Am I my brother's keeper? And if I am, when, how and where am I to keep him?
There are many countries in the world today from which the people seem nothing short of desperate to flee.That is not normal. Some people always leave their country, but not the majority.
Everybody wants to improve their life, but not do not leave in rickety boats that are definitely not seaworthy, this is desperation pure and simple.
Only the Almighty knows how many people on both sides of the globe lie buries on the bottom of the sea, because they are running away from their country.
So, when am I my brother's keeper? Only when he is in my country, what about when he is in his own country? Why and why not?
How am I my brother's keeper? What do I have to do for him? Take him into my house, feed him, educate him?
Where am I my brother's keeper? All over the world? There is not a country on God's green earth without poor people, which of them do I have to keep and I definitely cannot keep them all.
Having said all that we need an example to work with. If this blog was in Europe I would take North Africa as an example, but since it is in the Caribbean my example will be Haiti.
Before anything else, allow me to make two (2) remarks, one concerning Haiti, and on concerning Saint Martin.
1. Haiti is the poorest island in the Caribbean and likely to remain that way, since everybody seems to want to leave it.
2. Saint Martin is the most densely populated island in the Caribbean, along with being one of the smallest, and close to the breaking point population wise.
So the question is: why has a world body never been established to investigate exactly what is happening in these various countries that is causing their people to run away?
This body would have to be totally apolitical, that can investicate and give suggestions as to what can be done to help these people in their own countries.
Again, if some of the hundreds of thousands of Haitians for instance, spread throughout the world who are now well educated, do not come back to build the country, it can only slip further down, since those who run the country now either cannot or will not do anything to bring it up.
It is total insanity to expect a different result to expect different results from the same people.
As I said at the beginning, in all those countries where people are desperately running, what is being done by the big countries to be their brother's keeper?
Monday, April 14, 2014
Tuesday, April 8, 2014
DOES THE COLLECTIVITY OWE THE CAF?
As everybody knows Saint Martin is overrun with people coming here to have their children born here in order to collect money from the CAF. These children are then foisted upon the island as Saint Martiners while what they are are "CAF babies". Having said that, there are also Saint Martiners of heritage who purposely produce Caf babies too.
However, the national government of France is reponsible for nationality, that is a competence which only comes with independence. No territory or collectivity possesses that. In other words, St. Martin has to nationality to grant. These people become purely and simply French citizens or nationals.
Now suddenly we read that the CAF wants the Collectivity to pay 35M€ for "debts from 2011 to 2013." Now I want somebody to explain to me the logic behind the reasoning that goes, if we have to continue accepting people coming from all over the world, legally or illegally, where the collectivity is going to get that money from. If it comes to that, I'd like to know where France is eventually going to get the money from.
The French man on the street is getting ready to blow. St. Martiners may be apathetic, inert, or simply a bunch of cowards afraid to demostrate, but French people will definitely take to the streets.
In the last municpial elections last month, the left was already given a warning by the upsurge in popularity of the extreme right and if it is not happen in the upcoming legislative elections, it will happen in the next one. If Matignon isn't stormed before, since the Bastille has already fallen.
The time will come when there will be no money left to take care of their own who cannot care for themselves. Along with that, the French socialist system is set up to kill all ambition.
Change MUST come, both here and in mainland France or the results will not be pretty.
However, the national government of France is reponsible for nationality, that is a competence which only comes with independence. No territory or collectivity possesses that. In other words, St. Martin has to nationality to grant. These people become purely and simply French citizens or nationals.
Now suddenly we read that the CAF wants the Collectivity to pay 35M€ for "debts from 2011 to 2013." Now I want somebody to explain to me the logic behind the reasoning that goes, if we have to continue accepting people coming from all over the world, legally or illegally, where the collectivity is going to get that money from. If it comes to that, I'd like to know where France is eventually going to get the money from.
The French man on the street is getting ready to blow. St. Martiners may be apathetic, inert, or simply a bunch of cowards afraid to demostrate, but French people will definitely take to the streets.
In the last municpial elections last month, the left was already given a warning by the upsurge in popularity of the extreme right and if it is not happen in the upcoming legislative elections, it will happen in the next one. If Matignon isn't stormed before, since the Bastille has already fallen.
The time will come when there will be no money left to take care of their own who cannot care for themselves. Along with that, the French socialist system is set up to kill all ambition.
Change MUST come, both here and in mainland France or the results will not be pretty.
Sunday, April 6, 2014
WHAT WILL IT TAKE???
Something seems to have triggered a rash of souvenir pictures and facebook posts of hurricane Luis. Possible the tentative election date on the Dutch side.
