Home » blogs » caribsnooper's blog

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.

Click here to Read More
____________________________________________________________

Meanwhile, "back at the ranch," the building continues, the traffic snarls and no "authorities" seem to have the most remote sense of urgency about actually solving problems instead of talking them to death hoping no one will notice.

American has canceled a lot of flights making coming to St. Maarten much more of an effort for tens of thousands of American tourists. You think they'll still come, after reading all the crime stories? They don't want to go somewhere they think they may get mugged, robbed, kidnapped, or killed. They would rather stay home and shovel snow.

We don't have much time left to fix this, if we have any time at all.

Or don't the authorities care?

Justice Police Crime | caribsnooper's blog | add new comment

Submitted by caribsnooper on Wed, 2008-06-04 14:09.

Is Roy Reading?
caribsnooper | Sat, 2008-06-14 22:31

Isn't it interesting that two days after I posted this, pointing out the relationship between crime and airlift / tourism, Roy gets quoted as saying the "crisis" is "worrisome" and is asking for help solving it.

Roy, it is all well and good that you are finally paying attention, but what exactly have you been doing the last several years as crime steadily worsened? Those of us who live here have been getting burglarized, held up, or threatened with machettes for years. Didn't you notice? Or is it that you only read the papers to see how many times your name is mentioned?

By the way, have you noticed quite a few people have turned up missing recently? This is not a new problem, Roy. The people in the US and Canada who fill most of our timeshare rooms, our hotels, our restaurants, and our jewelry stores on Front Street knew about these problems before you caught on. Many are already turning to other islands.

Instead of whining, why not get on a plane with a few other ExCo members, several crime victims, and news clipping about all the stabbings, beatings, murders, robberies, burglaries, hate crimes, and so on, and show them to people who can do something? It's wonderful to see yourself quoted in the paper, Roy. We all know you love it. But it takes a lot more than news clips to get police trained and on the street where they can do what we need. It might also help if you give the people who are supposed to be making arrangements for better French-Dutch cross-border cooperation a kick in the head while you're at it.

Taking forever is not an option.

reply »

Is Roy Reading?
Anonymous (not verified) | Mon, 2008-07-14 13:22

I don't know if he is or not, but I am, and have been. Thankfully, I purchased insurance for my trip that covers any reason for cancellation. I just finished cancelling my trip for me and my family to St. Maarten and will re-book to Aruba again. I love the Dutch-owned islands, but I'm not putting my family in harm's way. I'll check back again next year to see if Roy's read anything yet. By the way, who is Roy? Police, govt official, ?

reply »

I think it likely
Caribdude | Sun, 2008-06-15 13:15

I suspect a fair few of them read here, often I've noticed news stories that seem to be in response to something written here.

Here we are with 2 major carriers flying from Europe, where the Euro is strong and the Caribbean is still a dream vacation to many, and we spend all our money chasing after the US market which, to put it lightly, is suffering just a tad. For years Theo touted and championed diversifying the market and he had some success with South America for a while, though I suspect much of that was on the part of Spadaro and his hotels. But lets face it, we are reliant upon US tourists and I really don't think things are going to get better there any time soon.

I recently searched to try to find tickets from Paris for family, in Sept/August. 2000+ Euros, almost $3000. Why? Well, I was told because the flights are so fully booked, which indicates to me that there is not enough airlift from Europe in the months we really need every visitor we can get. A major marketing plan for the next season, and our off seasons, should be created for Europe, and it should have been prepared and launched, yesterday.

Oh, yeah, the crime... Still nothing new there is there, same old same old, round and round we go.

Caribdude

reply »

Why not just save money and
fredziffel | Fri, 2008-06-06 12:17

Why not just save money and go to Jamacia or the DR in the first place? Cheaper to get to and if you have to stay in a walled "secure" facility anyway (which SXM is becoming ) , why not go with the cheapest. I mean , the weather is de same and sand is sand. The tourist volume in the next 12 months will be a very interesting read on things.

reply »

User login

Navigation

Poll

Is Louie Laveist exercising Good Judgement?
Yes
24%
No
76%
Total votes: 17
15 comments | older polls

Recent comments

Browse archives

« November 2008  
Su Mo Tu We Th Fr Sa
            1
2 3 4 5 6 7 8
9 10 11 12 13 14 15
16 17 18 19 20 21 22
23 24 25 26 27 28 29
30            

Syndicate

XML feed