Statia News No. 11

INDEPENDENT NEWSLETTER

S TATIA N EWS V OLUME 1,

ISSUE

11 J ULY 13, 2009 Summer Special, the story of Françoise and her Roses, by Walter Hellebrand, page 2 to 4

E DITORIAL

RSC and Young Beethoven, Page 5 Civil Servants Agreement, Page 6 Koos Sneek: New Tax Laws for the Bes islands 4, Page 7 Aviation Pioneers of the Caribbean, Page 8 The Untiy Youth Concert, Page 9 Rootsriders on Statia, Page 10 Summerholidays  have  started.    A  lot  of  smiling  faces  on  Statia.  A  lot  of  good  looking  young  people  walking  around,  home for the holidays.     Congratulations to all the students that  graduated.  You  can  find  the  pictures  that  were  made  at  the  GvP  graduation   party here:   h t t p : / / p i c a s a w e b . g o o g l e . c o m / rickenmiek/GraduationGVP2009     Congratulations  to  teacher  Anke  en  teacher  Bart  with  their  baby  born  yes‐ terday:  JULES    Last  Sunday  motorcycle  races,  impor‐ tant part of Statia’s culture.  Everybody  take drinks and food and enjoys a day at  the races.  Statianews has no pictures of  this event, next time: send them in! 

In this issue, the final article about taxes  by Koos Sneek  and our summer special:  Part  ONE  of  THREE  of  the  story  of  “Françoise  and  her  Roses”,  written  by  Walter Hellebrand.     Also  two  valuable  contributions  in  “Letters to the editor”.    Still  working  on  an  article  about  the  plans for health care.     Please,  keep  on  helping  Statianews  to  grow;  put  everybody  on  Statianews’  mailing list.  And write or ask Statianews  to write!       Enjoy, Annemieke Kusters    . 

Letters to the editor, page 11 Announcements, page 12/14

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F RANCOISE AND HER R OSES : A W OMAN B EATING THE O DDS IN THE 17 TH C ENTURY C ARIBBEAN - P ART 1 By Walter Hellebrand    Amongst those of you who used to read my articles  in the Daily Herald, some already know that differ‐ ent views of the respect a newspaper should have  for its readers and contributors mean that I do not  feel comfortable seeing my articles appear under  the heading of The Daily Herald. And for those of  you who were wondering, now you know the rea‐ son.    However, there are other ways of sharing the rich  and fascinating history of Statia and its neighbours.   Statia News is a recent alternative that has been  launched just at the right time and I hope and trust  it will continue to grow.    French Guyana    I have just come back from a trip to French Guyana  where I attempted to find the locations of the Dutch  fortifications that were constructed there in the 17th  century. The local archaeology department was very  happy with my visit and with the help of their facili‐ ties and contacts, I succeeded.     During the course of my research there, I also came  across a story with a Statian connection that I  thought was very interesting and perhaps a little dif‐ ferent. It is different because it is a 17th century story  with a woman at the center instead of the men that  normally dominate historical accounts of that era. I  therefore thought I would share it with the readers  of Statia News.    It is the story of an energetic woman who was deter‐ mined to be a winner ‐ whatever blow history dealt  her. It also illustrates how one woman’s life got  caught up in the ups and downs of Dutch colonial  power and in the European struggle to get as large a  share as possible of the potential the America’s had  to offer.    Françoise Vaz    The information we have about Françoise Vaz gives  us a rare insight into the unpredictable turns in the  life of a woman trying to get ahead in the uncertain  colonial world of the 17th century. Françoise was 

born in Rio Grande (now Natal) in what was then  Dutch Brazil, in about 1645. The Portuguese, intent  on regaining their colony, managed to chase the 