Anyway, having looked at pictures and statistics that brought back many not so nice memories, among which was the "official" announcement to the rest of the world, I suppose for the sake of tourism, without which everybody thinks we are nothing, that hurricane Luis only caused 2 deaths on St. Martin
O yes, after blowing at 145 mph for 36 hours, sinking something like 1200 boats in the lagoon, flattening only God knows how many shacks and not-shacks all over the island, watching hilicopters cartin away nobody knows what for weeks on end, if anybody who was here at that time still wants to believe that crap, they need to see a shrink.
Now, a little look further back at another hurricane. Hurricane Donna which was said to be the last "big one" before Luis and which dates back to September 4, 1960. I remember it was said that a 160 mph gust of wind broke the anemometer at Julianba Airport during that storm. That was a healthy gust of wind.
However, for the record, while I, as a teenager, slept through most of Hurricane Donna, that hurricane blew for one night. When I woke up the next morning, everything was over but the cleanup.
As I said before, Luis blew for 36 hours. I closed up my house on Monday everning and on Wednesday morning it took 3 people to open my front door.
Unofficial statistics have given numbers like 800 dead and even that may be a conservative estimate because back in those glory days nobody had a clue how many people resided on St. Martin. Nobody knows how many family members buried other family members in the hills.
If we survive climate change and global warming, archaeologists will have a field day wondering what kinds of settlements we had in those hills, there will be so many skeletons to unearth.
Now, the main point is that no proper statistics will ever be available mostley because the greater part of those "deported" by hurricane Luis were on the island illegally.
Today, 19 years down the line, nobody still knows how many people reside on St. Martin, whether French or Dutch side.
The next hurricane of that category, and from where we sit today, nobody knows when that will be, will be a lawsuit made in heaven against the governments of both sides of the island for not having done what they should have done.
Anyway, having looked at pictures and statistics that brought back many not so nice memories, among which was the "official" announcement to the rest of the world, I suppose for the sake of tourism, without which everybody thinks we are nothing, that hurricane Luis only caused 2 deaths on St. Martin
O yes, after blowing at 145 mph for 36 hours, sinking something like 1200 boats in the lagoon, flattening only God knows how many shacks and not-shacks all over the island, watching hilicopters cartin away nobody knows what for weeks on end, if anybody who was here at that time still wants to believe that crap, they need to see a shrink.
Now, a little look further back at another hurricane. Hurricane Donna which was said to be the last "big one" before Luis and which dates back to September 4, 1960. I remember it was said that a 160 mph gust of wind broke the anemometer at Julianba Airport during that storm. That was a healthy gust of wind.
However, for the record, while I, as a teenager, slept through most of Hurricane Donna, that hurricane blew for one night. When I woke up the next morning, everything was over but the cleanup.
As I said before, Luis blew for 36 hours. I closed up my house on Monday everning and on Wednesday morning it took 3 people to open my front door.
Unofficial statistics have given numbers like 800 dead and even that may be a conservative estimate because back in those glory days nobody had a clue how many people resided on St. Martin. Nobody knows how many family members buried other family members in the hills.
If we survive climate change and global warming, archaeologists will have a field day wondering what kinds of settlements we had in those hills, there will be so many skeletons to unearth.
Now, the main point is that no proper statistics will ever be available mostley because the greater part of those "deported" by hurricane Luis were on the island illegally.
Today, 19 years down the line, nobody still knows how many people reside on St. Martin, whether French or Dutch side.
The next hurricane of that category, and from where we sit today, nobody knows when that will be, will be a lawsuit made in heaven against the governments of both sides of the island for not having done what they should have done.
Thursday, April 3, 2014
THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN FACTION AND FRACTION
For some time now the media has been referring to fractions of political parties.
They used factions before which is the correct word. My Funk and Wagnalls dictionary defines faction as " a group of people operating within and often in opposition to, a larger group," while it defines fraction, which differs only by the letter R, as a "disconnected part of anything, a small portion, a fragment."
When the media, in particular the Daily Herald, which is the newspaper I read, uses fraction instead of faction, I know it is purposely done, because if I spell organization with a z the way they do in the US, it is automatically edited to an s. So what exactly are they trying to say?
That every other party is but a disconnected part of another party, rather than a group which is in opposition to that larger group?
Is that a slang as we say on Saint Martin?
Words are very important, and should be used appropriately and in the proper manner.
As I have asked many times before, why should the Daily Herald edit any word I spell in the US fashion? Another thing I have said many times is that we not use British English on Saint Martin or St. Maarten for that manner, if the name needs to be spelled in the proper manner, our great exception being the bonnett,of a car.
