There were quite some positive reactions to the picture in Monday’s paper of a solar-powered bus stop, one of several erected as part of a plan backed by former VROMI Minister Christophe Emmanuel to build 60 such structures. Of course, the solar power generated will not be fed back into utility company GEBE’s grid, but serve only to illuminate the shelters and for public transport users to charge their electronic devices.
Nevertheless, people see it as a move in the right direction to take better advantage of sustainable energy resources readily available in abundance. Perhaps GEBE’s project to cover the public parking lots on the Pondfill with solar roofs and produce “green electricity” that way, over which there was disagreement with the same ex-minister, can be picked up again too.
In any case, the solar bus stops also send an important message that not just because one government is replaced by another must all its policies, decisions and actions be automatically discarded or reversed. On the contrary, governing is supposed to be a continuity where commitments made must in principle be respected.
Take, for example, Emmanuel’s controversial Bell’s Lookout Point. It was suggested in this column on February 28 that the huge St. Maarten flag there shredded to pieces by strong winds that month should be replaced, because – whatever one might think of the project and its timing – leaving the towering pole standing naked made absolutely no sense.
Prime Minister Leona Romeo-Marlin answered in the paper of March 8, saying this will be done once a more durable banner and sufficient lights to shine on the national symbol as protocol dictates are installed. That was more than a month ago.
The Council of Ministers having bigger priorities right now is completely understandable, but tour buses with cruise passengers and other visitors still go there regularly to check out the view, while thousands of motorists drive by every day, often wondering when the flag will be back. So really, what’s the hold-up?
