Dear Editor,
It is becoming more and more obvious that Holland is not being forthcoming with St. Maarten. Action speaks louder than words.
Within one month’s time Marnix van Rij twice publicly decided the status of COVID-19 of St. Maarten. Last month around June 16 I sent you a letter concerning Van Rij deciding and publicly stating the status of COVID-19 on St. Maarten. In today’s paper again Statia has increased the level of COVID-19 risk in St.Maarten from low to medium and as a consequence Winair will discontinue its flights from St. Maarten to Statia. That is why I want to know why is Holland doing this?
It did not dawn on me the last time but today I realized that it is only Statia behaving this way towards St. Maarten. In a case like this I would have expected the news to be that Winair discontinues flights to Statia and Saba owing to the fact that the same Winair leaves from the same medium-risk country to go to both Statia and Saba. which are both Caraibish Nederland.
Is there already a rift between the islands that we are not aware of or is it so that Europees Nederlander Van Rij is playing the game while Caraibish Nederlander Johnson refuses? I am eagerly awaiting an explanation.
One would think that the risk of acquiring the virus would be the same for both islands, so why one and not the other?
Please let us know if there is something else that we on St. Maarten are not being made aware of. When things like these happen, people begin to speculate. Owing to the fact that it concerns Winair, what crossed my mind is the difference in the airports. Many different planes can land on Statia, but up to now only helicopters and Twin Otters on Saba.
Russell A. Simmons