And if we used to talk of loos and lorries I would have no proble with their editing.
So what are we, and even more important, what do we want to be?
It is definitely going to be easier to express ourselves in US English, thather than the Queen's English, so we should make up our minds.
I will not say it has us confused as a country, because I am sure that the government knows exactly what it wants, and what it will do to the people to get it.
They used factions before which is the correct word. My Funk and Wagnalls dictionary defines faction as " a group of people operating within and often in opposition to, a larger group," while it defines fraction, which differs only by the letter R, as a "disconnected part of anything, a small portion, a fragment."
When the media, in particular the Daily Herald, which is the newspaper I read, uses fraction instead of faction, I know it is purposely done, because if I spell organization with a z the way they do in the US, it is automatically edited to an s. So what exactly are they trying to say?
That every other party is but a disconnected part of another party, rather than a group which is in opposition to that larger group?
Is that a slang as we say on Saint Martin?
Words are very important, and should be used appropriately and in the proper manner.
As I have asked many times before, why should the Daily Herald edit any word I spell in the US fashion? Another thing I have said many times is that we not use British English on Saint Martin or St. Maarten for that manner, if the name needs to be spelled in the proper manner, our great exception being the bonnett,of a car.
And if we used to talk of loos and lorries I would have no proble with their editing.
So what are we, and even more important, what do we want to be?
It is definitely going to be easier to express ourselves in US English, thather than the Queen's English, so we should make up our minds.
I will not say it has us confused as a country, because I am sure that the government knows exactly what it wants, and what it will do to the people to get it.
Saturday, March 29, 2014
ST. MARTIN - BETHLEHEM OR CALVARAY FOR IMMIGRANTS?
Has St. Martin been a Bethlehe, a place of bread, or a Calvary, a place of the skull for those who have come from outside?
People have been coming to St. Martin in ever increasing numbers from at least the mid 1960's, a period of at least fifty years.
Even today in what everybody calls hard economic times, people still flock to this island. Why? And particularly, whenever St. Martiners complain about foreigners, they get as our old people used to say: "more vex than you".
These people include both rich and poor, who have planted roots on this island. Should we believe that that these thousands of people have given everything they had and St. Martiners have only been theones to profit from their labor? Don't even try to tell me that, if that was so, they would have left, nt even tourists would continue to come.
There are tourists who come to the "Friendly Island", spend their vacation and leave without ever having come in contact with a native st martiner.
Am I to believe that thse thousands of people have given their all to St. martin and St. Martiners have only profited from their work or their invesment? I am afraid that I will have to say that everybody has profited.
However, what we have today is more people that this island can handle, among whom many who do not care or who do not want to see what is going on.
No one can really say say that that things are going well on St. Martin, whether on the French or the Dutch side. And if people on the capitalistic Dutch side are suffering, imagine what those on the French socialist side are suffering.
Along with being swamped by outsiders, whether they want to hear it or not, we have lost the economic control of the island. Both sides are controlled by outsiders.
And those businesses do not employe St Martiners, they employ people from their native countries or they employ immigrants who accept salaries and conditions that natives will not.
Sot at this moment in thim I have to say that Saint Martin is definitely Bethlehem to those who are not from St. Martin.
Tuesday, March 25, 2014
FRENCH/EUROPEAN FOOD STANDARDS
Is it possible to apply norms and standards based on continental Europe to a tiny island like Saint Martin? It would depend on what the standards and norms apply to.
The most import thing to people anywhere in the world is that they need food to remain alive. Food has to be clean and nutritious in order to be eaten so yes, we do need standards.
Once upon a time St. Martin produced enough food to feed the people living on the island, or at least most of them. Some things like rice and potatoes, which do not grow on the island had to be imported. We even exported cattle to other islands at one time.
Then came the tourist boom and an influx of people. So many people that this amll, drought-prone island could no longer handle it. It also became easier to work in the tourist industry than to work in an agricultural industry in which lack of rain could kill the crop and in which city water cost too much to pay for and hope to make a living from agriculture.
So our food has to be imported now. And now our problems have started. France wants us to import from them, with all that that entails, the distance, the unreliability of transportation and higher prices.
But what about the few things that still grow here in the wild and that are imported from the other islands in the area? Europe has a winter whcih we do not have, and Europe does not grow coconuts, papaya, bananas, mangoes, kenips, guavas, sugar apple, soursop, pommes surettes, and a host of others. What is the standard of the mangoes that grow in my yard? The gooseberries that grow in my sister's yard? The bay grapes that grow in the neighbor's yard?
