You're assessment is well received and points out many things that many of us are already aware of. But, this is a classic case of the "glass being half empty instead of half full." Yes, I really hoped the French government would have taken a more 'pro-active' approach with this post-Irma, but a storm the magnitude of Hurricane Irma has never struck this island so many of us suspected that things would be in a state disarray for many, many months. On our return last year my wife and I were both happy and sad at the things we saw (i.e, the butterfly farm vanished, Club O. a total mess, etc.). But, we found the spirit of the people was still there and stronger than ever. On a Saturday night we attended services at St. Martin of Tours Catholic Church in Philipsburg and afterwards talked with many of the locals about their island and it's future. Their spirit was not broken, and we assured them we would always be back and never turn away from them. Yes, prices have gone up and yes, it's always been windy here but we can deal with that. Like RonDon noted above we can't abandon SXM now.