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.                  

One of the women I sex is married, I found out lately. I asked her how she can justify being with me. She replied that her husband could not satisfy her, but she could satisfy him any and all times. So, she argued, I have the right to get what I need from you and he has to behave himself. If I catch him with another woman I shall divorce him, because he has no reason. Now, as I can satisfy her, through my excellent self control, I asked her if I could have other lovers besides her. Indignantly she said that if she found another woman around by me, she would kill her. Do you think that right? Should I not make as many women happy as possible? Of course they must be single and of legal age, and with the necessary precautions, what we call today: safe sex.

Climax Master

Sorry to say that I observed some car with 2 adult women and 3 children in it stop at a garbage container, toss a plastic with garbage towards it, so it fell next to it, and drove off. Pulling up next to the car, I asked the lady driver why she could not pick up the bag and throw it in the container. I got the finger and she sped of. Being just behind I saw the children wave angrily at me, as if to say: how dare you bother, get of my case. Next I saw a lady with shopping bags trying to cross. Several cars in front drove on, as if she wasn't there. I stopped to let her cross, only to get honked at from the car behind me. Next I bought a bread and a piece of cheese at a supermarket. The bag boy double bagged it and when I asked why 2 bags for such a small light load, he shrugged. I explained that the more bags are given out, the higher the prices in that shop must go. Although one isn't charged for them, they cost something and the shop buys them somewhere. Then, those bags end up in the pond fill. At 5 grams a bag, at 10.000 bags a day, at 350 days a year that is: over 17 thousand kilos of wasted  material per year. Why is nobody concerned? Why do we not separate glass from the garbage, like all civilized countries? Why do you think Europe is so rich? Not because they waste, but because they conserve, recycle and charge for shopping bags. The American way to waste is outmoded and long outdated, as also the USA starts to understand that the world has limited resources. Our teachers strike for better compensation for their work, Do they teach concern for the little things that make life worthwhile?

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.

… Queen Victoria knew about sex and its consequences, however, any woman who makes 9 children is obviously not aware of the ramifications of her sexual conduct. Nine times child birthing is no joke, the poor woman in her ignorance must have suffered a lot. Also, no woman can be pregnant 9 times and bring up so many children well. Her only excuse is that in those days, condoms did not yet exist.

 In order to divert from the subject you dare assume that I know nothing about other aspects of human relationships and you dig up my past. Well, I was (ab)used by two women who left me after taking a child from me. That was, I know now, for my spiritual development. I learned that (Gautama the) Buddha left his wife to find Enlightenment, that Jesus (the Christ) never went into relationships with women, but was sympathetic with prostitutes and that Mohammed, (Prophet of Allah), had nine wives, and allowed his followers to have 4 at the time. ( Which explains where the gay men come from, if the ratio man-woman is about 50:50) Any way, the subject is about young persons sexual information. And carnival is coming.

Sex brings joy into this world, it will always be a most intriguing aspect of life.

Then you change my “sound sexual practice”, into: “judging a partner”. It is not the same and judging is a most unholy and impossible thing to do. Does not the Bible say: “Judge not that Thy will not be judged?” Witness the number of divorces, after people judged each another to stick together forever. Although we are not discussing my past, I was fooled by two women who judged to live with me for 5 and 8 years, when we were mature and adult enough to choose and sex each another. Did they judge my intellect or my money? Once they had my child with my (by them judged right) genes, they took off with our matrimonial bank account.

We talk about sexual education, and Tantra. People are here on earth to Love each another. You may think of another kind of love than me, but my Love includes yours, mine is the Love of God, all encompassing and for everyone. Love is where you put your attention, my attention is everywhere, not only at sexual matters. My Love has nothing to do with sex, but sex surely can bring you to this (Gods) Love. Sound sexual practice everybody should learn about ( book: Sexual Secrets, the Alchemy of ecstasy, by Nik Douglas and Penny Slinger, available at our local bookstore, or amazon.com)

Sexual education in Europe starts at a very early age and note that the highest number of teen age pregnancy of all developed countries is in the USA . By the way, there is also the highest infant mortality.....

This is the subject. You did not help a 12 year old girl who asked how to avoid pregnancy . You said the best way is to have no sex. That is the same as answering a child that asks how to avoid tooth pain by saying: eat no sweets.