How do I make the sweets, drinks and tarts that we are accustomed to, our guavaberry drink for Christmas?
How can the standards of France or Europe be applied in this case? The very flour that we use and have used for centuries has been imported from the United States which is so much nearer to us than is Europe.
Should we be forced to use foodstuffs from Eurpoe which always cost more than food from the U.S? Should we not be able to legislate what we accept and what we do not accept?
The most import thing to people anywhere in the world is that they need food to remain alive. Food has to be clean and nutritious in order to be eaten so yes, we do need standards.
Once upon a time St. Martin produced enough food to feed the people living on the island, or at least most of them. Some things like rice and potatoes, which do not grow on the island had to be imported. We even exported cattle to other islands at one time.
Then came the tourist boom and an influx of people. So many people that this amll, drought-prone island could no longer handle it. It also became easier to work in the tourist industry than to work in an agricultural industry in which lack of rain could kill the crop and in which city water cost too much to pay for and hope to make a living from agriculture.
So our food has to be imported now. And now our problems have started. France wants us to import from them, with all that that entails, the distance, the unreliability of transportation and higher prices.
But what about the few things that still grow here in the wild and that are imported from the other islands in the area? Europe has a winter whcih we do not have, and Europe does not grow coconuts, papaya, bananas, mangoes, kenips, guavas, sugar apple, soursop, pommes surettes, and a host of others. What is the standard of the mangoes that grow in my yard? The gooseberries that grow in my sister's yard? The bay grapes that grow in the neighbor's yard?
How do I make the sweets, drinks and tarts that we are accustomed to, our guavaberry drink for Christmas?
How can the standards of France or Europe be applied in this case? The very flour that we use and have used for centuries has been imported from the United States which is so much nearer to us than is Europe.
Should we be forced to use foodstuffs from Eurpoe which always cost more than food from the U.S? Should we not be able to legislate what we accept and what we do not accept?
Thursday, March 20, 2014
FOREIGN NATIONAL ANTHEMS
There is nothing fundamentaly wrong with people singing in any language in support of a person or persons or group. However, there is something askew with people from St. Martin singing the national anthem of a country which most of them cannot find on a map and which none of them have a clue as to what they are singing to support one person from that country. I am from theis island and I have a problem with that. Why could they not have sung a folk song from that country?
One person from the Ukraine married to a Dutchman is not representative of what is happening in the Ukraine. That group could not have stood and spontaneously sing the Ukraine national anthem in support of anything. Would this group have been able to spontaneously sing the Wilhelmus? And where are they from, since it has gone around the world that the people in the Ukraine "cannot believe they are receiving from the other side of the world, especially from a Caribbean island as small as St. Martin." What sort of support has St. Martin given them? Some friends of one Ukrainian citizen sang what they didn't know.
Again, I say and I maintain, there is nothing wrong with an outpouring of love and sympathy for someone leading to song, however it should have been done with another song. People and children living on this island should not been taught to sing a national anthem which means nothing to them or to the rest of us on the island, but which could have unseen repercussions and ramifications down the line.
Actions ave consequences. St. Martin is also in a state of turmoil at the moment. Things are not going well on the "Friendly Island" and anyone who says differently is either blind or lying. Many exceptional results have been triggered by what may seem to be inconsequential actions.
We should be careful of how this island is projected especially by those who come from abroad. They have another place to go to. St. Martin is all we have.
One person from the Ukraine married to a Dutchman is not representative of what is happening in the Ukraine. That group could not have stood and spontaneously sing the Ukraine national anthem in support of anything. Would this group have been able to spontaneously sing the Wilhelmus? And where are they from, since it has gone around the world that the people in the Ukraine "cannot believe they are receiving from the other side of the world, especially from a Caribbean island as small as St. Martin." What sort of support has St. Martin given them? Some friends of one Ukrainian citizen sang what they didn't know.
Again, I say and I maintain, there is nothing wrong with an outpouring of love and sympathy for someone leading to song, however it should have been done with another song. People and children living on this island should not been taught to sing a national anthem which means nothing to them or to the rest of us on the island, but which could have unseen repercussions and ramifications down the line.
Actions ave consequences. St. Martin is also in a state of turmoil at the moment. Things are not going well on the "Friendly Island" and anyone who says differently is either blind or lying. Many exceptional results have been triggered by what may seem to be inconsequential actions.
We should be careful of how this island is projected especially by those who come from abroad. They have another place to go to. St. Martin is all we have.
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