Blogs

It's been a while since I felt like blogging, Flipper's email asking me to write something for the site a couple days ago was on my mind but honestly, I'm just too fed up with it all. But then, today reading the Daily Herald's (nice new site by the way DH!) story about Frans and George saying they don't think SXM should have separation of Church and State I no longer had any choice.

I've covered religion and SXM's religious nuts a few times over the years, one my first blogs here was titled Gay Gay Gay Gay Gay, I was sick and tired of reading religious clap trap and homophobic hate speech in our papers, and about 3 weeks later the two CBS gay guys got whacked over the head with a tire iron in Maho. Links to some of my other blogs can be found on one I wrote last year titled 'State and Church Separation?'

Before I get stuck in to this lovely meaty morsel laid before me, let me just state as I have done in the past that it is not my intention to offend those with religious beliefs. However, I reserve the right to have and hold to my own non religious beliefs and that means it's probably impossible not to offend those with them when speaking my mind. You have been warned.

A Dutch uncle is somebody who wags their finger and tells people what they should do. A Dutch Party is a party where the host is drunk before the guests arrive. Observers of the 2010 Heineken Regatta have formulated a new expression: a Dutch Race. A Dutch Race is one in which handicaps are so lop-sided that anybody in a bathtub and a mouthful of rum can win this world reputed event.

For example, the international crew members on board the German sailing vessel Nel Maria were not too pleased with the intrinsic absurdity of the handicap system. Having passed the finishing line in first place first on three occasions and scored high in league position during the other races, their disappointment at not winning the sailing trophy was reasonable to say the least.

First try, share your thoughts on it. :) - Hady

Sadly for SXM, it's political leaders suffer from severe short sightedness when it comes to planning for the future, the SXM we have today is the result of policies of the past. I believe for example that the crime and youth problems we have today are connected with not investing enough in our schools, in education, social services and the justice system in the past. Add the lack of any real co-ordination and planning between education and labor depts, and by the failed policies of job creation though condo and hotel developments and it seems logical to me the result would be unemployed, disaffected and disrespectful (of the law and society norms) people out there.

But that's all for other blogs and I have to resist getting sidetracked, this one is about GEBE and the future energy problems/needs they should be preparing and planning for. Are they? I don't think they are and if you out there are fed up with power outages and high prices now then you should be concerned about it, because the future appears to hold more of the same.

Two weeks after Richard Branson and the WSJ raise alarms about pending Peak Oil, GEBE restate their intentions to invest millions of dollars more into another oil generator next year.

Some of the world's most baffling social problems, says Peter Eigen, can be traced to systematic, pervasive government corruption, hand-in-glove with global companies.

Is King TO constipated? It's a possibility considering his latest comment about the roads and potholes. As Commissioner for public works and many 'friends' in the road construction business you would think he would know a little bit about them.
Heyliger questions why PJIA can’t give back to community.

Let me explain for you TO. When a pothole begins it lets loose a whole bunch of stones and gravel that create more potholes. In addition the edges weaken and the pothole gets bigger, collecting rainwater which causes more weakness and expansion. When you leave potholes for month and months as has been done at this particular section of road then the results are what we all see today.

Instead of blaming PJIA's extension, which by the way has nothing to do with the state of the road, a road that has ALWAYS had pothole problems, try doing your job and making sure Public Works does theirs. By TO's logic, maybe we should be asking the car importers and rental companies to fix the roads too.

Oh, and when oh when is the media of this island going to put this man on the spot and press him for answers on what he's doing about the SOAB report and VROM?? It is his portfolio afterall isn't it?

Oh lawdy, here I am getting controversial again, SXM PE is never going to get any advertisers at this rate, lol.

On the French side you see Gendarmes all the time, they patrol Grand Case and Marigot at night on foot. On the Dutch side you rarely see a police car, I think I see them more often when they are escorting some official through our traffic jams.

Compare these two reports.
Bandits Convicted to Jail. - Arrested and convicted within 5 days.

Young men jailed for supermarket robbery. - Time between arrest and conviction, almost 3 months. They got a discount because of police detention.

Food for thought, no?

