Hello again, dear reader...

While I woke up today I thought about my car, and what idiotic heavy piece it is, the weight of it compared to what it does for me. A light car weighs a ton, 1000 kilos, that is 2200 lbs, a medium car 1100 lbs more, that is 1500 kg and a heavy one 2000 kilos and over! [Multiply kilo by 2.2 to get pounds.] Please realize what we are doing, we are dragging more than a ton of metal with us to get our body with a weight of about average 75 kilo from A to B! Realize how ridiculous this is! That we drag 15 to 30 times our own weight around to get somewhere. The heavier the car, the more gas we burn. That produces the dreaded greenhouse gasses that heat up the atmosphere, that melt the pole caps, that raise the sea level, make the polar bears extinct, drives the Eskimos from their hunting grounds and destroys low laying islands. It also changes the climate and hurricanes these years are stronger than those in our parents and grandparents times. I have been greatly troubled to learn this and used as small a transport as possible, that is to say: a 5 gear 125cc engine on two wheels, weighing less than twice my own weight, a mere 140 kg, a smart and fast going motorbike of Asian origine that carried me (and a passenger) with ease over any steep hill around the island. Untill an inattentive [surely intoxicated] driver in a big car hit me when I was standing still, waiting for traffic to pass. Now forever invalid I had to return to drive a 4 wheels transport of 1160 kilos with a 1600cc engine, dragging more than a ton with me wherever I go. More than 12 times of what is needed to transport me. This is disgusting. And it is still a moderate car, not a big SUV or pick up truck. See on the back of many vehicles the displacement, 1.6 is 1600cc, 2 liter is 2000cc, there are cars of 2800cc and more. That is crazy and a little, no very criminal, I will vote for the politician who will restrict the weight of vehicles on the island. In order to spend less on road maintenance, and environmentally conscious, in order to sleep quiet and know that I have done what I can for my world, my planet, for my children's future. Tax vehicles by weight, and discriminate between a light and a heavy car, let carowners pay for what they do to our world, get real mister politician, wake up.

Just to let you know what [unconsciously] plays in my head: Before I woke up today I was abducted by three unknown men, who took me to the airport, gave me another name and a Swiss passport, then flew me in a small jet to an American airport, I have no idea where, and there put me on a plane to Germany where they left me alone. From the German airport I was to fly on to Switzerland. I understood from talk with the 3 goons that they were secret service and that I was an undesired entity and therefore deported, extraordinary rendered, so to say... Then I woke up and realized it was a dream.

Did it mean maybe  that I better shut up lest I get deported???

Chamba Chada

We will not get hit this year again

This year we will not get hit by a major hurricane, because there is no reason why we should. LUIS, 11 years ago was the one we really needed and that was the one we got. Just like Katrina was the one for New Orleans, LUIS was the one for SXM.

Because those places needed a major clean up and no government or agency could ever have cleaned up LA and SXM better than those hurricanes. And what is best, no common person of ordinary wit ever suspects that secret government powers are behind those hurricanes.

From where I sit, I see a huge flamboyant tree in its full blooming red flower splendor. It announces the summer season, the time of heat, of days with too little or too much wind. The red color is a clear warning: “Here is the season of dangerous weather!”

What hardly anybody knows is that the weather is under the control of (very secret) government powers. Storms can be enhanced, they can be send in certain directions. This is done with knowledge that Nikola Tesla revealed about 100 years ago.

Our (grand-) parents saw the first movies, still black and white only, and without sound. In many of those early movies were storms with rain and thunderstorms with very realistic lightning flashes. Nikola Tesla made those lightning flashes with his coils.

Those of us who have Internet only have to google “tesla weather control” to get close to a million English pages with information about Tesla and his weather controlling inventions.

See: http://www.freedomdomain.com/weather.html from where I quote:

“Is it strange how, when we are in the middle of summer, it can be raining out, and one day it is very "hot", the next day it is 15 degree cooler, and two days later, it is "hot" again? Does this seem strange? How about earthquakes in parts of the world, that are so devastating, that if they were to happen here, our whole economy could be ruined.
Do you think it is "odd" that people would suggest that the government can and does control the weather? I KNOW it sounds a little paranoid, but if you do the research to investigate, you will undoubtedly arrive at the same conclusions. OUR WEATHER IS CONTROLLED!” end quote.

Meet Tom Bearden: Lieutenant Colonel U.S. Army (Retired). President and Chief Executive Officer, CTEC, Inc. MS Nuclear Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology. BS Mathematics, Northeast Louisiana University. Graduate of Command & General Staff College, U.S. Army. Graduate of Guided Missile Staff Officer's Course, U.S. Army (equivalent to MS in Aerospace Engineering).

On his website http://www.cheniere.org/ you find how it is done.

So worry little this season, as the great clean up is already done at our little island in 1995, we will not have any major hit again. The secret electromagnetic installations on Cuba will no doubt steer most of the storms towards the most vulnerable American oil installations to punish the USA for its useless decades long embargo that has not stopped Cuba from becoming a nation with better health care and less illiteracy than its oppressor.

A United Nations Treaty exists which pledges all member states to refrain from using Weather Control as a lethal weapon upon other states but I don’t think Cuba cares for that one.

See: http://www.fas.org/nuke/control/enmod/text/environ2.htm

Signed in Geneva May 18, 1977
Entered into force October 5, 1978
Ratification by U.S. President December 13, 1979
U.S. ratification deposited at New York January 17, 1980

So there we have it, all you unbelievers, check it out and know from now on that your GOD, Allah, Jehovah and Krishna have little to say about what Hurricane will hit where.

With love and care

Captain Zen

I am still of the meaning that the ruins of the old saltfactory must be restored and made into a tourist attraction. As a stage for local musicians to perform, as a museum of our past and as a way to show the folks of today what happened here long ago.

Here we get this enormous number of foreigners coming to Our place; now, what can we show them?? The site of the old salt crushing factory would be One true and solid historical place, where with pictures and a guided tout; with local music and folkloric dress the tourist could get some insight in the past of Sint Maarten. Small bags of salt could be sold, a hat weave could sell his products while coconut water and rum refreshes the guests on the bar... Are there no

sint maarteners with money to develop the sitt? Are there not a number of very rich sint maarteners who could do this thing for their own island to preserve the culture?

Does the department of culture not have the obligation to preserve and maintain the cultural monuments that we still have? Every day that passes makes the thing sink deeper in the muck and oblivion, and soon they will be gone beyond recovery. It is my strong conviction that the fort at great bay and the saltruins must be made into tourist attractions. Marigot fort is a well visited stop of tourist tours, the Old House French side shows signs of how to do something for the island. If only I had the money, I would make the saltruins a money making place as there is a great potential in tourist related business there.

Hearing the dreadful news on the international radio waves, I realize how very fortunate we On St. Maarten/Martin are. Earthquakes, floodings, wars, murder and rape trials, ethnic and religious violence, the list is endless. The world has made hell for itself. Man against man in all its ugly forms. Why this is so, I cannot understand. How men have let themselves be so sickly indoctrinated with beliefs in superiority and so blinded as to fight other men, of the same race and country often, anyway, of the same planet, the globe. This silly idea of globalization has until now done nothing to bring peace and understanding to the planet. Neighbors are fighting as never before, weapon production is in full gear and the hate between nations goes on. The primitively is everywhere and civilized behavior is almost unheard, of. Efforts to curb violence are not made, to curb the fabrication of weapons, to educate for love and constructive environment protection, to broaden the minds of the young, none of it. Religions continue to shout their superior position over others, nations continue to reinforce borders. Immigration policies separate poor from rich, exploiting only those  it can use. Disgusting hypocrisies within beliefs, nations and industries are rampant. The USA fabricates *tools for human torture, high voltage stun guns and belts, for export to countries it condemns for human rights abuses... It bans tobacco at home, only to export it to third world countries... It does not want to curb its greenhouse gas emissions; instead it wants other countries to halt the development of the same, so it can continue to emit its overload of co2. Wish I was ignorant of these truths and live in blissful innocence Now I am bothered by the fact that I know at my fellow men are abusing their Own. And there is nothing I can do about it.

Having been a sailor on yachts for 15 years, I have encountered dolphins in the wild, that is: the open sea, often enough. It is a joy and pleasure to see these creatures play under the bow wave, jump and turn. I wish everybody could see it. Then I saw 2 dolphinaria , one in Holland, Harderwijk and the other on La Palma, a Spanish island in the Mediterranean. Wonderful, amazing and unforgettable. Better than lions in a circus, or the elephants and tigers, monkeys, and what have you... However, I hate to see anybody, any animal in captivity. But well, what people do to each other, for small things like stealing, money embezzling and other materialistic abuses is not very different.  Full jails everywhere. Then the poor cows, the pigs and worst of all the fowl. These innocent animals are worse of than all the others together. Prisoners all their lives, they are killed in their prime, to end up on our plates. I hope mr. Graham Crabtree reads this, and please explains to me what is so different In a dolphin from a playing calf in the meadow, a performing tiger in a circus or a chicken in a box, being force fed to be mechanical killed, plucked and put in a freezer. The mentality expressed in the article:  Save the dolphinsÓ, was more against the person who wants to open a dolphin lagoon to let people enjoy these lovely animals than it was to defend the animals itself. Defend them,  by all means, but please also fight for the closing of all zoos, abolishing of animal slavery in circuses and stop ignoring the cows, chickens and other food-chain animals.

They are all our living friends, and all of them are just as endangered as we human animals are. Otherwise the exercise of writing SAVE THE DOLPHINS articles make no

 impact on any rational, logical thinking human being. None. Short sighted people may love to follow the sentimental, emotional subject of just this one air breathing water creature as they will likewise give their signature to save the gold winged butterfly in Mozambique. SAVE THEM ALL, as God spark of life is in all of them.                  

Here is the remedy for the national problem. Most people claim to be nationals of the country they are born in. Others through marriage with one that is born there, others through being there very long. The ones that believe to be born there do so because their birth certificate says so, or  their parents say so. But nobody can be sure. For, let me tell you: nobody, not one living human being remembers consciously where, when and from whom s-/he was born. Nobody remembers the day, the week, the month, not even the year s-/he was born. Neither can the place of birth be remembered. So this outcry: I am right, because I'm born here, is based upon second hand information, documents and family.

Strangely enough, nobody knows this from the heart for sure. The only thing that one can know for sure, is not when and where one is born exactly, but in general, that one is born on planet Earth, one can be sure. We human animals are all born on this here ball of dirt that hurls through space with an incredible speed around the star we call the Sun once a year, and which turns with a speed of  40.000 km per 24 hours around its own axis. There can be no mistake, we are all global citizens, and we better live up to it. It's high time we realize that. Internet calls the world the global village. That now is too much, The world is big. Almost big enough to hold us all. If we continue to multiply as in the last 50 years soon there will be not enough place for us all. With rigorous birth control, intelligent family planning, we may save some degree of comfort for our children, because we are all together on this planet. We must realize that we here, use 12 times more waste than people in Africa, and that their suffering is the indirect result of our wasting. So Let me hear you scream:I am  right, I am born here. When "here" means the Earth. We should scream that all together, no matter where we are born.

Who is the God of Random? It is the God that many St. Maarteners believe in.

Those that buy lottery tickets and numbers, those that visit casinos and and pray that the God of Random will favor them.

Devoutly they look every day first at the page that shows the winning numbers. Eddy Williams announces with his graveyard voice those numbers, more serene than a prayer to the Virgin Mary, every day on the radio. It is so serious that a nationwide industry is built around the worshiping of the God of Random. Worship booths are abundantly placed at every strategic corner of the land, not a mile can you travel without seeing one or other sect represented. At those booths you can pay your offering and sacrifice your contribution so that maybe the God of Random will favor you with money. All over is the God represented? The God of Random voted for me as I could not make up my mind who to vote for. Who of the candidates merits my confidence? If I look at what the politicians have accomplished the last few years, I worry so much that my ulcer starts to play up.

 Here goes: Mullet Bay problem still not solved, road markings not done, no white lines, domestic violence not made a major criminal offense, mareachausee still not invited back to help curb crime, still nothing done at the road over the St.Peter hill straight into Marigot, which would be a real improvement, instead Link One Phase Two, ending up at the same bottleneck down the hill at Cole Bay, where still no roundabout is planned, the sewage still running wild at the Middle Region road, Dutch Quarter area still looking worse than the fourth world, the lagoon still too polluted too swim in it. And more signs of disastrous conduct by politicians.

