Dear Editor,
At one time a member of the ambulance personnel came to me and asked me what can be done about these men who molest children. This person explained that she knew about two cases below the hill. I referred her to the Detective Department.
Growing up in Aruba I knew about a man who got 9 years for having sex with a minor, so when later I heard that the perpetrator of a similar act was handled with kid gloves, I became curious and paid extra attention to circumstances surrounding that case.
Between that and some other instances it seemed as if people in government were careful when having to take decisions. They were careful not to offend people because of the fear of losing the vote. The risk of losing the vote was greater than correcting the wrongdoing. Even child molestation.
In reading the letter “How much longer will they suffer” I got a flashback. I suggested that women should try to avoid walking around the house and in their neighborhoods with what we call flimsy (scanty) clothing because worthless men find themselves empowered to make lewd remarks. Beside that it is not a good example for their girl children who they also dress the same way. The response that I got via via was: “Who does Russell think he is to tell people what to wear.”
It was so then and it is worse now. It not my imagination the proof is in broad daylight. Ironically men are walking around nowadays with baggy clothing and their body almost completely covered and women of all ages, sad to say, are going anywhere and in public with less than or just about only one third of their body covered. Sadly to say that in too many cases there is no difference between their dress code and the ladies of the night.
The girls who go to school in uniform try to get away with wearing their skirts shorter than permitted. Not even the church is spared. Almost in every family in St. Maarten both parents work and constantly fathers are left home alone to take care of the children, which makes it easy for the men to engage in their pedophilic behavior.
Every good goes accompanied with its bad, so when we boast of the hundreds of different nationalities living in St. Maarten, we also have to be conscious of the fact that they bring their customs, habits, morals along with them. Including those from countries which celebrate girls becoming teenagers. Also from our neighboring country which has big celebrations for their daughters’ 15th birthday.
Another phenomenon is what I consider that dreaded cell phone. Ninety-five percent of our children have some kind of cell phone or the other. Parents, even though they know the negative effect of the cell phone on their children, still give them one because the parents themselves are addicted to the phone.
Nowadays people do not necessarily have to be next to each other to be engaged in immoral acts. Which makes it very easy for pedophiles to contaminate the minds of unsupervised children and lure their prey to them. The promise of a phone is one of the biggest catches for children nowadays.
So we have to be aware that porn, pedophiles, lack of supervision, customs of foreign countries, nudity and opportunity are all contributors to lewd behavior.
Ladies do not permit the men in your home to walk about the house merely clothed in their underwear. Ladies do not even think of forbidding your daughters to walk about the house in their underwear, while you yourself is doing likewise. By now we are aware of the fact that children become and do what they see and not what you tell them.
Some of us use the saying “seeing is believing.” We also know the saying “curiosity killed the cat.” And we also know that children are curious, so parents have to be extra vigilant.
We have to go back to the days when neighbors looked out for each other.
Now this. I believe it is high time that our government be realistic, consider the people and get information from Aruba concerning solar energy for St. Maarten. Aruba is 60 square miles, we are only 16, people. Let us be realistic. We need alternative energy and alternative source of income.
Also, it is time enough for us to hear something positive for St. Maarten being expressed by Holland. Sometimes a phone call one to the other can work.
The people want positive action, not negative rhetoric.
Russell A. Simmons
