished structures, empty beer bottles and screaming ugly advertisement placed anywhere possible. These matters may seem small; however, once dealt with will give new meaning to “small and clean equals beautiful”. Areas which need our attention include the following:
Introduce the unemployment benefit regulation. This public/private partnership regulation can take away the element of negative surprise for employers and employees after any disaster.
Focus on the plights of our pensioners.
Update our urban-zoning laws. In the aftermath of Hurricane Irma several derelict structures remain un-cleared, un-developed and even insalubrious. These include the former government administration building, Sapphire Beach Club and Mullet Bay. The fate of other buildings such as the “Blue Mall”, Westin hotel, Caravanserai hotel, Mary’s Fancy Plantation remains unclear. At the same time buildings 15 stories and up are constructed. Is this the direction we are heading towards? Are we ready to cope with the inevitable disasters ahead with the choices made today?
Update our economic zoning regulations. Why have food prices reportedly increased over 53 per cent over the past years while government continues to grant more licences for grocery stores, including locations that obstruct traffic and in locations that previously hosted restaurants? These “new” shops are allowed to do business a few hundred meters from yet another grocery store. Also, there’s a noticeable increase of “sidewalk ads” and liquor/cosmetic ads on buildings.
Additionally, our island is littered with empty beer bottles. Revenues are literally to be found on the streets. It’s time for government to restart the discussions on introducing the so-called “sin tax” on liquor and tobacco, implement the removal of the income and/or profit tax. Increases in “number booths” and stand-alone casinos must be halted. What is the status of the gaming control board?
Our beautiful island is slowly turning into one giant advertising board. Business diversification policy is urgently warranted.
Implement real bus stops, thereby significantly cutting traffic jams. It’s time to bring part of our infrastructure into the 21st century. Identify, purchase land where needed and designate real bus stops.
The first quarter of the new year should give citizens a more unified and coherent action plan from our elected and appointed representatives, a plan based on a vision that is clear in its intention and deliberate in its actions. Our citizens also have a critical role and say in the direction we want to take St. Maarten. Together we can. Let’s make it happen.
Gracita Arrindell
Leader, Party for Progress
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
Dear Editor,
As a former President of the St. Maarten Carnival Development Foundation I stand in support of St. Martin of Tours Parish Priest Father Adam in asking our Government to cancel all plans and refuse issuing the necessary permits for Carnival 2021. And just in case there were thoughts of it, do the same for the Heineken Regatta.
Hopefully the Collectivité will also deny permits for Carnival on the French side of the island.
None of these events where no one can truly control crowds getting in each other’s faces must take place this year to prevent more havoc on our health system and by extension on our really-screwed-up economy!
As much as I personally love the annual event, the idea to organize St. Maarten 2021 Carnival is irresponsible and dumb, not to mention playing Russian roulette with our citizens’ and visitors’ health.
Our Governments must ensure everyone living in St. Maarten and Saint Martin, legally and illegally, gets vaccinated against all COVID-19 strains as soon as possible. The US CDC [Centers for Disease Control – Ed.] predicts that in the US, the place where well over 70+ per cent of all our tourists come from, the more aggressive UK Corona Virus variant could become the predominant strain by March 2021, with rapid growth projected in the coming months … yet our SXM Government succumbs to the SCDF’s public scolding and gives the green light for Carnival 2021? A truly irresponsible and dumb decision that hopefully will get rescinded.
P.S. I understand Trinidad and Brazil both cancelled Their carnivals!
Michael J. Ferrier