Françoise was born in Rio Grande, pictured on this  17th century print (Walter Hellebrand Collection)  Dutch out in 1655. An exodus followed: of Dutch  settlers, those closely associated with them, and of  Jews. The Dutch in Brazil had always welcomed the  Jews but the Portuguese had a different policy. The  refugees went to New Amsterdam (now New York),  Cayenne (which became a Dutch colony that year),  Curaçao and Statia. They took their knowledge of  sugar cultivation and processing along with them.  The Vaz family, including little Françoise, chose to  go to Statia.    Françoise’s childhood and teenage years on Statia  were likely to have been peaceful. The island was  left to prosper under the Dutch flag. However, as  she entered adulthood, Statia’s first 28 years of  peace came to an end and a period of repeated flag  changes followed. The British (with their King  Charles II first and foremost amongst them) were  envious of the growth of Dutch wealth and power  and tried to break the Dutch hold over international  trade by force. In 1664, the British rear‐admiral  Robert Holmes raided Statia (and Dutch Tobago) –  in plain peace time. The aim was not to take the  island (no war had been declared after all), but to  ruin the island’s economy and commercial poten‐ tial. The Vaz family must have suffered the same  fate as the other inhabitants: they were robbed of 

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their merchandise and stripped of everything of  value.     Fort Oranje surrendered to buccaneers    Still recovering from this blow and trying to rebuild  the island, the next year Françoise and her fellow  Statians were shocked to see another army fleet of  26 ships approaching their shores. They could breath  a sigh of relief: it was the Dutch Vice‐Admiral Michiel  de Ruyter who had been sent out to restore Dutch  power in the region. All the excitement about enter‐ taining the crème de la crème of the Dutch navy was  rudely interrupted by an enemy of a different kind: a  hurricane. It may have been the first one Françoise  experienced as the previous ten years seem to have  been a relatively calm period in this respect. The hur‐ ricane chased away De Ruyter’s ships. 

thing and in 1665 the Second Anglo‐Dutch War  broke out. On 23 July of that same year, the Gover‐ nor of Jamaica sent out Edward Morgan (uncle of  the infamous filibuster Henry Morgan) to Statia,  together with 329 buccaneers. They forced Fort  Oranje to surrender.   

The infamous buccaneer Henry Morgan whose  uncle Edward captured Statia in 1665 

The monument commemorating the visit of Admiral  De Ruyter in 1665  The next armed fleet to appear before Statia’s coast  did not receive a joyous welcome. It signalled the  start of a rapid succession of flag changes and diffi‐ cult times for the Vaz family and other Statia resi‐ dents. The continuous British harassment of the  Dutch on all seas and shores could only lead to one 

  The English deport Statia population    Françoise’s family must have been with the 19  Dutch nationals (men, women and children) who  switched allegiance to the English or they may have  claimed Portuguese nationality because all other  Dutch citizens (250 in total) were robbed of their  possessions, transported to St. Maarten and later  ordered by King Charles II to be deported to Barba‐ dos as forced laborers for the plantations there.     The fact that the loot of the British included 300  cattle, 50 horses, 500 sheep and goats, 50,000  pounds of cotton, 840 slaves plus the sugar works 

July 13, 2009

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Refugees from Dutch Brazil introduced the sugar  processing technology to the Caribbean islands  (Walter Hellebrand Collection)  (boiling vats, distillery kettles, iron crushers etc) of six  sugar plantations, is an indication that the island had  quickly recovered from Holmes’ raid the year before.  The British left another member of the Morgan fam‐ ily, Thomas, as Commander of the island.    A bizarre situation that occurred the next year, 1666,  would determine the rest of Françoise’s life. How, we  will find out in the next installment of “Françoise and  her Roses.” 

Walter Hellebrand is a historian who was born and  grew up in Statia. His parents lived here and worked  as teachers at the Governor de Graaffschool in the  sixties and Walter was born here. When Walter was  seven,  the  family  left  for  Curacao.  Walter  always  kept a special feeling for Statia and for Statia’s his‐ tory.  He  studies  the  history  of  Dutch  overseas  ex‐ pansion  all over the world. A lot of Statians enjoyed  his articles in the Saturday editions of the Daily Her‐ ald.  These  articles  gave  insight  into  aspects  of  Statia's  heydays  when  the  island  was  known  as “The Golden Rock”. He also wrote letters to the  editor about Statia’s history and heritage. Different  views  on  editorial  policy  (especially  concerning  let‐ ters to the editor) led to his decision to  stop  writ‐ ing for the Daily Herald.

