St. Maarten Private Eye

They are being priced out because of global economic forces, Hady. Taxes may stem the tide but there are other factors at work as well, not just from affluent "foreigners" from the global North, but from poorer ones across the region as well. No one on this board seems to take into consideration that the relative poverty of some Caribbean islands also contributes to our social and economic ills. St. Maarten has become a honey pot, attracting large amounts of unskilled, migrant labour, to the point where the system is breaking down. With the way the island is set up politically and legally, it is quite difficult to regulate this (open borders with France, aka French St. Martin, international ports and airports, and the confusion of the Netherlands Antilles with its division of powers). It is not as easy or simple as people make it seem.

Another problem is that more often than not, regualtions are in place but are simply not enforced. This has not so much to do with political parties but more to do with cultural attitudes in general. Corruption occurs in any form of economy. It has to do with social mores and attitudes. And it can occur right across the social and economic spectrum, not just from politicians.

Also, this board seems to only emphasize the negatives that have come from property price increases, but here have been positives as well. Many "locals" that have not sold have out seen an increase in their wealth and holdings as a result. There have been positive spin offs as well as bad. Let's be fair.

St. Maarten is beginning to develop a more involved and educated civil society as a result of its economic boom. I reject the overly emotional yearnings for the good ole days when the "natives" were happy in their huts and the air was clean and all was well. That is a distortion of history concocted by European or American romanticists who wanted to escape the post-modern meaninglessness of contemporary suburban life, only to find that life is not so different over here as well.

So what do they do? They invent a romantic and idyllic past, where the "natives" were once "pure" and "uncorrupted" before the evils of the world were let in by a misguided few. But this is utter nonsense, and the truth is far more interesting and complicated than that.