NOVA - Big Bang or Pfffft. | St. Maarten Private Eye

NOVA - Big Bang or Pfffft.

And so NOVA came, with less of a bang than some of us expected considering their name, but then, were we wrong to expect too much from them? SXM PE made a request to them to add subtitles to the shows when Dutch is spoken, their response was "It's expensive and our show is for a Dutch audience". Say's it all really doesn't it?

Although they are right, it is expensive and their audience is largely Dutch, SXM Maarten is part of the Dutch Kingdom in the midst of a very important decision making time, and, as they point out themselves in their show, English is the main language here. I've always thought that talking about someone in a language they don't understand in front of them is rude. Maybe it's just me, expecting too much.

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As Hady pointed out in his post about the WODC Report, the problems in St. Maarten are not just made up from corruption. Many of the questionable or sketchy deals, appointments and policies that are made are actually made within the law, because the laws are inadequate and full of holes. Not only that, but the whole political system is open to abuse and lacks any real oversight or accountability, anyone who has tried to get documents or information from a govt department or the Exco knows exactly what I mean. It's made even worse when the opposition is weak and who are really just drooling for 'their turn at the trough'.

(SXM PE wrote to both George Pantophlet and Frans Richardson two weeks ago asking for the list of questions the NA asked the Exco about the WODC report - No reply from either.)

So, we can put little faith in our opposition politicians, dear ol' George moans that the Casino's aren't paying enough, (which is a little confusing really as both parties rely on casino owners for campaign funds at election time.) There is no Code of Conduct or requirement for transparency for our elected or appointed officials, they don't have to declare their finances or business interests, there is nothing or no one really watching out for conflicts of those interests with their public office.

Nor can we put much faith in our Media. We have the Today, owned by true Red and ndependence call - 14th March 2008 Richard Gibson, whinging and moaning that while there is smoke, no one has yet shown them where the fire is. And the Daily Herald, going along to get along most of the time because closed doors doesn't help with news gathering, and like many others, probably fearful of retribution. It's a fine line for them, crossing it to really dig into the dirt would probably have business and personal costs.

The Dutch Media? We had hoped for more from them, but it's fairly clear, at least to me, that they really don't care that much about St. Maarten, they know very little about it and it's always reported as the Netherlands Antilles. All those negative stories about Curacao in the past, the Antillian Youth problems in Holland, all reflect upon St. Maarten. While we here mostly consider ourselves different from Curacao, most Dutch people see us as the Netherlands Antilles and put us in the same boat, we are Antillian to them.

SERIE: DE ANTILLEN, DEEL 3: CORRUPTIE EN CRIMINALITEIT OP SINT-MAARTEN EN BONAIRE - 8th March 2008

SERIE: DE ANTILLEN, DEEL 2: ANTILLEN CORRUPT BOEVENNEST? -

SERIE: DE ANTILLEN, DEEL 1: DE DIENSTREIS - 3rd March 2008

Today Editorial - The Nova Effect - 11th March 2008

Paradise for 'Blackmoney' - 11th March 2008

Nova, Nazi's and the Today Rag

Holland's Cocaine Highway - 2004

Submitted by Local Hero on Sun, 2008-03-23 11:22.

Yeah, but you must understand that it is indeed only meant for a Dutch audience and come on, you guys already know what's going on, right? You don't need to see it on tv. Nothing new.
SXM is still part of the country the Netherlands Antilles, so one cannot just expect the Dutch to take everything into consideration. Furthermore, the Dutch have their own problems. It so weird because on one side SXM'ers expect the Dutch to help them build up some kind of ideal transparant government and on the other side people like Marsden say that there is no good in a Dutchman. I seriously don't know why the Dutch are still doing so much for Sarah, after such an insult! And Theo wasn't particularly diplomatic either. Of course all the bad things that happened or happen on SXM hit the newspapers...that's only natural.
People in the Netherlands do know some of the things going on in St Maarten and it's not like they don't care, they are just not in the position to do anything about it. And yes of course their is corruption in Holland, but so there is in any country in the world. Just like it is impossible for a newspaper to be entirely objective. Some things are just the way they are and you'll just have to accept that. But I must say that their is a a higher life standard in the Netherlands. It's doesn't justify the corruption, but it does make it a little more bearable.
Fumus ergo ignis. Sure, but who is gonna look for the fire? Why was it lighted and how can you make it go out?
Maybe not by showing yourself willing to sell your vote for an iPod? Or by waiting for ever till you suddenly realise that you haven't seen the brown pelican for a while? Or that the mangroves are still not fully replanted, like they promised? It's also a matter of taking action yourselves! I mean it's a great thing that you take pictures of the numerous heavily polluted areas on the island, but try to make a case of it and have it cleaned up.

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I read your comments written above and while you are commenting on corruption you then go on about cleaning up polluted areas.
I read this as if you side tracked, meaning on the one hand you go on and on about corruption and then you jump to that it is easy to take pictures of the polluted areas but "try to make a case of it and have it cleaned up" from your comments it is easy to see that you are one of those persons not involved in doing things yourself, you are obviously not involved with the environmental groups nor with the animal protection groups. So it is easy to try to put the blame on the ones that are trying.
Allow me to tell you how things go on SXM. When you do try to make a case of whatever pollution is going on, one makes a case with the ROB and Inspection department, one can even go to the Prosecutor office if one does not trust the ROB and Inspection dept.
The Prosecutor still needs an Inspector to go and write a summons or at least a report of what is taking place. Depending on which Inspector goes, and depending on who the polluter is, then either action or non-action is taken.
Capish?
Corruption my friends is rooted in all parts of our society.
Just because you don't hear the full story does not mean there is not more going on behind the scene.
You have no idea my friend how many written complaints have gone to the Prosecutor office from residents, community councils and environmental groups complaining about polluted areas.
In the meantime, do not knock the persons and groups that take pictures and bring the issues to light, it is called AWARENESS.
So if you want to bring this subject back to the corruption line, ask yourself why environmental groups, community councils and residents go directly to the Prosecutor office instead of going through the government department in charge of checking and monitoring and carrying out their jobs as Building Inspectors and Environmental Inspectors. Allow me to answer you in case you still don't get it.....people are on the take, developers contribute to elections in order to get what they want, developers will also contribute to Commissioners and Sector Heads of certain departments to leave them alone (read: Pollute as they wish)
I do hope I have updated you on the workings of the day and I do hope you will take it upon yourself to get involved to help the environment of SXM. If this seems like a sissy subject to you, Please then get involved to fight corruption, It is all interlinked anyways.