Marty’s Giro in Simpson Bay is a great place to eat on the island. But this Thursday evening, the Rainbow Warriors (read local gay society) that congregate there for a discrete tête-à- tête got more than they could chew. Some local rich female (with a bad hairstyle and an inebriated proboscis) who unwisely bought land in Statia declared her distaste for the practice of zoning on the Historical Gem.

Unfortunate for her was the presence of a local historian who reaffirmed the importance of conserving the Island’s historical heritage and avoiding the catastrophic over development that has defaced the identity and thus image of St. Maarten.

“You are just a gay asshole,” she voiced with self proclaimed authority.

Needless to say, the camp followers were perturbed about the remark and became feint as robins. They referred to Marty, the owner for some kind of immediate resolution. None was forthcoming.

Nostradamus was also perturbed. Rich people have a habit of being oblivious to feelings and the eminent sear identifies with emotional damage especially when its source originates from the intellect of an ant. His mind recalls that wonderful retort of Winston Churchill when confronted by Lady Astor and her accusation that he was drunk. “Yes, madam, I am drunk. But in the morning I will be sober and you will still be ugly.”

Law is a delicate institution and nowhere else than on St. Maarten can its interpretation be subject to scrutiny and sometimes frivolous scandal. Step forward Mister Richard Gibson who is widely rumored to have boxed off his second wife by building a complete dividing wall that runs through the middle of his luxurious Maho house.

The incidence of physical and thus media exposure of the celebrity variety is an increasing phenomenon on the island. Allegations that Julian Rollocks was parading in his underpants in October last year have been followed up with front page titillation via Mister Gibson’s own newspaper that the DP secretary is “broke” and has “serious issues with spelling and grammar”. For Mister G, as he is affectionately known, the boot is now clearly on the other foot!

Attorney General Wants Appeal Court to Uphold Verdict---- Laviest Broke Down in Court ---- Says his Mistakes was Not of Mal-Intent---To know Fate on February 11th.

And he burst into tears as he accepted the award.....

SOAB is the organization that functions as the internal auditor of the government of the Netherlands Antilles. Fifteen (I always thought 2010 – 1994 = 16…) years in business and claims to ‘know government’; SOAB has conducted research on how permits were and are granted within the sector ROB (ruimtelijke ordening & beheer/area planning and management). They were requested to do so on the third of February 09 by the ExCo. A year later their 32 page report, with an analysis of the administrative organization of ROB and its internal control measures, appeared.

The SOAB Report, in Dutch. Click open this post to find the PDF.

"Spring time for Hitler and Germany, Winter for Poland and France." The libretto from The Producers is well known. It embraces a culture to which the Vatican during the WWII remains devoted in silence. Given the awful human loss in Haiti, the Pope has very little to offer the many living catholic souls that are faced with desperation.

His immediate interest in surviving Haitian clerics and an historical diatribe belies a higher spiritual identification with the suffering and their families.

Where was the voice of comfort? Where was the action for hope and understanding?

Yesterday there was a terrible tragedy. An earthquake decimated thousands of lives in Haiti. And the Vatican remained silent.

Mea culpa?

From a couple years back, still relevant though :)

The following statement was issued by The Royal Society towards the end of 2009: "Since the millennium, we have produced nearly as much plastic as in the prior half-century. Next year, 300 million tonnes of plastic will be manufactured worldwide and one-third of all plastics will go into packaging.” If that statement doesn’t sound very worrying, then think again, because it should scare the hell out of you.

A political system must be under-pinned by a valid legal system. Over the next two weeks, Nostradamus predicts that details will be revealed about two of the most prominent legal minds on the island who have used their position to massage the rule of law to falsify documents and acquire land and title.

“Telnet is your local Internet Services Provider, recognized as St. Maarten’s most reliable Internet Company.” Really?
My internet service from this company works only 40% of the time. It even failed me on Xmas day. Disconnections are frequent and lengthy. Their technicians are few, absent or only available perhaps during weekday office hours.

So woe to any business that needs Telnet services after 5.00 pm or at weekends when their connections are often down. Most reliable?

Why do we become so frustrated with Telnet and all TeLem companies?

Court rules against EWE Developer

EWE - Today O & C

Emilio Wilson Estate & Park Thread and Archives

And so the story goes....Di da di di da di di da di

For regular readers or SXM PE it is no secret that I have a very poor opinion of Roy Marlin, between 'Respect' and 'Contempt' I most certainly lean towards the latter, with some scorn and disgust thrown in for good measure. To my mind, the only people that would vote for him are either paid off or just plain ignorant and stupid, yes that's right, if you are considering voting for this man then you are a (expletive) idiot.

