Americans and Canadians who live in St Maarten call it "Strange Maarten" for a reason. They refer to locals and the government as "St Martians" or "Strange Martians". I agree with all those labels, and as a born St Martian, let me explain to phenomenom to you. There's a reason that one of my major online networks is called "Helen Paradise." People really believe that my name is Helen, but it' actually Judith. Helen Paradise was created because St Maarten CAN be HELL IN PARADISE when it comes to technology. I've ran into some tourist trying to go to the internet cafe to upload a 4gig HD video of their trip.
LOL!
Maybe if you've got a week to spend in the island, and still there are NO guarantees.
The only reason that St Maarten internet cafes do so well is because the Ship and Cabin service is worse.
In St Maarten they will ADVERTISE 4G capacity, KNOWING that they only have the capacity for 3G's. I've been waiting for St Maarten to upgrade its fiber optics system. To this day, I doubt that they've done it. If somebody in Government cannot make a profit of it, they will NEVER do it, no matter how much it improves the quality of life.
The St Maarten Government is run by a bunch of computer illiterates, who are PROUD to be computer illiterate. They believe the internet is some "fad" that will run its course pretty soon.
That's why they're being lambasted all over the internet, and can do nothing about it because they don't even know how to access and email (their assistants do it 4 them). The certainly don't know how they are being perceived world wide-and they don't care, because they don't have to get the world's vote, just the St Maarten resident vote.
When you get to the banks, and the civil servants offices, you will see that St Maarten is trapped in time.
You're gonna LOOOOVE St Maarten, until you have to go to ANY local or government business or establishment and deal with their dinosaur technology..... If they even have computers!
I would set up an online campaign to get The St Maarten Government to upgrade, and get with the times, but they would never see it. They're too busy reading "Queenie's" advice in the Herald, and reading their Horoscopes. I can't accuse them of doing the Crosswords or Sudokus, because it's obvious by our budget deficit, that our Government can't count, and it's even more obvious when they speak, that they DON'T speak English, so they certainly can't do the Crossword puzzles.
They have a little Tech section in the paper, giving you news that 3 or 4 years old, which is 3000-4000 years in internet years. Not once has this Daily Herald computer "Genius" explained why St Maarten is still in the Netherlands Antilles-4 YEARS after our country status changed. He's never clarified WHY we are still area code 5995, three years since it was changed to 721!!!
In Strange Maarten, it's cheaper to spend 10 minutes on the phone to Illinois, than it is to call Cole Bay. It's IMPOSSIBLE to call French St Martin, From Dutch St Maarten, talk about the Twilight Zone, I haven't called St Martin in 4 years!!!
St Maarten is 37 square miles, but when you get to the St Maarten/St Martin border your signal DIES!!I can call the USA easily, but nobody seems to understand the St Martin area code, even those who claim to understand it can't see to make calls to St Martin. And when it comes to "Strange Maarten" let's admit it the St Martin side can be as bad or worse than the Dutch St Maarten side. When you try to search St Martin online, they're somewhere in Guadeloupe!!!!
Huh!!!???
Yes, has their government worked that out yet??? I posted to St Martin Carnival videos, people in Poland emailing in confusion. MOST people on the internet think St Martin is some type of nickname for Martinique!! So I have to spend my time breaking down the Strange Martin phenomenom to strangers on the internet.
In St Maarten sometimes you wake up and there's a band marching by, sometimes there's someone digging a random trench around your yard. All blogs, photo, videos judith roumou
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