Dear Editor,

  Not many of us who use the banking system understand it properly, and so, the banks continue to take advantage of the people’s lack of knowledge. There is a gross advantage being taken of our people by some of the banks on the island, and the Minister of Finance must ensure that the Central Bank looks into these illegal practices.

  When non-RBC Bank clients use their debit card at an establishment with an RBC Bank card machine to process a US dollars transaction, the account at cardholder’s bank is charged an amount higher than what the cardholder swiped for. Here is how it works: When WIB, FCIB, Republic Bank, Banco Di Caribe or Orco Bank debit cardholders swipe their debit card at an RBC Bank merchant for a US dollars amount, RBC Bank converts the US dollar amount to NAf. by multiplying it at 1.82 and then divides it by 1.78 to convert it back to US dollars.

  For Instance: You swipe US $100.00. The bank processes the following transaction: US $100x1.82/1.78 = US $102.25 and the cardholder’s account is charged US $102.25.

  There are a number of illegal actions taking place here. First of all, the cardholder’s bank does not have the authority to apply extra charges to the cardholder’s account for a local US dollars transaction that does not involve cash. Secondly, the 1.82 rate includes the 1% exchange tax, which is charged only when withdrawing US dollar cash and/or when sending money from a resident bank account abroad, outside of St. Maarten. There is no cash involved when swiping one’s debit card at a local merchant, so the 1% exchange tax is not applicable in such cases. As there is no cash involved in the transaction, I doubt very much that the bank submits the funds collected to the government. I therefor urge the Minister of Justice to look into this illegal practice.

  Furthermore, some merchants blatantly post signs in their establishments indicating a minimum amount for transactions paid by card. In the case of a VISA or Mastercard credit card an additional fee is charged to the cardholder to cover the bank charges, while their contract clearly states that this should not be done. The banks must ensure that their clients are not taking advantage of the cardholders by applying these tactics, and when this is discovered, the bank must take action against the merchant.

  I will not bother to go into the ordeals to open a bank account on this island, even though the Central Bank representatives, during a meeting in parliament, assured the members of parliament that the only requirements for residents to open a bank account in St. Maarten is a valid ID and the source of the funds to be deposited to the account. This can be a job letter, a rental agreement or any other form of proof of where and how the cardholder gets the funds to be deposited to the account.

  I am calling on the authorities to look into the illegal practices by some of the banks on the island, as the ripping off by the banks continues.

Fernando Clark

Dear Editor,

  An English dictionary that was in my family’s possession since I was six years old defines “racism” as “the doctrine that certain races of mankind are naturally superior to others” and a “bigot” or “hypocrite” as “ one who is intolerantly attached to any opinion, system or belief”.

  After being told on Friday by someone that a certain Steven Johnson wrote a letter to you in which he referred to me as an outright racist, I went and collected that paper at your office. Shortly after I started to read the article I stopped and decided that I will not continue reading this letter because it was literally below me.

  I, originating from Saba myself, know of several Steven Johnsons, so if you are a Steven Johnson but did not re-baptise me as a racist then this is not in response to you. But I will also not be the one to accommodate that Steven Johnson’s language which in my opinion is designed to have a persuasive effect, not containing sincere content.

  My initial intention was to respond with “It takes one to know one” but that would bring me to the same level of Steven Johnson who does not know the actual definition of racist.

  I have written many letters to you which you have published (as long as they were not instigating), which by the way I know you would not have published. Also I cannot be responsible for individual interpretations of my letters which you publish. I also am aware that you have confidence that I will be able to respond in a mature manner and I am grateful for that.

  The last thing I read in that letter from Steven Johnson was “You are not selective. You hate everybody equally.” So, what am I? A general hater or a racist?

  I have concluded that Steven Johnson must have been under the influence of some hallucinating stuff or he is making use of what I had written in order to get back at the government for whatever is not sitting right between them, which reminds me of the saying “A drunken man’s words are a sober man’s thoughts”.. But that is on him, not on me.

  The fact that Steven Johnson. can claim that I hate everyone tells me that I have made some kind of an impact on him, or he has a collection of what I have written. I hope he will be honest enough to share the royalties. But I have written a lot of letters and sometimes people confuse one thing with the other, like “surborner” with “racist”. I do not know. I am still confused. I’m just trying to find out what is going on in Steven Johnson’s head.

