St. Maarten Private Eye

It is to my understanding that there is a case in court between the Fleming and Buncamper families about who has the legitimate rights on the steep slopes. And now it appears that the Priest have some claims on this land as well. So your "hearsay" is correct. It is probably for the judge to decide.

In many developed countries, graffiti is preserved as historical art in the underground train stations or subways in Europe, in black communities in America. In some Latin American countries they are preserved as murals. Why ? Because they tell a story which is not always evil. When the community does not listen, the walls do. The writings on the Walls speak louder than words. Is the government ready to listen?

What do you say to that? Hope you give interpretation to your photo shoot

Sybille

Are you suggesting criminalizing graffiti. In order for a deviant act to be considered a crime the state must undertake a political process of criminalizing it.

Graffitti painted on private walls is a crime as it is defacing private property.
Cole Bay is a great example of youngsters who have nothing to do. A few months ago, Cole Bay residents woke up to Welfare road covered in graffiti, on the walls of chinese supermarkets, on sign boards, on walls belonging to private residents.
This is criminal, as it is an attempt to get attention and the graffiti was NOT done by the owners of these propertie's which means some group of people committed a crime by defacing other peoples property and business places.
How would you like it if tomorrow you wake up to find that a group of people painted graffiti on your car? would it still be considered art? or a crime?

That is one of the misconceptions in our society today: that deviance and crime is one and the same and so they get the same treatment. And what about anomie,the social condition in which people find it difficult to guide their behavior by norms they experience as weak, unclear, or conflicting?
Crime prevention on sxm is not guided by sociological research at all. The approach to start with graffiti is misguided.

Sybille, while I agree with you about graffiti may be considered art. It depends if the graffiti was intended as such.
Keith Haring was one of the most popular graffiti artist that made it into the big time.
However, the scrawlings I see everywhere in Cole Bay is not art and should be removed and repainted, it is an uglification of the community.
The writing is about "blood" "killing" with visible gangsta messages along with a signature of their turf.
I believe it is high time someone starts to address this issue and if making a film or a documentary is what it takes, then so be it.
Our youth needs help, they need parents that will spend quality time with them, they need a sound stable family life and they desperately need positive role models. Not gangsta rap music about Ho's and using the guns. They need to see that people have to work hard for their livelihood and that crap they watch on MTV and VHI and TEMPO with gangsta's driving luxury cars, eying women that look like prostitutes and the multiple gold chains and $200 sneakers is not going to get them anywhere in life except behind bars in prison.

Today O & C - Graffiti - 19th April 2008

From SMN News

Jean Luc Hamlet Succumbed to his Illness
---St. Martin has Lost a Great Son of the Soil

The Late Jean Luc Hamlet Giving His Last Interview To SMN News

Marigot: --- Executive Council member and former deputy mayor Jean Luc Hamlet passed way yesterday at 1:45 pm at the Louis Constant Fleming Hospital sending the island into a state of mourning. Hamlet fell ill last year just after swearing in as one of the executive council members of the New Collectivity.

He left the island for France for medical treatment where he was diagnosed with a rare type of cancer. Ever since then Hamlet was not getting better even though he had more than one operation to remove cancerous tumors. Hamlet was receiving treatment at St. Louis Hospital in Paris; he also stayed at the institute where he trained to become an anesthesiologist in Almeria.

Jean Luc Hamlet decided to come back to St. Martin when doctors in France told him there was nothing else they could do to preserve his life on earth, his sister Janine Hamlet told SMN News.

When Hamlet arrived at the Louis Constant Fleming hospital on Sunday many residents, friends and well wishers rushed to the hospital to wish him well. Doctors at the local hospital stopped the visits on Monday morning when they realized he was too tired to accommodate the amount of visitors that were rushing to see him. At 1:45 pm yesterday, exactly twenty four hours after coming back to his homeland he passed away peacefully. His body was taken to his home where many relatives, family, friends and colleagues gathered to spend the last moments prior to taking him to the funeral home at about 6pm in the afternoon.

Again when the news spread across the island many residents, family members as well as politicians and those of the New Collectivity including President Louis Constant Fleming gathered at the hospital getting a glimpse of the body of the man who served the community both at the hospital where he practiced his professional career and as a politician since he served as first deputy mayor under the leadership of Mayor Albert Fleming.

Jean Luc Hamlet 47 years old was the founder and leader of Demain St. Martin prior to him merging with Mayor Fleming in 2001. Last year Hamlet led the list Resusssir
St. Martin to contest the election of the COM. He won himself one seat in the territorial council but because of his expertise during the last six years he served a first deputy mayor and his knowledge on the files he was sworn in as one of the executive council members. Jean Luc Hamlet leaves to mourn his wife Marie George, four children, mother, father, brother radio talk show host Billy D, sisters and many nieces and nephews, his colleagues in the Collectivity as well at the Louis Constant Fleming Hospital. SMN News wishes the Hamlet family much strength during their bereavement as they mourn the loss of a man who was considered a true son of the soil.
The funeral of the late Jean Luc Hamlet would take place on Friday, his body will lie in State at the Collectivite from 12 noon, then taken to the church where the funeral service will commence.