Dear Editor,
The time has come again to turn our page to chapter 2019.
I would love for us as St. Maarteners to reflect on the year 2018 which was the previous chapter which we must look back at in order for us to deal in chapter 2019 with the many challenges that we faced and also at the many successes that we as a people were able to achieve.
We should first of all thank the Lord for never leaving us nor forsaking us in spite of us at times neglecting to acknowledge Him in our daily lives.
Our young people which is our greatest assets should always be our priority because eventually we will be handing the baton over to them and therefore we must guide them properly. Looking at the many areas that they are dealing with which include the violence, the drugs, the unemployment, the broken homes, school dropouts, the physical and mental abuse, amongst other areas too numerous to mention, these are the many trials that our own young people are dealing with which sometimes results in the increase of crime in our country.
Being a country that depends on tourism as our main source of income, we must do whatever it takes to protect this industry. Chapter 2019 should not only be written by our government and Parliamentarians but we should include our people, especially our young intelligent minds whether living here or abroad, in the rebuilding of our country.
I am very proud to say that after Hurricane Irma and Maria we, the people, were able to build back our country with pride and dignity by ourselves, and did not depend on all the promises that were made by our local and Dutch governments. We heard about conditions that had to be met before an amount of 550 million euros would be given to our government for our recovery. Our people, having heard this, breathed a sigh of relief not knowing that the Dutch government had a hidden agenda by informing the government that the Recovery funds would go through the World Bank because of them not trusting our politicians and our leaders in government. This I believe was very inhumane because the Dutch government while putting a controlling mechanism in place was just hurting the people of St. Maarten that suffered losses after the passing of the hurricanes.
I would like to conclude by saying thank you, the population of St. Maarten who I believe should be awarded People of the Year because of being able to build back without the much-needed funds from the Dutch that were promised to us the people. We really displayed our resiliency and strength as we bounced back without having to wait on government to assist us.
Because of our determination I would advise the government to give the population of St. Maarten a contract to solve the issue of the year which is “The Smoking Dump”. This should be an assignment given to we the people of St. Maarten if we are serious in finding a solution for the issue of the Year 2018.
Having said the above, I would like to wish the entire population of St. Maarten a resilient and a resolution-oriented Year 2019. Repeating the words of our King Willem-Alexander who said in his Christmas message that “working together we are stronger” are words that we should take very seriously.
May God continue to bless our Majestic Country St. Maarten and its people.
Jeffrey Richardson
Citizen of St. Maarten
