St. Maarten Private Eye

Can you tell me which Government Party created the situation we have now with SXM'ers being outnumbered? I'll make it a multiple choice to make it easier, the DP, the DP or the DP? Or do you think Lou Lou did it all on his own? Sarah and her DP government are largely responsible for SXM people now being a minority and yet you still support their policies?
All of it under the disguise of creating jobs and progress of course, instead of building and developing sustainably for the needs of the people of the island and educating our children to fill those jobs, they built and built and found they created too many jobs. And Lou Lou has been happily signing permits here and there, year after year.

So what you are saying is that children, through no fault of their own for being here, should be denied an education because OUR immigration system is screwed up? How long have they been working, or at least claiming they are working, at fixing it? I guess you prefer the illegal children stay on the streets and grow up with no future, probably turning to crime? I'm not attacking your critical opinion, I'm disagreeing with it, I assume you are able to discuss the matter intelligently without feeling persecuted?

Giving an education to the children is not the same as giving them residence permits, it is a moral and humanist position, agreed to by Holland and the Netherlands Antilles in the United Nations. Introducing CE would put more pressure on Government, Island and Federal, to get their act together and fix the Immigration system, instead of just talking about it and coming up plans that repeatedly fail or can be subverted by politicians and public officials.

Your position punishes children for the failures of OUR politicians. Nice.

Flipper

Flipper, I must agree with the writer above. We cannot accept any more illegal children as we do not have schools nor teachers. Listen, we do not have enough teachers for the public and semi-public schools either.
Besides that, illegal means illegal. They should not be here in the first place.
I met a Jamaican lady not too long ago who asked what is the easiest way for her to bring her children here, I told her it is not a wise decision as they will have a hard time getting into schools. She responded well, when they are here she will figure that out.
Flipper, it is easy for you to have all these wonderful humanitarian thoughts and ideals, so do I, but the truth of the matter is that we tax payers cannot afford to build schools for undocumented children.
In the past 6 years SXM had 2 grace periods, people had a chance to become documented. What you may not know is that more and more people are still coming in every day on vacation (3 months) and staying, working illegally, bringing their children, adding to the shanty town problem, adding to the children on the street and the crime situation.
So yes, Dick has the responsibility to fix the immigration system, do you know there is no system in place at the PJIA? what you see is a farce. The passport checks etc. No records are kept whatsoever on who comes in and who leaves.
if Dick wants illegal children to go to school as every child deserves an education, and yes he is right. But if our island cannot absorb the costs involved then we cannot implement free education for all illegal children.
I would suggest to Dick, he takes them with him to Curacao where there is more space- and the Netherlands Antilles can then give them a free education.

I thank you for your support because its seems as if Flipper think she knows best and think she have the best ideas but Flipper you need to realize sxm cannot take anymore illegals and understand we welcome compulsory education but not under the conditions of a broken immigration system. Its seems as if Flipper just doesnt get it, she just doesnt get it, SHE JUST DOESNT GET IT...the justice system must be fixed,

Undocumented children must go back home to be education thats their gov't and their people responsibility to do, not the gov't and the people(tax payers) of sxm. illegals are illegals OVER AND OUT

Thanks very much for dismissing my point of view with your SHOUTING, lol.

What don't I get?

I get that the immigration system and justice systems are broken and dysfunctional and that we have been told time and time and time again that our authorities are working at fixing it. I get that despite photo op meetings with the French side, cooperation is minimal, so fixing both of the above is much more difficult. Sarah's DP has been in Fed Govt for much of the past 20 odd years, they build and build far beyond the needs to provide our own children with decent jobs and thus we have a huge foreign population. Some members of her party even add to it and then get papers for their illegitimate offspring.

I get that as usual with our politicians, matters are left to become a crisis and problem before they move to tackle it. Where was the DP on immigration over the last 20 years of growth? Busy signing employment permits I think.

I get that children do not have any choice in where their parents take them, that they are not responsible for their undocumented situation. I get that an education is not only vital to having a decent chance at life ahead, but also a human right, agreed upon by the United Nations, of which Holland and the NA are part of. I get that leaving those children out on the street leaves them on a course for crime, or to be abused and misled by criminal and unsavory elements of the adult population.