Walter Hellebrand  Walter  Hellebrand  designed  Statia’s  coat  of  arms  and recently he compiled the proposed monuments  list.  He will not participate in the follow‐up that will  lead to the proposed objects and buildings becom‐ ing  actual  monuments  because  that  would  be  a  conflict of interest as he made the proposed list.  It  is  unclear  what  the  continuation  of  the  “monuments  traject”  is  going  to  be.    Walter  Helle‐ brand explained to Statianews that the descriptions  of the monuments by the monuments council have  to comply with the Dutch regulations about describ‐ ing  monuments.    Different  specialists  must  be  part  of that council. 

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RSC R EGIONAL S ERVICE C ENTRE One of the directorates of the Ministry of Internal  and Kingdom Affairs is “Government and Kingdom  relations” (bestuur‐ en koninkrijksrelaties) . It’s task  is the coordination and development of policy for  the cooperation with the “Kingdom partners”. The  main focus for the reforms that are going on now is  the improvement of the well being of the people in  the Dutch Antilles.     For Statia, Saba and Bonaire, the Regional Service  Centers are handing over tasks to the different  Dutch Ministries. The Regional Service Centre is re‐ sponsible for all the “rijksambtenaren BES”, civil  servants that work in assignment of the different  Dutch Ministries, or that are detached to work for  independent civil services on the BES islands.  There  will be approximately 150 of these civil servants.       The RSC is a front office for tasks that will be done  by Dutch organizations or by organizations on other  islands outside of the BES. The RSC is a back office  for tasks executed by different Dutch Ministries. 

Education  The kwartiermakers  work in  the RSC. Hemmie van  Xanten is one of them and he started to coordinate   education for teachers.  Five professionals in the  field of education have shown interest to finish  their education. The Hogeschool Windesheim in  Zwolle will provide the curriculum for secondary  school teachers and the Pedagogische Academie of  Emmen will do so for elementary school teachers.  Exams will be done in the Regional Service Centre.     Henk Kamp  On August  the  6th, from 2 ‐ 4.30 pm, you can con‐ sult Mr. Henk Kamp, the Bes commissioner, who is  here  to  facilitate  the  transition.  If  you  have  any  questions  concerning  “What  will  happen  when  the  Dutch come”, you can make an appointment at the  Regional  Service  Centre.  Each  consult  will  take  ten  minutes, there is room for 12 people. On Saba this  same  sessions  will  take  place  on  August  the  4th.  The  contact  numbers  of  the  Regional  Service  Cen‐ tres are:   Statia: 3183370, Saba: 4163934 

Y OUNG B EETHOVEN Great  performances  at  this    musical  event.  All  stu‐ dents that play music were participating in the annu‐ al musical event to end the schoolyear. This year the  concert was called: Statia’s Young Beethoven.     Highlights of the show:     The  anthem    played  by  the  little  Packard  girl,  who  came  to  live  on  Statia  with  her  musical  family.  She  studied the anthem in 3 weeks and the performance  was flawless.     The Oranje Steelband:  Dennis Amajan arranged mu‐ sic to fit the steelband.  A Beatles song, an Elvis song  and  more.  The  Steelband  is  getting  better  all  the  ti‐ me.    The trombone played by one of the Packard family.     The  recorder group, in Dutch that is “blokfluit”, un‐ der  direction  of  Teacher  Brenda  of  the  Methodist  School. Heart warming.  

The  trumpet  played  by  Shevon  Timber.  He  started   playing  three  months  ago  and  clearly  has    a  musical  talent. 

  If    you  want  more  pictures,  send  statianews  an   email:  mailto:[email protected]

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C IVIL S ERVANTS A GREEMENT On June 24th, Mr. Julian Woodley, commissioner for  constitutional Affairs, signed an agreement about the  transition of civil servants.     In  Statianews,  a  summary  of  this  agreement.  If  you  want  to  read  the  entire  document  in  Dutch,  mailto:[email protected]    All the people that work for the island territory of St.  Eustatius and for the country “Nederlandse Antillen”  on Statia, will be transferred to the public entity.     Agreements have been made under what conditions  the Netherlands will take over the workers.     Local government will make a list of all the civil ser‐ vants and send it to the Regional Service Centre.   Personal  data,  as  well  as  data  about  the  job  and  about the salary will be on that list.     One  month  after  the  making  of  this  list,  all  the  em‐ ployees  will  receive  a  confirmation.  This  is  called  a  “uitgangspositie”.     Three months before the transition, the Netherlands  will  confirm  the  intention  to  take  the  workers  into  civil service. Someone who works for the island terri‐ tory and does not fulfill his or her task to the fullest,  can be offered a new job.   The Netherlands and the island territory of St. Eusta‐ tius will make the judgments about the fulfillment of  tasks  in  government  jobs.  The  Netherlands  will  de‐ cide  if  people  that  started  working  as  a  civil  servant  after  December  8,  2007,  will  be  transferred  into  Dutch service too.     What jobs are in local service or in Dutch service will  be  decided  upon  by  the  executive  council  and  the  Netherlands.     Once the Netherlands has given this intention, a dos‐ sier of all employees will be worked out in more de‐ tail.  In  this  dossier,  not  only  the  personal  data,  but  also  financial  data  and  data  concerning  the  job:  job  description,  assessments,  approval  for  extra  activi‐ ties, sick leave, etc. will be described.    The opportunity will be given for workers to look into  that dossier. 

