The "Please! May We Swap Leaders For The Next Few Months?!!" Story

Orient Beach on Frenchf St. Martin...we will miss you!

Preface: My wife and I have been visiting the island of Dutch Sint Maarten/ French St.Martin for the past 20 years.  We have made many friends over those years and enjoy our yearly visits immensely.  We were scheduled to visit for a few weeks beginning May 10th.  

Happy Bay on French St. Martin...and you, too!

That is not going to happen!  American Airlines has canceled flights, Sint Maarten is not allowing flights from anywhere except from a French or Dutch island and the Prime Minister of the island has placed a strict "Stop Moving" ban on the residents of the Dutch side.  I'm sure it will be enacted on the French side also in the near future.  So...we had to cancel our vacation this year.  Hopefully we will be able to return to Paradise once again, but as in life, there are no guarantees.  The following is what one news reporter wrote about the Prime Minister of Sint Maarten.  As my story title says today...it can't be soon enough!

It was an ordinary day.  Until I watched the video posted on Twitter that featured Silveria Jacobs, the Prime Minister of Sint Maarten.  The video was posted by a BuzzFeed News Reporter Emmanuel Felton under a headline which read "Leader's Blunt Coronavirus Message To Her Citizens Has Gone Viral."  Mr. Felton says that Silveria Jacobs isn't accepting any of your excuses for leaving the house. In wake of the threat posed by the global coronavirus pandemic, PM Jacobs ordered a halt to all nonessential movement in the small Caribbean nation of just 41,000 people.  

Prime Minister of Dutch Sint Maarten Silveria Jacobs

On April 1 an hour long briefing was held by officials of the island with Jacobs saying, while being taped, "We can stop the spread of the virus.  Stop moving! Simply, stop moving!  If you do not have the type of bread you like in your house, eat crackers.  If you do not have bread, eat cereal, eat oats, sardines," she said.  Jacobs told residents of the small island, which was devastated by Hurricane Irma in 2017, to treat the pandemic like a natural disaster.  She continued, "You're supposed to have a two-week supply for hurricanes, and at the beginning of this I said, 'Prepare your disaster kit as if you would for a hurricane."  She told people not to buy water or toilet paper, but rather one to two weeks of food in the event of a full lockdown, which would mean grocery stores would close.  The Prime Minister said she doesn't want to order a full lockdown, so she is urging people to practice social distancing and remain home as much as possible.  "If the people of Sint Maarten do not adhere to the measures that the government of Sint Maarten is putting in place for your own safety, then I have no other choice," she said bluntly.  Mr. Felton writes that in contrast to briefings by US officials and President Donald Trump, which even some people in conservative media have found to be not useful, many people found Jacobs' straightforward tone quite helpful.  Many of the people sharing Jacobs' video are children of the Caribbean diaspora who could hear echoes of their own mothers and grandmothers in her address.  Others, including my wife and myself and many more around the world, are clamoring for her to-the-point leadership style.  Mr. Felton reports that given how unseriously a lot of the west is taking this, I feel like all leaders should be talking to their citizens like this.  It truly is female leadership at its finest.  We love to see it.  I must admit that I totally agree with Mr. Felton.  If only we in the United States had leadership such as the island of Sint Maarten is receiving we would feel so much better knowing that someone is really in control of the situation.  So, I propose we swap leaders for the remainder of this pandemic!!  Watch Prime Minister Silveria Jacobs frank talk she gave to the residents of the island.  It doesn't take an hour or more of talking and gesturing with your hands needlessly to get across what you want the people to do.  And, I suspect they will do it!!  Bravo Prime Minister.  It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy.