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.

It will be a bit strange for many people to read the next lines, to find out things maybe better left unknown. However, to understand why terrorism exists it may be helpful. The mightiest country on earth likes to control that earth and does everything to keep control. South America is close by home so let us go there. From the book : Voel Maar, by Jan Brokken, everyone can learn some terrible truths. I do not have to write this but for my asking to pray with me for all those victims of the teachers of the School of the Americas. In Panama, only 17 years ago the School of the Americas closed its doors for good. It was the American Military Academy . Today access is free, 10 years ago still no one could enter. The building is in the colonial style on the edge of the jungle. There almost all the officers were educated who made Latin America notorious with their revolutions, coupes, juntas, dictators and with their refined interrogation techniques. How to drop ennemies from airplanes with concrete blocks on feet. How to torment, how to torture and to terrorize, and how to rape was thought at the School of the Americas by American GI's who knew what they were about since they had experience from Korea and Vietnam. In the Hall of Fame One can see the portraits of Roberto D’Aubuisson and Hugo Banzer, respectively the leader of the death squads in El Salvador and the leader of the military dictature in Bolivia, from Raoul Cedras, the Haitian coupe leader, and of Manuel Provis Carrasco, the colonel who after the murder on Allende started the biggest concentration camp in Chili, from Galtieri the junta leader who started the Falklands war and of Jorge Vidal the Argentinean mass murder. All these gentlemen look back affectionately at their time in the Panama School of the Americas where they learned the tricks of the trade. The accumulated hate after the immense suffering caused by the pupils of the American teachers may and may not result in revanche and retaliation. I pray that it may not, however, no one should be surprised if it does. The School of the Americas in Panama closed in 1984. I hope no other such school opened elsewhere. Knowing the world a little by now, my hope is most possibly in vain. I heard that US manufactured torture electrical belts and other tools of the trade still are exported to various countries in the world...Pray with me that all this evil, terror and torture may stop, even if it means that the USA will lose a little control.

On Saturday 17 of august, the editor of the Today, and no doubt many with him, wrote that he did not know to what end we still have Royalty, who came to visit in the persons of His Royal Highness Prince Willem Alexander and Princess Maxima. Royalty, many people think, is such an ancient thing, or subject, that it is hardly proper to fit in this day and time. Still, huge crowds of people flock to see the Royal couple, and every commoner in his/her heart feels something special. As nobody seems to know why they still like the idea of royalty, I will tell you.

In republics like France and Turkey, where Royalty and with them most artistrocrats where murdered, because of    misconduct, presidents have been put at the head of the country. Now, in those countries, any person can become  president. No matter if you where born a pauper, a shoemaker or a farmer, anyone  can become president if fate would have it so. That idea lives in the mentality of the population. I am not aware in which station the fast coming and going presidents of the many countries that have done away with monarchies where born, but I remember that  Krutsjev, long ago president of the Soviet Republics, was born a common farmer. However, nobody can become King. King is the very  position one has to be born into. One cannot become King, one has to be born son of a Queen, a true Prince in order to become King. See how Prince Bernard and Prince Claus, although married to Queens never became Kings. It is this impossibility that makes it a mystery that is so attractive to most people. And repugnant to some. Those that do not like Royalty may be jealous, those that envy the uniqueness, the one-of-a-kindness of Royalty. I rather be a subject of a (modern) King, than of a president, who always gets a limited time, [unless he is a dictator], like in Peru, America, the Dominican Republic or in France. A king is still somewhat a fairy tale person, an impossibility for the commoner.
I especially like the fairy tales with pompous weddings, great processions, benevolent actions and happy endings.

As long as I don't have to partake in them. 

In February this year, a movie on channel 7 was about the Catholic Church’s power brokers. It was clear for all to see that they who decide who to accept as Holy and who not, are just old egoistic and power sick men. They know nothing of true meditation and they do not know how to let God speak through them. In their power games they judge what is good for the Church and how to stay in power.

What happens outside in the community is not their interest and they do everything just to stay in control. They show no evidence of being Enlightened or touched by the Wisdom of God. How these men got their ranks in the hierarchy of the Church is through other men just like them, who hunger for power and to rule over others. Holiness to them is a quality that they can dispense of as they see fit. How ordinary people can believe that those men have any authority over the miraculous powers that some persons posses is the real true miracle.

Is this world only populated by brainless people that follow power hungry old men who do with them as they like? Why does the knowledge to become a Free Man, filled with Gods Wisdom, a Light Unto Yourself , stays hidden to the ordinary western person? Why are religions afraid to teach the Truth about Godliness? Because they are power hungry and want to rule over as big a crowd as possible.

Once God is found, no Church or Religion is needed any more. An Enlightened Person is lost to temple, church, religion, and has become Free, just like God herself. Enlightenment, Godliness, can never be learned from old outdated scriptures. Only from those who were and are Enlightened, like Mahavira, Buddha, Lao Tze, Jesus, Erasmus, Zorba, Bob Marley, Osho, N.D.Walsh, and many more.

For people who cling to any one religion only, and fear or ignore the rest, I say: “Wake Up”, there is more to God than any one religion can know, the combined knowledge of all religions is only a fraction of Gods Truth.

For those who seek Gods love, Wisdom and Compassion, I say: Seek and thou will find.

The Catholic Church reigns with blackmail (confession) and fear (hell) over its followers and keeps them as far from God as possible. Blind Faith, that the Church demands, is for people without observing brains(eyes), to follow the Godless leaders. The scandalous conduct of Catholic Church Potentates who sexually abuse(d) children, proof again of their Godlessness, is presently headlines in the USA.

