St. Maarten Private Eye

GEBE, EcoFest and Climate Change

Island Vision long ago lost my respect and I don't plan to be sending in nominations this year for their enviro awards, I just can't be bothered, sorry. It's not that I can't think of people to nominate, the usual crowd spring to mind along with a few newcomers like Laura Bijnsdorp and her team. There are people out there who deserve to be recognized for sure.

It's not the lack of transparency with the nominations or votes, nor is it the plagiarizing. No, it's more to do with the people he invites to present awards and make speeches, it's partly to do with Stephane's desire to 'be Someone" and his enabling politicians, officials and businesses to fraudulently portray an environmental image when they have none. I cringe and feel ill just being in the same room as some of the people he invites. No thanks.

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Climate Change | Energy and Water | Environment | Local Hero's blog | 18 comments | read more

'Political Football' 101

When it comes to smoking up the an issue and rewriting history, Roy Marlin is the boss. In an article this past week reporting the 'official' opening of Air-Fin's water plant in Cupecoy, he had me in tears with tales of his sleepless nights during his fight to award them the contract and save St. Maarten from having dry taps. According to Roy, he is not to blame for months of shortages and the huge financial losses incurred by GEBE from purchasing water from the French Side, it was the opposition's fault for demanding transparency and asking questions.

Poor Roy, suddenly overwhelmed by an urgent situation that no one could have seen coming, not even the Commissioner signing off on all the development that contributed greatly to that urgency and whom had also been in charge of GEBE for many years preceding the shortage. And then, having to suffer the public and their elected representatives asking questions and wanting details about the urgent deals he was having to make on our behalf. Honestly, there were tears!

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Energy and Water | Island Politics | Hady Nufyet's blog | login or register to post comments | read more

Climate Change Roundup - 25th February 2008

It's been a while I know, maybe some thought because I hadn't written a blog about it in a while that the issue had gone away, sadly I have to report negative to that thought. Climate Change is still with us, it''s going to be with us for the rest of our lives, and our children's lives too. How our grand children are going to do is anyone's guess right now, I think it's quite sure to be a different World than you reading this have grown up in.

The problem now is that Climate Change news is common, most people like myself who have been paying attention to the issue are resigned to the inevitability of it, it's happening now and it's going to get a lot worse before it gets better. It's no longer a question of stopping it, it's too late, the only questions and challenges now are if we can slow it down and reverse it before it sets off a chain reaction that is unstoppable.

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Climate Change | Energy and Water | Environment | World News | Caribdude's blog | 4 comments | read more

Running Water, Lousy Reporter

An article on page 3 of Thursday's DH deserves a mention I think, unfortunately it's not on their website and I am unable to scan, so you'll just have to take my word for what it says.

The article was about Air-Fin's, (sounds more like an airline of Finland than a water company), 'imminent' take over of the plant in Cay Bay and is based on what Roy Marlin told the press on Wednesday. "Told the press" are the key words here because, as we all know, our island's intrepid reporters rarely ask questions that may make our commissioners uncomfortable or upset. It's much more amiable and safer not to rock the boat.

Update -
Air-Fin finalizing plans to take over water plant - 14th February 2008

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Energy and Water | Hady Nufyet's blog | 8 comments | read more

Why you have no water. - The DH explains.

Thanks to the Daily Herald, we now know why we have a water shortage.

The island’s water shortage could be traced to a power outage that shut down the water production plant for several hours in November. Nearly empty water tanks were drained by residents in that period and when the plant became operational again the demand for water was so great there was no surplus to be pumped into the tanks. Compounding the problem was little or no rainfall in November that led to dry cisterns.

And there was I thinking it was because of mismangement and poor planning by Roy and our govt. Silly me.

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Energy and Water | Hady Nufyet's blog | 8 comments | read more

Water Woes

I know that the writers of this site hit on Roy a fair bit, but let´s face it, he deserves it. It´s been two years since he announced that companies were being sought to increase supply and it still hasn´t happened. Roy and the Exco decided in May to give the contract to Air-Fin to build a new plant in the Lowlands and at the same time denigrated GEBE by stating they are not capable of the job despite thier wishes to do so.
Roy´s excuses about the current shortage being the result of Aquadesign closing it plant and the start of the tourist season is laughable, if only having no water was a laughing matter. As always, and I stress that this is my opinion, Roy is again spinning and casting a smoke screen to mask his incompetance and mismangement of our water supplies.

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Energy and Water | Hady Nufyet's blog | 7 comments | read more