Unbiased look at the Sint Maarten Elections
Dear Editor,
The dump (aka Mount Garbage) caught fire on May 2nd, 2015, and since then it has been emitting toxic smoke every day. That is well over 1 month (!) ago. Like many persons living and working in the greater Philipsburg area, I have also been suffering from frequent headaches and sore throat since the big fire. Depending on the wind direction, it can affect the entire Philipsburg area. On bad days, the smoke can even be smelled as far away as Caribbean Cinemas in Cole Bay/Simpson Bay.
It's therefore mind-boggling (but very telling) that up to now, no MP has raised the issue in Parliament and earmarked it as priority number one, as the smoke is poisoning a large part of the St. Maarten community.
Apparently what MP's do care about regarding our health care is travelling with sizable delegations to an irrelevant health care conference in Aruba last week (MP's Lloyd Richardson, Cornelius de Weever, George Pantophlet and Silveria Jacobs). To these MP's I say: if the dump situation is not tackled urgently, the health care crisis will be right here on St. Maarten! Stop travelling around on our expense and start doing your jobs right here on St. Maarten.
For now, I pray that the wind shifts direction so that the leader of the UPP, whose residence is relatively close to the dump but is fortunate enough to be located on the windward section, will 'wake up and smell the coffee' too. Was it not his campaign promise that a contract was ready to sign for a Waste-to-Energy plant during last year's elections? How strange then that the Waste-to-Energy project has gone quiet ever since.
It's time to put the interest of the people first and make this health crisis, priority number one sir. We, the people choking on smoke daily, urgently need an update on the Waste-to-Energy plant including a plan for execution with firm deadlines. The time to act is now. Are you ready?
Kenneth James