So I made 23 scraps of paper and numbered them, folded them and put them in a box, shook it well and choose one . Voila, my vote was decided by the God of Random who is so fervently worshipped in this country. This God decides which team starts at international football( soccer) matches when the umpire flips a coin. When on a narrow road two cars face each other and none wants to give way, the God of Random should be asked to decide who should move first, by flipping a coin in the air and catching it, lay it flat down on the other hand. The stubbornness of drivers is ridiculous and childish. The mentality of the people is so immature; one wonders what will become of the country once it is on its own... The God of Random certainly should be worshipped, as only He knows the outcome.

After reading  comment on Sinterklaas and his Black Peters I had a vague feeling that he missed something. He states that black Peter represents everything that is: “ugly, stupid, frightening-  and bad”. They are wrong. Beauty and ugliness are in the eye of the beholder, and in the eyes of black people, a white Peter would be more ugly. Stupid now is another matter. What is so stupid to be in the service of a high official? Sinterklaas is(was) a bishop, a pretty high rank in the hierarchy of the Christian church who was the authority at those times. And still very much is. Frightening,Black Peter is only to those children who misbehave and who do bad things. Black Peters are policemen. And they should be frightening to the bad ones. Bad, I do not see where they gets the idea that Peters are bad. And if he feels that Sinterklaas represents all that is good, his feelings are his own. After my research into past, Nicolaus from Myra on the Mediterranean coast in Turkey, was traveling all along the harbors of the then known seas and helped women and children who had lost husbands and fathers through storms a shipwrecks. He gave the children the presents that they needed or liked on the way, some North African young men came along to help him. No slavery , no stupidness, nothing ugly or frightening. Nothing racist about all this, there is no exploitation, and the black fellows help the old man voluntarily. Here on St. Maarten I often enough see some young black boys help carry a load for an old white man. What is so racist about that?? The only person who can ever know who you are and how you think and how you feel is yourself; do not try to speak for others, as you cannot know what the others see, feel or think.

What I as an observer find very strange is that modern  people walk around with the same Book that the racist slave masters of old had in their hand to justify their doings. The old testament of the Bible makes it look like slavery is a normal and accepted practice, and it was in those days. The very book that brought so much misery to so many, now is in the hands of black people that swear oaths on it and believe it is the One and Only Book. Exodus 21 does not talk about what color a slave has, but it makes a difference what the slave beliefs. If the slave was of the same belief as the authors he(she) only had to suffer 6 years, if not,it was a life sentence. Sinterklaas is of the new faith that Jesus came with. No slave talk there and that his helpers happened to be black was mere coincidence, it was there he traveled where the people had had a bit more sun than in Turkey. Cool down mr. Lake, and check with yourself and with history what the facts are. Black Peters are the upholders of morality, and law. To reward the good and punish the bad. Help where it is needed and do so voluntarily.

Now look here, the road is long and heavy. The cars are made to go fast and comfortable. They are so, and we love it. We go in them everywhere. We go as swift as we can go. We love it. And we pay road tax. To have the road made safe. Not to kill or to get killed. The cars and the roads are not made for that. We have to slow down a bit now and again. When a victim dies from our love of cars, it is a martyr, a saintly dead. A speed bump should be made on the spot where a car, that was not made to kill, and the victim, who was not meant to die, collided. We should slow down for that. Get real. Our cars and roads are not made to kill. Mistake too bad. I vote for a bump at the spot that a life, a precious life was taken, by a car that was not made to kill. To plant a tree alongside the spot, as memorial, with a bump, so that all that pass can reflect a moment on death and the car that he is in. Not made to kill, not meant to die. How sad. Better study the art of dying. Just to be prepared, you never know. And better still, study the art of driving, untill you really know. Those things we should do. With a speedbump well visible, we slow down. For death we must slow down. Always and forever. Respect

And what does the Department of Culture do to promote, expose, cultivate, stimulate culture? The Culture Club, another name of a group of concerned people; doing what? Folklore, old proven ways of doing things, articles for use in and around the house made in a particular way, different from somewhere else, from another culture. Historical cultural sites, rock carvings in caves, from a people long gone, ruins from buildings long out of use. The monuments of culture, we should have some here on Sint Maarten. But nothing is done to preserve them, we are losing out on culture. At our schools the children learn about foreign cultures, classical music from Europe, arts like dance, ballet, statues from the old Roman times, Greek and Egyptian. What does our department of culture do to bring cultural happenings to the island? Invite dance groups, musicians from other cultures, give performances to the young people who are going to be equals with those of same age groups from other countries instead of lagging behind and only know these cultures from books, Video screens and so. How many people work at the department of Culture and what exactly do they do all day? What do they get paid for, sitting in an airco office with computers and telephone? Will they organize street fairs with artists from all over? Or set up a group to preserve the remains of the old salt factory on Arch road? Or an art festival once a year like on other islands. If carnival is the only cultural expression of Sint Maartens people, what do we need a department of culture for??? Does the department keeps a list of all the artists on the island, all the dancers and musicians and painters, does it help them when these people need assistance for expositions, costumes, performances, rooms to exercise, rehearse and the like? The pan club is OK, steel band music is important for the tourists, however, all kinds of music can welcome a visitor. How much money does the department have available, where does it come from and for what is it intended? How much do the people working(?) at the dep. of Culture earn per month/year? What exactly do they do for the citizens of Sint Maarten? What justifies their salary? Let us have some cultural activity, before the IMF closes it down. Which is inevitable as it produces nothing.

It is on the news that the USA is going to step up its defenses with a missile defense shield that would protect it from incoming flying bombs. How that must be accomplished is still not clear as any airplane, disguised as a commercial liner could be used as a missile. Missiles could be fitted out with airline transponders, so defense systems would not see them as weapons. That be as it may, imagine the USA succeeds in making the defense system work. Then it would be able to terrorize, attack or threaten the rest of the world without retaliation possible. Why is the USA so afraid? What has it done in the world that it fears attacks? Something that never reached the news lines? Things that upset other countries with the old fashioned ideas of revanche? Why not pursue a policy of peace, and prosperity instead of war, weapons of destruction and human suffering? Is the USA really of goodwill? Is it not upsetting much of the world by flaunting its wasteful way of wealth? Why must an Indonesian work 8 times longer than an American in order to buy a shirt? Why must someone in Congo go without electric light as war goes on in that country with guns made in the USA? And why does a dog in the USA eats better than a child in Afghanistan? While the USA wants to play global policeman it does not help to equalize global suffering. Hypocritical behavior on smoking as an example: ban it at home, export cigarettes abroad, does not vouch for Americas good intentions. It does not look like the USA is going to change its ways anytime soon, based upon the cowboy mentality of killing the locals and exploit the conquered land. Enormous amounts of money are needed to make an umbrella against foreign missiles, billions of dollars; we better prepare for less tourists coming in the next ten years. It is time Sint Maarten politicians look into starting up some education for the fabrication and production of articles that can be exported instead of only chambermaids, casino dealers ,taxi drivers and waiters. If the producing strong economy of the USA is taken away by its costly defense program and the tourists cannot afford to come anymore, they will still be able to buy articles made in Sint Maarten and brought to them: Guavaberry booze, beautiful paintings of beaches and palm trees, and other things that at present are not yet made but should be in the idea box of government. Think of music, jewelry manufacturing, special tropical jewelry, Caribbean and creole style things that do not yet exist. Think ahead of the storms to come, because the past can teach us nothing, as nothing will be the same, ever.

I accuse the island government of neglect.

Lawmakers, law enforcers, department heads, and all others who fail to do something that they know could help. I accuse the island government of doing serious bodily harm to many people, through neglect. I accuse the commissioner of traffic of incompetence for not improving road safety. I have seen enough blood on the roads. I have heard enough cries for help, seen enough shattered bones, destroyed careers, depleted bank accounts, limping citizens, overworked surgeons and underpaid nurses, hopeless year long dragging court cases, fortunes lost. All through traffic blunders. They call it accidents. It is a form of terrorism, by people who are as uneducated as some governments employees. Accidents do not exist, only acts by unthinking, not looking, intoxicated and sleeping, cell phone using dimwits. Laws against speeding, overtaking, not stopping for pedestrians etc., should be enforced, a thousand times more more than wrong parking laws.  Government got money for Link One Phase Two, they make a road to Cay Bay Industrial area, BUT THEY DON’T PUT WHITE LINES ON OTHER ROADS.  Accidents do not happen. Every mishap is the result of a persons actions. Clearly, the people of Sint Maarten need guidance. The majority does not think. Witness the need for signs that announce fines for littering. Any normal thinking person does not litter, needs no sign every hundred yards. On Sint Maarten it is needed. The common man needs signs, guidance, a yellow line to wait behind, ropes to form orderly lines in post office, airline check in counter and bank. Otherwise the man of ordinary wit makes blunders, fights, gets hurt. He needs to be protected against himself . It is governments responsibility to protect its people, also on the countries roads, WITH CLEAR MARKINGS AND SIGNS. We have laws against maiming, hurting and killing each other with guns and fights and drugs and domestic violence. But hardly at all with cars. Those persons responsible for road safety seem to have no logic, do not objectively observe clear facts, have not the brainpower to see the relation between our hospitals financial burden and traffic accidents.

 WITH IMPROVED ROAD SAFETY, HOSPITAL COSTS WILL GO DOWN..

 Who can ignore that? The greatest calamity is that the responsible people do nothing, see nothing, feel nothing, say nothing. Our roads invite trouble.

 When asked why no white lines, the commissioner for traffic answered that his paint is not good and does not stay. My reply to paint again and again just like the grass on roadsides is cut again and again was not answered. That we could get good paint from the French side, or Holland, not answered.  The cost of road signs and markings is not as much as the cost of caring for traffic victims.  Death is not a problem, the deceased is gone, suffers no more. It is the wounded victims that claim the surgeons time and fill hospital beds. The problem is for the family, the hospital, nurses, the doctors, lawyers, employers.  When I drive past the SMMC I hear the cries, when I am at the other end of the island I hear them , when I fly over the ocean to Europe, I hear them still, those that suffer the loss of a limb, an arm, half a face, an eye, a finger. All from the stupid moves some ignorant persons do in traffic.

 Because there are no signs to guide the ignorant, to show who has right of way, no white lines to indicate where to stop, there are not enough lights, no side walks, not enough bumps...... North of here, the French part is cleaner, clearer, safer, brighter, well kept, civilized, NORMAL, an example of how it should be........

Murder, violent encounters resulting in serious bodily harm for the victim, and/or loss of income, transport and use of bodily functions are punishable crimes. Or are they??? In certain cases they are but if these things happen between traffic partners they are not.

Hit by a car, driven by an angry or depressed or careless driver goes unpunished. No matter how many victims roll bleeding on trolleys into the hospital, laws to curb these road crimes are not in place. Doctors tend to traffic victims more than to any other sickness in hospitals and all that because the perpetrators who put these people in  hospital are innocent as the law decides. I say Bull Shit, nobody who hurts another human being is innocent. How can I make this known to the lawmakers? By what norm do these lawmakers judge? If a crime happens in anger, or in sudden instinctive action, or through stupidness, or in innocence, the victim does not care. The victim has to cope with a lame leg, or a blind eye or a missing hand and the perpetrator is guilty, no matter if he did it on purpose, through carelessness, through stupidness or whatever.

Ignorance of a law does not mean that that law does not apply to you. Ignorance in traffic means to my thinking not that one can hit someone and get away with it. If you run a red light and you say sorry, you still get a fine. If you hit someone with your car, maim him, hurt him, or whatever, and you say sorry, you go free... Why is that???

As a victim of a traffic hit by a careless driver I am now waiting over 6 month for justice. Costs that I cannot bear, troubles, handicap and nerves, under medication , not so much now for physical pain any more, that lasted only three month, but now for mental agony, because I am going mad. Want to kill myself instead of waiting for justice that seems to be non existent. This is maybe the 6th or 7 th letter I write on this subject. I wish it was the last. Having debts to friends, landlord and doctors, hospital, why should I continue? Angry that the man who hit me did not kill me. That would have been the end of my troubles. But no, I have to talk to my lawyer, ask for free court procedures~ -- as all my savings are gone. And take medication so as to stay functional and not become mighty mad at the person who did this to me, or go look for him, to take revenge, as the old testament advises me. why do we have laws??? I would think to keep the citizens in a kind of morally acceptable way of conduct. But in traffic any citizen can misbehave and abuse any other participant to the full. Morals are not taken into consideration and I wonder what my lifelong honesty and morality have brought me. Is it not time for me now to go out and steal a car, drive it like mad, send a few pedestrians into hospital with injuries as it does not get punished anyway? Stealing a car is called joy riding, hitting anyone (without intent) is not punishable. And any- way, if I should get jail time, by writing some articles in the Herald I will get freed sooner, as we all have learned from the famous shoplifter who gets praise from the judge for his public writings and confessing that he is a thief. I should have built up a buffer allowing me to steal me rich unpunished after all the articles I wrote. Cultivating crime is what I call it and it makes me sicker than I was already from the hit I got on the 2nd of December.'99. And this is the truth, so help me God.

