PHILIPSBURG – Veel buitenlandse eigenaren en huurders van vakantievilla’s en appartementen op St. Maarten twijfelen eraan of zij dit jaar op St. Maarten gaan overwinteren. De kosten van een verplichte Covid-verzekering kunnen voor een echtpaar oplopen tot enkele duizenden dollars, terwijl die extra dekking voor de toch al goed verzekerde bezoekers niet nodig is. Dit is een van de redenen waarom de COVID-verzekering nog niet verplicht is, zegt minister van Toerisme, Economische Zaken, Transport en Telecommunicatie (TEATT) Ludmila de Weever. St. Maarten wil het voorbeeld van Aruba volgen met de invoering van een extra verzekering voor niet-ingezetenen die in geval…
Author: The Publisher
10.10.10 – 10.10.20 ~ Sint Maarten’s First Decade as a Constituent State of the Kingdom of the Netherlands ~ A Turbulent Constitutional Odyssey by Julio R. Romney [Instructions: Use the viewer below to open and read this white paper on your device.]
Dear Editor, I recently read your article concerning a letter sent by Pro Soualiga to the Cft. In said article, there were some erroneous and misleading statements. 1) The Court’s decision had nothing to do with the content of the letter addressed to the CfT. The court deemed Pro Soualiga to be inadmissible because they claimed that the Articles of Incorporations were missing. Additionally, the court stated that the Dutch State was not given enough time to respond to its grievances, and that there was no urgency regarding the CRE because no agreement had been reached between St. Maarten and…
PHILIPSBURG — Many foreign condo owners and renters on St. Maarten have doubts about hibernating on the island this year. The cost of mandatory COVID-19 insurance can run up to several thousand dollars for a couple, while that extra coverage is unnecessary for the already well-insured visitors. This issue is one of the reasons why COVID insurance has not yet been made mandatory, according to Minister of Tourism, Economic Affairs, Transport and Telecommunication (TEATT) Ludmila de Weever. St. Maarten wants to follow the example of Aruba with the introduction of an extra insurance for non-residents that covers the medical evacuation…
PHILIPSBURG – Education is about to return, at least partially, to normal on Monday, October 19, it appears from two press releases issued by Minister of Education Drs. Rodolphe Samuel. “Some schools are in full compliance with school safety plans while others still require minor adjustments,” the minister stated. Update: Latest press release Min. ECYS dated Sunday, October 18, 2020 The Foundation for Secondary Education Windward Islands (SVOBE) will be ready to receive students back in the classroom one week later, on October 26, the SVOBE-board announced. It informed the ministry that it needs some more time to finalize all…
PHILIPSBURG – The report Retrospective – Ten years of the General Audit Chamber – revisits the state of affairs at the Bureau Telecommunication and Post (BTP), five years after it first took a closer look at this institution. The situation has not improved: BTP is not transferring funds to the government as it is required to do on a quarterly basis and its director Anthony Carty is unaware of TEATT-Ministry’s intention to buy the BTP building on Cannegieter Street. Related article: Audit Chamber report reveals abuse of public funds The national budget projects income of 1.9 million guilders (a bit…
Dear Editor, In trying to understand the relative failure of the first decade of Country Sint Maarten, I keep getting directed to the strange lack of vision of many leading politicians regarding the relationship with the Netherlands. They find themselves as an autonomous country with some limitations. In almost every situation, the limitations of autonomy in some fashion become the subject of discussion rather than the authority they do enjoy. If these limitations are so excessively burdensome, why are they not putting very substantial energy into an alternative structure? I see no evidence of real research into alternatives. It seems…
By Hilbert Haar Finance Minister Ardwell Irion’s plan to float a 75 million guilders bond issue has resulted in an ugly dog fight with financial supervisor Cft. United People’s party leader Rolando Brison added his two cents by claiming that the Cft is interpreting the relevant article in the kingdom law financial supervision in a way “they find convenient for their modus operandi.” Irion claimed that article 16 of the Rft only applies to loans for capital expenditures, while he intends to use the money from the bond issue to cover operational expenditures. Related article: UP-leader Brison spins the 75…
PHILIPSBURG – United People’s party leader MP Rolando Brison said in an interview with Curacao’s TV Direct program Notisia 13 that Finance Minister Ardwell Irion is “one hundred percent correct” in his disagreement with financial supervisor Cft over the intention to float a bond for 75 million guilders. But Brison’s arguments remain at odds with opinions the Cft has expressed in previous advices. “The Cft is choosing to interpret the kingdom law in a way they find convenient for their modus operandi,” Brison told Notisia 13-interviewer Nicole Trinidad. “This is sad because the Cft ought to be a body that…
By Hilbert Haar Years ago, as I was sitting on my balcony in the Cretan sun, the mailman stopped by and asked if I had a banknote of twenty Deutsch Marks. It was quite an odd request as Greece was still using the Drachme as legal tender at the time. So I asked him why on earth he needed German currency. What was he going to do with it? It soon became clear to me that my mailman had been caught in a trap – call it a pyramid scheme, a Ponzi scheme or a Blessings Circle, they are all…
