Sint Maarten has a king. That makes the tiny southern half of the island a monarchy because it is a country within the Kingdom of the Netherlands. The king's name is Willem-Alexander of the Netherlands, and occasionally, he and his wife, Queen Máxima of the Netherlands, pay a visit to the Caribbean territories of the kingdom.
Why is this of interest to us at Leisure Car Rental? Other than waving the Dutch flag with modest excitement, what could a visit of the royal couple do for us?
There is an easy answer: Whenever the king announces a visit, the local administration rushes to clean up the island and fix the potholes on the roads. Suddenly, the permanently cash-poor government can squeeze out a few Antillean Guilders to fill the craters that dot our streets.
You see, the rough conditions of our roads have an emotional impact on us, as on any decent rental car provider. Because in our industry, we tend to like the cars we rent out. We want to see them run smoothly and reliably, giving you, the customer, a perfect vacation experience. Each pothole we see is a little stab into our car-loving heart. Because we know that sooner or later, one of our cars will hit it. And the car will hurt, maybe not complaining the first time it happens. But the pothole won't be fixed for months, and our vehicle will encounter it with different drivers over and over again. That is one reason why we always hope - dream - that our customers treat our cars with gentle respect and pay attention to road conditions.
Recently, the roads on Dutch St. Maarten have been fixed in a professional manner. Now we wait for the king to show up.
It is unfortunate that the northern part of the island is a republic because this is what France is. No king, no queen, just a president. President Macron only shows up when a real disaster hits, like after Hurricane Irma. To be fair, he showed up a year later again to check if promises made by his underlings were kept. (They were not and people got fired.)
Is the lack of a king the reason why the French let the conditions of their roads slide? There are amazing practices to be witnessed: a work crew will take a few kilometers of the main thoroughfare and mark all potholes with white paint so that they can be fixed by a repair crew following up.
The repair crew doesn't show up for two months. New potholes develop, right next to the ones marked with paint. Now the crew starts working. Diligently will they repair the marked road irregularities, but not the unmarked holes next to it. And no, please don't say this is so typical 'Caribbean'! It is not! It has more to do with the paternalistic structure of the French Republic.
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