Not (yet) mentioned is the scandalous financial abuse of (mentally weak, ignorant) adults, by letting them turn over their wealth and property to the Church for a promise of Paradise after death and forgiveness of sins.....

Anyone who has read me, knows that I am against blood spill in all its forms. And that I read the Books of the Dead. The Tibetan I prefer, the Egyptian is too far out for me. It teaches the way to die. To die unprepared must be very uncomfortable. The churches may have a memorial afterwards, called Requiem, but that did not prepare one for dying. The Church likes to scare you with the prospect of hell. The Requiem only helps those that are left behind. To know a way to die is better than not knowing how to die. Especially when all the religions and cultures claim to be best. When shall men understand that everybody is best? We all are best, and because of not sharing the wealth do we get problems. Some too rich, many too poor. That creates jealousy and hate and fear. Not sharing exploiting, grabbing, saving, keeping, it is counter to love, which is giving, sharing, comforting and helpful. The northern world claims to be Christian, but behaves as if the devil himself is in command. Not once does the north even mention sharing, the dealing to find balance, to take away the discomfort that triggered this.  Now 60 countries are more or less unhappy with USA, who has them on the list of terror lovers. Although the old US of A has done its share of terror, or helped leaders that did the deeds, it will not admit that the poverty of the others has anything to do with the richness it enjoys. The reservations with the original  locals, not much different from the camps in Palestine. Now Israel stands model for G.W. Bush, and the madness escalates. I must pray 24 hours now for all those that are going to die. That they may go prepared, knowing for what  reason they must die. To defend the American way of life, kill all poor miserable malcontented activists and hope to stay alive yourself. And claim to revenge the innocent people. I call them ignorant, not innocents. If you through your ignorant innocence not know what is happening in the world, and your government does not tell you that 60 countries are more or less hostile to yours, you may still have to pay the price. As we saw so many did. Nobody saw it coming. Or did they, and let it happen because America needs an

 enemy, and now they have one. After 30 years of war, Afghanistan may be so weak that uncle Sam can take over with its high tech weaponry against outdated arms in the hands of ragged soldiers without uniforms. America very much wants to put oil pipe lines through that most wanted strategic piece of territory. With well armed helicopters against big kites on steel wires. What a tragedy. I say: give every man a car, a fridge, a mobile phone, a TV and a health insurance. All 60 countries inhabitants, even if every American must give back a little of what he has , all those poorer people should be made content, satisfied, so that they will not suicide, but will stay home and watch TV. Nobody is innocent. If you wear name brand shoes, made in a underpaid wage country, you are guilty too. Brand name clothes made by low wage sweatshop workers, do put the wearer in the eyes of the terrorists in the guilty bracket. Call it stupid its the way things work in the tiny heads of the poor. Share the wealth, divert the anger. Make peace, not war.

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.

We are not separate from each other, nor are we separate from God. We are all together and this fact we have to live. Not just agree to this Truth, but we have to Know it, and Feel it and Live it.

Six month after the attack on the WTC in NY city, the meeting in Mexico City of over 50 Heads of State of developing countries this week came up with an awful, shocking, long known Truth. The final statement said:

Until the rich countries share more of their wealth with the poor countries, terrorism will not be beaten.

I see it almost as a desperate declaration of war from the poor to the rich. The primitive response of Might is Right of the USA will surely never stop terrorism.

The things I mentioned three days after the 9-11 attack in my letter titled: What makes one a terrorist, have now become worldwide recognized and accepted. Extremely wasteful big cars that are common transport in the USA and likewise here on our roads , and huge oversized motorbikes, compared to three wheel covered scooters and push bikes in India and Indonesia and Singapore and Thailand and in most Arab countries and in most of Africa, the small compact cars almost everywhere else on the planet, are proof to the strange unequal distribution and abuse of the worlds resources. We are not alone. Because national borders exists on the map, we still are not on another planet, we are not separate from each other. The planet is One, and we all stick to the same Earth with our feet. The wind carries the same air around the globe, we all breath it. The polluting exhaust gasses from the huge overpowered car engines do go into the same air that the people in Chili and Africa and Uzbekistan breath. The ozone depleting pollutants do hurt all people under the sun. We are all together. 50 Heads of State of Developing Nations came together in Mexico City to make this Truth known one more time. And they came up with the ultimate information about the present terrorist threat:

 Terrorism will not be beaten unless the rich countries share more of their wealth with the poor countries. So what else is new.

 Ironically this meeting was in a place where only 40 extremely rich families own an immense country that holds millions of very poor peasant workers.

 My letter about the American Military Academy in Panama some weeks ago was a warning about what happened just now in South America. The car bomb that exploded at the American Embassy in Lima, Peru, while president Bush is visiting there, was a clear sign of the terrorist approach to the USA’s presence in South America. If the USA wants to control and police the rest of the world, it must be prepared to scarify numerous of its soldiers that play the role of watchdog-policemen.

But we are together, all of us people of the world. As long as the United States separates itself from the rest it will be prone to terrorist attacks. How long will it take before the people in the highest positions will understand that ? That we cannot ignore the plight of others? Just as here on Sint Maarten, the government should not and may not ignore the ugly ghetto streets and their sewage problems, so in the wider world do the rich have to consider the plight of the poorer people that live on the same planet. I know that things are getting better slowly, the internet helps a lot, however, in my view it does not go fast enough and I remind you the one and only Law of Laws: Do to Others as you want Them Do to You. For better understanding of my ideas, read any or all books by Neale Donald Walsch and by Boone Shree Rasjneesh, and OSHO. Have a nice day, with lots of sharing.