Green, clean green, straight green, bright green, organized green, clear green, light green, dark green, gray green, soft green, red green, deep green. Holland is so very clean. Red, white, and blue are the flag, topped with orange for the Queens mother birthday, the day after I arrived, 30 of April 2002.

As long time resident of Sint Maarten, I send you my first report from Holland where I seek funding to open a school in Sint Maarten.

Even the garbage bins are green, unobtrusive, inconspicuous and not out of harmony with the environment, wherever there is a house or a dwelling. There is no visible garbage anywhere. No empty bottles, plastic bags or fast food paper plates and cups. This is the first impression after the overwhelming greenness. The filth and garbage of Sint Maarten is not here. Praise the Dutch! They have found the solution for a healthy and clean environment.

It works as follows: Garbage is separated by the people who make it, and goes in designated bins, green glass in one, and brown glass and transparent glass each in different small containers that stand at places where everybody can easily reach them. Paper in another, as well as plastic. In the bin one has in front of the house goes mixed household garbage. Biological offal, food rests etc. can be put in the compost bins in certain areas, for those who produce that, restaurants, food producers. On the street bins, the private bins, a label with dots, like an enlarged braille letter, is stuck. That label contains information of ownership and is read by the computer that is part of the truck which collect garbage. It knows whose bin it is and it weighs the bin before and after emptying. It calculates the price one pays for the garbage collection... One pays for every kilo of collected garbage 25 Euro cent.

For wood, construction garbage and old furniture one pays 18.- Euro per cubic meter. One can bring it to the dump or for a fee, have a truck come for it. Disposal of broken electrical equipment, iron and paper is free.

Here you have it, the garbage story of how a rich country makes itself richer. I tell you how it works, now you act on it.

As long as Sint Maarten does not educate its uncaring population to take care of its garbage, there is little hope that it will get help from Dutch politicians who come and see. The filth, the carelessness and the total neglect for the countryside works as a psychological detriment upon those who could dispense of funds. Why should one give help to people who do not care for their own place? What would you do for someone who makes a mess and then comes to ask you for help? WouldnÕt you say to first clean up your act before giving anything? First let people do what they can do them self, before giving help with what they cannot do.

Why not separate garbage, and make on the dump certain places for different sorts of filth? Glass to the left, electrical stuff to the right, paper in the middle. Once you have a great heap, recycling companies will ship the loads away. Compress car wrecks, and let the owner of the wreck pay for it. Containers can be filled with paper for recycling. Make the people who make filth pay for the removal of it. Why continue to ignore that what must one day lead to shame, health problems and loss of tourism, toxic residues that kill plants and animals? A Herculean task, but one that will reap great rewards. The very agreeable cleanliness of Holland is something that looks unreal and impossible to me coming from the dirty roadsides where the empty bottles lay as far as they will fly from a open car window. After a bush fire, all that is exposed and it looks so poor. It looks so sick. It is the result of sick minds in stupid heads of people who have no love for their own country. Who do not deserve help or assistance, and who Holland officials certainly will not give autonomy to start on its own. A people who shows no love for its own environment is surely not ready to go on its own. I understand better now why Holland is so against Sint Maarten leaving the Netherlands Antilles, it is still in the baby state of mind, it is not yet house-clean. It still is a baby, and first needs to grow up a little more.

I am tired of trying to give ideas, to give advice, to point out  errors, to ask for betterment. I will stop writing to my beloved readers. Because nothing is done about my ideas.  I do not ask God for help, I do not pray to some invisible power, I ask the men in charge to do their job. Read here the incomplete list of  things that are not done.......

No white lines on the roads, no pavements for pedestrians, no cleanliness in the ghettos of Middle Region, Dutch Quarter and Cay Bay. No garbage bins in the ghettos, no better behavior by young police men. Nothing done about the abandoned hotel at Upper Princess Quarter. Or at the salt crushing ruins at Arch road. Still no solution on Mullet Bay Resort. No local industries, no schools for young artists, jewelry repairing or making, no souvenir manufacturing, no schools for teaching  tourist guiding, no high level service teaching. No road over the St. Peter hill straight to Marigot. No garbage recycling bins like on the French side. No stop on free plastic shopping bags that pollute the environment seriously. No refunds on bottles. Do the people in power never travel to civilized countries? And if they do, are they blind to see how things are done there? Are we governed by blind and deaf mental cripples? And most annoying, still no education towards inner development, instead churches full of ignorance and lies. Church leaders, priests and others, are under investigation everywhere in the world for child sex abuse. They should also be under investigation for keeping the people ignorant about the truth of God. Real teaching of how to reach enlightenment, spiritual liberation, would lead the real world to become a better place. Then, the plea some weeks ago in the newspaper by the craft producers did not get answered by the governing powers, who seem not to be interested at all. The whole island economy and spirituality is in a pitiful  mess. What I can see and understand is that the people who should take care are not competent. Resulting in the economic stranglehold that the tourist industry has over this island.  The political ignorance  and ill will of not wanting to be full member and part of Holland, without different laws, just like a county, a province, a part like every other town and place, has brought about the poverty and dirty roads and lack of social  assistance that we enjoy now. How blind can people be not to see the prosperity and civility of the French side that is a normal part of France, and the ugliness of our roads and dirty shambles in our shanty town ghettos that are locally ruled. Time for a change, but as the good artist Michael Jackson sings: “they don’t really care about us.” Us being all people that are not in the Antillean Governments pay. Imagine the tourist say:  “How pretty , the dirt road leading to the old wooden shacks, how outlandish, no sewage under ground, it runs over the roads, what an attraction, see the poverty and the empty bottles, how different from home.”

 Dear readers, it makes no sense to write about the things that everyone can see. It makes no sense to write for the blind.  Those that are in power and do nothing about the ugly  reality in the ghettos and everywhere else, once they leave this life of opulence, squandering and neglect, I hope they will see their errors. Only then it will be too late.  Have a nice day.

Always on the lookout for a piece of spicy information I found our friendly island mentioned in the Playboy Magazine of this month. I quote Jeffrey Robinson from his story: “The Terrorist Dollar”. On page 74 third column:  “Russian gangsters for example, regularly huddle with Colombians in the islands of the Caribbean. Aruba, St.Vincent and Antigua are the usual venues, but the Dutch section of St.Martin has become popular in recent years. Russian mobsters and Colombian traffickers sail together on cruise ships out of those ports.” Mr. Robinson may have his information from the bellhops in the hotels where these people stay, who knows? I did enjoy the Russian ballet dancers show a few month ago, is there any connection or is it just coincidence? Money smells good, so who cares who brings it? I'm waiting for a Colombian ballet group, see if they dance as good as the Russians... And although I said it once before, I say it here once more: as long as the governments do not make drugs legal, sell them in pharmacies, under medical control, taxed and accounted for, it is those same governments that create the criminals that now do the business that could be in the hands of legal and taxpaying companies. The people that use drugs are not going to stop using them, no matter what. It is the governments that are creating the criminals that they fight hands and teeth, in a war that is totally ridiculous and brings shame to any well thinking citizen who sees that 30 years of war on drugs has not diminished the trade with one percent. The comic strip Doonesbury had its main character say this: “Why are we at war with a nonaddictive drug that kills nobody when we tolerate an addictive drug like tobacco that has slaughtered millions?”

 You tell me; why the war on marijuana users is a most irrational social policy, with only Holland openly defying the USA policy, while the rest of Europe is awakening to the truth. when will St.Maarten/St.Martin grow up mentally and also allow its youth to use a nonaddictive drug that never has killed anybody? Instead of letting tobacco advertisements openly be displayed everywhere?

Imagine the Netherlands Antilles highly developed and prosperous. All systems under control, taxes pay for roads, education, and all the rest, sewage, bridges, airports, harbors, everything.  All people are working and rich. There comes a bunch of Dutch poor slum dwellers, unschooled youngsters, jobless boys and men. Not just a few, but hundreds. At first the island government finds lodgings, shelters, housing, and helps them to get free money to buy food, clothes, shoes... These guys do not know how to play domino, they do not find the way to Campo Allegro, they have no money for the dozens of casinos, they do not know how to grill a chicken leg... with other words: they are lost. Then they get some crack forwarded from a dealer to sell, to make a dollar, because there is nothing else they can do. After a while these Dutch young get power on the islands, they get weapons, they get dominance over certain areas and they wage little wars. Blood flows, arrests are made, many end up in Point Blanche prison and in Koraal Specht. The jails are full, and every day more young jobless Dutch arrive by the planeload. Imagine, our prosperous islands under attack from Holland, and nothing can be done: when the politicians impose - a study course to to teach them domino and steel pan and salsa and rib grilling, the Dutch protest: Discrimination.’ When the familiarization course shows the young how to play Black Jack and pull the One Armed bandit, when they get to learn how to sex a young woman from Santo Domingo in max 20 minutes, the Dutch scream: Racism! And when the Dutch girls learn how to walk the catwalk for the next Miss Contest, the Dutch call the islanders traitors! How good is it to have prevented this scenario from playing itself out Dutch were, thank God, never allowed on the islands, only last year, or this year recently do the Dutch get a little easier entry, if they ask; but without getting permits to work...Happy New Year Dutch passport holders, welcome home.

The following story relates to the final solution for our problem with aliens, undesirables, unwanted foreigners and illegal’s: for 2001, follow the advice of an old gardener:

A certain person decided to start a flower garden. He prepared the soil and planted the seeds of many beautiful flowers. But when they came up his garden was not filled just with his chosen flowers, but also overrun with dandelions. He sought out advice from gardeners all over and tried every method known to get rid of them, but to no avail. Finally he walked all the way to the capital of the country to speak to the royal gardener of the King's palace. This wise old man had counseled many gardeners before and suggested a variety of remedies to expel the dandelions, but our person had tried them all. They sat together in silence for some time and finally the gardener looked at our person and said: "Well, then I suggest you learn to love them."

The helicopter is a nuisance. People asked me to write what follows here. There is anger under the population about the flying thing. One lady who has made herself a private sunbathing spot and walled in her poolside was angered by the helicopter hanging right over her looking at her as she covered her modesty. She feels her privacy infringed upon. The children from St. Peters school got the scare of their life on Monday when the helicopter hang for one whole hour over their school and came so low that they had to run away from the blast.

Another man told me that he feels that he cannot park his car, which is one of a kind, behind the place of his secret lover no more. Other guys told me that they do not want their car to be seen parked at certain clubs. Another said it was OK with him, when he wants to shoot his neighbors' dog, he will do it when the noise maker comes, and nobody will hear the shot. Again another, this one a professional pilot himself, tells me that the eye in the sky costs 500 dollar per hour. It is 5 hours in operation per day. And every 100 hours it needs servicing at considerable cost as well. The young inexperienced pilots, perverts as the lady from the beginning of the story can confirm, are just making hours to build up the amount they need for a commercial license.

The economist in the group sees no other explanation than that the police must have sold confiscated drugs in order to pay 2500 dollars per day for this thing. The tourist gets the impression that more crime happens here than in Miami were there are no helicopters sweeping Overhead all day. He was saying that this was the last time he came this way o In plain English: the thing is very bad for tourism. And when it hangs in a valley, the sound reverberates double loud and keeps those who need their siesta from sleeping. These were the things I overheard lately from just a few people.

I myself say that the helicopter can be useful in case a car chase is in progress. And if rentals have their numbers painted on the roof in big letters, stolen cars can be found back from the sky. For the rest that flying eye should stay out of the beautiful Sint Maarten sky. What good has it done so far? Nothing anybody could think of. On behalf of the people that I heard, I ask the head of police Mr. Richards to explain the benefit against the damage the helicopter does. And have it grounded until it can be of help.

