Unbiased look at the Sint Maarten Elections
Dear Editor,
Please allow me some space in your newspaper to address the United People’s party.
UP party, as a supporter of the United People’s party, I have a request in return for all my hard work and efforts in getting votes for the current government body.
It is only fair and understandable that while some other supporters/campaigners are benefitting from their input; Erno York has only received small but appreciated donations. However, this is not what I voted for, nor have I campaigned and got bashed for. I voted for an improvement in life, my life in particular, and yet nothing has changed.
I have been promised contracts, but up to this date absolutely nothing. This is not fair for someone of my calibre and influence on this country called St. Maarten; having not one, but 2 family members on the UP slate (Frankie Meyers and Maurice Lake), and my supposed to be good friend Theo Heyliger, whom i in the terms "bust my back for", nearly getting in a fist fight with Christopher Emanuel at the voting booth at MPC.
This is not begging or looking for any hand-outs, because I worked, and pushed going to homes, making calls, producing songs, not forgetting the best social media promotion anybody could get. I am not sitting at home doing nothing, I work in the hotel industry, doing what I was born to do, and that’s entertainment and make music. I can’t be a banker, that’s not my field.
This does not include the deals that I have made to perform on the Ring Road grand finale for free, and the $2,000-sponsor I received during Carnival before election. I’m talking about this popular term, "When I get in there I goin fix u up". My question is when? When I’m 6 feet under?
Ohndhae and his father William Marlin boldly humiliated my character by telling others, "Look how Theo got him" and "He own family aint doing nothing for him. But what about the young Dow? or the Soca prime minister, who still, up to this date campaigns and defends the green machine. I am not pleased and feel used and tired of hearing Frans say,
"Ask yuh boy Theo for help", just because I didn’t vote for him.
I love all politicians, I respect them as well, but at least have the courtesy to stand up for me too, as I did for you, at least contribute something to my business. I am not supposed to be walking up and down in town selling BBQ and dinner tickets, which never are successful, because of being neglected by "my boys in government. I have represented St. Maarten tremendously from a little boy until now, with the help of my father and uncles performing in Barbados, Trinidad, St. Barths, Cuba, Anguilla, Statia, Saba, Hollywood, St. Kitts and
Boston (Berkley College).
At the age of 26 with three kids and one on the way, I can no longer let them down. What about my father, mother, aunts, uncles and cousins, who see me as a somebody. They are disappointed as well. My Carnival troupe this year had to be a better success, but failed. Falling into financial strains and messing up good relationships I have had with good people,
who are now furious with me. If only they understood what the young Dow has gone through and is still going through. I have even given back to the kids this Carnival, causing a disappointing ending with a promoter who believed in me.
Where are "my boys" now? All I want is what I earned respectfully, not begged for.
Erno York
