The 35th anniversary of St. Maarten’s Flag Day on June 13 is a great occasion to symbolically end the past corona health crisis period and have people express it in the country’s national colours. The early morning flag-raising ceremony at the Government Administration Building with cultural presentations will be invite-only due to social-distancing requirements, but in the afternoon a “Thank You” motorcade through the districts is planned to honour front-line workers, first responders and other individuals who contributed to being able to contain the spread of COVID-19.
With the state of emergency lifted and the final phase of the economic reopening next Monday, such patriotic activities serve as a welcome boost of morale among the population, which has gone and is still going through extremely difficult times. Schools can also pay attention to the matter in their currently-online classes.
Incidentally, flags have been flying at half-mast for local victims of the pandemic and –although not a public holiday – Friday would be an appropriate moment to close that tragic chapter as well. Hopefully, the flag on Cole Bay Hill seen in the photo accompanying today’s story will be raised too at least until after Emancipation Day on July 1, so that people driving by Bell’s Lookout Point in the coming weeks may feel a renewed sense of pride.
It should also serve to remind them that “The Friendly Island” once again overcame a calamity of epic proportions, this time in the form of an unprecedented global virus outbreak, and survived the related lockdown, of which the dire socioeconomic consequences are likely to be felt for a long while. The latter means even the “new normal” will not quite materialise right away, but the first steps towards recovery have now in any case been taken and that is something certainly worth celebrating.