On the night of 24 September I got robbed in my own house by two masked men, armed with a gun and a machete around midnight. Bound hand and feet, after they left, I could free my feet later and get to the neighbors who freed my hands and called the police, who came, but not immediately, 40 minutes later. There is no distance on this island greater than 20 minutes. However, the two officers saw the mess the gangsters left behind and the next day I filed a report. Although i knew and gave to tne Detectives the name of the female accomplice who was scheduled to fly out of the country 2 days later, she was not stopped for interrogation. On the night of 20 October a car, Daihatsu Feroza (6146 ZA 971) pulled up behind my house at 11pm and when I went out to see, it turned and sped away. I followed with the car of Linda which I used that day. It went dangerously fast, overtaking every car in front, and I only got close at the Texaco gas station where I saw the two occupants. One with a slight moustache, both light brown complexion both under thirty years of age. On the front window of the car was the word "DEATHROW ' in huge letters. That same night at 12:30 that car came up my drive again. I then called the police who would send a patrol car to investigate. The Feroza left as soon as I had put on lights in order to use the telephone. This Sunday morning at 4:30 the same Feroza drove up my road again, and parked a small distance away. I saw it put its lights off standing there. I called 542 2222. No one picked up the phone at the police station. I tried 911. No one answered that number. I tried 5 times both numbers, while the Feroza stood there menacing, waiting. I put as little light as possible. Then I called 5426001 the fire department. Someone answered the phone at once. I explained the situation. The fireman said he would run over to the police station in order to find out why they did not answer. That made me wait in Lear. I called the ambulance department on 542 2211. Mr. Hamilton answered the phone at once. After explainingthe situation he raised the police station on his wireless, the communication system amongst the emergency services. After he spoke to the police he told me to call 911 again. And yes, I then got a policeman on the line. By then the Feroza car slowly drove down my road.

The Occupants had seen me put on the lights and knew I was awake. The police man told me that he was all alone, no patrol car was on the road, two colleges had reported sick, there was nobody to help. It was a night for gangsters, police is simply not here. I then asked if I could get permission to have a gun; I must be able to defend myself. It is not allowed for a citizen to own a gun, however, in a case like mine, it is better to be alive in jail for shooting a gangster than to be dead and robbed by the same. I ask our head of police governor Richards to beef up his force. As it is now it is a gangster’s paradise.

The title is from the first story that Simmel ever wrote. It is a heartwarming story that brings honor to those good people that manage to make a park from a garbage heap. It is easy to destroy, to pollute, to litter. But to restore, to cultivate and to create is another story. The few people that plant seeds, that water seedlings and protect young bushes with supports and tender care, they are the ones that I play the fanfare for. To garden makes one a better person  There where now is bare earth, brown grass and dull green grub can be colorful flowers and fruitrees, pumpkin and lemon grass.

Respect to the man who bends down and touches the earth and makes the plants grow. The bananas the palm trees, they only need a kind word in passing, and they will give of their fruits indiscrimatory to whoever is hungry. Let the plant world be our guide in living our  life. See the tree, it does not go anywhere but with its roots goes down to find water and with its head goes up to find the heavens. It does not get angry when something goes wrong , it waits patiently. All it wants to do is give. To grow its fruits and give. The tree dances in the wind or stands quietly awaiting the rain. And all it wants to do is give. The plantworld is the source of food for all others. All animals that eat other animals eat plants. How strong is the bull, from eating grass., how swift the antelopes that eats but grass. Be like a plant, powerful and patient, and the agony of the ratrace will disappear from you. The plantworld is not the lowest on the scale of evolution, it is the highest. Exactly because it does not fight, it does not destroy; it is the highest form of development. It was first in its most simple and primitive form, from wich all the other life forms developed. Is it then not the most high? To be that from which all else comes?

Without it no animal or human would ever have come on this planet. So, hail to people that care for plants, that plant them where ever they can. If politicians and penpushers and those that race around all day would give a little more attention to the plants,oh how wonderfull would Sint Maarten be. To make this place green and colorful is possible. Carefull water management, not much else is required. Think: does not most if not all medicine comes from the plantworld? All food, direct or indirect? And if you cannot paint or sculpt, or sing or create anything or if you are a servant, you can always plant a seed, plant a tree that will be still there when you yourself is long gone. To do something for your country, for those that come after you, plant a tree. Remember the ancient Chinese saying: If you want to be happy for a day, roast a pig, if you want to be happy for a week, get new clothes, if you want to be happy for a year, get a new lover, if you want to be happy for the rest of your life, start a garden.

Boelie van Leenwen wrote it already long ago: The respect one gets on the islands depends on the amount of money you have managed to steal. This old-fashioned pirate mentality does still exists. Also here on Sint Maarten. In the Simpson Bay area is a person who steals, robs, swindles and fools people out of anything possible. His name is Richard Lissenberg. He is what doctors call a sociopath. He starts out very helpful, friendly, ever so active. He will run errands, fix a broken fence or waterpipe. He will lie to you about his past and cover one lie with the next. He will become so friendly with you and your family that when the day comes that you ask him to take some money to pay the electricity and water bill and he does not return, you don't know how to explain it to your wife and kids. Richard has fooled such a number of people in the Philipsburg area that he cannot show his face there any more. I know of some people who would do him physical harm if they would run into him. If I would have the mind for it I would happily brake him an arm myself. And make him suffer. He owes me 700 dollar for about ten years now. How he has abused my trust and friendship is more than disgusting. The money he took from people that owed me, and the rent for the place I let him for three month he never repaid. He is sick in the sense that he has the old pirate mentality, as a few politicians and commissioners or former commissioners still have. Rob, steal, plunder and pillage as much as you can, he who has most wins most respect. Society can do without these rotten apples and it is a shame that the police cannot act to lock these evil persons away. Because they never have anything written down, whatever money they manage to take from someone is cash, and any trusting person does not suspect Richard to be so rotten as to take off with your fridge, deep fryer or other tool, household item or jewelry. The word con-artist comes from the word confidence. You start out trusting the man so much that he creates the situation where you see him go with your valuables before you realize that it is so. Be warned for this particular One, a warned man counts double.                  

It is with great awe that I contemplate the power of our prosecutor, the honorable Mr. Merkx. That what I could not do with letters to the newspaper, with many telephone calls to various departments at the government, he did with one short call. His seems to be the only true power in Sint Maarten. And this for a most banal situation which should not have to be addressed by our crime fighter nr.1 at all. The department of hygiene workers admitted to me, by phone, that they drove through the sewage water every day. Still they did do nothing. Spoken to the Department of Public works, I found that they too knew about the stinking sewage water running over Suckergarden Road. Still they did nothing. It upset me time and again to have to get the spray of dirt on my car, and in the old days on my legs when I still drove a motorbike. It made me so mad that I wrote: All men are equal for the law, lastly in this very newspaper. And when that had no effect, went with it to Mr. Merkx. It is after all a crime to dispose of garbage and sewage on the public roads...Mister Merkx solved the problem with one telephone call. Praise to him, and shame on the people who should have acted when I pointed out the filth and public health hazard to them. But this is how our government works, and I must realize that it is serious neglecting its duties and still collecting a fat salary. Higher supervision from Holland must continue, in order to show these people that they are supposed to do their jobs, instead of squandering time and money. The word of a honest citizen should be enough. The prosecutor has more important things to do than to point out to government workers to do their job. Thank you Mr. Merkx, and sorry to have bothered you for this. The dirty water now runs through a pipe under the road, straight into the pond so that it may contaminate unseen the whole Salt Pond.

Those famous or infamous 500 kilos of drugs. Confiscated before the eights month of the year is out. The criminals that lost them, who worked hard to get them so far, who       maybe planned to lose them, in order to get 5000 kilos through. The money the 500 kilos are worth is enough to pay for the needed police cars, for the much needed alcohol test kits, for the road safety, signs, markings, etc. Legalize it and sell it to those who buy it right flow anyway. 500 kilo stopped, 5,000 through. In order to stop it all it must be legalized. Take it away from the crooks. Take it in the governments distribution system, coffee shops for the ganja, marijuana, cannabis, hashish. Pharmacies for cocaine and heroine and crack. To be sold on doctors prescription only. Set a fair price and be done with it. The foolish behavior of the law at present makes perfectly honest people criminals and makes perfect4bad criminals rich. It drains enormous energy from the police, justice system and prisons, gives a wrong image to the youth and does not prevent the use at all, although the present law was designed to halt drug use. There was a time that alcohol was banned in the USA. Canada’s Seagram made its fortune by shipping alcohol to the US. Bonny and Clyde were the famous criminals that drank whisky in teacups and killed opponents in spectacular shootouts. The alcohol ban had to be reversed and Liquor became government taxed and controlled. Today the same is happening with drugs. Criminals are ripping each other off, even shootings and killings take place right here on our small friendly island. Because drugs are wanted. For various illnesses and conditions that are not described as such. Ask a cannabis user what exactly it does for him. He will hardly be able to tell you. A good feeling is as accurate as he can go. Years of criminalizing it has made part of the populati6n believe that it is bad. Bad for health, brain, society, work and what not. If it was, Europe would not legalize it. Holland would have stopped the use in coffeehouses long ago Lf it was so dangerous. No matter tat all is said against Holland, it has a prosperity second to none, educational Institutes that churn out doctors, economists, chemists and engineers by the scores. It is a small country that with a population of 15 million can compete with countries many times its size. Its drug policy is been followed by Switzer—Land, England, Portugal, Spain and Italy. The two biggest countries, Germany and France take a little longer but cannot continue to fight what others legalize . Canada, like in the time of the alcohol ban, now supplying the US with marijuana, is estimated making 4 billion dollars a year of the illegal  trade (see Time, 20 August 2001) Prime minister Patterson from Jamaica has explained to Washington that his country is now nbr 1 going to legalize ganja, regardless of the USA’s stubborn continuation of the unwinnable war. There is St. Maarten in the picture of international politics on drugs? Why do we not hear a word from our elected politicians on the subject, are they too busy quarreling over the separate status? That way they lose the chance to be the second prime destiny in the Caribbean after Jamaica is going to be lost. Our economy does not seem the priority with the politicians to have the power to condone the use of cannabis as they condoned the selling of sex in brothels.

It is now that I write my book that I realize that the Traffic Department does not give a damn to put white lines on the roads as it can then take less money for its own scams and Holland will anyhow finally pay for the hospital when that institution will be on the verge of collapsing... In my ignorance I didn't know that then.

How much money is saved by not putting white lines on roads? Versus how much money is lost by hospital costs for those who get into accidents because of the missing white lines??? Myself is only one case. My hospital cost was close to twenty thousand dollars. How many white lines can the department of traffic paint for that amount? The cost of being crippled for life can not be expressed in dollars. The punishment for the person who hit me is out of proportion with the pain he caused me, and causes me every day. This letter is a plea for white lines. For all those future potential victims that can be prevented. I pray for white lines on our roads. And I urge all readers to contact our department of traffic, commissioner Ferrier, and ask for white lines on our roads.

Please Mr. Ferrier, can we get white lines now? On the bridge, in front of Royal Palm, on the Oyster Pond road, under the traffic lights at town, there we have them clear and well. And the quality is good. Those lines should be everywhere. The difference with the French side is so clear, that it is no wonder all the tourists go there, when asked, they tell me the driving is safer French side, why risk an accident here where you can't see the roads limits, especially at night. So, please sent your letter, or fax to the government building, traffic department, attention Mr. Ferrier and ask for white lines on our roads. You may add that your road tax is paid and you would like to see the roads safe. Money is spent on signs like the overdone unneeded sign at the Hendriksstraat. That is a right-out laughing matter to tourists. At the corner of Backstreet and Hendrikstraat is a red round shield with a white horizontal bar. Everyone knows what that means. Then is under there a plaque with the text: No Entry, Oncoming Traffic, One Way. That is so overdone, not needed, ridiculous, as the red round sign with white horizontal bar says it all. Why 3 times extra there, but no white lines? And why must men cut grass along the road where the grass does not at all obstruct the view, does not impede the traffic at all? At places where there are no white lines the grass is maybe cut so the victims of the next accident can be put on the side of the road easily. Let your pen express your disgust at the present situation, and ask for it. Make your government work for you. That is what they promised in election time. Now make then hold their word. Towards a better Sint Maarten.

On Tuesday , 28 august 2001 the Daily Herald was the only paper to report on Prime Minister Patterson's visit to Washington. A report of a commission of inquiry in Jamaica has come to the same conclusions as so many  European countries . Ganja, cannabis, marijuana should be legalized. Patterson finds the recommendations of the commission very persuasive and this autumn his government will make changes within the law.

