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Thank You Commandant Betaille

daniellajeffry21062015 MARIGOT: I have read a few elements of your goodbye message in the St. Martin Week issue of June 19, 2015 with pressing curiosity, since I heard some criticisms from several Saint-Martiners, who felt insulted that you have described the violence that you found in Saint-Martin as “socially, even culturally deep-rooted.” For them, that is not correct, considering that they have in mind their society, whereas you were confronted and are referring to the new society, dating back to some twenty years and subsequent to the arrival of the Guadeloupe CAF on our island for the purpose, among other reasons, of reducing the excessive unemployment figures of the early 1990s.
The system implemented, characterized by the damaging effects of the Defisc law and the creation of SEMSAMAR applying public policies in favor of immigrants, has created from scratch a totally new society, that were given all kinds of social benefits, the right to family entry and settlement, and consequently, the exponential increase of a documented population that was affixed to the existing one.
As the Saint-Martin society was of no trouble to the authorities, it had to disappear at all costs, it had to simply fit in and shut up. Everyone landing here was officially made to believe that Saint-Martiners, who were found living on their island, no longer existed, and that everyone were to be Saint-Martiners, melted and diluted in the new society. A new identity was officially created, people were naturalized in great numbers, and it was a done deal. The elected representatives benefited from this situation in additional votes at the elections and in increase of state contribution to the budget, as it was based on population figures.
Dear Commandant, unknowingly you fell in a “nest of ants” when you came to Saint-Martin, as we would put it. The delinquency figures of this new society “have made your head spin”, you said, and at times, our heads also more than spin. The manufacturers of this new society who want us to disappear, have given you medals. They have undoubtedly a bitter taste, because as you said, you are leaving with a “feeling of underachievement.” Some people regret that you waited so long to express such feelings. For my part, I do understand you could not deviate from the mission you had to execute, and I am thankful for your honesty. Throughout the three years spent among the authorities, condemned to keep pouring buckets of water in a bottomless jar, the manufacturers of this situation surely never felt their heads spin.
Our Patriarch of the Bellevue Gardens used a corresponding analogy from our culture on his radio program, not only referring to delinquency, but to the overall conditions of our society, quite distinct from the new society. It is the leaking fishing boat that is filling with water out at sea while the fisherman is desperately trying to pour it out. He knows his boat is sinking.
This image and yours, however, carry the solution of this state of tireless even useless work, of availability, of commitment, of determination, which you have demonstrated, according to your friends. You had adjusted to it, according to the elected representatives. Yet, we know now that it made your head spin and that “you are happy to return to your family.” That is “the main thing” you said. You are leaving behind a bruised native society quite conscious of what the stake is, and local and national authorities that will continue to lend a deaf ear to our cries and bury their heads in the sand.
Saint-Martin is also for us “the main thing”. Unlike you, we have nowhere to go. We, Saint-Martin people, must find the way to return to the “main thing” here on our little rock. Either we sink, if we do nothing, or we survive. The solution is known.
Daniella JEFFRY

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