Philipsburg Bike Patrol Good or Bad?

Sorry but I still have some reservations about this bicycle surveillance group from Sheriff Security. I don’t know if it is a good thing to have a private company just provide security in public places without some kind of law describing what they are allowed to do and not allowed to do.
If as the case was mentioned that they are only an extra set of eyes, then maybe a camera surveillance system might have been a better option. It is only natural that this bike patrol will have some kind of interaction with the public. How can we be so sure that these bike people are actually trained in aspects of conflict resolution, hand to hand combat or whatever else they may need to be equipped with?
Now, I not anti-foreigner or anything like that, but there is a reason that not too many locals work as security guards. The word on the street is that the guards are underpaid and not all benefits due to them are given to them. There are also persistent rumors that some instances of exploitation are prevalent in this industry.
With these rumors on the street, do we really want to take a risk that some of these bike patrol may be disgruntled, under-paid, exploited employees. Additionally, are there any background checks done on these bike patrol officers or security guards in general. There have been several robberies that security guards were suspected of being involved in.
To make this patrol permanent in areas frequented by the public, I think government should contact the VKS and the Police and organize an appropriate training program with the appropriate background checks and establish a permanent force.
This force could be responsible for traffic violations, assisting police when patrolling, security at public functions, etc. The salary and benefits should be at a level where young locals are actually interested in doing the job and the career path should be another major incentive.

Time For Dr. Scot To Practice Medicine!!!

I have always been a proponent that not every person that is working as a doctor, technician or some other specialized job should necessarily be put in management. I believe that before they are thrust into a management position that they should be allowed the opportunity to follow some management courses.

Now I am not aware if Dr. Scot, present Director of the Medical Center, has followed any such training but from the information coming from the Medical Center in the last few weeks we can assume that this is not the case. It must be clear to everyone that decisions made by the Director during this period was not in the best interest of the overall health care of the island.

It now seems like the Randy Friday saga is only the top of the iceberg. They say everything happens for a reason and we can now see the reason Dr. Friday was given such a hard time. If Government and the Board are to do the right thing then when this is all over and Dr. Friday’s clinic is open we can expect better overall healthcare.

It’s time for Government to instruct the board to terminate Dr. Scot as the Director and offer him a job in the medical profession. That way he can continue to make a living. The other decision would be to hire a temporary manager to setup a structure that would not allow this to happen again. It is inconceivable to me that one man can keep the health care of an entire island under his control. Regulation is require in this case and many others.

The Labor Policy Writers Respond

It was only a matter of time, but the architects of the labor policy have replied and they claim that the previous comments by the business sector are far off base and not completely true. Additionally they claim that the business sector is concentrating on the negative aspects of the policy and not the positives. Sounds like the business sector is trying to win favor in the public by playing victim.

The architects claim that the policy is consistent with all the islands in the region as well as the wider world, the regulation and protection of not only those of us carrying Dutch passports but those with permanent or temporary residency as well. This was unknown to me in my previous blog.

What this means, if properly enforced, is the exploitation that defines our labor force will be curtailed. Now some might be against this but I am all for it. I think it will be better for the island if EVERYONE living and working on the island is able to afford a decent apartment or house with indoor plumbing and a working septic system, all this while they are able to send money home to help their families. Of course this will not stop our sewage problem but that’s another blog.

My concern is that for years now Government has accepted “gifts” from the business community to ‘sell’ labor permits, while using it to further their political careers, along with handing out bus licenses, land and other political favors. Are we to believe that the very same politicians will actually allow this policy to be implemented 100% or will they use loopholes?

The architects claim the policy is transparent and I hope it is because a lack of transparency is what is plaguing this island. I say hope because I was unable to find it on the websites advertised. Let’s hope that it is posted by the time I post this.

www.governorsxm.com is suppose to have it but I can’t find it. If you do let me know.

Labor Policy

The New Labor Policy

Who is the genius that came up with that new labor policy? Now I must admit that I have not read the entire document so this is only a preliminary reaction to what was reported in the media.

Are they really saying that they will only sign documents for skilled workers? I might be wrong but aren’t most of the immigrants working in menial jobs where most St. Maarteners don’t want to work? Now I have always been against our young people only wanting to work in the casino or some administrative job. I think that we need to start getting involved in jobs that traditionally used to be local but has since evolved into foreign jobs.

Jobs like construction and maintenance, air-conditioning repair, house painting, etc. are all very lucrative careers but due to the lack of a Poly-technical school and other reasons, we no longer partake in these activities.

Now government is saying that no more labor permits will be signed for unskilled work but what are we to understand under unskilled? Is this limited to garbage pick-up only, or do we include casino dealers, or is this a skill? What about truck drivers, is that a skill?