I get that every government has a responsibility for the children within their country, regardless of their documented status. I get that our politicians are incompetent and immoral, as far as I am aware, laws against child pornography were only recently introduced. I get that until the immigration system is fixed, funded and staffed according to meet the needs we have, then there will continue to be undocumented children.

What I don't get is that children, let me repeat that, CHILDREN, should suffer and be punished for the failures and incompetence of adults, be it their parents or our politicians. I find it disgraceful and shameful. I think that all children deserve an education and protection, regardless of where they come from or their status. If our politicians are so afraid of the costs or providing that, then perhaps they will pull their fingers out of their collective asses and fix immigration.

So, you may say I don't get it, I will seek to correct you that I just don't agree in treating children like criminals and punishing them for their parents or our government's failures.

Flipper

Flipper, STOP THE BLAME GAME, There is no long talk here, THE IMMIGRATION HAS TO BE FIXED

I am simply asking for the authorities, which is the Ministry of Justice for the Netherlands Antilles, to do their job by fixing the immigration system, thats their job and we need all hands on deck including the french gov't

Yes Flipper, I agree we need to fix the system but I disagree to reward illegal immigrants in the mean time. Why should we give free education to their children at our expense. Do we get that in their country?

A child brought here by an illegal immigrant is a victim, but so are the children of legal immigrants and citizens who pay for it in taxes and fewer services themselves. We can not deny care to an illegal immigrant but it is unfair for the rest of us to pick up the tab. The best way to show compassion to illegal immigration is to END it.

Caring for illegal children is very romantic but Illegal immigration is also about overcrowding in OUR schools. About increase in OUR taxes and about crime in OUR communities.

I know that there are some who would say that the illegal immigrants are here already so let them stay, let them work and let them enjoy all benefits of our citizenship. Let's do another grace period. I don't agree. What message would that send to LEGAL immigrants who have played by the rules, standing in the hot sun at the Suncolor building for hours, waiting forever to have their papers fixed for the chance to live and work here. What message does that send to law abiding citizens who work hard to pay their taxes - only to see those taxdollars go to lawbreakers. What message would that send to every would be ILLEGAL immigrant? Just get yourself on shore and you're home free? Those are message we shouldn't send any longer. We can't afford it.

By allowing illegal immigrants to get away with crossing our borders illegally, we have encouraged an entire culture whereby our Sint Maarten laws are optional - to be obeyed or disobeyed depending on what's convenient. It is time to to treat our immigration laws like laws and not like guidelines to be followed or ignored depending on one's choice or country of birth. There is a right way and a wrong way to enter this country. If you do it the wrong way, there should be consequences. Not rewards.

Rackham

I don't know who you are Rackham, but I couldn't posssibly agree more with your take on the situation. The situation for illegals SUCKS, especially the kids as they are victims and didn't choose to be here as Flipper indicated, but superceding that is the fact that we also have LOCAL victims of their parent's choices. But there is a difference, and i think Flipper needs to understand this: The kids are paying for their parents' mistakes, but at the end of the day, what their parents did was illegal. but OUR kids, OUR taxpayers are also paying for their mistakes and we did NOTHING illegal. I;m sorry, but the right to education for 100 % of children (as indicated by the UN) is correct, so let them do that in their country...or do it here LEGALLY. end of story. It's not like their aren't ways to do it legally, lots of people do.
Does anyone have statistics on the number of illegal dropouts? or of illegals that go away and then come back here LEGALLY to work and give back to the society that they milked? I'll bet you the number of the former is HIGH and the latter is low. but all of this is still a moot point: being here illegaly should not give your children the right to education on the host country's expense.

Children are not responsible for their status, and as I understand it, the UN has been pushing for preference to use 'undocumented' instead of 'illegal'. I absolutely agree the immigration system has to be fixed, but you and I and everyone else has been hearing they are doing this for year after year after year. By the way, I have not suggested another Grace Period.

While a child is in this country, illegally or legally, our govt has the responsibility to ensure their rights and protection. If they continue to be incompetent in their job in regards to immigration, then they should be the ones paying the consequences. To say that if we had compulsory education then illegals would flock here is a bit of a stretch I think, they already flock here without it. Are they now flocking to Curacao instead, or other islands that have CE?

Again, punishing children for the failures of their parents and governments is in my view immoral, call my opinion romantic if you like. The idea of a perfect World is romantic, and a pipe dream, it will never happen, but that should not keep us from trying to move in that direction.

