GREAT BAY (May 21, 2000) — Newspaper publisher and political scientist Joseph H. Lake, Jr.’s first book, The Republic of St. Martin, is scheduled for release here in early June 2000, says Jacqueline Sample, president of House of Nehesi, the book’s publisher.
The Republic of St. Martin is another first of a kind book, not only for St. Martin but this time also for the Territory of the Netherlands Antilles. “Lake presents a unique socio-historical view of the origins and key current realities of the St. Martin nation, an overview of the Southern part of St. Martin as an island territory, and dares to encapsulate a multi-category vision of St. Martin as a republic,” says Sample.
The book will appear when St. Martin’s people are days away from the June 23 constitutional status referendum, which is being discussed with increasing intensity. But Lake says that the book is dedicated to the people’s on-going discussion, preparation, and establishing of an interactive and sustainable St. Martin infrastructure that becomes “a powerhouse” of social, educational, constitutional, political, economic, and foreign relations development and progress.
Sample asserts that The Republic of St. Martin is the first published thesis in book form that is a reader friendly exploration of the links, differences, contradictions and practical activities and possibilities of “the nation,” “the island territory,” and “the republic” based on the St. Martin’s cultural philosophy. Lake, as the publisher of the Newsdaynewspaper has been actively participating in recording or critically informing the nation’s social realities and political culture for more than 25 years.