The USA sees decriminalization incompatible with the 1988  U.N. convention on drugs. And is already threatening Jamaica's  status under the certification process. While the USA ignores ballistic treaties, the Kyoto Protocol, and lately the conference on racism, and the International Criminal Court of Justice as well. I wonder how it dares to point the finger to other countries when itself acts without the consent of the rest of the world. Canada from the north is legalizing cannabis, Jamaica from the south. The classical pincher movement is being executed here, with the USA in the middle.

Sint Maarten should take its place between the modern thinking nations. To show that it has an independent meaning and a strength that defies the bully in the north. The economic benefit of legalizing cannabis, as long as the USA does not, will be enormous. That is why Patterson is not intimidated  by the threat of the USA. He dares to stand up for his views.

Anybody in St. Maarten has the guts? Or are our leaders only followers of the USA ? To keep the drug trade in the hands of the criminal organizations it has to stay illegal. The USA is right now part of the criminals that make millions of dollars that stay out of the tax collectors plans.

Does St. Maarten depend on U.S. financial aid? If not, there is nothing to fear from legalizing pot right here. And I also dare to say that I am against USA military bases on Curacao, that will draw the Netherlands Antilles in the lost war against small farmers that supply the basic materials for the cocaine that the American population is eager to receive. If the USA cannot stem the demand, it should not abuse small countries like Curacao to continue its outdated military approach. The great Kemel Ataturk said many years ago: "Order at home, order in the country, order in the world", in that order.

That Curacao can lend itself to be part of the war that looks much like the lost Vietnam war is unacceptable. Status Aparte, lets quickly disassociate ourselves from such troublesome policies.

It is a known fact that white people in the US use 9 times more cocaine then black people. Still blacks are imprisoned 13 times more then whites for the same offense. Racism is a terrible truth in the USA. Should we not disassociate ourselves from such a blatant abuse of human right and dignity?

Legalize, control, educate, instead of prosecute, lock up and punish. Drugs do not go away, They are here to stay. As peoples prosperity grows, they feel entitled to also enjoy good feelings. Money and a big car do not give satisfaction in the long run. They are part of the material world. Drugs give the inner experience, is what men are looking for. No religion, no laws or police , nothing can stop men from trying drugs that gods plants provide. War is stupid. Violence is lack of intelligence, education is the key to understanding and eventually growing over and above the danger of drugs.

Magazine Time, August 20. An article in it explains how much of the continent has decriminalized cannabis. How much time the police can now spend on serious crime. How the drug use in general has dropped over the last decade. How in the UK plans are in the make to sell cannabis in licensed shops for off-premise use, just like liquor, health warnings and all. It will be procured from licensed growers. It will hurt drug syndicates and help make dope simply boring. The same reasons the Swiss gave for a new law that permits the legal production of marijuana for residents use. The United States policy is not likely to change soon, as it is anchored in legal battles, privatized prison industry, a surplus of lawyers and a justice system that needs as many clients and victims as possible. Canada, though, has a more open vision and there the cannabis is soon to be decriminalized. Former Prime Minister Joe Clark, now leader of the opposition conservatives, is all for it, just like the Canadian Bar Association, The Royal Mounted Police and more. It is estimated that 150.000 people harvest 4 billion dollars a year from the marijuana trade from Canada to strict anti-dope USA. Plans are drawn up to open coffee shops, Holland style, along the border, proffering high-quality weed to go in vacuum sealed bags.

Jamaica has been told by a spokesperson from the American embassy that the USA is not happy with the local ideas to legalize pot. The European reality is likely to have more influence on Jamaica then the United States prison policy- Respect for personal freedom seems to be non existent in the USA. As the drug trade is now in the hands of criminal drug syndicates and the legalizing will take it away from them, it is the criminals that scream foul. They will see their livelihood go in no time when the governments take over supplying citizens legally priced quality weed. One wonders why the USA holds on the invincible struggle, refusing its people the substance that they ask for. As the demand for drugs is there, nothing will stop it from coming.

Smart governments take the drug trade in their own hands, warnings, taxes, controls and all. When will the Executive Council condone the use of cannabis officially on St. Maarten, as it has done with prostitution, so that locals and visitors can smoke their spliff in the knowledge that they are no part of the crime, American style here on Holiday Island?

Friendly Island, friendly people, friendly laws. Isn't that what the tourists come for?

The USA in recession, the Euro is gaining power; European politics are showing the world that Holland’s example of 25 years of tolerance was the right way to go. Now we wait to see when our politicians admit that they are informed and act in harmony with modern times.

It is troublesome to read in our only other newspaper the name of St. Maarten written Saint Martin, as if the official name change has taken place already. Saint Martin is used in the TODAY newspaper all the time, as if our part of the island is the same as the French colony north of here. Ours, for the greatest part self-governed, is totally different from the colonial northern part. It is very regrettable that for the future independent island a name has not been chosen that is different from both names used at present. Neither French nor Dutch would have been the best. Saint Maarten for instance. So that when the north has freed itself from the stranglehold of colonial France it can also do away with the old name and adapt to the new one. If a name change brings about a real change in people's perception of their position in the scheme of things, the name Saint Martin is the worst possible alternative. It makes one think that colonial France's policy has descended over our almost free country, now that its name is the same. Is it too late to wake up the dreamers that have adopted the French/English version for our country that is neither French nor English? Or do those that are awakened have to put up with the sleeping crowd and accept the errors they made in their dreams?

No flags fly halfmast, no mourning at island level. Oh no. That’s for when the far away Queen dies, or her first minister maybe, or some soldiers that died fifty years ago, far away. But when about 30 persons die right here, close by, on the doorstep so to say, not a word. 'Sorry' says the island boss, 'It can not be helped.'

However, the tightening of the immigration laws not only here, but in every wealthy country, is the reason for more poor people trying to get out of poverty.

Respect is what people crave, respect and dignity, for death comes to all , it should not be wiped under the carpet as if it is not important. One day of mourning should be observed, or at least one minute silence for every person that died in the battle to try to survive. The war here is not with guns and bombs, but with hourly wages and visa. Respect for the poor who make the walls of the houses that the rich live in. Those workers that make this world so full of goods, luxuries and commodities themselves live in shacks, with unpaved roads and no sewage. Also here on prosperous Sint Maarten. Go see Cay Hill ghetto, Middle region and Dutch Quarter ghettos, no roads, no sewage. There live the people that seek education, relief of centuries of suppression of the rich and powerful. It is them that died on their search for a better life. Remember them, when you hear of brotherly love from the pulpit, remember them.

Bless the day we be free of streetdogs. Bless the day the department of hygiene, Public Health and Public Works employ a dog catching unit. Bless the day we see no more garbage strewn around collection points. Bless the day the hairless flea infested tick covered skinny eyesores are gone. Bless the day when all loving dogowners keep their dogs inside their property. Bless the day when all dogowners have to register their dogs and pay tax on them, have them tagged and vaccinated. God bless the dog who has a good master. Nothing is as miserable as a dog alone, dogs are natural cowards and bark only out of fear. They attack always from behind a person, and in packs. They always look for food or they sleep. They are useful as flea catchers and tick gatherers, because a flea prefers a dog over a human, dogs put their noses in any kind of dirt, rotten fish, horse manure and roll in it if possible. Dogs shit indiscriminately wherever people must pass. Bless the day all owners keep their dogs on leash when outside. Bless the man who loves his neighbour more than his dog. As is the man so is his dog. Throw it to the dogs, but let sleeping dogs lie.

Only eight percent of people working in Front and Back Streets are of Antillean origin, research conducted into the labour situation in St. Maarten has uncovered. An eight-page report on the research and its findings, a copy of which The Daily Herald has been able to obtain, pointed to what was referred to as an anti-local employment tendency, with a 17.3 per cent unemployment rate and most of the employed being foreigners. The Island Government's Welfare, and Labour Department described the situation as “unacceptable. The current immigration policy is being exploited to import cheap labour. A popular supermarket, for instance, has 24 employees, 12 of whom are managers. That is one manager per employee. That is possible, due to the immigration policies the department wrote. It explained that, as companies claim they can't find local people to employ, they request work permits for managers. (It is common knowledge that requests for work permits for lower-level employees are not likely to be approved). That is why today there is eight per cent local employment in Front and Back Street and why 45 per cent of the remaining 92 percent foreign employees are managers. That is unacceptable, it stated. It also mentioned situations where jewelers have six employees, four of whom are gemologists and none of whom is an Antillean; of a security company with 62 employees, three of whom are Antilleans and 54 of whom are foreigners without work and residence permits. These companies still received permits to employ foreign workers. Why? Because there were no locals available. Companies send for cheap employees and train them to do jobs for which locals could also be trained. Local workers are just too expensive, the report stated. The report contended that St. Maarten has developed in "anti-local" employment tendency which only dupes locals. "Employers (foreign and local) claim that local workers are inexperienced, lazy, untrustworthy and aggressive," the report stated. This, it added, has created a tendency which keeps local people from finding jobs. It has also resulted in an increase in requests for financial support and an increase in job offers to foreigners. It continued: "Noticeable is the increase in requests for permits for Jamaicans and Guyanese. They replace the locals in the security retail business." The report contends further that, because of these tendencies, government's tax income is under pressure, there is chronic unemployment among locals, foreign earnings do not stay here, more shacks are built, crime increases and more and more youngsters go astray.

The department suggested giving unemployed locals the chance to re-school themselves, a re-examination of the policies on scholarships and the establishment of businesses, and an urgent readjustment of immigration policies. Furthermore, it suggested a stricter control of employers to ensure they adhere to labour laws and that violation of these laws is punished.

Here comes Lolita, and she is very real. She is hot , this is (Sint Maarten) scandalous. (not French departement Saint Martin). Her name is changed for privacy.

 Since time memorial, the combination of Virgin and Whore has been the Woman that Men admire most. Before the Jewish Patriarchal (God=father) religion came into being, religion was Matriarchal. God was a Woman and a girl and a mother and was worshipped as such. With the name Aphrodite in ancient Greece, Venus in Rome, as Inane in Sumeria, Astarte in Phoenicia, Ishtar in Babylonia and Isis in Egypt.

 In those days in temples where the Goddess was worshipped, a virgin was to be a prostitute for one time only, to become initiated in sexual knowledge, and eligible for marriage.

 Then came the Jewish religion makers, who scared women and made men their protectors. They replaced the Holy Goddess with a male God. Later Christian religion makers added new stories to the Bible, and in order to take advantage of Her still tremendous Supremacy, they took the former Goddess apart. Applying the principle of divide and rule, they split Her in two. The Virgin, (most impossible christian combination Mary, virgin+mother simultaneously) and the Whore, Magdalene, (JesusÕ devoted admirer).

 Men are attracted to either or both.

 A young (virgin) woman with childish face and firm breasts will always compete successfully with a grown, motherly woman, when it comes to seducing men. The religion makers created an impossibility to be worshipped; the virgin mother. Worshipping an impossibility leads nowhere, and the religion makers knew it...

 Young women, nearly ready to become mothers, have a God given strong attraction over men.

 Everywhere in the world growing up girls find the power this gives them very exciting. Some successfully exploit it. Also here in our own society. We have a very young mother, almost still a virgin.

 Now you'll read how Lolita, our child wench, came to be what she is. How creation's natural attraction between the sexes is taken advantage of for money.

 Her mother got pregnant at 14 years of age and baby Lolita was born when mother was 15. Father unknown; and not a year later, mother was selling sex. She had to feed her child after all. No education or schooling, but the education of the street. Lolita grew up in the little shack where mother received her men. Sex was her economic education, together with raffling and gambling. As soon as her breasts started showing at 11 years of age she became the object of interest of men that where with her mother. She was sometimes taking part in the activities in the big bed, encouraged by mother. Just stroking and fondling and kissing a little, to the delight of all involved. Mother could now charge more for something out of the ordinary. Lolita was good at it and basked in the warmth and the interest, the praise and compliments. She then tried what mother did on her own, and although she hardly knew when, or from whom, she was pregnant as soon as she became fertile at the tender age of 12. The baby grew inside her womb and her baby daughter got born when she was 13. It was delivered by Caesarean method, as her birth canal was narrow. It was good, men like it better so, said mother.

Her mother had never been to school, and did not put her daughter to school either, and now, after the baby and all that, Lolita did not feel at ease with other children who did not have experience like she. She never learned to write and read. But she was so much wiser.

