Food For Thought Part III
Dear Editor,
This opinion piece on Koninkrijk.nu is well worth space and time in our local media according to me. Had I written this following Koninkrijk.nu article myself, I probably would have called “Food For Thought Part III”
Het morele failliet van de Sint Maartense politiek – Koninkrijk.nu
A loose translation compliments of a friend and just as concerned SXM citizen:
Quote: “Politicians on St. Maarten – with a lone exception – succeed time and again in convincingly proving that they are unfit to the very core of entrusting the administration of anything. If Sint Maarten were a company, it would have been bankrupt long time ago due to overpaid, incompetent and corrupt managers and all the staff would have been left without food, and dependent on the food bank.
Sint Maarten, which was declared an autonomous country in 2010, is financially in decline. Not because of Hurricane Irma or the corona crisis, but because of the highest paid politicians in the Kingdom who have been pursuing their own interests for decades – again: apart from a few – and who prefer to put their energy into lucrative businesses that cannot bear the light of day than society.
If there were integrity management, the houses, schools and hospital destroyed by Irma would have been restored a long time ago thanks to the donation of 550 million euros from The Hague. If there were reliable administrators, Sint Maarten is assured of hundreds of millions of Dutch support to emerge stronger from the corona crisis.
The bottom of the treasury is in sight. You would think the government would turn over every dime ten times before deciding not to spend it anyway. But no, the Jacobs cabinet decides to send a deputy plenipotentiary minister to the Netherlands. Quickly before it is placed under strict supervision by the kingdom council of ministers. After all, it is about handing out of made-up fun jobs, because that is a deputy plenipotentiary minister.
Given the limited range of tasks, it is a “real hard” for anyone in that job to work to burnout. His deputy has plenty of time to become proficient in twindling his thumbs, or more likely – thanks to the generous salary – to enjoy the joys of living in a country like the Netherlands richly blessed in terms of shops, nightlife and other pleasant and useful facilities.
The “plv” will soon cost the government 300,000 guilders annually, including relocation and foreign allowance. How many Sint Maarten residents who became unemployed because of Covid-19 could you give a food package with that money?” Unquote.
Michael J. Ferrier
November 1, 2020
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Related article:
Food for thought (part 2)