  Educational Personnel    At  the  moment,  the  Netherlands  is  not  appointing  people to work in the educational field, but will be  responsible for the money spend on education. The  personnel  expenses  make  up  most  of  the  costs,  therefore  it’s  necessary  for  St.  Eustatius  and  the  Netherlands to make further agreements about the  personnel ‐  and organizational policy until the date  of transition.     For  educational  personnel,  the  above  mentioned  first list will be made and send to the Regional Ser‐ vice Centre.     All new personnel for the schools must be approved  by the Kwartiermaker or the director of the RSC.  St. Eustatius will not make any changes in the legal  status  of  the  educational  personnel  without  the  approval  of  the  kwartiermaker  of  director  of  the  RSC.   

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July 13, 2009

BES I SLANDS ,

By Koos Sneek In the previous editions of Statia News I have discussed the immovable property tax and the ABB as worked out in the 3rd concept tax laws for the BES islands. In this issue I will discuss the income tax. The income tax (and also wage tax) will be 10% over the board. This means that everyone will pay the same percentage. This is an improvement since presently we have a progressive tax regime. The higher your income the higher percentage (up to 33%) of that income you pay in taxes. It is clear that a flat tax tariff of 10% will first of all benefit the persons with higher incomes, since they are now paying the highest percentage. However, also the threshold will be increased to US $ 10,000. This is Nafl 12,660 presently. As long as your salary is no higher then approximately US $ 916 (Nafl 1,500) per month no tax need to be paid. It is the intention that the wage tax as much as possible will be an end tax. Together with introducing a 10% tax for all incomes above the threshold also most deduction and the need to declare additional income (like rental income) will disappear. Deductions that will remain are paid interest on home loans up to US $ 15,363. and study cost for children up to 27 years. Property insurance premiums will be deductable up to US $ 559. This amount is rather low taking into consideration the high insurance rates charged for hurricane insurance, presently up to 1.2 %. Rental income from homes and apartments will be tax free. This is also an improvement. Under the present tax regime 65% of this income need to be added to the taxable income. Making it tax free is basically legalizing the present custom of many if not all private owners of homes and apartments, who do not declare any rental income. A director/owner of a company (N.V., B.V. etc.) is obliged to have a taxable income for the income tax of at least US $ 30,000. This is not a requirement under the present system. First of all I wonder what this amount is based upon. I believe that in reality there are very few company director/owners in Statia who are making this amount. In my opinion before establishing a minimum taxable income research need to be carried out to establish a realistic taxable income.

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There are business owners who are director/owner of more than one company. Is this minimum taxable income applicable for all companies? If your company is a sole proprietorship you will fall under the income tax. Under this tax, deductibles as depreciation and investment deduction will remain. In the present system “investerings aftrek” (investment deduction) is 12% on buildings and 8% on equipment etc. in the first two years. In the new system it is 8% over the board. Here the incentive for investment is clearly lowered. I wonder why. If you use the deduction you cannot sell a building within 15 years. Presently this is 10 years. 15 years is a very long time. When you use a company car, 15% of the value, when the car was new, needs to be added to the income. This is 20% now so this is an improvement. It is not clear to me if there are special tariffs for instance for overtime and vacation pay and if there are any, how high are these. High tariffs generally do not stimulate extra output. As I have stated in my first article in general the lay out of the proposed tax laws looks like an improvement and beneficial to the public and business sector on the islands. There are however a number of articles in each of the drafts that are of serious concern and may negatively influence the cost of living as well as the investment climate and doing business on the islands. I sincerely hope that these issues will be addressed.

