TravelTalkOnline Forums Travel and Vacation Forums St. Maarten - St. Martin Productive meeting on French side issues

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Good to hear that they are talking in a productive fashion.

Sorry, that takes away a lot of credibility when the acts are described as an "expression of suffering" by the youth. Looks like they pretty much tried to sweep any of the violence under the rug. Sad. More talk and probably little action of substance.

More blah blah blah.

Sorry if this has been asked and answered but is Cedric the same as Club O beach chair Cedric?? Thanks

I believe he is one in the same.

Yes, he has gotten quite involved in politics.

Had a good chat with Cedric today at the beach. He is indeed quite involved and in fact rarely at the beach as there are numerous meetings to attend with many more to come. He said there is progress being made on many issues. His main concern is with the youth, 40 percent of young adults are unemployed, this breeds discontent, desperation and anger. Some are getting involved in illegal activities that are hurting the reputation of the island in terms of safety and of course this is not helpful in convincing tourists to come.
His belief is that there needs to be better education and training programs for the youth so that they are more qualified for the hospitality and service jobs needed on the island. He stated that there are about 7000 children in school now that will soon join the other 40 percent unemployed if things don’t change. He spoke of the imports from France that come to St Martin for the six month high season which is of course low season in France and thereby skim the cream and take the jobs the local youths could have.
As for the PPRN, he said it is basically passed but still some concerns, the first PPRN had a hard NO to any building or rebuilding in the hazardous zones, the new agreement allows for rebuilding under certain “controls” which makes sense but if the “controls” are so restrictive that no building is allowed then effectively it is the same as the first agreement which could be another issue. As for club O there are rumours that some activity will begin in the new year. Having said that though, it is alarming at the extent of erosion at the south end, the old restaurant has water now on both sides of it and several of the former concrete cottages are now in the water. There is far less available land then when we first came 20 years ago.

Sounds like a very one-sided and jaded perspective.

The issue of people from France coming and taking jobs is one that I heard a LOT when I was there last week. The perception being that rather than invest in training up the local population, businesses would rather import folks to jobs that could be easily be filled by locals. It will only breed more contempt and resentment if not actually addressed. And FWIW this was a perspective shared with me by locals AND people from France.

That totally makes sense!

On Anguilla, Cuisi has a training program.
The Dutch side also has a program, as Emmanuel from Sale Pepe is a graduate.

Bringing white employees over from France 🇫🇷 has been a contentious issue for a while.