By Hilbert Haar A political crisis? I don’t think so. Of course, it is unique that the only two members of the United St. Maarten party (USp) – Claudius Buncamper and Akeem Arrindell – have declared themselves independent, and that as a result of those actions the USp is no longer represented in parliament. That the party under its new leader Pamela Gordon-Carty is unhappy with this turn of events is understandable. Buncamper and Arrindell have done nothing else than practicing the time-honored tradition of ship jumping. Why they did this is unclear, vague or incomprehensible. Most likely there are…
Author: The Publisher
PHILIPSBURG — A rather astonishing 66 pages of internal documents of utilities company GEBE – letter, emails and other documents – have been leaked to the media through SX Leaks from a Gmail address with the same name. While the company may want to focus its efforts on the person or persons who leaked the documents, the real concern should be about the content of these documents. They paint once more a rather ugly picture of the work history of the government’s number one candidate for the position of Chief Executive Officer – Sharine Daniel. A letter from the recently…
PHILIPSBURG — The board of the United St. Maarten Party Party (USP) will seek further clarification into what it deems as a serious constitutional issue after both of its MP’s, Claudius Buncamper and Akeem Arrindell, declared themselves as independent members of Parliament, leaving the party with no representation in Parliament. The board recently met with Dr. Julio Romney, Scholar of Comparative Government & Politics who has also publicly considered the latest developments as a constitutional crisis. The discussions between the US board and Romney centered on the analysis of proportional representation as detailed in the constitution and the electoral law.…
by Cdr. Bud Slabbaert For fifteen years now, he and his wife are coming to St Maarten; and that twice a year. Why didn’t we meet them before? I found out that they have so much give: Wilmer Woodland and his wife Carol Stone. Everyone knows him as Woody. “I don’t like that Mister Woodland stuff. I’m simply Woody and if they learn to know who I am and what I stand for, then, let them consider if they want to give me title of “Mister”. I can do without it.” Once you get to know him, you will like…
PHILIPSBURG — State Secretary Raymond Knops (Kingdom Relations) makes an effort to send the draft kingdom law COHO (Caribbean Development and Reform Organization) this month to the parliaments of the Netherlands, St. Maarten, Curacao and Aruba, his spokesman Emile Vaessen says. Given the time frame and the days resting in the month of December, it is likely that the parliaments of the countries will debate the draft law in January of next year. After the Council of State expressed some serious concerns about the original draft, Knops went back to the drawing board and engaged in negotiations with the governments…
By Terrance Rey Whoever doesn’t bother to pick up a dime on the street is certainly doing well in life. But it can also turn out differently. If you leave money on the street, you also miss out on many opportunities in life. It is the same with Sint Maarten. Because there are a lot of opportunities that Sint Maarten misses out on.. Such as subsidies and funds from Europe. Millions are often available to the island to fund projects. All one has to do is do some paperwork and submit it. That rarely happens. That’s why I’ve been saying…
MIAMI/WILLEMSTAD — Curaçao based CX Pay B.V. announced that the FinTech company has selected the payment and anti-fraud platform CyberSource, a Visa solution, to broaden its service offering, while further increasing its application’s compatibility to serve a progressively wider market. CX Pay first offered online payment services in 2016 and has grown its partner and client base across the Latin America and Caribbean (LAC) region. CX Pay has provided solutions to merchants in 28 markets throughout the PanCaribbean area and beyond with some special integrations. During the past five years, the e-commerce facilitator’s merchant base has experienced a compounded annual…
PERIDOT FOUNDATION STATES: “GOOD CORPORATE CITIZENSHIP, ENSURES LIGHTS AT THE CHURCHILL-ROUNDABIUT ARE ON FOR THE HOLIDAYS” Philipsburg — Peridot Foundation expresses immense gratitude towards Sol Antilles and its local General Manager Mr. Robert-Jan James for making a critical contribution towards Peridot Foundation in their yearly endeavor to decorate the Church-Hill roundabout in Cay-Hill. The Foundation’s symbol, the statue of a woman protecting a child is anchored at the center of the roundabout. The yearly decorations are not only meant to be decorative. They are more-so a reminder to keep attention on the issue of awareness of Elimination of violence against…
By Hilbert Haar I honestly cannot remember a moment when there was no trouble at all at utilities company GEBE and I have followed the developments in energy-land closely for more than ten years. Being the managing director at GEBE seems to be asking for trouble. This does not only appear from the recent dismissal of Mauricio Dembrook, but also from the experiences several of his predecessors (like the late William Brooks) had to undergo. The supervisory board has flexed its muscle with the dismissal of temporary manager Mauricio Dembrook and it seems to be hell-bent on bringing the very…
PHILIPSBURG — Working at utilities company GEBE remains a minefield. That much is clear after the recent court case against Sharine Daniel and the even more recent dismissal of temporary manager Mauricio Dembrook. The forces behind the scene that want to keep Daniel on board are diametrically opposed to those (like Dembrook) who want to bring integrity within the company to a higher level and to put Daniel – if it has to be – in a position where management has more control over her activities. GEBE’s new supervisory board’s Audit Committee, chaired by Dimar Labega, candidate #9 on the…
