St. Maarten Private Eye

We shall all miss Heather. The roundabout will never be the same. Nearly every animal lover on this Island checked her daily. We shall all miss her. The roundabout should be named "Heather's Place". That was her home, and she would not budge from it..

Every time I passed the roundabout, I looked for her. it feels so strange not to see her there.

Heather’s Roundabout sure looks like it can use some attention. Maybe there are more people willing to support in upgrading that spot with a nice statue of Heather. By the way here is a picture of Edu who took care of her for almost 3 years. You might recognize him he is one of the owners of the Wayang Doll, the Indonesian Restaurant in Simpsonbay. He never gave her left over’s but he always gave Heather proper dog food.

Edu was the only person who could come close and sometimes she let him touch her. Edu is the one who brought her to the vet and stayed with her till the end. He buried Heather close to the roundabout and he truly misses her. It is so good to know that so many people kept an eye on her spoke about her and were concerned about her. But it is a pity that there are so many other Heathers and not enough Edu’s therefore I also would like to support a nice statue as an awareness. A statue of a dog would be a nice reminder of Heather and a gesture of a new beginning that from now on St. Maarten will enclose all life forms into our community and take better care of all living beings.

Thanks Flipper for putting Heather on your site.

PS: People are already calling it Heather’s roundabout.

That would be wonderful if Government would erect a statue in honor of Heather, at least it would be something nice and perhaps show that our Commissioners cared about life. We have had a draft ordinance for laws to protect animals submitted to Government over 3 years ago and of course requesting assistance for an Animal Shelter and Education Center for the youth on being compassionate to Animals, as there is a definite link between young people abusing animals and in the grown up years they will be violent to humans as well, as of course in the long run I am sure that crime would lessen. I pray the Goverm,memt will take heed sooner than later. I continuosly hear people tell me that they will not return to Sint Maarten because of the way the animal poplulaion is uncared for and it makes there vacation depressing. " A Nation and it's people are judged by the way they treat their animals" a great quote from Ghandhi.

We are one of the most lucrative Islands in the Caribbean and yet we are the only one that does not have an animal shelter.

Larry Geer
Vice President
Animals R Friends, SXM

Stiil not a bad idea and an inscription large enough for everyone to see with a quote from Mahatma Gandhi (1869-1948) " A Nation and its People are judged by the way they treat their animals" Perhaps then our Government would have to live up to those standards and realize that we need aqn Animal Shelter and Learning Center, as we are the only Island in the Caribbean without one. Shame,shame

Larry Geer
Vice President
Aninmals R Friends, SXM

While It is nice, to erect a statue for that dog, that someone throw away. Government do nothing for our youths that are now on Marijuana, the fire victims government did not help them, Do you think in your wildest dreams that Government will erect a statue of that dog... On a round about they cannot even finsh because of Court battles ( that round about is an Eye Sore)
I know Animal Lovers would Love that, even I would love that, but we need to live in this real SXM World who thinks that illegal children dont have a right to education. Moreover recognizing a STRAY DOG

Yes I agree, in real SXM land erecting a statue to a stray dog is laughable, sorry I did laugh, but not that I dont like animals, its just that more than half of people will be baffled why put up a statue to a dog!. Some may even feel insulted that why you dont think putting up something in honor of a local hero or heroine of the past. And its true about Goverment, they dont even care to help our own human beings in need. I would love to see all animals treated well and I dont disrespect the feelings of our Animal Lovers, but I would rather see Goverment help our homeless and mentally ill citizens to live better.

All people should have a right to education. I think that it is strange that a child that is born here is considered a person from where his parents came from. On the birth certificate it should state where the child was actually born not where his parents were born. I have no clue why Sint Maarten does that. I have friends that were born in Jamaica and are here legally and have had children here and their birth certicates state they were born in Jamaica. Strange. I find it amazing how many Sint Maartener's go to the States and have their children and I believe the Birth Certificate states the State they were born in (ie New York), so automatically they have dual citizenship..Life is great for those that work the system. Perhaps the system should be changed as it could possibly lead to schizophrania. Such as: I am Antillean, of Dutch Nationality, but yet I am also an American, but yet I am not African American. Wow that could confuse the hell out of anyone. Perhaps that is one reason why some of our youth are confused.

Dear Anonymous:

Is it too much to have a vision that the Youth and Animals cannot be protected? Don't get me wrong. I also support the youth and teach a t the various schools as well. All living things should have a chance at Life and here in Sint Maarten that position seems to take a back seat, but keep in mind that the youth can speak for themselves and need to realize that education is the answer, take Jennifer Hudson the recent Acadamey Award Winner from the Hood in Chicago, she had a dream and pursued it without anyone handing it too her. Her Grandmother told her that she could be anything she wanted to be if she stuck to the books and stayed in school. Here we have a high dropout because there are not enough role models taking the time to direct them, including their own parents. Can you imagine that one of our local schools has one guidance counselor for 1000 plus students. That is disgraceful.. No one is going to hand anyone anything, one has to realize the dream and pursue it. Nothing in life is free.

