PHILIPSBURG — Union representatives picketed in front of the Maho Resort where State Secretary Drs. Raymond Knops gave a press conference at the end of his visit to the island. They did not get an audience with Knops, who said during the press conference that he had not received any request for such an encounter. That did not stop the unionists, supported by Drs. Raymond Jessurun and others, to speak their mind to reporters. Nataly Frans, treasurer of the St. Maarten Communications Union (SMCU) was the most vocal. “They are cutting us and making us bleed and there is no…
Author: The Publisher
~ An open letter from Supervisory board member Mr. Hans de Jong regarding the financial support provided to WINAIR ~ The granting of financial liquidity support by the Dutch Government in the form of a $3 million loan has apparently already brought about something in the Caribbean part of the Kingdom. The media, both in the Netherlands and in the Caribbean part of the Kingdom, paid extensive attention to it in recent days. In addition, questions were asked by a representative of the Dutch Parliament. In a letter dated 31 December to the House of Representatives of the Staten Generaal,…
PHILIPSBURG – MP William Marlin announced during a preparatory meeting for the Inter-Parliamentary Kingdom Consultation (IPKO) on Tuesday that “no fundamental changes” would be made to the draft of a presentation he was going to make on the first day of IPKO. Members of the parliamentary committee for Kingdom Affairs and Inter-Parliamentary Relations debated the draft whereby it quickly became clear that the content of the presentation depends strongly on information provided by the government. MP Sarah Wescot-Williams noted that the draft should contain more details about the state of affairs of Trust Fund projects. “Just saying that things have…
PHILIPSBURG — On the first day of the virtual Inter-Parliamentary Kingdom Consultation (IPKO), chaired by Aruba’s MP Ady Thijsen, representatives of Aruba and Curacao expressed their willingness for cooperation within the Kingdom. St. Maarten’s MP Christophe Emmanuel made an attempt to create some controversy by asking Curacao’s MP Stephan Walroud about his blackmail-statement in a recent interview, but it fizzled after Walroud explained that the interview was with the Dutch action group Virus Insanity and its leader Willem Engel. The interviewer had taken his opinion out of context. Walroud never referred to cooperation with the Netherlands with the term blackmail.…
Dear Editor, The practice of locking people up for questioning has got to stop. Taking innocent people out of their beds at all hours and locking them up is inhumane and should be unlawful. Everyone is presumed innocent and by locking someone up you have already assumed the person guilty and have executed a partial sentence. We are not living under some dictatorship or other tyrannical government system where someone must prove their innocence. A case in point is the recent exoneration of an Honorable MP who suffered the indignation of being ripped from the arms of his loved one,…
PHILIPSBURG — While elected politicians wasted their time on lost battles he kept his eye on the ball all the time. He created Facebook government (FBGov) and described the sources for his always accurate information as “schoolchildren.” In doing so, he outperformed fifteen members of Parliament in terms of activity, transparency and focus. Without competition he is StMaartenNews.com’s Man of the Year: Claude Peterson, who prefers to be called “Chacho”. The former Member of Parliament for the St. Maarten Christian Party (SMCP) took to social media to let his followers know what was happening in that big building on Soualiga…
~ SXM Airport CEO Brian Mingo clarifies situation at the airport; says it was not a ‘strike’ ~ SIMPSON BAY — Andrew Bishop interview with SXM Airport CEO Brian Mingo and Minister of Aviation Affairs Ludmilla De Weever about the airport fire department officers calling in sick on the morning of one of the busiest days of the month at the airport. Andrew Bishop also interviewed Rene ‘Koto’ Wilson, the airport fire department employee who is apparently at odds with the SXM Airport management.
By Hilbert Haar The government has finally done what it should have done months ago: sign an agreement with the kingdom about the conditions for the third tranche of liquidity support. While I have not seen the actual correspondence between Prime Minister Silveria Jacobs and State Secretary Knops, the latter’s demands are public knowledge. Therefore I have to take it that Jacobs has: 1. Distanced herself from the Pro Soualiga Foundation and its baseless claims and 2. Distanced herself from the Hitler-thinking remark independent MP Christophe Emmanuel made during a meeting of parliament’s central committee. What we know now…
PHILIPSBURG – The so-called country package is an integral part of the agreement Prime Minister Jacobs signed on Tuesday with State Secretary Knops about the establishment of COHO – the Caribbean reform and development entity. Among the highlights in this package are the shift from direct to indirect taxes, the introduction of a 12.5 percent Value Added Tax and the increase of the retirement age to 66 in 2025. None of these measures are written in stone: they all will have to find their basis in existing or still to be executed research. But still, the writing is on the…
PHILIPSBURG / THE HAGUE – St. Maarten will receive the third tranche of liquidity support from the Netherlands – 61.2 million guilders ($34.2 million) – before the end of the year and the Netherlands will pay an advance of 8.7 million guilders (almost $4.9 million) on the fourth tranche in de beginning of 2021. The Netherlands will make €30 million ($36.6 million or 65.5 million guilders) available for the construction of a new prison and improvement of the detention situation on the island. St. Maarten will also have €15 million ($18.3 million or 32.7 million guilders) at its disposal for…
