ST. PETERS — Santa Claus brought Christmas cheer and goodies to a number of residents in St. Peters and the surrounding areas on Wednesday, December 22, 2021. Hundreds of children were also fortunate to receive gifts from Santa along with several hampers with food items, including hams and turkeys, that were given out to the households. The Hyacinth Richardson Education Awareness Foundation, HREAF, and its partner Secours Populaire Français (SPF) came together to give back to the community to make a great Christmas for the St. Peters residents. HREAF founder, Hyacinth Richardson noted that there were many parents who are…
Author: The Publisher
PHILIPSBURG — René Zwart is of course not really a former journalist, as he describes himself in Kadushi’s Prikkeljaar 2021, a collection of 45 columns he wrote for his creation dossierkoninkrijksrelaties.nl in 2021 and 36 columns from writers on the six islands of the former Netherlands Antilles. His recent interview with John Samson on Caribisch Network conforms this: “I will only stop with Caribbean journalism once I am dead.” Zwart, founder of Antilliaans Dagblad in Curacao, returned after his retirement to the Netherlands. Spending time on a golf course was however not part of his plans. He felt – and…
PHILIPSBURG — The important role of Princess Juliana International Airport as a hub, and that of local airline Winair as the main carrier for flights to and from St. Barths were confirmed by data released by Fabrice Danet, the director of the Airport of Saint Barthélemy Remy de Haenen. In December of last year, 21,140 passengers arrived in St. Barths on commercial flights, up 31.5 percent compared to 2020. The total of arriving passengers for 2021 is 147,292, an increase of 23.7 percent. The overwhelming majority of these passengers (13,540) arrived from Princess Juliana International Airport, 63.8 percent more than…
“We cannot drink champagne if we only have money for Coca Cola.” – Marcel Gumbs PHILIPSBURG — First MP Claudius Buncamper declared himself independent. Then Akeem Arrindell followed his example. Result: the United St. Maarten party (USp) lost its representation in Parliament. After Buncamper’s suspension that situation will soon be resolved, because his replacement will come from the USp-list In the meantime, Aging With Grace-program host Linda Richardson recently asked in a Facebook panel-broadcast what should be done about situations like this. StMaartenNews.com publisher Terrance Rey was the first one to react: “The USp has given us a practical definition…
PHILIPSBURG — Former Prime Minister Marcel Gumbs and former Lt. Governor Franklyn Richards both expressed their support for vaccination against COVID during a Facebook-broadcast of Linda Richardson’s Aging with Grace-program. “I believe in science and I am pro vaccination,” Gumbs said, “I have tried to convince some friends and family-members to get vaccinated, but the anti-vax narrative has become stronger. One of my friends said he was not going to take the vaccine because he said he did not know what is in it. I said, do you know what is in the air we breathe? He answered: Well, God…
PHILIPSBURG — Leader of the United St. Maarten Party (USP) Pamela Gordon-Carty on Wednesday decried the amount of civil servants that are leaving government service and placed the blame squarely on the shoulders of the National Alliance/UP coalition government. She said the government has created an atmosphere of hopelessness and victimization which is directly contributing to the exodus of public servants. “While I want to wish the entire population of country St. Maarten a prosperous and health filled new year beginnings, I would also want to express my dissatisfaction with what has been going on in plain sight right here.…
The Sitting Representatives of the People of Sint Maarten, the Government, Prime Minister, Council of Ministers, Political Parties, Politicians, aspiring Politicians and aspiring Representatives of the People of Sint Maarten, passionate advocates for good causes, visionaries, ambitious young people with vision, retired professionals and those having gained much experience along the paths of their careers, as well as Country development contributors of all kind, it is imperative that we all continuously live lifestyles of INTEGRITY in order to be good examples and role models to our children, teenagers, as well as young adults of our Country Sint Maarten. The writings…
Former Lt. Governor, former APS Chairman of the Board, former member of the Law Enforcement Council, Managing Director of Seven Seas and present member for St. Maarten on the Progress Committee, Franklyn Richards is a man, who when he speaks, we listen carefully. In Linda Richardson’s Facebook program Aging With Grace, Richards had a lot to say and what he said boiled down to the apparent lack of professionals to carry out a strong government administration in St. Maarten. Richards’ words can be considered highly critical of the current state of affairs, however, as a senior advisor to government, his…
PHILIPSBURG — Former Lt. Governor Franklyn Richards observed during a Facebook-broadcast of the Aging with Grace-program hosted by Linda Richardson that the government “really needs to strengthen itself in various areas.” Richards gave a personal overview of the current state of affairs, after first noting that having the longest sitting government brings about stability. However: “We have a lack of professionals to carry out a strong government administration.” He added that the government needs to look at a variety of subjects, like tax reform, economic reform, reform at the justice chain and, first and foremost, reform of the education system.…
PHILIPSBURG — The Court for Civil Servants Affairs confirms in a ruling dated January 17 that the dismissal of Louis Brown as the Secretary-General of the Ministry of Public Housing, Urban Planning, Environment and Infrastructure (VROMI) is justified. A national decree dated June 28, 2021, confirms Brown’s dismissal for neglect of duty. As far as we have been able to establish, this decree was up to now not published in the National Gazette. Brown’s dismissal came after he approved a settlement with the Alegria Resort about granting the right of long lease to a parcel of water of 13,525 square…
