St. Maarten Private Eye

The Synergistic Relationship Between Planes & Crime

Thugs rob businesses and individuals because that's where the money is and they're too lame to earn a living like the rest of us.

When the economy tanks, some that do have jobs lose them and join the ranks of the thugs, and the problem worsens unless authorities stop it.

That brings us to our wonderful little island, where nobody in power seems to understand that news of Thug Outbreaks gets to tourists quickly. Tourists read it and they cancel trips. Busnesses lose business. People lose jobs. The economy worsens. More jobless Thugs rob more people. And we wind up another Trinidad, Jamaica or D. R. where tourists still come but hide inside gated, guarded resorts their whole trip.

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Justice Police Crime | 4 comments | read more

A Certain Sense of Impending Disaster in Bel Air

Have you gone to the beach next to Bel Air recently, where you can clearly see the massive amount of excavation done to the hillside just north by Barbaron for its new "development"?

Barbaron has carved out a massive quantity of hillside: my guess is many thousands of metric tonnes of hillside are gone, shipped to somewhere on the French side.

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Development and Construction | Environment | 40 comments | read more

Corruption in St. Maarten

A friend of mine was having lunch at a Dutch Side restaurant a while back when he noticed a prominent politician having lunch with a local business person. There were smiles all around the table, handshakes and at one point at least one envelope was passed from the business person to the politician.

Eventually lunch ended, and both gentlemen left, but the envelope, a rather fat one, fell to the floor and wasn't noticed.

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Island Politics | Justice Police Crime | 12 comments | read more