So much of what is wrong with, and in, St. Maarten can be placed firmly and confidently at his doorstep, from our lack of a sewage infrastructure, the power outages, garbage treatment to the mess at VROM and ROB. It was Roy who as head of these departments who said during the Dawn Beach story that Permits are 'frivolous details', sending a message to all developers and setting the stage for the incompetence, mismanagement and possible fraud and corruption detailed in the SOAB report.

Let's have a look at the Comfort Letter to Westin from March 2005.

After years of warnings about the consequences of dumping raw sewage and waste into the ditches and bush lands of Bonaire and the recent exposure by Sean Paton that these warnings have proved to have been on target, the government of Bonaire has decided to let Scientology's ship Freewinds continue the practice.

Yes, that is correct, Freewinds have the permission of the Bonaire Island Government to dump waste and contaminate the water table of Bonaire with bacteria and toxins, damage that will affect the environment and future generations of the island for decades to come. How did they get this permission?

Is it just that the Bonaire Island Government are ignorant incompetent morons, or is it because Scientology, known for circumventing and breaking the law, sometimes in extreme ways, have paid them off in some manner? I know what I think is most likely, because it's hard to believe anyone could be so stupid and blind to the consequences of what is being done.

Today I had a chance to drive by the A.T illidge road where the cues of people standing and waiting to get registered for this wonderful one year permit was very, very long.
I saw men so close to each other backsides in line that they looked like sardines in a can. I could not believe what I was seeing. It had to be real uncomfortable. The women stood in line with umbrellas of all sizes inches away from the faces of those in front and to the back of them. All of this just to get registered for a one year permit. Dec 15th is the last day. And no word of an extension, which I do not support. We had over 3 amnesty programs and the mother of them all, the "Do it right " campaign
My question is:What will happen to all of those people who for some reason or the other didn't get the opportunity to register. Will they go underground?

We expect our politicians to speak and think intelligently and preferably to engage both faculties at the same time. Joke or ‘catch’ of the week is William Marlin, leader of the National Absent Party.

To illustrate exactly how absent his mind was, he told a high ranking group of cruise line executives that he “looked forward to many more visits from Oasis of the Seas and thanked Royal Caribbean Cruises, Ltd. for “bringing the Titanic of the 21st century to St. Maarten.”

Consultants are the most wonderful people in the world. They have a financial urge to prescribe rather than to describe. But nowhere else than in St. Maarten, are these obedient professionals so adept at presenting the answers that politicians want to hear and the answers that their electorate need to hear. But timing can be just as important as content.

Heyliger and his gasification plant are a case in question. Step forward Windward Roads Infrastructure as the company touted by government paid consultants as most likely to be able to undertake the complex project of building such an industrial edifice.

As I drove down the Pondfill Road a couple days ago for the first time in a couple weeks my heart sank looking at the amount of pond being filled for the Ring Road. I started to wonder how many other people who gave no thought to it a couple months ago are now thinking that maybe it's not such a great idea after all?

No doubt when the flooding happens, and I think most of us know it will, then it will be blamed on 'freak weather' or some such stupidness. What is clear this morning in the Daily Herald is that much more of the pond is being filled than is necessary for the road.

The biggest laugh these last days was not the comedy show, but the lauding of TO by the PM and others for his 'vision'. LOL, too darn funny. What won't be funny will be the flooding caused by his filling of the Salt Pond for his stupid road. I'll tell you this though, while I'll feel sad for those who suffer from that flooding, I won't have much sympathy. They had a chance to speak up and the only ones that did were the Foundations, the businesses around the pond were silent. I've come to the conclusion that they probably deserve whatever they get.

I was asked by sxmobserver in this post how we would fix the huge problem we have with - I assumed - bureaucracy in St. Maarten. A bureaucracy that led to the unbridled and uncontrollable situation of greed and corruption now inherently symptomatic of the department of ROB.