As I have already said, our own schools are overcrowded, so building new classrooms and hiring more teachers would in the end benefit our children, particularly when the immigration system gets fixed. Meanwhile, those illegal children who are already here would be off our streets and given as normal a life as possible. It is not their fault, they should not be punished for adults failures.

But this is my opinion, as I say, I agree that Imm. needs to be fixed. I just disagree with punishing and neglecting those who are most vulnerable.

Flipper

I dont care who started it, I am saying the time is now to fix it once and for all. I am not punishes children for the failures of our politicians but I can forecast what happened to my families on the northern side ....it can happen on the sourthern side when compulsory education implemented...I clearly understand the government and the permits story, I have it out for them where that is concerned. Thats why I heavily oppose compulsory education until immigration is fixed. illegals dont have to stay here on the streets they need to go back home to their countries if they dont have a positive cause here on this island, and I have no regrets and sorry to say but this topic gets me really emotional when it comes to sxm and its immigration problem

On the French side and especially a favor for it: the current Prezidente was a champion for it...putting illegals first and causing numerous of sxm'ners to drop out of school and putting many sxm'ners education in the dark and this is what can happen on our side with a compulsory education. I know what it can cause for we sxm'ners and so I clearly oppose CE until immigration is fixed!!!

My dear Flipper outline for me where I say I support the DP policies...now dont put words in my writings that going over board...I said I support the Commissioner when she says the immigration system has to be fixed before compulsory education is implemented

You are right, you don't say you support DP policies, please excuse me. I understand that immigration needs to be fixed, but haven't we been waiting rather a long time for that? How many more years, or decades must we wait? What will those children, the ones who don't get picked up, contribute to our community without an education?

Providing compulsory education would not cost as much as Sarah seems to think, our classrooms are already overcrowded anyway. More teachers and classrooms are needed, and when the immigration system is finally fixed then our own children will benefit more with less crowding and more teachers.

Flipper

So add more class rooms and fill them up again? I can tell you are not one that has children on St.Maarten. If you did. you would understand the situation.
How would you enjoy your child to be in a class room with all illegal children who are so behind in academics that the teacher has to slow down to teach them.
Your children suffer not only from a slow pace of teaching but also from the rudeness from these children who come from very backwards cultures. I am sorry to say it like this. But it is the truth.
Tell me Flipper, would you put your children in a public school on St.Maarten at the moment? or would you be searching like all the rest of the Sint Maarten population (who has to scrape the money together) to put your child/children in a private school at $800.- a pop a month.
The public schools are filled with children from other places. I was recently at a public school and I asked the children how many of their parents remember a SXM landmark.
One child raised her hand, out of a class room of 26. The others said their parents not from SXM.
Yes, it is clear that starting with Stanley Mourillon and then later with other civil servants, and from reports also Commissioners, that too many work permits were given out for a handsome price.
But, in order to fix this situation, the immigration needs to be beefed up and children have to be deported with their parents.
If you want to pay 3 times your taxes to build more schools and low income housing for illegals, please sign up to do so. But I will not join you.
Rackam, you need to get yourself on some sort of a immigration commitee, your assesment is correct. too long we rewarding illegals.
We already had 2 grace periods. For heavens sake, people still coming to our shores today and yesterday by boat and plane looking to make fast money and we have nothing to stop them.

You see, in a real education system the history and culture of the country (island) would be taught, as you probably well know, this is not the case. In fact most of our teachers are from elsewhere, because we didn't invest enough in training our own. Actually, having teachers from elsewhere benefits us because they light into a closed box, but still, the fact there are so many must tell you something about past government policies.
By the way, yes, I too favor private schools here over the public ones. Again, because Sarah and this govt has done a lousy job with them, the stark differences between them is stunning.
In regards to lower level students holding back other children, most schools have entrance exams to see which class a child is best suited to be, they even have special classes for those who need to catch up. If what you say is true, then again, it is not the fault of the children, but the adults, parents, school boards and government.
As for paying 3 times the tax, I think you are exaggerating to beef up your argument. People throw around all sorts of figures about how many illegals there are, not so long ago someone made a claim of 20,000. Really? And just where are they all hiding? In the hills in caves? Why then when immigration goes out they only get 10 or 20 at a time? Seems to me they should be catching a whole bunch more if there were as many as claimed.

