Blogs

St. Maarten lives on

“St. Maarten will live on”: a CD launch that according to the composer, Jeffrey Richardson, will be an evening “centered on educating the audience about the history of St. Maarten and encouraging persons to become more patriotic about their country St. Maarten.” Sounds like an admirable, positive and edifying event? Perhaps, … until you find out that it is to take place in the Westin Resort! If ever there were an example in recent years of how the people of St. Maarten let their island be ruined by greedy investors and politicians and spoilt for ever by short-term gain, it is this monstrous complex.

Well, I can't force people to post blogs can I? lol.

So, a return of the SXM PE weekly Open Thread is in order I think, a place where events of the day, issues you want to bring up or general banter can take place.

I would like to remind users that you can also comment on news stories in the News Section and post Announcements of events, no charge :) The Classified Ads section is now working, there are a couple bugs and you end up having to post the ad twice (you'll see), but if you have something to sell, or looking for something feel free to give it a try and make an ad. Also free :)

LH

Another update on the Salt Pond Ring Road story this past week was that those who have registered objections discovered that business at VROM, ROB and Planning is going on as usual.

The dates for making and registering objections to the Ring Road was 5th June, they same day both Pride and Epic handed their in, yet on that day an ad appeared in the papers that invited bidders for a tender based on plans dated June 4th.

5 days later another ad appeared, this time for plans dated 8th June 2009 and just last week yet another ad indicating that things are moving full speed ahead.

Uh huh, business as usual.....

Not much time to blog really this last week or so, but a couple stories came up that I think might make an interesting discussion, one of them being the story about TelEm being in financial troubles. In this World of internet, skype, messengers and cell phones it must have been clear to anyone in planning that land lines would become 2nd or 3rd for people to communicate. So why the huge new offices?

TelEm has a huge fleet of vehicles, a brand new expensive office building and a big obsolete, and apparently now unused, dish out back. Doesn't sound like good planning to me in an industry that should, with technology, become less labor intensive. There is also at least one law suit still pending that came to light during the Sky is The Limit/Maria episode. Drenth has his work cut out for him, in this age of competition TelEm needs to adjust or get left behind.

(Note: That link above to the DH story about the lawsuit is from 30th June 2008, I will make a guess that the DH is finally upgrading and remaking their website?)

Urgent, drastic action needed to sustain TelEm, says Drenth

Restructuring, partnership, key to TelEm's survival

I find the story this morning about Sarah wanting copies of objections that have been made about Theo's planned GSP Ring Road. And it gives me an opening for a quick blog on the story to keep it topical :)

A Ring Road is not a long term solution to the traffic and transport problems of the island nor does it provide any long term jobs, only short term and mostly unskilled. Parking garages and public transport systems are a better use for the money and both create long term jobs. There's also the question of environmental impacts and loss of heritage, which I'll leave to the Enviro Groups to argue for as they do it better than I.

Pride and EPIC Objection to Great Salt Pond Ring Road. (for Sarah.)

St. Maarten Pride Foundation and Environmental Protection In the Caribbean’s position statement on the Great Salt Pond Ring-road.

The two recent articles on SMNN about the SOAB investigation into the ROB/VROM departments are no surprise really to long time readers here, VROM and permits have often been a discussion as I and others have blogged about more than a few major developments. Developments like Dawn Beach, Indigo, Cupecoy, Aquarius, Rainbow and others, where permits have been questionable and environmental protection minimal or non existent. Flip blogged almost 2 years ago about how employees there were also hiring themselves out to the same developers they were approving permits for.

I have to hand it to SMMN, great job with the two stories, I'm glad someone is leaking something and I hope they leak more. Papers stacked in the toilet and damaged, papers mysteriously disappearing, people giving themselves and their family members domain land? The news stories mention that the report will be sent to the prosecutors office too, Mr. Piar, please start putting some money aside for the workload ahead.

EXCO SHOULD INVESTIGATE DOMAIN AFFAIRS—SOAB ADVISED.

CRIMINAL INVESTIGATIONS ON VROM HEAD STRENGTHENING—DEPARTMENT HEADS MUST GO—SOAB ADVISED.

MY FAMILY AND I RENTED A VILLA AT DAWN BEACH IN ST. MAARTEN IN FEBRUARY OF THIS YEAR. WE HAD A VERY SCARY EXPERIENCE ON THE LAST DAY OF OUR VISIT. OUR VILLA WAS BROKEN INTO. THE INTRUDERS WENT INTO MY ONE DAUGHTERS ROOM, WHILE SHE AND HER FIANCEE' WERE SLEEPING AND TOOK HER PURSE AND ALL OF HER EXPENSIVE CAMERA EQUIPMENT. MY OTHER DAUGHTER AND HER FIANCEE' WERE AWAKENED MY AN INTRUDER WHO HAD JUST CUT THE WINDOW SCREEN AND TOOK HER PURSE. FORTUNATELY NO ONE WAS HURT. THE POLICE WERE SUMMONED, POLICE REPORTS WERE MADE OUT THE NEXT DAY AND THE OWNER OF THE VILLA WAS CONTACTED.