You can be all that you can be with determination against all odds.

How about a plaque naming the youth that sit around and take drugs and think that school is not important and that someone owes them something. Now that is reality!!!!

Regards,

Larry C. Geer

To the person who wrote dreaming

That stray dog, symbolizes the whole poor situation on St. Maarten that you so nicely described. This stray dog is what all our lives are all about. We are all lost, stray, neglected, in search for love, compassion, food, education, you name it. It is time that the stray population of animals is recognized as the core of all our problems. Only if we humans start being more compassionate and responsible towards the weakest link in our community, only then we might climb out of it and help lift each other out of any horrible situation. It is quite simple. To reach the top one needs to start at the bottom. A million starts with one. What is the lowest level in our community? Animals! The lowest amongst animals are the stray, hungry and sick animals. So when people ask me why I put so many efforts in animals and not in children or women or other people? My reply is that I indirectly do; only I start at the roots of all problems. This is exactly how young people could become more responsible later on in life; by just being a good example to them now. Just teach them how to be responsible and compassionate with animals. If our youngsters will not be thought how to be responsible and compassionate towards animals how might they respond to other life forms later on in life?
I hope you now know that this dreamer and many other animal lovers really voluntarily work very, very hard to make our dreams and indirectly your dreams come true. Each and every day that I see a little dream come true it makes me want to work harder the next day. This addiction is much sweeter and has bigger and more positive rewards then any drug can give. I am addicted to life and I want to live surround by all life forms that want to live. Helping struggling animals is helping the whole community, if you do not see that than please try it once yourself. It is being a positive example and that is contagious to other positive people who would also like to be part of the solution to all problems on St. Maarten.
So to solve a real St. Maarten eye sore and problems we could make a real dream come true and have a positive statue made of Heather on her roundabout as a symbolization of a break true in this negative spin and chaos. She will remind us all of becoming more compassionate towards all life, even the lowest of lowest and the loneliest of them all. We need to be there for each other no matter what color, size, age or species that is what the dream is all about. Don’t you want to help make this dream come true?

Now only if more people responded as you did, what a wonderful life we would have.

Thank you,

Larry

Dreaming is not against animals, in fact dreaming has abuot 10 cats she picked up off the streets and 5 dogs. What Dreaming is trying to say is that Government will not do that for the children (people on the island, more over animals) SXM is is collapsing at that is the message.

Yes you are right. There are far too many problems on St. Maarten but we cannot blame government for everything. We cannot blame government for the stray animal problems that we humans let get out of hand and the overpopulation that we ourselves have let happen with our eyes wide open. However, we can blame the government for not acting and helping the volunteers after all their cries for help. We can blame the government for still not putting serious interest into understanding the link and relation between the animal problems and the human problems. It has been said many times before that the animals are the thermometer of a community.

Let me put it a bit harder and in less nice words: The sick and stray overpopulated animal situation on St. Maarten is just a showcase of our sick community; something is very wrong here and needs serious attention. This is exactly why we need a statue of Heather on her roundabout. Not that the statue will change things but it will function as a daily reminder that we need to learn from the bad times and to turn them into better times. An awareness statue, that all life is precious. If we cannot take care of our animals then we cannot take care of our kids and of our selves. It is all too sad for words but if we change our attitudes towards animals then there is hope for all of us, that is what the Heather’s plaque could say or her statue could symbolize. Who ever said that government should do it all? Not me. The only thing we need from government is a permit for that statue or plaque; we could and should show government how to operate things on the island, they might cooperate.

Fact is that governments all over the world are always a few steps behind because they are always reacting on actions coming from their communities that is how the system operates. So stop waiting on government because they are the ones waiting to react on our acts. We could give our government the example, and let’s be hopeful and positive that they might learn and cooperate. In fact this web site has been teaching them a lot and has been very helpful as useful eye-openers to them. It is noticeable that government is reacting on many actions taken by the community lately and this SXM PE blog has been a handy tool for all parties. One cannot expect miracles from any government, it will take a lot of time to turn things around specially here on St. Maarten, but keep the pressure on and don’t forget the more help the faster we will reach our goals and this way many other dreams can become reality. Please never stop pursuing your dreams; you can make your dreams come true.

Hopefully you will also share this message: Example is leadership, so let’s all together be positive leaders to government. What do we need to do to get that statue on Heather’s roundabout?