By Hilbert Haar
St. Maarten could be a tropical paradise. So why isn’t it and – more importantly – what can we do to change the situation?
Our country has its 37 beaches and the weather is, most of the time, very agreeable. There is an abundant choice of restaurants and for the gamblers among us there are more than enough casinos as well. While all this sounds pretty good, our country also has a dark side. For visitors, safety is a big issue and, unfortunately, that is exactly one of our weak points.
Taking a stroll on the beach after dark, or doing the same thing in the center of Philipsburg, is not a good idea. Chances that you get robbed (or worse) are high – and nobody wants to go home or to his own funeral with an experience like that.
It is tempting to point the finger at poverty as the main cause, but is it really? This is a key question and the answer is not easy. Many people will have different opinions about any answer I could come up with.
Let me share with you my personal experiences of the past eight years. I left St Maarten with pain in my heart in the spring of 2018, before the beginning of another hurricane season. The Irma-effect, you could call that.
I traveled to Europe to visit family and friends before I continued to countries like Poland, Russia and Mongolia. I did not always end up in splendid neighborhoods but they had one thing in common: I always felt safe there.
My journey continued towards a series of Asian countries: South Korea, Vietnam, Laos, Thailand, Myanmar, Cambodia and later also to Sri Lanka and India. Again, I always felt safe – everywhere.
One can say a lot about the regimes in some of these countries (especially Cambodia and Myanmar) and it is true that freedom of speech is more often than not non-existent. But the people are friendly. They make you feel welcome and on quite some occasions they want to take a picture with you.
The common factor between most of these countries and St. Maarten is without any doubt poverty. I am not claiming that there is no crime in these countries – there must be. Traffic in the cities is beyond chaos. It is crazy. Most citizens are scrambling to make a living, working long hours and offering services and goods for ridiculously low prices.
So why don’t these people take the easy way out by robbing visitors who have more money in their pocket than they will ever see in their lifetime? Beats me.
What occurs to me is that Asian citizens do not judge you based on the color of your skin. It’s not even an issue over here. Never ever have I heard anybody snap at me: “Why don’t you go back to your own country?”
That’s a phrase I have heard during my more than ten years in St. Maarten more than once.
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