Dear Editor,
When I was a little boy growing up in the Village in San Nicolas on Aruba, the older boys who were already working someplace would give us a matinee ticket or money for ice cream or whatever to do them a favor and carry a note for a certain girl. One time when my mother questioned me about the money that I told her I had to go to a matinee, and I told her, I got licks and a good tongue lashing.
She told me that getting money for doing favors is not the same as working for money and that even though the word favor is positive, I should always find out what the favor is about, because doing favors for someone could be doing something for that person that he/she is not allowed to do. Finding out why that person can’t do certain things themselves is not a bad thing. As I grew older I realized that even though the word is positive, doing favors does not always have positive intentions.
I am writing this as a consequence of a post on the social media which is circulating these days. When I joined the [ police – Ed.] force the minimum education required was MULO diploma, LTS diploma and the necessary qualifying tests. An impeccable behavior and the rest of your family as well as your living environment was also scrutinized.
Even though we have compulsory education, our constitution does not exact a minimum education required to be elected into government. A minimum age, but not a minimum education. Consequently, any political party can go around and look for whomever they think can bring along votes with them and have them postulate themselves on the political party’s list. We will take care of the rest.
What is going around on social media these days is a list of those who since 2010 have received and are still receiving redundancy pay. One of the reasons stated by those who are involved in the forming of whatever kind of government we are going to have now was that nothing is being done correctly by the present government.
I started from scratch as a young man and worked for government until I retired. We of the police force of St. Maarten were reminded several times by Prime Minister Don Martina that we were not allowed to have any other monetary income than that of the police force.
Everybody knows what happens to their salaries when government employees retire, including MP [Member of Parliament] William Marlin. Can someone of whom no kind of education is required and just by being able to acquire enough votes to be elected to government and in so doing is grossly overpaid be compared to someone who worked for government 30- and 40-odd years and because of retirement their salary is suddenly cut in half as it were. Is not that person who worked more than half their age for government more entitled to a redundancy pay?
MP Marlin was involved in, if not responsible for that redundancy pay sham. The population should try to get hold of that post on the social media and make a judgement. There is the action of regaining or gaining possession of something in exchange for payment or clearing a debt, but there is also the action of saving or being saved from sin, error or evil. What I would suggest is that we should try to avoid having to be redeemed.
Now that MP Marlin again is in the thick of things maybe he can advise his colleagues that it is better to not to have to be redeemed and do right by that redundancy pay. When I look at that redundancy pay it reminds me of what my mother always let me know: “Money not earned well will not spend well.”
What actually should happen is that those people on that list who have received or who are still receiving, look for some charity and give it to them. Their names are on the list and sooner or later everybody is going to know whether you received or are still receiving.
Forget those who brought that law, what about they themselves, do not they have a guilty conscience? Can we suggest abolishing that law, or apply the same to those who will be retiring and their income suddenly cut in half.
A person who never worked, was grossly overpaid for four years just to show up and say for or against, goes home with two years redundancy pay equaling at least 10 times the minimum wage. Wow.
Government just received a price list to avoid price-gouging. Which means that government is aware of what is happening in the businesses. But government is also aware that the same is happening in the supermarkets. Every time a box comes out of the same container the price of the goods go up with at least ten cents. Supermarket cashiers not closing the cash registers to avoid them registering on a constant basis. No control on expired goods and the same people are being taxed year in year out while thousands are getting away.
When something is said about it the workman shows you on his payslip where the tax was deducted, but the taxman is complaining that no tax is coming in. If that is the case should we conclude that only those who government has direct control over are being taxed and that business-owners are withholding the taxes paid by their employees from government?
Russell A. Simmons