 Grandmother took care of the baby, far away, and at 14 Lolita was feeling very good when she discovered that she could get almost anything from any man by touching their private parts. They would be as putty in her hands and do whatever she asked. Which was exactly what she did when she let herself be picked up at bus stops pretending to need a ride. From asking for bus money it went to asking for a five dollar note, a ten note and more. Of course most men wanted something in return, and that she knew very well how to give, had she not done that all the time, with her mother together? When asked her age she always says that she is 17, going 18. It is for her the safest thing to say.

 Long ago she found out that she was worth a lot, when her mother furnished a man to sex with her. He paid three hundred dollars she told me proudly, but, that was for her mother, not for her. She did not like that at all and at 15 years of age she had her own shack for 150 dollars a month. She does not want to make money for her mother any more. If she is going to sex, she says, she does it for herself, and she wants to choose who to do it with. Asking if she does it with any man, ugly or nice, old or young, sober or drunk she answers: “Any man of course, as long as he pays and I need money”.

 The rent, she easily gets together by seducing a man when she strolls the roads looking for fun as she calls it. Fun she has, she says, especially when she lures a man, and tantalizes him, to make him believe he’s going to get her, but not yet, maybe later. Some times she gets money without giving sex, she tells me with a smile.

 With her innocent child face she knows exactly how to use her little breasts and bare midriff to her advantage. Today’s fashion, super low cut jeans and tiny tank tops, bare back with a few strings, makes her look tremendously sexy. Asked if she considers herself to be a big girl or a young woman, she answers: ÒI am an old woman in a young body”, and she laughingly walks away, into the night.

 The night hides everything, all bad thoughts, there is nothing ugly here, no evil, she does not suffer, she likes what she is doing. She is good at it, knows nothing else, her mother didn’t know anything else, and her daughter maybe knows no better. She loves Jesus, and He loves her, is all that counts.

 But is she safe? She could contract a sickness. Is she strong enough to refuse the men who want it without protection when offering more money? What does she know about hygiene? She may not be so happy and carefree for long...

 “Unless,......” you say, yes, I listen, unless what?

 Get real, who has the money to pay her lodging and food and her schooling, to keep her from plying her trade? Is here a monastery that will lock her up so she will play hooker no more?

 And the most disturbing, the real impossible part of the issue: What can replace that Feeling of Power she has over men? When she leads them on so they will do anything to get relieve from the urge she has built up.

 Nothing can replace that feeling of Power Over Men.

 So lives child whore Lolita; if we like it or not. She is free to do her thing, and she knows, if nobody else, Jesus loves her.

Sexpert

St. Martiners are aware of those residing among us who would prefer to see the present one pillar economic dependency only on tourism maintained; the system of low wages, modern slavery and exploitation. St. Martin in their eyes must transfer itself into an island of 10,000 artists and drug dealers, selling kitsch and drugs imported from Holland to the tourist. ln their eyes St. Martiners are too stupid to learn anything about computers and E-Commerce. No, that must be only reserved in their eyes for "superior" Europeans. We St. Martiners know better, the youth can take Charles Wattley as an example, who grew up on St.Martin and currently holds a supervisory position in one of the leading United States E-Commerce businesses, QYC. Quoting from Today: "His message for young people of the island is, continue to seek higher education.' He advises that the youngster should find positive role models and take their studies very seriously. Wattley was part of the Cole Bay Theatre Company and he believes that his association with that company has helped to mold and shape him to what he is today. He was of the opinion that there should be more organizations like that for the youth on the island. Wattley stated that growing up in St. Martin was a wonderful experience, people looked out for you. He was of the opinion that the island has developed and think that the officials did the best they should have done with available resources. Wattley attended Simpson Bay Regina School and Milton Peters College before he went on to study and achieve his Masters in International Business at Johnson and Wales University. At his job, he oversees a crew of 45

persons who work in the outbound area of QVC. He added that they are responsible for the packaging and handling of all the jewelry that is sold via E-Commerce. Wattley claims that the company sells the most jewelry in the world.  The National Democratic Party (NDP) estimates that specific Internet-based enterprises on St. Martin engaged in various E-Commerce activities will be able to employ more than 4,000 St. Martiners and skilled Caribbean nationals in well paid job positions at Cyberparks with smart buildings over a 15-year period.

The charlatans among us with their ideas to turn this economy into one base on legalized drug trade can continue with their pipe dreams.

Article in the Daily Herald the day after my letter: citizens ignored

PHILIPSBURG-"The impression should not be created that I'm the man. Of course I can reach the right person to solve a problem, but that doesn't mean that I solved the problem." Chief Prosecutor Cor Merx said yesterday.

He was reacting to a letter to the editor in The Daily Herald last Friday in which "a concerned citizen" was claiming that only Merx had proved powerful enough to take care of a sewage problem in Sucker Garden. "He did so with one call," the letter writer claimed.

Merx said, however, that it was not he who deserved all praise, but Bryson of the Government Security Department and the workers of the Public Works Department who should be lauded.

"I called Mr. Bryson after the gentleman came to me and he immediately took action. Within no time the problem was identified and solved and the water now runs under, instead of over, the street," Merkx said, demanding that praise be given to those who deserve it. "It's not so that the other government departments don't work." Merx said. He stressed that he only fulfills a "letter box duty". Of course anyone who has a problem remains welcome

Those that have their ears close to the ground may have heard the latest on the subject of cannabis, marijuana. In good old England the police does no longer arrest and prosecute individuals who are in possession of small amounts of cannabis for personal use. A National debate is on the agenda of government in order to make it legal. And out of the blue came the news that Portugal has all at once legalized the use of Cannabis, and more surprisingly the use of all other recreational drugs as well. Ecstasy, cocaine and heroin, all legalized for personal use. The reason for this decision given by the Portuguese spokesman was that the zero-tolerance policy did not work. Clear case. As Portugal has enormous many English tourists, it might have been afraid to lose those when England legalized cannabis before Portugal did so. Looking back we see: Holland, Switzerland, England and Portugal having decriminalized people who use some or other substance to relax and enjoy, besides alcohol and the killerweed tobacco. Whose next? What if Sint Maarten decriminalizes the use of Cannabis? Would the good people that now have to smoke their spliff in the closet for fear of the law not flock to our beaches, restaurants and hotels? Of course they would. And they are not only poor people that find solace by the herb cannabis, far from it, history tells of kings and princes that used the herb. The Indian Godhead Shiva is directly associated with the benevolent properties of the herb cannabis. I hereby call on all readers, to please write to this newspapers opinion editor and let him know your point of view on the subject. If you are for or against, let yourself know, sign as you like, your name doesn’t have to be known if you don't want. Seeing the great economical potential, and the changing laws in Europe, it is obvious that Sint Maarten could take the one chance in a lifetime and be the first Caribbean country that is in line with the modern world. Educate drugs, make them harmless by knowing them, it is the only way to make our society more healthy and honest.

Now that prostitution finally is officially illegal, I wonder: Who exactly is the culprit? The woman who sells sex for money, the owner of the house where it takes place, be it a hotel, guesthouse or private place, or the person who pays for the pleasure and comfort that the woman provides? Where are all the hundreds of American sailors going when next time the airplane carrier comes in to dock in Sint Maarten? How much will the crime of rape increase after the clubs are closed? And what will happen to all the empty rooms in the huge places that now house these women, "La Maison Blance", "Border Bar", "le Petit Chateau", " Seamans Club", "Defiance Haven", the one on Archroad, " Fefe's" and the One called "Cat's", "Players Club" in Simpson bay and maybe some more. In my vieuw the only way is to legalize prostitution, with stringent health controls,tax collection and control on hygienic housing. Otherwise we will lose the American naval vessel visits. They can go to St. Kitts next time or to Dominica . Much nicer natural environment, bigger country, less evil in the form of casinos, whorehouses and fake watches for sale. What can a woman give to the man that gives her a golden ring with a diamond or a bouquet of flowers and a dinner, money to pay the rent or to pay the car, the kids new clothes and a smart red dress? All she can give him is what he wants most and that is, in 9 out of 10 cases, sex. So, all relations that have sex and material wealth in it fall in the category of prostitution. Only in the case one is married to the woman that gives sex , it is legal??? Who can explain. Men are equipped by their Maker with a sexdrive that far exceeds the need for the survival of the race. If not taken care of he will become nervous, irritated, in many cases violent and unreasonable. Drugs may calm him down, as speed and cocaine lower the need for sex and food, marijuana calms him down and makes him more receptive for good music, and innocent entertainment, but drugs are also not allowed. Bigger jails, higher fines, stiffer penalties, what do you suggest? Little America should be the name  of for Sint Maarten maybe, Zero tolerance is the USA's slogan; is that what we are heading for??? The middle road is needed, not the total neglect of the law like before, and certainly not the zero tolerance of the US of A. The lawmakers have truly opened a can of worms here, if not the box of Pandora. It needs very careful handling if we consider the likely results of closure of the sex clubs. Rape is the likely result and increased drug use, gambling for sure and most possible violence at home, when the woman in the house has to provide the sex that formerly was available for a little cash . The whole problem should be tackled by a law that legalizes and controls prostitution. That is my opinion, and I am also a Christian, a Hindu, a Moslem and a Buddhist, so that is not the problem. Common sense is the solution, and the need to get real

Dirt, filth, garbage, refuse, waste, leavings. Ankle deep, bin full, heaps of it, spread out all over. The carnival village: Stinking toilets, overflowing feces, urine, piss all around. Unbelievable: said the visitor, disgusting: said the tourist, incredible: said the timeshare man. I do not so much convey my own opinion, although it is the same as the above, as well as the opinion of people that surround me. Follows here some opinions of people that saw it. One said this; "Me, as a visitor and a person who has seen the past, I know that most local people now live in nice houses. Made of blocks and bricks, with windows and running water, electricity and a waterproof roof. These people do not really appreciate that luxury. When they have a party, they built shacks like their forefathers lived in and they behave like wild animals, get drunk and throw garbage all around. Another one said this: Carnival originally is a celebration after a month of fasting. One does not have sex, abstains from drinking alcohol, from eating expensive and rich foodstuffs, and is modest in everything. That is the month before carnival. The party is the ending of a month of serious contemplation of God and His creation, to celebrate and to give thanks. Here, nobody fasts, not even for a day. The party therefore has lost its significance and has become nothing but a wild feast of mindless people that go about like a ship that has lost its rudder. As the meaning of the celebration has been lost, the party itself has become an ugly ting.' These facts are worth contemplating. For the next year I will have a few suggestions. The committee that steers the whole village collects a good amount of money. Where that goes to, I do not want to know this time, but for next year It should have to go to a cleaning crew on a daily basis, to clean up constantly in the village. Just like after the parade has passed, some very good guys pick up the debris; that should also be done in the village grounds. Bins should be emptied constantly, the toilets should be supervised and kept clean. That is such a disgusting degrading fact of the carnival organizers, that they get no compliment out of me. Oh, no. Spoken to locals, black, red and white, all agreed that the organizers where to blame for the filth and stink. I am of another meaning, slightly; I say all are to blame; the parents that did not teach the children to be neat and clean, the children that did not teach their parents to behave, the politicians that did not organize a way for their unthinking subjects to dispose of' their energy correctly, the religious leaders that did not prepare the partygoers before the party of the true meaning of carnival. Ask anyone, and all will say that this year something was not there. Something un-definable, unspeakable, something spiritual. Zest, conviction, integrity, spontaneity, motivation. It was like without direction, without hope. We have to open our eyes and minds to the reality and fix this knowledge in our hearts for next year. To make sure that we progress towards separate status and show the rest of the world that we are not a bunch of filthy pigs and that we can celebrate in style next year, artfully and splendidly. For some it may have been fun, but splendor there was none.

I am very upset by the letter from Gerard Bijnsdorp, where he accuses me from having called the Sint Maarten revelers filthy pigs. His wrong interpretation hurts my image not a little and I

would like you to print the following: please

Be an example Bijnsdorp.