  He is criticizing me for being a racist (of which I clearly can see that he does not know the definition) but directly behind that he is telling me that I am not selective (treat everybody equally without favouritism or discrimination or without cheating or trying to achieve unjust advantage). At least that is what I take away from that. I stand to be corrected, but I do not think that telling the truth about someone’s behavior and singling out their ethnicity should be the criteria to qualify someone to be a racist. Would not that be just the opposite?

  If I can recall well, it is not St. Maarten that has to ask for pardon, it is European countries and the USA and others in connection with slavery. If telling the truth is what Steven Johnson is using as a criterion to call me a racist then the editor of this newspaper is also a racist because that is the nature of editorials which continuously represent the truth.

  I have written my piece.

  Like I have become accustomed to mentioning, my father was a very influential mentor and one of the things that he taught me was a very realistic African saying: “An axe which challenges a stone to a fight, suffers a blunt edge.” And long before I dreamt of becoming a police officer he would remind us that we should never fire all our guns.

  By the way , I just heard that Donald Trump was subpoenaed.

  A question: could this be the same Steven Johnson who had an incident with a wall on the Little Bay road? If it is him, then definitely I’m confused, because I thought that he had won that case.

Russell A. Simmons

~ What is St. Maarten’s airlift strategy? ~

Dear Editor,

  These days, even the non-religious invoke the Lord’s name in vain while booking a flight to or from St. Maarten, followed by deep gasps and low sighs. The numbers that pop out of the screen at you for airlines ticket prices are shockingly high.  

  Airlines prices are rising dramatically as a result of high oil/jet fuel prices, staff shortages and more travel demand which has steadily recovered throughout the “tail end” of the pandemic. Demand continued to rise even though it wasn’t nearly back to normal as vaccination rates rose and COVID-19 instances decreased. The demand for travel currently, however, is reaching levels unseen before the pandemic.

  The supply-and-demand equilibrium that is so crucial for controlling flight prices has suddenly become considerably tighter than it has been in the previous two years or more. St. Maarten is starting to feel the effects where, for example, a ticket booked from Florida to the island is clocking in at US $1,000, $2,000 or even higher than $3,000 for economy/coach seating. The same story surfaces on Delta’s St. Maarten-Atlanta (SXM-ATL) route. Not even booking two weeks in advance is resulting in lower prices. Try two months, maybe three.  

  Residents wanting to come home for the holidays have either had to sacrifice and choose who can go and who will stay, or simply forgo coming to St. Maarten anytime soon. Many have dug deep to find the ticket money to come home. Demand is high, supply isn’t high enough, and airlines know travellers will pay more right now.

  Realising the threat to their economies with prices becoming out of reach for many potential Caribbean visitors, some Caribbean governments have sought direct discussions with airlines to either forge or strengthen ties that could influence route development and its various facets, including cost projections. These kinds of partnerships with airlines should be very familiar to St. Maarten, with industry players in the past having built a reputation on solid trade partner relationships.

  In the meantime, we have yet to hear or see anything from the powers that be about a strategy to deal with rising ticket prices and/or prices that wildly fluctuate for what seems like every 15 minutes and/or high-level talks to address seasonal airlift, which also affects pricing. Over the weekend Dutch State Secretary Alexandra van Huffelen advised the Curaçao government to contact KLM directly after the carrier chose to remove the double daily flights from Amsterdam to Curaçao for the upcoming winter season.

  Why is such engagement with airlines important? Well, there is a successful backstory for travel partner engagement, something St. Maarten and its tourism commissioners and professionals of years past had built to a standard, a success story, so to speak, that was beneficial for the island’s economy and for sustainable airlift. Close relationships, as in meeting directly with airline representatives often, prevented airlines in the past from servicing our hub countries. “SXM”, the airport’s call sign, was strengthened as the premier hub in the region with great connections that also served as an incentive for airlines currently looking at starting operations to the airport.

  St. Maarten placed determined emphasis on showing airlines that it did not make economic sense to service those islands and demonstrated that we would ensure that every airline and hub passenger had the best experience possible. St. Maarten’s tourism professionals understood that the airline industry is small and very insular; the same people circulate within the industry. As such, the onus for destinations, especially small destinations, is always on relationships. With no reports of such discussions ongoing and no reports of an airlift strategy from the government of St. Maarten or even the airport, airlines will look at profitability first, not historical or traditional ties, as they try to get back to pre-pandemic levels.