Very interesting interview covering a variety of issues and subjects about SXM and it's past. Don't forget to rate the You Tube videos 5 stars :)

Part 2 and Part 3

Where is the Daily Herald these days? Their editorial standards have reached new lows, their Weekender is mostly a solid ragbag of text that has been copied and pasted from the internet, their letter page now comprises almost entirely of US based correspondence (Oppenheimer, Krauthammer et al.) and their local news reporting is often too late and wildly inaccurate. It has become a handout. At 50 cents, the paper is not worth the paper upon which it is printed.

Heraldic History may well reveal answers for the descent into this quality quagmire. The medium was set up as a fighting tabloid by Roger Snow when island news was controlled by the establishment and Snow thought very differently about all that. Snow succeeded in changing the media landscape and the status quo. Fast forward many years and enter Courtney Gibson whose sensitivities are clearly pro-establishment and whose reaction to editorial criticism borders on the neurotic.

I imagine some civil servants and politicians likely consider the SOAB report to be a 'son of a bitch' report, and I suspect that there are plenty of back room negotiations and scheming going on about how to limit it's impact and fallout. Thankfully SMNN is not letting the matter disappear and their latest report gives some signs of hope for those of us out here who want to see the government demonstrate some real signs of accountability, integrity and a 'New Beginning' as 'Will I Am' promised.

According to SMNN, Franklin Richards has reserved the right to send the report to the prosecutors office, and has informed the Exco that if they don't deal with it, then someone else will. The Daily Herald today also has a detailed Front Page story, and an Editorial, on the issue, reporting that the prosecutor has already been given a copy.

This is a test for SXM and those who proclaim to want to 'Lead' it into Country Status, a chance for them to show some real integrity and wisdom. You don't really need the score of the National Geographic to confirm that SXM is overdeveloped and a mess, just your eyes.

For over 4 years now I and others here have been writing about building 'irregularities', about Dawn Beach, Cupecoy, Indigo Bay, Barbaron and many more, how permits were bent or ignored. That VROM and ROB are understaffed, underfunded, poorly managed and riddled with questionable and possibly corrupt and illegal activities is nothing new for us. The garbage piles on the sides of the roads wasn't the only mess Theo took over from Roy back after the last IC elections.

My opinion? Well, I believe that Roy was a major 'player' while he was in charge of VROM, I believe he actually liked it as it was and his fingerprints are on more than a few 'irregularities'. Theo is now in charge of VROM, but Theo is playing the fence sitter, threatening to form a new party (when Theo when?) while being buddy buddy with both the NA and DP. He will shack up with whomever offers him what he wants, there's a name for such people but I can't think of it right now.

The DP is largely silent on the issue, Roy is after all their Treasurer I believe, and most of the last decade was under his watch. Can Roy claim ignorance about what has been going on? What would that say about his abilities to be a Commissioner, or MP for that matter? Any digging into any wrong doings at VROM and ROB are going to come back on him, no doubt his skills to slither out of responsibility will be tested.

SMMN also reports that Will I Am has told Theo to deal with it and that he doesn't mind being in opposition, he just may well have to take that road. The heads of those departments need to be suspended immediately and the whole structure of VROM, ROB and Public Works needs to be rebuilt, from scratch. Not only that, but government policies and programs need to be rethought, it's time the so called Road Map got chucked in the bin and a fresh new look taken at where the island is headed.

This issue will demonstrate just what is important to our 'leaders', the establishment of laws, rules and regulations for the benefit of the community, people and future of SXM, or the same ol' story into the future.

LH

Highly recommended viewing, for adults and for your children too. Dispel some of those myths about sharks :)

The island’s promotional activities have taken a turn for the worst. Frans Richardson who does not have a clue about the travel business other than how air miles work, is having a public tiff with Interreps. Media watchers will remember that this company was hired by Roy the Boy Marlin to "PR" things in The Benelux. However, the company’s feeble efforts have not impressed Richardson. Furthermore, Lydia Haveman, the company’s owner is so desperate that she is talking openly to the local press about her desire to continue writing invoices and lunching on the taxpayers behalf.

Talking openly to the press about her disappointment? Wait a moment! I thought she should be talking to the press about the island’s USP’s. Point is she knows she is on to a lost cause. If she had developed an editorial program that generated enough column inches to justify her fees, she would not be facing the wrath of Roy’s namesake who probably has another relative in mind to do exactly the same as Interreps. Nothing, that is.