July 13, 2009

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Oranjestad,  St.  Eustatius  –  On  Saturday,  July  11th  2009, the Aviation Pioneers of the Caribbean Founda‐ tion  elected  a new  Board.  Terrance Rey  was  elected  as  the  new  president,  taking  over  from  Elizabeth  (Elly) Delien,  founder  of  the Foundation  and partner  of  Winair’s  legendary  pilot,  the  late  José  Dormoy,  affectionately  known  as  “Pipe.”  Rey  is  managing  di‐ rector  of  AirStMaarten,  a  company  specializing  in  private charters throughout the Caribbean.    Walter  Hellebrand,  historian  and  communications  professional, was newly elected to the board and will  take on the role of secretary. Elly Delien stays on as  member of the board in the capacity of treasurer and  the  Board’s  former  secretary  Nyna  Burright,  a  ship‐ ping  coordinator  working  for  St.  Eustatius  Port  Ser‐ vices,  was  also  reelected.  She  will  act  as  substitute  secretary.     The  Foundation  was  established  on  February,  12th  2008 by Elly Delien to preserve and promote the his‐ tory of aviation in the Caribbean ‐ in particular in the  Windward  Islands  –  and  to  pay  tribute  to  the  pio‐ neers  who  opened  up  the  islands  to  the  outside  world  and  thereby  played  an  important  role  in  their  development. Some of the ways by which the Foun‐ dation  tries  to  achieve  its  purpose  include  research  and  exposure  of  the  history  of  aviation  as  well  as  projects  to  create  more  interest  in  the  aviation  his‐ tory of each individual island.    When José Dormoy passed away in 2007, Elly Delien  was  left  with  a  virtual  treasure  chest  of  documents,  information and images relating to the early days of  aviation in the Windward Islands, an eventful past in  which her partner of many years played a very active  role.    She  thought  “Pipe’s”  personal  archive  would  make a valuable beginning of a collection of informa‐ tion  about  the  history  of  aviation  in  the  islands  that  was  worth  sharing  with  everybody.  She  therefore  decided  to  start  the  Aviation  Pioneers  of  the  Carib‐ bean Foundation.    Projects  In its first year, the Foundation’s sizable archive was  inventoried and organized. Also, displays commemo‐ rating the aviation pioneers were arranged for Saba’s  airport and Winair’s sales office in St. Maarten.  

The Foundation has a number of projects underway  set  to  launch  in  August  and  November                                   of  this year  and,  with  the  new  team  on  the  Board,  expects  to  initiate  several  more  to  highlight  the  pilots who opened up the sky for the northeastern  Caribbean islands.    Founder of the Aviation Pioneers of the Caribbean  Foundation,  Elizabeth  Delien,  handing  over  the  ‘chairman’s  propeller’  to  Terrance  Rey  of  AirStMaarten. 

Acknowledgments  Elly  Delien  expressed  her  thanks  to  all  the  former  board members for their assistance with the estab‐ lishment  of  the  Aviation  Pioneers  of  the  Caribbean  Foundation  and  especially  acknowledged  the  sup‐ port of Claudie Banare; film maker Pierre Brouwers,  Jerry  Casius;  Leontien  Durby;  Michael  Ferrier;  Faustin, Denise and Robert Ledée; Michel Martinon;  AirStMaarten, Mazinga Giftshop and Xerox.    The  Board  would  like  to  encourage  everyone  with  stories, material or images relating to the history of  aviation  in  the  northeastern  Caribbean  to  contact  the Foundation so that scans or copies can be made  in order to increase the knowledge of its fascinating  development.      For further information:In St. Maarten: Terrance  Rey – 581 9740 / [email protected] In St.  Eustatius: Elizabeth Delien – 523‐4485 / apot‐ [email protected] 

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July 13, 2009

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U NITY Y OUTH C ONCERT Saturday July 11, Fort Oranje A musical evening presented by the Mega D Youth Foundation. A nice atmosphere, a lot of music and dance and a lot of laughter, especially when Fernando Clark made jokes. Fernando Clark was the surprise guest presentator, a well known comedian from St. Maarten.