Thy Will will not be done. As Gods advice not to kill or lie or steal, etc., is ignored by grown up mature judge-ripe persons, so your advice not to have sex will be ignored by youngsters. The mother did not choose to inform the child. Obviously she wants a grandchild. What else is new? Nobody be surprised when next year another child-mother fails her classes. A 15 year old mother with a child of two years old has real, true problems . It can be helped if someone like you had told her how to avoid pregnancy when she was 12.

In finishing, please tell me what exactly is the benefit in refusing a child the information to avoid pregnancy in detail, completely, sex, condoms, pills and all? Nobody is ever too young to hear the Truth. Truth is Love is Truth. The Truth shall set you Free, remember? The Truth is: explicit informative education. To be had from the parents first and foremost, but if they do not know , then the schoolteacher, or in this case, The Womans Desk, or the house doctor, or you or me, or get books about it. But don’t tell the curious and seeking person to just say no. That has never yet worked.( see the number of teen pregnancy.)

From the book: "Conversations with God, an uncommon dialogue", (available at our Jubilee Library) I quote a short passage, to show my readers that already five years ago, when he published his book in 1997, the author Neale Donald Walsh saw the downfall of the American "dream". I quote from page 88, as "God" speaks and explains:

 "Thoughts do create physical form--and when many people are thinking the same thing, there is a very high likelihood their thoughts will form a reality. (That is why "We'll pray for you" is such a powerful statement. There are enough testimonies to the effectiveness of unified prayer to fill a book.)  It is also true that un-prayerlike thoughts can create "effects." A worldwide consciousness of fear, for instance, or anger, or lack, or insufficiency, can create that experience--across the globe or within a given locale where those collective ideas are strongest.

 The Earth nation you call the United States, for example, has long thought itself to be a nation "under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all." It is not a coincidence that this nation rose to become the most prosperous on earth. It is also not surprising that this nation is gradually losing all that it has worked so hard to create--for this nation seems to have lost its vision.

 The terms "under God, indivisible," meant just that--they expressed the Universal Truth of Unity; Oneness: a Matrix very difficult to destroy. But the Matrix has been weakened. Religious freedom has become religious righteousness bordering on religious intolerance. Individual freedom has all but vanished as individual responsibility has disappeared. The notion of individual responsibility has been distorted to mean "every man for himself." This is the new philosophy that imagines itself to be harkening back to the Early American tradition of rugged individualism.

 But the original sense upon which the American vision and the American dream was based, found its deepest meaning and its highest expression in the concept off Brotherly Love.  What made America great was not that every man struggled for his own survival, but that every man accepted individual responsibility for the survival of all.  America was a nation that would not turn its back on the hungry, would never say no to the needy, would open its arms to the weary and the homeless, and would share its abundance with the world.

Yet as America became great, Americans became greedy. Not all, but many. And, as time went on, more and more.

As Americans saw how good it was possible to have it, they sought to have it even better. Yet there was only one way to have more and more and more. Someone else had to have less and less and less. As greed replaced greatness in the American character, there was less room for compassion for the least among the people. The less fortunate were told it was their "own damned fault" if they didn't have more. After all, America was the Land of Opportunity, was it not? No one except the less fortunate found it possible to admit that America's opportunity was limited, institutionally, to those already on the inside track. In general, these have not included many minorities, such as those of certain skin color or gender.

Americans became arrogant internationally as well. As millions starved across the globe, Americans threw away enough food each day to feed entire nations. America was generous with some, yes--but increasingly her foreign policy came to be an extension of her own vested interests. America helped others when it served America to do so. (That is, when it served America's power structure, America's richest elite, or the military machine that protected those elite--and their collective assets.)

America's founding ideal-- Brotherly Love-- had been eroded. Now any talk of being "your brother's keeper" is met with a new brand of Americanism--a sharp mind toward what it takes to hold on to one's own, and a sharp word to any amongst the less fortunate who would dare to ask for their fair share, for their grievances to be redressed.

Each person must take responsibility for herself or himself--that is undeniable true. But America--and your world--can truly work only when every person is willing to stand responsible for all of you as a Whole."

America's lack of seeing and understanding itself has lead to the present situation.

I strongly recomend this and other books by Neale Donald Walsh to those that seek insight and wisdom. N.D.Walsh certainly has reached and is enlightened and his books can help to clearify many questions people have about spirituality and religion.