  We have finally heard something from a Princess Juliana International Airport (PJIA)-led group that attended the recently held World Routes Conference about this subject, but with little detail and zero substance. I would be curious to know what message was relayed from the PJIA-led group to existing and potentially new industry partners about the ongoing reconstruction of the airport and reported further delays that still have to be clarified by the government of St. Maarten.

  We still do not take advantage enough of platforms for decision makers from airlines, airports and tourism authorities to develop strategies that will define the future air services. Gone is the acknowledgement that route development is an essential function for destinations planning to attract new services. This conclusion can be drawn because, once again, there is no reporting about strategy and/or short-, medium- and long-term plans for the destination.  

  St. Maarten has already lost low-cost carrier Frontier for the upcoming season. Spirit still only services the destination once a week on Saturday even after being acquired by JetBlue and JetBlue has cancelled its Fort Lauderdale-SXM route. Frontier, matter of fact, was not entirely jumping for joy at the prospect of having to transport passengers into utter chaos in an unfinished airport.

  If supply and demand is the principle behind airfare, competition between airlines is the balancing factor that St. Maarten currently does not have on its most vital routes along the East Coast and the South of the US. As if on cue, American Airlines and Delta are taking full advantage of the void with prices set to meet the demand that can no longer be partially satisfied by low-cost carriers to the destination.  

  These budget carriers drove flight prices down to record lows in recent years and they forced major airlines like Delta and American and their international partners to compete on price, a win for consumers. Without competition the pressure on those bigger carriers is gone.

  How will St. Maarten address this issue?

  Do we have a plan to engage other low-cost airlines to keep prices competitive?

Are we redeveloping marketing support agreements or joint marketing efforts to help ensure brand awareness, or are we thinking about subsidised route development to maintain airlift through the season, although this is an approach we have never embraced? Are we in a position to make the financial allocations for either approach?

Are we finally going to appoint a permanent and competent minister of tourism to focus on this issue and a new Tourism Master Plan for the country, in collaboration with hospitality partners?

  What exactly are we doing besides repeating “the same ol”?

  The profitability of PJIA should also be considered since the ongoing re-construction and its apparent delays are already a semi-turnoff for some return visitors, though some would argue that with demand high and flights full of disgruntled people who had no choice but to pay $2,000 to get from Florida to St. Maarten, the airport won’t suffer.  

  On the contrary, there is no trend that indicates that prices will decrease anytime soon, especially without competition on the routes. The current airlift options and the high ticket prices that we have now are not sustainable long term. Simply put, people will stop coming. Aeronautical revenue might keep flowing in the short to mid-term, but the commercial side of airport operations could suffer with fewer passengers and, worse, fewer passengers who don’t spend. The airport could be dangerously at risk of losing commercial revenue from aspects like retail, which in turn affects debt repayments, employees etc.  

  Due to the island’s geographic location, too many decision makers on various levels take St. Maarten’s product position for granted. While we remain complacent about the aforementioned problems, our competitors in the region are quickly undermining our once-proud hub function. Million-dollar new airports are being built throughout the Caribbean and as a result, partnerships are being cultivated and airline service agreements are being made with those destinations.  

  For “The Friendly Island”, it appears that we will continue using our location in the North Eastern Caribbean as a crutch and hope for the best. There is no strategy to speak of. If there is, well, nobody has heard of it.  

Michael R. Granger

By Alex Rosaria

Moises Frumencio da Costa Gomez (Dòktor) is the father of our modern nation, not because he was an intellectual, the most popular politician ever, or even the architect of our autonomy. Dòktor made us proud to be who we were. He was able to inspire us to be as hopeful as ever before about what we were going to be or could be as individuals or collective. Dòktor both influenced and was influenced by great Caribbean emancipation leaders.

  Unfortunately, he’s rarely mentioned in the emancipatory history of the Caribbean. This is because we don’t document and write enough in English and frankly because we barely pay attention to or make any effort to join the Caribbean. It seems we prefer to remain myopic and stare across the pond (The Hague). This must change. The ambition is to have our political emancipator among the other Caribbean founding fathers. I’ve already established with some regional scholars to have this realized. We shouldn’t keep our stories to ourselves.

  ~ Alex David Rosaria (53) is a freelance consultant active in Asia and the Pacific. He is a former Member of Parliament, Minister of Economic Affairs, State Secretary of Finance and UN Implementation Officer in Africa and Central America. He is from Curaçao and has an MBA from University of Iowa (USA). ~