Dear Editor,
I do not agree when a person (people) is (are) prejudiced against another (others) or situations in a way considered unfair. As you must have derived from my letters to you, I welcome everyone’s opinion, whether I agree with them or not. As you know from my letters, I always stand corrected, because I am ready to accept that not everyone is perfect.
Last week someone told me that they did not hear much from me since the elections and I agree. I believe I am being fair to those who were elected by giving them a fair chance to get their act together. But then in the paper of Monday, March 11, I see the recently-elected MP [member of Parliament – Ed.] Kevin Maingrette approaching the outgoing Minister Anna Richardson, as it were, on his knees (which, under the circumstances, I can understand why) asking her for help.
I felt vindicated, because I specifically saved the paper of January 18, 2024, in connection with the article “Outgoing govt. advised not to take any decision”. I read that whole article and was not pleased with the genre. Different sayings came to mind. Among others, “To throw out the baby with the bathwater” came to mind. What I have noticed in these last two months is that already the saying “You never miss the water ’til the well runs dry” is coming into play.
In no form or fashion am I gloating. Because of experiences on my job I am fully aware of the validity of the saying “It’ gon’ come back to haunt yo.”
One of the reasons that was given to me by other supporters of Minister Anna Richardson, why people didn’t vote for her is because she dared let them know that she did not accept the ministerial position for the sake of money. This did not sit well with certain people and the politicians made use of it during the campaign. This is not new to me, because up to today people remind me of situations which because of my job, I got myself into and they did not agree with. But as time goes by I am constantly confronted with “In alyou days those things which happening today couldn’t happen.”
What I find noble of Minister Anna Richardson is that she did not make use of “government continues” despite all the negativity expelled, and the warning not to take any decision, to just drop everything. She did not do what was expedient. On the contrary, the Minister did what she was doing all along. She did what was right, got together with the parties concerned and came to an agreement to draft up a plan to process the remaining national decrees at a rate of 25 weekly.
I was delving into the Constitution specifically looking to find who can become a Minister (of government). I hope I did not overlook anything but I could not find if it states that a Minister cannot be chosen from a member of a political party that is not a part of the coalition that sustains the government. I looked it up because of the amount of smoke around the completion of the forming of the government, someone asked me if the St. Maarten government is allowed to bring in a man from Curaçao to be Minister up here?
This brings me back to exactly what I have written several times in connection with this kind of behavior. “Those who desire to live honestly, who want their lives to display faithfulness and authenticity make choices based on what is true, rather than what is expedient.” “The integrity of the upright leads them.” I was not ready to continue with that issue so I told him I believe that the screening process is the hold-up.
Now this. From ever since my father used to impress on us to study our languages, because he believed that a job in the United Nations building is a unique accomplishment. Even though none of my father’s children became linguists, all of us at the age of 16 and 17 could speak, read and write four foreign languages.
If I am not mistaken, in1968 the “Mamoet wet” was introduced to the education of the Netherlands Antilles replacing MULO/HBS. This for me was, and I am still of that opinion, the most destructive political decision taken in the history of the Netherlands Antilles. From then already tourism was earmarked to become the pillar of the economy of Aruba as well as Curaçao. Which means the dominance of foreign languages would be one of the biggest assets of that industry. I have written about it on several occasions so my response to the editorial after thinking “what will happen to Papiamento?” is “I told them so.”
Russell A. Simmons