More people become involved in the activities of the Mega D. Youth Foundation. The Simon Doncker club, Stenapa, Statia Youth Soccer, the Aloei Dancers and the Innovation Bureau had presentations. MYF has a lot of plans, you can read all about it on their website: http://mega-dyouthfoundation.org

It was the grand premier of the videoclip “A Helping Hand” that was made in cooperation with over 20 local artists.

The heavenly voice was heard of Naldo Courtar, lccal police officer. 

A lot of these artists were performing. Amongst them Lenaldo Courtar, Alicia Redan, Camberley Berkel, Joey & Friends, the Bethel Methodist School Choir, the Simon Doncker Club, Michael Daniel and the Aoei Dancers. This evening was also the introduction of the Mega D. Youth Foundation. This foundation is structured to focus on the youth, its main goal is to educate, motivate and encourage the youth of St. Eustatius.

Mega D. is aksing all of us to be part of the movement: be “A Helping Hand”

July 13, 2009

P AGE 10 M USIC

R OOTSRIDERS

ON

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S TATIA , A UGUST 5, L IONS ’ D EN

The Roots Foundation present Rootsriders on Statia.   The band, with singer Shirma Rouse from Statia, will  be playing at the Lions’ Den August 5.  The  proceeds  for  the  tickets  will  go  to  the  auxillary  home  and  chapel  piece  recreational  center.    About the Rootsriders    If  you're  a  lover  of  the  music  of  Mr  Robert  Nesta  Marley,  then  you  will  be  invigorated  and  energized  by  the  classy  and  skanky  sound  of  Dutch/Caribbean  collective  Rootsriders.  Their  homage  to  Bob  Mar‐ ley  celebrates  the  life  and  times  of  the  finest  and  most  influential  reggae  artist  of  all  time  in  a  spec‐ tacular  fashion.  Born‐to‐perform  front  man  Philip  'Junior' Tecla is backed by a band of top‐notch musi‐ cians, all well‐known on the Dutch music scene.     In  the  Netherlands  Rootsriders  released  an  album‐ mixtape on which they collaborated with many popu‐ lar Dutch rappers to show that Marley's music isn't a  phenomenon  from  the  past  only,  but  that  his  music  and words are still valid for even the youngest of mu‐ sic  generations  of  today.  They’ve  just  finished  work‐ ing on their new album ‘So Much More’, recorded on 

various tours in Africa over the past 2 years. The 12  brand new songs feature the best of African talent  Rootsriders  teamed‐up  with.  The  band  performed  in over 15 countries outside their home territory of  the Netherlands.     On  stage  the  band  combines  the  classic  Marley  tunes  together  with  their  own  repertoire  in  a  unique  blend  of  fresh  reggae‐flavored  music:  It's  this  combination  of  Marley's  popular  &  recogniz‐ able  songs  and  their  own  vibrant  &  catchy  tracks  that make their fun‐filled performances such a must ‐see experience.     Tribute2BobMarley live at Melkweg Amsterdam  December 9, 2008:  http://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=TzSvEoSLNHs    Tribute2BobMarley ‐ Jamming (ft Leona, Irepeat  and others): http://www.youtube.com/watch? v=IooiY0434LI    Rootsriders in Africa: http://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=eKg‐I4C4scc 

Tribute 2 Bob Marley, photo by  Ilja Meefout 

P AGE 11 L ETTERS TO THE EDITOR

July 13, 2009

Statia spread your wings and fly. Dear editor, I applaud the efforts of the Dutch as it pertains to my island, Statia. However, I feel that the affairs of Statia are the responsibility of the people of Statia. It is by no means a bad thing to have the Dutch take over the responsibilities from the Netherlands Antilles as it pertains to the BES islands. However, I firmly believe that this should be a temporary situation. There should be a transition period during which careful thought should be given to those tasks that can be transferred to the local government of Statia. However our representatives should be equipped for such a responsibility. In life there is no greater bond than that between a mother and her child. The mother nurtures her child while the child learns about that thing called life and the ways in which she can survive on her own once she reaches adulthood. As the child grows older she internalizes all that she has learnt and she of course forms opinions of her own. She realizes that she must learn to spread her own wings. This is a scary process but it’s a thing she must do in order to become the woman she was destined to become. So Statia when will we muster up the courage to spread our own wings and fly? A critical Statian, living in the Netherlands.

