Dear Editor,
I had just left UTS from paying a bill, yes, I still stand in line instead of going on line. I believe the more people go on line the less jobs become available and because it seems as if there is no incentive for the government of St. Maarten to be innovative and look for secondary means to fall back on when our tourism is not any more as it used to be, I am walking the talk. Along with that, because of increasing cybercrime and credit card and ATM schemes I believe the longer business could be handled personally I will stand in line.
Not to forget that there is very little personal contact with each other anymore. Everything is via the cell phone. Haven’t we all been complaining about the way we are being attended by those people in the government building. I believe that that good morning and good day and that smile has been replaced by the cell phone. So, I will stand in line smile, greet everyone, even though some people are surprised when one enters a building and wish them a good morning or good day with a distinctive voice.
Coming back to where I started this letter, when I ran across a long-time acquaintance who was back on the island to repair her home which was destroyed by [Hurricane – Ed.] Irma, in talking about construction the name utilities came up so the conversation turned into “where all the local hardware stores gone?” Names like Carib Lumber, Builders Paradise, Van Grieken, Wilmart, Island Material and so on were mentioned. There was some old talk so competition against the locals was mentioned.
I have mentioned several times that because of the infrastructure of St. Maarten, is so that if you are on the road long enough you will meet several people at least twice a day so once in a while a conversation may start and, as usual, depending on the relationship with each other certain information is passed on. I have learned to be a good listener and thanks to the Lord my memory is still alright. So, there are some things that come to mind in connection with government not protecting the locals against unfair competition.
Because we live in a hurricane belt and it is inevitable that we will be threatened or hit by hurricanes certain members of the St. Maarten Island Council and later Members of Parliament have made deals with persons who were willing to make deals with investors got involved in the hardware store business, sold their products at less than the purchase prices (bought for $10, sold for $8) and in no time the local St. Maarten hardware stores could not compete anymore and were obliged to close doors. Consequence is that there was no control on the prices in the hardware stores. And when government was approached by the local businessmen with what was happening the locals were told that that is free enterprise and the government could do nothing about it.
Case in point, because of price gouging by the hardware stores after Irma government was obliged to publish the maximum prices that the people of St. Maarten should pay for products at the hardware stores. So, this made it impossible for the local aspiring entrepreneur to do so. One could not take the risk to grow in one’s own country because one was not and is still not protected by government. So, I have to ask like that lady: where are all the local hardware stores?
When I told someone that I was going to write a letter to the Editor of the Herald concerning this, he said they help outsiders come in, now they themselves are suffering because things have gotten out of control. The outsiders have grown so powerful, so they themselves can’t get building material for themselves anymore so they decided to do the only thing they can do is to fool the people by publishing maximum prices which they should pay for building material.
I read that the French side accepts that they are been plagued by gypsies. When are we going to try to curtail what is happening on the Dutch side? Don’t we know that it is so blatant here that a few guys living on Anguilla are so brazen that on busy ship days they rent a car for the day and transport tourists around the island?
By the way, I still feel offended by those who voted against the “safe school plan”.
Russell A. Simmons
