St. Maarten Private Eye - Dutch Politics

Stress and the Police job

Fri, 01 Aug 2008 16:17:36 -0700

The recent story of a police officer shooting at the door of his ex, or unfaithful, lover, should come as no surprise when you hear that there are no social workers working within the Windward Islands Police Force. It's not the first time an officer has displayed unstable behavior and decision making, nor, if the club and gun rumors are true, the first time authority has been abused with a display of arrogance and egotism.

Power corrupts, it is well known, which is why a healthy democracy must have transparency and accountability from it's government and public officials. Police and Law Enforcement officers have a great deal of power, which requires a higher level of supervision and management. The big picture here is not this officer, or the others before him who have 'screwed up', the Big Picture here is the failure and almost criminal neglect of responsibility from Dutch and NA politicians, in particular David Dick and Hirsch Balin, to fix the problems of St. Maarten and it's justice system.

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Tax Talk

Fri, 11 Apr 2008 08:47:32 -0700

In a previous edition of the “Today” newspaper of March 29, 2008, a headline read “Verdonk: The Netherlands also responsible for bankruptcy Antilles”. But it is clear from the date of the Dutch document that follows, that the contents were forwarded to the local politicians and even some politicians on federal level. In 1990, the Netherlands amended their tax legislation to bring it more in line with the realities of the time. The present bankruptcy ordinance was written in 1931. The collection laws were written in the 1940’s. In spite of the booming economy, most businesses have their assets registered in offshore companies in other territories. The present collection legislature is not geared toward reality. The local government has not seen it fit for the last 25 years to invest in personnel, training and systems. The Island Council has not seen it fit to rewrite the Collection ordinance of 1970 in spite of the difficulties faced by the Receiver’s Office. The inability to ammend or lack of interest to rewrite the Collection ordinance of 1970, has cost the society immensely. There is no money to pay for infrastructural improvements, the environment is being destroyed, poverty and crime is on the rise. See below:

Sarah's Photo Op success

Mon, 31 Mar 2008 11:13:48 -0700

Sarah's trip last week to Holland was hailed with a front page headline by the Today as a success, unfortunately neither the article or the editorial that went with it could tell us what the success was.

I can see two things that could be reported as a success, the first being that Sarah was able to meet with lots of important people, the second being the photo op mileage gained from the trip.

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NOVA - Big Bang or Pfffft.

Sun, 23 Mar 2008 03:22:03 -0700

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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Not if but what. - SXM New Status

Thu, 21 Feb 2008 13:36:51 -0800

"Change is important, but not at all costs" and Change in (SXM) attitudes likely"

The headlines yesterday about Sarah's new attitude towards the Kingdom (Holland and Curacao in particular) put me in a blogging frame of mind. Someone beat me to it though, sort of, with this comment in Voodoo's previous post titled Vanity, Pride and Thin Skins. The writer is pretty much on target with my thoughts on the matter. There are a few things I want to add though, and because I think this story deserves a fresh blog page I will put them below here instead of in a comment there. I have also added links to related news on the Daily Herald website these past few days.

St. Maarten needs a New Status and to be free of Curacao, I fully support this and I think most people can agree with this point. The issue here is not whether St. Maarten will get New Status, but what form will it take. It's about vanity, pride and ego over rationality, practicality and wisdom.

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St. Maarten - In need of Love.

Sun, 11 Nov 2007 03:36:01 -0800

Today is November 11th, St. Maarten/Martin´s Day, I have no doubt that all the local power and money hungry politicians, from both sides of the island, will be out and about giving speaches, stoking the ol fire of national pride. Reinforcing the delusion many seem to have, that because they are local we must be proud of them too.

Every local, and by local I include those who have emigrated here, who love the island and call it home, should avoid the ´political´events today and do something else instead. I have some suggestions.

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