Hi, Gerard, you ask who the fog I am. Well, if you would turn your foggy mind inward for once, and find out who you are , you will instantly know who I am. And who everybody is for that matter. You accuse me of calling people filthy pigs. I never wrote that. Put on your reading glasses, and check: I wrote; "Open your eyes and show the world that we ( and that includes me, not you of course) are not (!) a bunch of filthy pigs. But I can understand that you feel personally offended, as a teacher for so many years, you have failed to teach your pupils cleanliness, and the bad that comes from polluting the place with plastics and excrements and urine. You may not have been at the carnival village in Marigot in January where the bins were emptied regularly and the toilets were kept very clean. Still everybody there enjoyed themselves, as much as if not more then on the village Dutch side. You try to make the filth look good by comparing it with more filth in Holland. You must know that better than me, I have been only 3 month in Holland in the last 20 years. By the way Bijnsdorp, how come you know so much about bribes and bribery, wich you call fruits, in an attempt to make fun about that ugly thing. Do you know people who give, gave, received or receive those? Nice company you're in. Keep it up for the betterment of the country. Defend the dirt, make it part of the party, urinate in the pond and be an example for generations to come. Please get your head out of the fog, clean your glasses when you read my letters and show the world that you are not a filthy pig.

The law on littering for instance. If I leave a bag of garbage on the public road, you can call that littering. If I run my septic water on the public road, what do you call that??? It happens now for years and months on the Suckergarden road next to the Tropical Building, belonging to a Mr. Labega. This building houses a number of illegal’s, and has its septic tank water constantly run over the public road. Telephoned to the head of the department of hygiene, the headman, Tony Boyrard told me on the third call, that he had written a letter about the sewage water, without any results. I myself wrote in The Daily Herald two month ago, no result. I talked to several departments, to Public Works, where I got to speak to four people who all said that it was not their responsibility, and Mr. Buncamper who is responsible, was not available. There is a rumor that public works is going to make a sewage pipeline, in the far future. That is if the money from Holland does not disappear somewhere on the way. Untill that happens, the owner of the  building is responsible. The law on littering should be enforced.

If nothing happens after this letter gets published, I will contact the prosecutor, to ask him why the law does not get enforced, applied. Gedogen? Does the government people allow Mr. Labega to pollute, because he is one of them? Tolerate it, as a dumptruck cost money and Mr. Labega does not want to pay? Or will he run a pipe under the road so that the sewage runs straight in the pond, under the road, instead of over it? I am sick and tired of the stink that sticks to my car every time I pass there. At Archroad the stinking sewage is being led by an ingenious system of expensive gutters under the road into the pond. Great, shovel the dirt under the carpet. Now it pollutes the pond, for all that live around it, and the rest. Public Works, money from Holland pays for something that all the house owners are responsible for, and they should pay. All the shacks on Arch Road torn down? What happened after that idea was launched some time ago? Nothing, KOOP built a drainage. That happened, not to solve the problem, but to hide it. Instead of running over, it now runs under the road. At least it does not stick to my car any more.

Now that springtime is here and the buds are bursting with new life, hens are trotting along with their chicks, the dogs are making little puppies all over the place, I have this impossible wish. For a springtime of the mind. For a new awakening of all enslaved minds. This came about because I was visited by a certain individual who carried a Bible, and wanted to chat with me. So I made him sit down and let him talk. "Who made the mountains, and who made the fair blue sky?" asked he. “Not relevant", did I reply, "Those things are here, how they came to be does not change my day a bit, I just enjoy all that".

"But mister", said he, "do you have no respect for He who made all that?" came the accusing answer. When I asked where he got all that knowledge from he triumphantly held up the Book and told me it was Gods word. "Well, that may be as it is , but where are you yourself,?" asked I. He wondered what I meant with that.

"Where are you, what do you think, where is your mind about this, what does your spirit say?" I insisted. After a good while thinking he admitted that he had no mind of his own, he believed the book and that was all there was for him. Then I pointed out that he was thus an extension of the book, just another page, an appendix, a useless addition. I told him to go look for himself, and when was found to come back and talk to me as a man to a man, I could look in the book anytime myself, he did hot have to be the book for me.

Springtime of the mind, wake up from the long long sleep, the mental slavery that Bob Marley sings about, be someone, not a zombie who cannot think a single original thought. The free man Jesus called Lazarus out of the death back into life in the symbolic parable to illustrate how people should wake up from the spiritual death and come to life again. So am I calling all to wake up in this new spring, and live. Only when Sint Maarteners have become free people can the island become free itself. It is my believe that as long as people have no minds of their own, they cannot become free of anything. Then they will always follow those that scream loudest, even if that scream is foolish. My wish is impossible, I know it, so to all that are deep asleep I better say: "Dream Sweet".

To Richardson Julians questioning the lack of morality and consequent misbehavior of the youth. To the Lions that organize a day of "Peace". To all that are asleep and dreaming.  The young people today , those that are coming into adulthood, teenagers especially are getting desperate from the lies, the hypocrisy and the falseness of the (so called) authorities. A baby is born with an open skull. Fontanell it is called, an opening at the top of the skull that allows the brain blood volume to expand at will. The total potential of the brain s available to the young child and it is evident that it can use telepathy to call when it need help without words. It only presses more blood to the head, the face may get a little red, and the mother feels that the child is in need, even if she is in another room. Growing up, the child absorbs information like a sponge absorbs water. In no time it speaks the language, any language, whatever is spoken by the people around. Put a Spanish child in an English surrounding. in 3 month it speaks English. Try that with an Spanish adult. The brain blood volume cannot expand anymore once the cranium, the skull, is grown closed, at age 20-21, what we call adult age. The adult has a hard time learning new things and relies mainly on what it learned as a child. Only those individuals who learned to learn, those who studied learning, and subsequently escape the adult sleeping state, stay free. The youth can be indoctrinated with anything, any idea, fairy-tale, information, concept or ideology. Sadly enough the only institution that uses this fact is the religious lobby. Already at birth the child is condemned to a lifelong membership to this or that religion. Nationality is next and bewares the military who can turn a young loving person in no time into a veracious killer. With today's access to information on the internet, and before that by TV and radio, young people that are growing up have insight in what is and how it should be. This world is producing weapons. Weapons that have no value at all when all people were loving each other. So, hate is instigated all over the world. Country against country, religion against religion, political ideas against each other, what a mess. To see that, makes one look for a rope to hang oneself, a joint of ganja, even a pipe of crack. At least for some moments the worry of a rotten world can be forgotten. And who is guilty for this mess? First of all the church, who tries to saturate the child with absurd stories of fear and guilt and sin and commandments that itself does not follow. Second the politicians who promise to work for the people but only seem to enrich themselves and brake their promises. Third the capitalistic idea of greed and consumerism that leads to world pollution, slavery and envy.

Is it a miracle, a mystery, that young people show disrespect for the world that forces them to study for years and does not provide a job afterwards? A world that says: Thou shalt not kill, while the news is full of murder by armies, revolutionaries, police, rebels, Israelis, and the rest? And so on and so forth. Get Real is my motto. Which is possible after all, when one has the courage to stand up against the established liars, learns an independent profession like shoemaker, mechanic, artist, goldsmith, gardener, musician, in order to produce something. Computers are nice and interesting but they do not produce anything and are for 95 percent a waste of time and energy. Get Real. And learn to study love. That may not be easy but it is possible.

Still more so than the bla-bla of Gerard about his total misunderstanding of boating. The interaction of man with the sea and the wind is an experience that brings one into close contact with the elements. No other happening brings out the natural respect and satisfaction of man that successfully crosses the great waters. Gerard, please do not write about things you do not understand. In the Regatta article you use the words "I" and "my" 37 times, do you suffer some inferiority complex? If you cannot enjoy the feeling of sailing the mighty waves, and have no part in it, take another subject to educate the readers, as an pensionated teacher, you should do just that. Not everybody needs to know your misunderstanding of the noble sport of yachting, and it takes away some of the credibility you have built up. Are you going to condemn horseback riding next, as it may give you a sore ass, and then say how wonderful it is to be able to control an animal so great and big? Or the useless running behind a ball, or hitting it with a racket, There is more to it than the eye in a wink can see Gerard, much more.

Dear Mr. T .Priest, after reading your article about the ugly Mr. Lynch and his sick ideas from 289 years ago, I wonder, why did you write that? Your explanation to provide ammunition for the healing process does not strike me as valid. For healing One needs medicine, not ammunition, that is for weapons, killing, hurting etc. Let me ask you also if reminding one the ways of the past can do anything to make today a better day. I may suggest a healing method that is timeless, although mentioned first some 2600 years ago by a spiritual master. I do not mean: the Older the better, but this method can surely help the ones that find themselves in trouble, from whatever origin or reason. Imagine a water Lilly. A lotus flower. As it sticks its multi petaled flower out of the water, with its golden center that emits a fragrance delicate and fine. The water Lilly exists in many colors, every One as beautiful as the next. The stem of the flower grows from roots that stick in the mud. They grope in the dark dirt, in the slime and grime of the bottom. There the plant has its roots. Then it has the will to go up. It grows through the water, until it emerges with a flower so exquisite and clean that the muddy source from where it came is all but forgotten. The comparing of a persons life to the lotus flower is my advice to all you troubled souls, from whatever mud you came. Grow out of it and leave it behind and emerge as a pristine, clean, new human being. We all that have our roots in mud, and emerge as beautiful flowers.

Most of us know what a molecule is; it is the smallest part of any given material. An atom is more difficult to grab, as it is in itself not a material thing. Although every molecule is made up of atoms, they are basically different. An atom is 99,999 per cent empty space; the rest is energy and information. Subatomic particles, too small to see, move about a centre with the speed of light. Scientists can only photograph the trail they leave behind, as the particles are too minute and too fast to catch.

A thought in your head is also made up of empty space. It is like the atom, energy and information. To project your thought outward into the world, the atomic energies

are bound to connect and the universe clumps atoms into molecules that become the thing or action that first was a thought. A coffeemaker, a theater play, a dollar, a marslander, an eraser, a holy book, all came into the world first as a thought.

Also a crime, a gun, and a bomb start out the same, it is of utmost importance what one thinks. I never learned to observe my thoughts, until recently I read something about that. To think positive is not a worn out cry, and it merits more than just attention I say to our Suckergarden Vodoo worriers. If you think voodoo, you will make voodoo, if you think baby doll, child toy, in the tree instead of on the dump, than that is what you get. If you think that those dolls once were loved by a child, and that love still lingers on in that doll, it gives its love out to all the people that see it. If you have a bad conscious and feel you need punishment, you may see yourself hanging there. That is the power of thought.

Knowledge about dying is hard to obtain. Nobody escapes that one certainty, and still it is never discussed. It is not studied or talked about and the art of dying is at a very low point in our society. I myself do foresee my death. And I do not want no wailing and snottering at my departure. Feast and be merry when I am set free. Address me as if I where still there. Nobody knows in what Wisdom and Light I will have gone. So I start saving for the party after my death. Every coin I get through the neck of an empty ketchup bottle adds to the party money. When the bottle is full of coins I bury it. It holds approximately  $50.- When long after my death someone finds the bottle full of coins he will have a little party. When I have buried enough for a big party I make a map. With a cross at the spot and a dotted line to the nearest tree. With numbers of steps to be taken in various directions of true north. To maintain the Caribbean dream of buried treasure, I recommend all future party mongers to bury more treasure, deeper, When so much treasure is buried by me as to make people want to kill me for it I have reached. Then I will reveal it all to a good friend shortly before I go. I will hand him the chart with the secret of the buried treasure and he may do with it as he likes. If I die as planned the party may be delayed by my friend or consumed ad hoc. If I do not die, I keep adding to the hoard. If my body is to be disposed of I would prefer to be thrown in the deep, clear  waters of the sea. My organs may be reused if desired, the rest cut in small pieces for the seagulls, burnt, or eaten by worms, that does not bother me, but a party with happy people, cake, sweetmeat, drink and music, that must be. I hoard my  treasure now for the people that live longer. Cheers.

In Sint Maarten I really thought that we enjoyed freedom of religion. That changed last Friday. Not so good. As we have over 50 nationalities on our island we also have a good number of beliefs, religions, cults and forms of worship. No cult is more diversified than the Christian one, where about ten different forms of the same church struggle for supremacy. The Hindu, Buddhist and Moslem faiths as well as the Bahai and Santeria are all well represented. None of these can put its supremacy over the others. And as far as I know our government is not a religious one; our church and politics are separated entities, I believed. The Jesus cult has the highest profile with the loudest outcries, bell tolling, door to door hawking, tent performances and radio and TV programs. Why the whole country must close down on some true or imagined happening that may or may not have taken place 2000 years ago goes beyond comprehension. A rule of a church that has its headquarters in Rome, Italy, a church that has just asked forgiveness for the sympathy with the Nazi regime, for the atrocities that it sanctioned in South America against the locals and against the slaves in times gone by. Forced conversions, on pain of death where common in the Christian past and even today, on pain of a fine must one close its business in order that this one religion can claim the day. I do not understand how our politicians can impose the rules of one religion onto the whole country, and send the police  force out to make sure that all citizens follow suit. Illogical and discriminating, and showing a lack of respect for those who have other beliefs. A free day is fine, but as it is a national enforced free day it should have to do with a national (or regional) past happening. Responding to the wish of the church that wants to rule the island by paralyzing its business is strange. Not responding to the other wishes of that same church is stranger still. Are not family planning, divorce and abortion against the that same church? Why then this and not that? Who is the boss? Who makes these rules? To have freedom of religion and then impose the rule of one over all? Who can explain that, please come forward.