The employment system on St. Martin is based on exploitation, most employers hire immigrants because they pay them below minimum wage, they don’t offer them any health insurance and in many cases the immigrant has to work up to 12 hours a day without the correct compensation.

This money saving exploitation along with many St. Martiners not wanting to work in the specific areas is the major issue to resolve. Sadly, I don’t see this labor policy achieving this goal.

Political Volleyball

The political volleyball going on the last few days have been very embarrassing to me as a true St. Martiner. The last news is that the DP was now back in the Government with a 6 seat majority which includes Laveist, who resigned from the party and declared in dependent just a week ago.

For those not familiar with the situation, here’s a quick synopsis:

· Laveist is picked up for questioning by the RST (Detectives)

· Sarah calls for him to resign from the Island Council making the way clear for Erno to take over his seat.

· Laveist resigns from the DP and declares himself an independent.

· Laviest contacts the media and declares he will support the NA.

· Negotiations start and Theo is included.

· DP contacts Brother (Hyacinth) and Samuel and offers them both Commissioner seats.

· Samuel refuses immediately but Hyacinth and / or his family start talking to DP members.

· Theo balks and goes in limbo waiting for what will happen with the volleyball.

· Hyacinth expresses his support for the NA in a press conference.

· In the press conference NA leader Marlin puts the cards on the table, exposing all that was discussed and what was promised.

· DP contacts Laveist and convinces (read pays) him to return to the DP fold.

· We now await the IC meeting to see how this all will play out.

The rumor is that a large sum of money was promised to Laveist to continue supporting the DP. I for one don’t blame the politicians, I blame US, the people. We are the ones that every election force the politicians to accept large sums of money in order to “help us out”, ignoring party manifestos, qualifications, experience, past performance and most importantly, HONOR!

So if it is indeed true that Laveist accepted money and change his mind, it’s our fault. Ultimately, very few businessmen / businesswomen are going to give any politician large sums of money without expecting something in return.

Judging from the large expensive campaign that some politicians run, it is clear that there are several deals on the table that will make businesses and politicians rich while leaving us in the cold.

But ya, WE LIKE IT SO!

This blog specially for all the DP supporters out there complaining (Mike Ferrier, Franky Meyers, ect). Let’s see who you support next election.

St. Martin Governemnt Falls Again ... Maybe

As I enter this blog, it is still officially a rumor all that is confirmed is that Commissioner Louie Laveist has given Leader of the Democratic Party Sarah Wescott, not 1 but 2 letters. The contents of at least one of the letters is said to be his decision to declare as an independent member of the Island Council. However the letters fall short of actually withdrawing his support for the sitting government and he wants to remain with his Commissioner’s salary.

Naturally as all this plays out, the Opposition party NA, comes into play because if Laveist withdraws his support from the DP Government than another Government will need to be formed. Now some people feel that the the NA should stay far away from Laveist because he is damaged goods, however I disagree. There is little doubt that without a change St. Martin will not be achieving any separate status anytime soon. The writing is on the wall.

Along with the extra work that would be done in the area of Constitutional Affair, we all know that schools will be built, roads will be repaired, community centers will be completed and houses will be built. My opinion is that this is more important that anything else. It is clear to see that this Government is unable to get the things described above done.

I don’t have a vote but if it was up to me this is the way I would envision a new government. The government would be supported by all the members of the NA, Laviest and Heyliger, yes Heyliger! My reason for including Heyliger is because he presently has several projects going and changing Commissioners now would stall these projects. Additionally, moving from a 6 seat government to another 6 seat government to me would not be a good thing. A 7 seat majority would make it easier to govern because it would take 2 Island Council members to throw a government down. This type of structure seems to work better.

The Rise of Violent Crime

In just about a week, St. Martin has been burdened with 5 violent deaths, shocking the community. It is really sad what is going on, and as is my natural reaction I ask myself why. Why have we descended into this malaise that seems to be getting worse everyday? Now we all know that the ones we voted for seem increasingly unable to deal with this situation because of incompetence (at least in my opinion).

We as a people can’t simply wait any longer for another violent crime to be committed, we need to start to complain in the form of writing letters to our representatives and demanding that something be done. Roy Marlin’s regular chorus of blaming the Central Government should not be accepted. It will only be a matter of time before we get to the level of Compton when people are shot almost on a daily basis.

It’s time for the local Government to petition the Central Government to stiffen the laws to make any kind of violent crime and gun possession a serious crime. Additionally, the authorities need to start getting a grip on this so called gang activity. I mean to the level where they see a young group of boys in colors and they stop them to search them on a daily basis. In other words harass them until colors are no longer worn anywhere on St. Maarten. They also need to start to get young boys off ‘THE BLOCK” all over the island. Organize activities to get them being productive members of society. Lastly, we need to do some serious immigration controls on both sides of the island. For this I believe that both sides need to receive assistance from France and Holland.

