'Pro-active versus re-active – make a pick'
Never mind that first there was the St. Martin Grassroots People Movement, known to all...
Never mind that others later joined that movement....
Never mind that some later broke away to start their own movement....
Never mind their so-called motive was to be more 'active' and to organize more 'actions'...
Never mind that they first tried to hijack the original name......
Never mind that once that failed - they assumed another , mimicking name, creating confusion....
No- never mind all of that and much more, that is all their perfect right....
But, if nothing else, they deserve much credit for at least continuing along the very same track - firmly laid down by the original grassroots movement.....
Alas, there is one major difference.
One is based on true vision, originality, creative intelligence , forward thinking and - in particular on being PRO-ACTIVE.
Not so much the other one – it excels in being re-active and blaming others 'after the fact'...
Recent point in case.
The leader of the re-active, copy-cat movement, recently in a radio-program came out blasting the Collectivity for having invited 'foreign' entities to participate in talks regarding the planned revival of Marigot.
Just for the record.
It was Leopold James, who first mentioned that idea in a conversation with Bill D. in the studio of radio 95.9 F.M. in the presence of Albert aka 'Jesse' Adams.
To start working on this concept with others, Leopold invited a number of people on at his home in Friar's-bay.
There were several meetings held on the topic – all documented in minutes.
Present were among others; Jean Maccow, his brother Louis Maccow, Jesse Adams, X Rey, Freddy Richardson, X Rey and Miguel Arrindell and others.
During these meetings , Leopold James brought up a plan to be presented to the Collectivity in terms of making a contribution towards how native St. Martiners could be involved in this process in a very creative, 'win-win' manner.
Although, Leopold was the one who had come up with and had developed the basic concepts , he turned the initiative over to Mr. Horace Whyte, because the latter seemed more than interested to be in charge of the concept-project.
One of Jjames's basic and very strong caveat was – 'Guys, while everybody is complaining about the decline of Marigot, let us be PRO -ACTIVE and take initiatives BEFORE others do it and we again are left with no other choice that to RE-ACT.
That all happened in August 2013.
Since then, the silence was completely deafening.
Just in the event, anyone wants to dispute what is being stated here, I Leopold James am more than willing and prepared to publicly prove my statements here with witnesses and documents.
Now - all of a sudden, that the Collectivity has decided to invite 'foreign' groups, 'Mr. Man' has come out 'swinging', demanding that his 'RE-ACTIVE' movement should be invited as well in these talks.
Wattating.
The question should be raised WHICH Grassroots Movement should the Collectivity invite actually ?
The reactive, follow-fashion, RE-ACTIVE one – or the original, PRO-ACTIVE one ?
We will respect whatever decision the Collectivity takes in this case.
However, perhaps a letter that I wrote back then on the issue to the former president, Mr. Alain Richardson could be of some help in this situation.
Drs. Leopold JAMES,
President of the St. Martin Grassroots People Movement
