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Blog Arthur Donker | Ungrateful people

HomeBlogsBlog Arthur DonkerBlog Arthur Donker | Ungrateful people
Blog Arthur ‘je blijft lachen op deze klip’ Donker | Foto Persbureau Curacao

I am writing this in English so that my friends in St. Maarten can understand it too because it seems that the kids we “adopted” here after hurricane Irma, had a problem going to school here because they don’t understand Dutch or Papiamentu.

Oops, sorry our mistake, but we are working on it to correct that problem.

Maybe it’s the result of introducing Papiamentu in schools because when I went to school we were forced to speak Dutch and from Dutch we learned the other “living” languages resulting in our ability nowadays to switch from one language to another without a problem.

But that’s not the point.

Since Hurricane Irma ruined St. Maarten, everybody on the sister islands and in Holland, moved heaven and earth to help even before the hurricane struck St. Maarten.

The Dutch marines here were already preparing a week before it hit the island.

In Holland they were collecting money, here the schools, the Chinese community, the wholesalers, supermarkets, even KLM put up extra flights to evacuate people. Curoil paid for the fuel to fly the evacuees over, radio stations Easy 97 and Laser 101 were providing information for the families here. Everybody was concerned and was involved in helping because direct or indirectly we were connected either by friends or family or by trade.

We saw the video clips of the unbelievable devastation and the helpless people and the terrible loss of property and lives.

We were all moved and sprung into action.

We also saw the looting and when we realized that people were not taking food or water but flat screen tv’s, fridges, scooters and stealing gas from abandoned cars, and our hearts sank.

The Dutch marines were the first there after the hurricane hit to reestablish law and order to avoid complete anarchy.

On Facebook somebody put up a video clip claiming to have been kicked out of the place he was staying by the Dutch marines so they could stay there.

I knew it was fake the minute I saw that but, there were enough people that used that to air their frustration and make it a racial thing.

Later it turned out that I was right and that it was fake and the man was lying.

Today the island is preparing for a second and a third blow from José and Maria passing this coming week.

What really hurt me is, that when I was watching the news on a Dutch channel the prime minister of St Maarten was claiming that the Dutch marines did not do enough and somewhere else I read that they claim that the help came too late and was not enough compared to what the French send over to their part of the island.

The two hairs on my head stood straight up and I was really really mad because why don’t they mention that if it was not for the Dutch marines who would they have called for help, the Ghostbusters?

I have learned in my life that no matter what you do to help people there will ALWAYS be some form of criticism on whatever you do to help.

I have done so many charity projects and every time I swear that it was the last one because every time I get kicked by bystanders with their hands in their pockets watching me struggle to help others.

The same people that are complaining about the help the Dutch offered and still is offering are the ones that are screaming for the independence of St. Maarten. Now ask yourself where would you be if it wasn’t for the Dutch. You should be kissing the ground these people walk on instead of being so ungrateful.

I am sad and disappointed because I know the people of St Maarten are not like that but it is a small group of people that are looking out for their own interest in the middle of this chaos and turmoil.

Be strong, remember we are all right behind you, including the Dutch people and marines.

By Arthur Donker

8 reacties

  1. @Caresse
    Quiet down please and check the facts before you react.
    About finger pointing: mr Marlin started this discussion by making silly accusations, you can check that easily on the web, and subsequently denying he made the accusations.
    Please do unite in SXM, and show you can take responsibility, I haven’t seen that yet.
    Being a constant pain in the … will not make the people in the Netherlands to feel united with SXM.
    Add as many exclamation marks to my reaction as you deem necessary.

  2. Arthur Donker , you are a 100% right! And also what you said about the decline of the education “intruducing papiamentu in our schools”. This was the beginning of the end, concerning education. I am sure a lot of people agree with that and send their children to Dutch schools. This was stupid, and now they (Goverment) see the results. I love papiamentu and the children must learn to speak it, but not in the way the Goverment did it.
    And it is disgusting that the Dutch are to blame for the lack of help. Next time the Prime Minister of St. Maarten will blame the Dutch to create the hurricane! Who knows…nothing surprises me anymore!

  3. Just like évery other person in St. Maarten, Mr. Marlin too sat through the horrors of Irma’s wrath and aftermath, which he may -or not- have seriously underestimated. Like no one else, he was caught staring into the desperate faces of an entire nation that suddenly faces more destruction than we can ever wish to imagine. An entire nation looking at him for relief! The way espécially the Dutch media aimed their focus FULL FORCE on the looting -rather than on the help we need- and now on ripping this man to scattered pieces, for a supposed remark
    – which I have never heard him make- especially in combination of the acts, has this truly smell, look and sound radically much like the age-old divide an conquer tactics still employed till this very blessed day, to have us at each other’s throat instead of focusing on the power of unity that can improve our people’s individual situations and the current collective state of dread we are in. What is the agenda behind the sick gossip they constantly engage-in and endlessly spread, rather than focusing on the urgent help needed for people in utter dispair?
    And hów, do we among brothers and sisters now invent to start eating each other alive, without éver stopping to wonder, whý all the disgusting media sensationalism that continues harming us? Whát did the man actually say, whát could he have méant to say, whát could be his honest intentions behind the words -they say- he uttered, whát does he wish to achieve -as soon as possible- to alleviate the current horrific state all people in St. Maarten face? Hm?!?!
    No but we don’t ask óne síngle question, you see. Because like good obedient and sadly predictable and malleable sheep, we would rather be bellowing out all kinds of nasty judgemental remarks that serve but óne cause; to continue digging ourselves in like crab in putrid mud. We will néver surpass our limitations, until we are willing and wise enough to focus on that which can take us out! We will néver live up to our magnificent God given Creative Potential, as long as we feel it is só much more delíciously rewarding to point fingers, kick and criticize our brothers and sisters, rather than to uplift and empower one another. And the time to empower each other – IS NOW!!
    NOW we need to focus!
    NOW we need to unite!
    NOW!! we need to STOP allowing and increasing the distractions that lead us astray from the path of who we can be as soon as we are focused, united and dedicated to the cause of being at our very best. NOW!! RIGHT NOW, when we are at the very lowest point we have éver experienced ány of our sister islands to éver be in in Life!!! NOW!

  4. De SXM premier is geen ‘son of the soil’, vanuit Curaçao ging hij daar naartoe in de tijd van ‘één oog is koning’. Curaçao stond constant onder vuur van zijn kritieken op ons eiland, waar hij heeft gewoond en onderwijs genoten op o.a. het St. Ignatius College.
    Vandaar ook dat toen hij de verkiezingen won bij de eerste verkiezingen van het land SXM, hij blijkbaar niet de eerste premier mocht worden van het land SXM. Ik wed erop dat deze regering snel onderuit gaat.

  5. Als kinderen van Curacao ergens anders heen moeten dan naar Aruba, zijn ze de klos. Papiamentu spreken ze nergens behalve op Aruba.
    Onderwijs wat je op achterstand zet.

  6. So true, Arthur Donker. But: 1. everybody should have known the first language (also at schools) at SXM is English. 2. The idiotic PM of SXM said looting (of jewelry, electronics, etc.) is normal in those circumstances. 3. The video clip was NOT fake. The guy was outspoken and serious, but made a FALSE accusation, Let’s wait for his apologies.

    I am very sorry for all those innocent SXM inhabitants who lost everything, but they voted for this incapable government. I hope they will make a better choice next time.

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