Dear Editor,
Unfortunately, I only followed a portion of the meeting of Parliament with the Anti-Poverty Platform. Except for one or two members of Parliament who I heard, I got the sentiment that the data presented by the APP were not the latest statistics of the status on Sint Maarten.
We just had an election and I can put my head on the block that members of every political party have gone through every village on Sint Maarten. If they have the people at heart, none of those members of Parliament would doubt the APP, and if so, should have contradicted the APP.
Again, they were on a vote-hunting expedition and refused to see the real poverty in many of those villages. When Parliament was making sure that members, who were not re-elected, were compensated for two long years after, did not they know that there is poverty on Sint Maarten? How is it possible to make sure that Ex Members of Parliament, who earn much more than they work for, are taken care of, but dispute the findings of those who dedicate themselves to researching and bringing the existence of poverty in our country to the foreground?
I would like to call to MP Erion's attention that if GEBE puts tanks in the hills of Sint Maarten with good filters, there could be a lot of free water filling up those tanks and gravity would do the rest. And this is also free advice: Never go against good intentions.
The APP is not asking: "What's in it for me? The Members of Parliament asked the people to put them there because they wanted to work for the people. Now that they are there, every last one of them is asking: "Wah yo wan me do” MP Theo Heyliger concluded that the APP wasted its time coming to Parliament. Let me conclude by stating this.
I have often been mistaken for telling youngsters they must try to speak correctly. I often got the answer, 'What you want me to do, "yank?". I would tell them I am not referring to their accent, I am referring to their grammar. My father used to tell our mother to go get back his money. I didn't send the children school to learn "You is".
Now I will tell our members of Parliament (the highest legislative body) the same. They must endeavour to speak correctly, so that they will not be misunderstood. Dedicate some time to the English language. It is a beautiful language, and here in the Caribbean we hear English spoken with a lot of different accents, which makes it even more colourful, but we have to try to speak it correctly. Hello cousin J.!
Russell A. Simmons
