The ‘friendly island’. What sort of a tag is that?

RASHMEE ROSHAN LALL June 5, 2013
Idyllic Island

Idyllic, but the sort of place nothing much happens

Off to St Martin, otherwise called the ‘friendly island’. I suppose you’ve got to call it something, considering it is just one of at least 7,000 islands in the Caribbean, and not all of them have the distinguishing traits of places like Haiti. This is why the ‘friendly island’, a reference to the peacable way the French and the Dutch divided St Martin up, is probably as good a tag as any.

Exciting to think of an island that’s just 87 square kilometres end to end.

Where almost nothing seems to happen, so much so that there’s a rush for prime position (between a large hill and a beach) to watch the planes coming in to Princess Juliana International Airport.

Simpson Bay

Simpson Bay

Where the most significant item of recent national conversation appears to have been poet and publisher Lasana M Sekou’s 2000 campaign for independence for his twice-colonized island.

On St-Martin / St Maarten, we’ll be neighbours with Saint BarthélemyAnguillaSabaSint EustatiusSaint Kitts and Nevis. I’m told that on a clear day, except for Nevis, all of these islands are easily visible from St. Martin. That might make for more excitement.

Jack Kerouac

“Our battered suitcases were piled on the sidewalk again; we had longer ways to go. But no matter, the road is life”
– Jack Kerouac