By Tom Clifford The trouble with sabre rattling is uncertainty over the outcome. Will the sword be drawn or remain in its scabbard? Since taking office, US President Donald Trump has threatened Mexico, Colombia and Venezuela. Colombia was one of the largest recipients of US aid in the region, channeled through Plan Colombia, a 15-year effort that saw billions of dollars to enhance country’s security and combat drug production. To the Trump administration, Plan Colombia was a failure. Gustavo Petro, President of Colombia, accuses the US of murder, hence the withdrawal of aid. Quoted in the US political website The…
Author: The Publisher
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PHILIPSBURG -– In masterful diplomatic language, financial supervisor Cft criticizes the country’s second execution report 2025. The Cft received this report on October 7, two months after the deadline which is six weeks after the end of the second quarter. The supervisor also notes that the national budget is (again) too late. St. Maarten reports a projected surplus of 47 million guilders ($26.2 million) for 2025, 24 million ($13.4 million) higher than it had budgeted. “It is positive that St. Maarten has included a season-pattern or tax revenue, but it offers insufficient insight in the incidental and structural character of…
By Tom Clifford We are seeing the largest deployment of US maritime power to the Caribbean since the Cuban missile crisis as the Monroe doctrine again shapes Washington’s policy. Formulated in the 19th century, the doctrine established US hegemony over Latin America. Something has changed in Washington. A military buildup targeting the authoritarian regime of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro seems to make a mockery of US President Donald Trump’s often repeated pledge, both as candidate and president, to end US involvement in foreign conflicts. US forces have carried out eight strikes in recent weeks, killing at least 38 people. These strikes blew…
By Tom Clifford The Caribbean is in the crosshairs of the US military as Washington deploys a super carrier strike group to waters off Venezuela. The USS Gerald Ford and a large section of its strike group will be stationed in the Caribbean in a what is a major escalation. Officially the US insists that this is a counter-narcotics operation but there are growing concerns that this is the latest development that will result in a possible strike on Venezuela. The new task for the USS Gerald Ford carrier, with dozens of stealth fighter jets and surveillance aircraft, in addition…
By Tom Clifford You’d almost feel sorry for the car drivers. The only way to travel on this enchanted island is by….ah…what exactly? To me, they look like vans, but they are referred to as buses and taxis. For the purposes of this admittedly non-science based argument, let’s agree to call them buses. But regardless of their description, they have common attributes … people who use them have a sense of humor coupled with adventure and are willing to reach out to others. The very act of taking such transport reveals a mindset that is both admirable, compassionate and inquisitive.…
By Tom Clifford Sometimes the utterances, and I have to be careful here, of not exactly lies but untruths can be tolerated, even encouraged for the good of humanity. Congratulating a friend on a new hairstyle even though in your heart of hearts you think it resembles a plowed field is perfectly acceptable. There is one area of human activity where untruths are a frequent, indeed necessary, part of work. I refer of course to real estate agents. They can look a potential customer in the eye and tell them that the place of their dreams is within their grasp…
THE HAGUE — Until a couple of weeks ago, the political surveys ahead of the October 29 elections did not look good for Heera Dijk. But that perspective changed dramatically when D66 made significant progress when surveys projected 18 seats for the party in the Dutch parliament. Dijk is the number 18 on the candidates-list of D66. This increases the chances that the Caribbean part of the Kingdom gets a representative of its own in The Hague. The 45-year old Dijk was born and raised in Delft in the Netherlands as the daughter of a mother from Curacao and a…
By Tom Clifford A rite of passage is an important moment, measuring as it does a new stage. It manifests itself in different ways. It could be a trip to an exotic destination or a good exam result. I think I have come across its reverse. I take no credit for this. Thousands if not millions have experienced such a moment before this writer. I call it my rite of no passage. I am of course referring to the reverse of motion; the law of absolute stillness otherwise known as the island traffic jam. It had my first experience of…
By Tom Clifford There are images that remain etched in the corners of your mind. They can be of momentous or deeply personal events. People just a bit older than this writer can still easily recall where they were when they heard that JFK had been shot in Dallas. I do remember when his brother Bobby was shot. One of my most abiding recollections was with the third member of the trinity. Ted Kennedy, often considered the best politician in terms of grasping issues, but forever condemned to haunt and not occupy the White House because of Chappaquiddick, granted me…
Door René Zwart Den Haag – Voor Heera Dijk leek de Tweede Kamer afgaande op de peilingen van nog maar een paar weken geleden onbereikbaar ver weg. Maar nu D66 fors stijgt in de polls heeft ze met haar 18e plek op de kandidatenlijst een reëel uitzicht op het Kamerlidmaatschap. Daarmee is de kans groot dat het Caribische deel van het Koninkrijk na de verkiezingen van 29 oktober weer een ‘eigen’ volksvertegenwoordiger in Den Haag krijgt. Heera (45) is geboren (in Delft) en getogen in Europees Nederland als kind van een Curaçaose moeder en Surinaamse vader. “Ze waren voor hun…
