Dear Editor,
Wednesday we celebrate St Maarten’s Day and although you might not think so, we have lots to celebrate and be proud of. We live on a beautiful Island full of beautiful people, we have magnificent nature, our ponds are full of birds, our hills are lush, and our beaches are among the best in the world. We speak a lot of languages and cook many different foods and we do that very good .We have great sailors, fisherman, tradesmen and artists. We have some of the best restaurants in the region and we have a lot of them, we have pretty women, we have our Carnival and our Regatta , we have Guavaberry and Johnny cakes with salt fish , we dance the Ponum dance but also Bachata, we love Soca, we love Reggae, we are people who love life .
At sunset when the frogs and other night creatures start singing, there is no other place on the world where I want to be. In the morning when I get up I consider myself the luckiest man in the world to live on this island, even in the traffic jam I catch myself thinking I do not want to be in any other traffic jam in the world.
Maybe the only thing we are not so proud of is our leaders and I suggest we all come out Wednesday and celebrate together in unity and show our leaders that we are indeed one people and proud of our country, our Island, the place where we are born, where we work, where we live, where we love, where we raise our children, where we get old and die in peace.
For one day let us not look at the ugly but at all the beauty around us and remember that beauty on Thursday morning so we can start working at the future together, all with the same goal in mind of making our island whole again, the place where we want to raise more children and know we can give them a good future so that indeed we can die in peace at a respectable age
I will be on the street with my camera and hope to take pictures of all of you with a smile on your face , enjoying our fantastic country , our great food, our great people , and let us all build a great future together starting Thursday.
Binkie van Es
Luckiest man in the world
