Dear Editor, Hugo de Jonge as Dutch Health Minister needs to review the way responsible care is delivered by his civil servants from the ZVK (Care Insurance Office) on St. Eustatius and Bonaire. As a recent patient in need of support from these offices, I was treated with a lack …
Read More »Opinion: “Staycation” turns into a noisy bar scene and a nightmare on most weekends for many Booby Hill residents.
Dear Editor, Johnny’s Ground is a small enclave of six homes located at the end of a private road on Booby Hill. For years two to three of these homes have been rented to tourists as short-term tourist rentals and during that time the full-time residents never have had to …
Read More »Opinion: No more votes for goats on Saba
Dear Editor, For many years now, a small number of goat owners have been allowed to let their goats roam free on the island. Despite the destruction the goats have caused on the island and to people’s personal property, the goat owners never pay for it. They are never held …
Read More »Opinion: Small Island Economies – The struggle to survive Covid 19
Dear Editor, While the world and certainly, our small island economies, were reeling from the effects of the Corona Virus Pandemic, many struggled as country after country, those big and small, shut their borders to visitors. The fallout from such closures meant no tourists thus no revenue going into the …
Read More »Opinion: Why we should be watching out for our Saban economy
Dear Editor, WHY WE SHOULD BE WATCHING OUT FOR OUR SABAN ECONOMY. The last 3,5 months have been an unreal time for all of us. The world has changed in a profound manner, which have left a lot of us wondering how the future will look. As a community we …
Read More »Opinion: Parent raises serious issues about Sacred Heart School
Dear Editor, On behalf of the vulnerable and seemingly voiceless, opinion-less youth of Saba, most of whom have been subjected to many injustices during their course of primary education on Saba, I request immediate action by those in authority, against the functioning of the Sacred Heart School. I am very …
Read More »Opinion: State Secretay is inconsistent for benchmarking Social Minimum BES
Since the BES islands were included as special municipalities in the country of the Netherlands on 10-10-10, the policy of the Netherlands excels in measuring with two measures. A poignant example of this is the hassle around a social minimum for the BES islands. The successive government teams postponed setting …
Read More »Opinion: Goat situation needs to addressed in a humane way
Dear Editor, The other day, a beautiful quiet afternoon was unusually disturbed by the sudden loud cry of a goat badly hurt and in severe distress. It was an unusual sound and the sound did not stop. A cry for help, which went on for about ten minutes. The sound …
Read More »COLUMN: The Hague needs to show more respect for the proud politicians on Saba
By Ronald van Raak. It was a typical story that I was told on Saba, the beautiful island in the Caribbean, which has been part of the Netherlands since 2010. After the hurricane Irma, the King came to visit to see the damage. But the Sabans had cleared up so …
Read More »Opinion: suggestions for improving the pond at Cove Bay
Dear Editor, The new stone and soil retaining wall at the swim pond at Cove Bay has apparently reduced the inflow of floating seaweed (I believe that this is mainly sargassum). However, it has also created essentially a dead sea zone within the pond now. The is no marine life, …
Read More »