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Published On: Tue, Feb 6th, 2018

Dump fires are the new norm on St. Maarten

Dear Editor,

On the night of Sunday February 4, the people of St. Maarten were again reminded of the deadly, living giant which has now become more of a landmark than our salt pond or any of the other national monuments. Unlike the others, this giant is a disgusting monument to our lack of planning and proper structure.

At the turn of the new government, the people were introduced to a new minister of Vromi, Minister Giterson. In the headlines, it showcased the Minister referring to the dump as his biggest problem, but in the two lines following he went on to state that his focus would be on “the people who are currently still living in the emergency shelters in the Festival Village”. Minister Giterson was clearly out of his element when a video surfaced on social media of him looking befuddled on the night of the fire. If you start your term in office avoiding the bigger issues when they pop up, how will you know how to handle them?

But can we blame you for being ill-equipped? Clearly you were placed in that position as a last resort, to fill a space until the next elections and you are replaced by someone who will hopefully know better than to stand in front of chemical fires with a dust mask on. Sadly, your mask is as ineffective as your disaster management skills.

The excuse given for the fall of government was because of the ineffectiveness of the former PM’s leadership during times of distress. Does this incident not display your inability to handle your new appointment? This is one fire, how will you be able to handle an entire island if we’re faced with this kind of destruction? If the new government had their way we would have no elections and the people would have no choice but to accept being stuck with you stumbling your way through disasters for another few years.

The new Prime Minister issued orders from the shrouds of her political Sunken Place and sent home her civil servants. The rest of the people are left to wonder if their health isn’t worth the efforts of greater operational shut downs. A mere drive through Philipsburg would have revealed the unhealthy conditions of our Nation’s capitol. To look up in the sky would reveal a sun tinted by orange fumes of toxicity. People squinted and coughed their ways to work through the streets of Philipsburg on Monday and nobody thought to secure them by shutting down the zones heavily affected by smoke. But, how could you shut down those areas when the entire island is affected by smoke?

Our children face a new norm of having to sit inside during recess to avoid additional exposure to the smoke. If the parents aren’t lucky enough to be civil servants they sit in offices encompassed by smoke, praying the central air will keep them encapsulated until the worst passes. At this rate the new norm will be cancers and other lung diseases brought on by prolonged exposure to toxic smoke. It would be interesting to know if SZV is ready to handle an entire island of sick people.

Please, do sit and laugh at memes about the situation being the fault of the former government. Do throw around the blame, like both governments didn’t hold power over time. It just wasn’t a “top priority” at the time you were in power. Now we have a new set of representatives who are quick to throw the blame. We don’t need to know who started it. We need a solution to fix this. Not everyone is rich enough to ship our kids to healthier areas, this island is all we have.

C. Emilia Media