Dear Editor,
How healthy are you, Simpson Bay? Over the past 2 years you have been slowly looking a little cloudy, dingy, and have lost your crystal clear appeal.
The small and large fish that once delighted your fringes are no longer apparent, your reefs are diminished.
You are a true gem on this special little island paradise. Many thousands travel from every corner of the globe to see you, world famous, one would say. So, who is looking out for your good health? Which governmental island agency is responsible for managing and protecting your wellness while providing transparency?
On March 1st, during the Heineken Sailing Regatta, I was on the Simpson Bay Resort and Marina property and observed an approximately 5-inch pipe dumping at a high velocity, 'unwanted liquids' into Simpson Bay for at least 4 hours. Who knows how long this actually continued and how often it occurs? NO ONE should be pumping their 'no longer wanted' liquids overboard into Simpson Bay or the Lagoon. Violators should be reprimanded and fined.
Approximately 6 weeks ago, a storm washed a sailboat ashore on Simpson Bay Beach. She still remains there complete with fuel and oil and other environmental hazards. Who will remove this boat along with her pollutants, and when?
There are many who enjoy the bay and lagoon, local islanders, tourists, kids, mega yachts, work boats, sailboats, pleasure craft, ferry boats, dinghies, jet skis, cargo boats, divers, snorkellers, kite surfers and dogs. And on occasion, horses that do not wear poop bags.
These are just a few of the combinations that can contribute to the contaminants that affect the decline of water quality, reef preservation and aquatic wellness and vibrancy of Simpson Bay.
This is a serious matter and the ramifications are beginning to show. Simpson Bay is losing her sparkle and good health. Who will help her?
Hopefully, this letter will challenge the caring public and the government to initiate a true change and provide substantial and creative awareness and urgent solutions to preserve a natural treasure, an economic generator and tourist attraction.
To save the fate of the once stunning, glorious aqualine waters of Simpson Bay and her beach, who is going to implement 'the wellness plan' and save her from an unnecessary necroscopy?
SH
Initials used at author’s request.
Dear Editor,
The world we live in is becoming more and more anti-social as time passes and it will continue to increase. What is the cause of this, you might ask, and my simple answer is the fast advancement of technology.
I wish I knew about the presentation of Ms. Julia Davich (forgive me if the spelling is wrong) that she gave at the University of St. Maarten. I heard part of her presentation this week on the radio and I think one the things she mentioned was the matter of paying online and what this does to the physical interaction of people with each other. She mentioned seniors as one of the examples. They are people who spend most of their time at home and this definitely can affect their mental state especially if they live alone or their relatives hardly visit them.
I am one that never pays my bills online. Two main reasons for this are, the Internet connection is not reliable and, second, I meet persons who I have not seen sometimes in years and get an opportunity to interact with them. Physical interaction is of utmost importance.
Another important factor I believe she mentioned had to do with service/communication. When you go online you get an automatic/electronic response not from an individual but from, let me say it this way, from a machine. The person to whom you send the response, request or inquiry knows who you are but you don’t know who you can hold responsible in such cases. There are some instances, however, when you do get a response or know who the individual or individuals are.
I am quite aware that one cannot stop the advancement of technology but what we can do is give a more humane approach to the people who need assistance, especially the seniors. Every institution, be it government, financial institutions such as banks, those that provide services must make the experience of seniors as pleasant as possible. There are too many complaints from seniors about how they are being treated. Remember if you live long enough you too one day will become a senior, how would you want to be treated? See everyone but especially every senior as a potential you.
This is just a drop in the bucket on what I want to say but will leave it here for now. No matter what we think, we are all social beings.
George Pantophlet
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
Open letter to Ministry of Health, Welfare and Sport VWS, attn: Herbert Bernard and Abigail Norville
Dear Mr. Bernard and Ms. Norville,
On behalf of the employees of the St. Eustatius Health Care Foundation (SEHCF) All for 1 Union (AF1) is kindly requesting an urgent investigation regarding the issues mentioned in the subject line of this letter which states the ongoing concerns at SEHCF.
Noncompliance with CLA
June 27, 2023, AF1 sent a letter to SEHCF requesting that the concerns mentioned would be handled urgently. SEHCF responded on July 17, 2023, that the points of concern would be taken care of. Sadly, SEHCF admitted in another response letter of January 18, 2024, reference FR/2024/01/01, that “uniforms should have been ordered earlier in accordance with the CLA” while considering that this noncompliance dates back to 2019. AF1 interprets this statement as acknowledgement of sustained neglect of task.
Another specific issue concerning noncompliance, is the payment of “cessantia” to employees who transferred from Queen Beatrix Medical Center to SEHCF when the reorganization took place. Up to Tuesday, March 12, 2024, the employees have not been paid.
Misuse of authority/Victimization
The employees of the SEHCF/AF1 decided in late January 2024 that industrial actions were the last option and started wearing black T-shirts. Since then, the interim director has decided to subject a group of employees to a biased one-man evaluation exercise and promised to hand over his findings to his successor. Employees that have made use of their rights to demonstrate against the issues at SEHCF are being denied opportunities to fill vacant positions. This contains a serious breach of their civil and employment rights and is a clear example of victimization.
Nepotism
The husband of a management team member has been employed at the SEHCF for some months now in a position for which SEHCF never posted a vacancy.
Conflict of interest
For the last couple of years, SEHCF has been making use of the services of a consultancy firm to manage the HRM [humn resources management – Ed.]. The representative of this consultancy firm is also the secretary of the SEHCF board of directors, the same person who is facilitating the CLA reform and negotiations. This construction makes it difficult if not outright impossible to reach non-biased agreements during and after negotiations. Additionally, AF1 members are being bombarded with petty insignificant concerns (nit-picking) by this person in the position at HRM.
AF1 is willing to provide written evidence and witnesses corroborating these issues to reach a resolution in an immediate yet non-discriminatory manner. Thank you for your attention to these issues. We look forward to your swift response and we strive to work together to resolve these issues promptly.
All for 1 Union (AF1)
Dear Editor,
I am encouraging Sarah to be wise over and over again. Did you see what l saw? They put Sarah president of Parliament to uproot her political knowledge.
If the USP party did win one seat or more, NOW party will form the government with NA and USP and name the airport under Vance James. The public encouraged UP party to join with NA, which they did.
Now tell me why DP and PFP allowed UP party to be in opposition?
Excellent DP and UP party and voters will never forget the leader of URSP supported NA to put out Emil Lee.
Lack of performance from these four parties with two seats should not get on a voting list next election.
Great challenges are ahead. We will be monitoring both parliamentarians and government 24/7. Voters will fix you all up next election.
Cuthbert Bannis