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Thank you for your comments, I hereby reply:

Getting a little aggressive here? I’m not blaming anyone, dear writer, I’m just wondering why it seems to be so impossible for the people of SXM to do something where the government fails to step in (environment).

Allow me to tell you how things go on SXM. When you do try to make a case of whatever pollution is going on, one makes a case with the ROB and Inspection department, one can even go to the Prosecutor office if one does not trust the ROB and Inspection dept.
The Prosecutor still needs an Inspector to go and write a summons or at least a report of what is taking place. Depending on which Inspector goes, and depending on who the polluter is, then either action or non-action is taken.
Capish?

Capice? Thanks for the explanation. So usually they go for non-action?

Corruption my friends is rooted in all parts of our society.

Yes, I said the same thing.

Just because you don't hear the full story does not mean there is not more going on behind the scene.
You have no idea my friend how many written complaints have gone to the Prosecutor office from residents, community councils and environmental groups complaining about polluted areas.

Yes, and all were ignored? Excellent.

In the meantime, do not knock the persons and groups that take pictures and bring the issues to light, it is called AWARENESS.

Indeed, a very important first step…

So if you want to bring this subject back to the corruption line, ask yourself why environmental groups, community councils and residents go directly to the Prosecutor office instead of going through the government department in charge of checking and monitoring and carrying out their jobs as Building Inspectors and Environmental Inspectors. Allow me to answer you in case you still don't get it.....people are on the take, developers contribute to elections in order to get what they want, developers will also contribute to Commissioners and Sector Heads of certain departments to leave them alone (read: Pollute as they wish)

No need to get rude! I’m on your side! Of course I know where the money goes…it’s just so wrong. And yes I wish I could do something about it, but I’m just not in the position and place to.

I do hope I have updated you on the workings of the day and I do hope you will take it upon yourself to get involved to help the environment of SXM. If this seems like a sissy subject to you, Please then get involved to fight corruption, It is all interlinked anyways.

A conflict of interest…
Thank you for your reaction and thank you for updating me. I am indeed very glad that someone took out some time to post a reaction to my post.

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To the writers above, Today I heard a most interesting story from a resident of Union Farm.
The resident tells the story that at night the smell of sewage is downright awful and people cannot sleep from the stench. The story goes that a large house that was turned into apartments is the cause.
The landlord opens the sewer when it rains and allows the nasty stuff to run down the roads with the rainwater. The landlord knows that his septic tank was built for a single family home and cannot accommodate the apartments now as it will regularly overflow. he does not enjoy paying the $100.- per truck to pump the sewage, so he has thought up this idea that whenever it rains, he just opens it up and people cannot see what is flowing down with the rainwater.
Now, I ask you, where was the building inspectors when this man changed his large home into apartments?
How can residents catch him in the act if he does this when it is raining and people don;t want to come out in the rainfall? And he seems to do this more often when it rains at night.
So you see, lots of pollution problems, and not much residents can do without government. Unless you propose that residents skin the man alive?

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Very simple case, indeed.
Next time the pollutor opens up his sewer, call the police! Have them make a proces-verbaal and voila!
Follow the procedures and that'll lead you to victory! Legislation is very clear about this.
Good luck!

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Not so fast. The police do not answer 911 and you think they will go out in the rain for someone running sewage? It is a known fact that the police show up late to all crime scenes if at all. Anyone calling the police about someone running sewage will only get laughter on the other end of the line, thats if you can get them to answer and if they do answer this issue is not important to them.
There is sewage running all over community districts during daylight and the police never goes to find the source, neither do they care.
Please do us all a favor, call the police and tell them that your neighbor is running sewage into your yard and that it is happening now. Let us know what happens, we will be waiting.

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Oh and don't forget to record it, maybe we can prove the passive behaviour of the police!
Playing the waiting game.

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What's going on with this site? People are not posting any comments like before. What did you do? I was really enjoying this site and all the comments now they just stopped.

What's going on??????

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Here's your golden shot!
Take it or leave it, come up with something really provocative.
Thank you in advance.

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I notice the slowdown too, however the visitor numbers don't reflect it.

Jan - 15,740 visitors - 47,134 pages viewed
Feb - 14,357 visitors - 45,411 pages viewed
Mar - 13,975 visitors - 47,131 pages viewed

February was only 28 days and the March figures still have a couple days to go.

It's hard to explain comments, some of the top weblogs and forum sites get hundreds of thousands of visitors daily yet only generate a few hundred comments. The content of SXM PE is a little more easier to explain, two regular writers are off island and I and others are working very hard at having the site rebuilt. This coming week will see SXM PE transfer to a new host and I am meeting with designers to go over the plans. I hope within the next few weeks you will start to see changes here. One of the most important changes will be the ability for users to easily submit blogs and hopefully this will encourage more people to start writing.

Flipper

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