HOW MUCH IS TOO MUCH?

As has been said over and repeatedly, the island of Saint Martin is 37 square miles. Islands with active volcanoes may grow through volcanic eruptions, but St. Martin's volcanoes are no longer working, and many parts of the island were constructed by the sea building on coral, such as Philipsburg, Simpsonbay and Grand Case, among other locations on the island. But that is a process that takes thousands of years and one which has been interfered with in the dredging of the Bar of Philipsburg.


At one time there were five square miles of inland waters, but that is slowly and sometimes no slowly but surely disappearing, these days especially on the Dutch side.


So when do we reach the "Enough"! point on St. Martin? Looking at the island today I would say we have already reached it and exceeded in some areas.


Juliana airport already handles all types of aircraft, and runs out of space at certains times of year, we sometimes have as many as 8 cruise ships in port at one time. Millions of people pass through the island each year. Some days we may have an additional 20.000 people on an already overcrowed island of nobody knows how many thousand. The roads are not enough for the uncoontrolled thousands of cars and tour buses. On any day in winter tourists visiting St. Martin simply exchange a cold traffic jam for a hot traffic jam. Is that a fair exchange?


And now, both French side and Dutch are talking about extending their airports. To where? For whom? Because the native people are crying out here for lack of jobs first of all. Businesses are leaving the French side for the Dutch side, leaving even more joblessness on the French side, which survives these days on the French dole. Thousands of people not from the island and who have never contributed a day's work.


Right now we are having cemetery problems, they are all full. Government finds land to build social housing and schools for all the people flocking here, but the French side remains now without enough room to bury those who die and a hospital of only 80 beds and which is chronically out of room, where patients have to sleep in the corridors.


France is 50 years too late to be able to construct an airport on the French side of the caliber of Juliana airport. When France was offered the chance to build the airport along with the Dutch 50 years ago, the request had to go to France of course, and with the mentality of the Maginot line, France replied that it "did not see any benefit for France" in that. The rest is history.


Furthermore, there is no real reason why the French side should want to compete with the Dutch side. There are so many other ways to develop besides mega-marinas and mega-airports. The French side could become the "green" side of the island, developing and promoting things like 3"Fish Day" and the Colombier "Arrowroot Jollification" and "I love my Ram" programs. With proper promotion and development those kinds of programs could grow in the same manner that the Dutch side grew their Carnival and Heineken Regatta.


This island needs to focus on improving itself and working on helping to eradicate crime as much as possible. The two sides of the island also need to work on an immigration moratorium. Charity is supposed to begin at home and if you do not properly care for your own, how can you care for others?