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