WE RETURNED BACK TO OUR HOME IN NEW JERSEY, USA. IN TALKING TO FRIENDS WE BECAME AWARE OF A WEBSITE CALLED "TRIP ADVISER". THIS WEBSITE HAD NUMEROUS ENTRIES OF SIMULAR EXPERIENCES THAT WE ENCOUNTERED INCLUDING SOME THAT WERE ACCOSTED. WE HAVE CONTACTED THE VILLA OWNER BUT HE CLAIMS NO RESPONSIBILITY. THERE IS A LOT MORE BACKGROUND ON THIS SITUATION THAT CAN BE DISCUSSED IN THE FUTURE.

MY QUESTION IS: WHAT RECOURSE WOULD YOU RECOMMEND THAT WE TAKE TO PREVENT FUTURE RENTERS FROM HAVING THE SAME EXPERIENCE THAT WE AND SEVERAL OTHER RENTERS HAVE HAD THAT PREVIOUSLY RENTED THIS VILLA.

So many things to write about, yet it's so difficult to get my head around them, every time I want to write something about the police force and security something new comes up in the news. I came to to conclusion some time ago that Minister Dick is just that, a dick for several years now he has been promising all sort of things and yet here we are today with things pretty much the same as they always were.

Police staff still unhappy and him claiming to be unaware, again, some officers wanting to leave and return to Curacao, the Chamber of Commerce trying to move its own plans for camera surveillance forwards because Dick is obviously doing nothing, and now bidding for new cells in Simpson Bay while the ones in Philipsburg remain unfinished. From the news articles it seems this time they plan to be a bit more careful who they award it to.

Below is a collection of news on all these stories, feel free to discuss :)

While citizens know their way around on WWW, the St Maarten government plainly sucks at it.

The problem with people who think they are infallible is that you can never get them to admit they might be wrong, or to reassess or reconsider their position on something, that’s why trying to engage them in debate here online is such a never ending saga of mind bending banality. Doing so seems to create even bigger problems, because quite often these sort of people are unable to respond to any valid and legitimate challenge or criticism and end up trying to discredit opponents using emotional, unfounded slurs and threats.

Leopold James has another letter up claiming full responsibility for his previous letter ’warning’ bloggers, like me, to be careful what we write, because our identities are being tracked and monitored 24hrs a day, he warns of ‘serious consequences’. Funny thing is, his new letter singles me out for special attention and I feel obliged to respond, I have a sneaking suspicion he won't like the 'quality' or 'tone' of it, but I promise to try to be gentle :)

Early last year and a few weeks ago I wrote about Theo's plans fill in a large portion of Cay Bay, build a new cargo and cruise ship refueling harbor and to relocate a bunch of industrial businesses there. Never mind that these businesses, believed to be some like the asphalt plant and cement companies off Arch Road are in places they shouldn't be because of the failure to implement Zoning many moons ago, eh? That's the problem with not doing what should be done, having to deal with and fix the consequences.

Anyway, since my last blog on this subject I managed to get hold of proposed plans for SXM West, mainly the Cole Bay and Cay Bay areas, and they certainly are interesting as you will see below. I'm all for planning for the future and building and restructuring infrastructure, it's vital, my disagreement is with the kind of future being planned and the cost of it, and I'm not just talking monetary costs.

Caybay residents concerned about development plans - 11th June 2009 - (With Podcast.)

Anyone who knows their SXM political history will know that there exists a cloud of fear over the people when it comes to being involved in politics and government. Standing up against or criticizing government or powerful figures used to get you spat at or forced to leave the island, you suffered for it. Very little has changed, the same is true today.

We live in a society where people have been discouraged from participating in government and speaking their minds, where it is so much easier and healthier to keep your head down and focus on your own life and problems. There are so many good, intelligent and capable people out there I know who are even afraid to post an anonymous comment here. It's a very sad state of affairs.

The internet and blogs such as this one have opened up an avenue for ordinary people to speak freely, to express criticism, opinions, arguments and share ideas and knowledge without that fear. Unfortunately there are those who would seek to bring that fear here, discourage and even threaten those who's opinions they disagree with, or feel hurt by.

