PHILIPSBURG — Eliane Berwers has left the island of St. Maarten for a three-week summer intensive program of the Dance Theater of Harlem in New York this month. Not only due to the 15-year old’s determination but also thanks to the generous sponsorship of travel entrepreneur (and publisher of StMaartenNews.com) Terrance Rey. “I told her and the way she screamed I think Marigot heard her,” Eliane’s mother Christ’l Larmonie wrote in a message to Rey after he had informed her about what he is ready to do for this venture. Eliane Berwers dances at the INDISU Dance Theater in St.…
Author: The Publisher
PHILIPSBURG — The Party for Progress hit a brick wall during last week’s Parliament meeting about the Ombudsman-report that details everything that went wrong with the tender for solid waste collection for the period 2021-2026. The minister responsible for the dossier, Egbert Doran, maintained that he had fully cooperated with the Ombudsman’s investigation before ducking a motion of no confidence from the PFP by asking for “at least” two weeks to answer 21 simple questions from parliamentarians. PFP-MPs Melissa Gumbs and Raeyhon Peterson stated in a press release after the meeting that the minister’s delaying tactics had not surprised them.…
PHILIPSBURG – Party for Progress (PFP) Members of Parliament (MPs) Melissa Gumbs and Raeyhon Peterson are not surprised by the deliberate stalling tactics played by the Minister of Public Housing, Spatial Planning, Environment and Infrastructure (VROMI) Egbert J. Doran to avoid a motion of no confidence in Wednesday’s urgent public meeting. MP Gumbs opened the first round of Wednesday’s public meeting by announcing that PFP will introduce a motion of no confidence against Minister Doran, citing the numerous missteps, questionable decisions, and outright legal violations that has accompanied Minister Doran’s two-year tenure as VROMI Minister. The latest has been detailed…
~ Calls on Minister Doran to resign; requests Urgent Public Meeting ~ PHILIPSBURG – Following Monday’s publication of the Ombudsman’s report on the tendering and awarding process of the garbage collection contracts 2021-2026, outraged Party for Progress (PFP) Members of Parliament (MPs) Melissa Gumbs and Raeyhon Peterson have called on Minister of Public Housing, Spatial Planning, Environment and Infrastructure (VROMI) Egbert J. Doran to immediately resign because of his demonstrated history of irresponsible governance and questionable decisions. The Ombudsman’s final report is the conclusion of the systematic investigation into alleged wrongdoings in the tendering and awarding process of five-year public…
PHILIPSBURG — The public tender for the collection of solid waste for the period 2021-2026 was “neither fair nor transparent,” the office of the Ombudsman concludes in a report about its systemic investigation into this issue. VROMI-Minister Egbert Doran reacted tersely when he was given the preliminary report. He considered the investigation to be incomplete and its findings to be unbalanced because the report does not include “additional documentation the ministry has provided from the onset.” In a postscript Ombudsman Gwendolien Mossel retorts that “all documentation and relevant information provided by the ministry is included in the final report.” Mossel…
PHILIPSBURG — The involvement of former minister and former parliamentarian Theo Heyliger in the import of goods at the port goes even deeper than previously described in our article ‘How Heyliger delivered a near monopoly to Tropical Shipping.’
PHILIPSBURG — Accusations leveled against the business practices of Tropical Shipping under the whistleblower provision of the American Securities and Exchange Commission Act of 1934 strongly suggest the existence of a corrupt scheme to establish a stevedoring and transshipment monopoly on St. Maarten. Together with Tropical Shipping, former minister and parliamentarian Theo Heyliger is at the heart of this scandal. The parties mentioned in the complaint to the SEC include companies like St. Maarten Port Services (SMPS), St. Maarten Terminal Services (STS), Tropical Shipping & Construction Company Limited and the Harbor Group of Companies. The complaint suggests that Heyliger functioned…
PHILIPSBURG — Is St. Maarten completely decolonized or is there still work to be done? That is the central question in a factsheet three experts put together for the Dutch Second Chamber. The answer remains a matter of opinion, so the proponents and the opponents of the decolonization debate all have something to hang on to. The authors of the factsheet are prof. dr. Gerard Hoogers (National University of Groningen), prof. dr. Gert Oostindie and dr. Wouter Veenendaal (both Leiden University). The authors examined historic, legal and socioeconomic aspects of the issue. The United Nations Charter of June 26, 1945,…
By Hilbert Haar A recent article by Malcolm Gladwell about his experiences at a Mennonite wedding in Southern Ontario sheds a bright light on the way people interact with each other (or not). His thoughts about the difference between high power-distance cultures and low power-distance cultures ought to give politicians in St. Maarten reason to think about the way they deal with people. What is the difference between the two culture-types Gladwell is writing about? France, Saudi Arabia and Colombia are examples of countries with high power-distance cultures. “Authority, in all its manifestations, matters a lot there.” On the other…
PHILIPSBURG — The Common Court of Justice acquitted Mark Mingo, the former Chief Executive Officer of the Harbor Group of Companies of all charges on Tuesday, June 21, 2022. More than two years ago, on January 29, 2020, the Court in First Instance sentenced Mingo to 46 months in prison and a 6-year ban on holding a management position at any government-owned company. Two other defendants in the so-called Emerald-case, Checkmate director O’Neal Arrindell and former parliamentarian Frans Richardson did not escape justice. The court sentenced Arrindell to 40 months of imprisonment for fraud and firearm possession. Richardson received a…
