Honorable Prime Minister Rutte, president and members of the Dutch Parliament and Senate,

We took note of your intentions to finally confess your crimes against humanity for the last 400 years of enslavement, slave trading and continued colonization of our bloodline and ourselves in the present. How can you admit your complicity but deny decolonization and the right to self-determination to the descendants, the diaspora of our dehumanized ancestors, the victims of your criminally inhuman economy.

Dear Editor,

  In last Thursday’s Daily Herald, there was an article regarding the establishment of a noise pollution campaign by the Department of Communications with the assistance of TEATT [Ministry of Tourism, Economic Affairs, Transport and Telecommunication – Ed.]. That is a worthy endeavor. However, in the article it identified many sources of noise, but failed to mention one significant one that not only produces high incidences of noise, but also presents a dangerous condition in the process.

  Airplane noise was overlooked. Jet noise, for the most part, is what it is and there really is no such thing as “whisper” jet noise. The jets use most of the airport runway when taking off to the east, making their turn over the lagoon, or take off to the west straight down the runway over the ocean.

  On the other hand the non-jet STOL (short take-off and landing) commuter prop planes gain altitude quickly and make their turn well before the end of the runway, oftentimes directly over the Simpson Bay commercial and residential community. That take-off pattern not only creates excessive noise, often so loud it sets off car alarms from the vibrations, but it places the residents under the flight path in physical harm’s way, should there be a mechanical failure.

  Wouldn’t it be best to reduce the noise pollution and the danger potential to our residents if the STOL noisy commuter aircraft were to get airborne straight down the runway, gain altitude while approaching the lagoon and then begin their turn towards their destination? By the time they make their turn, they will be higher and following an over-the-water path, reducing noise and the chances of a catastrophe in the making.

  That approach would be beneficial in reducing noise and physical threat at a small cost of some additional fuel.

  It has been over 50 years since we put a man on the moon. You would think we would be able to muffle the prop engine noise to a more tolerable level by now, but I won’t hold my breath waiting for whisper props.

R. Paul Speece

Jacksonville Beach/Simpson Bay

Dear Editor,

  I listen to preachers of the word from several denominations, because over the years I have experienced that a great deal of people who read the same Bible, at some point interpret it differently. I also know that on several occasions I have heard different members of the Anglican church of which I am a member, admit that they 'did not understand it that way until the priest explained it'. I state this to explain that not everybody interprets what is written the same way. I must mention though that I do not think that there are two ways to interpret "The Dutch Caribbean people got to give the Commonwealth of Dominica, St. Kitts and Grenada great respect", after stating that "The Dutch are more involved within the Caribbean nation regions, more than these Dutch Caribbean nations".

  Because of how that letter was written to you by Mr. Bannis, I feel myself obliged to think," Why should my children owe you respect, even though I am the one who is feeding you?" I think that you show them gratitude". It sounds more to me that the writer is being ungrateful. Who worked for years in  Aruba and Curaçao for the LAGO and the Shell? Who worked and are still working in the Dutch Caribbean islands and as they themselves still gratefully say, "All I have in my country, I can thank either Aruba, Curaçao or Sint Maarten for it". There could still be people alive who can know what I will write now.

  When LAGO decided to stop its operation in Aruba, there was a massive layoff of the non-Dutch nationals . There was a process for repatriation. Those women who were married to those employees of British nationality automatically became British and went along with their husbands and their family to their husband’s country of birth to continue their life. To make a long story short, after a while those original Dutch nationality women found themselves obliged to write to the queen of Holland requesting her to grant them back the Dutch nationality in order that they could come back to the Dutch Caribbean islands because of the bad treatment they got from the women in those British islands where their husbands had taken them.

  My Godmother and her husband were from St. Kitts. One month after they repatriated to St. Kitts my God-mother wrote my mother asking her to look for a place for her to rent, because she would rather live back in Aruba than to  support the kind of treatment she was getting from the Kittitian women who told her that she is living high and mighty, because of the house that she built back in St. Kitts while her husband worked for Lago. I must have seen Mr. Bannis over the years, but because I cannot put a face to the name,

(if that is his correct name), I will state that I do not know Mr. Bannis and whether he is from here or not, it does not matter. But I do not think that any well-thinking native of any country would go against his government for rightly trying to achieve more for the people of their country. I can write a whole lot more about this matter, but at this time the focus should not be on my writing. The term is 'mutual respect' so I believe that whatever the intention is, it should be discussed and not be pushed down our throats.

  When I was a child in my parents’ home, there was no talking back. When I became an adult, I could talk back but with respect. As I got older, the first two still count, but my parents would discuss situations with me, because they respected and valued my opinion. Not everybody will always agree with what I write, but I believe that they will agree with the heading of this letter after reading Mr. Bannis's letter to you on December 15th.

  I am sure that a whole lot of those people who are from the Commonwealth of Dominica, St. Kitts and Grenada do not agree with Mr. Bannis, as he wants to start a native war with the people of the country where they have been residing in peace for so many years, including himself. I might be wrong because like I already stated I cannot put a face to the name, but the way in which his  letter is written, reminds of the saying, "Don't bite the hand that feeds you".

Russell A. Simmons