Leopold James - Advice to Bloggers.

Yeah, we dolphins do love our fish! It's how they get us to do tricks at Dolphinariums don't you know, using hunger and food as motivation. I'm so glad we don't have one here.

But it's true, Flipper is now officially Off Island, Gone Fishing and banned from writing unless I really really need to. SXM PE is now 4 years old, it's rebuilt and it is now open to the people and community of SXM to make of it what they will, I have repeatedly begged people I think have writing talents and knowledge and information to share to write, I get promises but never actual blogs. Maybe I was wrong and expected too much? I need to take a break.....

Boy my heads been busy these past few weeks, a bit cluttered might be a good way to say it, and that was without trying to pay attention to what the new and outgoing IC members were saying. Theo 'serving' and and Laveist going from strength to strength with a performance and had many people in tears, both sides of the aisle. Let's face it, those two almost buddied up last year with the NA and it seems fairly obvious they are working together, at least that's how it seems to me. Theo gets to keep his portfolios and be deputy leader and Louie gets to sit things out until his appeals process is over.

So, now we have a new government, a 'baby' government according to Marlin and we have to give them time to grow into their new jobs. I've tried to find some in the news articles, but I still don't have much knowledge on what their positions and policies are, they've had years to formulate them while sitting on the sidelines haven' they?

Well, I'm going to go ahead with my own manifesto, or at least a draft of one. Here's the first installment and over the coming weeks I'll write blogs about other topics and issues. I sincerely invite readers to contribute their own ideas and thoughts to my posts, I'm just presenting ideas, I am open to other ideas, to having flaws in my own being pointed out and I am interested in what others have to say :)

Youth, Education, Sports, Employment, Immigration, Crime.

Copyright infringement and stealing is often an accusation thrown at me and SXM PE, sometimes from people who don't like us or the site, but most often I think from people who just don't understand or know what 'blogs' and 'bloggers' are. After all, I see repeated references in the content and comments on other sites calling people who make comments 'bloggers', so naturally we have some confused people out there.

I'll go into more detail on blogs and blogging in another post soon, but for now I will say the accusation has no grounds, what we do is refer to sources and we take a small portion as a 'quote'. People who want to read the whole article can click the 'link to source' and read the whole article. Anyway, more later on that, I don't want to get sidetracked because this blog is about real copyright issues and theft. A story that I wrote about 6 weeks ago and which the artists took to the police this week.

(Agghh... The irony of it all!)

Well, here we are, June 8th and a new crew is taking over the helm of SS SXM. While I myself am a skeptic about just how much things are going to change, I am willing to give the new government a little bit of leeway, a honeymoon if you like. As the saying goes, the proof is in the pudding, and we still don't have a clear picture of what the ingredients of this new government's policies and programs are going to be.

My skepticism arises from the inclusion of 'King' Theo, who not only keeps the portfolio's he previously held, but is also now the deputy leader of government. Considering that this new government now relies completely upon his (and Laveist's) support, it would seem that he has a great deal of influence over what those policies and programs will be, ergo it seems logical to suspect that his Ring Road and new Harbor plans are going to part of this government's program.

If it wasn't for the thirst of my dogs (they suffer from a high blood pressure now), my tears would have flooded the entire place, that is my humble dwelling. The tragedy that is my faith! I cannot live with this knowledge, my dearest dream shattered and broken... and that awful pain in my chest!

St.Maarten Past, Present, and Future from Jeff Berger on Vimeo.

Hey there all! It's been a while since I posted a blog, kinda got busy with some other things and it's sort of difficult with a pc that's obsolete with age and dysfunction. But I'm back, at least for now, so I'll try to post 2 or 3 if I can. Got some things to tell ya all!

By now we are all fairly familiar with the term “Global Warming”. Simply stated it means our earth is getting warmer. The affects of global warming can be demonstrated in many ways. In particular it has a tremendous impact on the ocean. Scientists believe that it could be the cause of “Dead Zones”.

Today's the day!!

Ana, Bill, Claudette, Danny, Erika, Fred, Grace, Henri, Ida, Joaquin, Kate, Larry, Mindy, Nicholas, Odette, Peter, Rose, Sam
Teresa, Victor, Wanda.

If anything has been made starkly clear this past month, it has been the true colors of the DP, their selfishness, their ego and their vanity, at least Theo had the balls to do what is right and resign. Sarah on the other hand, in particular with her most recent statements of ‘I told you so’ about the NA, has shown just how stupid she thinks the people and public of St. Maarten to be and where her priorities lie. Someone should buy her a fiddle. (Nero.)