The educational system on Statia Dear editor, On Thursday, July 2nd the results of the Gwendoline van Putten exams for the year 2009 were made public. The results were not good. All sections of the GvP school scored around 30%. Only the havo scored about 60%. At the graduation ceremony, Commissioner Hooker laid the blame for the poor results flatly at the feet of the teachers of the GvP school. He also said that clever teachers should be able to achieve better results even without books. He then went on to mention that he had spent millions on education and that these millions had been taxpayers money. Well let’s try to analyze the whether what Mr. Hooker said has any merit. First of all the commissioner is responsible for making educational policy on the island. We’ll examine that first. The choice was made to have English as the instruction language at primary schools while making the students do Dutch exams at the secondary level. That in itself is a recipe for failure. Students

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start 6 years later (actually 12 years later!) in Dutch than their Dutch counterparts, but they have to take exactly the same Dutch exams. So that way students that barely master the language enter the gates of the GvP school and then have to learn the language in half the time that they would in Holland. Clearly one cannot blame the teachers for the results that are obviously going to be worse than in Holland. It’s policy that is flawed. In the second place: books are the instrument of learning for schools. Maybe the commissioner has made use of them himself when he was enjoying his education and maybe he realizes that they do help in educating students. To mention to Statia society that you’ve spent millions of their taxmoney without succeeding in obtaining books, is, to say the least, embarrassing. Where is the money spent on if not on books? The Innovation Centre spends lots of money on all kinds of educational courses. That is not wise educational policy. Government needs to get the educational priorities right. Hardware and software should come first. And by that I mean books, well equipped classrooms and computers. They constitute the learning environment for the students. Expensive courses can come after that. So, all in all, it might not be a bad idea for commissioner Hooker to do a little soul searching, before, unjustly, putting the blame on the GvP teachers. In fact he should praise the teachers and the students that passed their exams for achieving what they did in these unfavorable circumstances. What can be done to remedy the situation? Two things basically. First a choice must be made for Dutch exams or English exams. This purely a political choice. If government feels students have a better chance with English exams than they should copy Saba’s system. Saba made the choice for English exams and they are pleased with their choice and things are going comparatively well. If on the other hand government chooses Dutch exams (maybe because students can then study with the financial help of Dutch government in Holland), then they’ll have to stick with that. But choices bear consequences. If Dutch exams is the choice, then the language of instruction in the primary schools also will have to be Dutch. Otherwise it’s not fair to the children. You can’t have it both ways. Failing to choose and then blaming teachers or asking Holland for help is not fair nor is it serving any purpose. In the second place, money spent on education needs to be prioritized correctly. It makes no sense to send management or teachers to expensive courses if children have no books and computers. It is also essential to involve teachers in the process of determining where money needs to be spent to enhance the quality of education. The way it is done now, teachers are not involved. Often they hear one day before start that they have some kind of motivational program. Balloons are thrown in the air and everybody is supposed to feel good. But the problems are not solved and teachers do not feel committed if management/board/government do not listen. In this way it works just like a company. The workers need the right tools. If management gives them the wrong tools you’ll get the wrong product.

Rick Kusters, teacher at the GvP school.

July 13, 2009

P AGE 12 A NNOUNCEMENT

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SPAY AND NEUTER CLINIC INFORMATION W HY YOU SHOULD SPAY OR NEUTER R EASONS TO S PAY AND N EUTER S TATIA ’ S A NIMALS Spaying or neutering your animal helps to decrease Statia’s pet overpopulation

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In a female dog’s lifetime, she can have up to 450 puppies!!!! By spaying her, she will have none! ⇒

Female dogs who have excessive amount of puppies are at increased risk of breast cancer...yes dogs can get breast cancer ⇒

Male dogs who are neutered are calmer, more obedient, less irritable and urinate less. ⇒

No unwanted mess associated with female reproductive cycle and unwanted male suitors ⇒

Saving Statia’s animals from a life on the streets ⇒

DO N’T LITTER! SPAY OR NEUTER YOUR CRITTER!

P AGE 13 A NNOUNCEMENT

July 13, 2009

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P AGE 14 A NNOUNCEMENT

July 13, 2009

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