To sum up, yes, immigration must be fixed, but I do believe CE should be introduced at the same time as those fixes are being made, not after. It would seem I'm in the minority with my point of view, that's fine, it happens.

Flipper

a) history and culture of the island is taught, maybe the reason you think it's not is because half of the illegal kids in the class don;t give a crap/ have a problem with the language/ etc.
b) "teachers are from elsewhere, because we didn't invest enough in training our own" - also not true, everywhere in the world there is a teacher shortage, it's on everyone's agenda : get more teachers, st. maarten is not alone in this area
c)" having teachers from elsewhere benefits us" - this is case specific. LOTS of teachers dont' come here for the pay (the pay sucks, they would get more in their home country), but they come for some time in the sun and then they leave after their contract expires after they have done the bare minimum required to stay employed. because they DON"T know the culture/history they don't adapt and can't relate to the students....again, case specific, there are others that thrive on experiencing a new culture and trying their best to reach the children they teach through novel approaches and breathe new life into the program, but your blanket statement is not an accurate reflection of the reality.
d) "in regards to lower level students holding back" ....yes we have entrance exams, but there are not enough "lower level schools" to handle the tons of students that belong in them and so spillover is inevitable......
e) you go on further to say it's not the children's fault, but the adults , parents, school boards etc...... well you are right...it's not the children's faults..the adults (parents) should not be here illegally, and create this strain on the system, the schoolboard should take a tougher stance on this and the government should work with stronger immigration enforcement. and if you think that there are less then 20,000 illegals on the island....you are completely dillusional....you say they are hiding...actually they are NOT, they are all out in BROAD daylight. why are they picked up in groups of 20's and others allowed to be here? same reason prositution is "illegal" but "exotic dancers" roam freely, twisted and loopholed rules and officials turning blind eyes to "non-problematic illegals" etc. CE should be introduced, but that is a NATIONAL topic for NATIONALS of our island territory, NOT illegals. what are we going to do next, adopt a seperate ammendment in the constituion giving them seperate rights within our land? of course not. Flipper if you want to get an idea of the reality go to MPC....a public school (that you say is SOOOO stark between that and say a private school like CIA or LU) the only stark difference is the money being paid. 300 guilders a YEAR versus 800 dollars a MONTH! if illegals could afford to be there they would, but they can't, so those schools avoid the problems by simply financially eliminating them.. i have nothing against those schools, they provide a service and they charge for it. but MPC as a school is not some bottom of the barrel second class institution that you sort of insinuate it is (my interpretation, forgive me if I am wrong in this assesment). Go to MPC and spend one month there, do some investigative journalism; i'll bet money you come out with a different perspective.

I am not a religious person, however I must say AMEN to the above post.
As for why they are picking them up by the 20's, It is because Philipsburg Police Station does not have holding cells for more.
I would like to make a comment about MPC though, you state that MPC is not bottom of the barrel, while very true for the upper levels like HAVO-VWO
The school unfortunately has many of these students in the lower levels that are bottom of the barrel, not MPC fault, as you state there are not enough or any schools to cater to the ones that came in to primary schools with poor language and reading skills.
Causing that spill over effect and then they get into MPC, also Sundial and Vocational School.
We have to face the fact that MPC is over crowded, and this is causing much of the social problems there.
Not the true educational curriculum, nor the teachers.
Flipper has his own ideas, unfortunately those ideas and dreamy thoughts of catering to all illegal children are not realistic.
The immigration system needs to be fixed, it is long overdue that it has become a joke. It almost appears that someone enjoys it to be haphazard. I am beginning to believe that many are enjoying this free ride at the expense of our lousy immigration system.

Or is it you with me, considering I wrote the blog? lol

Children should not be punished or made to suffer for the inadequacies and failures of adults. It's really that simple. By all means, fix the damn immigration system, but in the mean time, while it's being fixed, don't leave these children on the street.

Hell, they can't even take responsibility for the children's homes, I guess it is a bit too much to expect them to do the right thing with this. The Minister of Education has said the money is available to the island too.

Dr. Voodoo

Fix the Imm. system and meanwhile undocumented need to document a ticket back home their country and we wont have children on the streets. And another thing we have to look it? the CAF from the northern side is attracting them very much, that too has to be stop while we aim at fixing our Imm. system but the illegals have to go back home. Its clear to me you don't get it either. I don't care how much money is available by the Ministry of Education make money available at the Ministry of Justice too.