Dear Editor,
Every time I read anything about taxes, I get uneasy. I have mentioned this to several people to get their opinion and everybody agrees with my point of view. I started to work for the government of the Netherlands Antilles in 1965, was transferred to Sint Maarten in 1975, and have worked here until I retired in 2006. All I did over those years was to literally work for the communities in which I lived, I swore to protect and serve and that is what I did.
Because what I did was teamwork I will continue with “we”. Besides combating crime, we had to combat fires. Yes, we were firemen, besides our regular hours on the job. Fire trucks were stationed in every area where there was a compound of police houses and we were expected to man those fire trucks and go fight those fires whenever and wherever it was requested.
When we got to the Windward Islands, it became more interesting. Along with firefighting we were ambulance attendees and were called upon and expected to assist the nurses during the night shift at Sint Rose Hospital. I do not know who they are, but I was told there are one or two people in government who were born in the hands of policemen who assisted the nurses during their delivery. I know this to be the case with a young man who lives in the Netherlands.
There was no army in the Windward Islands, so in case of pending riots (thankfully these were at a minimum) we held the fort. I am not writing this to – as we would say – “big up” ourselves, but to point out that we literally served the community. So, when I hear that approximately only 35 per cent of the working population pay taxes, and that I and so many like me are still paying taxes, then there is a whole lot more of the working population who are not paying taxes. And to paraphrase what someone told me, “Why should I be paying for politicians’ clothes?”
I dedicated 41 years of my life paying taxes and 13 years later I am still paying taxes. I earnestly believe that our tax collecting system has to be urgently revisited.
Russell A. Simmons
