St. Maarten Private Eye

The 2.9 Million Nafs Fish Market

It's been over 14 months since the much hyped Fish Market in Simpson Bay was officially opened by Sarah,, the Fishermen were so enthusiastic and happy about it. Total coincidence of course that this was all so close to the elections. This project was to include 17 market stalls, six restaurants, four office spaces and a bar overlooking the lagoon.

Today it stands empty, while Roy may well be right that there areno liens on the property (who can be sure with this govt?), it also appears to be correct that there are no tenants either. Yeah, sure, the fishermen use part of it to sell their catch, but the units themselves are empty and weeds are pushing up through the brick pavements and flowerbeds. Heckofajob eh!

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Bad Governance | Development and Construction | Simpson Bay Lagoon | Hady Nufyet's blog | 2 comments | read more

Self Genocide - Is it a word?

Our Island Government does very little to protect the environment or punish polluters so I guess we can only assume they have little interest in cleaning it up. I do not consider Clean St. Maarten picking up garbage on the sides of our roads so our tourists don't see it to be 'cleaning it up'. I dare say that if we didn't have a tourism based economy they would even be doing that.

Just because you can't see pollution doesn't mean it is not there. Toxic and heavy Metals, chemicals, pcb's and more all create soil contamination and very few of them can be seen with the naked eye. Many can and do cause serious illnesses, from rashes and nausea, to cancer and organ failure, depending on the substance and quantity. Building new developments on land contaminated by previous use can be a serious health hazard to those living or working there in the future. There are two such sites that I want to talk about below.

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Environment | Simpson Bay Lagoon | Local Hero's blog | 4 comments | read more

Marine Ordinance, Zoning and Water Testing

The SXM Nature Foundation was started 11 years ago and one of their primary missions was to establish a protected marine park. Statia Marine Park was also started in 1997 and late last year their Marine Park celebrated it's 10 year anniversary, while SXM awaits the Exco. And waits, and waits...

The marine park ordinance and many other environmental legislation has always been put to the back burner of government. There is also no zoning, back in 1976 the Fed Govt. told every island to start with zoning plans, SXM never started and we are where we are today. The only land that has zoning is Fort Amsterdam, a last minute effort to halt the owners from further developing their land which they bought from the Claude Wathey government. Which shows it can be done, regardless if the land is privately owned. (Like EWE.)

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Development and Construction | Emilio Wilson Estate | Environment | Epic Foundation | Island Politics | Simpson Bay Lagoon | Local Hero's blog | 1 comment | read more

Mullet Bay

On September 5th 1995 the flagship resort of St. Maarten was decimated by Hurricane Luis. Since then Mullet Bay has lain in ruins whilst Sun Resorts International (Ansary) and the Unit Owners have fought in court over it's future.
Recent (Aug 06) developments may mean the area will be up for development very soon. Rumors are that Ansari and Sun Resorts want to build multi story buldings along the beach.

Development and Construction | Environment | Island Politics | Simpson Bay Lagoon | 5 comments | read more

The Environment

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Climate Change | Development and Construction | Environment | Epic Foundation | Simpson Bay Lagoon | SXM Pride Foundation | read more