St. Maarten Private Eye

If these investigators and team behind the report have been reading SXM PE? It's seems a few writers here have been saying pretty much the same thing for a couple of years now already.

It is a farce. Who is responsible? Dick? Ballin? The Dutch? Federal? Holiday? Richards? It needs a real and radical fix, not pussyfooting as Laveist called it not so long ago. Stop with the bullshit talks, reports and political spin and fix it damnit!!

Flipper

PS. You will probably notice some changes taking place over the coming weeks in the appearance and layout of SXM PE, it will be a while before we are done, but be assured the new sxm pe is getting worked on.

Of course it is a farce, who are these people who are maintaing the law? The police, give me a break, the chief prosecutor, you have to be kidding! As is well
known to all, it is really a case of who you are! There are all those untouchables
who it seems can do whatever they please and not a thing is done, huge
embezzelment takes place and not a thing is done but some poor soul comes
here from another island to try to feed his family, If he does not have the proper
papers the entire weight of the law lands on him, he will be treated as sub human
and kicked off the island. As for the rest___ it is the wild wild West at its very
worst, as the man said, "the only difference between this crowd and Jessie James, is Jessie used a gun!

Of course it's a farce maintaining the law here on SXM. The only thing that surprised me here is that it took them years to get to that conclusion. Everyone and his brother on SXM know about that. One example , pass by any one Casino in Philisburg at night, count how many players are gambling, you can 't count more than 20 or 30. Yet the following day that Casino will be depositing hundred of thousands of cash $, in their accounts.
What do you expect of a country , where an obscure civil servant becomes the most powerfull commissioner for 8 years ( thanks to a screwed up electoral system ) and one of the richest persons ?
What do you expect of an island where the commissioner of Health is the brother to the owner of two illegal brothels ? (former commissioner)
What do you say about an island where one of the top brass in the Police is married to the daughter of a brothel owner she ,herself being the manager of the brothel ?
The present Health commissioner according to what I've heard is also the sister of the owner of the oldest brothel on the island . But for that I have no confirmation.
These are just a few links between crime and politics on my beloved island.
Those are examples that everyone knows about. Imagine if there was a real in depth investigation.

You are unbelievable. To suggest that by family relation that these people are all involved in crime. The original sxm families have deep roots and basically everyone is related direct or indirect. But does that make someone a criminal? No!

The undertone of your remarks reminds me of one of the reasons why strangers get far in this country, because we always try to bring down our own, because they may be related to someone.

Its so crazy!

It's clear that there is a web of family connections on the island, it is an argument for a strong system of transparency and democracy. I don't think the poster you responded to was stating the politician was involved in crime, just pointing out family connections and the businesses involved.
Politicians should be careful about the company they keep and the friends they have, always. I think it was Lt Gov Richards who recently called on the Island Govt to show some maturity about the Code of Conduct wasn't it? Still looking for a sign they heard him.
It always amazes me how many people, usually DP supporters, make excuses and arguments against the C of C and other transparency calls such as the ones about Fin-Air being made by Georgie. Don't they want there to be honesty, openess and inclusion in our political system too? Don't they want the same reforms so they can prove their representatives are as clean and wonderful as they claim?

This is not a partisan issue really, it's about having transparency that we can trust in, about having a govt where the people are informed and involved, you know, a democracy.

Caribdude

If what you say about the casinos' daily deposits is true, and I believe it is, it is very interesting. There just cannot be a market for this many casinos.

On a smaller scale I have heard the same things even on the French side: there just cannot be a market for that many expensive lingerie stores. :)
Especially now that no one seems to shop on the French side due to the weak dollar.

In both cases it would be so easy to control, if the governments wanted to. When it comes to casinos, the government would have to control the technology and do the money counting. You cannot leave this up to the casinos. For stores you can use tamper proof cash registers and check up on stores and make sure they hand out receipts.

Technically, this is so easy to do in this day and age -- if you would want to.

The present commisioner of Heath Maria Bumcamer Molanus was related to the former owner of Japanese club Allan richardson. The present owner is Etiene Meyers who is the brother of former commisioner of Health Frankie Meyers. I love this county.

Thank you for the precision in re ownership of the oldest brothel. Apologies to Maria.
I didn't say that having a member of a family involved in crime automaticaly makes the politician a criminal. What I wanted to emphasize is the dificulty in maintaining the law. We know how closely knitted are SXM families, believe if I'm a commisioner and I know the police is planning a raid or something against my brother ,I'll be the first to give him a call.
In the case of the officer married to the manager of a brothel , I need not comment further, I'll be insulting your intelligence.