CHANGE WON OVER NEGATIVITY

Since this is a St. Maarten blog, these comments will be based on what I feel St. Maarten has felt looking at this election. It could be that because of the length of this campaign, we paid more attention to it than any other in the past but it is more likely the fact that Barack Obama was black or more accurate, of mixed race.

Now we all know that for a black man to win, he had to run a campaign that was much better than that of his opponent and the Democratic campaign was simply better. Obama and the Democrats was able to bring a message of hope and change to the masses and win over 2/3 of the young vote. A young vote that is more progressive when it comes to race relations.

To win, not only did the young vote have to vote Democratic but Obama had to convince a significant percentage of white men and white women not classified as young and although McCain and the Republicans won those two demographics, Obama made inroads enough to be elected the 44^th President of the United States of America. To me this proves that in the US, the pocket book is more important than race.

Another aspect of the election that experts are saying pushed more voters towards the Democrats was the negative tone of the campaign from the red side. This is not to say that there weren’t any Democratic attack ads but these were combined with positive ads while the perception (and we know that perception is reality in politics) was that McCain was almost exclusively negative.

A few weeks ago I wrote a series of 4 articles comparing our local DP Government to Republicans in the US. I argued that their campaign and governing style leaned to the right (Conservative) while the campaign and governing (if we ever get the chance) of the NA would lean to the left. It bears to see with the economic turmoil on the island, if the residents here would also vote for change.

Now naturally, there are several other issues that play a major role in our elections (read money) but I have to admit that in the last election that gap was closed by the NA. What also surprises me is the amount of hardcore DP supporters that supported Barack was evident, I was at a Election party last night and in attendance was Theo Heyliger. I argue that Democratic philosophies are not in line with how DP governs but he of course disagreed.

As luck would have it, I heard radio and technology personality Greg Richardson talk about a website where you can answer a few questions and based on your answer the website will reveal to you your political philosophy. Hopefully Greg will read this and add the link in a comment.

Well the Election is over;
a black man is the President of the United States!!! I never thought I would live to say or type that.

THE RULE OF LAW

There are a lot of things going on in the political front these days, Commissioner Laveist was unceremoniously picked up and held for a few days for questioning. Now anyone paying even a little bit of attention cannot be surprised that one of our high ranking officials has been picked up for questioning. In fact, this is not the first time that a Commissioner has been asked to report to the police station for questioning.

In the past the questioning was done and the official released after a few hours, but this time the Commissioner was actually held for a while.

The question in the community is why was this Commissioner held for such a long time and others were released after just a few hours? The answer could be that he was a flight risk, or that he would be able to destroy additional evidence but they have since released him without searching anywhere else. This means that neither option was a concern.

Now we have to look at the way the DP decided to deal with the situation. In the past Commissioner Roy Marlin typed up his resignation which was promptly torn up by the DP Leader. Additionally, Commissioner Buncamper was legally given a vote of non-confidence in the Island Council but yet after what must be called a FAKE resignation she was welcomed back with open hands. All indications were that if the authorities had investigated this issue, a case of forgery could have been brought against the Commissioner. I make this claim based on the fact that TelEm was asked to change financial records and checks were quickly returned.

What is so different about Laveist’s case, that he wasn’t even incarcerated for 2 days before the Leader of the DP was putting pressure on him to resign not only from the Executive Council but from the Island Council as well, a seat he earned fair and square.

The real question here is what is happening to the society of St. Maarten. While Commissioners are living high on the hog through questionable means, we are suffering as a people and as a society. The deal making environment of the sitting Government has led to overbuilding to a point where professionals are warning of environment disasters due to flooding. Yet we as a people are fast asleep.

In addition to this, there are several properties being completed or continuing to be constructed in an environment where real estate all over the Western World is in a downward spiral. Will all these properties become white elephants I the near future.

We need to take a hard look at our ‘business first’ society and start spending some tax money on social programs. Not on programs to benefit your friends and family like it’s structured now but a comprehensive plan to benefit those who really need the assistance. It’s a matter of survival of our way of life, you don’t have to be a genius to figure out that our societal fabric is seriously torn. Just take a look at the front page of the daily papers to see proof and the situation with Commissioner Laviest only makes the situation worse.

Kendall

First Blog Entry

Those of you that are aware of my history know that I have a bad habit of writing about what going on in St. Maarten. I had for like 2 years, my own newspaper called 'The National' but unforeseen circumstances and lack of time has closed that chapter of my life.
With the advent of blog sites, many of my friends (fans) have advised me to start a blog so here I am. I hope you like the blog and visit often. Please Please Please give me the honor of arguing with you on this site, it makes it so much more exciting. I do want to request that personal, rude and out of the way attacks will not be tolerated and your post will be deleted.
I conclude by saying enjoy.

Kendall