Dear Editor,
That leads me ultimately to a regrettable point, whether, because of such, the Dutch government, The Hague, will be eventually led into the operations of the management of St. Maarten. I mean, more so than now, becoming a special municipality, like Saba, Statia, and Bonaire.
We or whoever else have to make a concerted choice, and a collective one, to solve our problems or maintain our own particular insular interest with the resulting consequences.
So, as we dilly-dally, people’s lives are being affected drastically. The less we take care of everyone fairly, the better off we will not be. The opposite conversely holds true.
The foundation, the point of departure of taxes, is that it is a collective responsibility, a social contract of sorts, based on equality, where all help to pay for public goods, inclusive, not exclusive. This is done so as to provide public goods, invest in society, those who have a little more will have to help a little more. This is the ethics we should live by. It is a little imbalanced now. When and how it is fixed will take deliberate, concerted, and collective efforts in the right directions.
As part of a community, of a nation, each one has to pay their fair share. “Let me get mine” is contrary to the collective. Each generation is a reflection on the previous, and the current is the foundation for the next and future generations. We have to imagine a St. Maarten beyond what will become of future Tik Tokers and Artificial Intelligencers?
Thus all this leads to the functioning of people, all messed in one, the quality of lives of people, of happiness, freedom, taking care of vulnerable citizens, elderly, unemployed, the living conditions, leisure time, economic security, including the ecological aspects.
So, you have to choose, among many things, and what kind of lives we want to lead and in what kind of society.
In the end, it is not the two-headed monster, but the many-headed monster with tentacles that reach far and wide.
Pedro de Weever