Imagine some pain, somewhere in the body. A pain that keeps you from sleeping. So much so, that you cannot read, are sick of watching tv, can only have a radio on in the background, unable to concentrate enough to hear exactly what is being said. That pain, over one hundred times, past three and a half months, more than 100 days pain. Somewhat too much to get used to. Just so that by times, when busy with important matters one can forget momentarily. Returning pain, especially at night when it keeps one from the sleep of peace and oblivion. Advil, Tylenol, codeine, aspirin, over the counter, under the counter, anything to alleviate this horrible feeling. Legal or illegal, as long as it helps, it is welcome. One more cigarette maybe? All this just because some careless driver did not look out, drove a little fast, took the corner too tight and: oops,sorry, I did not see you, my mind was somewhere else... Resulting in another tragic victim. Hit on the 2nd of December. '99, forever lame in the right foot, now 100 days later, still hoping to make you all aware to drive careful and not do to others, what another did to me. Victims keep being brought into the hospital, do not think that anything has changed. Perpetrators are not punished, and continue to put people in pain, misery and financial mayhem. I write this in the night at 2:30, to try to keep my mind of my painful leg. And to let you know how important it is to stay alert on the road and be careful, full of care for the way you behave on the road... Most pain is mental, an anger that I cannot name, something to do with the loss of creativity, this hang...up over my leg. I wish it was gone. But the experts say that I can walk again in a year from now, I should be cheerful, there are worse victims, how do I dare to complain so much??? I dare, because I was a healthy man before and I could walk in the fields, and on the beach and from my home to town and back. And now I am stuck, and cannot go anywhere at all. Depending on friends that come to take me out. Out of control of my own life. I suffer and I have to let you know Road users on Sint Maarten. Behave yourselves.

After years of mismanagement the higher supervision came. In fact it was brought upon ourselves through the things that were done wrong. The disappearing funds, the non appearance of projects etc,etc. Now I suddenly hear of a political person who is  calling Philipsburg Johannesburg. I didn't hear exactly in what context, but if he referred to the reconciliation committee from Jo-burg, indeed, Ph-burg has some way to go. Imagine to try to reconcile all the people whose roads are withheld by the former thieving politicians, the sewage plants and other  plans never executed; all the taxes that had to come after the real money had gone and debts reach sky high. Some politicians find that there is nothing to take anymore as it was before, money for trips abroad, for land, for cars etc. They have to find normal work or other legal means to make money. They will surely have a hard time. Still it seems to me a very good idea to try to reconcile the former thieves with the people and to forgive and work together as friends. Peace and contentment in stead of hate and spite. Let's begin with a clean slate. The jailed mr. Van Putten may be the last one who did his trick and now sits for $ 70.000.- per year, as he has over $ 210.000.- ,  stashed away somewhere. He must sit there with a big smile, good earnings. If he can be reconciled with those he duped I doubt it, but let's propose it to the committee when Philipsburg becomes Johannesburg. And by the way: don't blame the judge for the law.

In times gone by, the religious powers dominated daily life. They were the ones that brought schools; and medicine, and a certain standard of morality.(...) Still today the churches from the Christian cult are most frequented, and from the pulpit thunderous voices boom over the congregation. What the message is, I cannot say. If there is a message at all, is not clear as the conduct of the people is not in any way improving

Over the last 2000 years. Especially as society changes from ancient ways to modem ways, with newly acquired polluting cars, spray cans, plastic bags and cheap gadgets, the old story does not fit no more. If the church would acknowledge modern times the pulpit could do something about the cleaning up of our island.

However, if the leader a are sticking to the Book that cones from times without plastic and mass production industry and airplanes, how then can the population ever progress? Those who listen to what the church tell them, never hear a word of modern waste, not a word on cleanliness of the environment. Those things did not exist in times gone by. Plastic wrappers and empty cola tins did not exist in Biblical times. How then can we ever get this new time into the minds of the people that stick to a word that was made thousands of years ago?? Go to church each week, and stay in the past, litter and waste, God does not say one single word on pollution. The Bible does not mention it. maybe it does not exist. Lets pray...Maybe it will disappear...

It moved my soul when I read the questions that the editors of Teen Times put to the highest authority of our island, concerning the planning of the sex—industry. Morality and customs, emotions and business, concepts that mix like water and oil. In a certain
level of civilisation, rules exist that curb the behavior of its members. On other levels, there may be different rules and other customs.

The problem with the subject of sex is that men and women have different bodies, different feelings and that rules for one may not aply to the other. Men are visualy aroused, women are not, or at least very much less. Scantily dressed women attract men more than scantily dressed men attract women.

Sex is very often leading to love, When the most intimate secrets are revealed by man and woman, a feeling of love should remain, long  after it has passed. The rulers of old, religious rulers have grabbed this love power by condemming it and calling sex sin, dirty, bad, and what not from young age on, sex is kept inthe cupboard and if you want to know about it, you have to almost steal the information, as nobody is willing to give it free and easily.

The result of the supression of sex is enormous frustration and feelings of guilt and fear that the religioud powers use to control their flocks, nature cannot be stopped and the urge that every healthy man feels for making love cannot be ignored. The willingness of men to pay for it has been exploited through the ages by women that even Jesus could not ignore. In the Bible the old Goddess of love and fertility has been split into two: The virgin and the whore. The real goddes of love lives in every woman, and evry man wants to be loved by her. So, in this world ruled by religious supression, men have no other choise than to look for sex without love. It gives at leats the impression of love for a moment and it releaves the urge of male energy that could easily turn into violence or other stupid behavior, like gambling and drinking or drugs. For a man to control his sexdrive is near impossible. No matter what fears are put in him about masterbation, his body is equiped for it and he will.

His mind may come twisted by all the relgious nonsense he has been fed, at least his body  elaxes for a day. Women who help him releave himself sometimes,are called modest, those  ho do it as often as he wants,ae called sluts and those who do it for money are whores.
However,they are all the same women that help the natural need of the poot creature whose drives take over, tat those hundreds of sailors are coming to do those few days on land is not spoken about, but most of them return relaxed and happy back on board. And it may
take a lifetime of understanding to accept these things, coming from a religious supressed society, but anybody, young or old that frees him/herself from all the concepts of taboo and sin and guilt may enjoy the body to the full. A healthy body in a healthy mindenjoys all of it without overdoing it. Get informed, learn, experiment, get used to it, and master it. In the end you will find thatit is the most wonderfull thing that can happen between two conscious people, the extasy of love in all its forms. You are equiped, now use it or lose it.

This, our life on Sint Maarten, is very special and rich in experiences. I am honored to be with you all, on this very special island and I like to share some knowledge that I gathered from the over 50 countries that I have visited. Chinese wisdom is by far the oldest as they have had laws in place all the time that the European countries still were primitive and populated by barbarians. They had the longest time to observe nature and its phenomena and I tell you this because their idea for the reasons of disasters is interesting to say the least. The Chinese of old believed that natural disasters like earthquakes, floods and storms take place where the governments are bad, corrupt and inadequate.

So much for the Chinese... When I settled down on the French part of Sint Martin, over 12 years ago it was a backward and forgotten part of the Caribbean. Not long after I was feeling at home so to say, new laws issued in France brought a vast amount of money that resulted in new hotels, charter boat companies, businesses, and restaurants, by far too many for the tourists that went there. I met president Mitterand and shook hands with him in Marigot, after he had seen president Bush in Anse Marcel. Some time later came LUIS and I had to move for a while, for lack of housing. Thinking of what the Chinese had told me, I wondered how bad a government could be to provoke such calamity over the land. In '96 I settled on the Dutch side where I found a sweet little house to contemplate, meditate and create my ideas. And I saw how very much had to be done about the enormous chaos left behind by former governments and the storm LUIS. Higher Supervision just then came about and technical assistants for the governing agents tried to pinpoint what was wrong with those who govern SXM. For so long things had gone wrong that it would take long time correct the situation. Terrible storms hit the island over and over, as if the Highest Powers were trying to say something. The warnings from Above were ignored time and again and all the broken poles were replaced, roofs redone, roads repaved more than once. Nothing though changed the minds and the hearts of the rulers of the country and improvements that should have started long ago where ignored again and again. Illegal house building without inspection, garbage dumping in the middle of the country, drug trafficking, bad roads and unrestricted car sales, money squandering went on just as before. And now, right in the time that the mother country starts enforcing order and the Queen came to pay a visit to this little island in the tropic sea, LENNY came to show once again how bad the former governments had treated our fine island. Almost no sewage systems, no roof building rules, no underground cabling, no drainage and so on and so forth. This time I hope that the warning from the Very Highest is taken serious and the responsible ones on the top start the program that may have to run forever, that will ensure the building of a real paradise island. Hurricane proof, flood proof, corruption proof, poverty proof, zinc roof proof and all the rest that needs to be done to prevent the Highest Power to come and lash out again. The people of St.Maarten   need all the love and care that serious politicians can give.

Here goes again: the financial situation is the talk of the island these days and we keep hearing about 20 million debt here, 700 million there, lowering of taxes, increasing of taxes, etc. Not one citizen understands what goes on. It is like in the church where the priest talks in Latin and the congregation says Amen. Nobody understands a word, but everybody say amen all the same. How much money is actually generated through taxes; road tax, T.O.T., income tax and casino, tourist and hotel tax? No numbers have ever been published. Whereto it goes is the same mystery. How much to education, road building, health care, and salaries to civil servants, and very sore point: all those civil workers that don't contribute an iota to the island. Those that get salary without contributing. When does the public get some numbers to study so as  to understand what goes on? How long will the government talk Latin to the congregation and expect amen all the same? As I said before : Come clean and explain what goes on.

The island was compared with an eagle and the two sides with the two wings of the bird in the poem from Ruby Bute. It ended the speeches by the highest dignitaries of Sint Maarten/Saint Martin in French quarter on Saturday, 11 November. For all those people that could not be present I obtained a copy from the one and only nonpolitical recital on that total political performance. The counselors Arnell and Mussing ton, our very inspired Sarah Westcott and Albert Fleming where followed by the boss man from France mister. Patrice Laton who spoke in French and perfect English how keen his country was following the development of the Dutch side... Our Own ambassadrice of culture Ruby concluded the recitals with:

St.Martin, the beautiful, the peaceful domain,

Let's fight to protect and preserve her tradition and treasures

special and unique, forever she'll reign.

I plead today to those who ignore distress for the sake of progress.

My words, my thoughts are for St.Martins best interest.

It's tine to take a stand to save our land.

There's an urgency for national pride and friendship,

Let's find it again through care, brotherhood and worship.

Times are testing our faith, but may there never be for my

Island any sort of unrest.

Oh no, not for this haven where battered soldiers daily come to rest.

Since days of old papers were shuffled around the table.

Treaties were signed, and the people were left behind,

With courage and love we labored, by nature loving and kind,

we became one family, one culture, one mind.

Therefore my cry is to claim what is still left of your traditions

and treasures.

St. Martin, the beautiful, the peaceful domain.

St. Martin people believe in yourself, forget not your noble

history of pain and survival.

There's no burden too great that we cannot bear

If you remember the travels that brought us here,

then never should we despair.

My words flow today for this little rock,

St. Martin the beautiful, the peaceful domain

Your rolling hills spread from Concordia to Reward,

From Reward to French Quarter, all around to Simpson Bay

Contradicting the story, proclaiming one island

please unite, become one head and both wings will fly

like an eagle in the sky.

St.Martin the beautiful, the peaceful domain,

Forever you'll reign

It is most reassuring to have a representative of our culture department stand in the row of dignitaries. As the only one who does anything for the promotion of culture, Ruby Bute should be the example for all those who sit in the office of the department and produce nothing at all. Well done Ruby.