Philipsburg: -- The St. Maarten Nation Building Foundation/ L'Esprit de Concordia presented a draft- proposal for a joint public and private partnership between this grass-root St. Martin movement and the government of both sides of the island. The power point presentation was made at the UTS-Training & Development Center by members of the movement, which are legally established on both sides of the island.
President of the foundation Leopold James said while this first presentation was intended for government officials and representatives of the private sector from both sides of the island, notices were received from a number of officials that they were not able to attend.
Meetings are being set up to make the presentation to those officials who missed out this time around.
It is not clear whether or not, these officials had other more important matters to attend to, and fact is that the people on the island With the rising and paralyzing fear for crime within our community and especially concerns for the safety of school-children, support for such a partnership by both governments is a no brainer.
Certainly, the officials would be advised that any perceived lack of interest could be interpreted by the youngsters as a lack of caring for the situation on the island, which could result in a further alienating of youngsters within the society and even more crime. James explained.
This presentation was meant to make a contribution towards improving the quality of life of all residents on the island and to give St. Martiners once more the feeling that they counted and could play a very important role on the island and its development.
Especially since native St. Martiners have their roots and heritage on both sides of the island, they can play a very important role in assisting governments on both sides to deal with issues of common interest and concern for the people.
In the presentation, James highlighted the origin, motivation of the concept as well as the partners and the need for a memorandum of understanding (MOU) which if signed by all partners on St. Martin Day 2009, would certainly take the unity of the island to the next level
All present at the presentation agreed with the basic concept for the partnership and expressed that it could really give content to the celebration of the St. Martin Day, beyond the annual rhetoric of the officials.
The lively discussion that followed resulted in a number of suggestions, such as promoting this concept among all groups, such as the community councils, associations and other established groups on St. Maarten.
It is the intention of the organizers to contact the Collectivity and the Island-government in order to make an official presentation to them as well. James said, certainly, under the present circumstances on the island, saying no to this offer of solidarity by a St. Martin grass roots organization to assist government in areas of common interest is not a very positive option, because that would indeed tell the youth that Government has no interest in providing a better community its people.