Sarah’s games are clear to anyone who is open to see them, by holding out against the NA’s offers to form a national government with 2 commissioner seats, she put them into a position where they had no other choice but to take up Laveist’s offer of support. She is a player, of that there are no doubts, but she doesn’t seem to realize that a growing number of voters are starting to see through the games and are growing increasingly sick and tired of it all. Doing ‘the Right thing instead of the Smart thing?’ Has there ever been a statement more disingenuous and transparently vain?

It matters not to me because, and the NA has just confirmed it, both the DP and NA are pretty much the same, both lacking any sign of a progressive sustainable vision for the island or even understanding the issues the island faces, and of course, sketchy integrity. Teaming up with Laveist is really just so pathetic and deserving of scorn.

The DP played the game and the NA fell into the trap they set, a better move would have been to just let higher supervision come in. At least they would have had some integrity still. It's time for that third party, anyone interested? Would you support a new party with smart people, smart policies and a real vision for the future of the island? I would. I've seen where this crowd want to take us and it ain't pretty.
(News links below.)

As is often the case, a story that we broke here on SXM PE finally makes it to the main stream media. Back on April 1st 2008 I wrote a blog, based on rumors I was hearing which now turn out to be true, it was meant to be satire, but not really, if you know what I mean.

This story, much like Theo's Great Salt Pond Ring Road, is a mammoth project that has questionable justification and highly costly, not just in money but also in the environmental impact. Theo plans to build a cargo and industrial complex in Cay Bay, filling in a large part of it. Go read the article below and then come back, because I have so much more to say on this matter and it needs to be discussed.

CAY BAY RESIDENTS ANGRY ABOUT FUTURE PROJECT --ENVIRONMENTAL FOUNDATIONS BRIEFED YESTERDAY.

For a government noted and notorious for it's lack of transparency, the news today about the commissioners resigning, but not really until June 8th, is as clear as day. As is Roy calling William's concerns 'frivolous', Roy's favorite word for anything that might get in the way of what he wants or believes.

Is there any hope these people will form a National Government? And do we really want a Government with no opposition except Louie Laveist? Sarah's claim last week that the NA are sitting on a letter from Laveist makes this latest news perfectly clear, the NA will either have to act on it of suffer through another 3 weeks of DP Government.

It's time for this Circus to close down, please, bring in Higher Supervision, Now!

This activity called ‘shark feeding’ has been a controversial subject for a number of years. Is it good or bad? Does it harm the ecosystem? How does it affect the sharks? We will address these questions in this article.

[More....]

So here we are awaiting a government in which there will no opposition, unless of course you consider Louie Laveist as opposition. Not that it will make much difference really, considering how ineffectual and accommodating the NA/SPA/etc have been in that position these past decades. Neither they nor the media have raised any questions about Theo's planned Great Salt Pond Ring Road and the logic/need of it.

I will say it again, the Salt Pond Ring Road is a huge waste of money and it does nothing, I repeat nothing, to resolve the traffic problems in Philipsburg. Our opposition, nor our media, have asked any questions about what appears to be a very costly project, money that could and should be going towards much more urgent needs of our community. Have there been any traffic studies that recommend this huge costly road? NO, there has not as far as I could find out, the last comprehensive traffic study was done in 1989 I believe, 20 years ago.

Putting the puzzle together...
There is alot of chatter since Dateline aired a program covering the missing Leta Lynn Cordes case. Below are snips from the past that are starting to put the puzzle together....

New revelation's: Elaine Karas was Frank's girlfriend. Elaine, Frank and his mother were at Mama Pizza on Sunday. Leta went missing on Friday. Elaine had a rental car...

[More....]

Festina lente [rush slowly] as the Romans used to say. Is the gap between the two parties really as great as the picture might suggest?

As someone who has very much appreciated the investigative journalism of Hilbert Haar and his steering of the Today newspaper into a paper that to me ranks above the mundane and limp Daily Herald, it's rather sad to read about his confrontation with Lisa Brown McKay. We should keep in mind that we do only have one side of the story at present, that coming from friends and ex-co workers of Lisa, we have not heard from Haar yet, but there is no excuse for physical violence and if the story as told in the news is true then Haar did a very stupid thing.

Naturally there should and will be consequences, but I'd hate to see him lose his job, because as far as I am concerned, he has more journalistic skill, integrity and investigative commitment than most of those in the so called Media Association put together.

This blog is not about his actions, he will answer for them in due time. This blog is about the pitchfork and torch crowd that are lining up against him and the threats of violence shamefully being published on SXM news sites.

Time for part 4 of this riveting and revealing audio file.

Part 1 (Audio)
Part 2 (Audio)
Part 3 (Audio)