PHILIPSBURG — The Atlantic Hurricane Season starts June 1st and NAGICO Insurances is urging everyone to get ready for what has already been forecasted by NOAA’s Climate Prediction Center (CPC), to be ‘a very active season’. “Getting an early start on your preparations for hurricane season this year is important because such preparations by itself can be stressful but it can become even more challenging when combined with handling the impacts of the current coronavirus pandemic.” In a statement issued by NAGICO Insurances, the public is implored to heed the advice from the Emergency Response Departments and local MET Office,…
Author: The Publisher
PHILIPSBURG — State Secretary Raymond Knops is disappointed on several levels after his visit to St. Maarten last week. His experiences with the islands of Statia and Saba were much more positive. This appears from the report Knops submitted to the Dutch Second Chamber about his trip to the Caribbean islands. Good governance and the chaotic situation at the Princess Juliana International Airport took a front seat in talks with Prime Minister Jacobs, but the way the islands have been handling the COVID-19 pandemic sets St. Maarten apart in a negative way from its neighbors. In Statia, the vaccination rate…
PHILIPSBURG — The battle between Prime Minister Silveria Jacobs and outgoing State Secretary Raymond Knops (Kingdom Relations) about the payment of the fifth tranche of liquidity support has at times taken venomous turns over the last month. Now the moment of truth is near: will Jacobs dance to Knops’ tune of will she refuse to bend and thereby let the country run out of money? The deadline Knops set is May 26, while Jacobs has demanded payment by May 21 – a deadline that had passed in the meantime. Trouble started on March 26 when Knops, Prime Minister Mark Rutte…
Dear Editor, MP Christophe Emmanuel and his (not so-)ghost writer are at it again. Tearing down and blemishing the good reputation of son-of-the-soil, as-local-as-they-come, educated professional and STILL CEO of the PJIAE, Brian Mingo. The MP in today’s media once more takes aim at Mr. Mingo, this time throwing out a story about lavish spending by the PJIAE CEO, but refuses to produce any substantiating evidence of his allegations (mind you, it is very possible that money WAS spent by the CEO; the question is how has it been accounted for in the airport’s books?); yesterday (Tuesday, May 18) Emmanuel…
PHILIPSBURG — The Dutch government is an untrustworthy partner and this re-emphasizes the need to finalize the de-colonization process post-haste, United People’s party (UP) faction leader Grisha Heyliger-Marten writes in an open letter to Prime Minister Silveria Jacobs, Minister of Finance Ardwell Irion and Minister of Tourism and Economic Affairs Ludmilla de Weever. Heyliger’s letter runs almost 1,600 words and contains a list of sixteen questions. The UP faction leader refers to the situation in Curacao, where the incoming MFK-Minister Charles Cooper has announced that the country has a Plan B in reaction to State Secretary Knops demand that Curacao…
Dear Editor, Please allow us to reply to your article entitled “Pro Soualiga Calls For De-Colonization Summit.” Firstly, you mention that in 1960, Dutch representative Einaar stated “We in Surinam and the Netherlands Antilles are proud of our self-government and cannot accept being called colonies.” The problem with Einaar’s statement is that the United Nations have NEVER declared that the former Netherlands Antilles has attained a full measure of self-government, a right to self-determination, or that Chapter XI no longer applies to the former Netherlands Antilles. Mr. Einaar’s statement was an opinion not supported by U.N. Resolution 945 (X). You…
PHILIPSBURG — In its latest attempt to promote its de-colonization agenda, the Pro Soualiga Foundation calls in a press statement for an “urgent top summit” of the six islands of the former Netherlands Antilles with the argument that the Kingdom Charter has no legal basis and that the “fictitious Kingdom of the Netherlands” has collapsed: “In fact, it never came into existence,” the foundation states, adding a jubilant exclamation mark to that observation. So far, there has been no reaction from Curacao, Aruba, Bonaire, Statia or Saba about their willingness to support the initiative for this summit. Pro Soualiga claims…
PHILIPSBURG — In an open letter dated May 14, Heyliger-Marten fires more than thirty questions to Prime Minister Jacobs. This letter addresses the airport reconstruction and the de-colonization issue. “The airport and its reconstruction are at the center of a dangerous and highly politicized process involving many stakeholders other than the airport itself,” Heyliger states, adding that two of these stakeholders “seem to be” the Royal Schiphol Group and State Secretary Knops. The airport reconstruction project, the politically motivated de-colonization drive, and pressure from State Secretary Raymond, Knops, the Royal Schiphol Group and the World Bank seem to have culminated…
WILLEMSTAD — Just like St. Maarten, Curacao is also playing a poker game with Dutch liquidity support. If incoming Prime Minister Gilmar Pisas sticks to his refusal to participate in the Caribbean Development and Reform Organization (COHO) the Netherlands will stop liquidity support and demand the repayment of outstanding loans, State Secretary Raymond Knops writes in a letter dated May 5 addressed to Pisas and to incoming Minister of Social Development, Labor and Welfare Ruthmilda Larmonie-Cecilia. With its intention to step out of the COHO, the new government in Curacao puts more than $463 at risk. “If you do not…
Philipsburg – Prime Minister Silveria Jacobs expresses grave concern for the future of relations within the Kingdom, when out of one side of their mouths, the Dutch Government claims it is looking out for the welfare of the people of St. Maarten and continuously seeks ways and means to move the goal post even after conditions have been met and agreements signed. In the case of the recent move by the State Secretary of Interior Affairs and Kingdom Relations Knops to further delay the 5th tranche of liquidity support of 39 million Euros, Prime Minister Jacobs sees this as uncalled…
